Becoming The Apocalypse Master With A Dual Cultivation Manual

A few minutes later, the group examined the basement with care, searching for further signs or relics. Kyle made no effort to join them. His attention remained fixed on the image of the false god.

The youth had been correct in judging the signs of a cult, with its pronounced fixation on red. That much seemed undeniable, and perhaps the colour itself served as their emblem. Kyle possessed little knowledge of cults or their rites, yet he understood the history bound to the false gods.

In the world he once knew, they belonged to fantasy. Here, however, they appeared to have substance. Na-Ri had spoken of this realm as an alternate fallen past, which suggested that many of the myths whispered in the old world might stand as reality here.

Even so, he held no certainty and felt a weight of confusion. The matter was tangled, for anything that wove together two worlds and gave form to myth carried with it that same impenetrable complexity.

The false gods had arisen in the absence of the true. When the people came to believe that the genuine gods did not meet their needs or answer their petitions, a small faction seized the moment. They fashioned images of counterfeit deities, declared them the true, and used them to prey upon the weakness of the human mind.

There had been several such factions, and it was said they were called cults, precisely as Orion had remarked.

Still, Kyle remained unconvinced that this alone explained the island's strangeness. He suspected instead that the anomaly stemmed from the presence of the Demon of Virtue. Yet that thought clashed with another, for if a Trial Zone truly promised the peril claimed in every account, then the existence of a small civilisation devoted to worship within it suggested the threat might be overstated.

Nonetheless, other influences could be at work upon the island. Beyond the demon and the evidence of this cult, the likelihood of dangers far greater concealed in hidden nests remained at its height.

In conclusion, they might well have found themselves upon a lethal island steeped in the unknown...

***

The group remained absorbed in their examination of the chamber, perhaps convinced that a small civilisation had indeed managed to coexist with the dangers of this Trial Zone.

To Kyle, the whole affair was beginning to feel misguided. He questioned the sense in lingering here to probe at ruins. Their true purpose was survival and escape from the Trial Zone, not the study of its remnants.

This course of action would only drag them further into peril, and in the end it might ensure that none of them ever left alive. Survival outweighed everything else, not obscure mysteries or myths that could consume them all.

"Umm..."

Kyle had been on the verge of voicing his objection when a stronger instinct compelled him to silence. He obeyed it without hesitation. The others showed no inclination to depart, and he held little faith that they would heed his warning in their current state of fixation.

He considered it wiser to leave them to their own devices, yet an unexpected dependence had crept in. He now regarded them as partners, which stripped away the will to walk apart. The thought had only surfaced at this moment, and it denied him both the resolve to abandon the group and the freedom to voice his opinion.

...He found himself caught between two paths, uncertain whether he was acting like a fool or surrendering to the lure of companionship.

'I can hardly make choices for myself these days, can I? Something is wrong, Kyle,' he told himself, watching them closely.

The chamber stretched wider than it had first seemed.

At a glance, the pillars looked to be placed without order, but Adela crouched to study them with care. Her brow tightened as she noticed distinctive arrangements and subtle variations, signs that the placement held intention rather than chance.

The others appeared intent on unravelling the mysteries of the island and of whatever civilisation might have taken root here. That remained the only reasoning Kyle could grant them, though in his eyes it still stood as folly.

"They are placed evenly," the grey-haired beauty remarked, tracing the air between the pillars with her finger. "I think it forms a square, each at an exact distance."

Well, you seem to have a sharp eye for details like that. I suppose I am the only uneducated fellow here, Kyle thought, whistling under his breath as he turned from them.

Orion moved closer, narrowing his eyes as he studied the alignments with care. After a long examination, he said:

"And the cloths are not set by accident either. The angles match. This has been arranged, and it seems to serve as ornamentation for their false god."

Na-Ri cast them a flat glance.

"So a ritual arrangement? To call up entities like that Demon?"

That gave at least a partial account for the demon's presence on the island. Demons and dragons were not like beasts; they either forced their way from their own realms or were summoned. No sane individual would attempt to summon such wretched beings of chaos, nor did most possess the knowledge to do so.

Unless, of course, this cult had discovered the means, and had bound the demon as guardian to their secrets against intruders such as themselves.

Still, that was no more than conjecture.

"I suspect more than that," Orion murmured.

Kyle leaned against the wall with a faint smirk at his mouth, and said casually:

"Or someone with far too much time decided to decorate. Take your pick."

The young man kept trying, in his own indirect way, to steer them off from digging further. To him, the more they searched, the more danger they invited. Still, his efforts were wasted; the others were already piecing things together.

Adela shook her head at Orion's suggestion.

"No. It's purposeful."

Their talk cut short when a faint creak sounded from above. At once, the group went still. The noise drifted across the chamber like a hatch shifting somewhere high overhead. Instinct had them reaching for their weapons.

Orion's shadow peeled away from his feet, gliding upward to comb the ceiling and the corners beyond their sight. The silence pressed until it slid back into place beneath him.

"No one's there," he said flatly. "And nothing around the perimeter."

Na-Ri let out a slow breath, swinging the torch to stretch the light into the edges of the room.

"Then we search deeper. This place may hold clues to get out of the Trial Zone and save us wasted effort."

At that, Kyle's ears pricked. If her reason for pressing on was escape rather than some idiotic obsession with cults and false gods, then fine, he could ease off.

Orion's expression hardened.

"Leaving now feels premature. There's intent in this design. We should understand what it holds before walking away. Don't you think, Kyle?"

Kyle gave a short laugh.

"Funny, isn't it? Every sign here screams we should step back, yet not one of us heads for the exit. Seems curiosity wins over sense. Still, if the aim is to dig up a way out of this hellhole, then fair enough."

He shrugged, turning a raised brow towards Na-Ri, but the beautiful stranger ignored him and lifted her torch forward.