Travellers - An Isekai, Cultivation Fantasy

"Detonate."

The dark mages heard that word and their faces grew pale. Immediately, the copper urn exploded, releasing intense waves of mana.

At the same time, the earth began to shake as the mines started collapsing.

"RUN!" Drake screamed as he dashed towards the others. He reached their group in a second and picked up the unconscious Sylvia.

"DRAKE! WHY DID YOU-" Blaze began but was interrupted.

"NO TIME! Just trust and follow me!" Drake exclaimed, before pouring mana into his boots, activating shadow steps, and sprinting at top speed. The others quickly followed suit, realising they had to escape as soon as possible.

"STOP THEM!" cried the dark grand mage. Immediately, a swarm of shadow demons rushed at the group.

"Hold them back everyone!" cried Drake. He had to preserve his mana and didn't want to attack directly.

"Tst," cursed Corvus, unhappy at the situation, but attacked anyway. "Twin sword arts - twisting fury!"

"Firestorm!"

"Crushing maelstorm!"

Everyone threw all they had at the shadow demons and cleared out a large area, allowing them to run towards the exit connecting to the underground tunnel. However, just as they neared the exit, the lightning rhino beetle stepped in front, staring at the group defiantly. It raised its horn and lightning buzzed around its tip, before transforming into intense lightning bolts that struck the surrounding air and ground.

'Not this again!' everyone cried internally. The lightning rhino beetle was using fractal strike to barricade the exit, preventing anyone from escaping.

"Leave it to me," whispered a voice. The next second, Corvus disappeared, before reappearing above the lightning rhino beetle.

"Twin sword arts - shadow phoenix dive!"

Fire and shadow elements exploded from his swords and quickly merged into one. The elements transformed into a giant cloud of fiery shadow, obscuring Corvus' figure within. As the cloud touched the first lightning bolt, six shields appeared around Corvus, followed by a layer of eight, then ten!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Corvus was an unstoppable force as he descended upon the final lightning rhino beetle, ignoring his shields shattering one after the other.

BOOOMMMM!

A deafening explosion occurred. Waves of mana spiralled outward, adding to the chaos of the collapsing mines.

Cough! Cough!

Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!

The dark grand mage coughed uncontrollably as the last of his lightning rhino beetle died while he was already critically low on mana and heavily injured.

'You!' he couldn't let them get away. He had to stop them! The dark grand mage ordered his shadow demons to attack even more ferociously, as he and the dark mages dealt with the last of the energy released by the detonating artifact.

Blaze and the others unleashed another storm of attacks at the encroaching shadow demons before dashing towards Corvus. He was kneeling on the ground, his swords buried on either side, holding onto their hilts for support and panting for breath. Fighting relentlessly for so long and unleashing such powerful attacks took a toll on him as well.

However, he didn't have a second to waste at the moment. He summoned his will and forced his body to stand up. Taking out a handful of pills from his storage pouch, he swallowed them all in one swoop before turning to face the others.

"Let's go."

Drake, Blaze, Corvus, and the rest of the cultivators all dashed through the exit, leaving the trailing shadow demons in the dust.

The dark mages finally finished dealing with the detonation when a large piece of the ceiling fell in front of them. The dark grand mage slowly looked around. One of his dark mages - the one who was previously unconscious - was dead. Another was unconscious too now, while two more were heavily injured. Only he and Theo were relatively okay, but they were both far from their peak.

Beyond that, more than half of his shadow demons, almost all of his poison vulture spirits, and the last of his lightning rhino beetle were all dead. And the ground was shaking much more now, and parts of the ceiling from the bottom floor started falling.

Seeing that the cultivators were nowhere to be found after causing this much damage, pure, unadulterated rage built up in his heart.

"DAMNNN YOUUU DRAKKEEEEE!!!! YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!!!!"

Drake and the others were now on the second floor. Rocks from the ceiling were falling more readily, making every step dangerous. Many paths had also been blocked, forcing them to take different routes. Alistair, Imogen, and a lone cultivator who could summon scouting spirits were constantly using them to explore the routes and find the quickest, safest paths. It was only with their help that they had managed to make it this far.

Sylvia had also woken up now, but she was too weak to summon anything at the moment. She didn't know what had happened but could sense that they had to leave as soon as possible, and started running with everyone else.

Just as they neared the exit to the first floor, Imogen spoke with a grave tone. "This is not good. Most of the first floor has collapsed. I don't know if we're going to be able to make it out!"

"Don't worry!" Drake reassured her. Everyone turned to him. None of them expected Drake to detonate the last artifact and put all of them in danger. However, Drake told them to trust him. Having seen his skills in battle, they decided to believe in him.

As the group entered the first floor, a world of destruction awaited them. Huge rocks, boulders, dust and debris were scattered everywhere.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"This way!" screamed Alistair, running in a particular direction. Everyone followed blindly. Just as they did so, a large section of the ceiling where they were just standing, collapsed, sealing off the second-floor entrance. Everyone saw this and the same thought ran through their minds.

Dark mages!

All of them were still underground. Was this it for them? Would they be buried within this inheritance, unable to escape? Drake smirked to himself while the others were still in slight disbelief. They couldn't imagine that powerful dark grand mage dying like this. Did he have any other trump cards?

However, they couldn't ponder for long as another section of the ceiling collapsed - much closer to them this time - reminding them that they were still in incredible danger.

The group came across a blocked passage and turned right into another tunnel. But suddenly, the entire tunnel started to collapse.

"TURN BACK! RUN!" screamed Alistair as he felt his spirits get destroyed by the falling debris. Everyone bolted instinctively, not needing to be told twice. Just as they turned back onto the path they had come from, everyone froze, their faces turning pale. The end of the path had collapsed, closing off their only escape route, and the remaining tunnel was quickly collapsing.

"Uhhh, Drake? If you have any plans, now would be the time to use them!" Blaze spoke frantically.

Drake sighed and steadied his will. He focused on his inner realm and willed his mana to move. Mana gathered, flowing through his arm, and into his finger, where his rank four ring artifact began glowing. After using the mana stones, he had recovered enough mana to use this one more time.

"Fire dragon ward!" yelled Drake. A dragon roar resounded through the mines as the silhouette of a dragon from the chest above, materialised behind Drake, carrying two large wings on its back.

"Everyone, come close!" exclaimed Drake. As the group stood shoulder-to-shoulder, the dragon silhouette wrapped its wings around all of them. Just as it did so, a large boulder fell directly on top. However, the moment the boulder made contact with the wings, it disintegrated. More and more pieces, rocks, and boulders, fell on the dragon wings but were incinerated on touch. No one even felt a vibration inside the dragon's wings.

However, Drake was on all fours, barely holding on. Although he had recovered enough mana to use the ring, he couldn't hold on for very long. He was pushing himself to the limit. They were on the top floor, so if he just held on until everything finished collapsing, they could escape. It was only a matter of time.

Drake summoned every last ounce of his will as he forced himself to hold on. In his hand was a mid-grade mana stone. Although continuing to forcefully absorb more mana was causing him to suffer internal damage, he couldn't worry about that now. He needed all the mana he could get, no matter how little.

Biting through the pain, Drake poured all his mana into the ring and forced himself to hold on.

Outside, the mines were collapsing rapidly, creating a large dust cloud. As time passed, larger sections of the mines were collapsing - entire rooms, tunnels, and passageways, all crushed by the endless storm of rocks and boulders.

Within a few minutes, the entire mine had collapsed, releasing an even larger dust cloud. Several demon crows cawed as they fled the scene, casting the land into silence.

The dust storm waned as the sun began to set. Rays of light pierced through the dust cloud as a warm breeze dispersed the sand and debris into the surroundings.

As the dust cloud unravelled, a fiery light was revealed, a striking contrast to the desolate land.

Hearing the echoes of the collapsing mine come to a stop, Drake realised that it was finally over. The moment the realisation struck, all the strength faded from his body and he fell limply to the floor.

"Drake!" exclaimed Blaze and Sylvia, who were both standing by his side. As they tried tending to his wounds, everyone else looked around.

A mini hill of rocks and boulders rose steeply in all directions. Whenever anything had fallen on them, Drake's dragon ward incinerated it, causing piles of debris to form everywhere except where they were located. From above, it looked like someone had torn a hole through a hill, and the cultivators were standing within.

Everyone turned to focus on Drake. His mana was empty, and he was covered in bruises. If they left him now, he would be but a helpless prey to the various demons roaming the inheritance grounds.

Of course, no one was planning to do that.

Sylvia had already summoned several spirits and was attempting to heal him with her recovered mana, and the remaining mages in their group - Alistair and the lone cultivator mage - were doing the same. Although many others like Blaze also had mana cores, they specialised in martial arts and didn't learn many summonings to use as a mage. Elwin looked on worriedly, praying for Drake's swift recovery.

Now that things had cooled down, everyone started wondering the same thing.

"The dark mages…" spoke one of the lone cultivators. "Do you think… they're dead?"

Corvus hesitated. "Ignoring the others, I can't imagine the dark grand mage dying so easily. He must have some other trump card with him."

"Well, let's hope not," said Blaze.

"In any case," Farisa interrupted. "We need to get going. Demons will soon start coming here, attracted by the noise and smell, plus we don't want to miss out on the main inheritance."

"Indeed," agreed Kurt. He walked up to Drake and threw him over his shoulders. Of course, Sylvia, Alistair, and the lone cultivator mage stayed close by to heal Drake so he could recover quickly.

The group quickly climbed up the debris and back down to the other side. They could see the black tower clearly now and there weren't any other inheritances to collect on the way.

'It's finally time,' thought Farisa. 'For the main event.'

Several hours later.

The temperatures fell under the cloudless night, as the moon rose high into the dark skies. Lightning struck, revealing the silhouette of a black tower piercing into the night sky. Groups of cultivators began appearing around the tower. With damaged armours covered in blood, the signs of endless battles were visible in each and every one of them. Yet, seeing the tower now, their eyes lit up with greed as they shared excited glances with their groups.

However, as they reached closer, the first few slowed, and then came to a stop. This was followed by the groups behind them and the remaining cultivators who were catching up. All of them came to a stop and focused in front of the tower. A dark figure, shrouded in shadow, was slowly walking forward toward the group of cultivators. With each step, it radiated a powerful aura.

Pseudo-commander class demon!

As it stepped into the light, a humanoid figure was revealed. But unlike a human, it was covered in green scales and had a long snout. Its hand was holding onto the hilt of a large spear that was resting on its shoulder. The spear itself radiated the aura of a rank-three artifact.

The cultivators were shocked. Since when could demons use artifacts?

"Look closely!" one of them shouted.

"That's not a demon, that's a puppet!"

"He's right!" someone agreed. Despite walking and appearing normal, the figure's eyes were completely lifeless.

"So all we have to do is defeat that thing in order to take the artifact?" someone laughed, stepping forward. However, the moment he did that, several more auras erupted from behind the figure. One by one, more puppets stepped into the light, each radiating a pseudo-commander class aura and carrying a different rank three artifact.

The man who had stepped forward grew pale. As he watched, the number of puppets increased from one to five, to ten… to sixteen!

Sixteen, pseudo-commander class puppets, each wielding a rank three artifact!

Did this inheritance want everyone to die?

"This is too much! I don't want to die!"

"Me too!"

Some cultivators began to panic and stepped back. A few even turned around and ran. However, most hesitated. After all, the ones who could make it this far were not ordinary, and they didn't want to leave empty-handed.

"That's enough!" one of them yelled. "Look around you, there are hundreds of us here. If we work together, do you think we can't overcome these stupid puppets!?" His voice carried across the plains and brought the panicked cultivators back to their senses. They looked around and indeed, there was a large crowd of cultivators here. No matter how strong the puppets were, surely they couldn't overpower so many of them?

"That's right," someone agreed.

"They can't defeat all of us!" another person added.

"And if we kill them, we can take their artifacts!"

"Yeahh! After everything I've been through, I'm gonna take some rank three artifacts home!"

"Not so fast, me first!" someone laughed.

The cultivators' spirits reinvigorated as they eyed the puppets' artifacts greedily.

"Let's goo!" someone yelled, and charged towards the puppets. The moment he did so, the puppets reacted. Seeing this, the rest of the cultivators also charged.

The scene quickly transformed into a giant battlefield.

Thank you for reading on Royal Road