Remnants

The next few ruins Edrick paid a visit to were not all that exciting compared to the orange monument… Though it was not quite great to keep calling it that, considering that several of the other ruins were also orange. Whatever civilisation left those behind, it had to have been rather sprawling and thriving to be able to build such large structures all over the place.

According to what Edrick was able to find out from exploring several of them–Including some in a rather good state–He figured out that these structures weren’t just places of worship like he had initially assumed. They appeared to be where the members of that civilisation had lived their daily life as well.

The countless small rooms had once been bedrooms. This certainly explained why they were all of a considerable size… Unfortunately, there were no artefacts left behind for Edrick to collect, besides some stone tablets made from the same materials as were used to build the structures.

Most of them were orange, but some were red as well... Not the same shade of red as the temple the guardian was focused on protecting, though. These ones were a much darker hue, crimson almost.

It was in one of those red ones that Edrick slayed a particularly ferocious Flame-Maw Bear that was so thoroughly infested by Blood-Drunk Grass and Blood-Gorged Moss that it was frankly abnormal that it had still been alive.

It had been quite surprising to see one of those here. Anoteros had been under the impression that they were supposed to originate from further east in an area within the mountains... Also, he had been under the impression that they were a ‘recent’ development because of the albino Laughing-Fox.

At least, that’s what the Red Guardian had told him…

This warranted further investigation.

In any case, after putting the beast out of its miserable existence, Edrick noticed that the crimson temple was far more well-preserved than most of the others. Until now, all temples had had portions which had crumbled, where the walls had been eroded, and where vegetation had spread all over the place.

Here? The place seemed nearly pristine.

In the great hall, Edrick noticed a large, rectangular slab of stone at the far end of the room. In the previous temple, it had been obvious that something had been there, but it had always been in pieces, completely broken apart into small chunks.

Here, not only was this slab–Which definitely looked like a sacrificial altar–Intact, but so were the walls and pillars of the room. All of them were intricately carved into. The art style was rather peculiar, a sort of mix between something psychedelic and cave paintings mashed into one–Expressed through the carving of solid stone.

The scion had definitely been correct in his assumption. These people practised all sorts of sacrifices... Mostly on the altar from the looks of it, but there were also images of mass sacrifices performed outside in the plains using a large bonfire–Or sometimes, just a big hole for some reason.

There was a big fixation on blood, though. Whatever it was they sacrificed, be it beasts or each other... They always seemed to prefer to make the sacrifice bleed as much as possible, which naturally involved keeping them alive for as long as possible.

When the heart stops beating, blood stops flowing.

Apparently, they would take out the organs and eat them as part of the ceremony.

Guessing any more than that was difficult, and Edrick was more so taking shots in the dark. However, he presumed that they were performing sacrifices to the realm itself, since it apparently had a mind of its own. The purpose of those sacrifices was presumably to appease or ask for something from it.

It was hard to tell due to the peculiar art style, but the figures represented had pointy ears. Anoteros doubted that these had been Underwood Elves, however. They were likely some previous generation of beings the realm had created and eventually grown bored of.

Considering how much they had built, though, these elves had lasted for a long time. Perhaps the realm wasn’t a big fan of being offered blood sacrifices.

This temple contained a rather large collection of stone tablets. Unfortunately, none were in a language he could understand. It wasn’t in any way similar to that of the Underwood Elves. This civilisation had written with what looked like a system of runes instead.

‘Hui is going to love this’

Edrick felt Oswulf nudge him in the back with her nose.

She had found something of interest in another room further down.

Inside what Edrick presumed had once been a bedroom, there was a small stone desk with a skull lying upon it. Its hollow sockets stared directly at the door.

It was similar to the one he had found in the secret basement... But this one’s canines were more prominent. Not animalistic, but definitely far longer than that of a human. The skull was in perfect condition, somehow not covered in dust.

‘Do these skulls mean something in particular?’ he wondered.

Anoteros felt that it was an odd coincidence to run into two well-preserved skulls that had apparently each belonged to a former civilisation of Eltysia. It was especially weird when no other bones could be found at all.

There were no answers to be found right now, however, so Edrick merely pocketed the skull, turning to pet Oswulf’s mane.

“Good girl. That was very good”

She rubbed her muzzle against his head.

“Now. What is Ansbach up to?”

Anoteros could sense the Bear-Dog through both the crest and his beast taming technique–Though far less clearly with the latter.

Walking down the long hallway, there was a turn to the left. Ansbach was sitting and staring down into the darkness of a large staircase.

“Interesting. No other structures had an underground as far as I could tell”

He lit up the energy-based lantern he had acquired from the basement and began descending carefully. There were no traps anywhere, only a corridor that led into a brightly lit room.

The room featured only three things: A door, a series of the same runes he had been seeing on the tablets above said door, and one large rune carved into the ground.

The last of those features of interest seemed to detect Edrick’s presence and lit up–It did not do anything else.

He looked up at the series of runes above the door.

Although he called them runes, it would be more accurate to say that the language used in this place featured both runes and letters that just happened to look like runes. The way texts were structured on the tablets showed that clearly.

On the ground was an actual rune, and above the door were letters–At least, that’s what the noble believed.

“Mmh… I can’t solve this without understanding the language”

In his eyes, he was being faced with a cypher. These could already be difficult to solve to begin with, so doing so in a language you didn’t know a thing about was senseless.

‘...Something else Hui would love, though…’

He had seen quite a few books on cyphers and creating secret codes in her private study.

Anoteros would keep this place in mind for the future. For now, it was time for him to do some rock-climbing.