CHAPTER 31: SACRIFICIAL RUNE

At the top of the hill, Ethan and the other three members of the group watched Eve in amazement.

They already knew she was a snake woman with great manipulative skills, but they hadn’t expected her to be so good at acting either.

"That’s our cue, let’s go," Ethan said.

The small group moved carefully through the dark forest and, after passing the guards’ hut, they found themselves in front of a crevice poorly lit by torches.

It was just wide enough to allow two men to pass through at the same time.

After looking at each other for a second, the group entered.

As the strongest in hand-to-hand combat, Ethan and Durgan led the way while John and Clark followed behind. Everyone had their weapons drawn.

"Wait!" Ethan whispered before stopping and raising a hand, signaling the others to stop as well.

The mana emanating from the stone walls was intense and almost perceptible to the touch, powerful enough to mess with the mana senses of even powerful foundation-stage awakenings.

But it didn’t do much other than cause a little inconvenience to Ethan, who seemed to have his senses protected by some kind of shield.

"There are two with their backs to us around the next corner, a third sitting just in front of them and a fourth lying in a corner," Ethan spoke in a low but confident whisper, after extending his mana senses and sensing the presence of everyone there.

"How do you know that? Even my mana senses don’t work properly here!" Durgan exclaimed, a little louder than he should have, startling the other members of the group who looked at him angrily.

"Shhhhh... Quiet, damn it! I have my methods, that’s all you need to know," Ethan grunted, still keeping his voice low.

Durgan thought about retorting, but under the displeased gazes of John and Clark, he simply cursed in a low voice before continuing.

When they reached the corner Ethan had mentioned, John went to his side and took a quick look, putting his face in and taking it out the next second.

With a wave of his hands, he confirmed Ethan’s words and then readied his sword.

They were going to make a sneak attack now, and Durgan certainly wasn’t the best suited for it.

Ethan and John stood side by side as they prepared.

The former raised three fingers and lowered them one by one before finally closing them into a clenched fist.

In the next second, the two figures lunged forward, exploding in speed as the mana circulated through their legs and propelled them forward.

In less than a second, they crossed the distance of almost five meters that separated them from the guards, their swords swinging in synchrony as they flew towards the two men’s necks.

Two miserable groans echoed following the terrifying noise of Ethan and John’s swords slicing through the flesh and crushing the bones of those men, sending their heads into the air.

"Who?" The third guard shouted and got up hastily while drawing his sword, but barely had time to stand before an axe flew past Ethan and John, hitting his skull and splitting his face in half.

In a second, the three guards fell, and the fourth didn’t even wake up, still sleeping peacefully propped up in a corner of the mine’s stone walls.

In a normal scenario, they might even let him live, but unfortunately, when dealing with the royal family, risks were not something any of those men were willing to take.

Ethan walked up to the man, rested his sword on his neck and pressed down.

"W-what...?" the guard woke up and tried to say something, but soon the blood rushed from his throat to his mouth and he choked, his eyes terrified.

"That’s the vault door," Clark said as he pointed to a rectangular metal structure.

Ethan and Durgan immediately took up defensive positions, protecting the two locations from where enemies could come. Meanwhile, Clark and John walked over to the door and started pulling out pieces of paper and sticking them to it.

These were runic scriptures, words in an ancient language that could hold great power when put together in specific orders and with the right channelers.

They quickly finished pasting the runes and placed their hands on the opposite corners of the door, on pieces of paper that seemed to have circular patterns in their center rather than writing.

"Ethan, can you help here? We need three, put your hand on the rune with circular patterns in the center," John called out and used his free hand to point to a piece of paper in the center of the metal door.

"Right!" Ethan answered promptly and ran over to them before placing his hand on the door. He didn’t know much about runes, and the rush to leave the place as quickly as possible prevented him from even thinking about it.

The moment Ethan pressed his hand on the rune in the center, John and Clark looked at each other and after a brief second’s hesitation, shouted "Now!"

[Get your hand off, quick!]

The shrill, hurried voice of the system sounded in Ethan’s mind, but it was too late. An explosion reverberated in his mind and his consciousness immediately went dark.

The last thing he heard were the voices of his "companions".

"What the fuck is this dark energy?"

"Does it matter? The sacrificial runes worked, the door opened!"