บท 17: Chapter 17: Ancient Relics.
"What the..." Julius muttered as he stared at the vast sphere before him.
The sphere was huge and dark blue with flows of light swirling around it. Julius watched in awe as the light never stopped circulating.
"Where is this place…?" Julius asked as he looked left and right.
There was nothing but darkness and empty space. The only thing there was his naked self and the sphere.
"It doesn't feel like a Nightmare… So what-"
"Wake..."
Julius' thoughts were interrupted by a faint voice in the distance.
Confused, he searched for the source but was unable to find it. Just as he was about to give up-
"Wake up! Julius!"
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Julius's eyes snapped open only for them to widen at the sight before him.
He was gripping Ruby's neck tightly as he held her up in the air.
"Yo Julius… You finally awake…?" Ruby asked with a smile.
He quickly let go of her, causing her to drop to the ground, coughing.
"R-Ruby? I'm sorry, I… I didn't…"
Julius was confused, he didn't know how he ended up in that situation. He quickly got down to check on her for injuries.
Fortunately he found no bruises or injuries.
"Don't worry it's fine, I wasn't injured. I'm just glad you're back." She responded once she caught her breath.
After hearing her words, Julius hastily looked around. Just a second ago, he was fighting the Death Knight.
With a few glances, he felt a shiver rush down his spine.
His domain was deactivated, the area had been torn up, leaving craters and tears on the floor. The Death Knight's body had disappeared, leaving only its armour behind.
The Death Knight's snow horse which Lyra had restrained, was riddled with holes and motionless.
Standing in the distance, Lyra stared at him, her threads bundled together in the form of a shield.
"Julius…! Are you… finally back..?" Lyra asked, breathing heavily.
"Don't tell me… I hurt her too…?" Julius asked.
"No, she's fine. I kept your attention on me."
Hearing this, Julius let out a sigh of relief.
*Thump!*
Suddenly, Julius felt a sharp throb rush through his heart before his body collapsed to the ground.
❖ Warning: The User's body has shut down due to overexertion from the ability. The user will not be able to move temporarily.
"Again!?" Ruby asked with a frown. "Don't fall asleep, Julius. You finally managed to wake up."
"Calm down, I'm not tired." Julius replied as he glanced at his energy bar.
[HP: 78%]
[Energy: 28%]
"I just over exerted myself a little…"
The two girls let out a sigh of relief at his words.
'Just what the hell did I do…?'
"So I can't move or remember anything, can anyone pick me up and run me down through what happened?"
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"So you're telling me, I killed the Undead Knight while sleep walking and that Ruby managed to stop me before I attacked you both?" Julius asked whilst on Ruby's back.
"I didn't manage to stop you, you stopped on your own." Ruby responded.
"Either way… I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused everyone." Julius glanced in Lyra's direction. "Lyra, you're sure I didn't end up hurting you or Ava, right?"
Lyra hastily shook her head. "No, thanks to Ruby drawing your attention, we ended up fine…"
'It would've been a different story if he hadn't woken up… But he doesn't need to know that. I don't want to worry him anymore than he already is.' Lyra thought to herself.
Once again Julius sighed in relief.
"Alright, so what now, we leave?" Julius asked, his eyes flickering to the red portal at the end of the room.
"Yeah, with the main boss defeated the Labyrinth has been cleared so everything inside should start to collapse soon… let's leave but before that…"
Lyra pointed at the secret room that had opened besides the portal.
"Let's check out that room, there may be some relics there."
Ruby's eyes began to sparkles.
"Ah! How could I forget? The best part about clearing a Labyrinth, the acquisition of ancient relics."
"How do you know about that? Aren't you from another world?" Julius asked.
"We have Labyrinths and relics in our world too." Ruby frowned.
"Oh right…"
After that little exchange, the group made its way to the room while watching carefully for traps. They were on edge, not wanting to go through the whole ordeal again.
With Julius on Ruby's back and Ava on Lyra's back, they stopped by the entrance and looked inside.
It was an old cubic room, with nothing but four pillars around.
The room itself didn't stand out, but it was what was on top of the four pillars that had caught their eyes.
On top of one pillar, was a curved single-edge blade with a squared guard and long grip. A Katana. It was stored inside of its old scabbard and released an ominous aura.
Beside that pillar, were a unique pair of leather gloves. They had strangely shaped runes inscribed on them, along with strings running across the leather.
The other two remaining pillars were a chestplate and a long dark cloak.
"Hm~!"
Filled with excitement, Ruby was about to run into the room, only to stop when she recalled the traps.
"Don't worry Ruby. We don't need to go in there." Said Lyra as she stretched her arm out towards the inside.
[Thread Manipulation: Sphere Bundle.]
A sphere made out of a bundle of threads formed in the air in front of her, before shooting out threads which grabbed onto the relics.
Once it had safely grabbed the relics, the sphere quickly reeled the relics in, before swallowing the relics whole.
The sphere then made it's way beside Lyra before floating in the air beside her.
"Wow, your threads are really useful." Said Ruby.
Lyra smiled faintly at her words.
"I need to be able to do at least this much…" She muttered quietly.
"...?"
Before Ruby or Julius could question what she meant.
*Rumble!*
Suddenly, the room began to tremble as the chamber's roof, fell all around them. The Labyrinth's collapse had finally begun.
Having gotten what they needed, the group quickly ran to the portal, leaping through it without delay.
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"We're back… Any monsters around?" Lyra asked as she looked around hastily.
"Not that I can see." Ruby replied as she checked.
The four of them were back inside of the old collapsed building. It looked a little messier than it did before they had left it but it was still recognisable to Ruby and Julius.
"The portal's closing." Said Julius who was looking behind them.
They glanced back and just as he'd stated, the size was getting smaller. They had truly cleared it.
"Well, I'm not in the mood to sit here and wait for it to close, let's all go home… I'm tired and starving... " Said Julius.
'Also I need to stop by the local Hunter's organisation in the settlement after everything… There's so much to do.' He thought to himself.
"Yeah, I could use a bath." Ruby added.
"Me too." Lyra joined in.
Coming to the agreement that they were all tired, they marched forward. They didn't want to spend another second there.
Julius, who was on Ruby's back, slowly leaned against her ears and whispered.
"And Ruby… I'm really sorry for hurting you after losing control…"
Ruby felt a shiver rush through her body. Her cheeks and pointy ears became red as she listened.
"Thank you for stopping me and protecting them…"
"..."
Without responding, Ruby continued to walk, quietly.
"Ruby?" Julius called out to her.
"Y-Yeah, it's fine… no problem…" She muttered with her voice trembling.
'Huh... Her voice shaking… Ah right, she's a princess. She's probably not used to being this close to a guy.'
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