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Already happened story > Sins of the Forefathers: A LitRPG Fantasy Isekai > Chapter 84 – Ruins

Chapter 84 – Ruins

  PreCursive

  I broke the silehat Azarus and I were walking in. “Do you…have any idea what this pce is?” I whispered to Azarus. Despite my low tone, my words still echoed through the desote halls that we found ourselves in. I don’t even know why I was whispering, there definitely wasn’t anyone in here.

  “No gods damn clue,” Azarus whispered back. I guess he felt it too. “Ain’t never seen or heard of anything like this.”

  Something he said niggled at my brain for a moment before I figured it out. “Is this something that the gods left behind maybe?”

  Azarus immediately shook his head. “No way. I’ve seen divine architecture before. Ya see some in the capitals and it don’t look like this. This is…” He trailed off with a troubled look on his face. He stopped for a moment to pick up some kind of broken maery from the floor. I couldn’t even tell what it was or what it had been used for. It just looked like a mangled colle of wires now and what might have been some kind of ceramic. “I don’t know what this is.”

  You ah, buddy.

  Up ahead, I spied an open doorway that wasn’t blocked by rubble, which was a first. I poi out to Azarus and exged a nod with him. Together we advanced on the doorway, carefully stepping over the debris that was heless getting thicker in our path. When we reached it, I let Azarus go first. Not because I ooked or anything, but because he was the oh the light.

  At least that’s what I told myself.

  This room was different thahers. In a way, I thought I might be able tnize what was in here. But I didn’t like it.

  This looked like a . And not for adults.

  Scattered haphazardly around the room were dozens of small desks and chairs made of the same white material everything else seemed to be. Many of them were either overturned or fractured into individual parts. Turning around, I found what I was dreading, but expeg. On the wall o the door was a rge expanse of raised material that reminded me of a whiteboard. There were holes and sshes burned into it though, exposing wires and strange-looking circuit boards.

  I tried desperately to ighe patches of dried blood that dotted even this room.

  I breathed in and out before catg Azarus’s attention. He had been in the process of looking around the room with a grim look on his face. Despite the tech gap in uanding, my dwarven friend wasn’t a fool. I think he’d gather what this room was for. He turo look at me.

  I shook my head at him. “Let's…keep going.”

  He nodded silently before followi of the room.

  ……………………………………..

  This tinued on for some time as Azarus and I delved even deeper into the…plex we’d stumbled into. Because that’s what this had to be. Rather than some kind of hospital like I’d initially though, this had to have been some kind of all-in-one bunker or something.

  Over time, the path began to branch as we headed deeper into the plex. We tried to stay on the main path though. Azarus and I had decided in a whispered versation not to stray too far from it, just so we didn’t get lost. Not only that, but I meant deeper literally. It was hard to tell, but I think the main path gradually spiraled downwards into the earth. I had no idea how deep we were at this point, but we weren’t anywhere he surface by now.

  I could admit that this pce ooki somewhat, but my curiosity was greater. Before we left, I wao get a better look.

  What impeded us though, was the fact that the debris grew denser as we got further in. Whatever kind of battle had happened in these halls, it had grown fiercer the deeper it went. Sometimes, we had to carefully climb over rubble that nearly blocked the path. Under advisement from Azarus, we tried not to shift too much of it about. We didn’t know what could ultimately cause a colpse over our heads.

  There were other open doorways that we explored on our trek. Thankfully for my peaind, we didn’t find many more s. Sometimes we’d find what looked like a storeroom of some kind, its shelves bare of anything at all, but tainers structed from unfamiliar materials still present. Other times, we’d find what looked to be office space. Hell, I think we even found living quarters a few times. Difficult to tell though, with how everything was smashed up from some kind of obvious battle.

  What I found odd, though, was the ck of dust. Despite how old this pce must have been, there wasn’t a single dusty surface to be found. Maybe that bst of air we’d experienced when the door had opened meant this pce had been sealed in some way? That might have something to do with it.

  It took us nearly an hour of exploration to reach the end of the main path. At that point, I was w if those locals had actually mao rouse Grey and gotten him down here. We hadn’t seen or heard anyone else on our tail yet, so who knew? Maybe they were just further back.

  The end of the main path was curious, however. It terminated in another door, very simir to ohat had blocked the entrao this tomb. This one wasn’t covered in greenery, or thankfully rubble. Instead, it looked battle-scarred. Where before the first door was virtually unmarred, this one most certainly was not. It was covered in deep scores as from top to bottom. However, it was still mostly intact. Whoever had tried to get through this door had failed, because it was still sealed. With how damaged it was though, would it even open like the other one had at my touch?

  I guess we would find out.

  Exging a nod with Azarus, I stepped forward and id my palm on the door. Luckily, whatever was causio be able to open these doors was still w.

  The same blue-green glow of trated Aether began to spread across the door in fits and starts, sometimes being interrupted by battle damage. Again, there was an explosion of air as it rushed into the room. Luckily, Azarus and I had hastily retreated to a safe distahis time, remembering what happe time. Haltingly, the door the dan to unfold in a simir mao the first, before stalling out. The door had only mao retreat halfway before failing. Still, that was enough for us to duck through.

  For once, I stepped through the doorway first. I didn’t need Azarus to go in first to light the way.

  It was already bright in here.

  Gazing around in wonder, I found that I had entered into the rgest room we’d found so far, lit by the glow of trated Aether. In here, the glow was radiating off e, smooth blocks of the same ceramic-looking material that defihis plex. Each of them had tracers of the energy running in grooves on their surface. Still, the glow wasn’t uniform, and it wasn’t on all of them. Even on the blocks that still had Aether, it was weak and flickering. Even though this room seemed to be bereft of the marks of flict that had littered this plex, I guess time had nearly fihe job.

  Stepping further into the room, I saw something along the far wall. I started making my way towards it, only to be halted by Azarus calling my name behiurning around, I saw that he was staring at one darkened er of the room with a solemn look on his face. Whatever he was looking at was underh the shadow of one of the dead monoliths in the room. From where I was, I couldn’t see what he was. He’d celed his orb of fire once he had stepped into the room.

  I walked back over to where he was, fused. “Yeah? What is…it…” I trailed off. Once I was standio him, I saw what had caught his attention.

  We had found the former residents of this plex.

  Long, long dead.

  Huddled together in the er of the silent monolith, there might have been the remains of dozens of people. It must have been araordinarily long time sihey’d died though, siheir remains were all skeletoo my eyes, all of the skeletons looked like they were human, covered in only scraps of uifiable clothing that had long since decayed. Some of those skeletons…they…

  Some of them were distressingly small.

  I took a deep breath, trying to ighe faint smell in the air that I had only noticed, not dissimir to dust. I guess…these people had retreated down here, to this sealed room, during the battle that had occurred up above. Only, they had never made it out. None of them looked like they had died in any way but peacefully. If I had to take a guess…

  Based on the way this room seemed like it had no air in it when I ope, they must have all asphyxiated. Simply…nodded off together, ohe air supply had run out. Or…

  Was sabotaged.

  Azarus and I stood side by side, silently taking in the mass grave before us. Abruptly, Azarus made the sign of the Gyre o me and bowed his to these long-dead humans. “May your spirits fiernal soce.” He said solemnly.

  I copied him, bowing my head. “May you rest in peace,” I whispered.

  We stood there, paying our respects for several mio these poor people before we were interrupted. Behind us from the door, we heard the sound of movement. I turned around just in time to watch as Grey, his bat robes, duck through the half-opened doorway followed closely by Sylvia and Venix. Nobody else followed behind them, so I guess it was just those three.

  Grey was looking around in amazement at his surroundings, looking more excited than I had ever seen him before he catg sight of us. He perked up and called out to us across the distance, causing Sylvia to turn around from where she had been helping the massive form of Venis through the gap. “Nathan! Azarus!” He said, jogging over to our position. I smiled weakly at my mentor, while Azarus just greeted him with a small nod. “This is incredible! Gods, it feels like I’ve been waiting half my life for this moment. I ’t tell you how long…” He trailed off, notig what we had found. “Oh. I see.” He sighed, gazing mournfully at the long-dead people.

  Sylvia and Venix had reached us as well at this point. The sight of so many dead caused Sylvia to gasp and cover her mouth, while Venix simply bowed his massive head.

  “I had thought it odd that we found no remains, despite the evidence of battle,” Grey said somberly.

  I nodded slowly. “No ons, no signs of struggle. These were just civilians trying to get away from the fighting.”

  Grey gave a long sigh. “I’ll make sure that their remains are collected ter, and then given proper burials after examination. Now,” He said, suddenly turning a baleful eye on Azarus and me. I stiffened in surprise. “What, exactly, were you two thinkiering this p your own?”

  Azarus and I exged wary gnces. I cleared my throat. “Uh, that it sounded…fun? To…explore…an old ruin?” I said weakly. Okay, so maybe it hadn’t been the best idea to go charging into this plex, but ! It had turned out all right.

  Grey pihe bridge of his nose in frustration. “Iure, Nathan, wait for backup. From long experience, I tell that some of the most dangerous pces I’ve ever visited have been old ruins.” He lowered his head and muttered something indistinguishable about young people under his breath, befng back up. “You’re lucky there do not appear to be any active defenses in this…facility.”

  Sylvia stepped past the group while Grey was dressing Azarus and I down. She made a curious sound in the back of her throat, before turning to look at us. “What is that over there?” She said, interrupting Grey and pointing at something.

  We all turo look and follow her finger. I blinked. “Ah, yeah. I was about to check that out before we discovered, well, them.” I said, indig the departed. Sylvia ointing at the object that I had seen earlier. Walking in that dire with the entire group following, I was able to see that it linth of some kind as I got closer. Stepping up to it, I saw that, like everything else, it was made of the same ceramic material. It rose up to around waist height, and had a rge, regur surface resting at the top of it. Kind of like a podium.

  Curious, I reached out to rest a hand on it, only for that hand to be grabbed by Grey. Turning to face, I saw that he was raising an eyebrow at me. “Did I not just finish saying that you should be more careful, Nathan?” He said exasperatedly.

  I shrugged. “Yeah, but that’s how I’ve gottehing else to work in here. The doors only opened up when I touched them. I…really don’t think anything in here is going to hurt us.” I don’t know why I thought that. It was holy just kind of a feeling.

  Grey frowned for a moment before nodding slowly. “I see,” He said slowly, obviously making the e about my Precursor status. “Well, I’m unsure about that, but at the very least I’m here now. If the worst happens, I should be able to prevent any harm from happening, even in my weakeate. Very well, go ahead. I admit I’m yself.” He let go of my hand.

  Nodding at him, I finished ying my hand on the podium.

  The rea was immediate.

  Around the room, many of the monoliths that were still glowi out torturous creaking and screeg noises as they began to glhter. Some of them failed altogether, losing their light, but not all of them. On the ceiling far above us, recessed lights that I hadn’t noticed attempted to flicker on, only to fail, leaving the room in sting darkness. On the wall across from the podium, a bnk s of white light fshed ienot unlike a hologram. On that white s, y a blue box of a reizable shade, with a single fshing white vertical bar inside of it.

  Under my hand, something familiar appeared, causio reel ba shock.

  A standard English keyboard from bae, wrought from solid light.