Chapter 464: The Buried Ruins

The first piece of the ruins looked like a natural cliff.

Rowan would have walked past it if Iris hadn’t stopped so suddenly that Lucan nearly collided with her.

They had spent two hours following the unnatural flow of mana through the silent forest before reaching a low ridge covered in enormous roots and moss. Half the hillside had collapsed, exposing a wall of dark stone beneath the soil.

Sage initially mistook it for rock, but Iris scraped away the moss and revealed geometric carvings.

"This was shaped," Iris said, excitement sharpening her expression as she cleared another section. "Not recently either. Look at the erosion inside the grooves. This has been exposed, buried and exposed again more than once."

Lucan examined the wall while keeping one hand near his sword. "Please tell me ancient buildings buried beneath forests are generally harmless."

Iris looked at him as though he’d asked whether fire was cold. "No."

"I appreciate your commitment to reassurance," Lucan replied.

Rowan circled the ridge and found broken masonry farther east and what might once have been a buried road. More importantly, there were still no fresh Magic Beast tracks anywhere around them.

Whatever instinct had emptied the surrounding forest had apparently kept creatures away from the ruins as well.

Sage activated the Aetheric Insight Eyes briefly and saw the same subterranean mana currents continuing beneath the structure. The ruins sat almost directly above several converging veins, but none appeared to terminate there.

"The pull continues below it," Sage said as the light faded from his eyes. "Whatever we’re looking for isn’t this building."

Iris’s excitement didn’t diminish. "That doesn’t mean the ruins are unrelated. Someone built here for a reason."

The visible wall offered no entrance, but Iris wasn’t interested in searching blindly. She stepped back, raised her right hand and gathered brown mana around her fingers.

A circular formation appeared before her palm, composed of three rotating rings filled with earthen runes.

The moment the Magic Circle completed, Iris pressed her hand toward the ground and called, "Earth Magic: Stonepulse Survey."

A dull vibration travelled beneath their boots.

The Magic Circle brightened as Iris closed her eyes. Pulses of mana spread through the ridge, striking buried stone and returning to her in subtle waves. Mina watched the ground as though expecting it to answer aloud, while Lucan wisely remained quiet.

After several moments, Iris opened her eyes and walked thirty paces west.

"There’s a hollow section beneath us," Iris explained, pointing toward a mound tangled beneath roots. "A corridor, I think. Most of the entrance collapsed."

Mina adjusted her shield. "Can you open it?"

Iris smiled. "That’s the easy part."

She extended both hands. Two brown Magic Circles appeared, one before each palm, their runes rotating in opposite directions. "Earth Magic: Earthen Hand."

The ground rumbled as two enormous hands formed from compacted soil and stone. They dug into the collapsed mound, but Iris didn’t simply tear everything away. She removed the debris layer by layer, supporting exposed sections before shifting larger blocks aside. Within minutes, the remains of an arched doorway emerged beneath the roots.

Lucan stared at the cleared entrance. "Remind me never to let you redesign my bedroom."

Iris lowered her hands and answered with complete seriousness, "If your bedroom has structurally unsound walls, I would improve it."

Sage laughed before Rowan stepped through first.

The passage descended sharply beneath the ridge. Sage created a small sphere of light above his palm, revealing stone walls covered in faded carvings.

Roots had broken through the ceiling in several places, and water trickled down one side before disappearing through cracks in the floor. Rowan led them carefully, testing suspicious stones and stopping whenever the dust changed. Twenty yards inside, he raised his hand.

"Don’t step beside me," Rowan warned, pointing toward several floor tiles almost identical to the others. "Those three are lower."

Iris crouched without touching them. She studied the wall and eventually found narrow openings hidden inside carved patterns.

"Dart channels," she said. "Mechanical trigger, but there are mana channels around the launch chambers. The mechanism may still function."

Lucan looked offended. "After centuries?"

"Good craftsmanship lasts," Iris replied.

She traced one finger through the air, forming a small brown Magic Circle. "Earth Magic: Stonebind."

The stone surrounding the hidden channels shifted with a grinding sound, crushing the openings closed. Rowan then triggered the pressure tile from a distance with a broken piece of masonry. Something snapped inside the wall, followed by several muffled impacts.

Mina grinned at Iris. "Useful."

Iris glanced toward Lucan. "Apparently that’s the highest compliment available in this party."

Lucan touched his bandaged side and sighed. "I’ve created a terrible tradition."

They descended deeper. The ruins expanded beneath the ridge into chambers far larger than Sage expected. Most had collapsed, but enough remained to suggest the structure had once served more than a handful of people.

They found stone benches, shattered pillars, channels cut into floors and faded murals depicting robed figures standing around circular patterns. No bodies remained. No weapons, treasure or furniture survived beyond fragments too damaged to identify.

Iris became increasingly absorbed in the inscriptions.

She spent several minutes examining a ring of symbols carved around one doorway before explaining, "These aren’t words in the normal sense. They’re instructions for mana movement. Whoever built this place used the architecture itself as part of a formation."

Sage examined the lines. "For what purpose?"

"I don’t know yet," Iris admitted, visibly irritated by that fact. "But the channels all descend."

That matched what Sage had seen outside.

They followed the inscriptions until a collapsed passage blocked further progress. Massive slabs had fallen from the ceiling, sealing the corridor completely.

Mina stepped forward and rolled one shoulder. "I can move them."

"No," Iris said immediately, catching Mina before she touched the nearest slab. "That one is supporting the ceiling."

Mina slowly withdrew her hand.

Lucan smiled. "For once, punching the problem would actually make it worse."

Mina gave him a dangerous look. "I can still punch you."

Iris ignored them and studied the collapse. After several moments, she raised both hands. Three brown Magic Circles formed at different heights around her, each packed with rotating runes.

"Earth Magic: Pillars of Atlas."

Stone rose beneath the weakened ceiling in four thick columns, locking against the overhead slabs. Iris then changed spells.

A smaller Magic Circle formed beneath her feet as she said, "Earth Magic: Shifting Strata."

The collapsed stones moved.

Not violently. Each slab slid aside under precise control while the supporting pillars took its weight. Sweat appeared along Iris’s forehead as she cleared enough space for them to pass, but the corridor remained intact.

Sage looked at the opening appreciatively. Raw power could have destroyed the obstruction. Iris had solved it without bringing several tons of ancient stone onto their heads.

Beyond the collapse, they found a circular chamber.

Water covered the floor ankle-deep.

Iris immediately crouched and touched it. A blue Magic Circle unfolded across the surface, expanding until luminous runes surrounded her boots. "Water Magic: Flowing Echo."

The water trembled.

Thin blue lines travelled outward, slipped into cracks between stones and disappeared beneath the walls. Iris closed her eyes as the spell followed moisture through spaces they couldn’t see.

"There’s another chamber below us," Iris said eventually. "Large. The water reaches it through fractures in the floor. There’s also an opening behind the northern wall."

Rowan examined the wall. "Door?"

"Passage," Iris corrected. "Sealed from this side."

Sage looked toward the inscriptions covering the circular chamber. "And the mana?"

Iris released the spell and stood. Her earlier excitement had become concentration. "The old formation channels converge beneath this room, but they’re empty. Whatever this place once did, it hasn’t functioned for centuries."

That answered the question.

The ruins weren’t pulling mana through Greyfen.

They were merely sitting above whatever was.

Sage activated his Eyes again. Through the floor he saw the dead formation channels Iris had identified, thin scars compared with the enormous living currents passing much farther below. Those currents ignored the ruins completely and continued descending toward the unseen center.

"This place isn’t causing it," Sage confirmed. "The mana veins pass underneath."

Rowan’s hand moved toward his sword. "Then we keep going down."

A sound interrupted him not from the corridor behind them but from beneath the water. A slow scrape travelled across stone.

Everyone became still.

Mina raised her shield. Lucan drew his sword despite the pain in his side. Rowan moved away from the center of the chamber while Iris’s hands filled with mana.

The water rippled and then something struck the floor from below.

The entire chamber jumped.

Cracks raced through the stone beneath their feet as water erupted upward. Sage felt a powerful mana signature surge from the hidden chamber below, and Iris stumbled backward as a section of floor collapsed into darkness.

Something enormous moved beneath them.

Then a claw punched through the remaining stone.