Hans stared at the ruins before his eyes.
“Heh. Never thought we’d arrive this fast.”
The ruins at the heart of the primeval forest were immense. Rising in the shape of a pyramid, they were so vast that it was hard to grasp their full scale.
“This place has to be ancient, yet it’s been preserved this well.”
Hans ran his hand along the surface of the ruins. He could feel the uneven texture of the stone. It wasn’t like ordinary rock—harder, far more durable.
The environment of the primeval forest was hot and humid. No matter how sturdy a structure was, it couldn’t endure long under such conditions.
Yet the ruins remained intact. There was some surface damage, but no collapsed sections.
‘It must be because some kind of magical treatment was applied from the moment it was built.’
Hans stroked his chin, then realized he’d gotten too absorbed in the ruins.
When he turned around, he saw that the number of spirit beasts had grown to nearly ten.
Grrr.
Uuung.
Moooh.
The spirit beasts that had guided them here stood around awkwardly, watching one person closely.
That person—Ludger—was staring at the ruins just like Hans.
“Boss. Is it really fine to just leave them like that?”
Hans asked, pointing at the spirit beasts.
When Hans addressed Ludger, the spirit beasts looked at him with hopeful eyes.
‘No, what is this. Why are they staring at me like that? This is way too much pressure.’
He understood, though. From the spirit beasts’ perspective, Ludger—the one holding them in check—showed no sign of letting them go, so they had to be frustrated.
And then Hans, who gave off a somewhat similar vibe, looked like he was about to do something. So they started cheering him on as a fellow companion(?).
Hans wasn’t exactly comfortable with the spirit beasts sticking around either.
It wasn’t what he’d asked for, but Ludger had dealt with the spirit beasts one by one and then handed over the materials.
‘What am I even supposed to do with leftover spirit beast factors? And there are almost ten of them—can I even process all this?’
At this point, the excuse of “giving a gift” was thin at best. It was obvious Ludger had simply found rare spirit beasts, had his collector’s instincts triggered, and harvested samples.
Of course, Hans didn’t show those thoughts. He quickly got to the point.
“Wouldn’t it be better to send them back? Looks like their job guiding us is already done.”
At Hans’s words, the spirit beasts all nodded vigorously in agreement.
The ones that had joined more recently reacted the same way.
It was only natural. They were apex predators that normally lived deep within the forest.
Every spirit beast followed the same pattern: boldly stepping forward, declaring they wouldn’t tolerate intruders in their territory.
And every one of them met the same ending.
They were beaten half to death by Ludger’s overwhelming power, then had a tooth, claw, or scale pulled out before being forced into the role of guide.
“Hm. Now that you mention it, that’s true.”
Ludger turned to look at the spirit beasts.
When his gaze fell on them, the spirit beasts stiffened, their bodies tensing.
Fear surged through them that the monster before them might suddenly change his mind and kill them.
Ludger stared at them for a moment, then relaxed his gaze and spoke.
“Go back to your homes. You should understand if I put it roughly like this, right?”
“Hey! You heard him! Get going, now!”
The moment what was effectively a declaration of freedom fell, the spirit beasts were beside themselves with joy.
Even if they couldn’t fully understand human language, they were intelligent enough to grasp what Ludger meant.
The spirit beasts, gathered in small groups, fled back the way they had come the instant permission was given.
It was like watching elementary school kids sprint home the moment summer vacation began.
“My goodness. To think spirit beasts could look that happy.”
Veronica watched the spirit beasts leaving joyfully, staring at them as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Casey felt much the same, though she wasn’t as shocked as Veronica.
She’d already been through far too many things to be surprised by this alone.
Once the spirit beasts withdrew, silence settled over the area.
“So, boss. What now? Looks like we’re the first ones to arrive.”
“Since we’ve come this far, it’d be best to examine the ruins first.”
“Can you do it with spatial movement?”
Ludger shook his head.
“Unless we know what structures are inside, jumping in using coordinates is dangerous.”
If you teleported into the interior of some structure, it would be no different from being buried alive.
“Besides, there’s still magical interference lingering in these ruins. If we try to enter recklessly, the interference will scramble the coordinates.”
His voice held a trace of awe.
To think magical energy still remained in ancient ruins that looked to be at least five hundred years old.
Artifacts or relics could retain their functions even over long ages, but that was possible only because they were objects of a manageable size.
Maintaining magical energy across an entire structure this massive required an equivalent source of power.
“Incredible. So there’s something that can supply energy continuously for centuries.”
“You feel it too, don’t you? The immense power flowing beneath these ruins.”
Casey stepped closer and pointed at the ground below.
“Ley lines.”
Ludger realized that the ruins had been built at the center of a ley line.
A place where immense power flowed beneath the earth and condensed.
The ruins were constructed to exploit that geographical advantage.
It was similar to the Kasarr Basin, but executed in a far more advanced way.
In the Kasarr Basin, the ley lines pooled and created an environment too extreme to handle. These ancient ruins, however, knew how to control it—at least to a degree.
‘And they did it more than five hundred years ago.’
It was fascinating.
Perhaps inside the ruins there were research materials on how to utilize ley lines.
The level of technology needed to preserve a structure in such perfect form.
The items inside would likely have retained their shape to a minimum degree even through the passage of time.
They’d originally come here to stop others from claiming the artifacts or relics inside, but Ludger had changed his mind.
Whatever was inside, he intended to investigate it himself—and take what was worth taking.
“First, we need to find the entrance.”
The ruins were enormous and sprawling. There had to be underground spaces as well. To make use of ley lines, corresponding structures had to extend below.
What was visible now was merely a portion—like the tip of an iceberg rising above sea level.
The real thing lay beneath.
“Can’t we just break our way in?”
Veronica asked. It was a simple, knightly question, but in truth, it would be the most effective method.
With time being limited, how long would it take to search for an entrance that might be anywhere?
“That would be the most certain approach, but I wouldn’t recommend it. These ruins have endured for countless years. You can tell just by the mana clinging to them.”
Ludger brushed his hand over the solid surface of the ruins.
Vines had grown over it, and there was damage here and there—but that was only on the outside.
Inside, a solid and immense power still lingered. The same mana interference was what prevented spatial movement.
As an 8th-Circle mage, he could respond to danger well enough, but there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
“If we try to forcibly destroy it, there’s no telling what will happen to the ruins as a whole. Their function might stop—or the opposite might occur.”
“The opposite?”
“They could become a fortress designed to respond to external enemies. If the builders made ruins of this scale, they would have anticipated the possibility of intruders.”
“I see. So unless we know what mechanisms or traps are inside, messing with it recklessly carries too much risk. But then how do we find the entrance?”
Even if Veronica lacked knowledge in this area, that was only in comparison to experts.
She was still an experienced knight—a master-level knight, no less.
Just from things she’d heard and information she’d picked up, she knew far more than the average person.
Even with Veronica’s knowledge, it was highly likely that an entrance to ruins like this would be hidden by magic.
The chance that the entrance was just sitting out in the open was slim. Finding a hidden entrance would take a great deal of time.
Considering the scale of the ruins, it would probably take an expedition of dozens of people working nonstop for an entire day—if they were lucky.
For just four people, there was simply too much to examine—
“Found it.”
At Ludger’s words, Veronica’s eyes went wide.
“Pardon?”
“Hiding it with magic actually makes it easier to find. Follow me. This way.”
“W-wait, what exactly did you—”
When Veronica still couldn’t grasp the situation, Casey spoke up instead.
“Just follow him. At least when it comes to anything magic-related, there’s nothing more reliable than what that man says.”
Casey said that and followed without another word. Hans did the same, so Veronica couldn’t very well keep questioning it.
In truth, given everything Ludger had shown on the way here, it would have been stranger to doubt him.
Had it been about five minutes?
Ludger’s group stopped in front of a wall that looked like nothing special.
“Is it here?”
Ludger ran his hand along the wall. For a moment, it seemed like he was searching for a hidden entrance.
Thoom!
Mana flowed from his palm, spreading across the wall’s surface like ripples on water.
The wall wavered violently, as if it were a liquid surface.
As the wavering illusion gradually faded, it revealed the entrance to the ruins that had been disguised as a wall.
“This is the main gate of the ruins.”
“My goodness.”
This wouldn’t be the only path leading into the ruins.
But finding the ‘proper’ entrance was difficult even for seasoned explorers.
“Let’s go.”
Hans, who was about to follow Ludger inside, stopped without realizing it.
Ludger turned back to look at him.
“Hans. What is it?”
“Ah, well... I’m getting a really unsettling feeling.”
“An unsettling feeling?”
Ludger stroked his chin. Hans himself looked like he didn’t quite understand why he felt that way.
Ludger’s eyes gleamed sharply.
‘It looks like the beast factor within Hans is ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) sensing something.’
At times, Hans’s intuition bordered on precognition.
What he was showing now was probably an extension of a warning sent by that sense.
‘Whether it’s a reaction shared by all of us, or something unique to Hans—we’ll only know by checking.’
Ludger asked the hesitant Hans,
“Can you go in?”
“Uh... no. I don’t think I can. The more I resolve myself to go inside, the more this discomfort and nausea well up from within. Urgh.”
As if to prove he wasn’t exaggerating, Hans’s complexion turned unusually pale.
“Hm. It seems to trigger a particularly strong rejection response in you. Come to think of it, the forest’s spirit beasts were also especially reluctant to approach these ruins.”
The closer one got to the center of the forest, the stronger the spirit beasts that lived there became.
If that was the case, then the truly strongest spirit beast—the one that could be called the king of the forest—should have made its lair here, at the very center.
But no spirit beasts lived in the ruins. They kept at least a minimum distance, dwelling in the forest instead.
“There’s definitely something inside. Understood, Hans. There’s no reason to force you to come.”
“You... understand?”
“There’s no harm in having at least one person waiting outside.”
“...Thank you.”
Hans let out a deep sigh of relief. His head told him he should go into the ruins with Ludger, but his heart refused.
Even though he was no longer as affected by the feral nature of the Beast of Jévaudan, there were still times when the intense animal instincts surging within him were hard to endure.
“Please come back safely. I’ll be waiting outside.”
“Will do.”
Ludger, Casey, and Veronica entered the ruins together.
After they moved a certain distance, their figures vanished abruptly, as if swallowed by a curtain.
That meant there was some kind of magical treatment not only concealing the entrance, but also affecting the passage leading inside.
“Alright. I’ll just rest out here.”
So what if he was left alone in a place like this?
No one else could possibly make it this far anyway.
‘A forest crawling with spirit beasts—what explorer is going to reach this place? Even an army would have trouble forcing its way in.’
On top of that, no other beasts or spirit beasts approached the area around the ruins, so it wasn’t particularly dangerous.
Just as Hans relaxed and was about to take a break—
He heard a rustling sound behind him.
Thinking it might be one of the spirit beasts returning, he turned around—only to find dozens of pairs of eyes staring at him.
At the looks that seemed to say they had no idea why a human was here, Hans felt like asking the same thing.
‘And who the hell are you people?’
Now that he looked more closely, their clothing was... unusual.
Pure white hoods and robes.
Outfits that practically screamed, I am a holy person, along with that distinctive aura.
‘Damn it. Those are people from the Lumenis Church!’
Of all places, he had to run into them here?
His luck really was atrocious.
Hans raised his hand with a smile, trying to look as natural as possible—like someone who was definitely not harmless.
“Ah, hello?”
The other side’s expressions grew even colder.
“Seize him.”
The instant he heard that, Hans bolted without even looking back.
“After him!”
“Aaaah! Boss! Please, save me!”
He cried out desperately, but Ludger—already deep inside the ruins—had no way of helping him now.