In the distance, Ares finally halted as the path they were running on opened into a vast chamber adorned with symbols and human-like statues frozen still in battle.
He shuddered instinctively, goosebumps rippling across his skin. The chamber was so frigid that even as a Celestial, he felt as though he might freeze into a block of ice.
Fortunately, his physique was powerful enough to endure the biting chill. Cassian stopped next to him as the group gathered in one place in the chamber. Only then did they realize that someone was missing.
Gvette was the first to speak up.
"Um... where’s Kyle?"
Silence. That was all he got as everyone looked at each other, wondering if anyone knew where that crazy man had run off to again after giving them all heart attacks.
The silence was broken when Guardian Zami suddenly let out a laugh, making all eyes turn to her. She scoffed lightly.
"What? It’s been so long since I have experienced such a thrill. As long as I’m alive, it’s something I will welcome."
She patted Ares on the back.
"Don’t always be so quick to get angry. Think about it calmly—in a way, everyone here survived thanks to Kyle. Moreover, we are powerful Celestials... if we don’t face danger, will we ever truly grow stronger?"
Clan Leader Ares’s body relaxed, and a broad smile spread across his face.
"You’re right. Absolutely right. It’s just that Kyle is infuriating because he always gets away with everything he does. Sometimes, I feel jealous, so I end up cursing. Tsk... why is he so, you know, so damn annoying?"
Cassian immediately nodded.
"I agree."
The others laughed at their words.
After they calmed down, they finally began to examine the chamber. Ares and Cassian took the lead, with everyone else following behind as they moved through the chamber lined with statues. Gvette paused, his gaze settling on one frozen statue, as tall as he was, locked in combat with several others.
"These look almost... alive."
He muttered under his breath. Suddenly, a weird thought struck him and blurted out.
"Are they really statues?"
Ares and Cassian froze in their steps. Not just them—the others did too. Because the moment Gvette spoke, everyone felt as if thousands of eyes had locked onto them.
Owin, Tai, and Jolie, Cassian’s three followers, groaned simultaneously.
"He jinxed it!!"
Everyone cast sharp looks at Gvette, who was still staring at the statues, completely unaware that many of them wanted to beat him up. Fortunately for him, no one actually pounced on him, since their priority was to escape this chamber first—something was definitely wrong with this unsettling place.
As they searched for an exit, they failed to notice the statues’ eyes shifting or the way their lips curled up eerily in the dim light.
They even failed to notice Kyle’s familiar figure slipping into the silent chamber. It was as if their already suppressed senses and detection skills—or even their laws—had been completely dulled in this area.
Unlike them, Kyle spotted their figures up ahead, but with the crystal in his hand, he chose not to join them right away. He had already tried storing the crystal in his mind space linked to his main body but failed.
Even storage rings couldn’t hold it.
In the end, he had no choice but to carry it openly—and to make matters more worse, the crystal was glowing and quite large.
He searched around and found a hidden spot amidst the numerous statues where no one could see him from any direction.
At that moment, he suddenly noticed a statue staring at him, and he flinched.
"Hold on... wasn’t it facing the other direction? No way I mistook that."
Kyle put the crystal down and stared straight at the statue with a frown.
"Should I destroy it?"
His words made the temperature in the area drop even further. But what he said next stilled the air with an eerie silence.
"Not even a powerful soul—just negative emotions and resentment, gathered into a will by some law. And it thinks it can scare me? Hah. Just how weak does this place think I am? Yes, I lost to the giant, but I am still someone who has mastered a number of natural laws that none can compare to."
He patted the nearest statue.
"Stay still and quiet — or I really won’t hesitate to smash everything here."
And that was how Ares, Cassian, and their group—who had been on the verge of being dragged underground once again—survived the tragedy quietly. With a single threat, the will lurking in the cold chamber retreated.
Having taken uncountable long years to form, it had no desire to be destroyed!
Kyle felt a twinge of satisfaction as the eyes on him vanished. For the first time since entering the Layer of Ancients, he finally had a chance to boast about his strength and make someone tremble.
After all, until now, in this realm, he had been the one getting beaten at every turn.
It really felt so damn exhilarating.
He sat down with the crystal, sighing.
"I’m still not the strongest Celestial I know, not as powerful as those who created this place. But as long as the enemy isn’t a 7th stage Celestial, they are easy to handle."
Crossing his legs, he stared at the crystal, his mind searching for a way to send it to his main body. He couldn’t teleport out of here, and there was no time to waste—the Rulers could arrive at any moment... Then, the symbols he had comprehended at the entrance of the Layer of Three Ancients flashed in his mind, and his eyes lit up.
"How about I create a teleportation portal using some of those symbols, combined with my own, to send it away...? I can use the link between my fake bodies and my true one as the portal’s reference point."
He muttered under his breath.
"The crystal will drop near my main body. But will it work...? And will my main body even notice a crystal falling from the sky?"
Kyle frowned. The risk was immense.
There was even a chance his main body might ignore the crystal if it was moving.
However, he had to make a decision.
He couldn’t carry the crystal and wander around this place filled with unknowns.
After all, even if he managed to hide it for now, who knew how long that would last?
Moreover, he had already found that this chamber had no exit. And who knew how long it would take for him to create one or meet the requirements to open a way out?
He quickly ran the idea through his mind, first forming the teleportation portal in his mind in theory to check if it was feasible.
Within seconds, he knew it could work.
Casting a glance at the crystal, he poured his natural energy into forming the portal.
"Alright... it’s all up to my luck now. Hopefully, I won’t lose this treasure."
With that, he placed the crystal into the portal, which vanished after swallowing it, then hurried after Cassian and the others—who would never believe their ears if they learned that, in just a short span, he had created a teleportation portal out of this Realm solely to send away a treasure.
They would probably think he was joking. After all, no one could imagine that he had mastered arrays to such an extent that he could do what even the Rulers could not.
***
A/N
Hi everyone! I don’t know if anyone is still reading, but I hope you’re all doing great. I lost my motivation to write for a while, but recently I managed to get some of it back! I’m not sure if I will be able to upload daily—or even tomorrow—but I will do my best! ^^
I’m also very grateful to all the amazing souls—wonderful people who have been supporting me through this author slump. I couldn’t read the comments, but I did see the notifications for the power stones and golden tickets! Someone even send a gift!
That made me happy and very grateful.
So, let’s continue Celestial Bloodline!
Until we reach an ending!
Btw, I’ve forgotten quite a few things due to the break, so if I mess up with names or any detail, please feel free to point it out! ~}