Michael stared at the obelisk in complete awe. He didn’t even know that Aubility Power could be placed in such a deliberate way! It felt like it had been sewn into the very surface of the obelisk from a seamstress that used Aubility Power as her thread.
[Kukuku what are you waiting for? Put your hand on it!] Harbinger urged.
But of course, Michael was a little bit cautious to do so. The last time he touched a magical object from the Ancient Era, he found himself in this place with no way to escape.
[Touching the obelisk is the only way to exit this place,] said Harbinger. [Don’t you see what they left us? This is a challenge!]
The two handprints on the obelisk were surrounded by arrows that made sure that the handprints couldn’t be missed by anyone who saw it.
Even with a language barrier, anyone with a decent intellect could decipher what the designers of this place were trying to say.
’Put your hands here!’ it said.
Michael was not a kid. He wasn’t going to touch something just because someone told him to do so.
He’ll experiment with it first.
So, he piloted the Drone closer to the obelisk, trying to see if there were any other clues he could gather from the obelisk. He hoped he could see what the designer of this place intended for him by touching the obelisk, but aside from the arrows and the handprints, there was nothing special about the obelisk.
Once he was sure, he flew the Drone towards the obelisk, letting its frame gently touch the handprint on the surface.
There was no response.
Looks like it wants me to be the one to touch it.
He conjured a simple spell, a magic circle appearing on the ground just a meter from his side.
Mana began to flow towards his body just like when he tried to use his shadow teleportation skill. Except this time, the mana requirements were extremely low in comparison.
The mana formed to completion, allowing a shadowy figure to emerge from the magic circle.
A second later, the shadow dripped down from the figure’s body and revealed its true form.
It was a perfect clone of Michael, down to the very atom. The only thing different about this clone was the GodForge pieces in his heart. This clone didn’t have any.
He commanded his clone to approach the obelisk and put its hands on the handprint.
As soon as it did, the whole obelisk suddenly started glowing in a subtle white light.
Then, the golden streaks on the obsidian surface of the obelisk emitted some kind of smoke that flowed down and gathered around the clone.
Since the clone was connected to him just like his Drone, he could feel the sensation it was feeling.
The fog was cold and it permeated his entire body. He could feel it searching his body, trying to search for something.
Then, it reached his mana cores.
And suddenly, the tip of the obelisk began to give off a very bright light, its rays spreading outwards in eight equal parts. It continued to grow brighter and brighter as the fog permeated through every cell of Michael’s clone... until it reached his heart.
It searched through every ventricle but didn’t find the object it was looking for.
At the same moment, the fog began to retreat back into the obelisk’s golden streaks.
The tip of the obelisk grew dimmer and dimmer, its rays becoming indistinguishable from each other, until it all finally turned dark.
The obelisk turned dormant, not having found what it was looking for.
My mana cores caused the obelisk to become active. I’m guessing that if it also found GodForge pieces, it would have continued to activate into completion.
It seemed that he had to touch the obelisk himself if he wanted to see what it would do.
But at least now he knew that touching it wasn’t immediately dangerous.
Before he did though, he decided to explore this place a little bit.
He piloted his Drone to fly straight up, trying to get a better view of this place.
He didn’t have to fly that high to see that he was standing on a small island that was surrounded by nothing but complete and utter darkness.
Curious, he decided to pilot his Drone out of this island to explore outwards.
But as soon as he reached the very edge, he suddenly felt an intense feeling in his gut. It was dread and fear.
His intuition was telling him that if he tried to cross through the chasm, then he would lose his Drone forever.
He quickly flew backwards, now wary of the space beyond the island.
What is that?
[It’s a power beyond the Nascent Spirit,] Harbinger said. [If you want to escape from this place, then you should just jump into the abyss.]
Don’t joke around, Harbinger.
[I’m serious,] Harbinger said. [The power in this abyss looks completely identical to the one that caused us to be transported into this place. If you jump into it, you’ll leave this place.
But if you do, it’s extremely likely that you won’t be able to come back.]
Essentially, this was an escape route that he could go into whenever he wanted. But he was never going back. It was a one-way ticket.
He felt very secure knowing that he could exit if he needed. But he had no plans of doing so.
The obelisk was still calling to him. It may be dangerous, but it could also be fortuitous. According to the professor, the cuts on the bone talked about an inheritance that only the worthy can obtain.
He wanted that inheritance.
And it looked like this was the only chance he was going to get, so he was definitely going to take it.
He walked towards the obelisk and put both of his hands onto the handprint.
The obelisk began glowing again, but with an even greater intensity than last time.
Smoke emanated out of the golden streaks, eventually surrounding him from all sides.
It checked his mana cores, and upon contact, the tip of the obelisk began glowing with a yellow light.
The eight rays that manifested began to sweep the ground, moving down until eventually reaching the top, pointing directly at the deep dark space above them.
Finally, the fog spread to his heart, his GodForge pieces pumping out Aubilty Power.
As soon as the fog felt the threads coming out of his heart, it suddenly began swirling into a tornado.
Michael found himself in the middle of the storm made out of fog.
And just then, a pillar of light burst out of the obelisk, reaching up to the endless dark skies above.
A few seconds later, the fog dispersed.
Then, nothing.
The obelisk continued to give off an intense pillar of light that reached upwards, but nothing happened after that.
And when he looked at the surface, he saw that the two handprints were gone along with the arrows that pointed to it.
It was now replaced with three locks, each one bigger than the last one.
The one on the very left was fractured into eight distinct parts and was currently pulsating and glowing with light.