Caius’s POV
The moment Talia uttered those strange words; I felt the world change around me.
I tried to escape and pull away, but it was already too late.
Darkness seized my vision, and the room and sofas vanished before my eyes.
Without hesitation, I activated my ability and drew my swords from the storage ring while feeling my feet strike a solid floor.
Damn that girl—what kind of lunatic reads ancient words while holding something suspicious?
In the darkness, I saw everyone’s souls, and for some reason this place contained no essence in the air.
But the darkness did not last long, because in the next moment the place shone with green light.
The ground, the walls, the ceiling—all of them shone with ominous green light in the form of patterns revealing the place.
It was a wide room sealed from all sides without any opening, while its walls were filled with ancient patterns... lines that connected and intersected like pathways.
Several things were spread across the floor, and it took me a moment to realize what they were.
They were corpses.
Or more precisely... mere skeletons wearing clothes... modern clothes.
And I thought I had seen some of them in photos within missing persons files.
"Ah!"
I heard a short scream near me, so I turned my head and saw Talia as the small sphere flew from her hand toward the wall before disappearing into a small hole its size, which then closed again, leaving the wall without any openings once more.
All of this happened moments after our arrival here... and I thought things ended there, only for my hopes to be crushed.
Suddenly, I began to lose control of my essence... no, it wasn’t that I was losing control... rather...
It was being absorbed from my body.
"Wh—what is happening... I feel my essence leaving my body," I heard Talia’s screams and the others’ as my ability flickered and stopped.
The essence was leaving my body at an insane speed, to the point that I estimated it would be gone in ten minutes... and I knew what would happen after that.
I looked at the skeletons on the ground... maybe we would start turning into those.
After all, the time that had passed was not enough for humans to decompose in such a clean way.
I looked at the walls, and even without touching them I knew they were extremely solid.
Everyone was still confused by what had happened.
"Guys... I feel my essence being absorbed," Leona spoke.
I rushed toward the wall and threw a punch with all my strength. A loud sound echoed through the place, but nothing happened to the wall.
I clenched my teeth as I thought about what I should do while being drained.
Without hesitation, I looked at the mark on my wrist. "No other choice... I don’t want to risk my life here."
In the next moment, I tried to reach the Key of Dimensions through the link between us... but I failed.
Yes, I failed.
No matter how much I tried, the Key of Dimensions did not respond to me.
I tried again, but nothing happened.
"Damn it, why aren’t you responding now?" I cursed.
I was certain that what was preventing it wasn’t this room or this place, but that it itself was refusing.
Suddenly, I heard a loud bang and looked toward its source to find Elliot striking the wall with punch after punch without any benefit.
"Come on, we need to get out of here before we’re turned into skeletons like these!" he shouted.
It seemed he understood the matter of this room before the others.
After moments, the others joined him and struck the walls, but to no avail.
At this rate, the essence in our bodies would be exhausted, then this place would begin to devour our lives themselves.
I tried to activate my ring and draw out an essence stone, but it didn’t work, because it needed some essence to function—and this room was absorbing essence madly.
"Calm down," I said to myself as I took a deep breath to clear my thoughts.
I had to try to prevent the walls from absorbing my essence.
With that thought, I closed my eyes and focused on the essence in my body, trying to control it.
I clenched my jaw and imposed my will with all my strength... it took some time and a lot of concentration.
But in the end, I succeeded... not in preventing the essence from leaving my body, but in slowing the process.
But it required all my concentration to maintain this.
I opened my eyes and looked at the others who were striking the walls without benefit. "Stop that and try to control your essence to slow your deaths."
Everyone stopped and looked at me to object, but I cut them off. "There’s no benefit in hitting these walls like barbarians. That will only speed up your death."
They hesitated a little, but in the end, they did what I said and focused on their essence.
When I saw that, I moved toward one of the walls and ran my hand over these patterns.
With my control over essence and reducing its leakage, I might last twenty minutes.
To get out, I knew I had to understand how this place worked... and it was clear that these patterns were responsible for what was happening to us.
This was one type of ancient magic... many places containing such patterns had been discovered... of course, not all of their functions were to devour people’s lives.
I looked at the others, who seemed to have finally calmed down. "Has anyone perhaps studied this type of ancient magic by chance?"
Everyone looked at me in silence... perhaps they were still trying to control their essence. After all, their control wasn’t as good as mine.
I looked at the princess. "Ellen, what is the meaning of the words Talia said?"
She didn’t hesitate and answered directly, "My body... my flesh... my blood... and my soul are yours... for you... I and everyone around me... offer our sacrifices... and die."
Very ominous.
No matter how I thought about it, those who would say words like these were worshippers of the Devourer.
I looked at the walls again.
So, are we in an ancient place connected to this entity?
If we assume that, then is this an execution room or something similar?
Ellen’s words returned to my mind.
Or perhaps...
A Room of Sacrifices.