Room of Sacrifices...
The idea seemed very reasonable to me, given my knowledge of those extremists, and the words Talia had spoken confirmed that.
I wanted to sit down and think about these things, but I quickly pushed the thought out of my head, remembering the situation I was in now.
I looked at the others and saw their pale skin, which showed that they were struggling to survive here and control their essence.
I searched the entire room, which did not contain a single opening at all, except for that hole where the sphere had disappeared, but it had already closed.
And some small cracks where Elliot had been striking... but they were literally meaningless.
I looked at Elliot and his fingers, which were bleeding as a result of hitting the wall without any essence.
Suddenly, a drop of his blood fell to the ground, but it vanished in the next moment, disappearing completely.
"Think... think..." I muttered as I tried to find a solution to this dilemma... after all, I didn’t want to turn into a skeleton here.
If these patterns were what formed the magic that absorbed our essence and our lives, then I needed to disable them.
But to do that, I had to destroy all of these patterns, or at least a large part of them.
If I had knowledge of this magic, I might have been able to find the main points that maintained the function of this place, which would make things easier.
I bit my lip until it bled.
Why hadn’t any of these idiots studied this type of magic? Didn’t they have any ambition?
Suddenly, an idea came to mind. "Why didn’t I think of this?"
It seemed the others noticed the realization I had.
"Did you find something?" Elliot asked, who was trying to find any hidden exit by feeling along the walls.
I didn’t answer, but ignored him as I focused on my essence.
I forced myself while feeling a severe headache, but slowly I managed to move my essence again and activated my ability.
I could barely maintain my ability in operation.
As soon as my perception spread through the surroundings, I felt and saw the essence leaving my body and the bodies of the others, but more importantly, how it flowed through those patterns in the walls... thousands of essence paths flowing and intersecting.
For the first time, I saw how this ancient magic worked... but I did not understand it.
It was far too complex to be understood... unless you had studied it, of course, or had prior knowledge of it.
But I didn’t need to understand how it worked; instead, I searched for the important points—those places where the essence paths gathered before splitting again.
Sabotage is always easier than creation.
A few minutes had passed since we entered this place, and finally I found what I was looking for.
I made sure to memorize those locations before canceling my ability to preserve my essence, which was already at half.
Compared to the others, my condition was excellent... I saw Talia kneeling on the ground, gasping violently, and the same was true for both Leona and Izel, while Kyle and Ellen seemed slightly better off.
I looked at Elliot, the only one who seemed fine. "Come and strike that point... strike with everything you have. If you want to live, you must destroy those paths."
Elliot looked at me, but he quickly did what I asked and began striking the spot I pointed to on the wall... the sound of Elliot’s fist colliding echoed in the sealed room.
I did the same; I moved to a specific spot and began striking the ground with all my strength.
Boom... boom... boom...
The sounds of impacts filled the place.
I struck and struck and struck.
But I barely caused some cracks, and Elliot was the same.
Damn it... I need more time.
I thought and looked at the ring on my other hand. With great concentration, I managed to direct some essence to it and draw out some essence stones.
But just as it did with our bodies, the room began to devour them as well, though not fast enough.
I picked them up and threw them to the others. "Take them, try to absorb these to extend your lives."
As soon as I did that, I returned my attention to the place I had been striking.
I held an essence stone in my other hand, trying to absorb it while on my knees, as I continued to strike the ground with my other hand without stopping.
Perhaps Elliot was even better than me because of his large essence reserves.
I stopped paying attention to the others and focused solely on destroying these paths in this place.
With each strike, the small cracks spread further. "Come on... come on... just break."
What I wanted was for these paths to break and lose the ability to transfer essence.
I clenched my teeth as I struck harder, ignoring the pain throbbing in my hand.
I struck.
I struck.
And I struck.
Each blow carried my desire to live... I knew that if the essence ran out of my body, I would be finished completely.
But finally, a glimmer of hope appeared as a small fragment flew from the floor.
But that was only the beginning; after that, fragments flew one after another.
They were small and insignificant... but that was all I needed.
Slowly, those paths were destroyed... and then I saw it.
For a moment, the green light disappeared before returning.
But that was enough for Elliot and me to push ourselves further.
With every strike we delivered, the light went out and the magic was cut off for a moment... and each time, the duration of its interruption increased.
Until the green light disappeared completely, and darkness spread throughout the room.
But I kept punching for a few more times before stopping.
The loud sound of blows in the room stopped, and all that remained was the sound of heavy breathing—from me and Elliot,
and from the others as well.