Jojo replied solemnly... her spiritual vision reflected a chaotic scene of hundreds of spiritual auras moving all over the place, attempting to catch a glimpse of Levi. But he was so fast, not even Jojo’s spiritual vision could keep up with him properly.
-Get ready... the third floor is about to get cleared soon.-
Jasmine delivered her message through simple signs... easy enough for anyone to understand, given the context. In that moment, everyone knew all they could do was trust Levi to withstand the relentless onslaught.
The instant Jasmine saw the last Corrupted exit the third floor’s door and fly in the direction of the second floor, she signed her name on an already prepared drawing of two portals on the wall next to them.
Jasmine gave them a slight head nod and entered the portal with the rest, leaving Levi on his own.
But they did this under Levi’s orders, as he told them that if one of them remained behind, it would do nothing but slow his entry and might even cause the horde to chase after them through the portal, ruining everything.
Although no one informed him of the portal’s existence, the moment they teleported away, Levi noticed their absence with his auditory vision.
Yet, he wasn’t in a position to enter the portal, as he had found himself trapped near the corner by dozens of Corrupted, who were assaulting him nonstop with their gleaming talons.
Clang! Clang!
He swung his staff with both hands, blocking and striking in quick succession. One Corrupted lunged, only to be knocked aside by the staff, its jaw breaking with a loud crunch. Another slashed from behind, but Levi spun, the staff whipping in an arc to parry the blow.
Ting!!
But for every one he struck down, two more came crashing forward, their hunger unstoppable!
Talons clashed against the staff, causing sparks to fly with every impact.
"Too many..." Levi gritted his teeth as sweat dripped down his brow.
His muscles burned, his breath turned ragged, but he knew if he stayed locked here, they’d rip him apart sooner or later, his aetheric repelling barrier bound to crack.
With no other choice, he clicked the mechanism on his weapon... the staff’s hidden chain emerged, akin to a snake. Levi scanned for the slightest opening before him, and the moment he noticed two Corrupted pulling each other apart to be on top of him, he whipped it forward!
The crimson chains snapped through the air until the crown latched onto a distant pillar.
The instant the staff locked firm, Levi braced his legs against the ceiling and yanked hard, pulling himself free of the tightening circle!
His body shot forward, piercing through the Corrupted horde while guarding his face, causing them to crash against each other or be thrown away!
Once he got out of the entrapment, Levi unsummoned his staff and flew rapidly across the hall, weaving between pillars as talons slashed past him, missing by inches!
With him moving at such insane speed inside a sealed chamber, Levi knew he could not slow his speed to make a turn and enter the staircase.
Instead, he kept his speed the same while manifesting two sound cubes on his soles and adding two concentrated aetheric spheres within them.
His target? The wall facing the staircase!
He evaded another gleaming talon in midair with a swift flip, which left his feet facing the fast-approaching wall.
Then, the moment his soles were about to land on the wall, Levi activated combustion leap!
BOOM!!
The concentrated aether exploded from the agitated frequencies of the cube, which negated the previous momentum and transformed it into a new momentum, sending him flying on the staircase towards the portal!
It hurt like hell even with the aetheric barrier protecting his legs... but, he gritted through the pain and kept on going!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Most of the Corrupted couldn’t pull the same stunt and found themselves smashed against the wall, one after another, until the next ones had a cushion to soften the blow. This allowed them to squeeze themselves through the crushed horde and sprint after Levi on the staircase!
Seeing this without turning his head, Levi dove inside the portal, his world shifting to the third floor.
Thud!
He landed hard on the other side, rolling across the corrupted stone. But before the Corrupted chasing him could pour through, he spun around and summoned his staff. Then, the moment one of them made it over their side, he slammed it down on its head with all his strength!
Boom!
The Corrupted that had followed him through the portal crashed into the ground with a shattered skull.
Before the others could push through, Jasmine sealed shut the ink portal, slicing the Corrupted caught in half.
The chamber fell silent, leaving only the heavy sound of Levi’s breathing as his brother and friends looked at him with astounded eyes mixed in with a hint of concern.
"Big bro, are you good?"
Arthur swiftly went down to check on Levi after noticing that his leather armor was all scratched up... if it wasn’t for the armor and the barrier, Levi would have been bleeding all over by now.
"I’m good, just a bit tired." Levi replied while wiping his sweaty forehead.
"No shit... I knew your plan was insane from the start." Shia sighed in relief as she handed him some recovery totems.
"It did work, though."
Levi smiled, his auditory vision affixed on the sealed-shut door of the third floor with Arthur’s Vermillion wall... He could see the rest of the Corrupted trying their best to smash it apart, but to no avail.
-Good job.- Jasmine showed a thumbs-up with a sweet smile.
When Levi told them about his plan, most of them protested against it, feeling that it was too dangerous for Levi.
After all, he was going against more than a hundred Corrupted, and he needed to buy time without relying too much on his abilities... it was much more difficult than simply getting rid of them.
But Levi convinced them that he had it covered, and all they could do was trust their captain’s word.
"Haha! What did I tell you girls? My big bro always clutches." Arthur grinned proudly as he extended a fist pump to Levi, who returned the favor.
"I just hope all of this effort is worth it," Levi uttered solemnly as he stood back up, walking straight to the wall with the massive mural.
Now, without the Corrupted being a pain in the ass, he could actually analyze it properly.
"I guess I was mistaken... Dawn Phoenix might have really been the one to bring forth the plague." Nurah remarked as she gazed at the mural with the others.
She also reached the same conclusion as Levi... that the Sun Amulet might have played a huge role in the empire’s collapse... but still... the Dawn Phoenix was the one wearing it and unleashing the plague.
"We still don’t know for sure, but I believe the answer lies behind this wall." Levi walked to the wall until he was a meter away from it.
-Should I teleport us inside?- Jasmine asked.
-No need, the key must be in the mural... give me a minute.-
Levi’s gaze lingered on the bottom of the mural, scanning every scene and every face, wanting to find out if there was anything that seemed out of place.
At first glance, it was nothing more than paint, but as his focus landed on the emperor holding the staff skyward in his final, desperate stand... his harmonic spine tingled, urging him to focus.
"...Wait."
That’s where he found it—etched into the length of the painted staff was a string of tiny IIthorien inscriptions, so faint that the naked eye would never have noticed them.
Most of it was intact, but several sections were blurred and worn, as though time itself had chewed at them... whole phrases were fractured, changing the entire meaning of the inscription.
’This must be the key... but there are too many words missing.’ Levi thought, leaning closer with his chin resting on his palm.
He knew that the place wasn’t booby-trapped, as his harmonic spine hadn’t caught any hidden traps or such... so it might be best to give it a try.
"So?" Nurah asked.
"I found the key, but it’s incomplete..."
"That’s unfortunate, I guess it’s up to Jasmi..."
Before Shia could finish her sentence, Levi continued calmly, "I can solve it in a couple of minutes."
Arthur and the girls went speechless... they knew that Levi was proficient in IIthorien language, but to recreate the entire passcode while it was missing multiple words and had broken phrases? It didn’t seem plausible without investing hours to days.
"How?"
"I have my ways..." Levi shooed them away with his hand and sat down cross-legged. When they saw him concentrating on the task at hand, they didn’t want to bother him anymore.
They walked away until the whole mural became alive in their field of vision... then, they started discussing their opinions on what went down.
Meanwhile, Levi was left on his own to solve the IIthorien inscription... only that he didn’t do it through the conventional ways Arthur and the others believed.
He tapped into his harmonic spine and used one of the latest innate utilizations he had gained access to after his previous evolutions.
Besides the range increasing and giving him the ability to reconstruct frequencies into sounds, Levi had obtained another ability he never had the chance to use properly... It was called Echo Reading.
He exhaled deeply and then focused on attuning his harmonic spine to the painted staff... a few moments later, the silver threads on his spine started releasing gentle waves of frequency, appearing like guitar strings being played by Levi’s mind.
The frequencies flew to the wall, and more precisely, the faded missing characters... the moment they touched them, the faded letters started reacting differently to each frequency they touched.
Sometimes they remained dormant, and sometimes they started flickering with different colors in the shapes of runes only Levi could see.
’Echo Reading... one of the best abilities to recover anything that was believed to be lost in time,’ The Titan commented with a fascinated tone.
He knew that Levi was channeling the harmonic frequencies through his spine, which were resonating with the faint imprints left behind on the surface.
It was believed that every word, every stroke ever written, always carried a unique vibrational frequency when first written.
Even when the ink faded or the carving eroded, subtle echoes remained, imprinted within the material itself.
By aligning his harmonic frequencies with those echoes, Levi could reconstruct the missing letters, syllables, or patterns, restoring the message to its original state!!
The Titan knew such arts were almost extinct since they required the finest level of frequency control for one to reach such a state... but in Levi’s case? He didn’t need to learn it. He had the best auditory organ in the universe when it came to sounds, frequencies, and vibrations... it gave him natural control.
It was like not needing to teach someone how to see... it was the job of their eyes. In this case? It was the Harmonic Spine’s job to deal with any matter related to sounds or frequencies.
However, the process was not without risk... Levi knew that the older the inscriptions, the stronger the frequencies needed, which could overload his spine or distort his senses if pushed too far.
Hence, the reason why the Harmonic Spine slowly gave him access to its innate abilities as his mind and body grew stronger to support them.
’I can see it...’