Chapter 527: The Void Ring
The Void Temple was a huge mountain covered with vines and moss. But there was a small stone slab at its bottom.
Dark Phoenix looked at this stone slab, and using his bare hands, he began to push it, trying to slide it away.
He grunted as he had to exert all the strength in his body as his odic force was heavily suppressed.
*CREEAKK!!*
Finally, the stone slab moved under his strength and revealed a dark entrance.
"Fascinating…Too bad Cobra isn't here to see this ancient temple," Dark Phoenix mumbled to himself as he entered the temple.
A few minutes later, Viktor came running towards this temple and saw that somebody had already entered the temple.
"Shit…Am I too late?" Viktor tried to run as fast as he could, but his speed was limited and now standing so close to this temple, he was barely able to draw any odic force. It was like he turned back to human the closer he got to this temple.
But he wasn't worried since this would also mean that the Dark Phoenix guy should be no stronger than a Regular inside the temple.
Viktor sped into the dark entrance, only to come upon a narrow rocky passage dimly lit up by dark purple dust stuck on the walls.
A musty smell from the surroundings wafted through his nose the deeper he walked through the passage. Just based on the smell alone, he could tell that this mountain was older than he could imagine.
Soon enough, he came upon a large opening on the other side that led to a large dark purple chamber built in an archaic style. Even the purple stones had a certain shine to them despite being so old and didn't seem like any ordinary stone. Not even rubies or any precious gems could exude such elegance.
There were strange, mysterious symbols carved on the walls which Viktor couldn't even recognize despite having lived among a number of civilizations in his past.
But caught his attention was the giant stone statue sitting on a large throne in the middle of this humongous chamber.
The statue was that of a man clad in armor and a helmet that covered his face completely, sitting on the throne in an imposing pose with his hands resting on the armrest.
Viktor had to crank his head up to see the head of the statue and saw two stone swords sheathed on its back. Now he understood that the stony projections he saw on top of the mountain were actually the hilt of these two stone swords that were projecting out of the mountain.
This statue was definitely a few hundred meters big, and he had no idea who built such a magnificent statue.
Just by looking at it, one would feel awe of its presence and feel tiny before it. He didn't even have to guess much to know that this was the statue of the Nameless Knight, the entity that the locals of this island worshiped.
But he noticed that the right hand of the statue was upturned, showing its palm, and on it, there was something that gave off a dark purple light.
'A ring? Could that be the Void Ring?' Viktor's gaze was fixed on it.
"So you actually managed to follow me inside," A deep, breathy voice echoed as Viktor shifted his gaze and saw a cloaked figure busy climbing over the giant statue.
"Dark Phoenix…" Viktor mumbled as he realized that he was climbing the statue to get to the ring.
Dark Phoenix stopped climbing as he looked at Viktor and asked, "For you to be strong enough to kill even Hawk Demoness, how come I never heard about you? Surely, someone like you wouldn't go unnoticed unless you only came to this world recently."
"Well, that is just one of my specialties. But, you better come down before I drag you down from there. Your powers won't work here," Viktor said with narrowed eyes and saw that he was actually able to climb even though he was not as good as Taya.
This was the time he wished that he actually knew how to climb mountains, just like Taya. He quickly rushed towards the feet of the giant statue and tried to climb up, but just after climbing a foot or two, he slipped down.
He never had to learn how to climb mountains since he could simply use his superhuman abilities to climb one or even leap over it. His odic force was now fully suppressed to the point he was no different than a human.
"It seems you are having some trouble, not that I am surprised. Even I don't know any vampires who can climb without using their abilities," Dark Phoenix said in a tone of mockery.
Viktor clicked his tongue in frustration seeing how smug he was at knowing how to climb.
Dark Phoenix pointed his finger down as he said, "You see that slab down there?"
Viktor looked at the large stone slab kept on the side with some mysterious letters inscribed on it.
"Since you don't know how to read it, let me translate it for you. It says, 'Only the worthy one shall receive the true power of the Void Force and the Nameless Knight himself.' But I can't believe that the people here never tried to harness the true power of their arts when the Void Ring was sitting here all along. This goes to show how stupid superstitions and traditions can be. But now I will let them witness what they missed out on," Dark Phoenix said as he kept on climbing over the leg of the statue.
"What do you plan to do with it?" Viktor asked while trying to think of any other way he could get to the ring first.
"In the hands of its owner, it was said that the Void Ring even had the power to suppress demigods. Once I get it, it would only be a matter of time before others fall to their knees before their true master. Then soon the universe would return to its natural order as it should be," Dark Phoenix said as his eyes shone with a dark glint beneath the hood.