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It was the statue of a regal-looking middle-aged man with an imposing demeanor. His eyes seemed to look down on everyone around him. He had a halberd in his right hand that was raised in the air. Leo looked down and noticed that there was a name plaque for the person.
“Blood God”
He walked past the statue after taking a close look. The name intrigued him, but it didn’t tell him much. He had never heard the title Blood God just as he had never heard the title of the Arcane Emperor.
Even though both might have been formidable experts, their names weren’t able to withstand the test of time. The title was still very formidable sounding though, so it could be an indicator of the person’s strength.
Before trying to enter the temple, he went back into the air to the compass that was still emitting light. He grabbed it out of the straight line of light that started from the top of the structure and went to the blood moon.
When he took away the compass, the beacon of light disappeared. Since the temple-like structure was already on the ground, there was no problem even though the light disappeared.
Leo walked up the stairs to the temple. He looked into it through the gaps in the columns but couldn’t see anything. Even his perception couldn’t detect what was past the columns. The only way he would know was if he ventured forward.
After coming this far, he wasn’t planning on stopping. He entered the temple to see what was inside it. The minute he stepped past the pillars, his vision disappeared and he found himself in darkness.
A drop of water splashed onto the ground, telling him that there was something inside the structure he had entered. He just had no idea what it was. He held out his compass to see if there would be any effect.
There was. The compass lit up when he gathered some aura in his hand and let that enter it. The light was very dim, but it allowed him to see a little. When the darkness disappeared, he noticed that his perception also increased.
He looked at the sole source of the sound – the dripping water. When he did, his expression changed. It wasn’t water that was dripping; it was blood.
The source of the blood was something high up on the ceiling that was too far for the light to reach, so he couldn’t properly see it. He didn’t know if he was supposed to keep walking forward.
“Come forward,” Leo heard a whisper beckon him. The sound came from in front of him. He took a deep breath and walked in that direction. He took a few steps forward and heard another whisper.
“Don’t go there. Come here,” this whisper said. It was a different voice compared to the previous one.
Leo stopped in his tracks because he knew something was fishy. Why were there two voices telling him to go in different directions? Just as he thought that a third voice sounded.
He calmed his mind and tried to just focus on hearing the voices. Since his other senses weren’t as useful to him, he was hoping that he would figure out something if he listened properly.
For the next five minutes, the three voices were all telling him to come in their particular direction. He didn’t budge from his current position at all. Finally, one of the voices snapped.
“Come here!” It shouted. The voice still came like a whisper, but it showed a menacing tone.
Leo swiped toward the voice with his hand, casting a spell. It was the Soul Fire Burst. The fire shot toward the direction of the menacing voice and continued going forward. After a few seconds, it hit something and created an explosion.
“AHH!” The same voice screamed out. “Save me!”
Leo could now see the source of the voice in the front where he cast the Soul Fire Burst. The fire had illuminated the area around where it impacted the target.
He saw a disfigured body chained to the wall at the near end. It was a lady that was dressed in rags.
“Come to me! Save me!” She shouted. The spell had hit her face, burning it. The flames were still lingering on the skin. Leo stayed in his position, waiting for the flames to die out on their own. When they did, he got a better look at her.
Her face was disfigured as her body, making her look very unappealing. The disfiguration didn’t have anything to do with the spell he cast, though. There were no burn marks on her face at all. The marks on her face were gashed formed by a blade.
She opened her eyes to look at him. Her mouth curved into a sneer.
“You are just as crazy as us, aren’t you? That’s why you didn’t help a poor old woman like me. What do you want for you to help me? Name your wish, and I will grant it to you,” she said.
“Ignore her,” one of the other voices whispered in his ear. “She is just an ugly woman that is unappealing to your eyes. Come to me. I will be pleasing to the eyes.”
The expression on the woman’s face contorted, making her face look even more hideous.
“Don’t listen to that vixen. She has nothing to offer to you. I can give you strength. Isn’t that why you are here? For strength?” She asked him.
Her words intrigued him for the first time. She noticed the change in his expression and knew she struck the right chord.
“I can give you the best training method you want. Aren’t you an Aura Knight? I have the best Aura Knight manuals that you can find in the entire continent!” She shouted.
“Don’t listen to her,” the third voice sounded in his ear. “I can give you what you truly need. I can give you pills that can help you cross levels in the span of a week. You need pills to form circles, not manuals.”
“I can give you wealth. All the gold you would need to live happily. Why do you want to be an Aura Knight when you can live like a king? I can teach you to control anyone with wealth. Come to me,” the second voice tried to convince him to come her way.
All these voices only managed to convince Leo of two things. One was that all of them had things that Leo needed. The other was that they wanted something from him, and it involved him getting close to them.
From what he saw, his spells seemed to have no impact on the person who offered him the Aura Knight Manuals, so she was very dangerous to him. He expected something similar with the other two as well, so he decided to pick the one who seemed to be the least threatening.
He took a step to his right where the second voice was coming from. It was the direction of the woman who had offered him wealth.
