For a moment, Raze felt like a fool, for he was too focused on the glowing bugs rather than the writing on the wall, but he did feel like he could forgive himself a little. The writing was carved into the rock, and there was a reason why he had failed to notice the writing on the wall.
Having transmigrated into a new body, Raze already knew how to speak and read the Pagna language. He had been doing so instinctively with everything he saw, including the cultivation books that had been given to him.
He hadn’t been reading the words and then translating them in his head; he just knew what they were. Yet it had been so long since he had seen the Alterian language that, at first, it looked just like random scribbles.
Taking a step back, he noticed that they were letters, and he could see that entire passages had been carved out onto the wall. It made him think for a moment if he was on Alterian, but he knew that was foolish.
“How long has this been on here?” Raze grazed his finger along the indentation. He noticed that the words were a similar width to his own index finger. This, along with the rounded edges of the words, made him believe that such a thing was done with a finger.
“I can’t believe it, here in the Dark Faction at the bottom of some cavern, there is Alterian writing. Even if other students were sent down here, they wouldn’t be able to decipher this, nor could the Pagna warriors,” Raze said.
It wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility; after all, Raze had met other Alterians in Pagna. It was just with how worn the writing looked, it felt like this had been left behind in another era.
Raze decided to continue to follow the writing until he had come to the end of the cave. It wasn’t very deep, but it was quite spacious toward the end, as large as a wealthy man’s bedroom.
Looking at the writing all over, Raze was trying to find a starting point, and at the very bottom, toward the center, it looked like he had found it.
[I have come to the realization that I might perish down here. I have done a lot since coming to this world, and since I know what I have done might not be recorded down in books, I have decided to at least make a log of what I have done down here.]
The writing at times was hard for Raze to make out since a lot of it was faded. At times he would have to trace his finger to figure out what letter was meant to be there. Due to the age of when it was written, some of the passages were completely illegible.
[This world was a dangerous one when I joined, and I have seen no signs of others like me. I decided to forget my old ways as a mage and became a Pagna warrior… I found people I cared about, that I wanted to protect…]
[We decided to form a group and named it the Dark Faction. They designated me as their leader.]
Raze had gone over the last piece of text a few times with his finger, tracing it over and over again to make sure he had read it right, but he was certain that there were no mistakes.
‘The creation of the Dark Faction was created by an Alterian? It wasn’t originally a Pagna warrior. Wait, but how far back does this go, then? Surely, the Dark Faction must have existed for thousands of years. Have people been going to this world since back then?’
Thinking about the Dark Faction leader, Raze started to remember the statue that Kron had in his temple. It had a man in robes, just like what mages wore. It was something Raze had always found strange since it wasn’t the regular clothing of those from Pagna.
He had seen it everywhere, even on the streets. It was becoming more likely that the words written in the cave weren’t just some ramblings of a mad mage.
[It seems they have found me and found out what I really am… Portals have started to open up. Is this their doing, or is it just a crazy coincidence? I need to do more investigating, but I’m afraid it will put a target on my back…]
The words ‘What I really am’ Raze could guess they were referring to him being a mage, but who was looking for him? Was it Alter? Did such a group exist back then, or was it some other type of group?
What Raze was more concerned about was the fact that he was worried about them. The leader of the entire Dark Faction, and possibly one of the strongest at the time in Pagna. Another thing was the link to portals.
Raze already knew that portal openings were linked to magic, so how did the first ones come to be? Was it also an Alterian’s doing? Or was it something that had just happened?
Reading on, Raze was hoping he could find more, but there wasn’t much information apart from the last few logs written toward the entrance of the cave.
[They have infiltrated the Dark Faction, the group that I built up with my dear friends. Now I can’t trust any of them. This is the only place left, the only place I can hide that they don’t know about.]
Raze’s heart started to beat a little stronger; he could feel the worry through the words written, even if the writing was a little shaky. It was a sign that he was truly afraid, a person who had lost everything. 𝒩𝑂𝒱ℯ𝓛xt.𝑪𝑂𝑀
[The magic that I abandoned is now the only hope I have left. Where their eyes don’t see me. I never thought I would have to rely on those crazy people, but it’s the only choice that I have. There I will be safe.]
Finally, Raze had reached the last legible passage. [I have created a formation to come back to this place. When I have what I need, I will return and take back what is rightfully mine.]
The words resonated well with Raze; he was starting to have a good impression of this Dark Faction leader, even though he had never met him before. By its side, he noticed something else that didn’t really click compared to before.
Because of the words written, the grooves in the wall, they weren’t just random. As he followed them along with his finger, it was as Raze expected.
‘This is a magic circle, and not just that, by the formation, it’s a portal. Judging by what was written, this is a portal for him to return to this very cave. I don’t know much about the Dark Faction history.
‘I never bothered to learn much about it since I was focused on my own goals. So I have no clue what is written in the history books about the Dark Faction leader, did he ever come back and accomplish what he needed to do.’
There was a lot of meaning hidden behind all the words, and Raze wanted to take them seriously because right now, he was in the same situation, and it felt like he was following in that person’s footsteps, even to the point where he had fallen in the cave.
With the formation, Raze ran over it with his finger, and this time he was paying attention with every stroke of his finger. As a mage, over the years, remembering formations got a little simpler to remember.
It was somewhat like a musician learning a new song. Over time, one would learn what chords were used and how they were repeated in song structures. Just like how one could then learn songs a lot quicker, it was the same with the magic formation.
After around thirty minutes of repeating the same thing over and over, Raze had gotten the formation memorized.
‘This is a formation to return to this cave, not that there is anything left in here that I need, but it will be handy to have if there is the need to hide somewhere in the future.’
Raze still had his cloak, and he still had two power stones. One was for the robe itself, and the other was to return to the location where Dame would be.
He always thought it would be a good place to hide if need be.
Looking around in the cave further, Raze was double-checking to see if there was anything else he had missed, but he had gone through all of the walls. That’s when some of the glowing worms that were on the side of the walls and ceiling had dropped down.
Moving to the side, Raze had easily avoided them, but he could now see that the ground had lit up.
‘Is this?’ Moving his foot, he could feel an indent in the ground too. ‘Wait a second!’
Raze swung his arm in the air, activating his wing magic briefly, causing several of the worms to fall on the ground. Now that it was lit up, his suspicions were true.
‘There’s another formation on the ground; it’s different from the one on the wall, but it’s another teleporter formation.’
The words from the passage appeared in Raze’s head.
[I never thought I would have to rely on those crazy people, but it’s the only choice that I have. There I will be safe.]
Just where did this portal lead to, and what was Raze to do?