The rest of the journey was peaceful thanks to Gaya killing the alphas before they could attack the rafts. Judging by the frown on Ross's face, Michael could tell that doubts are rising in Ross's heart.
"How long?" Michael asked Ross. He held the paddle bamboo in one hand and the map in the other. For a few moments, he just studied the surroundings
"If everything goes smooth, we'll reach the center in three hours"
As far as he remembered, the river was running through the island's center which meant they could reach the artifact sooner than later. The sooner he gets the artifact, the sooner he could return to dominate the Southern continent as well as meet his new demon subordinate.
"Are you hearing that?" Maria asked after everyone started to hear a faint humming noise. It was very faint yet one could hear it if focused enough.
Gradually H's raft moved towards the shore as Ross paddled the raft to follow them to the shore.
"It's good to be on the land" Logan let out a heavy sigh of relief. Even Michael felt relieved to step out of the raft.
"Follow my lead" Ross took the lead into the dark forest. The forest looked ancient with giant trees and lush vegetation on the ground. Apart from the faint humming noise, only the croaking of the frogs, the gurgling croak of ravens as well as trees rustling could be heard.
"The air reeks"
Logan twitched his nose. He was right, the air did reek of rotten flesh.
"Keep your guards up"
It was not like they dropped their guards yet they focused more on the surroundings after hearing Ross. Every single one of them took the next step with utmost caution. Even H who seemed to be in the rush to get the artifact walked slower.
The lush forest made following Ross difficult. In the distance, they could hear the thunderclaps. Pushing the foliage away, Michael and Logan followed the team behind. Without uttering a single word, they kept walking.
They kept walking as the faint humming noise began to sound louder and louder. Michael used his Environmental Scanning senses to scan for any undeads yet he found nothing. It was surprisingly unusual. Although there were no undeads nearby, he couldn't shake the eerie feeling. Except for the humming noise, there was no sound, not even a chirp of a bird.
After an hour of walking, the thick forest seemed to decline. They could see the light coming through the forest a few hundred meters ahead of them.
"I'm getting closer," Michael's instincts told him that the artifact is nearby. He could vaguely feel a tremendous amount of energy coming from ahead of him.
When they finally stepped out of the thick forest, they were welcomed by a huge surprise.
"Holy fuck!"
Logan's jaws dropped, just like the rest of them. What they saw was a pyramid, a miniature size pyramid surrounded by an army of undeads and trees. It was at least fifty feet tall and thirty feet wide. Instead of sandstones, this pyramid was built using a greyish stone that gave the pyramid a dark look.
"What is this place?"
Logan asked as his eyes widened in shock.
"The question should be, how do we reach the inside?" Still, H's focus was on the artifact, not on the pyramid. He had the least surprised look on his face. Even Michael was stunned by this wonder but not H.
[The system is sensing strong First energy fluctuations]
"First energy? Do you think I can use it through Energy Devourer?"
[Since your body and soul endured the First energy before, you'll be able to use the First energy with no problem ]
"Awesome" his face brightened. When he first sucked in the First energy, he was able to get from the Body Strengthening stage to the Core Formation stage in one go. Luckily, he was again presented with the First energy source.
"What is this artifact?" He wondered. The artifact never ceased to amaze him.
"Look over there" Jonah pointed at the other side of the pyramid as they vaguely saw a rope bridge connecting to the pyramid's top from the cliff on the other side. If they walked carefully through the edge, they could reach the other side without alerting the undeads.
"Hey is it me or do these undeads look weird ?" Logan looked down on the undeads from the cliff.
"They are hibernating," Jonah said, lifting his glasses up. Michael heard about this phenomenon from Dular. It was like when the Netherels had nothing to attack in the vicinity, they would enter into a state that could be compared to humans sleeping. Until they could sense prey, they would remain in this state.
"Hibernating? What does that mean?" Logan scratched the back of his head.
"You can think of it as an undead version of sleeping" H quickly interfered before Jonah could start a lecture about undeads. Carefully looking at the undeads beneath them, they began to move towards the other side.
The rope bridge looked ancient, missing many wooden steps yet it was their best hope to reach the pyramid.
"Human, have you reached the rope bridge yet?" Yet again he heard Gaya's voice.
"I'll cover your backs" Michael let Logan and the team go first so he could talk to Gaya without them noticing. They didn't suspect him much as they had bigger things to worry about. While they were moving forward, he slowed down, putting some distance from them.
"Not yet, where are you?"
"Keeping the other team from reaching the rope bridge. Since you've seen the army of undeads down there, you know what would happen if they smell blood in the air or any screams"
"Good call, we should not wake them up as long as we could" he whispered,
"How are you slowing them down?"
"I may or may not have put some bloody flux into their meals" her voice contained a sliver of devilishness.
"So you keep a bloody flux potion with you huh?'
"Of course I do and you better watch yourself human" she chuckled before cutting the connection. The bloody flux was a potion that would cause diarrhea. The fact she had a bloody flux potion with her didn't surprise Michael very much. Anyways, he was glad that her potion was able to slow down the other team. If they were affected by the bloody flux potion, he knew their combat skills would hit low, and even if they did try to fight them which was very unlikely considering the hibernating undeads, Michael's team would have an easy time dealing with them.
While they were walking on the edge, every single one of them did their best not to kick any pebbles down at the undeads. It was evident that if they woke one undead up, the whole army would wake up.
It took them half an hour to reach the cliff on the other side. Except for Michael, none of them knew that the other team was hiding in the forest behind them.
"They are coming" Michael sensed the other team moving towards them with the help of the Environmental scanning. Their movements were slow probably due to the bloody flux. In a few minutes, Michael's team heard a voice coming from the forest. They quickly unsheathed their weapons,
"Stop"
One by one, the other team members walked out from the forest's darkness. They wore grey hooded robes covering every part of their body, even their eyes were covered by a black transparent cloth. However, the one who walked out from the forest last didnt wear similar clothes. He just wore black armor protecting his torso and brown leather breeches with black boots. His short golden hair was messy and his face was pale.
"Johnny" the moment Maria saw the young man, she almost shouted. Everyone's eyes widened in shock. Maria leaped at the young man, embracing him like there's no tomorrow.
"Maria" the young man hugged her back.
"I found you" Maria buried her head into his chest ignoring her father's gaze. Micahel noticed the black lines appearing on Ross's forehead.
Johnny lifted her face slowly. Just when he was about to lock his lips with hers, Ross opened his mouth
"What are you doing here?"
"I could...ask the same"
Johnny sounded like he was too weak to speak. They all noticed this but only Michael knew the reason. He also felt pity for these guys because it would have been damn hard for them to disrobe to let whatever inside them out.
"Did you kill them?" Ross asked. His voice may not have shown the killing intent but his eyes did.
"Kill who?'
"Father" Maria tried to butt in yet Ross's gaze was fixed on Maria's boyfriend. Johnny creased his brows, looking confused.
"We didn't kill anyone" Johnny shook his head.
It was them who killed Rowan's team yet Johnny said otherwise. Michael knew either Johnny's lying which was probably the case or the cloaked figures killed them without Johnny's knowledge.
"It's obvious you reached this place before us but what are you still doing here without going into the temple?" H asked. A hint of anger and embarrassment emerged in Johnny's eyes.
"We encountered a setback, that's all you need to know. Now, are you going to keep interrogating me or work together to enter the temple?"
H stared at Johnny for a few moments before nodding at the team to lower their weapons.
"I have my eyes on you kid," H said in a serious tone. Johnny did not react but Maria gave H a death glare which H just ignored. After this temporary truce, all of their focus turned towards the rope bridge in front of them.
Michael could feel the intense energy coming from the pyramid.
"Finally, this is coming an end'