Kyran's brow furrowed upon seeing the organs placed as an offering at the foot of the obelisk. He had read from one of the books in Stella's study that during the first era of the world, people offered their firstlings to the Spirits.
These Spirits should not be mistaken with the ones contracted by summoners because these beings were what people believed to represent magic in the world. To them, as long as they diligently placed their offerings to their altars, the Spirits would allow some of the young ones to absorb the energies in the surroundings to summon magic once they turned six.
It was not until the Enlightenment Era that humans learned that Spirits did not 'allow' people to absorb the energies. It just happened that there were people who managed to awaken their magic at the age of six, and some failed.
Of course, Kyran knew that it was all because of the magic core that people could absorb the surrounding energies. Unfortunately, utilizing magic would depend on whether that person's magic core could attract magic energies or not.
Looking back at the altar full of beast lungs, Kyran could not help but remember all these things. At the back of his mind, Zephyr's words also flashed through as he recalled what he said about Cyneah not born blind, but her eyes had been taken, thus resulting in her magic being taken as well.
'That can't be related to this. Zephyr only said that the great magic corresponds to a human body part and of it spoke of lungs. Besides, I don't sense any magic energy in these beasts, nor in the surroundings.'
A frown slowly replaced Kyran's thoughtful look because his Void core suddenly started to resonate with him. He already understood what it meant when his two magic cores resonated with his thoughts, and he was slowly getting used to identifying which magic core it was. At the moment, since his Draconic core was sealed, then obviously it was his Void core.
'What is it you're trying to tell me predecessor?' He thought while feeling his Void core.
Every time his magic cores resonated with him, it did not exactly tell him why. The only clue they would provide was his thoughts.
'It started to resonate as soon as I recalled Zephyr telling me how a human body part corresponds to each great magic, but it did not do that when he first mentioned it to me. Meaning…'
Kyran looked at the obelisk once more.
'…Somehow both are connected. My predecessor experienced it, or he might have stumbled upon a similar situation or train of thought.'
While Kyran repeated what Zephyr said in his head, even trying to find any hidden meaning, he noticed something.
Zephyr particularly said 'human' when talking about the body parts to which great magic corresponds. Zephyr might have said that because those with great magic were humans. But after recalling how it ruffled his feathers when his Air magic was mistaken as Wind magic meant how particular he was when it came to distinctions. If that was the case, then he might be onto something else.
Kyran also recalled how Zephyr always called their world a 'human' plane.
'There are different planes, and each planes have different rules when it comes to magic. In our plane, some beasts were also capable of using magic, but who can say that they are using the human's magic rules? What if they have their own great magic and rules?'
Kyran rubbed the bridge of his nose as he felt his head throb from all these thoughts. Seriously, his brain was overloaded with information at the moment. He thought he already knew most things regarding magic in general. Now he felt he was learning only one side of it, which was the magic used by humans.
Kyran knew that learning what was happening in this place was part of his training, but what does it have to do with his Void path? What benefit was there of learning all these?
Pushing all his doubts at the back of his mind, Kyran decided to not dwell on it for now. Instead, he had to focus on understanding why these beasts were killing each other and offering beast parts as offering to this obelisk.
Taking a deep breath, Kyran approached the edge of the clearing going to the black obelisk. As soon as he arrived at the edge, a rush of rich magic energy assaulted his senses.
'This—!'
Kyran's eyes widened in surprise. He thought this place was devoid of magic energy. However, the clearing around the obelisk had an abundance of it.
Why?
'Could it be that the obelisk is the source of magic energy in this place?' Kyran wondered as he stared at the black obelisk.
With eyes full of determination, Kyran decided to get close to the obelisk and study it. He believed the reason the blood-red tower ahead seemed unreachable had something to do with it.
He did not immediately approach. First, he observed the edge around the clearing. There was no visible border that separated the clearing from where Kyran stood. But because he could sense rich magic energy, he had a clear understanding of where the edge was.
'There must be something preventing others from getting close to the obelisk aside from those who are giving their offering,' Kyran thought. 'Could there be an array?'
He took out a piece of bone in his make-shift bag. Holding the bone, he slowly inched it toward the edge.
Crackle!
Sure enough, an invisible barrier appeared, which immediately disintegrated the area where the bone touched.
Kyran's heart pounded in excitement as he pulled back his hand holding the bone. He examined the part that the invisible barrier had cleanly cut. The sound the bone made while the barrier disintegrated was the same when objects touched his Void magic!
'Is the barrier created through an array, or is it created by the obelisk?' Kyran wondered, full of doubt.
There was no indication of an Array. Even when the barrier cut the bone, the obelisk did not react.
'Don't tell me the magic energy inside is Void itself?' Kyran thought.
However, he rejected this idea almost immediately. If the magic energy was the Void, he should recognize it. He had a Void core that could attract energies after all.
'Either way, I won't know the answer if I just stand here. I need to enter and move close to the obelisk,' he thought.
'Let's find an offering first. Even if this barrier seemed to have the same attribute as my magic, I have to treat it differently. After all, this place… doesn't seem to have the same magic rules I know.'
With that in mind, Kyran stepped back and, for the first time, actively looked for a beast he could kill.
He was not fond of the idea of killing a beast then offering their parts to the obelisk. But since this place seemed to have some weird rules, he had to play safe and follow them. He had not fully understood the rules of this place, but eventually, he would. Then he would know what he had to do to 'clear' this training.
Kyran remained in the ten-meter mark where the common missing part of a beast was their lungs. First of all, he did not want to venture too far from the obelisk. Second, he remembered what the 'lungs' looked like based on the ones he saw at the foot of the obelisk, so it would be easier for him to remove. Honestly, he found the shape of most of the lungs a little strange, especially their color. But he did not dwell on it since he already knew that the color of blood from the beasts around here varies. He even found one with a mint-green color.
After walking for some time, Kyran finally found a possible target.
It was a small-sized beast with the body of a white dog and the head of a crocodile. The beast looked weird, but Kyran had gotten used to it now.
He did not approach the target at once because he found medium-sized beasts following it, and there were at least five of them.
A number Kyran could handle at the moment.
The medium-sized beasts all looked the same. Their bodies were that of a jaguar but heads of a comodo. The contrast in their body color and texture was bizarre.
Kyran hid inside the ribcage of a beast carcass with the body of a black panther and human head. The carcass was split in half, and its flesh and internal organs were mostly gone. Even its skin was already withered, making it was easy for Kyran to make a hole and watch what was happening outside.
The comodo-jaguar beasts were crouched down as they sneakily moved toward the unsuspecting dog-croco beast. There was at least a twenty-meter distance between them.
Soon, the comodo-jaguar beast in the front made a move, leaping the remaining distance in one swoop and pouncing at the dog-croco beast.
The dog-croco beast could not react in time and got pinned down on the ground.
However, what happened next made Kyran's scalp go numb.
As the dog-croco beast was pinned on the ground, it did not whimper nor struggle. Instead, its crocodile head turned and suddenly grew in size, snapping at the comodo-jaguar's head.
The comodo-jaguar beast that had its head snapped convulsed for a few seconds before it slumped on the ground. The other four comodo-jaguar that had witnessed what happened immediately backed off and was about to leave, when suddenly, the ground around them crumbled, and a huge circular mouth with layer upon layer of sharp teeth bolted upward and swallowed the four comodo-jaguar beasts whole.
Kyran felt his mouth go dry as he watched the 'mouth' squirm its way out from the ground.
It was a large-sized beast that looked like a worm but had multiple reptilian tails. One of its tails was surprisingly attached to the dog-croco beast's tail.
WHEEEEEENG!
An ear-piercing shriek sounded from the beast as it wiggled in the air.
Suddenly, it stopped its movement and lowered its head with its beady eyes staring right at Kyran.