As the group traveled across the large ravine pathway, made up of the darkest stones, they eventually came across what looked to be a dead end. In front of them was a giant wall of this black stone, causing Alten to be most disappointed in everyone.
"What the heck? Why is there a dead end?"
The unamusement was palpable within the group. As they neared the "dead end", however, they came to a sudden realization that the wall ahead of them wasn't a dead end after all, but instead, something similar to an enormous spire.
They quickly saw that the black stone path that they traversed across was also surrounding this spire. Getting even closer, now about 40 feet away from it, they saw that on the left and right sides of this large spire were ravine pathways that lead to it as well, similar to the paths that had led to the giant tree back in the Flatstone Mountain cave system.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm "Paths leading to a giant tower of rock huh?" Lyrian looked up, seeing the round spire reach the surface and above.
"This is odd, to say the least."
Alten stepped up, getting close to the spire.
"If all pathways lead to this, then this must be something of importance. But... it doesn't look like it. For all we know, this could just be a natural formation."
Lyrian understood what Alten was saying, but that, of course, wasn't good enough. The path leading to nothing but a giant rock? That wasn't what he was looking for, and nor was he willing to give up on this giant rock either.
"It doesn't look like much from this angle, but we haven't seen all around it. Let's examine it first before we make any more judgments."
He said, beginning to walk towards the left of the circular spire as Alten quickly followed.
"We'll do this side and meet in the middle on the other side, it'll be faster that way."
Leon quickly shouted as he began heading toward the right on his ostrich. The two teams continued at full speed, examining the tower of rock up and down as they traveled -- finally arriving on the other side in a longer time than expected.
The actual square area of the spire seemed to be over the size of 10 football fields, meaning the circumference of the spire was over an entire mile.
As Lyrian arrived to the other side and closed in on the middle, to his left he saw the fourth and final path that was being blocked by the large tower from where he started. He also saw Leon in the distance getting closer to meeting in the middle.
"You find anything?"
Lyrian shouted, for Leon to quickly reply back with a no. Lyrian shook his head in disappointment. It might have just been the case that this was all nothing but a big waste of time. After all, there was no guarantee that the Yang creature was actually here in the tundra.
Seeing Lyrian disappointment, Alten decided to comment, "Hey, just because this isn't a shortcut to the Tundra Arena doesn't mean the golden-tiered creature doesn't exist. Even if we have to get there not using the shortcut, we will still get there." He said with a determined look in his eyes.
Lyrian looked back, "That's obvious, but it still is sad that there wasn't a shortcut. Too bad, can't dwell on it forever." He said, thinking back on the time when he trained with Brokkr.
He remembered the old fart saying, "A smith following the art should never allow himself to indulge too much in his feelings, for when it comes to serious times, he falls. Having no control of the senses, he loses control of the self as well. An irritated mind is a weak one."
Back then it sounded profound but also slightly weird. Now... it sounded the same, but it was still memorable to Lyrian. Leon laughed out loud at what Lyrian said, amused by his confidence as they finally arrived at the center.
As soon as they got there, however, Lyrian saw something odd in the wall of the spire, "Wait... what that?" He said, quickly getting off of his mount in anticipation as he walked towards the wall.
Alten was slightly surprised, "I guess we didn't search the entire spire when we made the decision the shortcut wasn't here... the actual middle was yet to be checked." His voice was almost in awe as he stared at Lyrian's walk toward something that looked like an outline of a giant gate of stone in the wall.
"What's this?" He said, putting his hand on the wall that towered 20 feet into the air, making him seem like a little ant.
As soon as he touched it and looked around, he noticed a keyhole to the left. Seeing this, Rylan quickly exclaimed, "A key!? What kind of civilization lives here for us to have a key? Are you kidding me?" He exclaimed in frustration.
"The Magma Dwellers perhaps?" Alten suggested, "That means... we can't get in unless we find the key. I wonder how long that will take, and we are practically in a race here, wasting time will hinder our chances by a lot."
Lyrian stayed silent as Leon watched him closely. He thudded his fist on the wall a few times, as Alten called him out, "What are you doing?"
'It's hollow... maybe a few feet of stone only.' Lyrian thought to himself as he took a step back.
Leon grinned, watching as Alten and Rylan exchanged puzzled glances. It was the first time, since absorbing the molten essence, that a gentle green glow wrapped around Lyrian's hand once more. The trio of ostriches took a few steps back, observing as Lyrian coiled his hand, his grip firm, and then released a strong punch right at the wall, "Shock Fist."
His fist slammed into the black stone like a cannonball, obliterating it at once into a pile of stone and dust as a following giant shockwave thrust its way through the debris and inside of the cave, clearing all of the dust at once.
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