At the end was an uncovered door. Inside the door was darkness, with nothing visible, only the ceaseless creeping of death permeating like a ghostly wind howling in the ears.
Frode closed his eyes, soul force vibrating at his brow, waves imperceptible to the naked eye rippling outward.
After a while, Frode opened his eyes and said, "The exact situation inside is unclear, but there’s no soul residue and no signs of living beings."
After confirming there was neither a living presence nor an undead threat, Frode and Angel stepped through the door.
The eerie death energy inside was even denser. Even without any energy driving it, the sounds of ghostly wails emerged unbidden by the ear, as if numerous resentful spirits were softly whispering.
Angel was unaffected, but Frode’s brow kept twitching, displaying a look of strained endurance.
Seeing this, Angel took a step forward, and with the fall of his step, an invisible spiritual force field enveloped around him and Frode.
Under the protection of the spiritual force field, Frode finally breathed a sigh of relief: "This must be Lady Cilla’s resting place, with the lingering resentment energy, extremely concentrated. Just standing here ignites the accumulated death energy in my soul."
If not for Angel’s protection, Frode wouldn’t last long here. Once too much resentment energy is absorbed, he has but one outcome—corruption.
"So it seems, this place might be more suitable for practicing soul tricks than Star Lake Castle," Angel muttered while extending his hand, a bright orb slowly rising from his palm.
The orb ascended above their heads, its brilliant light dispelling the darkness and illuminating the surroundings.
This was the advanced version of the Light Spell, the Light Splendor trick.
Under the illumination of the Light Splendor trick, they could now clearly see the area within a dozen meters around them. Within the light’s range, there seemed nothing special, the ground was unusually flat, with obvious polishing marks, it was artificially made.
Directly ahead of them, at the edge of the illuminated area, a faintly visible staircase could be seen.
"It seems, this place is even larger than I imagined," Angel murmured, as ten orbs created by the Light Splendor trick floated from his palm with a gentle flick, the orbs flying off in all directions.
The pitch-black cavern lit up as if a skylight had been opened, even the deepest dark corners replaced by light.
When the light thoroughly replaced the darkness, they finally saw the scene within the immense cavern.
The cavern was extremely vast, able to easily accommodate two or three Star Lake Castles. The entire cavern was incredibly flat, directly ahead was something akin to an altar high platform, and around the altar were numerous orderly rectangular stone platforms, along the cavern’s edge, every few meters there was a small black cavern, besides these, there were no other artificial marks.
Frode frowned tightly as he looked around, finally fixing his gaze on the high platform.
"This high platform..." Frode pointed at the altar-like high platform, "The death energy on it is extremely concentrated, almost tangible."
No need for Frode to mention it, Angel had already perceived it.
Although to the naked eye, it appeared as if nothing was on the high platform, the aura of death, decay, and silence was strikingly apparent. It could even be said that all the death energy in the cavern emanated from the high platform, that place was... the source.
"This place feels strange, let’s first split up and see if there’s anything to discover. Later, we’ll go to the high platform," Angel didn’t immediately investigate the source of the death energy on the high platform but intended to first explore the cavern’s conditions with Frode separately.
Frode nodded; he too was puzzled by this cavern—why was there such a cavern here, who built it? For what purpose?
Angel cast a spiritual force field on Frode, then went to the left side of the high platform, while Frode proceeded to the right.
Angel first used spiritual force to sense that the only things worth investigating on the left were those rectangular stone platforms, as well as the small caverns at the edge of the cave.
He walked to the edge of a rectangular stone platform.
These rectangular stone platforms jutted directly from the ground, both in height and shape, appearing like workbenches in a laboratory.
And on top of the rectangular stone platforms, objects were placed like on a workbench.
A skeleton.
To be precise, a partial human skeleton.
It was a left hand skeleton, completely dried up, under the wash of concentrated death energy, the skeleton showed fragile cracks, likely to crumble at the slightest touch.
Angel examined through both visual and spiritual perspectives, noticing traces of energy permeation when the left hand skeleton was alive. However, he couldn’t be certain, for he hadn’t fully mastered wizard applicable skeletal knowledge; he might consult Frode later.
With no other findings, Angel moved to another rectangular stone platform.
Like the previous one, this had a partial skeleton, though smaller, it was a right hand skeletal hand.
From the hand bones, the joints were distinct, not missing, also showing traces of past energy permeation.
Angel recalled the previous left hand, seemingly larger than this right hand skeletal hand, suggesting they didn’t belong to the same person.
Subsequently, Angel went to other rectangular stone platforms, each had partial skeletons, of different body parts, some even non-human.
After examining the rectangular stone platforms, Angel went to the small caverns carved into the cave wall.
He had previously probed the small caverns with spiritual force, now he was here to confirm once more.
After checking, Angel confirmed it was consistent with the spiritual perception: the small caverns weren’t large, only about two meters deep, and each contained a complete human skeleton in a sitting position.
Angel surveyed the cavern, discovering these small caverns spaced every few meters, totaling three hundred and sixty.
Each cavern had a human skeleton posed in the same sitting position.
This was definitely not normal.
Angel seemingly thought of something, his eyes suddenly turning dim, silently pacing back to the central high platform.
Not long after, Frode approached as well.
Frode: "The stone platforms all have fragmented skeletons, including human, humanoid races, and some species not of this plane. I feel, possibly some Transcendent conducted secret research here. Because all the skeletons showed traces of energy use in life, they were likely not mortals."
Frode’s assessment was much like Angel’s thoughts. Angel pondered for a moment: "If it was indeed a Transcendent’s secret research, humans and humanoids appearing here would indeed be normal. However, seeing otherworldly creatures’ bones here reminds me of a certain group."
"Carabits," Frode softly concurred.
The Carabits especially loved researching creatures, particularly those from other worlds.