Rise of Destruction

Screaming while falling Amon still kept some rationality. Unbelting the staff on his back he used it to push himself from the rocky area. Gripping the staff and telling himself not to let go, he prepared for the 'landing'.

What followed next was a splash as he fell in the water.

Opening his eyes which were half in water and half out, he penetrated the ground with the staff in his hands with all the strength had left. Standing up he cleaned his muddy face and finally had the chance to look around.

After he had blacked out he had floated close to the edges of the lake. He could see the ruins that were sixty meters ahead with his clouded vision, but before heading towards them he puked a large amount of water.

Now that he felt better he took a few breaths and headed towards the ruins. It was just a leftover wall of a house which wasn't even whole. Looking at the wall he could see some pale symbols.

'This was once a house of a wind affinity magician...' Amon identified by looking at the wind symbol.

'Rahhh'

Distracted by the sound Amon turned around very fast and dodged the incoming blow even faster.

Looking at his attacker and the weapon that he or she used he was surprise surprised. It was a monkey and its weapon was a stick. The monkey didn't give Amon any time and attacked him again.

Continuously dodging Amon concluded that this monkey was his match and that he had a chance of winning. Dodging again he moved his fingers from the end of the staff to the middle and stabbed. The monkey dodged but Amon suddenly made a slash with the staff after which he rotated it and the staff was now in his left hand.

The monkey's head was rammed into the wall but it did not die, it just got angrier and roared. The trees nearby shook as more monkeys came from the trees green crowns.

While Amon was looking at the new incoming enemies he was about to face, the monkey he just landed a hit on hit his cheek with its stick, causing Amon to fall and spit a tooth and a mouthful of blood.

'Can't stay here!' Decided Amon as he picked himself up and started running towards a small peak. On the way, he faced a few monkeys whose attacks he had to defend against. There were also more ruins which he passed.

He reached a big staircase ruin that leads behind a peak and started climbing on it. Turning around he could see around twelve monkeys catching up. This stimulated him and he started using his mana to run away from them.

Climbing for a while he saw the monkey stop on the third stair from the seventh stair. "What happened dumb monkeys? He-he..."

Just as he was cheering for his successful escape Amon heard cracking sounds that made him look at his feet. The stair beneath his feet cracked and before having time to react he was already falling.

When he fell down he was a bit surprised as he dropped on wood. It still hurt but he expected to fall on stone or even worse, rocks.

The bag on his bag made the landing a bit gentler but it still bruised him.

Looking at the place at which he fell Amon was amazed. It was a table and at the end of it, on the main chair, there was a decayed corpse in black robes.

Inspecting this underground dining hall Amon saw that there were many skeletons around the hall. Some were on the chairs, some on the table with most being on the floor. Of course, he couldn't see the whole hall, there was quite a small area he could actually see and most of it had skeletons with robes and some with armours.

Inspecting a sword close to him Amon was left disappointed. Time didn't seem to spare those weapons as they were quite rusty fragile, but they seemed to be quite good weapons in their peak time.

Amon thought about it and soon started exploring this hall. Reaching the main door from which was supposed to be used as an entrance he saw the letters written above it.

'Co*pus Ba*tle T*mp*le? More like... Corpus Battle Temple!' Amon felt that this name was quite a badass. Sadly, so much time passed that the symbols carved on the wood were getting paler and paler, making them hard to read.

'I want to explore more!' Thought Amon. When it came to exploring it was his main goal and dream since he regained his past life's memories in this magical world.

Picking a table leg, he used the ragged parts of his bag to make a torch. Lighting it up using the most primal way he started walking closer to the door. Touching it in a try to open it, the door simply fell with a 'bang' sound, making a small cloud of dust.

Passing through the entrance he found himself in a corridor. Except for lots of corpses, there were three doors with pale signs which Amon couldn't identify and also four human-sized halls on the wall. The symbols above these holes were easily identified and Amon entered the hole which had the fire symbol carved in the stone above it.

Entering the underground he was stressed as the floor under his feet was cracking but upon closer inspection, he saw that he was stepping on dark coals.

Sighing a breath of relief he continued to inspect. This place was huge and there were various drawings of men and women holding weapons. It was so detailed as it included energy paths.

Just as he was about to touch the wall with the spear drawings he tripped and dropped his torch. As the torch touched the coal floor, everything in the room lightened in red.

Amon was scared for a bit but now the whole floor was lightly burning and lighting the big hall. He could see lots of corpses and saw a shiny statue in the middle of the room.

Walking towards it he saw that a corpse in dark robes was leaning on the statue, holding a book. Picking the book he read the cover after placing the decayed corpse of this man gently on the ground.

[Everburning Flame Mantra]

'This book contains the notes, autobiography and final creation of the fourth Sacred Elder of the Corpus Battle Temple, Undying Flame Tony.'

Amon sucked a deep breath as he closed the book after reading the introduction page.

Looking at the drawings for a spear, staff guandao and bow he decided what to do.

'I need to stay here... these arts and this mantra... I can become someone!...'