When A Mage Revolts

After an ear-piercing ringing sound was heard, several blurred lines of texts suddenly appeared on the lava’s surface. The entire cavern began rumbling and the surrounding spiritual energy began to converge toward the lave.

As the type of spiritual energy in this place was astonishing, when they gathered, it resembled some kind of ancient entity awakening from its slumber, emanating a daunting aura.

"... Hmm?"

Benjamin squinted when he saw this.

He continued to hurl elemental storms at the lava, but as the storm was about ten meters away from the lava, it came to an abrupt stop, as if there was an invisible power emanating from the huge runes on the lava surface that blocked anything from coming into contact with it.

This power seemed to be powerful and violent, and at the same time... chilling?

He continued watching as the lava suddenly started to sway violently. After that, crimson orbs of light started to form out of thin air, ascending gradually in the midst of the chaos, like countless fireflies that were the color of blood. Benjamin soon lost count of the number of bizarre red lights that were illuminating the cavern.

The accompanying spiritual pressure disappeared too as the three of them couldn’t help but feel nervous about all of this.

"Oh dear, the... the ancestral spirit had been awakened, master Benjamin, we need to quickly leave this place!" The young boy suddenly shouted.

Benjamin, however, didn’t react.

Ancestral spirit... were these spirits left behind by the people that came before them?

Looking at their behavior, they were different than the more common spirits; they were somewhat powerful, but Benjamin decided not to run away. He came here looking for the ancestral spirit, now that it had awoken from deep slumber, how could he run away from it?

Staring at the red orbs, he could faintly detect, a chaotic and brutal will in each of these orbs.

An intense hatred emitted from within the orbs, as one would naturally feel after being rudely awakened from peaceful slumber.

"Who... who... who dares trespass on my tribe’s forbidden grounds?" Soon after, a dreamlike and somber voice resounded in everyone’s minds.

The siblings couldn’t help but tremble. Even Benjamin wore a shocked expression.

….. It could talk?

To think that a conscious will could be born from the spiritual energy of the elder shamans which had died ages ago and had even gained the ability to converse. This was no small matter.

"I am Benjamin, who are you?" Benjamin didn’t act rashly. After giving it some thought, he dispersed the elemental storm and asked calmly.

This form of communication was indeed odd. The voice transmitted through the soundproof ice sphere was speaking directly to his mind, yet it felt different compared to his interactions with the System. However, since the opposition decided to communicate rather than engage in battle, he decided to talk to it for now as well.

He was quite curious, what was this being going to say?

"I am the ancestral spirit of the sea tribe, born from the countless spirits of our ancestors who worshipped the Goddess for generations, and who helped cleanse the world of its sins." The voice replied, "Tell me... Benjamin, why did you trespass on my tribe’s forbidden grounds?"

Benjamin listened, and a thought popped up in his mind.

This ancestral spirit seemed to not have a grasp of the situation?

Benjamin was curious and pushed on, "Then, the illusion outside the islands was your doing?"

The voice remained silent for a while before replying, "What illusion? I have always been in deep slumber in this place, only ever awakening a few times over thousands of years. Moreover, you have not answered my question, why did you trespass on the forbidden grounds?"

Due to constant fluctuations of the topic at hand, it seemed to be getting impatient. The crimson orb floating above the lava suddenly started to dart about, as if it was ready to strike at any given moment.

"We entered here unknowingly." Benjamin hastily reassured it, "Due to the island’s illusion, we got lost and wandered around, eventually ending up here."

"The entrance to the forbidden grounds was guarded, how did all of you accidentally stumble in here?"

Benjamin feigned stupidity, "Was it guarded? I didn’t encounter anyone, perhaps the guards had left their posts."

The siblings just stood there with eyes wide open as they stared blankly at Benjamin who was flat out lying without even batting an eyelid.

"... Hmm, if this is merely accidental, then I can forgive you of your sin of trespassing." The voice seemed to calm down as it spoke slowly, "However, you need to leave here within the next ten minutes, otherwise I will no longer hold back."

Benjamin stroked his chin when he heard this.

What... to do?

To be honest, the situation at hand was rather bizarre. The ancestral spirit before them spoke calmly enough and was seemingly even unaware of the illusion outside. The siblings had already confirmed, however, that the illusion which enveloped the islands outside was summoned by the elders with the help of the ancestral spirit.

Was it really unaware of it? Or, was this entity born from countless deaths, and happened to be a totally accidental creation?

Perhaps….. it only presumed itself to be an ancestral spirit that guarded this place?

As he thought about this, Benjamin spoke, "But, oh great ancestor, my tribe is in peril, I ask for your help."

"What is it? What happened?" The voice immediately asked.

"The enemy has assaulted on our altar and even conquered the entire village. Now the last of my tribe’s forces have been surrounded outside by the enemy not too far from here, I ask of you great ancestor, to vanquish all of the enemies and save my people."

"But... I can’t leave here."

"Then, won’t my tribe perish?" Benjamin immediately cried out in a pained tone.

The voice went quiet and did not reply.

After remaining silent for some time, it replied once more, slowly saying, "There’s only one way to get me to leave here, and that is to retrieve the heart of my soul in this pool of lava; The essence of my powers is imbued within it. Bring me to the battlefield, and I’ll be able to eliminate all of the invaders."

Benjamin trembled with excitement when he heard this.

"... Great ancestral spirit, how can I submerge myself into the lava?" He retorted, "I was nearly grilled alive just by approaching. How could I ever hope to retrieve the heart of your soul?"

The voice was calm as it replied, "I can split apart the blazing lava."

Following this, the lava below suddenly started to sway. Soon after, it gradually split apart to reveal a clear path. The path was around tens of meters wide and it seemed to lead to a small object that twinkled dimly.

The Heart of Souls, huh...

Truth to be told, he had no idea what this thing was, and the situation at hand exceeded all of his expectations. However, he believed that this was a good opportunity.

"Do you read anything from it?" He quickly asked the System in his mind.

"Looks like a piece of rock, but, a tremendous amount of spiritual energy has converged within it." The System’s tone was somewhat irritated, "Truth to be told, I didn’t think something like this existed in this world. What the heck..."

Benjamin went speechless.

The System didn’t seem to detect anything to be wary about, and this heart of the soul seemed to be a one of a kind deal. If he were to get his hand on it and return to the academy with it, he was sure it would provide their research a huge leap forward.

As such, he formed a new ice sphere for the siblings who were waiting just above the cavern before entering alone, under the protection of his own ice sphere.