I Can Devour Monsters' SSS Talents

Lian turned his attention toward them, and noticed that the soldier holding the signal had placed his finger on the activation part.

He did not stay still either.

[Grave Fang.]

Two mana jaws formed on both sides of the soldier’s arm.

”What the fuck is this?”

TAK!

The jaws closed and stopped the movement of his hand and at the same moment the device fell from between his fingers.

Tak.

It fell onto the roof.

The man looked at his restrained arm in shock, then looked down but Lian was no longer there.

[Ashen Thunder Step.]

BOOM!

A line of lightning went up the wall and at the same moment one of the soldiers drew his sword to prepare for battle.

But the young Vorhelm was coming directly toward him, the man brought his blade down but just before Lian’s body hit him, his body turned into ash.

A gray stream twisted past the edge of the blade and took shape again through the broken window on the upper floor.

The soldier only had time to turn his head and now Lian was behind him.

The man turned his sword back but he also placed two fingers on his wrist.

The path of the blade was redirected and with his other hand, he struck the side of his neck, the man’s body became weak and before he could fall to the ground, Lian grabbed his collar and gently let him down beside the wall.

”Die, foreign barbarian!” The second soldier also attacked and his fist was covered in light.

The young Vorhelm easily moved the attack aside and his elbow hit the man’s stomach.

TAK!

The man fell to his knees.

But the third person did not fight and instead jumped from the rooftop and quickly ran toward the opposite direction.

”Someone is running away!” Kain shouted from below.

”Instead of shouting, go catch him yourself.” Lian turned around.

The man landed on the roof of a lower building, his legs bent, but before Kain or he had a chance to move, he pulled something small from his clothes and pressed it.

FSSSH!

A yellow spark went up from there, toward one of the nearby towers, the small signal hit the wall of the tower and a point of light appeared for a moment...then disappeared.

Lian could have caught the man, but it no longer mattered, the message had been sent, however, he still did not let the soldier escape.

A few seconds later, he caught the soldier with a simple movement and put him on the ground.

When he returned, Kain was coming up.

”Well... I guess our stealth ends here.” He looked at the point where the warning light had disappeared.

The young Vorhelm looked at the area from the edge of the building, surprisingly, no group was coming toward them yet.

”We continue on our path, we would have had to face them sooner or later anyway.” Lian added without worry.

The bright path continued, but only until a large square in the center of the White District and when they entered the square, they understood why.

Twelve different streets came out from it, some going toward the lower parts of the city and some toward the higher areas.

Two paths also went toward the main shrine, but the light only fell on one of them.

And that path did not go directly to the shrine, instead, it reached another tower with a mirror at a distance.

”Do we have to light these one by one?” Kain looked at the path for a few seconds and then at the first tower behind them.

Lian looked at the map.

[Pilgrim Guidance System.]

[Status: Most sections are inactive.]

[Path Towers: Incomplete information.]

”Or at least we need to find out where this path is supposed to take us.”

”What I see is that the priests of Region Three are using those metal frames to force the same thing I did by turning on a light.” Kain stood with his hands on his waist.

The young Vorhelm had thought the same thing, if it was true, Kain was not only a carrier of a sacred artifact for this city.

He could activate systems that the priests needed equipment and time to use and that meant they had an advantage.

On the western side of the square, a large mural was still mostly intact.

[Square of the Light Confession.]

They stood in front of the wall, pilgrims were standing in lines in the picture.

In front of each one, there was a priest holding something like a lantern.

But the strangest part was below the pilgrims’ feet, more precisely, their shadows.

In the picture, the priest shone the light on each person and their shadow was unnaturally separated from the ground and pulled into a black container.

”What is this?” Kain asked with a frown.

Lian checked the remaining writing, most of it had been destroyed, but some of it could still be read.

[The one who wishes for pure light must first see what they hide behind them.]

What The Fuck?

”So they were really taking their shadows?” Kain read the sentence again.

”Maybe it was symbolic.”

”You said that very hopefully, but how can taking someone’s shadow be symbolic?”

Lian looked at the picture of the priest, of course, he had said that sentence as a joke, at first glance, taking someone’s shadow might not seem like something wrong.

But how could such a thing be normal?

The Divine Ritual of Light was apparently not as simple as just seeing light as something pure and holy.

For them, light revealed things and anything that could be against the light had to be destroyed.

This could even include shadows.

”I expected the Ritual of Light to be something logical and fair and stuff like that, but these traditions are giving me a bad feeling, it feels like they were crazy or something.” Kain let out a short sigh.

”I guess they were too extreme, besides, we cannot say it was a bad thing, maybe it looks unreasonable from our point of view, but until we understand the purpose behind it, we cannot fully judge it.” The young Vorhelm answered simply.

”You’re right... maybe we should not judge too quickly.”

”That’s right, but anyway, whatever it was, luckily it has nothing to do with me.”

”Ha!” Kain looked unhappily at his so-called best friend.

They crossed the square. The path of light passed beside a tall building whose wall had partly collapsed.

Through the gap between the buildings, the black area below the city could be seen again.

This time, it was much closer.

”I still don’t understand what that place down there is.”

Lian did not understand either, from this distance, its surface looked even more like a solid material than before.

But in some places, the reflections were too deep, as if there was something under the upper layer.

And then there was no doubt that something was moving inside it.

At first, Lian thought it was the reflection of a cloud, but no, a huge shadow moved under the black surface.

It was perhaps more than fifty meters long, its exact body could not be seen and there was only a very large dark spot that slowly passed under one of the broken ships.

The surface did not make any waves but along the path where the shadow passed, old cracks began to glow with a very weak light for a few seconds.

”Don’t tell me something is living under there.” Kain stayed still for a few seconds and then said.

The young Vorhelm kept his eyes on the shadow and a few seconds later... it disappeared.

”Okay.”

”Okay what?” Kain turned his head toward him.

”I’m not going to say something is living down there.”

”Bastard.”

Lian moved, for now, they had no good reason to get close to that area and if a fifty-meter creature really lived under it, it could stay there.

Almost half an hour later, the second tower appeared in front of them, the tower was much taller than it had looked from a distance.

Most of it was made of white stone, but the upper part was covered by a huge dark plate.

Fresh equipment could be seen around the base of the tower.

Several circular metal frames, mana crystals, and wires that connected the frames to old grooves on the tower.

”It’s the same thing we saw on the carriage.” Kain knelt beside one of them to examine it.

Lian examined it as well.

The locals had apparently worked on this tower for hours or even days.

Some crystals were empty and several parts of the frames were warm but the tower was still not fully active.

The forces responsible for it were not there at the moment.

They had probably gone to rest or after the previous warning, some of the forces had moved to check the area.

Kain went closer to the center of the tower, there was a circular groove there, exactly like the frame of the first lantern that had reacted to his light and turned on.

Both of them looked at it, it was clear what they had to do.

”Do we have another way?” The Child Of Light said after thinking for a moment.

”No.” Lian shook his head, it was clear that they had to do this to open the shrine, almost all the evidence pointed to it.

And since they had come this far, they also had no reason to retreat.

Kain placed his hand on the groove, nothing happened for a moment and then he released a very small amount of light from his palm.