[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Unknown Place.
...
...
In a forest in the south of England, a blue portal began to appear in the middle of the air, starting with a few lightning bolts before it transformed into a circle of pure energy.
It spun violently, with several lightning bolts still bursting around it and a shrill sound, before finally stabilizing. Most of the nearby animals had already fled, sensing the danger and because it was a strange phenomenon in a forest in the middle of nowhere like that, but aside from that, no one else in the world knew of the existence of that portal.
A moment later, someone appeared in front of it, with Severus calmly studying it.
"So this is the portal… There is something very powerful inside it... Not more than Japan, but still, I sense the danger..." he murmured with interest, analyzing it for a few seconds before taking a step forward and beginning to enter, disappearing from that forest.
The space shifted from Severus's point of view and he ended up inside a rocky dungeon, similar to a cave. He shrugged and began to walk, until he spotted small spiders the size of dogs coming toward him to attack.
He simply summoned Beru, while the ant spread its wings and roared as it was summoned by the king, happy about it.
"Let me clear the path for you, my sovereign," said Beru before beginning to attack all the spiders inside the cave, clearing the entire place within moments.
Severus walked in silence, listening to the sound of spiders dying along the path ahead, scratching his chin as he observed the creatures' bodies. They were low-level monsters that he could have defeated even before reaching level 20. He didn't understand why the portal had given him that sense of danger before entering, at least until now.
He continued until the boss room, where Beru was already waiting for him after having eliminated all the spiders in the cave in a matter of minutes. When he entered the place, he found only one enormous spider as the boss, sleeping on the ceiling.
Severus didn't even make an effort; he simply asked Beru to eliminate it. About ten seconds later, the creature was already dead, with green blood splattered across the floor.
Severus stopped before the dead carcass, still scratching his chin. He sighed and turned, finding something peculiar inside that boss room: there was a door resembling the entrance of a castle. And there was no sign that the portal was starting to close, even after the boss was dead.
"So this looks like a double dungeon…?" he murmured, before taking his first steps as the door opened at his presence, entering its interior.
It didn't take long for an entire corridor to appear, while blue flames began to fill the columns on the sides, revealing the path to another hall, with a door leading to a large space farther ahead.
Severus placed Beru back into his shadow form under his feet and moved forward. There were no monsters or any threat there, besides the powerful presence ahead, able to feel it more clearly here. All that existed was silence with crackling flames.
He continued until he came across a massive hall where countless statues, over twenty meters tall, were lined up around the circular chamber.
The last statue, seated on an enormous throne, was over fifty meters tall. There was also the statue of an angel beside this last one, ten meters tall — the smallest — holding a stone tablet, while the other twenty-meter statues wielded weapons, all motionless, positioned around the hall. The fifty-meter statue had no weapons either; it looked completely at ease on the throne.
Severus analyzed everything, and his shadows also seemed to become quite alert. Before moving forward, he felt the door behind him begin to close, but he did nothing to stop it. The place sealed itself completely at the same time several torches around the hall began to ignite with blue flames like those in the corridor, illuminating the hall even more.
Severus watched this for a few seconds before turning his attention back to the angel statue, which held what appeared to be commandments:
"Worship God.
Praise God.
Kill as sacrifice."
He read the inscriptions and felt something the next moment.
For a few milliseconds, he almost didn't manage to dodge when a beam was fired from the largest statue directly at him. The stream of fire passed through where he had been an instant earlier, hitting the floor and leaving it melted like lava. Severus landed softly to the side after flipping his body midair, staring at the throne statue, which was now looking at him and beginning to open a wicked grin.
He studied it, waiting for another attack. But for the next few seconds, nothing happened. His gaze then moved to the other statues — all warriors, all motionless. His perception was beyond human at that moment, and he was beginning to understand what was happening.
None of those entities were alive stone beings except for one. They were dangerous, yes, but that wasn't the real reason for the feeling of danger his senses were picking up; they seemed like mere puppets. His eyes returned to the statue holding the tablet.
The figure of the angel beside the largest statue.
Severus slowly approached, always keeping an eye on the giant statue, waiting for another attack. However, it made no attempt to strike, and he stopped before the angel statue, whose face was hidden beneath a stone hood.
"What are you? Why did you bring me here?" Severus asked in an indifferent tone.
The statue finally manifested, opening its shadowy eyes and revealing them along with a grin as wicked as the fifty-meter statue's.
"You made it here," said the statue, while several system messages began to appear, accompanied by a timer.
"Who are you?" Severus asked again, looking at the system messages.
"You may call me Architect. The system you have was made use, it was made by me," it said in a language Severus understood, but in a sinister manner.
He saw the statue drop the stone tablet, which fell heavily to the floor.
Then it took a few steps. The wings behind it began to tremble and, in the next instant, four more wings appeared, forming a total of six, while its entire form began to levitate.
"Your trial here is quite simple: you will have to deal with all the statues until the time runs out," said the Architect, as the warrior statues began to manifest around them. The angel rose higher and higher, ending up above the hall.
Severus didn't chase it. He only looked around, seeing the warriors beginning to move, dust falling from their joints as they started to activate, their first steps sounding like small booms, and all of them surrounding him. He tried to activate Shadow Army, but immediately felt his own shadow being blocked.
"My lord, something is happening...!" said Beru. But before he could say anything else, the connection between them was erased, and Severus no longer had any contact with his shadows.
A system notification appeared, informing him that several abilities were blocked — as well as potions, bonuses, and various resources. All Severus had now was his physical strength, his daggers, and his wand for spells.
Severus studied all the statues approaching and drew one of the daggers in his right hand, and in his left, he took his wand.
When they advanced to kill him, raising their weapons, he finally acted. He moved at high speed — although, to ordinary eyes, the statues were also incredibly fast, no wizard or person would be able to react at such velocity. For Severus, however, everything moved slowly before his current strength and perception, allowing him to dodge the first stone weapons as they shattered the ground where he had been.
And before they could react, he had already dashed toward them with his dagger held forward, prepared to cut them, slashing at one statue's chest before it could prepare to attack again, the cut tearing from its chest to its shoulder, before that lighter side was pulled downward due to the weight and the entire right side of the statue was destroyed from the chest to the shoulder.
Other statues tried to act, but Severus was quick to keep dodging and launching attacks. Soon, legs and arms were removed — even heads — but the statues didn't seem to care about that; they were just puppets, and such damage didn't affect them.
Severus realized he could be more effective by cutting their legs, preventing them from walking. There were more than 30 statues in that place, and only the giant one seated hadn't moved after that first beam from its eyes.
The Architect, the angel statue, watched the battlefield from above, levitating, while Severus stood among giant blades trying to kill him from all sides, with the ground exploding and shards and stones flying everywhere.
"This is unexpected… has he already grown this strong?" the Architect murmured, surprised as Severus moved effortlessly across the battlefield. "He didn't tell me the shell would grow this fast…" His tone was almost indignant, remembering the instructions his "companion" had given him.
At that moment, the largest statue made a movement. Its eyes glowed, and a beam was fired directly at Severus. He sensed the danger immediately and had to react quickly, using the telekinetic power of the Monarch's Hand. He pulled one of the smaller statues to serve as a shield, struggling somewhat due to their weight as he clenched his teeth.
The impact on the statue was immediate, the stone being consumed by flames, but the beam still threatened to pass through it and hit him. Severus then received a notification, and his skill began to evolve.
"The system is helping me?" Severus was surprised by this — after all, he was being restricted in every possible way, and receiving a new upgrade to one of his abilities was unexpected, as shown by the new notifications.
Severus felt his telekinesis multiply in strength as it reached the new level.
[Ruler's Authority.]
He felt the surge of power and pulled more statues in front of the attack, easily drawing three more where before he had struggled with just one. They quickly took the beam after the first statue was destroyed, still being shattered over the next several seconds as they blocked the ray.
He then dodged, landing to the side.
Evading another sword crashing into the floor, Severus saw the seated statue getting up and approaching him as it prepared to fire another beam from its eyes. He dodged other statues and used the evolved ability, pushing the giant statue and making it lose balance, causing the beam to fire sideways and hit some of the other statues advancing toward Severus.
Seeing this, Severus ran toward the enormous statue, dodging attacks as he drew closer while it recovered. Before it could fire another beam, Severus kicked off the ground and, at the same time, raised his wand and began to form magic, creating several spheres of electricity above the heads of the twenty-meter statues now left behind — and even above the Architect.
The latter defended himself quickly, forming a shield around his body as the lights fired blue bolts downward, but the other statues weren't as fortunate. The entire hall shook under the thunderous blasts of the lightning attack, and half the statues were already destroyed.
The giant, too, was struck by the attack, but it wasn't affected, while Severus landed on its shoulder, the creature unable to reach him from there.
"They say the taller you are, the harder you fall." Severus said with a smile toward the statue's head before him.
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