Chapter 11 : The Obelisk’s Secret

The stone was embedded diagonally at the point where the canyon that crossed the sea ended. The rectangular parallelepiped stone, about the size of an Egyptian obelisk, seemed to have been sculpted with excellent skill.

It was dulled and cracked in many places due to its long exposure to the sea, but even so, it still showcased its status in this deep, secluded location.

Is it an ancient object?

It was probably likely. Looking closely, I noticed something small embedded between the rock and the ground. Since they all had artificial shapes, these were likely objects related to the obelisk.

If you compare it to Earth, the civilization that made this obelisk might have been a place like Atlantis. If it was certain that this obelisk shared the same origins as the black storm, then it would truly be the Atlantis of this other world.

I slowly approached, trying to prevent damage to the obelisk, and examined what was engraved on it. Most of it was covered with something that looked like letters, but one side was entirely filled with pictures. There, I found an image that resembled a giant cloud.

The size and shape of the cloud, and the branches extending from it… it was probably the black storm and the lightning that struck from it. What was surprising was that the center of the storm was wide open, and there was a depiction of a person entering it. The human was entering between the black storms that emitted light.

Finally, at the top, bottom, left, and right of the storm, there were four obelisks and countless people praying below them.

“Is the obelisk a kind of locking device?”

To achieve the goal of reducing the number of red demons, a way to eliminate the storm was needed.

But after seeing this picture, I felt my body burning with curiosity. It felt like I had become an explorer, something every man dreams of at least once in his childhood. Especially as someone who had enjoyed watching adventure movies in the past, this obelisk felt like a fascinating puzzle.

Entering the storm. What a romantic sentence!

In addition, there might be a way to eliminate the storm if I go inside. In the end, I changed course and decided to find a way to enter the black storm.

“There are three more obelisks besides this one.”

One on the opposite side of the storm, based on this obelisk, and one each on the left and right. With a pounding heart, I circled the storm and began searching for similar traces.

Unexpectedly, finding the obelisks was difficult.

First of all, it wasn’t certain whether the obelisk was intact. The first obelisk had only a few cracks, but about a third of it was buried in the ground. The possibility that others were completely destroyed or buried could not be ruled out.

Additionally, specifying the location of the obelisks was not easy. Even though I compared it to a typhoon, the black storm was vast in scale. Because of that, it was hard to estimate where the opposite side might be.

In the end, I spent three days wandering around the canyon, almost as if I was going to eat it up, but I couldn’t find even a trace of civilization, let alone an obelisk.

“F*cking hell.”

This is not the adventure I know.

Wasn’t adventure supposed to be more varied and exciting? How long do I have to keep my head down and crawl on the ground? This is not right. My pride as a dragon cannot allow this.

I returned to the first obelisk I found and scanned the picture again.

“First of all, since humans can enter that storm, I can enter it too.”

The human in the picture was decorated with various accessories, but there was no indication that they were chosen for any special reason. Also, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly special about the four obelisks, which appeared to be part of the black storm’s gimmick.

There were just countless people praying, and none of them seemed to be holding any tools.

“If there’s anything special, it’s the light in the storm… but I’ll have to go in to find out.”

The light in the storm could be seen as a symbolic representation of something the civilization of the obelisk cherished the most. Why, don’t similar things appear in adventure movies? Like God’s love (gold), or an angel’s wings fallen from heaven (a winged golden crown)?

I think the light in the storm is something like that. It’s probably a precious jewel or a king’s tomb that goes with it.

But whatever it is, it doesn’t change the fact that I have to get rid of that storm. If it’s something like a jewel, I might give one to Rachel as a gift.

“So, what the f*ck am I supposed to do?”

But all of that is only possible if I go inside. It’s useless to fret from the outside.

I tried to decipher the letters on the obelisk, hoping that there might be an answer, but the situation didn’t improve.

I’m not a linguist; how can I decipher ancient characters?

“Argh, f*ck!! Something, anything, just work!!!”

In the end, I couldn’t stand the frustration and rolled my whole body. Dust instantly rose and blocked my view of the surroundings.

Actually, forget adventure. The black storm is right in front of me. It’s within reach if I just cross the underwater canyon. But I couldn’t reach it, like a pie in the sky, so all my nerves were on edge.

“Should I just f*cking ignore the dragon’s senses and go in? If you’re going to leave a record, make it easy to understand… huh?”

When I was crouched down as if about to rush in, the dust cleared, and the front became clearly visible. And what immediately caught my eye was the rest of the obelisk that had been submerged in dust and dirt.

“This is…”

The remaining part was marking something, and it looked like a kind of map. The terrain indicated by the map on the obelisk was very familiar.

“This is the cliff.”

The cliff cut in a semicircle, and there was the hollow cave inside. It was exactly the cliff where I lived.

The difference was that there was no sea, and the surroundings were all land.

“Was this sea all land in the past…?”

On the cliff in the map, there was a winding line leading to the black storm. Also, when I checked again, the human in the upper picture also entered the black storm in a slightly winding shape, not a straight line.

In other words, the human entered the storm from the cliff in some way.

“And that method would require four obelisks.”

I left the obelisk for now and headed to the cliff. I entered the underwater cave where I had been staying and began carefully examining the inside.

“Come to think of it, I hardly looked at this place.”

The reason I chose this place as my home was that it was close to where I had woken up, and the location was suitable — nothing more, nothing less. I had chosen this underwater cave with the feeling that I got it for free, without carefully examining it.

Rather, I had spent more time searching the canyon for the obelisk.

“Found it.”

Finally, when I reached the bottom of the cave, I discovered a hidden artificial structure. It, which looked like a wall, had blended with the surrounding terrain and covered one side of the cave. It was so massive that its height was half my body.

“One, two, three… and four.”

On the wall, covered with moss and coral reefs, there were four patterns. This wall was likely an extension of the obelisk’s gimmick. Four patterns appeared on the top, bottom, left, and right, and one sentence was written in the middle of the wall.

“I think I saw a similar sentence on the obelisk.”

It could have been misinformation ingrained in my mind because I was so engrossed in the obelisk, but it really seemed like a sentence I had seen several times on the obelisk.

“Anyway, I need to attack this to get an answer.”

First of all, the normal method of attack was, of course, impossible. If I had found the other three obelisks, I would have tried something, but I couldn’t do anything about something I couldn’t even see a glimpse of.

So there was only one way.

To believe that this civilization was very old.

Thud! Thud!

“That’s right.”

I crouched down and hit it several times, and eventually, the wall began to crack. It wasn’t what I expected, but I started to feel good about the fact that I was smoothly attacking the gimmick.

Once I made a hole, the next step was easy. I put my claws in the hole and pulled hard. The wall held out to its limit and eventually collapsed.

“It was a door, not a wall.”

What I thought was a wall turned out to be a huge stone door. Even the top of the stone door was open, so it seemed that it was a door that moved up and down by some principle.

I was wary of possible traps or demons and stuck my head in. I saw a hole leading down.

In fact, the end of this cave wasn’t here — it continued further down, and the ancient civilization of the obelisk seemed to have made a stone door in the middle.

Looking down, I could see the cave extending endlessly. Of course, because it was a curved cave, there was no sunlight, so it was very dark. It was dark and deep, like a canyon, but there was a major difference.

“This place is safe.”

Unlike the canyon, the dragon’s sense wasn’t reacting at all.

There was nothing here that could threaten the existence of a dragon. With that fact, I gained confidence and slowly descended.

“Crazy…”

This cave. It’s bigger than I thought. Even the passage gradually widened, and it seemed to be several hundred meters in diameter.

I felt my ears become numb, maybe because I had gone deeper, or perhaps because there was nothing around to make a sound.

There was only seawater in this place where even light did not enter, and not a single thing that looked like life.

Only I was swimming in the dark sea, constantly going down.

How far did I go? Eventually, the bottom came into view. The amazing thing was that the influence of the ancient civilization had reached this place as well.

A huge pattern was drawn on the floor. The sun-like pattern pointed somewhere in the cave.

I noticed that it was a signpost and moved my body along the path the pattern led me to. The pattern also appeared at regular intervals, guiding me so that I wouldn’t get lost.

Finally, when the pattern ended, I could only look at it with a dumbfounded gaze.

“What the hell did they make…?”

At the end of my gaze, statues much larger than me were facing each other.