Chapter 156: The Tablet Beneath the Ash

Chapter 156: Chapter 156: The Tablet Beneath the Ash

Ronan crouched beside the half-buried stone tablet, brushing away the layer of ash covering its surface.

The markings were identical to those on the fragment recovered from Blackthorn Outpost. They shifted slowly across the stone, rearranging themselves into patterns that refused to remain fixed for more than a few seconds.

He had seen strange things since entering the Abyss, but this was different.

The tablet wasn’t merely releasing that mysterious energy. It seemed to be absorbing the gray mist surrounding it, drawing the substance toward its surface before making it disappear.

Ronan extended his hand, stopping just inches from the stone.

He had no intention of touching something he couldn’t understand without first considering the consequences.

"Captain Kharven."

The vampire standing behind him immediately stepped forward.

"My lord?"

"How far are we from the entrance?"

"Approximately three hours on foot. Why?"

"If something happens here, I want to know how quickly we can retreat."

Kharven glanced at the tablet.

"You believe this thing is dangerous?"

"I believe anything capable of producing energy that even experienced vampires cannot identify deserves caution."

Ronan finally touched the stone.

The markings stopped moving.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the ground trembled.

Cracks spread from beneath the tablet, cutting through the ash-covered earth. A low rumble echoed across the barren landscape, and the surrounding mist began flowing toward the stone as though pulled by an invisible current.

Ronan immediately withdrew his hand.

"Move!"

He shot backward just as the ground beneath him collapsed.

A massive claw erupted from the opening.

It struck the spot where he had been standing, scattering rocks in every direction. One of the accompanying vampires wasn’t fast enough to escape. The claw caught his lower body and dragged him into the darkness.

His scream lasted barely a second.

Kharven and the remaining vampire retreated while Ronan landed several dozen meters away.

The ground continued to collapse.

Something was climbing out.

First came a pair of enormous arms covered in cracked black armor. Then a broad torso emerged, followed by a head with no visible eyes. Its face was little more than a smooth, dark surface, broken only by a vertical opening that stretched from its forehead to its chin.

Gray energy leaked from the gaps in its body.

Ronan’s expression became serious.

The creature was enormous, standing nearly fifteen meters tall, and its presence was considerably more oppressive than that of the wolf-like beast he had killed earlier.

More importantly, the energy surrounding it was much denser.

Interesting.

Ronan’s curiosity grew, but he didn’t allow it to cloud his judgment.

He was a Seventh-Star King Realm undead. The previous beast had already forced him to expend considerable effort, and this thing might be even more troublesome.

The creature turned its featureless head toward him.

A deep vibration rolled through the air.

Then it attacked.

Its enormous arm swept sideways.

Ronan immediately activated Wind Step, escaping the attack by a narrow margin. The force of the blow struck the surrounding rocks, pulverizing them and sending fragments flying across the battlefield.

He landed on a broken ridge and activated Predator’s Perception.

The creature’s movements became clearer.

Despite its size, it wasn’t slow. Its attacks followed a peculiar rhythm, and the gray energy around its joints intensified whenever it prepared to strike.

Ronan watched another attack approach before moving.

This time, he didn’t retreat.

He accelerated forward, slipping beneath the creature’s arm, and struck its knee with a concentrated blow.

BOOM!

His fist connected with the dark armor.

The impact sent cracks across its surface, but the creature barely staggered.

Ronan’s eyes narrowed.

His attack could injure powerful King Realm monsters, yet this thing had endured it with minimal damage.

He immediately retreated as its other arm came crashing down.

The ground shattered.

A wave of gray energy spread outward, and Ronan suddenly felt his body become heavier.

His feet sank into the fractured ground.

The pressure increased with every passing second, crushing his shoulders and restricting his movements.

Gravity manipulation.

He had encountered something similar in the wolf-like beast, but this creature’s control was far more powerful.

Ronan gritted his teeth.

He activated Gravity Affinity.

The pressure didn’t disappear, but he could finally distinguish the force acting on his body from the energy responsible for producing it.

That distinction was enough.

Instead of fighting the pressure directly, he adjusted his movements, shifting his body’s balance and redirecting the force acting upon him.

His feet tore free from the ground.

The creature raised its arm again.

Ronan charged.

He activated Limit Break, forcing his body beyond its ordinary limits. His muscles tightened, and the energy within him surged as he accelerated toward the monster’s chest.

The creature attempted to increase the gravitational pressure.

Ronan felt the change immediately.

But this time, he was prepared.

He adjusted his trajectory, using the altered force to propel himself diagonally rather than resisting it head-on.

His fist struck the creature’s shoulder.

CRACK!

The dark armor fractured.

The monster staggered for the first time.

Ronan followed with a second strike, then a third, concentrating his attacks on the same damaged section.

The armor finally broke apart.

Beneath it was a mass of gray-black tissue threaded with glowing lines.

Ronan’s instincts warned him that something was wrong.

He immediately retreated.

A moment later, the exposed tissue released a violent burst of energy.

The explosion swallowed the surrounding area, tearing apart the ridge and filling the air with dust.

Ronan emerged from the cloud with a deep gash across his left arm.

He glanced at the wound.

The injury wasn’t serious, but the energy clinging to it interfered with his recovery.

His expression darkened.

"You’re an irritating bastard."

The creature turned toward him.

Its vertical facial opening slowly widened.

Gray energy gathered inside its body, flowing toward its chest before concentrating into a single point.

Ronan recognized the danger.

He moved immediately.

A beam of compressed energy erupted from the creature.

Ronan dodged, but the attack followed his movement, carving through the landscape as it pursued him.

He changed direction twice, using Wind Step to escape the beam’s path. Each time, the attack tore through another section of the Ashen Reach.

The vampire accompanying Kharven wasn’t as fortunate.

The edge of the blast caught him, throwing him into a distant rock formation.

His body struck the stone and collapsed.

Kharven rushed toward him, but stopped when he realized the vampire was already dead.

Ronan noticed the exchange from the corner of his eye.

Three vampires had accompanied him into the Ashen Reach.

Now only Kharven remained.

He had no intention of allowing the same fate to befall himself.

The creature’s attack finally ended.

Before it could gather energy again, Ronan charged directly toward it.

He wasn’t going to win by exchanging attacks indefinitely. The creature possessed powerful defenses, and its ability to manipulate gravity made prolonged combat increasingly dangerous.

He needed to destroy it before it could use another concentrated blast.

Ronan activated Annihilation Force.

Dark energy gathered around his fist as he approached the damaged shoulder. The creature attempted to crush him beneath another wave of gravitational pressure, but Ronan used Gravity Affinity to adjust his movement.

He slipped through the strongest part of the force and drove his fist into the exposed tissue.

The impact penetrated deeper than before.

The creature shuddered.

Ronan didn’t stop.

He struck the same point again, forcing more of his energy into the wound.

The gray-black tissue ruptured.

A violent vibration spread through the monster’s body, and the glowing lines across its torso began flickering.

Its enormous arm descended toward Ronan.

He twisted aside, narrowly avoiding the blow, then jumped onto the creature’s chest.

The monster tried to increase the pressure around him.

Ronan endured it.

His bones creaked, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, but he continued driving his attacks into the exposed wound.

Finally, the creature’s chest collapsed inward.

The gray energy inside its body erupted in a distorted wave.

Ronan was thrown from its torso and crashed into the ground.

He rolled several times before coming to a stop.

For a few seconds, he remained motionless.

Then he slowly stood.

The creature was still upright, but its movements had become erratic. Its enormous hands clawed at the air while the energy inside its body escaped through the cracks in its armor.

Ronan watched carefully.

He wasn’t going to approach until he was certain it could no longer fight.

Several seconds passed.

The creature’s head tilted backward.

Its body collapsed.

The impact shook the ground, and a cloud of ash rose around the fallen monster.

Ronan waited another moment before approaching.

The creature was dead.

He placed a hand against its remains, and the familiar sensation of acquiring a new trait followed.

[Target eliminated.]

[Analyzing available traits...]

[Trait acquired: Gravitational Resistance.]

Ronan’s eyes brightened slightly.

He examined the new trait.

Unlike Gravity Affinity, which allowed him to interact with gravitational forces, Gravitational Resistance strengthened his ability to endure them.

The distinction was valuable.

One allowed him to manipulate his movements under altered gravity. The other reduced the disadvantage imposed by enemies who controlled it.

Neither trait made him invincible, but together they would make future encounters with gravity-based opponents considerably easier.

He had no intention of abandoning either.

Ronan turned toward the dead creature and examined its remains more closely.

The gray energy was disappearing rapidly.

Whatever had sustained it was fading, leaving behind an ordinary-looking corpse covered in dark armor.

He crouched beside its chest and broke away several remaining plates.

There was no heart.

Instead, he found a small, irregular fragment embedded deep within the creature’s body.

It resembled a piece of black crystal, but its surface carried the same shifting markings as the stone tablet.

Ronan carefully extracted it.

The moment the fragment left the corpse, the remaining gray energy vanished.

He stared at the object in his palm.

"So you were carrying a piece of the same thing."

He slipped the fragment into a storage container.

There was no point wasting time trying to understand everything immediately. He had obtained something useful, and that was enough for now.

Behind him, Kharven approached cautiously.

"My lord, what was that creature?"

"I don’t know."

"Could it have been guarding the tablet?"

"Possibly."

Ronan looked toward the collapsed ground where the creature had emerged.

"But if it was, something must have disturbed it. That tablet has been buried for a long time, yet the moment I touched it, the creature appeared."

He paused.

"Either the tablet awakened it, or the creature was already active beneath the ground."

Kharven glanced at the broken stone.

"Should we return to Bloodfall City and inform Lord Varkos?"

Ronan considered the suggestion.

Returning immediately would be the safest option, especially after losing two vampires. However, he had discovered something important.

The creature had emerged from beneath the tablet, meaning there might be an underground structure below them.

And if the structure contained more of those fragments, leaving now would be a waste.

"No. We’ll investigate the area for another hour. If we find another creature of comparable strength, we’ll retreat."

Kharven hesitated before nodding.

Ronan returned to the tablet.

The ground around it had collapsed, exposing a narrow opening beneath the stone. He approached carefully and peered into the darkness.

Stone steps descended into the earth.

The walls were covered with the same markings.

He could feel the mysterious energy rising from below, stronger than anything he had encountered on the surface.

For the first time since entering the Ashen Reach, he smiled.

There was no telling what lay beneath them. It could be another dangerous creature, an ancient ruin, or something that had remained untouched for centuries.

Whatever it was, he intended to find out.

Ronan stepped onto the first stair.

Behind him, the ruined tablet suddenly cracked.

A thin line spread across its surface before the stone split into two pieces.

Deep underground, something answered with a distant rumble.

Ronan stopped.

His smile faded as he listened.

That sound hadn’t come from the creature he had killed.

It had come from much deeper within the ruins.

He glanced back at Kharven.

"Stay close. And if I tell you to run, don’t hesitate."

Kharven’s expression tightened.

"Understood."

Ronan descended another step.

The darkness swallowed his figure, leaving only the faint glow of the shifting markings along the walls.

He had entered the Ashen Reach looking for answers.

Now, he had found the entrance to something that might finally provide them.

Whether it would reward him with power or become the most dangerous mistake he had made since entering the Abyss remained to be seen.