Chapter 527 Story Of The Head Monk.
The ruin was once a peaceful monastery that was located deep in the Malock forest before it became a desert talk less of a red zone. The monks who resided there dedicated their lives to cultivation, meditation, and prayers for their deity.
Thanks to the river and the beasts that they resided in the Malock, they needed little to no contact with the outside world.
However, the Malock forest began undergoing a change that to date no one knew how it began. The heat of the Malock forest drastically increased in intensity; just like every other city in Malock, the monks were troubled but their head monk preached that it was a test from their deity and decided to persevere.
In less than 6 months, the once-green leaves turned brown and crumbled to the ground, and the trees lost their strength to stand tall. The rivers and streams that flowed through the forest dried up and the animals that lived in the forest were forced to leave in search of water and food.
The forest that had been a source of life for centuries was now barren and lifeless.
After close to 5 years of persevering, their situation was only getting worse, and if left for a year they would all be dead.
With hearts full of doubt, the monks began packing up their things to journey out of the Malock desert, but that was when vicious beasts attacked the monastery.
Leading the attack was a Redknee tarantula at the emperor rank, as well as other a few other king ranks. Unfortunately, the average monk was at the 1st tier of the Hero realm, while the head monk was at the peak of the demigod realm.
With so much difference in power, the beasts rampaged through the monastery, killing everyone in their path. The monks tried to defend themselves, but their resistance was futile.
As the chaos ensued, the head of the monastery, who was finding it hard to protect himself and talk less of the other monks realized that he needed to take drastic measures to defeat the beast.
He knew that the monastery had a power core, a source of energy that was essential to the survival of the monks. However, the core was fragile and could not be tampered with, or it would lead to disastrous consequences.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, and the head of the monastery made a difficult decision. He used forbidden magic to merge himself with the power core, hoping to gain the strength and energy needed to defeat the beast.
As soon as the head of the monastery merged with the power core, he felt a surge of power flowing through his body. He emerged from the power core with the strength of a peak Angel.
He charged towards the beast, and a fierce battle ensued. The beast was strong, but with his newfound strength, the head of the monastery was stronger.
After a long and grueling battle, the beast was weakened and it was now time to deal the final blow, but his body began crumbling because it could no longer handle the immense power flowing in it.
Seeing this, and knowing that even in its weakened state the tarantula would be able to wipe everyone out. The head monk used another forbidden magic to transfer his consciousness into the Monastery.
As his body turned to dust, the head monk became a psychic entity that was strengthened by the power core, that way he was able to continue in a mental fight with the weakened emperor rank beasts.
He eventually came out on top and took over the body of the Emperor rank tarantula, but as he was about to help the other monks fight off the rest of the beasts he discovered that they had all been slaughtered.
This drove the consciousness of the head monk mad, causing him to use the body of the emperor to immediately search for and kill the rest of the beasts.
The head monk was filled with regret and blamed everything on himself because if not for him telling the other monks that the drought was a test from their deity, they would have migrated long ago and would all be alive.
Wanting to atone for his mistakes, the head monk decided to make the monastery a holy ground by venting his anger on beasts while warning humans that came to explore to leave.
He continued this for a century, but even as a monk that regularly indulged in isolation, the long period of silence and loneliness were slowly affecting his mind and resolve. Slowly but surely the guilt was fading.
From protecting the monastery he began thinking of ways to free himself from the prison he was bound to by the forbidden magic. Since he could not see or affect anything outside the walls of the ruins, he could only wait patiently for humans to arrive, but that would not happen for a very long time because the red zone had completely formed and humans were now staying clear of the area.
After more than a century of waiting and still not coming in contact with any human, the head monk began trapping beasts that entered the ruin and draining their energy to keep the dwindling power core alive.
This continued for an unknown number of centuries before it felt a mystical force enveloping the entire monastery and transporting it outside the red zone.
It was only then that it began coming in contact with humans, but it was already too late because he had already gone insane.
…
"Welcome, it's been years since anything managed to make it this far."
With fear written all over their faces, the ash corps looked around in search of the source of the voice.
"But now that you are here, don't think of leaving!" The voice screamed in an insane tone as an emperor tank Tarantula walked out of the left door of the chapel.
[That explains the red sand.] The system said.
"Shit!" Blake cursed his bad luck.