Hera on top of Nimbus and with Eli holding her waist were all going in the direction of the golden building emerging in the middle of this forest. As they approached it, Eli gestured to the map that he had in his hands, pointing to one of the spots that they had marked.

It was a strange stone formation that was completely encased, almost like a tiny mountain in the middle of the vegetation. But because of the way it was shaped with some pillars and somewhat straight elevation, they felt it could be the fossilized remains of a building. Now that they were approaching this structure, both of them could tell that this was the very top of those fossilized ruins.

Trying to see if she could scout ahead, Hera realized that all three of her snakes were gone. One had been destroyed once she fell on the structure. But she couldn't remember what happened to the other two. As a matter of fact, she couldn't even feel them in the river.

She felt the most likely possibility was that the current was too strong and caused them to crash over something and be destroyed. Yet, right now, she had more important things to worry about as they were slowly approaching what they were assuming was the city of Au Dorado.

"Do you think this fits with what you were expecting?" the Empress shouted through the wind to Eli, who was flying behind her, holding her waist.

"Very much so," he replied. "Their architecture is said to be somewhat similar to what you would see in India. With rounded domes and smaller pillars around it. I am quite positive that we have found the city of Au Dorado. But first, let's get inside to confirm this is not just a replica or something that was left for those who got too close to the truth."

The Empress was about to ask a follow-up question when she was distracted by more of this gigantic structure emerging from the ground. Everything was a single building. But it was absolutely massive in scale. So far, they watched as the initial pillar rose about 50 meters above ground and showed no sign of stopping. And after 30 meters or so, the entire structure expanded. There were countless smaller areas where more golden structures were appearing, and even various of the points on the map that they had marked were swallowed by the rising sheet of gold coming from the ground.

As a matter of fact, the very same tunnel that they had discovered. The one with the long dropped door was among the places that connected to this larger structure. As it emerged, there was a corridor leading directly into that position. However, the end of it was still hidden underground even after the entire thing stopped moving.

"Just part of that passage is still underground," Eli said, and Hera nodded in agreement, although she didn't quite understand why this was the case.

"Where should I land?"

At the very top of the dome was a balcony that seemed to be accessible. More than that, there was a large stone door that, once the entire structure stopped moving, slowly opened, revealing the interior of this gigantic city.

"Go there," the Empress pointed, and Nimbus quickly started shifting his direction to reach the balcony.

As soon as they landed at that entrance, Hera called out her court again. Everybody, including the titled blades, was out, forming a large circle around the Ophidianite. It wasn't something that she herself asked them to do but instead it was something that Oberon was having the blades do. It would be much easier to deal with any possible ambush or enemy if each blade had its own area of protection that they were expected to take care of.

The room they entered was the exact same room where the snake construct had perished. More specifically, where the snake construct landed after being tossed around by the water so violently that the fall from the ceiling to the floor was enough to destroy it. And the Empress couldn't really blame the snake for that. After all, just looking at the ceiling, she could understand that very few things would be able to survive a drop this tall. It should be easily 20 meters before reaching the actual top of this area.

And that was just the entrance, apparently. There was nothing else here. No furniture, no sculptures, nothing. Just a wide open space that seemed to take the space of a hollowed out room in this main dome. The only thing in this place that existed aside from this one entrance to the balcony was a door in the center of the room with a tiny incline behind it. Clearly, something that would open to a staircase or a passage that would head down.

They approached the door, and it opened without any resistance. It seemed that now that the entire city was above ground, there was nothing blocking the place below. Not that they were sure that was the case before, but considering how the door from the balcony opened before they arrived, it seemed like the logical conclusion.

But the moment they started walking down Hera had a strange feeling wash over her. A sense of dread. As if she were stepping into a place she shouldn't have. And she wasn't the only one. The entire court was having a similar reaction. Yet, Eli seemed to be only more excited about the surroundings.

"This is it. This is Au Dorado," he gassed with a smile from ear to ear.

His expression would already be off-putting if he had the features of the species Hera was used to. But the two large tusks made his mouth seem even wider than it should be. In a way, his features reminded Hera of the Heavenly Daemons that she found in the cultivation dungeon. But at the same time, those were the only people in that dungeon that she saw with truly wide smiles. The martial artists from the good faction didn't seem to have such a wide range of emotions. Even the two girls that she got to know were more tame in their expressions. However, the Empress chalked that off as a lack of understanding of Eli's kind instead of something else.

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They headed down this one staircase, not really having to worry about anything aside from the strange feeling, but eventually, things took a turn. After passing through one of the floors of this passage, a wider area where the staircase made a turn to the left, Hera started to notice the small marks on the walls. Very subtle at first, being only reflected by the light of the spell they were using to illuminate the area. But the further they went, the deeper those marks became.

A couple of minutes later, it became clear that those were not simply scratches but actually marks of claws or nails being dragged across the stone. More specifically, those marks were all pointing downward. As if the owner of those claws was trying its best to escape, but something else was forcing them to go back down. The entire thing felt very strange but there was no path to go but down if they wanted to continue exploring this particular area. And by the look on Eli's face, there wasn't really any other option.

The deeper they went, the more it became clear that this place was in much worse condition than any of them expected. The first sign of that was a layer of dried blood that was stuck to the walls, following the marks made from claws. It likely meant that the people who came here were so desperate to escape that they lost their nails while scraping the walls.

And once they arrived in the area below, the sight only became more horrifying. Trails of blood everywhere. As if people were being dragged and taken to some place. All those markings followed the same direction, heading deeper into the city.

"Well, one of the theories was that there was a very large battle in Au Dorado and that's why the city was lost. Because those who came here perished together with the people who actually created this place," Eli shook his head. His expression was grim, which made a lot of sense considering they were walking on what should be a mass grave.

The Empress didn't say anything, but she still followed the blood, taking note of the surrounding environment. It seemed like Au Dorado was not just a city made of gold. But a city inside a giant piece of gold. The outer structure had no windows and no other way to access the outside. But everything else, every building, every house, every staircase was carved out of this massive gold chunk spreading for kilometers on end. The light created by their spells bounced off wildly, reflecting on every surface.

Hera turned to Eli. "You don't think the balcony was the only exit out of this place, do you?"

Eli paused for a moment then shook his head. "That is very unlikely. Not only did we see that long corridor heading to the tunnel. But more than that, this civilization was advanced enough to know that if they were building something on the ground, they should have ways for their people to escape in case something were to happen."

"So if the people who were being attacked here were the ones who lived in the city, they likely wouldn't need to run all to the same place, right?" She pointed to the blood spatters that were mostly heading towards the staircase they took to get down here.

Eli nodded in agreement. "That is correct. Odds are that if this were a massacre happening to the people who lived in Au Dorado, they would know different ways of escaping. But on the other hand, if this was something made by the people who lived here, the patterns would make a lot more sense."

"So what do you think? The people from Au Dorado were bloodthirsty maniacs, or is this some sort of apocalypse scenario?"

"I honestly don't know. None of the information we got about the people who lived here made it seem like they were into this kind of excessive display. It's much more common than not for this kind of behavior to be something very private, a secret to be kept from outsiders. But at the same time, this could be some sort of revenge. Can you imagine what you would do if invaders came to your home and started killing the people you love? Depending on how ruthless those people were, I wouldn't put it past the citizens of Au Dorado to decide to take revenge. And all civilizations can be quite brutal."

There was another moment when Eli continued talking, explaining how other civilizations could perform fully heinous acts even among themselves, only to be heightened when they were facing those who were deserving of such acts. All the while they talked, they continued to head deeper and deeper into the city of Au Dorado. More and more blood covered the walls, reaching a point where everything was stained red.

Eventually, they arrived at this altar-like structure where most of the blood seemed to be pooled. But there was actually nothing there. No bones or remains, nothing that would show that this was the final destination of the people who left the blood behind.

"What the hell? I was expecting us to at least find some skeletons, you know," Hera said with a frown.

Eli nodded. "Me too. But..." he was already walking towards the structure. He looked around it, even underneath the table in the center, and suddenly gasped. "This is a teleporting device. I think… I think I can make it work! It uses blood to function, but the dried blood should still work. If not, it's just not going to activate.."

"Are you sure?" Hera asked. The last thing she wanted was to end up as fuel for a random teleportation spell.

"I'm positive," Eli replied. "And if you're worried, see that ring over there?" He pointed to an area right by Hera's feet. A few meters in front of her. There was a deeper groove where the blood seemed to have pooled, but now, thanks to however long it had been, it was all dried.

The Empress took a moment to watch the mana in that groove, seeing how it behaved around it. Indeed, she could tell that there was a large spell circle around the altar, but she couldn't find any indication of the spell going beyond that. Which likely meant that this wouldn't cause anyone who was outside of the altar to be affected by whatever spell he triggered.

At the same time, it could be something along the lines of a massive explosion that originated from the altar itself, but if that was the case, the surrounding area would be more damaged. She passed along her worries to her court but still decided to let Eli do his work.

"Okay. I'm going to stay here, but you can do what you want to do."

"Thank you. We might be able to find the people or at least where the people went before this all happened."

As soon as Eli started messing with the circuit, there was a metallic clang sound echoing through the city. What followed was the sound of heavy footsteps coming from the four corners of the altar. It didn't take long for Hera to see the owners of those footsteps. Four large metal pit bulls wearing golden armor appeared, clearly angry with whoever started messing with the spell.

"Mock, I guess you're right," Hera said as the court snapped into a fighting stance.

#### Author's Note ####

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