Chapter 363 Ixas

After a few hours of travel during which the captives kept staring at Aster, Espi finally reached a tall rock formation, which indeed matched the description of "Dry Cascade".

"Stop, take us there", Aster tapped his hand on Espi's head, and ordered it to take them near the dry cascade.

Even from up-close Aster couldn't see nor feel any kind of entrance or formation engraved in the rock, but since he has come all the way here, then he might as well give it a try.

"Let one of them go Espi".

Espi nodded and then released the captive who talked with Aster earlier.

"Don't try anything funny".

The captive nodded, and then slowly approached the rock formation before he cut the tip of his index finger, and after drawing a few strange characters, which Aster recognized as an old variation of runes.

The ground trembled for a split of a second, making Aster and the girls raise their guards, but ultimately, they weren't ambushed unlike what they expected.

Instead of that, the rock formation opened revealing a set of stairs that went down into the ground.

"Entrance to village".

The captive indicated Aster to follow him, and then he went downstairs.

"Let's go", Aster started walking towards the stairs, so that he would be positioned in front of the girls.

"Espi go hide, if we don't come to see you in two hours, kill those guys and then you are free".

"Hisss!", Espi didn't seem to be convinced about Aster's orders, but it still obeyed and dived into the sand dragging the other captives with it, making dure to cover them with its shelled exterior so they don't suffocate of course.

Aster was the first to set foot in the stairs, the captive didn't advance and waited for them on the fourth step.

On the way downstairs, Aster inspected the walls once again there was no formations he could detect, but he now knew he was being tricked.

Aster touched one of the walls and he was surprised of the sensation it gave off, unlike the rough texture of a rock, it was soft and had a texture similar to the leaves of a plant.

'I thought about it since I caught a wet herb-type scent, in a part of a desert where there is nothing but cactuses', Aster scratched just a tiny bit of what was covering the walls and he kept it in his spatial ring, for further investigation.

It didn't take them too much time to reach the end of the stairs, and what welcomed them left more questions than answers.

There was a rock gate of about thirty meters tall and at least ten meter wide, once again the captive repeated the process, cutting the tip of his finger and then drawing those rustic runes on the wall.

The rock gate opened revealing there was a warm welcome waiting for them, around three hundred men wearing leather armor and other weapons, which were all pointing at them.

But then, to Aster's surprise the captive jumped in the line of fire.

"Friend from another star, came to see shaman".

The expressions of the ones that were pointing their weapons at them did a 180° change, they all literally dropped their weapons and instead looked at Aster with expectation.

But before they flooded Aster with questions, an old voice echoed through the whole... whatever this place was.

"Don't bother these little friends, children", listening to the voice, although unwillingly, they opened a path for Aster's group, the one guiding it was none other than the captive that stepped for them earlier.

Along the way Kana curiously looked at this underground city, it was by no means modern, the houses and other places were built using rocks and given shape with the help of an earth attribute cultivator, also the people that looked at them were all wearing clothes made using hides.

Overall, it looked like a small secluded village that isolated itself from the rest of the world, as it didn't appear on ay known map.

The captive guided them all the way to the backside of the village, where he uncovered the entrance to the only well detailed building, it was a white floor fourth building.

"Temple of shaman", said the captive as he bowed his head, as a way to say he couldn't enter inside with them.

Aster thanked the captive but as he was about to enter the temple, Mylene placed her hand on his shoulder stopping him from doing so.

"I don't know what's inside but it isn't from this mortal plan... Aster".

Aster rubbed his chin lost in his thoughts, until the same voice of earlier once again made its way into their ears.

"Don't hesitate little friends, I can't harm any of you, since you come from another star, I just want to have a little conversation with you".

Aster frowned, he couldn't pinpoint the origin of the voice, it was as if it was coming from everywhere.

Aster and the girls entered the temple, which surprisingly was quite minimalist, it was basically an empty building... or it should have been like that, if it wasn't for a large statue in the middle of the building.

It would be more accurate to call it the head of a statue which had about fifteen meters of height and was attached to the ground.

Mylene's eyes widened a bit as she saw it.

"So that's why I couldn't discover you, to think a Rock Gigas would be trapped in this secret realm".

Aster raised an eyebrow at the name "Rock Gigas", which could be translated to Rock Giant, while he isn't an expert, he is sure such a race doesn't exist in any of the four Heavenly Quadrants his mother knows of.

But since Mylene knew about it, then he let her handle the situation.

The giant head opened its eyes, which unlike the rest of it were real eyes instead of just rocks.

"So, I wasn't wrong, there was someone from the higher firmaments here, what a shame I'm unable to offer a proper ceremony, but as you can see, there is not much left of my original body".

"My name is Ixas, a Rock Gigas or as you humans would call it, a Rock Giant".

Mylene turned to see Aster, just to see him nodding at her.

"I have no idea of how to deal with this guy, so how about you represent us this time?".

Mylene smiled.

"Mm".

That little interaction didn't escape Ixas's eyes, and he was genuinely confused by it.

'That black haired youth is a native of a mortal plane so why is he... leading such a group?', he wondered.

"Ahem, following the etiquette, I Mylene Karel will represent this group, what do you wish to negotiate and what would you use as payment?".

Things were a bit different when dealing with Ixas't race apparently, but Mylene wasn't just a princess to show, besides the recurrent fight with Eris, she has met a lot of people from other forces.

"Oh, is rare to see such a young lass know the code of my people, although I don't recognize that last name, that could be because I have been trapped here for a really long time, to the point that I can't remember".

"I wish to leave this place, the children that you met are my subordinates, I created them with pieces of my crumbled body, "clay humans" so to speak, unfortunately they are too weak to find an exit of this place".

"They only call me shaman because I taught them to do it,

"So, in exchange for your help to find an exit, I can guide you to where that spirit wind resides, just bear in mind I can't do anything about it, in this place not only my power was harshly suppressed, and when I tried to take that spirit wind as a gift for my daughter, I was struck by her and my rocks crumbled".

"Of course, I'm willing to make a mutual oath, and as sign of goodwill I can tell you there are people from other places entering this secret realm, because portals to this place appear from time to time, just like the one I came from.

Mylene nodded.

"Give us a moment to discuss it", after saying that she created a barrier with her spirit energy to isolate their conversation.

The first one to ask was none other than Aster.

"I know you can't speak about some things, but since you mentioned that guy's race, I guess it's okay to talk about it right?".

Mylene nodded, the race itself wasn't born above the Heavenly Conqueror realm, and thus even if she spoke about it, she wouldn't be punished for it.

"Okay, how's his race, is it possible that he was imprisoned here on purpose?".

Mylene shook her head in response.

"No, the Gigas are majorly pacifists, with only a very few rare exceptions, but the Rock ones aren't part of it, they have really long lifespans too, so even if he was trapped here for millions of years, he wouldn't be angry about it, his body will recover once he is out of a mortal plane too".

Aster contemplated things for a second before he gave his verdict.

"Accept the deal then, we'll save the trouble of looking something in this desertic place, but he has to help during the rest of our stay here".