Gacha Sovereign

"Nelson. How far are we from the Undead Race?" Alex asked.

"If we are flying, we need a few days and another few days if we want to reach the beastman tribe," Nelson answered him while looking down. He took a deep breath before saying, "I'm sorry, Young Master. To make you agree with this request even though it's reckless."

"It's fine. I know that you, spirits, won't betray me." Alex shook his head. "Even so, I wish you could open to me more because I don't know about anything here."

Those words he uttered were the reflection of Nelson, who acted a bit familiar with Zekhram. He felt there was something behind that knowledge.

"Ultimately, I need to reach God Stage, so I can leave this planet and seek the answer." Alex thought for a moment and said.

Nelson only looked down and closed his eyes. "I will always be supporting you, Young Master."

In the midst of his frustration, Alex smiled and said. "I'm just thinking about my future."

"So, which direction is the Undead Race, and how far is it to get there?" Alex asked while creating his rank 7 Teleportation Array. He didn't activate it yet because Nelson hadn't answered his question.

"According to Njomo, we need around five days to reach their settlement. And considering your rank 7 Teleportation, fifteen teleportation arrays should be enough. Hence, we won't do the fifteenth one as to avoid directly teleporting there." Nelson answered.

"Alright. Then, the direction." Alex nodded.

"This way." Nelson pointed his hand in the Northeast direction.

Without wasting a single second, Alex activated his Array, and both disappeared right after.

…

One hour later,

In the middle of a desert appeared a single pink-colored array and two people emerged from within. "This is the fourteenth. Where is Njomo, by the way?"

"He is in the Beastman territory at the moment," Nelson answered.

Alex nodded and looked at his surroundings. The desert and blazing sun were a complete couple back on Earth, especially if he searched for it on the Internet. Unfortunately, the latter was missing and replaced by this dark and green sky. The sun that looked bright suddenly turned into a horror movie in his eyes.

"Haiz." Alex sighed, shook his head, and closed his eyes. "Anyway, I shouldn't think about this."

"Young Master, I'm not sure how far we are from the Undead… But it should be around three hours from there. Of course, I'm just speculating from Njomo's information." said Nelson while observing his surroundings to see if there was a hidden creature.

"Sure. We can fly from here." Alex nodded and flew to the sky. However, he stopped as soon as he entered the sky, shocked by what he saw.

Nelson wasn't shocked like Alex. Instead, he smiled, knowing he was right all along.

Alex fell into silence and stared with amazement. He couldn't see it from the ground, but the land a few kilometers from him was easily visible when he flew to the sky.

"This is Undead Race?" He muttered to himself.

A few kilometers from them was still another side of the desert. However, the sand there was different from the white sand from this place. The sand there had black color and reflected the green flash from the sky, making them look eerie.

Luckily, there was no dead bush or tree, so it looked less scary. Alex flew closer and asked Nelson. "It's fine to cross this place, right? Our souls won't get attacked or anything?"

"Yeah. It's only the appearance." Nelson nodded.

Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to recheck it. Although he could see some dark energy inside the sand that turned them into black sand, he realized that the sand wasn't dangerous.

Even so, he couldn't just go like that without trying it. The best way to check it was to cross it using their feet that had direct contact with them.

Alex landed on the ground right before the black sand. He looked left and right in amazement because the two colored sand didn't mix with each other.

Alex kneeled on one knee and scooped a handful of black sand.

The black energy that fused with the sand stayed dormant even though it got a contact with Alex's life energy, showing Alex it was just ordinary sand. Feeling no resistance from the sand even after channeling his Spiritual Energy inside, Alex stepped on the black sand.

"Hmm… Nothing." Alex muttered to himself while looking down with his Spirit Eyes. Alex punched the black sand and created a little clamor, but it was completely normal. "Yeah. It's nothing."

"Haha…" Nelson smiled, knowing he would do the same if he didn't have information about them.

"Sorry for making you wait. Let's go."

"Yes." Nelson nodded with a smile and the two proceeded together.

The more they entered this place, the creepier the place. This was a fresh experience for Alex because he never met a race that had this much influence on its surroundings. Dead bushes and trees started appearing along the way and after two hours of flying, a huge building was sighted.

The building itself pierced the sky, showing its great high. On the other hand, Alex could see that the building was made of bone. Alex was wondering how the bone would actually stick with each other and created this tall tower.

The tower had a cone's shape, and the top had a kind of hat like a lighthouse. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found no one in the tower. However, he could see blue lines with his Spirit Eyes and felt something wrong from it.

He didn't know why, but it reminded him of the array when he saw these blue lines. Luckily, it didn't look like it was active or something, so Alex shook his head and continued onward.

After another hour, Alex saw a massive wall. Its height might not be comparable to the tower he saw earlier, but it was already close to half of it.

"Stop!" Alex warned Nelson and halted his movement as his Spirit Eyes told him something. "This might be bad…"

"What happened, Young Master?" Nelson narrowed his eyes before spreadings a certain black powder.

As soon as it spread, it touched a certain barrier in front of the wall. A blue barrier came into sight and only around the area that had been touched by the black powder.

"I see... An invisible barrier." Nelson furrowed his eyebrows.

Alex ascended his altitude as he saw the two pointed tips behind this wall. He was wondering what these two tips were.

He opened his eyes wide as soon as two buildings became visible.

The first one was another tower, similar to the one he saw earlier. There was one single difference, which was the top of the building.

Instead of a hat like a lighthouse, it was replaced by a huge green crystal surrounded by fire. Even now, the fire still jumped around the crystal, like it was dancing.

Right beside this tower was another tall building. It had a flat top but a complex terrace. On the surface of this building planted a few green crystals that shone to brighten the building. He furrowed his eyebrows and felt pressure coming into his eyes.

It felt like the building was protected by something.

Alex descended again and hid himself.

"Young Master…" Nelson looked at him with a worried expression.

As if he didn't hear him, Alex used his Spirit Eyes to see the invisible barrier that covered the entire place.

The wall itself covered a great space inside them. It looked like the city in Martial Arts Pavilion territory. It should also host many lives inside, so Alex needed to be more careful about this.

It contained a huge amount of blue and dark energy while there was a trace of pink energy around. Alex could understand the pink energy was coming from a Space Element, and the black energy came from the same energy as the one that changed the sand color. Yet, he couldn't see through this blue energy even with his Spirit Eyes and knowledge about arrays.

"What is this barrier? I have never seen it before." Alex muttered to himself, looking up and down, left and right to find a single clue. Unfortunately, only a single thing he could find. It was the blue lines like those in the towers. It was planted within the wall.

"Young Master…" Nelson called him with a low voice.

"Hmm… Is this an array or something? But it's actually nothing like an array." Alex fell into deep thought. "There wasn't a symbol here and just those blue lines…"

"Young Master." Nelson finally tapped his shoulder to wake him up.

"What?" Alex's body shook as he was a bit startled. "What is it?"

"I might know something about this," Nelson said.

"Do you think you can bypass this barrier?" Alex asked. The most obvious question was this since Nelson was a master of espionage.

Nelson shook his head. "I can't bypass the barrier. It's already reinforced by Space Element as well… But I actually know that the barrier originated from the flat top building inside."

"Yeah. I can see that." Alex nodded. "There is a line of energy from this barrier to that building. Still, you can't ask me to bypass this array since I don't even have a single clue about this."

"Actually, this is not an array, Young Master." Nelson scratched his cheek embarrassedly. "If I remember correctly, Rune should be the appropriate name."

"Rune? Rune… Rune!" Alex muttered the word three times. The first was in confusion, the second one was like he fell into deep thought, and the last one was when he realized something. "So, this is rune… It's a special form of Array, but one that can't be related to Array. If a person can use an array, he couldn't use rune and vice versa."

Nelson watched Alex's reaction. Although he knew about the name, he still didn't have a single clue about what to do.

"I see… According to the knowledge I receive, this rune is something special, and there is not much information to begin with…" Alex fell into deep thought, remembering every knowledge about rune. "These blue lines had the same functioned as symbols in Array, but they were from one different concept. I wouldn't be able to break this barrier…"

"I'm sorry, I only know that much, Young Master. I can't provide you with a solution." Nelson apologized.

"It's fine. Let me recall all the knowledge first. Maybe I can find something."

"I understand. I shall patrol around here to see if there was any gap to exploit or any Undead nearby." Nelson nodded and disappeared.

Alex continued recalling everything.

One minute…

Five minutes…

An hour…

Two hours...

Alex began clutching his head, asking for inspiration. He looked stressed because there was no clue about this rune that he could use. If he actually used this from the beginning, he might find a way to break through this rune.

Nelson came back after patrolling and investigating the structure, but he still found nothing. "I'm sorry, Young Master."

"It's fine." Alex stopped him and continued thinking.

Nelson waited beside him, trying to recall every piece of his memory. It was only after another two hours where he recalled a recent memory. "Young Master, didn't the dwarf give you something?"

"The hammer!" Alex opened his mouth in surprise and immediately took out the hammer. He was surprised to see another rune inside the hammer. "Is this like the array and its key?"

Thinking like that, Alex touched the barrier with this hammer. Surprisingly, the blue lines in the hammer channeled some energy, and a hole appeared in the barrier.

"!!!" Alex exchanged looks with Nelson, who nodded his head.

After taking a few deep breaths, Alex and Nelson entered the barrier and thought for a way to bypass the city and entered the building.

Suddenly, a few blue lines appeared right in front of them, and a deep and pacifying voice resounded from within.

"O' dwarf that brings the promised hammer, please come in. I have been waiting for you."