The Guardian System: The strongest Summoner's quest to save his family-Chapter 402: The Last Stop (7)

Reidar stepped into the grand foyer of the palace, and the heavy metal doors boomed shut behind him. The sound was immediately swallowed by the oppressive silence of the interior. While outside, the world was filled with the roars and thunders of monsters and spells; inside; the air was still and dead, smelling of ancient dust.

Reidar dismissed the notifications that had been blinking in his sight since the Archons had engaged the monsters, which were all about his monsters getting killed. He needed to know what his situation was, because if he was going to face Mara, he had to know the numbers on his side.

He focused on the system log and noticed he got notifications that he had killed three Ignis, and given the level difference between him and them, he leveled up.

[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 531.]

[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]

[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 532.]

[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]

[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 533.]

[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]

[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 534.]

[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]

...

[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 548.]

[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]

[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 549.]

[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]

…

…

… 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Reidar dismissed the notifications.

<From level 530 to 549, not bad for having lost thousands of summons…>

It still was nineteen levels from just three kills though. The math was absurd, but the level difference made it work. Each Ignis had been at least thirty-seven levels above him when the fight started, so the C.L.A.S.P. scaled at an exponential rate.

That actually made Reidar feel a little bad, because once he got back to Earth, he would not be able to level up this much anymore since there would not be monsters at his level for a while.

Monsters would obviously grow stronger as time passed, and so would humans, but that was going to take quite some time.

Regardless, as far as the current situation went now, the level up, while big, was not enough for him to consider himself safe on this planet.

The titans were still level 600 and above. The elite Ignis patrols were still in the high 500s and low 600s. He'd closed the gap, but he was still an ant compared to them, and while his trait offset that a little and made him able to gain one or two kills, that was just in some particular situation.

<I wonder if the others on Earth leveled up at a pace compared to mine,>

He doubted it. Back home, the strongest monsters were hundreds of levels higher than the average survivor, and that was all because of the Church of Unbinding.

<Jake and Lena are probably still in the 300s. Maybe low 400s if they pushed hard, but honestly, even that is unlikely. Jake might have somehow taken my place with the army generation, but I doubt he has enough mana to create something as massive as I do. Their level-up spree must have slowed down.>

The thought made him pause.

<Let's hope everything went well. Now, focus, Reidar, focus.>

Reidar moved deeper into the palace. The entrance hall was massive, easily the size of an aircraft hangar, and that was just a room. The ceiling arched overhead, supported by columns that were carved to look like trees. The walls were white stone, the same material as the exterior, but here they were polished smooth and painted all over.

Tapestries hung between the columns, though most had rotted away or burned, while the few that remained showed images Reidar couldn't understand—Ignis figures standing in groups, geometric patterns, and scenes that might have been historical events or myths.

Despite the decay, there was something beautiful about it all, a haunting elegance in the craftsmanship that had survived the apocalypse. Yet that beauty only deepened Reidar's apprehension.

The Ignis had built all of this, and still they had fallen. Their ruins were a warning written in stone and ash—a reminder that the same fate could befall humanity. No matter how far they climbed, no matter how strong they became, extinction was always waiting at the end of the road.

<This place is too big to be checked out quickly.>

Hallways branched off in multiple directions. Staircases led up and down. Doors lined every wall, some open, some closed, some missing entirely.

<I don't have the luxury of time.>

Reidar reached into his mana and pulled.

[Skill Activated: Summon Vorathid Sky-Hunters]

Hundreds of bugs materialized. The insects shrunk to the size of wasps, as per Reidar's order, and filled the entrance hall.

"Scout the palace," Reidar said. "Find Mara and let me know when you do."

The Sky-Hunters scattered. They flew down hallways, through doorways, and up staircases. Within minutes, they had spread throughout the entire structure.

Reidar stayed in the entrance hall and waited. The wolves rested around him while the Shadow Sovereigns stood waiting for his orders while refilling his mana.

The mana was being drained by the magic circle, but it was impossible to tell where. Regardless, based on how thin Mana was here, the portal had to be close to completion.

<How long do I have?>

Minutes, maybe—the vortex was too large and too stable, and Mara had done this before. She knew what she was doing, and Reidar was sure she hadn't wasted any time at all.

As Reidar walked further inside, the palace interior stretched out before him, and the entrance hall gave way to a long corridor lined with tree-like columns where cracked skylights let in the purple light from the vortex above.

Side rooms branched off the corridor, and Reidar checked their contents as he passed; one appeared to be an office filled with desks and chairs that had collapsed into ash, while another was a library whose shelves were empty except for the metal frames that once held books.

A third room had equipment Reidar didn't recognize. They were some kind of machines made of metal and glass that were scorched black.

<A workshop?> It could be. Reidar didn't have much to do while waiting for the Sky-Hunters, so he tried to distract himself to prevent his anxiety from spiking. Though it was hard.

Regardless, one thing was clear to Reidar. The Ignis' architecture was impressive.

Reidar could not help but pity the Ignis, but that didn't last for long, because after five minutes, one of the Vorathid Sky-Hunters sent visual feedback to Reidar.