The runes on the walls had still flickered faintly from time to time during his last visit.
Now, most of them had gone dark, only lighting up occasionally.
The group followed their escort through the corridor toward the Main Tower.
The entrance to the Main Tower was a massive Bronze Gate, over ten meters tall and covered in runes.
During his last visit, those runes had emitted a dim blue glow, like some ancient seal. They flowed slowly, as though alive.
Now, the Bronze Gate stood open. The runes on it were more than half as dim as he remembered. Only a few lines still circulated faintly; the rest could no longer be seen clearly.
"Is the Tower of Erudition destroying its own defenses? Deliberately?"
Seeing this, Lu Yuan frowned slightly beneath the face hidden in darkness.
The group passed by the Bronze Gate without entering, continuing along the corridor around the Main Tower.
The Church's maintenance route did not pass through the inside of the Main Tower. That was the administrative center, where the headmaster's office was located, and it was not within the purification area.
But in the few steps they took past the Bronze Gate—
Gray-White Text surfaced.
[Environmental Perception: Remains detected... extreme danger... immediately... keep your distance] [It, which should have fallen into the void, seems to be reviving... You seem to possess the ability to observe...] [Sanity: -1... 91/120]
When Lu Yuan saw the Gray-White Text, his pupils contracted for an instant.
Again, it was a completely invisible black mass.
The prompt he had seen at Grim's last time had involved the existence of "Taboo." Why had it appeared in the Tower of Erudition this time?
Hadn't the Empire repeatedly forbidden people from making private contact with such existences?
He had thought it