Spirit's Ascension-Chapter 88—Dormant Codex

Cole tried his best to summon the Codex again, but he was met with the same response.

He only got a little bit of reaction inside him, but the Codex never appeared.

Cole didn’t give up and tried once more.

"Why isn’t the codex responding?" he thought in worry.

His thoughts went back to when he tried to interact with the codex and he felt a resistance.

"Is the codex resisting me now?" Cole asked.

"Or is it currently dormant?"

Cole leaned closer to the second thought since he didn’t perceive any thought of resistance, only like the Codex was sapped again.

"It must be drained after that self battle," Cole thought.

Realizing the situation with the Codex, another worry appeared in Cole’s mind.

"Can I still use recorded abilities though?"

He immediately stood to his feet and began his attempt to use his abilities.

Life energy flowed across his body in a specific pathway, and slowly sparks of lightning formed around him.

The lightning came together and formed a coat around his body.

"I can still use a Lightning Coat," He said with a relieved expression.

Since he could use his recorded abilities, Cole’s hypothesis was further confirmed.

"The codex isn’t resisting; it is just dormant."

"I hope this doesn’t affect the Eyes of Scrutiny since it isn’t a recorded ability," Cole muttered.

With that, he activated the Eyes of Scrutiny, resulting in him widening his eyes in extreme shock.

Cole’s eyes darted around the room while a slow smile slowly formed on his face.

"I was really stupid and impatient," he said with a soft smile.

In Cole’s line of vision, dark, miasma-like energy was radiating from everything in his surroundings.

The energy wasn’t the active destroying kind, though; it was a remnant effect on the surroundings.

"This place had either been in extreme contact with that energy for so long that it had been acclimated here and won’t be leaving or the source was here not very long ago."

To confirm his thoughts, Cole left the room and went back towards the hall where the others are.

"I have found something too guys," Cole said with his eyes still golden.

Both Linda and Bryan looked at Cole’s eyes with interest, especially Linda.

"Why do I feel completely exposed to that eye?" she thought with slight discomfort.

"What did you find?" Bryan said from the side.

"You guys might not see this, but there’s a darkness that has completely pervaded this building."

"It is slowly vanishing though."

"Since it is slowly vanishing, it means it wasn’t here for too long."

"They must have been here not too long ago," Cole said.

"That brings us to two conclusions."

Bryan’s eyes widened too as he understood Cole’s implications.

"Those guys are involved," They said in unison.

The trio now understood that the scale of the mission had gone far beyond their expectations.

Though Cole previously had his hypothesis on the matter, it was finally confirmed now.

Since we have a full idea of our target now, things should proceed much faster.

"I already searched all of this place; there’s no clue that can help us. let’s head back," Cole said to the others.

No one bothered with refuting or trying to prolong their stay; they all went ahead to pick up their paper information and slowly leave.

They left the building quickly, without any further ado. At the entrance, Cole looked back at the hall before saying gently.

"I will make sure I save them."

Strangely, since the moment they had taken the mission up till now and even later, it didn’t occur to Cole for any reason that the children might be dead.

Maybe it was his way of holding on to hope, or his mind just didn’t go there.

The journey back home was slightly tense as Cole led the others back.

From their faces, it was obvious one or more questions were present on their minds, but no one was ready to say anything.

After a while more, Cole was the first to break the silence.

"How did you guys actually find me?" Cole asked.

Linda looked straight at Bryan with eyes of inquiry, since she also wanted to know.

It appeared she just followed along, without knowing where they were actually headed.

Bryan felt uncomfortable under the eyes of the two of them at the same time, so he couldn’t help but stutter.

"Uhm, I used one of my abilities," he replied.

"Your abilities are really unique," Cole replied, not ready to delve deeper into the situation.

"Coming from you," Bryan retorted immediately.

Cole didn’t bother saying anything; he just smiled slightly and continued his journey.

Linda observed them interacting with a slightly intrigued face.

"I wish I could have relationships like this at home," She thought.

"The Brussell family is just too toxic and dangerous."

Now that Cole’s question had broken the air and everyone felt slightly refreshed, the others also decided to ask their own questions.

"Are you fine, Cole?" Bryan asked.

"Fine, I don’t know if anyone here can say they are fine," he said, laughing awkwardly.

"But yes, I am stable now thanks to you guys."

Bryan and Linda smiled at his response, and before they could even relax, another question popped up.

"Was that an ability that made your eyes golden, Cole?" Linda asked.

"You could say that," Cole replied as vaguely as possible.

Linda clicked her tongue in annoyance upon hearing Cole’s response.

She expected much more detail than that, but it just couldn’t be helped when he was always acting so mysterious.

By this time, they had gone quite a distance from the building they were earlier and were now approaching the tent-filled areas.

The previous night, Cole didn’t pay attention to this because of his urgency.

But now, he could pay more attention to the matter, and it was actually slightly alarming.

"Is the slum expanding?" Cole thought.

The slum expanding was an event that barely happened since no one voluntarily left other parts for the slums, but now there were a lot of people.

It signified only one thing.

"Something big is going on in other regions," Cole thought in fear.