But by that time, the black cloud had come to a halt above him. It transformed into a gigantic crosshair, through which the Black Demon could be seen clearly. He sensed it. He threw back his head and looked up triumphantly at what was happening. His maw bared its fangs in triumph.
A powerful surge of energy arrived from the north, passed through the crosshair, and completely engulfed the monster. After that, it disappeared from view. In its place floated a black substance that was aggressively filling the courtyard. Several red eyes opened within it and fixed their gaze on the Cursed.
"This is bad," the All-Seeing said. "This is the next form. The Black Mist. You have no weapon against it. Run."
The Cursed turned and disappeared into the ruins. He could feel the black substance following close behind him.
The Cursed darted up to the second floor. The black substance followed him.
He climbed to the third floor. It had spread out here, trapping him.
"Hide in the ancient temples. Look for the currents that lead there."
In one of the rooms, he entered a current and flew out through the window.
The night stretched out before the Cursed. Ancient temples stood on the mountaintops, mysterious and silent like portals to ancient worlds.
The current carried him to the first temple. He was flying through a twilight corridor. On both sides, to the left and the right, white statues of monsters stood frozen in silence. They watched him with cold, alien gazes. Ancient witnesses to the terrible rituals of civilizations that had vanished thousands of years ago.
He flew through the corridor, emerged into a hall with several windows, and then, through one of the windows, continued his nighttime escape.
The Black Mist was pursuing him.
The plan was as follows: to find a more powerful weapon in one of the ancient temples on the mountaintops. They were supposed to contain many forgotten artifacts. If nothing suitable could be found, then he would look for the Temple of Weapons, where he could obtain a magical blade from the civilization of extraordinary female warriors who reminded him of something long familiar, yet who had vanished without a trace many ages ago.
He passed through several more temples. Statues of ancient monsters stood within them.
In the great hall of one temple stood a large statue of a monster that evoked the cold of otherworldly space. Without a doubt, this creature was the deity worshipped by the monstrous races of those dark and evil times. Large black eyes, long jaws resembling an insect's mandibles, three pairs of limbs, and a body consisting of two sections. The creature resembled a gigantic insect and at the same time was the deity of this temple. At the monster's feet stood an altar in the form of a long bloodstained slab. At its head lay a crystal that looked as though it had been made of ice.
The Cursed was looking into the monster's large black eyes, feeling that it wanted to devour him.
He thought about how nothing was known about the ancient times.
The libraries contained books only about the new history. The true knowledge was kept in secret places about which terrifying legends were told and whose location no one knew. It was as though a sinister invisible hand had separated the old times from the new, cutting off access to the ancient knowledge.