The SSS Ranked Villain's Return - Chapter 413

Chapter 413: Ancient Ruin
“An ancient ruin?” Neraxis repeated, slightly puzzled. “Are you sure?”

Celina shrugged. “Do you want to do something else then? It’s fine. We can do whatever you want instead.”

Rael shook his head. “No. I just meant… Are you sure you want to take me along? I might be a burden.”

“I don’t think you’re a burden,” Celina replied. “Even if you can’t use mana, you’re still tough. Plus, I’m not really talking about those dangerous ancient ruins. It’s more so exploration for treasure. Last time, Aurelia and I found a few amethyst crystals.”

She smiled. “But you don’t have to worry. If it ever comes down to fighting, I can save you. I’ve been building up my strength, and I’m now a little over SSS+ rank. I might reach Saint- rank soon.”

Neraxis’s eyes widened at her growth. SSS+ rank was basically the top of this world, and only very few people could do anything against her. Of course, his own group had very strong fighters, some of whom attained powers through being in his vampire family.

But even so, he couldn’t refuse her, or rather, he had no reason to. Therefore, Neraxis pretended to think over it some more before finally giving her a nod of confirmation.

“I’ll go with you if that’s okay,” Neraxis said, causing Celina’s expression to turn to one of excitement. Yet that excitement lasted only a moment as she returned to her usual stoic expression, almost as if what he had just seen was a slip-up by her.

She cleared her throat, then spoke. “Okay. Hold on tight.”

With those words, Celina suddenly grabbed his hand, and without warning, she jumped out of the mini room, appearing high in the sky.

While she couldn’t technically fly, by kicking the air, she could propel herself forward, which acted like flight in a way.

At the same time, Neraxis felt like his body was being put through a meat grinder from the wind pressure alone.

For Celina’s sake, he decided to hold on tight, waiting patiently until they arrived.

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.

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(1 hour later…)

“We’re here,” Celina announced right as she landed on the ground.

However, when she let go of Neraxis, he fell face-first onto the ground. Not only had his legs given out, but so had his arms. He was basically a cripple for the next couple of minutes.

Noticing that, Celina chuckled and observed the surroundings.

It was a cave right below a giant waterfall. However, getting here was by no means simple.

She needed to regulate her mana in a way where she would enter undetected, because for some strange reason, this cave would close up if it detected any kind of mana.

Brute force didn’t work either, so that was why she only used brute force to travel here. As for Neraxis, he didn’t really have any mana, so he was safe.

Still, a few minutes passed as Celina hummed to herself and touched a couple of rocks, as if trying to figure something out right at the entrance. But no matter what she did, she knew that these types of ancient ruins would only truly reveal themselves further down. That was also the case here because the cave was extremely long, but also slightly narrow.

Neraxis finally got control of his body and stood up, brushing off a bit of blood from his mouth. He made it seem like it came from the wind pressure, but in reality, it was the injuries he had accumulated in the fight against Lagus.

They’re far from healing. Are they even healing? It’s really hard to tell, Neraxis thought with a sigh and approached Celina.

“You know, I might be a vampire, but I think night vision requires mana, so could you light the place up?” Neraxis asked.

In fact, he could barely see a few meters in front of him, and further beyond, it was even worse.

Celina smirked and turned toward him. She interlaced her fingers with his and softly held his hand.

“I don’t want to risk using mana here, so we’ll just have to hold hands. Unless you don’t want to?” Celina said with a hum.

Why do I feel like she purposefully brought me into this ancient ruin knowing fully well we can’t use mana? Neraxis chuckled inwardly. I find this shy but assertive side of her cute. Though, I know calling her out on it would only get me slapped.

Maybe not slapped, but she would definitely dodge the question.

Anyhow, the two walked hand in hand deeper into the cave, making sure not to hit their heads on the cave that was slowly narrowing, making them eventually crouch down and crawl along the jagged floor.

Clearly, they didn’t need to hold hands, but Celina was as insistent as a child, so just like that, they crawled and crawled.

After nearly an hour passed, the space stopped narrowing, and instead, the cave began growing bigger again, to the point where they could finally stand.

Just this time, they didn’t need to hold hands as there were a dozen crystals overhead, shining down on them.

Frankly, it reminded Neraxis of the first dungeon he had entered when he came back. It glowed just like this. But clearly, this wasn’t a dungeon, but a place that had once been natural, and later was affected by the mana that had enveloped the planet.

Aside from the crystals, there was a giant castle at the far end of the now massive cave. It was gothic in style, but it was also neatly kept, almost as if the person in charge was still living here.

And it seemed like he was right as Celina grabbed his hand and pulled him behind herself.

“Enemies?” Neraxis asked, entering a fighting stance. Yet he soon remembered he couldn’t exactly contribute much to the fight, so he simply backed away further.

Celina coughed a few times, then slightly tilted her head, glancing at him.

“It’s… It’s not really an enemy but…”

She sighed.

“It’s a little complicated…”