Ruins, they could be said to be a worlds of their own, although they aren't.

  This ruin's size was beyond what Hiro had imagined, it could fit numerous landscapes, in fact even the central area of the ruin which was the smallest was a verdant mountain range with valleys and one large lake. Anyone inside could not tell they were in a different space aside from the fact that the day blue sky didn't have a sun or visible source of light to speak of.

  (If I hadn't seen the rune ecosystem this would have been a surprise.)

  Thought Hiro assessing the distant landscape and surroundings, they had appeared on a mountain peak surrounded by even larger mountains, behind them was a gate made from red pillars with markings of beasts. Most notably the mountain peak they were on was mostly unnatural evenly flat ground. This wasn't the only mountain with such terrain but they weren't all like this.

  "There are no ruin guardians at the entrance this can only mean two things. They perished from the marching of time or master Isis has already fought and drove them off."

  Speculated Nubel from the logic that despite them having used the correct method to enter, they still had to get past one last hurdle.

  "Does that mean if we found them we would have had to fight?"

  Asked Hiro, internally disappointed.

  "That is the case, we may have entered the traditional way but what we did is getting past the gate as for getting inside the house it would have been its own matter. Luckily for us there aren't any guardians, we can even go straight for the inheritance of knowledge."

  Aleus answered with a grin, he wasn't the only one feeling cheerful, in fact they felt euphoric. If any other person was in their shoes they would be jumping for joy openly perhaps even forgetting their original goal from having gained access to a ruin.

  (If we arrived earlier and of the two possibilities proposed the latter was correct then I would have gotten what I came along for, it would just be a matter of how strong these guardians are. It's a disappointing turn of events but nothing to be regretful of.)

  Thought Hiro as he and everyone else dispersed in order to find clues. But after getting inside Hiro was not as hopeful as the others, after all he still couldn't sense the life force of another person aside from those that came with him, not including animals and plants in the ruin of course. But despite his feelings Hiro was putting all his efforts on searching for traces, for one simple reason his senses weren't all seeing. For instance the illusion regions could even conceal life force, preventing Hiro from sensing living creatures within while he's outside and vice versa. Who's to say that now wasn't the case, even his world had deep mysteries he could not fathom not to mention this different world. Hiro acknowledged this not faltering in his search, finally coming to one edge of the mountain peak. From here looking down he finally saw some evidence assuming possibility two of Nubel's conjectures.

  "From this edge going down there was an intense fight."

  Hiro gazed with great focus as he analysed the wreckage, from the odor of the broken trees, shrubs, uprooted earth and blood splatter, coupled with the near undisturbed state of the scene Hiro came to the conclusion that the fight had to have been recent enough that animals in the area still kept away.

  "The fight had to have been a few hours ago, I don't think this is a coincidence but I can't be sure. It's a shame I'm not that good at this kind of analysis."

  "Aren't you under valuing what you just did."

  "Perhaps but compared to someone like Shadow, this really isn't much."

  After saying as such even B One had to admit that Hiro's words were nothing but the truth, Shadow as a thief could fulfill the qualities of a ranger thus had exceptional scouting and tracking skills. Faced with the same scenario, Shadow could easily deduce how many creatures fought, how intense the fight was, the physical conditions of all involved parties after the fight and more amazingly can accurately account the events of the fight to a degree. This meant that if this fight was due to Aleus's master intruding into the ruin then he would know for a fact she had been here as well as her conditions after the fight and where she had gone.

  As for Hiro, the information before him wasn't enough to form any conclusions beyond the obvious. While Hiro was assessing the wreckage one last time before informing the others, someone else announce their fruitful discovery. Taking this chance Hiro also went over to hear of this discovery and also reveal his own.

  "...This definitely has to be the case. The evidence is right before us, she is indeed inside the ruin and this is the path she took."

  Said the attendant that had called out, as he brought everyone before an old ruined robe bridge, connecting to another mountain with an even peak, one that was much taller than the one they were currently on.

  "I also see it, this is definitely it. If it was outside I'd question if it was another person but inside a ruin who else could it be aside from her...

  "Indeed, just looking at the at the damage on the ropes it is evident this was no animal but a person and judging by how this plank here broke, a woman...

  "I also see that, the way it broke off suggest weight distribution due to womanly gait."

  "Don't forget those scratch marks, must have been when she tried to stop her fall. But I don't believe she would be this careless, the rope bridge is most likely less durable than it appears to be. We'll have to watch our steps or not use it at all."

  Evaluated the others after arriving before the rope bridge and assessing it for themselves, a lot of things were deduced by them. Aleus knowing his objective had obviously brought those with relevant skills.

  At this point Hiro felt there was no need to reveal his findings unless it was to hunt down these possible guardians considering he saw no corpse only blood trails.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  (How are they so confident of their conclusions just from that. All I can tell is the damages are recent, although these dust specks on the bridge seem to have been missed by them.)

  Thought Hiro also assessing the robe bridge and finding these extremely faint traces of dust on the bridge that could not be seen with the naked eye. And judging from the environment the source definitely had to be from outside the ruin, thus Hiro had now gained decisive clues as well. Hiro informed them of this and with his display earlier no one doubted his findings instead showered him with some praise. And after all information had been compiled a conclusion was drawn from which they decided to cross the bridge.

  "After a bridge comes stairs, huh."

  Exclaimed someone with a dispirited tone, the bridge was long and after nearing its end they could finally make out the second mountain with great detail. And what they saw, was not far from their expactation, near the robe bridge's end there were stairs carved on the mountain side for ascending and descending. Of course there were other paths but they led to other rope bridges connecting the second mountain to several other mountains.

  After crossing the bridge with compelling reason they began climbing to the peak of the mountain.

  (I've held this question long enough I should ask while the opportunity is right.)

  Thought Hiro having reached his limit, holding back his questions about the lizard golem.

  "What is a golem?"

  He asked Aleus, who was just ahead of him. Of everyone here he was the only rune master thus the natural choice for any curiosity involving runes. And thanks to the fact that Aleus knew Hiro's circumstances to a degree he could gave an answer that took them into account.

  "Anything that displays cognition without a will, that's our definition of golem."

  The answer was short and on point, Hiro understood everything from it, but it raised another question.

  "Then how do you go about defining, alive? If it's just having life force then these golems are living creatures, but if it's having that together with a soul then plants don't qualify as being alive as well."

  "Don't think too deeply about it, we're simply biased on what's alive or isn't, for instance zombies. They are corpses brought back to life without a will but any person would agree they aren't alive thus dubbed undead. But another element to consider in this bias is whether something is biological like we are or inorganic."

  "It's also thanks to this bias that we refrain from making organic golems alongside instinctive coding because even if something is mindless if it bleeds and is big enough it induces feelings of empathy and such. If this wasn't the case then how could the phrase, kill a dog kill a man, hold."

  Hiro kept nodded along understanding the logic as for the phrase he'd never heard. Aleus continued, going back to explaining golems.

  "As for what I call instinctive coding it's what gives rise to the perceived cognition of golems despite their lack of thought. The best example found in nature I can think of is a tree, it can react to the stimulus of its environment to a limited degree despite its mindless nature. So far instinctive coding has only taken us as far as above animalistic behavior. This is one area of rune helpers that has stagnated for over centuries."

  (Even my father hailed as a genius of the field, hasn't broken through this limitation.)

  Thought Aleus dejected, long since the fragment came to their world they had experienced stagnation on multiple rune paths, as a finder this ate away at his resolve. But despite the sudden change of his inner feelings his expression and tone remained unchanged.

  "We've finally reached the peak."

  He said bringing his conversation with Hiro to a close. Before them on the mountain peak was a palace situated at its centre. It wasn't grand but wasn't plain either and it's size was on the smaller scale. Needless to say it's design was ancient, but despite this it looked sturdy enough to stand tall for the next several millenia or so.

  Hiro and co went inside without spending time outside however that didn't mean their guards were down. As they moved inside the palace they followed the traces left behind by Isis. Eventually finding themselves in an empty hall with four large portraits of beasts.

  "Four of the ten great beast species, our desert sand worms, the treacherous desolate mountain eagles of the south, tranquil sea emperor turtle of the eastern seas, and the hill mammoth of the north."

  Exclaimed Nubel with awe, these beasts actually had the background equal to the desert sand worms found in Akarn. The desolate mountain eagle, a bird beast that grew to a point of being larger than a house, largest contributor to the dangers of traveling via sky ship pre fragment times. But they weren't all vicious for instance the tranquil sea emperor turtle, similarly large but quite docile and friendly. While hill mammoths had territorial and provoked aggression.

  "Strange all clues abruptly end in this hall."

  "That may not be so, look it is before the protraits that they disappear, surely that can't be a coincidence."

  They discussed while assessing the hall for additional information but no matter how much they looked it all brought them back to the four portraits. It became clear to them that in order to continue forward they had to find out how these portraits came into play.

  (Is there an additional security measure... No this isn't likely to be the case, this is an old ruin. The guardians should have been the last line of defense. Acting on this assumption this can only be a test for selecting suitable inheritors.)

  Aleus took a step back after checking each individual painting, observing them as a whole.

  "If it's a test then the portraits must have some relevance to the rune that's to be inherited, but what."

  He wasn't only one agonising over this, some had even taken the portraits down to see if there wasn't any secret passage, activation mechanism using the portraits. But no progress was made.

  Hiro who was unfamiliar with ruins was standing at one side observing the bustle. But his lack of activity wasn't from resignation, unlike before he too thought continuing down this path wasn't a waste of time, after all he had also seen clear evidence of another person having been here even if it wasn't Aleus's master. And with this fact in mind Hiro thought of the one thing that made all pieces fit into place, he muttered it.

  "An illusion."

  Aleus who was nearby was entranced when he heard the words.

  "What did you just say?"

  "It's nothing just saying if I can't sense her, it wouldn't be strange that she's within an illusion since it can't be a ruin within ruin, not to mention I'd know if it was the latter."

  "Understandable, we've deduced she hasn't left so that would definitely make sense."

  He said moving away from Hiro while his thoughts were on repeat from the inspirational spark forming in his mind like a grand revelation.

  (Illusion, protraits... Portraits, illusion...)

  His thoughts surged making breakthrough after breakthrough, it was like he had finally gotten a crucial piece of a puzzle he had been missing and was now scrambling to finish putting it together, to get the whole picture. Soon the answer dawned on him, he moved even quicker without a word and began arranging the paintings according to his intuition. Having full confidence in their prince who had finally made a move the others retreated to not disturb him and like they had expected he delivered.

  "As expected of prince Aleus, you understood the test."

  Praised Leandro when the images within the portraits began to fluctuate, something that hadn't happened so far, without question a breakthrough. And with each passing moment the changes in the portraits intensified until reaching a qualitative change and the ink spewed out of them dyeing the wall ink black. He was finally done as he too now gazed at this development, the ink on the wall seemed to have come alive and was moving about on the wall as it rippled with no signs of stopping.

  "What now?"

  "Do you have to ask"

  Aleus answered before walking into the ink puddle on the wall vanishing from sight. Leandro was the first to follow, then the other attendance and finally Hiro.