My Wives Are A Divine Hive Mind-Chapter 51: Arriving At Zarangar Valley

"The air feels wrong." Samael’s voice pierced the casual rhythm of their march. Her words didn’t carry any urgency, however. "Could it be..."

She didn’t stop moving at first, but her expression dulled for a moment, eyes searching the air like it had yelled something directly to her.

Kivas glanced at her former-dragon girlfriend, head tilted. "Did something happen?"

Samael didn’t answer immediately.

She paused, gaze fixed ahead like the wind might offer explanation.

After five seconds, she resumed her steps without elaboration. "It’s nothing."

"Suspicious..." Kivas widened an eye and a brow, placing index and thumb on her chin. "Is there really not a thing that you want to say?"

"I merely had a premonition, or some kind of hunch, but it barely grasped anything and was built upon no foundation to prove its credibility."

"So your instinct is telling you something, why don’t you tell us what that is?" Azulus chimed to the discussion, maintaining a casual walking speed ahead.

"No, who in the depths are you?"

"Why don’t you tell me what that is?" Kivas tried.

"A certain flow of energy in the air suddenly shifted, and it kept getting more and more unstable until it wasn’t anymore," Samael immediately answered. "This kind of phenomenon usually happens alongside a distortion, but there isn’t any distortion happening within the small window of that happening."

"You’re so mean to me," Azulus said with a deadpan, or maybe a pout but there were barely any changes on her face.

As they continued, the smell of a civilization began to permeate their position. freewebnøvel.com

The terrain curved upward—ascending toward the horizon, framed by monolithic ridges of stone and fractured plateaus that signaled the fringe of the known.

And then they saw it.

Zarangar Valley unfurled ahead of them like the broken memory of a dream painted in flawless scale. Twin mountain ridges towered on either side, their peaks lost in cloud-thick fog.

Between those titanic shoulders of the world sat the bastion—its foundation carved directly into the mountain walls, as though the earth had been split and hollowed to birth it.

"Woaah...!" Kivas’ eyes sparkled with life and admiration for the colossal. "It’s so much different from Solvish Keep!"

Albeit hard to see, rivers of crystallized silver ran through its base like veins of a living machine.

Luminous threads of power curved in arching circuits across the outer gates, snaking around the infrastructure in glyph-etched spirals. Floating obelisks hovered above the wall’s parapets, each marked by rotating rings of celestial metal.

The entire structure looked grown rather than built, molded by hands not only skilled but devoted to the ancient science of divine architecture. Either that, a divine being came down directly from heaven and sculpted this bastion into existence.

The vibration of moving gears whirred faintly in slow harmony behind those walls, but no sound could be traced to its source.

Kivas’ eyes still widened, caught somewhere between reverence and envy. "We’re really here... Man, this is so sick, actually!"

She ran ahead briefly, stepping just far enough to see the scale extend beyond the curvature of the valley.

It was obvious that Zarangar Valley dwarfed the Solvish Keep in every axis. Where Solvish had been a fortified city, this was an empire of power hidden in a canyon, wrapped in natural walls and crowned by ancient design.

But then her footsteps slowed as she noticed that her excitement wasn’t shared between Samael and Azulus.

Azulus caught up beside her, brows drawn low. "Where are the crowds?"

Kivas scanned the area again. Her Soulcall Whisper Bell remained quiet. No pulses. No alerts. Just a persistent pressure that pressed along the edge of her perception like a hand closing around her lungs.

Well, that was quite paranoid of her to expect a bell ring when there was only a good sight forward.

"There’s no guards nor a single sighted activity," Samael said, "The ground in front of the gate feels empty, despite the bastion influence still covering a good chunk of the land...

"I suppose that there should be a line of merchants and crowd going back and forth since it is mentioned that Zarangar Valley is quite the hotspot."

"There should be," Azulus muttered, slowly uncovering her uneasiness. "Zarangar’s main gates are always active. Travelers, merchants, caravans, faction transports, guild patrols. Always a line. Always a presence. Even during distortion peaks..."

Kivas turned back. "Maybe they’re just not as busy today? Or maybe they are filled to the brim on the other side? Assuming that there is another gate."

Azulus shook her head. "No. This is the standard from Zarangar’s administration. All navigational relics designate this as the front entrance. They don’t even allow traffic from the other end due to spatial integrity risk between the mountain junctions."

Samael moved slowly now, her eyes narrowing further as she traced the upper towers.

Her gaze flicked across every arch, turret, and aerial platform. Her pupils dilated.

"There’s something over this place," Samael said. "I can’t do anything from here. We might want to get closer."

The closer they walked on the grand road toward the entrance, the eerier the air felt.

Eventually, they reached the threshold of the colossal gate. Still no people in sight.

"It’s not fully closed..."

Its halves were slightly parted, open just enough for three to slip through. No guards. No warning glyphs. Not even an automated rejection code or defense mechanism that Kivas would expect out of a high-tech fantasy bastion.

They entered through the gap.

Beyond the gate, Zarangar Valley introduced itself before them.

The city inside was breathtaking. The inner bastion climbed upward like stacked rings of civilization, each level connected through hover-rail platforms and spiraling elevators crafted of levitating runes.

Spires of colored light streamed from some of the towers, projecting ethereal banners that shimmered in the upper sky. Aqueducts and conduits flowed with blue-glowing liquids through transparent pipes. Floating islands housed agriculture suspended midair, rotating slowly on anchored runic cores.

The city was alive with design.

And yet utterly dead in presence.

No voices. No lights within the windows. No movement in the floating transports. Every automated system functioned in eerie perfection. Energy grids pulsed. Elevators moved. City mechanisms rotated in silent rhythm.

But no one was there.

No soul was detected.

Kivas looked around slowly. "What is going on...?"

Azulus didn’t answer. Her mouth was slightly open, stunned.

Samael’s expression hadn’t changed. She might have expected this from the beginning.

"I don’t know," Samael said. "Something is preventing any of my currently available arsenal from uncovering anything."

"I can’t probe anything either," Azulus finally found her voice after a moment of disbelief. "I’ve never seen anything like this before. Even from my own association’s recorded anomalies. This doesn’t match any listed phenomenon..."

It might be something that was far above Kivas’ knowledge, since these two spoke as if there was something specific happening with their own attempt to appraise and detect this dead bastion.

Kivas took a step back. "Should we... leave? Find another place? Another bastion using our Void Hunter Tag?"

Azulus reached for her Void Hunter Tag and lifted it up. The narrow black hexagon gleamed under the filtered light. Its embedded floating core pulsed gently, runes curling and spinning in soft procession.

Zarangar Valley still displayed as the nearest active Void Hunter Association’s Chapter.

"No matter what’s happening," Azulus said, "Zarangar is still being registered as active. That means the guild node is intact. Its core is still alive, and so was the core that kept this bastion intact when distortion happens..."

Kivas frowned. "Well, that is certainly scary."

"It might be under lockdown," Azulus said. "Or the administrative node is still isolated and self-functioning. We can try searching for it before choosing our next course of action."

Kivas pulled her own tag. The same result—Zarangar Chapter was the one that appeared as the nearest guild.

"Should I try with my detection pulse?" Kivas offered

Azulus opened her mouth to respond, but Samael spoke first. "No need. We’ve already done our own sweeps."

"Nothing to sense," Azulus added. "I tried three directional scans with psychic threading. There’s no soul signature anywhere nearby. Not even a faint memory echo. I also tried my blood-detecting skill and there’s still nothing coming up."

Samael’s gaze flicked to Kivas, realizing something, "But your pulse skill might’ve resulted in a different outcome. Maybe you can attempt it."

Kivas nodded, setting her jaw. She drew in her breath and closed her eyes, focusing. "Here I go!"

Soul tendrils stretched out again, serene and calm, woven with the threading of her Fate Weaver and shaped by the discipline Samael had taught her.

As the Detection Pulse of Serenity launched, the moment it stretched for more than ten meters, a violent response rippled through her entire being.

A shriek rang through her soul, a violation of sense.

Kivas buckled immediately.

Her knees gave.

Samael caught her before she fell, cradling her with ease, one arm curled under her legs and the other steadying her back.

"Kivas," she muttered quickly, scanning her face, and possibly everything to appraise in case that there was any permanent status affliction. "Say something. Can you mutter a thought? An expression of speech?"

Kivas grimaced, eyes fluttering open. "Still breathing. Still functional... Hehe. But something... didn’t like that. I think it tried to push me back..."

Samael held her for a moment longer, then turned and began walking away from the gate, her pace immediate and certain.

Azulus blinked. "Where are we going?"

Samael’s voice was low, cold, and final. "Anywhere else. Proceeding further will endanger Kivas. This isn’t worth any answer."

Azulus frowned, her feet remaining planted. "Wait. Wait, hold on—"

Samael didn’t stop. "Uncovering the mystery behind this damned bastion is not our responsibility. I would rather return to become vagabonds and wander around until we stumble a brand new sign of civilization,"

Azulus stepped forward. "The church," she said. "The teleportation facility. If the structure’s intact, it’s still linked to the external bastions. Solvish Keep should be reachable. We could use it! And if the interior systems are still functioning, we might find loot. Curio items. Unclaimed tech, and many more that might be worth the risk."

Samael paused.

She didn’t turn.

"Is that it?" she asked. Her voice was sharp now. Deadly still.

Azulus hesitated.

Samael slightly turned her face, revealing half of her expression that was laced with venom and anger. "Is. That. It?"