"Bro, what do you think of those punches I threw earlier? Pretty badass, right?" The hip-hop guy who had violently forced the door open earlier leaned in close to Akira.
Although he was deliberately lowering his voice, in the confined space of the cave, even the slightest sound was amplified. The others naturally heard everything clearly...
"Well... they were indeed badass," Akira said, looking at his bushy, bouncing eyebrows, "frankly" speaking.
In truth, he had thought they were pretty good earlier, but now Akira was more inclined to laugh...
Hearing Akira approval, the hip-hop guy seemed to have found a kindred spirit and began chatting animatedly with Akira.
For a while, the cave was filled with the hip-hop guy voice, with Akira occasionally chiming in, but mostly focusing on their surroundings.
By the faint light, Akira noticed that besides the glowing orbs, there were also murals on the right wall. Unlike the reliefs on the outer city walls, the interior walls were covered in murals.
Akira had a feeling that the truth countless archaeologists had been dreaming of might be hidden in these murals!
As for the others, they were more interested in the antiques and treasures that appeared along the way. Only the bespectacled man, noticing Akira intense focus, took a few extra glances, but didn't pay much attention.
It was just that these people were all treasure hunters. If there had been a ruin hunter among them, they probably wouldn't have been so calm!
Seeing Akira engrossed in the murals, the leather-clad woman frowned slightly, kicked the hip-hop guy hard, and pulled him away.
"Stop bothering Mr. Akira, seriously!" At the same time, she gave Akira an apologetic look.
The hip-hop guy just chuckled awkwardly, rubbed his head, and didn't say anything more.
As they ventured deeper, the story in the murals gradually unfolded before Akira.
As expected, the story told here was not depicted in the outer reliefs. If the outer reliefs portrayed a positive and optimistic side, the murals here revealed a dark and profound one!
A long, long time ago, a group of people discovered a strange, circular altar during their exploration. By chance, they found that offering living creatures as sacrifices would grant them even greater power!
This power manifested as the ability to control emotions and materialize them into monsters in the form of nen to attack! The monsters depicted in these murals were identical to those on the earlier gate! It turns out it wasn't an abstract art style—these monsters were literally formed from abstracted emotions.
Later, these people began hunting living creatures relentlessly.
Centered around the altar, they gathered more and more humans, which eventually led to the formation of the kingdom! These people became the first generation of the royal family, and from then on, they kept this power hidden from the world.
As the kingdom grew larger, the number of living creatures available for sacrifice in the vicinity dwindled. The royal family then turned their attention to their own subjects...
At this moment, the royal family members were astonished to discover that using humans as sacrifices could yield far greater power than using animals!
This was perhaps because human emotions were much more complex. Thus, every royal family member later had the experience of sacrificing living humans...
Seeing this, Akira couldn't help but sigh.
In the world of Hunter x Hunter, hope and disaster indeed coexisted. The principle of equivalent exchange was reflected in every aspect! If Akira wasn't mistaken, this altar was likely connected to the Dark Continent. The entire altar exuded an aura of malevolence.
Even speculating further with ill intent, could it be that the kingdom's romantic atmosphere, where everyone pursued art and emotions, was deliberately cultivated by the royal family? The richer and more varied the emotions, the greater the harvest after the sacrifice...
Akira furrowed his brows slightly, as there was one thing he didn't quite understand. There were many murals, one after another, vividly depicting many details of the story. But every time it came to the sacrifice, the altar in the mural was pitch black, as if a piece had been carved out.
Gradually, the story in the murals reached its conclusion, much like many tales.
A certain king, blinded by the pursuit of power, began sacrificing living humans on a large scale. In his greed, the immense evil power completely consumed him, and monsters born from countless emotions swarmed out...
The mural ended abruptly here, with the final piece giving the impression of being hastily completed. Even without the full ending depicted, Akira could guess what happened next. The emotional monsters ran rampant, destroying the entire kingdom and plunging the people into misery.
After all life on this land was extinguished, the monsters could no longer sustain their forms and vanished.
As the palace, the Harimu Ruins became the epicenter of the incident, surrounded by countless eerie and malevolent thoughts ever since! This is how the so-called "Land of Death" came to be!
As Akira and the others passed the last mural, the not-so-long tunnel finally came to an end! Crossing a narrower opening, what greeted their eyes was an incredibly spacious cavern.
And... Countless gold and silver treasures glowing with a golden light!