At Maya’s request, Reiger dispelled the "Energy Absorption" magic affecting her, allowing her to regain her original strength, and returned the Gold Scepter he had previously seized from her.
This Gold Scepter was a treasure of exceptionally high quality, capable not only of enhancing the wielder’s magic casting speed and shortening the chanting time for spells but also of amplifying the magic cast and minimizing the depletion of Magic Power. In terms of value, the Gold Scepter was even more precious than Revin’s Sword of the Rebel and the Monis Armor.
It was precisely because of this Gold Scepter that Maya could rapidly and smoothly cast that Flash Magic, which was remarkable both in speed and power, even casting aside the need for chanting. The speedy summoning of the magic mirror and the powerful absorption efficiency were also largely thanks to the assistance of the Gold Scepter.
Therefore, the Gold Scepter was especially important to Maya, even more so than her Vestment Robe that had a flying feature and could shield her unhurt from Reiger’s "Lightning Flash."
After getting hold of the scepter, Maya turned toward the temple and chanted a long, arduous, and mysterious spell.
"Boom rumble rumble..."
As Maya chanted the spell, the temple began to tremble, and the invisible barrier surrounding it finally revealed its form, like a barrier radiating dazzling golden light.
Maya continued to chant, which caused the golden, glittering barrier to display one after another ancient and mystical rune.
The runes danced into the air, intertwining with each other and finally settling onto the barrier in rows and columns.
Only then did the surface of the barrier begin to pulsate with waves of radiance.
Before long, at the bottom of the barrier, right in front of the stairs, an entrance barely wide enough for one person to pass through appeared.
Maya put away her scepter and said indifferently.
The group looked at each other, hesitant to move. For a moment, nobody took any action.
Clearly, everyone there retained a measure of caution toward Maya and dared not act rashly.
Even Revin, who had been attempting to break the barrier of the temple, eager to cleave open the entire temple and rush inside, yet never managing to succeed, also didn’t choose to straightaway believe this stranger who had suddenly appeared and enter into the barrier.
It seemed that Maya didn’t care what Revin and the others thought or whether they wanted to enter; she only watched Reiger and Liz.
Undoubtedly, the door that Maya opened was for Reiger and Liz; she didn’t particularly care whether the others followed or not.
After giving Maya a glance, Reiger then stepped forward.
Without hesitation, as if he was not worried about traps at all, he walked straight towards the stairs and stepped up.
Seeing Reiger climb the stairs, Liz naturally wouldn’t stay behind and quickly followed.
Maya followed behind Liz quietly, closely after Reiger and Liz, paying no attention to Revin and the others.
"...Let’s go." After a silent moment, Revin finally said, "Let’s follow them."
The crowd nodded in agreement.
They followed Reiger’s group, stepping onto the staircase that led to the top of the temple.
The staircase was very long, at least several hundred meters. After walking for a considerable time, Reiger’s party finally reached the top of the temple, right in front of the sole door leading inside.
In front of this door, Maya chanted another spell.
This time, the chant was short, only a brief phrase, but whether it was Reiger or Nipede, neither could understand what the chant entailed or in what language Maya had sung the spell.
In this manner, the door, as if pushed by an unseen force, gradually opened.
"I will lead the way from here."
After uttering these words, Maya moved in front of Reiger and Liz.
However, her gaze also lingered on the others, no longer ignoring them as she had before.
"Before entering the temple, there are a few warnings I need to make clear to you," Maya said coldly.
"First, once inside, don’t go wandering off without my permission, and certainly do not leave halfway."
"Second, you mustn’t touch, much less take, any item inside."
"Third, this is a temple for venerating the divine, and I would like you to offer a prayer to the gods with reverence. Of course, this isn’t mandatory. Do it if you wish, or leave it if you don’t."
"Lastly, except for these two," Maya indicated Reiger and Liz with her scepter, "the rest of you are not to come close to me without permission, or don’t blame me for being rude."
With eyes as hostile as before, she seemed to carry the same wariness that must have stemmed from the previous experience of being knocked unconscious by an outsider—hence, probably why she delivered this final warning.
After issuing the warnings, without waiting for anyone to respond, Maya turned as if she had finished announcing instructions, facing the door.
Leaving behind those words, Maya took the lead into the temple.
Seeing this, Reiger was about to follow when he was stopped by Revin and Nipede.
In the moment before entering the temple, Revin still voiced this concern.
Nipede seemed to share the same worry.