Chapter 521
Athena had thought she’d long forgotten those hardships. But when they resurfaced, she realized some wounds had never truly healed, just deliberatel, buried deep in her heart, untouched. Like a splinter left in a healed wound, throbbing with dull pain at the slightest touch
The mountain wind cut into Athena’s face like knives, but Jessa’s embrace was warm.
Athena could feel Jessa’s concern. She gave her a reassuring smile and said, “It’s all in the past. Everything’s going to be fine now.”
Jessa didn’t know how to comfort her, so she just squeezed Athena’s hand tightly and said, “Yes, it’s all over now.”
Leaning on each other for support, Athena and Jessa made their way up to the mountaintop.
A vast temple loomed into view, but all around them, desolation stretched as far as the eye could see.
Even the path was choked with rubble and withered grass.
Only as they drew closer did Athena realize the temple had been abandoned for ages; the main gate lay askew, toppled to one side.
The temple was nothing but charred ruins now: crumbling walls, toppled statues, and bricks strewn across the ground like scattered bones.
The two women cautiously stepped inside. Jessa gazed at the devastation in shock. “This temple must have been burned down years ago. They wouldn’t have gone this far unless they were trying to cover up a murder.”
Athena nodded softly. Even after all these years, the acrid scent of smoke still lingered in the air.
Both side halls had also collapsed.
マ
The ground was strewn with broken bricks and splintered beams. Athena and Jessa carefully picked their way through the debris, searching the courtyard for the dry well.
But after scouring every corner, they still came up empty–handed.
Jessa’s brow furrowed in suspicion. “What’s going on? It doesn’t make sense!”
A short while ago, she and Athena had split up and searched the entire courtyard, but the dry well was nowhere in sight.
Athena began to doubt her own judgment. “Could it be that Chief Rogers never came here after all?”
Yet this temple was undoubtedly the perfect refuge.
Given the circumstances, with his entire family in tow, there was nowhere else he could possibly have gone.
Athena’s gaze slowly swept across the temple ruins, until her eyes suddenly landed on a peculiar pile of stones.
Jessa noticed it too and muttered, “Why is there a pile of rocks here?”
The heap looked so out of place that Athena’s instincts kicked in and she hurried over.
“Athena,” she whispered urgently.
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