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Chapter 209: Ch.208 Possible Survivors

But knowing the Ancient One\'s nature, she wouldn\'t just stand by and watch her apprentices die. Yet, something had clearly prevented her from stopping this. Why?

Dr. Holloway shook his head, glancing up at the bloodstained stairs leading upward. "So, what\'s the plan now? This place is scarier than any witch\'s lair from the fairy tales I grew up with."

"You just caught the wrong moment. Normally, the Ancient One is pretty \'clean,\'" Su Ming shrugged, tossing aside the cloth with a grim joke.

Of course, the joke about being "clean" was something Holloway wouldn\'t understand until he met the Ancient One herself. A bald head certainly contributes to that "clean" look.

The Sanctum was eerily quiet. No sounds of battle could be heard, but the silence itself was unsettling.

In typical horror movies, this would be the point where the group would split up to search for survivors or clues. However, Su Ming was firmly against dividing forces in situations like this—doing so would be asking for death.

The Sanctum was a three-story building, with a basement beneath it. If they dug down through the sewers, they would eventually reach Su Ming\'s old distillery from the Prohibition era.

In the comics, the basement was a prison and boiler room, while the attic served as Doctor Strange\'s living quarters. The middle floors were mostly guest rooms or display chambers, filled with spatial folding fields or portals to alien worlds and dimensional rifts. Most of these destinations were completely unknown.

The structure in reality was still an enigma, but Su Ming expected it to have similar features.

This was still the time of the Ancient One\'s reign, and Su Ming had never heard of any particular sorcerer stationed here. The Ancient One would visit occasionally, but most of the time, this place only had one senior sorcerer and a bunch of apprentices.

Su Ming\'s original plan was to find the stationed sorcerer and have them send him to Kamar-Taj to meet the Ancient One. After all, he had been their neighbor for years. But now, things had clearly taken a dark turn.

"We\'ll head to the second-floor library first. It\'s the hub for the teleportation portals and the meeting room. Maybe we can find some clues there... most importantly, stay close to me."

Su Ming recalled seeing many teleportation doors in the meeting room during his last visit, resembling murals. Perhaps some survivors had escaped through one of them?

Dr. Holloway nodded. He agreed that sticking together was wise—at least, it would prevent the eerie silence from driving them mad with paranoia.

The two ascended the stairs. The wooden steps were silent, but the blood underfoot squelched with each step, like stepping through a puddle.

The space inside the Sanctum was clearly expanded with magic. It was far larger inside than it appeared from the outside. The scene in the meeting room on the second floor was much like the one in the front hall—chaotic, bloodstained, but without any bodies.

But here, Su Ming found a clue. The magical artifacts on display were all still there, indicating that the intruders hadn\'t come to loot magical items.

This significantly reduced the likelihood that their attackers were sorcerers. If it wasn\'t some inexplicable magic, Su Ming felt a bit more confident.

One of the most noticeable items, a display case, had been shattered, and the Cloak of Levitation lay nearby, partially buried under broken glass and wood.

Su Ming approached and picked up the cloak. Like his Godslayer, the cloak had its own sentience. Normally, it was a gentle artifact, but now it hung limp in his hand like a mere red towel.

"Cloak, you can\'t die on me. Tell me, who killed the sorcerers?"

The cloak, now just a piece of cloth, obviously couldn\'t respond. Even in its normal state, it couldn\'t talk.

Dr. Holloway squinted, starting to wonder if Su Ming\'s mental state was sound. Talking to a cloak? That wasn\'t something a sane person would do, right?

He walked over and, in a low voice, said, "It\'s passed on. My condolences."

Su Ming rolled his eyes. The cloak never had a life to lose in the first place. He had simply wanted to figure out what was wrong with it, maybe even wake it up with a joke. Now, he looked like a madman.

Waving Holloway off, Su Ming gestured for him to keep watch. He needed to figure out what had happened to the Cloak of Levitation. Its current state was as if it had lost its energy source, becoming just an ordinary piece of fabric.

Su Ming couldn\'t cast magic, but he had plenty of items on him that were charged with energy.

First, he tried the Godslayer. It contained the power of Hephaestus, the god of forging. Hephaestus had crafted countless magical items—hundreds of capes and blankets, probably. Plus, the Godslayer had sentience. Maybe they could "talk."

He transformed the Godslayer into a staff, wrapping the cloak around it and rubbing it vigorously. Tiny sparks of electricity crackled between them.

No other reaction. Even the murderous intent from the Godslayer was the same as always.

Alright, divine power was useless. Consciousness communication was out, and rubbing it to generate static didn\'t work either.

Next, Su Ming tried X-metal. This primordial material from the DC universe contained immense power. Maybe a massive influx of energy could reboot the cloak?

He pulled a small bright dot from the Nightbringer sword and placed it on the cloak. The metallic particle melted, spreading over the fabric and emitting a blinding light.

The silver light was warm and bright, a welcome sight in the bleak, gray world. But it quickly faded. The X-metal returned to its particle form, resting atop the cloak.

At least something had worked. The X-metal repaired some frayed edges on the cloak and cleaned it up a bit. But it was still just a normal cloak.

Fine. I\'ll just bill the Ancient One for dry cleaning later, Su Ming thought as he pocketed the X-metal, a rare material even in the Justice League\'s universe.

As Su Ming reached into his utility belt, he considered trying the Black Lantern Battery. Since the cloak was inanimate, it might react to the Black Lantern\'s power.

But when his hand brushed something else in the bag, he felt small, round objects.

It was the set of gems given to him by Doctor Manhattan years ago. So far, he hadn\'t figured out what they were for. The only thing he knew was that they were some form of condensed energy.

After extensive research had led nowhere, he had thrown them in with the Black Lantern Battery, figuring they were useless for now.

But perhaps it was fate that he\'d stumble upon them now.

Su Ming pulled one out, tossing it in his hand as he glanced at the cloak in his other hand.

After a moment of thought, he brought both hands together, the gem in one and the cloak in the other.