Chapter 375: Temar’s Fourth Tomb (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 375: Temar’s Fourth Tomb (2)
The one who brought the message was a woman, and she was clearly in a weakened state.
Nevertheless, she was not an opponent the now-degraded fairies could hope to defeat with their mischievous pranks.
A few fearless fairies, failing to recognize her strength, had attacked her recklessly. They all met their end with torn wings and shattered bodies. Thankfully, there were only a few of them.
Who are you?
Despite Shilla’s question, the woman did not reveal her name.
Beneath her hood, her eyes shone with a desolate light. She smelled of blood and ash, as if she had just emerged from a battlefield.
I have come to deliver a message from Solderet.
A message for us? From the God of Shadows?
The woman looked down at Shilla silently. It was a silent command for her to dismiss the other fairies.
Once they had withdrawn, the woman spoke again.
Do not forget your duty. And promise me that you will record the story that must never be forgotten.
That was the message Solderet had left for Shilla and the fairies who followed her.
Is that all?
That is all.
Why should I follow those words?
He said it was your only hope of reclaiming your honor and returning to your original forms.
Shilla’s eyes widened.
Solderet knew everything that had happened to Shilla and the fairies. He even knew of their wretched transformation after their encounter with Heluram.
The woman turned away. Having delivered the message, she seemed intent on leaving immediately.
Where are you going? Shilla asked.
She felt an intense curiosity toward the woman, yet for some reason, that was the only question she could bring herself to ask.
The woman paused for a moment.
To a place I haven't destroyed yet.
With those final words, she left the Wantaramo Forest.
It was from that moment on.
The fairies—or rather, their descendants—began to brew the King’s Liquor.
*
As if waking from a drunken stupor, Jin and Valeria gasped and shot upright.
The moment they opened their eyes, they reflexively drew their weapons and scanned their surroundings.
A pitch-black landscape met their eyes. It was a subspace formed from Spirit Energy; Jin immediately realized this was Temar’s Fourth Tomb.
“We’re inside the tomb.”
As Jin sheathed his sword, Valeria lowered her staff. Cold sweat trickled down both of their foreheads.
“Inside the tomb? Then what we just saw… was that the record contained within the King’s Liquor?”
“It seems so. Now that the record in the liquor has ended, the tomb’s seal must have been released.”
A path stretched out before them. After examining it for a moment, the two quickly reached the same conclusion.
“This tomb… has been raided.”
“The other tombs I’ve visited were the same. The fact that this is the fourth one means it’s been relocated at least three times. It just goes to show how relentlessly Zipple has hunted down and desecrated Temar’s graves. Or maybe it was the Viment Imperial Family.”
The two began to walk.
It was a long path. However, even after walking for some time, they felt none of the hostility or energy that usually radiated from a tomb’s guardian.
“It seems there’s no guardian.”
While it was a relief they wouldn't have to face another difficult battle, it was also disappointing.
The absence of a guardian usually meant that nothing of value remained inside.
Step, step…
Eventually, the two reached the end of the path.
There sat a single, massive sarcophagus where Temar should have been resting.
The interior was empty and polished clean, without a speck of dust. The lid was shattered, its fragments scattered nearby.
Jin manifested a single flower from Spirit Energy and placed it on the sarcophagus as a sign of respect.
“There’s nothing here,” Valeria said after inspecting the inside of the stone coffin.
Just as she said, the empty sarcophagus was all that remained. There were no recording devices from Solderet or any legacy of the old Runcandels.
A sudden wave of futility washed over them.
“Looks like there’s nothing to be gained from the tomb itself. Still, we learned about that ancient history from the King’s Liquor, so it wasn’t a total loss… Ah!”
A thought suddenly occurred to Jin.
“Wait. Since you’re a Record Mage, this entire tomb is basically a mass of records, isn’t it?”
Indeed.
To Valeria, this tomb was a literal treasure trove of records. In some ways, it was even easier to analyze than a recording device like a Spirit Energy Orb.
“You’re right.”
“Can you check the records immediately?”
“Reading events from a thousand years ago is impossible with my current level of record magic.”
Valeria pulled a neatly folded leather pouch from an inner pocket of her robe.
“Instead, I can take these fragments with me. I’ll be able to investigate them whenever my mastery of record magic improves.”
Like an archaeologist discovering an ancient relic, Valeria carefully placed the fragments into the pouch. Jin helped her gather them.
“You don’t need to take all of them. They’re all fragments of the same object.”
Using a dagger, they scraped up pieces of the stone that made up the sarcophagus and the corridor, as well as a few nearly invisible bloodstains, which they collected in empty glass vials.
“I’m really glad I brought you with me.”
If he hadn't met Valeria before reaching the fourth tomb, Jin would have left this place empty-handed.
Valeria just shrugged.
“This should be enough. Let’s head back.”
Jin nodded.
However, there was a problem.
How… do we get back?
The other tombs of Temar he had visited were different.
In the first and second, the subspace had naturally collapsed after he defeated the guardian and checked the records. In the third, Ruet had personally guided him out.
But what about the fourth?
The moment they drained their cups, they found themselves in this desolate subspace of Spirit Energy. There was no guardian, no further information, and no phenomenon to guide them out.
As Jin stood there in contemplation, Valeria met his eyes.
“…Jin Runcandel. Don’t tell me you don’t know how to get back?”
“Well, the thing is… this has never happened before. The subspace always collapsed on its own after I dealt with the guardian or checked the records.”
A brief silence followed.
Jin felt a bit embarrassed, but surprisingly, Valeria didn’t criticize or mock him.
“Well, it happens. This isn’t exactly a normal space. Let’s think about it together.”
First, they tried retracing their steps.
They had already scanned their surroundings before reaching the sarcophagus. There had been no sign of an exit then, and there was none now.
“Should I try breaking the subspace itself?”
At Valeria’s suggestion, Jin shook his head.
“Let’s leave that as a last resort. If the subspace breaks, the fragments you collected might be damaged or disappear. I can feel that the Spirit Energy forming this space is very organically connected.”
“Yeah, that’s a definite possibility.”
“Let’s wait for a bit, Valeria. The power of the King’s Liquor that sealed this tomb won’t last forever. Once its effects wear off, we should be able to return naturally.”
*
It was a stroke of incredible luck for Jin that Yona was tailing him.
It was also fortunate that she was waiting for him at the entrance to the Wantaramo Forest, and that, by chance, the sky was thick with dark clouds, unleashing an unseasonable deluge.
Patter, patter…! Rumble!
It was a dawn besieged by heavy rain and thunder.
Time flowed differently between the outside world and the tomb. Three hours had already passed since Jin had entered Temar’s Fourth Tomb.
This meant that Zipple’s reinforcements, the ‘Wraith Squad,’ had arrived at Wantaramo Forest.
Three members of the Wraith Squad had come to the forest.
They were there to investigate why the support mages sent to the forest had gone silent, but they couldn't bring themselves to enter recklessly.
“…It seems coming with just the three of us was a mistake.”
“We came because the mana signatures of the 3rd Magic Tower personnel sent to Wantaramo as support vanished… and it looks like there really is something going on, especially with Yona Runcandel here.”
Yona Runcandel.
Even the Wraith Squad considered her a top-tier, high-risk individual. This was true not just for them, but for all mages in Zipple’s highest echelons.
She was someone who could never be engaged carelessly.
The mages of the Wraith Squad had not expected to encounter Yona while investigating the Wantaramo Forest.
“And with the rain falling like this… it’s impossible for the three of us to handle that woman.”
Facing an assassin like Yona Runcandel in this downpour was suicide, even for the Wraith Squad.
“Even our Captain grinds his teeth at the mere mention of Yona Runcandel. Now that I’m facing her myself, I can see why. Even though she’s just sitting there, it feels like her blade is already at my throat.”
Yona was still sitting where she had killed the mages of the 3rd Magic Tower, humming a tune. Despite being an assassin, she didn't hide, instead guarding the entrance openly like a gatekeeper.
Nevertheless, the Wraith Squad members knew instinctively that unless they burned down the entire Wantaramo Forest with Yona inside, they had no chance of victory.
And even then, they weren’t certain they could kill her.
They would just be destroying a public resource for nothing, and Zipple would suffer immense losses taking responsibility for it.
“Maybe there’s nothing important in the forest. It’s possible Yona Runcandel was just rampaging through Wantaramo for fun, Maila called for help, and our guys from the 3rd Magic Tower were simply slaughtered in the process.”
“That sounds exactly like something Yona Runcandel would do. Is there a single report on that woman that doesn’t call her completely insane?”
“Should we just head back?”
For a while, the Wraith Squad remained frozen, unable to act, their eyes fixed on Yona.
Under normal circumstances, they would have received the news that Jin Runcandel and a Record Mage were inside the forest.
If they had known that, the entire standby Wraith Squad would have swarmed the place, not just three of them. And even if only three had come, they would have fought Yona, prepared to die.
However, the mages from the 3rd Magic Tower who were supposed to send that report to the clan were already cold corpses, killed by Yona three hours ago.
As a result, the Wraith Squad was completely in the dark about who—and what—was inside the forest.
“Dammit, I can’t make the call.”
While the Wraith Squad wavered, Yona was thinking to herself.
‘Are those guys here to kill the youngest? No, the letter those guys I killed earlier were carrying wasn’t delivered, so that can’t be it. Did they just run into me by chance while passing by? I’m not sure. Should I kill them? Or not? Kill? Not?’
Hehe.
Yona grinned and shifted her gaze toward the tree where the Wraith Squad was hiding.
In that moment, the Wraith Squad was left with only one choice.
They decided it would be best to just return to base.