Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: The Sanctuary of Elatra
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The closer the carriage got, the more devastating the ruins appeared.
No, it would be more accurate to say there was nothing left to see.
"Grandpa, are you sure this is the right place?"
"Old man, you're at that age where memories start to fade. Is this really it?"
Sarieta and Oson double-checked, truly wondering if these were the ruins.
But Tahul simply nodded and quietly stepped down from the carriage.
Step, step—.
Tahul slowly approached the ruins.
After watching from a few paces away for a long while, he returned to the carriage.
"You two, the young lady and the dwarf, take the carriage and move a good distance away. Young man, could you alone give me a hand?"
Tahul's expression was grimly resolute.
Noticing that Tahul's usual serene smile was gone, replaced by an unusually grave look, Do-jae replied.
"Of course. You've helped me, so it's only right that I help you."
"Heh heh, I'm glad we took the carriage..."
Do-jae got out of the carriage and walked over to Tahul's side.
Then, leaving a puzzled Sarieta and Oson in the carriage, he drove it a safe distance away as Tahul had instructed.
With a soft swish—.
Tahul pulled a magic staff from his robes and gripped it tightly.
Seeing this, Do-jae also took out the Black Scale and summoned his golems.
"They'll appear any moment now. The guardians of these ruins..."
Tahul touched one of the fallen pillars.
At that, the ground began to tremble violently.
Rumble—!
"Stone Golems!"
As soon as Tahul's shout ended, golems began to rise from the earth.
One, two...
The number of Stone Golems that continued to emerge reached a staggering one hundred!
"Buy me some time! I'll prepare a wide-area spell!"
Tahul raised his magic staff, closed his eyes, and began to chant.
A tremendous amount of mana gathered at the tip of his staff, so much that its flow was palpable.
"...Sir Tahul."
Just then, Do-jae gently took Tahul's staff in his hand and lowered it.
Flustered, Tahul cried out to Do-jae.
"What are you doing! Those guardians are just as powerful as your golems!"
Tahul tried to raise his staff to resume the incantation, but Do-jae stopped him again.
"What is the meaning of this! I'll summon a Lightning Storm, so you just..."
Speaking urgently, Tahul sensed a strange atmosphere and opened his eyes.
And he could not continue.
For he was witnessing an unbelievable sight.
Clank—.
Clank, clank—.
Clank, clank, clank, clank—!
One by one, the golems knelt.
All one hundred golems were kneeling before Do-jae.
"Ha... hahaha..."
Tahul let out a hollow laugh.
How many times had he tried to get past those golems?
"I really made the right choice in following you..."
Tahul let his magic staff fall to the ground with a thud.
***
After the Hundred Years' War ended, Tahul had searched for lost ruins, seeking the footsteps of his master.
He investigated every ruin related to Elatra, wandering the continent for a long time.
And fifty years ago, he had finally found this last ruin.
‘I never dreamed that guardians would be protecting the ruins.’
The moment he touched the debris, one hundred golems had emerged from the ground.
At that time, Tahul had been wounded to the brink of death.
Afterward, he sought out powerful individuals to deal with the golems.
He sought help not only from Gray Elves but also other elven races, and even orcs and beastmen.
But even those numerous mighty warriors could only kneel before these one hundred golems.
‘Was it around that time that I saw that fellow Salreuta?’
While Tahul continued his search for the strong, he chanced upon Salreuta in battle.
Salreuta, who exuded a chilling aura of mana and displayed unbelievable martial prowess—Tahul thought that perhaps he could even face these golems.
But approaching Salreuta was incredibly difficult.
Gripped by madness, Salreuta destroyed and slaughtered everything in his path whenever he was awake.
‘For a guy like that to suddenly enter the tournament... I thought he was as fickle as this old man.’
Tahul followed Salreuta and entered the tournament.
He didn't know what had changed, but inside the tournament, Salreuta was coherent enough to communicate.
So he had planned to somehow persuade Salreuta to come to the ruins, but then a mysterious, robed figure caught his eye.
‘At first, I never even imagined he was human.’
It was during the second preliminary round that Tahul began to take notice of Do-jae.
Do-jae's golem, which displayed strength on par with seasoned Gray Elf warriors, was more than enough to capture Tahul's interest.
More importantly, beyond the golem's strength, the fact that he was a Golemancer capable of controlling such a golem made Tahul resolve to bring Do-jae to the ruins along with Salreuta.
‘Khehehe, a Golemancer who couldn't use magic, yet his swordsmanship was comparable to that Salreuta fellow...’
Then he witnessed the scene where Do-jae absorbed the Apostate's energy from Salreuta.
Not only could he command golems, but he also possessed the ability to turn himself into one. What was even more astonishing was that Do-jae was human.
All of these points were so special and surprising that Tahul became determined to bring Do-jae with him, no matter what.
Unfortunately, Salreuta's personality changed completely after that; his former ferocity vanished, and he turned into a lovesick fool who knew nothing but his wife, so Tahul had to give up on him.
‘If I hadn't found that carriage that morning, he would have already been gone... Luck was with me in my old age, hehehe.’
And so, he began his journey with Do-jae. Though it was a short trip of only a few days, he experienced one surprise after another from the young man.
A dimensional pouch that could hold anything, items that used magic despite not being magical artifacts, and even foods with special flavors that didn't exist in this world.
Even setting aside his strength, Do-jae was a human full of special qualities.
‘If only I had met this human a little sooner...’
And now.
A magnificent spectacle unfolded before Tahul's eyes.
The ruins, which had not permitted a single soul to enter for fifty years—no, for the two hundred years since the Hundred Years' War—had knelt before Do-jae.
‘Finally... I can find a trace of my master!’
***
Clank— Clank—.
The sight of 104 golems moving in unison was a spectacle so grand it was intimidating.
The sound of their movements was as magnificent as a marching army.
‘This is on a whole different level from the fifty or so from that last battle...’
Do-jae stood before the lined-up golems and examined them closely.
Each one possessed a powerful golem core, equivalent to an A-rank mana stone.
‘I could probably clear a decent B-rank dungeon with these... no, even an A-rank dungeon, all by myself.’
Do-jae knew why these one hundred golems had knelt to him.
Their will echoed continuously in his mind.
- Lady Elatra!
- Lady Elatra!
- Lady Elatra!
…….
The golems were reacting to Elatra's mana dwelling within Do-jae, and it was for that reason they pledged their loyalty to him.
‘First, I should put them in my subspace.’
Do-jae opened his subspace in front of the golems.
The one hundred golems lined up and disappeared into the subspace one by one.
He put all the golems into the subspace, except for the four he already had.
‘I need to raise these guys a bit more.’
Do-jae looked at the four golems that had been with him all this time.
Unlike the golems from the ruins, these had once absorbed the Apostate's energy, which was why they were black.
Not only that, but even if they were made from the same A-rank mana stones, their experience and levels were different, creating a significant gap between them and the ruin's golems.
Do-jae planned to develop these four golems further and use them as commanders to lead the golems from the ruins.
Step— Step—.
Thump—!
"Thank you... Sir Do-jae..."
Tahul walked over and clasped Do-jae's hand with both of his.
The strength of his grip clearly conveyed Tahul's emotions.
"It was nothing. I didn't really do anything."
"Not at all. Do you have any idea how much I struggled to enter these ruins..."
Tahul trailed off, seemingly overcome with emotion.
Do-jae felt a sense of relief, thinking he had repaid some of his debt to Tahul.
"Haha, well, there's nothing here to say we've 'entered' yet. I was half-expecting a temple or something to rise up."
"Hehe, you're a sharp one. Just you wait."
"Huh...? For real?"
Tahul responded earnestly to what Do-jae had said as a joke.
Tahul began walking around, setting the fallen pillars upright.
"Could you set up a few of them over there?"
At Tahul's request, Do-jae also moved about, righting the fallen pillars.
When all the pillars were finally back in their original positions, Tahul stepped onto a flat stone floor.
Then, raising his magic staff, he began to move his mana.
"Wind!"
A gentle breeze began to blow from Tahul's staff.
The wind left Tahul and moved between the pillars, and as it kicked up dust, its path became visible.
"Alright! Now get away from here!"
Tahul scrambled down from the stone floor and started running hard toward the carriage.
Do-jae wondered what was happening, but seeing how desperately Tahul was fleeing, he simply hoisted the old elf over his shoulder and ran to the front of the carriage.
"What's going on?"
"Young man, do you know what those pillars are?"
"How would I know?"
"Those pillars form a picture. And if you look at that picture from above, you'll be able to see what it depicts."
"What is it?"
"Do you know what the symbol of the Ascetic, Lady Elatra, is?"
"Hold on."
Do-jae leaped onto the roof of the carriage.
And as he looked at the pillars, he could finally make out the shape they formed.
"A falcon..."
The same image he had seen in the temple where he first heard Elatra's voice.
And the picture created by the wind flowing through the pillars was indeed a falcon.
"Now, the pillars have gathered enough wind. It will appear."
As Tahul spoke with a smile, the ground began to shake again.
The tremors were even stronger than when the golems had appeared.
So much so that the carriage, nearly fifty meters away, was bucking up and down.
"Aaaah! Oson! Hold on tight!"
"Kugh, keok, eek! M-Master!"
From atop the carriage, Do-jae watched as the ground split open and a massive structure rose from within.
The flat stone floor where Tahul had been standing was merely one of the small roofs on the structure's peak.
Ruuuumble—!
"This is Lady Elatra's sanctuary."
Enormous pillars that dwarfed those he'd seen in the Magic Kingdom came into view, and at last, the structure revealed its true form.
A temple boasting an overwhelming size and a magnificent interior.
It was a temple dedicated to Elatra.
"Now, let's all go inside together."
Tahul led the way.
Do-jae followed him toward the temple.