Chapter 63: Ruins (2)
[Chain Lightning]
Lighting came out of his ten fingers and then went towards the monsters. The lightning split in several directions and intercepted the monsters immediately.
“Master, behind!”
He already knew.
Without even looking back, Jamie sent a lightning strand to the back.
The screams of monsters along with a loud bang.
He stopped the lightning on his hand and looked around.
Venna broke the spine of a werewolf.
“Uh…”
Seeing the dead werewolf, Venna didn’t even tremble.
“Good job.”
“Master did all the hard work.”
Venna saw the monsters Jamie had defeated.
When she was wrestling with one wolf, he had hunted down dozens.
It was because of his magic, and Venna didn’t have that kind of ability, so she couldn’t be as good as Jamie.
“Let’s move away for now. More monsters will come.”
Since there was a lot of commotion, more will come again.
He wanted to try and refrain from fighting more, so he quickly left the place with Venna. And soon after, as Jamie expected, other monsters began to devour the dead ones.
As careful as possible, Jamie and Venna moved away.
Monsters were roaming everywhere.
This forest was bad news.
He was annoyed, but he couldn’t even go back.
After walking for a couple hours, Venna grumbled.
“Is this really the place the goddess spoke of?”
“Yes.”
He felt it when he first arrived in the forest, but the deeper Jamie went, the more certain he was.
If this wasn’t the place, then it had to be the great forest, which Jamie couldn’t deal with now.
With his current skills, Jamie wouldn’t last there even for an hour.
It wasn’t called as one of the 6 banned places for nothing.
“If Master says so, then fine.”
Venna blindly trusted Jamie, which made him flustered.
Honestly, all he did was get her out of that school, but this trust was too much.
After that, he thought she would hate him for giving her to Sarah as a toy thing.
“Isn’t it hard to play with Sarah?”
“Wasn’t Master the person who threw me to her?”
“… that has nothing to do with it.”
“Huh.”
Venna snorted and looked away.
She said nothing.
Seeing Jamie not say anything, she smiled back and continued.
“It was a joke. I really like this.”
“Uh?”
“Sarah is a kid, but when will I ever get this kind of love?”
She was so loved that she was given a lump of dirt as food.
Jamie pretended not to hear what Venna said.
“Anyway. I don’t hate Sarah or Master. You are my benefactor.”
“Thank you for thinking this way.”
“I get goosebumps when Master says thank you.”
“You idiot.”
Jamie and Venna were talking as they walked into the unknown place.
Puck!
The ground felt off.
And suddenly.
The moment he thought it was a trap and tried to use mana.
If flight magic could be used, then any trap could be escaped. All he had to do was take Venna’s hand and fly up.
“Master!”
Venna fell down with great speed.
Jamie, too, was unable to withstand the force.
‘What is this?’
The power flowing through the forest poured into this one place.
Jamie couldn’t resist this unknown phenomenon.
‘Damn it. Just what is this forest?’
The forest made it impossible to use black magic, and now he was being sucked.
Jamie watched the space around him, which moved at a tremendous speed. If he fell like that, no matter how strong his body was, it was bound to get hurt horribly.
What happened to Venna?
The body of a Valkyrie is stronger than Jamie’s. Besides, she had the spirits of the forest working for her and was in the best condition, so it could be said that she was like a rock.
But could she withstand this?
‘No way, Venna will die too.’
So, they die here?
That was too unfair.
But he felt something strange.
Even though he was right in the middle of a crisis, there were no emotions such as fear or anger.
This was different from the time when he died.
‘This… right.’
Jamie didn’t think he would die.
The feeling he felt from the surroundings was dangerous, but that was it.
Jamie smiled at that situation.
‘Somehow, I understand.’
Jamie turned as he fell and looked down. The endless pit was so black that nothing could be seen.
Jamie spread his arms and legs wide open.
At that moment, the darkness lifted, and dazzling light shone upon Jamie.
And when the light was gone.
“Master!”
Venna hugged Jamie tightly.
Soft things covered his face.
Jamie gasped and pushed her.
“I can’t breathe!”
“I am glad you are alive!”
Venna grabbed Jamie’s hands and cried.
The ground suddenly caved in, and she fell down, so she must have been so worried.
On top of that, she had a weak heart.
Jamie was taken aback by her reaction.
“It didn’t mean to kill us in the first place.”
“What do you mean?”
“This is an entrance.”
An ignorant way, but this fall brought them to the entrance.
So even if they wanted to fall and die, they wouldn’t have actually died.
Jamie created ‘Light’, and the dark space lit up instantly.
“This is…”
Jamie saw the remains which looked old.
“Ruins.”
Beneath the Mirinae forest lay the ruins of an unknown time.
“The aide is said to have returned.”
“Tell him to come find me right away.”
“Yes.”
A soldier went to summon Sable at the command of the Marquis.
Soon, Sable entered the office.
“Sit down.”
Sable sat down with a gloomy face.
From the expression on his face, the Marquis could infer what had happened.
“Missed it?”
“I can’t show my face. I didn’t get it this time either.”
“Victims?”
Sable answered cautiously.
“… one.”
Marquis nodded his head.
Even though he was so concerned about defending the estate, they got attacked again.
All troops except the standing army were constantly moving. This wasn’t a strange thing if a war was going.
Still, it was unbelievable that they couldn’t catch it.
“What is the problem?”
“… I have nothing to tell.”
“I am not blaming you for your incompetence. But isn’t this quite strange? How can we still not catch it?”
Sable bowed his head.
The Marquis sighed and leaned back on his chair.
“I know you are talented. But I can’t just watch this continuous failure.”
Sable was a close aide to Marquis and also a person who proved his abilities.
So, he believed that Sable would be the one solving this case.
But there have been six murders, and nothing was resolved.
Now that [Daemon]‘s objectives still weren’t known, Marquis couldn’t tolerate the failure.
“There is nothing to say even if you want me to go. But.”
“But?”
“Give me one more chance.”
Sable’s eyes lit up.
Marquis knew those eyes very well. He believed those eyes and put Sable as his aide.
The Marquis tapped the desk with his finger. It was a habit when he was in deep thoughts.
Tap.
The index finger which slammed the desk made a loud noise.
“This is the last chance. You know that two holy executioners will be dispatched soon, right?”
“Yes.”
“If you can’t stop it this time, I won’t be able to leave this matter to you anymore.”
“I will keep this in mind.”
“I’ll see what you do.”
At Marquis’s granting Sable his last chance, he bowed his head several times and before he went outside.
‘He couldn’t stop it even once.’
6 times.
He failed one and then twice and then thrice.
But after that, he couldn’t understand what had happened.
Bell’s soldiers weren’t incompetent. Then it had to be the incompetence of the one leading them.
And Marquis had a particular assumption. And that assumption was what every soldier thought of.
‘An inside job?’
The Marquis watched as he left.
He remembered the first time meeting him.
‘Your name?’
“Sable. No last name.”
‘Like the delicate scent of flowers, I like it.’
‘You exaggerate, lord.’
‘I was thinking of what I should give you to repay you for saving my life, but I just changed my mind.’
‘What do…’
‘Come with me. I think it will be good to raise you by my side.’
It happened 5 years ago.
Sable had grown a lot, just as the Marquis had expected.
Enough to keep him as his aide.
So, he didn’t want to doubt the man.
“It can’t be. No. I will believe the situation.”
The Marquis quietly poured whiskey into his glass.
“Why are there ruins in this place?”
Venna asked.
Ignoring her, Jamie looked around.
He wasn’t sure how many years had passed but seeing the walls and the dust, everything looked like crumbling stones; it looked like hundreds of years had passed.
“There are murals too.”
Murals were painted.
The problem was that everything was so old and damaged that nothing could be made out.
And when he tried to put pieces together or touch them, it would be damaged even more.
Jamie walked up to the wall.
‘When was the mural painted?’
Judging from the concrete, it wasn’t a primitive one.
‘Has to be around 10,000 years.’
The thing about the world which had fallen once he was sealed away could be inferred from the current history books.
In the present books, it was written that civilization began 10,000 years back. In other words, 50,000 years had passed since the era of Diablo Volfir.
The problem was that magic existed even before 10,000 years ago.
The king who founded the first civilization was a magician. He was the first one to be called a magician, but information about him couldn’t be found in any ancient documents.
‘A puppet made by the 12 gods has to be something like that.’
It was clear that these ruins were made somewhere within 10,000 years. At least, when Diablo was there, these didn’t exist.
How far did they walk?
Jamie saw the wall harden with dirt.
And when he put his hand on it, he felt a faint wind seeping out.
“Earth Break.”
Crack!
Kwang!
Cracks appeared, and the hardened pile of dirt collapsed.
“Master! What happened?”
Venna, who was looking around, rushed to him when she heard the noise.
As she stopped next to Jamie, she let her mouth hand at what she saw.
A huge door.
An enormous door full of something like earthworm images.
And in front of it were smashed stone pillars here and there.
The stone pillars, too, had earthworms engraved on them.
“What is this earthworm like?”
“Idiot. Does this look like an earthworm to you?”
“… yes.”
“Tch. You.”
Jamie stood in front of a stone pillar.
And then began to read the earthworms present, no, the ancient characters.
“Come in or go back.”
The characters shone.
Kukukung!
The huge door began to open.
Venna covered her mouth at that sight, and Jamie mumbled with a stiff face.
“I don’t know who did this, but this is quite interesting.”
For the present humans, not just 10,000 years ago, but even more back there were the ancient times.
And even in ancient times, such a language didn’t exist.
‘Surely. These were the characters which were used in the days when I, Diablo Volfir, was alive and breathing!’
And now he had a reason to break into the ruins.