610. Chapter 610: Act 353 – Requiem III
Twelve witches stood under a hazel tree, beginning to chant an ancient song. Suddenly, seven stone pillars erupted silently from the ground in the grass of the forest, and among the pillars, a massive Saintly White stone rose from the soil, featuring a crack that looked like a dark doorway leading to hell.
It was easy to see that the stone door and the pillars were expertly carved from the natural rock, etched with some curling letters that had become blurred over time. Brendel could only barely discern that it was likely an ancient Dwarven script.
“My lord, this door can only hold for a quarter of an hour. Please decide quickly who you wish to take with you,” Babasha said in a hoarse voice as soon as the white stone appeared.
Brendel had already made his choices in his heart. “Babasha, choose five reliable subordinates to enter with me first. Earl Ouding, you lead the knights in afterward. The rest of you, ensure the safety of her Highness the Princess. I want you to swear an oath to the Goddess of the Pillar of Hell.”
“Rest assured, Mister Brendel.” Earl Ouding responded, saluting as a knight. It seemed that the relationship between him and Brendel had naturally shifted into one of superior and subordinate; however, the Earl was not small-minded and understood that Brendel was far more qualified to give orders in this situation, so he felt no discontent.
The witches—all obeying the command—moved accordingly, which made Earl Ouding reflect on how unusual it was; although the witches occasionally made deals with worldly power, they would never display such deference. He didn’t truly believe that the old witch’s claim about Brendel having assisted them was genuine, but he doubted another aspect of Brendel’s past: he already knew Brendel was the descendant of the Sword Saint Darus and had once studied under a powerful ‘reclusive wizard.’ Earl Ouding suspected that this was Turiman, thus he subconsciously attributed the relationship between the witches and Brendel to them possibly having benefited from the lord of that mithril fortress.
“Mister Brendel—” the Half-Elf Maiden began to speak but was interrupted by Brendel, “Your Highness, please stay here to ease my mind. Because whether it’s you or me, Erluin will always need someone to know how to move forward into the future. It may sound arrogant, but I don’t want my efforts to be in vain.”
Princess Grifian looked at him carefully. “Then I command you to return. Can you do that?”
Brendel did not answer. What could he say? He wasn’t sure himself. Perhaps the Jotungrund were just a bunch of mindless cave dwellers, never expecting a secret path leading north of Ampere Seale into the hills. So they might have all charged out or left behind only a reserve force, allowing him to easily dismantle the Door of Flames.
Of course, he hoped so. But deep down, he knew the opposite was more likely: demons guarding the portal with heavy forces, leaving only a slim chance for success. He had no idea what lay ahead, and even when Buche had fought his way out, he had never felt this uncertain.
History had completely changed; this was the first time he could not see the inevitable outcome behind the mist. Yet, surprisingly, he felt no fear; his mind was clear, and he knew exactly what he needed to do.
“Then let’s make this agreement,” Brendel smiled slightly, “If my luck runs out and I die, I will have Earl Ouding bring my body back.”
The joke was not particularly clever, and the Princess furrowed her brow at him, only saying two words: “Live.”
“…I will do my best; no one wants to die, Your Highness.”
Princess Grifian only gazed at him quietly, which puzzled Brendel. He thought this ambiguous answer would earn him a reprimand, but nonetheless, he had already made his decision.
Babasha had chosen her candidates; she brought the five witches to meet him. One of the witches, supposedly Babasha’s niece, was a thin woman in her sixties, while the other three were closely related to Babasha. The last one, however, surprised Brendel slightly; it was a little girl clutching a jar of honey, standing less than half his height, with faint freckles on her pointed nose and curious amber eyes looking at him. Babasha introduced her as her adopted daughter; although only fourteen, she already possessed Silver-tier strength.
When Brendel asked for her name, the little girl cheerfully replied, “JarSugar.”
A nice name. Brendel glanced at the honey jar in her arms, thinking that this little girl must really like sweets; he just wondered if witches could get cavities—perhaps they couldn’t.
After bidding farewell to the Princess, he entered the cave with the witches, and the twelve knights followed behind them. The space between the stones was small, allowing only three people to walk side by side, and Brendel could clearly feel the traces of manmade steps on the ground. At this moment, someone lit a torch using flint from behind, filling the cave with the smell of pine oil, allowing everyone to see their surroundings.
The rocks on both sides were chiseled as if by a knife, and a carved staircase from between the rocks led downward, closely resembling Brendel’s memory, except for the thick layer of dust. He noticed a mark as he wiped his finger along the wall, thinking the player who first discovered this place must have felt the same way.
Suddenly, a gasp came from behind him. Brendel hurriedly turned around, and then he saw a familiar slender figure walking in from outside. The crack in the rocks closed behind her, naturally merging with the surrounding stone walls, leaving no trace.
It was Princess Grifian.
“Your Highness, you…” Brendel nearly blacked out. He finally understood what the Princess’s quiet glance meant; she wanted him to let his guard down. Tragically, he had walked right into a trap.
“Mister Brendel, you are not very smart.”
“Fine, I admit I’m foolish. But I will order Babasha to take you out through another secret path, Your Highness. You really won’t outsmart me.” Brendel replied irritably.
“Unless you kill me,” Princess Grifian replied coldly, “no one can take me away. Feel free to try, Mister Brendel. I dare to back up every word I say with action.”
“Your Highness… please don’t be so…” Brendel wanted to say stubborn, but suddenly recalled that this Princess was historically known for her stubbornness. She might truly act on her words.
He suddenly felt a headache coming on; he missed Antinna’s obedience terribly or at least thought that Xi and Medisa would definitely be less of a hassle than this Princess.
“Mister Brendel, when I say you are not smart, it’s not because I deceived you,” the Princess noticed the hesitation on his face, and her tone softened slightly. “Have you thought about what will happen if you fail? Would there still be an Erluin? The demons will destroy everything; didn’t you tell me this? I want to be with you, to see you save this ancient kingdom with your own hands.”
“If you fail,” the Princess watched him quietly, “I will perish alongside you for this kingdom. I at least want to bury our ideals in dust with my own hands. I want to die beside my knight.”
Brendel’s heart skipped a beat.
He didn’t know if the Princess spoke deliberately, but the seriousness in the Half-Elf Maiden’s eyes made him feel as if he had been seen through.
But he had to admit he had not considered that point. If he failed, Erluin would vanish under the demons’ invasion. After losing him and Valhalla, could the people of Erluin rebuild their kingdom on the ruins? Would the rebuilt kingdom carry the same beliefs? Everything remained uncertain.
Even the survival of the Erluin people amidst the disaster was still a question. After losing those familiar names from the land, would this kingdom still be the Erluin he knew?
Perhaps not.
The Princess saw things more clearly than he did; perhaps that was the difference between them. She was, after all, a native of this kingdom, while no matter how well he understood its ancient history, it was only half of Brendel’s emotions.
He sighed, “Your Highness, since you agree that I am your knight, I must take on the responsibility of protecting you. You must not act so recklessly in the future.” He said, half complaining, half advising.
Princess Grifian’s expression softened slightly.
“Babasha, lead the way,” Brendel said, somewhat irritably.
“Yes, my lord.” Babasha glanced at the Princess, smiling mysteriously, and picked up the torch to move forward.
The torchlight extended down the descending passage; the air soon lost its humid hint from outside and became dry. Occasionally, sparks would erupt from the pine resin torch, landing on Babasha’s witch hat. Besides that, it was hard to hear any other sounds in the quiet underground.
Except for the rustling footsteps of the group.
Brendel felt the Princess beside him was exhibiting slight nervousness, which was not surprising. Born into nobility and raised with various aristocratic educations, she was always assured to maintain calm and composure at all times; yet, after all, she was still a noble girl born into royalty and had likely never experienced adventuring in the wilderness, let alone exploring deep within an ancient fortress. It was inevitable that anyone’s mind would conjure odd illusions during such an experience, and the Princess was no exception.
“Mister Brendel, who exactly constructed these tunnels?” Seeing the mysterious underground tunnel of Ampere Seale, Princess Grifian still felt curious. As if to shake off her slight unease, she quietly asked.
“It should be Dwarves, but I don’t know which clan,” Brendel answered casually.
“It should be the Rune Dwarves, my lord,” the old witch Babasha replied from up front.
So it was. Brendel hadn’t expected this to be another ruin of the Rune Dwarves. However, “Amber Sword” hardly mentioned any details about the background of this tunnel. It seemed the core of the key still lay within the secret passage that the players had not discovered.
After a brief conversation, the surroundings fell silent again. The passage began to narrow further, allowing only two people to walk side by side. Brendel and the Princess had to draw closer together. The knights also noticed that the underground staircase began to seep water, and the manmade traces had become increasingly vague; the surrounding stone walls were washed back to their original state by the groundwater trickling down from above.
After walking for about a quarter of an hour, the manmade passage completely vanished, and a cliff appeared ahead. An inclined crack cut through the passage, and lifting the torch revealed a smooth, mirror-like natural rock wall directly in front.
Brendel signaled to Babasha to extinguish the torch, then took out a crystal for illumination. This crystal was essentially a cheap item found everywhere, emitting very dim light.
But it wasn’t that Brendel didn’t have better options; he was being deliberate. He hadn’t forgotten that just below this cliff lay the lair of the spider matron, and using a hot light source would be akin to throwing himself into a trap.
After changing the light source, Brendel cast the Wind Wings spell on everyone. As a level 20 Elementalist, his Wind Wings were insufficient to make anyone fly, but using it as a slow-fall spell was entirely adequate. The group descended slowly from the cliff, taking several minutes to reach the bottom.
Below the cliff was a completely different scene; the knights quickly discovered an underground river beneath them. Pebble banks on either side were covered with layers of white spider webs, and beneath the webs, countless spider eggs were clearly visible, even revealing numerous spiderlings about the size of a fist scuttling between the webs.
Brendel instinctively looked up; he saw that the inclined cliff was filled with dense clusters of black, meatball-like spiders, stacked atop one another, making his scalp tingle. He couldn’t help but exclaim quietly; it looked every bit like the game.
When they had adventured here before, he instinctively looked up, which had provoked a loud yell, attracting the spider matron and resulting in a complete party wipe. He had received quite the scolding from his senior afterwards, and remembering it now still made him blush.
But this was undeniably disgusting, with a layer of densely packed, undulating insect walls overhead, making it feel as though they might fall on him at any moment. Even with mental preparation, it was still chilling.
“Everyone listen closely, do not look up,” he quickly instructed after averting his gaze.
The knights did indeed follow the orders, but Princess Grifian was quite perceptive and seemed to have guessed what was above. Brendel noticed her complexion was somewhat pale, and several times, she reached out to touch his hand, but she immediately pulled it back.
He hadn’t expected the Princess to be so scared of spiders. If he had known, perhaps he should have let her take a peek up; she might have directly buried herself into him out of fright. Brendel couldn’t help but think of this darkly humorous scenario, of course, it was just a thought.
“Mister Brendel, these spiders must have some origin,” Princess Grifian asked, her face pale. She understood that so many spiders couldn’t just gather for no reason; the only possibility was that this was a monster’s den.
Brendel nodded. “It is said that the master here is a spider matron named ‘Annalons.’ That monster has possessed powerful abilities of Elemental alignment or even the side of truth for at least a hundred years. Legend has it that its element is ‘web,’ which signifies both binding and connection. It can control every single thread here—”
“Oh, right, please do not touch any of the webs; not even a single thread,” Brendel reminded. He wasn’t here to farm for loot; better to avoid provoking that terrifying spider matron if possible.
Hearing this, everyone felt a shiver run down their spines. But at this moment, Brendel suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from one direction.
It didn’t sound like the noise of spiders.
“Hmm?” He paused slightly and turned his head toward that direction.
…
(PS: Still 4000 words. As usual, at the end of the month, there will be an outburst. Please vote for tickets~~) (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
