Chapter 82

< 81. Remember Death. >


*


Watching dozens of men pour their magical energy into complex magical formations, Angela smiled with satisfaction. The long work of the mages from the Empire’s Destruction Magic School, graduates of Philainneil University, was finally coming to an end.

Angela chuckled as she stuffed tobacco into her pipe. It was almost complete. Those damn Kirzat bastards wouldn’t dare prepare the Great Magic Force. Clean and precise.

“What about our great knight?”

“The last message was that he made contact with Shaksisi’s informant.”

“Keep an eye on Mosat. When the signal fire rises, we start immediately.”

“Preparations are perfect, Captain. Don’t worry.”

“Ah, ah. Brandon, Brandon. Don’t say that. I hate the word ‘perfect’ the most.”

Angela pressed the tobacco firmly and flicked her fingers. A spark ignited. She carefully puffed on her pipe. Thick cigarette smoke flowed with her breath.

“Hoo, nothing is perfect. There’s always a variable.”

“Who could prepare such a level of magic without prior arrangements, Captain? Outside Kirzat’s Great Magic radius.”

“True.”

A large-scale magic prepared by forty skilled mages. If they hadn’t prepared in advance, and if the target was an entirely unexpected location.

There’s no mage in this Material World capable of stopping a magic that’s already been activated. Angela slowly crossed her legs and exhaled smoke.

The thick smoke dispersed in the air, forming a strange pattern. Like the lingering echo of destruction, wrapped in explosive smoke.

“By the way, will the Church just sit still?”

“What can they do? The ones who lent it were them, and we even announced in advance where that saint would go. And Vaitas, how honorable would it be for the War Saint to fall on the battlefield?”

Angela laughed darkly.

*


Sadia opened the door leading to the underground waterway with a look of clear reluctance on her face. Aren’t the Sultan’s Shaksisi supposed to be human weapons forged through all kinds of training? Fernandez thought Sadia was more human than he expected.

‘Is it smoke?’

-Or maybe just nonsense.

At Faijashi’s words, Fernandez chuckled. Sadia skillfully avoided the filth as she walked through the dark underground waterway.

“When did you say your comrades would arrive?”

“They’re not far. Kirhas went, so they’ll be here soon.”

“I hope they’re useful. The Conclave… I never thought I’d be the one to break that seal.”

Thinking of Abel waiting at the rendezvous point… Fernandez forcibly suppressed the flood of emotions rising within him. Her gentle eyes, warm voice, and bright smile.

These were extremely sentimental, yet not his own memories. Showing such emotions would be disrespectful to Abel. Fernandez even felt a sense of guilt for imposing someone else’s feelings onto her.

“She’s strong enough.”

“I hope the level of strength matters. Now, be careful from here.”

Sadia shrugged and placed her hand on a crevice in the deep underground waterway.

-Kurrrr…

The bricks shifted, and a cloud of dust rose. Soon, a long staircase appeared, leading deep into the unlit underground.

Sadia swallowed a mouthful of saliva and raised the lantern.

“Welcome to the underground world, young Imperial. I hope we can survive together.”

*


The passage leading underground seemed endless. The deeper they went, the wider it became. Now, it was spacious enough for ten people to walk side by side.

At some point, a gloomy green light began to shimmer on the walls. It was the trace of magic stones embedded in the earth. Fernandez felt dizzy from the dense magical aura.

“Just so you know, don’t recklessly use attack spells, mage.”

“Because of the explosion risk?”

“Yes. It’s a common accident near unrefined magic stone veins. You wouldn’t want to die like that.”

It wasn’t particularly useful advice for him. Fernandez chuckled. He glanced at Sadia’s stiff profile. She wasn’t the Shaksisi he had imagined.

“I’m surprised you’re more human than I thought.”

“The Inquisition Office is one thing, but those Iron Side guys are way too inhuman. We’re all just people living here.”

“What about the Immortal Battalion?”

“Haha, already trying to gauge our strength? A fine spy’s attitude. Well, the Immortal Battalion feels more like combat dolls than humans.”

Sadia smiled as if to ease the tension. The lantern’s flame mixed with the eerie green light on the walls, creating a strange atmosphere. She stopped at a stair landing marked with a red sign.

“Now, from here down is definitely Necropolis territory. See that over there?”

“Hmm. Isn’t that a seal?”

“Not a seal, a test. A qualification test. Three of our agents died trying to pass that door.”

About 5 meters ahead, a stone door blocked the staircase. On the tightly shut door, a skeleton in ornate armor and another in ancient priestly robes were carved in relief.

The priestly…








There was a skeleton, and it looked like a picture of a skeleton kneeling down and blessing the other skeletons. Around it were engraved hieroglyphs from the time of the Empire of Ashit.

“Remember your death. You who will be forgotten.”

“…Can you read Ashit hieroglyphs?”

“It’s basic knowledge.”

“The Inquisition Office really does train its agents well.”

Sadia looked at Fernandez and let out a small sigh of admiration. When they first met, she seemed like a worn-out agent, but inside this ruin, she felt like a child.

-Compared to us, she is indeed a child. She must be around thirty at most.

‘Ah, that’s true.’

It had been about a year since the world was turned back, so by this year, his soul was that of an eighty-eight-year-old non-mage. Fernandez chuckled.

“So, what’s the qualification needed to enter here?”

“Experience standing at the crossroads of life and death. The experience of facing the risk of death.”

“Intuitive.”

There’s a magical device installed that analyzes the memories and experiences of spirits… It’s certainly complex, but it’s the kind of thing that can be preserved for a long time. Unlike mechanical devices that work in all cases, spells with tricky activation conditions don’t evaporate easily.

Moreover, there were natural magic circuits buried around here that supplied magic power to the spells. Fernandez looked at the traces of the magic stone vein leading to the door and thought.

‘This is different from what I expected.’

-Yeah. It doesn’t seem to be sealed.

According to legend, the fall of the Necropolis was the result of a desperate struggle by the heroes of that era. It was said that the greatest heroes of the time united and raised an army against Mumto.

Historians consider it the first world war in human civilization. So many records remain worldwide that it’s highly likely to be true.

The first necromancer. The most powerful necromancer in history. No, the very person who founded the school of necromancy. The Nightmarish Mumto. The Black Pharaoh Mumto.

But this ruin felt like a tomb prepared over a long time. It wasn’t made to seal something inside, but rather like an altar created to test intruders from the outside.

A chilling feeling crept in. What if Pertas didn’t break the seal of the Necropolis back then, but merely awakened it?

‘I need to figure this out before Abel and Kirhas arrive. It could be dangerous.’

Fernandez passed by the hesitant Sadia and placed his hand on the crack of the stone door.

-Uuuung…

Rough magic flowed through the ancient magic circuit of the stone door. It felt like static electricity tingling at his fingertips. Soon, the door was engulfed in a dark green magic and flashed as if burning.

“What is this…?”

Sadia let out a choked gasp. She had seen the door open many times before, but she had never seen such a reaction.

The skeleton carvings on the stone door moved as if alive, following the flames. A sorrowfully weeping skeleton, a sharply grinning skeleton. They all seemed to be looking at Fernandez.

The experience of stepping on the threshold of death. How many times in life would one have such an experience? Even a veteran soldier who had crossed countless frontlines would retire after experiencing the brink of death a couple of times, suffering from severe PTSD.

Even when such a veteran soldier opened this door, it only showed a brief flash of fire. But now, at this moment, it was burning brilliantly.

“What kind of life have you lived…?”

Once? Twice? Or ten times? How many times had this young knight crossed ‘death’?

‘Knight of the Round Table, Inquisition Officer, seasoned mage.’

If he had built those three completely different careers simultaneously, what kind of life had he lived? Sadia stared at Fernandez as if entranced. Fernandez, however, simply looked at the door with his blue eyes, unfazed.

-Krrrrung…

The stone door made a rough sound as it was pushed open. Slowly.

-Huuuung.

A musty wind smelling of rusted iron and old dust tangled the hair by his ears as it passed. Into the darkness, Fernandez took a step forward and looked back.

“Is the guide ending here?”

“Of course not. Let’s go.”

With a look of incomprehension, Sadia followed him.

*

This was Sadia’s third time reaching this place, but every time, she was amazed by the majestic structure of the ruin. Like most ancient ruins from the time of the Empire of Ashit, this one also overwhelmed visitors with its scale.

At the center of a massive underground hollow stood a black pyramid as large as a fortress. Stone pillars, obelisks of a size that reached the ceiling of the hollow, guarded the stone path leading to the pyramid.

“An oasis.”

Fernandez admired the ceiling. Bright moonlight was streaming down from above. The ceiling high above their heads wasn’t made of stone or dirt but of shimmering water.

A massive oasis located in the heart of Mosat City was floating above their heads.

The water was so clear that the brightly shining moon and the clouds floating nearby were reflected. From the surface above, it would just look like a black abyss.

“The oasis in Mosat City allows drawing water and wading in shallow areas, but entering the deep parts is strictly prohibited. Those who enter never return.”

“A terribly frightening oasis.”

“What can you do? It’s the only water source near this city.”

“Hasn’t anyone wondered why those who enter the oasis never return?”

“The state already knows the answer, and at the civilian level, anyone who tries invariably dies.”

Thanks to the moonlight descending from the distant sky and the magic stone veins running along the pillars of this hollow, the light source was sufficiently bright.

Fernandez looked at the black pyramid emitting dark green flames. On the nearest obelisk, a kneeling skeleton was depicted.

“We are your future.”

Fernandez read the hieroglyphs written below and marveled. Really, the atmosphere is terrifyingly well-captured. Indeed, Sadia looked somewhat frightened.