"Who are you peop-argh!"
"Stop!"
"Intrud-gah!"
Jekyll and William didn't allow any of the members of Deus to call for reinforcements after entering the portal. Although the two guards that they interrogated told them that they had less than a hundred people inside the Hidden Domain, they still didn't trust their words completely.
"The Spiritual Power in this [D]domain is unbelievable," Ian said after scanning his surroundings. "Clearly, this place has been left undisturbed for centuries."
Jekyll nodded in agreement, "This is a treasure trove waiting to be plundered. I can now understand why these people were covert in their actions."
Aethon who was perched on top of William's shoulder chirped with pride. It was due to his contribution that they were able to discover this Hidden Domain that had been kept secret since the Hellan Kingdom was founded.
William's gaze focused on the floating island in the sky. For some reason, he felt that something on the island was calling out to him.
Suddenly, the dagger that had been entrusted to him by King Noah flew out of his storage ring. It hovered in front of William and pulsed with a red light.
Back then, when he tried to use his appraisal skill to identify the dagger, he wasn't able to gain any information about it. However, after upgrading his main Job Class, certain functions of Gavin's Divinity had been upgraded as well.
William grabbed the floating dagger and immediately used his appraisal skill on it.
----
< Relic of the Oathkeeper >
-- Relic from the Era of the Gods
--- In order to find the secrets to immortality, the first King of the Hellan Kingdom poured the Kingdom's resources into developing this Hidden Domain.
-- The First King was a very powerful Archmage that specialized in Dark Magic, and also a cautious person. After discovering a lost relic from the Era of the Gods, he decided to put a restriction on the Domain in order to prevent any form of flight. This was to ensure that no one would be able to step foot in the fortress where an Ancient Power was imprisoned.
-- Only the holder of the Relic of the Oathkeeper would be exempt from the restriction and be able to gain access to the flying fortress that was called Avalon.
-----
'Is this just a coincidence?' William thought as he stared at the dagger in his hands.
When King Noah gave him the sheathed dagger for safe keeping, he thought that it was just something that the King had done on a whim.
However, this was far from the truth. King Noah had known that the Princes were acting weird since they reached out to him to talk about the Oathkeeper Key. What Prince Lionel and Prince Rufus didn't know was that there were actually two keys that were handed down to each King of the Hellan Kingdom.
One was the Oathkeeper Key. The other, the Relic of the Oathkeeper.
The Oathkeeper's Key was merely a replica to enter the Hidden Domain. The Relic of the Oathkeeper, on the other hand, not only served as a key to open the Domain and but also an important relic to provide access to the Flying Fortress, Avalon.
Between the two, the Relic of the Oathkeeper was the most important one and King Noah understood that he had to entrust it to someone that he could trust.
Even though he didn't know where the Hidden Domain was located, he believed that as long as William held the relic, no one would be able to take advantage of the Domain that had been passed down the line of the Royal Family from one generation to the next.
Naturally, the King has another reason why he did this. During the marriage ceremony of Matthew and Leah, the King's most trusted adviser had gone to Lont as the King's representative. He was wearing a special artifact that hid his real appearance, so no one was able to identify him during the event.
He was also the one that had witnessed William's strange behavior and secretly followed him. Although he was not a hundred percent certain that it was William who had manipulated the Lightning Storm, his intuition told him that this was the case.
After reporting this incident to King Noah, he and his advisor decided to keep this secret to themselves, until the time that William decided to expose this secret on his own.
Because of this, the ruler of the Hellan Kingdom felt that the Ancient Relic would be safe in William's hands, because those who could wield the power of lightning were also secretly referred to by the Royal Families in the world of Hestia as The Bane of all Evil.
"Interesting," Jekyll muttered as he walked towards William to examine the dagger in his hand. "The runes inscribed in this dagger are very ancient. Even someone as knowledgeable as me can't decipher the meaning behind it."
William returned the dagger inside his storage ring and glanced at the floating island in the sky. Now was not the time to quench his curiosity. It was more important that they get rid of all the agents of Deus that were currently exploring the domain.
They were also worried that Conner would return with more reinforcements. If that happened, even though the three of them were strong, they would still have a hard time dealing with all of them at the same time.
"Let's hunt the members of Deus first," William said. "After that, we need to find a way to seal this Domain or move it to a different location. We can't allow Deus to secure the Undying Lands no matter what."
Jekyll smirked because William was just like James when it came to treasure. The Old Man had a favorite phrase whenever he looted Bandit Camps.
"It's no crime to steal from a thief."
However, when Jekyll asked James why he ransacked the treasury of the Hellan Royal Academy the Old Coot said a very funny thing.
"I didn't steal from the treasury of the Royal Academy. I stole the treasure that The Organization had stolen from the Royal Academy. It is no crime to steal from a thief."
Jekyll was quite certain that William had the exact same mindset as well. However, he didn't mind it one bit. After all, the Half-Elf and him were on the same side.
After that short episode, William summoned the beasts from the Thousand Beast Domain. They didn't have much time, so he decided to do a full sweep of the Domain using all the manpower at his disposal.
Psoglav almost drooled when he sensed the dense Spiritual Power density in the air. He then looked at his business partner with a wide grin on his face.
Ever since he had started to accompany the boy in his adventures, he always made a killing whether it be monster meat, beast cores, and even resources that couldn't be found in the forest where he resided.
Because of this, he decided to have a talk with the boy and negotiate a new contract where he would play a more active role. Naturally, this would also give him more rewards as well.
Chronos, Aslan, as well as the other Angorian War Ibexes were also summoned to join the cleaning operation. It had been a very long time since they had gone into action and they were itching to test their strength against strong opponents.
The Blood Eagle was perched on top of William's shoulder. Since there is a flight restriction, it couldn't be of much help aside from sensing the locations of the Humans in the Domain.
The Angray Birds, on the other hand, was forced to stay inside the Thousand Beast Domain because they couldn't help at all. Besides not being able to fly, William was afraid that the Angray Birds would start to curse out loud, alerting their enemies that there were intruders within the Undying lands.
"Go in teams of four and search every nook and cranny of this Domain," William ordered. "Once you discover the enemy, engage them at once. If possible, capture them alive. If it's not possible, kill them."
The beasts growled, shrieked, and screeched as they acknowledged William's order.
Jekyll went alone, while William, Ian, Aethon and the Blood Eagle formed a team to search for the members of Deus. They knew that they should complete this mission as soon as possible to prevent any mishaps from taking place.
Meanwhile, within the flying fortress of Avalon, an ancient being opened its eyes. It had sensed the Relic of the Oathkeeper and knew that someone had intruded inside his territory.
Rattling sounds echoed in the fortress as things started to rise from their slumber. Hundreds of thousands of green orbs of light burned like torches amidst the darkness.
"Foolish… mortals…," a hoarse voice spoke from deep within the fortress. "The Undying Lands… belong to the undead… the only way for all of you to stay… is when all of you are dead…"