After recovering their stamina, Zich and his companions began to move again. They found a passageway at the end of the area they were in, and there was a rectangular entrance identical to the one they had used to enter. Zich decided to use the same method as before. He took out iron chains and handed them to Hans. However, he didn’t go down immediately, and he looked at Lyla.
“Will you really be alright?”
After wiping off her sweat, she looked fine, just a bit tired, but Zich couldn’t help but worry about her.
“We can rest some more before we leave. We can even return to the city for a bit and come back.”
Lyla shook her head. “No, there’s no need for that. I am just a bit tired. It’s not like my condition is ruined. I can still respond to unexpected situations.”
“Well, I know you have good judgment, so I don’t need to say more. Let me just ask you one more time. Are you really fine?”
“You are not acting like your old self—completely opposite of Moore.”
“The current me is myself anyways. I quite cared for my companions too even back then.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
As they exchanged words that Hans, Snoc, and Elena couldn’t understand, the two smirked.
“I am really fine. I have no intention to stop the investigation. I’m actually more curious about the space below us now.”
“Do you think there’s something related to your dream there?”
“It’s completely possible.”
“I guess so.”
Zich and Lyla stared down at the hole. Like an entrance to Hell that tempted lost vagabonds, its sullen mouth was wide open.
* * *
Like before, Zich grabbed the chains and went down the hole. The depth of this hole was like the previous one, but there were also some differences. A layer made up of metal appeared on the side of the wall. It was almost as thick as a forearm, and it appeared to have been made by sticking a wide metal sheetl against the wall. There were metal plates nailed onto opposing walls, grooves burrowed into the others, and it looked as if the metal plates were pulled out to block the grooves.
‘Is it a bulkhead?’ Zich guessed that the area had been created so that if something unexpected happened underneath the hole, it wouldn’t affect the outside too. He placed his finger on the metal plate and felt its cold and hard surface. A trace of mana glided across the ends of his fingertips.
‘Adamantium.’ It was metal superior to mithril in durability, mana compatibility, and cost. ‘It’s not even mixed but pure adamantium.’
A block of pure adamantium even surprised Zich. Furthermore, there wasn’t just one. Zich went down a bit more and saw another plate of adamantium. When he went down further, he saw another plate. The adamantium plates were driven continuously down in a row with a slight space between each of them.
‘How many bulkheads did they install?’ He wondered what kind of facility existed below him for this many bulkheads to exist. Zich heightened his guard, thinking more dangers awaited underneath.
Thud! Zich landed on the ground. There was a smashed slate in this area too, and like he did last time, he took out many torches and swung them. Not long afterward, Lyla and the other companions came down.
“Did you see the things attached to the walls?” Lyla asked.
“I did.”
“It was adamantium, right?”
“Yeah.”
Hans, Snoc, and Elena were surprised to hear this; Elena was especially shocked beyond her wits. Not only did she lack more basic knowledge than the others since she was new to the group, but it was also still difficult for her to accept situations that kept defying common logic. The three stared up at the endless hole above them. Metal alloy, which held value beyond their imagination, were stuck on all sides and in rows. Lyla also looked up.
“Should I collect them?”
“Let’s leave them alone right now. We might have a need for them.” Zich was mentioning a situation where they would need to activate the bulkheads.
“To activate them, we would need mana—a processed type that can move those plates.”
“An activation device could exist somewhere here. I mean, it’s a relic with an unknown origin.”
“I suppose so,” Lyla agreed with Zich’s suggestion.
“Moreover, we have a guy with us who can forcefully close the bulkheads if we need to.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right.”
Zich and Lyla turned to Snoc, and Snoc flinched at the unexpected attention. Like the space under the previous hole, this one was connected to a large room. There was also a wide-open entrance on the opposing side. However, the outside of the room was different from the underground city. Unlike the upper floor where buildings made up a city in a large open space, this entrance was simply connected to a passageway. The passageway was large and stretched forward in a straight line; unbefitting of a passageway underground, it looked almost clear and refreshing, and on both sides from the main tunnel, two smaller tunnels stretched out.
Zich chose the tunnel on the left side and led his companions there. The tunnel was quite long, and they could also find a couple of adamantium bulkheads in there too. Just by observing all the adamantium they found there, they could assess the power and wealth of the force that created this ruin. It was clear that even a powerful country from their current world wouldn’t be able to contest the organization that created this ruin, at least in terms of wealth. The tunnel was connected to a room, and a wide spacious area greeted them. Like the other rooms, this room was also completely empty except for some glass shards and metal goods with unknown uses. Lyla showed interest in the metal goods.
“It’s mithril.”
“Precious metals just roll around in this place,” Zich exhaled like he was grumbling. The party left the room and went into another tunnel. Although there were a considerable number of tunnels, the structure was very simple, so they didn’t have to worry about getting lost. The rest of the tunnels also led to more rooms. There were rooms where a mysterious, large magic circle covered an entire wall, ones where broken glass pillars filled up the space, and another one where a pile of unprocessed metals stood. Furthermore, in all the passageways connected to a wall, a bulkhead made out of adamantium existed. After entering many rooms, Zich thought he wouldn’t be able to gain a clue in any more rooms and entered the widest and biggest passageway.
‘This is probably the main road.’ Most importantly, there was a high chance they would meet their main opponent there. At a certain point in time, small tunnels on both sides disappeared; only the middle route remained and stretched out to the front. When the small passages on both sides disappeared, the main tunnel gently sloped downwards. When they reached the end of the tunnel, all of them had to stretch their necks backward to look up.
A large door appeared in front of them. The door had intricate statues etched onto it, and anyone could tell that there was something important behind it. Lyla gulped her saliva. There might be something related to her behind this door.
“I’m going to open it.” Zich put both hands on the door. He put a lot of strength into his hands and pushed the door open.
Grrrrrng! The heavy door was slowly pushed back and vomited out a low cry. The door slowly creaked open, and from the increasing gap, they were able to see what was behind the door. When the gap became big enough for two people to squeeze through, Zich withdrew his hands. Then, he moved inside. The other companions also followed him behind.
“It’s as expected,” Zich murmured to himself as he saw something enormous in front of them.
Lyla stood next to him. “It’s a tree.”
“Yep, a tree.”
As they expected, a gigantic tree was in front of them. They were now in a space that was in the form of a half-dome, as if a round sphere had been perfectly bisected. The wall was made out of huge square-cut stones, and water fell like a waterfall from the semicircular holes in the upper part of the wall. The water collected on the ground to form a blue lake, and two-thirds of the space was taken up by a blue lake. In the center of the lake, there was a large island.
The tree was planted on the island. It was so enormous that the roots that came out on the surface were the size of a normal tree. However, the most unique part of the tree was not its large size.
Lyla stared at the branches of the tree. “As expected, it’s water.”
Instead of green leaves, blue water droplets hung from the branches of the tree. Zich and Lyla’s prediction that there would be a tree with water elements in this ruin was correct.
“Look, Zich! As we expected, it’s right here!” Lyla grabbed Zich’s sleeve and waved it around. However, Zich didn’t match Lyla’s enthusiasm. There was a more important matter.
“Yeah. I think we also found the bastard who wanted to kill you.”
“What?”
Zich pointed his finger at a specific place. He pointed towards the base of the tree where huge roots were exposed.
“…What is that?” Lyla narrowed her eyes and stared at the place Zich pointed to. “Is that a per…son?”
The being looked like a woman with long hair, but Zich shook his head. “If we consider that as a person, we’ll also have to treat goblins and orcs as humans. If we’re being nice, maybe we can say that it’s a mermaid or siren.”
The being’s top part was a human—and quite a beautiful woman at that, but the lower part was completely different. Nauseating-looking clumps of meat wriggled from the bottom part of its waist.
“Now that I look at it, there’s no way that’s a mermaid or siren. It’s something much more strange.”
Yet, that was not the important part. The problem was that the creature was attached to the tree roots as if its lower body was sucking out nutrients from the tree like a parasite. Since Zich was familiar with the tree’s power, this sight did not seem like a very good omen.
—Fufufu! Your words are too harsh.
An unfamiliar voice rang through the space they were in. The monster attached to the tree opened its mouth. Even though they were far away from the tree, they had no difficulty hearing its voice.
“Is that so? I thought it was quite an appropriate comparison.” Even while responding naturally, Zich slightly put more strength into the hand holding Windur.
—Do you really think so? If that’s what you’re really thinking, I will be extremely sad, Your Imperial Majesty.
“What?”
Zich halted even though he had planned to to mockingly reply at whatever words it said. He hadn’t expected the creature to address him this way at all.
“Your Imperial Majesty?” It was a title used to address an emperor. Since there was not even a trace of respect in its tone, he was sure that it was mocking him, but it didn’t seem like the creature was mocking him as an emperor for no reason.
—Yes, Your Imperial Majesty. Is there something wrong? You even brought the Crown Prince along.
“…Me?” Hans stood behind Zich and pointed at himself in shock.
It was bizarre that the creature addressed him as a Crown Prince when he used to be a servant working for the Count before he became Zich’s disciple. However, the creature’s attention had already moved away from Hans.
“And…” The creature looked at Lyla. At that moment, Lyla swallowed her breath. She immediately recalled the enormous eye she saw in her dream. The creature’s gaze looked shockingly similar to the gaze that the eyeball had looked at her with.
“You’ve also arrived, Princess. No, would it be better for me to call you Goddess?”
At that moment, Zich felt something. It wasn’t that their faces were similar. That creature’s face was also extremely beautiful, but it couldn’t be compared with Lyla’s. But why? Why did he gain a strong feeling that this being was similar to Lyla?