Chapter 103. Gorge Where Even Tears Dried Up (3)
“They said there is a treasure secretly hidden by the Vicious family in the Gorge Where Even Tears Dried Up.”
Blanc mobilized his knights and headed to the Gorge Where Even Tears Dried Up, making an excuse that he had approached the truth about the treasure he hid.
Hearing Blanc’s words, the knights followed behind Blanc with swelled hearts, though they did not show it.
Even Hansen, the oldest, seemed intoxicated by the strange elation emitted by the words ‘hidden treasure’.
‘Anyway, we will find something hidden, so…….’
Blanc felt pangs of conscience to some extent looking at his excited knights, but he steeled his heart and took the lead.
‘In the end, is this the only thing reliable?’
Blanc looked up at the flag he was holding by hand.
Blanc had found nothing in the materials brought by the Vicious retainers, but he believed in Ulrich, the Archmage of the Illusion School.
And Ulrich, trapped in the past, did not betray such expectations of Blanc.
“Baron! The flag!”
As soon as they reached the gorge, the flag began to move by itself and point in a certain direction.
“Didn’t I tell you. I found a clue.”
Though they could not know why the flag Blanc was holding moved, the knights believed in their lord and moved on horseback following the direction the flag pointed.
Every time hoofs fell, rough and dry sand covered their eyes, but the knights did not mind it at all.
Faith in Blanc and the adventurous spirit for the hidden treasure lightened their steps.
It was not only the knights who were intoxicated by the anticipation the treasure gave.
“Hidden treasure! It truly makes my heart tremble!”
Franz chattered incessantly next to Blanc, unsparingly expressing the overwhelming tremor the word treasure possessed.
Franz, who had unsparingly consumed his explosion reagents since escorting Iselin, was wanting to fill up his beloved reagents again.
If Blanc, who was very likely to become his brother-in-law and patron, made a fortune, there would definitely be something falling to him as well.
After wandering the gorge for a whole day like that, finally, the flag stopped abruptly in front of them.
It was a huge rock embedded in the gorge.
“It looks like an ordinary rock…….”
“But it wouldn’t be ordinary.”
“I feel an empty space behind it.”
Simon, who lost his eyes but instead had sharpened senses, confirmed that there was a huge space behind the rock.
“It’s my turn!”
Franz stepped forward saying the time had finally come to use the reagents he had made.
It was reagent manufacturing that his younger sister Ciella had stopped him from doing, telling him not to do dangerous experiments at least here, but Franz had forced it through.
“Brother, wait a moment.”
However, Blanc restrained Franz and stepped forward.
Just in case, Blanc took the flag he was holding and carefully brought it to the rock.
Then, the rock floated complex magical formulas while emitting blue light.
RUMBLE.
As soon as that light disappeared, the huge rock that seemed like it wouldn’t move even after a thousand years moved sideways, revealing a huge entrance.
Ulrich’s flag was a compass and a key.
The knights could not suppress their admiration seeing the rock moving by itself, but. The moment they saw the huge darkness the space inside harbored, they swallowed hard without realizing it.
A huge entrance that was unmistakably artificially made.
Seeing the endless darkness inside, Rakshar and Hansen began to get nervous.
The experience of darkness they had in Tiday’s dungeon grabbed their ankles.
Blanc looked back at his knights who could not hide their tension and said.
“We are entering. Everyone stay sharp.”
Seeing Blanc’s tense appearance, everyone reorganized their posture and prepared fully.
“Simon, take the lead.”
Even if they held torches, they wouldn't be able to drive away all the darkness in front of their eyes.
“Understood. Baron.”
Simon Diez, who was free from darkness and sight, stood at the very front of the party.
“Entering.”
Following Blanc’s order, the Cadmus knights submerged into the darkness.
***
“The walls might collapse.”
“T-Things that speak might exist.”
“You must not let your eyes be stolen by decorations or statues that look plausible.”
Hansen and Rakshar, who had experienced the black mage Tiday’s dungeon, walked through the darkness incessantly spitting out warnings.
“…….”
However, unlike Hansen and Rakshar’s cautious advance, Simon’s steps examining the passage with his Mind’s Eye had no hesitation at all.
“Simon, aren’t you walking too fast? You should examine the surroundings sufficient…….”
Hansen’s point guarding against Simon’s rapid advance was valid, but.
For Simon, who always walked in darkness, it was just an ordinary path.
“I am always examining the surroundings. Lord Hansen.”
Hansen was dumbfounded that a blind man said he was examining the surroundings, but he had no choice but to nod helplessly because he trusted Simon’s ability.
“Understood…….”
Despite Simon’s confident answer, the knights who had to break through the darkness did not relax their tension.
“…….”
The further the knights advanced, the longer they walked, the damper the floor became and the harder it was to breathe.
Evidence telling them they were gradually sinking deep into the gorge.
Blanc was feeling puzzled sensing that damp energy.
‘Damp energy in an area dried up and parched…….’
Since it was the Gorge Where Even Tears Dried Up which had already become like a desert, the doubt Blanc held was valid.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly blocking our way.”
Simon looked around, turning his head as if he could see.
Even Barzio, who was following behind him faintly burning white Ghost Fire, was not feeling any particularly threatening existence yet.
It was a natural story in a way.
Unlike Hansen and Rakshar’s concerns, this was not Tiday’s dungeon full of malice.
This was a place like a secret safe Ulrich had prepared for Blanc.
“Baron.”
In an instant, Simon who was leading, stopped suddenly and called Blanc.
“I saw it too. Simon.”
There was something white faintly reflecting in the darkness.
It was something huge that could not be fully contained only by the light of the torches the knights were holding.
“It is a door.”
What welcomed the party who came down along the deep, deep cave was a huge door made of marble.
The knights were surprised by the huge size of the door in front of them.
“How was this made…….”
As Hansen said, it was a door that looked too difficult to create with human power, but looking at the well-polished surface, it was unmistakable that human hands had touched it.
“Seems like they used even Dwarves…….”
However, the size was too large to say that human technicians’ hands were used.
“Finally this time!”
Franz tried to step forward proudly looking at the marble door blocking the party, but.
The knights turned their heads to Blanc standing quietly behind him instead of looking at Franz.
“Brother. I will try stepping forward first.”
As Blanc brought the flag close like before, the huge entrance made of marble began to open by itself.
“Ohh…….”
When all the knights were admiring the movement of the magnificent door, only Franz was sullen knowing the opportunity for him to step up had disappeared.
The door slowly opened, and there was intense light shining through the opening gap.
The knights who had walked in darkness for a long time turned their heads for a moment avoiding the light.
It was intense light enough to make even Blanc frown for a moment.
And when the party finally adapted to that light and looked forward.
“It is like inside a forest.”
A scenery of a forest like a painting was waiting for them.
Although the party had come down under the gorge along the damp and dark passage just a moment ago, the space welcoming them now was clearly a peaceful forest.
“How can this happen…….”
The smell of wet leaves peculiar to trees lingered at the knights’ nose tips.
The sun floating in the blue sky held warm light.
And on the trees, birds were sitting tilting their heads looking at the knights as if finding them strange.
Under those trees, green grass and flowers were lush.
Vitality overflowed everywhere.
Blanc and the knights fell into the illusion that they were walking somewhere inside a forest, feeling the coolness flowing through their bodies.
“Everyone draw swords.”
Blanc ordered the knights with his eyes shining coldly.
“It is an illusion.”
“……!”
At Blanc’s words, the knights who suddenly came to their senses quickly drew their swords and formed a square formation centering on Blanc.
“This makes no sense…….”
Franz looking around inside the knights’ square formation could not suppress his astonishment.
Looking back, Franz realized that even the huge door they had entered through had disappeared.
The party had literally come to stand in the middle of a forest.
“Even a Tower Master of the Illusion School couldn’t do this. To have no incongruity at all even though we realized we are walking in an illusion!”
Franz quickly took out a reagent from inside his robe and threw it.
POOF-!
It was a reagent that exploded making a loud noise but seemed to have no lethality at all.
“No wavering at all…….”
Franz sweated looking at the forest made of illusion.
Franz tried to disturb the illusion surrounding them with the shock of the reagent, but the forest did not shake at all.
Rather, birds startled by the explosion sound Franz created were flying away.
Birds made of illusion flew reacting to the stimulus of reality.
Franz could not hide his surprise seeing the reality where one of the magical common sense he knew was not applicable.
It was an illusion made so elaborately that it was not an exaggeration to say a world was created.
‘Tower Master of the Illusion School…….’
In the words Franz spoke, Blanc recalled the Archmage of the Illusion School he knew.
Ulrich Tiedemann who prepared the arrangement in the Gorge Where Even Tears Dried Up.
The one who made this place must be Ulrich trapped in the past 190 years ago.
Blanc realized there was something Ulrich wanted to show him through the current illusion, although he did not relax his tension for possible unexpected situations.
“Everyone stay sharp. The place we are stepping on is an illusion, not reality.”
While Blanc was encouraging the knights so they wouldn't fall into confusion.
“You stay sharp. Has the injury penetrated your head?”
“……What?”
A bold woman’s voice was heard in Blanc’s ears, not the sounds spat out by his loyal knights.
Blanc turned his head to where the voice came from.
When he turned his head, a woman with brown hair was standing there looking at him.
“The operation starts soon, yet you stand there with a vacant expression.”
“…….”
Blanc ended up becoming dazed for a moment seeing the woman he missed even in dreams but who should not exist here.
Blanc raised his hand and looked at it.
It was full of scars.
“It is an illusion.”
The illusion created by Ulrich cleverly seeped into Blanc’s mind and bewitched him.
The warrior of the Liberation Front with strong mental power who was prepared for illusions.
“Illusion my foot. Wake up and follow, you idiot.”
Blanc saw the woman brushing past him.
A familiar scent came from her hair.
Blanc looked at the woman’s back blankly.
Something naturally became visible to Blanc’s vision looking at her back.
“Of all things…….”
Screams and shouts bursting from all directions were violently striking Blanc’s ears.
There was something gigantic standing tall where the noise of the battlefield echoed fully.
“Phew…….”
That thing standing ferociously as if to pierce the sky.
A huge malice standing under the collapsing sky.
It was the Void Tree.