Chapter 208: 111. An Adventurer’s First Step (Part One)
Chapter 208: 111. An Adventurer’s First Step (Part One)
At the forest of demonic beasts located somewhere in the kingdom of Aihrance.
A single carriage was speedily rushing along on a coarse-surfaced road.
An old man gripping a cane riding on the vehicle glanced inside. Inside the carriage was a steel cage filled with bound young men and women, old folks and even children. Not only that, their eyes and mouths had been covered as well.
This old man, a Necromancer, grinned deeply while looking at all these sacrifices.
These people had been abducted from a nearby village, to serve as sacrifices in the upcoming ‘experiment’.
The carriage eventually came to a stop in the middle of the forest teeming with demonic beasts. The old Necromancer waved his hand to send a signal, prompting more Necromancers to walk out from the darkness of the forest.
They guided the carriage deeper into the forest, and soon, entered a cavern located somewhere in its depth.
-Ku-aaaahk!
All sorts of monsters were trapped within the steel cages inside the cavern – Orcs, Ogres, Minotaurs, and many others besides. These ferocious monsters were screeching and roaring away, their eyes clearly bloodshot.
The Necromancers ignored the monsters and imprisoned the abducted villagers inside other steel cages.
“It’s time to perform the ceremony.”
The Necromancers began gathering in a chapel located somewhere deep within the cavern. An altar was installed here, and all around it were many bleeding sacrifices hung up in the air.
The centre of the altar was filled with many rune letters written in blood. The Necromancers knelt towards a portrait illuminated under the dim candle lights and began offering their prayers.
“Oh, the great and noble inheritor of Yudai, the God of Death.”
The figure drawn up within the portrait...
He had a mountain goat’s head, wore a cape that seemed to be made out of wool, and a lengthy staff was gripped in his right hand while his left held a grimoire.
He was the king of death who, once upon a time, covered the entire continent in death and destruction. He was the culprit responsible for destroying half of the Theocratic Empire.
“We pray that the glory of our noble Lord Amon be everlasting...!”
The Necromancer King, Amon.
And these Necromancers were the members of a cult that worshipped Amon.
They slammed their staves down. The rune letters written in blood began emitting a crimson glow.
Souls yanked out from the humans that had been served up as sacrifices began bunching up into one large mass, and the space they occupied started to distort visibly.
The space expanded, and from it, the souls’ screams resounded out.
Hands made out of bones began extending out from the distorted space. They grabbed onto the edges of the opened space, struggling hard to escape through it.
The eyes of the Necromancers gleamed brightly. They stared at the entrancing world beyond the opening that was connected to the concept of ‘death’ itself.
The space between the dimensions was opening up. The space that existed between this world and the world of the dead, that was.
Countless souls trapped within ‘purgatory’ tried to flood out. Dozens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands...
The distortion in space was about three metres in diameter, yet these souls, which were still screaming horrifically, reached out to force their way out of this opening.
But this lasted only for a short while; dark shadows appeared out of nowhere and began dragging all those souls back.
The God of Death was in charge of maintaining its own dimension and clearly had no desire to let these souls roam free.
Protecting the balance of dimensions, that was the role of the gods.
The expanded space got extinguished and disappeared without a trace.
The Necromancers who witnessed this scene could only stay silent with their wide-open eyes. Eventually...
“Dammit!”
Some Necromancer angrily punched the ground they were kneeling on.
“It’s another failure?”
“We need many more sacrifices.”
“The slaves and abducted humans from rural villages are simply not enough for our purpose. Even if we use monsters, we’re still at our limit.”
Necromancers then shook their heads.
“However, it isn’t as if we don’t have any other methods available, right?”
They stared at each other’s faces.
“The wall between the dimensions is gradually getting weaker. But that’s only obvious since we managed to shatter it many times by now. And dragging souls out from the other side will not prove to be that difficult.”
“As long as we drag out the dead without physical bodies, then yes, it’ll be quite doable.”
The task they had been devoting themselves for the past fifty years was to spread ‘death’ to the rest of this world, which happened to be the Necromancer King’s mission in life that he ultimately failed to achieve in the end.
“Then, we shall target the fiefdom of Elusha.”
“Indeed. We will succeed if we utilise all the sacrifices living in that city.”
Elusha. A city of magic that boasted a population second only to Aihrance kingdom’s capital city. Countless magicians resided in that place as well, which meant that the energy the Necromancers had been searching for should be found in abundance there.
“We shall...”
“Open the warp gate there.”
These Necromancers were part of the cult called ‘Nemesis’. Heretics that had inherited the ideals and beliefs of the Necromancer King, Amon.
**
Alchemist Hans was currently trying to gather firewood inside the forest of demonic beasts.
“Eh-whew. Why am I working my butt off in the middle of nowhere like this?”
The Seventh Imperial Prince suddenly said that he wanted to go on a journey. His destination was the kingdom of magic, Aihrance.
Hans certainly did share the same kind of curiosity and spirit of inquiry with the boy prince, but even then, he initially didn’t have any plans to accompany Allen on this journey.
Wherever the Seventh Imperial Prince went, incidents and accidents continued to happen. Which meant that even a dummy could guess that something big would undoubtedly happen this time, too.
That was why he wanted to reject any and all invitations to tag along, but then...
-I’m thinking of heading to the tomb of Ordin Olfolse, the very first Holy Emperor in history. A crap ton of treasures must be hidden there, don’t you think?
...Well, he couldn’t say no in the end.
‘We’re talking about the first Holy Emperor here. The very first one!’
Ordin Olfolse was the very first ‘pioneer’, a trailblazer who apparently managed to unite all the different teachings of Gaia under one umbrella all those years ago. He was an individual who created countless miracles and gathered many, many disciples to establish a nation of devout believers.
The ‘treasured item’ once wielded by such a person was more than enough to rouse up the spirit of exploration in Hans.
Just seeing it up close would be an indescribable honour in and of itself. How wonderful would it be if he could actually touch it, too?
‘I must’ve gone insane. Have I already forgotten about what happened back in the ancient Aslan tomb?’
How many times did he narrowly miss the jaws of death back then?
The group encountered a giant golem, battled a horde of mummies, and in the end, even had to confront a damn dragon.
One might think that sounded like a fable of an exciting adventure similar to a fairytale, but to him, it was more like a nightmarish experience full of life-threatening moments.
However, it also remained as one of the most addictive, satisfying things he had ever done in his memory. After all, he had never been on an adventure like that before.
‘...Very well. I won’t overreact like a fool this time.’
As long as he didn’t lose his rationale from agitation, all should be fine.
Indeed, everything should work out safe and sound as long as he obediently followed after the Imperial Prince and took care of the sundry chores.
That’s why he...
THUD-!
It happened right then.
The ground trembled just a little. Hans froze up in the middle of picking up firewood and slowly lifted his head up.
-Ku-ooooh...
A hulking physique that reached four metres, at least.
Brownish fur that covered its muscular frame.
An existence possessing the head of a bull with a pair of lengthy horns, and distinctive bovine hooves...
Hans dropped the gathered firewood. “M-M-Minotaur?!”
Why was that thing even here?! And why him, when he wasn’t even doing anything over the top and just minding his business, which was doing simple chores?!
The Minotaur roared out before lowering its massive head. It dug into the ground with its legs before exploding forward.
Hans hurriedly turned around and fled from the spot.
“I bloody knew it. I shouldn’t have coooooome!”
He screamed out loudly.
**
The cardinal’s granddaughter, Alice Astoria, was currently feeling quite tense.
Sleeping bags and a burning campfire could be found nearby. And she was staring at a boy, who could be called both her past trauma and current benefactor, now tending to the campfire and placing a pot on top of it.
Her expression remained stiff as she observed the Seventh Imperial Prince busy with himself. It was unknown where he got them from, but well, he produced some vegetables out of somewhere and began cutting them into smaller pieces.
Since she was the lady-in-waiting, Alice volunteered to do that, but the boy prince insisted that he’d do it instead and persuaded her not to interfere.
‘When did he learn to cook?’
In all honesty, his cooking skills were quite commendable. Plus, the way he cooked was also a bit different as well.
Alice continued to observe him with some intrigue before finally opening her mouth. “Your highness, what happened to the lady knight who accompanies you all the time?”
She wanted to undo the uncomfortable atmosphere, and that’s why she asked that, but even then, she still needed quite a large dose of courage to do so.
Unlike the deeply tense Alice, the Imperial Prince remained rather relaxed during his reply. “Oh, her? She got herself a vacation as well. Her adopted father lives in the northern frontier, you see.”
While smiling away, he dropped the finely-chopped vegetables into the pot.
“Winter will be here soon, so the people up there need to prepare for that. An acquaintance of mine is also staying in a monastery up there, too. So I thought I could ask her to drop by and say hello.”
He seemed to have recalled something, because his smile took on a subtle shade of bitterness for a moment there.