I went up towards the balloon in less than a minute. My presence there was the first since I went down, which was sohow tempting to stay for a while and feel the air.
However I wasn't in the mood to do so. In addition to the constant attacks from those defenders around the treasure place, my business with Prino was a pressing matter.
"Prino, can you tell who these people are attacking us?" I asked once I reached the balloon.
"My princess, these are part of the challenge you have to overco to get the pond."
His reply was instant like he was telling the truth, which was sothing unreal right now.
He was a brilliant liar, soone I would use in my plans if he was loyal to . such a person would be better to be killed if he wasn't loyal. I sighed as I pointed towards him to co near .
"Listen, you are my only contact to this world, so I need to know if such attacks will persist when we reach the treasure site," I said while putting my arm around his shoulder.
"Well, I can't say it will stop, but when you manage to get the pond, they will stop attacking you," he replied before pausing like he was recalling sothing, "I believe they might swear their allegiance to you, and that ans more troops for my princess."
I had to admit, he was so good. If I didn't unveil all his mystery, I would have questioned myself by now. aweso performance, but while he was imrsed in this, I summoned the artifact in my hand quietly as I was waiting for him to finish.
And once he finished replying to his nonsense, I didn't hesitate anymore and used the artifact to prison him. in a blink of an eye, that wicked bastard vanished from my eyesight.
He was inside the prison now.
"Princess, did you just?" Gen asked with so worry as he didn't know anything related to my plan.
"He is safe, he is here," I said as I showed the artifact in my hand. Gen's eyes widened as if he realized sothing.
If your doubts are true my lady, then I presu we are being misled," he said after so deep thinking.
"I know, that's why I will interrogate him now," I replied.
"Do you want to call back the boys?" Gen asked.
"No," I said before pausing for so ti thinking about the next move. There was sothing that Prino was desperate to find, and this thing seed so precious. It had the ability to grant him freedom and strength, to be freed from the artifact's chains.
At the sa ti he must have so way to travel between universes using that treasure. It might be a pond, or sothing else, however as long as I ca here and knew there was such a treasure in my grasp then I wouldn't hesitate to get it.
"Keep securing this area for now, I will give further orders when I finish," I said before holding the artifact strongly as I sat down over the balloon. I closed my eyes and entered the empty space there with a rage that was enough to make kill every single person inside if I didn't get any answer.
Once I opened my eyes again, I found myself sitting on a large marble ground with many lights everywhere. On the walls of this large room I found endless fras, with each fra had a frozen picture.
This place was way different than before, but I didn't get the chance to check the reason behind it. Just as I stood up and began to check the endless fras of pictures around , I realized what these were for.
Every single person trapped here was imprisoned like this, and as the artifact's abilities got malfunctioned here, this was like the backup solution that witch made.
Or perhaps this was the true face of this artifact, a whole lobby with walls decorated by pictures of people imprisoned here.
I touched the fra of one picture to find out that I could access not only this fra but any other fra as well via here. The first thing I thought of was Prino.
The funny thing was that I had to search for the trapped persons here by picturing their faces, and not just any face but a painful looking face.
I didn't know if this was a funny thing or not, but I looked out for him to find his picture location.
I could speak with him directly from here, but I didn't. the mont I touched that fra he sensed my existence and his face showed a terrible panic expression.
So I figured out that giving him so ti would be enough to push him further. If I knew he would be stressed like this then I wouldn't have rushed in here and left him to rot for a while.
However I had to know all the details regarding the place we were currently at.
I needed to know the truth, so I headed straight towards the location of his fra. Throughout the way, I touched dozens of these fras and looked out for him.
Each ti I did that, I felt I caused him a heart attack. He realized he ssed up, and now I could easily kill him.
Just when I reached the location of his fra, the picture over there was really horrible. He was really dying under his skin, and that was really refreshing to weird!
"Now let's have so decent talk, shall we?" I said once I touched his fra. In front I saw a terrified person whose face was ashen white. I was sure if we weren't inside this artifact which controlled their lives, then he would be dead by now.
"I-I-I-I will t-t-t-tell you a-a-a-anything you w-w-w-want."
His speech was so bizarre like he was so terrified of , but I wasn't planning to really kill him. I was just punishing him for not telling the truth and playing , which might seem quite possible to kill him in the end if he didn't change.
"Listen, right now I only need a thought to kill you, or a thought to torture you. So you choose your own fate well, as my patience isn't there anymore."
"O-O-Ok, I-I-I will say anything," he hurried to say.
"Good, start telling everything related to that treasure we are heading to," I said before adding, "any words you say will be verified first, and if you turn out to be a liar again I won't reason out with you using words, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes ma'am, I won't lie again," he replied with haste.
"Sure, it's for your best interest after all. Now start narrating everything."
It didn't take long for him to narrate everything. What he was really after was a place of many treasures buried underneath a rock. This rock was considered as a holy place for so locals here it seed.
So these people would be defending their holy rock relentlessly, and that was sothing I managed to guess before, not literally of course.
The next thing I discovered was the nature of these buried treasures. There were three types of treasures buried there, the pond, the shield, and the spear.
Strangely all of them were artifact grade level, or at least they were on par with the artifact I had in hand. What Prino was after was the spear and the shield.
He told the spear wasn't like a normal spear, as it couldn't be used directly in battles. The main function of the spear was to hit any defensive barriers or buildings and destroy it.
There were many skills attached to the spear as I understood from Prino's words, however each skill had so conditions to be activated. The only free to use ability was the ability to destroy any defenses.
Prino planned to use the other artifact, the shield, to protect himself against any attack. He wanted to use this artifact to negate mine and release the bond between the two of us plus freeing his mates.
After that, he would use the spear to tear these mountain huge walls down and control the empire again and reclaim what he initially owned.
He was smart and resourceful, however he missed only one thing that caused his demise.
I exited the artifact as I was stunned by the level of his thinking and the depth of his plans.
Such a man should be kept captive, as his passion to regain his long lost empire wouldn't fade by ti, and he wouldn't give up on that dream of his.
One day I would release him, but not for now. I figured out from interrogation to so of the prisoners inside that he was a popular leader and well respected king among his people.
So if he couldn't help , I could use his people instead. I didn't plan to pressure him, I planned to pressure them.
"Everything is ok princess?" Gen asked once I reopened my eyes again. I stored away the artifact as this wasn't the right ti or place to use Prino's people.
"Everything is fine, tell the boys we have to rush things up. We are looking for a rock that has at least double the size of our balloon. This rock is brownish, and floating in the air over the heads of the trees," I said before pointing towards Gen as I added, "make them be wary, not to get near that place once they found it."
"May I know why?" Gen asked with so worry over his face.
"Because there is an ancient demon lying there protecting the treasure. To beat it I have to face it alone, only alone."
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