Annan had indeed considered this possibility.
The Elves didn’t dismantle the Curse Cellar simply because all elves had suddenly beco enlightened, loathing the act of injuring the world through the use of cursed energy. Their civilization was indeed flourishing to the extre, but that didn’t an their personal qualities were exceptionally high.
They chose to dismantle the Curse Cellar simply because the emperor of that generation was far-sighted. He judged that if cursed energy were to be used again, the unified grand enchantnt might not withstand it... and the extracted cursed energy was hardly used to create powerful beings or for technological research, but was mostly used for various luxuries that served no aningful purpose.
For the sake of their descendants, he decided to prohibit the use of cursed energy—those who touched cursed energy and were discovered could be sentenced to "absolute death penalty" at worst.
It took the Elves over a hundred years under the emperor’s supervision, through a mix of coercion and intimidation, to reluctantly abandon their custom of extracting cursed energy. And it wasn’t until three hundred years had passed that they finally adapted to a new life without cursed energy.
——Since the Elves dismantled the Curse Cellar unwillingly.
It was entirely possible that so Elves risked the death penalty to secretly keep one or two small Curse Cellars.
When Annan ca into contact with the ancient Silverstone Curse Cellar through the nightmares of a child, he thought of this possibility.
Now it seed... indeed, it was so.
"How does this door open?"
The wandering child tried pushing the door but found it unresponsive.
He eagerly asked the others, "Shall I lt it? Unlike at the Silverstone Curse Cellar, I feel this is just ordinary rock, and it can be lted."
When Annan had found him, he had already said that he might need to co over to lt a city wall or a door. But after his arrival, except for lting the ceiling once when they jumped out of the sewer, he hadn’t done anything else.
On this journey, watching Xitan Pulan cast Corpse Ghost Seal twice and seeing the explosives of Four Dark Horsen carrying out various feats, he felt sowhat itching to do sothing...
"...Aren’t you an Elf by profession?"
It was Zoya who tentatively raised her hand, looking uncertainly at the child, "Can’t you open this kind of door?"
"The place where I learned the Sky Strike Technique didn’t let into the Curse Cellar."
The child helplessly spread his hands.
The Sky Strike Technique is a prerequisite for the Wind Dancer. When he learned the Sky Strike Technique in that instance... that is, at Miss Bofis’s place, he also wanted to get a peek into the Silverstone Curse Cellar, but he was rcilessly kicked out the mont he approached the cellar and while the image in front of him was still split.
"...We are all insatiable beings..."
Annan whispered quietly.
"What?"
The Four Dark Horsen instinctively asked, only to be lightly smacked on the arm by Xitan Pulan, motioning him to be quiet.
anwhile, the two Frostspeakers concentrated their attention.
Annan looked at the runes on the door, chanting word by word.
This was not simply Elf language... but Frost Speech. Frost Speech could be seen as a dialect of the Elf kind used to communicate with dragonkind, with different writing and grammar from ordinary Elf language... sowhat similar to the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin.
Even Elves might not be able to understand Frost Speech.
Annan, as a Frostspeaker, could directly understand the words on the door:
He recited slowly: "We are all beings who yearn for hope..."
"We are all proud and decadent beings..."
"We are all rebellious beings. We are all sinful beings. We are all utterly unforgivable beings. We are all beings beyond redemption.
"We are the naless guardians—"
"——None who are guilty shall pass through this door."
The mont Annan finished chanting, a strange illusion appeared before his eyes.
He seed to perceive that the surrounding stairs were filled with people sitting on them. They were silently looking down at them... but the mont Annan ca to his senses, he realized there was nothing there.
He could not have failed to see a Spiritual Body—there really was no one there.
But it didn’t seem like a re illusion either.
Annan glanced at Zoya and added, "That’s everything... I think there might be sothing behind the door.
"Let’s not ld it for now. Who knows, it might be so kind of ancient seal, so it’s better to be safe."
As for this door...
Annan pondered, then tentatively pushed the door.
Strangely—when he touched the door, it swung open lightly, as if there was nothing there, even slightly startling Annan.
Zoya, also curious, ca over and pushed... finding it very difficult to move, but it felt just like any heavy object. It definitely didn’t have the immovable sensation it had when the child pushed it.
"... You stay here for now. Even though you can lt through this door, it’s still better to be safe."
After thinking for a mont, Annan said to the wandering child, "I think this might be a Curse Detection Door. Anyone who has used cursed energy won’t be able to enter or leave."
"Then I’ll wait here for you guys."
He nodded in agreent.
Zorgen looked at him and tried to push the door as well—he found it more difficult than Zoya, but he managed to push it eventually.
"... It seems I have been judged to be greatly sinful."
After a brief contemplation, Zorgen said in a low voice, "Then I’ll stay here with him as well, it’s too dark here."
"Rember to notify us if sothing happens."
Annan said this to the child—although this place was a bit odd, it was still much better than the situation in the previous nightmare. At least the players could still contact each other, sending private ssages and voice chats.
They quickly passed through the door.
After walking through a narrow corridor that could only fit two people side by side, the space opened up—Annan finally saw the true structure of the "Curse Cellar."
It was a massive device on a perfectly square platform.
It was at least thirty ters tall and sowhat shaped like a globe, but the pure white semi-arc, like a crescent moon, was not completely vertical to the ground, tilted at about a fifteen-degree angle. This angle exposed the axles at the top and bottom of the gold sphere held in the center... And this crescent was slowly rotating around the light sphere, much like the Earth’s rotation.
The light sphere in the middle was not a pure sphere—on the top and bottom, there were beams of light.
The bottom one was a stream of black-gray, extrely viscous liquid. It was about the thickness of three fingers put together, flowing upwards into the center of the light sphere, in a state that would have infuriated Newton.
And it was gradually disassembled by the light sphere, assimilated into a golden stream of light.
Above the light sphere radiated a very thin, gold stream of light, about as thick as half a little finger.
It appeared incredibly dreamlike, slightly scattered, like clusters of fireflies... But Annan was not mistaken, this was the "cursed energy" stored in jars.
The platform surrounding the square platform was circular, with complex runes inscribed all over it. It was exactly the sa size as the "staircase classroom" outside; putting the two rooms together ford a figure "8".
"That is..."
Annan couldn’t help but murmur.
His "Radiance" elent had awakened to the limit, light was no longer a barrier to him but his friend, his part.
So... Annan could look beyond that light sphere, seeing the object hidden right in the middle of the device.
The core component of the device, which endlessly converted the dirty, putrid black-gray raw cursed energy into pale gold Inert Cursed Energy, was not so intricate complex Machine, nor so vast magic array.
It was a curled up, even incomplete, transparent embryo.
Reviews
All reviews (0)