The air inside the room seed to grow thinner, as though sothing unseen had drawn it all away. An oppressive silence fell, heavy and suffocating, forcing everyone to subconsciously hold their breath. Lydia’s face drained of color, her lips parted in a trembling line, and her eyes widened in sheer horror, as if the mories Maddeline summoned were unfolding right before her.
anwhile, Maddeline’s voice continued, low and burdened with the weight of the past. "I rember my sister held my hand so tightly as they herded us toward Mount Fehrer.
So of the recruits tried to ask where we were being taken, but before they could finish, one of the paladins snapped at her, telling her to keep her mouth shut, or else. We were shocked. None of us had ever been shouted at like that by a paladin or anyone working for the organization. It was the first ti... as if they had finally removed their kind and benevolent masks."
Her voice faltered for a second before it steadied again. "And the way they look at us...as if we were nothing but annoying bugs or so sort. It was at that we saw their real face, for so unknown reason, they had stopped pretending."
A shiver passed through the listeners.
Madeline raised her head slowly, drawing in a breath as though it pained her to do so. Her fingers tightened around the edge of her dress, knuckles white.
"We climbed the small path, I don’t know for how long, maybe hours. Ti felt different. All I rember is that by the ti we stopped, night had already fallen. We stood before a sheer cliff face, flat like a wall, carved with strange symbols and ancient runes... things I’ve never seen before or since. They pulsed faintly, as if alive, as if watching us."
She paused, eyes staring into the distance. "Then the Dragxtarn stepped forward. They seed to be preparing sothing, then not long after, we heard a deafening explosion. I could feel dust and rock flying everywhere, hitting my face. After that... we saw a cave. A massive one. The kind that swallows sound and light whole. Without a word, they forced us inside."
Her tone grew hoarser, slower. "We thought that was it, but no... There was more. Much more. A staircase carved into the rock, winding down into the dark like a serpent’s spine. It went on forever. We walked and walked, our legs numb, our minds clouded, too afraid to speak. I think it took us another hour, maybe more, before we reached the bottom."
She stopped, her gaze unfocused, as if she was no longer in the room but still walking those endless stairs. The silence that followed was thick, reverent, broken only by the sound of soone exhaling shakily in the corner.
"What did you see?" Lydia’s voice was quiet, yet it cut through the silence like a blade, and everyone heard it clearly.
Maddeline slowly turned her gaze toward her. She had heard about Lydia, the forr healer who managed to run away from the S.A.I.N.Tanization. She was one of the lucky ones, just like herself; however, Maddeline also knew that Lydia had also lost soone very important, just like her.
"We arrived in a vast chamber," she began, her voice soft but steady, as if each word pulled her deeper into mory. "The space was imnse, it was dark and we couldn’t see anything, but the air was cold and eerie, even as a child, I could feel that this was not the place a human should be. Then they began tossing light spheres into the air, and it was at that mont we saw a towering arch column encircling a gigantic sphere that looked like erged from the ground."
"Sphere?" Lory narrowed her eyes
Maddy nodded. Her hands moved unconsciously, sketching the mory in the air. "Yes. It was a half-circle sphere, like a do that embedded into the floor. It looked like a half-steel ball stuck on the ground, but... it wasn’t a normal steel. I overheard the Dragxtarn whisper with each other, saying, it was made from sothing called, eee what is it... Ze—uh, Zerenium. I heard they were complaining, saying it was a sha to ruin this much Zerenium."
"How big was this do, exactly?" Fargo asked, his voice low, cautious.
Maddy’s answer ca like a blow."As big as a stadium do."
The group exchanged tense glances. Soone let out a breath they hadn’t realized they were holding.
Lory leaned forward, her voice sharpened with intent. "What else can you tell us about it?"
"The surface... it was covered in runes. Not just a few. Hundreds. Maybe thousands. Soone said it wasn’t one spell, but layers upon layers of different seals. They said it would be impossible to break."
Maddy’s tone dropped. "When they said they were trying to open it... my sister was frozen. Her whole body went stiff. I think she realized that whoever sealed that do has gone to so much effort to seal that place because whatever was inside was never ant to co out."
Her voice trembled as the mory clawed its way to the surface.
"And while everyone’s eyes were drawn to the do... my sister reached for my hand. furtively she pulled us back step by step to the path we had co from, but then..."
Her breath hitched. "One of the paladins opened up a suitcase... then he took out a dried branch."
"A tree branch?" Lory echoed, her brow tightening. The others shifted uneasily, a sense of dread thickening in the air.
"What does the Paladin do with it?" Fredhardt’s voice tightened.
Maddeline’s face turned pale. Her hands were clasped tightly in front of her chest, as though trying to hold herself together. "He thrust the branch into the ground, and all of a sudden, the floor beneath shook violently."
Her voice faltered, rising into panic. Her chest began to heave, breath quickening, and she looked hyperventilating.
Lory leaned forward, concern written across her face. "Maddy, are you alright? You don’t have to keep going. Do you want to rest for a while?" No one knew better than Lory what it ant to reopen old wounds.
Maddeline shook her head, swallowing hard before taking a small sip of tea. "I’m okay," she said quickly, almost too quickly. "I can do this."
"Alright," Lory said gently. "No one’s rushing you. Just take your ti." Lory’s kind and gentle voice wrapped around Maddeline like a warm blanket in a cold storm.
Her emotions slowly beco stable, she looks at Lory and nods, "I’m okay..." she takes a deep inhaled, before she speaks again.
Her next words ca like fragile glass breaking. "All of a sudden, giant vines burst from the ground. It pierced the young healer like spears and lifted them into the air. Then I saw their skin beco dry as if their life force was drained away from their body, as if the vines were feeding off their life."
Lydia covered her mouth in shock, tears welled up in her eyes, she looked as if she was about to faint, luckily, Owen wrapped her shoulder to support her from falling.
anwhile, Maddy’s fingers trembled as she pressed them to her temple. "I can still hear her scream. I can still see her face, twisted in pain. Her eyes pleaded."
A shudder rippled through her. "My sister shielded with her body. She held tight, whispering that it would be alright. She tried to escape from the vines with Jessi, but... the vines caught Jessi’s ankle. They yanked her off the ground. I heard Jessi scream for help, but what can we do?"
Maddeline’s voice cracked as her eyes welled. "My sister lifted into her arms, trying to keep away from the ground. But the vines... they found her too. One wrapped around her waist."
Maddeline gave a long pause before she spoke again, "And that’s when Sam ca." Maddeline looked over at Samuel, a faint smile breaking through the tremble on her lips.
All eyes shifted to him. The room seed to hold its breath as Samuel straightened, his expression tightening with the weight of what he was about to say.
"When I first heard about it," he began, his voice low and steady, "my superior told only this: that a thod had been found to subdue the Lucient family... and bring the Harland Kingdom to its knees."
The mont those words left his lips, a dark shift rippled through the room. Fargo and the other Archknights stiffened. Their eyes narrowed, their gazes sharpened with barely contained fury. A thick, unspoken threat surged into the air, murderous intent, cold and suffocating.
Lory felt it instantly and raised her voice gently, cutting through the rising tension. "They told you how?"
Samuel gave her a nod, then looked down for a mont, collecting himself.
"Yes. They spoke about the new discovery of power by Alexander Behrenn." He glanced around the room. "Of course, I was skeptical. So I pressed for more details. But I didn’t get much, my superior just said I’ll know it later."
He lifted his arms slightly, his tone shifting from steady to disturbed. "However, he told that from now on, we’d be entering into a secret alliance with S.A.I.N.T., a collaboration built on shared goals. I was dumbfounded, because I never knew the S.A.I.N.T. organization bore a deep animosity to Lucient’s family or Harland."
He shifted in his seat, posture tightening as if the mory made his skin itch. "Not long after, I got a new mission." His voice darkened. "I was ordered to escort a group of healers to Mount Fehrer, and when I saw the report, I was stunned."
He looked up, eting the room’s gaze. "Did you know, they wanted to lead a convoy of two hundred and fifty-nine healers."
Gasps fluttered across the room.
"I didn’t even know the organization had that many healers stored in the Elysium," Samuel continued, his voice edged with disbelief.
"You all know how rare healers are. They’re not soldiers; you can simply gather by the hundreds. And what did they want with that many at Mount Fehrer?"
He shook his head slowly, the weight of the mory pressing down on his shoulders.
"The more I thought about it, the less it made sense." He paused, jaw clenched, eyes dark with the mory. "Then I found out... among them was a child. An eight-year-old healer."
Everyone gives a sympathetic glance at Maddeline.
"That’s when I knew sothing was deeply wrong. So I started digging. Quietly. That’s when I ca across repeated references to the Seed of Life." His voice dropped lower, more guarded now.
"I couldn’t use the resources in Luxemborough. Too many ears. Too many eyes, too many loyalties tied to both sides. I needed soone clean. Soone with no connection to the Lucient family... or the organization." He straightened slightly, casting a glance toward one corner of the room.
"Soone with skill, stubborn, passionate... and most of all, has integrity. That’s when I reached out to Miss Shawn."
Serena threw a proud grin at Lloyd, her eyes twinkling like a child waiting for her teacher’s praise.
"When I realized what they were going to do to all those innocent people, I submitted a complaint to my superiors, but what happened was I got suspended for three months. I knew my efforts were in vain but I couldn’t keep quiet after knowing what they wanted to do so I planned to move my daughter and wife out of this country first so they would be safe and then after this I would try to help those innocent girls but unfortunately my plan was exposed, they tried to kill and my entire family, I managed to save my daughter but my wife..." His face was clouded with deep regret and sadness.
Madelline held Samuel’s hand to comfort him. Samuel looked at Maddeline with a smile, patting her hand as a sign that he was okay. "My daughter and I were helped by my friend, Jeremy’s father, then I left my daughter with him while I tried to get to Mount Fehrer as soon as I could, hoping I wasn’t too late... unfortunately, I was too late, I couldn’t even save Olivia."
Maddeline then added, "My sister sacrificed herself to save ." Her breath wavered for a mont before she continued, "Samuel helped escape, but the Dragxtarn were already in pursuit. We didn’t have ti. He left in the care of soone he trusted and used himself as bait to lure the enemies away. Sam was supposed to find again after he managed to shake them off and then pick up his daughter. Unfortunately, the Dark Ages war broke out, Nazareth awakened and spread calamity to the whole world, and the man who took care of at that ti had no choice but to flee, and since then, I have never seen Sam again...I thought he was dead."
"I also thought you died, too. "Thankfully, after the war ended, I happened to et the person I had entrusted you to. It was from him that I learned you were still alive." Samuel looks at Maddy with a relieved smile.
"Wait a minute," Lydia breathed, her voice rising with every word. "So the ones who broke Nazareth’s seal, and set that thing loose and going rampage for an entire decade, were Luxemborough and the S.A.I.N.T. organization?" Her eyes burned, fists trembling at her sides.
"They’re the ones behind all the massacres... all the suffering we endured?" Her voice cracked into a scream, shrill with fury. "IT WAS THEM?!" Her face flushed, red with rage, she’s still not the only one.
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