Ard studied King Vogir’s face; because the king’s body was so massive, he could see him clearly even from a distance. Ard fell silent, carefully observing the king from top to bottom before stopping at his face. It turned out that although the king’s eyes were open, they looked vacant as if he were looking through sothing.
His mouth hung open with saliva trickling from the corner, soaking his beard. His skin appeared pale and dry despite his still-muscular fra; the king truly looked like a helpless vegetable, a condition similar to what his brother Abel experienced in the elf village when he was marked by the goddess Ophelia.
Then, Ard’s eyes drifted toward the four-ard old man wearing a robe. His four hands held a knife, a chalice, and a thick book that looked like a scripture, while his remaining hand was raised upward along with his face as he recited either a prayer or a spell. His mouth moved incessantly, though Ard could not understand what he was saying. Ard turned to look at Lesnar.
"Lesnar, is that Idor?" Ard asked in a whisper, pointing at the old man.
"Correct, that is Idor. I don’t know how long the king has been in his hands. When I ca in here for the first ti, this hall was completely empty, and I didn’t understand who those two sitting statues were," Lesnar answered in a whisper.
"I see. Alright, we need to get out of here. We have to find out what happened to Elr and Grethia; they are the keys," Ard whispered.
"But what about Githiess’s egg? What are they going to do with it?" Irina asked in a worried whisper, staring at the egg they had placed on the altar.
"Irina’s right, Ard. Seeing a ceremony like this, it’s obvious they’re planning to do sothing to that egg," Irwin added in a whisper, his eyes also fixed on the relic.
"I don’t think they will do anything. There is no way they would dare do sothing to their goddess, especially since Githiess is one of the deities worshiped by the giants. Looking at the crowd gathered here, they aren’t necessarily here because they worship those two statues in the back or because of Idor. They are here because King Vogir is here and Githiess’s egg is here. So, that egg is only being used to draw in followers," Ard whispered back.
"Hmm... that might be true. When Elr arrived bringing Githiess’s egg to be presented to us as a symbol of peace, we giants were overjoyed because our goddess had returned to us, and we worshiped that egg. Idor is using the egg to control the giants through religion," Lesnar whispered.
"Alright, we have to go, but not out—we have to go deeper inside, through there," Ard said in a whisper, pointing toward a door to the right of the altar.
"Huh... how are we going to do that?" Irwin asked.
"Irina, can you make the four of us disappear?" Ard asked, turning to look at Irina.
"Hmm... I can try, but I’ve never tried to make a giant vanish before," Irina answered.
"Just try it, sister," Irwin replied.
"Alright," Irina replied.
Irina imdiately climbed onto Lesnar’s back, then she sat on Lesnar’s shoulder and held onto Lesnar’s head. After that, Lesnar pulled Ard and Irwin close again, and they instantly vanished. Then, slowly, Lesnar walked with great care so that he wouldn’t make a sound. He crept along the right wall, avoiding the fire braziers located between the pillars as he headed toward the door on the right wall that sat exactly level with the altar in the center. The further forward they went, the more they could hear Idor’s sermon, stating that the giants would enter a new era and return to their true place: the surface.
But it wasn’t just that; Idor’s sermon also declared that they would force all the surface dwellers to adopt their beliefs, and if they resisted, they would be ready for war to enforce their faith and defend their gods. Ard, hearing this, only gave a wry smile and shook his head, because to him, what Idor was saying to his followers was absolutely ridiculous. Which gods and goddesses did he an? If he ant Ophelia and Malekh, then they would never et them, because he and Eva would destroy those two deities.
Ard observed the faces of the followers, which were mostly covered by hoods and masks. Although their features weren’t clearly visible, their eyes were fixed on Githiess’s egg. In other words, Idor was using Githiess’s na, claiming she would lead them to the surface once she finally hatched.
"Huh... this is truly a ridiculous ritual," Ard muttered to himself.
They resud their walk and finally stood before a closed door. With great care, Lesnar opened the door, slipped inside, and slowly closed it behind them. After that, a staircase leading upward appeared before them. Lesnar began to slowly climb the corridor stairs, which were illuminated only by torches on the left and right, spaced sowhat far apart. After reaching the top, they saw a wooden door. Lesnar opened it and went inside. Once inside, they were in a long corridor with three doors—two on the right and one on the left; it seed they were still in the basent.
"Lesnar, have you been here before?" Ard asked.
"I have. This is the second basent. The room on the left is the guard room, and the two doors on the right are the dungeons. The last ti I was here, those prisons were empty," Lesnar answered.
"Hmm... I see. Let’s keep moving," Ard said.
Lesnar started walking down the hallway again, but when they reached the middle—right in front of the door on the left and the wall between the two doors on the right—the light of a torch appeared at the end of the corridor where the stairs led up.
"Lesnar, soone’s coming," Irwin said.
"Ugh... it must be the guards returning to their room," Lesnar muttered.
"Quick, get into the door on the right, Lesnar," Ard said.
"Alright," Lesnar replied.
Lesnar imdiately stepped back for a mont and entered the door on the right, which led into the dungeon area. Ard, Irwin, and Irina jumped down from Lesnar, and then they stood pressed against the door. Outside, the sound of echoing footsteps could be heard along with two people speaking, though their words were unclear. All four of them began to sweat, and without realizing it, they gripped their weapons with their ears pressed against the door. When the sound of a door closing echoed from directly across from them, the four of them instantly felt a sense of relief. Then they turned around and looked at the vast dungeon area; they saw many large barred cages designed to hold giants, all of them completely empty.
"Is there really nothing here?" Irwin asked.
"Nothing. This dungeon is empty, just like it was the last ti I ca here," Lesnar answered.
"But we can’t go right back out; they’re still in that room and might still be alert," said Irina, who was still leaning against the door.
"Hmm... in that case, let’s just try to investigate this dungeon first," Ard said.
"Hmm? But there’s nothing here. I’ve already gone around the corridors and looked into the cells; they’re all empty," Lesnar replied.
"We don’t have any other choice, do we? Co on, everyone," Ard replied.
They then began walking down the corridor, passing empty cells on their left and right. When they reached the end, they saw a wall carving featuring the five gods, just like the one they had seen in the sewer passage. But when Ard looked at the image, he noticed a sword-shaped indentation in the wall right in the middle of the tree, on the body of the old man in the center, Bedryt.
"Hmm? That indentation... Lesnar, please lift up," Ard said.
Lesnar lifted Ard, who imdiately examined the indentation from a close distance. Upon closer inspection, there was a hole in the middle of the indentation like a keyhole, but shaped like a sword blade—likely a sword-shaped key used to open the door. After observing the keyhole, Ard opened his dinsional storage and pulled out Exgrandal. He slowly inserted the blade of Exgrandal into the hole as electrical currents began to crackle along the blade, and once the entire blade was inside, he turned it to the right.
"Click."
The sound of sothing unlocking was heard. Lesnar, Ard, Irina, and Irwin imdiately looked at one another. Lesnar lowered Ard to the floor.
"Let ... try to push it," Lesnar said.
He pushed the wall and "grek," the wall rotated like a revolving door, and behind it appeared a room that seed to be illuminated by electric lights. Ard, Lesnar, Irina, and Irwin’s eyes instantly widened because they saw two sarcophagus-shaped tubes in front of them, connected to a machine in the middle with many electric cables running from the two tubes to a console located between them.
But what left the four of them stunned was that inside the left tube, an unconscious dwarf was visible, while on the right, a four-ard giant girl could be seen, also unconscious.
"No... it can’t be... Princess Grethia," Lesnar muttered, unable to believe what he saw before him.
"It looks like... we’ve found Elr and Grethia," Ard added.
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