Ch.31Grave Robbing and Excavation (2)

Tap. The sound of Ortes’s heel meeting the stone floor of the temple.

Breaking the quiet darkness that filled the temple, Ortes advanced without hesitation.

At the end of the direction Ortes was heading stood a massive stone relief. The carving, meticulously etched across the entire wall, clearly depicted stories from ancient mythology.

And at the midpoint of the mythology, where Ortes was heading, a door was carved.

A stone door. Not one that could actually be opened and closed, but merely a carving engraved on the wall. Ortes slowly caressed the door carving.

“What is that?”

Carisia asked. There were no myths in this world where a ‘door’ was particularly emphasized. Even if there were, it wouldn’t be important enough to be carved at the very center of this magnificent relief.

Surely the Blasphemia agents who had visited before must have examined that door as well.

And they must have returned empty-handed.

The divine power that once filled this place had scattered and disappeared, and the abandoned ruins, devoid of any altar or symbols, were indeed just as Blasphemia had recorded: “No divine power reaction. Original purpose unknown.”

Ortes seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking.

“As you can see, it’s a door.”

A joke? Pleased that Ortes had made a joke with her, Carisia studied his expression.

But his expression was too serious to be merely joking.

If others could read Carisia’s thoughts, they might wonder, “He’s always smiling anyway, how can you tell the difference?” But Carisia’s analysis was accurate.

Ortes’s words were no joke.

“Let’s think about extradimensional beings. They cross the sea of dimensions to cast their shadows upon this world. Though people are reluctant to say it, they truly possess godlike powers.”

Beings with godlike power who reign from the heavens like gods.

What else should they be called if not gods?

“Are you saying that the vanished gods and extradimensional beings are fundamentally the same?”

“My wisdom doesn’t extend to grand topics like the essence of gods, but I do know that gods once descended to this world from outside. This door is a metaphor for that descent.”

An ancient tale that doesn’t exist in the Ten Realms, or one whose records were deliberately omitted.

Ortes speaking of forgotten wisdom evoked the image of a prophet of the gods from bygone eras.

“The space connected to this door is the true temple. A place that metaphorically represents the heavens from which the gods came. That’s where Phoibos’s sacred relic should be.”

***

Having answered Carisia’s question by wracking my memory of the original work, I continued to wrestle with this damned door.

The protagonist had opened it immediately upon arrival with some line like, “Huh, such an outdated protective spell?”

I had absolutely no idea how to open it.

‘Should I just open my eyes and look?’

My eyes might be all-powerful, but I wasn’t. If I opened my eyes, I could surely analyze everything from the atomic structure of the door to how the magical formulas were applied.

But the problem with these “ancient” magics was their extraordinary complexity. Magics that contained compressed information far beyond normal levels left lingering aftereffects once viewed.

For ancient magic like this, or for complex and powerful beings like archmages, my brain’s processing speed was insufficient.

It’s like video editing. No matter how high the resolution of the original footage, you can’t edit it properly if your graphics card or CPU can’t handle it.

My brain could handle about 2K resolution, but occasionally I’d encounter phenomena with 8K, 16K, or even immeasurable resolutions.

As I stood pondering in front of the door for a while, Carisia suddenly approached.

She placed her hand on the door and channeled magical power into it.

…Magical power?

Isn’t this temple sealed by the Demon King?

“Boss! That’s dangerous!”

However, nothing happened.

With a small chuckle, Carisia looked at me.

“If injecting a little magical power activated a trap, it would have been noted in the Blasphemia report. This much won’t trigger any traps.”

Carisia spread her magical net wider. I could feel a massive rippling that seemed to envelop the entire mountain peak.

“Ah, so that’s the structure.”

It was a sight that most magicians wouldn’t even dare attempt to replicate. Not because of technical difficulty, but because they wouldn’t have enough magical power to continuously project over such a wide area.

The expenditure would cause any ordinary magician to faint within a second if they tried to imitate it. Carisia kept up the magical emission for about a minute with her eyes closed.

No wonder Blasphemia couldn’t find it. You’d be hard-pressed to find a magician of Carisia’s caliber even if you searched all Ten Towers.

There might not be any.

Eventually, Carisia opened her eyes. Pure white light gathered in her gauntlet.

“Boss, perhaps now…”

“Wouldn’t it be faster to just break it?”

With this temperament considered, it’s certain. There isn’t anyone like her.

“…I won’t stop you, but wouldn’t that definitely mark us as intruders?”

“Let’s just destroy everything and go. That’s what we’ve always done, right?”

Saying “that’s what we’ve always done” is slander. I was always in the position of desperately cleaning up after you went around smashing everything.

***

As Ortes nodded with a troubled expression, Carisia’s right hand moved.

The light gathered in her black gauntlet didn’t explode but rather seemed to seep into and cover the entire gauntlet. The white-hot gauntlet itself resembled a lightsaber split into five prongs.

Carisia moved her hand along the patterns carved on the door.

The door carving was cut as if it were butter, not rock. Watching Carisia’s cutting work, which was both delicate and swift, Ortes thought:

‘This is better than in the original work where she dissolved people with that—now she’s just dissolving stone carvings.’

In truth, she had already dissolved many people. But it wasn’t like the original Baekmumyeong who actively went around dissolving people—it was more like counterattacks—

“What are you doing?”

Carisia asked, turning to look at Ortes after finishing her cutting work.

Originally, there would have been an automatic closure procedure that destroyed the connected portal if the door was damaged, to counter this kind of intrusion. But Carisia forcibly held onto the fading portal and injected magical power into it.

The logic was that if you pour in water at the same rate it’s draining, you can maintain the water level.

Ortes, having understood how Carisia was maintaining the portal, was about to say something but then shook his head.

“Nothing. Let’s go.”

‘I wish I could waste magical power like that too.’

***

“You said it was the gods’ space, but it’s not as magnificent as I thought.”

“It’s just a metaphor. In reality, it’s probably just a place carved out somewhere underground in this mountain.”

Phoibos’s secret temple was a space finished with pure white marble. Everywhere you looked was white, like being on top of clouds.

On the marble altar in the center lay a single gem with dozens of facets. The craftsmanship was extraordinary.

“Originally, there would have been a priestess who looked into that crystal and delivered prophecies. In other words, the place we were in until now was a waiting room. This place is the audience chamber for meeting the priestess.”

Ortes stepped forward and reached for the crystal.

The moment his fingertips touched the crystal.

The white marble turned black.

‘No. It’s not that the marble turned black—’

The light disappeared. The mysterious light that had been illuminating the marble room was being drawn into the crystal that Ortes’s hand had touched.

Carisia watched the scene with interest. At the same time, she felt a kind of relief.

Anyone seeing this would realize there was some connection between Ortes and the ancient gods. Nevertheless, Ortes had not refused her company.

He had shared his secret with Carisia. That fact made her happy.

Ortes thought:

‘What is this now?’

***

The crystal that had suddenly absorbed the light began to shine strangely. Light projected toward the marble wall like a movie projector.

The wavering shadow coalesced into a silhouette of something resembling a human.

“Why…”

It was a solemn voice that seemed to echo, yet was faint as if about to dissipate. The volume was immense but lacked power.

There was no such description in the novel. What is this? Did I find something earlier than the protagonist, some lingering sentiment?

“Why, you ask? I’m here to take this sacred relic.”

“That’s not it. Why are you with █▅▍? You, more than anyone, should know the Ten▍…”

There’s strange noise in the transmission. I can understand that it’s not questioning my purpose of taking the relic, but raising doubts about my companion.

With an odd sense of displeasure, I spoke.

“Who I choose to accompany me is my decision, is it not? Now tell me who you are. Who are you to cling to an ancient god’s relic and engrave your lingering thoughts?”

“I am the priest of Phoibos. I have endured a long time to pass on this sacred relic to one with proper qualifications. You certainly have the qualifications. But the one with you—”

Ah. I understand now.

The safety mechanism of the sacred relic that rejected the Demon King in the original work. The lingering consciousness of the priest who served the ancient gods was itself the safety mechanism of the relic.

The fierce rejection of Carisia is probably due to the knowledge of the Ten Realms or the magical power bestowed by the White Light Tower.

If I had magical abilities like the Demon King to forcibly prevent the relic’s self-destruction, that would be great, but I don’t have such abilities. Carisia might be capable of something similar.

For now, I need to somehow persuade this grandfather who woke up too late before he says “I don’t like you” and self-destructs.

Since he says I have the qualifications, maybe he can be easily persuaded.

***

“What do you mean?”

“A fragment of the being▃ that brought about the downfall of our era—”

“This is the person I’ve chosen.”

In that moment, silence fell.