Chapter 404:Finally put.
The moment Lilith stepped through the entrance of the Darkness Ruin, sunlight struck her face so suddenly that she instinctively closed her eyes.
After what had felt like an eternity surrounded by absolute darkness, even the warmth of the sun seemed unnatural.
She stood there for several seconds without moving, breathing in the cool mountain air while her senses slowly adjusted to the outside world.
Aether flowed around her again, the wind brushed against her skin, distant birds called from somewhere among the mountains, and for the first time since the trial began, she could hear sounds that weren’t created by the ruin.
Her shadows had returned as well.
They stretched beneath her feet naturally, responding to her presence as they always had, yet Lilith could no longer look at them in quite the same way.
Before entering the ruin, she had instinctively regarded them as darkness itself, simply given form through her will. Now she could feel the distinction with almost embarrassing clarity.
The shadow beneath her feet was merely one manifestation, something born from the relationship between light and obstruction, while behind it lay the far broader concept she had finally grasped.
Darkness.
Lilith raised one hand and stared at her palm for a moment. She didn’t summon anything since she didn’t need to prove that the trial had been real; the understanding remained inside her.
The Law of Darkness had settled somewhere deeper than her Aether core, almost as though it had been carved directly into her existence.
She couldn’t yet say what it would mean for her strength or how dramatically it would alter her abilities, but she knew she had crossed a threshold that couldn’t simply be undone.
"Your Majesty?"
Lilith turned.
A draconic attendant stood a short distance away from the entrance, and from the way the man immediately straightened when she looked toward him, he had apparently been waiting for some time.
Lilith recognized him as one of Draco’s palace attendants.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Not continuously, Your Majesty. His Majesty arranged for attendants to rotate."
Lilith frowned.
"Rotate?"
The dragon hesitated. That single hesitation made something unpleasant tighten inside her chest.
"How long was I inside?"
The attendant lowered his head slightly.
"Three days, Your Majesty."
Lilith stared at him.
"Three days?"
"Yes."
For several seconds she said nothing.
Three days.
Inside the ruin, time had become almost impossible to measure. She had walked through darkness for what might have been hours or days, and the drowning trial had distorted her perception even further. She wouldn’t have been surprised to discover that a full day had passed.
But three?
Lilith’s first thought wasn’t about herself.
"Atheline."
The attendant’s expression changed. Lilith noticed immediately.
"Take me to his ruin."
"Your Majesty..."
"Now."
The dragon shifted uncomfortably.
"Perhaps it would be better if we returned to the palace first. His Majesty Draco..."
Lilith’s eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
The attendant stopped.
"Why are you trying to take me to the palace before I see my husband?"
"I’m not attempting to prevent you from..."
"Then take me there."
The darkness beneath Lilith’s feet deepened. The attendant visibly stiffened.
She wasn’t deliberately threatening him, but after three days inside the Darkness Ruin and the complete comprehension of its law, her Aether felt different even when she wasn’t actively controlling it.
Darkness seemed almost unnaturally comfortable around her now, gathering wherever her emotions caused her control to loosen.
The attendant looked toward the distant mountains, then sighed.
"Very well."
Lilith immediately started walking.
"How long has Atheline been inside?"
There was another pause.
Lilith stopped. The attendant nearly walked into her.
She turned.
"Answer me."
"Three days as well."
"He hasn’t come out?"
"No."
"Has anyone entered after him?"
"No."
Lilith’s expression darkened.
"Why?"
The attendant didn’t answer immediately but that was enough to know that something was wrong.
She turned toward him fully.
"What happened?"
"I believe His Majesty should explain."
"I asked you."
The attendant swallowed.
"There was... an occurrence."
"What occurrence?"
"It would be easier to show you."
Lilith stared at him for several seconds before turning away.
"Then stop wasting time."
The journey toward the Unaspected Ruin felt far longer than it had three days earlier.
Lilith barely spoke.
Her thoughts continuously returned to Atheline. Three days wasn’t necessarily dangerous.
Ancient ruins could contain distorted spaces. Caius and Yander had already experienced a ruin where the passage of time differed dramatically from the outside world, and Lilith herself had just emerged from a trial where she had completely lost track of time.
Atheline could simply be undergoing his own trial. That was the reasonable explanation. She repeated it several times but it didn’t help.
The attendant’s behavior bothered her.
If Atheline were simply inside the ruin, there would have been no reason for the dragon to hesitate when she asked to visit him.
Something else had happened.
As they approached the plateau where the designated ruins had been located, Lilith noticed the people first.
There were far more than before.
Dragons stood around the area alongside several representatives from the visiting kingdoms. Seragus was present. Lucifer stood near him. Caius had apparently come as well, and several other figures from the Human and Beastmen delegations were scattered across the plateau.
Draco stood near the center. The moment Lilith saw him, her unease became considerably worse, yhen she looked past him, and stopped.
Something was missing.
Her eyes moved across the plateau. The other entrances remained exactly where they had been but the plain stone doorway was gone.
Lilith stared at the empty space.
At first, her mind simply refused to understand what she was seeing. There had been a doorway there; she remembered it perfectly.
A simple stone entrance without any obvious elemental characteristics. Atheline had stood before it with that familiar expression of curiosity before walking inside.
Now there was nothing. The ground where the entrance had stood was perfectly intact.
Lilith walked forward; sowly at first, then faster.
"Where is it?"
Nobody answered.
She reached the place where she remembered the doorway standing but there was only stone beneath her feet. She looked around.
"Where is the ruin?"
Draco approached.
"Lilith."
She turned toward him.
"Where is it?"
Draco remained calm.
"That’s what we’re trying to determine."
Lilith’s expression changed.
"What do you mean you’re trying to determine?"
"The entrance disappeared."
"I can see that." Her voice became sharper. "Where is Atheline?"
"We don’t know."
The darkness around Lilith moved. Several representatives instinctively stepped backward but Draco didn’t.
"Lilith."
"He was inside and the ruin disappeared."
"Yes."
"And you’re standing here telling me you don’t know where my husband is?"
The darkness spread several meters around her.
"Lilith, calm yourself."
"Don’t tell me to calm myself."
The ground beneath her darkened.
Her newly comprehended Law of Darkness responded almost instinctively to the fear and anger she was struggling to suppress, and Draco’s expression became noticeably more serious when he sensed the change.
Not because he feared her, but because he understood what had happened inside the Darkness Ruin.
"You comprehended something."
Lilith stared at him.
"This isn’t the time."
"No. It isn’t." Draco stepped closer. "But if you lose control of something you’ve only just understood, you may hurt someone who has nothing to do with this."
That reached her.
Lilith looked around: several attendants were standing farther away, Caius watched her cautiously,and Lucifer had stopped speaking entirely.
Lilith closed her eyes and breathed slowly. The darkness withdrew. When she opened her eyes again, the fear remained, but her control had returned.
"Explain."
Draco nodded.
"Shortly after you entered the Darkness Ruin, something happened above the island."
Lilith frowned.
"What?"
"We aren’t entirely certain."
"You were here?"
"Not immediately. I felt it from the palace."
Draco looked upward.
"The sky changed."
"Changed how?"
Lucifer answered from nearby.
"It looked like the entire sky split."
Lilith turned toward him. Lucifer raised his hands slightly.
"Not literally. There wasn’t an actual crack. But for a few seconds, there was something enormous above this area. Light, darkness... I’m not even sure what I was looking at."
Caius spoke next.
"I felt it as well."
His expression was unusually serious.
"It wasn’t Light Aether. I initially thought it might be because of how bright the sky became, but it wasn’t an element I recognized."
Draco nodded.
"The phenomenon lasted only a short time."
"And then?"
Draco looked toward the empty ground.
"The entrance vanished."
Lilith stared at him.
"Just vanished?"
"Yes."
"No explosion?"
"No."
"No collapse?"
"No."
"No spatial disturbance?"
"Nothing resembling one."
Lilith walked toward the empty space again. She crouched, her hand immediately touching the ground but found nothing. She immediately closed her eyes and reached into her Aether.
There was still one possibility. Something she had almost forgotten in her panic.
The tracking spell.
She and Atheline had long since taken precautions against being separated. The tracking mark she had placed on him wasn’t intended for combat; it was simply a way of locating him if circumstances ever forced them apart.