Chapter 496 - 495 - The Key Has Arrived! (2)
The words that had echoed through the valley seemed to linger long after the ancient voice itself had fallen silent.
The key has arrived.
For several heartbeats, nobody moved.
The caravan stood frozen upon the road, with the horses shifting nervously beneath their harnesses as the earth continued to tremble faintly beneath their hooves. The mercenaries had drawn their weapons, their earlier casual expressions replaced by unmistakable vigilance, while several of them stared toward Raven’s Crossing with expressions that betrayed the first traces of fear.
The afternoon sky remained strangely beautiful above them.
Golden sunlight stretched across the grasslands.
White clouds drifted lazily through the blue heavens.
The river beneath the bridge continued flowing as peacefully as it had moments earlier.
Yet beneath that ordinary scenery...
Something ancient had awakened.
Luca stood beside the carriage with his hand resting firmly upon the hilt of his saber.
His crimson eyes remained fixed upon the stone bridge.
The faint red glow beneath it had already disappeared.
But he knew what he had seen.
That wasn’t ordinary magic.
It wasn’t an attack formation.
It wasn’t even a conventional sealing array.
It had been something far older.
Something that had been waiting.
Waiting for someone.
Waiting for her.
"The key..."
One of the mercenaries whispered uneasily.
"What did that thing mean by the key?"
Nobody answered.
Luca’s expression remained grim.
He already knew.
Or rather...
He had a very strong suspicion.
His gaze slowly shifted toward the carriage.
The Saintess had stepped outside.
Her long silver-lavender hair moved gently in the wind as she stared toward the distant bridge, her violet eyes no longer carrying the warmth they had shown only moments earlier.
She understood it too.
Luca walked toward her.
"Your Holiness."
She didn’t respond immediately.
Her gaze remained fixed upon the settlement.
"I know."
Her voice was unusually quiet.
Luca’s brows furrowed.
"You’ve seen something like this before?"
She slowly shook her head.
"No."
Her expression became increasingly solemn.
"But I know what the word means."
Luca remained silent.
The Saintess finally looked toward him.
"They called me the key."
A faint sadness appeared within her eyes.
"That is what the Cult has been calling me."
The surrounding mercenaries heard those words.
Several exchanged uneasy glances.
Luca’s expression hardened.
"So they knew."
The Saintess nodded.
"They may have known long before we realised they were searching for me."
The ground suddenly trembled again.
This time...
The vibration was considerably stronger.
Several horses cried out in panic.
The mercenaries immediately moved closer to the carriage, forming a defensive formation around the Saintess.
"Protect Her Holiness!"
The command rang across the road.
Weapons were drawn.
Shields were raised.
Several mercenaries began circulating their mana despite Luca’s earlier instruction.
Luca immediately looked toward them.
"Wait."
His voice wasn’t loud.
But it carried enough authority to stop several people from moving.
"Don’t release everything yet."
One of the mercenaries looked at him incredulously.
"Something underneath that bridge just spoke to us!"
"I know."
Luca’s eyes remained fixed upon the distant settlement.
"That’s precisely why."
He slowly narrowed his eyes.
"If they wanted to kill us immediately..."
He paused.
"...they wouldn’t have announced our arrival."
The mercenaries fell silent.
Luca’s thoughts raced.
The voice hadn’t attacked.
It hadn’t revealed itself.
It had simply spoken.
That meant whoever had activated the formation wanted them to know.
They wanted the Saintess to know.
It wasn’t an ambush designed purely for destruction.
It was a message.
Or perhaps...
An invitation.
And Luca hated both possibilities.
The Saintess quietly stepped forward.
"Luca."
He looked toward her.
"I’m going to go there."
His eyes widened slightly.
"No."
The answer came so quickly that even the Saintess seemed surprised.
Luca immediately realised how forceful he had sounded.
He softened his voice but didn’t change his position.
"We don’t know what is waiting underneath that bridge."
The Saintess smiled faintly.
"Which is precisely why we need to find out."
"From a distance."
Luca pointed toward the bridge.
"We investigate first."
His expression became serious.
"Then we decide whether approaching it is necessary."
The Saintess looked at him for a moment.
A small smile appeared upon her lips.
"You really have become more cautious."
Luca gave her a tired look.
"Someone has to be."
She laughed softly.
But the moment passed quickly.
The ground trembled once again.
This time...
The tremor was accompanied by a sound.
A deep rumbling noise came from beneath the bridge, as though something enormous was shifting beneath layers of earth and stone.
Then...
The river stopped.
Not slowed.
Stopped.
The water flowing beneath the bridge suddenly became perfectly still.
The mercenaries stared in disbelief.
Luca’s pupils contracted.
The surface of the river began turning red.
Not from blood.
From light.
A crimson radiance slowly spread beneath the water, illuminating the entire underside of the bridge.
Then the stone bridge itself began changing.
Ancient symbols appeared across its surface.
One after another.
Hundreds.
Perhaps thousands.
They glowed with a faint crimson light before connecting together into an enormous circular formation.
The Saintess’s expression became pale.
Luca immediately noticed.
"What is it?"
She didn’t answer.
Her eyes were fixed upon the formation.
Then...
She whispered something that made Luca’s expression change.
"I’ve seen that symbol before."
"Where?"
The Saintess slowly raised her eyes toward him.
"Inside the oldest records of the Holy Kingdom."
Her voice trembled faintly.
"It was drawn beside the name..."
She swallowed quietly.
"...of the Devil Emperor."
The moment those words left her lips...
The crimson formation beneath the bridge erupted.
A pillar of red light shot into the sky, piercing through the clouds as an enormous magical barrier spread outward from Raven’s Crossing.
The entire settlement disappeared behind it.
The mercenaries instinctively raised their weapons.
Luca stared at the barrier.
His mind raced through every possibility.
Then...
A second voice emerged.
This one was much closer.
Far too close.
It came from directly beneath the caravan.
"Welcome..."
The earth beneath their feet cracked.
Luca’s eyes widened.
"...Saintess."
The ground suddenly collapsed.
The earth collapsed without warning.
A violent tremor tore through the road as the ground beneath the caravan split apart, sending stones and chunks of packed earth flying in every direction. The horses screamed in panic, their bodies rearing against the harnesses as the mercenaries rushed to regain control, while the carriage lurched violently to one side before being pulled back by the desperate efforts of the guards.
Luca moved before anyone else could react.
His hand shot toward the carriage.
"Your Holiness!"
The Saintess had already moved.
A pale radiance erupted around her body as divine power gathered instinctively around her, forming a translucent barrier between herself and the collapsing ground. At the same moment, Luca grabbed the edge of the carriage and pushed himself away from the widening fissure.
The road beneath them was disappearing.
Not cracking.
Disappearing.
Something beneath the earth was consuming it.
"Luca!"
The Saintess’s voice reached him through the chaos.
He turned.
The carriage had begun sliding toward the enormous hole opening beneath it.
Without hesitation, Luca pushed off the ground.
His body shot forward as his black saber appeared in his hand, the weapon flashing beneath the crimson glow filling the valley.
He drove the blade into the ground.
The force of his momentum carved a deep line through the earth before his boots finally stopped against the collapsing soil.
His free hand seized the carriage.
The wooden frame groaned violently beneath the strain.
"Get everyone out!"
His voice thundered across the battlefield.
The mercenaries immediately moved.
One after another, they pulled the horses free while others began evacuating the carriage, but before the Saintess could step down herself, Luca felt something beneath his feet.
A pulse.
Deep.
Ancient.
Alive.
His eyes widened.
That wasn’t the formation.
The crimson light beneath the earth pulsed again.
This time...
Something answered.
A low sound reverberated through the ground.
It sounded almost like breathing.
Luca’s expression became grim.
"Everyone..."
He slowly looked toward the enormous fissure.
"...move away from the carriage."
The mercenaries hesitated.
"Why?"
Luca didn’t answer.
His instincts were screaming.
The Saintess seemed to understand his expression immediately.
"Luca..."
Her voice became quiet.
"What is it?"
He stared into the darkness beneath them.
"I don’t know."
For the first time since the journey began...
There was genuine uncertainty in his voice.
Then the darkness moved.
Something enormous shifted beneath the shattered earth.
A pair of crimson eyes slowly opened deep within the abyss.
The entire valley fell silent.
The mercenaries froze.
The horses stopped struggling.
Even the wind seemed to disappear.
Luca’s grip tightened around his saber.
The creature beneath them slowly raised its head.
Stone cracked.
Ancient earth collapsed.
And from somewhere deep below...
A voice emerged.
Not the voice they had heard before.
This one was older.
Deeper.
Almost impossibly ancient.
"After all these years..."
The crimson eyes focused directly upon the Saintess.
"...you finally returned."
The Saintess’s face lost every trace of colour.
Luca immediately stepped in front of her.
His saber rose.
His crimson eyes hardened.
But then...
The creature laughed.
And beneath the laughter, Luca heard something that made his blood run cold.
A second voice.
A human voice.
One that he recognised.
"Welcome back, Saintess."
Luca’s eyes widened.
Because the voice belonged to someone who should have been nowhere near Raven’s Crossing.