Chapter 145: Obelisk
“What is the stone tablet?” Kael asked. His keen detective instincts suspected that it was related to his investigation.
“I don’t know for certain. I only know...”
Mona leaned against the metal bedpost, recounting her investigation with a frown.
Originally, she had planned to lure Wayne out of Londan through the missing pet case and investigate her mission target thoroughly with the help of the church’s arrangements. The location was already decided—Eclipse Town. If nothing unexpected happened, the plan would be foolproof.
As expected, the unexpected happened. While making preparations for her investigation, she accidentally discovered Mayor Wales’s dirty laundry. At first, she didn’t take the mayor and his accomplices seriously, merely a nuisance that wouldn’t affect her in-depth investigation into Wayne. She never imagined that the minor issue would nearly kill her.
“Based on my search at the mayor’s mansion, the goldmine isn’t real. There was never any gold from the beginning. The mayor bought the land to search for the stone tablet...”
Mona continued the story slowly. The mayor was in cahoots with the necromancer, providing the Church of Death with funds in exchange for protection. The one looking for the stone tablet was Dunn, and the church to which he belonged.
“The mayor locked down the mining area long-term while he secretly ordered excavations to be done. When word spread, it became rumors about a goldmine.”
“The mayor doesn’t know much, so I found no additional clues at his place. But the Church of Death has invested heavily in him. They likely came for the stone tablet in the first place. I was worried that if I intervened even a little later, they would seize the stone tablet, so I took the risk and entered the mining area.”
She felt much better as she spoke. No longer suffering from headaches and dizziness, she could now think properly.
She might be imagining things. Perhaps no one had touched her behind earlier; she had merely dreamed of her master while unconscious due to thinking of him too much. But just in case...
“Which one of you carried me here?”
“Him!” Kael immediately sold Wayne out. “You know me. Touching an ugly woman like you makes me sick.”
“...”
Mona’s eyes twitched. She didn’t try to correct Kael’s skewed standards of beauty, instead studying Wayne intently. There were differences in his build and her master’s build, but it wouldn’t be difficult for a mage to adjust their physique.
Her heart skipped a beat, her gaze sharpening. She had peeked at Wayne’s behind before, and the perky curve did ring familiar to her.
So, was Wayne actually Bruce?
“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?” Wayne scratched his face. “If you’re going to thank me, that’s unnecessary. Let’s be practical. I pulled you out of the mine and saved your life, so you should just calculate your worth and pay me accordingly.”
“Even so, I need to thank you.” Mona smiled. She wouldn’t be able to confirm his identity through questioning, so she had to find the opportunity for a hands-on confirmation.
At this moment, she had already forgotten about her mission to investigate Wayne for her church. It wasn’t important, at least not as much as confirming who Bruce was.
“About the money...”
“That can wait. The pressing matter is finding the stone tablet.”
Mona looked at Wayne. Perhaps she was imagining it, but the more she suspected him, the more he seemed like Bruce. He was fearless about sacrifice and never backed down in the face of potential enthrallment to a demon’s thoughts...
Wayne shared many characteristics with Bruce. If he were indeed the person she was looking for, then the two people she had been searching for would be one and the same.
She sucked in a sharp breath. She shouldn’t have been so proper. She should’ve caught him by surprise and pinched him that day.
Meanwhile, Kael and Wayne were staring at each other. They were both practical people, and because the risk of the mine collapsing was too great, both wanted the other to enter with Mona. However, out of their own interest, neither wanted Mona, representing the Church of Heavenly Father, to obtain the stone tablet.
What a dilemma!
After weighing the potential risks and gains, Kael decisively withdrew from the competition. He had joined the Free Mage Alliance to make money, and he genuinely enjoyed the challenge of being a detective. There was no reason for him to risk his life for a stone tablet of unknown purpose.
Wayne was even more conflicted. Element Mountain, stone tablet, treasure emerging... No matter how he looked at it, this seemed like a scenario where a great opportunity was presenting itself. He would feel the loss keenly if he left something valuable behind. Withdrawing now could lead to a future where he cried himself to sleep every night.
But what if the mine collapsed?
Caution was a matter of principle, and a principle could be broken either zero times or countless times. Once a precedent was set, there would be no stopping the same thing from happening in the future.
Mona shakily stood up, taking a mine map out of her clothes. “There’s no time to hesitate. The necromancer has already notified his accomplices, and they could arrive at any moment. Look around. Is there a telephone nearby? I have to contact the cathedral...”
“By the time reinforcements come from the cathedral, we will have already been turned into skeleton soldiers by Death mages.” Wayne gritted his teeth and stomped. “Let’s go to the mine right now. We’ll find the stone tablet before the Church of Death arrives. No matter what, we can’t let those evil bastards get the treasure.”
Mona nodded vehemently. Yes, exactly.
“I’m not going.” Kael shook his head. Even if they found the stone tablet, it wouldn’t be his. He was unwilling to bear the risk of venturing deep into the mine.
Mona didn’t force him. “Then, please go to another exit and create an opening there. If the mine entrance gets blocked by Death followers, at least Wayne and I will be able to leave through another route.”
Kael nodded in agreement, but added a caveat, “I’ll be upfront. If the main forces of the Church of Death come, I can’t possibly be their match. Don’t count on me to buy you time.”
“Just set up a few traps. I’ll see that as you having done your best.”
“That won’t be a problem.”
***
Night fell. Black clouds obscured the stars above the eerily quiet Silent Hill. Dressed in miners’ clothes, Wayne followed Mona into the mine, setting up several trigger traps along the way in case the main forces of the Church of Death arrived.
Mona, with her excellent sense of direction, followed the map to guide Wayne through the dim tunnels. She tried several times to slow her pace so that he would walk in the front, but all attempts failed. When she slowed down, Wayne slowed down, and when she sped up, he sped up, firmly keeping her in front of him.
That was very much like her master, too!
They got to the end of the route with electrical wiring. Darkness lay ahead. Mona took a short break to recover her thoughts. While she couldn’t engage in intense combat, it wouldn’t be a problem for her to light the way.
(・・)
However, her light flickered on and off, leaving Wayne speechless for a moment. He pulled out a flashlight from his lower back and handed it to her. “Save your mana when you can. Think more flexibly. Don’t get stuck in the perspective of a mage.”
Mona took the flashlight, feeling like Bruce had scolded her.
Yay~
She hurriedly shook the strange thoughts from her mind. It would be unbecoming of her to get happy so readily. She wasn’t a pervert. She would have plenty of opportunities to cheer once she confirmed that Wayne was Bruce.
The path ahead was collapsed in many parts. Mona had clashed with Dunn several times while being pursued by him, severely depleting her thoughts. Dunn had also exhausted his mana, which was why he summoned divine power when facing Wayne.
Of course, he didn’t summon the divine power of the Goddess of Death, or his body wouldn’t have withstood it.
“I didn’t have time to explore the area beyond this part,” Mona said. “I collapsed a tunnel with an explosion to scare off the enemy.”
Wayne’s eyes twitched, impressed by her courage. She had a strong heart in that bosom. If it were him, he wouldn’t dare to do the same. A cave-in would’ve killed not only her enemies, but also herself... Ah, she might actually be aiming for mutual destruction at the time.
“I’ll look.” He pressed a hand to the ground, planting a seed and controlling a vine to grow out of the soil. With the same method he’d used to locate Mona, he explored the path ahead.
His pants got pulled taut as he bent down, immediately drawing Mona’s eyes. By her estimation, that bottom seemed a size smaller than Bruce’s, which would make sense when his overall build had been shrunk down.
She felt a headache brewing. If that were the case, she wouldn’t find her master even if she touched all three million men in Londan on the bottom. What a difficult situation she was put in!
Wayne searched the area, extending his vines to the surrounding maze of mining tunnels, sometimes backtracking and other times hitting walls. He barely managed to clear the area.
“Let’s go. Next spot.”
***
Outside the mine.
Nearly an hour after Wayne and Mona ventured deep into the tunnels, Kael followed the map and found the other mine exits that Wales and his men had blown up. The collapse was so severe that he was too exhausted to move after barely clearing two passages. The process exhausted both his physical strength and mana. If he had known things would turn out like this, he wouldn’t have come to Silent Hill.
“!”
Suddenly, he sensed the disturbance of a triggered trap. He concealed his presence and looked at the distant mine entrance.
“Already? And...”
There were many of them. Whether there were over a hundred was unclear, but there were definitely more than fifty.
“You two had better hurry. Enemy reinforcements are coming!”
He gritted his teeth, darting into the darkness of the night and carefully sneaking his way toward the mine entrance. While he had verbally disagreed to help, his body was honest. He would block the Church of Death’s advance to the best of his abilities, shouldering some burden for Wayne and Mona.
At the mine entrance, three trucks pulled up. Close to sixty people jumped out of the crowded trucks, each wearing safety helmets and carrying flashlights. The trucks also carried green wooden crates containing munitions.
Given the complex situation in the mine, no open flames should be allowed inside. The weapons and equipment were meant to establish a perimeter around the mine to guard the entrance.
An elderly man in a black suit stood at the main entrance, holding a walking stick with an upright posture. His clothing and hair were immaculate, his black dress shoes polished to a shine. He had stern facial features and a dignified set of eyes and brows. This was Bishop Sebastian, whom Dunn had been desperately waiting for.
“We’re too late. Dunn has returned to the goddess’s embrace...”
Sebastian caught the scent of blood in the air, tracking it to the nearby ground. A shadow passed through his eyes.
Though Wayne had buried the corpse, the disposal method was too crude and simple to fool an old fox like Sebastian. With only one glance, he knew that Dunn had died at the hands of a Church of Nature’s mage.
Death and Nature were irreconcilable enemies. Dunn’s death only added to their existing grudges. Sebastian gripped his walking stick tightly, swearing to turn their enemies into his skeleton soldiers.
“Kim, have your people guard this place. Don’t let a mouse slip through. Set up the perimeter and check the surroundings again for all entrances into the mine.”
“Oscar, Mana, bring your people and follow me. No matter who we encounter, show no mercy.”
Sebastian issued the orders, glaring coldly at the worthless guards sleeping soundly on both sides of the mine. Those were Wales’s lackeys, almost all wearing police uniforms. Mayor Wales’s tyrannical exploitation of his people provided the Church of Death with an endless supply of funds, and it was only possible because these thugs bullied the residents.
They were all heroes to the Church of Death! Even without achievements, they had put in the hard work and thus deserved rewards.
Sebastian didn’t find Wales anywhere, which angered him further. “I won’t hold you accountable for your failure. I’ll give you a chance to get revenge...”
“With your own hands!”
He tapped his walking stick lightly on the ground. A wisp of Death energy spread and morphed into grey hands, enveloping Wales’s lackeys. Flesh and blood were peeled off, and a metallic smell permeated the air.
As the rotting blood and pus sank into the ground, a row of skeleton soldiers removed their ribs to use as swords, following their master’s command into the mine.
“Go. Find the Nature mage who killed you...”
The dozen or so skeleton soldiers moved at an unremarkable speed, slower than an ordinary person. By the time they finished searching the complex mine, the Nature mage would’ve long escaped with the stone tablet.
Sebastian knew that well. Muttering magical incantations, he waved his walking stick to slice open the space before him. Like a fierce sword, the stick tore open a curtain of darkness. Pale skeleton soldiers emerged one by one with white flames flickering in their eye sockets. They were more vigorous than the dozen unfortunate thugs earlier, clearly elite units.
These were far from the strongest units Sebastian had raised. His most prized creations were the three riders. He had once been fortunate enough to meet the Death Knight in the great catacombs beneath Palis. The knight’s heroic appearance impressed him so much that he used the knight as a template to create three cavalrymen with enormous effort.
They all possessed sophisticated intelligence and had been exposed to dense Death energy, allowing each of them to fight alone and take the head of a Silver-rank mage from among ten thousand troops as easily as reaching into a bag.
The terrain of the mine wasn’t favorable to the riders, so he didn’t show his finest hand.
Two teams of skeleton soldiers gathered. As Death energy spread from the walking stick, the white flames in their eye sockets danced, and they charged into the depths of the mine with impressive agility. Through their lifeless eyes, Sebastian was able to extend his perception and see every detail inside the mine.
“Great Death Knight, I’ll complete your order and obtain the stone tablet, delivering it to Palis...”
***
Deep in the mine, Wayne carefully followed behind Mona. The vines could only explore the terrains, not guarantee safety. Just in case, he went for his old tactic: when in doubt, protect teammates by keeping them in front of him.
It was a good idea, but it exposed his habits. His strong personal style made Mona increasingly feel like her master was right behind her.
They continued forward for another three hundred meters. The tunnel narrowed to allow only one person to pass at a time, and the air was murky with toxic gases that made their breathing grow heavy. Wayne shook his head; it would be unwise to continue forward.
The tunnel was so narrow that it would trigger claustrophobia. However, Mona insisted. They had explored all other areas, leaving only this part untouched. Moreover, the traps they set up were being triggered one by one, announcing the presence of the Church of Death right behind them. Retreating now would make all their effort a waste.
After taking another few dozen steps, they were practically squeezing themselves through cracks in the rock. Mona shone her flashlight in and saw only a patch of darkness at the end of the narrow passage.
Unlike the surrounding dimness, the darkness was thicker, and light couldn’t penetrate it. There was a vast space inside.
“Found it.” Mona stepped on the collapsed rubble and pushed herself into the crevice in the stone wall with difficulty. Her light hit the ground to reveal neatly arranged slabs. This was it!
Behind her, Wayne briefly merged with the Book of Greed to turn himself boneless so that he could slide along the crevice, following Mona from a safe distance of two meters into the pitch-black underground space.
The flashlight had a limited range. Mona shone it around, but saw nothing.
Wayne squinted, channeling his mana into his eyes to enhance his super vision. A grey three-dimensional silhouette appeared before him. It looked like an abandoned underground ruin, reminiscent of the lair of the Thousand-Eyed Demon. But unlike the city summoned by the demon, this city had a different architectural style.
It could be described in one word—big!
Towering walls with exaggerated pillars standing at over a hundred meters tall, as well as an obelisk piercing into the peak of Element Mountain in the center of the city. It appeared to be a city where giants inhabited.
Were there giants in the Chosen Land? No, except in novels, Wayne had never found proof of giants’ existence in any historical records.
This ruin... belonged to another world!!