"Never in my life have I experienced such a bipolar tomb as this ever!"
Ena scowled as they both plummeted once again in the tomb, for the third time as well.
She had a lot of free time, so she recalled all her experiences in the mind-awakening tomb and found herself surprised by how often she had fallen during their stay there.
The first was when they had first entered the bipolar tomb; she had nearly lost her life to a pit trap that led to rusted, dull spikes. You might think that it was better than facing clean, sharpened ones, but that was what actually made it worse.
The pain of having a rusted blade tear out your flesh was like a grater peeling away your skin with an uncomfortable sensation. Let's not even mention tetanus.
The second time was when they were reclaiming the star-like artifact. Having the entire floor disappear in the blink of an eye.
Finally, the third, which is ironically their current predicament.
Not to mention that they had been falling for over fourteen hours by now!
If Haruo hadn't had Oscar, who knows how long they could have been falling for. Speaking of which, her supposedly careful duo was currently asleep, dozing off in a tilted position as they descended. And although it was reckless, he had said that waiting for an opportunity was also risky without proper rest.
So he took this chance to rest for a bit.
Ever since they had arrived at Kilian's manor, Haruo hadn't taken a single slight rest for the past nineteen hours. Hunger was also a problem at this point.
He had first mentioned this during the middle of their descent, saying that he was going to sleep for a bit, which quite shocked her, to say the least.
Even now, watching him sleep so diligently with his coat following the wind as they fell, it was still surprising.
But she couldn't blame him, in all honesty.
Haruo had done nearly all the work since first entering, completing puzzles and creating opportunities just for them to escape, sustaining some critical injuries during the process. For her, it was good seeing him rest after everything they had gone through; after all, he wasn't the only one who rested, having taken up two hours in the last room.
Presently, Ena still has no clue how long it will be until they feel the ground again.
Amidst her thoughts, she inspected her hand as it occupied the M-13.
During these past hours, she had experimented with it in multiple ways, but still couldn't get a full grasp of the M-13. Pulling the trigger, nothing; asking questions to Oscar, nothing; and the overall mechanics, nothing; nothing made sense with the gun.
It was too complex for her.
Whenever she saw Haruo using it, he made it look easy and efficient, yet she couldn't even shoot out a single bullet. And now that she mentioned it, she had never really seen him actively reloading and was always ready to shoot.
But after a few recollections, she remembered that another way to supply it was mana, as mentioned by Kilian, yet after trying, she figured it wasn't as simple as she thought.
Glancing at Haruo's unconscious figure, his body was slightly leaning to one side. She wondered how he used the M-13 so proficiently when it was so hard to understand and control.
Through her contemplation, she closed her eyes and crossed her arms in a lotus position.
Slowly but surely, a strange peace overwhelmed her, not that it washed all her frustrations away, but enough to lighten the load of stress that had accumulated.
In fact, it was so peaceful, she almost felt like they were on the ground. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought she was actually falling no more.
Then a realization struck her, quickly opening her eyes to check.
It was ground! Actual ground!
After nearly falling for hours nonstop, the descent finally ended. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Looking around with a cheerful expression, she found Haruo who was still in his beauty sleep. Viewing his pale side profile resting on the ground, with his coat covering him like a warm blanket.
Scratching her neck, Ena hesitated about waking the albino up.
Although she had accompanied Haruo for a few months, she never really knew how he would react if she woke him. Never had she woken up much earlier than him before, and during the times she had, it was always at midnight, not really a need to wake him up.
A serious thought flashed through Ena's mind. "Would he beat me up if I woke him up?" Staring intently at Haruo, giving it great thought.
'It's to get out of the tomb anyway, he wouldn't be mad because of that, right?'
She thought as she slowly reached her hand to Haruo, only to be stopped by his hand gripping her wrist, his eyes wide open as they awkwardly stared at each other.
"Wake up…"
Haruo groaned to himself, picking himself up as he took in the new surroundings.
"When did you wake up?"
"I was awake the entire time, partially anyway."
Ena frowned.
"Why were you pretending to be asleep then?!"
"Did you not hear me? I said, partially awake. I did sleep, but do you think it was comfortable sleeping mid-air? The constant noise of falling and having to sleep with no ground is enough to make one restless. I was lucky I could even somewhat sleep through that." Haruo said, before sighing, then continued.
"How long has it been?"
Ena scoffed, rolling her eyes as she stood up for herself.
"You've slept for more than three hours. Also, your gun is completely useless to me; have it back. It doesn't even follow what I say."
Haruo pressed his shoulder lightly; a soft groan escaped his lips, and he investigated the area.
Underneath their feet was shallow water that reflected the two figures within the place. Haruo noticed the water and inspected his very clothes, yet they did not absorb a single drop.
Whatever was on their feet was a liquid different from water.
Without warning, a large rumble shook the entire place, progressing into something more aggressive as time passed. Then, in the far distance, a colossal serpent-like creature burst out of the thin 'water.'
Despite the creature being miles away, it could encompass a quarter of the area. Its stone-like body was thicker than a mountain, with its length stretching for miles ahead.
It slithered into a circle like a snake capturing its prey, leaving them with a hollow room with its scales as the walls and its head as the ceiling, watching over them with its void eyes.
A low, calm hiss came from the snake, reverberating loudly all around them.
"Nice, just what we need." Ena muttered.
Haruo scratched the back of his head as he sighed at the new predicament at hand.
Then it rose. At the very middle of the room, a hundred meters away from them, an object rose from the shallow water; its side casting the excess liquid back to its origin before revealing itself to the duo.
However, aside from its subtle silhouette, it was quite difficult for them to make out the object because of the faint darkness.
Fortunately, dazzling golden streaks of light radiated from the serpent's eyes, twirling into the shape of a helix around the object.
That light was enough for them to identify what rose from the shallow black water.
It was a jar-shaped object with an obsidian texture for its shell, shining vigorously in the presence of the golden helix.
Along with the texture, there was a single smooth marking on the jar, taking the form of a serpent wrapping the jar until it reached its tail and bit it. The smooth texture of the serpent contrasted perfectly with its rough texture, allowing one to distinguish the serpent.
"…!"
It was obvious what they were witnessing; it was another artifact, and Ena, recalling Haruo's words from back then, had said that the artifact they had fought multiple golems for was a decoy for the "real" artifact.
Along with it, he said, if the artifact was really a "decoy", then the real one holds even more value than the one they have right now!
In Ena's mind, that could only mean one thing…
The artifact in front of them was highly likely to be a mythic-tier, SSS!
Drool fell from her lips as greed welled up within her. For a moment, Ena foresaw a future where she saw herself swimming in piles of silver and gold, laughing heartily with wine at hand!
"A-An… An artifact!!! HAHAHA, WE'RE RICH! I'M RICH AGAIN!!!" Ena happily cheered, her voice reaching the end of the room, echoing throughout.
"He… Hehehehe, Don't worry, Dad, I'll restore the Hyakagure household to its glory once again!" She quietly muttered while fantasizing about hugging the artifact.
And while she was amidst her fantasy, Haruo was in deep thought, a quiet, skeptical frown forming on his face. Even though he was correct with the decoy, he never truly expected one to begin with, even doubting himself after finding out the one they originally found was SS-tier.
Everything was too good to be true…
As a matter of fact, this situation was almost impossible, if not impossible!
Finding a tomb suddenly that was close to Kilian's portal, then facing a hard, but to find a legendary-tier artifact, was a surprisingly easy challenge, and falling for hours that should have been their death instead of a reward, especially a mythical-tier artifact at that!
It almost seemed like a setup set by Kilian to mess with them; it wouldn't even be a surprise if it was.
"I don't trust it."
"You don't trust it? Genuinely, what the FUCK do you mean?!" Ena said, grabbing his collar, looking at him dead in the eye.
"This seems way too good to be true. The chances of it being a trap are higher than it being an artifact."
"TRAP?! We fell for 14 hours straight! If this were really a trap, then why trap us in the first place when they could have killed us with the fall itself!!"
"What if the exit from before wasn't the exit? But a trap, and the only way to get out was falling through here? And if you tell me that's way more believable than finding a mythic-tier artifact by mistake."
Haruo said, pushing her hands away as he faced the artifact with even more skepticism.
"Even then, do you see a way out of this place?!"
"For all we know, Kilian has set this place up."
"I don't care whether this is a setup by Kilian or if we actually found it by chance. Both options still lead to us having that artifact! Besides! Wasn't it you who implied that there was a 'real' artifact here? Now that we're here, you're backing out??"
Haruo sighed, furrowing his brow. "I really hope you're correct about this."
Under her persistent persuasion, the duo hesitantly made their way to the artifact. Ena's face slowly brightened with each step, whilst Haruo's was darkening.
Just around 20 meters away, Ena couldn't hold herself back anymore and sprinted at the artifact. Her footsteps splashed the black water under her, her greed growing just as the silhouette of the artifact did.
On the 28th step, she felt the ground disappear; below her was devoid of matter, and only darkness.
"Huh—UGH!"
Luckily, Haruo grabbed her by the back of her collar just before she could fall into the dark abyss. However, because of her being pulled by the back of the collar, she felt a slight pang of tightness in her Adam's apple.
Carefully, he dragged her to the edge where she could both plant her feet and retain her balance; only then did he let go.
"We're still in a tomb, and yet you're rushing to the most suspicious thing in the room? Are you trying to die?"
Ena coughed violently, grabbing her Adam's apple to caress it. Haruo scoffed at her pitiful state until he changed his gaze toward the ground ahead. There was nothing beyond the edge, only another pit to fall into.
He stared at the floating artifact. Its distance was exactly ten meters from them. The artifact was in the dead center. It was a perfect circle. He concluded it was at least 20 meters tall and 20 meters wide.
"Oscar."
Not even a second later, blue light rushed toward the artifact and scanned it perfectly in grids.
[Analysis complete:]
[Name: Sacred blessings.
Description: After the destruction caused by the treacherous monster, Kilrum, the knowledge of artifact creation ceased to exist.
Unwilling to succumb to his ultimate moments in darkness, Sergio, who witnessed the fall of the center of all artifacts, his hometown, his people, and his sworn brother, dedicated his last breath to his last creation.
As the last person who held the idea of artifact construction, he created the last and final artifact.
His blood tears became its enchantment, and his heart was its purpose. And finally, after hours of gruesome refining. He created sacred blessings…
Thank you… !̶͍͗͗̃?̷̞͇̤̻͆̂̓͘!̶͉͍̀͛?̸̧̬̗̝͍͐̇͝!̷̰͍͕̀̔͗
Created: ?̷̹̾̊̍̀̍͒̔͐̏̀̀̋̒͠?̷̨͖̯̼̭̪̪̙̀͆͝?̷̠͋́̌̅̿̑͝ͅ?̵̧̲̩̲̇̈́̈̊̂̔̐̌̀̄͑͌̀̚̚?̷̹̮̦̜͙̞̠̓̉͜]
Haruo's complexion grew paler, his expression unreadable as he viewed the analysis in front of him.
Ena, who had just recovered, stared uncomfortably with a mix of shock in her eyes as she stared at Haruo. This was the first time she had seen him express so much before. Carefully, she turned her head to the screen and saw a sight she would never forget.
[Rank: Z / Ultimate.]
"W-What…?"
Seeing the rank alone was enough to make her pass out; never had she seen such a sight.
"Haha… This must be a mistake, Z? That's like the rank above SSS, a whole rank away from SS… Are you sure this thing works?"
Ena said, nudging his shoulder with a skeptical look; however, his expression didn't change. Then she realized the severity of the situation.
Hiss!!
The colossal serpent hissed violently towards the duo, its intense killing intent surging to the extreme as it opened its maw wide, revealing its sharpened fangs that could penetrate through a thousand mountains in a single bite.
With the situation changing, Haruo acted quickly and took Ena's wrist along with him as he leapt from the edge and reached toward the obsidian-like vase into his arms.
Shifting his weight to his lower body, they plummeted through the dark abyss and hoped for the best.
The enormous serpent then began moving, its eyes no longer emitting the radiant glow they once did, and changed to their former hue, a dark, void-like color that was even darker than the abyss they were falling into.
"A Z-TIER, IS THIS REAL?! ISN'T THERE LIKE ONLY 100 HUNDRED RECORDED Z-TIER ARTIFACTS IN THE WORLD??!"
"There's a giant serpent hunting us down; think of the problem ahead of us right now!"
Gazing upward, Haruo took in a horrible sight. The serpent contracted its neck backward and then lunged forward toward the duo, its head bashing through the hole and forcefully tearing the surrounding area to fit itself.
And at that very instant, the serpent had caught up to them, their figures already within its maw.
{With this, I repaid my favor.}
A hoarse but clear voice sounded through the obsidian vase.
The serpent, which was just a second away from swallowing them both, hastily shrank to the size of their bodies, circling the Duo at mach speeds before dissipating into a golden light and getting absorbed by the artifact.
More lights surrounded the vase, swirling around the duo like a newly born sun.
{I've done all that I can. Are you satisfied now, Haruo?}
Hearing his name through the vase, Haruo widened his eyes in shock. Amidst their shock, their bodies began to emit a soft glow, steadily brightening with each passing breath, until they were completely devoured by it and disappeared completely from the tomb.
Without warning, they reappeared in an open area with blue skies all around.
Still being on the air, they crashed into the soft grass, splashing a bit of dirt onto their clothes.
"Seems like you found something interesting…"
Kilian muttered in his annoying voice, his figure shadowing theirs as he bent down to look at them with a sly smirk.
They had exited the tomb.