The location of the Knight King's Tomb was a place the Chamber of Commerce would have never imagined.
In the north of Kazimierz, there was a village called Dripsui Village.
This village was small and remote, beyond the protection of the Kazimierz knights. Not far from Dripsui Village was a cemetery dedicated to burying the fallen Campaign Knights. Decades ago, Kazimierz was plagued by constant warfare, and a large number of Campaign Knights sacrificed their lives every day. Only some of them had families who could be found to take their bodies home; the others, whose families couldn't be located, were collectively interred on a vast plain outside Dripsui Village.
After several decades.
The vast plain outside Dripsui Village had transformed into a veritable knights' cemetery.
Although, with the end of the wars, fewer and fewer Campaign Knights died, this graveyard, which buried countless unknown Campaign Knights who had served Kazimierz, had long been forgotten by all. No one tended to it, and it was overgrown with weeds. In the past, the villagers of Dripsui Village would come to sweep the graves once a week.
However, as time passed, the frequency lessened, until now, when they might only come to clean once every few months. The younger generation no longer came at all; only the older generation, who had experienced the war, still did.
And the Knight King's Tomb...
Was right beneath this Campaign Knight cemetery.
Honestly.
You could say the most dangerous place is the safest place. Precisely because of this, the Chamber of Commerce's search for all these years had yielded nothing. It wasn't until a few months ago that someone stumbled upon some strange clues by chance. For example, antique objects from the Knight King's era were found in some of the Dripsui Village homes. The villagers couldn't explain it, only saying they were heirlooms. Furthermore, in the decades spanning the vicinity of Dripsui Village and the knights' cemetery, not a single Catastrophe had ever occurred.
On Terra, where Catastrophes are frequent, this phenomenon was quite rare.
Lucas Reeve took the [Stardust] from the Grand Knight Territory to Dripsui Village in the north.
Since they knew the Knight King's Tomb might be dangerous—after all, even an experienced explorer like Magallan had met with disaster—a smaller group was more convenient. Therefore, Jessica and the others did not go, remaining at the Raythean Industries branch. Coincidentally, Jessica also wanted to chat with this Miss Sona.
So, the only ones accompanying Lucas Reeve were Surtr, Skadi, Laurentina, and Dusk.
The Nine-Colored Deer, as always, had no interest in Lucas Reeve's or the others' activities and didn't want to get involved. According to the Nine-Colored Deer, she frequently and deliberately avoids major causal entanglements.
"Do you get the feeling that, with Nian gone, it's suddenly a lot quieter? Maybe even miss her a little?"
The [Stardust] arrived at the outskirts of Dripsui Village, and everyone stepped out of the aircraft.
Laurentina said with a slight smile.
It was true.
Without Nian and Mc-Lao-Ba, it felt like cooking without oil and salt. It was edible, but it felt like something was missing.
Along the way.
Aside from Laurentina occasionally chiming in, barely anyone spoke.
Surtr...
Was a bit sullen.
Skadi, slightly the same.
Dusk...
Even more sullen.
Lucas Reeve was contemplating subsequent matters. Only Laurentina was talking to herself out of boredom, and the most crucial part was, no one was paying attention to her, making it somewhat awkward.
"No. When Nian is here, I just find it noisy. This atmosphere is quite nice."
The cyan dragon tail behind Dusk swished back and forth. She looked around, bored, because this place was too remote, and her phone had no signal.
"Is that so? Your tail seems to be telling me you're lying, Dusk-bao~ You still miss Nian a lot, don't you?"
Laurentina flashed a cunning smile, and then...
Boom!!
A loud crash.
Dusk's tail slammed hard onto the ground, and the power of a god instantly turned the spot behind her into a sizable crater.
"Absolutely not!!"
"She's at Yumen City hauling bricks and working construction, while I'm perfectly relaxed!"
Dusk retorted forcefully, tsundere-style.
However, everyone could see through her clumsy acting.
Dusk actually missed Nian a lot.
After all, when Nian used to be around, Dusk would usually lie in her room, and Nian would proactively go find Dusk to chat. After Nian left for Yumen City, apart from Jessica, others rarely went to find Dusk. That's why Dusk would lie on the living room sofa playing her NS, using the excuse that sitting in her room for too long was uncomfortable. After all, how could a god possibly get uncomfortable.
At this moment. The perimeter of Dripsui Village was already surrounded by group after group of Kazimierz police officers. Outsiders were not allowed in, and the villagers of Dripsui Village were not allowed out.
However, this method, designed to stop ordinary people, naturally couldn't stop Lucas Reeve and the others. They didn't even bother to hide deliberately, simply using their abilities to veil the senses of all the ordinary people present. Lucas Reeve and the group then successfully walked right in, clear as day.
The entrance to the Knight King's Tomb was beneath the central ancestral hall in Dripsui Village. If they guessed correctly, Dripsui Village was very likely the home of the tomb guardians from the ancient Knight King's era. It's just that, with the passage of time—far too much time—and various upheavals, this mission had gradually been forgotten by later generations.
There were many guards within Dripsui Village. Besides the forces from both the Chamber of Commerce and the Supervisory Commission, who had surrounded the village with three layers inside and three layers out, even ordinary villagers were not allowed to leave their homes at will.
Lucas Reeve and the others infiltrated easily. According to information Lucas Reeve obtained by casually confusing someone, the entrance to the Knight King's Tomb was beneath the statue in the ancestral hall.
When Lucas Reeve and the others entered the ancestral hall, the statue inside had already been violently pushed aside, revealing an entrance beneath it.
The entrance wasn't large; only one person could enter at a time.
It was hard to imagine that this was actually the tomb entrance of Kazimierz's founding monarch, the Knight King.
According to the guidance of the causal threads.
Magallan was somewhere very, very deep below.
The group descended the spiral stone staircase one by one. This staircase was very, very long, so long that they lost count of how many circles they had walked. It was hard to imagine just how much manpower had been spent excavating it back then. The rotating staircase was very dark, with only an oil lamp, burning for who knows how many years, visible every long distance. They could just barely make out the stone steps. The atmosphere was heavy, somewhat gloomy and terrifying.
No one spoke.
Lucas Reeve roughly estimated that they had already descended several hundred meters, but it still seemed like a long way to the bottom. No wonder the Chamber of Commerce couldn't find it after searching for so many years. At such a depth, even Terra's most advanced reconnaissance devices would be unable to find it. Without digging straight down, or finding the entrance, it was basically impossible to locate. Besides, who in this day and age would, without any prior knowledge, idly dig down a thousand meters?
"This grave mound is a bit... grandiose."
Laurentina couldn't help but roast. Since Nian wasn't around, the role of the group's designated roaster fell to Laurentina.
Skadi said: "Is it possible that this is called a 'tomb'? A 'grave mound' is the part that bulges up."
Lucas Reeve suddenly thought of something and asked doubtfully: "By the way, what do you Aegir do when someone... passes away?"
"Er... toss 'em in the water to feed the fish."
Everyone: "???"
Laurentina quickly laughed, "Just kidding, how could we be that cruel. You have to understand, Aegir is a nation that pursues peak efficiency. Everything requires maximum efficiency, and corpses also have their uses. Simply burying them wastes space. You know, Aegir all live in special underwater cities, similar to Mobile Cities, where every inch is precious. Where would there be spare space to bury bodies? So, we generally use a special cremation method. It serves as fuel and can provide energy, killing two birds with one stone. The ashes are usually scattered into the sea. 'Dust to dust, earth to earth,' as they say. In reality, Aegir public cemeteries also require space."
"Er... isn't that basically equivalent to tossing them in the water to feed the fish?"
Surtr thought for a moment, her words astonishing.
Everyone: "..."
"So, if a god dies, how are they buried?"
Laurentina asked Dusk, equally curious.
"Gods don't die."
Dusk replied indifferently.
Dusk's single sentence easily ended the topic. This made Skadi and Laurentina suddenly realize that perhaps after several hundred years, when they were long gone, these three might still look exactly the same, dancing on their graves. They felt envious. They all looked about the same, so how could these three live forever?
As the group chatted idly, they finally reached the end of the spiral stone staircase.
At the bottom was a flat area. Looking out, it was as vast as a city-sized labyrinth.
However, since people from the Chamber of Commerce had already sent countless teams to investigate inside half a year ago, many of the traps had already been triggered. Therefore, Lucas Reeve and the others could walk through this massive city with relative confidence.
"Huh? Strange."
"There are so many guards outside, how come there's no one in here?"
Laurentina asked in confusion.
"I heard the Chamber of Commerce already found the Holy Sword. The Knight King's ultimate treasure has been found, so there's no need to continue spending massive manpower to explore."
Lucas Reeve and the others walked slowly through the city. In the tomb's corridors, countless bodies could be seen. No one had touched these bodies, likely out of fear of triggering more traps, so they were left to die in this miserable state, impossible to even retrieve.
Judging by their attire, many of these bodies were explorers, similar to Magallan.
Sure enough.
The news Magallan received back then was just bait deliberately released by the Chamber of Commerce, intended to lure explorers like her to come and serve as guinea pigs to trigger traps. To be honest, to have survived such devious traps, Magallan was truly lucky to be alive. Moreover, it seemed she had survived for a long time; since Magallan apparently set out half a year ago, she had been in this Knight King's Tomb for at least several months.
Impressive.
"So, where is Mc-Lao-Ba? Can the causal threads see her?"
Dusk also copied Lucas Reeve's nickname, calling Magallan "Mc-Lao-Ba."
"Yes."
Lucas Reeve nodded.
Suddenly, he looked up and smiled.
"As expected. There's a reason the Knight King was able to unite all of Kazimierz. He truly wasn't an ordinary mortal. Within this tomb, some faint traces of divine power remain."
"Moreover, I estimate that, as the founding emperor of a country, praised by later generations as the most benevolent monarch, how could he bear to set so many traps to let his descendants sacrifice themselves in vain? And if the Holy Sword was merely, as the myths say, unable to find an inheritor, then the Knight King had no need to bring the Holy Sword into the tomb with him. Why not leave it in Kazimierz, allowing all future knights the chance to try? What if someone capable of pulling it out appeared?"
"So?"
Skadi leaned closer to Lucas Reeve, her big eyes filled with confusion.
"I think the Knight King never wanted his descendants to find the Holy Sword. Or rather, he didn't want the Holy Sword to descend upon this world again."
"Huh? Why?"
Lucas Reeve shook his head: "I don't know either. We'd have to ask the Knight King about that. Moreover, the Knight King's strength back then had likely already reached the level of a god. However, a human's god-level standard is different from a Behemoth's god-level standard. Behemoths are pure gods, possessing divine immortality, whereas a human at god-level merely possesses equivalent strength, but is, in the end, still human, and will have a limited lifespan."
While Lucas Reeve was explaining, the group had already walked a long way through the city.
These traps were truly absurd.
The bizarre traps along the way reminded Lucas Reeve of the almost insane level design in the *I Wanna Be The...* game series. All sorts of bizarre traps. It seems the Knight King was dead set on not letting anyone enter back then. However, this meticulous arrangement was still overcome, and the Chamber of Commerce obtained the Holy Sword. One wonders what the Knight King would think if he knew.
They reached a fork in the road.
"This is about it. We're probably going to fall. Don't resist."
Just as Lucas Reeve finished speaking.
Just as Lucas Reeve had predicted.
The floor opened to both sides, and in an instant, everyone *swooshed* down, sliding along an incredibly steep, smooth stone slide toward an unknown destination.
Had they been ordinary people, they would have already started screaming.
However, Lucas Reeve and the others all had calm faces; they even looked a little bored.
Their expressions were just like a group of fighter pilots riding a roller coaster.
Their faces were written all over with indifference.
————————
"Ugh!"
Magallan had been stuck in this stone room for several months. The room had only one door, and outside that door was a huge open area. In that open area was an extremely terrifying, enormous monster, which had made Magallan decisively choose to continue squatting in the stone room.
Fortunately, ever since the trip to Bolívar a few years ago, Magallan had developed the habit of always carrying a large amount of food. It was thanks to this food that Magallan had managed to endure for several months.
"I wonder if Jessica and the others received my distress signal..."
Magallan muttered to herself in despair.
Yesterday, Magallan's emergency communicator suddenly got a tiny bit of signal. She had immediately sent out a distress signal. However, she only had time to type "Save me" and didn't have time to write the address. But Magallan wasn't worried about the address; even if Lucas Reeve wasn't around, with the Nine-Colored Deer present, they should be able to find her easily. She was just afraid they hadn't received the distress signal.
"It's fine."
Magallan forced herself to take comfort.
"Before I left, Miss Nine-Colored Deer told my fortune. This trip would be 'frightening but not fatal.' It's already been frightening, so someone should be coming to save me."
Magallan put her hands together and began to pray.
"Spirits of heaven and earth, heavens bless me, O Lord, I am your most pious believer, Buddha have mercy, please hurry up and drop someone from the sky who can save me."
Just as Magallan finished speaking.
Suddenly.
A large stone block in the ceiling right above Magallan opened from the middle.
*Rumble~*
And the whole lot of them smashed down onto Magallan.
"We've arrived?"
Dusk looked around. This was a stone room containing quite a few daily necessities.
"This aura!"
Skadi nodded: "Miss Mc-Lao-Ba seems to have just been here. The aura is very strong."
"So where is she?"
Laurentina frowned.
Surtr, who had been silent all this time, lowered her head and said slowly: "Is it possible that... she's beneath us?"
"Hmm?"
The group looked down.
Magallan was lying miserably on the ground, and everyone was standing on top of her.
"Urk! I'm... dying!"
Magallan uttered her last words in the most tragic tone she could muster, her left hand stretched forward, index finger extended, lying on the ground in a classic pose. Then, with a *pfft*, she went still.
"..."
"Old Mc!!!"