Uneven cave walls, worn-down mining carts, abandoned oil lamps, and tracks stretching endlessly into the darkness.
Everything Rhodes saw resembled an old mine shaft. It was impossible not to suspect that the arena had been built on top of a long-abandoned mine.
He followed the rails for a while. Gradually, the sounds of construction faded behind him.
As always, he released a Scuttle to scout ahead and summoned a Wraith to watch his back.
Even though he was confident in his strength, entering an unknown environment without precautions was out of the question.
The tunnel wound on and on. No matter how far he walked, it seemed to continue endlessly.
The darkness made no difference to the Crab, whose vision ignored the lack of light entirely.
Rhodes sat atop a Krug, a compass in hand, checking his direction at intervals.
Judging from his calculations, despite the tunnel's twists and turns, he should now be beneath the capital.
Beneath Fiore's royal capital.
"A mine shaft converted into a secret passage leading directly into the capital?" Rhodes frowned. "Is someone planning a rebellion? Or did the royal family build an escape route?"
He continued forward for several more minutes until the Crab's shared vision suddenly opened up.
The cramped tunnel widened into a massive cavern. Even though it was underground, the area was faintly illuminated by a natural, eerie glow.
Startled by the abrupt change, the Crab stopped and crept along the cavern's edge, scouting while giving Rhodes time to observe.
To better blend into the environment, it shifted color from purple back to its natural mossy green.
The cavern was immense. It no longer felt like a cave, but like a deliberately constructed underground hall.
Everywhere lay enormous mounds of stone.
No. Not stone.
Rhodes froze.
Those shapes were not rocks at all. They were dragon skeletons.
Some were sprawled on their stomachs, others collapsed on their backs. Some were half buried, some broken, some incomplete.
This was a dragon graveyard.
To put it bluntly, it was a mass grave of dragons.
"Did Fiore dig up a dragon tomb…?"
Rhodes became even more cautious.
He sent Wolves and Raptors ahead to scout while he stayed where he was. In a place like this, he had the unnerving feeling that the dragon bones might start moving at any moment.
He waited quietly for nearly ten minutes. Nothing reacted. Nothing moved.
Only then did Rhodes carefully enter the enormous cavern.
Seeing it directly was vastly different from watching through the Crab's eyes.
The giant beasts that should have inspired awe and terror now lay motionless. Rhodes examined several of the fully exposed skeletons.
Almost all of them had fractures, both old and new. The new ones were likely from someone removing bones for research. The old ones might have been injuries suffered in life… or damage after death.
After thinking for a moment, Rhodes cast Void Vision once to ensure there were no living people nearby.
Then he called out softly, "Mountain Dragon."
The laziest but most reliable creature for something like this.
The Mountain Dragon appeared, and the moment he saw the scene, his expression grew serious.
"Where is this?"
"Under the capital of Fiore," Rhodes said. "I followed a strange mine shaft and ended up here."
The Mountain Dragon studied the dragon bones carefully. After a while he said, "A great battle probably took place here."
Rhodes asked, "How can you tell?"
"Intuition."
…
The Mountain Dragon elaborated, "There is no other method I can use. Judging from the state of the remains, these dragons have been dead for at least three hundred years. Any real clues are long gone."
"I see." Rhodes felt a pang of disappointment.
It seemed he might need to bring Wendy here.
Perhaps her Dragon Slayer Secret Art could sense remnants of the souls from centuries ago.
"It looks like someone is patrolling. You should hide," the Mountain Dragon said.
Rhodes dismissed the Dragon and the other monsters, then cloaked himself in Alchemical Mist.
A patrol entered: a squad of five Royal Knights in standard armor, lanterns swaying at their sides.
Trailing behind the patrol was a stout man carrying a wine bottle, his magic power noticeably higher than that of the knights. Rhodes immediately judged that this underground route was indeed important.
A secret passage, perhaps even an underground palace that connected directly to the capital, would naturally have patrols, especially ones with someone of that level supervising them.
If he continued farther, he suspected the tunnel might lead straight to the Royal Palace.
Silently concealed in his alchemical mist, Rhodes watched for a while.The only thing he noticed was that the knights seemed unusually wary of the wine-holding man.
He didn't hear any crucial information.
He wondered: Should he simply go directly to Princess and ask about this place?
After a moment of thought, he dismissed the idea.
They were acquaintances, yes, but this clearly involved high-level national secrecy.
Even if she trusted him, she might not be permitted to say anything.It would put her in an impossible position.
Rhodes moved forward once the patrol disappeared from view, ensuring he wouldn't cross paths with them.
He summoned another Crab to continue scouting.
A few minutes later, the Crab automatically activated Void Vision as it advanced… and instantly vanished.
Rhodes froze.
He immediately halted his own movement, then deployed two Krugs and a Wraith.
He ordered them to tunnel forward from underground.
They vanished as well.
"It doesn't feel like they were destroyed," Rhodes muttered. "More like they were erased by a barrier…"
He decided staying any longer was far too risky.
He quickly retreated down the passage.
Just before reaching the area where the earlier patrol might cross, he sank into the ground using Wraith Permeation and slipped back the way he came, eventually returning unnoticed to the hotel.
By the time he arrived, it was already quite late.
Naturally, his team was still awake.
Mira rushed to him immediately, worry written all over her face."Did anything dangerous happen?"
"A bit strange," Rhodes replied and recounted everything he had seen.
"Dragon corpses hidden underground?" Gajeel was the most affected.
For a second, he panicked, afraid Metalicana might be among them.But logic quickly returned. Metalicana had disappeared seven years ago, no, fourteen years in total counting the time skip, so he couldn't possibly be one of those skeletons.
Still, he didn't insist on going to check.
Because Rhodes had already warned that his summons might have triggered a high-grade Royal Palace defensive mechanism. No one could act recklessly.
Despite his aggressive, punk-like personality, Gajeel often stayed calmer than Natsu.
Rhodes respected that about him.
Laxus focused on a different point.
"So you think something connected to Zeref might be hidden under the Royal Palace?"
Rhodes shook his head.
"That's only one possibility. It could just be an important national facility protected by extremely strong defensive spells."
"In any case, it's better not to move again tonight. Let's watch the Royal Palace's reaction tomorrow and decide from there."
The group quietly exchanged thoughts for a while longer before finally going to bed.
Fortunately, the organizers didn't pull any surprises tonight.Everyone slept soundly until morning.
They ate breakfast together, donned their uniforms, and set out to prepare for the second day of the Grand Magic Games.
...
Read chapters ahead @keepsmiling 818 p@reon