"What is it?" Lansi asked, looking back at Raven with confusion.
Staring into the pitch-black corridor, Raven remained silent.
Should he truly go inside? He thought of the story of Bluebeard—perhaps they should stop here, turn back, and leave the hidden secrets undisturbed. Once they stepped inside, something might change forever, and there would be no going back.
He could simply crush the communication glintstone now and tell Lansi, "Rudy was just playing a prank on us. Let's go back and finish the beef." Then he could return to his room and sleep soundly until dawn.
Tomorrow morning, everyone would set out happily to slay the Great Serpent. After their victory, they would divide the treasure, share a final feast, and part ways. He would bid Rykard a brotherly farewell, looking back with every few steps until their next meeting beneath the walls of the capital, where they would charge side-by-side to plant the Carian Star and Moon banner upon the high walls.
That was how things were supposed to go. All he had to do was close his eyes, plug his ears, and turn back. There was nothing in the world easier than that.
Lansi's gaze shifted between the dark opening and Raven. She clapped her hands together in sudden realization.
"Oh, so the Commander is afraid of the dark!" she said triumphantly. "Just say so! I don't mind going in first. Come on, stay close to me."
She swung her arms, ready to march in, but Raven caught her by the shoulder.
"You should go back and rest," Raven said with a faint smile. "I can handle this on my own."
"You can't even smell Rudy's scent. Without me, you'll never find him."
"I'll find a way," Raven replied, shaking his head. "I need to infiltrate this passage secretly without being noticed. You don't know how to sneak; a guard would spot you from a hundred meters away."
"Don't even think about leaving me behind." Lansi pulled out her Sacred Seal and cast an incantation, then hopped in place. "See? I'm making no noise at all."
"Assassin's Approach? You even know the incantations of the Confessors?"
"I practiced it for fun when I was bored. I have plenty of free time, after all." Lansi leaned in and cast the same incantation on Raven.
"Fine. No loud talking from here on out." Raven sighed, knowing he couldn't shake her. "I'll take the lead. I'm counting on you to watch my back, Lansi."
Lansi flashed him a victory sign.
Entering the secret passage, Raven tapped a specific spot on the right-hand wall, and the illusory wall shimmered back into existence behind them. Now, the passage was plunged into absolute, suffocating darkness.
"Watch the steps. Do you need to hold my hand?" Raven whispered. During his duel with the leader of the Black Knives, he had mastered the Blind Spot combat art. Even in total darkness, he possessed a strange, extrasensory perception that allowed the outlines of objects to manifest in his mind.
"I can see," Lansi said, her voice a bit shaky.
"You can see?"
Lansi didn't answer, but she stepped precisely from one stair to the next, following close behind Raven. It seemed her vision really was unaffected by the dark.
The narrow passage wound downward. They rounded several corners, passed a basement sealed by iron bars, and continued down another corridor that felt as though it might never end. Fortunately, the smell of sulfur in the hot air grew stronger, signaling that the exit was near.
A faint light flickered below. Raven quickened his pace. At the end of the passage was a small chapel. It was clear that the object of worship here was neither the Erdtree nor Marika; every decoration exuded an air of blasphemy.
"Whew, much better." Lansi relaxed slightly. "I hate narrow, dark places. Where are we?"
"Inside the crater, I suspect." Raven pushed open the small door of the chapel, his face illuminated by a harsh red glow. "I didn't expect such a place to be built inside the volcano."
Streams of glowing magma flowed down the rock walls like rivers merging into a sea, pooling into a lava lake at the bottom before flowing out through subterranean channels. Raven guessed this was the source of the Seethewater River.
Raven surveyed the paths ahead. "Can you still smell Rudy?"
Following Lansi's lead, they took the path to the right. After rounding a bend, a small, gray town appeared before them.
Scattered across the slope of the crater was a cluster of dilapidated buildings. A thick layer of volcanic ash coated the rooftops and streets, giving the entire place a deathly, stagnant appearance.
"Can people actually live here?" Lansi asked, clicking her tongue. "Staying here long-term would rot your lungs for sure."
"The low visibility works in our favor for sneaking, though." Raven reached out, catching a flake of falling ash and crushing it between his fingers. His palm turned as pale and gray as a corpse. "Let's stick to the walls. Don't make a sound."
The streets were deserted. The doors of the houses on either side were all tightly shut, and every window was sealed with iron bars, making them look like silent cages.
Under the influence of the Assassin's Approach incantation, their footsteps were noiseless. They left almost no footprints as they walked, and what little trace they did leave was quickly buried by the falling ash.
Raven kept his eyes closed, the outlines of his surroundings mapping themselves out in his mind like a panoramic view. In this visibility, he was certain he could detect any guards long before they spotted him.
"Three dogs up ahead," Raven said, stopping suddenly. "Can we go around them?"
"If we deviate from the trail, I might lose Rudy's scent."
"Understood. Wait here; I'll take care of them." Raven nodded and drew the Sword of Night and Flame.
"It's fine, just keep going," Lansi said confidently. "Those dogs won't dare attack us, trust me."
Raven gave her a skeptical look but chose to trust her.
Sensing someone approaching, the three large hounds—each half the height of a man—crouched low, letting out threatening growls. Raven narrowed his eyes, ready to strike before they could bark, but the dogs suddenly let out whimpers as if they had seen something terrifying. Tucking their tails between their legs, they scurried away.
"That cowardly?" Raven was surprised. "Think they went to alert the guards?"
"Those kinds of dogs are just naturally timid," Lansi said, smoothing her expression so Raven wouldn't see the way she had just bared her teeth and glared at them. "Let's keep moving."
Raven walked to the spot where the dogs had been gathered. He knelt and brushed away the volcanic ash on the ground.
A mangled corpse was revealed.
The body had been reduced almost entirely to bone. The burlap rags were torn to shreds by the dogs, and tooth marks marred the skeletal remains, with only a few withered strands of flesh still clinging to the bone.
"A prisoner of Volcano Manor," Raven noted. "This is the cut of a prisoner's garb."
"They just throw the bodies of executed prisoners out like trash?" Lansi said. "That's a bit much."
"Many of these bone fractures are incredibly smooth. They weren't made by dogs." Raven carefully examined the shattered pelvis of the corpse. "It looks like they were cut by a circular saw. Some form of torture? But it doesn't seem like it was purely to inflict pain..."
He fell into thought for a moment, then his expression suddenly shifted. He reached out, grabbed Lansi by the waist, and leaped onto a nearby rooftop.
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(135 Chapter - Ongoing)
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