“Your brain might have rotted away, but you are still capable of thought. Why don’t you figure it out for yourself?”

“Tsk tsk.”

Almarick clicked his tongue.

“My staff has given me their opinions. As I’ve said before, they might be trying to deceive us. They might be using Laura as bait to draw us out. Rest of their members might assault the Dragon Demon palace.”

“We have too little information to be sure. However, if we send our main force towards him, a trap might be waiting for us.”

“It makes no great difference one way or the other. Let’s attack them, and we can recover the Vitan’s Chalice.”

At his words, Reygus chuckled.

“You probably would have been delighted to go out there by yourself. That image is vivid in my mind. That is why I decided to take the offensive.”

“Since I’ve gone so far as to take your personality into consideration in our planning, you better not run out there by yourself.”

Reygus shrugged his shoulders.

In this operation, only the elites would be put in. In the last battle, they had faced the combined might of Azell’s party and the Guardian Shadows. They had learned their lesson.

Niberis, Kieren and Jeffers would be included in the elite force. Each of them would be leading the elite forces of their respective families, and they would follow the commands of the two Dragon Demon generals.

Suddenly, Reygus asked him a question.

“He has a pretty good mindset. It’s been worthwhile for me to teach him.”

“He is my descendant. I’ll feel annoyed if people say he is worthless.”

When Almarick woke up, the Almarick tribe was completely turned on its head. Since they had falsely set forth Jeffer as their heir, the Almarick tribe stripped Jeffers of all his authority. The true powers within the tribe gave all authority to Almarick.

Jeffers was devastated. The shock had been great when he realized that he had merely been an ignorant puppet.

However, Almarick didn’t discard Jeffers. Jeffers was his descendant, and he had been the heir while he had been missing.

For a while, he got ahold of Jeffers with the aim to train him. If his potential was lacking, he would have given up on him immediately. However, Jeffers hadn’t been too bad, and it had been fun teaching him.

“I have to devise ways to teach him my techniques. He is worth it. It is a fun exercise.”

“You shouldn’t do it. I don’t think their bodies can take your ministration.”

9

After Azell’s party entered the Atisan mountain range, it took them five days to arrive at the mountain peak of Laus.

It was thanks to the Guardian Shadows. They guided the party towards terrains that were relatively easy to traverse, and they had eliminated all the threats along the way. If it wasn’t for them, they would have been unable to travel at such high speeds through these unknown lands.

“The mountain peak of Laus…. Now that I’m close to it…. It really is big.”

Azell mumbled to himself as he looked at the mountain peak of Laus from afar.

There were many grand mountain peaks in the Atisan mountain range. The mountain peaks were so high that it was tough to breathe up there.

However, Laus was exceptionally high.

The second highest mountain peak in the Atisan mountain range was only half the size of Laus. On a clear day, one was able to see the mountain peak of Laus from the Albatan forest. This was why this place was known to humans even though no one had tread atop of it.

It was a holy mountain peak that linked the earth to the sky.

Laus was the name of a giant from an old legend. The people of old believed that a god had been punished to hold up the sky. They believed he was morphed into this very mountain.

“I can’t see the peak now that we are closer to it. How far up do we have to go?”

When they were far away, they were able to see the mountain peak pierce through the clouds. Now that they were close, it was to too big to take it all in. Laura spoke.

“It is 17,817 meters.”

“Huh?”

“If we are going by elevation above seal level, it is 17,817 meters high.”

“…how do you know the exact figure?”

He was taken aback, so he asked the question. Laura explained it to him.

“There are several ways to measure it, but this recorded value was left behind by the Dragon Demon king. It has been several hundred years, so the value might differ by several meters.”

“Atein did something so useless. Well, I guess all magicians are like that…..”

Azell was astonished.

‘We have to go up 18 kilometers?’

He was having a hard time wrapping his head around how high the mountain peak was. Laura pointed out another fact.

“The figure was made in reference to the sea level. The mountain peak is probably lower than what you have in mind.”

“.....you are talking about 18 kilometers becoming 17 kilometers. I’m not sure there is much of a difference.”

Laura brought up another point to the grumbling Azell.

“It is a big difference, especially since we have to climb it.”

“Huh?”

“We’ve crossed couple mountain peaks coming here, and we already had a hard time breathing on top of these mountains.”

“You are implying that the mountain peak of Laus might not have an environment capable of supporting humans?”

Laura nodded her head. Azell furrowed his brows.

“It definitely isn’t an altitude one can climb using flight magic. Hmm. I’ve only been that high using my clone, so I’m not sure what the environment is like…..”

Laura was surprised by his words.

“You went up that high of a distance?”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“I did.”

“How?”

“I summoned the Sky Splitter, and I used the Dance of Shadows to create a clone.”

“Ah…….”

Azell created a clone with substance, and he was able to freely change the magical properties of such a clone. He was able to resonate with the Sky Splitter to take on the property of light. This allowed his clone to be able to climb up to incredible heights.

Azell spoke.

“However, I wasn’t trying to send a clone to a far away distance. I was faced with a slightly different challenge. As the clone climbed higher, it became exponentially hard to maintain the clone. When it reached a certain distance, the clone expired.”

“Still, it is a ridiculous ability.”

“Carlos thought so too. He said my greatest weapon is the ‘ability to be at multiple locations at once.’ I agree with his assessment.”

Azell smirked as he spoke.

“Well, shall we climb? The Guardian Shadows are creating a path for us.”

It was as he said. The Guardian Shadows were lined up in a long line as if they wanted to show them where to go. Several thousand Guardian Shadows stood in an ordered line towards the top of the mountain. They were also being vigilant of their surrounding. It was such an alien sight that it made one feel a bit queasy.

Kairen spoke.

“It seems there are over 3,000 of them now…….”

“I guess so. I thought a lot of them were killed during the last battle, yet there are still so many of them…...”

In the battle where the Keepers of Prophecy were wiped out, the Guardian Shadows had taken a significant blow. From what they had observed, the Guardian Shadows weren’t invincible. They were able to ignore simple physical attacks, and they were more tenacious than any living being. However, they could be killed with attacks infused with magical energy.

Despite this fact, there were over 3,000 Guardian Shadows gathered here. Even if Reygus and Almarick had shown up right now, they wouldn’t have been able to look down on the force gathered here.

Kairen spoke.

“Let’s leave the rest to our friends. Let’s go meet your Archmage friend, and we can hear the final secret from him.”

“Let’s do that.”

The party followed the Guardian Shadows, and they started to climb towards the mountain peak of Laus.

There were no paths that could be traversed by humans, but it didn’t matter. Azell and his party members could walk on wall as it was flat ground. Moreover, they also possessed flight magic. They were vigilant against their surrounding, and they left plenty of energy in reserve as they climbed. This meant they were traveling up the mountain at a pace similar to a normal human sprinting across a flat surface.

Still, the destination was far. On top of that, it was getting harder to breathe as they climbed higher.

“We are high enough that…. I’m starting to run out of breath.”

Kairen stopped for a brief moment as he gathered his breath. It was natural to be breathless in the high mountain terrains, but Laus was on a different level.

Above all, the environment itself was too harsh. The temperature was so low that it felt as if their lungs were about to freeze. Then there were the knife-like winds…...

If all of the party members weren’t superhuman, they wouldn’t have been able to climb this far without powerful magical assistance. It probably would have taken a normal human a week to get up here.

Kairen queried.

“How much do we have left to go?”

It was such a simple question that the Guardian Shadows were able to understand his question. They answered him.

It was as they said. It didn’t take them too long to reach their destination. However, there was nothing in the direction pointed out by the Guardian Shadows.

“It’s a wall?”

Yuren was baffled as he stared at the location pointed out by the Guardian Shadows.

Nothing was there. It was a rock wall. He approached the wall just to be sure, and he touched the wall. He even checked if there was an illusion spell placed over it. He found nothing.

When he heard their words, Azell stepped forward.

“What do I have to do?”

The Guardian Shadows didn’t answer him.

Koo-roo-roong!

Instead, a deafening roar rang out as the wall shook.

The party was surprised, so they got into their battle stance. However, the change that was occuring in front of them was harmless.

The rock wall was changing shape. The sight in front of their eyes became distorted, and a tunnel formed within the darkness.

Laura mumbled her words in surprise.

“Path of Tears?”

It was the same as the passageway created by the Vitan’s Chalice where she distorted space. This technique was capable of creating a path even when there was a physical barrier. Azell stared into the darkness as he took a deep breath.

When Leticia saw this, she asked him a question.

“Are you scared?”

“Aren’t you supposed to ask if I’m nervous?”

“It’s the same thing.”

“It’s different.”

Azell burst out laughing as he took a step into the darkness.

At the same time, his surrounding changed.

‘It is a dimensional distortion field.’

When Azell entered the path, the tunnel morphed into a dimensional distortion field. He was being dragged towards a new place. It was like using the Vitan’s Maze to travel a long distance in an instant.

Azell remained calm.

“As expected…….”

He had never been to this place. However, he had seen this place once before.

It wasn't in reality. He saw it in a dream.

The light reflected off the surface of the water, and the light danced on the wall. Normally, an underground space like this shouldn’t have a single light source, yet the magical light created such a mystical sight.

He knew this voice better than anyone, yet the voice sounded so foreign. The voice spoke towards Azell.

It was a very bleak voice. It was as if the deepest darkness below had been squeeze to create this voice.. If felt as if his lifespan was shortened by listening to the voice. The voice sounded similar to the voice of an Undead, yet the voice elicited a more basic fear from a living being.

“I’ve heard those words before..”

Azell felt lost as to what he should feel. He looked towards the owner of the voice.

Water was gathered at the corner of this space. There were fragments of ligh dancing above the water as if they were fireflies dancing in the summer night. The light was so faint that it looked as if the darkness was about to swallow them at any moment. However, the light continued to fragment, and the beautiful halo of light continued to exist.

In the middle of all of this, a silhouette wrapped up in darkness existed.

Fragments of light was dancing around him, yet his face couldn’t be seen. It wasn’t, because of the darkness casted by the worn out hood. It was probably caused by the ominous energy surrounding his body.

His body was wrapped in a ragged robe, and something was planted deep in his chest. The end was rounded, and it was embedded with a clear gem. The wooden staff was pierced through his chest as a quiet darkness emanated from it.

There was a rectangular pillar made out of silver erected behind him. Black chains were tying him to the silver pillar, and darkness crawled up the surface of the pillar in the shape of letters. It was a bizarre sight.

Azell Called out to him.

“It has been awhile, Carlos.”

The two sworn friends had ended the Dragon Demon war, and their reunion occurred after 220 years had passed.