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Heir of the White Lotus (Web Novel) - Chapter 2141: Powerful Barriers
Chapter 2141: Powerful Barriers
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It was a colossal, heptagonal structure made entirely of a strange type of black material, jutting out from the endless expanse of white like a monument to despair.
The prison rose a hundred meters above the frozen surface. Its seven walls were smooth and featureless, absorbing the faint light of the sun rather than reflecting it.
There were no windows. No doors. No balconies. No openings whatsoever. Not visible, anyway. Just seven massive black walls meeting at sharp angles.
And that was only half of it. Another hundred meters of the structure extended beneath the ice, buried deep within the frozen sea.
Adam stared at the colossal structure in the distance.
Fortune’s End.
He and Luca proceeded cautiously across the ice, their footsteps crunching against the frozen surface. Neither dared to move too quickly.
Every now and then, a massive shadow would drift beneath their feet. Barely visible through the thick whiteness.
Sometimes it was only a vague shape moving through the darkness below. Other times, the shadow was so enormous that Adam could barely comprehend its size. It swam beneath the ice, its movements slow and unhurried, as though the Frozen Sea belonged to it entirely.
Adam kept his gaze fixed on the surface. He had no intention of finding out what would happen if the ice beneath them suddenly cracked. Luca appeared equally cautious. Neither of them spoke much as they continued their approach.
The invitation tokens they carried were the only things standing between them and the mysterious monsters swimming below.
"Can you sense them?" Adam whispered as he cautiously moved westward toward the prison.
"Down there?" Luca asked.
"No." Adam turned ever so slightly. "We are being watched. They’re on the surface."
Luca’s expression turned grim. He looked around but saw nothing but a white world. However, he trusted Adam’s judgment. His senses were far sharper than his. Furthermore, he did not sense any hostility from those watching.
"How many?" he asked.
Adam shook his head. "Too many."
Gradually, the atmosphere began to change. The closer they got to Fortune’s End, the heavier the air became.
It was not the cold. Adam knew that much. He could feel something pressing against him, an invisible weight that seemed to grow stronger with every step. His instincts stirred uneasily, warning him that he was approaching something he ought not to take lightly.
Even the creatures beneath the ice seemed to grow distant. Or perhaps, Adam had simply become too preoccupied with the structure ahead to pay attention to them.
Suddenly, he paused.
"What is it?" Luca appeared beside him, looking around warily.
"That was the tenth barrier we crossed," Adam murmured with a nervous smile. "That last one cut off the connection to the spirit world."
He felt naked.
Powerful barriers and rune magic were capable of completely sealing a portion of space in the material world and severing its connection to the spirit world. That meant no teleportation. No summoning magic. No long-distance communication.
It was similar to the principles of the spirit world. Such barriers required the prowess of expert Runesmiths. Not to mention, they were ridiculously expensive.
Davos had one too. However, it allowed the registered resident Magi to use summoning magic up to a certain limit. Moreover, the Magi would constantly be under surveillance while using summoning magic.
"Tenth?" Luca was intrigued.
"Those are the ones I could sense," Adam replied.
Luca nodded. "As expected of this prison that no one had broken out of."
They continued their journey westward, making small talk.
"Do you know what we do to prisoners in Invicta?" Luca asked.
"What?"
"We have a prison in the North Pole," Luca answered. "Buried dozens of kilometers in the ice."
Adam turned to him with a light grimace. "The hell? How’s that any different from death?"
"It isn’t." Luca shook his head. "Going there is practically a death sentence. They don’t survive long."
Adam shook his head, unable to imagine the weather on Luca’s homeworld. He was already quite uncomfortable with the freezing weather of Winterdale.
"The Imperium’s prisons are the worst, I’ve heard," Luca said after a while. "They lock you inside a metal box in dead space. Most people, no matter how powerful, cannot withstand solitude."
Adam remained silent, recalling the memories of the seventh trial.
Darkness and solitude. He could not endure it. In the end, he had attempted suicide.
And he still hadn’t found answers regarding what happened in that final trial.
Fortune’s End continued to grow larger in his vision. A hundred meters above the ice. A hundred meters beneath it. An immense black structure standing in the heart of a frozen wasteland. There was something deeply unsettling about it.
All around them stretched an endless expanse of white. The sky was pale, the ice was pale, and the distant horizon was buried beneath falling snow. Yet at the center of this frozen emptiness stood a mass of absolute blackness.
It looked as though someone had carved a hole into the world itself and built a prison within it.
Blackness in the heart of white.
Dread in an expanse of cold.
Adam had seen many strange things throughout his life. Ancient ruins, terrifying monsters, and places where the laws of nature seemed to bend beneath forces beyond mortal understanding.
Yet there was something different about Fortune’s End. It did not need to display its power. It simply stood there. Silent and unmoving and waiting. As though it was always ready to swallow all the sins and filth of this beautiful world.
With every step Adam and Luca took toward it, that oppressive sensation grew stronger. By the time they finally reached the base of one of the towering structures, they found that a person had abruptly materialized out of thin air.
It was a lanky man with fair skin and long, pink hair. He was not handsome like men were. No. He was beautiful. His beauty would make even some women jealous. He wore white robes. He was like a delicate flower that had somehow managed to grow in a graveyard.
Adam and Luca shared dumbfounded glances. This was definitely not the type of person they expected to meet here at the infamous prison that housed the worst of the worst from the West Coast.
The pink-haired man took a step forward and flashed a pretty smile.
"Paladin Claudius. Magus Constantine. Welcome to Fortune’s End."
The man cast a cursory glance at Adam before turning to Luca and bowing respectfully.
"Please accept my apologies for the delay. When we learned that a Claudius wished to visit the prison, we thought it a jest. Hence, it took us some time to confirm that you were indeed who you claimed to be."
Luca grunted, making sure his displeasure at being made to wait for so long was known.
"Lead the way. It has been a long journey," he said flatly.
"Yes, Paladin. Please follow me." The pink-haired man turned and walked straight through the black wall.
Adam and Luca glanced at one another, then followed him in.
