Chapter 27: VOLUME 13: CHAPTER 3
Several days after the Emperor's visit, Lark received an unusual visitor in the Coalition Army's camp.
"It's an honor to finally meet you, Your Majesty, King Lark."
When Lark saw the visitor, he couldn't help but stare at her face for a long time. She looked so identical to the woman in the painting gifted to him by Chryselle a few years ago.
She was the spitting image of Leanne, the Deity of the Desert. The youngest of Evander Alaester's disciples.
Behind her were three armed women who seemed to be her escorts. And stunningly, they also held some semblance to Leanne, although not as much as the first woman.
"My name is Alice," said the brown-skinned woman with fierce, golden eyes. "Leader of the Witches of Aravark."
Lady Alice turned to Vulcan, who stood next to Lark.
"And you must be the esteemed Fire Dragon," she said. "It's an honor to—"
"—Don't talk casually to me, human," spat Vulcan. "And what's with your appearance? You're older than that foolish Emperor, I'm sure. But you have the face of a thirty-year-old woman."
Dragons were sensitive not only to mana, but also to life force. By those alone, the Ancient Fire Dragon deemed that Lady Alice was almost a hundred years old.
Considering the lifespan of humans, she shouldn't be able to actively move around like this. It was abnormal.
"You must have sacrificed thousands of lives to maintain that youthful appearance."
Lady Alice didn't waver even when the Dragon said those words. Politely and firmly, she said, "I apologize if my appearance displeases you, Lord Dragon. But this body of mine is the aftereffects of a ritual. It is not intentional. Although I look young, I am nearing the end of my lifetime."
"You have a way with words, human."
"Not at all. What I'm saying is I never conducted heinous experiments just to maintain this youthful face, Lord Dragon."
Vulcan clicked his tongue. He noticed that Lark was still staring at Alice's face, as though he wanted to embed her appearance in his mind.
Finally, Lark spoke, "Alice… I'll remember the name. I've heard of the Witches of Aravark several times before, but I never expected to meet you here at this place. So, what brought Lady Alice to our camp?"
"Two things, Your Majesty," said Lady Alice. "First, I wish to thank you for saving the Empire. If not for your and the Lord Dragon's help, the capital would have been ravaged to the ground by now."
"Second," she said. "This may sound shameless of me, but I came here to ask for your help, King Lark."
"My help?"
She nodded. "Yes. But before that, are you familiar with this?"
Lady Alice took out a cube and handed it to Lark. Seeing this, Lark's eyes widened in surprise. It felt just like yesterday when he was using this artifact for reconnaissance missions, back when he was still part of the Black Mages of the Magic Empire.
It was an artifact Evander Alaester used back when he was still very young. A vision artifact that allowed the user to clearly see everything from a great distance.
"We've watched your fight against the demon using this artifact. We've seen your strength, Your Majesty. If it's you, it should be possible to stop the looming catastrophe."
There were so many questions that needed an answer, but first, Lark wished to know where Lady Alice acquired the artifact in the first place.
"Where did you get this?" said Lark, his fingers tracing the runes engraved on the walls of the cube.
Lady Alice looked around her. She wordlessly ordered one of her escorts to cast silence magic around them. After making sure that no one else could hear them, she spoke.
"From the underground city."
"Underground city?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. The City of Atarus has an extensive network of tunnels deep underground. And those tunnels connect all the way to the Republic of Everfrost. Using those tunnels, one can reach the ancient underground city of a once powerful Empire."
Lark heard from his information network before that the Witches of Aravark hardly left the City of Atarus, to the point that they wouldn't move unless the city was under direct threat. They also said that the witches were loyal only to Lady Alice, and not even the Emperor could order them.
Hearing that Atarus was connected to an ancient city deep underground, everything finally made sense.
It was no wonder that the witches were desperately protecting it.
"Ist' Tamat, an Empire from the Era of Magic. It is located deep underground the Republic."
"Ist' Tamat…" mumbled Lark.
It was a name Lark knew. He'd not only visited that nation several times before, he was also friends with their king.
Ist' Tamat was a small nation far east of the Magic Empire. It did not have a proper military, and it could hardly even be called a kingdom due to its number of cities.
Centuries or decades after Evander Alaester's death, this small nation must have grown into an Empire, but eventually fell during the Cataclysm.
Ist' Tamat was one of the weakest nations back in the Era of Magic. Still, it did not change the fact that it was a nation that existed during the time when magic was at its peak. In the current age, even a nation as weak as Ist' Tamat could probably dominate the Great Empire.
Lark said, "Why are you telling me all of this?"
It was information that could never be bought with money. If this information became public, their neighboring nations would attack not only the Republic of Everfrost but also the City of Atarus.
"As I've said before, I came here to ask for your help, Your Majesty."
Seeing the quizzical look on Lark's face, Lady Alice started explaining their current predicament.
According to her, it had been seventy years since the first ruins was discovered in the Republic. Since then, fourteen ruins related to the Ist' Tamat Empire had been discovered.
Thankfully, all of the ruins that had been discovered in the Republic led to a 'dead end'. They were mainly tombs or shrines of unimportant individuals, and none of them were connected to the capital of Ist' Tamat.
But all of this changed when the fifteenth ruin was discovered a month ago. The Witches of Aravark believed that this newly discovered ruin and its dungeon was connected directly to the capital of the ancient Empire.
"The tomb of Leanne, the Deity of the Desert," said Lady Alice. "And the shrine she made to honor her master, Evander Alaester."
For a moment, time froze when Lark heard those words.
"They are located at the heart of Ist' Tamat's capital. The tomb and the shrine are the two locations the Witches of Aravark had been trying to protect until now."
Lark fell silent.
Emotions swirled inside him, and he couldn't find any words to say to Lady Alice right now.
"Ransacking the tomb is one thing, but what we are afraid of the most is awakening the creatures guarding the shrine of Evander Alaester."
It reminded Lark of the time when he first arrived at the Golden Statue in the lowest floor of the Forbidden Region. The time when he saw the seven-headed Scylla curled around the base of the statue.
For some reason, his disciples had a knack of assigning dangerous creatures to guard the places related to him.
"Guardians?" said Lark.
"Yes, King Lark," said Lady Alice. Her voice turned grim. "Elementals, to be exact. Three of them are currently sleeping in the capital of Ist' Tamat. We believe the Deity of the Desert left them there to guard the shrine of Evander Alaester before her death."
Lady Alice clenched her fists. "We are afraid that the explorers of the Republic will awaken them."
"Not one but three elementals?" said Vulcan incredulously.
The reason why there were so few fire dragons left in the Dwarven Mountain Range was due to their fight with the earth elemental living there, hundreds of years ago.
The fight between the fire dragons and the earth elemental killed millions of dwarves, and killed several fire dragons. Their battle was so intense it formed the Bottomless Gorge.
A single elemental was already bad news, but three of them awakening at the same time would cause havoc in the entire continent. Once they woke up, the Republic would be wiped off the map.
"We heard that you plan on going to the Republic, King Lark. Please, we beg you, stop the explorers from entering that newly discovered dungeon."
"This maggot. Can't you do that yourself?" said Vulcan. "If it's just that, there's no need to come all the way here to ask us for help."
"There's a limit to what Aravark can do, Lord Dragon," said Lady Alice. "The Republic is very possessive when it comes to the ruins. They will willingly go to an all-out war with Atarus if we try to interfere."
She gazed at Lark, "But if the one negotiating is the Coalition Army, I believe even the Republic would have no choice but to listen."
A group of female witches versus an alliance of five nations accompanied by a Scylla and a Dragon. It was apparent which one would have more weight on the negotiating table.
Even the ruins-obsessed Republic would have no choice but to listen to Lark's demand, if he suddenly showed up on their door with his army in tow.
"Please, I beg you," Lady Alice bowed her head low. "Time is ticking right now. If those explorers reach the capital of Ist' Tamat and awakens the elementals…."
"I understand."
Reflexively, Lark placed his hand on Lady Alice's head and lightly ruffled her head. His body moved on its own, as though the one he was speaking with was his youngest disciple, Leanne.
Lady Alice stiffened. Although it was the first time someone had ruffled her hair like this, she let Lark continue doing it.
How strange.
She didn't dislike it.
She felt that there were no malicious intentions behind that touch. Instead, it felt like fatherly love.
"Be at ease," said Lark. "The Blackstone Knights will return soon. Once they arrive, we'll immediately depart for the Republic."
"Can… C-Can I come with you?" said Lady Alice.
She looked up and was stunned upon seeing Lark's warm smile.
"Of course," said Lark. "But before that, can you answer my question? That face… it looks really similar to a person I know."
***
[Republic of Everfrost]
"Woah, this is easy!"
The members of Zenith were surprised by how effective the concoction of Aster was.
The smell was atrocious, and they couldn't tolerate it unless they wore masks, but it was truly effective in deterring the arachnias' attacks.
Currently, their group leisurely traversed the second floor of the dungeon. The dozens of arachnias that had made the second floor its nest never attacked their members even once, unlike when they first came here before.
Even when they made noise, even when they ate and loudly talked, the arachnias left them alone.
"Hahaha! Did you see Black Arm!"
"Kyak, we sure did, Boss!"
"Those idiots tried to fight the arachnias directly!"
Their rival group, Black Arm, ended up retreating after two of their members fell into an arachnia's trap and died. The arachnias wrapped their bodies with their webs, snapped off their heads, and sucked their bodies completely dry.
It was a gruesome way to die. The members of Zenith savored the sight of their rivals cowering and running for their lives.
The members of Zenith could still vividly remember the look Alanus gave them that time.
"Why aren't the giant spiders attacking Zenith? Why are they attacking only us?!" said Emyrson happily. "That damn Alanus must have been asking those questions right now."
"That's if he's still alive, boss," said Ludwig.
Karlo grinned. "Three adult arachnias chased their group. Who knows? Maybe he's being eaten by those giant spiders right now."
Emyrson put his hairy arm over the shoulder of Aster. "Your concoction worked perfectly, kid."
Aster rubbed his nose. Among all of them, he was the only one not wearing a mask on his face. Back then, he didn't even hesitate when he started smearing his body with the concoction he created.
"Hehe. I told you! Arachnias differentiate allies and foes by smell!"
Emyrson laughed, "You sure did! You sure did!"
Only platinum-ranked explorers were allowed inside this dungeon due to its difficulty. Zenith bribed the soldiers guarding the entrance to the second floor in order for Aster to be able to enter with them.
"Boss, I hear flowing water," said Karlo.
"Water?"
"I can also hear the wind. We're probably near the next floor of the dungeon."
They surmised that the third floor must be quite large, and upon reaching it, they realized they were right.
"W-What the… hell is this?!"
Emyrson was stunned speechless the moment they reached the entrance to the next floor. The light flare they threw toward the ceiling illuminated their surroundings.
Instead of a dungeon, they found themselves on top of a cliff overlooking a massive ancient city.
It was so colossal that they couldn't believe it existed underground the Republic.
To their right was a large waterfall connected to a wide river below.
"Holy fuck…"
"This city is probably larger than Quraso!"
"B-Boss… we've hit the jackpot!"
"Look, over there! That huge bell at the tower! It's made entirely of gold!"
Looking around, the members of Zenith drooled. This was probably the greatest achievement of their life.
They finally arrived at the ancient city of the Ist' Tamat Empire
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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