Chapter 425: The Tomb
Ace halted his dream exploration. Transforming into a shadow, he left the villa and infiltrated the homes of several other Heroes. Finally, he obtained new intelligence in the home of a Hero with a white beard.
This Hero was named Miseon. He was a trusted confidant of King Tedius and had personally transported Athena’s ice coffin to bury her.
Ace’s eyes flickered as he recalled the conversation between Tedius and Miseon.
“My King, the Princess is still breathing. Are we really going to declare her dead to the public?”
Tedius narrowed his eyes and said in a low voice, “Who declared it? Are you spreading rumors? You just need to place the ice coffin properly; the rest is none of your concern.”
Miseon dared not speak further. He watched as King Tedius commanded Dickens to use “Lament of Frost” to reinforce the seal on the ice coffin, before transporting it to the tomb of Tedius’s father for burial.
Ace pondered. He could confirm that Athena likely hadn’t died at that time. Based on his understanding of frost magic, Athena should remain in her original state for decades under such a seal.
“In other words, there is a very high probability that Athena is not dead. As for why her father wanted to seal her, I might only find out the real reason by asking Athena herself or King Tedius personally.”
Concern for Athena’s situation and curiosity about the secret led Ace to decide to visit the tomb of Athena’s grandfather.
In the northern suburbs outside the city, about 3 km from Medimus City. Rather than calling this the tomb of Athena’s grandfather, it was more like a necropolis for the Medea bloodline.
Although it was a graveyard, it wasn’t gloomy. Instead, it was like a dancer dancing alone under the moon, full of elegance and charm.
“What a strange place.”
Ace muttered. Activating the Eye of Truth, he observed carefully. Over the past hundred years, hundreds of Medea descendants had been buried here. It seemed to be a gathering place for bloodline power, nurturing something within.
Something is strange, Ace thought. He carefully infiltrated the tomb complex. Relying on Shadow Spells and Invisible Concealment, he easily avoided the gravekeepers. In the darkness, his shadow spread as swift as the wind to the central tomb and entered through a crack.
It was somewhat dark and damp, with a hint of a moldy smell. Inside the tomb, Ace reverted to his human form and cautiously cast a layer of Armor of the Guardian on himself.
This was a spell analyzed from the Guardian bloodline. After Ace’s adjustments, this spell could instantly form a suit of magical armor capable of resisting a single blow from an ordinary Golden Hero.
“The defense is slightly lacking, but it’ll have to do for now. It seems necessary to accelerate the analysis of the ‘City of Guardians’ and deduce a degraded 4th-ring defensive spell.”
Ace tapped on his magic armor, the sound of metal on stone ringing out in the silent tomb.
He scanned the entire tomb with the Eye of Truth and quickly noticed something amiss. At the very bottom of this tomb, someone seemed to be buried. The bloodline power of the other deceased Medea descendants was surging towards this spot. If one had to describe it, it looked like some kind of sacrificial magic circle.
“Magic?”
Ace considered it subconsciously at first, but immediately rejected the idea. Sacrificial magic circles originated from the rituals of demons and devils. This looked more like a deal had been struck with a devil to set up a sacrificial ritual.
Neither the bloodline nor the soul of any of the deceased could find rest, let alone return to the kingdom of the Ancestor God. Their True Spirits had likely vanished completely. Such a bizarre and vicious ritual… he dreaded to think what was being nurtured here.
Ace transformed into a shadow and carefully bypassed several wonder traps. Although these traps were peculiar, they were vulnerable before a Golden Wizard.
“Confirmed, there is no space confinement effect. That makes it easy to solve.”
A relaxed look flashed in Ace’s eyes. Activating the Golden Spell Blink Teleportation, he instantly appeared in that breeding ground. It was a magnificent burial chamber; the floor, walls, and ceiling were all constructed of solid, heavy marble.
It was monolithic marble, without any cuts!
Unless supernatural power was involved, such a construction was extremely rare. Whether supernatural power was used or not, likely only the royal family could achieve this.
The burial chamber was spacious. Grooves on the ground formed complex, eerie patterns pointing directly to the massive stone coffin in the center—the very locus of that strange gestation.
There was some dust on the stone coffin. Ace’s finger glowed slightly as he whispered, “Clean!”
Under the effect of mana, the dust on the stone coffin vanished, and an inscription carved in stone appeared before Ace’s eyes.
“Samus Medea, son of Ronamus, buried here.”
Below that was a segment of newly carved, somewhat crooked text, carrying the power of evil and temptation. Ace’s eyes subconsciously activated the Eye of Truth, and the cowlick on his head swayed slightly—Understand the Unknown!
“The Gods are unfair, the bloodline wards off disaster; the Archduke of Lust takes pity on the world.”
It felt as though, in the unseen realm, a figure with tenderness like water and eyes full of seduction glanced back at Ace. Ace was momentarily dazed. The Glazed Heart Fire in his mental imagery dream world suddenly burned violently, instantly erupting out of the mental world to envelope Ace.
The Mimicry Eight Virtues also spun ceaselessly, as if resisting something. Ace closed his eyes, ceasing his attempt to understand the crooked, mysterious text, and the anomaly gradually faded.
“What was that? Was that text really left by the Devil of Lust, or was it some projection of His power? Just understanding it almost drove me into madness. As expected of a Devil, I suppose?”
Ace felt a lingering fear and gained a slight understanding of the terror of a so-called Devil Archduke. If the Archduke’s true body were here, a single direct look would likely plunge him into complete madness.
Ace had no intention of approaching the stone coffin nurturing that mysterious and eerie entity. He instantly blinked away from the burial chamber and turned to search for Athena’s ice coffin.
His eyes pierced through layers of stone walls, and he finally located the ice coffin. It was in a chamber to the upper right of Samus’s tomb. The entire chamber was covered in ice and snow. Ace walked on the ground formed of thick ice, slowly approaching.
His calfskin boots made a creaking sound on the ice. The bone-piercing cold was blocked by the Armor of the Guardian on Ace’s body. He slowly walked to the side of the ice coffin and pointed the index finger of his slender right hand upwards.
Bang!
A light orb appeared, illuminating the entire ice-covered burial chamber. Inside the transparent ice coffin, Athena wore a beige, fluffy lady’s dress. Her sky-blue hair was tied high, her snow-white skin shining in harmony with the ice and snow. Her long eyelashes seemed to be trembling slightly.
Ace looked at her, ripples stirring in his heart. He stared at Athena, activating the Eye of Truth. Layered rune structures flickered, and Athena’s condition became clearly visible in his eyes.
A deep crimson light, representing the life level of a Great Hero. Her body and soul appeared to have been severely scoured by an external force; the Medea bloodline was completely gone. The ice coffin firmly fixed her state, preventing further deterioration.
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