Chapter 71 43. The Story of the Kalakaronde
After a month of preparation, Daquus spent this month in Clarkalond. His daily life was still training in martial arts. He was able to fight with Kesley, although he still couldn't beat him.
Everything was finally ready, and Annasara personally made twelve disposable amulets that could protect the soul from shock.
Dacus set out with his team in a mighty manner. He had to go to the forest farm first and transfer the slaves from the forest farm to the abandoned manor, saying that he was going to renovate it, but in fact he was secretly digging up that damn place.
Soon after, Maranul and Kesle also left for the forest. Maranul looked reluctant, having been summoned by Newker under the pretext of training and broadening his horizons. He hadn't brought his followers with him on this trip. Furthermore, the family's high-ranking dark sorceress also carried an extremely mysterious box, intricately patterned and imbued with an eerie aura.
The entire tomb-robbing operation was commanded by Dacus, and the members were composed of core elites, including the two brothers Dacus, Kalyon, Water, Bainie, Kesley, Edmund, the three siblings Takia and two high-level dark sorceresses in the family.
At night, the team set off and soon arrived at the abandoned manor, where they met up with Walter and Edmund who were in charge of the excavation work there.
The underground was completely hollowed out. The gate to the crypt was made of high-quality Hag Graves marble and adorned with strange, winding carvings that felt both familiar and unfamiliar, bearing the marks of time. Seeing the gate, Dacuus led his men back up, while Edmund remained below, directing the soldiers and the slaves to work together to open the gate.
After a half-hour of boredom, the dignitaries gathered together to chat, all excited about the upcoming adventure. After confirming the air was clear below, Daquus donned his mask, gave his equipment a final check, and began his descent. Four teams of elite family guards stood guard at the entrance to the underground palace.
Edmund led the charge, and the other Drukis followed in his footsteps, advancing silently through the corridor, less than three meters wide. There were no anticipated traps or crossbow bolts fired from the walls. After marching in darkness for a while, the front suddenly opened up, revealing a square tomb chamber approximately ten meters wide.
Statues of manticores stand watch on either side of the arched doorway across from the entranceway, and the walls of the tomb are decorated with murals showing a tall, handsome Druki inflicting horrific tortures on various noble-looking men and women.
Edmund turned around and made a cautious gesture, and the dignitaries stopped. He turned around and walked carefully into the tomb, carefully examining the archway. He suddenly noticed a black hole in the stone slab in front of the threshold.
"Be careful, there's a trap!"
Edmund approached, carefully crouching between the two manticore statues. He used the glowing crystal to examine the stone slab for any hidden mechanism or pedal. He searched the stone for several minutes, finding no clues or any unusual features. He stood up and examined the door's rings, hinges, and fittings, peering closely at the indentations carved into the door.
The wood of the door was so dark and old it looked like stone.
Edmund frowned and thought about it. He suddenly realized something and turned around and said, "Sir, this may not be the way in. There may be a trap behind the door."
"Fuck, this is pretty weird. It turns out that Drucci's tomb also has traps."
Darkeus entered the chamber and began studying each wall in turn. He scrutinized each scene depicted, but found nothing unusual. Then, retreating to the center of the chamber, he considered the scenes as part of a whole. There was a clear progression, a chronology of Elleril's exploits as the Witch-King's Dreadlord. The final scene showed Elleril vivisection a screaming male mage with a strange-looking black dagger.
"Edmund!" Dacun shouted, pointing at the mural.
Edmund carefully extended his fingers to touch the smooth mural. When his fingertips touched the blade of the mural dagger, he felt a sense of oppression and heard a gravel-like clicking sound.
Suddenly, Edmund turned green. A pale green light enveloped him, sizzling as it flowed through his body like liquid fire. He felt the heat as it passed through him, but the heat itself rolled over him like water and disappeared with a sizzling sound, as if it had never appeared.
"Soul withering!" A high-level dark sorceress from the family who was waiting in the aisle suddenly shouted.
Edmund stumbled back, his brain reeling, his ears ringing with a crackling sound.
Dacreus quickly supported him, and after a while, he noticed that the amulet on Edmund's neck was broken. It was the amulet that saved Edmund from the magic trap.
Two sorceresses walked over and began to carefully examine the mural while holding up glowing crystals.
"Master, there's a slightly raised obsidian on the black dagger in the mural. The magic is hidden on it. No wonder we didn't sense it."
Darkus frowned and asked, "Is the entrance behind this?"
A sorceress hesitated and said, "Master, it should be."
Dacun said to Edmund, "Go up, your adventure is over, guard the gate of the underground palace." After saying that, he nodded to the sorceress.
The sorceress hesitated, then stretched out her hands and pressed them against the wall. A section of the wall silently tilted inward, revealing a narrow spiral staircase that wound down to a bottomless depth.
The dignitaries began to file in, and Daxus was the last one to enter. He looked back before entering, and he seemed to feel that the eyes of all the victims in the mural were staring at him.
Every meter in the stairwell, there's a narrow alcove carved into the staircase's inner wall. The edges of the alcove are inlaid with gold and inscribed with delicate runes. In each alcove stands a dried corpse, hands clasped together, head bowed to chest, seemingly in eternal supplication. The corpse's eyes, still open, stare at the spiral staircase.
Darkius, always aware of the corpses' gazes as he walked, kept counting the stairs, while Maranur paid no attention, walking with his head tilted to the side, curiously glancing at the corpses in the alcove.
A sorceress suddenly whispered, "There's the breath of Shash's wind ahead!"
The group of dignitaries finally walked up the stairs, and before them was a marble circular room bathed in the wind of Shaxu.
We'll move to another place tomorrow.