<h4>Chapter 273: The Frozen Spring (3)</h4>
“The Freezing Talon expelled you... So I was right about what’s really inside this spring?”
“...If you’re curious, see for yourself.”
Karyl’s voice brimmed with anticipation, but Zarka Hochi’s reply wasn’t particrly enthusiastic, his expression sour. His entire body was covered in frost, as if he had just emerged from an ice vault. Despite being a spirit, the biting cold seemed to chill him to his core, causing his voice to tremble.
“Hmm...” Karyl mused. He turned his gaze in the direction Zarka pointed. The spring, which had been emitting an intense, maddening cold just moments ago, had now be eerily still.
“What’s going on?”
“I managed to temporarily convert the cold within the spring into spirit power to halt its eruption. It will start thrashing again soon enough.”
“So you turned the spring’s mana into death energy? Spirit power and death energy are different, not to mention the fact that this energy is not Duaat’s. Can spirit power really be transformed?” Karyl asked, his eyes fixed on Zarka.
Spirit power, used in necromancy, and Duaat’s death energy were both forms of dark magic, but they were fundamentally different. Moreover, the being Karyl suspected lurked within the spring—although colder than a corpse—was primarily associated with ice, not death.
“That’s why I said you should see it for yourself.”
<i>Rumble, rumble, rumble...</i>
The spring, which seemed on the verge of exploding, was shaking violently. Karyl nced downward as Zarka had suggested.
“This is...”
His eyes flickered slightly in response to what he saw.
“I wasn’t pushed out of the Freezing Talon because the Queen of Tides is slumbering in this spring, forcing me out with her power. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
Zarka Hochi’s transparent form slowly became more solid, taking on the full appearance of an elf, just as he had looked when Karyl first encountered him at the Ghost Castle.
“The powerful mana within this spring isn’t due to the Queen of Tides lying dormant here.”
<i>Sploosh!</i>
As if in a trance, Karyl reached his hand into the spring’s water, seemingly oblivious to Zarka’s words.
“Wh-What are you doing?!!” Zarka shouted in surprise, knowing better than anyone else just how excruciatingly cold the spring was, having emerged from it moments earlier.
<i>Sizzle...!!!</i>
But as soon as Karyl’s hand touched the water, heat radiated from the spring. Instead of freezing his hand, the water bubbled and soon came to a boil under his touch.
“...”
Karyl’s expression remained calm, suggesting he wasn’t in any pain. Soon, he pulled something out of the spring.
Even though Ramine’s heat enveloped his arm, Karyl’s skin had turned a deep blue, almost ck, as if stained by the spring’s deadly cold. His flesh was disintegrating, sloughing off as though it had been doused in acid, filling the air with a sharp, acrid scent as steam rose from his arm.
“You’re an absolute freak...” Zarka Hochi muttered to himself, shaking his head at the sight.
“...Why is this here?” Karyl murmured as he held something from the spring, his face etched with confusion rather than pain.
“Wait, you... You know what that is? That thing didn’t exist in the Mythical Era. It was created during the Magical Era. I thought I was the only one who would recognize it.”
Zarka looked at Karyl with slight surprise.
“You’re telling me this was made in the Magical Era? And that’s all it amounts to?”
“Even if it was made in the Magical Era, it’s been a thousand years. What do you mean, <i>just that</i>? Do you even know what that is, or are you just pretending?”
“What nonsense... This is from the Oracle Wa—”
Karyl was about to respond to Zarka but quickly mped his mouth shut. He couldn’t reveal that the ne he had just retrieved from the spring was one of the relics he was destined to find ording to the three Oracles of his previous life.
“...”
There was no need to exin something that had not yet urred, especially since the Oracle’s revtion had not pointed to this ce as the location of the ne.
“Can you exin this?” Karyl asked Zarka, biting his lip slightly.
“Haha. That smug look of yours is gone, I see.” Zarka grinned, taking pleasure in Karyl’s uncertainty.
“Right. So why don’t you share what you know before I decide to destroy you?”
“...”
Karyl sighed and readied to toss the Freezing Talon back into the spring.
“W-Wait!! Damn it, you’re not one for jokes, are you?”
“Have you ever seen me joke?”
“...I was about to exin, so calm down and put that sword away.”
Ignoring his request, Karyl held the de upright, urging Zarka to speak.
“It’s the Ne of Revtion.”
Zarka pointed to the rusty, old relic in Karyl’s hand.
“That’s its name.”
“And?”
“Long ago, Narhan Tinuviel, the leader of Aerial Woods and an elven craftsman, forged a weapon made of three pieces.”
“...”
Upon hearing that, Kary’s heart sank. Three relics, and three Oracles in his previous life—could that really be just a coincidence?
“Go on.”
Karyl unwittingly tightened his grip on the ne.
“He was one of the ders from the Magical Era. You know about those, right? Maybe that old lich by your side would recognize them. They weren’t the original ders from the Mythical Era, but rather a group of entrics who gathered to forge powerful weapons.”
“Stop with the pointless rambling and tell me about this ne.”
“Don’t ask why an elf made such an artifact, or why it’s here. I don’t know, nor do I care to find out.”
“So?”
“The very idea of elves mixing with humans and dwarves is beyond myprehension. Narhan Tinuviel was born into the elven royal family, but he was someone who defiedmon sense.” Zarka Hochi continued, “Because this is an artifact imbued with the power of the Demon Realm.”
“...What?”
“It’s also the reason I’m able to take this form now. As you know, the Demon Realm is full of spirits and souls. The obsidian embedded in the Ne of Revtion is a mineral that only exists in the Demon Realm, giving it its power.”
“So you’re saying this is an artifact from the Demon Realm?”
For the first time in a while, Karyl’s usuallyposed expression faltered. He found himself unable to hide his shock.
“No, to be precise, it’s an artifact imbued with the power of the Demon Realm. That’s why I told you from the start. Why an elf would tamper with the unholy power of the Demon Realm is beyond me.”
Despite his appearance as a lich, Zarka had never lost awareness of his elven identity. Perhaps that was why he had remained to guard Aerial Woods and kept a portrait of Fürrel, the queen of Elvenheim.
“The elven power alone was insufficient. The ders of the Magical Era were determined to create powerful weapons, even if it meant borrowing power from other races.”
“But why power from the Demon Realm?”
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“That much I can tell you. Only elves possess the Soul Spring capable of opening portals to other dimensions.”
Karyl looked at Zarka, signaling for further exnation.
“Yourpanion, the Spirit King, said something simr when you acquired the essence of the Soul Spring from the treasure vault.”
Karyl nodded in acknowledgment.
Ramine had referred to the Soul Spring as a sort of dimensional portal and mentioned that it could open a gate to the Spirit Realm.
“Could it be...?”
“Yes. Even though elves and demons are fundamentally opposing species, ironically, the Soul Spring of the elves can also open a portal to the Demon Realm.”
<i>Crack...!!</i>
At that moment, the ground beneath Karyl’s feet shattered.
“...”
Zarka fell silent. There was no need for words—the oppressive aura emanating from Karyl was undoubtedly anger.
“But as I said, opening a portal to the Demon Realm is extremely dangerous. They must have known that too, which is why they divided it into three pieces. Without all three, it’s impossible to open the portal.”
“So if those three pieces are brought together, demons could invade this continent?”
“That’s right, but only if a Soul Spring with mana exists...”
Zarka gestured toward the massive spring before them.
“There’s no need to search for it. It’s right here.”
Karyl let out a faint chuckle at Zarka’s words.
“But who would go through the trouble of doing such a thing? There’s no reason to open a portal to the Demon Realm.”
“Ha... Hahaha...”
As soon as Zarka finished speaking, Karyl’sughter grew louder, his head tilting back .
“Wh-What...?”
Zarka, startled by Karyl’s sudden outburst, took a step back.
As hisughter died down, Karyl said in an icy tone, “Someone already went through that trouble.”
The immense power radiating from him caused the entire cave to tremble, as if it might copse.
“...What?”
When the Oracle was prophesied and the Tower of Pharel emerged, humanity was forced to fight not only the monsters called Tarak swarming from the giant tower but also demons. And the Ten of the Oracle carried out the three divine tasks for the future of humanity.
However...
<i>How dare they... use us?</i>
Karyl could hardly believe that the keys they had been tasked to gather would ultimately open the gate to the Demon Realm, releasing even more horrors upon humanity.
He looked at Zarka.
“Is there anyone else who knows about this?”
“Well...” Zarka shrugged slightly. “Humans probably don’t, but anyone with elven blood would know instinctively. The will of the Tinuviel family is like a shackle that binds all elves.”
At that, Karyl’s expression darkened.
“Even if they’re a hybrid?”
“If they have even a drop of elven blood, absolutely. The Tinuviel bloodline is strong. Unlike humans, our royal line has never been overthrown or reced by rebellion. It’s been passed down through a single family since the Mythical Era.”
Although long dead, Zarka spoke with pride about his elven heritage, but Karyl was barely even registering his words.
“Rael...”
That name had been etched into his mind—the leader of Wooden Cloud, a person who inherited the blood of both elves and Nephilims.
Karyl had initially thought of them as merely a group of twisted fanatics. Later, when he discovered that the Wooden Cloud was cultivating nts from the Demon Realm, he assumed they were the ones responsible for summoning demons.
It was only natural. The fanatics of Blue Roar, the sessors of the Wooden Cloud, worshiped Tarak and sought the annihtion of humanity.
<i>That wasn’t it.</i>
The deeper he delved, the more secrets surfaced.
In his previous life, Karyl hadn’t been aware of the Soul Spring. Olivurn had chosen this ce as the battleground against the Tarak because of the rm system established by the principality, and thus no further investigation into the principality had been made.
<i>Could even that have been part of the n?</i>
No one was an ally. The Wooden Cloud fanatics who worshiped the Tarak, Olivurn, who had tried to kill them at the end of the Oracle War... and even the damned gods who had prophesied the Oracle to find the keys to the Demon Realm.
<i>They were all in on it.</i>
Karyl looked up with cold eyes. All he could see was darkness, but that darkness seemed to reflect his own heart.
<i>The gods never intended to let humanity survive.</i>
<i>Boom!!</i>
He couldn’t shake the feeling of being yed. Rather, it wasn’t just a feeling, but a cold, hard fact. Any shred of hope or belief he’d had was nowpletely gone. Filled with rage, Karyl hurled the ne to the ground as hard as he could.
<i>Crash!</i>
Despite the loud impact, the ne didn’t bear a single scratch; as expected of a der artifact.
<i>Someone among them must have known this ne was here and moved it before we could find it. If I destroy it now, the gateway to the Demon Realm won’t be opened. </i>
Karyl could have prevented one of the major threats in the Oracle War from the very beginning.
He lifted his foot, ready to crush the ne then and there.
“...”
But in that moment, he paused, looking down at the artifact.
“No.”
<i>Crrrunch...</i>
Slowly lowering his foot, he pressed down on the ne, his voice a low growl.
“Destroying it just like this wouldn’t be any fun.”