Book 8: Chapter 70: Bone Banner Totem |
Seeing Joey’s expression, Milleras shrugged and did not ask about the Necromancer’s fate again.
“Let’s go, we’re leaving this place!” Joey walked along the corridor outside the stone room and turned left. He had obtained the route in and out of the Tower of Durlag from Hasheed, including the underground sections. This Forbidden Zone of Life held no more secrets for him.
Milleras and Iristin exchanged a glance and hurried closely behind the young man. But Lorlin’s eyes shifted as he cautiously crept toward the stone room and reached out to push the stone door.
“Lorlin, what are you doing?” The dwarf soon heard a soft whisper in his ear.
“By Santa! Elr, when did you get behind me? You scared me to death!” the young dwarf jumped in fright, angrily stroking the soft beard on his chin. At his age, he still didn’t have a long beard like Elder Loier that reached his knees, but after being around the old dwarf for so long, he had completely picked up his habit of stroking his beard.
“Oh, sorry!” Elr moved a little closer to the dwarf and whispered, “Did you want to see the Necromancer’s body?”
“Don’t you want to see how that guy died? It harmed Elder Loier, and your teacher…” the dwarf said with some sadness. “I’ve heard the elders in the clan say that the undead have many ways to come back to life. If by any chance it wasn’t dead, I could give it another axe swing… Hey, why do you smell so good?”
“Ah! It’s nothing, then hurry up and look. Firal and the others have already gone far ahead. We need to be quick!” Elr was startled, suddenly realizing that without noticing, she and the dwarf were almost face to face. She immediately pulled her head back as if electrocuted, shyly burying it in her chest as her cheeks slowly turned red.
“Mm!” Lorlin did not notice Elr’s unusual behavior. All his focus was on the Lich’s body inside the stone room.
By then, only the last afterglow of the sunset remained. Because the thin death clouds still lingered above the Tower of Durlag, the light inside the stone room was exceptionally dim. Lorlin widened his eyes and, through the crack in the stone door, faintly saw a human figure standing in the center of the room.
“So it really isn’t dead?” Lorlin felt a surge of heat rush to his head, his face instantly flushing bright red. With his left hand, he pushed the stone door hard, and with his right hand gripping the Double-bladed Battleaxe tightly, he charged into the room…
“Lorlin!” Elr, who had been blaming herself, was startled. Without much thought, she hurried after him into the stone room, trying to pull back the reckless dwarf.
However, the dwarf, who had rushed into the room ahead of her, suddenly fell silent. His right hand was raised high, holding the battleaxe, and he stood in place without moving, like a stone statue carved by dwarves.
“What’s wrong, Lorlin?” Elr gently patted Lorlin’s shoulder. Her attention was fully on the dwarf, so she didn’t observe the scene inside the stone room for a moment.
Where she touched, Lorlin’s shoulder still felt warm, which reassured the magic apprentice a bit. But from the side, she saw the dwarf’s face was covered in cold sweat, his wide eyes bulging as if about to pop out of their sockets, as if he had seen something incredibly shocking.
Elr couldn’t help but follow the dwarf’s gaze forward. When she saw the “thing” in front of them, her face instantly turned deathly pale.
In the dim center of the stone room, a blurred figure stood in place—it should have been the Lich’s body. Only now, “it” looked somewhat like a totem and somewhat like a banner.
Its leg bones, thin as sticks, were twisted together unnaturally, and its feet stood upright, stabbed into the ground. Its arms were severed at the elbows, raised shoulder-high, forming a cross shape with its body. The forearms had been removed and placed behind the leg bones like support rods, propping up the skeleton so “it” couldn’t fall over.
The Lich’s chest and abdomen were completely cut open, its ribs splayed like blooming flowers or a mouth full of sharp fangs. Its bony head had truly become a skull this time, with all hair and skin stripped away, the inside hollowed out, and placed neatly atop the neck bone.
Only “its” jaw and the top of its skull were missing, leaving only a half-broken, strangely shaped skull. In the center of “its” chest, there was a square box that looked like metal but not quite, like bone but not quite.
This box seemed to be the Lich’s phylactery, but now it was covered in cracks, its color gray and withered, as if it would turn to dust at a touch. The missing skull top and jaw held it in place, one above and one below, embedded firmly in the chest.
The Lich’s original magic robe had been torn off and tied around its shoulders where the forearms were missing—that is, the crossbeam of the cross. The robe was stretched open by the splayed ribs like an ancient war banner, trembling slightly in the breeze from outside the window.
“Ah…” the magic apprentice let out a sharp scream, so high-pitched she herself was surprised she could produce such a loud noise.
“Shh!” The stiff dwarf finally snapped out of it and quickly covered her mouth, lowering his voice as he said, “Let’s get out of here!”
“Mm-mm!” Elr didn’t bother trying to pry off the dwarf’s hand and nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice. However, her legs were trembling, and after several attempts, she couldn’t move. She had no choice but to let Lorlin half-drag her out.
“Bang!” The dwarf pulled the stone door shut again. After closing it, the two youths of different races both felt their legs go weak and sat down on the ground.
“Lorlin, don’t tell anyone about what just happened. Maybe Lord Firal doesn’t want others to see this.” After catching her breath, Elr reminded her dwarf companion with a pale face.
“Mm!” Lorlin grunted in agreement, pulling her up from the ground. The two of them ran after the three ahead as if fleeing, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and that stone room.
…
“Firal, those two kids look terrified. What did you do to that Lich?” Watching Lorlin and Elr running up breathlessly from behind, Milleras poked Joey beside him with a smile.
“Nothing, just set up a banner totem!” Joey grinned and muttered under his breath, “Two brats who don’t know how to appreciate art!”
Behind him, Pakunoda twitched the corner of her mouth. Compared to the bone banner totem in the stone room, the beautiful woman from the Troupe suddenly felt that Uvogin, who’d been gutted and filled with explosives, and Shalnark, who’d been disassembled and reassembled, weren’t so tragic after all—at least they hadn’t been turned into strange specimens.
“Alright, let’s hurry. We’ll search the underground library once and then leave this place!” His artwork had been slandered, and Joey’s earlier good mood faded, leaving him noticeably less enthusiastic.
Just as he rounded the corner of the corridor, a figure suddenly flashed in front of him. In his retina, a burst of starlight gleamed, and a cascade of cold light slashed toward his left shoulder.
“Watch out!” Milleras and Iristin behind Joey both changed expressions simultaneously.
Faced with the sudden attack, the shock on Joey’s face lasted only an instant before his expression turned ferocious. Without hesitation, his left hand grabbed toward the cold light, while his right hand lashed out like a whip. The Dagger of Sin struck like a black lightning bolt toward the figure in front of him.
“I’ll give you my left hand, but leave me your life!”
The figure seemed to hear Milleras and Iristin’s shouts and hesitated for just a moment. The cold light aimed at Joey nimbly shifted, blocking the Dagger of Sin like a shield.
“Clang!” The collision between the Dagger of Sin and the cold light produced a clear metallic ring.
“Firal, stop! It’s one of us!” Just as Joey was about to lunge forward again, he felt his arm tighten as Iristin grabbed him firmly from behind.
“One of us?” Joey then noticed that the shield blocking the Dagger of Sin was actually an exaggeratedly large Double-Bladed Axe.
“Could it be…” Joey raised an eyebrow and focused on the figure in front of him.
The person before him wore a set of tight-fitting armor with silver-white bracers and leather gloves. A head of fiery red wavy hair framed a handsome oval face with a cold expression, looking valiant and heroic. It was actually Loviatar’s believer, Idria.
“Ha, you’ve been rescued too!” A voice like a lark came from behind Idria. A female elf carrying a large longbow lowered it and exclaimed joyfully.
This woman seemed to be called… Lace? Joey’s eyes flashed as he quickly remembered the identity of the female elf before him. She was a young Apostle who always stuck close to Kelly. The longbow in her hands was the Beastmaster Hunting Bow that Kelly had once bought from Qin Lun.
“How were you rescued? Where are Leader Robin and the others?” Milleras asked cheerfully.
“We’re not quite sure. Only Idria and I are here. I remember we were attacking the teleportation array, and then a white glow enveloped me… When I came to my senses, I was already here, with only Idria beside me!” Lace said with a worried expression.
So it was because of the Accompany Card. Those two were standing relatively close to us, so they were affected too. But since they weren’t right next to me, they landed a bit farther from us.
Joey quickly figured out the connection and immediately felt relieved, but then he became a bit angry.
Even though Qin Lun had kept his Apostle identity hidden from Robin and the others, even if it was revealed, it wouldn’t be a huge problem—more like an internal conflict. Still, he felt a bit guilty, and Joey was affected by it too, so of course he wasn’t too pleased.
“Since you’re here, let’s go together!” Joey said indifferently and led the way ahead. However, this time he learned his lesson and activated both Gannett’s Left Eye and Clock Eye.
Before this, Joey had looked down on Qin Lun’s cautious fighting style. He was very sensitive to danger and had built up self-confidence. However, he wasn’t stubborn about sticking to one fighting style. As long as it helped defeat the enemy, Joey was perfectly willing to accept any beneficial influence.
Under his lead, the group soon reached the descending stone steps and headed toward the underground library of the Tower of Durlag.