Chapter 255: The Mysterious Drow |
Led by the drider, the group of "rebellious" escaped slaves ventured into the endless darkness.
These driders possessed the peculiar ability to weave black webs into spatial pathways. Step into one, and you'd emerge from another web elsewhere.
No wonder Black Rose had failed to locate the mastermind for so long. Conventional teleportation could be traced, but this operated on entirely different principles.
This wasn't a natural drider ability. Ambrose suspected it was tied to the artifact.
The thought excited him. Maybe he could use it himself.
Even if not, it would still fetch a staggering price when sold.
As for the Spider Queen Loss, Ambrose wasn't overly concerned about her.
Gods had rules. They couldn't interfere freely in the mortal world.
That balance existed thanks to Aion, who both granted and restricted divine authority. Without him, the world would have collapsed long ago.
Even the devils of Hell respected him for giving them a place to belong.
Ambrose did too. He revered this supreme god to the point that, if given even the smallest sign to do so, Ambrose would solemnly swear to dedicate himself to Aion and not betray him no matter how much gold was in play.
After all, nothing could be worth more than Aion's attention.
But it was precisely because of those limits that Ambrose felt confident enough to steal the artifact.
With Milena's anti-magic field and his own mastery of spellcasting, they would surely be able to handle one artifact easily.
Fate had given Ambrose no warning. That was the greatest of guarantees—no. Something felt off.
He sensed no danger… but also no success.
Normally, his connection to fate gave him an instinctive sense of the likelihood of certain outcomes, even without drawing directly on the power of fate.
This time, though, there was nothing but emptiness.
Was it because the artifact was too closely tied to a god?
That was the only limit to Ambrose's senses at present.
As he pondered this conundrum, they arrived in a vast underground city choked with webs.
Despite traveling through the Umbral Depths so many times, Ambrose still couldn't pinpoint his exact location. But this vast subterranean space before him was distinctive enough to be worth recording. Once he showed it to Black Rose later, they could likely determine where exactly it was.
Led by the drider, the group entered the city. From the crumbling architecture and the fresh tracks on the ground, Ambrose quickly pieced together several conclusions.
The structures were in the architectural style of the ancient gray dwarves, and had to be at least a thousand years old, judging by their decay. Yet the webs and footprints were recent. Clearly, the rebels had only just discovered this abandoned ruin and claimed it as their base. They hadn't even bothered repairing it properly—they'd just patched things up with webs and left it at that.
It meant either they hadn't been here long… or this wasn't their true headquarters. And given the strange teleportation ability of those black webs, Ambrose grew wary of every web in the city. Who knew what other hidden properties they might have?
While Ambrose analyzed everything in detail, Milena had no patience for sleuthing. She kept urging the drider to take her to its mistress.
The girl was ready to strike at the mastermind the moment they met, to eliminate her and burn the entire city to the ground.
But the drider didn't bring her to its mistress at all. Instead, it led them to a random area and settled them in.
"My mistress is occupied," it said. "When she is free, I will present you to her. For now, make yourselves comfortable. There is no shortage of food or supplies here, and you are completely safe. You should take the opportunity to rest."
It sounded reasonable enough. These escaped slaves had been on edge for hours. Now that they had finally found a safe haven, many of them could barely resist the urge to collapse and rest. Not wanting to appear suspicious, Milena had no choice but to accept the arrangement.
Ambrose didn't find it strange either. If he were the mastermind, he wouldn't meet these newly arrived drow immediately. Drow were notorious for treachery. It was better to establish dominance first and make them submit completely.
It wouldn't be long before that display of authority came.
But Ambrose had no intention of waiting. After calming Milena, he cloaked himself in an illusion and silently followed the drider.
If this were merely a group of drow plotting against Black Rose, he could let Milena handle it. But a god and a divine artifact were involved. Leaving it to a child only a few days old would be irresponsible.
His illusion magic, inherited from the Lady of Mists, could deceive all senses and magical detection alike. It didn't just bend light. It fabricated touch, scent, and presence, creating a false reality.
So impressive was its ability to distort reality that Ambrose didn't even have to worry about accidentally touching strands of spiderweb.
He followed the drider through the web-filled city, across ruins and towering walls, until they finally reached a tall spire.
It stood nearly a hundred meters tall. Built from dark violet stone, it was completely distinct from the surrounding architecture.
Drow carvings covered its surface, and at its peak stood a finely crafted statue of the Spider Queen Loss.
At the sight of it, Ambrose relaxed slightly. This was no temporary refuge. The tower radiated a dense, malevolent aura, one that could only come from countless blood sacrifices. This was their true stronghold.
As a lich, Ambrose had no fear of what lay inside. Without hesitation, he followed the drider in.
The moment he entered, a faint, sweet fragrance filled his senses. Unlike the web-choked ruins outside, the interior was lavish: plush carpets underfoot, golden lamp fixtures on the walls, and exquisite oil paintings adorning the halls.
Drow might be cruel and vicious, but they were still elves. They had refined tastes.
Floating silently, Ambrose surveyed his surroundings.
The paintings were unmistakably in the style of Loss-worshipping drow. They were filled with eroticism, violence, and bloodshed, yet rendered with such artistic precision that each piece struck the viewer with overwhelming intensity. Stare too long, and one might even grow numb to the brutality.
Ambrose, however, was calculating their value. Twenty thousand gold per piece wouldn't be hard. A complete set might fetch even more.
But more importantly, these decorations revealed something else: the tower's owner came from an ancient, well-established drow house, not from the generations of enslaved drow under Black Rose.
And with age came power. Old bloodlines meant deeper foundations, more magical equipment, and far greater danger.
Still, Ambrose wasn't worried. If necessary, he could always hide somewhere in the ruins, set up a teleportation circle, and summon Black Rose with her undead army to flatten the place.
For now, his objective was clear: locate the artifact and determine what it actually did.
He followed the drider upward, passing through layer after layer of heavily guarded checkpoints, until they finally reached the top floor.
At a glance, Ambrose recognized it as a massive magical array composed of multiple powerful effects and primarily designed for blood sacrifice.
At the center stood the statue of the Spider Queen. Before it sat a spider-shaped throne, and upon that throne reclined a dark-skinned drow woman.
She wore a revealing outfit resembling woven webbing, perfectly accentuating her figure.
Drow were like that: dangerous, cruel… and irresistibly captivating.
Across the continent, powerful figures often placed their seats before the statues of their patron gods. Perhaps it gave them the illusion of divine oversight or lent them an aura of authority.
The drider approached her and knelt respectfully. "My mistress," it reported. "We have confirmed the explosion was real. The undead suffered heavy losses, and many slaves escaped. However, the cause remains unknown."
The drow woman let out a cold laugh. "No need to investigate. The Spider Queen has already told me that this was an undead conspiracy."
Ambrose frowned. Loss shouldn't have been able to reveal Ambrose's plan outright.
That was against what was permissible, surely.
And how had Loss found out, anyway? She certainly wasn't a deity of prophecy.
Perhaps Oguma, Lord of Knowledge, would have been aware of it by his very nature alone, but certainly not Loss.
But what the drow woman said next shocked him even more.
"Kill all those so-called escaped slaves. There are surely undead spies among them… No, bring them here instead." Her lips curled into a darker smile. "I require fresh sacrifices. This time, it won't just be to welcome the Spider Queen's descent… Several goddesses will be granting me their blessings."