"Even you can't?" Du Wei gasped.
"Me?" The old magician smiled: "I can't. At least in this world, I think there are only two people with enough magic and strength to stand up to him. The first is his Majesty the Pope, the second is the President of the Magician's Union."
Du Wei did not understand the old magician's meaning.
But then the old magician smiled wryly: "The two people I just named 'may' have strength higher than the chieftain of the dragon clan, but that was only my opinion because two hundred years ago, I had a fight with him. Using only half his power, the dragon patriarch nearly took my life then and there. I still believe I would have perished two hundred years ago if I wasn't carrying the contract between Aragon and the dragon clan!"
Just when the old guy finished speaking, the words of the dragon chieftain had reached their ears from the deeper parts of the cave.
"You're too modest, my friend."
The dragon patriarch had already returned with a narrow looking box in hand as he walked slowly towards them while slightly smiling: "I would like to correct two errors. First, the others I don't know, but I think your strength is above the President of the Magician's Union. Second, the strength of his Majesty the Pope is not 'maybe' above you, but definitely above you."
"How did you know?" Du Wei questioned.
"Because I've been to your human world... Transforming into this appearance, I visited the human world and learned of your culture and civilization….. Because I'm curious, what exactly is the human world to be able to produce such a strong person like Aragon! I would travel to the human world every one hundred years, but in the end, I'm always disappointed! Why? Because it seems that even the race with the largest population in the world could not produce another powerful expert of Aragon's standard." The dragon patriarch spoke with a light voice: "I have secretly challenged both the President of the Magician's Union and the Pope of the Temple of Light before. So my friend, you do not have to be so modest, I think among the human mages in the world, your strength can easily take first place in the rankings….. That is if the Pope never leaves the temple."
With that said, he readily threw the box down and his tone gradually cooled down: "Well then, take the key and go! My old friend, you know where the secret chamber is! Open it and take away the things stored inside, then leave my territory! You did get one thing right; I still hate humans, especially that scumbag Aragon!"
With that said, the dragon patriarch snorted and turned around to walk away.
Just when he was making the 'humph' sound, Du Wei suddenly felt a sound piercing into his ears, as if an invisible hand was mercilessly clutching his heart. Then he could feel the blood pressure in his entire body boiling up!
The sound was like a heavy hammer!
Du Wei's expression immediately turned white, and the view in front of him suddenly turned black as he was fainting! Fortunately, the old magician pulled against Du Wei with his palm pressing against his chest. After a shining light from a magic spell, Du Wei was able to take in a deep breath and slowly return to normal.
But then, Hussein's face suddenly changed as he stood behind the two. The proud Knight opened his mouth and spit out a mouthful of blood from his mouth!
The knight looked shocked. Watching the dragon patriarch slowly disappearing behind one of the cave passageways, Hussein, then asked with clenched teeth's: This…. What is this."
"This is Draconian magic." The old magician sighed: "He already restrained himself."
"Why is she all right then?" Du Wei pointed towards the quietly standing Medusa.
"Because this chief only hates humans." The old magician smiled wryly. He took one look at the angered face of Hussein: "Hussein, don't expect that you can challenge him right now! Believe me; even if you're a Saint Knight, there is still a large gap between your powers!"
The little bit of draconian magic cast out by the dragon patriarch sure is powerful. Under the light affinity spell of the old magician, Du Wei's disturbed spirit and boiling blood inside his body had finally started to gradually calm down. As for Hussein, the knight had suffered a huge humiliation after spitting out a mouthful of blood. If not for the old magician's warning, the proud knight would have probably gone the dragon patriarch to demand a duel.
"It seems the dragon clan's tolerance is not so good." Du Wei smiled wryly: "It is all because Aragon suppressed the dragon clan in the past, causing them to lose face. So by hating Aragon, he ended up hating all of us too?"
The old magician frowned and then whispered, "I told you so before, the chief is a complicated guy, From his mouth, he may say he hated Aragon the most, but in fact, he may not only have hatred towards Aragon. From his actions so far, there may be a subtle feeling of respect towards Aragon, after all, he was the only person able to defeat this dragon patriarch. Maybe it is due to this complex feeling that caused him to quietly sneak into the human world."
After these words, the old magician cried out: "Well then, don't waste time; finishing our business is more important! Follow me; we will leave this spot and go see Aragon's secret chamber!"
Then everyone walked out of the Hall while following the old magician. The old guy seems to remember the route very well, and after walking through a passageway, they were faced with numerous forks in the road. Despite the lack of information, he didn't hesitate for even a moment and he led the group through many left and right turns.
Along the way, Du Wei was surprised by some strange "things" he saw.
Just after passing through the caves main passageway, (to tell the truth, Du Wei wondered if this was not actually a mouse cave. The cave of the dragons extended in all directions, with forks everywhere in the roads.) There are some tall and short rocky platforms and all of these rocks are made out of the unique black metal found only in the Holy Mountain. Lunged on top of the platforms sharp metal tips are skulls of different sizes!!
These skulls came in all manners of different shapes, but what was the most puzzling of all was that none of the skulls seemed to be that of a human!
Every skull placed on top of these platforms varied and some were still wearing helmets of a peculiar style, but they did have one similarity: Du Wei could see all of these skulls were screwed down onto the rocks!
It is not certain how many years have passed, but luckily the temperature in the cave was cold and dry enough that the skulls weren't decaying from moisture. If one were to pay even closer attention, you could just barely make out their original facial appearance!
So, the things that Du Wei saw: The skulls are three to four times larger than the average person, from their facial features and shape of their bones, their appearance seems to be like that of a cat, and the residual skin texture could still be seen from the dried skins….. It was scary enough to be looking at the flat mouth, nose, and ears on top of their skulls….. But what was even more terrifying are the platforms sharp tipped edges piercing right through the skulls necks and coming out of their mouths, this scene was especially scary!
While some of the other skulls had a very long mouth with two nearly unnoticeable holes above the mouth, presumably the nostrils. As for the ears, they were very small…. From the shape alone, it is likely these beings had a similar appearance to that of cattle's, such as a horse.
Some skulls even had long jaws like that of a crocodile. Occupying two thirds of the skull, the teeth were distributed on the upper and lower jaw. No matter what, it is not possible for a human to have teeth's like that/
Seeing the skulls, Du Wei suddenly recalled the vision of those mummies at the bottom of the mountain. This caused his heart to skip a beat! Not knowing how many years of weathering these skulls had endured, it was obvious their skins have dried up. Although there was no evidence of decay, their looks were abnormal. This was especially true for the unclosed eye lids because it was revealing the empty eye sockets...
Of course, there are a few that looked very similar to humans. These skulls were slightly smaller and even more slender than a normal human. From the skull size, Du Wei speculated the body size of this race was much smaller and thinner than the ordinary person, but 'they' were the most pleasing to the eyes among all the skulls. Even though the weather has caused the heads to dry up, the skulls still looked vividly alive. From the contours of their face, their features were clearly refined and well-proportioned. Then there were the long pointed ears...
"These are the Elves." The old magician appropriately reminded him in a low voice: "Those big guys over there are the Orcs."
"You knew?" Du Wei turned his head to look back at the old magician.
"Yes, these are the exiled races." The old magician whispered.
The races that were exiled, Du Wei repeated this sentence in his heart with some emotion. Walking slowly through the sharp rocks, what welcomed them after coming out of the passageway was a bottomless abyss!
The abyss was located on the hillside of the Holy Mountain and the surrounding area was very narrow. But from where Du Wei was positioned, he could see a very big cave entrance and a protruding rock extending above the abyss, thus forming a large platform.
Below the abyss, there was a faint howling wind that was mixed with a haunting aura. Listening closely, one could hear the shrill cries of sadness mixed in the wind. This is enough to send chills into anyone listening!
"This place is the sacrificial altar." The old magician pointed across the abyss at the protruding rocks: "That thing there is the altar. The dragon clan would deposit the skulls of those they killed around the abyss and lunge them on top of these rocks. Then, once every one hundred years, a sacrificial ceremony would take place. By taking one of the skulls around the abyss, they would then hold a ceremony to throw the skull into the bottomless abyss. And then…. Looking forward to the next century, they will continue killing the powerful experts coming in from the north and repeating this process for eons to come."
"What meaning is there in doing all of this?" Du Wei was puzzled.
"The mission of the dragons is to guard this place, but this mission was already in place for who knows how many years! Even before the age of Aragon, the dragons were already here! Think about it. On the surface, the saying is to guard, but in fact, isn't the dragons also being imprisoned by such a mission? Isn't this mission equal to forever limiting the dragons to this place? What difference is there between this and a prisoner? So, when the dragons received the mission from God, they were not willing. So God gave them a glimmer of hope, a hope to completely rid them of such a mission. That hope was a condition."
"What condition?"
The old magician had a weird look in his eyes as he glanced at the bottomless abyss below his feet. In a whispering voice: "God and the dragons agreed that if one day they were able to fill this abyss with enough skulls of the evil races, then their mission would be considered complete! Once that happens, the dragon clan would be free to live their lives without being bound by the mission!"
Fill this abyss with skulls... Du Wei took a look at the bottomless darkness in front of him…. How many skulls would that take?!