Chapter 66: Chapter 66
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Once Bill had recovered enough, the group of three walked into the purple flame path.
Despite there not being any other light sources inside the pathway, they could clearly see around them as the entire path was lit up with a soft purple light. Even as they got twenty metres into the path, where the light of the flame should be unable to reach them, they could still see with surprising clarity.
Ethan was not about the complaint, though. Having the sole source of light hovering next to Bill was constraining for a number of reasons, so being able to see everywhere around him was a definite improvement.
They were careful on the way, looking for any hidden traps, but when they ended up finding the trap, they realised it was anything but hidden.
At the end of the path was a triangular room with a stone formation at the end of it. There were about ten coffins within the room as well, identical to the ones Ethan and Tracey had seen before that held guardians in them.
Their natural assumption was that these ones had guardians in them too.
As they were about to enter the room, Bill warned, "Wait a second; I need to check for traps."
They halted their steps, and after a round of inspection from Bill, he pointed his wand at the ground, which was surprisingly tiled.
"This tile is trapped. Don't walk on it."
The two nodded, and the group entered the room, making sure to avoid it.
Once in, Bill asked, "What can you tell me about them? Strengths? Weaknesses?"
Ethan was about to speak, but Tracey beat him to it: "They are Living Dead, weak to both silver and fire. They are also connected to one another, so they might have the sense-sharing of Leorats."
"Leorats?"
Tracey nodded matter-of-factly at Ethan's question, explaining, "I did some research before coming to Egypt. Leorats are magical beasts who live in packs and are capable of sharing each other's senses, making them particularly dangerous when they are in large groups. Also, those guardians seemed to be getting stronger with each one that fell, but that might have been them learning from the others' deaths."
Her description sounded like it was taken straight out of a textbook, meaning Tracey would have learned it by heart. Something Ethan found hard to believe came from his friend. Having spent a year in school with her and helped her with more than one exam, Ethan knew better than anyone how much she abhorred memorising books.
Ethan was trying not to let his paranoia control him, but he truly was finding it hard not to assume there was something amiss with Tracey.
Bill, on the other hand, said, "If that's the case, using one big attack to take them all out at once is probably the way to go. I know the answer is probably no, but you wouldn't happen to have learned one, would you?"
Ethan crouched in the middle of the room, projecting his magical sense into the ground as he said, "I might have something, actually."
"How effective is it?"
"I took out an elder vampire with it."
Bill and Tracey both blurted, "Oh," before approaching him.
After a moment, probably used to remember how the vampire who had impersonated Diego Basco died, Tracey asked, "Didn't you impale that guy with a silver spear or something?"
Ethan shook his head, explaining, "I turned the ground into silver and turned it into a spike to impale him. We could do the same here if the room isn't trapped to prevent this. That's what I'm checking."
Bill took several steps back and started checking the room in his own way, while Tracey also stepped back and said innocently, "I think it's a great idea. It could work. The room should be reinforced by magic, right? Maybe it will make manipulating harder, but it should hold on."
Ethan only responded with a grunt and continued checking the room nonetheless, and so did Bill, while Tracey stood there awkwardly.
After a while, once he had examined the entire room, Ethan said, "I could not find any traps. That thing, however," he pointed at the rock formation in one of the angles of the room, "is probably a portal."
Bill's eyes widened as he asked, "Are you sure?"
Ethan nodded, surprised Bill was so shocked, and explained, "This whole thing is actually not much of a trap, but more of a trial. We need to defeat the guardians to activate the portal. But the portal itself makes sense since we were teleported here in the first place?"
Bill shook his head, realising Ethan was misunderstanding him as he said, "Portal magic is relatively recent, as it was supposed to have been invented 700 years ago."
"And this place is 3000 years old. Meaning portal magic was invented much earlier than we thought, or we are no longer in Ramesses II's tomb."
The realisation shook everyone, and Tracey spoke up: "We were the first ones to ever get into that tomb, and it would not make sense for it to lead us somewhere that was not secluded and impossible to find. So they probably already knew portal magic, but that magic was lost."
She was still making reaches, but Ethan had to agree with her. Still, the discovery was huge, as they discovered a spell that might have been 2000 years older than the world believed.
Bill took out a small marble from his bag and tossed it in the direction of the portal, only for it to stop mid-air. It was completely white, but as the seconds passed, it started turning black, as if ink were being injected within.
Ethan and Tracey spoke at the same time, ""What is this?""
"It is a sort of recording device. All Curse Breakers carry a few on them. This will record the magical print of the room, so it may be studied later on. Of course, it cannot record everything, but in the event of the portal's destruction or it simply becoming unavailable, this will at least allow us to study a part of it."
He tossed another marble and explained without having to be asked, "This should record our current location. Both of these were made by the Department of Mysteries. They give them to all Curse Breakers and any adventurer they can get their hands on to aid in their work."
The Department of Mysteries was in charge of discovering and pushing the limits of magic, which had existed in one form or another in nearly every culture and in every era of the world. It also happened to be one of the places Ethan dearly wanted to visit. Unfortunately, they were not open to visitors.
While the two marbles recorded, Ethan asked, "Do you guys know the circuit to turn the ground into silver? I could do it on my own, but it would exhaust pretty much all my magic."
Ethan had already used a good part of his magic against the first set of guardians they had crossed, to the point where he was not even sure he could cover the whole room by himself.
Fortunately, they both nodded, and so they got to work. Soon, the ground in front of all the coffins had been turned into silver.
Having identified the trapped tile as the switch for the coffins and, as a result, the portal as well, Bill asked, "Do you think we could ignore the guardians and directly jump in the portal?"
Ethan smiled wryly. "A bit late for that, isn't it?"
Bill looked at the silvery ground and snorted.
As for Tracey, she warned more seriously: "The guardians are fast, and their coffins are between us and the portal. We probably wouldn't make it in time and would only turn ourselves into easy targets."
Ethan agreed they were fast, but they had taken some time to get out of their coffins, possibly enough time to allow them to go through the portal. But there was another reason that made him refuse Bill's proposal.
"We don't know where the portal will lead. For all we know, it could be another trap or trial. We don't know where it will lead before it opens. Besides, with our own traps in place, the guardians should not be too hard to defeat."
Bill sighed. "It's fine; I was just saying… let's do this."
Weekly Power Status
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