บท 9: Chapter 9: Courage
Cohen stepped cautiously into the main tomb chamber, carefully sidestepping the corpses strewn across the floor. Under the gazes of his companions, each reflecting different emotions, he turned back toward them, a slight smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
"See?" he said. "Nothing happened."
"Woohoo!" Gerald cheered, taking large strides as he carried the lantern inside.
"Good heavens, that was reckless! At least you're okay," Andrew said, having just been about to stop Gerald from encouraging such reckless behavior.
Seeing that Cohen was safe, Lena let out a relieved breath and threw him a look of admiration, her eyes glinting with a smile.
As they realized nothing was amiss, the group of young men and women relaxed and followed one another into the tomb.
The main chamber was grand yet intricate. The marble dome above, though its frescoes had peeled away, still exuded a kind of ancient and majestic desolation. Astella glanced around and sighed before stepping inside.
"Essie," Lena called softly from behind, her voice affectionate. "That 'Cup of Glory' artifact was amazing. Do you know of any Beyonder pathway with similar abilities?"
Earlier, the chalice had unexpectedly burst into a hymn of praise to the sun, startling everyone. Afterward, Lena had returned it to Gerald.
Astella, paying no mind to Lena's feigned sweetness, whispered back, "As far as I know, the Intis Church of the 'Eternal Blazing Sun' controls such powers. Their Sequence 9 is called the 'Bard.'"
"Sounds perfect for me." Lena ran a hand through her fiery red hair. "Where can I buy the potion formula?"
Lena was a singer and had once played the role of Grand Duchess Georgina in the Ruen opera The Founders, a performance that had packed the student theater with young admirers from across the campus.
Astella replied helplessly, "Such Beyonder pathway tied directly to a church are tightly controlled. It's nearly impossible to buy them with money. If you really want it, you could try your luck at gatherings or perhaps look into the channels of the Storm Church."
In fact, Astella thought Lena's original interest in the "Lawyer" path was quite good. It wasn't locked down by any church, and with enough money, the potential for advancement was considerable.
Satisfied with the response, Lena hummed a little tune and skipped behind Astella.
Astella, instead of walking directly toward the central painting, circled the room and noticed a pile of rubble and dust from a previous explosion in one corner. Strangely, there seemed to be nothing around worth blowing up.
She didn't dare touch anything. Looking up at the broken frescoes overhead, she still found no clues.
——
"Hey! Look! This coffin is open!"
On the other side of the room, Gerald had already jumped onto the black marble platform.
"There's no body in here!" he called out loudly.
"No body?" The others turned their heads.
"Yeah," Gerald reached into the coffin and pulled out a pale gold cushion, showing it to his friends. "Only this."
"Oh my, someone actually slept on that?" Lena wrinkled her nose in disgust.
Andrew frowned. "Did the Beyonder members of the Steam Church even take this Fourth Epoch noble's body with them?"
That seemed awfully disrespectful to the dead.
"It doesn't seem like it." Gerald said loudly. "This cushion doesn't have any weird smell. In fact, it smells kind of nice. Definitely doesn't seem like a dead person used it. Hey, there's a pattern on it—looks like some sort of bug. Who uses bugs as a family crest? It's got a bunch of rings around it... But seriously, the craftsmanship is exquisite! Hey, Astella, how much would this fetch on the underground market?"
"I'm not an antiques dealer..." Astella muttered softly. But before she could finish her sentence, a sudden, overwhelming sense of dread seized her.
Beneath the platform, in the picture frame, the smile of the young man wearing a monocle seemed... wider than before.
"Gerald, put that down!!" she shouted sharply.
"Astella, what is it this time?" Gerald responded with annoyance, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he touched his prominent Adam's apple in confusion.
With his sailor's acute hearing, he sensed a slight change in his voice.
"Ahhhh!!"
A piercing scream echoed through the chamber.
It wasn't just Lena—Astella and Andrew's pupils also dilated in horror, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.
Gerald looked down at his hands, still holding the cushion. His once strong hands were now shriveled, with veins bulging beneath the skin. Wrinkles crawled over them like worms devouring leaves, leaving only dried veins behind.
In the eyes of the others, Gerald's young, muscular frame began to change. His skull and facial structure subtly shifted. His beard grew longer and rapidly turned white. His hairline receded at an alarming pace... Within mere breaths, he had aged from a teenage boy into an elderly man. And the transformation wasn't stopping.
"Ahhh!!" Gerald let out a hoarse, desperate scream.
The golden cushion slipped from his grasp, revealing a pattern of segmented white worms, their bodies connected head to tail.
"Help... Help me, please...!" He was now hunched over, his limbs withered, barely clinging to life. "Please..."
.
"——Stay back! Leave this place!"
Astella had already clenched the ring on her index finger in her hand. Grabbing Lena by the arm, she prepared to chant a spell to teleport them away. Once the anomaly was triggered, it might spread. If they stayed any longer, they could all die!
But just then, a figure rushed forward.
"Andrew!" Astella and Lena cried out at the same time. Astella reached out to grab his sleeve, but missed.
"I can't just leave him to die!"
The kind-hearted and upright young man had already gone to Gerald's side, lifting his rapidly aging friend. His own temples began to grey, and small wrinkles appeared on his face.
——Though Gerald had always been difficult and contentious, they had shared many fond memories growing up. Andrew couldn't accept leaving him to die here, abandoned by his friends.
As time seemed to slip away, Andrew clutched his ring tightly. "——Door!"
A bright flash of light flared and then vanished.
...
Astella held her breath, tense with fear.
She had thought of this solution herself. There was a chance it could work. If they could "teleport" away from the source of the anomaly, maybe Gerald could survive. Plus, the church's Beyonder members might have a way to save him. As the son of a government official, Gerald could find a means to prolong his life.
But Astella didn't think Gerald was worth the risk. They had only known each other for a week, and Gerald was utterly obnoxious. Giving up much of her own lifespan to save him? Astella wasn't a saint.
She had considered throwing him another teleportation ring, but the aging process was accelerating too quickly. Gerald had already lost the ability to move. It was impossible.
Just as she was about to give up and flee, Andrew had rushed in.
He didn't know much about the church or any potential cures. He didn't have time to think. This young warrior had made a split-second decision, gambling his life to save his friend's.
"You're insane…!" Astella pulled Lena, who was trembling violently, and grabbed Cohen by the shoulder, her eyes fixed on the black coffin.
She watched intently as a flash of light appeared and disappeared, hoping against hope that Andrew and Gerald would vanish from the tomb.
But nothing happened.
Lena stumbled and fell to the ground, covering her mouth as tears poured uncontrollably down her face.
Astella froze. It felt like her soul had left her body, or like she had been struck by lightning, almost losing consciousness.
How could she have forgotten...
Guilt and terror overwhelmed her, and she nearly collapsed. Because of one tiny detail she had overlooked, her friend had made a fatal mistake.
——The "teleportation" ring was a talisman. Talismans had a lifespan!
Low-level talismans generally only lasted a few months. Even though this teleportation talisman seemed to be of a higher grade, capable of lasting ten or even dozens of years, it couldn't withstand the accelerated flow of time. The spiritual essence within had withered and faded, rendering the talisman useless.
Realizing the talisman had failed, Andrew sat down beside the now lifeless Gerald, leaning against the black coffin.
In the final moments, as he faced inevitable death, Andrew's gaze fell on a certain girl.
…When facing death, who would you look at?
In that moment of despair, Andrew managed a faint, wry smile.
"Run," he said, looking at them.
A brilliant flash of light followed, but there were no living souls left in the tomb.
Andrew's failing senses recalled flashes of his short life—growing up in the same neighborhood as Gerald, his parents, his friends, and the beautiful eyes of Lena and Astella.
"How did I end up dying with you, of all people…" he muttered, before closing his eyes.
...
After becoming an "Astrologer," Astella revisited that nightmare day countless times in her dreams. She had crossed through time and space, repeatedly locking eyes with the brave young man in his final moments. She had even tried to divine where that amber-like gaze had fallen in his last moments.
But sadly, the nature of divination meant she was asking her own intuition. No matter how many times she asked, she would never know the answer.
————
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