Chapter 375
Episode 113: Temar’s Fourth Tomb (Part 2)
The messenger who brought the news was a woman, clearly weakened.
Yet, despite her frailty, she was no opponent to be trifled with by the petty pranks of the diminished fairies.
A few reckless fairies, failing to recognize her, attacked carelessly—and all of them met a brutal end, their wings torn and bodies shattered. Fortunately, their numbers were few.
“Who are you?” Sheila asked.
The woman didn’t reveal her name. Only her eyes, hidden beneath a hood, shone with a lonely light. She smelled of blood and ash, as if she had just emerged from battle.
“I’ve come with a message from Solderet.”
“A message from the Shadow to us?”
The woman quietly looked down at Sheila, signaling for the other fairies to stand down.
As the fairies retreated, the woman spoke again.
“Do not forget your duty. And promise me—you must never forget the story I leave with you.”
That was the message Solderet had entrusted to Sheila and her followers.
“Is that all?”
“That’s everything.”
“Why should I follow those words?”
“Because it’s your only hope to restore your honor and reclaim your true selves. That’s what he said.”
Sheila’s eyes widened.
Solderet knew everything that had happened to Sheila and the fairies—their encounter with Helluram and their pitiful transformation.
The woman turned away, ready to leave now that her message was delivered.
“Where are you going?” Sheila asked, curiosity burning within her, though all she could manage was to ask where.
The woman paused.
“To a place I have not destroyed.”
With that, she vanished into the Wantaramo Forest.
From that moment on, the fairies—or rather, the descendants of the fairies—began brewing the Ga-wang-ju.
Like waking from a haze, Jin and Valeria swallowed hard and rose simultaneously.
The moment they opened their eyes, they instinctively drew their weapons and scanned their surroundings.
All they saw was a pitch-black landscape—a space made of spiritual energy. Jin immediately realized: this was Temar’s fourth tomb.
“We’re inside the tomb.”
Jin sheathed his sword, and Valeria lowered her staff. Both had cold sweat beading on their foreheads.
“Inside the tomb? So what we just saw was only the record contained within the Ga-wang-ju?”
“Seems so. Now that the record in the Ga-wang-ju has ended, the tomb’s seal must have been lifted.”
Before them stretched a straight path. After a brief inspection, they reached the same conclusion.
“Someone attacked this tomb.”
“The other tombs we visited were like this too. The fact that this is the fourth tomb means it’s been relocated at least four times. It’s proof that Ziphl has relentlessly sought out and desecrated Temar’s tombs. Or maybe it was the work of the Bimont royal family.”
They began walking.
The path was long, but even after a while, they felt none of the hostility or aura typical of guardians protecting a tomb.
“Looks like there’s no guardian.”
Relieved that they wouldn’t face another grueling battle, yet a bit disappointed.
No guardian likely meant nothing important remained inside the tomb.
Step by step…
They finally reached the end of the path.
There lay a massive stone sarcophagus—presumably where Temar had rested.
Its interior was empty and polished clean, without a speck of dust. The lid was shattered, fragments scattered nearby.
Jin conjured a single spiritual blossom over the sarcophagus.
“There’s nothing.”
Valeria peered inside and confirmed.
Indeed, the fourth tomb held only an empty sarcophagus. No recording devices from Solderet, no relics from ancient Runkandel.
A wave of emptiness washed over them.
“Looks like there’s nothing to gain from this tomb. Still, we did get to see the old tale through the Ga-wang-ju, so it’s not a total loss… Ah!”
Jin’s eyes lit up as an idea struck him.
“Since you’re a record magic user, this tomb itself is basically a repository of records, isn’t it?”
For Valeria, this tomb was a treasure trove of history—easier to analyze than any spiritual orb or recording device.
“That’s right.”
“So, can you access the records directly?”
“Not with my current record magic. Reading events from a thousand years ago is impossible for now.”
Valeria pulled a neatly folded leather pouch from inside her robe.
“But if we take these fragments with us, once my record magic improves, I’ll be able to study them thoroughly.”
Like an archaeologist handling ancient artifacts, Valeria carefully gathered the shards into the pouch. Jin helped collect the pieces.
“No need to take everything. They were once part of the same object.”
They collected fragments of stone from the sarcophagus and corridor, and, upon closer inspection, a few bloodstains. Jin scraped the stains off with a dagger and stored them in an empty glass vial.
“I’m really glad I brought you along.”
Had Jin not met Valeria before reaching the fourth tomb, he would have left empty-handed.
Valeria shrugged.
“This should be enough. Let’s head back.”
Jin nodded.
But there was a problem.
“How do we get back…?”
The other Temar tombs they’d visited differed from this one.
The first and second tombs had guardians to face, and after examining the records and devices, the spatial pocket naturally collapsed, allowing them to exit. The third tomb was guided by Luet himself.
But the fourth?
The moment they entered, all they saw was an empty spiritual space. No guardian, no clues, no phenomena to guide them.
Jin hesitated, troubled. Valeria met his gaze.
“…Jin Runkandel, you don’t mean to say you don’t know how to get back?”
“Well, yeah. It’s never happened before. Until now, after meeting the guardian or checking the records, the spatial pocket always collapsed automatically.”
A brief silence followed.
Jin felt embarrassed, but Valeria neither scolded nor mocked him.
“Well, it’s understandable. This isn’t an ordinary space. Let’s think it through together.”
They retraced their steps.
They had already looked around before reaching the sarcophagus. No exit was visible then, and the result was the same now.
“Should we try breaking the spatial pocket?”
Valeria suggested, but Jin shook his head.
“That should be a last resort. If the pocket collapses, the fragments you collected might vanish too. The spiritual energies here feel very interconnected.”
“Yeah, that’s definitely possible.”
“Let’s wait a bit, Valeria. The power sealing this tomb through the Ga-wang-ju won’t last forever. Once it fades, we should be able to return naturally.”
It was a great stroke of luck for Jin that Yona was tailing him.
Also fortunate was that the space where she waited was the entrance to Wantaramo Forest—where, oddly enough, thick dark clouds had gathered and an unseasonal downpour was pouring.
Drip, drip…! Rumble!
Thunder and heavy rain battered the early dawn.
Time outside and inside the tomb passed differently. Three hours had already slipped by since Jin entered Temar’s fourth tomb.
That meant Ziphl’s reinforcements—the “Phantom Corps”—had arrived at Wantaramo Forest.
Three members of the Phantom Corps had come to the forest.
Yet, despite reports that Jin Runkandel was inside, they dared not enter recklessly.
“…I think it was a mistake for just the three of us to come.”
“We came because the magic signals from the three towers supporting Wantaramo Forest cut off… Seems like something’s inside. And Yona Runkandel is here.”
Yona Runkandel.
Among the Phantom Corps, she was considered an ultra-dangerous individual. Not just to them, but to all the highest-ranking mages of Ziphl.
Someone you never, ever confront lightly.
The Phantom Corps mages hadn’t expected to face Yona when they came to Wantaramo Forest.
“Plus, with this rain… There’s no way the three of us can handle her.”
Facing an assassin like Yona Runkandel in such a downpour was practically suicide, even for the Phantom Corps.
“The commander shuddered just hearing her name. Now that I’ve faced her, I understand why. Even standing still, it feels like her blade is already at your throat.”
Yona still sat where she had slain the three tower mages, humming a tune. An assassin who made no effort to hide, standing openly like a gatekeeper.
Yet the Phantom Corps sensed instinctively: unless they burned the entire Wantaramo Forest along with Yona…
They had no chance of victory. And even then, they doubted they could kill her.
They’d only end up destroying a public resource—the forest—and Ziphl would suffer a huge loss bearing the responsibility.
“Maybe there’s nothing particularly important inside the forest. It’s possible that Yona Runkandel was just messing around in the Wantaramo Forest for fun, Maela called for help, and the wizards from the Three Towers got wiped out as a result.”
“If it’s Yona Runkandel, that sounds about right. Was there ever a single report about her that didn’t call her completely insane?”
“Should we just turn back?”
The phantoms stood frozen for a moment, unable to decide, their eyes fixed on Yona.
Originally, they should have known that the ‘real Runkandel and the record mage’ were inside the forest.
If they had, not just the three of them, but the entire squad of phantoms on standby would have swarmed in. Even if it were only the three, they would have been prepared to face death in battle against Yona.
But the wizards from the Three Towers, who were supposed to deliver that message to the main house, had already become cold corpses three hours ago. At Yona’s hands.
So the phantoms had no idea what was happening inside the forest or who was there.
“Damn it, I can’t make a call here.”
While the phantoms hesitated, Yona was thinking to herself.
‘Did they come looking to kill the youngest? No, that can’t be it—the letter the dead guys were carrying never got delivered. Maybe they just happened to run into me while passing through? I don’t know. Kill them? Don’t kill them? Kill them? Don’t kill them?’
Heh.
Yona grinned and glanced toward the trees where the phantoms were hiding.
And at that moment, the phantoms had no choice but to come to one conclusion:
It’s probably best to just turn back.