Chapter 372: You may leave
The third pit stood near the far side of the chamber, half-covered by a broken stone platform. Behind it was a collapsed section of wall, exactly as Maya had described, with black water dripping from the cracks and pooling beneath the rubble.
"There," Maya said quietly. "The passage is behind that collapse."
Elion looked at her.
"Open it."
Maya’s brows drew together. "I’m injured."
"And?"
Her jaw tightened, but she still stepped forward.
She raised one trembling hand, and pale blue mana gathered weakly around her fingers. For a moment, Elion thought she might try something. A trap, perhaps, a signal, or a hidden spell.
His grip on Kurogoroshi tightened. Maya noticed.
"I’m not stupid," she said quietly.
"Good, be quick."
She turned back and released the spell.
The rubble shifted without noise, several stones lifting aside just enough to reveal a narrow black passage descending into darkness. Cold air breathed out from within, carrying a strange metallic scent that cut through even the stink of the corpse pits.
Elion felt the difference immediately.
The red veins near the entrance did not pulse like the others, but they flickered, and deeper inside, they changed colour into a rich gold.
Elion stepped toward the passage and stopped. He looked back at the four of them. Maya stiffened at his gaze.
"You said you would let us leave," she said immediately.
"I did."
For a long, awful second, no one moved. Elion stepped aside.
"You are free to go."
Uta blinked, as if he had not expected that. Yaana stared at him with open fascination. Manfred’s eyes narrowed slightly, suspicious even now.
Maya did not wait; she wanted to get away from this beast of a man as quickly as possible.
"Let’s go," she said sharply.
The four of them began backing away, never fully turning their backs to Elion until there was enough distance between them. Maya’s legs trembled with every step, but she forced herself to remain upright. Her pride would not survive collapsing again in front of him.
Elion watched them go until his voice stopped them.
"Maya."
She froze in her tracks. Slowly, she looked back with a fearful look, perhaps afraid that he had decided he had not tormented them enough.
She was shocked to find him wearing a wide grin on his face.
"If you happen to run into Zenovia, and she thinks she got away from me, tell her I’m coming for her."
Maya’s eyes narrowed faintly, ’This insufferable bastard!’ Even in this situation, he was having thoughts of another woman who was far away.
Of course, she was well aware of Elion’s not-so-discreet pursuit of Zenovia. Perhaps what annoyed her most was that he didn’t seem to be as interested in her, despite having seen her naked once.
For a moment, Maya said nothing. Then she gave a small, bitter, and wounded smile.
"I will be sure to pass that along."
Her eyes, however, said something else entirely: ’I will remember this.’
Elion saw it. Of course he did, but he let her go anyway, without saying anything else.
He didn’t resent her, and he certainly didn’t hold her actions against her. Perhaps in another situation, he would have done the same exact thing that she had, but he had no mercy for people who tried to kill him.
If he were any weaker, that ten-versus-one fight would have ended differently; he had come out on the winning end, so he had survived. Such was life: the strong ruled the weak, and the weak would always be pressed down under the feet of those with power, and so it went.
At least her had let her and her companions keep their lives. That much was plenty of goodwill from him already.
The four disappeared into the corpse pit chamber’s shadows, leaving him alone before the hidden passage.
Kurogoroshi hummed softly. Elion looked down at the blade with a smile, "It’s just us now."
The distant battlefield thundered again as Elion stepped into the darkness. The path closed behind him with a low grinding sound.
Elion paused for a moment, looking back at the wall of stone that had sealed itself in place, then turned forward again without much surprise.
Of course, it closed behind him. Why would it not? It would have been far too generous for a secret passage leading to something called the Philosopher’s Stone to simply remain open like a welcoming hallway.
He breathed deeply, only for his breath to come out in a hazy cloud.
"It’s so cold in here." His voice reverberated through the walls, but the weirdest thing was that he actually felt terribly cold. When was the last time he felt the elements affect him this much?
At least the air did not carry the heavy stench of the corpse pits or the thick bitterness of corrupted mana.
The passage sloped downward in a gentle curve, the walls narrow enough that his shoulders almost brushed against the stone on either side. Golden veins pulsed faintly through the black rock.
"This definitely feels like the right place."
He continued downward.
The deeper he went, the more the golden veins spread across the walls and floor, branching like roots, like nerves, like the veins of some enormous creature buried beneath the castle.
After a while, the passage widened slightly, then perhaps the first trap appeared. Elion stopped.
A thin golden line stretched across the corridor ahead, so fine he might have missed it if not for his sharp senses. It ran from one wall to the other, almost invisible unless viewed from the right angle, shimmering like a strand of hair dipped in sunlight.
He crouched and studied it.
"One of the failsafes?" he murmured.
He raised Kurogoroshi slowly and drew the blade across the golden thread.
There was no loud clash, no explosion, or a dramatic burst of light. The strand simply split, the cut edges curling away from each other like severed strings. The golden glow dimmed, then vanished entirely.
Elion stared at it for a moment, "That was suspiciously easy." The passage answered him with silence.
He hated that too, but he moved on. Time was not on his side.
The second trap was not as forgiving. It was a circular array carved into the floor, hidden beneath a shallow layer of dark water.
Elion noticed the pattern only because the golden veins around it curved too neatly, flowing around the circle rather than through it. He stopped with one foot hovering just above the edge, then slowly drew it back.
"Almost."
He raised his hand, and the water covering the floor lifted obediently, gathering into a thin floating sheet that exposed the formation beneath. The symbols were old, and their shape made his eyes ache if he stared too long.
He cut the array in three places.
The moment the third cut landed, the entire formation flared gold, and a sharp pressure stabbed toward his soul like a needle.
Elion’s eyes narrowed. Kurogoroshi pulsed in his hand, Heaven Defiance pushing back against the intrusion to his mind, while Isla’s pendant warmed beneath his tunic as if sensing the danger.
The pressure cracked and broke, then the formation went completely dark, perhaps indicating that it had deactivated.
Elion exhaled slowly, "That one was less easy, but not overly so."
His voice sounded strangely loud in the corridor.
