Chapter 89: Chapter 89 - Mage , Wolf And The Girl ( Part 1 )
The Frostveil Mountains stretched on forever under a pale blue sky.
The snow was falling lazily from above, settling upon huge pine trees and the sharp rocks that hadn’t moved for thousands of years.
Jennie was walking silently along a path on the mountain.
At her side, Snow was walking through the deep snow without making much noise due to his enormous paws.
For a little while, neither of them said anything.
The silent walk was disturbed only by the cry of an eagle flying over the mountains.
Jennie smiled a little bit.
"I think..."
"I finally got used to traveling."
Snow turned his head slightly toward her.
"You miss them."
Jennie stopped for a brief moment.
"...Yeah."
She looked into the distance to the south.
Although there were countless mountains separating her from the kingdom she once called home, her thoughts were wandering back there.
"Father..."
"Mother..."
"Lucas..."
"Princess Lilia..."
She hoped that they were smiling, even if they didn’t remember the reason anymore.
Snow saw the sadness in her eyes but didn’t say anything.
Sometimes...
Silence was more comforting than consolation.
Another hour of walking passed when Snow stopped all of a sudden.
His ears rose up.
His sharp blue eyes narrowed.
"...Lady Jennie."
Jennie looked at him.
"What is it?"
Snow smelled the air carefully.
"There is ancient mana around here."
"Very ancient."
Jennie became interested.
"Ancient mana?"
Snow nodded.
"Older than the Great Demon War."
Excalibur spoke in Jennie’s mind.
"I sense it as well."
"Somebody created something amazing here."
Jennie followed the strange sensation into the deeper parts of the mountains.
Soon...
The thick snow layer started to become thinner.
The ruins of ancient stone pillars appeared under the snow.
Each of them had a set of elegant runes glowing with faint blue light.
Jennie’s silver eyes widened.
"...Those runes are still active."
Snow nodded.
"They’ve been active for over two thousand years."
Jennie carefully brushed away the snow layer on one of the stone pillars.
The rune under her fingers responded to her mana.
She was amazed.
"It still works..."
After two thousand years.
The path on the mountain eventually led to a huge hidden valley between huge cliffs.
Jennie stopped walking.
Before her was the giant stone gate.
Its height reached almost fifty meters.
It was covered with the magical inscriptions that were shining with bright light.
The huge statues stood next to it.
Both of them depicted a mage who held a crystal staff toward the heaven.
Despite being weathered by countless winters...
The expressions on their faces still had a hint of dignity.
Snow quietly lowered his head.
"Eldoria Sanctum."
Jennie repeated the name softly.
"...Eldoria Sanctum."
Snow looked at the ruins of the city with a hint of nostalgia.
"It was one of the most magnificent cities of mages."
"Before kingdoms even existed."
"Before the Sword King Leonis."
Jennie slowly approached the ancient gate.
"So..."
"This city is older than even my previous life."
Snow nodded.
"By almost a thousand years."
Jennie looked at the giant entrance.
An entire civilization.
Forgotten by history.
Buryed under snow.
But somehow...
Standing.
She put her hand on the stone wall and touched it.
"I can’t even imagine..."
"...How incredible they must have been."
The giant gate began to shake all of a sudden.
Nobody touched it...
It was opening by itself.
The stones were rubbing against each other.
The echo sounded in the valley.
Snow smiled faintly.
"The ancient enchantments recognize the visitors."
Jennie blinked.
"After such a long time?"
"They were meant to stand for eternity."
Inside...
Jennie forgot that she was looking at a ruin.
It seemed to be a frozen city.
The wide stone streets went on and on.
The buildings were untouched by the flow of the centuries.
The blue mana crystals were floating near the ceilings, illuminating the corridors with soft light.
Not a single one of them dimmed.
The ancient magic circles were drawn on the floor.
Some of them quietly cleaned the dust from the ground.
Others were repairing the cracks in the stone walls.
Jennie was watching how the broken stairs were rebuilding themselves.
"...Amazing."
Snow smiled.
"The mages of Eldoria believed that knowledge shouldn’t disappear."
"They enchanted the city so that it could stand forever."
Jennie walked further into the city.
Everywhere she looked...
There were wonders.
The huge library with the perfectly preserved books.
The glass spheres with miniature star systems inside.
The ancient mechanical birds that flew silently between the halls.
The fountains which water shined with mana instead of sunlight.
Jennie wasn’t searching for treasure.
Instead...
She was walking around the city, admiring everything like a child full of curiosity.
She stopped in front of a painting showing hundreds of mages raising their staves towards a huge crystal shining in the sky.
The picture was almost perfect.
Jennie smiled.
"Those who created this place..."
"...Were amazing."
Snow looked at the painting next to her.
"They believed that wisdom will outlive every empire."
"They were right."
Jennie nodded silently.
"It’s beautiful."
They continued exploring deeper into the forgotten city.
The silence was nice.
Until...
A voice rang in one of the adjacent halls.
"...Okay, Roxy..."
Jennie stopped immediately.
Snow’s ears twitched.
The voice sounded again.
"This time..."
"I won’t touch anything mysterious."
A short silence.
"You promised yourself."
Jennie blinked.
"...Someone is here?"
Snow nodded.
"It seems like it."
The voice became louder.
"I’ll just write those runes down..."
"And definitely won’t push the glowing buttons."
Jennie exchanged a glance with Snow.
Snow closed his eyes slowly.
"...I have a bad feeling."
Jennie nodded.
"So do I."
Click.
The sound echoed in the halls of the ancient city.
Silence followed.
For exactly a heartbeat.
Then...
The nervous voice of a girl whispered,
"...Oops."
The entire ruin started to shake violently.
BOOOOOM!
The dust fell from the ceiling.
The books fell from the ancient shelves.
The floating crystals flickered.
The floor was shaking under Jennie’s feet.
She closed her eyes and let out a long sigh.
"I already have a bad feeling."
Deep under the Eldoria Sanctum...
Something ancient woke up after two thousand years of sleep.
The rumbling continued.
Gray snow of stone dust descended from the ceiling.
The mana crystals started shining and leaving long shadows around.
Jennie was absolutely calm.
She looked up and then to the other side of the corridor.
"...Shaking came from there."
Snow nodded.
"And whoever made it..."
"...He is still alive."
Jennie sighed softly.
"Hopefully."
They entered further into Eldoria Sanctum.
The more they went, the more clear was the picture of devastation.
Books were scattered everywhere.
Some ancient shelves were collapsed.
Broken stone tablets were lying around the walls.
One of corridors collapsed.
Jennie looked at everything in silence.
"Whoever is here..."
"He is very talented in making accidents."
Snow whispered,
"I have met avalanche spirits with better manners."
Jennie covered her mouth and tried not to laugh.
Suddenly from somewhere behind the rubble the muffled voice echoed.
"...Ow..."
A little pause.
"...That will be bruised."
Jennie looked in amazement.
"...Someone is here."
She hurried to the fallen part of the library.
Among heaps of ancient shelves and stone tablets...
There was something strange.
Large purple hat of a mage.
It twitched.
Then one hand appeared from behind the piles of books.
"...Help..."
Without hesitation Jennie started removing the huge slabs of stone.
Surprisingly, they were incredibly heavy.
Someone who was stuck under them somehow survived after having been buried under several tones of ancient masonry.
And when the last stone was removed...
Small girl carefully got up from there.
She coughed some times.
The books fell down from her shoulder to the ground.
Jennie gave her the hand.
"Are you alright?"
The girl looked up.
Her emerald eyes sparkled among her violet hair.
Her oversized hat was slightly crooked, covering her one eye.
She wore blue and white robes of mage full of ink and dust.
Next to the wall she had a wooden staff of the same height as herself.
And her backpack, stuffed with the books, was standing beside her.
From each of the pockets were sticking various papers.
Jennie looked in amazement.
"How many books does she have?"
The girl gladly accepted Jennie’s help.
"I am alright!"
She proudly got up.
"I’ve survived harder."
Then she tried to give a graceful bow.
But her hat covered her eyes.
She could not see her feet.
One step forward...
Her staff hit into one of the stone pieces.
"Ah—"
Crash!
She fell to the ground headlong.
Silence.
Jennie blinked.
Snow blinked.
Slowly the girl raised her head.
"...That didn’t happen."
Jennie silently helped her to get up.
The girl looked as if nothing had happened.
"Thank you!"
"My name is Roxy!"
"I am a mage!"
Proudly pointing at herself.
And then...
She hit herself in her forehead with her staff.
"Ouch!"
Snow stared at her without any word.
After several long moments he said.
"...Remarkable."
Jennie looked at him.
"I have never seen someone losing a fight with gravity three times in one minute."
Roxy puffed her cheeks.
Jennie couldn’t stop herself from laughing a bit.
When they both settled down, Jennie cleaned one of the stone benches.
"You should sit."
Roxy nodded gratefully.
"Thanks!"
This time...
She managed to sit down without any problems.
Jennie silently called it a victory.
"So..."
Gentle Jennie asked.
"What are you doing here?"
The whole face of Roxy was brightened by happiness.
"I am conducting a research of ancient magic!"
She pulled out from her backpack several notebooks.
Then another.
Then another.
Then three others.
Snow looked at the growing pile.
"...Is there another dimension inside her bag?"
Roxy smiled proudly.
"Organization!"
Jennie looked at the mountain of books.
"I am not sure that it is right word."
Excited Roxy opened one notebook.
"Eldoria Sanctum belonged to one of the oldest ancient magical civilizations ever found."
"They created spell formulas which modern mages cannot recreate."
"They invented self repairing enchantments, mana crystals which float, autonomous guardian constructs!"
Jennie silently listened.
Despite her clumsiness...
She knew incredible amount of information.
And she talked about it passionately.
Snow nodded approvingly.
"Your research is right."
Roxy’s eyes grew wide.
"Really?"
He just nodded.
She cried out dramatically.
"Intelligent wolf complimented me!"
Snow sighed.
"I am Divine Wolf."
"Oh!"
Roxy smiled embarrassedly.
"Sorry."
"...Intelligent Divine Wolf complimented me!"
Snow decided that it was quite close.
Together the three were walking through the gigantic library.
Roxy was enthusiastically telling about each of murals and inscriptions.
Sometimes Jennie was asking questions.
Sometimes Snow corrected a bit of information from his memories.
For some time everything seemed to be fine.
And then Roxy suddenly stopped.
"Ooh..."
Jennie looked at her.
In the center of the hall there was a beautiful stone pedestal.
It was covered with the glowing blue runes.
At the center of it there was hovering the crystal of the size of an apple.
The soft light was coming from the inside.
Roxy’s emerald eyes were sparkling.
"I wonder what it is used for."
Jennie’s instincts immediately screamed.
"Don’t touch it—"
Too late.
Roxy already touched it.
Tap.
The crystal flashed brightly.
Nothing happened.
Roxy smiled proudly.
"See?"
"I told you it was f—"
BOOOOOOM!
The whole hall shivered.
All runes of the room blazed with the bright blue light.
Ancient magic circles activated all around.
The floating crystals flared like tiny suns.
The huge stone doors slammed.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Deep mechanical voice resonated through the whole Eldoria Sanctum.
"Guardian Protocol Activated."
Roxy slowly looked at Jennie.
Her smile vanished.
"...Um..."
Jennie looked at her calmly.
"...What did you touch?"
Roxy nervously pointed to the glowing pedestal.
"...That."
Deep inside the ancient city...
The two huge blue eyes slowly opened in the darkness.
Stone cracked.
Ancient gears started working after two thousands of years of rest.
The giant guardian woke up from its eternal sleep.
Snow looked into the depths of the ruins.
His expression turned serious.
"...Something is coming."
Jennie put her hand on the hilt of Excalibur.
She looked at Roxy.
At the shaking ruins.
Finally she sighed.
"I knew it... Today will not pass peacefully."
Loud roar resonated throughout the whole sanctum.
The battle was beginning.
