Chapter 736: The Underworld

"And if he doesn’t?" Tessa asked.

Elion shrugged. "Then we’ll have to decide what to do about it when that happens. But I’d rather speak to him before he starts whatever he’s planning."

Isla nodded, though she didn’t look particularly reassured.

"We would still have to find him."

"True. But an entire settlement can’t be that easy to hide, especially if they’re traveling with supplies and everything else they need. We know where they started, at least."

He looked toward Kali before continuing.

"There’s also the trials. We might have a way to help them leave, but we don’t know enough to make any promises yet. I would rather negotiate with Albert before committing to that. Perhaps Albert will be willing to take a shot at the trials, since he’s so hell-bent on saving his people; I fancy our chances."

Kali said nothing, though she seemed satisfied that he hadn’t volunteered her to undertake nine potentially impossible trials on everyone’s behalf.

Maya smiled wryly.

"We don’t really have a choice, do we?"

Elion shook his head. He would have liked to leave Albert to his own affairs, but it was difficult to do that when those affairs might destroy the ground beneath his feet.

"We’re going to have to force a confrontation," Maya said.

...

After explaining what they had found, Elion and Kali took the others down into the rift.

They had already checked the route and found no great monster lurking beneath it, so there was little reason to leave everyone above while they tried to describe something that had to be seen to be believed.

The descent went much faster this time. Kali carried most of the group upon a broad platform of woven silk, while Elion flew beside them, occasionally pointing out a projecting ledge or guiding them around the thicker streams of mana.

Even before they reached the bottom, the sheer depth of the rift had left several of them speechless.

The crimson underworld opened beneath them.

"What in the world..." Maya whispered.

An infernal landscape stretched into the distance, its mountainous ridges crowned with smoke and incandescent fire.

Rivers of magma coursed through the valleys, dividing the dark terrain into immense islands whose shores glowed beneath a wavering haze.

Far above them, the underside of the floating landmass spread across the heavens like a shattered firmament, its colossal stone formations suspended over that burning expanse.

And between the two hung the chains.

Princess Isla tilted her head back, following one immense length until it disappeared among the jagged foundations overhead. Beside her, Solara remained silent, though even her veil did little to conceal the way she kept turning to take in more of the extraordinary sight.

Elion had explained what those chains were. Looking upon them, however, made the story far harder to dismiss as some impossible account from a distant age.

Each link possessed the grandeur of a monument, its dark surface bearing inscriptions that gleamed wherever the volcanic light reached them.

Together, they extended across distances that made the people floating beside them seem smaller than insects.

"That person made all of this?" Cole asked.

Elion nodded. "After fighting a battle that nearly destroyed the world, too."

No one seemed to know what to say to that.

They continued toward the spire, passing over valleys illuminated by molten tributaries and broad terraces split by ancient fractures.

Yaana had abandoned any attempt to remain seated, leaning over the edge of the silk platform as if she might fall, until Uta caught her by the back of her clothing.

"Sit down."

"But look at that!"

"We can all see it."

Elion chuckled, watching their banter, though his gaze soon returned to the spire emerging through the mana.

Its floating ruins drew another round of astonishment, especially when a broken stairway drifted past them, its carved steps rising toward an arch that no longer led anywhere.

The stones creaked as they moved around the tower, their immense shadows passing over its terraces. Between them, luminous vapor rose in slow folds, giving the dark structure an almost ethereal splendor despite its ruined state.

They landed upon the same terrace as before and made their way inside.

The chamber seemed even larger with everyone gathered beneath its vaulted ceiling. They stopped to examine the grooves in the floor, while others looked upward at the broken galleries and the slender columns supporting what remained of them.

Maya went straight toward the mural.

Isla and Solara joined her, studying the painted armies and unfamiliar figures while Elion pointed out the images he had examined before the vision took hold.

He warned them against touching anything carelessly, though simply looking at the mural did not seem to produce the same response in anyone else.

Perhaps there were conditions he hadn’t understood. For now, he was quite content to leave it at that.

They spent some time examining the paintings, then the emptied basin beneath the floor. Even without its liquid contents, a faint blue radiance remained along the stone, and the mana lingering within the chamber made everyone reluctant to leave.

Eventually, however, they returned outside. They had learned plenty, and there were still people aboveground whose movements they needed to investigate.

Their journey back took them past a broad river of magma flowing between two ridges. Kali kept the platform well above it, but they had barely passed the nearest bend when the molten surface began to bulge.

Elion looked down as a pair of enormous horns emerged from the fire.

The creature that followed dragged a vast body from the magma, its stone-plated back splitting the glowing current.

Liquid fire poured between the overlapping slabs covering its limbs, and a long tail swept across the bank, scattering molten droplets over the surrounding rocks.

It was a dragon.

Its wings unfolded with a grinding roar, revealing dark, cragged frames joined by sheets of wavering flame. A furnace glow shone within its chest and throat as it raised its head toward them.

It was no surprise when everyone reached for their weapons.

"Stay there," Elion said.

Kurogoroshi was already in his hand.

The dragon opened its jaws, but Elion descended before the gathering fire could escape its maw. His wings drove him forward, carrying him past the creature’s raised horns as he lifted his sword.

"Mountain-Splitting Slash."

The blade fell like divine judgment.

A thunderous crack swept across the valley as the slash cleaved through the dragon’s body. Its gathering breath burst between its jaws, and the stone beneath its feet split along the same line, leaving a deep furrow through the blackened bank.

For a moment, the creature remained upright, but then its halves separated.

Fire erupted from within it, throwing shattered stone and molten fragments outward in a violent explosion. Kali raised a barrier before the platform, catching the scattered debris while Elion pulled clear with a beat of his wings.

The entire encounter had lasted only a few seconds.

Yaana cheered excitedly, throwing her fists in the air, but the others simply stared.

Althea watched Elion descend toward the remains, finding it difficult to reconcile what she had just seen with their duel. She had known he was strong. Losing to him had made that painfully clear, but she had still believed that she had seen enough to understand the difference between them.

Apparently, she hadn’t.

’Who the hell is he?’

She knew the answer, of course. Princess Isla had already explained that much to them.

Elion Nova, the academy’s former rising talent, the young man whose name kept appearing in accounts that sounded increasingly difficult to believe.

But knowing his name did nothing to explain him.

That dragon had not been overwhelmingly powerful, but neither had it been weak. Even with her experience, defeating it while restricted would have required far more effort than that.

He had barely given it the chance to attack.

The only person she could think of who had displayed such an absurd combination of talent, battle instincts, and raw power was Reinhardt, the leader of the paladins. Comparing the two felt ridiculous, considering the difference in their age and experience, yet she couldn’t quite dismiss the thought.

Below them, Elion approached the dragon’s remains, waiting for the worst of the flames to subside before moving a broken slab aside with his magic. He reached into the exposed cavity beneath it and retrieved a glowing core.

It was whole.

Althea’s eyes narrowed.

After a strike powerful enough to split the dragon and carve through the ground beneath it, he had somehow left its core untouched.

Elion turned the fiery gemstone between his fingers, looking rather pleased before putting it away.

Monstrous power was one thing.

Having enough control to preserve something so small within the path of that attack was another matter entirely.