Chapter 99: Cha.99 Last Standing (4)

After several minutes of silence, with each of them lost in their own thoughts, Doran finally spoke.

"Let’s continue, then. Let’s see what kind of secret our mentors discovered."

He said it with a gloomy expression.

Valen remained quiet. He didn’t want to argue or talk at that moment.

Qasim looked at the scene and felt a heavy pain in his heart. His expression was filled with concern and fear.

He was afraid of how this would affect the team, both now and in the future.

But he kept those thoughts to himself and quietly followed the others.

Step after step, they eventually reached the entrance.

Valen ordered the goblins to stay outside before heading in first, followed by the rest of the team.

The moment they entered, they noticed the sunlight quickly fading behind them.

It was replaced by a strange, lime-colored light that felt cold against their skin and unpleasant to their eyes.

It was almost as if something were directly touching their eyeballs, causing them to itch.

The only thing they could do was blink.

Again.

And again.

The itching would disappear for a few minutes, only to return.

Surprisingly, the path itself felt unnaturally longer than it had appeared from outside.

Qasim whispered uncomfortably.

"Wasn’t this place smaller from the outside? It feels much larger now for some reason..."

He received no answer.

The others remained silent, which only made Qasim more concerned.

Then Levia slightly turned her head toward him and gave him a small, tired smile.

"Indeed... it does feel strange."

Qasim couldn’t see her eyes, but he could hear the dryness in her voice and the slow way she spoke.

He could tell she was both mentally and physically exhausted.

Qasim’s head began to feel hotter as anxiety started building inside him.

He couldn’t stop thinking about how Levia and Doran saw him now.

He had been part of the team for less than a year, yet he had learned about Valen’s situation before them—people who had been his friends for years.

He frowned as he imagined them beginning to dislike him.

They might think I’m trying to replace them... To take their place in the team...

Qasim became so lost in his overthinking that he failed to notice Doran stopping in front of him.

He walked straight into his back.

"S-Sorry!"

Doran didn’t think much of it. He simply nodded.

Qasim then looked ahead and noticed something blocking their path.

A huge stone slab.

A tree symbol was engraved in its center, surrounded by countless strange symbols.

There was no knob.

No gap between the slab and the walls.

And there wasn’t even another path around it.

"Let’s try moving it first," Valen said.

The entire team pushed against the stone.

But despite their combined strength, the slab didn’t move even an inch.

Next, they tried destroying it.

Doran fired a beam of light at the stone while Qasim combined several magical elements into a single energy ball and launched it alongside the beam.

The attacks struck the slab at the same time.

Nothing happened.

Three Hilal-Awal and two Mahik couldn’t move or destroy the stone.

The team turned toward Valen.

But even he didn’t know what to do.

Is this the end?

After everything I’ve done... Am I really going to be stopped by this?

He wasn’t ready to surrender.

He wanted to continue.

He wanted answers.

"Let’s—"

Valen suddenly froze.

He looked at his team.

They were exhausted.

Their bodies were drained, and their minds were even more exhausted.

Valen lowered his head and gave a pitiful smile.

Not at them.

At himself.

*It’s time to stop... It’s time to go back and make things right again.*

He let out a deep sigh before announcing,

"Let’s head back. Our job is done here."

Doran raised an eyebrow.

"Is the captain giving up?"

To their surprise, Valen slowly nodded.

They had never seen him give up before.

"Is this your way of seeking forgiveness? Because we aren’t mad at you at all, Captain."

Valen gave him a weak smile.

"I know..."

He paused.

"But strangely enough, I want to spend my last moments at home."

He looked at them.

"Is that wrong?"

Silence took over the team.

Then Levia was the one who broke it.

"No..."

They began turning back.

But suddenly, Qasim felt something strange happening inside him.

His body temperature began rising.

His breathing became faster.

He looked back at the stone slab.

Something was pulling him toward it.

Like a magnet.

He could barely hear a voice urging him to return.

It was almost as if his body was anticipating something.

"W-Wait! Please! We have to continue forward!"

The others turned toward him with puzzled expressions.

"My boy, there’s nothing more we can do. Let’s head back," Valen said.

But Qasim immediately shook his head.

"No! I feel something over there!"

He pointed at the stone slab.

"What do you mean by feel?" Doran asked.

Qasim shook his head.

"I don’t know how to describe it, but there’s something we have to do..."

He clenched his fist.

"Something I have to do!"

He then looked at Valen with pleading eyes.

"Please, Valen. You know my feelings have always been right!"

Valen took a step back and crossed his arms.

"That is true, but..."

He hesitated.

"I don’t know. Maybe we should just go back."

Qasim looked at them.

Then at the stone slab.

Then back at them.

Finally, he turned around and walked toward the slab.

"Hey, wait, Qasim!"

Valen raised his hand as he called after him.

But Qasim stepped in front of the stone again.

The feeling grew stronger.

And stronger.

Qasim slowly raised his hand and gently placed it against the tree symbol.

His eyes widened.

"These are words..."

He pointed toward the symbols surrounding the tree.

"It’s telling us something..."

He stared at them for a moment.

Then, somehow, he suddenly understood their meaning.

Qasim slowly opened his mouth and began reading.

"The Great Tree... The Great Tree..."

"The mother of all, the beginning and the end of life."

"I ask for your wisdom. I ask for your love."

"I am your child."

"Please welcome me..."

Suddenly, the stone slab began shaking uncontrollably.

A weak green light started glowing from the tree symbol.

Qasim took a step back.

He and the others watched in silence as the massive slab began moving on its own.

Slowly, it slid away...

Clearing the path ahead.