Chapter 248: Opening A Coffin Once More

It had required the strength of all eight of them to open the sarcophagus the first time, a circumstance that could largely be attributed to the disparity in cultivation between their former selves and their present state.

Back then, they had been merely Awakeners, possessing strength that, while considerable among ordinary humans, was still negligible when compared with genuine Etheryeans.

Even now, however, despite having advanced into Rank One and becoming Flesh Artificers, there was little doubt that opening the stone lid would still require three or four of them working together. And that alone was a considerable estimate and testified to the truly astonishing weight of the structure.

Yet the most surprising part, or perhaps not so surprising part, is that a task that would involve several of them working together to get it done had been done by Aelric alone. The green-eyed youth had opened the lid over the coffin as though it was nothing more than a mere hindrance obstructing his purpose and that was something that one could say astonished them greatly.n

Once again, the group was forcibly reminded that the green-eyed youth was likely one or even two Etheryean Realms above them. Such a difference was not merely a numerical gap in cultivation; it represented an overwhelming disparity in strength.

Despite knowing Aelric for several days, however, they still knew remarkably little about him. They were acquainted with his temperament, his capabilities, and his peculiar habit of knowing far more than he ever bothered to explain, but they could not claim to understand his origins, his history, or even the true extent of his abilities.

And this situation was particularly unsettling because Aelric, meanwhile, knew almost everything about them.

They did not even know whether he was from Valoria or one of the other six Great Kingdoms. Most importantly, beyond that conspicuous detail, they had yet to determine the cultivation method he used to develop his strength.

For Valorians such as themselves, cultivation revolved around Soul Essences. In plainer terms, their Soul Essences were inseparable from their lives; should one be destroyed or irreparably broken, no amount of talent, wealth, or potential could save its owner from the inevitable end.

Yet the fact that Valorians cultivated Soul Essences did not mean the rest of Aetherium followed the same path.

The truth was that each Great Kingdom possessed its own cultivation tradition, shaped by the attributes its people awakened and refined.

These attributes were sufficiently distinctive that, provided one was familiar with the civilizations of Aetherium, a cultivator could often be identified by the manifestation of their power alone.

For instance, if the group manifested their Soul Essences outside Valoria, anyone sufficiently exposed to civilization would immediately recognize them as Valorians.

Kingdom Astoria, by contrast, followed an entirely different path, as its citizens awakened special creatures known as Soul Beasts and cultivated their power through them.

Like Soul Essences, Soul Beasts possessed ranks ranging from Baron Tier to King Tier, with creatures beyond that level being exceedingly rare.

To encounter an Emperor-Tier Soul Beast anywhere in Aetherium, one would have to search with the desperation of a man hunting for a single grain of sand in an endless desert.

Furthermore, other cultivation systems existed throughout Aetherium, each possessing its own traits, strengths, weaknesses, and traditions; and this diversity was precisely what made Aetherium such a unique and multifaceted world.

Even now, the group found it difficult to believe that they had been associated with Aelric for nearly three days and had learned little about him.

Under ordinary circumstances, such ignorance would have been absurd; especially in the Nether Lands, where survival demanded vigilance and relationships had to be approached with circumspection, it bordered on recklessness.

Yet they could hardly blame themselves.

The past few days had been extraordinarily eventful. Their anticipation of reaching the fabled Sanctuary had consumed much of their attention, followed by the expectation of their breakthroughs, and then their descent into this crypt, where one catastrophe after another had demanded their immediate attention.

Their minds were already saturated with enough revelations to fill several lifetimes, leaving scarcely any room for investigating the enigma that was Aelric.

And for the moment, judging from the green-eyed youth’s behavior, they had little reason to believe he intended them harm. After all, he is yet to show any attitude that indicated he was working against their well-being and that alone was enough for them.

In the meantime, Aelric had already opened the central coffin.

With a thunderous thud that reverberated through the crypt like the collapse of a stone fortress, the lid crashed onto the ground. Dust rose around it as the ancient stone struck the floor.

Aelric leaned forward and peered into the coffin while the others cautiously approached.

Just as before, the coffin contained the supposed Grand Priest.

The dried figure remained exactly where they had left it, though calling it a sleeping figure would have been misleading. Its flesh had long since withered away, leaving behind a desiccated corpse.

After using the body as a temporary "weapon" against the Terracottas during their previous visit, the group had returned it to its original position. So aside from minor disturbances and incongruities, nothing appeared to have changed.

The skeleton remained dried and utterly desiccated, with its fingers still tightly wrapped around the miniature six-winged Knight.

Valmyr stared into the coffin for several moments before lifting his head toward Aelric.

"Well, Aelric, I told you that you might have been mistaken." A faintly smug expression appeared on his face. "I don’t see any Key in here."

Veyrath glanced at him before replying in a low voice. "Try not to sound too pleased. You were wrong about nearly everything else in his crypt."

Valmyr’s expression immediately soured, then he rolled his eyes and replied. "I was merely pointing out an obvious fact."

"And doing so with remarkable enthusiasm."

"Both of you," Vaelorin muttered, "please do not start another argument in a place where the dead have already tried to kill us more that once."

However, unlike the others, who might have doubted Aelric’s claim from the beginning, Regaleon and Aureleah remained silent, carefully observing the situation.

Regaleon, in particular, did not doubt Aelric. It was not because he trusted the green-eyed youth unconditionally or would disregard his own judgment. Rather, there was another reason.

From the moment they had entered the crypt the first time and begun examining the sarcophagi alongside their elaborate ornamentation, Regaleon had felt that something about the place was wrong.

Whoever had constructed it had not merely intended to create an elaborate burial chamber. The grandeur, symmetry, inscriptions, and concealed mechanisms suggested that something far more deliberate had been designed beneath the ceremonial splendor.

And now, it seemed his intuition had been correct.

When they had first opened the central coffin, Regaleon had discovered a secret compartment directly beneath the place where the skeleton’s head rested. At the time, he had found it strange that someone would construct such an elaborate compartment inside a coffin.

After all, of what use are secrets to the dead?

Now, after hearing the revelation concerning the Keys of the First Oath and learning that the Cult of Templars had deliberately concealed those Keys by entrusting them to their deceased members, Regaleon could not help wondering whether that compartment was the true receptacle for the Key.

His conjecture was not without foundation.

Ever since they had entered the crypt, Aelric had shown no interest in the other two sarcophagi. Instead, he had gone directly toward the central one, his entire attention fixed upon it, as though he had already been certain that it was the true bearer of whatever he had come to retrieve.

Aelric’s deliberate action, the hidden compartment Regaleon had discovered, and the history they had learned today all converged upon the same conclusion.

Whatever Aelric had been telling them was not false.

Regaleon did not know why the others had failed to notice the same connection. Perhaps they had forgotten about the compartment amid everything that had happened, or perhaps their skepticism had prevented them from considering the possibility.

Whatever the reason, Regaleon was certain that they were about to unearth something that might very well...