Chapter 250: Key Of The First Oath

The group quickly recovered from the humorous atmosphere generated by Valmyr’s expression and turned their attention toward the most important discovery of the moment: the Key.

With the secret chamber of the sarcophagus fully exposed, all nine of them gathered around it and peered into the concealed compartment, their eyes eagerly fixed upon the small relic resting upon the stone pedestal.

They all wanted to witness the object that so important that Aelric spoke of it as though it was something that the whole of existence should revolve around and the moment they fixed their gazes on it, each of their faces immediately scrunched to varying degrees, as their expressions turned odd.

Although Aelric had repeatedly described the purpose of his expedition as finding a Key, none of them had genuinely expected him to mean a literal key.

In actuality, they had assumed the word was figurative, perhaps describing an artifact capable of unlocking some ancient mystery or granting access to the legendary First Oath. Instead, the object before them was unmistakably a key in the most literal sense.

And somehow, that made the entire revelation feel strangely underwhelming to them... But not to a certain person.

For someone who was ordinarily so indifferent to the world around him that even the most outrageous jokes and direst circumstances rarely elicited anything more than a casual shrug or dismissive sigh, Aelric now looked utterly transformed.

The moment his green eyes landed upon the Key, his usually languid expression brightened with such astonishing enthusiasm that he resembled a middle-aged merchant who had stumbled upon a treasure chest after spending his entire life dreaming of becoming wealthy.

Had the others been paying closer attention to Aelric rather than the relic itself, they might have been bewildered enough to question whether this was truly the same enigmatic youth they had accompanied for the past three days.

His current excitement was so incongruous with his usual composure that it threatened to shatter the mysterious image they had gradually constructed around him.

But fortunately for Aelric, nobody was looking at him or he would have fallen from the golden pedestal he had been placed upon in their subconscious; instead, they were all looking at the Key.

Although it was a literal key, there was clearly something supernatural about it. An indescribably profound aura emanated from its tiny frame, causing the surrounding air to feel subtly different.

The Key was also scarcely longer than a pinky finger, an unexpectedly diminutive size considering the significance Aelric had attributed to it.

Its design was deceptively simple. The handle possessed the familiar shape of an ordinary key, with its lower end splitting into two small protrusions. Yet its appearance was anything but ordinary.

The entire artifact seemed to possess the same general coloration as Regaleon’s Armour and Halberd, though its body and handle were golden, as though fashioned from the purest gold that could be extracted from the depths of a dragon’s hoard. The two protruding ends, however, were distinctly silver.

None of them noticed the finer detail immediately. Had they examined it closely enough, they would have seen a subtle crimson line running from the handle toward the silver ends, winding across the golden surface in the shape of a miniature dragon.

If anything, all these physical attributes just made it clear that this Key might be related to the Regaleon’s Soul Essences in sone way... Well, speculatively speaking.

Resting upon its pedestal, the Key of the First Oath looked less like a mundane instrument and more like a sacred relic awaiting the hands of its chosen keeper. Perhaps that was why, despite its diminutive size, it possessed an inexplicable grandeur that made it appear far more consequential than its physical dimensions suggested.

With reverence bordering on devotion, Aelric reached into the sarcophagus and carefully lifted the Key from its pedestal. His movements were so precise and cautious that, to someone witnessing him for the first time, it might have seemed as though the Key was his sovereign while he was merely a humble devotee carrying out a sacred duty.

He handled the artifact with such meticulous care that if he had attempted to hold a raindrop with the same delicacy, the droplet might have reconsidered the laws of nature before daring to fall apart.

Aelric slowly raised the Key to eye level. Then, for perhaps the first time since they had met him, his composure completely collapsed beneath genuine excitement.

A wide grin spread across his face.

"Finally..." He said, his words almost coming out of his mouth as a roar. "Finally... We’ve finally found the twelfth Key!"

The delight in his voice was impossible to conceal. It seemed to reverberate through the chamber, transforming the atmosphere into one charged with palpable excitement.

Even Sylveris stared at him with renewed curiosity, apparently more fascinated by Aelric’s reaction than the relic itself.

Kaeloris, however, suddenly raised a hand. "Hold on a minute..."

His interruption caused Aelric’s smile to falter.

"Did you just say that this Key is the twelfth one you’ve obtained?" Kaeloris asked, his voice carrying unmistakable disbelief. "As in, you are already close to finding all thirteen Keys?"

Aelric looked at him as though the question itself were peculiar. "Yes. Why?"

Kaeloris’s expression became increasingly incredulous.

"Why? Because that is an extraordinarily important detail to omit!"

Caelestra immediately nodded as she commented. "He is right. You made it sound as though finding this Key would be some monumental beginning. Apparently, we have arrived near the end of your treasure hunt."

Aelric blinked before looking down at the Key in his hand. "I suppose I could have mentioned it but it wasn’t that important..."

"You suppose?" Vaelorin exclaimed, his fiery eyes widening due to the sheer incredulity he was feeling at the moment.

Kaeloris, meanwhile, remained absorbed in the implications of what he had just learned. His surprise was entirely justified.

According to Aelric’s earlier explanation, assembling all thirteen Keys would eventually reveal the path toward the First Oath, the ancient Artifact said to possess power capable of granting its wielders access to unimaginable strength.

More importantly, Aelric had made it abundantly clear that the Keys had been scattered throughout the Nether Lands and concealed within secret locations.

Given the immense size and danger of the Nether Lands, their most reasonable assumption had been that many of the Keys remained undiscovered, perhaps buried beneath ruins that even modern explorers had never found.

Yet the reality was dramatically different.

Not only had this Key already been discovered, but Aelric had apparently obtained eleven others before coming here. He was standing before them with the twelfth Key in his possession, meaning that only one remained.

That meant Aelric was not merely searching for an ancient legend; he was actively assembling the means to reach it. The distinction was enormous.

If the First Oath truly possessed the power described in the surviving accounts, then the completion of the thirteen Keys could trigger events whose consequences extended far beyond the Nether Lands.

More unsettlingly, Aelric had apparently accomplished all of this while behaving as though this expedition were nothing more than an ordinary journey. Regaleon could not help wondering how many other secrets the green-eyed youth had concealed behind that perpetually relaxed expression.

The thought alone made him reconsider everything Aelric had said since their meeting. Somehow, this revelation made Aelric even harder for them to fully comprehend than ever before.

The First Oath no longer seemed like some impossibly distant legend whose fragments had been scattered beyond the reach of mortals. It had suddenly become a tangible possibility, perhaps closer than any of them could have imagined.

Kaeloris’s expression hardened as the magnitude of that realization settled over him. His earlier scholarly curiosity had been replaced by something much more serious.

And he was not the only one.

The others were equally taken aback by the revelation, but none more so than Regaleon, who was oddly quiet at the moment...