Chapter 197
The two hurriedly descended the stairs to the Imperial Palace’s basement.
The surface was filled with chaos, with people screaming and panicking, but as they opened the side door leading to the basement and went inside, the noise gradually faded away.
Because Yoseph knew beforehand of the existence of the basement that led directly beneath the banquet hall, they were able to go straight there without getting lost.
As Roina descended into the basement, she felt the darkness that filled the surroundings. It was an excessively thick and deep darkness. Enough to absorb even sound, making it muffled.
“Yoseph. What’s down here?”
“Originally, according to what I knew, it’s a storage room, but…”
Before their eyes, beneath their feet, a truly deep darkness was cast. It seemed to be an artificial darkness, created by magic. Roina felt her throat dry with tension and swallowed once.
“It’s impossible to know now.”
“…That’s right.”
If it were an ordinary storage room for banquet food, it couldn’t have been stained with such darkness. There was no need to make it like this. Roina closed her eyes and concentrated her senses to examine the things filling the surroundings.
The immense darkness hindered her senses with a muffling feeling. But she placed her hand on the wall of the stairwell passage and tried to get an accurate sense. There was no time, and there was nothing she could give up.
The appearance of the basement was drawn in her mind. Groceries scattered about, old wooden casks and basement walls, and in the center,
“…There’s a mirror. That’s the axis of the mana circuit.”
And she felt the axis of the mana circuit from that mirror. The space from the banquet hall above to this basement was connected. Roina was certain. This banquet hall is originally one space, from this storage room in the basement, to the altar on the first floor where the ritual is performed, to the second floor overlooking the first floor with an opening in the middle.
If she approached the axis of the mana circuit and controlled this space, she would be able to interfere with the ancient magic taking place in the center of the banquet hall.
Just like when she was connected to Lutan in the Crown Prince’s room, or when she took that axis from Ethan and was able to escape from the prison where she was trapped.
However, at the same time, she felt something else from that mirror.
‘It’s hard to tell because it’s so heavily contaminated, but that mirror is a fragment of primordial magic.’
That shadow that entered Veronica’s body. A mirror is an object that reflects shadows, this side is the real main body.
‘It’s almost fused with the mana circuit.’
It was probably a measure to stop her. Yoseph, who was watching from the side, silently cast a spell through an auxiliary tool and activated a shield magic. It was a magic he had been saving because of its duration.
Roina turned to Yoseph. It was because she wanted him to go back. But he didn’t seem to have any intention of doing so.
“I will assist you.”
Yoseph’s firm will was visible in his eyes behind his glasses. Roina reluctantly turned her head. There was no time for back-and-forth conversation.
Roina conjured butterflies of light from her fingertips. This was an easy task with the mana she had received from Lutan. As that light entered the darkness, the magical darkness…
The darkness was dispelled. The darkness that couldn’t be illuminated by ordinary light disappeared with magic, revealing the stairs leading down.
Roina soon descended the stairs quickly, but with sufficient caution. There were no major problems on the stairs, but as she entered the darkness, the ominous feeling grew even stronger. Roina gestured to expand the area of light within.
Then, a woman with light purple hair appeared in the dispelled darkness.
“Erika!”
Erika was lying in front of the mirror that Roina had expected. She had wounds all over her body. She must have fallen after a fierce battle with someone.
As Roina tried to run to her, Yoseph grabbed Roina’s wrist and shook his head.
“It might be a trap.”
“But,”
“Ugh…”
Roina and Yoseph turned their heads at the same time. It was because a groan came from the mouth of the fallen Erika.
“Roina… Master Yoseph… I’m sorry. I acted rashly…”
Erika said that and smiled sadly.
Roina pressed her lips tightly. She felt a sense of incongruity.
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