Magician in Type-Moon

Page 517

The oppressive and tense atmosphere made her almost forget to breathe, and with each step forward, she felt an ever-present, yet unseen, danger.

Finally, they arrived at their destination—the place that should have been the school building's main hall.

But at this moment, all I could see was unfamiliar darkness.

Part of the hall floor collapsed, revealing a huge, dark hole.

“Underground…” Reines murmured softly, her eyes fixed on the bottomless crack, her brows furrowed deeply.

Her heart sank immediately. This place was clearly not any area she was familiar with. "What exactly is this...?"

She composed herself, a hint of displeasure flashing in her eyes.

This is the location of the Minerals Department, which is controlled by the El-Melloi clan, but she had never heard of the existence of this area.

As the heir to the El-Melloi family, she should know every inch of this land, every brick and stone.

But then she discovered that there was such a hidden space that she knew nothing about. An uneasy premonition rose in her heart.

"What on earth is my brother doing!" Reines couldn't help but feel agitated, her fists clenched and her face showing anger.

She wasn't angry because of the secrets she herself was unaware of, but because of her brother.

—Lord El-Melloi II—knowing all this, yet never telling her.

Behind the concealment, there seems to be some more complex reason.

Reines's eyes gradually sharpened, her thoughts racing.

She was so certain because she knew perfectly well that this area was not part of the original building area of ​​the Minerals Department.

On the contrary, this place was once the base of the modern magic department. And that history is now eight years past.

At that time, El-Melloi II was at a crucial juncture in his bid to succeed his family as monarch, and Reines clearly remembered that, in order to preserve the Minerals Department's legacy, her brother and Aozaki Touko jointly proposed a seemingly "reasonable" exchange—

Swap the territory of the Minerals Department with the territory of the Modern Magic Department.

This decision shocked Reines at the time, because it involved not only the family's interests but also her own future.

However, Reines still doesn't know the truth about what happened during this difficult struggle.

She could never understand why, behind such a significant transaction, El-Melloi II had so casually concealed this information from her, and had not even fully revealed the original exchange agreement to her.

As resentment and confusion churned within Reines—

Spencer had already leaped into the cave with the speed of a ghost, his movements almost silent. His posture was quite similar to that of a hunting cat, light and agile. Then, he turned back and waved to Reines, signaling her to follow.

Seeing this, Reines didn't hesitate to strengthen her legs and leap down. She tried to slow her landing as much as possible to avoid making too much noise.

Upon landing, she quickly scanned her surroundings, keenly searching for any potential threats or clues.

"Sila has a place like this?" she murmured to herself, her voice filled with disbelief.

Despite the near darkness around him, the magician's eyes could still clearly discern his surroundings with the help of the faintest light.

incredible.

It was hard to believe, but the structure rising in the darkness was too powerful an argument to suggest that what Reines saw was not an illusion.

Suddenly, the rocks overhead began to crack, and scattered stones and fragments fell. As they fell, the massive object trembled slightly, deflecting the falling debris.

Reines' heart pounded. She forced herself to calm down, but still couldn't help swallowing.

"...What is this?" Her voice was low, with a hint of uncertainty.

She reached out and carefully touched the surface of the object. She initially wanted to dismiss the sight, but when her hand touched the hard shell, the familiar sensation sent a jolt through her.

Despite its enormous size and unbelievable appearance, it had a feeling she had touched as a child—a chitinous shell.

"...Is this the corpse of an insect?"

Spencer's muttering voice also lacked a sense of reality.

Yeah, that's right.

I don't want to admit it. But I have to.

The object in front of the two was a huge insect corpse.

It's probably a woodlice.

However, its size was simply too enormous. Its height clearly exceeded three meters, and its length was over ten meters.

And there was more than one; several insect corpses lay scattered throughout the vast underground space.

"No, no, no! No matter what, this can't be!" Reines shook her head violently, almost unable to accept the reality before her. She moved closer, but her gaze still couldn't leave the corpses.

“This scale…” Her voice began to quicken.

“No matter how sophisticated the barrier is, and with my brother’s deliberate concealment, if these things were really buried underground, how could we, me, or the students in El-Melloi’s classroom not have discovered them? It’s almost impossible!”

She looked around and realized that the empty space was much larger than she had imagined, and its scope was clearly not limited to the old school building.

Looking around, the void seemed to extend beyond the original barrier, and from here, the vast space even spread beyond the barrier surrounding the university town.

The idea that a temple could be right at their feet, yet everyone is leisurely attending class without noticing anything, is even less likely to be true.

However, this makes the situation even more unusual.

It's like...

This enormous hole looks as if it was completed just a few minutes ago.

Banish delusions and raise your gaze.

Reines offered her conclusions regarding the enormous chitinous corpse before her.

"...These must be the corpses of creatures from Albion, the Tomb of Spirits."

Chapter 573 Orange and Hartles (4k)

"Albion's?" Spin couldn't help but ask after hearing Reines's speculation, his voice tinged with hesitation.

“I can’t think of any other explanation,” Reines replied calmly, though her tone carried a hint of helplessness.

“If you search the whole world, you should be able to find such creatures lurking in foreign lands. However, it is absolutely impossible for so many to emerge from the ground near London, let alone more than two or three.”

Her words were firm and decisive, even though she herself knew that the conjecture was almost irrefutable—no matter how much the magician's reason warned her, the absurdity of reality made it impossible for her to fully accept it.

She was unwilling to acknowledge this in her mind, yet she had no choice but to face the fact.

Having perused numerous records in the library, she had always suspected that there might be some unknown connection between the modern magic department led by Hartles and the spirit tomb Albion.

"Albion's cursed body was originally strictly controlled, and it was almost impossible to obtain it through legal channels."

Reines continued her analysis.

"But Hartres' disciples were survivors, and perhaps they obtained usable information from some loophole. If these circumstances are revealed during the Grand Order Decision, it will be extremely fatal."

She paused briefly, a cold sweat breaking out on her brow, and continued:

"If anyone discovers the corpses of Albion's creatures underground in the Mineral Division, violating the prohibition, the entire family will face annihilation. Destroying these things is the least of their worries; if not handled properly, they could become slaves for the next hundred years, serving a lifetime of forced labor."

She felt a deep, bone-deep oppression, just as she had discovered in the records she had just been going through in the library—this could not possibly be a simple underground space.

It's incredible that simply drilling through the floor of the old school building would bring you directly to Albion. To reach that depth, you'd need to go at least ten kilometers underground, a distance that can't be covered in just a few minutes.

However, the question remained unanswered. She squinted and murmured:

"Could it be... that the area of ​​Albion near the surface happens to connect with the underground space of the Modern Magic Department? Or perhaps, these insects somehow dug through the soil and made their way here?"

Her voice was slightly sarcastic, as if she could hardly believe what she was saying:

"If Hartress really did build some kind of nuclear power plant underground, I would find it more acceptable."

Lost in thought, Reines suddenly felt a pang of unease and pressed her hand to her chest.

"Cough cough!" She coughed a few times, quickly bracing herself on her knees with her hands, trying to steady her breathing.

"Princess." Upon seeing this, Spin immediately approached, a hint of worry in his eyes.

Her eyes instantly burned intensely, as if flames were burning inside them.

She didn't need to look in a mirror to confirm that her eyes had turned a bright red—a sign of a rapid fluctuation in the magic within her.

A hazy shadow gradually seeped into the corner of her vision, and the faint light flickered before her eyes, as if the surrounding air had become stagnant and heavy, carrying an invisible sense of oppression.

"...I'm fine." She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, but her voice sounded a little hurried.

"Spin, you should also fully activate your Beast Magic and extend it to your respiratory system. The dense etheric gas here could potentially damage your internal organs."

"—! I understand."

Spin responded, a flash of understanding in his eyes. He immediately adjusted his magic cycle and entered a new state.

As the magic circulated, Spencer began to feel a certain change within his body.

Even the air itself is imbued with a dense mystery.

It's the kind of environment that only appears in Albion, the Tomb of Spirits.

At this moment, no matter how much Reines struggled internally or how difficult it was to accept, she could only acknowledge a heavy fact that had already weighed on her body—undeniable and unavoidable.

However, the more calmly one analyzes it, the stranger it all seems.

Hartres attacked Sla not simply to display the insect corpses.

If his purpose was merely to intimidate or provoke, he should be waiting for the audience to appear in this underground space right now.

But the reality is that at such a crucial moment, her brother El-Melloi II was nowhere to be seen.

This unusual absence made Reines' heart pound even harder, not just because of those mundane worries and anxieties, but also because she sensed a deeper disharmony.

Spencer remained crouched beside the enormous insect carcass, his nose twitching and his eyes alert.

The boy's previously relaxed demeanor vanished, as if he had detected something unusual in the air. He stared into the darkness behind the insect's corpse, his tone concise.

"Are you there?"

"Yes, although it's still quite a distance."

Almost simultaneously with confirming the information, the boy quickly dropped to all fours, lying prone on the ground like a wild beast.

“Princess, please sit on my back.”

"Can you guarantee the ride comfort of an Aston Martin?" Reines replied nonchalantly, her tone sarcastic.