The men intended to set up another round of explosives.Cian said, "Sir, I recognize their speech. They're Rondoniers.""Rondoniers?"Adrian, who had lost his memories, could not remember who or what Rondoniers were. Rozi, too, looked at Cian curiously.Cian replied, "Rondom is the most technologically advanced country in the world, but they're our enemies. They've been trying to rule over the world for the longest time. You killed a lot of them in the past, so it's surprising to see them here."Adrian had no memory of Rondoniers, but he could tell they were his enemies based on Cian's tone. Sworn enemies, in fact. "I don't remember them, but I recognize their speech.""You can? But I thought you lost your memories?""It's probably something burned into my subconsciousness. The memories from that part of my brain are still intact. It's the same as how I remember whatever I do about the world.""I see.""They're trying to blow apart some sort of coffin,” the sharp-eyed Rozi sai
Adrian already had Dragonbane at the ready.The Rondoniers celebrated, one of them saying, "Finally! That was a lot of wasted gunpowder. Let's see what the hell all this fuss was about.""We've completed our mission," another said. The trio shined their flashlights upon the gigantic coffin. The lid of the coffin had been blasted open, but it was unknown what the contents were. "F*cking Navians. Those b*stards are too arrogant to realize we've been studying their history and even entered their territory."The Rondoniers were happily gloating away when they suddenly heard, "Is that so?" The three of them exchanged looks. "Wh-Who’s there?" They frantically turned around to look at their surroundings.Eight Navians slowly emerged from all directions with their guns aimed at the Rondoniers with murderous intent. The trio were stunned. They were not Navians to show up just as they were insulting them. They realized who was going to have the last laugh."Hands above your heads. Don
Chamat answered honestly, "We have a map that we obtained through 4D scanning. There's another entrance through the snowy mountain, and that’s how we got in." He slowly brought out a map and handed it to Adrian. "Here, sir."Adrian took a look at the map and was amazed by how detailed it was. It had the entire palace mapped out."What do your superiors want from this place? What are they planning?"Chamat shook his head. "I would never hide anything from you, sir, but that’s highly-confidential information, even for me. Please don't kill us." He shivered as he spoke."What are you looking for?" "A piece of metal.”“Why would your superiors want a piece of metal?" Chamat shook his head. "I don't know. They just sent us down here with our mission. They didn’t explain anything.”"Chamat is telling the truth, sir. We're too low in the food chain to know something that confidential. We only know our superiors scanned this place and made a map of it. That's all," Blu added. Adria
Adrian nodded. "Yeah, they both have the body of a snake, but I feel like I’ve seen this one somewhere… Do you get the same feeling?"Rozi pondered for a moment, then said, "Oh, it’s that drawing on the pillar! A snake man was leading the immortals against the giant shadow.”"This is their leader?" Adrian asked in shock.The corpse was thousands of years old, and Adrian was curious about why it had a snake's body. There's no such species in this world. They existed only in myths."It’s right before us. How do you think that is?" Adrian said curiously. Rozi pondered with a frown, then shook her head. "I'm not sure. Something feels off about this, yet something seems to match up as well."Adrian shifted through his memories. He then said, "I got something. Do you remember that snake woman from before? She said the Creator made her to defend this place and kill all its invaders.""How is that related to this?" Rozi asked. "This means the monster has been guarding this place for
Adrian vaguely recalled seeing something similar to this rock but he could not remember what it was. Mya would definitely have recognized the rock if she were there. After all, it was very similar to the metal block they found at St. Elmer's Church. In other words, the rock was an imitation of the metal block. Adrian had assumed the rock was some kind of explosive, but it was not. Rozi curiously asked, "Have you seen it before?"Adrian thought that maybe his subconscious was making him think he had seen the rock before. He shook his head. "I can't remember, but this rock is a fake. Someone took the real thing a long time ago. Wait…" Adrian was stunned as he noticed an engraving next to the corpse."Distraction?" He looked at Rozi after reading the engraving. "Did you carve this? It looks to be written by the same person from the platform. I think you opened up this coffin in the past too." Rozi scratched her head but was unable to recall such a memory. After taking a deep bre
Their objective was to kill Adrian and the others. "Stay calm." Adrian frantically thought of a way out of the situation. "We've proven he can just reset us if he wishes to eliminate us, so it's clear he has exhausted his powers. Otherwise, he wouldn't have to send this many monsters after us. We can get out of this… Cian.""Yes, sir!"There’s just too many of them. I need you and the others to hide inside the coffin. Rozi and I will think of a way out of this. We’ll come back for you guys after we've activated the mechanism.” Adrian gripped Dragonbane tightly.Cian asked anxiously, "Will you two be all right? Why don't we all fight our way out and leave our fates to destiny instead? It'd be our honor to be able to fight alongside you, sir.""He's right, sir. We've sworn to follow you to the death, so we choose to fight with you," another said.Rozi said, "They may not be safe even if they hide inside the coffin, Adrian. Rather than letting them stay here and possibly die, I thi
Noticing that the monsters seemed terrified of the rock, Adrian led Cian and the others away. They managed to break out of the encirclement after about five minutes.Rozi said, "Follow me. I'll take you guys to the sundial. Quickly now. It won’t be long till they realize the rock is a fake and start coming after us again.” Some of her memories had suddenly returned. Adrian and the others followed her, and twenty minutes later, they arrived at a spot within the palace. There was a faint beam of light about the size of a coin shining inside the location. The beam was shining directly onto a huge and well-crafted sundial."What is that?""Is that a sundial? I've never seen one before.”Cian and the others, stunned by the sundial, began to examine it. The sundial was placed atop a giant stone platform. However, the light was too weak for them to identify the directions.Rozi studied the sundial and said, "This palace is constantly revolving, which means our direction is always chang
Rozi nodded. "We'll be able to identify the North after we determine one particular direction. After that, we'll shift the Big Dipper's oil lamps toward True North. This way, the balance system will be activated and we can go deeper into the Profound Circle," she explained. Padraig asked in confusion, "What's the Profound Circle?"Rozi shook her head. "I can't remember, but I get the sense it's some kind of magic circle deployed by the immortals back in the day. We'll reach another location once we get through the magic circle. I recalled it being a place with thunder strikes.""Thunder strikes?"Cian and the others exchanged looks of confusion. At that moment, a memory popped into Adrian’s mind, "Mount Thunder!""Mount what?""I remember you talking about a Celestial Lake atop Mount Thunder. That’s how you were able to see the future," Adrian said. "When did I ever say that?” Rozi asked."My memory is still fuzzy, so I can’t remember.“In any case, we have to be sure to n