Through the pitch-black darkness of the forest, a silent procession made up virtually of ghosts was advancing amidst the colossal trunks of the trees. Clad in night-black attire, the assassins cleared a path for Yuria, Aelrindel, and Lavinia, gliding through the branches like the wind without causing even a single crackle upon the dry leaves. The most dangerous and mysterious assassin guild in the world had formed a flawless shield around them.
Yet, such heavy secrecy and a march that had lasted for hours had begun to grate on Lavinia, who was walking at the rear of the group. Casting a resentful glare at the mud clinging to her boots, she quickened her pace and drew closer to Yuria.
"My Lady..." whispered Lavinia, throwing a brief glance at the assassins moving within the surrounding shadows. "Wasn't this person we call Eldrian formerly an Elder? I mean... it feels strange that someone who once made the world tremble is now hiding in the shadows like an underground rat behind an army of assassins like this."
Yuria did not slow her pace. Her black-and-green embroidered blindfold remained directed straight ahead.
"Yes, he was," Yuria said, her voice piercing the silence of the forest with a whisper so thin that only they could hear. "In fact, at one time, he was the most passionate of us. And now he is hiding... And he is right to do so. After all, as long as the heirs do not die, none of the Elders will be able to regain their true power; excluding the traitor, there are four of us left, though excluding me, that makes three."
Aelrindel, walking just a step behind Yuria while tapping his staff on the ground, intervened upon these words. There was an age-old curiosity in his emerald eyes.
"The Ket Curse..." said the old elf in a respectful tone of voice. "My Lady, for years I have heard countless whispers and false legends about this curse, but I would like to hear the truth from you. How could a curse grand enough to condemn the Elders to such shadows ever come to exist?"
The poison-green hair cascading from Yuria's shoulders fluttered gently in the wind. A cold, bitter smile appeared on her lips.
"Valerith's masterpiece," Yuria murmured. "He placed ancient seals called 'Void Runes' inside the heirs. These runes thanks to which the heirs achieved unimaginable power. But their growing stronger was not the main issue, Aelrindel. The main issue was that we grew weak. Valerith did whatever he did, and through those runes, he wove a perfect web connecting all the Elders to one another. As long as those runes exist and those heirs draw breath... none of the Elders besides myself will be able to use their own true, special power. Their sealing became the foundation of the heirs' power."
Lavinia blinked in astonishment at what she heard. "My Lady... but were the special powers of the Elders truly as terrifying as they say? For instance, this Eldrian we are going to see... What was his power?"
Yuria let out a deep sigh that carried the exhaustion of centuries. As she gazed into the darkness of the forest, she seemed to recall old, bloody days.
"If he ever regains his special power," Yuria said with unshakable certainty in her voice, "Eldrian is the only person in this world whom no one could kill even if they wanted to. You know those legendary beings who are said to be so fast they transcend time... for Eldrian, they are merely slow targets. He was a man who controlled time. Perhaps he could not rule over the entirety of time in its absolute sense, but he had the power to freeze time exactly as it was. This is the sole reason Eldrian lost his power and sought refuge in the shadows. When that power was stripped from him, all that remained was a target pursued by hunters."
Lavinia grew completely silent at what she heard. The fact that a being who once possessed godlike powers and could freeze time was now forced to hide in the depths of the forest because of the heirs holding his powers showed how severe and difficult-to-break this cycle truly was.
The procession continued to advance silently for hours. The colossal, ancient trees grew increasingly sparse, and finally, they reached the sharp boundary where the forest ended.
Before them lay a colossal, fog-shrouded, and bottomless dark abyss. The wind howled mercilessly here, and a freezing draft rose upward from the depths of the chasm.
The procession stopped. The first masked assassin, who had knelt before Yuria, stepped forward and pointed toward the edge of the cliff with a slight bow of his head.
"My Lady..." he said in his muffled, respectful voice. "We have arrived."
Aelrindel and Lavinia looked around in bewilderment. There was neither a cave entrance, nor a secret door, nor a bridge. There was only that pitch-black void starting right from their feet and seeming to stretch into eternity.
"We have arrived?" Lavinia asked, furrowing her brow. "Where have we arrived? Ahead of us is nothing but a bottomless void!"
Aelrindel also tapped his staff on the ground, took a cautious step to the edge of the cliff, and peered down. Even his emerald crystals were not enough to illuminate this darkness. "My Lady... I see no path to cross here. Is there an illusion spell at play?"
Yuria did not answer them. Walking with calm and unwavering steps, she kept moving until she reached the absolute edge of the cliff—the fatal line where half of her feet hung over the void. The wind violently whipped her cloak and her poison-green hair.
She tilted her blindfolded face slightly downward, toward that bottomless darkness. For a moment, she seemed to be listening to the deep void below.
Then... without uttering a single word, and without using any magic or mana wave, she gently leaned forward and threw herself down into that bottomless abyss.
"MY LADY!"
Lavinia's and Aelrindel's hearts leaped into their throats. Screaming in horror, both of them instantly lunged to the edge of the cliff. When they looked down into the fog and the darkness, Yuria's rapidly falling silhouette had already vanished from sight.
As Lavinia and Aelrindel stared down from the cliff's edge in utter terror, the first masked assassin who had spoken with Yuria earlier quietly approached them. There was neither panic nor anxiety in his voice.
"The entrance is this way," said the assassin, pointing to the abyss. "Do not worry. It's just that... you might feel a bit nauseous the first time."
The moment he finished his words, the assassin threw himself into the void without any hesitation. Following him, the other shadows also leapt down into the abyss one by one, silently.
At the edge of the cliff, Aelrindel and Lavinia looked at each other for a brief moment. There was deep doubt in the old elf's emerald eyes, and pure terror on Lavinia's face. Yet, they could not leave their Lady alone. Taking a deep breath, both of them closed their eyes and surrendered themselves to that freezing, bottomless darkness.
The fall was terrifying. The wind howled so fiercely it was deafening, and gravity brought their stomachs to their throats. Seconds felt like minutes. Just as the fatal surface of jagged rocks and stone ground appeared below and their bodies were about to be shattered to pieces... a sudden, incredible cramp gripped their stomachs. Their vision warped violently; space and time fractured for an instant.
Thud!
Both of them were gasping for breath when they fell onto a hard stone floor. The air they drew into their lungs was no longer that freezing mountain wind, but the damp, heavy air of an enclosed space. Coughing as they sat up, they found themselves in a massive, dungeon-like underground room illuminated by torches.
And just a few steps away, they saw Yuria standing with flawless posture, as if nothing had happened.
Lavinia, still trembling from the terrifying adrenaline of the fall, quickly scrambled to her feet. Running to Yuria's side, her hands clutched the sleeve of her Lady's black cloak.
"My Lady!" gasped Lavinia, her eyes wide with shock. "I was scared to death! I thought something had happened to you!"
Yuria cast a brief glance at Lavinia's trembling hands. The expression on her face was cold and flat, as always.
"Since it did not, I am here, Lavinia," she said in a completely flat voice. "Pull yourself together."
Lavinia swallowed hard, gently let go of the cloak, and dusted herself off.
Meanwhile, Aelrindel, who had risen to his feet by leaning on his staff, was holding his still-spinning head as he examined the stone walls and the ground runes around him.
"How strange..." murmured the old elf in a voice between admiration and bewilderment. "Was this... a highly ancient and complex teleportation spell? Did it truly require that fatal freefall, that violent speed, to be triggered? Who on earth would come up with such a psychopathic security measure?"
Just then, the heavy iron door at the far end of the wide room creaked open. An elderly man dressed in a highly elegant, dark-colored servant's attire stepped inside. His steps glided as if they did not touch the ground. Stopping a few paces from Yuria, he bowed with deep respect.
"Lord Eldrian is expecting you, My Lady," said the man in a polite, smooth voice. "Please follow me."
As the servant led the way, Yuria and the others began to follow him. When they stepped out of that cold, dungeon-like room, their surroundings changed abruptly.
They found themselves in massive corridors that were incredibly luxurious, with high ceilings, floors covered in shining black marble, and ancient paintings hanging on the walls. This place truly possessed the atmosphere of a noble manor, but something was profoundly wrong.
Behind the massive, floor-to-ceiling windows lining the corridor, there was no scenery. The outside consisted of a pitch-black, suffocating darkness, even denser than a night sky. Every now and then, colossal, unidentifiable shadows slowly glided through that pitch darkness.
Feeling the crushing pressure of the environment upon them, Aelrindel gripped his staff tightly and stared at those pitch-black windows.
"My Lady..." Aelrindel said, swallowing hard. The pieces in his mind were only just coming together. "This manor... Could it be that we are..."
Before Aelrindel could finish his sentence, Yuria turned her head slightly toward those dark windows and cut him off.
"Yes," Yuria said, a hint of mild, ironic appreciation in her voice. "We are at the bottom of the sea. Choosing the darkest and most unreachable depths of the ocean to hide from enemies... is an idea just interesting enough to be expected of Eldrian."