VOLUME 2
Chapter 2: The Curse of the Pyramid
Part 12
They found themselves in darkness, aching all over. After their moans quieted down, they began to move.
“Kasumi, I hope you’re okay.” Ryuka’s voice echoed over their heads. “Wait a moment. Lemmie get some light.”
The fragment of magic augite that she held in her hand illuminated the vicinity.
There appeared to be a stone wall nearby. Kasumi stood up after confirming that she had not suffered any injuries.
“Good thing you’re okay even though you were under me.” Ryuka took out one of her communication stones and frowned. “None of my communication stones are connecting.”
Kasumi hastily checked her own to no avail. It seemed like they were in a special zone in which communication stones were rendered ineffective.
However, would they be able to keep going without contact to Jun or the others? That aside…
“Ryuka-san, let’s try teleporting.”
“Hmm, okay.”
Ryuka nodded and performed a group teleportation spell. A light green circle appeared below their feet…
Then, the spell’s light disappeared.
“… So, it seems teleporting doesn’t work here either.”
“What about a different spell?”
They found spells that didn’t affect movement seemed to work. Communication and movement spells were all that were unusable.
“At any rate, I think they’ll realize we’re missing,” Ryuka said, unfazed by their situation.
“Then we should probably wait here…” After thinking about it a bit, Kasumi shook her head. “Let’s try going further in. I’ll put important things like communication stones into my magic pouch. So, worst case scenario, even if we die, we will still be able to keep in contact with Jun-san and the others.”
The magic pouch was a bound item which Kasumi got as soon as they made it to this island. On death, an adventurer retained whatever was stored within it.
When Kasumi was journeying with Sakuya’s team, she did not possess a magic pouch. For that reason, she couldn’t contact her fellow teammates when she fell to Altaria Island.
“Ryuka-san, wait here please. I think it’s best if only I risk dying.”
“Don’t be so stubborn. Besides, wasn’t all this my request?”
When Kasumi started walking away, Ryuka followed behind her.
“If I go in, maybe we’d be able to teleport out.”
That was quite plausible. Kasumi couldn’t refuse her after that reasoning.
The two of them trod a dark pa.s.sage relying on only their piece of augite to light the way.
Shortly afterwards, the end of the narrow pa.s.sage opened before them.
They entered a large, mysterious room with a very high ceiling. In the center of the room, there stood a stone coffin at the top of a platform few meters tall. Systematically arranged candlesticks, hung on the sides of the stairs leading to it.
Just as Ryuka and Kasumi stepped foot into the center of the room, the candles lit up all at once.
“Ah!”
Ryuka and Kasumi grabbed tightly onto each other.
Ahh, me, get a grip!
Kasumi let go of Ryuka’s hand and took a step forward.
The floor shook violently.
“Eek, eeeeeeek!” Hugging Ryuka firmly, she staggered ahead. “E-earthquake… Ryuka-san, are you okay?”
“It can’t be… I’ve never heard of earthquakes in Sky World.”
Ryuka calmed Kasumi, who was overwhelmed with surprise, down.
When they looked up at the coffin in the center of the room, its heavy lid appeared to slowly open.
“This is… aaaaaaah!”
They couldn’t stop shivering. Their legs turned to jelly. Ryuka too, shivered unknowingly.
From all they could see, nothing had was touched the coffin.
A stink filled the air. Gray smoke which had begun to pour out of the coffin gradually enveloped the entire room…
“It hath come!” The sound of a deep male voice echoed through the room. “The time hath come! My voice shall be released! My grief! My sorrow! As will my wrath!”
A humanlike figure slowly emerged from the stone coffin.
Its glowing red eyes scowled at Kasumi from their sunken eye sockets.
“Cross thyselves!” shouted the figure.
“Kasumi!”
Just as Ryuka called out her name, Kasumi’s HP bar completely depleted.
“Ryuka!”
While she was losing consciousness, she knew that Ryuka would suffer the same fate soon…
Right before she slipped away, she saw the system message window.
Penglai Emperor’s Death Call has been activated.
That was what was written. Death Call. That was most likely an attack.
The Penglai Emperor, huh?
This message was the last thing Kasumi saw.
Quest: The Resurrection of the Penglai Emperor has begun
“The Penglai Emperor’s… resurrection.”
She didn’t have enough time to process its meaning before her consciousness was swallowed up by the darkness.