Silver moonlight spilled across the riverbank, casting everything in a pale, shimmering haze.
Hearing
When Ramiro had first heard in Husum City that the Underworld Sovereign had truly perished, he'd been badly startled. That had been a ninth-rank Imprisonment Spell, not a Decree of Death — how could it have killed the Underworld Sovereign outright?
After all, a Devil Count had once been sealed by an Imprisonment Spell for a full millennium without dying, eventually freed only through the efforts of many generations of devil cultists before the spell's magical effects slowly dissipated. So he'd seriously suspected that the ninth-rank Archmage had exploited the chaos, set up a Magic Circle, released the Underworld Sovereign, and completed a swift execution.
He'd wanted to investigate, but he'd been stymied — he didn't know the specific location where the Underworld Sovereign had been sealed, nor the whereabouts of its Divine Domain. Then he'd discovered Anxius and found a lead on tracking the Moon Goddess incident, so he'd set the matter aside for the time being.
Thus, learning from Francis that Leviathan had found the Underworld Sovereign's Divine Domain filled him with an urgent desire to explore it — to see what the Underworld Sovereign had once discovered or encountered that had drawn the ninth-rank Archmage's attention.
It was precisely because of the Underworld Sovereign's fall that Ramiro's last lingering shred of suspicion toward "Leviathan" had dissipated entirely. He'd seen Leviathan leap into the water, and one possible location for the Imprisonment Spell's casting had been the river itself.
Judging from the distance between the two meeting points, their positions relative to Husum City, and how tightly the timeline fit together, it was clear that Leviathan couldn't have had enough time to make the round trip — and even if he could, he couldn't have deceived Francis. Even a ninth-rank Archmage couldn't manage that. Only a Legendary powerhouse could!
But in that case, such a person could have swept across the entire
"The treasure of a false deity must be quite plentiful. I wouldn't mind cutting someone a share in exchange for your friendship, Anxius," Francis said with a smile. His primary goal was indeed to investigate the circumstances of the Underworld Sovereign's imprisonment. "Besides, the more people, the more strength — that way we can finish looting as quickly as possible without alerting the Lord of War."
Even as he said this, the corner of his mouth still curved with a smile as he glanced casually at Lucian. "Leviathan, don't you want to go? You were quite enthusiastic about it before."
"If it were just me, I certainly wouldn't dare — who knows what kind of monsters lurk in the Underworld Sovereign's Divine Domain. But with you and Anxius along, Francis, of course I wouldn't pass up the chance at those 'adorable' treasures," Lucian said with a touch of feigned fervor. He'd been wanting to investigate both the inexplicable sense of being watched when passing the Divine Domain and the reason the Underworld Sovereign had suddenly relocated its Domain to the bottom of the Solnar River. Now he had Francis and the others as shields, and even if they turned up nothing, he could still find suitable materials in the Underworld Sovereign's treasury to repair the magical items on his person.
Ramiro suddenly frowned. "Then we need to hurry. After the Underworld Sovereign's fall, its Divine Domain will slowly disintegrate. If we wait too long, there won't be anything left to find."
Once inside the Underworld Sovereign's Divine Domain and they split up to search for "treasures," he'd have an even better opportunity to kill Leviathan, then disguise himself as him. At that point, blaming everything on the strange properties of the Divine Domain would be far better than any other excuse!
"Leviathan, lead the way," Francis said unhurriedly. The Underworld Sovereign had only been imprisoned — its avatar still existed. How could the Divine Domain dissipate?
Lucian shared Francis's train of thought but showed nothing of it. After all, in the eyes of a devout follower of El, the Underworld Sovereign had been most certainly, absolutely, positively obliterated by God.
Putting on the stone bracelet, Lucian was the first to leap into the Solnar River. Francis followed close behind, while Ramiro quietly activated his shapeshifting bloodline to simulate a quasi-Divine Art for underwater breathing and movement, bringing up the rear without a sound.
After swimming upstream for a good while and passing through a water lock with less stringent security, Lucian led Francis and Ramiro close to the Underworld Sovereign's Divine Domain. That strange sensation of being watched flickered past once more.
"It really is nearby," Francis said, spotting the clusters of half-decayed fish. Then, relying on his keen sensitivity to death energy, he reversed course and led Lucian and Ramiro down toward the riverbed's depths.
Pushing through thickets of strange, grayish-white aquatic plants, Francis suddenly crashed into what appeared to be an ordinary river stone. Instantly, the river water transformed rapidly, becoming a massive, pitch-black stone gate radiating an intense aura of death.
The stone gate was considerably dilapidated. Its black surface was peeling away bit by bit, the material within slowly rotting into mud.
"The Underworld Sovereign really has perished!" Francis's normally nonchalant, half-smiling expression froze as the words burst from his mouth. Could it not have been an Imprisonment Spell?
Both Lucian and Ramiro looked at him oddly. "When did you ever have the delusion that the Underworld Sovereign hadn't perished?"
Their expressions seemed identical, but where Ramiro's concealed mockery, Lucian's concealed something else — he clenched his fists so tightly that his fingernails seemed about to pierce his palms, for without such force, he couldn't control his own shock at Francis's words.
It was Lucian who had used the Imprisonment Spell to seal the Underworld Sovereign. No one understood the situation better than he did. Yet the Underworld Sovereign had truly perished! Things were becoming far more sinister!
"Perhaps I was influenced by the dense aura of death here," Francis said, composing himself and seizing the convenient explanation. He had never made a secret of his uniqueness and power before Leviathan, Anxius, and the others, nor did he worry about inviting suspicion. Strength was the foundation of everything — besides, he had already "absorbed" the Seed of Spirituity, and El was thoroughly reassured.
Ramiro said nothing more, turning his gaze to the pitch-black stone gate and studying how to open it. He figured that if the opportunity arose later, he wouldn't mind taking out Francis as well. That would be quite the accomplishment.