Chapter 144: The Core of the Magical Barrier
"Are you all okay?" Valerius asked as he looked at Skyler and his team with a pure innocent look on his ethereal-looking face. Not even the worst soul wandering through the woodlands could make themselves believe that the man was able to harm even an ant, let alone expertly punishing an entire group of people just because he was tired of their constant incompetence in helping him with the mission.
"Yeah... we are alright, My Lord." Skyler was the first one to get his bearing back as he signaled his men to follow and moved toward the podium.
"Good! Then let’s move, I think I found the entrance of the underground cave where the core of the ward is hidden." Valerius stated loud enough to get the attention of every single man present there and without even waiting for a single second, he stepped toward one of the five stone pillars that were built around the podium.
He sensed the group of men moving to stand behind him but miraculously, none of them started whispering this time even after he just made such a big statement.
Clearly, the credit for the deafening silence went to none other than Skyler whose glare had succeeded in keeping the mouths of the guards shut even though their insides were burning with curiosity and surprise.
Valerius placed one of his palms against the rune that was carved on the pillar and let his ice and air activate the rune. He felt the magic of the protection ward of the Seelie Realm accepting him as a friend and allowing him access to its core. His special connection with the ward had helped him throughout his way in his search for the core.
The pillar started disintegrating and it finally succeeded in causing a little chaos among tge guards but once again Skyler made all of them shut up. It wasn’t really the guards’ fault for being this hyped up, something that was hard to see during normal days. It wasn’t like they had ever walked outside Lakeshire Town in the past several centuries. The magic present around the Great Woodlands was causing them to act out of their usual ways.
A trapdoor appeared in place of the foot of the pillar that had completely disappeared, not even the debris was left after its disintegration.
"Ain’t this all too easy? The array got destroyed so easily and now, the ward gave access to its core without putting on any other fight, how come everything was easy?" Skyler couldn’t help but raise tge question as he looked at Valerius.
"If you think it was easy, we were probably lucky then." That was all that Valerius said in response before a single flick of his fingers caused the door of the trapdoor to fly open and what greeted them was pure darkness beneath waiting for them.