Primordial Sage: Plight of Immortality

"There is no way…" Illyan muttered as disbelieving laughter escaped his lips.

The citadel was closed for so long that even a hundred generations of mortals didn't live before its opening.

Yet, something like a beating heart was inside the chest in front of him—a chest that was as big as a human skull.

'It must be some mechanical thing. That's what alchemists do. Like the eye above…'
Illyan thought with intrigue. However, he stopped himself from reaching toward the chest.

'Or is it the ability of life?' Illyan hesitated whether to touch it or not.
It could be a trap.

His eyes moved around and noticed certain small rectangular tiles, not even the size of his palm, embedded in the ground surrounding the pedestal quietly. There were no grand symbols covering them, nor did they give off an aura, but they still stood out in his eyes.

Illyan felt they were somehow similar. It was the color that made him think. The color was gray with a hint of the night sky's blue.

They were kind of enchanting. But that gave birth to Illyan's suspicion.

Illyan still didn't trust the voice despite it revealing a lot of secrets that he was so eager to find out about.
He turned his attention outside of the altar.

The array seemed to be activated, with an orange light covering the area around him.

However, when Illyan came closer, wanting to find the escape route before deciding whether to take the chest without preparations, he crashed right into that light.

"Ugh…!?" Illyan groaned as his body was repelled back.
The air around rippled as the light converged into a kind of film covering the altar that was now visible to the naked eye.

Illyan, who fell on his back, stared at it with surprise as his nose cracked back into its right place.

The light wasn't visible before, even through Illyan's eyesight, which surprised him a lot.

'Can't depend on my sight too much,' Illyan thought as he wiped the blood from his nose with a cloth.

Crack

Not even a minute after this, Illyan heard cracks from above.

The eye, which seemed to be eternal not even a minute ago, now had cracks all over it as it started to crumble.

'You've got to be kidding me…' Illyan sighed in annoyance as he watched the ceiling and walls covered in fissures.

'Not even a moment of peace. I guess the emperor didn't want me to hesitate for too long, huh?'

Illyan thought as he sprang up and ran toward the chest. If he looked for the escape route, there would be no way of getting the chest. In that case, all their endeavors until now would be meaningless.

'Taking the risk is something that an undying monster like me should do, right?' Illyan smirked as he lunged toward the chest.

There was still a question of whether he could take it or not, but without trying, he wouldn't know.

Just as he passed through a certain boundary, the gray tiles he had been wary of before started to shine strongly.

But nothing happened as he passed without a problem.

Instead, his hand was already upon the chest.

With another step, he finally touched the chest and prepared to leave.

'Now, where is the exi—Ouch?!' Sudden pain assaulted Illyan's palm that was covering the chest.

The pain was unexpectedly sharp, and even Illyan, who was used to pain, was caught off guard.

He wanted to retrieve his hand, but he couldn't. It was as if his hand had connected with the chest and they had become one.

Illyan was shocked as he looked at what was happening.

His hand was there, with a nick on its palm from which a lot of blood was flowing out.

The runes covering the chest shone strongly as they started to get dyed by the blood's color.

Illyan's anxiety grew stronger as pieces of the ceiling started to fall all around him.

He tried to pull his hand with the help of other hand but was unsuccessful.

'Is this really a trap?!' Soon after, rage welled up in Illyan's heart. He was skeptical before, but it still pissed him off.

Still, he kept his head cool as he reached for the short dagger he had behind his belt with his other hand.

There was a chance that he would be crushed under the rubble in a few seconds, so there was no time to hesitate.

With an empty expression, devoid of any emotions, he put pressure on his wrist with the dagger, prepared to cut off his hand.

'I will have to give up on the treasure chest for now!'

However, before he could even draw blood, something mysterious happened.

The surface of the chest started to vibrate in a rhythmic manner.

Seconds later, the metal the chest was made of began to melt.

The dark gold turned into liquid. However, instead of sliding down to the ground, it actually flew upward.

Right toward the place where Illyan's hand was glued to it.

At this moment, Illyan was completely entranced by this strange but beautiful phenomenon.

It was as if the chest called out to him while reaching for his hand. It made his mind wander as if he were mesmerized by some kind of witchcraft.

He didn't even notice that some of the ceiling was falling right at him.

However, the gray tiles shone with gray light that covered the pedestal and Illyan, completely isolating the man and the chest from the outside.

Anything that even grazed this boundary turned into dust.

Regardless, even these tiles started to shake as the ground began to crack.

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Illyan didn't care about that at all, though, as the liquid metal seeped into the wound on his palm.

He expected excruciating pain, but nothing like that happened.

Slowly but surely, the chest's mass disappeared inside Illyan's hand, together with whatever was inside.

There was no weight or discomfort coming from his hand.

However, he could feel it as the metal flowed across his hand, continuing upward. His skin shone with a golden hue as the light it emitted passed through his flesh without obstruction.

Thanks to that, he could also see the runes that adorned the surface of the chest, passing through his arm in a consistent line as if they had found their rightful place and slowly spiraled toward his shoulder.

Once they passed through there, Illyan immediately put away his robe to look at where the runes continued.

For a second, he worried about it passing through his heart, but it didn't touch any of his organs as it moved down toward the lower part of his body.

'Huh? Is that…'

At last, it finally stopped at the place below his stomach and settled down. The runes circled around the area before the liquid metal started to take the shape of a chest.

The chest was deconstructed and reconstructed in a matter of seconds, shifting its place from outside to inside Illyan's body.

And the place it settled down was not random.

'That's where the Mana Sea should be…' Illyan marveled.

He wanted to observe further, but it wasn't the right time.

Instead, he turned around and looked for any opening in the walls.

There were no doors or windows in this room, but everything was falling apart.

As he looked around, he realized something.

The array that shone with orange light hadn't disappeared.

In fact, it seemed that it was this array that caused the destruction of the surroundings.

'Well, that's a bummer.' Illyan clicked his tongue in annoyance.

If the array didn't disappear, then he didn't have a way to escape.

'What now…? Maybe the chest inside me will allow me to pass through it? But I will have only one chance. If it is not the right choice…'

Illyan sighed, knowing he didn't have time to hesitate.

Just as he wanted to spring out, the ground underneath the pedestal gave in as the entire altar started to collapse.

Illyan almost fell as the ground under his legs shook heavily.

It was as if the entire citadel had started to crumble from the inside out.

Big chunks of rock fell from the ceiling as the eye that once proudly watched over the room fell out of its socket.

Walls crumbled under their own weight, and the ground opened dozens of chasms leading who knew where.

Illyan started to feel restless as he looked below himself.

Then, his eyes widened with surprise.

'Looks like that guy didn't want to kill me. There is actually something like this…'

A huge hole without an end appeared in the place where the pedestal was. It was only as big as the circle made out of the gray tiles.

Illyan looked inside and felt an irresistible urge to jump down despite only seeing endless darkness within.

'Not only that, but I also feel a certain physical suction that almost made me stumble.'

Staring down for a second, Illyan decided.

'But before that…' Illyan turned his attention to those gray tiles with an intense stare…

Seconds later, after he popped those tiles out from the ground with great effort, he jumped down the hole without even looking around.

The moment he did, the suction took hold of his body as he was immediately pulled down further along the path.

For a moment, only the destroyed room remained above.

However, the moment his body fully disappeared into the darkness, the rumbling in the room faded away.

The array covering the ground stopped shining, and everything turned still.

Everything was finally silent as the ruined room settled down.

Until it did not.

The silence was temporary as the rubble covering the broken ground shook heavily.

Soon after, the smallest pieces started to levitate and fly upwards.

After a while, even the heavier pieces shifted around as they moved back into the places where they had fallen from.

The collapsed ground rose up, and the broken walls straightened.

The eyeball also rose into the air, spinning around and staring at every corner as its pupil shone with light.

The hole Illyan entered, along with all other cracks and chasms, were sealed as if they had never existed in the first place, and the pedestal that had disappeared was once again standing upright with the unbroken eye overseeing the entire room.

It was as if time itself had flowed backward to restore everything to its original state.

Only the chest was missing, breaking this untouched illusion…

………

Meanwhile, on the other side of the citadel.

"What in the world? Do you feel it?" Mufa, who was usually silent, suddenly spoke up as he stopped in his tracks.

The academic group had entered the citadel some time ago, but they were still wandering around.

It wasn't because they were taking their time.

In fact, they wanted to find the key as soon as possible before reuniting with the other high-ranking members of their alliance.

The problem was…

"Are you sure? This place can play tricks on your mind. Look at us. We've been stuck in this maze for who knows how long while all kinds of traps and illusions attack us… I don't like this at all. In the first place, the maze seems to be bigger than the citadel itself…"

Tami, whose eyes had shone with determination when they entered, now looked tired as she slowly trudged forward.

In her hands, a handbag could be seen. Inside lay carefully stored parchments, one of which she held tightly, prepared to take it out.

At this very moment, they were walking through a long corridor that seemed to have no end. However, they were aware that there was an end. The difficult part was the fact that…

Once they reached the end, the corridor would branch out. Some corridors were dead ends, while some led you back to the beginning of the maze.

The walls were too tall to see the ceiling and were made out of dark rock that absorbed even the bit of light that was around. The only thing that stood out were the golden adornments that created beautiful patterns on the said walls.

Unfortunately, the group wasn't in the mood to appreciate that and would rather destroy the walls altogether to create a new path.

Though, they didn't have a way to break through them either.

"No, he is right. Something is happening." Neddard, who was usually silent, said this in a somber tone as he unsheathed a short sword he had strapped to his belt.

Despite his old age, nobody felt it was ridiculous to see him wield a sword.

Normally, Neddard's presence was minimal. Even Illyan only thought he was a strange man.

But the moment he unsheathed his sword, an aura like that of a sharp blade came out of his body. His eyes glinted with bloodlust, and his back straightened.

He looked like a valiant soldier prepared to meet his archenemy.

"It is the mechanism in the citadel…! Something's wrong! Dammit!" Vanda, who had been silent the entire time, started to curse as she bit her nails in frustration.

"What do y-you mean by that?" Arun, who had been shaken up after his brother's death, finally calmed down a little as his determination to get the inheritance was raised sharply.

But now…

"George, you bastard… Didn't I say to use everything to stop them… But how did they get it before us…" Vanda ignored their words as she muttered to herself.

"Miss! The rumbling is getting closer! Give us an order…" Neddard came closer to Vanda and spoke with utter calmness.

Vanda stared at him with an empty gaze for a second, which he returned without any worry.

In the end, it was she who shed them away.

"Sigh… We need to retreat! The key was taken away already. There is nothing else of value," Vanda said gloomily.

"What?! Are you saying that all of this was meaningless effort?" Arun almost yelled in shock.

"Quiet, boy." Neddard looked at him with a cold gaze, which made Arun shut up.

"But he is right… If we don't have the key, then what now…" Mufa said with a gloomy glare.

"The foremost objective of this expedition was already done. The key is outside of the citadel, and we got rid of Aziro," Vanda said in a somber tone.

"Who was it? Who took the key?" Tami asked.

"The most probable were the guys that attacked me in the cave. One of them was the Smiling Devil, who kidnapped Caleb over a year ago, and the other was an unknown intruder. He was crushed by the cave collapse, but we don't know his condition. But they were the only ones who could enter since they activated the steles. They were also probably the ones pretending to be acolytes who killed Kaoran."

Vanda's eyes shone with ruthlessness when she spoke of them.

"But it is not like they have a way to escape. I don't know how they managed to get the key so quickly, but it will not be so easy for them. If they want the inheritance, they need to find us anyway since we have the other three keys already," Vanda said with a vicious expression.

"In the records of the Valas key's original owner, once all the keys were taken outside, they would slowly fuse together no matter the distance within ten years. Unless they have a way to stop it, then the key will automatically fall into our hands since we have the inheritance placed under our thumb. We can wait that long. Still, they will probably lurk around knowing this. So we will use that to take them down," Vanda said in a calm tone as she gestured to Tami.

Tami, who was nervous seeing Vanda like this, immediately took out the parchment that she had prepared a while ago and tore it apart.

The parchment combusted with blue fire as it turned into dust within a second. However, the dust didn't settle down as it normally would and instead took the form of a line leading somewhere behind the group.

The group immediately set off after the line leading into the darkness.

The ones who were a bit better with orientation immediately noticed that the line led them to exactly the same place they had come from.

They ran off just in time as the unbreakable walls started to shake, cracking apart while leaving everything behind…