Chapter 317 Tomb Of Nephthys Part-3
With her extraordinary talent in sealing techniques, Excalibur was confident that she can unseal it in no time.
Meanwhile, Azzy was enquiring with the Reaper, "Is it really safe?"
More than the treasure, he was worried about the presence of the spirit trapped inside. If it isn\'t a demi-god, it wouldn\'t have mattered but he met his future self who easily severed the connection between him and the Reaper, back a while ago.
Even if it doesn\'t have a real body, the spirit can possess one of them and attack the others. Not to mention, he couldn\'t see through the tomb with his aura sensing. That\'s another thing to worry about.
So, Azzy was confirming with the Reaper so that he can stop Leah in time if it is really dangerous.
The Reaper stayed silent for a brief amount of time and replied, "I can\'t say that nothing unfortunate can happen but in every future that I see, the spirit appeared to be harmless, although you might have to prepare yourself mentally for what was about to happen."
*Ting*
As the seal was lifted, a crispy sound was heard from within the tomb before the slab that covered the tomb moved on its own and fell onto the floor, alerting the adults.
On the other hand, Leah was completely calm. Like Azzy, she too knew about the presence of the spirit. Excalibur informed her before.
Slowly, a translucent figure rose from the tomb. It was an old man dressed in traditional robes. His head was covered by a scarlet-colored muffin hat where an insignia of a golden dragon was printed on it.
"A ghostly spirit?" Izora and Cynthia summoned their Arcana immediately. A blue lightning dragon appeared behind Izora while Cynthia tightly gripped a saber.
"Woah, easy there, ladies. I\'m not a malevolent spirit. My will is still intact." The spirit looked as if he was taken aback by the reactions of Izora and Cynthia.
His eyes then fell on Azzy for a moment before shifting his attention to Leah and the sword in her hand, "you must be the one that released me. What is your name?"
"Leah Pendragon." She answered truthfully, despite knowing that it might displease the spirit for Camelot and Hildegard were known to be enemy kingdoms, due to the border issues.
"So, it\'s the descendant of Arthur Pendragon that inherited his Arcana, huh. No wonder you managed to free me." Contrary to her expectations, the spirit of the demigod nodded calmly and then stared at the sword for a while before he started speaking about himself, "I\'m Amerys, born as a prince of Hildegard kingdom and lived most of my life as the Royal Ancestor and Grand Tutor.
I have lived for 24544 years and survived through two Epochs. I have seen the kingdoms rise and then, fall. Several heavenly geniuses stamped their names in history as I quietly protected my homeland.
But, my descendants aren\'t that fortunate. For thousands of years, I hoped for a successor of the throne who was blessed by the heavens. But, I only witnessed the descendants of my brother rise to the throne and then die after a few centuries.
The old man then let out a sigh and continued in a depressing tone, "My hopes were kept crushed again and again. Eventually, I decided to leave the fate of the kingdom to the heavens and go to the land of immortals. After all, I have a lot of restrictions placed on me by the Mother Goddess due to the human population booming.
With great expectations, I ascended from this world. Unfortunately, I underestimated the cruelty of those gods.
On Gaia, demigods are super powerful beings where we can decide the fate of any kingdom with a snap of a finger but in the Celestial Empire, they treated us like slaves.
I was born as a child of heavens and naturally, a bit more powerful than other demigods of the same level. So, my status is more like a servant.
Even among the servants, my position is quite high. Serving a true god-like Poseidon is indeed an honor. Only later did I learn that such a position was granted to me because I was the master of the Shield of Gaia that contains the elemental Jewel, which I found accidentally in the mortal world of Arabor during one of my expeditions.
Little did I expect that it turned out to be a cosmic gem, which has a tremendous value than I imagined it to be…
And the next part of the story can be guessed. In just a century, trouble arrived in the name of Cilix, Poseidon\'s mortal grandson who was on the brink of breaking through to the God realm.
He coveted the Elemental Jewel, believing that it will help him in breakthrough. But, the cosmic gems are bound to their owners. They cannot be used by anyone else as long as the owner is still alive.
Prince Cilix tried to assassinate me and when I escaped, he sent equally powerful demigods to hunt me down. Naturally, I wasn\'t a match for them.
In the end, I had to sever a part of my soul to escape with the Elemental Jewel and returned to my home.
One of my descendants, Nephthys Hildegard had assisted me in sealing this remnant spirit of mine into my wife\'s tomb, following my orders."
"Slaves?" Azzy was taken aback by surprise. He didn\'t expect the so-called Heaven touted by everyone to be nothing but hell.
Meanwhile, Leah thought as she stared inside the tomb, "so, this wasn\'t his skeleton, huh! Ah, yes, that\'s right. The skeleton structure is a female one. It\'s obvious that it wasn\'t his. Putting that aside, I can understand waiting for some potential successor but it is damn weird to spend time with skeleton for like thousands of years even if it is his wife. Does he have an obsession over her mortal remains or something?"
"Throw away those useless thoughts, Leah." Excalibur\'s voice interrupted her thoughts. "Look over the shield beside the skeleton. You found a cosmic gem."
"Cosmic Gem?" Azzy was also informed the same by his Arcana. He couldn\'t see it from far but he trusts the Reaper. "Which one, Chronos?"
"It looks like the Jewel of Earth," The Reaper answered him, almost immediately. "First, it\'s the Life jewel, then, its water, and now, it\'s earth. You are indeed fated with the cosmic gems. No matter what, you have to acquire it. Send the three of those away with Chrono Rewind or just rewind the time to get it before they do. As for the spirit, the death scythe can take care of it."
"But, I don\'t have such right." Azzy frowned inwardly. He would be lying if he wasn\'t tempted to take it but there\'s such a thing as morality. "Chronos, she defeated the tomb keeper and it\'s her reward. How could snatch it away? Moreover, aren\'t you suggesting doing the same thing as this Cilix did to Amerys?"
"No, it is different. First of all, the Jewel of Earth doesn\'t belong to anyone. Everyone in the universe is eligible to possess it but killing is a sin. On the other hand, what I suggested to you isn\'t a sin. It\'s because you can liberate his spirit from suffering and let him go through the reincarnation cycle," replied the Reaper in a firm tone, trying to make him understand the seriousness of the situation.
However, Azzy was stubborn as a mule when it comes to upholding his principles. He said, "No, my grandpa taught me that one won\'t the value of the reward if they don\'t work hard for it."
"Exactly," The Reaper chimed in response.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Azzy frowned inwardly.
Just as the Reaper was about to explain, Azzy\'s attention was on the floating glossy black-colored knight\'s shield with an insignia of a dragon on top of it.
Amerys then spoke, "Princess Leah Pendragon, I would like to thank you for unsealing me but to acquire this shield, you have to go under a trial. I want to see whether you have the capability to use this to the fullest capability. Don\'t worry… even if you fail, I will still reward you with the knowledge transfer of a unique skill card for unsealing me."
Before Leah answered him, he shifted his attention to the others in the chamber, "the three of you are also welcome to challenge this trial but none of you will gain anything if you fail to clear the trial."