Saga of Atlantis

"There is nothing written in this book, Eden," Grace looked at me strangely as she replied.

"What?"

"The books... They are blank without any words."

As if things couldn’t get any stranger, this happened.

I looked towards Aeloria, who was back on her feet.

"You can’t see any words in the books, right?" I asked, ignoring the fresh marks of fingers on her neck.

"You can read the books or what?" She asked, frowning. "I thought you were pretending to read the books just to ignore me."

"What the hell is happening here?" I mumbled as I rubbed my eyebrow with my thumb.

The books that were placed here for an unknown purpose hold the knowledge of time affinity, and only I can read them.

Even if I tried to pretend that it had nothing to do with me, all the evidence was forcing me to think otherwise.

"Huff..."

I let out a deep breath as I placed the book in my hand back on the bookshelf.

Things are getting weirder than they already are.

First, the hidden wall.

Then the engraved pictures.

Then a fucking snake or dragon, whatever that was, came to talk.

And now these books that only I can read.

Come to think of it, it all happened because we entered the hidden chamber that opened because of Aeloria.

"What?" She took a step back as I glared at her. "I didn’t do anything."

"Whatever," I replied, ignoring the girl as I looked at the books.

’They will be useful later.’

With that thought in mind, I picked up the entire shelf and threw it into the inventory.

"Hey! What was that?" Aeloria asked curiously as she came closer towards me.

’Ahh, right, the inventory,’ I thought as I understood her curiosity.

I have rarely used inventory in front of other people, and aside from those whom I trust, I didn’t use it in the presence of others.

I didn’t have any problem showing it to Grace, and as for Aeloria, well, I had my ways to keep her quiet.

"Space ring," I lied through my teeth as I replied.

"Don’t lie, space rings don’t work like that; you clearly opened a portal," she pointed out as she came closer, invading my personal space.

Did she forget I choked her just a few minutes ago?

’Yeah right, she did say she was into that type of thing.’

As I remembered her words, my curious gaze met hers.

’Is she a masochist?’

I shivered slightly as I thought about it.

"Don’t worry about it, we have better things to do," taking a step back away from her, I replied, "We have to take the remaining treasure as well."

"We can divide the treasure when we are out of here. As of now, I will be keeping all of them. If you have any problem with it, say it now," I declared, moving towards the first pile of gold as I used the inventory to suck the gold in.

"I don’t have any problem," Grace replied, curiously arriving beside me.

"Wait, isn’t this treason?" Aeloria, the only one with some semblance of normal brain function, reminded us.

Well, as all the treasure was found inside the property of the royal family, it technically belonged to them.

So, us taking it as our private property could be considered treasonous.

"Grace," I called her as I moved to another pile.

"Yes, Eden?" She replied, following me.

"Do you want to give this treasure to the royal family?" I asked directly.

"No," she replied immediately, and given her level of dislike towards them, it was an expected answer.

"Is that so?" I replied with a smile.

"Oye, Aeloria, she said she doesn’t want to give this to the royal family," I said, looking at Aeloria.

"And what difference does that make?" She asked, confused by my words.

"It does two wants them for them self and one doesn’t, majority wins."

"But...."

"and if you want to show loyalty towards the kingdom, go ahead, we can divide this among ourselves," I replied firmly, interrupting her.

"Eden, the kingdom can sustain itself for at least ten years with this much treasure," Aeloria replied, trying to make me feel guilty.

But, too bad for her, I already wanted to see them in ruins.

"Your answer, Aeloria. I need your answers."

After a few seconds of hesitation, she also made up her mind.

"We just have to make sure they don’t find any proof," she replied, biting her lower lip slightly.

’At least she isn’t an idiot,’ I thought with a smile as I continued to suck the treasures into the inventory.

.....

.....

.....

"Now what?" I mumbled, looking around.

After collecting all the treasure that was present inside the hall-like chamber, we stood at the center of the hall.

But here’s the problem: we don’t know how to get to the next place.

Before, we could get clues from the place, but right now, there was nothing here that gave a hint about what to do.

"Maybe this is the end of the labyrinth," Aeloria suggested, looking around.

"No, it’s not," I immediately replied, knowing that this couldn’t be the end of the labyrinth.

The labyrinth ends when we find the place where the snake, or the dragon, or whatever that thing was is.

For fuck’s sake, I don’t even know what that thing is, and I’m moving towards its lair.

’Am I an idiot?’

[Yes.]

’Nobody asked you, Edda! And don’t jump in my thoughts.’

"Sigh..." I let out another sigh as I looked around the place again.

"Stop looking around, Eden, there is nothing noteworthy," Grace said, looking at me.

"Maybe we are missing something," Aeloria added.

"Like what?"

"I don’t know, Maybe there is some hidden mechanism that we can’t see."

"Something we can’t see with normal eyes?" Grace asked, frowning.

’Wait, normal eyes?’ As if something clicked in my mind, I immediately used [Star Sense], thoroughly checking the hall.

And sure enough, I found something interesting.

Opening my eyes, I looked down; the normal floor in my vision looked like an array of runes.

Crouching down, I placed my hand on the floor and let out a small amount of mana.

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"Huh?"

With two clicking sounds, the ground below us opened up, and without giving us time to prepare, it swallowed us inside.

""Ahh, fuck!"

A curse left my mouth as I found myself in darkness, falling down.

"Grace! Aeloria!"

I looked around and, finding Grace and Aeloria beside me, I jerked Grace towards myself, embracing her and keeping my back towards the falling side. With my other hand, I held Aeloria’s hand.

_Sploosh!_

But just as I was about to use my phoenix wings, with a sudden jolt, we crashed into the surface below, plunging into the depths of a murky lake that enveloped us in its embrace.

As we struggled to regain our bearings, I quickly realized that this was no ordinary body of water.

The liquid surrounding us was thick and viscous, make clinging to our skin like a suffocating suit.

With each movement, it seemed to resist our efforts to break free, dragging us deeper into its depths.

’Fuck!’

Suppressing the panic rising within me, I tried to move up.

I looked towards Grace in my embrace with my groggy eyes, and her expression said it all – her lungs burning for air as she struggled to reach the surface with me.

I looked towards Aeloria, and she was already on the verge of losing consciousness.

I looked towards Grace again as I felt some movement from her.

She was pushing me aside, trying to break free from my embrace.

As if it wasn’t enough for her, she tried to push me upwards towards the surface.

But because of all this, she herself was sinking deeper into the liquid.

’Why are you doing this?’

Ignoring Grace’s struggle, I brought her closer towards me, placing her head on my chest while I grabbed the already unconscious Aeloria.

Closing my eyes, I used [Star Sense], and finding a spot with land, I immediately connected with the space node with a thin layer of Star energy.

{Space Wrap}

The space around me twisted, and with that, all three of us found ourselves on the ground.

"Cough....cough..."

"Cough....cough..."

All three of us gasped for air while coughing violently.

I checked Aeloria first because she was unconscious already.

Thankfully, she was still breathing.

"E-Eden, what was—" Grace’s voice halted in the middle as she tried to ask me something while looking around.

And even I had a solemn look while surveying the area.

The place we were thrown into was like a heaven.

With a lake in the middle that had blue liquid emitting sparkling light, brightening the whole cave.

This place should have looked like heaven if not for the thousands of feet-long body of a snake-like creature, whose end we couldn’t see, bound with chains right beside us.