The End of the Journey

The weather today was far from favorable. The cold wind howled and dark clouds blanketed the sky, casting a gloomy shade identical to the one that greeted Yeowood when he first stepped into the forest, as if a torrential downpour were about to unleash from above at any second.

After tidying up their gear, the five-player squad and the two Chief Mages of the Mage Association set off according to plan. With Freya leading the vanguard and Christine guarding the rear, Yeowood’s team walked in the middle. Although the formation was disciplined, it had practically lost its purpose—if yesterday’s reconnaissance was accurate, they would soon reach the base of that towering structure.

Before that, however, they wanted to examine the human skeletons.

According to Freya’s description last night, the remains lay not far in front of the tower, visible by following the path along the riverbank. She and her older sister had carefully surveyed the area yesterday before hearing the sounds of battle in the ruins and turning back without proceeding further. At the time, they had thought little of a few scattered bones, but after last night’s analysis, the presence of these remains had become exceptionally significant.

The riverbank had clearly been artificially constructed. Although blanketed in moss and sprouting weeds from the cracks, the cyan flagstones were still laid out neatly and orderly on both sides. The crystal-clear river water flowed quietly between them, making almost no sound—the terrain here had flattened out considerably, subduing the once-violent currents. Yet, the centuries-long erosion by the river had rendered the near-shore flagstones exceedingly smooth, requiring them to tread with caution.

Snow-Falling Illusion, cloaked in her black cape, walked at the front of the party. Perhaps because they were finally reaching the harvest season, she looked visibly excited, brimming with eagerness. Ah Niu, walking behind Yeowood, was yawning as if he hadn't slept well the night before. Dream Bamboo walked side by side with Yeowood, her fresh adolescent face currently tangled in a troubled expression.

Yeowood gave a wry smile. It seemed she was still racking her brain over last night's affair.

During yesterday's discussion, Yeowood had produced the emblem he discovered and asked Christine to "identify" it. The response, however, was somewhat unexpected—Christine, one of the Seven-Member Council of the Mage Association, the avatar of the water element, and the water mage known as "Fiery Ice," failed to recognize the origin of the bizarre badge.

"It's probably just the insignia of that ruined village back then," the generous-natured woman remarked, unbothered by her knowledge failing to solve the mystery. She waved her hand dismissively and rendered her conclusion.

Naturally, Yeowood was not about to let such a vague conclusion rest, yet he had no way to resolve the puzzle himself. Items in this game could not be looked up on the internet, and even the veteran "know-it-alls" on the major platform forums likely had no clue—after all, they were quite possibly the very first batch of players to ever reach this place.

Though they hadn't obtained a single piece of treasure... Fairy tales really were deceitful.

Moments later, though, the young girl gave Yeowood a surprise: after the emblem had been passed around for inspection, Dream Bamboo cupped it in her hands, scrutinized it with raised eyebrows for a long time, and then muttered under her breath that she felt she had seen the pattern somewhere before.

"Mmm..." The young girl wore the exact same expression then as she did now walking beside Yeowood, haltingly saying, "I should... have seen... this symbol somewhere before, but I just can't remember... ugh..."

After waiting for a long time without Dream Bamboo remembering anything, Yeowood comforted the girl for a bit and had to temporarily drop the subject that might have revealed the ruins' true origins. Later, the group resorted to wild guesses: Ah Niu guessed the emblem belonged to some gaming guild, while Breaking Mountain Peaks guessed it was the mark of an evil faction left behind after slaughtering a clan. Snow-Falling Illusion thought for a moment and chose a different angle to prompt the young girl: "Why don't you try thinking about where you saw it, what time it was, and whether it was something that happened recently?"

"I don't remember..." The young girl continued to reminisce, her nose scrunched up in distress.

"Things like this are funny; the harder you try to remember, the less you can recall. When you stop thinking about it, you might just remember all of a sudden," Yeowood said, shaking his head as he reached out to ruffle the girl's hair.

"Still, if that's the case, it means you truly saw it inadvertently—like an advertisement banner inserted while watching TV, a background visual in an anime, a necklace around someone's neck in real life, a metal buckle on a belt, a pattern on bed sheets, or toilet paper inside a bowl... Uh... why are you glaring at me..."

"Big Uncle, you're being so gross... And stop messing up my hair! I'm not a little kid anymore!" Dream Bamboo protested, shaking her head. This only prompted Yeowood to ruffle it even more forcefully, disheveling several more strands of the girl's hair and drawing another shriek from her.

Even so, Dream Bamboo remained deeply distressed over her inability to contribute to the party in this regard, leaving her lost in thought up until now. Yeowood attempted to tease her a bit more, but seeing that the intently pondering girl refused to take the bait, he decided to let her be.

Freya moved swiftly at the front, seemingly well-acquainted with the route. Recalling what Christine had said earlier, Yeowood suddenly thought to ask, "Lady Freya... have you ever explored this region before?"

The red mage robes swayed ahead, but the fiery woman's reply seemed to anticipate his question: "Previously, I separated from my older sister and pursued those Revisionists here, where they discovered me, and we had a fight."

"Revisionists?"

Realizing she might have blurted out something she shouldn't have, the woman in front paused briefly before resuming her pace: "You only need to know they are no good. As for the rest... it is best you do not know."

Tsk tsk, that didn't sound like good news... Scratching his head, Yeowood felt the stone in his chest grow a fraction heavier. He couldn't even tell whether the weight came from those unknown powerful enemies or from the towering structure standing ahead.

Turning another corner, the path ahead finally opened up wide. The swaying giant tree branches on either side could no longer obstruct the view, as the intersection widened by several meters. The gentle current extended forward before curving ahead. Anyone seeing this could confirm it was the end of the river, for blocking its advance was a towering ash-black wall.

The height of that wall was boundless to the eye.

If he guessed correctly, this was the terminus of their journey.

"Right there." Freya's flat voice echoed from not far ahead. Looking in that direction, the others indeed spotted a pile of white bones tucked into the corner beneath the trees beside the path.

***

"Our preliminary judgment at the time was that these humans must have been the original inhabitants here. It seems our guess was correct," the blue-robed mage also raised a finger, pointing toward the spot. "They likely experienced something akin to warfare during the final moments of this place and perished here."

With the exception of Dream Bamboo, who kept a wide berth due to her timidness, the rest of the squad crouched beside the remains, inspecting them closely amidst Christine's explanations.

"How do you know what they experienced during the final moments of their lives?" Snow-Falling Illusion asked first. "Lord Grand Mage truly possesses extraordinary abilities..."

"Silly girl, take a good look at these bones," Breaking Mountain Peaks replied, interrupting her query. "Look at this."

He picked up a bone—strictly speaking, half of one. "This bone should have been broken; look at the jagged edge... He couldn't have fallen like this himself." Tossing the bone back with a chuckle, he added, "And I refuse to believe anyone is foolish enough to snap their own forearm..."

"And this, the skull is completely shattered." This time it was Yeowood speaking, though he refrained from casually touching the items, merely pointing to a spot on the ground. "This condition is likely death from a heavy blow to the head. You can probably tell that just from the posture of this skeleton..."

Perhaps because the scene before them felt too heavy, the group briefly confirmed the state of the corpses before returning to the cyan stone path along the riverbank. Waiting there were Dream Bamboo, crouched on the ground, and the red-robed woman keeping her company.

Freya pointed ahead, signaling whether they wished to continue their reconnaissance. More skeletons carpeted the ground further along; some still retained the postures of their final living moments, but most had been battered beyond recognition by a millennia of wind and rain, scattered everywhere. No doubt several had tumbled into the river and been swept away to unknown destinations.

To die without a burial site—such was the definition of this plight, and on such a massive scale...

Maintaining respect for these long-lost souls, the group carefully skirted the remains and drew closer to the foot of the tower. As the young girl walked past, she pressed her palms together in prayer, bowing repeatedly while muttering incantations under her breath. This time, Yeowood refrained from teasing her superstition, walking in silence instead.

Following the river, the group finally reached the base of the tower. The water poured in from the side against the wall, then circled the tower once—a full hundred meters around—before flowing off to an unknown destination.

This was the lowest point of the terrain; it probably drained into some subterranean fissure...

Yeowood and his companions circled the area as well, only to find no normal method to cross this "miniature moat"—there wasn't even a bridge.

Even stranger, they could find no entrance.

Gazing at the bare ring of walls across the river, everyone was dumbfounded. Snow-Falling Illusion even gnashed her teeth in frustration: "What kind of design is this? Are they expecting us to climb up..."

"A tower this tall, and you expect us to climb it? Do you think we're all Archmages..." Breaking Mountain Peaks immediately chimed in with his objection.

"Maybe the entrance is higher up, or lower down..."

"Perhaps it's somewhere else. When we got here, did anyone notice other man-made structures nearby..."

Freya stood off to the side, watching them with her habitual expressionlessness. Christine walked over to the riverbank, gazing up at the lofty tower body as if trying to discern something from the heights. The two Grand Mages simply allowed the players to continue debating without the slightest intention of intervening.

"Then how do you propose we get in? Punch a hole through and crawl in?"

"Hah, don't think you can trick me. Putting aside whether there are weird magic traps here, if I punch it and the tower collapses, what then? This thing looks like anything but well-maintained..."

"You think you can collapse it? Quit joking around. Just how great do you think you are..."

"Alright, alright, stop bickering, guys." Yeowood, standing by the riverbank observing the calm water, interrupted the endless argument. "Come over here and take a look. I think I see..."

He pointed at the water. "The entrance is underground."

"Oh? Really?" The silence lasted merely a moment before Ah Niu hurried over excitedly. "Are we supposed to swim down? I'm good at that; I won a swimming championship back in school..."

"A swimming championship isn't a diving championship, dummy!" Dream Bamboo slapped the back of his head, then squatted down by the water next to Yeowood, peering in with her small head bobbing up and down. "Really? How come I can't see anything..."

"Now that you mention it, I think I see it too..." The melodious voice of the blue-robed mage drifted over. Turning toward her, they saw Christine lowering her gaze from the heights above. "I see... there is indeed a passage at the bottom of the water."

Did you really see it? Didn't you just spend the whole time looking up...

".......Are we really going to have to swim down?" Snow-Falling Illusion asked hesitatingly. Yeowood looked at her face and noticed a flickering in her eyes.

"What's wrong, missy? Sounds like you're lacking confidence! Can't you swim..." Breaking Mountain Peaks seized upon the timidity in her words, eager to mock her again, which instantly revived the stubborn woman. Her chest, concealed beneath her cape, puffed out proudly.

"Wh—who's scared? I was just considering... whether there might be any danger... during the process..."

"That won't be necessary."

The graceful and melodious voice had barely faded when a thunderous roaring of water suddenly erupted.

As the group scrambled backward, the sound of churning water filled everyone's ears. In the moat before them, they watched the calm water rise upward at the bidding of Christine’s fair hands, parting outward as her palms separated.

Countless glowing magic runes intertwined continuously along those delicate hands, flashing as they flowed across her wrists before disappearing into the blue sleeves behind her back. The multicolored radiance occasionally intensified, causing the walls of water lifted by the currents to rise several notches higher.

With the exception of Freya, the players present all stood with jaws dropped wide enough to swallow an egg, watching the sea-parting spectacle unfold before their eyes, their eyeballs practically popping out.

"So this is magic..." Yeowood was the first to snap out of it, then saw Christine looking back at them, her beautiful eyes emitting a deep azure glow.

"Alright, no need for awe." Her voice grew ethereal, as if she no longer belonged to the mortal realm. "Hurry inside, make haste."

"Uh... right," Yeowood replied, then grabbed his still-dazed teammates, sliding down the riverbank where the water had been drained—the ground there had even grown somewhat dry.

"Truly a master... Control over water on a level I've never seen in my life." Breaking Mountain Peaks was the first to land, patting the dry dirt slope beside him in awe.

"That's the strongest water mage in the Land of Freedom. You probably won't ever see a standard this high again," Snow-Falling Illusion said as she slid down, striding forward without looking back. "So since we have the right time, place, and people on our side, if we fail to seize this opportunity..." She advanced to the front, stepping through the opening formed by the parted waters. There indeed existed a doorway in the wall, complete with hinge marks, though the original door itself was long gone.

Yeowood was the last to jump down into the drained channel. On a whim, he glanced back.

Christine stood to one side with both hands raised, swaying them slightly as if orchestrating something. Noticing Yeowood's gaze, she looked back at him with azure eyes and offered a slight nod of acknowledgment. The red-robed figure behind her remained expressionless, yet Yeowood still managed to catch a glimmer of encouragement in her eyes.

She too offered a slight nod.

Yeowood's gaze continued past them. The stream, the riverbank, the cyan stone path, the towering trees on both sides, and the scattered skeletal remains resting on the ground not far away.

Now that he looked closer, those skeletons all seemed to be slumped in this direction... Regardless, they had indeed died here.

Were they villagers? Why had they gathered here? What on earth happened in this place?

Yeowood's mood matched the gloomy sky above—along this journey, unusual elements had only multiplied. Even this current scene felt like countless question marks drawn across the ground, deeply imprinted at the bottom of Yeowood's eyes.

Remembering something, he opened the map in his adventure notebook and checked the displayed name.

"The Emerald Tower."

With no further hesitation, Yeowood signaled the two Grand Mages, turned, and leaped downward, pressing onward into the tower.

The answers should be inside.