237 Traps. (1/2)

”Go and notify Sir Rufus,” the Empress ordered as she motioned with her hands for them to leave. The royal guards didn't waste a moment and quickly stood up to leave the throne room.

Only after the guards had left did the Empress wave her hand and a fist-sized crystal appeared before her.

The crystal shone with bright blue light and dens Mana surrounded it. It was the crystal used to control the defensive formations.

Just when she was about to pour Mana into it, a sudden voice came from behind the throne.

”His Majesty should already be returning, your grace. Are you sure we should waste so many resources on formations?” The person who spoke still did not show his figure and hid in the shadows.

The Empress paused at his words. She didn't look behind and seemingly knew who the voice belonged to.

”Earlier it was the formation which activated all the defenses, but we found nothing. Now there is such a thing going on in the Palace after I disabled them. It is too much for it to be a coincidence...” She shook her head sideways and continued,

”We couldn't find the intruder for hours, do you think we will be able to now? Activating the defenses would cost us, but it is better to be safe than sorry.”

After explaining, the Empress turned her head and stared in the shadows and sarcastically asked, ”Or do you have a suggestion, Mr shadow? Didn't you also check everywhere in the estate before and found no one?”

In face of her question, no answer came from the shadow and the Empress nodded her head before turning her focus back to the crystal.

. . .

Meanwhile, Ozul had found something in that hidden corridor. One corner of the wall felt hollow from the other, but when he pushed it, nothing much happened.

'A hidden door... The way to open this should be somewhere here,' Ozul began to push all over the wall.

*Clunk!*

With some mechanical sound, the spot of the wall where he had felt hollow on the other side started to slowly slide down. It turned out that he had to push a particular spot near that spot.

”There it is...” Ozul muttered. If there was a secret passage here, there were high chances that his arm could be there, given that Emperor Luthien hadn't taken it with him.

Before Ozul were stairs leading downwards. From where he stood, he couldn't see the end of them. He was just about to go down when Jinx beat him to it.

Having no other choice, Ozul again had to follow her down.

There was already barely any light in the corridor, so with each step that he took, it became darker. Though it wasn't a problem for him since darkness never hindered Ozul. Instead, he felt way better.

Just as he was starting to wonder if it was also some kind of trap, Jinx stopped.

Ozul also stopped and since he didn't see anything in sight, he tried to sense if there was anything out of the ordinary. This time again, he sensed nothing on the side of the wall, so he began to push everywhere until a small part slid back.

Just like before, another narrow passage opened, but the exit was right there in front of him this time.

'Hmm? So bright...'

The end of the passage shone with blinding light.

Ozul narrowed his eyes and moved forward. Though just as he did, he had to forcibly open his eyes wide because of the sudden pressure of Mana that suddenly swept everywhere around him.

*Gzz...*

He didn't know if it was because he was too deep underground, but the sound was a little muffled. Still, he knew what had happened.

”So they finally find out,” he muttered as he looked behind him. Even though there was nothing when he had just passed through that narrow tunnel, now he felt a threadlike beam of Mana connecting both sides.

Ozul figured that this thin line of Mana probably acted as the 'thread' to activate the 'trap' which in this case, might have been some deadly attack from the formation.

He was already anticipating it but didn't know that the defensive formations would be spread throughout the Palace like this.

Ignoring the fact that he should have tried to be a little more discreet because now he might have to take care of tens of such traps, Ozul turned around to look at the place he had entered.

It was a spacious room, again decorated with luxurious ornaments, but the room wasn't as sparkly as the halls of the Palace. Though the reason might be because of all the wooden bookshelves that were neatly arranged everywhere.

In them, Ozul saw hundreds of books, each probably containing some information that Emperor Luthien didn't want others to know.

What Ozul was more interested in was the fact that he sensed tremendous Mana from the opposite side of the room!

He ignored the giant bookshelves and directly made his way towards the source. This time, Jinx only followed behind him.

When he reached the end of the giant room, in front of him was a massive wooden table.

The table didn't have anything out of the ordinary, but the box of mirror placed on top of it certainly looked something special.