149 An impossible task (1/2)
Like the openings on the flanks of that lone mountain, the entrances of the underground kingdom of the dwarves were carved inside the very stone. If one was not too attentive or did not know that something was hidden nearby, he could easily walk right next to it without seeing it. Of course, that was just the first line of protection, as she could glance at a familiar iron door at the other end of the tunnel that the traveling dwarves were taking.
Coupled with the extremely small size of that tunnel, not a lot of creatures could freely enter it, especially when not even two dwarves could walk next to each other. Pondering about the ceiling that was very close to the top of her head, something extremely rare and worthy to be noticed, she could easily imagine Ymir not even being able to prone inside it. Even Davion would have a hard time and could definitely not wear any armor whatsoever if he ever wanted to cross the small tunnel.
Hearing the knocks on the gate, she could also pick up the discussion between the guards behind it and the newcomers. Recognizing the tone that Master Agnil often used and even some sounds, she was still not able to truly understand what they were saying. Nobody that had his soul captured by her learned the language of the dwarves. Approaching the last dwarf in the line, she put her hand on his head and began to extract what he knew.
Fortunately, the entire operation of opening the gate took a while, allowing her to do as she wished without any problem. As for the neighbors of the unfortunate traveler, well, all they could see was the former perfectly fine. She wouldn't be as stupid as doing this in the dark without making sure she couldn't be seen. A few seconds before the group began to resume their journey, she released the now muddled dwarf, that couldn't help but shiver. For some unknown reasons, he felt violated. Like something entered his soul unpunished.
The reactions from his body were quite extreme, as he stumbled forward and fell head-on. Hearing the loud noise of a body hitting the ground, everyone turned around to see the now extremely pale dwarf. A bit of saliva could be spotted on the corner of his mouth, leaking on his beard as well. Seeing the agitation, Leilade couldn't help but feel a bit perplexed. He was still alive and she had barely touched him. At least, that was what she thought. The definition of barely touched between her and the dwarves was probably extremely different.
Patiently waiting for everyone to leave, she erased all traces of her presence as numerous armored warriors inspected fully the tunnel. Opening the hidden entrance and also checking the surroundings, if she could now understand their words, she could also notice their disbelief after they found nothing. Turning off the light in the small passage once more as the stone wall was closed, every soldier returned behind the iron gate. Letting Leilade count in her head the seconds until she felt it was time.
Creating a skeleton just to knock on the iron gate, she could see it being disintegrated instantly after touching it. Not feeling any emotion as she expected such a thing to happen, this time, she cut a part of one tentacle that was slowly moving around her. Watching the darkness that fell to the ground and created a small pond, she shaped it to create something, not in her domain of expertise. Using the rocks that were everywhere around her, she picked up the most durable ones to form a very small golem.
Ordering the stone halfling around, since it was really a small golem due to the fact she couldn't make it any bigger with the size of the tunnel, her summon this time managed to accomplish its task. However, the hand that was in contact with the iron gate was filled with fissures. ”What happened again? The smoke is still green so why did they send another group.”
The other party mistook her as a group of dwarves, but that was quite expected. After all, she was inside a tunnel that was hidden and came after a group of dwarves. Knowing that she couldn't take advantage of that misunderstanding since her goal was far more peaceful than usual, she did not hide her young infantile voice. ”I seek permission to enter the Iron Kingdom.”
For a few seconds, the grumpy dwarf on the other side stayed completely silent. He clearly did not expect a visitor here, and she could easily hear that they were discussing her condition. It was not really audible, so without using magic, she could only sense the debate was beginning to become heated. Especially after she heard their questions.
”What are you? What is this? What do you want from us?” A bit perplexed by the fact that the other party seemed a bit scared, she looked everywhere. Without knowing her current form, it wouldn't make any sense. Right after thinking this, she managed to catch the same glass she saw back on that faraway mountain. Floating toward it, she heard the panicked state of those behind the gate. ”Hey, HEY! Don't touch it, it is extremely frail.”
The principle of a wall or even a gate was to prevent something from bypassing it. So, creating a small hole in it just to see the other side would be weakening the entire defense. She just did not expect them to have mastered the principle of using multiple mirrors to see from improbable angles. Even if it was still a hole reaching the other side, only something tiny, smaller than even her hand, could use it. Also, it would need to break the many mirrors, allowing the dwarves to react and probably fill up the hole.
”I want to ask you a question related to the Age of Darkness. Something only your people could know.”
”Well, that's easy, ask me and be gone.” Chuckling a bit, she knew he wouldn't know. And if they did not let her enter properly their kingdom, she would have no choice but to confirm her suspicions. ”Did you woke up a giant sleeping deep inside the ground thousands of years ago? He would be, 50 meters tall, probably.”
”Never heard of it. Now go.” The stern answer was in her expectations since that information would be guarded tightly. But all she learned all pointed to a location inside their kingdom, from where a roar so loud first originated. Therefore, if the Saksa was not bothered by what she did or the past war between the Heroes and the Dark Gods, that meant it was something else. Like the dwarves provoking something, something they shouldn't have found.