Chapter 48 Part4 (2/2)
”Arema Steelworker. He truly was looking down on the Underground Empire. It frustrates me that we never even knew about this. We were playing in the palm of his hand...”
Dana and Seira were in sync as if they'd made arrangements beforehand. The more p.i.s.sed they were, the more aggressively they would fight. Lee s.h.i.+n Woo nodded his head in satisfaction and said.
”In any case, that's why, at the time, I hadn't used the line to go to the capital. But now's different. I thought there'd be a facility that controlled access to the line inside... Hoo. It was really here.”
”You thought this far ahead? Ah, as expected of a hero hand-picked by G.o.d...”
Dana looked at Lee s.h.i.+n Woo as if she were a love struck girl. In response, Seira looked at Dana with a sullen expression and said.
”I wanted to say this before, but there are a lot more heroes picked by G.o.d than just Lee s.h.i.+n Woo, Dana.”
”But what were you all doing while the Hero was doing all this?”
”Ugh. We were... We were also...”
”I know! Popcorn! This is where we eat popcorn, right?”
”Prince, you're really...”
While they were noisily chatting in the background, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo carefully looked at the device. Without the Steelworker seal, he couldn't even approach it; it was set up that way. What's worse, it couldn't be controlled without Arema Steelworker's seal.
'But that won't stop me anymore.'
Lee s.h.i.+n Woo was level 8 and he had the Wild Card skill now. Even if he didn't absorb Arema Steelworker, he was skilled enough to create the right seal, so long as he knew how the device's locking mechanism worked!
Honestly, he could make it even easier and just use his s.h.i.+ning Flame to erase the lock's cause-and-effect or his Dark flame to steal owners.h.i.+p of the device. He could also use his Dark Shadow to reverse its locked state and open it and had several other methods available to him as well, but he decided to just make the seal.
”Alright. It really is open.”
”We can go to the capital!? Directly!?”
”If that's the case, then... Then, now that the capital's defense mechanisms are gone, then we can just take this train and...”
”Yep. We can just ignore their monsters and attack their life points directly.” [1]
Of course, he didn't mean that they would go right away. He still had lots he needed to prepare. But now he had a reliable way of traveling to the capital whenever he wanted.
”The final battle... truly is near.”
”It's not going to be the final battle. Since some of the undead curse has spread to the surface already. Moreover, the Magic Emperor's no joke, so we can only relax and live in peace once he's out of the picture.”
”The undead curse is affecting the surface...”
Dana, who was quietly listening to him, scowled. Lee s.h.i.+n Woo glanced at her, and once he noticed his gaze, she lightly sighed and said.
”I'm not sure if you know this or not, but killing my father... Killing the Emperor won't completely eliminate the curse.”
”Huh? What do you mean... Ah, are you talking about that source or what not?”
”Yes, exactly.”
Seira had told him about it before. The reason they were able to mine Evil Eye was because the source of darkness, which had revived the Empire, had been close by.
The ore that had been affected by said darkness was already so powerful, so how insanely powerful would the source itself be? It was scary just thinking about it.
”Why didn't they equip that to the cannon and fire it? They would've been able to break through the barrier that way, right?”
”But that would've destroyed both the underground and the surface. That's just how powerful the source is. And the Emperor already used that to create the undead curse.”
”Thanks for explaining it in a way that I could understand right away.”
”It was truly foolish. He didn't even think about the consequences and just went ahead with it. He used the source of darkness as the base of the undead curse, so the curse itself doesn't weaken. Once the Emperor is killed, something must be done about the source for the curse to fade away.”
”...Hmm.”
Lee s.h.i.+n Woo felt like he'd be able to do something about the source of darkness with his abilities. But he was concerned about something: what if the Emperor decided to use the source against him?
He wouldn't do that unless he was crazy, but he was already crazy, so there was still a chance he'd use it!
”Is that source or whatever always next to the Emperor?”
”Processing it is possible, but it's difficult to move it, even for the Emperor himself. It's probably exactly where I remember it.”
”...I see. Well, I guess it'll just work out.”
He would first get the Emperor and the Lich away from the source. He would kill the Emperor after taking care of the source. Since he had Seira and Dana on his side, both of which had detailed information on the capital, it shouldn't be too difficult.
”But the question's how we take care of the two Liches.”
”Let's first think about where their life vessels may be hidden within the capital.”
”No need...”
The party debated over the final battle, but then, the door opened and a small ice magician entered. Her hands were full of blueprints, which looked pretty cute.
”Since I found out a way to improve the Huginn's Eye.”
Kratia declared confidently. Huginn's Eye? That level 8 artifact that they used to sense golems or the undead? He briefly tilted his head, but his eyes soon widened.
When the culmination of the surface's magic engineering met with another world's magic, the story (the day before the final battle) would truly commence...!
[1] T/N: Yu-Gi-Oh! or possibly some other TCG reference.
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