Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 699 - Chapter 699 Chapter 696 The Suspicious Mausoleum

Chapter 699: Chapter 696: The Suspicious Mausoleum Chapter 699: Chapter 696: The Suspicious Mausoleum As the low rumbling sound arose, Duncan immediately shifted his attention to the open space in the center of the square–

He saw that the mottled and antiquated stone slabs suddenly began to undulate like quicksand, and some gigantic structure slowly surfaced from deep underground. The first thing to appear within view was a grey-white spire, and moments later, an ancient tomb with the merged grandeur of a massive pyramid and palace gradually came into his sight.

Solemn and austere, silent and unadorned, the “tomb” built of some grey-white megaliths just stood quietly not far away, as if it were a frozen moment in time, reflecting in this dim chaos. Duncan watched in amazement as this massive building rose from the ground, and driven by curiosity, he carefully examined its style and structure, only to find that it did not quite match any architectural styles of the modern City-State era he was familiar with.

It seemed more reminiscent of something he had occasionally seen in old tomes, architecture from the era of the Cretan Kingdom.

The saintly spirit projections scattered around the square also quieted down, as countless gazes involuntarily fell upon the great pyramid tomb. A solemn air tinged with a touch of tension permeated the gathering place, bringing about a silence that endured.

Several minutes later, as Fenna and Morris began to furrow their brows in confusion, wondering if something had gone wrong, some movement finally came from deep within the tomb, and the seemingly exceedingly heavy stone door began to open slowly with a deep, thunderous rumble.

The doorway gaped wide, revealing its dark interior corridor.

Gathered around the square, the spirit projections watched the doorway, a deathly silence lingered for a long while, eventually giving way to slight commotion and a buzzing discussion.

Listening to the low discussions coming from all around, Duncan realized that something seemed amiss. He frowned and asked Fenna in a low voice, “What’s the problem?”

“…The Tomb Guardian hasn’t appeared,” Fenna kept her voice low as well, apparently also feeling a hint of unease amidst her confusion, “Under normal circumstances, the Tomb Guardian should have emerged from the doorway by now!”

Duncan’s expression gradually grew serious.

As time passed, the mysterious and rustic tomb still stood silently at the center of the gathering, but the Tomb Guardian who should have been present was still nowhere to be seen before the crowd–the low murmurs on the square were slowly spreading, and this unusual situation even led many to momentarily forget about “Captain Duncan,” who was present at the gathering today.

And some, on the other hand, subconsciously turned their gaze towards Duncan.

Duncan paid no mind to those looking at him but went straight to Helena.

“It seems this is unprecedented for you,” he got straight to the point, “Do you have any plan of action for what comes next? If not, I’ll need to inspect this so-called ‘tomb.'”

“Just wait,” Helena immediately said, and after a moment of thought, turned her head towards Rune and the others, “…Let’s go over and see what the situation is.”

“Alright,” Rune nodded and then, lifting his gaze, issued an order to the spirit projections assembled in the gathering area, “Everyone else stay put in the square, do not approach anomaly 004.”

Having said this, he turned around and, along with Helena, Banster, and Frem, slowly walked toward the solemn tomb nearby.

Duncan thought for a moment and followed suit–Rune, hearing the footsteps behind him, turned back for a glance, and Duncan casually said, “I’m just going to have a look too, don’t worry, I won’t start a fire.”

Rune’s expression became a bit peculiar for a moment, probably recalling the great fire in Silantis’s last moments, while Helena, after hesitating a bit, turned her gaze to Fenna and, after a moment’s hesitation, nodded gently, “Fenna, come with us.”

“Me?” Fenna paused, but quickly caught on and hurried to follow.

Morris, along with the others, stayed in a “safe area” some distance from the tomb, watching with slight nervousness as the figures slowly approached anomaly 004.

Duncan followed behind Helena and the others, coming to the base of the imposing grey-white pyramid, to the silent open doorway.

The deep and dim corridor stretched far beyond the door, with murky lighting only faintly outlining the contours of the corridor’s depths. Inside the tomb appeared to be a space far vaster and more profound than it seemed from the exterior, the corridor seemingly endless, disappearing beyond the field of view.

Frem bent down beside the doorway, apparently examining something closely, while Rune pressed his hand on certain spots of the tomb’s external wall. Near where Rune’s palm touched, faint, rune-like glows emerged from the air, flashing across the half-space and disappearing.

Helena and Banster seemed to be silently praying, or perhaps on guard against something.

Duncan looked at the scene with some curiosity and couldn’t help asking, “What are you doing?”

“In the ancient times, this ‘Tomb of the Nameless King’ had a period of uncontrolled history. Back then, it summoned chosen individuals at random worldwide, causing many terrible incidents. Later, the Divine Churches of the Four united in action and clamped this runaway ancient ‘anomaly’ with a layer of fetters,” Rune explained casually while checking the hidden runes around the tomb, “These contracts witnessed by the Four set rules for the originally chaotic ‘summoning’ behavior of Anomaly 004, which led to the current system of rapid bells and assemblies…”

Duncan raised an eyebrow, “Sounds like some sort of containment measure?”

“It’s just limited ‘use’,” Rune shook his head, “Anomalies cannot be contained, but by grasping their patterns, we can minimize their harm and even turn them to our advantage–Today’s Anomaly 004 continues to operate just like before, only we’ve found ways to gather intelligence from it without getting killed…”

Anomalies cannot be contained…

Listening to Rune’s offhand comment, Duncan’s expression turned somewhat odd.

He thought of the Homeloss–strictly speaking, the Homeloss was currently in a state of containment, and he, “Captain Duncan,” was the condition for the Homeloss’s containment.

But this exception also happened to meet the ‘Rule Zero’ of the anomalies and aberrations…

Duncan shook his head, casting aside these irrelevant thoughts that had surfaced in his mind for the moment, and at the same time, he heard Frem’s grave voice breaking the silence, “It seems there’s no problem.”

“Yes, everything looks normal,” Rune also finished his preliminary inspection, and the elderly elf stood up, stepped back two paces, and looked up at the majestic pyramidal tomb in front of him with a rather solemn expression, “At least… on the outside.”

“Everything’s normal on the outside–so the problem can only be on the inside,” Duncan said softly, and then stepped forward again to the tomb’s main entrance, gazing into the seemingly endless dark corridor inside, “What’s the plan now?”

Frem came over, and under Duncan’s curious gaze, the silent and tall Senkin Pope raised the staff in his hand and tapped it lightly but firmly on the ground three times.

The next second, a blurry shadow suddenly split apart from beside him, and in a blink, it solidified and formed into another Frem.

“This is my historical avatar from an hour ago.” Frem turned his head and explained casually to Duncan, and as soon as his words ended, the “historical avatar from an hour ago” had already stepped forward resolutely, crossing the threshold of Anomaly 004 under everyone’s watchful eyes.

The tall figure walked forward into the dimness, and Fenna came beside Duncan, looking nervously as it gradually reached the depths of the corridor, and then, she saw the figure suddenly stop at a certain point.

“Why has it stopped moving?” Duncan turned his head and asked with some confusion.

Frem, however, also furrowed his brows, apparently even he, the “summoner,” didn’t know why his own historical avatar had suddenly stopped in place. He looked doubtfully at the sight deep in the doorway of Anomaly 004, tracing a few runes in the air, as if trying to reestablish contact with his avatar. But at that moment, a great unease suddenly surged into his mind!

Almost simultaneously, the historical avatar that remained in the dim depths of the corridor trembled slightly, as if slowly turning its head.

Frem, standing outside the door of Anomaly 004, instantly paled, raising his Pope’s staff abruptly and issuing a warning while canceling the summoning, “Careful, contamination!”

The next second, he cut off the summoning cleanly and commanded the historical avatar to disintegrate. Yet, the tip of the staff in his hand only flashed with a fleeting dim glow, the tall avatar standing in the corridor of Anomaly 004 did not dissipate at all, but instead, after a slight tremor, continued to turn its head around–

Like a macabre corpse, the tall and pale figure moved its head, and the gradually turning face in the shadows displayed a frightfully distorted countenance and a chilling smile that sent shivers down the spine. In the murky interplay of light and shadow, that torn smile bloomed like the manic laughter of a madman in the dark, while mutterings, murmurs, and strange howls suddenly appeared in almost everyone’s ears!

The horrifying and eerie scene was enough to send shivers down one’s spine, and Banster and the rest quickly reacted, immediately preparing to cope with the contamination, to do battle with a formidable foe–though only a historical avatar had entered the tomb, it was still the avatar of the Pope of the Flame Transmitter, and the force that could corrupt it instantaneously had to be extraordinary!

However, just then, a large figure suddenly stepped forward, stepping in front of the doorway before the slowly turning “historical avatar.”

Duncan was surrounded by layers of illusory flames, and as the Spiritual Fire crackled upwards, a wall of eerie green flames almost blocked the entire doorway–he stood amid the flames, watching the motionless figure in the distance that had already been contaminated by some force.

“Why isn’t it turning anymore?”