The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 274 The cold and strange realm
The moment his palm touched the meteorite, Eric felt as if his consciousness had separated from his body and been drawn away before he could.

It was as if his body had been abandoned. He lost his sense of his own body, yet he could perceive an energy filling or lifting his body like an inflating balloon. At the same time, his consciousness entered a state of high-speed movement, giving him a sense of detachment, like the feeling of waking from a long dream.

This feeling of separation between body and soul lasted for quite a while, so much so that when the teleportation ended, he had arrived in another distant place without even realizing it.

The moment this state ended, Eric immediately felt an intense chill envelop him.

He opened his eyes abruptly, but was still shrouded in darkness.

Is he still not awake? Or is there something wrong with his eyes?
or……

Eric raised his hand and cast a personal illumination spell, instantly brightening his vision to the point of being almost blinding.

He exhaled, and a thick white fog that seemed within reach rose in front of him.

"What is this place……"

Eric raised his hand to let the light shine further and realized that he seemed to be inside a building.

There was a passageway beneath your feet, and completely enclosed stone walls on either side and above your head.

There were some reliefs carved on the stone walls on both sides. He leaned over, glanced at them but didn't understand them, so he ignored them for the time being. He immediately realized another problem.

Where are Natalia and Rusdy?
Natalia was in front, and Rusdy was behind; the three teleported at most a few seconds apart.

Is it random teleportation...?

And what exactly is this place?
Eric spun around in place, then fired an illumination ball forward, instantly lighting up the area ahead. It was a fairly long corridor, with little change for at least thirty or forty meters ahead.

He turned around and launched an illumination ball behind him, finding that the space became more open about ten meters away, so he walked in that direction.

"It's so cold..."

After walking a few steps, Eric's strongest feeling was still the extreme cold.

Winters in Lesser aren't this cold, are they? Could he have been teleported to some place further north on the continent?

But Castelfel is already quite far south, could that meteorite really send people that far?
Eric guessed as he walked forward, and soon exited the passageway. The space on both sides suddenly opened up, but the height remained the same.

Could a building of this size be located in some underground palace?
Eric continued forward and soon reached the end, where he saw a tightly sealed stone door, which appeared to be the entrance to this underground structure.

He stepped forward and pushed it, but it didn't budge.

"Which instance has this teleported me to...?"

Eric took a deep breath, his teeth chattering from the cold.

I slapped the door a few times, but apart from the sound of slapping, I could barely make a sound.

He searched both sides of the stone gate but found no mechanism.

Eric circled the wall and returned to the entrance of the passage he had just come out of. Helpless, he could only continue along the passage to see if he could find another exit.

“Natalia…”

He began to believe that this was indeed a random teleportation; otherwise, he should have seen her and Rusdy long ago, given how much time had passed.

It's unclear whether it's a large-scale random event or a random event within a fixed location—the latter is more in line with his understanding in "The Crown of Thorns".

Eric walked forward for a moment, almost back to where he was before, then walked quite a distance further before launching a charged illuminator. It shone brighter and flew farther, and he saw what appeared to be another intersection a few dozen meters ahead.

He walked in that direction, and after a few steps, he seemed to hear a very faint sound.

“...Ric...Eric…”

The sound was distorted due to its distance, but he immediately recognized it: it was Natalia's voice!

"Natalia!"

Eric breathed a sigh of relief and immediately responded loudly. His voice was much louder than hers, and he could hear her voice, so she must be able to hear him from her position as well.

"Natalia! I'm here!"

Eric shouted twice and ran forward, but behind him was a dead end—an unopenable door was no different from a dead end, so Natalia could only go ahead.

After running forward for several dozen meters, before even reaching the corner, Natalia ran out from the other side.

They ran towards each other and then embraced tightly.

"Eric...we actually escaped..."

Natalia's voice trembled; the overwhelming joy of surviving a near-death experience and being reunited with him overwhelmed all other emotions. All she wanted to do now was hold him tight.

Eric hugged her tightly for a while, wishing he could meld her into his body, until Natalia couldn't help but cry out in pain, and only then did he let go.

"Sorry...we survived."

The two looked at each other, relieved but unsure what to say.

Soon, Natalia started shivering from the cold again. "We were teleported here by that meteorite?"

“That’s right.” Eric nodded.

“That’s amazing… I thought teleportation was just something that existed only in legends and records. So where are we now? It’s so cold here, we should no longer be near the Star Origin Academy?” Natalia asked again.

“I don’t know either.” Eric shook his head, then thought of another question, “Did you hear Rusdy’s voice?”

"No."

Natalia exhaled a breath of cold air. "After touching that meteorite, I was in a daze for a while. When I opened my eyes again, I was here. It was pitch black and freezing cold. I didn't know where to go... I walked along the wall for a long time, and then I suddenly saw a ball of light flying past. I guessed that was your illumination spell, so I quickly called out to you."

Eric looked in the direction she had come from. "This must be some kind of random teleportation, sending us to a random location in this underground palace... Luckily we're not far away, but I wonder where Rusdy has been teleported to."

Natalia nodded, trembling. "Then let's go find him and leave here... Which way should we go?"

Eric explained the situation on the other side to her, "He's definitely not over there. Go check the way you came from. Whether there's an exit or not, find Rusdy first."

"it is good……"

After walking a few steps, Natalia suddenly asked, "Could those demons have also been teleported here with Rusdy?"

Eric paused, then shook his head. "This is my first time experiencing teleportation too. I don't know anything about it."

Natalia didn't say much, her body still trembling, "It's so cold here..."

Eric shared the same sentiment, saying, "I suspect we've been transported to the northern part of the continent."

Natalia exhaled and casually remarked, "I've never felt this cold before, even when I was at the Black Ice Wall."

Eric met her gaze, and Natalia, startled, realized something as well.

"Are we in...the Demon Realm?"

“Who knows?” Eric grabbed her hand and walked forward. “Let’s not worry about that now. Let’s find Rusdy and figure out how to get out of here. Then we’ll know where we are.”

"it is good……"

The cold made the two hold hands tightly together.

Continuing forward, the path in the underground palace splits into two directions: one is the straight path beneath their feet, and the other is the direction Natalia turned from.

There was no lighting when she teleported over; it was pitch black, so she had no idea what was happening on the other side.

Holy Judgment Blade!

Eric swung his longsword, which glowed with gold, and then carved an arrow into the hard ground to indicate the direction he had come from.

His intuition told him that Natalia had come from a side road, while the main road leading to the underground palace was ahead, so he decided to explore the side road first.

The two turned and headed into a side path, where Eric first fired an illumination ball into the path.

The ball of light flew, illuminating the unchanging stone walls of the passage on both sides, and stopped at its maximum distance.

Eric squinted; the deepest part of the passage seemed to be a large hall.

“Over there…” Natalia saw it too.

"Go over and have a look."

The two quickened their pace and went to the end of the passage. Eric then fired another luminous orb, illuminating the underground hall in front of them.

It's called a hall, but that's only relative to the passageway behind it. It's not particularly spacious, but it's still a bit larger than the entrance Eric saw earlier.

“This is a dead end,” Natalia said, glancing around. Apart from the high platform in the middle, there was nothing here. There were some reliefs on the walls, but she didn’t bother to look at them closely.

“I’ll go take a look.” Eric released her, drew his sword, and walked towards the central platform. He went up a dozen or so steps, where there was another platform about two meters square. On it, a jet-black longsword was supported by an unknown black crystal.

"..." Eric stared at it for a while, and the more he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed, but he couldn't remember what kind of sword it was.

But since he has a memory of it, then this sword must have been a drop from a certain dungeon, and this is indeed a certain dungeon.
But there were no labels on the sword that only he could see...

Eric tried to pick up the longsword, but the cold blade seemed to be frozen to the crystal base below, and he couldn't lift it with his strength.

“Eric?” Natalia looked at him from below.

“Come on up and take a look. There’s only one longsword here,” Eric called out.

Natalia then came up, saw the black longsword, and tried to pick it up, but naturally it wouldn't budge, so she quickly gave up.

Standing on the high platform and looking around, Eric had a sudden feeling: "We might be in an underground cemetery."

Natalia looked at him, then at the sword, "Then this will be the burial item."

"Um……"

Graveyard-type dungeons...

Eric's mind raced through a series of dungeon names, which he quickly eliminated, but he couldn't find a single one that matched what he was seeing.

"Let's keep going." He tried to pick up the longsword again, but still couldn't, so he gave up and went down from the platform.

Natalia followed him down, took his hand, and exhaled as he looked at her, "It's so cold."

Eric held her tighter.

They went out through the passage they had come in through and continued forward. After walking about twenty or thirty meters, another fork in the road appeared on their right.

I used the illumination ball to investigate, and the situation inside was similar to the previous fork in the road; it was also a large hall.

"Shall we go take a look?"

"Ah."

The two went inside and walked along the passage to the end, where there was another high platform, almost identical to the previous hall.

Eric and Natalia didn't separate; they walked up to the platform together. This time, instead of a sword, a complete set of black armor was placed on the platform.

It feels cold to the touch, with distinct textures, yet I still can't pick it up.

Eric felt a slight sense of familiarity with the armor, but not as strongly as with the sword from before.

“It seems this is the graveyard of some warrior…” Natalia pulled at it, but found it didn’t budge, so she gave up trying. “But I don’t remember any warrior who could build a graveyard of this size in the Demon Realm.”

“Maybe they’re not from our side, but demon warriors,” Eric said.

Natalia thought for a moment, "That must be one of the top warriors, perhaps even a demon general."

Following this line of thought, a blurry figure gradually emerged in Eric's mind, holding a black longsword and wearing this black armor, with no other details.

"Has Your Highness remembered something?" Natalia asked, noticing his thoughtful expression.

“I can’t remember.” Eric shook his head. “Let’s move on.”

After looking around one last time, the two left and returned to the main passage outside. They continued forward, and after walking the same distance, they found another fork in the road.

The two looked at each other, said nothing, and went inside.

The ball of light flew inward and stopped at the end. After traveling about ten meters, Eric suddenly clicked his tongue in amazement.

"Something's not right."

"What's wrong?" Natalia asked.

Eric turned to look at her. "Including the passage you teleported through, this is the third passage we've discovered, but there's still no sign of Rusdy... If he were inside, he should have detected my illumination spell immediately. But did you hear anything?"

Natalia then suddenly remembered another companion and frowned as well.

"Perhaps... he was teleported to a much farther place?"

Eric took a breath, only to find his nose stinging from the cold. "That's all we can do for now. Let's see what's here, then keep searching."

"it is good."

Upon reaching the end of the hall, Eric launched a ball of light towards the platform above. Natalia stepped up first, but then shuddered and froze, staring at the object above.

"Your Highness?"

Eric rushed up and, upon seeing what was on the platform, shuddered violently.

—A black crown was placed on top.

Beneath the crown was a magnificent robe with a black base and intricate patterns.

These two sets of items, along with the longsword they had found at the beginning, immediately conjured up a vivid image in Eric's mind.

A character who never officially appears in "Thoroughbred" but has a significant role in the game's opening cinematic.

"Old Demon King..."

Natalia looked over, and Eric swallowed. "This is the grave of the old Demon King, Digot."

They now know what lies at the end of that main passageway outside.

"We were transported from the underground of the Star Origin Academy... to the Northern Demon Realm, and even to the old Demon King's tomb?" Natalia murmured, her face filled with disbelief. "Why?"

Eric could not answer.

This was a field he knew nothing about either.

The two stood facing each other on the platform for a while. Eric tried to pick up the black crown, expecting to encounter resistance as before, but he picked it up easily.

"..."

He paused for a moment, then took the crown in his hand and examined it carefully before handing it to Natalia.

Aside from the fact that the material of this old demon king's crown was indistinguishable, its design was nothing special; it was at least much simpler than the crown of the imperial emperor. Natalia stared at it for a while, then suddenly slammed it to the ground.

The crown bounced a few times, rolled off the platform, spun around, and then stopped.

The two looked at each other.

“It doesn’t look like glass,” Natalia said.

Eric shook his head, went down to pick up the crown, and put it back in its place.

"Let's ignore all that for now and keep moving forward. Rusdy might be waiting for us on the old demon king's coffin."

The two left and returned to the main passage. The illuminating orb they had previously fired remained at the intersection. After walking a short distance, Eric fired another illuminating orb.

As the ball of light swept past, the two suddenly saw many figures standing on both sides of the passageway ahead!

Natalia's legs buckled, and she almost fell.

"What the hell is this..." Eric drew his sword, helped Natalia up, and made her follow behind him.

The two men stood ready for a long time, but the figures remained motionless.

“I’ll go take a look,” Eric said, turning his head. But at this point, it was hard to say whether it was more dangerous to follow him or to stay where he was. Natalia chose to follow him closely.

Reaching the nearest figure, Eric exhaled, "This is truly bizarre... these are all dead people."

He looked into the depths, where the dead were of various races, standing on either side with their backs against the stone wall. If this really was the old demon king's tomb, then these people were his tomb guards outside the tomb... his burial companions.

"The old demon king practically unified the entire continent. These are all the races he conquered: humans, elves, orcs, winged people, and damn it, even sirens..."

The old demon king was a legendary figure from six or seven hundred years ago, yet these corpses still look exactly as they did in life, showing no signs of decay. It's unclear whether this is due to the extremely low temperature here or the use of some kind of secret technique.

"Is placing the conquered races in the cemetery passageway so that the Demon King's glory can continue into the afterlife?"

Realizing the purpose of the cemetery's layout, Natalia felt a surge of rebellion and lost all fear, even suggesting that Eric burn all the corpses.

"No rush... let's go inside and take a look first."

The two continued deeper into the passage, the corpses lining both sides silently watching them without making a sound. Even knowing that their lives were long gone and they could never wake up again, Eric couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.

This situation continued until they reached the deepest point.

In the enormous arched hall, a stone coffin floated in mid-air, like the meteorite that had transported them there.

(End of this chapter)