The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 275 Demon King's Stone Coffin
The light projected by the illumination sphere cast the suspended sarcophagus onto the vaulted ceiling, creating an even larger shadow, as if it were empty space.

This should be the deepest part of the entire Demon King's Tomb. The tomb hall is both tall and wide. Eric then cast several more illumination spells, and the light orbs distributed around the hall dispelled the shadows and illuminated the entire hall.

As the last spot was illuminated, Natalia pursed her lips.

"Rusdy is not here."

Eric had anticipated this.

If Rusdy had truly teleported here, he should have appeared long ago when he fired an illumination orb.

"Did he fail to teleport here... or was he teleported somewhere else?" Natalia asked, looking at him.

Eric could only shake his head. "Anything is possible, but I don't know which one."

The two scanned the tomb's main hall several times, but it was very spacious, and their gazes could only fall on each other and the huge stone coffin floating in the middle.

“Is it possible that Rusdy…” Natalia pointed her gaze at the stone coffin above.

Eric was silent.

In terms of its ability to levitate, this stone coffin is very similar to the meteorite beneath the Star Origin Academy, which may be why that meteorite was able to transport them here.

Rusdy was transported into the sarcophagus?

Eric couldn't rule out the possibility, although he felt it was extremely unlikely.

If a sound were to suddenly come from inside the stone coffin at this moment, he wouldn't know whether to be happy or frightened.

But ever since he entered the hall, another lingering worry had been weighing on his mind.

—Won't they be stuck here?

The stone entrance was tightly shut. Before realizing that this was a cemetery, Eric had hoped to find another exit from here, but now it was clear that there was no room for further speculation. They had already explored every part of the cemetery.

“Eric?” Natalia looked at him with some concern.

Eric told her his concerns, and Natalia remained silent for a moment before raising her gaze again to the stone coffin floating in mid-air.

"Before I die, I want to see what's inside the stone coffin."

Eric thought so too.

“I should be able to fly up and take a look,” he said to Natalia. She paused for a moment, then realized he was referring to the temporary levitation technique they had used to deal with the demons outside the north gate of the academy.

"Can I come with you?" she asked quickly.

“Give it a try.” Eric walked to the bottom of the sarcophagus, looked up twice, adjusted his position, and then opened his arms.

Natalia stepped forward and naturally hugged him tightly.

Wings of Purification!
The golden wings of light unfolded once more, still dazzling in the tomb hall that was fully illuminated by the light sphere, but the two people embracing remained motionless in place.

Their eyes met, and Natalia pursed her lips. "Looks like that won't work."

“I guess it’s a problem with the mechanics of the divine spell, not with the weight,” Eric reassured him.

"..."

It's better not to offer comfort.

Natalia pushed him away, then watched as he quickly began to rise, unconsciously taking two steps back until she was directly beneath the sarcophagus.

Just then, the stone coffin above suddenly made a sound.

Eric was still ascending when, without thinking, he quickly canceled his skill, landed, and pulled Natalia aside to avoid the danger.

The sarcophagus's unusual movements did not stop when Natalia moved away from directly below, but it also did not seem to be falling as Eric had thought.

The two stood to the side, watching as a series of cracking sounds came from above, and suddenly a piece was peeled off and floated beside the stone coffin.

"Is the sarcophagus about to disintegrate?" Natalia guessed.

Eric remained silent, but his mind was filled with speculations that his extensive knowledge led him to overthink things.

If this old demon king's tomb were available in the game, it would definitely be a high-level dungeon. But what we see now looks more like a cutscene before the final boss of a dungeon appears...

He fought the old demon king's zombies... is that true or false?
But their current situation is unlikely to get any worse.

As Eric drifted into thought, the disintegration of the sarcophagus above his head continued, with fragments peeling off one after another and floating aside, gradually revealing the more orderly and exquisite parts inside.

“It looks like the one inside is the original sarcophagus, and the ones on the outside were attached later,” Eric said, tilting his head back.

Natalia turned to look at him. "But why is this happening? Is the sarcophagus reacting because it sensed our presence, or is the old Demon King... about to be resurrected?"

“I’d rather Rusdy had triggered some kind of mechanism inside,” Eric said. “When the sarcophagus opens, he’ll jump out and tell us how dangerous it was.”

Natalia pursed her lips. "I hope so too..."

As the two spoke, less and less of the material was peeled off the stone coffin.

"It's almost over," Eric guessed.

Natalia remained silent, watching the sarcophagus. As the last fragment was peeled off the sarcophagus, the other fragments floating around it suddenly began to move, gradually rotating around the sarcophagus.

"It's getting more and more like the boss is about to make his appearance," Eric thought to himself.

What happened next was beyond his expectations.

As the fragments on the sarcophagus rotated, some of them gradually became fixed in place, seemingly having reached a correct position.

As more fragments were secured, a suspended spiral staircase gradually unfolded from top to bottom.

Eric and Natalia exchanged a glance; both could already foresee what was about to happen.

A few minutes later, the last fragment settled near the ground, and a suspended spiral staircase was finally formed.

To prevent the BOSS from wreaking havoc as soon as it appeared, Eric had already pulled Natalia to hide at the entrance, but after waiting for a while, the Demon King's zombies still hadn't come out.

Rusdy didn't climb out of the sarcophagus either.

"perhaps……"

Natalia looked down at the bottom of the spiral staircase. "Is this a way of telling us to go up?"

Eric nodded and quickly made a decision, "I'll go up and take a look."

Natalia grabbed him. "Are you going to leave me here waiting alone?"

She pointed to the two rows of stiff, grotesque corpses behind her.

"I didn't sense that you were particularly scared."

Despite saying that, Eric still pulled Natalia along and came down to the bottom of the stairs.

"I'll go first, you follow. If there's a problem, I'll just jump down, and you just jump towards me," Eric instructed finally.

Natalia nodded and followed him as he began to climb.

These fragments, peeled off the sarcophagus, looked thin, suspended in mid-air, and appeared unstable, but when the two actually stepped on them, they felt quite stable.

When you first step on them, there's a slight sinking sensation, but once you're firmly planted, they won't wobble anymore. The fragments are also arranged fairly densely, and the upper fragments can be used as handholds when climbing.

As Eric climbed the spiral staircase and became familiar with the arrangement of the fragments, he no longer needed to look at his feet. However, Natalia's climbing speed was limited, so he tried to control his pace and occasionally stopped to look at the stone coffin floating above him.

After circling around a few times, gradually increasing in altitude, Eric arrived at the sarcophagus first and then stopped.

This place is about ten meters above the ground of the tomb chamber, and about the same distance from the dome above.

“This stone coffin… has no lid.”

Natalia looked up at him. "Can you see inside?"

“Yes, we need to go a little higher,” Eric said, then, supporting himself on the stone coffin, he climbed two more steps, revealing the interior to him in its entirety.

A dignified-looking middle-aged demon lay there, dressed in a black robe, looking only in his forties or fifties. His eyes were closed, and his hands were resting on his chest and abdomen, one above the other, as if he were simply asleep.

That's right...

Eric held his breath; this was the face of the old demon king, Degot, in the CG.

"What did you see?" Natalia asked from below.

“Demon King.” Eric flipped up, placing his feet on either side of the coffin, gesturing for Natalia to come to where he had been so far so he could see for himself.

Natalia stared at his current state for a moment, stunned.

Stepping on someone's coffin like that is hardly respectful, but when she thought about how it was the Demon King's coffin, she felt he could go even further.

Natalia continued climbing, reaching the same height Eric had been, and saw the situation inside the coffin.

She unconsciously held her breath, and after a while she spoke, "This is the Demon King from six or seven hundred years ago?"

"Yes, that's him. I remember his face."

"..."

Natalia looked up.

“…I mean, I remember the church’s records describing the Demon King Digot, and it’s pretty much the same as what we’re seeing now,” Eric added without changing his expression. Natalia then looked at the corpse in the coffin.

“Even if it’s too cold here and the body doesn’t decompose easily, it’s been six or seven hundred years, so why does he still look like he’s asleep?”

Eric also looked at the old demon king's face, "It might be the effect of some kind of demonic secret technique... To be honest, I always feel that he might wake up at any time."

If this were a dungeon that had already been opened in his previous life, then the Demon King's awakening would be almost a certainty; he was all too familiar with this kind of plot.

However, the content in "Thorns and Souls" has not yet been expanded to this point, and he cannot be sure whether the Demon King's Tomb will become a dungeon in that world in the future.

Eric carefully examined the rest of the sarcophagus and discovered that the spot where the old demon king's head rested was connected to a groove that extended to the top stone wall and then to both sides. Eric followed one side and found that it connected to a semi-circular, bowl-like protrusion next to the sarcophagus, and the other side was the same.

He leaned closer for a closer look and discovered that there were fine patterns engraved on the bottom, like some kind of magic array.

This magic circle can be activated with blood...

The thought suddenly flashed through Eric's mind. He looked down again and found that he had already placed the longsword in his hand and extended it above the magic circle.

All you need to do is cut your hand open and let a little blood flow...

“…Eric?…Eric!”

Eric snapped back to reality, then felt a sharp pain in his palm; he had cut a small gash in his hand.

Natalia stared intently at him. "What's wrong with you?"

"what?"

“You just now…” Natalia looked at him, “…something seemed off?”

"Something's weird here." Eric sheathed his longsword and quickly cast a purification spell on himself.

“I think so too,” Natalia said, pointing to the semi-circular protrusion next to the sarcophagus. “You just stared at this for a couple of seconds, and then…”

She suddenly stopped talking.

Climbing a little higher, Natalia slowly reached for her waist, pulled out a dagger for self-defense, and then reached for her other wrist.

Eric realized just how strange and off he had been.

"Natalia!"

"..."

Natalia snapped back to reality, looked at him, and then at the dagger in her hand.

“I had a feeling that if I let a little blood out here, something would happen…”

"I felt the same way before."

Eric told her to put away her dagger. "This sarcophagus is really suspicious. It can cast a spell on us in some way. Let's go down quickly."

Natalia nodded and began to climb down.

Eric jumped down and landed in the middle of the floating staircase. With another jump, he landed on the ground.

"Eric!" Natalia panicked a little.

He was fine standing on the stone coffin, but after he jumped down first, she suddenly had a feeling that she would have to face the eerie atmosphere inside the stone coffin alone.

“Jump down, I’ll catch you,” Eric said, looking up.

"so tall!"

“It’s alright, I can catch it,” Eric reassured her. “I won’t let you get hurt.”

Natalia looked down at him for a while, and with absolute trust in him, she closed her eyes and jumped down.

Eric opened his arms, and as he caught her, his arms sank down, then stopped at the limit of his fall to dissipate the force of the descent.

"I've heard that mages have a feather-falling spell that allows them or others to jump from a great height without getting hurt..."

Natalia opened her eyes, her heart pounding, and she didn't hear a word he said.

She stopped standing, paused for a moment, and then looked up at the still-floating stone coffin and spiral staircase.

"If we had really bled that coffin just now, would the Demon King have awakened?"

“I don’t know. But something will definitely change,” Eric said.

Natalia looked up at him for a moment, then looked back at him. "What should we do now?"

Eric looked around and replenished a few more orbs of light with illumination spells. "Let's look around here first. We haven't looked around carefully yet. There might be some kind of mechanism."

"Okay... let's start from the entrance."

The two returned to the entrance of the tomb's main hall and carefully examined the stone walls.

"The reliefs on these seem to record events from the era of the Demon King," Natalia said as she walked, looking at the sculptures.

“The outside passageways are lined with similar reliefs,” Eric said. “I haven’t had a chance to look at the details yet.”

"Where is the beginning? With such a long distance, there must be quite a lot of repetition."

Eric looked around. “If we can’t get out, we’ll have plenty of time to study these reliefs.”

Natalia paused, then apologized.

She had already resigned herself to death in the underground of Xingyuan Academy, but she actually escaped alive. Although the environment here looks even more hostile, she still finds it hard to completely suppress the excitement in her heart.

Eric didn't say anything, but grabbed her hand. "Let's find the mechanism first."

Natalia gripped his hand tightly.

Eric used his other hand to cast a light spell, and the two of them, almost pressed against the wall, slowly circled the entire tomb hall, but found nothing.

“Perhaps we should look carefully at the entrance to the cemetery?” Natalia suggested.

Eric said he had already searched the area, but there might have been some omissions, so he went with her through the entire tomb back to the stone door at the entrance.

Natalia pressed herself against the cold stone door, carefully feeling around for a while, then turned to Eric: "I think when the ancient demons built this tomb, they probably didn't consider the possibility of opening it from the inside?"

"...I hope they will consider it."

Eric tilted his head back, scanned the area from top to bottom, and then drew his sword.

Natalia stepped aside and watched him hack and slash at the stone door, thrusting and parrying with a variety of fancy moves. Just as she was about to ask him what he was doing, a semi-transparent phantom suddenly appeared on his body, moving in sync with his actions, and slashed fiercely at the stone door.

boom!
After the loud noise, Eric rushed to the stone door and cursed aloud.

"Such a big commotion, and all you left was a mark?"

Natalia now understood completely: he had tried to split open the stone door, but clearly hadn't succeeded.

The relentless cold in the tomb finally overshadowed her excitement at escaping death, and she began to seriously consider the consequences of not being able to leave.

The two searched the area around the stone gate again, but still found nothing.

Then, they retraced their steps along the passageway they had already passed through, and re-examined the three side halls they had visited earlier.

Aside from the newfound feeling they had when they realized this was the old Demon King's tomb and saw the swords and armor buried with him, Eric and Natalia gained nothing.

The two returned to the innermost tomb chamber.

"There is only one option left."

Natalia looked again at the stone coffin floating in mid-air. "If we do nothing, we'll be trapped here anyway. No matter what happens, the outcome can't be worse than it is now."

Eric was prepared when he returned here.

He told Natalia to wait downstairs.

He climbed up the suspended stairs for two steps, then suddenly stopped and jumped down.

"What's wrong?" Natalia asked, looking at him.

“If the old demon king really wants to use my body to return to life, I don’t want to have any regrets,” Eric said, walking up to her.

Natalia paused for a moment, then understood, closed her eyes, and tilted her head back slightly.

Eric kissed her.

Just taste it and stop.

When Natalia opened her eyes again, Eric was already back on the spiral staircase, moving quickly, and in the blink of an eye, he was back beside the sarcophagus.

He leaped up and sat on the sarcophagus, took one last look at Natalia below, then drew his sword and bled.

Some blood was placed on the magic circles on both sides of the stone coffin. Eric looked down and thought that the blood would flow along the grooves to the place where the Demon King's head was resting, but in reality, it was directly absorbed by the magic circles.

"Is this groove just for decoration...?"

At one point, Eric suddenly realized something, looked up, and saw that the ancient demon king lying in the stone coffin had opened his eyes and was silently watching him.

(End of this chapter)