"You could read it?" Loryarc asked Rina as he squinted at the words carved on the door.
"Yes," Rina replied, before nodding, "This alphabet was called Lumark Script, the main language we humans used to speak a thousand years ago."
"Hmm... The Defeated, what does it mean?" Loryarc muttered as he began to ponder.
The two of them thought of it momentarily before their eyes met, and they smiled. Their eyes seem to be exchanging some information within a second, as they look at each other and nod in silent agreement.
"Shall we?" Rina asked.
"Let's go!" Loryarc answered with a shout.
They then placed their hands upon the door and began to push it open.
They were certain that something was waiting for someone to find it beyond this door, and they would become the ones who found it. And that 'something' certainly had something to do with their Challenge. So, at least, why don't we give it a peek? That was the pair's thoughts.
As the two mustered their strength to push the door, the seemingly immovable door began to creak open. From a slit the gap of the door widened enough for a person to walked in. Damp, fuggy air, which had been confined inside the room for who knows how long, came out of the room from the gap they opened. That fact alone was already enough to convince Rina and Loryarc about the number of years this building has seen, raising their anticipations as a result.
Loryarc and Rina didn't immediately walk in. They looked inside the room beyond the door, checking out what lay beneath the darkness before them.
"I can't see anything..." Rina creased her brows as she uttered her lack of ability to see through the room's darkness.
The same applied to Loryarc. His eyes couldn't see anything but darkness beyond the door.
Thus, thinking that adding more light sources would help, Loryarc stretched his right hand between the gap, brought his petite light to light the room.
Small orb of light twinkling above Loryarc's right palm and fend off the darkness beyond the door as he and Rina brought their eyes to see through the gap, their eyes reflecting what was stored inside for an unknown amount of time.
Two pairs of eyes contracted as they spotted an almost spherical object, which was being illuminated by the light of the orb Loryarc held in his right hand. That object, colored in darkish brown, has visible wrinkles, akin to dried clay. And it also has three hollow sockets: two bigger sockets and a smaller socket. That object was...A head, a Human head! Loryarc and Rina gasped as they finally identified the true nature of the object.
Loryarc gulped and stepped back. It was not his first time seeing someone's corpse, since he lived among the underworld of earth people. He also has rich experience in killing Monsters—which vary from humanoid type to animal type— since he transmigrated into this world, so seeing a dried Human head wasn't that shocking for him now.
But finding a corpse in this situation quite frightened him. When he recalled what Professor Sona told him and his peers about how many casualties the Spring Seven Challenges often drown, he became even more tense. Just like how he explored the Dungeons, this event also would cost him his life if he were not careful enough. Not to mention, the existence of Halvern, even this pocket dimension might contain a lot of dangers.
Rina also took some steps back. Her expression stiffened as she looked at Loryarc. She seemed to hesitate for a while before opening her lips with a shaking voice. "...I-I have read about a situation like this before."
Rina's face turned solemn and serious as she deepened her voice and said, "It was said that there were times when some groups of students encountered the scattered dried corpses while they were in the middle of completing the Challenges. Someone once guessed that these corpses were their fellow students' own, the ones who had fallen during the Spring Seven Challenges."
There's an amount of doubt in her words as she continued. "But that makes sense since they found the corpses when the Challenges were Challenges such as dangerous place explorations, material gatherings, evil spirit exorcisms, monster exterminations, and any other types which took place outside; since there would be a case where the Challenges took place on the same locations as the previous Challenges, their discovery was only natural. But when the Challenges were like this Challenge and taking place inside a pocket dimension, there shouldn't be... Any case where the students found their fellow students' corpses who had fallen. Never."
Silence engulfed the two as the atmosphere seemed to be dimmed down and become somewhat eerie. Cold wind comes inside the valley from the gap above, creating an eerie sound akin to wails as it provides the valley with fresh air.
After silently looking at each other for nearly ten minutes, Loryarc gulped before stretching his right hand back into the room. He brought the orb of light to light things contained inside even further than before.
What they found inside was corpses, and... More corpses. A lot of corpses.
...
The Royal Academy of Lizarck Kingdom. The Principal's office.
Monica brought a pile of documents in her hands as she walked towards the crescent table before the Principal, Laurence Manavona.
"This was the notes regarding the Spring Seven Challenges affairs, Grandma." Reported Monica as she looked at the table and smiled stiffly when her eyes finished counting the number of piles of paper surrounding Laurence.
Laurence stamped a pledge in her front before she shifted her attention toward Monica. There's no sign of exhaustion on her youthful face, but she seemed to be irritated by something.
"Didn't I already tell you to call me 'Lady Manavona', lad?" She creased her brow as she asked Monice in a cold tone.
Monica could only smile and sigh in exasperation. Her slightly wrinkled face pouted as she retorted to Laurence, "But you are my Grandma, aren't you?"
Laurence was put in a difficult position and couldn't let out any words for a while as a result. She could only divert the topic by bringing her pocket dimension to the table, in front of Monica.
"What did the church say about this Pocket Dimension?" She asked Monica.
Instead of answering her Grandmother's question, Monica began to search through the pile of documents she brought. Some time later, she picked up a document and placed it in Laurence's front.
Laurence silently received the document and began to read it.
"May the blessing of the lord be with you, Laurence Monovana."
Laurence's voice echoes within the room while Monica kept her lips shut as she heard the words attentively.
"It's pleasant to see those green wings of nature back peacefully again. My reverence and faith were always and forever his holiness, lord Azathoth's own. As a fellow devout believer, I pray for you to live long and in good health, my friend, Laurence Monovana. This Spring, pleasantly, the lord once again bestows us with his oracle. I am envious of those youths. They would face his holiness's Challenges to eliminate the corrupted ones. Ah, how lucky they were..."
...
Word by word, sentence after sentence, was crowdly packed onto the paper, even almost filling the edges.
A drop of sweat flowed down Monica's cheek as she found a slight frown had formed on her Grandmother's face. Laurence even began to grit her teeth, became more and more irritated by the too densely packed words.
That old idiot... Laurence grumbled inside as she continued to read the document.
Finally, after too many pleasantries, extended dramatic sentences, and more praises to Lord Azathoth, Laurence found the main point of the document she was searching for, which explained the origin of the Pocket Dimension Orb. Her frown ceased slightly as she seriously read the explanation.
"... This Spring indeed was special. His Holiness even said that the challenges this time were not as simple as before. He called this period The Fragile Period, which only occurs once every thousand years."
The Fragile Period? Laurence's frown deepened.
"The Pocket Dimension Orb I gave you was the one that was used a thousand years ago, the Heaven Sealing Thunder, which would become the first and the most special challenge we shall face. During the period of time while the youths are completing the first challenge, we don't need to perform the sacrifice ritual. The blood and Mana of the Halverns were the ones that would become the foundation to relieve this Fragile Period. The Crimson thunders shall devour the soul and body of those corrupted ones and become our protection to survive until the day of Eclipse comes..."