Inside the chamber, the group stood frozen in shock
Lior had been stabbed from behind
"D-dark… Elf!?"
Tobari pulled the blade from Lior's chest
His body collapsed to the ground, unconscious
"Tobari!?" everyone exclaimed
"But, how did you get here" Sylffie asked
"When the bug that you gave us started ringing, I realized that you must have found something"
Tobari looked around the chamber
"So, I walked back following the same path I used, and I saw you guys in front of one of the corridors"
"I wanted to come along, but I sense the guards was coming"
"So, I hid first, and when I came out you guys just disappear"
"I started to think that there must be a hidden passage somewhere in that corridor, and I just pressing some stones on the wall, and the door just opened"
Rikka stared at him
"Wait, you just tried clicking the stones on the wall?"
Tobari just nodded
"Wew… you must be really lucky"
Sylffie let out a small sigh of relief
"By the way, thanks for helping"
"His sensor magic was really troublesome to be handled"
She glanced at Lior
"If you hadn't appeared, I don't know what will happen to us"
"Don't mind me" Tobari replied
"Let's focus on our mission first, where is the crown?"
Sylffie shook her head
"I don't know, I searched around this chamber a little while we fought him"
"And I don't have any clue"
"There must be another thing hidden inside this chamber, right?" Helen said
"Let's check every stone on the walls, maybe we'll find another mechanism"
Everyone nodded
"Yeah, let's find it quickly, the other group must be handling the other Cardinals right now"
They spread out across the chamber and began pressing every stone they could reach
One after another
But it was no use
They searched almost every corner of the chamber
Still nothing
"Aww… come on, where is it?" Rikka groaned
"Yeah, we've checked almost every stone that we can reach" Gill added
Helen suddenly looked up
A single round stone was embedded in the ceiling
"Could it be up there?" she pointed toward it
"I mean, he got a golem in here, maybe he used it to activate something on the ceiling"
Then Sylffie pulled one of her arrows and shot the ceilings
THUNK!
But it no use, the arrow easily bounced off and fell to the ground
"Argh… where is it?" Rikka shouted in frustration
Tobari looked at Sylffie
"Are you sure that the crown is really here?"
"I am not sure" Sylffie answered
"But why did the Cardinal come here?"
"There must be something important here"
While they are arguing, they heard steps coming from the chamber's corridor
Everyone immediately stopped
Weapons were drawn
All eyes turned toward the dark passage
"W-who is it?" Helen said
"Is it the other cardinals?"
"No… impossible" Rikka answered "Auel and Gramm should be able to hold them"
The steps kept getting closer and closer
Until something finally emerged from the darkness
Everyone froze
"W-what!?" Sylffie startled
"Impossible…"
Tobari stared at the creature in disbelief
"The Sovereign"
Right in front of them, standing still a majestic Elk
Its body appeared to be formed from ancient tree bark and thick moss
A magnificent pair of antlers rose from its head, glowing a faint green light
Nobody moved
The sight alone was enough to leave them speechless
The Elk slowly walked into the chamber, until stopped right in the middle of the chamber
Then it slowly raised its head
The green light within its antlers slowly grew brighter
Crack!
Everyone heard something and immediately looked at the source
It came from the wall
Crack!
A thin crack appeared across the stone
Vines began pushing through it
Crack!
The crack widened
More vines emerged from inside the wall, spreading across the stone
"W-what happened?!" Helen said
The vines continued growing until something began to emerge from the opening
It was not vines
Something golden was glowing from within
Rikka's eyes widened
"Is that the crown?"
Then he looked at the Elk as it slowly lowered its head
Rikka slowly walked toward the object and pulled it from the vines
"I-it is…"
A smile slowly spread across his face
"It's the crown"
"We found the crown"
The moment he pulled it free, something else began to happen
Grass started growing around the Sovereign's legs
Flowers bloomed across the stone floor
The vegetation continued spreading throughout the chamber
The Sovereign slowly lowered its head to the ground
Its body began to crumble
Bark and moss spread across its body until the majestic creature gradually became part of the vegetation covering the floor
Gill stared at the sight
"Wait what happened with the Sovereign?"
"I don't know" Sylffie answered
"It… it just disappeared…"
Rikka looked at the crown in his hands
"Well… who cares" Rikka said "What's important is, the Sovereign helped us to find the crown, right?"
"Yes" Tobari answered "Yes, he is right"
He looked toward the exxt
"Let's talk about this later, and now let's take the crown to Veyn"
"Veyn? Why? Shouldn't we take it far from the Cardinals" Rikka asked
"Tobari's right, at least we need to inform Veyn first" Sylffie answered
"Well… if you said so"
They turned around and followed the corridor back toward the entrance
They met the end of the corridor, right at the door where they came in
Helen looked at it
"So how do we open this door now?"
"I don't know" Sylffie said "Let's just find a hidden button around here"
Then they started to find for a button around the wall
Until Gill clicked on something
"Is that it?"
A rumbling sound came from the corridor
The door slowly opened
"Yeah, let's get to the Royal throne now"
They immediately came out from the secret room
But their step was stopped
"Who's there?"
It was the guards, they were right outside the door
"Tch…" Sylffie clenched her fist "we've been found"
On the other side of the Palace, Gramm's group still taking care of the other Cardinals
The two sides stood several meters apart, weapons ready
Elric raised his hand
"Come"
But Gramm's group didn't move, and just kept on their stance
Cael clicked his tongue
"Tch… so you didn't want to attack first, huh?"
"Well then…"
A wooden dagger created on his hand
Then in a blink of an eye, he disappeared
He jumped right at Erin
He swung his dagger right at her
Clang!
Auel stepped in front of her and blocked the attack
Cael immediately changed direction and thrust his dagger toward Auel
Auel twisted his body to avoid the strike and countered with a slash
Clang!
Cael blocked it with his dagger
"Well… you're fast"
He thrust again
But before the attack could reach Auel—
Whoosh!
An arrow came right at him
He dodged it at the right time
But before he could do a counterattack, something else came right at him
Slash!
A big swing from Gramm's axe
Cael immediately jumped back
"Tch… annoying"
On the other side of the throne room, Aren created a wooden sword and shield
But that was not all, he also created a wooden clone of himself with the same weapon as him
Auel peeked at him
"You guys handled those 2 Cardinals; I'll take care of this one"
Aren's clone then rushed forward at them
Gramm immediately moved and swung his axe at the clone
Clang!
Aren's clone raised its shield and blocked the axe
After that it swung its sword at him
Clang!
Veyn already moved and blocked it
In the same time Aren also moved right at them and swung his sword
They scattered to the side to avoid it
"Incinerate!"
Flames erupted from the tip of Erin's staff and rushed toward Aren and his clone
Aren stepped forward and raised his shield while his clone moved behind him to avoid the attack
Erin's flame got blocked by Aren's shield
The flame kept bursting at both of them
Until an arrow flew right at Erin
Swoosh!
Erin tilted her head at the last second
The arrow passed beside her
But the sudden attack disrupted her spell
The flames disappeared
The arrow was come from Elric
He created another arrow and shot it right at Erin again
Erin immediately moved aside
The arrow passed her
Elric created another arrow
But before he could release it, Veyn rushed toward him
Elric stopped his attack and quickly dodged Veyn's dagger
With Erin's flames gone, Aren immediately charged toward Gramm
At the same time, his wooden clone rushed toward Erin
The battlefield split into several clashes