Death… And Me

Everyone’s vision blurred for only a brief moment. By the time the dizziness faded and their senses returned to normal, they found themselves standing in a completely different place. Naturally, not a single person lowered their guard. Regardless of whether the teleportation had succeeded normally or not, they all understood one thing very clearly: they had crossed to the other side.

Even the twins’ group, which had experienced countless strange situations throughout the years, immediately spread their senses around, preparing themselves for whatever awaited them.

"Dos Tei Acumina?"

A voice suddenly echoed through the chamber, causing everyone to turn in its direction.

Standing several dozen meters away from the array was an old man with pale skin, silver hair, and a thin, almost frail body. Deep wrinkles covered his face, and although his clothes appeared clean, they were clearly very old. Judging solely by appearances, no one would believe that he posed any threat whatsoever. Even so, no one relaxed. The group had already learned a long time ago that appearances meant very little in the Celestial Plane.

The old man carefully observed the newcomers for a few moments. When no one answered, his eyebrows furrowed, and he repeated the question in a louder voice.

"Dos Tei Acumina?!"

"You..." Thery suddenly realized something. Although the marks on the man’s body were extremely faint, he immediately recognized them. They weren’t nearly as apparent as the ones carried by Thery, Haniala, and Sison, but there was no doubt in his mind. The man before them possessed the bloodline of the Thousand-Script Race. Even if he wasn’t a direct member of their race, he was undoubtedly related to them somehow.

Thery quickly stepped forward and nodded respectfully. "I’m sorry, friend, but we can’t understand your language."

The old man’s expression darkened slightly.

Meanwhile, everyone used the opportunity to observe their surroundings more carefully. They appeared to be inside a sealed chamber built entirely from dark stone. There were no windows anywhere, and the only visible exit was a metallic door standing on the opposite side of the room. Everything appeared incredibly well preserved. In fact, there wasn’t even a layer of dust covering the floor.

Rean narrowed his eyes as he took in the details around him. He didn’t need much time to arrive at a conclusion. Judging by the immaculate condition of the room, no one had entered it for an extremely long time. He was almost certain that the chamber had remained completely sealed until the very moment the teleportation array activated. The situation reminded him very much of the hidden room beneath the fortress ruins.

The old man spoke again.

"Son detryu, kinou ba’tia fu."

Naturally, no one understood a single word.

The language he spoke simply wasn’t the same as Besgol or Natak. To be more precise, nearly every region in the grasslands used slight variations of the same language, with only minor differences caused by the passage of time and geographical separation. Nonetheless, they were still the same language, just with some extra accents. For the twins’ group, this was the very first time they truly had encountered an entirely unfamiliar language in the Celestial Plane.

[Hm?] Sister Orb suddenly reacted.

[Wait a moment. I’ve heard this language somewhere before.]

’You have?’ Rean, Roan, Celis, and Kentucky immediately asked.

[I’m certain of it. Let me think... Ah! That’s right! It was inside the Besgol Region’s database. Back then, before you visited those ruins during your first expedition, you downloaded a huge amount of information into the airplane’s records. One of the stored languages was this one.]

’Really?’

[I’m sure of it.]

’Great! Thanks, Sister Orb.’

Rean immediately turned toward the others. "I know his language."

Everyone looked at him in surprise.

"You do?" Haniala asked.

"Not exactly," Rean admitted. "My airplane’s database contains a huge amount of information collected from the Besgol Region, and I’m almost certain that this language is stored there. Give me a moment."

Rean concentrated on his Spatial Ring, which contained the airplane. Naturally, he had no intention of taking the entire thing out. The chamber simply wasn’t large enough. Fortunately, he had already prepared for situations such as this one a very long time ago.

*Zush!*

A small metallic terminal suddenly appeared in front of him.

Anyone familiar with the interior of Rean’s airplane immediately recognized it. The terminal was originally part of the airplane itself, although Rean had designed it in such a way that it could be detached whenever necessary.

Immediately afterward, Rean connected his RC to the terminal and began searching through the enormous database stored inside. Thanks to Sister Orb’s help, it didn’t take long for him to find what he needed. A moment later, he raised his head and spoke to the old man.

"Honkei douty fu tranbigan?"

The old man’s eyes immediately widened. "Su!"

Thery quickly stepped forward. "What did you say?"

Rean smiled. "I asked whether he could understand me."

"And?"

"He said yes."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"I’ll transfer the necessary information to everyone’s RCs," Rean continued. "The complete database would be too large, but a single language shouldn’t cause any problems."

Naturally, no one objected. A few moments later, everyone received the information, and the translation software began operating through their mind senses.

Only then did Thery step forward once again, now speaking the man’s language. "Greetings, friend. How should we address you?"

The old man nodded. "My name is Coyui Lat’Vio. Fortunately, we can understand each other now. Otherwise, things would have become very troublesome."

Haniala glanced at Rean. "How did the Besgol Region obtain this language?"

The one who answered wasn’t Rean.

"It didn’t," Thery explained. "The Regions Alliance constantly exchanges information during the weekly transmissions. Languages are included among that information. Most likely, another region encountered this language long ago and shared it with everyone else."

"I see..." Haniala nodded.

Coyui looked from one person to another, clearly confused. "What exactly are you talking about?"

Thery smiled awkwardly. "Forgive us. There is something I would like to ask. Was it you who activated this teleportation array a moment ago?"

After all, no one had forgotten what had happened during the teleportation process. Someone on this side had obviously interfered with the array at the last possible moment.

The old man blinked several times. "Teleportation array?"

"Yes."

"What is an array?"

His answer immediately surprised everyone.

Thery pointed at the structure beneath their feet. "This is an array. It allowed us to travel from another place to this location. More specifically, it is a teleportation array."

Understanding immediately appeared on Coyui’s face. "I see..."

Then, much to everyone’s surprise, he shook his head. "Forget about that. Since you came here through this device, does that mean you can return through it?"

"It should be possible," Thery answered.

Coyui’s eyes instantly lit up. "Then please take me with you."

Everyone exchanged glances.

Rean eventually shook his head. "That isn’t impossible, but it would be extremely dangerous. The place we came from lies deep inside the Godly Creatures’ Territories. Without the proper preparations, going there would be equivalent to committing suicide."

That wasn’t an exaggeration. The fortress ruins were located where Rean said they were.

Surprisingly, Coyui didn’t seem concerned at all.

"I don’t care about the danger," he answered immediately. "Please help me leave this place before—"

*Bang!*

A deafening explosion echoed throughout the chamber.

The entire structure shook violently, causing cracks to spread across the ceiling and walls. Everyone instinctively looked upward as pieces of rock fell to the ground. Fortunately, the chamber endured the impact, although barely.

Flugel’s expression immediately darkened as he saw several cracks spreading dangerously close to the teleportation array.

"Shit! If another attack like that hits this place, the array could be destroyed."

Coyui hurriedly looked at the group. "Then let’s leave immediately."

Thery’s expression, however, turned solemn as he shook his head. "No. We didn’t travel all this way only to turn around and leave."

He then looked at Arcis. "Friend Arcis, do you agree?"

Arcis snorted in response. "Most definitely. We finally managed to reach this place. There is no reason to retreat now."

The ancient City Prison of Woster stood before them.

There was no way they would leave so easily.

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