As her finger slowly pressed down, the symbol started flashing a bright red and warped, until finally, it couldn’t withstand the pressure and caved in. 

 

She let out a small yelp as she took back her finger and shook it a bit. Narrowing her eyes, she glared at the shutters which began rebuilding itself.

 

Letting out a devious smile, she raised her leg and sent a kick towards the shutters.

 

With a loud crunch, the shutters shattered into pieces which fell into the dark pit below.

 

Light echoes sounded around the area as the pieces started hitting against the walls and each other, but even after a couple of minutes, the sound of water splashing nor the sound of things falling to the ground were heard.

 

“Huh? That’s strange, isn’t it? Light!” She was really intrigued now. She gathered light in her palm, which quickly condensed into a hard ball. 

 

Feeling satisfied, she let it drop into the pit.

 

The ball which was as bright as the sun slowly fell and illuminated the walls. They were filled with pictures, and underneath those pictures were the strange symbols.

 

Raising an eyebrow, Azura looked deeper into the well and saw a strange sight.

 

The pieces of the shutter were falling and then immediately being sent back up.

 

“Teleportation? Gravity?” Azura no longer kept the ball floating, which allowed it to delve deeper. 

 

Azura noticed that at some point, the ball had been sent back up, and the light that had reached lower had disappeared.

 

“This is.. Time alteration?” Her mouth hung open as she thought of this possibility. How could something that had to do with time appear in the middle of nowhere?

 

Looking around, Azura waved her hand and a rotting piece of wood appeared. Surrounding the wood in a faint red light, she left an imprint on it and tossed it down.

 

As it approached where the light ball had been sent back. The wood cracked as it broke into sawdust. 

 

Passing by the area, the sawdust stopped, flew up and reassembled itself along with the imprint that Azura had left on it.

 

“Great! Brilliant! Haha, this is great!” Azura let out a hearty laugh. 

 

“What’s inside?” Artemis raised her head and let out a snort.

 

“A great treasure!” Was Azura’s only reply. She stared at the symbols and pictures, trying to carve them into her mind. But as soon as she blinked, she forgot them all.

 

“I can’t remember?” Shaking her head, she calmed herself. 

 

She floated over the red grass towards Artemis and sighed.

 

“I’ll come back for you once I have enough strength. Even though this bit of strength I have is enough to kill the top people of this world, you are still out of my grasp for now. And since that’s the case, no one else can get you either!” She laughed as she hopped on Artemis.

 

Smugly smiling, she chanted some words and a large dome appeared around the well and the grass. After a couple of golden flashes, it disappeared into nothingness. If you didn’t know it was here, you wouldn’t notice it.

 

“What kind of magic even is that? I’ve never seen it before.” Artemis let out a neigh as she started galloping towards the path that the group had agreed on.

 

“You can’t learn it anyway, so there’s no point in me explaining it. It’s just a small perception filter. You won’t notice that something is wrong if you don’t have any suspicions about it. Of course, that won’t work against someone who has a strong soul.” She laid on Artemis’ fluffy mane and started petting it. 

 

How great would it be if I could make a pillow out of this.. It’s so nice and cosy. Azura let out a satisfied smile as she played with it.

 

Artemis felt a chill on her back, but ignored it. She felt safe with Azura, after all, if someone could beat Azura, then she would die too.

 

Thinking in her head that Azura would never do anything to her, she increased her speed, weaving in and out of trees.

 

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“This thing is really interesting, it shoots a projectile much faster than any High Magus. I doubt even I could match it’s speed with my Dark Bolt!” Wilhelm was currently testing the pistol that Han Su had brought with him.

 

“If you’re impressed with that, I can still show you around my Pandora. But you’d have to be careful, she’s a biter.” Han Su laughed as he pressed on the medal he was wearing.

 

It let out a light hum and started expanding. The medal quickly covered his body, turning him into a small version of the mech that had appeared with him.

 

“Is this some sort of metal magic? Or perhaps earth magic?” Wilhelm touched the cold metal that surrounded Han Su. As soon as he did, he let out a cry of pain as a bolt of electricity entered him.

 

“Haha, sorry about that, forgot to turn off the Close Combat Stun(CCS).” Han Su’s face appeared as the metal covering his face opened up.

 

“No worries, no worries..” Wilhelm casted a small healing spell on himself as he trembled.

 

“Is Amelia still sleeping? She’s been awfully tired this entire time.. Is something wrong?” Han Su asked as the metal quickly contracted back into the medal.

 

“No.. No.. Don’t worry about it, she’s always been like this. It’s been a couple of days now.. I wonder what happened to the Empress.” Wilhelm let out a sigh as he picked himself up and walked towards the carriage. 

 

“You keep calling her ‘Empress’.. Why? She just looks like a normal kid who got teleported here like I did..” Han Su perked up his ears as he waited for an answer. But unfortunately, the only response he got was, “The Empress will tell you when she wants you to know.”

Empress? She knows about the Sibir Empire, so she must definitely be high ranking.. But what empire? And where? Why is she here? Letting out a grunt, he packed up all their belongings and also got onto the carriage, ready to travel.