Demonic Dragon: Harem System
Chapter 479 - 479: How to open?

The muffled sound of silence filled the chamber after Strax's order. The group, still in shock from the door's reaction to Samira's attempt, exchanged cautious glances, as if they feared that any other abrupt gesture would awaken some force dormant for ages. Samira, now sitting against the wall with a bag of magical ice conjured by Daniela pressed against her ribs, grunted occasionally.

Strax, standing with his arms crossed in front of the door, pulled a small communication stone from the inside pocket of his coat.

It glowed at his touch. "Frieren. I need you. Bring your ancestral grandmother's eyes and come to the basement of the mansion. We found a door that doesn't like to be knocked on," he said.

It took less than fifteen minutes for the ancient Elf Queen to appear at the entrance to the tunnel, walking with the calmness of someone going to the market. Her dark green cloak dragged slightly on the damp ground, and she chewed on some aromatic root as she descended the steps, staring at the group with her usual casual disdain.

"You all seemed so excited when you told me you were excavating ruins..." she said, her eyes narrowing at the sight of Samira. 'And apparently someone decided to solve ancient riddles with brute force. What a surprise.'

"It worked with the castle doors," Samira muttered, still with a hint of wounded pride.

"Yes, little fire dragon, because the castle doors weren't sealed by paranoid dwarves traumatized by the surface," replied Frieren, raising an eyebrow. 'Now, if you'll excuse me...'

She approached the door as if examining an antique embroidery, tapping the staff she carried.

"Hm. Double runes, overlapping. And that... ah, typical. A magical redundancy. Three layers of sealing, one of them linked to a temporal matrix. That's so... over the top."

Cassandra tilted her head in surprise. "You can understand it?"

"Of course," replied Frieren with an almost maternal tone of disdain, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She ran her fingers along the inscriptions as if reading a tavern menu.

"This part here says, 'Below lies that which must sleep until the Last Dawn touches the skies of ash.' A dramatic way of saying, 'Please don't touch this.'" She laughed to herself, which only made the situation more uncomfortable.

"This one says, 'By the hammer of the Seven Smiths, may the Stone yield neither to war nor greed.' Poetic. And very dramatic."

Daniela watched silently, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"How can you understand this so naturally? This language is distorted, hidden under layers of magic."

Frieren blinked slowly, then raised an eyebrow as if it were the most idiotic question of the day. "I'm ten thousand years old."

Silence fell like an anvil.

Everyone present—even Strax—fell silent, staring at the elf as if they had just remembered that they were in the presence of a living entity that, by any practical measure, was a walking relic.

Rogue was the first to break the silence. "Ah. So... that explains it."

"Yes. I literally taught some dwarves how to write runes. We were drunk and had little paper. They carved them into the wall, and just like that, the dwarven language was born." She gestured vaguely toward the door. "This is just an archaic dialect. Kind of pedantic, actually. It must be over three thousand years old, but I find this part funny." She pointed to some slightly more carved runes.

"These are less than a thousand years old. In other words, this place was treated some time ago, the runes were 'rewritten.'" She pointed...

"Artorias..." Strax muttered, and she nodded.

"Possibly, since he was the only one who could probably do something like that." She replied.

Samira, who was still processing the 'We were drunk and had little paper,' laughed with a grimace of pain. "I got hit in the ribs by a magic wall because of a drunken tongue?"

"Technically, no. After all, I doubt those I taught would have done something so vile," Frieren said with a smirk. 'But at least you didn't die, which, considering the type of rune used here, is already a good sign.'

Strax moved closer, now serious, but with a curious gleam in his eyes. "And what else does it say?"

Frieren continued reading, now as if narrating a bad play.

"Here's the central passage: 'Let no child of earth or heaven, no blood of fire or ice, no living or dead soul, the centerpiece must be found and placed on the altar of the heavens.'"

She paused and looked at everyone, slowly chewing her root with a bored expression.

"In short: you need a key. An oath. Probably an artifact or a symbol word created during the Central Dwarf Kingdom period. I'm not entirely sure, it's difficult to decide things like this based on isolated phrases. Prophecies and riddles are from a time when magic wasn't so reliable."

"Great," Cassandra muttered. 'So we're locked in by spiritual dwarf bureaucracy.'

"Dwarves have always been terrible at trusting others. When they say 'only one of us can open it,' they really mean 'only one of us and no one else, not even under torture.'"

Beatrice crossed her arms, frowning. "So, either we find that oath, or this door stays closed forever?"

Frieren nodded. Then he shrugged.

"Or we convince the door that we are worthy. Some runes can be tricked by logic. Or by poetry. Who knows."

"Isn't it better to call Scarlet? She should be able to open it with brute force," said Rogue, with a mischievous smile.

"She'll kill herself. These things send power back. She'd probably send a deadly attack and it would be reflective, killing all of us or her," Frieren replied seriously.

Samira snorted, trying to get up with Daniela's help.

"Okay... so we camp here, study the runes, and search for this lost oath while you guys discuss poetry. I've seen horror movies starting with this scenario."

Strax moved away from the door, looking at the group with a new purpose in his eyes. 'Actually... I have an idea,' Strax said with a smile...

[Inventory]

"I think this might help us," he said as he pulled a slightly broken sword out of the void. After all, it was 'indestructible,' but it no longer had even a trace of power.

"The Sword of Artorias... that's right," Frieren said. "If he was the one who modified the seal, he probably put something he trusted as a key. This sword is probably his greatest treasure." She concluded.

"That's exactly what I thought. Even though there is no longer an entire kingdom sealed here, that doesn't mean it's useless." Strax said and turned to the door, pointing the sword at it.

"Open."

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