The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 144: The Core of the Magical Barrier

Chapter 144: The Core of the Magical Barrier

"Are you all okay?" Valerius asked as he looked at Skyler and his team with a pure innocent look on his ethereal-looking face. Not even the worst soul wandering through the woodlands could make themselves believe that the man was able to harm even an ant, let alone expertly punishing an entire group of people just because he was tired of their constant incompetence in helping him with the mission.

"Yeah... we are alright, My Lord." Skyler was the first one to get his bearing back as he signaled his men to follow and moved toward the podium.

"Good! Then let’s move, I think I found the entrance of the underground cave where the core of the ward is hidden." Valerius stated loud enough to get the attention of every single man present there and without even waiting for a single second, he stepped toward one of the five stone pillars that were built around the podium.

He sensed the group of men moving to stand behind him but miraculously, none of them started whispering this time even after he just made such a big statement.

Clearly, the credit for the deafening silence went to none other than Skyler whose glare had succeeded in keeping the mouths of the guards shut even though their insides were burning with curiosity and surprise.

Valerius placed one of his palms against the rune that was carved on the pillar and let his ice and air activate the rune. He felt the magic of the protection ward of the Seelie Realm accepting him as a friend and allowing him access to its core. His special connection with the ward had helped him throughout his way in his search for the core.

The pillar started disintegrating and it finally succeeded in causing a little chaos among tge guards but once again Skyler made all of them shut up. It wasn’t really the guards’ fault for being this hyped up, something that was hard to see during normal days. It wasn’t like they had ever walked outside Lakeshire Town in the past several centuries. The magic present around the Great Woodlands was causing them to act out of their usual ways.

A trapdoor appeared in place of the foot of the pillar that had completely disappeared, not even the debris was left after its disintegration.

"Ain’t this all too easy? The array got destroyed so easily and now, the ward gave access to its core without putting on any other fight, how come everything was easy?" Skyler couldn’t help but raise tge question as he looked at Valerius.

"If you think it was easy, we were probably lucky then." That was all that Valerius said in response before a single flick of his fingers caused the door of the trapdoor to fly open and what greeted them was pure darkness beneath waiting for them.

The first dark lord didn’t explain to Skyler and his men just how the ward showed him directions to the shortest route possible to the array. He didn’t explain just how much energy he lost while battling the array and he also didn’t explain that the only way to get access to the underground cave where the core of the ward was, was by getting acceptance from the magical ward itself.

He didn’t explain any of these because - first, it would have taken a lot of time and energy for him to answer all their questions and satisfy their curiosity, and second, because there was no need for him to explain anything to anyone, to begin with.

He was the first one to jump through the open trapdoor into the darkness. He didn’t wait to hear any further questions from the group of men not he gave them any confidence to jump into the hole that looked like an abyss.

His feet met the solid ground and he took out the moonstone that immediately filled the narrow alley of the cave. He moved aside right before Skyler fell from above and landed on the ground. "That was really something." The man whispered as he checked his leg to make sure that they were still working fine.

The rest of the guards followed suit and they all finally started making their way through the cave to find the place where the core of the magical ward was present. It took a while before they all finally found a huge clearing as the small alley of the cave suddenly opened into a huge cave room that seemed too magical to exist.

Beautiful spiritual vines were hanging from the high roof of the cave and were spread all across the walls. Hundreds of spiritual herbs and flowers were growing around the clearing. There were even a couple of spiritual fruit trees growing around the place and several small water flows were pouring down the walls and the water seemed to store in a small pond that was built between a huge bush of flowers surrounding it.

Fireflies and glittering butterflies were wandering over flowers and there were even little pixies peeking from behind the vines that hid their little frames, and in the middle of this beauty hung a huge glowing crystal that was hovering in mid-air.

"This is unreal," Skyler whispered and those were the words that seemed to resonate the true feelings and thoughts of almost every person that was present there to witness the beauty of the place, including Valerius.

"We have found the core, let’s finish our task and return." Valerius staed as he came out of the trance that had taken over him after his gaze landed on the beauty of the place.

The others also turned their attention toward the core and watched as Valerius took out the Spirit Mer Coral before he stepped closer to the magical core and while using his powers, he pushed the coral into the core.

A second or two passed as the core absorbed the magical energy of the Spirit Mer Coral before a powerful energy force shook not only the cave but the entire Great Woodlands as the strength of the Magical ward returned.