Chapter 175

Illuminaria. It was the name of the spirit who had taken Mariela to the ley line two hundred years ago. Why had Mariela forgotten it until now? Where had the spirit been all this time, and why had she come here now? Although Mariela was full of questions, the rest of the group, still unsure who this person actually was, prevented her from asking any further. The girl standing in the moonlight, the spirit Illuminaria, stared at the girl who knew her name. She smiled happily but didn’t make a motion to speak. The curious woman didn’t appear to understand the many questions of the others. However, she quietly held out her hands, which had been clasped together at her chest, and showed Mariela what she had been carefully holding. It was a bowl-like object in the shape of a flower, but all the tips of the petals were chipped. So many cracks ran through it that it was a wonder the thing hadn’t broken. “Is that the seven-petaled flower bowl…?” Mariela recalled the vessel. It was the flower she had found with Illuminaria back when she went to the Spirit Sanctuary to make a Pact with the ley line. Although it had definitely been a plant when Mariela found it; when Illuminaria had cupped it in both hands and lifted it up, it became a flower-shaped vessel. Illuminaria didn’t seem to understand Mariela’s question, however. “Mariela, you can’t communicate with her. She probably survived the Stampede thanks to that vessel. She was able to hide in it because she was a newly sprouted seedling.” Freyja had taken it upon herself to explain the situation in place of the silent spirit. Mariela didn’t know what kind of meaning the seven-petaled flower vessel had to spirits, but if it had saved Illuminaria, then Mariela was thankful she and Illuminaria had found it together. Perhaps the flower-shaped object was precious to the mysterious spirit—battered and cracked though it was—as she carefully enfolded it in both hands once more, and then she turned toward the young alchemist and the others, spreading her hands. The seven-petaled flower vessel became particles of light that danced and wafted lightly, like dandelion fuzz, and spread out from Illuminaria’s hands into the room. The diffused drops of light softly and slowly drifted downward like sparkling, dancing snow. Although Mariela and the others should have been in Sunlight’s Canopy, they suddenly found themselves floating in a place as dark as the sea at night. “This place… When I was going toward the ley line…” When Mariela separated from her body two hundred years ago, she had followed Illuminaria and dived into this place. Back then, the light of the ley line could be seen from far away. This time, however, Mariela and the others didn’t dive into the ley line. The biggest difference was that everyone was complete and still in their own bodies. “This is the world Illuminaria sees…” At Mariela’s mumblings, Sieg, Leonhardt, and the others, grasped the situation and calmly surveyed their surroundings. Seeing it for the second time made it no less beautiful. Mariela took in the scenery with the others. Even now, free-flowing particles of light rose up from and returned to the ley line. Far below their feet was a gentle light that had once welcomed the young alchemist as if enveloping her up. …Huh? What is this? I feel a little uncomfortable… Mariela experienced a slight sense of unease. This was supposed to be a warm place that welcomed one and all without discrimination. Yet she somehow had a sensation of estrangement. It was a discomforting atmosphere, like being surrounded by a crowd that was keeping their distance, or ostracized. When she looked at Illuminaria with an expression asking what it all meant, the green-haired spirit pointed to a spot deep in the ley line. That’s where I made my Pact… Mariela stared in the direction of the light. Sieg and the others also stood motionless, eyes fixed at that single point in the ley line. When she was young, Illuminaria had led Mariela to that innermost place. There, enveloped in light, she’d met a certain someone. She wasn’t sure, but the young alchemist got the feeling that the “someone” wasn’t an embodiment of the ley line, but rather something like a warden. An existence that served as a go-between for the ley line and the surface. The ley line was energy itself, and no consciousness existed there. But when that person had told the young alchemist their name, she’d felt they held humans, animals, the world—everything—dearly. When she connected her Nexus, warm thoughts had flowed into her. Mariela sifted through her mind to recall the name of the being she’d encountered. Almost on reflex, the story she’d overheard Emily and the other children reading came to mind. Mariela finally understood who she’d encountered two hundred years ago. Curiously, once the Mariela realized who she’d met in the ley line those many years ago, she could almost see a woman’s figure where she had only ever seen light before. It was her. The feeling swelled in the girl, and the image of the previously unknown being came into focus. That beautiful form belonged to… “How… Why… Endalsia is…” When Mariela called the name, she and the others promptly found themselves standing back in Sunlight’s Canopy. The light of the moon had vanished back behind the clouds. The inside of Sunlight’s Canopy was dark, save for the sparse magical tools for illumination and the light of the small, formless spirits. Illuminaria had vanished as well. The gathered seven stood in silence, as if nothing had happened. “Freyja, Sage of Calamity, I take it you called us here to show us that. However…I believe we are owed an explanation.” It was Leonhardt who first broke the silence. There were many questions he felt needed answering. What was this Spirit Eye that had summoned the mysterious dancing spirits? Who was this Illuminaria, and where had she disappeared to? Those things were trivialized by the question Leonhardt really should have been asking. He and his brother were the sovereigns of the Labyrinth City, part of a family that would defeat the Labyrinth, and there was something the two needed to know. Freyja calmly smiled, then turned to the formerly one-eyed hunter. “Sieg, you could probably see it well with your eye. Someone with a Spirit Eye like you probably knows who she is. Go on, enlighten them.” Now the subject of the conversation, Sieg had turned a bit pale with all the things his eye had laid bare before him so quickly. He looked at Mariela, then faced Leonhardt. “That… The presence in the ley line was most likely the spirit, Endalsia. She…” The man paused, as if he was afraid to continue. Mariela took his hand. Perhaps she, too, was afraid to hear what the hunter had to say. Leonhardt and Weishardt listened intently. Nierenberg had been silent throughout the entire ordeal. Robert was quiet as well. All of them had seen Endalsia’s condition with their own eyes. Even if Sieg didn’t continue, they knew what he would say. They just didn’t want to accept it. “She… Endalsia…was devoured.” That which swallowed the queen of the spirits—and tried to replace her entire existence as the guardian of the ley line—was likely the boss of the Labyrinth. On the day of the Stampede, now two centuries past, the monsters who slaughtered and ate the Kingdom of Endalsia’s people then partook of one another. The single monster remaining at the end swallowed the spirit of the ley line. The Labyrinth was born from the ruins of the kingdom. This story of the fall of the Kingdom of Endalsia had been passed throughout the years as a children’s fable. However, the seven had just been presented with evidence that suggested the fairy tale was far more factual than anyone had ever suspected. Endalsia was a spirit, and moreover, the guardian of the ley line. Being eaten by a monster wasn’t enough to erase her existence; her life wasn’t so easily snuffed out like that of a human’s. The fiend that had devoured the queen of the spirits and become the boss of the Labyrinth had been eating its way farther and deeper underground for two hundred years. The growth of the Labyrinth wasn’t just a physical increase in the number of strata. It was an incursion into the ley line to fully absorb the existence of its previous guardian and supplant her. Endalsia wasn’t yet entirely gone. She’d gazed motionlessly at Sieg with her single left eye. There was so little remaining of her that it looked like she could disappear at any moment, but her gentle face seemed full of love and even joy at the growth of her beloved child. However, if the master of the Labyrinth achieved its goal… “So this is why the Labyrinth exceeded fifty strata…?” Weishardt was at a loss for words. “If the Labyrinth boss becomes the guardian…” Endalsia loved every living thing equally. People, animals, even monsters. In their vision of the ley line, Mariela and the others had felt uneasy. It was the remnants of hatred against humans. Monsters couldn’t coexist with humans. If that thing took control then, surely… “People won’t be able to live in this land anymore.” Freyja quietly spoke the words no one else could bring themselves to say. Endalsia was on the verge of being consumed, her existence barely more than a candle flame before a storm. Leonhardt, Weishardt, and indeed all who dwelled in the Labyrinth City no longer had the luxury of time. It was a revelation that weighed heavy on all their minds, overshadowing the beauty of the miraculous vision they’d all been granted.