Chapter 379

"I have searched the Tower of the Four Kings thoroughly. But there do not seem to be any clues that you would want to know."

Chris nodded his head.

If Idrinne could not find it, then it truly must not be there.

"Still, let's look one more time."

He climbed the tower, which overlooked the Four Kings' Castle at a glance.

He looked over it again, but no particular materials could be seen.

‘Was the Lord of the Four Kings' Castle just a puppet in the end?’

Chris clicked his tongue.

It seemed he had known nothing of the true secrets related to the fate of this world.

‘Still, I thought there would be some kind of clue.’

The only meaningful clue he had obtained was just one.

That it was the Magus Chancellor who had handed the Demon King of Silver Snow over to the Lord of the Four Kings' Castle.

‘As expected, the Center is behind everything that is happening right now.’

Chris frowned.

What on earth was the purpose of the Center?

Gehenna and the Celestial Realm were just as questionable. He could not guess what schemes they were all plotting.

Above all.

‘Who was it that made me regress?’

Right.

Of all the questions, this was the most important.

Who? For what purpose? Had made him regress.

For some reason, it felt as if he would be able to find the clue to everything only if he knew this answer.

‘In the end, do I have to bring down the Mystic Demonic House to reach the truth?’

The Mystic Demonic House was a tool that the devils of Gehenna directly controlled.

There was a high possibility that they knew all the truth.

‘…Right now, I’m in a situation where I don’t even know what exactly the Mystic Demonic House is plotting.’

It was a complete mystery as to what method the whelps of the Mystic Demonic House would use to bring about the Age of Ruin, and what the ‘Gate’ the Pope had mentioned a while ago was.

‘How frustrating.’

He had brought down his sworn enemy, the Four Kings' Castle, but instead of anything being resolved, he only felt a sense of helplessness.

‘I must obtain a clue here. There must be something that will be of help.’

It was then that a single object came into his view.

"Is this the communication device the Lord of the Four Kings' Castle used to use?"

"That is so. Though it has lost its function, having been automatically destroyed for security."

Chris, hmm, folded his arms.

The fact that it had an automatic destruction function meant that it was a communication device used for an important purpose.

The faint feeling of Evil Energy seemed to indicate that it was a communication device used with the Mystic Demonic House.

‘The contents of the communication would, of course, be completely erased.’

Traces of Demonic Energy and Evil Energy having been exchanged here and there remained.

Of course, they were just meaningless dregs.

At a level where only a few stone fragments remained in the completely ruined debris.

‘Still, it’s not completely meaningless.’

Paat!

Chris analyzed the traces of Demonic Energy remaining on the communication device.

It was no different from guessing the original form of a building with only the scattered fragments, but with his extreme computational power, he succeeded in reverse-calculating the countless number of cases and specifying some words in the traces of the communication device.

“The true vessel? Were they talking about me?”

Chris frowned.

He focused his mind even more and obtained additional information from the surrounding traces.

“…‘The double-edged key’?”

He guessed it was a story about him.

‘What does it mean? A double-edged key?’

He could no longer obtain any clues from the surrounding context.

As he wandered further, he found another word instead.

“The Underground Garden?”

Chris tilted his head.

It was a word that had popped up out of the blue.

‘It’s the name of the ruins in the territory of the Destruction Demonic House. Why did the Lord of the Four Kings' Castle and the Mystic Demonic House mention this in their communication?’

It was a ruin he had visited in both his past life and this life.

‘It’s the place where I first met Kashmir before I became a Grand Duke.’

A place he had gone to due to the scheme of ‘Eun Seol-hwa’, the birth mother of the third prince, Maisak, during the dispute for the position of Grand Duke.

It was a place also called the ‘Garden of Training’, where a magical beast appropriate for each floor would appear.

At that time, Chris had faced a devil of the 4th realm on the 27th floor.

‘It wasn’t a real devil, but a replicated one.’

He had made him realize that he was not a true being, but a replicated fake, and had annihilated him.

Though, he would have been newly replicated again by now.

Chris folded his arms.

‘I did think the Underground Garden was suspicious at that time, too.’

A devil of the 4th realm, no less.

A ‘great class’ that could not be compared to an ordinary noble class.

To replicate such a being and trap it as a magical beast of a ruin.

Who in the world had done such a thing?

‘It would be impossible for anyone other than those of the 3rd realm.’

Those of the 1st and 2nd realms were no different from the laws of the world, so they were out of the question.

‘The Great Devils of the 3rd realm of Gehenna? No. It wasn’t just evil magical beasts that were in the Underground Garden. There were also beings of light.’

As Chris felt it, the Underground Garden was a joint work in which the hands of both Gehenna and the Celestial Realm were imbued.

The problem was the reason.

Why had the transcendent beings of Gehenna and the Celestial Realm joined forces to create such a strange ruin?

‘And why did the Lord of the Four Kings' Castle and the Mystic Demonic House mention the Underground Garden?’

In that moment, a single guess brushed past his spine.

‘Don’t tell me, the thing called the ‘Gate’ is?’

He swallowed hard.

‘It’s not like the Underground Garden is the only ruin of its kind in the world.’

There were all sorts of strange ruins in the world.

Most were ancient traces, but there were also some ruins, like the Underground Garden, whose identity and origin were unknown.

The common feature of such ruins was that they were endlessly deep, and beings that defied common sense were positioned as ‘guardians’.

‘Also, the traces of Gehenna and the Celestial Realm are simultaneously imbued in them.’

"Do you happen to have a map?"

"Ah, here you are."

As befitting the office of the Lord of the Four Kings' Castle, there was a map of the entire continent.

Chris picked up a pen and, with a quick hand, marked the locations of the ruins he had just recalled.

Having worked as a ruin tomb raider in his past life, he was well-versed in the ruins of the entire continent.

Chris swallowed hard.

"…A magic circle."

Connecting the dots of the ruins, a geometric line of a distinct shape was drawn.

'A magic circle manifested through the ruins. This is the true identity of the Gate.'

A chill ran down his spine.

'If this magic circle is activated, a terrible Age of Ruin, incomparable to that of my past life, will arrive.'

In his past life, the Demon King of Dead Blood had caused a slaughter across the entire continent and had broken down the boundary of the three realms with that chaotic energy.

However, since he had not completely broken it down, there were limitations on the descent of high-class beings of a certain level or higher to the surface.

It had ended with the limited intrusion of the celestial race, the demon race, low-class devils, and constellations.

But this time, it was different.

'If the magic circle with these ruins as its axis is activated, the boundary of the three realms will be completely blown away.'

That meant that even high-class beings would be able to descend to the surface without any limitations.

It was no different from the end of the world.

However, there was one question.

'Why didn't they use this method in my past life? This would be the more perfect Age of Ruin that the whelps of the Mystic Demonic House desire.'

Chris bit his lip.

There was only one possibility.

'In my past life, it was impossible to use this method. In this life, a possible method has emerged.'

He had to stop it.

'It's not too late yet.'

Chris looked at the map.

If the lines connecting these ruins were a magic circle, then there must be a point that was the most crucial.

'The Glass Lake in the Gray Zone?'

It was a secretly hidden, scenic place unknown to the general public.

A lake with water as transparent as glass.

'It's not a natural lake, but an artificial one. It's a ruin.'

In his past life, he had challenged it and had almost died, so he knew it well.

'Which faction's territory is the Glass Lake in now? The Sword Mastery Noble House? The Dark King?'

The Gray Zone.

A place where all sorts of various factions ran rampant without any particular country.

Among them, the most powerful faction was, by far, the Sword Mastery Noble House.

'In truth, the Sword Mastery Noble House is only located in the Gray Zone, but it's a faction on a different level from the others in the Gray Zone.'

Even if all the other factions in the Gray Zone were combined, they would not be a match for the Sword Mastery Noble House alone.

It was only because the Sword Mastery Noble House was not particularly interested in conquering the Gray Zone that the other factions could run rampant.

However, there was an existence that even the Sword Mastery Noble House could not easily ignore.

The Dark King.

He was a Sacred One.

And a real low 9-Star at that.

Currently, there was no 9-Star transcendent state in the Sword Mastery Noble House, so they could not easily face the Dark King.

'Which of the two did the Glass Lake belong to? The territory structure in the Gray Zone keeps changing.'

It was then that Chris recalled a certain fact.

Besides the Sword Mastery Noble House and the Dark King, there was one more faction.

And it was near the Glass Lake.

"…Don't tell me?"

It was the moment he frowned, feeling an inexplicable sense of unease.

Suddenly, a loud voice was heard.

"Grand Duke Christian, please save me!!!"

As he turned his head, a familiar face had appeared.

A woman whose face was beautiful, but whose loudness, which completely overshadowed her pretty appearance, was her characteristic.

It was the money-grubber, Ruina.

"It's a disaster! I'm about to die!!"

As if it were an urgent situation, she grabbed Christian's hand. Her appearance was also that of a beggar.

But Ruina could not continue her words.

Clang!

Idrinne had aimed her sword.

"How dare you grab my friend Christian's hand. Do you want to die? Or should I chop off your fingers one by one, joint by joint, and then cut off your wrist as well?"

"……."

Chris let out a dry cough.

Sometimes, he couldn't tell if Idrinne was a good person or not.

"That's enough. Ruina, what is it?"

He asked, having a guess.

"Did something happen to the Glass Lake?"

Ruina was no longer just a mere merchant guild master.

She was the queen of the newly revived Opalma Kingdom in the Gray Zone.

…Though Ruina as a queen was truly unfitting.

'The Glass Lake was also in the territory of the Opalma Kingdom.'

The Karn Empire, the Golden Cross, and the Holy Empire had acknowledged the territory of the former Opalma Kingdom.

Since it was a place where there were no particular factions within the Gray Zone, she had been able to reclaim the territory without much trouble.

As for places like the Glass Lake, which had been occupied by other factions, she had paid a price and had received concessions from each faction.

Afterward, she had gathered the wandering people of the Opalma Kingdom who had been wandering aimlessly as gypsies and was in the middle of rebuilding the kingdom.

'If the Mystic Demonic House starts to make a move on the Glass Lake, there's no way Ruina can handle it.'

Chris nodded his head.

'I'll have to gather the forces of the Alliance.'

One fortunate thing was that Chris, as the Hero, already had most of the forces of the Alliance under his feet.

Even if the opponent was the Mystic Demonic House, he could respond as much as he wanted.

But Ruina said something unexpected.

"No. The Glass Lake, why all of a sudden? There's no problem there."

"…Then why did you come?"

A completely unexpected answer flowed from Ruina's mouth.

"The Sword Mastery Noble House has declared war on our Opalma Kingdom!!"

"!!"

At the sudden story, Chris's eyes widened in surprise.

'The Sword Mastery Noble House, why all of a sudden?'

Right now, the Sword Mastery Noble House was supposed to be in the middle of a power struggle within the family, with no time to spare.

No, aside from that, as mentioned before, the Sword Mastery Noble House was not interested in the Gray Zone.

"…What did you do to the Sword Mastery Noble House?"

"Wh-what do you mean, what did I do!"

"Because there's no way the Sword Mastery Noble House would declare war if you had been quiet."

"Absolutely not! Am I crazy? To mess with the Sword Mastery Noble House?! I didn't even go near that side, but they suddenly declared war. And the Dark King, too!!"