The little prince sat on a rock high above the floor of the open chasm. Down below, a team of Earth Mancers, led by a burly, powerful man, continued to chip away at the earth.
The lower they went, the more difficult it was to use Earth Mana as they got closer to the core of the world.
Technically speaking, they were still a long distance away from the core of the world, being barely 30 meters or so beneath the surface. And yet, the difference was already striking.
The little prince's eyes suddenly narrowed as he pulled out something from his spatial ring. Once again, a miniature soul lamp had winked out… the very soul lamp of a familiar Mist Mancer.
A shadow popped up from the little prince's back, staring down over his shoulder.
"Prizdyl does not know how to listen to instructions, he never has. This is not your fault, prince."
Was it that the Mist Mancer hadn't listened to instructions? Or were their enemies more prepared than they knew?
In truth, the little prince didn't know much about Theron either. He was told to speak the words he had, so he had done so. Those that wanted this to happen were much more powerful than him, and it seemed that his father felt he was still too young to know the inner workings of such things.
"I feel like something will go wrong soon," the little prince said slowly.
The intuition of the little prince spoke for itself. In the entire Sangun Empire's younger generation, the only one with a sharper instinct for such things was the little prince's elder brother, the crown prince.
The words of the little prince had hardly fallen when howls began to reverberate through the tunnels.
Reacting immediately, the little prince stood to his feet.
"Impossible," the shadow said coldly. "The Alpha wouldn't be so stupid, not when the poison is still running through its veins. We should still have another three days."
The words of the shadow were very odd, almost as though he, a Gold Mancer, was afraid of a mere Quasi Gold beast.
"That only depends," the little prince replied.
As for what it depended on, they both knew. If the Alpha wanted to take the risk of ignoring everything and taking that final step, or it got close to both of their targets, it would mean trouble.
There was only one reason the Alpha would do this.
"Prizdyl made a mistake or overextended him… the noses of the hounds are too strong, and it's especially bad since they've smelt us all before. Prepare for battle."
Theron shot into the rock formations, his steps fast and light, but he also wasn't pushing himself as fast as possible. What he didn't expect was the surprise that came after just a few steps.
The sound of the tunnels was very peculiar. Theron could feel them reverberating back at him, forming into peak waves that made him feel as though his ears might burst, but then when he took another step, it would be as though there was no sound at all.
A frown furrowed his brows.
This had been happening since he stepped into the tunnels. It was similar to the methods of the Mist Mancer, and yet so much different at the same time.
It was like they used the same principles, but chose to apply them in different ways.
However, this confusion of Theron's only lasted for a moment before a realization overwhelmed him.
His steps came to a pause, the darkness of the cave unable to stop the glow of his blue eyes. He stood there for a long while, adjusting himself, changing his plans, and then assessing and reassessing the situation.
'… I see… so that's what I'm dealing with right now…'
There was a big difference between knowing that they were being targeted by what was likely another Empire, and knowing exactly which Empire that was.
It completely changed Theron's approach.
The Sangun Empire wasn't something that Theron knew much about. His information about things was very limited, mostly because he lacked the time.
However, now that he was going to be facing off against the adjacent Empires, he knew that he had to be on top of this game, so he had done a small bit of research on them before leaving…
At least enough to know the basics.
The Sangun Empire didn't have a particular affinity like the Nightingale or Firewings seemed to have. Instead, they were known for a very particular array of paths, all of which were related to Sound Mancy.
It could be said that regardless of the Mancer Path a member of the Sangun Empire was on, they would have some sort of sound-type technique to supplement it.
This was very odd to Theron because it didn't make sense. Sound Mancy was its own entity, so the insistence of following the path even when it wasn't the best option for your Mancer Path was peculiar. It was like if Theron insisted on becoming a glass cannon as a Water Mancer.
There was another reason this stuck out to Theron, and that was obviously because not long ago, he had had a discussion with Sadie about particularly powerful sound-type Clans…
The Harmon Clan and the Bell Clan.
For him to suddenly run into an enemy that also relied so heavily on sound, he was very curious…
He felt like he was being targeted from the very moment he stepped into this place, and then there was Sadie's words about his Galethunder Clan. If Sadie could figure it out, what about the Clans themselves?
Was this the retaliation for the death of Merchant Greycoat finally coming to collect?
Theron's eyes narrowed. Slowly, he pressed a palm against the walls of concentrated earth.
Could all of this be a facade to lure him into a trap?
No. How could they set something up so fast? Even he had only recently found out that he would be representing the Nightingale Empire.
In that case, there was definitely something down there.