Chapter 1052 Anticipating Actions
Ever since the coffin was destroyed, Izroth felt that something was off.
He knew that since he completed the quest and received its rewards that the Night Lord Zarolas' revival had been successfully stopped. He also understood the impending danger of allowing the spatial rift to finish stabilizing. However, there was this nagging feeling constantly ringing in the back of his mind—a warning that something was not right. It was not his Soul Sense giving this sensation; rather, it was the result of his natural intuition. And, so far, it's always done him more good than harm not to ignore it. The problem was that there was not a lot of time left to dig any further than what appeared on the surface level.
'At its current rate of absorption, we have less than one minute until it finishes consuming the energy in the chamber. Then... Why is it not showing up?'
Izroth closed his eyes as he entered a state of deep contemplation.
To Izroth, it did not make sense. He received a quest to stop the Night Lord Zarolas' revival. So, why would he not obtain one when an army of hundreds of thousands of shadahis was on the verge of overrunning the Mortal Realm? An event of that magnitude was certainly several times more threatening than any single Night Lord could ever be and would throw the Mortal Realm into a state of total chaos.
'What am I missing?'
Izroth dwelled further into his thoughts as he swiftly replayed, in his mind, everything that transpired from the moment the assault on the Night Lord's Crypt started all the way up until this very point.
Suddenly, Izroth's eyes shot open as his gaze moved to the shadahi bound to the huge stone-like pillar within the sea of shadahis on the other side of the spatial rift.
Although it was difficult to see due to how far away the shadahi appeared, Izroth managed to catch a glimpse of it—the horrifying grin of that existence as if everything were moving according to its will.
'I see. So this was your plan all along. Creating such an elaborate trap from another realm away... It's no wonder the system didn't hand me a second quest. To think that it was hidden so deeply to that point that even I almost fell for it. I thought the shadahis were creatures only capable of destroying what was in their path. However, it would seem that they are also rather competent when it comes to scheming.'
Izroth finally understood the nagging feeling at the back of his mind.
Even though more than enough time had passed since they stepped foot into the chamber and the coffin had been destroyed, strangely, there were still no signs of reinforcements from the skounae's side. It was almost as if they were completely oblivious to what was going on inside the Night Lord's Crypt itself. But, this should not be the case considering the amount of importance they placed on a Night Lord's revival.
Izroth did not believe that the skounae were idiotic enough to blindly entrust the protection of the coffin to a single Duke and a Marquis.
As for having total faith in the shadahis within the chamber—Izroth found this to be even more unlikely after he witnessed the restrictions set in place by the skounae to maintain control over the spatial rift's rate of expansion.
They trusted the shadahi enough to guard Zarolas' coffin while simultaneously putting restrictions in place against them? It did not add up.
Earlier, Lances mentioned how the mysterious corridor was being protected by a life seal. That life seal was linked to a specific individual linked who would be informed of their presence the moment they chose to mess with it.
After sensing the aura of the shadahi through the mysterious corridor, initially, Izroth speculated that perhaps the individual linked to the life seal was a shadahi located on the other side of the corridor. If it were done that way, it would be almost impossible for most people to even dream of finding a way to make it past the mysterious corridor's safeguard.
Of course, Izroth had already confirmed that was not the case based on recent events. However, it still left an important question—where was the individual who was linked to the life seal, and why had they not yet arrived?
Unless that person was someone with an unforgivable grudge against Zarolas, it was inconceivable for them to sit back and let things unravel to this point.
Besides, since Izroth deemed that a shadahi was not linked to the life seal, that only left the other Night Lords and the Night King as the apparent options.
Needless to say, the Night King was out of the question. If the Night King wanted Zarolas dead, all they had to do was say the word and Zarolas would have happily handed over his life to fulfill the Night King's wishes.
Izroth was unclear about the relationship between the Night Lords and whether they got along or not; however, he did know that they could not go against the Night King's will. Naturally, this included doing things that could be considered an indirect attack on them—such as allowing one of their most loyal and powerful servants to perish.
'The reason I never received a new quest from the system to stop the spatial rift from stabilizing is that it's unnecessary. The moment the coffin was destroyed, this spatial rift—its collapse was already unavoidable.'
Izroth inwardly shook his head as he exited out of the event shop window and closed the system interface.
Izroth had almost been thoroughly deceived due to how well the other side played their hand towards the end. However, he was able to see through their intentions before he ended up making a monumental misstep.
Izroth, or anyone else for that matter, attempting to seal the spatial rift was exactly what the other party was hoping for. The spatial rift drawing in massive amounts of energy while expanding and the shadahis sudden surge in bloodlust gave off the impression that it was stabilizing and they wanted to guard it at all costs. But, even the unusual behavior of the shadahis was a part of that existence's plan.
They created a situation where one was forced to act as quickly as possible while exercising a crucial judgment call with all the information they had been provided. Or, to be more exact, rather than calling it provided, it was more akin to being force-fed half-truths of information.
In the end, everyone faced with the same choice as Izroth would have arrived at the same conclusion that he originally did—the spatial rift must be sealed regardless of price.
However, that would prove to be a fatal mistake. Not just for those within the chamber but the entire Mortal Realm.
In truth, the existence on the other side of the portal was hoping for someone to attempt to mess with the space surrounding it. That's because the spatial rift was not actually expanding and forming a portal to link the Shadahi Realm to the Mortal Realm, but it was taking its last breath.
If someone did attempt to manipulate the space, it would create a small window of opportunity for the existence on the other side to take action.
Izroth only managed to notice this not only because of his intuition but also his familiarity with high-level spatial magic.
Izroth himself had no experience using such spatial magic in RML; however, he had witnessed firsthand the isolated space created by the Wiseman of Everpeak Kryxelsia. During the time he visited that place, Izroth realized the way spatial magic worked in RML was on two principles—connecting and influencing.
One could connect and influence space to a certain degree; however, to fully control it was a near impossibility. However, even being able to do something as connecting and influencing space was a delicate thing. If someone made the wrong move, to those who had great knowledge regarding spatial manipulation, it would provide them with a great advantage.
In Izroth's eyes, there was no doubt in his mind that the existence on the other side of the spatial rift specialized in spatial magic. The instant he moved to seal the space and "prevent" the spatial rift from forming, that existence would have used his actions to truly stabilize the spatial rift and create a pathway that linked both realms!