Volume 5 Chapter 216: The Real Ancient Ayr City Hidden Behind The Mirror
Translator: The Light
Edits by Lord Immortal
Ancient Ayr City, which had been sleeping for more than three thousand years now, welcomed the largest group of visitors in history today. In the open space outside the said city, several black interdimensional doors opened, and hordes of skeleton soldiers and demon guards swarmed out.
Tens of thousands of skeleton soldiers combed through Ancient Ayr City like locusts. Bella and members of the Order of The Rose stayed in the vast expanse outside the city. Strange noises could be heard from time to time from inside. The cathedral in the center of the city was fixed with many mechanisms, and the skeleton soldiers were hard at work destroying them.
“Mistress Bella, as expected, this city... has been occupied for a long period by some unknown forces. Your activity this time just so happened to have clashed with that person... “
“Lolita, why are you wearing your armor? Didn’t I design a lot of beautiful skirts for you?! Do you not like them?”
“Mistress Bella, your designs are too elaborate. I refuse... You might as well get little Diaz, that Demon World Princess, to try them on.”
In charge of commanding the Demon Army was Lolita, one of Bella’s trusted aides. She was currently wearing black armor, concealing most of her skin, and Bella was somewhat disappointed. She wanted to see more of this devastating evil little loli.
With the advantage of numbers, even after losing thousands of cannon fodder skeleton soldiers, the Demon Army wholly occupied Ancient Ayr City. According to reports by the demons, the cathedral was empty. There weren’t even the remains of a corpse in the City of Norda.
The skeleton soldiers had discovered a large number of fresh footprints in the back gates of Ancient Ayr City, however. Judging from their size and age, they came from horses and earth dragons and had been left not long ago.
Bella speculated that Ogleria Academy’s Earth Knights were involved in this mysterious incident, in addition to the Ophelias Academy’s Sky Knights. This matter was rather complicated, and she wasn’t sure if the knights of Olsylvia Academy were in play as well.
For safety concerns, Bella kept the knights of the Order of The Rose in a safe place outside. She, Lisha, and Lolita went to explore the cathedral in the center of Ancient Ayr City.
Lisha had to go with her, and Bella couldn’t refuse her sister’s kindness, so she agreed to her request. The cathedral in the center of Ancient Ayr City was said to have been built more than three thousand years ago in memory of Knight King Ayden.
As Bella and her teammates walked along the long corridor of the nameless cathedral, they had the illusion of passing through thousands of years of time and space. The decorations in the cathedral were so new, it was almost frightening, just like it had been built only yesterday.
Along the way, the skeleton soldiers on patrol and high alert could be seen everywhere. The skeleton soldiers, who were originally representatives of evil, gave them an inexplicable sense of security in this mysterious and weird cathedral. The troops walking back and forth relieved Bella a lot. At least, it was all her “own people” here.
There was a huge mirror in the innermost portion of the cathedral. Mirrors were regarded as psychic artifacts, be it in the Other World or the previous world. The appearance of this big mirror in the cathedral was a bit strange, though. On top of that, it was covered by a grey cloth, which was full of dust. Compared with the relatively new cathedral, the sense of disharmony was palpable.
In front of the mirror stood dozens of skeleton soldiers, armed to the teeth and holding shields, carefully guarding against the large mirror. It seemed that the skeleton soldiers were instinctively aware of the strangeness of the whole situation.
When the skeleton soldiers saw Bella and the others approaching, they came forward to report the situation to Lolita in the secret language of demons. Initially, when this mirror was first discovered, it wasn’t covered with this grey cloth.
Among the skeleton soldiers who found this mirror at the time, the ones closest to it were pulled inside by a mysterious force and disappeared. Under the orders of the commander of the Demon Army and the Dark Wizard, the skeleton soldiers covered the mirror with this grey cloth afterward.
“Your excellencies, according to my guess, this mirror is connected to another world. A large part of this hidden inner space is sealed in the world inside the mirror.”
“Can you remove the grey cloth? I want to see the hidden world.”
“Of course, please wait for a moment. The stuff is already here, and we will be done soon.”
The Dark Wizards of the Demon Army directed the skeleton soldiers to bring another mirror about the size of the present one and place it in front of it, meanwhile explaining the abnormality of this mirror to Bella.
After placing the mirror, the skeleton soldiers pulled away the grey cloth. Bella finally saw the world on the other side. Sure enough, the cathedral in the mirror looked dilapidated. Compared with the world outside of the mirror, it was at least a few decades older.
Bella walked to the front of the mirror; it didn’t reflect Bella and the others at all. Although it was a mirror, it felt more like an interdimensional gate. Bella held out her hand and tried to touch the surface of the mirror, only for it to penetrate directly into the mirror.
“So this is actually a door. Let me go in and have a look. Lolita, you and... Alright then, Lolita, you help keep an eye on my Rose Knights outside. I’ll hand their safety over to you. Lisha and I will go in and take a gander.”
Lisha had already grabbed Bella’s other hand, clearly gesturing that she wanted to follow her in. She didn’t trust Bella to go in alone for fear of an accident.
Except for Lolita, Lisha was the strongest among the girls here. Besides, Bella had no reason to refuse, so she had to go along with her wishes eventually.
The Ancient Ayr City on this side of the mirror looked like the real Ancient Ayr City, and this door opened in a forge near the gates of the city. When they exited, they found some broken skeletons on the ground, which was probably the skeleton soldiers who had been killed when they came in to find out more.
“You’ve worked hard. The Darkness Sacred Region will remember your contribution.”
Bella held out her hand and gently pressed it onto the skull of the skeleton remains, which was the Demon King’s affirmation of her subordinates. After Bella’s prayer, the skeletons gradually evaporated and disappeared into a wisp of white smoke. With the Demon King’s affirmation, they were finally at peace.
When Bella turned around to examine the mirror in this world, she found the runes of the seal of the Radiant Church around the mirror. The runes were originally pasted onto the mirror. But because much of the rune paper had decayed over time, the channel in this mirror had been opened.
Bella’s skeleton soldiers were killed by the runes left behind by the Radiant Church. The long-decayed rune paper had a great deal of vestigial Holy power. Even after more than three thousand years, the skeleton soldiers could still be easily eliminated. By the looks of it, when the channel in the mirror was sealed at the beginning, it took a lot of energy.
The runes had long decayed, and the handwriting on them couldn’t be seen clearly, so she didn’t know which generation of Radiant Popes had left them. On the rune of the seal, the insignia of the Radiant Pope was faintly visible, symbolizing the unique mark of the Radiant Pope.
“Lisha, there’s... What’s wrong with you? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine... Older sister Bella, I feel an inexplicable sense of oppression here. This seems to be a forbidden zone. Thus, it’s not convenient for my real form to come out. She said that there’s a restriction for dragons in this area.”
Lisha’s originally ruddy complexion suddenly became extremely pale. She laid one hand on her chest, obviously hating it here.
The dragon prohibition area was said to be the nightmare of Dragon Knights because they couldn’t summon their mounts in this stretch. Unfortunately, such a space was last seen more than three thousand years ago and then mysteriously vanished in the long river of history. As to why it disappeared, that wasn’t mentioned in the history books of the various Human Empires.
Lisha was in the open space near the mirror, drawing the teleportation magic array in case of an emergency. After that, she took Bella by the hand, and the two of them walked carefully outside of the forge.
Bella peered outside through the blacksmith’s locked door. Judging from the architectural style, this was also Ancient Ayr City. However, it seemed much more real than its counterpart on the opposite side of the mirror.
The ruins of this three-thousand-year-old city were long crumbling, abandoned streets and houses with broken eaves and tiles littered everywhere. Besides the forge, which was relatively undamaged, the entire Ancient Ayr City was in shambles. Even what used to be the strongest city walls had now collapsed, leaving only a single gate standing alone on the ground.
There was also the mysterious cathedral in the center of Ancient Ayr City. The gates of the cathedral were open, and just like the forge, it was well preserved.
The sound of heavy footsteps suddenly filled the formerly quiet, abandoned streets. Bella and Lisha immediately held their breath. Looking through the crack in the door, the source of the footsteps was soon determined.
It was a solitary Terror Knight in black armor, riding on the back of a giant demonic bull over six meters tall. This knight felt like an enlarged version of a demon. The average height in the Other World was more than two meters; however, this Terror Knight was nearly four meters. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he was a giant.
The knight had a malevolent mummified face. The location of its eyes had long collapsed, leaving only two black holes. He was armed with a six-meter long knight’s pike, a three-meter long shield, and wore a large crown on his head.
“The Protector’s Crown? Could this guy be Knight King Ayden?! Is Knight King Ayden a giant...”
Bella saw the inscription of the Radiant Church on the crown. The passage of thousands of years had left its mark on the crown, though. The crown originally made of pure gold had lost much of its golden luster.
In the legend of Knight King Ayden, this hero’s mount was a dragon. There was no reason he would change his mount to a demonic bull after being corrupted. This was such a loss; the exchange of the dragon for a bull was surely a pity.
After observing for a while, Bella found that the corrupted King Ayden had no intelligence. He would only patrol the area outside the cathedral and looked more like the BOSS stationed in a certain area in a game.
Not only did the corrupted King Ayden lack intelligence, but even his mount, the dark purple demonic bull, didn’t seem aware. It regularly patrolled the ruins of Ancient Ayr City with Knight King Aiden.
Since the other party didn’t have any intelligence, Bella and Lisha felt much less pressure. They slipped out of the forge and walked to the cathedral. Along the way, they escaped several patrols by the corrupted Knight King Ayden by hiding under the shelter of nearby building debris.
Under Lisha’s persuasion, Bella temporarily gave up the idea of beheading Knight King Ayden. The greedy and lustful female Demon King was obviously interested in the golden crown on the corrupted knight’s head. If Lisha hadn’t stopped her in time, the corrupted Knight King Ayden might have become a “headless knight”.
There seemed to be other terrifying beings residing in the cathedral, at the tower in the highest part of the cathedral, to be more precise. There was a strange, huge, blood-red eyeball floating in the air, similar to the “Demonic Eye” in Bella’s Darkness Sacred Region. This massive eyeball was also a demonic object used for investigating.
Fortunately, the colossal eyeball’s attention was mainly focused on the corrupted Knight King Ayden, and it didn’t pay much attention to Bella and Lisha. As a result, they easily escaped several rounds of the eyeball’s scans. Its primary function was probably to monitor the corrupted Knight King Ayden.
In the mysterious cathedral, there was a large number of moving white figures. They weren’t Departed Spirits since they were physical entities. Seeing them, Bella and Lisha hid in the ruins of the building gate. Even the two “villain Bosses” couldn’t tell the origin of these strange demons.
The white figures didn’t have faces. As they moved inside the cathedral, the duo could hear footsteps similar to those of people. Bella hesitated before taking out a summoning drawing from Summoner Shirley and threw it at the church’s doors.
A dazzling light came from the summoning drawing. After that, a demonic grey wolf appeared. It was a Class D demonic beast and knew how to use magic attacks. After seeing these mysterious demonic beings, however, the fierce demonic wolf trembled with fear and even forgot that it could use magic attacks.
The grey wolf, who had no choice but to flee, was caught by a white figure, which suddenly turned into a hollow shadow and covered the poor beast like a piece of white blanket. After struggling for a while, the grey wolf melted away.
Bella was prepared to conclude that this demonic beast had been eaten alive by the white figure. Looking at the scene where there was only a little fur left but no bones on the ground, she finally understood what had happened to the armor left on the floor of Ancient Ayr City on the other side of the mirror.
The living, like the grey wolf, were probably eaten alive by these white figures. There were no bones left, so the armor escaped their hunger because they couldn’t eat it.
Bella felt her scalp tingle. It was hard to imagine what a horrible night the people of Ancient Ayr City had experienced that night more than three thousand years ago. These white shadows entered the city, and the knights guarding the city were eaten one by one. All that remained was their armor, which silently told the story of the terrors that had taken place here that night.
Where Bella and Lisha were hiding, many of the white demonic beings appeared for no reason. Lisha was almost so scared that she shouted, but Bella responded promptly and covered her little mouth before she could do so.
When the demons passed by Bella and Lisha, it seemed as if they hadn’t been found. The white demons didn’t have faces and naturally had no eyes. They seemed to regard Bella and Lisha as obstacles part of the building and automatically avoided them when they left.
These white demons, also known as “White Devourers”, would be mutated demons, if they were to classify them by camps. They had no intelligence and lacked visual perceptions. The basis for attacking prey was the taste of the living soul. They could smell the souls of the humans and Beastmen of this world.
Bella and Lisha technically did not belong to this plane; they were both transmigrators. The soul of the original owner of their bodies had long disappeared, so the “White Devourers” naturally treated them as buildings because they couldn’t smell the soul of their previous masters.
Bella and Lisha carefully moved into the cathedral. After several attempts to make sure that the white demons couldn’t perceive them, only then did Bella and Lisha hesitantly move inside.
The scene where the grey wolf was devoured by the white figure had left a psychological shadow on Lisha and Bella. The two looked around carefully, scrutinizing their surroundings. The white figures, who moved past them as if nothing had happened, were causing them a great deal of stress.
Bella quietly quickened her pace, a little worried about the students who had disappeared here. She was very afraid that they had been eaten by the white figures. Forget about the others, but if something were to happen to Crimson Knight Elise, Blood Demon King Eleanor would be devastated.
Besides the white figures wandering back and forth in the long hall of the cathedral, there was also a large mirror hanging on the walls on both sides. Bella was a little wary about mirrors now. She didn’t dare to look at them for fear that there was something wrong with the mirrors here.
“Older sister Bella, look at the picture in the mirror. Isn’t that Shawn?”
At Lisha’s prompt, Bella reluctantly looked at the mirror. The image on it made Bella somewhat surprised. In that mirror, she could see the figures of the male knights of Olsylvia Academy.
On the other side of the mirror, the boys from Olsylvia Academy were hunting a large Class A demonic beast, the Great Forest Ape. Dragon Knight Shawn and God Chosen Knight Scott appeared in the picture. They were currently leading their team.
Additionally, in the other mirrors in the long hall, there were the images of the knights of Ogleria Academy and Ophelias Academy hunting, which almost looked like video replays. The only thing that seemed off to Bella was the fact that she hadn’t seen Crimson Knight Elise and Styx Knight Stacey when her eyes had swept past all the mirrors.