Advent of the Three Calamities - Chapter 271

Chapter 271: Angel of Sorrow [2]
“The Angel of Sorrow?”

The abrupt question took Atlas by surprise as his eyes narrowed for a brief moment. From his expression, he seemed to know something, and it was at this moment that I realized that I may have possibly slipped up.

‘No, it’s too late to regret.’

“….Yes.”

I kept my gaze firm as I looked at him in the eyes.

For some reason, he didn’t feel as suffocating as he did moments prior. Perhaps it was because of the vision that was taking over my entire attention, but I was able to stay relatively calm.

“…..”

His deep yellow eyes stared back at me, and as I looked into them, I found his image overlapped with the one I had seen in the vision.

Unlike now, his eyes were brighter.

….Different.

There was something more to his eyes back in the vision than his current eyes.

It was hard to describe, but they seemed more divine… otherworldly? It almost felt as though he was an angel that had descended from the sky. If that even made any sense… It almost seemed as though he was the sun himself.

“Hmmm.”

With a slight furrow of his brows, Atlas cocked his head gently. His long blonde hair fell to his shoulders as his head lifted to stare at the murals on the walls above.

The mural depicted a massive crack, behind which thousands of demonic creatures emerged, with a lone man standing in the middle, confronting them all. This was the origin story behind the foundation of Bremmer.

“Are you aware of the history behind Bremmer’s creation?”

“….I do.”

At least, I thought I did.

Now…? I wasn’t so sure anymore. The more I knew about the world, the more it appeared to be shrouded by a thin veil of mystery.

“Then you must be aware of the reason why Bremmer was built on this location.”

“….Because of the Mirror Crack.”

There were several locations where a Mirror Crack could be found in the Empire, but out of all the cracks present, the one that resided in Bremmer was by far the largest and most dangerous to have existed.

A long war occurred during that time period, and according to the history books, Bremmer was built upon the blood of its soldiers as they took control of the crack and stopped the monsters from invading.

This was the shortened history of the capital, and what I believed to have once been the truth…

“That’s correct.”

Atlas carefully said as his eyes traced the mural above.

“There’s a Mirror Crack residing right in this very building. One of the largest in the entire known world, and the place that you will soon enter.”

“…..”

“The Four Empire Summit will be held there, and while you may have entered the Mirror Dimension in the past, what you will see will be completely different from anything that you previously experienced. You will see, and feel things that you’ve never experienced before. You might even be a little thrown off at the start, but it shouldn’t be that much of an issue for you.”

“Is that so?”

Atlas looked at me with a thin smile on his lips.

“….You’ll see when you get there.”

“Ah.”

That didn’t seem very helpful…

“With regards to the Angel of Sorrow… It’s a famous statue.”

A statue?

I cocked my head curiously?

It certainly did seem that way in the vision, but at the same time, it also felt alive, especially in the last moments when my head appeared in its hands.

‘Was that even real…?’

I wasn’t so sure since I was staring right at my decapitated head instead of seeing directly from it.

….But I never truly understood the visions, so I wasn’t sure.

“It’s quite the famous statue. You’ll be able to find it once you enter the crack.”

Suddenly, his smile grew a little as he chuckled.

“….You won’t miss it when you enter. It’s quite easy to spot.”

I understood what he meant as I recalled the vision, but this wasn’t what I wanted to know.

“Is there anything else about it?”

“Why are you asking?”

“I heard some people talk about it. I thought it sounded interesting.”

“That makes sense.”

Shortly after that, he pressed his hand against my shoulder.

“I’m not sure how you learned about the statue, but there’s nothing to worry about.”

No, there is…

“It’s rather harmless. It’s been in the same spot ever since it’s been found, and nothing came out of it. I’d be more worried about other things instead of the statues.”

Atlas’s gaze scanned the surroundings, pausing on certain figures.

Then, lowering his head, he stared at me.

“Try your best in the upcoming Summit. I’ll be watching.”

Such were his last words before he left.

However, as I stood still, I found myself unable to tear my gaze away from his back. For some reason… I had a feeling that his words had a deeper meaning to them.

But what exactly did they mean?

***

The hall was filled with all sorts of foods and drinks, a lavish feast laid out on ornate tables, their metal covers gleaming under the dim light.

“…..”

Delilah stood by the corner with a deadpan expression.

To the outside, she looked regal and majestic, gathering the attention of all those present with her mere presence alone. She seemed like an untouchable existence.

A being with no fla—

“Slurp.”

Delilah wiped the corner of her mouth as her eyes quickly shifted toward the fountain to her right.

“…..”

Her face hardened at the sight of it.

All that chocolate…

“…..”

Delilah smacked her lips and looked away.

No, she couldn’t falter. Not here.

‘A little…?’

Her mind unexpectedly faltered.

“….!”

Delilah looked around with narrowed eyes.

What sort of demon was making her act like this?

Her eyes once again flicked over to the chocolate fountain, and her hand reached out for the nearby strawberry.

Just a little…

“Oh, there you are.”

Delilah’s hand flicked back in place as she turned around.

Standing not far from her was a sickly man holding onto a black book. With signature red hair and yellow eyes, he also stood out from the crowd as he walked in her direction. Delilah could hear the whispers of the people around them as he approached.

‘What’s going on?’

‘….Are the two going to fight?’

‘Why is he approaching her? No, what even is she doing here in the first place?’

Delilah promptly ignored the surrounding noise and fixed her gaze on the approaching figure. His intentions were unknown to her.

As he approached, his eyes set over the chocolate fountain.

Walking over to it, he dabbed a strawberry and took a taste for himself.

“So sweet.”

His eyes squinted in delight.

Dark thoughts crossed Delilah’s mind as she looked at him.

Suddenly, she felt that the punishment she had chosen for him was too light.

“Ha—! That was nice.”

Putting the toothpick away, Gael casually handed Delilah the book in her hand.

“Here. You’re the last person that I’m supposed to hand this over to.”

“…..”

Without saying a word, Delilah took the book and opened it.

Within the book were a series of profiles with a number next to them.

“These are the official rankings of the cadet in the upcoming summit. We’ve got five in the top thirty, but only two in the top ten. It’s a bit of a letdown, but the top-ranking talents from the other empire are very strong.”

Flip—

Flipping the pages, Delilah scanned through the book and read each profile. In particular, she paid close attention to the first-ranked talent on the list.

[Rank — 1] Caius M. Aetheria

The first prince of the Aetheria Empire.

His image immediately stood out the moment she opened the book.

With his golden eyes and hair, it was hard to skip him. Nonetheless, from the data, he appeared to be someone who specialized in both [Elemental] and [Mind] categories.

Mind…?

“An Emotive Mage?”

“That’s right.”

Gael nodded, dragging his finger over Caius’s profile.

“He’s an Emotive Mage that has reached a level most Emotive Mages can’t reach. I’m afraid that his emotive abilities alone are on par with some of the instructors in the Academy. But that’s not the scariest part…”

Gael said, his finger pausing over the text beneath Caius’s profile.

“….The problem is his light magic. From what I’ve heard, he’s currently in the middle ranks of Tier 4, and he has integrated with several bones. It’ll be hard for those of our Empire to put up a struggle against him. Not only that.”

Gael looked at the other profiles and sighed.

“He’s not the only troublesome one. There’s quite a few…”

In particular, his gaze fell on a gray-eyed youth.

If there was one person that was said to be as strong as Caius, then it’d be him.

[Rank — 2] Amell J. Mantovaj.

Heir to one of the strongest houses within the Verdant Empire, he was quite renowned. However, unlike Caius, he was only talented in one aspect.

The [Body] aspect.

Well-adept with the sword, there were rumors of him being the next sword saint of the Empire.

“Next up—Uh?”

Plack!

Before Gael could go over the other profiles, Delilah closed the book shut.

Surprised, Gael addressed her,

“Are you not going to look at it?”

“No.”

Delilah handed it back to the surprised Geal who took it in confusion.

‘What’s going on?’

Before he could even question her motives, Delilah spoke.

“That book is filled with a bunch of nonsense.”

Delilah didn’t elaborate and just left, leaving the stunned Gael at a loss for words as he stood dumbly with the book in his hands.

“Eh?”

Bunch of nonsense?

He looked down at the book and blinked his eyes.

‘….How can it be? This was something that the experts from all the four Empires unanimously agreed on. How is it nonsense?’

Gael scratched the back of his head.

“Could she be sensitive about the fact that our talents rank so low?”

Perhaps that was it, but Gael had a hard time thinking someone like Delilah would care about such things.

But regardless of how much he tried to think about it, he couldn’t come up with a conclusion, and in the end, he gave up.

“I guess we’ll see if it’s nonsense or not.”

Putting the book away, he reached for a strawberry, but…

“Uh?”

To his shock, the plate was empty.

“Where in the world?”

But the surprise didn’t end there.

As he frantically looked around for the strawberries, he realized something as his gaze flicked in a certain direction.

“The chocolate fountain…”

He numbly spoke, his head flicking around the venue.

“….It’s missing.”

***

——At the same time.

Theater Society.

“How are the preparations? Is everything going well?”

Olga overlooked the preparations for the upcoming performances. Since a lot of VIPs were going to participate, she needed to make sure that everything was perfect.

“Move that a little to the left…”

She was a perfectionist through and through.

If there was something that hindered her performance, then she was ready to discard it.

The decision to replace Julien was also due to that.

She had found someone better so she felt no reason to keep him. His tardiness was merely an excuse to get rid of him.

“Looks like everything is progressing smoothly.”

All of a sudden a deep voice reverberated from the other end of the theater and Olga’s head flicked in the direction of where the voice came from. Immediately her eyes sparkled.

“Arjen! What are you doing here?”

It was none other than the main star of the play.

“It’s nothing much, I just thought that I’d pay a visit to see how everything is going.”

“That’s sweet of you. As you can see everything is going well.”

“Yes, I can tell. Thank you for your efforts.”

“Oh, please.”

Olga waved her hand.

She was just about to bring Arjen over to test the theater when he suddenly spoke.

“I heard a funny rumor.”

“Yes?”

Olga passed.

Rumor? What rumor?

“Two plays will be played before us.”

“Yes, it’s the standard.”

“I see.”

Arjen suddenly smiled as he looked at Olga.

“…I also heard that the previous actor doing the role that I’m doing is participating. Is that true?”

“Oh, that.”

Olga dismissed with her hand.

“Don’t bother with that. I’ve seen the script. It’s average. If you’re worried about them taking your spotlight, don’t be.”

Olga wasn’t speaking out of spite, but out of confidence.

….The play was a romance play, and while it was decently written, that was it. There was nothing that made it stand out.

At least, it wasn’t as impactful as her play.

“Come, Arjen!”

Waving at him, she urged him in her direction.

“Stop caring about that nonsense and come try the new equipment!”

She proceeded to head onto the stage.

Arjen on the other hand stood still while staring at her departing back.

‘I’m supposed to be somewhere else, but I just couldn’t help myself.’

With a faint smile, his eyes flickered slightly before he took a step forward.

“….I was never worried in the first place.”

Days until the play — 1