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MAZE - Chapter 1122 - Preparations for the expedition
🕑 Added 2025-10-27 00:13:57 +0000 UTCDespite the fear and worry caused by the sight of a revived guardian beast, the group didn't leave their location during the night and even waited to see if any monsters or undead would approach them. That wasn't the case, as everything was fine aside from the horrifying sight.
Hera was positive that anyone who would come here would be forced to sign a confidentiality agreement or something of the sort, especially once the alliance got to know what was actually happening here. And in all honesty, Hera could agree to that. The idea of a Legacy capable of resurrecting devils, even in a spectral form, was simply too much. Not just too much danger, but also it would cause too much panic if that information was widely spread.
Not that the alliance had any intention of hiding what was actually going on here. This was a major point of contention when she discussed things with the council. She didn't want to participate in something that was similar to what the guild used to do, hiding information, controlling how people felt about various things. But telling everybody that there might be a way to bring back, theoretically, all the devils that ever existed in the MAZE was crossing a line.
Not only would that take way too long to happen, but they would also be very much trying to stop it from snowballing out of control. In a way, sharing that information with the public now would be similar to telling them that there are currently 5 million meteors that have a chance to hit the Earth. It's a terrifying notion, but when you hear that of those 5 million, the most likely one to hit only has a 0.0005% chance of hitting, it's the same as just making people freak out for no good reason.
But at the same time, people should know that this was something that was happening, that there was a danger and that the alliance was working to solve it. The only thing that Hera agreed not to discuss was the existence of the Legacy. After all, if they announced that there was a Legacy that could be taken, it would just create a gold rush where people would jump at the chance to try to acquire it.
And then one of two things would happen. Either they would end up getting killed by the undead, increasing their numbers and resulting in more problems for the expedition team. Or they could actually acquire the Legacy, and then it would be a bit of a toss-up if they would accept giving it up.
In an absolute worst-case scenario where someone who was truly awful managed to get the Legacy, the alliance might be forced to take the Legacy away from them in unsavory ways, either by torturing or straight-up killing that person. And if that were to happen, then all the goodwill they garnered during the past few months and due to the war would just vanish with a snap of a finger, even if they were doing that just to protect people from something that the council agreed should not exist.
But all that was just the politics side of things. Hera was currently focused on the more hands-on problems they were facing, such as the fact that this location they found might not be the best option for the outpost. It was a good thing that she had already enlisted the dwarves from Boothudurn to build all the necessary structures. And they were experts in creating enclosed, self-sustained environments that could not be seen by the outside. After all, they spent generations doing just that back in their home.
In all likelihood, they would be able to not just make an outpost here that was completely hidden from anyone outside, but would also be able to make sure no one would have to worry about food or anything. Then again, that might not be the case unless there was a dungeon inside this cave, one that specifically dropped meat of some kind. If not, people might have to stick with a more vegetarian diet while at this outpost.
They were not going to rush anything. The plan was to stay here for a couple of extra days to make sure that they wouldn't find anything better in the area. Not just that, but they were also supposed to start attempting to scout the Fields of Elysium using the methods that Hera and Alyson had discussed during the night.
Just a few hours after dawn, once they were sure the sun had already wiped out any Spirit that was raised during the night, they all flew towards the Coiled Serpent and, more specifically, to the doorway in the tunnel between the city and the Emperor's seat. Just as it happened last time, the sky bridges were mostly void of undead, at the very least during the day. And as long as they didn't make any noise, odds were that the zombies and skeletons wouldn't try to reach them.
Before crossing over to the next room, everybody agreed on one thing. They would go there, but no one would take a single step away from the doorway. This was to avoid that strange effect of suddenly seeing themselves away from the entrance.
And the plan was quite simple. Alyson would be ready with a spell for scouting new places, the widest range one she had, while Hera would call her snakes and let them loose in the room, telling them to spread out in all directions and hoping they would survive for a full day.
If that plan worked, then they would tweak it a little bit but still do roughly the same thing on the following days. But instead of Alyson going for a very wide spell, she would pick a direction and focus her spell solely there. That way, they might be able to uncover more details about specific areas of the room before it was time for them to actually press forward and face the undead horde that existed in that place.
And that was exactly what they did. After double and triple checking that the area nearby the doorway was empty and there were no undead incoming, they all crossed over to the Fields of Elysium.
The moment they did so, the harpies, who were cavalier about the situation so far instantly changed their tone. They could now feel the strange darkness that swirled around them, almost creating a fog of war no matter where they looked. The heaviness of the air, thick with something that felt unnatural and wrong. The entire place gave them all the feeling of rejection, the feeling that oppressed them just for them to dare to be living creatures that stepped near the domain of this darkness.
The Empress almost instantly called out her snakes, and Alyson was preparing a spell when Zephyr asked, "Do you think we can stay here for five minutes?"
The Empress raised an eyebrow and looked at him before going straight to the point, "Do you have a skill that lets you ask questions?" she understood that Zephyr was also an explorer, but she had no idea if he truly had the guide skill.
The explorer harpy glanced back at her and gave a quick nod, but Hera shook her head.
"I think it's better if we do that tomorrow. Let's see if we can figure out something here now. Shane and I also have a skill that lets us gain some information. It will be very useful if we share with you what we found first."
Zephyr nodded, and Hera waited for Alyson to use her spell before sending her snakes out. They were not entirely sure which would be more attractive to the undead that existed in this room, hence their attempt at activating both spells at the same time.
Just as Alyson cast the reconnaissance spell, which was named [Voice of the Wind], she turned back to the doorway and said, "Let's go."
The effect was instantaneous. It wasn't like Hera's spells that sent away a wave of mana that had to travel. It was something much more simple. The spell was taking the information that the wind carried towards Alyson and translating it into something that she could understand.
Everybody quickly touched the doorway and jumped back into Deakoshara, but this time they didn't rush out of the sky bridge right away. Because if they did and some undead came from the other room, they had no idea what sort of influence those creatures would have on the Specters of the Naga that still roamed the Coiled Serpent.
They waited and waited and waited for about 10 minutes. Every second that ticked by made the entire group more and more nervous. While the harpies had not seen the skeletal abominations that existed in the Fields of Elysium, they could tell that the place was totally devastated. They could tell that whatever existed and lived somewhere with such a field of mana would be far from being something they wanted to deal with.
Once the 10 minutes were over, they all quickly left the Coiled Serpent and headed back to the soon-to-be outpost.
As they flew off, Hera couldn't help but notice more details of the city that she had missed before, such as the large amphitheater located close to the top of the city and a temple with the symbol of a serpent with wings displayed in gold. The same serpent they had seen flying above the Coiled Serpent the previous night. Which made her question, was this a church created for that snake, or was that snake created to mirror the shape of their deity?
As a matter of fact, this wasn't the first time that Hera saw the winged serpent motif in Naga culture. The statue that allowed her to meet Mr. Beetle and gain Lurize as a title blade had some sort of deeper significance than what she initially thought.
Pushing those thoughts away for the moment, the Empress focused on their next steps. First, in just 15 minutes they were back at the outpost. It meant that if anything were to happen in the Fields of Elysium and they managed to reach the doorway, they could very quickly reach a safe haven where they might be able to have people who were injured treated.
The first thing that they considered was what they would do next. The group was divided into three teams.
First, Alyson, Vash, and Zephyr were going to explore more of the cave network they found themselves in. They had a rough idea that it was a very big place, but no one knew how big it was nor the types of things that actually existed inside there. The best option was to properly survey the area to understand everything they would need to bring, from sources of clean drinking water to places that could grow crops to anything else, really.
Hera agreed with that. After all, even if she were to eventually take over the Coiled Serpent as their own city, having an outpost here could be very beneficial. If needed people would be able to one, hide away from danger, and two, notice anything that might be coming to attack the city in time.
Second, Bonnie, Shane, and Oriko were to stay at the entrance of the cave to be on the lookout for anything that could be trying to approach or any threats that could exist nearby. That was only part of their job, as Oriko was also going to set up the long-range internet transmitter.
It was something that the New Dawn created, and after double checking to make sure there was no spyware or anything that could be used to steal information, the alliance also started using a similar model. It massively extended the range of internet connection in rooms that were yet to have proper infrastructure.
The final group was made out of Hera and Alex. They were going to go back to the small village that Hera first encountered the ghosts and tried to gather some of the roots that blocked those specters from approaching. That would be another layer of protection that they could place on the outpost. It would depend on how many of the roots they were able to get. But the plan was to either just block off the door or, if possible, envelope the entire structure in those roots to stop any of the ghosts from invading their safe haven.
And if all else failed, Hera hoped that her dad was able to figure out a way to keep the wood's properties after being crafted into something else.
