Nero took a look at all the things he still had on him.

Surprisingly, his satchel was still fairly intact. As for the contents of my the satchel, most of his Divine Elixirs had already been used up. The Waterskin of Purity was intact as well.

He had believed the Silver Blade to have been lost, but Obed had helped him find it, which he was grateful for.

Beyond that, he currently didn't have much to his name.

After giving them a toned down story of what he had experienced, Nero had tried to get more information from the others.

However, according to them, that was simply just what they knew. There was no better way to describe it.

Since Liedenstorm was a major city within the empire, they usually experienced a lot of attacks from powerful Abominations. This was why the existence of the church was so vital.

A human would have experienced at least an attack from a higher ranked entity within the City of Liedenstorm at least twice in their lifetime.

And since such an experience was hard to forget, associating the feelings brought from the experiences was not very difficult.

According to them, there was a certain strange atmosphere that came with the presence of a powerful entity.

A field of corruption, if one could call it that. But it was hard to properly explain.

Nero sighed to himself again.

He had never experienced such a thing before. When they spoke of it, it didn't seem like they had very pleasant memories associated with those incidents.

It also brought to light a certain suspicion he had— the cities weren't any safer than towns like Gor.

While they did have superior defenses, the threats they dealt with were far greater than one that would befall Gor.

If made him feel fear.

If a single descent from the enhanced Grey Crows had brought ruin to Gor, then what scale would be necessary to do the same for a city as enormous and as heavily defended as Liedenstorm?

What about the capital?

Was it even possible for the capital to fall?

According to the history books, something like that had almost happened once.

A long time ago.

Bringing such things to perspective was equally as terrifying as it was insightful. Combined with what Eli had told him, then things certainly weren't as they seemed.

He sighed once again then rose to his feet.

The Silver Blade was holster to his hip and his satchel secured on his waist.

He walked out of the cave to meet with the others.

Everyone was ready.

He paused for only a moment. Then he stepped forward and began walking into the depths of the woods.

As they walked, he began to explain,

"The maze as we thought, is mostly not a physical one."

Obed raised a brow, "Mostly?"

Nero nodded, "It takes advantage of a strange physical phenomenon— the arrangement of certain trees, to form an array. The key to getting out of here is finding that array."

Lucy raised a brow, "You know what arrays are? I really might have underestimated you, Nero.'

Nero smiled wryly.

He had learned about them from the Elkerling settlement. A lot of the books and tomes he had found in the observatory temple contained information about sorcery. While he couldn't understand most of what he saw, he did have a basic understanding of the craft.

It was rather strange. The basis of mysticism, from what he could make out, was not as straightforward as most physical acts.

So much so, that he truly couldn't make sense of it, simply because it wasn't founded on what could be considered as common sense.

He shook his head then continued,

"All we need to do, is find the array and break it."

Thanks to Eli, he knew what the array was and what it looks like.

Normally, breaking out of the maze would be near impossible even with knowledge of it. However, he had a key. A key specifically purposed to break open the enchantment.

As for what the key was? The knowledge Eli had given him was a single string of words tied together.

That was what the key was.

He had no idea if he was meant to recite the words upon finding the array. But he wad sure he could figure it out.

He sighed deeply.

Lucy smiled thoughtfully,

"Still... I wonder what entity would be so unoccupied as to play with the lives of a few worthless humans."

"A lot of strange things have happened today, but this is surely the strangest."

He glanced at Nero, then continued,

"Still, I can't help but think there must be a purpose to all this."

Nero noticed his gaze but didn't say anything.

What was he supposed to say after all?

That the potential Nephilim level existence had trapped them in this place because it wanted to tell him a strange story?

No. He absolutely couldn't do that.

He cleared his throat.

After a few minutes of walking, they finally reached the spot.

By following his connection to Gungnir, he had been able to locate the first point of the array.

There were four more trees, each surprisingly evenly spaced out from one another.

The points of the array was signified by each tree.

He turned to Obed and Lucy,

"These are the four corners of the array.. Just the right number for us. By reciting the key, we should be unravel it from the seams. Probably."

His expression turned serious,

"We can't afford to screw this up."

Oned shrugged, "Then let's get this over with."

He walked under one of the other trees and stood.

Nero huffed then turned to face the others. Lucy snorted and walked under another tree. Then Geor.

Finally, Nero found himself staring only at Aisha.

She seemed quite a bit uncertain.

Nero frowned, "What's wrong?"

She was silent for a moment.

Then she smiled at him. Her smile was a bit sad,

"No. It's nothing."

Then she turned and walked towards the last three.

Nero stayed still as he wondered that she had meant.

But he didn't put it to mind for too long.

He turned his gaze forward. At the opposite end of the array was Geor who seemed rather uncertain about the entire thing.

He took on a deep breath.

Then his lips began to move.

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