Daru clenched his fists in sheer fury.

He took the time to wait for the warrior wraiths to return to confirm his suspicion, and he was proven right.

A little over an hour later, the familiar, anguished and defiant shrieks and howls echoed from the forest of dead trees.

Weak at first, then it grew in volume as the army and their captives neared.

The female-like, bony wraiths of the ancient settlement from the Ashen Plain wore nothing but crude, brown tunic dresses as they were dragged across the Drawbridge against their will.

The sight rooted itself deeply in Daru's memory.

He had more or less an idea of what would happen to female captives due to the war movies he had been watching, but unfortunately, all he could do was grit his teeth and clench his fists.

First, he was too far from the castle; second, he was regrettably too weak to change anything.

So, with a grim and heavy heart, Daru turned around and began looking down the edges of the plateau.

At least his three-and-a-half-day ascent wasn't wasted, as he had discovered the castle.

Furthermore, he realized that he could use the high vantage point to try and look for the other three horrors, or rather, two.

A castle and its warriors…where else could The Crown be found?

'The abomination is probably the king of that castle…' Daru mused while peering down the cliffs.

The dead and half-dead trees made his search a bit easier.

However, everything was too small from where he was, so Daru had to strain his eyes and carefully scour whatever it was that was within his vision.

Doing so took hours, and unfortunately, his search was fruitless.

'Sigh…time to tail Rocante, I guess…'

The stone swords in the hulking monstrosity's ears closely resembled the weapons of the warrior wraiths.

Daru could more or less deduce that Rocante would probably end up clashing with those warriors one way or another, or that there was another monstrosity wielding such stone swords.

Still, he didn't want to wander the entirety of this side of the Underworld River if he could help it, so Daru decided to go through with his plan to tail Rocante first.

A directionless search would be his last option.

He was currently standing at the edge directly behind the altar, and to descend from where he came, Daru must circle to the other side.

So he did.

But then, on his way, he stumbled, almost tripping as his left foot hit an unusually hard mound of ash that should've been easily kicked away by his mere step.

Daru was able to catch himself, planting the tripped foot firmly, albeit hurriedly, to stabilize his footing.

His brows rose as he turned and looked at the mound.

The ashes had been shaken off by the small impact, revealing the top of what seemed to be a small chest.

"Oh?"

A good loot right now would certainly be a fair reward for such a difficult climb.

Daru walked closer, digging the ashes around the chest.

Although rarely, there were instances when he was assigned to dig graves with the Damnedlings of Egress, so he had some experience, at the very least.

Retrieving a small coffer was rather easy compared to a six-foot-deep, buried abomination.

It didn't even take five minutes, and the chest was out of the ashes.

Only…it was locked.

Daru shrugged, attempting to step on it, weakly at first, to break it open.

The darned coffer was surprisingly tough.

So, he increased his strength until eventually, he was stepping on it with everything he had.

"What the…how is this thing…"

His patience was running thin, and since the wooden chest seemed to be way tougher than it appeared, Daru grabbed and hurled it to a rock near the stone altar with all his might.

To his bewilderment…

The coffer only clunked dully, falling into the powdery layer of the ground without so much as a scratch.

A few flakes of ash even found their way to his open mouth.

Daru hurriedly spat them out, gaze turning unfriendly at the hateful chest. It was…a worthy adversary.

"You made me do this…"

Fixing the coffer in place, he pulled out his tachi, slashing down at it with everything he had.

Onimaru Kunitsuna's weight would surely do the trick.

Surely…

*CLUNK!*

Daru's eyes widened in utter disbelief at the sight of his weapon failing to even pierce through the spot it hit.

"There's just no way this damned…"

He gritted his teeth and repeatedly struck it, breathing growing heavier in frustration and exhaustion.

Soon, an explosion erupted as a spinning cross slash flew towards the chest, but still failing to do damage.

In all his unwillingness…

An azure sword image rose to the skies, meteoring down with far more vicious intent than it had ever done.

*BANG!*

A loud crash echoed in the gray world the next moment as a small crater was formed at the point of impact, and in the middle of that impact…was a small wooden chest, impossibly tough, as if protected by divine forces.

There was not a single scratch on it.

Daru's eyes widened, trembling for a few moments while clenching his fists before sighing, defeated.

"Maybe this thing does need a key…" he muttered in acceptance.

While he found it difficult that his first loss would be at the hands of a darned coffer, he was defeated fair and square.

Daru threw everything he had at it, but it endured.

Sighing another time, he picked it up to store it in his inventory. Perhaps the folks at Egress would have a way to open it.

Daru accessed his inventory, and the moment he did, he froze.

At the last occupied slot…was the old, slightly rusty key given to him by Nando.

A mix of emotions assaulted his heart — astonishment, excitement, curiosity, and more.

But perhaps the most prevalent among them…was embarrassment.

He had a key all along.

While it was unsure — improbable, even, that the one he had was the key to the chest.

It would've been less embarrassing if he had tried it first before using Azure Swordfall on the coffer.

Thinking that he was quite lucky that no one was here, he retrieved the key and attempted to slot it in the keyhole.

It fit perfectly.

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