Elena removed her glasses and scanned the inscription on the base of the central statue.
On the bridge of the ship, Hishiri Adashino immediately forwarded the image to the professors in the Archaeology Department.
A few minutes later, the reply came through.
"It's written in the same language as the song from earlier," Hishiri's voice was relayed through the headsets. "The translation is simply: 'I am the crow who serves the Supreme Sovereign.' There doesn't appear to be any hidden meaning."
Elena repeated the words for the rest of the team, her tone slightly disappointed.
They had just spent the last twenty minutes thoroughly searching every corner of the temple, but they had found nothing but the crow statues.
'I am the crow who serves the Supreme Sovereign?'
Wayland instinctively pressed a hand to his forehead, let out a low, embarrassed groan.
'What...?!'
He'd said those exact words during his chuunibyou phase in the illusion, and now they were literally etched into history.
It was as if his most cringeworthy moments were being publicly displayed two thousand years after the fact.
Did Morgan le Fay actually understand Crow-speak after all?
She hadn't seemed to back then. In the illusion, she had always communicated with her familiars through simple, direct commands of magical energy.
As he was agonizing over his embarrassment, the floor beneath them began to vibrate.
"Everyone, stay alert!"
Wayland called out, though he wasn't particularly worried. The tremors were subtle, more like a shifting mechanism than a pending collapse.
Had his speaking of the inscription triggered another change?
Wayland couldn't help but feel that every secret in this temple had been specifically designed with him in mind.
A small, square, pitch-black opening appeared on the floor in front of the central crow. A set of stone steps wound their way down into the darkness.
He looked toward Elena, waiting for her decision.
"We're going down!"
Elena took a deep breath and raised her hand. A faint, swirling aura of magical energy rose from her feet, enveloping her entire body.
Elemental Armor.
She switched on her high-powered floodlight and stepped into the passage.
Wayland followed close behind, with Pascal in the middle of the line and Xavier bringing up the rear.
The three strongest mages in the group were now perfectly positioned to protect the entire twelve-man team.
The passage was free of mist, and the beam of their lights illuminated the space clearly.
The walls were made of stone and earth, standing two meters high. Every three meters, a wire mesh funnel was set into the wall, each holding a torch.
After ten minutes of descent, the passage widened into a massive underground hall.
As the team stepped into the space, hundreds of tiny, brilliant blue sparks of light suddenly rose from the floor.
They drifted upward into the air, looking for all the world like phosphorescent fireflies in some spectral realm.
"Look at the ceiling!" someone shouted.
Wayland looked up. The entire vault of the hall was covered in a series of intricate, ancient murals.
They depicted a city with seven gates, surrounded by a series of jagged mountain peaks that formed an impenetrable barrier. Within the walls was an endless, roiling mass of shadows--spirits floating in the air, gargantuan figures, and skeletal silhouettes.
His heart gave a sudden, violent jolt.
This was... the Land of Shadows!
How was this possible?
Outside was the temple of Morgan le Fay.
If he remembered correctly, Scathach was a figure from Celtic mythology--specifically, the Irish cycles. Many of her disciples, including Cú Chulainn, were Irish.
This island, however, was located off the coast of Scotland.
"The Land of Shadows?"
Elena's voice was hesitant, her expression mirroring Wayland's confusion.
"Is it possible," Pascal said, studying the mural, "that this was originally the site of Scathach's temple? If it sank beneath the surface over time, perhaps Morgan le Fay built her own temple on top of the ruins?"
"That's a plausible theory," Elena agreed. "Scathach was active in the 1st century AD, while Morgan lived in the 5th."
"I disagree," Wayland said, pointing back to the passage. "If Scathach's temple had come first, that staircase wouldn't make sense. It feels more like someone discovered the temple of Morgan and then deliberately constructed this passage and the hall beneath it. Let's not forget the possessed Sapp and the damaged lock."
"But that doesn't make sense either," Pascal countered. "Scathach may have had the power to live until the 5th century, but a god would never build their temple in such proximity to another. It goes against every mythological precedent. And her stories are almost exclusively set in Ireland. Even the Isle of Skye--where the Land of Shadows is said to be--is located off the Irish coast. There was no reason for her to come to Scotland."
"There is another theory," Elena mused. "That Scathach's true home was actually in Scotland."
As the three of them were discussing the anomaly, the blue sparks of light reached the ceiling and suddenly vanished.
In an instant, a brilliant beam of blue light lanced down from the vault, striking the center of the hall.
A high platform shimmered into existence within the radiance.
A single, blood-red spear was suspended in a weapon rack atop the platform.
Wayland swallowed hard. That was the Gae Bolg Alternative.
"The Gae Bolg Alternative..."
Elena immediately recognized the weapon as the legendary spear of Scathach. "But it's just a projection. If it were the real thing, the entire Clock Tower would be in an uproar."
Wayland instinctively walked toward the platform.
As he drew closer, the details of the "Thorned Divine Spear" became painfully clear.
The entire shaft was a deep, vibrant scarlet, wrapped in a series of thorny vine-like carvings. The blade was wide and elongated, with several wickedly hooked edges.
It was the ultimate instrument of slaughter.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]