A single fissure ran from the top of the bronze gate to the bottom. In the center was a massive lock shaped like a fish, its tail and mouth connected to the locking mechanism. But the keyhole itself was clearly scarred, as if someone had forced it open long ago.
"A bronze gate this size... it's unheard of."
Elena's voice was filled with a sense of awe. In the Western world, excavated bronze artifacts were typically small and portable.
The largest bronze item previously recovered was the Vix Krater, discovered in 1953 in the tomb of a Celtic princess in Burgundy, northern France. It stood 1.64 meters high and weighed 208.6 kilograms, dating to the late 6th century BC.
This gate, however, was on an entirely different scale.
She turned her attention to the murals. They were rendered in the same minimalist style as the earlier images, but the subject matter wasn't the valkyries.
The first mural showed a murder of crows surrounding a small island--an island that looked remarkably like the Flandan Islands.
The second depicted a single crow standing atop a high peak, commanding a swarm of other birds in the sky.
The third showed the same swarm circling a city, while below them, a group of knights looked on in panic.
The fourth mural was different. Morgan le Fay appeared once again, handing a dead crow to one of her knights. In the background, a temple was shown rising from the earth.
It was a simple, yet poignant story.
It told of the service and the ultimate sacrifice of Morgan's crow familiars, and how she had ordered her knights to build a temple in their memory.
Wayland felt a heavy weight in his chest.
He had lived the life of that crow in his illusion.
Even a witch as ruthless as Morgan le Fay had a soft spot, it seemed--and she had reserved a flicker of that tenderness for her crow.
Elena quickly lost interest in the murals and turned her focus to the damaged lock. "It looks like someone might have beaten us here."
"That doesn't make sense," Pascal said, shaking his head. "If someone had already been through here, why were the guardians still active?"
As Wayland listened to their conversation, he thought back to the possessed Sapp.
Eight lizardmen.
And yet, only one of them had successfully occupied a host.
If a previous explorer had fought their way through, it stood to reason that they might have damaged one of the guardians.
Elena didn't respond, her thoughts clearly focused on the gate. She cast a levitation spell on herself and reached up, easily removing the broken fish-shaped lock from the mechanism.
"The mist is clearing?"
Wayland noticed his vision widening as the gray fog suddenly began to dissipate. He turned to look back at the hall. The darkness was being replaced by a soft, warm light that seemed to rise from the floor like a miniature sun.
The orderly rows of marble columns were now clearly visible.
"Wait, those statues are shattered?"
Wayland noticed a base at the foot of one of the columns about five meters away, surrounded by a pile of rubble that had once been a statue.
He looked around and quickly identified seven more similar bases scattered throughout the hall.
Recalling Elena's mention of fluorescent stone, it seemed these eight statues had served as central hubs--anchors for the spirits of the guardians, drawing their energy from the stone.
Wayland walked toward the nearest base.
In the center of the pedestal, he noticed a small, clean hole. It looked exactly like the mark left behind by a spear thrust.
He quickly checked the other bases, but none of them bore a similar mark.
"Wayland, what did you find?" Elena asked, watching his movements with curiosity.
"You were right. Someone was here before us."
Wayland returned to the gate and addressed the team.
"I'm sure you've already figured out the purpose of these statues. They were conduits--converters that provided energy to the eight guardians. It's likely that their souls were linked to these statues in the same way the El-Melloi family's Supreme Mystic Code, Volumen Hydrargyrum, functions.
"This is likely why one of the guardians attempted to seize Sapp's body. Its own physical vessel had been destroyed, leaving only its soul. And the person who destroyed it... couldn't have been us."
Elena was silent for several beats, her expression unreadable. She finally nodded, accepting Wayland's logic. "Let's go inside and see what else they left behind."
She gave the bronze gate a gentle push.
A grinding sound of stone against stone filled the air as the heavy doors slowly swung inward.
"Watch out!"
A massive, dense swarm of crows was waiting for them behind the gate.
Elena's initial reaction was one of panic, her mind flashing back to the nightmarish attack on the ship. She was already preparing to manifest a defensive spell when she heard Wayland's voice.
"They're statues, Elena."
Elena blinked, her hand dropping to her side. "Oh... they really are just statues."
The space inside was vast and empty. Aside from the countless crow sculptures, there was no other obvious feature.
The twelve team members spread out across the hall, searching for any hidden doors or mechanisms.
Wayland walked through the forest of crows, following the familiar path to the center of the hall where he found the leader crow.
Its pedestal was ten centimeters higher than the others, making it the clear centerpiece of the entire arrangement.
Knowing Morgan as he did, he doubted she would have bothered with anything overly elaborate or ornamental. Either the temple was exactly what it appeared to be--a memorial for her familiars--or the secret was hidden in plain sight.
Wayland decided to stop searching and simply knelt beside the central crow.
The craftsmanship was impeccable. Every detail of the crow from his dream had been carved into the metal with haunting accuracy.
To most people, one crow looked much the same as any other. But to Wayland, this was unmistakable.
"Wait... there's an inscription here."
It was carved into the base of the statue.
From a standing position, the mural had been hidden by the crow's wings, but now that he was kneeling, it was clear as day.
It was written in an ancient language that Wayland didn't recognize.
"Elena, I've found some text. Scan it and send it to the archaeology professors for translation."
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]