Building An Empire Starting From The Labor Camp In Exile-Chapter 160: Fortress
"Time to do your work, Blessed Atrox," Leojan said. His projection had vanished, and his real consciousness returned to the tower. The remaining two Minotaurs had been quickly taken care of.
Atrox stood from his chair, and the force binding him to it released him with ease. He looked at the destruction outside and asked, "How many times can you do that?"
"As many times as I can, if I have the essence to spare. But I have to recharge after every use of that attack. It’s my finishing move." At first, Leojan smiled, then he frowned.
"What is it?" Atrox asked immediately. He turned to the viewing wall, but the surrounding areas were silent. Even two of the three ruin break portals had disappeared.
Leojan shook his head. "It’s too easy. I feel like something is wrong. If it was this easy, then one of the Flagbearers should have held the surrounding areas by now."
Atrox froze, his eyes narrowing. "That’s right. And why don’t they send more monsters? They didn’t even need to send the lesser and greater beasts; they could have just sent a wave of Minotaurs."
Leojan sighed. "I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do. There’s no monsters to fight, after all. They’ll reveal what they’re planning in time, or they’ve given up on the fortress."
"I doubt that," Atrox muttered, frowning in concentration. "They must be waiting for something. Maybe for me to open the fortress?"
Leojan shrugged. "We’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready to return. You can open and close the portal quickly as a signal. Don’t worry; we’ll be watching."
As he said, there was nothing they could really do, so they moved the tower closer to the fortress, and then it opened up for him. Atrox got out with his sword ready and his formation held tight in his mind.
But nothing out of the ordinary jumped out at him.
Except for the smell. The iron-tinged smell of blood and spilled guts made him curl his nose in disgust. The ground leading to the fortress door was covered in blood and ripped flesh. Atrox picked his way carefully as he approached the fortress door.
It was made of silver iron and etched with intricate, complicated symbols. He studied it, even though he didn’t understand it, and then, with his heart beating fast, he laid his palm on the door.
At first, nothing happened. Then an almost unnoticeable wave passed from the door into his body and then out again. The door shuddered, the symbols lit up one after another, and it groaned open.
Atrox took one look at the tower, then conjured a fireball to float above him before stepping into the room without looking back.
The door closed immediately behind him.
He didn’t need the light he had conjured because glowing stones were set into the walls of the hall he found himself in. The ground was made of smooth white stones that reflected his image and that of the fortress ceiling, which seemed to stretch upward forever.
He looked around. There wasn’t much to see, as the whole hall seemed to stretch far and yet feel near at the same time. There was no furniture except for a throne that stood in the middle of the hall.
"There’s some kind of enchantment here. It’s as if the hall is bigger than it should be, and at the same time, it’s too small." Atrox turned to study the hall more closely.
He couldn’t find any doors on the seamless walls, and there were no upper floors. It seemed as though this was the only room in the hall.
"So how do I get underground?" he mumbled. He remembered being told that the fortress was built in such a way that its real space was underground.
He began to search the walls and the smooth floor for anything that might lead to the underground. Maybe some kind of space where a concealed door was hidden?
But no matter how hard he searched, he didn’t find anything. Everything was smooth and glossy. After a while, he sighed. "Then how do they get down? Some kind of words of power? Or a portal?"
Growing tired, he blasted the ground with fireballs, waiting to see any reaction, but still, nothing. Even the ground didn’t bear any mark from his attack. It remained smooth and white.
As his eyes traced the room, they settled on the throne. "This is the only thing in the room. Maybe it’s the clue?"
He approached it and began to search around it, using his hands to touch and press the various designs on it, but nothing moved or clicked. After a while, he sat down with a weary sigh. "I thought I’d be facing monsters, not stuck looking for doors!"
Suddenly, the throne he was sitting on vibrated. It grew warm and began to emit waves of essence. Atrox sat up, ready to jump away, but then he froze.
Sudden information pressed into his mind. His eyes saw things that weren’t in front of him. He saw the town underneath the fortress and traced it to the largest building underground, where something quietly waited at the lowest floor. Just as suddenly as the vision appeared, it vanished.
"The Chained Artifact is there! The tower is really there," Atrox said. Then, as if he had known the next words all along, he spoke the words of power, which roughly translated to, "Portal."
The light on the floor gathered and formed a door-shaped portal that spun gently in front of him. With his sword in hand, Atrox stood up from the throne and stepped through the portal.
The blinding light in front of him faded away, and he found himself underground. He stood on a platform carved into the wall, overlooking the town spread below in darkness.
This time, the light he created helped.
Atrox suddenly shivered. "Why is it so cold? And why didn’t the portal just drop me at the house at the other end of the town?"
As he looked around, he noticed more platforms carved into the walls. "This must be where the portal always drops people. Well then, time to get myself a Chained Artifact."
