Tribal Sign-In: Immortal At The Start-Chapter 261: The Weak Architect

After listening to the royal daughter’s words, Rion’s world spun, and every interaction that he ever had with Marin flashed through his mind.

He stumbled back a few steps.

"My liege!" Yuura called out as he shot up to his feet.

Rion raised a hand towards him and mumbled, "I am fine..."

He looked at the royal daughter with a dark expression and asked, "What does it do?"

She picked up the dragon’s fang and mumbled, "hO, rethoM! wohS em thaw sedih htaeneb eht eye!"

(Oh, Mother! Show me what hides beneath the eye!)

A blinding orange light seeped out of the fang, and the royal daughter’s spirit eye snapped open.

The light entered her spirit eye, and the pupils of her other eyes widened as she fell into a daze for a few moments.

Once she came out of her daze, she stared at the fang with a puzzled expression and said, "It just makes the holder go to a specific place upon hearing a fixed set of words... why would anyone do this?"

She couldn’t understand why someone would use the mythical dragon’s tongue to do something like this... it was as if this was more of a troll or prank item than actual sorcery, but the same wasn’t true for Rion and Zaelyane.

Zaelyane’s eyes and mouth were wide beyond belief.

She turned her head towards Rion and mumbled, "Rion..."

Just as Rion heard what the item was supposed to do, the world beneath him vanished, and he felt like spiders were crawling all over his body.

’It can’t be...’ he tried to reason.

’Yes, there’s no way Marin had caused Dora to be cursed by the prophecy...’

Desperate to prove his thoughts wrong, he took out the dragon’s fang stored in his inventory and muttered, "Can you check this one as well?"

The royal daughter looked at the second dragon’s fang with a raised eyebrow and said, "There’s one more?"

Rion nodded, and as he stepped towards her, he felt his heart tighten so badly that he just wanted to drop it and leave the place.

’Calm down. All of this is just a misunderstanding. I know it. There’s no way Marin would do this.’

He placed the fang in her hand and took a deep breath before he mumbled, "Please."

She nodded and repeated the same process; however, this time it took her a whole minute to wake from her daze, and each second that passed scared him even further.

To him, Marin wasn’t just the vice lord of the Redwood Den but a mentor, a friend... a big brother and the only person with whom he could truly be himself.

’Calm down, Rion. Calm down,’ he repeated with his eyes shut tight.

The royal daughter came out of her daze and fell onto the ground as she took a few quick breaths.

"Malikeya!" Zaelyane shot to her feet and helped the royal daughter sit up.

The royal daughter glanced at her with a smile and whispered, "Zae, I am fine."

Zaelyane bit her lower lip and nodded her head before she let go of her shoulder and stood beside her.

Malikeya, the royal daughter, looked at Rion and mumbled with her knitted brows, "This one is much stronger and more complex than before."

"I see..." Rion whispered as he opened his eyes and asked while clenching his fists as tightly as he could, "So... what does it do?"

"I am not entirely sure about its true nature, but it does multiple things..."

"Such as?" He pressed while gripping his heart with his will.

"Well. It makes the holder take specific decisions such as what path to take and how long they should stay at one place...? If that makes sense.

It also makes them ignore any kind of battle and take a more peaceful approach than they normally would.

Ah, I forgot. It is bound with multiple other items, which allows it to stay in effect even if the holder is no longer holding it. I think whoever made this couldn’t use sorcery of a higher level, otherwise they could just use mind control."

Just as she finished her words, a heavy metallic thud echoed into the room as Rion threw his spear and muttered with an extremely devastated look on his face, "Is that spear connected to it...?"

Malikeya placed a hand on the lunging serpent spear and mumbled something under her breath.

Glowing orange marks appeared all over the spear, and she mumbled, "It is."

Just as those words reached him, he vanished.

Rion appeared within the forest near the settlement and fell to his knees.

Upon hearing her, he came to understand one thing.

This journey and Dora’s curse - the very core of his problem - was planned by a single person and that was Marin, the weak vice lord.

"Why did you do it...?" He mumbled as he dug his fingers into the ground and pulled it.

He gritted his teeth and spat while clawing at the ground beneath him, "WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?"

Tears streamed down his furious face, and he muttered, "How could you?!"

He tore his gaze to the sky and yelled at the top of his lungs, "MARIN!"

Veins bulged along his neck, his voice thundered throughout the forest, and in response, roars and shrieks of nearby ether beasts reached him.

His expression twisted into a look of utter irritation, and he tore his gaze towards the incoming ether beasts.

He raised his hand and used Ruler’s Hand to pull nearby stones towards him.

The stone flew towards his hand, and just as they neared him, golden flames covered them, and he muttered, "Begone, you wretches."

The aura-clad stones zipped through the air, and Heavenly Vector positioned them towards the beasts’ critical points.

One by one, cries and thuds echoed throughout the fogged forest.

The ground shuddered with each body that hit it, and within just a single minute, Rion had slain more than two dozen of the ether beasts.

Once the area fell silent, he lowered his head and muttered, "I don’t know why you did it. I don’t know if knowing it matters or not, but I will have the answer."

He slowly stood up on his feet and whispered, "But you have to wait, as I have to find some giants."