Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 2075 2047. Premonition of the Great Hole
Torina, standing on the hill, paused for a moment, but still did not turn around.

“Sometimes being too insightful can make you unpopular, Lan En.”

"So?" Lan En had now reached the same level as Torina. "What exactly happened to you?"

The slumbering saintess shook her head, her thick purple hair swaying dreamily in mid-air.

"It's not that something happened to me, but rather... what I became."

Rarely, Lan En could detect a heavy emotion in Torina's voice.

Torina is the Sleeping Saintess, the other half of Michaela's body who wields the power of sleep and dreams.

Whether she appeared in Lan En's dreams or in those fragmented eyewitness accounts, she always appeared as a dream elf.

Ethereal and graceful, as gentle as a dream itself.

Dreams, however, are never heavy. But now...

The Witcher keenly sensed that something was wrong with Torina.

But at that moment, Torina looked up at the sky.

The blue flower fields on the ground, glowing faintly, reflected a dreamlike light, and the usually somber and gloomy sky seemed to soften in the night.

Torina's long hair swayed along with the flowers, and a very faint smile played on her small, delicate face, which was as white as jade.

“I’m very happy, Lann.”

"Happy? Why?"

"Because I can finally run and travel the world with my friends, according to my own wishes, to see those magnificent sights, legendary things, and to witness the passion of the warriors."

As she spoke, Torina lowered her head, which had been looking up at the sky, and turned to Lann.

"By the way, even though it's only been a few days, we're... friends, right?"

The Witcher stared blankly at Torina's faint smile, a strange premonition suddenly rising in his heart.

But he immediately replied, "Of course."

"Thank you."

At this moment, Torina's smile finally intensified a little more.

Lan En felt his arm being gently encircled. Beside him, the Sleeping Saintess floated in the dream, resting on his arm.

Her long, thick purple hair swayed around them, as if trying to wrap them up together.

Torina didn't speak again, but leaned on Lann's arm and looked up at the sky in her dream.

For some reason, perhaps because it was Torina's home turf in the dream, Lan En felt a growing sense of unease, but he genuinely didn't want to speak at this moment.

He simply stood quietly in place, watching the boundless sea of ​​flowers on the Blue Coast and the sky above them with Torina.

I don't know how much time passed, maybe it was just a blink of an eye.

"Suck~"

The Witcher suddenly opened his eyes on the sleeping bag.

He stood up steadily but quickly and immediately looked around.

But all that could be seen was the campfire being carefully extinguished by the velvet ball, and the other people who had already packed up and were ready to go.

Even Margarita had already tidied up with the help of the velvet ball.

"You slept very well last night, sir," Mentos's teasing voice echoed in Lann's mind. "Did you have a meeting with the girl from your dream?"

The voice of the bio-engineered AI was as it always was, carrying the same 'pretentious' tone that Lan En had used to set it up with him, along with a friendly chuckle.

As part of Lann's brain, Mentos experienced more with him than anyone else.

But just as Mentos finished its witty remark about the subject, it realized something was wrong.

"Report my brain activity data from last night."

Lann's voice was calm and composed. Mentos seemed to understand something and immediately returned to his efficient work mode from his previous teasing.

"All areas of your brain entered a stable resting state last night, and your sleep efficiency was exceptionally high."

While listening to Mentos's brief report, the Witcher also quickly browsed the data provided by the bio-engineered AI.

He immediately realized that not only had his entire brain region been asleep last night, but now it was also fully awake.

His enhanced organ, the nerve ganglion, is not even in an activated state right now!
Perhaps it was because Lan En's sudden standing up and looking around was a bit unusual.

Melina slowly approached from the other side of the extinguished campfire. She first glanced at Margarita, who was packing her bags with her back to them, before shaking her cloak and crouching down beside the Witcher.

Concern flickered in his open right eye.

"What's wrong with you?" "Is it obvious?" Lan En frowned first, then continued to Melina, "Torina... I can't see."

Melina frowned deeply: "So, does that mean we can't find Michaela's body on the Azure Coast?"

“No,” Lan En waved his hand in rebuttal, “I can find it. She finally gave me an address… but that’s why I have a bad feeling.”

“You know the exact location? Then let’s get going.” Messermo stood up from the ground at this moment. “Whatever you’re worried about, it will eventually involve my brother who wants to become a god.”

"This is the influence of a divine position; everything in the world is related to it."

Messermon's cold, golden eyes met Lan's. He remained as gloomy as a snake, but seemed to have understood something in their gaze.

There was a deeper meaning in his voice when he spoke to Lan En.

In this shadowy land where endless battles rage, he has seen far too many eyes over the long years.

He had seen too many eyes: the resentment of the Horned People, the fear, anger, and forced faith of the Holy War soldiers after learning that the Shadowlands had separated from the Borderlands.

Lan En's eyes felt familiar to him.

“That’s right.” The Witcher nodded in agreement.

He immediately got up, and the group packed their belongings. Following the guidance Lan En had received, they headed deeper into the Azure Coast.

Passing the spirit fire dragon they had defeated in seconds the night before, its body battered but still alive, they came upon a vast array of coffins.

The Shadowlands are a gathering place of death, while the Azure Coast is the place in this land where death is most concentrated.

All kinds of deaths will be stranded and converge here.

These enormous sarcophagi each look like the hall of a palace or a large ocean-going ship.

It's unclear whether the coffin contains the body of a giant that matches its size, or if it was simply made so large for the sake of pomp and ceremony.

But in any case, the enormous stone coffin, which has drifted here for countless years and comes from some ancient civilization, has become one with the terrain of the Azure Coast.

These enormous stone coffins are the mountain itself, with sand and soil piled up on top, and then faintly glowing blue flowers bloom on them.

It is common to see the corner of these stone coffins peeking out from under the soil and rocks on the hillsides and small hills of the Blue Coast.

The enormous and mysterious coffin, along with the beautiful blue glowing flower sea, together create a surreal scene here.

Apart from the spirit fire dragon that charged straight down at night, the Azure Coast was generally quiet.

They encountered no particularly fierce enemies along the way, allowing Lan En to lead his group deeper into the area, following the route that had been imprinted in his mind since he woke up.

Finally, beside the rocky cliffs on the coast, Lann stopped at the edge of a huge pit.

"Just down there?"

Messermo stood at the edge, peering down, and asked seriously.

“We need to go further down, deeper,” Lan En said, standing at the edge of the hole as well, looking around. “Look, over there.”

A little distance from the edge of the large hole, a faintly glowing piece of writing appeared.

That's usually a method used by pilgrims in border areas to mark their way or to inspire themselves or those who come after them with words of faith.

Lan En walked over and parted the weeds to read.

"Ah, the end of those drifting sarcophagi, a velvet garden where deep purple flowers bloom! Sweet slumber, a slumber like mud, like death... I will surely find this place! Let me be free!"

The crowd was puzzled by what he meant, but they at least knew that the depths of this large cave must be a very important place.

The Witcher, however, frowned even more deeply.

Margarita then noticed her lover's unusual behavior and stepped forward, saying, "We can just jump down."

As she spoke, the sorceress chanted a spell, and chaotic magic flowed out delicately from her body's reserves, wrapping around the people who felt uncomfortable with the chaotic magic.

“【Feather Fall】.” Margarita flicked her hand, a smug look on her face. “Back in Aretusa, so many mages in high positions were panicked and had nowhere to escape. I learned my lesson and specially developed this spell.”

In the Rebellion of Aretusa, most mages who escaped the buildings could have survived by jumping directly onto the turbulent sea, and with the help of their spells.

However, they were mentally unstable at the time and unable to cast spells. Without the help of magic, jumping down would be suicide.

Margarita's talent in magic is undeniable, and combined with the profound lessons of that day, she developed new spells.

Encouraged by the sorceress's confidence, everyone stopped delaying and jumped straight down to the bottom of the dark cave.

The surrounding rock walls of this large hole have many protrusions, so even if you are careful, jumping down one level at a time is not a problem.

However, as Lan En slowly drifted down under the influence of the spell, he discovered that there were many things on those small platforms that looked like mud lumps or slimes.

“Those are molten mud,” Melina explained to Lan En and the others. “The body is damaged beyond repair, but it still cannot die, so the flesh and bones can only be destroyed more and more, eventually turning into this kind of clump.”

(End of this chapter)