After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

This frightened Elena greatly. She was about to leave when she quickly moved closer.

"Your Highness, what's wrong with you?"

"...Holy Shield, didn't respond to me? Why?!"

----------

"so slow……"

At the entrance of the cave, a group of people gathered and were waiting anxiously.

Aize, who was in the lead, looked more and more ugly as time went by.

The personnel were assembled and ground defenses were prepared and mobilized, but Heidi, who had volunteered to participate in the operation, never showed up.

By now, we were already a full five minutes past the scheduled departure time.

You know, even when she was in the Goddess Blade team and was seriously ill, Heidi had never been late for any assembly.

In her words, punctuality is also part of aristocratic etiquette.

However, she did not show up on such an important occasion.

This made Aize start to wonder if she had encountered some unexpected situation.

“Sorry, I’m late!”

Fortunately, just before Aize made up his mind to find her, the princess finally appeared in the throne room.

He was wearing armor that was obviously too big for his size, carrying a full set of weapons, and his face looked terrible.

This made Aize frown:

"What happened? Why do you look like that? Are you feeling unwell?"

"No, nothing. It's just that my old armor was lost, and it took a while to find a spare. I'm really sorry. Let's get going quickly!"

Heidi explained with a forced smile, which looked like a lie no matter how you looked at it.

But even if she was lying, even if something really happened, she would never withdraw from this operation. Aize was very clear about this.

Without saying anything more, he raised his hand and prepared to give the order.

Then, noticing something, he paused and continued to ask:

"Heidi, where's your holy shield?"

As the iconic weapon of the brave Heidi, Aize could not think of any reason why she would not use it in such an important and dangerous situation.

In response, a trace of very obvious panic flashed in the princess' eyes.

But he quickly hid it and continued to reply with a forced smile:

"Uh, that one? That one's too big. It would be inconvenient to use in a narrow place like the tunnel, right? That's why I didn't bring it. It's okay, I can do it without it!"

As he spoke, he patted his chest vigorously, not knowing what he wanted to express.

At this point, Aize had roughly guessed what was going on.

But he didn't say much, so he nodded and turned to the knights waiting in line.

"Everyone is here, let's begin. Let me repeat, the mission objective is to investigate the unknown facility beneath the palace, uncover the truth behind the blood plague in the capital, eliminate any existing enemies, and arrest Regent Arthur if he's among them. Do you understand?"

"Understood!"

The knights responded in unison.

"Remember, the situation is unclear, the environment is unknown, and the enemy's situation is unknown. Any situation is not surprising, so you must proceed with caution throughout the process. Any form of unauthorized action and any unauthorized contact are strictly prohibited. This is not only for operational considerations, but also for your safety. Do you understand?"

"heard it!"

"Okay, take action!"

At the command, the battle began.

Heidi, who excels in defense and is immune to most traps, leads the way in, accompanied by Alicia, who possesses top-level physical destructive power.

Behind them are the elite knights with their weapons drawn, their vigilance raised to the highest level, ready to respond to enemy attacks at any time.

Aize, Villian, and Charlotte were in the middle of the team.

As the group advanced cautiously, they continued to use familiars and spells to investigate the situation in the tunnel, searching for potential dangers and traps so they could respond quickly.

The tunnel is not small in size, so the troops in battle formation do not feel too crowded or oppressive when walking in it.

Although there was no sunlight, the densely packed magic circuits on the walls, ground, and ceiling still provided enough light, not too strong, so that one could clearly see what was under their feet.

After walking for a distance, nothing happened.

"Isn't this tunnel too long?"

Villian, who had been controlling her familiar to explore the way ahead, was the first to stop and showed a puzzled expression.

"It's so far away, it doesn't end. Could it be... extending all the way outside the city?"

Chapter 114: Deep into the Darkness (2)

"Um……"

Villian's words made Aize stop and look at the tunnel he was in with a more serious look.

There was a secret passage under the throne in the palace, but Heidi, the heir to the throne, was unaware of its existence.

Generally speaking, it should have been built secretly during the period when Heidi was away from the capital fighting as a hero.

But is that really the case?

Aize touched the wall covered with magic circuits next to him, then squatted down and touched the ground under his feet.

All of them are made of quite good stone and are polished to an extremely smooth surface. In addition, complex circuits can be seen everywhere. No matter how you look at it, it does not look like it was built in a hurry.

And judging from the degree of wear and tear, it should have a history of quite a long time, even hundreds of years.

How could a place like this...

Aize shook his head:

"There's no point in thinking about anything now, just keep moving forward."

The answer is just ahead.

Needless to say, everyone continued to advance and go deeper into the darkness underground.

In the blink of an eye, more than an hour had passed, and we still hadn't reached the end. Along the way, we didn't see any forks in the road or anything worth noting.

The dark environment, limited vision, unchanging scenery and unknown future inevitably caused some commotion in the team.

Even Aize himself wondered if he had encountered a ghost wall or something like that, so he looked at Villian:

"Is this... no problem?"

"Hmm? Question?"

"For example, space spells that allow us to continuously cycle within an area."

The witch smiled softly and patted her chest vigorously:

"Don't worry, I've been monitoring the flow of magic around me and haven't found anything like that."

So, it’s simply because the distance is far.

There is no doubt that at this moment, Aize and others are almost certainly outside the city.

But where could it lead outside the city? A camp of some duke's army?

Not quite like it.

The question was soon answered.

"Lord Aize, look, the door!"

As the knights at the front of the team cried out in surprise, a tightly closed stone door appeared in front of the road, completely blocking everyone's way.

The royal coat of arms was engraved on it, but no keyholes or buttons were found.

I reached out to push it, but it didn't move at all.

"Aize, leave it to me! I'll tear it down in no time!"

Alicia, who was accompanying him, came forward eagerly. Tentacles had already formed under the skirt of her maid outfit, and were rolling restlessly, as if she was eager to try.

I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t feel satisfied with the dismantling just now.

However, this time, Aize shook his head:

"Don't worry. If there's a trap, there's no way to escape in such a narrow place. Let's check first..."

Before she finished speaking, Heidi, who had been walking at the front of the team with a very bad look on her face, looked at the stone gate for a while, then lowered her eyes slightly, as if she was thinking about something.

Then he walked up without saying a word and placed his hand on the emblem of the Shimen royal family.

Boom~

The moment of contact, the light emerging from the emblem almost flooded the entire tunnel.

Then, accompanied by a low sound, the heavy stone door opened by itself.

The group was stunned.

"Heidi, what is this?"

"Uh... I just thought it looked a bit like the pattern on the door to the palace's underground treasury, so I tried it. I didn't expect it to actually open..."

Such a result made Heidi look at her palm in surprise.

This fact also made Aize start thinking again.

The palace's underground treasury was built hundreds of years ago when the palace was first established. It was built by combining the technology of humans and the witches who had not yet moved away due to persecution at that time.

The last large-scale witch tribe left 200 years ago.

If this place used the same witch technology as the treasure house, wouldn't it have been built 200 years ago?

This actually confirms my previous guess.

But why exactly?

...Forget it, don't think too much about it.

Anyway, there is this door, which means we are almost at our destination, so just move forward.

Aize didn't say much, just waved his hand and the team continued to move forward.

On the other side of the stone gate, there is still a tunnel, which does not look much different from the previous place.

however--

Swish!!!!

The moment the end of the team stepped through the stone gate, a dazzling flash suddenly engulfed the group completely. The huge transition from darkness to complete white completely blinded almost everyone's vision in an instant.

"Don't panic, stay alert, and be ready to engage the enemy!"

Covering his stinging eyes, Aize immediately gave orders to stop the chaos that was about to break out.

However, nothing happened.

Apart from the flash of light, there was no other movement.

When everyone's vision was fully restored, they were still in the tunnel, still pitch black, and the scenery was still the same.

however--

“Is this… abnormal?!”

Villian reacted almost immediately, and from the front of the team, a knight's cry of surprise was heard:

"Gone!? Lord Aize, the princess...she's gone!"

----------

"Wow...what? Where is this place?"

When Heidi's vision returned to normal, the scenery before her had completely changed.