Everything was moving smoothly for Lira. Her Sword was barely a few inches away from hitting the shackles.
"Not good! Retreat!" Just as the sword was about to hit, Lira felt a jolt of current course through her body as she heard the panicked shout of the man.
She didn't know why the man was telling her to retreat at the last moment after being the person who told her to cut the shackles in the first place. However, she didn't have time to think about it. She could feel just how panicked that person sounded and listened to the advice.
Before her sword could touch the shackles, Lira jumped back. However, she was still too late. A strange energy flooded out of the shackles, causing what appeared like an explosion.
Lira's body flew back like a lifeless puppet, crashing on the wall in the back. She coughed out a mouthful of blood. Her face was already pale. Her entire body was aching! She even felt as if she would've died if she was a single second late!
Not only her, but even the Goddess of Nature was in a bad condition as well!
Her painful cries filled the room, as if her soul was in pain this time! All the strength that she had managed to recover with the weakening of the shackles was sucked dry again. The shackles that had grown weak were running at their full strength once again for some unknown reason.
"What happened?!" Lira roared in rage, wiping the blood off her lips. "Didn't you tell me the shackles were weak and that there was no danger?!"
"That bastard! I underestimated him!" The man's voice echoed in Lira's head. "He must've created another energy source!"
"When I gave him this formation, I thought he followed my arrangement for the Heavenly Stones! I didn't expect him to go one step further! He never really trusted me, did he?!"
"He used my plan, but that was secondary! For thousands of years, this prison was running in secondary defence!" The man exclaimed. "And I thought he used my arrangement as the primary form of defence!"
"In fact, he didn't even start the primary defence! He must've set the primary defence to activate in case of the failure of weaker defence! It's as if..."
The man couldn't even finish his sentence since he was so frustrated.
Lira finished his sentence, as if understanding what he was trying to say. "It's as if he expected you to come here to free that woman. Just how far did he plan?"
"Is there really no way for us to free her now?" she asked, knowing that if they couldn't do anything now, then this was the end of their journey to this place.
The man didn't say anything for quite some time. It was only after a long time that he sighed. "Since he expected this, there is nothing more we can do anymore. He must've created a hidden source of energy in this tomb. And now that the primary mechanism has been activated, if we try to find that source, you would only end up getting killed."
"Get out of this tomb now!" He warned Lira. "Don't worry about that woman anymore! She has no hope of ever leaving this place, unless those guys from above come down personally. Unfortunately, even they won't casually come down after what happened in the past..."
"Moreover, now that the primary mechanism is active, the main traps that even I don't know will start getting active! Before that happens, leave!"
The man was unwilling to leave yet there was no other path before him than to go back.
Lira turned her back on the Goddess of Nature who had once again lost all her strength. The Goddess of Nature watched Lira leave. Her eyes were lifeless again. All the hope that she had gained for freedom was crushed once again right before her eyes.
The suppression room once again returned to silence as the door closed again.
****
Outside the tomb entrance, Gabriel believed that the Heavenly Stone was the solution that he needed. There was only one way to get the stone and it was the tomb! However, just as he was about to enter, he stopped and glanced back at all the youngsters.
"Wait a minute. You guys were in the tomb for a long time, looking for Heavenly Stones, right?"
Gabriel stopped himself from entering the tomb again. He knew that the more stones he took from inside, the weaker the formation was going to be. So if the youngsters here already had some which was enough for him, then he didn't need to weaken the formation anymore. That was also safer.
All the Royals who fought fiercely for the Heavenly Stones had their faces turn pale. They understood what Gabriel was implying. After they went through so much effort to get inside and take the stones, Gabriel was asking them to hand over the stones?
"Senior, w-we didn't get any Heavenly Stones." One of the youngsters answered. "There were many traps and we couldn't get any! Just as we were about to go get some in a safer zone, we were told to come out."
The other Royals had their eyes lit up! If they stuck with the story, they didn't have to give the heavenly stones. As long as they could get out of this place and meet up with their guards, they believed they were safe.
'That's right! He wasn't there! He doesn't know we got the stones!'
"Yes Senior! If you want the stones, you might need to go inside again. If you want we can accompany you inside?! We all might get our first Heavenly Stone thanks to you as well!"
The others also played along, striving to fool Gabriel.
Unfortunately, none of them could succeed. Gabriel had no intention of letting them leave without checking personally.
Instead of believing their words, he checked everyones personally to see if they had a Heavenly Stone or not.
With his personal checking, none of the Royals could hide the Heavenly Stone that they had received, especially since the Heavenly Stone was something that couldn't be kept in an ordinary spatial storage treasure!
As Gabriel checked everyone, the Royals were so scared. They thought Gabriel was going to kill them after he caught them lying.
Fortunately Gabriel didn't make things difficult for them. The Royals and their Guards were too weak to cause any trouble. He let the youngsters leave after their checking.
In the end, the Royals were relieved to at least leave with their lives while regretting ever meeting this demon.
In the end, Gabriel was the only person who was left behind, looking at the Heavenly Stones before him.
"Only four Heavenly Stones. I thought they'll have more. However, four should be enough. I shouldn't be too greedy and risk freeing that woman..."
Gabriel picked up all the Heavenly Stones and kept them in his Grimoire which was one of the only few objects that could contain a Heavenly Stone.
Keeping the stone, he looked at the four towers once again. However, just as he was about to leave, he saw another figure come out of the Portal of the tomb!
For a moment, his heart froze. He didn't expect anyone to still be inside so when a figure jumped out, he thought the woman was free of the shackles.
It was only after he clearly saw who the person was that he calmed down. It was the cloaked person.
"So you were still inside..." Gabriel frowned. "How did you hide from my perception inside?"
Before leaving, he had checked most of the places and only then he left to make sure that there was no one behind who could weaken the formation further. However, for someone to still be left inside.
What was even stranger was that he didn't feel any aura from this person. It was as if the person before him was as ordinary as one could be, which didn't make sense…
