Black String of Fate

Chapter 7: Ruins of Salazar (1)

"Whew, finally. Fuck this damn forest, I'm never coming back here uninitiated."

After an arduous journey of staying out of sight of dangerous beasts, Xavier finally made it to the entrance of the ruins required to be investigated for the quest. It was a humbling journey. He discovered that his sword, which could slice through anything with ease, struggled to go through the hide of the monsters. He found out the hard way just how weak he had become.

His new life would've been over as soon as it began had it not been for the survival tricks he learned in the Great Forest.

The entrance to the ruins was a broken cave with pieces of marble jutting out, telling of its ripe old age. The area surrounding the cave was greener and full of life, and Xavier saw some small purple flowers with white-tipped petals.

'If I'm not wrong, the mana density around must be so high that natural treasures like Azalea Magica are growing in abundance. There's no doubt that these ruins belonged to a great mage.' Xavier pocketed some of the flowers since they were good money. He stood in front of the cave, took a deep breath, and went in with determined but careful steps.

'It's so dark. If it wasn't for the unnatural mana density around, it might as well be an ordinary cave...'

It was pitch black inside, and Xavier would've been blind if not for the torch in his hand. So far, everything looked like a normal cave, but he felt something off.

While Xavier was looking around, his instinct kept tingling, and he had a feeling that something bad was about to happen. Soon, he stopped when the bad feeling became unbearable. He knew something was wrong, but couldn't put his finger on it.

'I clearly need more preparation to tackle this, I don't have a death wish.' Xavier thought as he started making his way back. He retraced his steps hurriedly as the feeling was getting worse. He should've been moving further from the danger, but it still felt like it was right above his head. He kept walking and walking...

Until he walked for who knows how long, and found out that the darkness never ended.

'Shit, I'm fucking trapped here. The entrance should've been here...'

The ruins had already trapped Xavier inside, and he had not found any way of getting out except for the entrance. This magical trap would've been easier if he had some kind of mana sense, but how can an uninitiated boy utilize such an advanced technique?

'Alright, back to basics. Let's mark the walls as we go.' Xavier thought as he picked up a pebble and scratched the wall as he walked along. Sticking to one side and leaving a trail in an unfamiliar maze is one of the most basic things an adventurer should know. The walk into the seemingly small cave took up to 7 hours.

Xavier was utterly tired during this experience, but with the right pacing and experience in dangerous situations, he did the impossible for a young, malnourished boy. He finally stopped after discovering something different than just the neverending halls of the maze.

'A magic circle? It's a huge one, what might be its purpose?'

Indeed, Xavier had reached a chamber of sorts, surrounded by cave walls and unlit torches. On the floor, an elaborate magic circle was etched with some shiny blue ink, which Xavier had no idea what it was.

'These ruins are clearly intended for mages to explore and grasp its opportunities, a swordsman like me has no business being here. But still, I can't just hand this freebie to someone else. There must be some way to get this circle to work.

The Elemental King was known for his riddles and challenges present in his legacies, so there must be some stupid way to complete this challenge with wits, rather than trying to force through it.'

At that time, he didn't know that even Archon mages could not brute force through this magic circle. It was a magic circle meant to be only solved, with the Elemental King making sure of it with all his power.

Xavier carefully analyzed the magic circle in the ground even though he had no prior magic background. He believed that there must be something hidden that even an uninitiated can find with a keen eye.

And so began the tedious job of staring at some fancy design. Without any idea where to start, he stared at the circle for a long time, roamed around it, sat in the middle, and in his desperation, even dropped a few drops of his blood and tasted the blue ink.

And as expected, nothing happened. It would be a joke if a magic circle created by an Archon could be cheesed so easily.

'Words right now cannot express how much I despise the elemental king right now. This smartass fucker really created this frustrating shit.'

Xavier looked at the magic circle for a couple more moments before looking away and sighing. He needed to change his approach, as just staring and interacting with the magic circle wasn't doing him any good. He went over to the walls and started observing them. There were unlit torches throughout the chamber evenly spaced out.

Xavier thought of something and started going around and lighting them up with his own torch. This was the only thing he had in his depleting bag of ideas, so he made sure that not a single one was left. He roamed around and lit every torch, and backed up to observe his work.

As soon as saw the result of what he did, he held his head in embarrassment as he lamented his earlier display of stupidity. He even tried to lick up the weird ink on the ground, but he couldn't first think of lighting the torches...

'Of course, it was the torches... Why did I not do the most cliche thing when one sees perfectly fine unlit torches, first? I really am a bit stupid...' Xavier now saw the pattern formed from the shadows formed by the light of the torches. The walls, notches, stalagmites, and stalactites weaved the darkness into a riddle written in the ancient language.

It was a language lost to the current times, with only the most devoted scholars holding the knowledge to depict this. It did not matter much to Xavier, as a few years later, knowing the ancient language would become a necessary skill for survival.

'If it wasn't for the dragons' assault during the Age of Chaos, I wouldn't be understanding this right now. Now, this riddle...'

"They color the world, they give meaning to magic. Praised are those who control them, despised are those who let them run free, worshiped are those who do not need to bind and control them."

Looking at this riddle, Xavier had to admit it was tricky, but very luckily, he knew this specific answer. Once upon a time, he had met a mage during his travels to the Great Forest, he had briefly talked with him during their journey. They were making small talk, and the mage had presented a riddle to Xavier.

It was this exact riddle. Word for word. The mage had said he had read this riddle in one of the ancient tomes stored in the local magic tower, undersigned by a mysterious mage named 'Sal'. Xavier could not answer it at that time, so the mage gave him the answer.

'It's the elements. Elements are found in every corner of the world, and without elements, magic is just paltry tricks. Elemental magicians are well respected, but if they fail to control their power and become Majin, they are despised and hunted down. Geniuses who have an extremely high affinity for elements don't even need to control them, as they bend to their will effortlessly.

They are put on an extremely high pedestal and looked up to all over the world, a prime example of this being the great Elemental King.'

Xavier now looked back at the magic circle, and this time, he noticed seven places where the shadows marked a cross. They were evenly spaced, and now looking at them carefully, there was a sense of emptiness in those spots. It seemed as if it was left blank, a space to add something critical.

'Should I write my answer there? There are seven spaces, and there are 7 elements. Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Dark, and Space.'

Xavier picked up a piece of blue chalk weirdly lying around, went towards each mark, and drew the symbols of those particular elements in the ancient language. They seemed to fit perfectly with the rest of the circle, so he guessed that it must be the right answer.

As soon as he completed, the symbols along with the magic circle lit up, and in the center of the circle, a pillar of blue light shot up to the ceiling, showing some form of distorted waves inside the pillar.

'So it was a teleportation circle... Well, this riddle was solved unexpectedly simply. I guess beyond this point are the true Ruins of Salazar, the Elemental King.

But...' Xavier stopped just in front of the portal. He had a weird hunch preventing him from taking a step inside this circle, and as someone who had decided to live on his hunches from now on, he couldn't ignore this.

'Something just doesn't feel right. Elements is the tried and tested answer, the correct answer, but is this the only answer this riddle can have?'

Xavier remembered the time he was speaking with the mage he got this riddle from. Now that he remembered it more clearly, he recalled that there was something more that mage had said regarding this...

'You know, you gave a rather disappointing answer. I did not ask you this riddle expecting you to know the correct answer, but rather to hear your answer to this. People give rather interesting answers, so hearing a simple 'I don't know' felt lazy. Well, it can be that you haven't arrived at your answer yet, so I won't blame you too much.

The tome from which I had read this, also said that it was only 'his' answer to the riddle, not the only answer. Well, think about this from time to time, I have a feeling it'll be helpful to you.'

'Well, it certainly was helpful. It seems like that old man was more than what meets the eye...' Xavier thought as he fell into his thoughts. One thing was clear to him now, it mustn't be without purpose that the riddle for this circle was one with multiple correct answers. The mysterious mage, 'Sal', should be short for Salazar, the Elemental King...

Xavier had a feeling there was more to these ruins than met the eye...

'If I just use an answer I heard from someone else, it would just mean I'm deceiving the intentions of Salazar, the Elemental King. Despite everything, in these unexpected circumstances, this is ultimately a challenge from one Archon to another. A challenge from across eras...

It'll hurt my pride if I cheese this, and my pride is worth more than any treasure to ever exist, let alone a measly chalice.'

Xavier fell into deep thought as he started forming his own answer.

Throughout my whole life, as a revolutionary and as a Demon King, as a street rat, and as a supreme powerhouse, I have seen many things.

I have experienced both the beautiful and the ugly side of humans, I have seen the spark of light in the darkness and the stain of darkness in the light, and I know one answer that I believe suits the riddle much more for me, the answer of Archon Xavier, not Archon Salazar...'

Xavier made a bold step as he rubbed the answers off, and saw the light of the teleportation circle die down.