Zanze's Bizarre Adventure

After going a little farther, Zanze suddenly stopped.

Her long hair swept aside the fallen leaves and dirt at her feet, revealing a layer of blackened ash beneath. Even after years of rain, these traces of the fire had not completely disappeared.

"Just as I thought. This is the place."

Zanze picked up a pinch of ash. She could still sense an extremely faint trace of mana in it. It seemed that the great fire really had not been an ordinary one.

Changing her approach, she stopped following the river and headed toward the spot where the mana in the ash was stronger.

The trees around her gradually grew sparse.

Before long, several charred stone pillars appeared in the moonlight. Most had collapsed, and their surfaces were covered in moss and vines. Only one was still barely standing.

Zanze expanded the range of her mana detection, but still found nothing unusual. If not for the mana lingering in the ash beneath her feet, this would have looked like an ordinary ruin where plants had grown back after a fire.

"It really is thoroughly hidden."

Mana detection wasn't all-powerful, after all. A magic user skilled enough at concealing mana could escape detection even while standing a few steps away, just like that little girl named Fern.

Since mana detection was no use, she would search with her eyes and hands.

Her long hair spread out in every direction, constantly extending farther. She was already certain something was hidden here; after all, she was "looking for the question with the answer already in hand."

Stones, dirt, ash... There still seemed to be nothing worth noticing, until one strand of hair brushed over the standing stone pillar.

Zanze suddenly stopped.

The pillar was covered in moss and looked as though no one had touched it in years, but there were several fresh scratches near its base. There was no dirt in the gap where the pillar met the ground, either. Instead, it was quite smooth.

Someone had moved this pillar before.

That was Zanze's assessment. She then directed her long hair to wrap around the pillar and move it to one side. As she gradually increased the force, a scraping sound suddenly came from its base, and the pillar slowly turned halfway around.

A patch of vine-covered ground nearby trembled slightly. Zanze's long hair quickly swept the plants aside, revealing a black stone slab.

A hidden chamber too?

Zanze walked over to the slab and examined it closely.

The edges of the slab were almost flush with the surrounding ground. If the mechanism hadn't made it tremble, it would have been difficult to notice the space hidden beneath it even while walking right over it.

But what deserved more attention was the slab's material.

"Anti-Magic Ore."

Zanze reached out and tapped the slab. No wonder her mana detection hadn't picked anything up.

Anti-Magic Ore could disable true magic within three meters of it. It was hard, and both mining and processing it were extremely difficult. The True Magic Association headquarters had a few prisons made from Anti-Magic Ore, used specifically to hold magic users considered extremely dangerous.

Once locked inside, no matter how powerful their true magic had been, they could only stay put like ordinary people.

Of course, if someone also possessed enough strength to smash through walls barehanded, that was another kind of problem to be dealt with beforehand.

As the mechanism continued to turn, the black stone slab slowly sank, revealing a staircase leading underground before Zanze.

Fortunately, only the door here was made of Anti-Magic Ore. From what she could tell, she could still use mana inside.

Still, to be safe, Zanze didn't immediately descend the stairs. She first used true magic to send the location back to the True Magic Association, and also left a "backup plan" outside the hidden chamber.

If she didn't dispel it with her mana within an hour, it would automatically send a distress message to the True Magic Association. Though she might be dead by then, the message would still be useful.

Besides, someone who clung to life and feared death could never become a First-Class True Magic User in the first place.

Only after making these preparations did Zanze finally descend the stairs.

Once she passed beyond the area covered by the Anti-Magic Ore, the long hair that had hung down behind her began to float again, slowly extending along the walls and floor.

Strangely, although she had expected a fierce battle here, the hidden chamber seemed even quieter than the outside.

Zanze didn't let her guard down because of that. The quieter a place was, the less suitable it usually was to call out, "Is anyone there?" After all, there might be no one there before the shout, but someone might show up afterward.

A thick layer of dust had accumulated on both sides of the stairs, but the center was noticeably cleaner than the surrounding areas. Several drag marks that had yet to be completely covered could still be seen.

Someone had indeed been active here recently.

At the bottom of the stairs was a wide underground corridor, with rooms of varying sizes lining both sides. Most of the doors stood open. Inside, almost nothing remained except chains, metal frames fixed to the floor, and some dried bloodstains.

These rooms should have been where Breda kept the monsters, but where had they gone now?

Zanze used true magic to check, then frowned.

All the monsters here had been moved about two or three days ago. The residual mana hadn't even been cleared away; it seemed they had left in a great hurry.

She crouched down and pressed her palm to the floor, trying to determine where they had all gone from the mana that had yet to dissipate.

A moment later, her expression grew even graver.

After leaving the forest, the monsters hadn't scattered. They had kept moving in the same direction.

Toward the Holy City.

Could they really be planning to attack the Holy City, just as Lorenzo guessed? I need to hurry back and tell them to prepare for it.

Just as Zanze hurriedly prepared to leave, she caught sight of some arrows scattered in a corner.

Their presence felt much like that of the ones Lorenzo had used that night.

Zanze stopped and used her hair to pick up one of the arrows and bring it in front of her for a closer look.

The arrow was perfectly ordinary in design, and its shaft and fletching were made from common materials. Only the arrowhead had some bloodstains on its surface, as well as an extremely intricate true magic formula engraved into it. That mana was coming from the formula.

"An imitation?"

Zanze murmured. But why would it imitate Lorenzo's true magic? If they were preparing to attack the Holy City, there was no need to make imitation arrows like these at all. And the bloodstains on it...

Zanze held it in front of her nose and sniffed gently.

It's a Demon's blood!

Wait, the time these monsters left seems to coincide with when Lady Frieren was weakened by the memory fragments. And these arrows and the blood on them...

Is Breda's target Lady Frieren?!