Snow had always hated being in tiny spaces. And no. He didn’t have some phobia for small spaces. But its hat small spaces always reminded him that his movements were limited while in combat.

  And after this small fight, Snow now hated them even more. Though ‘small’ was a bit of an understatement because their enemy had been a large cursed soldier with a lion face and four serpentine tails. The ancient creature had been resting in these tunnels moments before it noticed the three ascenders using them to travel to the Siege Tower.

  As of now, each one of them was staring at the creature's corpse as it stayed silent with half of its body submerged in the shallow waters of this tunnel. Rita was the one who had accidentally alerted it of their presence after her summon flew past it and was attacked by one of the tails. Driven by anger, she happened to be the one who delivered the final blow with her magic rapier because she was familiar with fighting in small spaces like this one.

  Shin hadn’t done much fighting but his ability to look into the future helped them when it came to dodging the serpentine tails.

  This was supposed to be the safest tunnel. And yet, they struggled this much to fight just one cursed soldier.

  “How are we? Any injuries?” Snow asked, his voice echoing through the tunnel walls even with his helmet on. Underneath, a rough map of the tunnels was displayed. If they were on the right path, then the secret passage leading into the Siege tower was close by.

  Rita’s red hair was dripping wet, almost blending with the red pool they were standing in. She looked at herself then Shin. “No....we actually managed to kill it without being driven close to death's door.”

  Shin studied the monstrosity for a moment and said in an even tone:

  “I thought this was supposed to be filled with monsters that are beatable.”

  “It is,” Snow responded. “The cursed soldiers in the other tunnels are said to have powers we can’t rival even if we took months of preparation because they're evolving into Generals. They’re the creatures that the undead king can’t control.”

  “It's why his gaze doesn’t extend to these tunnels,” Rita added, still breathing heavily after straining herself against the cursed creature.

  “We should continue. Len has turned half of the city to ice and Ceres, the iron knight has been murdered.”

  Shin’s announcement echoed throughout the tunnels. As a Seer, he already knew that these moments were going to happen. But as a seer, he wasn't permitted to twist fate. He wasn't that powerful yet.

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  “What killed him?” Snow asked after a short silence.

  Rita also lowered her gaze, her expression paling at the news of Ceres’s death. She murmured a short prayer for the ascender and heaved out a pained sigh once she was done.

  In response to Snow’s question, Shin only shook his head and replied. “I can’t see what killed him. It’s hidden from my powers to glimpse into fate.”

  "Sigh. I see." Snow sighed and continued leading their group to the exit leading out of the tunnel.

  They finally made it to a large iron door. It felt so out of place in a world like this but Snow was aware that these special towers were built after the destruction of the sun god’s domain.

  After giving it a few knocks to confirm that nothing was waiting for them on the other side, Snow and Shin forced the door open. It was heavy enough to give two ascenders a hard time to push and tough enough to deflect their weapons with ease.

  Out of the three, Rita was the first to feel the Undead king’s presence as soon as they crossed the threshold and stepped into the Siege Tower. Quickly, she decided to connect her sight with the small creatures inside and outside the tower to avoid surprise attacks.

  As a clairvoyant, Rita could only share her senses with only five creatures without straining her mind. Before coming here, her limit had been three because her mastery of zenshi had been level one. And after training herself, Rita had crossed to the second level. With that, her overall ability had grown to a point where she could share her sight with five other creatures.

  After reaching the stone door, she carefully observed the runic symbols inscribed on them. Her red eyes stayed on them for a while before placed her hand on the door and channeled zenshi into the runes which ignited as the divine energy breathed life into them.

  The floor seemed to tremble. Then, the stone door slowly slid open and revealed a familiar black altar…

  Everyone’s eyes widened as they were met with a very familiar shrine from the Cathedral.

  The black reflective stone, the altar ahead, the ominous silence, and Everlight’s statue which, for odd some reason, was missing a head.

  “This is…” Rita’s voice trembled.

  “No its not.” Shin was quick to cut in. The mature man’s expression was no longer as calm as it was before. His face had paled even more as if he had just seen a ghost or a very bad future.

  Noticing his expression, Snow turned to him. “What do you feel?” he asked.

  “I feel we should leave this room. The undead king is right below us. We should proceed there and leave this room right away.”

  Snow listened and then manifested a sword on thought. The thought of calling upon his summon had crossed his mind, but it was safe to save the best for last.

  Instead, he activated his Aura and a familiar wraith appeared next to him. The being wore the face of a dark-haired beautiful girl who just happened to be the person who locked his fate with the concept of death.

  ‘What do you think?’ he mentally sent a message to the wraith. But instead of responding, she remained quiet as she studied both Rita and Shin.

  The older man quickly searched once he felt her gaze and froze when he noticed the wraith standing next to the captain.

  Ignoring Shin’s obvious reaction, Death turned to Snow, sounding a bit excited. “That man can see me. What a powerful seer. I’m impressed, honestly.”

  Snow turned to Shin, gave him a sorry smile then back to the wraith which was his Aura.

  Ignoring her comment, he went on to ask another important question. “Can we kill him?”

  “The undead king?” she raised an eyebrow. “Of course we can kill him. It's just that Undead King was a very special man before he turned into this. Do you know what his blessing was?”

  Snow sighed at the obvious question and shook his head in response.

  With that, Death continued. “My master gave him the blessing of reincarnation. You see, people of the Sun god’s domain were very similar to the humans of your world. Laius here was someone who impressed my Master by hunting down a sacred beast known as Death Hound. When he was alive, he offered the creature's heart to my Master and was given the power to remember his previous lives….turning him into a king loved by the gods.

  But when the gods died after the conflict. For siding with the Authorities, Laius’s blessing turned into a curse. His memories collided with him and he lost the ability to die. That’s all I know about him.”

  “I see. How do we kill him?”

  “We have to break the curse on him, of course. The undead king is undead like the rest of his people. However, he’s very different and wields broken madness. Your ability alone won’t finish him off.”