Chapter 2706: The Demon of Fire, Disaster

Having obtained the answer, Xia De and Miss Danister had no time to taste Emilia's flower tea, so they rose to investigate the ruins. The elf girl immediately expressed that she would go too, likely wanting to show her enthusiasm in front of Miss Danister.

The ruins were quite close to the elf's treehouse, so there was no need to ride the chocobos. When the three of them arrived together at the ruins, which were quite familiar to Xia De, under the gloomy sky, even Miss Danister had to admit:

"Alright, there really isn't anything left here."

Only a few floor tiles remained on the ground, and the only standing half-wall was worthless.

The elf girl then reminded them:

"Besides the surface part, there is also an underground section here. That is where this Temple of Time stored its secrets. The entrance is in the tree hollow of this tree—those chocobos helped me find some literature about this place."

She pointed again to the large tree in the center of the ruins. Xia De certainly knew there was a tree hollow here; after all, the end of the space beneath the tree hollow was where he appeared every time.

"Oh, so that's how it is!"

He then understood that the small space between the hidden passage exit and the upward spiral staircase was indeed just a "storage room."

"Then how does one correctly open the tree hollow?"

Xia De asked again. He always used 【Nightwatcher】 or the 【Staff of Yggdrasil】 to enhance his "Key of Doors" spell to open the door, but this was clearly not the correct method.

This time, the elf girl shook her head. The history of these ruins was too long, and she did not know all the secrets here.

So, Xia De cast a spell to open the tree hollow, then led the two curious women behind him into the narrow spiral staircase behind the tree hollow one by one. Following the stairs all the way down, they arrived at the very bottom, which Xia De had evaluated as being "the size of a foyer."

When Xia De first came here, there was nothing except for the torch on the wall. This time, he lit the torch again, and the three of them checked the walls, floor, and ceiling together, but still found no clues:

"The person who solved the puzzle of this Temple of Time back then clearly took everything away. However, this place is not without its significance; at least it told us what form the 'treasure room' of the Temple of Time takes."

"Then, what is this torch?"

The elf girl asked again. Miss Danister beckoned for the torch to fly before her, checked it briefly, and then handed it to Xia De:

"The materials are normal, but you should perceive it yourself. I think your perception is much stronger than mine right now."

The torch was styled with oil-soaked cloth wrapped around the top of a piece of wood; the materials were indeed very ordinary. So, following Miss Danister's reminder, Xia De closed his eyes and let go of his perception to investigate more details of the torch. When his mental power touched the cracks inside the wood, he actually felt that those cracks were not naturally formed.

It was at least half a minute before Xia De opened his eyes:

"Very interesting. The cracks inside the wood form a short sentence in Elvish. But that kind of ancient Elvish does not belong to the first era; it was popular around the end of the Fourth Era and the beginning of the Fifth Era. So, this torch did not exist here originally; it was placed here in the years after the treasure was taken."

"What does the Elvish say?"

The elf asked again. Xia De glanced at her and recited the words:

"Ignite the fire of the giant tree, stored in the forest."

*Crack! * The torch held in his hand snapped directly in the middle. The flame on the torch went out, and the two pieces of wood, during their fall, seemed to be accelerated by time, directly crumbling into fly ash.

The silver ball of light summoned by Xia De then illuminated the ground, and they saw that the fly ash formed a simple map of the woodland on the ground.

Although the era when the torch was left behind was now very, very distant, fortunately, this map was centered on these ruins and indicated the cardinal directions and a scale, so the three of them could determine where the location marked on the map was.

"So, what did the elves of the late Fourth Era or early Fifth Era leave here?"

The eighteen-year-old red-haired sorceress asked the elf girl beside her, who immediately shook her head:

"I don't know."

Since they had a map and it was still early, the three of them prepared to go and see the location marked on the map. But before that, Xia De summoned his Ring of Destiny to open the hidden passage at the bottom of the tree hollow, then signaled for the elf and the red-haired girl to follow him inside:

"Since we're here, let's go in and take a look."

The statue of the Outer God was not something an ordinary person could approach or touch; this required the Space Spirit Rune or a special identity like a "Chosen One." The two women stood at the entrance of the hidden passage and listened to Xia De introduce the function of this place. The elf had long known about the "Space Maze," but this was indeed the first time Miss Danister had heard Xia De introduce it.

Because they would need to trek long distances in the forest later, the three of them mounted the chocobos. Around three in the afternoon, they arrived at the location marked on the map according to the direction and distance. It was roughly due north of the old Creekwood Town, but there was nothing in the vast sea of forest.

"Does it still need to be decrypted? Xia De, can you feel anything?"

The elf girl was responsible for keeping an eye on the three lively chocobos, and Miss Danister stood beside Xia De:

"Judging by your expression, you seem to have realized something?"

"Seeing those wood grains writing about fire burning the giant tree just now, I originally thought that the end of the map would reveal clues related to a demon. But now it seems that is not the case. The fire is restless; it's a pity Sister Daifulin is not here."

As he spoke, red flames ignited in his palm, and he threw the flames from his palm directly toward the forest floor in front of him. When the flames touched the ground, amidst a dull sound, the firelight seemed to ignite the earth. After waiting for a moment, the flames gradually gathered toward the center until an entrance to a cave, which had not existed just moments before, appeared.

This was not simply a hole appearing on the ground; the ground around the entrance had very typical Elvish-style stone wall decorations. Elvish runes were carved into the stone walls on the side of the entrance, but huge claw marks had completely destroyed the defensive ritual here.

But fortunately, the ancient Elvish text inscribed on the steps of the cave was still intact:

【We discovered a wisp of sacred fire that existed in ancient times in the forest. This fire is too violent. In order not to let it harm the habitat that the Night Song Elf clan worked so hard to choose, we have sealed this wisp of fire here.

If anyone comes for this wisp of fire, please feel free to take it. This sealing ritual is only to prevent the heat of the fire from leaking out and also to reject the approach of evil forces. Apart from this, the ritual has no harmful effects.】

Leaving the elf outside to keep watch, Xia De and Miss Danister went deep into these ancient Elvish ruins. The cave below the steps was not very deep, but the claw marks that frequently appeared on the surrounding walls had destroyed all the rituals, just like at the entrance.

At the end of the cave was an overturned gray stone brazier. Although the precious Elvish antique had not been destroyed, there was nothing inside it.

Xia De bent down to set the brazier upright again, and when he reached out his hand, he could still feel the lingering warmth of the fire that had once existed here.

"It seems you know about the fire the elves sealed."

The red-haired girl asked, and Xia De nodded:

"Yes, they sealed a wisp of the Primordial Fire here."

After finishing, Xia De blinked again and looked at the huge claw marks remaining on the four walls, where black flames were burning:

"And before we arrived, a demon took that wisp of fire. This was not a modern event; that happened a hundred years ago."

(Little Mia is running...)

That evening, Doctor Shi Nai De had just finished dinner and was thinking of taking advantage of the evening to organize some recent patient files, when the clinic's maid said that Detective Xia De Hamilton had come to visit.

He welcomed Xia De in the second-floor reception room, sized up Xia De's expression, and said with a smile:

"It seems you didn't encounter any big trouble this time."

"Doctor, your thirteenth demon probably has a lead."

Doctor Shi Nai De was not surprised; he had long guessed that Xia De would encounter a demon in the Vesta Forest:

"The other party finally appeared? Is it the demon that was sealed three hundred years ago, or has some new evil appeared in that forest?"

"It's highly likely to be the same one. Look at this; this is a newly discovered clue."

Xia De said, handing the smoldering black wood sealed in holy water ice to the doctor, and explained the situation of the charred trees fused with animals that the hermits had discovered in the forest.

The doctor listened while melting the ice to examine the piece of wood. Because he possessed the power of the Ancient Fire Demon, the Arsonist Sophocles, he was also not afraid of the flames on it.

After Xia De finished speaking, he sighed:

"Alright, all the demons related to the forest that I guessed last time were incorrect. The characteristics displayed by the other party were too misleading; I admit I was also misled."

Subsequently, Xia De watched as the doctor's right hand, holding the wood, turned into a black liquid and directly absorbed the piece of wood:

"Xia De, you remember the Arsonist Sophocles, right?"

"Of course, that was the first demon we dealt with together besides the Human Pus, and my 【Nightwatcher】 was also discovered in the place where it was sealed. I have a deep impression of it."

Xia De held his teacup:

"You wouldn't be saying that this time's demon is still it, would you? But Sophocles has been sealed in a cave in the abdomen of Mount Cikar by the Empress of Witches since the Fifth Era. How could it appear in the Vesta Forest... Time travel?"

"Don't think so complicatedly."

The doctor hurriedly stopped Xia De's train of thought:

"I just want to say that there are actually many demons related to fire. I told you a long time ago that the origin of evil spirits and demons is quite complex. One theory is that they are the embodiment of the world's malice itself."

Cannibalism, spreading bad luck, twisting reflections, proliferating desires, human evil thoughts, and so on. Among them, the Arsonist Sophocles symbolizes roughly the tyranny of fire, and its main body is even more so after fusing with the body of an ancient fire demon.

And the demon you encountered this time symbolizes 'fire disaster' itself—the Demon of Fire, Disaster. The third-year curriculum at Saint Byrons mentions elemental life; you can consider the main body of this thing to be similar to the appearance of a fire elemental life."

Xia De had never heard this name:

"What powers does it have? What stories did it leave behind in the past?" ===== CHAPTER 2707 =====