There were various unknown factors in Alexei's plan.
He had no clue how the Leader would react.
He also had no idea how the equally dangerous Lich would react.
The most important thing of all, he did not know how the abyssal relic would respond to him. Without somebody strong restraining it, would it claim his puny life? After all, it was unpredictable and the vilest thing in this place.
Alexei knew that he could die. His not-so-wonderful transmigration journey might end without him doing anything big or meaningful. Was this gamble worth it just to force the leader to see him?
When the stupid thought flickered, he was nearly amused since it sounded a bit odd. It was like a neglected girlfriend threatening to suicide if her boyfriend did not go to see her. It was so amusing that he would have forgotten for a second that he was currently holding a deadly item if not for suddenly blanking out.
'As expected...'
Alexei lost his sense of sight in that brief moment. An unimaginable pain greater than what he experienced in the lab assaulted him. Goosebumps covered his entire body as he felt countless stares coming his way. Voices whispering unknown language rang and all he knew was that they sounded like they were coming from deep underground.
Before Alexei lost consciousness, amidst the darkness which dominated his world, the image of the charcoal-like object slowly materialized. It was the abyssal relic, looking like it came to life.
It was flickering with an eerie violet glow.
...
When the Leader's body reappeared in the room that used to house the abyssal relic, Alexei had already vanished. The stunned demon guard was the only one there. The crystal container enshrined in the middle was empty, as empty as the guard's gaze that blanky stared at the imposing figure of the giant.
"Who trespassed here?" The grim voice was from the lich who appeared a second later.
Due to pressure, the guard who regained his wits instantly knelt and stuttered out, "M-milord. F-forgive me. It's not me! Please spare my life! I-I didn't expect an intruder to get past the barrier."
"Who trespassed here?" repeated the lich in anger, stressing every word.
"It's a human! I-I didn't see the face clearly, but I can swear on my life that he's a human!" The kneeling one replied hastily with a shaky voice. On his entire body, sweat trickled down without pause out of extreme fear and nervousness.
The lich quietly looked at the guard. Those who knew the lich's temperament knew that the latter was not pleased with the reply. He asked who. How incompetent was the other to not know what he wanted to hear.
"Abel, no need to ask. I know who did it." The giant's frost-laced voice echoed in the place.
In the next second, the cowering guard let out a tragic cry before turning into a puddle of blood. The other two in the room did not move one inch from their spots. But somebody died.
The lich turned to the giant. A deadly and dominating aura surrounded the latter and it insta-killed the incompetent guard.
He inspected the place, then spread his own aura to survey the entire palace. When he detected nothing, he further his search in the nearby forest.
Not long after, an air of gloominess surrounded the two.
"It's that human prophet. He touched the relic and then the relic teleported him away." A brooding expression could be seen on the face of the Leader.
Just now, he employed a technique of the giant's race to briefly read an object's memory. It was a technique that had a lot of restrictions on the frequency of usage but was useful when needed. Basically, the item must be something he had touched before and the reader could only see a few images in the past half an hour. However, since the theft happened not long ago, the Leader immediately found out what took place and who the culprit was.
A strange expression flickered in the Leader's eyes. Why did the relic react that way to that human?
"I see. So it's that audacious rat."
The lich flew in the skies above the palace. As the sun had yet to fully set, the servants and subordinates loitering below saw the robed high-ranked skeleton mage floating above them.
They stared in awe for a long while as this was a rare opportunity to see a lich. This legendary creature usually would not go out of the palace so not many slaves and palace soldiers had the opportunity to see him. So why did the most trusted subordinate of the leader appear above today?
Before the various creatures in the Dark Palace could recover from the stupor or think of an answer, their attention was taken away by the weird noises that started resounding around them.
Then they saw something that made their faces pale and sculps numb.
Skeletons rose from the ground.
They appeared everywhere.
At the same time, black, poisonous miasma enveloped the land, seemingly seeking to devour all. Not long after, tattered black armors and weapons appeared on these skeletons as if they were produced by the miasma.
A few skeletons grew taller than the others and gained better-looking pieces of equipment. A strange purplish glow also appeared inside the hollow eye-sockets of these high-ranking undead.
Then they roared.
The earth seemed to have quaked in fear from hearing the unintelligible cries made by the army of skeletons.
Now present in this part of the continent of Mavria was a full legion of the most terrible beings that had been striking fear in the hearts of all mortals since various legends about them began to circulate.
"I-it's the undead army."
"W-why? W-who angered the second boss?"
Servants of the Dark Palace retreated at the spectacle. The majority of them were from subspecies of legendary creatures, yet not even they could say that they were not scared by the seemingly endless sight of armed undead.
Why did the lich summon his army? The undead were brainless creatures incapable of processing logic? Would these nefarious beings prey on them to amuse their lord?
None of them knew. All they knew was that a few of their colleagues were already injured or trampled down by the unholy beings that began to wander about. They could only hide away in fear and pray that none of these undead would notice them.
The Leader stared at the sky for a few seconds before deciding to head back to the throne room. Thousands of skeletal beings and automatons roamed the land surrounding the palace to search for traces of the relic. He too joined the search by triggering the magical arrays covering his territory. He sat at the throne purposely installed at the center of the main array, sharing his senses with it to extend his consciousness over his vast stretch of land.
'So not in the east too. In just a minute, nowhere to be found.'
'Fascinating.'
Of course, he and Abel had long had a vague premonition that their search would not gain them anything. The relic had been in their possession for decades but to date, they had yet to crack down its mysteries. The two could not help but be in awe of its power after seeing it finally at work. However, faint displeasure also rose in their hearts. They were not pleased that the one who awakened it was not either of them.
The Lich returned and stood below the throne room. "Leader, the relic chose that human. I really want to know why our treasure would resonate with such a puny creature."
The giant did not reply, seemingly concentrating on his task.
Abel bowed his skeletal head and asked hesitantly, "Should we report this to the 'Princess'?"
At the mention of the 'Princess', the Leader's shut eyes finally opened. His brows furrowed as a repulsive expression showed on his face. It was the thought of reporting a dereliction of duty that made him feel both remorse and unwillingness.
He pondered for a moment before he replied to Abel, "The Princess is working on a much more important matter. She wants everything to fall in order. It is unwise to disturb Her at the moment."
"I understand. But the ancient relic is only one. We can't afford to lose it."
"No need to be so pessimistic." Shaking his head, the Leader said, "It might have been an unprecedented accident, but that lowly rat is my slave. I can't locate the mark on him right now which means he is not in Mavria. But the moment he reappears, I'll immediately be able to grasp his location. With the relic in hand, and his own ability to predict, he won't be dying. But that place is hostile to weak mortals. There's no way that a human like him would want to stay there and not endeavor to return to his homeland."
Hearing this, the flames in the Lich's eye sockets flickered slightly. "That human is not in Mavria? He could not be in the Heaven Realm, could he?"
A few chuckles escaped from the Leader's mouth. "No. The relic is an amalgamation of dark and evil desires, emotions, and thoughts. It could only connect to that place."
The various lights produced by the web of arrays slowly vanished. The lich followed the direction the Leader's gaze turned to, then came to a realization.
The Dark Palace was surrounded by forest on all sides, but even then, it was merely the entrance of a forbidden zone. The direction the Leader was looking at happened to be pointing towards the real heart of the forbidden region. A place that served as the entrance to the most dangerous place in the universe.
The plane was where no sane mortals would dare set foot in.
But it was the goal of the Dark Palace since it had been founded several hundred years ago.
"That... is suprising."
A peal of laughter that sounded like the scratching of thousand nails against a door reverberated.
The equally amused Leader slowly said. "We will soon enter the abyss. That rat that snatched our relic. He soon would have nowhere to hide from my reach."
In reality, the giant was not as calm as he appeared on the surface. But he knew their hands were currently tied. Upon confirming that Alexei's aura vanished from Mavria, there was nothing else they could do as that would not possibly affect their organization's long-term plans.
In the end, he forcibly tossed the matter off of his mind and asked Abel, "So how's the progress regarding the Red Witch?"