Phastus kept quiet after hearing her outburst but his eyes remained dropped. His mother could see the bags underneath his eyes which depicted he hadn't been sleeping well.
Her strong and initial uncaring look turned back into a motherly affectionate gaze as she reached out to touch his face.
She gently stroked his left cheek before speaking, "Phastus, stop this madness. What is done is done, the case is closed it's time for you to move on with your life,"
Phastus still showed no reaction to those words causing her to continue speaking.
"You have mourned them enough, it's time for you to resume your princely duties, You are the heir to the throne of Razledania Kingdom after all," Phastus mother who was also the Queen reminded Phastus as she kept stroking his face gently.
Phastus suddenly pulled back, causing the queen's palm to forcefully separate from his cheek.
"I don't want to, continue ruling the Kingdom, mother," Phastus said before slamming his room door shut.
"It seems fitting for a murderer to rule a court of murderers," Phastus's distant voice could be heard from outside the door.
The queen stood in place for some time with a crestfallen expression. The golden crown on her head with several blue gemstones embedded in, tilted to the side as her head dropped a bit lower.
She reached out to touch the room door but paused her hand halfway before turning around to leave.
Her luxurious-looking royal robe swept across the hallway as she walked away with an aura of gloom surrounding her.
Prince Phastus sat on his bed and covered himself with a blanket before resuming staring into space once more.
'I'm sorry Landria... I'm sorry I couldn't protect you... I'm sorry for being pathetic...' Teardrops rolled down his eyes as he said internally.
*****************
Meanwhile, Landria had arrived at the bottom of the hole.
He was currently moving across a big cave-like space with rough dirt-like walls and several rocks protruding from the ceiling area.
He already picked up the amount of Sander stalks he needed but he noticed something when he was moving further into the hole. The mana concentration was getting thicker and this led in a particular direction.
Landria decided to inspect this as he could feel the mana concentration was higher than above the surface already.
'Something must be causing this,' He thought and decided to do an inspection.
Right now he was walking along with the cave-like space towards the other end.
The hole was way bigger underneath than expected. He could see more plants protruding from the sides of the wall and on the ground, the further he walked.
He kept his guard up, ready to attack if he found himself in a precarious situation.
'Maybe I might even find what I'm looking for here,' This thought was one of the main reasons Landria decided not to head back when he was supposed to.
He didn't know what he would find at the end of the hole but based on what he had seen so far, he had hopes that he might find a Phirhiar purple moss growing somewhere.
After walking for several minutes, he was finally closing in on the end of the underground cave-like space. That was when he spotted a small pool of crystalline liquid up ahead.
Landria paused his footsteps and looked around the place. Unfortunately, he couldn't find a Phirhiar purple moss anywhere around here but he could sense the mana concentration in the environment was now even higher than in the Razledania Kingdom.
The mana just happened to be gathering around the crystalline-colored pool up ahead which was bubbling like it was being heated up.
'I could refine my mana core easier and faster in this environment,' Landria thought with an astonished expression.
He stared at the crystalline pool up and knew it was most likely responsible for the high mana concentration in the environment.
Landria exercised more caution as he moved closer to the pool and arrived at the edge.
Besides some weird carvings at the edges of the pool, Landria couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.
The pool was quite massive, covering a radius of more than a hundred meters.
He proceeded to squat in front of the bubbling pool and threw a small piece of clothing in.
Tsshhhhhh~
A loud sizzling sound was heard as the piece of cloth immediately shriveled up within the pool and got disintegrated in a manner of seconds.
Landria didn't need to be told before he knew that the pool was corrosive but this still had him wondering how such a place was created because it didn't make any sense for all this to exist down here.
He stared at the two holes that extended further towards the right and left respectively but at this point, Landria was not interested in finding out where these led to.
'I should get out of here,' Landria thought as a deep feeling of discomfort arose from within.
Just as he turned around...
'Coward! Take this cave as yours!'
The unknown voice suddenly reappeared in his head.
"What are you talking about?" Landria voiced out.
'Take whatever adds to your strength and walk the path of vengeance!'
The voice stated once more...
"Take? Take from who?" The moment Landria finished voicing out those words a loud rumble was heard within the cave.
Gbbbbhhhhhlll~
The ground quaked as a cloud of dust was stirred up from the left hole within the cave.
'Not a who... a what,' This was the last he heard of the voice before it vanished from his mind once more.
Landria's eyes slightly widened as the cloud of dust cleared up, revealing a massive centipede-like creature with golden-colored carapaces.
Its antennas were immensely long and pointy at the tip. Each was at least the size of a full-grown adult.
Each of the hundreds of its legs was almost twice the size of a human.
The revealed part of its body was at least eighteen feet long and Landria couldn't see the end due to the creature only moving part of its body past the entry point of the hole.
However, it was obvious that this creature would be over thirty feet in length.
Its upper part extended up, causing its head to touch the ceiling area of the underground cave.
Vrrrhhhhh~
The creature stared down at Landria's small frame with an immense look of hostility as he saw him standing close to the pool area.
"Shit!" Landria cursed as he prepared to run after sensing the strength of the creature was not in any way comparable to all the magical creatures he had hunted so far.
The moment he turned to the side and began to run, the creature took this as its cue to attack and charged forward.
Landria had not even managed to take more than a few steps forward when the body of the massive centipede-like creature leaped over and landed right in front of him.
This caused him to suddenly pause his steps as he spotted one of the creature's massive blade-like legs swinging towards him.
Fwwhiii~
Landria quickly jumped towards the side and rolled across the ground, causing the blade-like leg of the massive centipede creature to sweep over him.
Krrryyyccchhhh~
A long slash was left across the ground as the leg of the creature cut through it after missing Landria.
Landria quickly picked himself up and began to wave his hands as he conjured up a magic spell.
"Draconic flames, Level ten," He voiced out as a massive red-colored magic circle appeared behind him.
A loud dragon growl reverberated across the place as a snake-like dragon made of flames flew out of the magic circle.
It was almost as massive as the centipede creature as it radiated with brownish flames, causing the temperature of the vicinity to rise immensely.
The massive centipede creature was about to attack once more when Landria waved his hand causing the draconic flames to fly forward and slam into its head.
Boom!
A fiery explosion blasted across the place, causing Landria to block his face as dust and smoke were stirred up.
"Did I manage to get it?" He voiced out loud as he stared at the area where the flames had collided with the creature.
Thrrrrihhh~
A pointy leg suddenly stabbed through the blinding smoke, piercing into Landria's left chest area before he was able to react in time.
"Ugh!" Landria groaned in pain as his body was lifted across the air and flung towards the side of the underground cave.