Lucian left the reception hall where Bernahl was staying and followed the sound, searching for Rya. Before long, he found her in a nearby room.
The door stood wide open. Rya was sitting on the floor with her back to the doorway, looking completely stunned.
In front of her, a pitch-black passageway had somehow appeared in the wall.
Lucian hurried over, crouched beside Rya, and reached out his hand to help her up.
But rather than taking his hand, Rya pointed toward the passage.
"S-Sir Lucian..."
"Over there! Something went inside just now!"
Lucian looked at the passage concealed within the inner layers of Volcano Manor.
It was a secret passage belonging to Volcano Manor, one that led to the actual core of the torture facilities.
In other words, it led to the real Volcano Manor: the place that served as both a prison and a torture chamber.
Shaking his head, Lucian gently took Rya's hand and pulled her to her feet.
Even as she recalled what had just happened, Rya still found it hard to believe.
—
Just a moment earlier, after leading Lucian to the reception hall, Rya had remained nearby, quietly waiting.
However, this time she heard those strange sounds again. Sounds resembling breathing and scales rubbing against one another.
And compared to any previous occasion, they seemed much closer.
After hesitating briefly, Rya ultimately lost her battle against curiosity and decided to investigate until she got to the bottom of it.
Following the sounds, she searched along the walls of the corridor.
Finally, just outside this room, she spotted a writhing black shadow...
Excited by her discovery, Rya completely forgot that there might be danger. She immediately rushed after it and entered the room.
Yet the moment the shadow went inside, it vanished completely. Rya, who had followed right behind it, was left facing an empty room.
Only then did Rya belatedly begin to feel a little frightened.
She looked around the ordinary-looking room, growing increasingly nervous and imagining all sorts of things.
Perhaps she shouldn't have come alone. She should have asked someone to accompany her. At least then she wouldn't have been by herself.
A sudden noise from somewhere startled Rya. Instinctively, almost as though trying to protect herself, she backed against the wall to keep her back covered.
But that very movement broke the illusion magic concealing the wall.
Rya suddenly found herself leaning against nothing. She let out a startled scream and fell squarely onto the floor of the hidden passage.
There was not a single source of light inside. No lamps, no candles. The entire passage was shrouded in profound darkness, giving off an ominous atmosphere.
When she reached out, Rya even felt two white bones lying scattered on the ground.
She immediately scrambled back into the room on all fours, finally realizing that the black shadow must have disappeared through this passage.
Fortunately, Lucian arrived just in time, allowing Rya to regain some of her courage.
After standing up with his help, Rya stared at the hidden passage, unable to tell where it led.
Within the very Volcano Manor where she had lived since childhood, there really was some astonishing secret hidden away.
The thought that something might have been watching her from behind the walls during all those carefree years sent a chill down her spine.
Even after getting back to her feet, Rya still pointed toward the passage with a trembling finger and asked:
"Could this lead to some kind of terrifying place...?"
Seeing Rya's imagination running wild, Lucian patted her back reassuringly.
"It's all right. Just calm down first."
"This isn't something you need to worry about when it comes to Volcano Manor."
"Lady Tanith is a very capable leader."
"Besides, there's a powerful warrior like Bernahl here. There's no way something like this could escape his notice."
"So you don't need to worry too much."
"This is obviously just another part of Volcano Manor."
Rya blinked, slowly coming to her senses. It did seem that Lucian had a point.
"I see. So I was just frightening myself."
Still, that meant... Volcano Manor really did have secrets she knew nothing about.
Rya turned toward Lucian and asked again:
"Sir Lucian, do you know anything about this?"
"If you know something, please be sure to tell me!"
Lucian spread his hands without directly answering her question.
"You could ask your mother."
"Communication is the most effective way to solve problems."
Rya lowered her eyelids slightly, as though considering Lucian's suggestion.
But after a moment, she raised her head and said:
"I will ask her, but..."
"For now, I'd still like to go inside and investigate for myself..."
Remembering the creatures inside, Lucian wasn't entirely comfortable letting her go alone.
"You want to take a look inside?"
"Then I'll accompany you a little farther, just in case we run into any danger."
At last, a smile appeared on Rya's uneasy face.
"Sir Lucian, you really are such a kind person."
—
The two of them stepped into the secret passage one after the other. A point of azure magic lit up at Lucian's fingertip, and a ray of starlight illuminated the entire passage.
The ground was covered in drag marks and signs of struggle. Countless white bones lay scattered carelessly along the way.
In the darkness, indistinct silhouettes on the walls gradually came into view.
However, when faced with Rya, the creatures lurking in the shadows all chose to retreat.
Under the starlight, the two of them could finally see what these creatures actually looked like.
They were a group of snails.
Although they had snake-like heads, snake-like teeth in their mouths, and flicked their tongues like snakes, they crawled in an S-shaped motion. The Spirit-Caller Snail subspecies even lacked tentacles and genuinely possessed two eyes...
Nevertheless, creatures of this kind were called snails in the Lands Between. Don't ask why. If you do, the answer is the Crucible's many aspects and the stories from Miyazaki Hidetaka's childhood.
Perhaps, in Miyazaki's eyes, anything with a shell on its back and a long, elongated body counted as a snail.
Lucian observed the passage leading to Volcano Manor's torture chambers as he slowly made his way forward.
The creatures here showed no intention of attacking them. It seemed they were still following Tanith's orders.
Meanwhile, Rya gradually grew bolder. She passed by the snails and continued following Lucian deeper into the passage.
Their journey remained uneventful until they descended to the next level.
The instant Lucian stepped forward, a curved blade slashed toward him.
Lucian lightly tapped it with his fingertip.
The Bloodhound's Fang was stopped dead in its tracks, unable to advance even a fraction farther.
The full-force strike caused several drops of scalding blood to trickle from Lucian's fingertip. Yet the blade was ultimately stopped by his glintstone-transformed bones, which remained completely unharmed.
The Bloodhound Knight immediately retreated, its figure seeming to vanish as it pulled away from Lucian, preparing to find another opportunity to attack.
Facing the Bloodhound Knight that had just swung its blade at him, Lucian conjured a candlestick in his hand.
The pale purple candlelight of Trina's flame flickered, then spread toward the Bloodhound Knight.
In an instant, pale purple flames filled the entire passage. There was nowhere for the knight to escape.
The Bloodhound Knight struggled desperately to endure the flames. However, after being scorched for several seconds, it eventually collapsed helplessly onto the ground.
Lucian put away the candlestick, and the surrounding flames vanished with it.
He smiled at Rya, who looked rather worried, and reassured her:
"Don't worry. He's only fallen asleep."
"You might not know this, but knights like these are loyal hounds of Volcano Manor."
Only then did Rya nod and continue forward with peace of mind.
The secret passage of Volcano Manor extended endlessly downward, like the throat of some enormous beast.
The farther they went, the older and more dilapidated their surroundings became.
The charred rock walls on either side were covered in web-like cracks. Dark red light seeped from every fissure, as though congealed blood were flowing through the veins of the stone. The temperature continued to rise, and the smell of sulfur grew increasingly strong.
With Lucian's extraordinarily high fire damage negation, no matter how high the temperature became, it had no effect on him.
However, looking at these unusual traces, Lucian could tell that they had already ventured deep into the volcano.
Sure enough, they hadn't walked much farther before reaching a small church.
The Bloodhound Knight from earlier had clearly been ordered to guard this route.
More than a dozen bronze torches were embedded at intervals along the walls. The unidentified oil burning within them crackled incessantly, giving off a charred stench that made humans instinctively uncomfortable.
Prison Town Church. A place that offered sinners their final shred of mercy.
Yet after praying to the gods to their hearts' content, the only response awaiting them was endless torment and despair.
From the very moment they began to pray, their cruel torture had already begun.
Behind this church lay the real Volcano Manor, the Volcano Manor that Rya had never known existed.
The moment Lucian pushed open the church doors, the smell of sulfur grew suddenly stronger, and flames illuminated the vast space before them.
Their field of vision opened up. A river of boiling lava churned within the encircling walls, swallowing this horrifying torture prison.
A long, drawn-out howl echoed from the depths of the lava, as though something even darker than the molten rock was surging beneath the ground.
Countless rough iron chains stretched across the space above the lava, suspending crude cages.
Golden-red lava continuously poured down from upstream, sending viscous waves surging several meters into the air. They splashed against the cages hanging above, scattering millions of sparks in every direction.
As for the lava river below, countless half-melted cage fragments floated upon its surface, spinning around in the swirling currents.
As a horrifying torture facility, making use of the area's unique geographical features was something the inquisitors excelled at.
Those imprisoned in cages so cramped that they couldn't even stand upright had to endure the terrifying heat of the lava as well. There weren't many people who could withstand such treatment.
However, after the war, this place had also fallen into a state of near-collapse. Quite a few of the torture facility's buildings had sunk into the magma along with everything else.
Unlike Lucian, who was admiring the scenery, Rya was looking around in every direction, trying to find the black shadow she had seen earlier.
The more she thought about its appearance, the more familiar it seemed.
If she hadn't been mistaken earlier, that shadow had the outline of a snake...
Just like her.
What exactly had Lady Tanith been hiding from her?
With that question weighing on her mind, Rya soon made a discovery.
Not far from the church's exit, she spotted a Man-Serpent moving about.
The creature had an appearance similar to her own true form, except that it carried a sword and shield, looking much more like a warrior.
Upon seeing one of her own kind, Rya immediately widened her eyes with excitement.
After a swirl of mist, Rya transformed into her serpentine form and hurried toward the fellow member of her kind.
However, when the Man-Serpent saw Rya approaching, it raised its sword and shield, even showing signs of preparing to attack.
With its limited intelligence, it couldn't distinguish Rya's identity.
But through its bloodline instincts, it could tell one thing:
Although the creature before it had the same appearance as itself, it wasn't one of its kind.
Seeing the other creature's reaction, Rya stopped in her tracks and froze in place.
Standing behind Rya, Lucian silently fixed his gaze upon the Man-Serpent.
In an instant, the Man-Serpent's meager intelligence was overwhelmed by its primal instincts. Driven by fear, it fled.
Lucian gently patted Rya on the head without saying anything.
He understood what was happening.
Although they had similar bodies, Rya and those creatures were completely different.
The description in the Man-Serpent Ashes offered a little information about their origins:
It was said that, long ago, the great serpent dwelling on Mt. Gelmir devoured a demigod and gave birth to a brood of Man-Serpent.
In other words, the so-called Man-Serpent were offspring, or perhaps weapons, mass-produced by the immortal great serpent.
Rya's birth, however, had been nothing like that.
She was a child born through a ritual, an experimental subject in a certain sense.
That was why she possessed the appearance of a snake but the heart of a human.
Humans regarded her as an outsider, while even her own kind refused to accept her.
Caught between the two, Rya must have suffered terribly.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the right time to tell her the truth.
This was something that she and her mother would have to resolve between themselves.
Rya's thoughts were an utter mess. She was almost unable to think clearly.
At a loss for what to do, she looked toward Lucian with a trembling voice, almost on the verge of tears, hoping he could give her a clear direction.
"Sir Lucian, I..."
"This secret seems to be much deeper than I ever imagined..."
"Please, what should I do?"
But this time, Lucian only spoke softly.
"This is a choice concerning your own life. I can't give you the answer."
"I believe in your choices, no matter what you ultimately decide."
"I only hope you'll remember one thing: whatever the truth may be, love is real."
Rya nodded despondently, still unable to fully recover her composure.
—
After escorting Rya back to Volcano Manor, Lucian returned to his room and prepared to teleport back to Stormveil.
Although he had reached the depths of Volcano Manor, he had no intention of continuing his exploration.
Since he had already agreed on a specific time with Bernahl, there was no need to waste time exploring further right now.
It was only three days away. That wasn't a problem.
He could use the time in between to take care of a few other matters first.
Originally, Lucian had planned to finish exploring Volcano Manor quickly after resolving Ranni's affairs, then return to the Land of Shadow to search for Miquella.
But since he now had some time to spare, it would be better to make a trip back first.
For example, he could take Old Man Iji and the others, including Selinsax, to the Land of Shadow. Afterward, he could return to the Altus Plateau on his own.
He could let Selinsax take Sif around the Land of Shadow while searching for traces of Miquella.
Lucian also hoped Old Man Iji could begin forging equipment as soon as possible.
That way, perhaps the next time he returned to the Land of Shadow, he would already be able to wear it.
With both sides working at once, Lucian would also have time over the next few days to do a little exploring of the Altus Plateau.
—
After returning to Stormveil, Lucian went to find Old Man Iji, ready to set out.
Since he had given the instructions some time ago, Old Man Iji had already made his preparations well in advance and was ready to leave at any moment.
However, just as Lucian was about to depart with Iji, the old troll called out to him.
Taking advantage of this rare opportunity to speak with Lucian alone, Iji had some heartfelt words he wanted to share.
"Lord Lucian, as Lady Ranni's war counselor, no... I should say, as the old retainer who has cared for her since she was a child, allow me to offer you my deepest gratitude."
"...Everything has been possible thanks to your help."
Facing Lucian, Iji spoke with great solemnity.
"Lord Lucian, I can more or less sense the feelings between you and Lady Ranni."
"You are truly Lady Ranni's hero."
"...My duty is coming to an end."
"I, Iji, have served Lady Ranni for many long years without interruption... It has been a long journey, but one that has reached a satisfying conclusion."
"Unlike anyone else, you are utterly unique to Lady Ranni."
"From this point onward, I entrust Lady Ranni to your care."