Zeke couldn't help but be taken aback by Carmilla's words.
"I've only used the alias Kai Rubern twice."
Once in front of the heroic spirit of Holy King Gio Rubern, and once when he went back in time using the power of Chronos and saw his mother, Laura Agamemnon.
Unsure which of those moments it was, Zeke felt confused, but Carmilla pointed at him and shouted.
"The guy who fought me in the museum fifty years ago! That's you, right?"
Only then did Zeke realize that the man in black who had been protecting Laura at the time was none other than Carmilla.
He had found it strange that she got so excited only to suddenly quiet down when Bacchus patted her, but it seemed she had calmed herself and kept digging through her memories until something clicked.
"So, before I even joined the Draker family, Carmilla and my mother already had a connection."
From the situation back then, it felt like Carmilla, as the progenitor, had been serving Laura Agamemnon as her master.
Zeke, who hadn't expected anyone to recognize and remember him from that time, was momentarily flustered and couldn't say a word.
At that moment, Bacchus gently chided Carmilla.
"Mother, fifty years ago, Zeke wasn't even born yet. How could he have fought you back then?"
Hearing Bacchus's words, Carmilla tilted her small head from side to side in confusion, pondering.
"Is that so? But no, it really was him."
Zeke saw no need to explain that he had indeed gone back in time and fought her, so he stayed silent.
Bacchus changed the subject to lighten the mood.
"That's not important right now anyway. Mother, tell Zeke about Caligula."
Carmilla, who had been mulling over Kai Rubern, snapped back to attention and adopted a serious expression.
"Do you know who Caligula is?" Zeke nodded.
"I only heard from Bacchus that he was the king of the ancient vampires." Carmilla nodded.
"Yes, that's right. The king of the vampires, known as the White-Faced King, was Caligula."
Zeke realized then that the "White-Face Clan" he had seen in a message upon entering this place referred to vampires.
As he mentally sorted through this new information, Carmilla continued slowly.
"I'm searching for Caligula's tomb to fully awaken my power as the progenitor. Since you're blessed by the Fairy King, I thought you might have some way to help. Assist me in finding the tomb."
Zeke looked at Carmilla and said.
"I heard from Bacchus that the traces lead to the Holy Kingdom, so I subtly asked His
Holiness the Pope, but he didn't even know the name Caligula."
Carmilla's expression darkened as she pressed her lips together in thought, then turned to Bacchus and asked.
"Why? Why doesn't he know?"
Bacchus soothed the frustrated Carmilla and calmly explained to Zeke.
"To be precise, Mother had a revelation in a dream that she would find clues to Caligula's tomb if she went to the Holy Kingdom."
"A revelation? Aren't those something priests receive from God?" Bacchus shook his head.
"It's a bit different from that. Borrowing the words of an ancient sage from the East, it's closer to 'reading the will of heaven.'"
It was an unfamiliar expression, so Zeke couldn't easily grasp what receiving a revelation entailed.
'I wonder if the Hermit of Stories would know.'
As if revelations weren't the main point, Bacchus continued.
"Actually... Arthur Draker wanted to keep Mother by his side partly because of this ability."
At that, Carmilla interjected loudly from the side.
"That bastard was trying to use my ability to find the Elder Dragon relic!"
Zeke was startled by Carmilla's words.
"The Elder Dragon relic?"
"Yes, he always made me record my dreams. Then one day, I dreamed of a place covered in ice, where I was dying with all my limbs severed. And right in front of me was a black dragon statue."
Hearing Carmilla's words, Zeke felt his heart stop for a moment.
'No way, that was...?' She continued.
"I thought I had no limbs, but suddenly they grew back. As I reached out toward the black dragon, a light flashed, and I woke up."
It was exactly what Zeke had experienced right before his regression, when he found the Elder Dragon relic.
'How could Carmilla have seen that scene?'
He couldn't fathom what kind of ability allowed her to receive revelations through dreams.
Moreover, what she had seen was an event from a future that had vanished with his regression.
"Arthur saw the dream journal I wrote that day and asked me to describe the landscape in more detail. Then he said the Elder Dragon ruin was in the direction of the Ice Mountains." Bacchus nodded and added.
"After that, he mobilized Baron Draker, the Black Stage captain, and Black Stage operatives to scour the Ice Mountains. He said we had to find the Elder Dragon ruins before the Rom Emperor did."
Zeke recalled seeing Arthur Draker and Baron Draker at the Elder Dragon ruins.
'So he pinpointed the location based on Carmilla's dream.'
was indeed a hard-to-find spot otherwise.
Zeke gathered his thoughts amid the flood of information and returned to the main topic.
"Let's set aside the Elder Dragon ruins for now. So, you're saying you tried to find Caligula's tomb using that ability." Carmilla nodded at Zeke.
"Yes. But dreams don't come on command, so I don't know what's what. Now that I've been resurrected and my body is young, I sleep a lot because I'm always tired, but I hardly dream at all."
Carmilla sighed as she spoke. From what he heard, Bacchus had been interpreting the dreams Carmilla had previously to track down traces of Caligula.
Those traces had led them to the Holy Kingdom, where they ended up meeting Zeke.
Bacchus looked at Zeke and said.
"I can't help but think that perhaps Mother's dreams guided us to you."
Prophecies and revelations were ultimately open to interpretation based on outcomes.
Whether Carmilla's dreams truly led to their meeting with Zeke was unknowable, but the result spoke for itself.
'I have the Absolute Compass, so finding the location won't be a problem.'
The Absolute Compass Zeke possessed was an astonishing artifact that guided him to his target, accounting even for causality.
One drawback was that once a destination was set, he couldn't search for anything else until he found it.
In truth, Zeke had been deliberating whether to first seek Caligula's tomb or his mother Laura Agamemnon's hidden safehouse in Himonas.
Since he couldn't change the target mid-search, he needed to choose carefully.
'I'm curious about Mother's safehouse, but... if Carmilla gets recaptured by Arthur Draker before fully regaining her progenitor power, it'll be trouble.'
With Arthur Draker's hidden secrets still unknown, Zeke needed to prioritize vigilance against him.
In the end, Zeke decided to use the Absolute Compass to find Caligula's tomb first.
He pulled the Absolute Compass from his inventory and set the destination to Caligula's tomb.
The compass spun with a whoosh before pointing in one direction.
'This way... north.'
Zeke opened his map and linked it to the compass's position.
Now he could pinpoint the location more accurately.
It was none other than Himonas.
'Caligula's tomb is in Himonas?'
Since the Absolute Compass pointed there, clues were certainly waiting.
Zeke realized he could no longer delay heading to Himonas.
He asked Bacchus.
"To awaken the progenitor's power, do you have to go to the site yourself?" Bacchus nodded at Zeke's question.
"Without the progenitor, you couldn't even enter the site in the first place."
seemed the ruins were designed to respond to the pure bloodline of the WhiteFace Clan.
Zeke nodded and said to the two.
"Then prepare to leave this place."
At his firm words, Bacchus and Carmilla looked at him in surprise.
Gazing north, he said.
"I think I can find where Caligula's tomb is soon."
* "Haaah!" Slash!
The claymore sliced straight through the charging monster's neck.
Nikolai, captain of the Himonas Thistle Knight Order, exhaled white breath and shouted toward the rangers on the ice wall.
"Damn it! More are coming from the west!"
A pack of mid-sized monsters could be seen racing across the snowfield.
The rangers, hearing Nikolai, immediately prepared their large crossbows.
Working in pairs, the rangers with crossbows began firing bolts at the monsters charging toward the ice wall.
Thud thud thud thud!
Short, sturdy bolts rained down like arrows from the rapid-fire large crossbows.
Thwack thwack thwack!
As the oncoming monsters fell pierced by bolts, Vice Captain Sven climbed up and shouted to Nikolai.
"Nikolai! A pack of cyclopes has appeared at the east gate!" Nikolai dashed toward the east gate upon hearing Sven.
Cyclopes were massive, and their weight could crack even the sturdy ice wall if they pushed.
At the east gate, knights were hurling spears, while rangers behind them fired crossbows wildly.
But there were too many cyclopes.
"Damn! How many are there?!"
Sven shouted in response to Nikolai.
"Hey, Nikolai! Looks like todayʼs the day we finally settle our bet!"
The bet he meant was, in the final moments, who could kill more enemies before dying.
Nikolai tossed his helmet aside at Sven's words and grinned.
"Fine by me, Sven. Looks like you'll finally kneel before me today."
"Bullshit. Get ready to serve me in hell."
Nikolai and Sven leaped from the wall, simultaneously thrusting their claymores into a cyclops's eye.
Crunch!
The cyclops, stabbed squarely in the eye, howled in agony.
Graaah!
thrashed wildly, trying to shake off Sven and Nikolai clinging to its face.
But the two were as tenacious as any northern knights.
Exchanging glances, they moved to the back of the cyclops's head and stabbed the nape with their blades.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
As the claymore tore into its nape, the cyclops couldn't endure and collapsed on the spot.
Before it hit the ground, Sven and Nikolai leaped onto the shoulder of another.
Graaah!
Nearby cyclopes swung their clubs at Sven and Nikolai.
But the clubs veered off, smashing into the jaws of other cyclopes.
Graaah!
The cyclopes began fighting each other, swinging clubs wildly.
Sven and Nikolai seized the chaos, darting about and stabbing the cyclopes' necks with their claymores. Then, suddenly.
Whoosh!
With a chilling sound, the head of the cyclops they were about to behead flew off.
Boom!
The headless cyclops collapsed, and Sven, unable to dodge, was pinned under the corpse. He quickly dug into the snow and crawled out.
Spotting the massive something in front of him, he couldn't help but gasp in horror.
'What the hell is that?'
It was a twin-head cyclops, twice the size of a normal one, with two heads.
Graaah!
The twin-head cyclops bellowed and swung its flail at the ice wall.
Boom boom boom crash!
One strike shook the entire wall, cracking it.
Rangers atop the wall unleashed a barrage of bolts at the twin-head cyclops.
Twang twang!
But its skin was so tough that the bolts bounced off harmlessly.
As the twin-head cyclops attacked the wall, Sven scanned around and spotted Nikolai buried in the snow.
"Hey! Nikolai!"
The awkward landing had shattered Nikolai's shoulder and legs.
'Damn it.'
Sven pulled out a potion he had been saving and fed it to Nikolai, then supported him.
"Don't pass out!"
Sven tried to drag Nikolai back to the wall.
But then, one of the twin-head cyclops's heads spotted them and turned, raising its flail high.
Kaaah!
With a roar, it brought the flail down on the two.
Supporting Nikolai, Sven couldn't evade.
'Shit.'
Clang!
But then, with a sharp metallic ring, the flail was sliced vertically and fell beside Nikolai and Sven.
Kreeee!
The twin-head cyclops shrieked, clutching its severed arm along with the flail.
Someone now stood before them.
A knight in northern-style armor with a white cloak held a massive white greatsword shaped like a wolf's fang.
Sven shouted at the figure before him.
"My lord!"
Grand Duke of the North Alicia Himonas had appeared.