Black Phoenix Heir

Chapter 216: Chapter 216 — The Graveborn Estate

Chapter 216 — The Graveborn Estate

Victor and Zack sat inside the carriage as it continued down the road.

Victor spent most of the ride looking out the window.

The third floor was beautiful. Bushes and flowers lined both sides of the road, all of them perfectly maintained. There wasn’t a branch out of place or a single patch that looked neglected. Even the cobblestone beneath the carriage appeared almost untouched.

Whoever maintained this place did an incredible job.

But what impressed Victor most was the sky.

It was almost impossible to believe they were still inside the Tower. A pristine blue stretched overhead, filled with fluffy white clouds drifting lazily across it. Above everything was what appeared to be a sun, except Victor could tell it wasn’t real.

When he focused, he could barely make out what looked like an enormous artifact high above them, slowly rotating as it cast warm light across the third floor.

That’s insane.

He’d wondered before just how advanced the Alchemy Tower really was.

Now he had his answer.

The lower floors simply didn’t show it.

The noble families had kept the best parts of the Tower for themselves.

Victor couldn’t even imagine the formations required to create something like this. An artificial sky inside a building was already ridiculous enough, but clouds, sunlight, and enough space to make the entire floor feel like a separate world?

That was something else entirely.

Victor finally pulled his attention away from the window.

”How much farther is the Graveborn estate?”

”Probably another five or ten minutes,” Zack said. ”We’ve already been riding for around half an hour, so we’re getting close.”

Victor looked outside again.

Thirty minutes...

That alone put the size of the third floor into perspective. They’d been traveling for half an hour and still hadn’t reached the estate of one of the three prominent families.

The third floor wasn’t simply a noble district.

It was enormous.

For a while, the carriage remained quiet.

Then Zack spoke.

”So, Victor...”

Victor looked over and immediately noticed his hesitation.

”You never really told me what happened.”

Victor already knew where this was going.

”Obviously, I have a lot of questions. When you disappeared, I looked for you all over the place. I couldn’t find you.”

Victor remained quiet as Zack leaned forward slightly.

”You were gone for six months, and supposedly you spent that entire time somewhere around Region G of the caverns. Help me make that make sense.”

Zack began counting things off on his fingers.

”You disappear for six months, then suddenly come back at Rank One Spirit Gathering. Your alchemy is leagues ahead of everyone else your age. You come back with an ancient alchemical beast—a Firebird.”

He raised another finger.

”And apparently you have a wife now that you somehow never mentioned.”

Victor almost sighed.

”When exactly did all of this happen while you were wandering around the caverns?”

Victor didn’t answer immediately.

Hearing Zack put everything together like that made him realize just how ridiculous his story looked from the outside.

His cultivation had changed. His alchemy had changed. He’d returned with Nala and Lyra, and those were only the things Zack knew about.

Victor could probably come up with another lie, but how many lies could he keep stacking on top of each other before the entire thing collapsed?

At the same time, he couldn’t tell Zack the truth.

There was too much at stake.

”Zack.”

Zack waited.

”There are just some things I can’t talk about.”

”Why?”

Victor shook his head. ”To be honest, man, I’d love to tell you everything. But there are things I just can’t tell you.”

Zack looked frustrated, and for a moment, Victor thought he might keep pushing.

Instead, he leaned back.

”I understand.”

Victor looked at him.

”I’ll stop asking about it.” Zack paused before adding, ”But maybe one day you can tell me.”

Victor nodded. ”Maybe.”

He appreciated Zack backing down.

Still, this wasn’t the first time Zack had asked.

Victor understood why. Zack was his friend, and he’d apparently spent months looking for him. Anyone would have questions after seeing how drastically Victor had changed.

A few minutes later, the carriage began slowing.

Victor looked outside, and his eyes widened slightly.

They had arrived.

Massive stone pillars rose on either side of the road, forming an enormous archway at the entrance to the Graveborn estate. The design reminded Victor of ancient Greek structures he’d seen back on Earth, except everything here had been built on a much larger scale.

Beyond the entrance stood the mansion itself.

Victor stared.

Calling it a mansion almost felt insulting.

The building stretched across the estate, easily two or three football fields wide. Victor had never seen a private residence that large in his life, not even on Earth.

Its architecture reminded him somewhat of an old English mansion, only built on a scale that bordered on absurd. Red, yellow, white, and silvery stone blended throughout the structure, while statues decorated the grounds and intricate carvings covered sections of the walls and pillars.

Nothing about the estate was subtle.

This was the home of one of the three most powerful families in the Alchemy Tower, and they clearly wanted everyone who saw it to know that.

Two guards stood at the entrance.

Victor examined them as the carriage approached and immediately felt their cultivation.

Both were at the peak of Spirit Gathering.

Again.

Just how many people at this level do these families have?

The more he saw of the third floor, the more Victor understood the gap between himself and the Tower’s true powers.

He had become much stronger. Strong enough that most threats on the lower floors no longer worried him the way they once had.

But here?

The Graveborn family apparently used people at the peak of Spirit Gathering as gate guards.

And Victor had come here intending to question them.

How stupid am I?

He almost laughed at himself.

But he’d already come this far.

The guards didn’t stop the carriage. They recognized it immediately, and Victor noticed the insignia displayed prominently across the front.

Three fireballs rotating around one another.

The Graveborn insignia.

The enormous gates slowly opened, allowing the carriage to pass through before closing behind them.

Victor glanced back.

Well... we’re in.

When he turned forward again, he realized just how misleading the view from outside had been.

The mansion wasn’t the estate.

It was only one part of it.

The grounds stretched out like a small town. There were multiple buildings scattered across the property, including what looked like barracks, stables or animal enclosures, farmland, and even a small market-like area farther away.

A massive open field separated the entrance from the main mansion, and off to one side sat a large sparring ground where several people had gathered.

Two men were fighting while the others watched.

Then Victor spotted someone familiar among them.

Daniel Graveborn.

He looked completely different from when Victor had met him in Basement Level Five. There was no heavy armor this time. Instead, Daniel wore elegant noble clothing that still looked practical enough to fight in, with a red coat over his upper body and a sword resting comfortably at his side. His bright red hair had been pulled back into a ponytail.

Even without the armor, everything about him made his status obvious.

Daniel stood near the sparring ground watching the two men fight, and as their exchange grew more intense, his expression became increasingly excited.

Victor watched him through the carriage window.

This was the man who had invited him here.

As the carriage continued toward the mansion, Victor’s earlier amusement faded.

He hadn’t come here to admire the estate.

Hundreds of slaves had disappeared while working under teams connected to the Graveborn family, and their bracelets were still active. People throughout the Tower were vanishing, and somewhere beneath everything was an organization tied to the Evil God.

Victor still didn’t know how much of it connected to the Graveborns.

Maybe none of it did.

Maybe all of it did.

That was why he was here.

He owed it to the people who had disappeared, and he owed it to alchemy. If Benton was right, alchemy was one of humanity’s last chances of surviving against the beasts.

Victor’s eyes settled on Daniel as the carriage approached the mansion.

He had questions.

And one way or another, he wasn’t planning to leave the Graveborn estate empty-handed.