Death… And Me

Chapter 4487: Concealing

”Now, wait a minute,” Thery said, refusing to give up so easily. ”We can’t leave just yet, my friend. There is still far too much we wish to understand about this place, and above all, about our own race. You are also part of the Thousand-Script Race, aren’t you? At the very least, you carry part of our bloodline.”

Coyui looked at him as if he had just heard the most unreasonable request possible.

”I’ll answer anything you want once we’re out of here,” he replied impatiently. ”But we have to leave first. I already told you what will happen if those guys come looking for us again. We were lucky once, but luck doesn’t last forever. One attack is all it takes for this Vault to collapse, and if that happens, this Array—or whatever you people call it—won’t survive either.”

Thery remained calm despite Coyui’s obvious frustration.

”You already dealt with the bodies, didn’t you?” he pointed out. ”As long as we close the entrance again, this place should look exactly the way it did before. It should be enough to make it seem like nobody has been here.”

Coyui immediately shook his head.

”You don’t understand,” he insisted. ”I wasn’t exactly worried about hiding my tracks while I was running for my life, alright? They will follow them here. Maybe not immediately, but they definitely will. Their boss will notice the Soul Flames of his subordinates have gone out. The moment that happens, he’ll know they died.”

He took a deep breath before continuing. ”I don’t give it an hour before a much bigger group arrives.”

”Oh! That long?” Rean finally stood up after finishing the last part of his ’healing.’ Naturally, he had never actually suffered the backlash everyone believed he had, but he still needed to make it look convincing. Stretching his body a little, he smiled as if everything had gone according to plan. ”Then that’s actually very easy to deal with.”

Without wasting another second, Rean accessed his Spatial Ring and took out several array runes. They flew toward Coyui, who caught them one after another with a puzzled look.

”I’ll need you to spread these runes according to my instructions,” Rean explained. ”If you do that correctly, we shouldn’t receive any more unwanted visitors for quite some time.”

Flugel immediately recognized the runes, and so did the three Thousand-Script Race experts. None of them interrupted Rean. Instead, they simply nodded among themselves.

Those runes were more than enough for what he intended.

Coyui, on the other hand, remained skeptical. ”Are you really willing to gamble your lives on something like this? Wouldn’t it be much safer to leave while we still can?”

”Forget about that,” Rean replied without hesitation. ”Just do as I say. It’s obvious none of us intends to leave yet.”

He pointed toward the Teleport Array behind them before continuing. ”We’ll prepare the Teleport Array in advance. If my concealing array doesn’t work and things go wrong, we simply activate it immediately and leave before anyone breaks into this place. That should be enough to satisfy you, right?”

Coyui looked at everyone inside the Vault.

Not a single person seemed interested in leaving.

Even after experiencing that terrifying Godly Pressure firsthand, these people still wanted to remain inside the City Prison of Woster. From Coyui’s point of view, they were either incredibly brave or completely insane.

Finally, he let out a long sigh. ”I should have forced one of you to activate this Array and used everyone else outside as leverage.” He shook his head in resignation. ”...Fine. Tell me where to place them.”

Rean smiled. ”Good. First, I’ll need your help. Carry me outside so I can properly inspect the surroundings.”

Without another choice, Coyui grabbed Rean and carried him out of the Vault. Since Rean couldn’t move under the Godly Pressure, the old man had to do all the walking while Rean carefully observed everything around them.

The two slowly wandered around the nearby area for several minutes.

Rean wasn’t simply looking for a place to hide the array runes. He was also studying the terrain, checking the surrounding ash hills, estimating the most likely directions from which enemies would approach, and determining the best way to hide the Vault’s existence.

Every few steps, he instructed Coyui to place another rune somewhere.

Sometimes it was beneath loose ashes.

Other times it was beside a cracked rock or partially buried under the remains of old ruins.

Inside the Vault, Flugel and the three Thousand-Script Race Array Masters watched everything attentively through the entrance. Although none of them could leave because of the Godly Pressure, they could still understand Rean’s intentions from the positions he selected.

Flugel nodded several times.

”He isn’t simply concealing the entrance,” he commented. ”He’s using the nearby terrain itself as part of the array. If someone doesn’t know exactly what to look for, even standing a few steps away from the Vault won’t be enough.”

Haniala also nodded. ”It is a very efficient layout. The runes support one another without leaving any obvious weak point.”

Eventually, Coyui carried Rean back inside the Vault.

The moment they crossed the entrance, the overwhelming Godly Pressure disappeared completely, allowing Rean to stand once again.

”The Godly Pressure outside is truly unbelievable...” Rean muttered while rubbing his shoulders. ”Even after experiencing it once, it still feels absurd.”

Without wasting time, he immediately activated the array.

A faint ripple spread through the surroundings before disappearing without leaving the slightest trace.

From outside, every sign of the recent battle vanished.

The damaged ground, the disturbances around the Vault, and even the subtle traces indicating someone had entered or left the area all blended naturally into the surrounding landscape. Rean obviously couldn’t erase the trail left farther away by Coyui while he was fleeing, but once someone reached this area, the Vault itself would simply disappear from their perception.

Since even Godly Sense seemed unable to function properly inside the City Prison, anyone searching for hidden fluctuations would gain no advantage.

Coyui looked around in surprise. ”So... now what?”

”We wait,” Thery answered.

He turned toward Haniala. ”Prepare the Teleport Array. I still have no intention of leaving, but I also don’t intend to rely purely on luck. If Rean’s concealing array fails, we activate the Array immediately. Everyone should be ready to teleport at a moment’s notice.”

Haniala nodded. ”Yes, Senior Thery.”

She and Sison immediately began making the final preparations around the Teleport Array. Although it had already been activated once, neither of them wanted to risk any mistake if they suddenly had to escape.

The others also quietly took their positions throughout the Vault.

Nobody spoke much after that.

Even Coyui, despite pacing around impatiently from time to time, gradually fell silent.

Then...

They waited.

Just as Coyui had predicted, it took around an hour before Kentucky’s sharp eyes caught movement in the distance.

”They’re here.”

Everyone immediately turned toward the entrance.

Several experts wearing attire almost identical to Calol’s group approached from different directions. Instead of moving together, they spread out across the area, carefully inspecting every trace they found on the ground.

”They followed the trail,” Coyui muttered with an ugly expression.

Rean nodded. ”Now let’s see if they can follow it any farther.”

Kentucky continued observing from his position. ”They’ve reached the area around the Vault.”

The entire group became quiet.

Nobody dared underestimate these newcomers.

If even one of them accidentally discovered the Vault, they would have no choice but to abandon everything and activate the Teleport Array immediately.

Fortunately, events unfolded exactly as Rean had predicted.

”They look confused now,” Kentucky commented after a while.

”That’s precisely what the concealing array is supposed to do,” Rean explained. ”Even if they followed the trail perfectly, once they reach this area, everything simply... disappears.”

He smiled slightly. ”They’ll probably search every nearby hill before giving up. Fortunately, this one doesn’t stand out in any way.”

The search continued exactly as he expected.

At one point, a Zone God stopped only a few meters away from the Vault entrance. He even looked directly at their group for a moment, although in his eyes, it was still just part of the hill. He carefully examined the surroundings, occasionally looking toward the ashes beneath his feet before sending several reports to experts farther away.

Everyone inside the Vault remained perfectly silent.

Even Coyui unconsciously held his breath.

After several long minutes, the Zone God finally frowned, shook his head, and left to inspect another area.

Only after he disappeared into the distance did several people inside the Vault quietly let out the breaths they had been holding.

The search continued for hours.

The enemy experts repeatedly expanded and shrank their search area, retraced their own steps, questioned one another, and even returned to locations they had already inspected. However, no matter what they tried, every clue eventually ended in the same place.

Nothing.

The traces simply disappeared.

Eventually, even they had no choice but to give up.

If the extinguished Soul Flames hadn’t confirmed the deaths of Calol’s group, one could almost believe the three experts had somehow vanished on their own.