88 No one ever made it out alive

The sudden change of atmosphere was so quick that by the end of the time where the Viscount was talking to her, Ymir was already surrounded by a horde of trolls. And not in a bad way, he was literally surrounded by them, but they were acting like servants around their master. Some even tried to touch his armor, but a deep glance at them made them rethink the intelligence of such an act. Not that they were very smart, but they were still capable of understanding that something was off limit.

From the looks of it, the chief of those morons was happily chatting with the Akûl, nothing like he was previously. In fact, he was hiding even more deeply inside the group of elderly than the oldest of them. Only when he noticed the fact that he will not be killed did he finally showed himself. But no one was even battling an eye about such behaviour, so why should Leilade raise a fuss about it? Looking around, she only found that it was a huge mistake to even come inside this thing, it couldn't even be called a village.

There were approximately a hundred or so trolls. Only ten children were visible, but it was unsure if more were not hidden somewhere else. If they hadn't done that and really brought everyone in the main plaza, well, Leilade will really have her mind blow out. In all her hundreds of years, it could be the stupidest tribe of trolls she ever met. And she had seen many of those with more muscles than brains, but they still were quite capable. Even one managed to reach the same level as master Agnil, meaning that it was not something necessarily innate for this race.

As for her, for the moment, she was totally forgotten. The few liches standing right behind her suffered the exact same fate, and only when those hunters tried to encircle Ymir did they really saw them. They quickly distanced themselves from the undead group, showing their immense displeasure and disgust. Unlike the little girl, the Akûl was enjoying such attention. He rarely gained anything like that, since most of the time, people ran away in fear, screaming with all their lungs.

"Empress, I think I managed to convince those trolls. What should I do now?" He still didn't forget that he was not really the one in charge of the entire thing. But when he turned around to face Leilade, he saw her sunken expression. Not knowing why he stood quiet, and the silence spread. Those trolls couldn't understand what he said, but they were quite receptive. They recognized that whatever the small uhanz was, she was important for the large demon.

"As I said, it is up to you. But you know very well how the Demonic Empire works, even if you haven't enforced it previously. Now that we have limited personals, we will all have to improve ourselves. See this as an opportunity, so don't waste it."

Even if her sentences could be mistaken as kind advice and a caring attitude, the glacial tone left no mistakes to be made. Ymir understood very clearly what it was, but even ten of him couldn't measure to just one Leilade. The only moment he could have killed her was when they first arrived. But after their first departure, everyone silently agreed to let her control their fates like she was doing before.

At the same time, he felt that someone would have to make a crucial mistake to be condemned by the Empress. Like they chose to trust her, she chose to trust them, otherwise, she could have just relied on her undead subordinates. Talking more and more with the chieftain of the troll tribe, he inquired about any dangerous locations with very rare resources. Anything that could Malakov or Agnil to create something.

The chief looked very pained by this question and was reluctant at spitting what he knew. One mighty stomp quickly destroyed his reserves and he began to speak about everything he knew. The liches were continually storing all of those locations and were prepared to scout them if the need arises. At the same time, he began to bring them toward the entrance of a cave nearby. Looking around, both the Akûl and the small girl were impressed by the natural defenses surrounding them.

From whatever reasons, the trolls did chose a very good location. It was hard to say that it was because they thought for once or that they just stumbled on this place by sheer luck. At least, that was how Leilade disregarded the intelligence of that race. By the tribe settled inside a half opened crevice. There was only one path to enter and the same path was used to exit, preventing any type of encirclement. Except if something could dig through the incredibly hard ice walls.

As for a threat from above, it was possible if the monster was flying. But it was nearly fifty meters above the ground where they currently stood, if something living fell from that height, it will be reduced into a meat paste. Therefore, reinforcing the wooden gate and constructing some strange constructs that could vaguely look similar to ramparts were the only improvements possible. It was a wonder that with all those times they traded with the White Hands, it didn't reach their brains to ask for proper fortifications.

" Târlakh!" The chieftain roared this name, and everyone still following them fell to their knees and began to psalm that name. Ymir was perplexed, but Leilade quickly filled the blanks in his memory.

"That's the name of the Hero from the troll. So, the reason why they are here is that this place must have a signification for them. Maybe it is a tomb, but apparently, he fell in a battle with one of the dark god, in this mountain. And they rarely let anyone have a complete body. At the same time, does this look like a battlefield? After thousands of years, it could be …"

Especially the way the crevice was formed. A huge sphere with only one path, it could have been the result of something exploding around them. Or like a meteorite falling on a planet, something threw so strongly that it created a crater in the ice. It was clearly not impossible that it was the last place that the Hero Târlakh ever saw before dying.

The moment that name left the lips of Ymir, all the trolls looked at him like he just killed their entire family. The Akûl felt a bit wrong, nothing prepared him to see such an intense reaction. Only the chieftain was more filled with regrets than with hate. Trying to pat the shoulders of Ymir, but remembering that for once, he was nearly a meter smaller, he explained everything.

This was supposedly the tomb of the Troll Hero, the smartest one to have ever lived. Unlike the rest that was only capable of hunting and creating some basic stuff, he was capable of reading the paper things of the humans and even use spells. Because of this, every tribe dispersed around the planet were training their offspring to reproduce that exploit. Mountain trolls, ice trolls, sand trolls, forest trolls. All the races were yearning to see another troll worthy to be called King.

Because Târlakh was an ice troll, this tribe was tasked to guard his tomb and never let anything escape from it. Ymir was nodding his head, understanding that it was important to protect the tomb from potential thieves and tomb raiders. But then, he realized that a word was weird, did he truly heard escape? Was it not enter, the right word to use? As he pondered, he saw the troll shaking his head.

Ordering two hunters nearby, he asked them to throw a piece of meat inside the hole in the ice wall. Even if they were in the middle of the day, they could not see very far inside the tomb, even with their extremely good vision. Leilade scanned it with her magic and realized that it was not working normally either. But she could feel that something was lurking beyond the range of her spell.

SKRIEEEEEEECH

Barely a minute after the large piece of meat was lost inside the shadows, a terrible noise resonated. Because they were in a crevice, the sound was reverberated, prompting some children to use their hands to close their ears. The hunters were trying to look relaxed, but still, their hands were gripping tightly their spears.

"Empress, what is present inside this tomb? I can't see beyond the initial aperture. But, something is present."

"Well, it's hard for nothing to create such a huge noise. But you don't have to worry, it is not something that could even injure you. Not that we necessarily need to enter, we can send some skeletons to scout that tomb." She won't admit that she is as clueless as him, she had to uphold her reputation. At the same time, she saw him satisfied by her explanations, good thing it was not the calculative Davion in front of her.

However, when Ymir asked what was inside this tomb, the chief said that the relics of the Dark God and the Troll Hero were present. Also, a huge amount of mana stones was probably formed after all those years, since even a few were harvested inside this very crevice. After hearing this, Ymir couldn't help but question if someone ever entered the tomb, if it was so rich in resources.

The troll looked at him with horror, like the Akûl just confessed that he killed his only son. Asking the demon to lower himself, he murmured a few words in his ears. Words that were instantly retransmitted to Leilade.

"I asked if someone ever entered the tomb. He answered that no one ever left this place alive. From the looks of it, it is truly dangerous, to have such a high death rate after so many centuries. I mean, they are still capable of hunting animals and monsters alike to survive in such a harsh environment. But they can't even manage to conserve their lives inside this tomb."

This made Leilade frowned. It was right to say that a location could be deadly, and have an absurd amount of death. But to not have a single being capable of even surviving and escaping was very weird. Normally, fleeing was a relatively easy task to perform, compared to fighting back. And she was sure that the trolls were not stupidly proud, meaning that they still possess a certain sense of fear and self-preservation.

"We still don't know how many people died. Maybe it was only their champion, meaning that they were acting weirdly and unwilling to back off even in spite of the danger. We don't know the reasons for such a terrifying rate of casualties, so ask him about that."

Seeing Ymir also murmuring something to the ears of the chief, the latter was visibly surprised. Like he didn't expect such a question, but he was not feeling sorry or pained at all. It was not matching his position as chief. Normally, he should have looked saddened, to think about all those trolls that died meaninglessly. But when she saw Ymir straightening his back and staring at her, she was even more perplexed.

"I may have made a mistake while translating. He definitely said that no one left the tomb alive. But apparently, it was because no one ever entered it in the first place."