Rise My Elementals!

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce

Leo and Elvis soon arrived at the pathway entrance on the seventh floor. In front of them was an entrance lit up brightly by plenty of torchers that the soldiers who had previously explored this place had arranged. Despite all the torches, the path farther in front was still shrouded in darkness and mystery. 

Honestly, the path in front of them right now is almost identical to the path Leo had been walking all this time. There was nothing strange or exceptional about the path, and everything looked as normal as the other pathways he had seen and had been through.

However, unlike the other pathways, if one would look down on the floor below, they would be able to notice plenty of markings quickly.

Leo turned to look at Elvis and asked, "What are those markings for?" 

"I'll tell you about it as long as you let me go!" Elvis exclaimed while pulling himself out of the arm of one of the Golems. 

"If you tried to do something funny again, I will order the Golems to disarm you. And just to remind you, it won't just be one Golem like now," Leo warned Elvis before ordering his Golem to let the latter go.

Hearing Leo's warning, Elvis can't help himself gulping down a mouthful of saliva. He could already imagine himself having all four of his limbs spread out for everyone to see. 

Elvis coughed to clear his throat before starting to explain, "The purpose of these markings is to indicate the possible location of the traps. They were left here by the groups of soldiers that had explored this path to warn the other groups to avoid these locations. As long as we don't step on them or get considerably close to them, it would all be good for us,"

"Of course, this is just the beginning. As we continue exploring deeper and deeper through the path, the traps won't only appear on the floor, but also from both of the walls on our side, and the ceiling above us, until eventually, we'll reach a certain point where the entire pathway would be covered with traps,"

"Then how exactly would the soldiers cross those places?" Leo asked in curiosity.

"Fortunately for us, we have discovered that not all the traps will activate at the same time. There is a set of specific time frames for each trap to activate. So, if we avoid the traps that are set to activate at that certain moment, we will be safe," Elvis replied. But then he heaved a heavy sigh and added, "However, it's very complicated to analyze the set of specific time frames in between each of the traps. And because of that, it can't be avoided receiving casualties within the groups. Moreover, most of the traps only have a few minutes of intervals for us to make use of,"

"And if you think that's the worst part of it, you're hugely mistaken. Because you'd have to continuously travel such a path till you finally reach the very end of the pathway," 

"How troublesome," Leo finally understood the reason why Elvis was so against him doing this.

"Now that you know of this, it's still not too late to change your mind and forget about exploring this place. Let's just leave this job to the soldiers. Anyways, we have already explored ninety percent of the seventh floor. Sooner or later, we will discover what is at the very end of this path," Elvis persuaded.

As much as he hates to admit the truth, Leo knows that Elvis is correct this time. Not to mention being reckless, this is no different from going into a suicidal mission. He couldn't help but ask himself, "Are the soldiers of the Evergreen Royal Family this determined that they won't even care about sacrificing their own lives for the Emerald Tree Kingdom?"

"I know what you are thinking right now. But even I don't know the reason why these soldiers are willing to sacrifice themselves for all of this," Elvis expressed that he is clueless as well. He continued, "All I can say is, this is for the sake of the Emerald Tree Kingdom,"

"As expected," Leo thought to himself. Just like what he had seen from a lot of people previously, where they are willing to bet their lives just to save the Emerald Tree Kingdom. This was the main reason why he had changed his mind from evacuating in this place when the worst situation comes to fighting until the very end. Needless to say, that until the very end-part he had mentioned is not when everyone in the Mischievous Lion Guild dies, including him. It simply means that as long as there is a hope of winning, he… No, they will continue fighting against the Naughty Elves Organization. 

"I can't help but notice; how exactly were you able to determine how far the pathways are?" Leo asked Elvis with a strange look on his face as if telling the latter that doing so would be impossible unless they had reached the very end of the pathway.

"Oh, about that," Elvis raised his hand and pointed on top of the entrance of the pathway. He muttered, "See that sign over there on top?"

Leo followed where Elvis was pointing and soon saw some sort of words that he couldn't understand that were written on the surface of the wall.

"That's an Elven language which meant five hundred meters. We initially didn't believe that, but after we finished exploring the tenth floor and ninth floor, we confirmed that that's exactly how far the paths are," Elvis replied.

"Okay…" Leo felt slightly disbelief of the information. It's really strange for him to see something like this just lying in plain sight for everyone to see, especially in a place where traps are all over the map. Maybe this is the difference between the Elf race and the Human race because he knows for the fact that no Humans would do something as stupid as this. Rather, they would depict this sort of thing as vaguely as they possibly could to confuse everyone who dares to traverse the path.

All of a sudden, Leo and Elvis were pulled out from their conversation as they noticed a few silhouettes of people who were retreating in their direction.

"What is that?" Leo asked as he narrowed his eyes to see as much as possible.

"They should be the soldiers that Captain Enzo had mentioned to have gone inside the seventh floor," Elvis quickly realized who those people were. But his face quickly turned ugly as he started to see the image of the soldiers who were retreating towards them.

Without wasting any time, Elvis tapped Leo's shoulder and said, "Please order your Golems to help them,"

"I am already on it," Leo replied. Even without needing Elvis to say anything, he could see with his own eyes that the group of soldiers required immediate assistance.

The Golems didn't bother with the markings since falling into the traps doesn't matter or affect them that much. They quickly made their way towards the group of soldiers. They swiftly put the soldiers, particularly the injured ones, onto their back and carried them to the entrance.

"Just wait here for a bit. I'll call the medic," Elvis informed Leo before quickly leaving.

Not long after, the medic group arrived and took the matter onto their hands. They carefully carried all the soldiers who had received an injury that required immediate treatment while only doing first-aids to those who were only slightly injured.

"So, did they tell you what happened?" Elvis asked Leo as he had noticed the latter was conversing with some of them when he returned with the medic team just now.

"Yes," Leo nodded his head. He then started telling Elvis what the soldiers had told him, "They said that when they were nearing the end of the pathway, some strange plants suddenly started attacking them from out of nowhere. None of them were able to fight back since they were both physically and mentally drained already from traversing the path, so some of their comrades decided to stay in order to let the majority of them leave,"

"Strange plants? This had never happened when we were close to the end of the tenth floor and ninth floor before," Elvis was unable to find the answer to explain what just happened. He started remembering the contents of the book he had read about the number one Alchemist of the Emerald Tree Kingdom back during the reign of King Elfin the fifth, hoping that there was something written over there that could provide him answers.

While Elvis was thinking, he suddenly noticed from his peripheral vision that Leo was slowly walking inside the pathway.

"What are you doing?!" Elvis quickly stopped Leo.

"You can stay here and do whatever you want to do. I don't care even if you bring Cassandra and the others here. I have made up my mind and decided to go see for myself what's at the end of the seventh floor," Leo said in a determined tone in his voice. Initially, he was starting to consider backing down after hearing Elvis' explanation about the traps before. However, after hearing the soldiers' story, he suddenly made an assumption inside his mind that maybe the exact reason why those puppets were here was indeed to wait for him to come and at the same time to tell him that what he is currently looking for is in the seventh floor. Of course, that's just an assumption. That's why he is going over there now to confirm it.

"Haysttt…." Elvis shook his head helplessly and said, "Wait up!"