Not everything qualifies to be made into a magical artifact. To be precise, even if you have rare materials, turning them into a magical item is extremely difficult. That's why every artifact is a family heirloom rather than some common trinket.
It's easy to imagine that when that deified wizard defeated Orochi, he wouldn't have wasted the other materials besides the great sword. To exaggerate a bit, perhaps after the battle, he only had a wand left, using the rest to forge a full set of artifacts—not impossible at all.
So, unsurprisingly, the only other owner capable of using these artifacts as sacrificial tools to curse and kill a group of wizards centuries later—without anyone noticing—would be the snake itself.
This curse was far more vicious than that on the Resurrection Stone. The former merely etched Voldemort's curse into the artifact's material, with minimal enhancement from the material itself. The latter sacrificed the artifacts themselves—and multiplied the effect by three. Judging by the corresponding prices, its power is evident.
Considering that another group also possessed two magical artifacts, their reluctance to emerge makes sense. If they stepped out, they'd be ghosts, in the literal sense—no exaggeration.
Since the fox confirmed she had fully controlled the orb, Allen casually drew the final great sword from his pocket, planting it in the ground and preparing to move out—he had no intention of going into battle with the snake while tied to a bundle of explosive traps, especially when someone else held the detonator.
Of course, to prevent anyone from stealing his treasures, Allen set up one trap after another—wait, maybe one more? This behavior only stopped when the fox complained, finally letting him relax as she dragged him through the door.
The land remained dead and silent. The eighteen sacrificed wizards still stood like statues. Allen didn't even bother touching their pockets as he pressed forward—the priority was killing the resurgent snake. Dividing spoils could wait.
In fact, there was no time for spoils. Something else couldn't wait—namely, the creature that had just been revived.
No one enjoys being locked in a pitch-dark room for millennia, especially without computers, Wi-Fi, air conditioning, fruit, or cute girls. Even worse, this situation had persisted for a thousand years.
A thousand years waiting—not for a beloved, but for freedom.
When those fools broke in, the altered seal had two points destroyed, and the magical artifacts in the seal were scattered. While Allen and the others had done some sealing work previously, it inadvertently awakened the sleeping giant.
Soon after Allen and his team escaped, the creature naturally realized that its binding was broken—and considering a bunch of familiar-looking humans were jumping around above it, it instinctively chose to eliminate them.
And it succeeded spectacularly—just as Allen had witnessed.
With no more distractions, Orochi began accumulating its power. Though the seal had been weakened, it wasn't fragile glass; the snake spent nearly an entire night preparing. Its body coiled tightly, every scale stretched as if forged from the finest tempered steel. Any gunfire or magic would leave an attacker utterly hopeless, incapable of even leaving a mark on its scales.
Then, as the compressed beast released its full body, the air reverberated with a heavy, muffled roar. The distant shrine began glowing violet, ancient magical runes lighting up—but Allen didn't recognize a single one, having never taken this subject.
Recognition didn't matter. Though the glow intensified, a second impact struck—the ground trembled, runes forming chains binding the earth and shrine. But in the next moment, they shattered into dust.
Undoubtedly, the problem with the seal was that the old man had diverted its energy for absorption—if Allen and company were heroes here to seal the snake, they would have faced endless damage.
As the chains broke, the shrine's runes flared to their peak, but it was only a fleeting brilliance. When the glow seemed to outshine the sun, continuous BOOM BOOM BOOM echoed, countless runes exploding into radiant flowers.
"Tsk tsk, so beautiful—these firework-like explosions of ancient runes are amazing! No wonder modern magic abandoned them for complexity…" Allen commented nonchAllently, knowing he'd probably offend his ancient rune professor, while the fox watched, terrified.
"What are you doing?! This isn't the time for sightseeing! I'll try to reinforce the seal, and you better grab what you need from the coffin below!" The fox shoved Allen, assuming he planned to attack whoever lay in the coffin.
Allen, grinning, held her back. "Relax, who said I was going after the coffin?"
Meanwhile, he kept scattering seed after seed, instantly sprouting vines that rapidly spread, covering the nearby ground. He wasn't going to let the snake escape unpunished—the fox would surely want a meeting gift.
"You're insane! That's Orochi! No lone wizard could possibly defeat it! Japan sent two schools here, combining their power is the only proper way to seal it again—how could you possibly kill it alone?" The fox's face said it all: hopelessness. She tried to drag Allen away, but he wouldn't budge.
At that moment, as the roof collapsed, all the magical runes erupted. With a deafening sound, a massive, grotesque snake head emerged, then a second, then a third—followed by a sorrowful, soul-shaking raven's cry. A massive black-purple storm swept across the sky with terrifying speed.
…..
180+ Advance Chapters on [P]atreon.[c]om/Veltoria [remove brackets]