Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 1326 - 112: The Human-like Undead

"You foresaw this, didn’t you?" After they had put some distance between themselves and Torum, Freya lowered her voice and asked, "Danacus is welcoming you with such an attitude so you can directly get to him."

"Of course, we both harbor a deep hatred for each other. Without personally casting each other into the abyss, how could we possibly resolve this hatred?" Pannis unconsciously narrowed his eyes and said with a cold smile, "Moreover, Nellie is influencing his thinking in the opposite way. I was at least ninety percent sure that he would do this."

"It seems you really do understand Danacus’s thinking," Freya nodded and said, "But, I noticed you seemed a bit surprised at the end there."

"Indeed, I didn’t expect him to say that," Pannis admitted with a wry smile, acknowledging Freya’s guess, "I thought that since he so wanted to see me, once I entered, he wouldn’t leave me any chance to leave. But the answer I received was unexpected. It seems he was as confident as I am, knowing that once I came, I would never turn back."

"Is that really the reason?" A confused expression emerged on Freya’s round face. "I always feel there’s something off."

"That’s the only reason I can think of," Pannis said with a shrug. "There might be other reasons, but to know them, we’d have to meet him in person."

"Is this the place, Pannis?" Catherine suddenly stopped, turned around, and asked from the front of the group, "Torum said we should enter through the main gate; it should be here, right? But this gate, huh?"

In front of Catherine, the fortress gates were firmly closed. The gate was made entirely of white bones, numerous bones intricately entangled without any gaps. In the middle of each gate, a skull was embedded, making the gates appear even more ferocious. The knight girl faced the firmly closed doors, puzzled. In the next moment, Soul Fire lit up in the eye sockets of the two skulls, and the closed jawbones began to move up and down. The consciousness of the two skeletons scanned over the visitors, and upon confirming Pannis’s identity, the heavy doors slowly opened inward; it was evident that the opening of the gates was entirely automatic, with no Undead manipulating them.

"Thank you both," Catherine nodded to the skulls on the gates, but her face was marked with an unusual solemnity as she stepped into the mysterious Bone Fortress.

As soon as they entered the fortress, even Catherine and Pannis couldn’t help but reveal surprised expressions. As for the others, if they weren’t in the middle of a mission and unaware of the level of danger they were in, Lina and Vivian would have already run out to explore everywhere by now. In everyone’s imagination, the interior of the Bone Fortress should be a chilly stronghold filled with military installations and bone-made defensive machinery placed everywhere; other than that, nothing else should exist since Undead needed nothing else. However, what everyone saw upon entering the fortress was a vast open field. At the other end of the field, there was a row of neatly arranged bone barracks, and lots of military machinery were placed around the inner walls for the Undead to use at any time. Nearer to the fortress’s gates, there were also several unusually large buildings, likely warehouses for storing large machinery. It seemed that the interior of the whole fortress was almost no different from a living beings’ fortress, the only clear difference being the materials used for all constructions.

"I didn’t expect there to be barracks inside," Lina said in surprise. "Aren’t they Undead? Why would they need to rest in barracks?"

"You’ll have to ask these two things beside you," Freya pointed at Annie and Little Deer whom Lina was holding on either side. "Both of them not only need a room; they also need beds, and a dining hall, delicious food, toys, fairy-tale books. Perhaps the Undead in this fortress might want these things as well."

Although it seemed like she was explaining to Lina, Freya could hardly conceal her own shock. The sights before her meant that Annie and Little Deer were not exceptions; sentient Undead seemed to all have such distinct personalities, increasingly resembling intelligent beings. Walking among the tents, she even saw a skeleton emerge from a tent, scoop up a pile of fine sand with fragments of its broken skull, and pour it over itself, rubbing the sand into its bones as if bathing, making the bones even whiter.

"If all sentient Undead are like this, it seems there’s a great possibility that both sides can coexist," Catherine said thoughtfully, frowning as she spoke to Pannis, "Maybe your idea could really work. As long as we can confirm they no longer harbor deep hatred towards living creatures and are willing to share this world with them, there’s absolutely no need for this cruel war."

"So, my task is to ensure they don’t revert," Pannis, also shocked by the surprising situations observed along the way, managed to maintain his composure and nodded, "Actually, we should ask if they are willing to coexist with living beings, or rather, we should directly ask what mission they have to invade our world."

"How could they possibly tell you such a secret?" Catherine couldn’t help but give him a look, "And since they’ve chosen to invade with hostility, it’s nothing but a struggle for living space, even if I gave you the answer, it wouldn’t make sense."

"So I was just thinking about it, not really asking." Pannis shrugged, "As you said... Look, that’s the Death’s Gate."

The huge black sphere appeared again before Pannis, unchanged from a century ago.

"Denia, so the Death’s Gate is like this; it doesn’t feel anything like what’s depicted in the books," Lina exclaimed, gazing up at the immense Death’s Gate. It was a spherical space, dark and profound inside, as if no light could emerge from within, while blue electric sparks continuously flickered on the surface, slithering along the sphere like snakes.

But unlike over a century ago, the area around the Death’s Gate was now quiet, with only a few skeleton sentries standing guard. Gone were the swarms of Undead that used to emerge every minute from the Death’s Gate like they did during the event a hundred years ago.

The moment the team approached, they were spotted by the skeletons standing guard, but upon noticing Pannis, they immediately bowed slightly and moved aside, revealing a direct path to the Death’s Gate.

"What is this made of?" Vivian looked enchantedly at the intangible Death’s Gate, trying to reach out to touch it multiple times but withdrawing each time, sighing, "It would be great to have a chance to study this properly."

"You can study it right here," Pannis quickly replied, "No need to rush at all."

"Hmph." The Mage girl glared at Pannis, scornfully saying, "Don’t think I don’t know you’re trying to get rid of us with this method. We’re not falling for it. No more excuses, let’s go in now, hurry up."