"Hmm, it's beautiful."
Standing atop the cliff, Leon looked down at the three waterfalls below and couldn't help but smile.
The view earned it.
The Immortal Three Roads came from three towns, one of which was Fire Town, each of them flowing outward from their origins and converging here at this singular point. Three sources. All of them pouring into a large basin far below, the water catching the light in a way that made the whole thing look less like nature and more like something someone had designed on purpose.
For years this place had been a tourist attraction to everyone in the vicinity and beyond. The locals had long stopped looking at it as an inheritance ground. Whatever weight the history of this place once carried had been buried under entry fees and viewing platforms and the general noise of people with leisure time.
"Yes."
Locan's voice came from beside him, that particular easy smile of his already in place.
"If only we could afford to pay the fee. We could see the area better."
He shook his head at the gate far below, at the small structure sitting between them and the actual grounds.
Only the rich could truly touch this attraction. Everyone else could stand on cliffs and look from a distance and be grateful for what they could see for free.
"Oh?"
Leon raised an eyebrow.
"It's just a fee?"
It made sense that vetting would happen here. This was formally an inheritance ground. Some level of filtration was reasonable. But to collect only cash?
(That's irresponsible.)
"Not just a fee."
Locan turned to look at him with the patient expression of someone explaining something obvious.
"Around 50 central gold coins per person. It's practically a fortune."
He shook his head at Leon's ignorance.
Then in the next second his body became very light.
Leon had grabbed him by the collar.
He didn't process it immediately. The mind sometimes refuses to accept what the body already knows. It wasn't until they were meters from the ground, the wind rushing past his ears and the cliff face flying upward behind them, that Locan understood what was happening.
"AAAAH!!"
The scream tore out of him on instinct.
—woosh
It brought the attention of the guards at the gate immediately. Heads turned. Hands moved toward weapons.
"Heheh."
Leon landed smoothly and straightened, one hand adjusting his collar.
"I apologize on my friend here's behalf."
He smiled at the guards like this was a perfectly normal way to arrive.
"He's just too excited."
Locan stood beside him breathing slightly faster than usual and said nothing.
The young man at the gate studied them for a moment. He was a level 3 mage. In the undergod territory that rank was enough to make a man a leader of a small group, an elder of a clan, someone people listened to when he spoke.
Here in the elemental school he collected tickets.
"Toll is 50 central gold coins."
He said it without expression.
Leon paid for both of them without hesitation.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Inside the waterfall grounds it was a different world entirely.
The sound of the falls was everywhere, not loud enough to drown conversation but present enough that you felt it in your chest if you stood still. Young men and women moved in groups across the paths and viewing areas. Most of them were from the elemental school or the related areas nearby. Here to relax. Here because someone told them this was the kind of place worth seeing at least once.
Locan looked around slowly.
"I never thought I'd enter here in my life."
He smiled and crouched down, picking up a flat stone from the path beside the basin. Turning it over in his fingers.
Inside of him, he was quietly regretting that Leon had spent 100 central gold coins on entry fees when he could have simply handed that money directly to Locan instead. The water was beautiful but it was still water.
"Come."
Leon beckoned him forward.
"Give me a rundown of the history of this place. You're a local."
Locan stood back up and followed without thinking much about it.
...…
Three Immortal Emperor.
In ancient times, around the 2nd and 3rd epoch, this individual had roamed the continent with the specific intent of causing trouble to everyone he set his eyes on. He had a mysteriously wide magical strength. Poison his opponents. Cause floods. Drain life from others with a touch.
But his most remarkable ability was his three immortal bodies.
Highly resilient. Built to absorb punishment that would collapse anything else. A healing factor that couldn't be reasonably described as anything other than undying. When one body died another would simply remake itself, stepping forward to continue where the last one fell.
It was how he earned the title.
Immortal.
Legends said that he was eventually killed by an alliance of several powerful magic users and the human king acting in tandem, right here in this mountain area. The three sources of the waterfalls. The basin below. All of it tied to that battle in ways that local history had long since romanticized.
"That's quite a story."
Leon looked into the large pond as he said it.
The surface of the water moved slowly, fed by the constant pour of the falls above.
Beside him Locan studied his expression and quietly drew his own conclusions. Leon was probably like most of the people who came here. A tourist with an interest in history. A scholar of some kind. Powerful, clearly, in the way that certain people just were without making noise about it.
He couldn't be more right.
But he was also very wrong.
Because Leon wasn't here for any of that.
...…
He pulled his top off.
"I'm going for a swim."
He said it loud enough for Locan to hear, not particularly concerned about who else caught it.
"If you don't see me in the next 30 minutes, please leave."
"Wait, Leon-"
—splash!!
He was already in the water before Locan finished the sentence, blasting forward beneath the surface at full speed, the cold pressing in on all sides as he went deeper.
The history in the central region was always skewed. The version they told tourists. The version inscribed on the plaques near the gate. He had learned a long time ago not to rely on it.
What Altor had given him was different.
The Three Immortal Emperor hadn't been killed because of his mischief. That was the surface version. The one designed to make the ending feel clean and deserved.
The truth was this had been the beginning of something calculated. A deliberate effort by the human king and his people to eliminate beasts and beast kin across the continent. The mischief was the excuse, not the reason.
Three Headed Hydra Immortal.
That was his real name.
The Three Immortal Emperor wasn't human. He had never been human.
In all essence, he was a warlock.