Emina gave some orders to the elves that were with her. They attempted to balance the mana in the vicinity so that no more mana creatures would simply appear on top of them while they were exploring. Kaden listened and could tell the fighting was still going on outside. There was always chance that someone would stumble down at the cracks, but for the time being that was unlikely.

One could consider the void area roughly circular. That is, if you could assign any sort of shape to it. At best you could get an idea where its edges were. Anyway, Sacronan's camp was, while not entirely on the other side, still just a bit away from the cracks. Someone would have to search around the void while dealing with the mana creatures.

Kaden expected it was relatively safe as far as Sacronan's soldiers were in consideration. Mana creatures could be a problem, but they would merely mindlessly attack and not alert any extra opponents by themselves.

"I hope all this is worth it", Kaden thought to himself as he watched the elves go a bit further down. "I could be looting the camp. Still, a chance like this is rare. I should take it."

Around at the time the elves seemed to have found something. Kaden decided to go see since the elves wouldn't surely give any considerations to his desires, if he wasn't around. He wondered for a moment, if he should make the elves disapear by tossing them into the void. Emina carried the device, but if the others ceased to exist, she too would forget they ever existed. Still, at the latest someone might notice, say, an empty bed or home where the elves lived. They knew of the void and its effects. It would mean someone must have been erased.

Kaden decided to discard this idea for now. The elves could prove useful. They had probably had the chance to dig up some ancient tools and items. Perhaps churches new of this and occassionally came to take whatever the elves had? Kaden wanted part of that. Therefore it was not time yet to completely cut his ties with them. Not to mention that he was known by Emina who seemed to have some status.

Emina was waving the device slightly over a hole on the ground.

"This should be it", she said. "Lets see if its accessible."

"Hmmm", Kaden hummed as he looked into the hole. It didn't look like it formed with the cracks. Yet, it didn't seem like anyone made it either. "How do you think this hole formed?"

"I think some mana that wasn't part of the void must have been blasted through here", Emina replied. "It might even be a reason why this way exists at all."

"Well, you may go in first", Kaden said and nodded towards the elves.

The way could be part of the void, perhaps he would notice something strange, if the elves going in before him disapeared. Emina had other plans though.

"We won't be doing that", she said and pulled out a rope. Just a normal rope or at best some mana enhancement on it to make it stronger, but basically just a rope. "A simple solution should be best this time."

"Lets hear it then?" Kaden asked.

"Each of us will tie a rope around us", Emina said. "We will explore the path in similar way. Tie things to the rope and toss it forward or something else. Should any of us disapear, the part of the rope should also disapear and thus show others that it was cut."

"In other words we can't be sure where the void will be inside", Kaden pointed out. "If one of us ceases to exist, its tough luck. Yet, it will serve as a warning to others."

"Do you have any better ideas?" Emina questioned Kaden. "Anything that disapears we forget. Say, if we went in first like you suggested, you might not even notice as you yourself walk into the void. None of us existed. You went in alone, in that case."

Emina made sense. It was pretty dangerous, but Kaden wanted to take this chance. If he was scared when such chances came, he wouldn't get far.

"Fine", Kaden replied and nodded.

"You also understand that, if we are all tied together, none of us should try anything ... distasteful?" Emina added while giving Kaden a stern look.

"Haha, if I were to attempt kill you, I'd rather do it here outside, then toss your corpse into the void", Kaden replied. It seemed Emina wanted some assurances of Kaden's cooperation. "Having you continue living is also potentially useful so you have nothing to worry about." Kaden gave about as wide smile as he could after saying that.

Emina decided not to reply and handed over the rope.

Soon everyone were tied together. There was enough of it in between that it was easy to put some weight, such as rock, onto it and toss it a bit further as method to check, if there was void there. It was extremely difficult to see even at close range. Technically you couldn't even see it, just its edges, if there was something there to see, such as ground.

Emina was at front. Kaden would have put one of the 'minions' in front, but didn't say anything. He only hoped that if Emina was erased from existence, the device she had would fall to the ground or something and not go with her into the void.

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Everyone went down into the hole. From outside it was barely large enough for a single person go in, but it widened quickly to allow perhaps two people side by side.

The sight was rather eerie. If one could consider the hole as a small cave, one side had rock wall and ground as one would expect, but on the other side... there was nothing. With exception of thin strip on rock going into the distance. Nothing else. That thin path was surrounded by void.

"Could it be that someone has already been here?" One of the elves said as they observed the pathway. "This seems too convenient. Like someone prepared a road here."

No one said anything as they tried to think and make some sense. It was eventually Kaden who broke the silence.

"I think this is natural or at least no one arranged this here", Kaden said. He felt something as he stood at the front of the path. Like... wind, but not wind. The thing is, he felt anything only because his core was slightly affected, like it was absorbing some passing mana. Indeed, it had to be some kind of stream of mana. Higher grade than he at his level could directly sense and mostly passed by without affecting him. "I think its mana. It streams both in and out. Where it comes from or where it goes, I cannot say. Whatever is in there connects to the outer world through this path."

"What makes you think that?", Emina asked.

"We all have our secrets", Kaden replied. "I believe that the mana is strong enough that the void cannot erase it. Perhaps someone at Condensation stage or possibly even a True Magus would be needed to truly sense it, let alone affect it."

"Some higher mana might indeed be able to continue existing", Emina agreed.

Mana in itself was essence of existence. High grade mana is stronger existence. The void could not erase it so it had to leave some connection to the world around. The connection passed through that pathway and anything within it were protected.

"Lets go see whats in there", Emina said and started to slowly spin around a rock tied to the rope in front of her. It was probably better than just throwing something forward. Just in case there was unsafe part in front.

Everyone followed.

If the entrance was already eerie, the pathway was even more so. It was quiet and dark. There were no echoes and only light they had was what they themselves generated to show them the path. Echo couldn't exist, since sound would eventually disapear into the void instead bouncing back from walls. Same with light.

It was as if everything that existed was that path. The surrounding void prevented any interactions from outside.

Perhaps someone with weaker nerves might have not been able to continue forward. There was a risk that whatever kept the pathway open could disapear. One one slip up and you'll disapear into the void.

All of this made Kaden feel curiosity. He still had no idea why church or anyone involved were so interested. He decided to ask directly.

"So, Emina, now that we are here, I keep wondering why is it that churches or the elves are so interested?" Kaden asked. "I don't expect you to tell any details to me. Specially anything related to elves, but perhaps what is it with the churches?"

Emina was silent and Kaden was already thinking she wouldn't answer, but then she did reply.

"The details are pretty obscure", she said. "All this involves some kind of prophecy that has already failed a many times, but both churches don't seem to care about that and always expect it to happen the next time."

"Huh?" Was the only reply Kaden could give. None of this made much sense. Prophecies? Did some Archmagus use too much some obscure mana like fate or something? Too many mana enhancing drugs along the way?

"With just that no one else would care", Emina continued. "Yet, when the time for this so called prophecy occurs, it seems some remnants can pop up. Not always, but some do. All I can say is that we elves have had pretty good hauls from those remnants. They are all something to do with the ancients."

That would explain elves and their involvement.

"Yet, it goes even further", Emina said. "All this seems to be connected to one of the Great Four remnants."

The Great Four? Basically anyone who knew anything about remnants knew of them. They were very special remnants, those that were often called large scale dungeons or great remnants. They were stable remnants that had many smaller remnants inside them. Even more common remnants that were slightly bigger could have entraces to other remnants inside them, but when there was such extra remnant, it was one or at best two. These great remnants were enormous. No one could even tell how many sub remnants they had inside them. To begin with, exploring them was difficult and mana, while still stale like usual, was in many ways more active. Things happened inside and around them. Mana was just too dense.

Two of them were located deep inside the No Man's Land. One of them seemed to move around somehow within the No Man's Land. The other inside No Man's Land was a spatial tear into some kind of chaotic subspace. Third one was at South Pole, the entrance, that had some connection to the North Pole, that was the exit. Despite the distance, it was considered a single remnant. The fourth and last one was located on the continent of Murika and was close to treshold of No Man's Land passing nearby. It was likely that due to this specific remnant, the No Man's Land edge was pulled closer and also generated wide range mana storms, which made most of that side of the continent unihabitable, even if there was some population at the shorelines.

"Which one?" Kaden asked.

"The one at Murika", Emina answered. "It seems that the supposed prophecy is tied to each of its openings. It isn't possible to access it other than variable times that might be from hundreds to thousand years, but it seems that time is soon. This time many smaller remnants have appeared. More than usually. Churches are sure, yet again, that this is the time of the prophecy. More so due to the number of the remnants."

"Those remnants, including this one, are those remnants that appeared?" Kaden asked.

Emina nodded.

"How interesting", Kaden replied with a nod. "It seems I'm left with more questions than I had before."

Even if it was so, this all explained some of the motivations that churches might have. The reasonings just happened to just be beyond Kaden's scope of understanding? Prophecies of impending doom? The Great Four and the opening of one of them?

"Hah, I'd probably have to be an Archmagus to make any sense of this", Kaden thought to himself. "I'll still want to expand my knowledge at the very least. I want to see what the churches do. I want to see, if there is something I can benefit from."

Then suddenly Emina raised her hand and stopped. The reason was clear. There was light coming from somewhere front of them. Being so deep within the void, there should have not been anything. With exception of possibly the thing they were looking for.