Marcus tried everything he could think of to breach the Elven Gate, hoping that if he pushed hard enough or got creative enough, something might give. He eased toward it as carefully as possible, then tried throwing his weight against it, then even struck at the structure just to see if it would react. Nothing worked. The immense energy woven into the Gate pushed him back into the chamber every time, almost lazily, as if the Gate barely needed to try.
He supposed he should have expected that. If a figure as powerful as the Dark Arch-Sorcerer, the Double-Headed Raven King, had needed a Divine Beast egg just to open this thing, what chance did someone like him have at brute forcing it on his own, no matter how stubborn he felt? With a discouraged sigh, he decided to return to the city and clear his head. At this point, the only real path forward seemed to be finding the Sacred Spring Water of the Elven people.
