[Keeno POV]
After a while we both calmed down and I was able to notice several things. First thing was that the others were nowhere to be seen. Second was that the room was broiling. Third, and most importantly, there was an aura of Death floating about the room like a fog.
“That’s a problem.”
{…I’ve never seen Divinity do that before.}
“Hmm.”
Waving my hand through the fog, it stuck to me like cotton candy. Once I collected all of it I started pressing it until it became a perfect sphere. When I was done, it looked like I was holding a ball of pure darkness.
“Well, that worked but now I have no clue what to do with it.”
{…}
“What are you contemplating Ama?”
{I wanna throw it.}
“…Same.”
I stared into the Orb of Death.
“Geri.” (Keeno)
From the pattern on one of my arms, Geri leapt out.
“Master?” (Geri)
“Bring this to Ama real quick.” (Keeno)
Handing her the Orb, she staggered a bit.
“Heavy.” (Geri)
“Really?” (Keeno)
“Feels like I’m lifting 200 Reds.” (Geri)
Her style of comparison threw me for a loop for a second, but she vanished before I could say anything.
‘Ehehe. 200 Reds.’ (Freki)
Ignoring the other hellhound, I was about to move towards where we entered this temple, but heard some loud, rolling thunder, even through all the things above us.
“Well, that answers that question.” (Keeno)
{Ooooo!}
“Ama?” (Keeno)
{Remember that time we put Divinity into your dragon breath?}
“Yeah.” (Keeno)
{That orb is about the same level of destruction but from what I can see, the effects are more potent.}
“Fun.” (Keeno)
{It was a nice explosion too.}
“Wish I could’ve seen it.” (Keeno)
I passed through the room I was originally in and down a hallway off the side. After walking a bit, I found some carved stairs. I saw that there were wall sconces but the torches that were there had long rotted away so I made some small fireballs to light the way. The lit the sconces one by one down the spiral of the staircase, dying it an ethereal blue. As I descended, I found a few doors, but most of them were blocked by roots that had grown down and were still going. After a while more of climbing downstairs, I finally found a room not overrun by ever-growing roots and walked inside.
The room itself was damp and smelled of mold and stagnant water. Floating a large ball of flames to the middle of the room I found the source of the water. It seemed that over time an underground lake had formed somewhere above this room and the pressure had been making cracks in the walls where it was leaking through. Looking around the room more, it seemed to be either some kind of old food storage or a kitchen. At the wall closest to me were three giant casks that were about as tall as two people and as wide as three. Stepping in front of one, it seemed to be in pristine condition and knocking on it revealed that it was full.
“Ama, think this stuff is still good?” (Keeno)
{Probably.}
“…” (Keeno)
Deciding to take them with me, I stored them in my ring.
“Bet mum is gonna enjoy these a lot.” (Keeno)
{I’m surprised you aren’t going to keep them.}
“I’m going to keep at least one, but I can’t drink all of it in one go…come to think of it, why does a temple have so much wine anyway? It’s not like this world has the Eucharist.” (Keeno)
{The what?}
“Don’t worry about it.” (Keeno)
{Anyway, it’s wine, so it stores for a long time and can be diluted so much it won’t cause people to get drunk, but it’s also something that isn’t water.}
“That’s fair, water gets boring.” (Keeno)
I looked around the room some more, but there wasn’t anything useful. Just cracked, wet walls and rusted and disintegrating old utensils. I left the room and continued down until I couldn’t due to the stairs being underwater.
“Booo! I wanna explore more!” (Keeno)
{There are probably other floors that are explorable, you haven’t found the others yet after all.}
“That’s true. I wonder if there will be a library here too, or something of the sorts at least.” (Keeno)
I started climbing the stairs again which quickly turned into a pain.
“Mistakes were made.” (Keeno)
After what felt like days, I finally made it back to the top only to find the others looking around confused.
“Something wrong?” (Keeno)
“Keeno!” (Pram)
“We didn’t know where you went.” (Freya)
“I was about to go and see if you went outside, but thunder kept rolling, making it obvious you didn’t go up there.” (Mostima)
“Where did you go actually?” (Pram)
“I found some stairs and went down. Lots of rooms, all swallowed by roots but one, and that one was slowly flooding. Found a lot of wine though.” (Keeno)
“Oh!” (Mostima)
“I’ll get some out later. How did the meditating thing go for all of you?” (Keeno)
They explained what they saw to me and we all began discussing what we thought it meant when another peel of thunder sounded above us.
“I think we’re going to be here for a while longer.” (Keeno)
I was about to suggest we go explore some more, but some strange cosmic timing kicked in and all of our stomachs growled at the same time. We all chuckled at this and sat down before pulling some food out of our rings.
“Hmm. Just an idea, but should we let Margaret know about this place?” (Keeno)
“We could, but I don’t know how much they can get from it. I know I could translate the few texts we found so far, but that’s because of past circumstances, I don’t know how many people from that far back are still alive or even if there are, if they live in Lokir.” (Mostima)
“People can always figure that part out in time. But I’m trying to think of the future here. If people start using these methods, then any future threats the same level as this one that nearly destroyed the world may be mitigated or at least easier to handle. And, we don’t even need to have them figure the translation out themselves, if you’re willing to help, Mostima.” (Keeno)
“Oh?” (Mostima)
“I’m not asking you to transcribe it yourself, but the alphabet itself is a different story. If you can help with that, then we can send it with some of these manuals and some instructions for what to do and we don’t have to worry about it anymore.” (Keeno)
“That’s fine then. After that we can start looking around more, if that’s fine with everyone.” (Mostima)
“Actually, I’d like to think more about what I saw earlier, but Pram, feel free to go with them.” (Freya)
“Nah, I don’t need to go.” (Pram)
They went back and forth for a bit until Freya relented, causing Pram to smile sweetly as she wrapped her tail around Freya. We finished our meal and Mostima stepped over to an old stone table that had a large crack in the middle of it. She pulled out some paper and something to write with and got to work with the alphabet of the language we needed.
“Thanks.” (Keeno)
“You’re welcome. Know who you’re gonna send it with?” (Mostima)
“Huginn, Muninn, who wants to deliver a message for me?” (Keeno)
My two feathery friends flapped out of my tails and stared one another down. After some kind of mental communication, they started running around in circles in some kind of bird…something until Huginn tripped and Muninn cawed in victory. It hopped over to us and flapped into the table, its chest feathers puffed out in pride.
“Rrrrr.” (Huginn)
“Huginn, language.” (Keeno)
“Caw.” (Huginn)
“Don’t make me cook you.” (Keeno)
Huginn flapped its four wings and dove into my tails again, ruffling around before poking its head out and staring at Muninn smugly.
“Cawaw!” (Muninn)
“If you two don’t stop, I’ll get Geri or Freki to do it.” (Keeno)
Both birds stared at me dejectedly before calming down.
“Good.” (Keeno)
Chaos Realm:
Tch.
Order: Payto?
Stupid mongrel doing crap he isn’t supposed to. Sure, I got to make it right by getting two more Fated Ones together, but still.
Order: Well, at least it’s taken care of.
True. Though I did also have to put that world in stasis for a while. Mongrel messed with the Sea of Chaos around it when escaping and made the whole place unstable. It churned so much it would destroy that world and any that would follow it for a long time.
Order: Need me to step in?
No need.
Order: *pats Payto’s head*
???
Order: Shh. You overworked yourself. Come here and let me release that tension from you.
…
Order: Good boy. S~eaʀᴄh the NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!