A man in armor climbed the steps of a wide spiraling staircase one by one. As he got closer to his king, his stride grew slower, and more laborious. Even he, a proud Dragon, on the brink of ascendancy, could hardly withstand the tides of mana flowing down from above.
Sweat trickled down his back as he clambered up the last steps. At last he had reached the throne room, the highest point in the city, and truthfully of the entire world, should the moons themselves be discounted. There were no walls, only a central, shimring throne, and wide arches supporting a frescoed do painted in colors that most could not see. Roots from an unseen tree coursed down the arches pillars, and golden leaves littered the floor.
The dragon knelt in front of the throne, utter reverence etched on his face under his helt. “My Lordship. Your aura has grown fiercer yet again. The lower citizens are worried,” he addressed the king with respect.
The king, a tall male figure in an imposing full armor carved from the sinful bones of a leviathan itself, was immobile like a statue on his throne. Though his helt fully covered his face, he seed to be gazing directly at the clouds on the horizon, too low for even the tallest of them to even graze the bottom of his flying fortress. He did not move in the slightest as he answered with a deep voice.
“The currents of fate stir once more. The end of another cycle. Let the citizens be worried; this unease is not without its benefits.”
The dragon bowed. “Understood, my Lordship. I shall relay this ssage.” As the dragon went to stand up, the king’s voice halted him.
“Ti grows short, Edissius. Soon you will need to join the ranks, or perish trying. I have one last mission for you before then.”
“I am at your command.”
“You are to wait at the foot of the Ur Ur tree–”
To even her own surprise, Sonia had thoroughly managed to escape the king of the rust creatures’ pursuit so well that they likely could have taken their ti having a leisurely stroll through the dried sea and not be worried. Despite that, they dared not be complacent, and hastily made their way back to the tunnel leading to the Phoenix's desert.
Only when they were far down this long tunnel did their nerves start to relax, and the usual casual discussions resud.
“We’re taking the sa way back?” Bookie asked Sonia.
“That’s right. There are other known exit points we could reach if we had continued in the sa direction, but they are much further away than where we ca from, or we would have entered from there. And going through known territory is always much safer, although we will need to be on high alert not to end up ambushed by that reviskiviel thing again.”
Sofia almost stopped in her tracks for an instant, “I’m shocked, so you can, in fact, use the na I picked properly.”
“Your naming senses are just… Well, alright, I think I get Pestle, for example, but why would you na that huge quartz thing Mortar? Also I was wondering earlier, but you totally stole that from the academy, right?”
“It is big and sturdy, it can hold ‘stuff’ for Pestle to crush. I don’t see an issue with the na, really. They even both have crystal-looking bones. And I would not say I stole it from the academy, I had the approval of the headmaster, kind of.”
“... I’m just glad the artifact isn’t made of bones, I’d be worried you might just run with it.”
“Would not be a completely unfounded worry, I guess…”
“You’re not supposed to admit that,” Sonia deadpanned.
“What can I say, I take after my friends, I do not lie to myself, and not to others either. And speaking of honesty, isn’t it about ti you explained what that thing is that we all risked our lives for? Or can you still ‘not tell’?”
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“Ah right... The others actually already know. We had plenty of occasions to talk while you were out, after all. I feel like I can trust you all enough now. And if not then fuck for ever trusting anyone in my life. Anyway… I could let them explain, but in short, this should be an unfinished prototype core for a planetary-scale sanctuary.”
This ti Sofia truly stalled mid air in the tunnel, her flight coming to an abrupt stop. “Sanctuary?”
The word sanctuary, in the context of the apocalypse that decimated the world every thirty thousand years, was not a simple one.
This was what the sunless elder beast had called its realm under the spirit forest, though Sofia had not quite fully grasped the deeper aning at that ti, now with this word again in this new context, it was hard not to draw a few lines.
A sanctuary is supposed to be a refuge offering protection from so form of danger. Like say, a place allowing its inhabitants to survive the Looming and the change of epochs. At the ti, when the sunless beast called its place a sanctuary, it had reminded Sofia of Izzaro’s botched toybox realm on the warped moon where Remia was trapped.
Both seed to hide people from another ti, having ‘survived’ the change of epochs. But those were the only two examples Sofia knew of. And these two ‘sanctuaries’ had two points in common. They corrupted their inhabitants, and if one dwell there for too long, they would no longer be able to leave.
Is this what she ans by sanctuary?
Sonia’s answer was less than satisfactory.
“This ti I really cannot say more, so you will have to be satisfied with that. But you know about the mirrors, so I should not need to say anything.”
This, in Sofia’s mind, fully confird what she already guessed. Both the sunless beast’s realm and Izzaro’s toybox were linked to the False Lord ‘mirrors’.
“Wouldn’t that risk plunging the entire planet into a state we can’t reverse?!” she asked, only to see Sonia visibly recoil with a disgusted face.
She quickly controlled her emotions, displaying a bitter smile, lightly shaking her head. “Sorry, Sofia, I can assure you that whatever you said is not what I heard. We should both be grateful that this is all there is to it this ti. I’d greatly appreciate it if you stopped there, before this brings us all unnecessary troubles.”
On the side, Bookie scratched his skull, “Oh… So there isn’t a cake?”
Sofia looked around, and judging by the ambient air of confusion, Pareth was likely the only one who had actually heard her question undistorted.
Just like it was with Remia… “My bad,” Sofia apologized with a defeated sigh, ”I won’t say a word more. And on that subject… Thank you for your trust, I guess. Even if… I’m not sure what to think of the information you just gave .”
“As long as you understand. I hope you’re not still thinking of keeping the artifact now.”
Sofia shook her head, slowly resuming her flight, waiting for the others to react and do the sa, “the path may be different but the interests converge. Besides, I do not go back on my word. And I can’t imagine that anyone else here would be happy if I decided to betray you like that now, don’t you think?”
“I know. I didn’t think you would betray , or I wouldn’t have said anything.”
“Eheh. We also have our shared secret with the coins now. But I’ll be honest, I’m glad this is almost over, not that I don’t appreciate your company or anything, but I feel… A bit stifled, you know… With an arm missing…”
“Of course, I would feel that– Wait!” This ti, as the desert started appearing at the end of the long winding tunnel, it was Sonia who abruptly stopped the group, weirdly looking around, her head wildly swivelling on her neck.
Everyone got ready to fight, but Sonia stopped them, “It’s not like that! Not like that! I feel loot!”
“You feel loot?” Sofia repeated, incredulous. Not only was the statent in itself strange, but there was literally nothing but the forbidden layer’s painfully hard stone around, and not even a bit of vegetation growing in this dark, smooth-walled tunnel.
“There’s Mithrium nearby! About one ter in this direction! I’m sure of it! Absolutely certain!”
“How… Do you have a mineral vein prospecting skill or sothing?”
“Precisely! It’s an effect of my aura, it’s just atrociously weak because… Well, you know, not everyone has as much mana as you do. It could even miss an exposed vein right in front of sotis, but when it does pick sothing up, it’s never been wrong!”
Sofia clenched her fist and punched the wall with all her might. She already knew the result beforehand, naly, a sore fist inside of her dragon-scale armguard, and a fully intact tunnel wall.
The question ‘and how are we supposed to dig a full ter through that?’ died between her lips, as she could already see everyone staring at the dagger sheathed at her waist.
“... Alright… At least set up a ritual to cover up the sound or sothing…”
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