Mid Afternoon - Late Fall : The Library of Eternity, Atlas | Bahamut
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Staring into Hera's eyes after she bluntly admitted to stealing my money, I felt her smug look eating away at my willpower before I finally gave in. "Ugh, whatever... If you wasted it, I'm gonna make sure it cos out of your pocket." Averting my gaze, I quickly turned back toward the librarians.
But Hera kept her gaze on for just a mont longer. "Huhu~, I'm fine with that..." Speaking warmly, she turned back to the librarians with a pleased curl in her tail before continuing in a casual manner. "In any case, we will pay quite a bit if anyone knows anything. Any takers?"
The whole room instantly fell silent as everyone's focus turned to their own thoughts.
But while I started having so doubts, after a mont, one of them started moving, sifting through a huge pile of books by picking them up and moving them in sequence as if to create a wave. -Did she rember sothing?-
Her focus seed to heighten the more books she moved before, out of nowhere, she pulled up one book, opened to a specific page, and read it. "I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but..." Closing the book, she moved it over to with her aura.
-Hm?- The cover read 'The Deep Black', and looked like an encyclopedia of so sort. -Is this a bestiary?- *Flutter* Quickly opening it with a flutter, I skimd through it before suddenly coming to a stop about halfway through.
The page I stopped on was labeled 'The Continental Serpent', filled with text, diagrams, and images of a scale that looked like it belonged to a fish.
But it couldn't have co from sothing so simple.
And that was because of the text below the image. -'Retrieved from the deepest part of the Death's Gape, the scale asured four kiloters, by six kiloters, with a thickness of half a kiloter and the material strength of a young Elder stage bronze dragon scale'...- I had to pause after I read it. -What the fuck...-
*Fwip* Flipping the page, Hera poked her head in to read it, but her previously warm expression had turned stern, and her wings had relaxed. "Oh.. this was sothing they retrieved from before the war... I forgot about it..." Pausing to read, she spoke curiously. "Does anyone here know of 'The Scale of the Colosus'?"
-Hm?- It was sothing I had never heard of.
But every single one of the librarians nodded. "Of course."
"It cos up frequently in older texts."
Properly looking up, Hera started sinking into her own thoughts. "Does it co up in newer texts as well? We didn't see it ntioned anywhere in the first two layers, but this book looks new."
"That's because they're all copies of the 'Avgi Bestiary', which is already stored in the third layer." The clerk next to us quickly interjected. "It's very well known, and one of the most well-researched bestiaries in the world from before the war. It's one of the few texts that had enough copies to survive from the Golden Age."
"Hm..." Sinking into thought, Hera slowly pulled herself away. "Do any of you know of other places the scale is ntioned?"
There was a long silence that imdiately filled the room as our eyes darted around at the various librarians.
But after a mont, a young voice t our ears. "U-Uh.. I-I might!" Looking over, I imdiately set my eyes on a young pink-scaled dragon who couldn't have been much older than 30, carrying a large container of absolutely ancient-looking books.
-Huh?- She looked just like Chloe, but there were so differences. "Would you introduce yourself, please?"
Imdiately coming to a stop, she tensed up. "M-My na is Anoixi!" She imdiately threw herself into a bow as her wings clamped to her side. "I am a simple helper here at the library. I bring books that require careful preservation to 'The Filter' since I'm one of only a few dragons here that doesn't get sick from the runes they need."
-Anoixi...- Her na ant 'Spring'. -Even her na is similar...- "Do you have a sister nad Chloe?"
But she just hesitated, easing her posture before tilting her head.
Honestly, Hera seed more interested than the young girl did. "Who's Chloe?"
But I couldn't shake my suspicion. -Is it really just a coincidence?- "She's my maid..." But the young girl clearly didn't recognize the na or even acknowledge having a sister. -Maybe I was mistaken...- "Anyway, what is it you know? We will pay you well if you know sothing good." *Vwoom-Clink* Quickly creating a few platinum, I split them between the librarians who contributed before watching the young girl's eyes light up.
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"W-Well, I was in Órmos a few weeks ago to retrieve a few old texts from Madam Ouranós." She motioned her head at the containers on her back as she spoke. "When I was there, I overheard so rfolk talking about one of the more isolated tribes in the archipelago. I can't rember the exact details, but there was sothing about an island-sized scale." She spoke with a mix of haste and enthusiasm as her posture straightened and tail curled with greed. "It actually seed like the scale was sothing they worshipped, so while I can't be certain it's the sa as what you ntioned, it might be similar."
-Sothing they worship?- Turning to Hera, I spoke through magic. "Where was the cultist you caught doing the sacrifice?"
"It was in Nkremo... I'm almost certain they aren't related to the tribe..." She answered without needing to ask the question. "But it reminded of sothing." Motioning to give her so coins, she turned to the other librarians. "Do any of you know what 'floating scales' are?"
Most of the librarians nodded imdiately.
"Are they still docunted?"
Slowly glancing around at each other with confused expressions, the librarians didn't seem to know how to respond. "Uh.. the last person to docunt them was Avgi himself... And at the end of the war, he disappeared..."
"Is that so..." Falling into thought, she motioned them away with her wing. "In that case, we need to leave to investigate sothing. Thank you all for your cooperation." Motioning to hand out a few more coins, I did, and we followed the clerk back into the library before eventually getting outside and taking to the air.
At that point, I had no idea what was on Hera's mind, I simply followed along, however, when she started speaking again, an old mory flared up. "You said you don't rember much from your ti on Delphi before the war, right?" Her tone was a bit different from normal. "Do you rember the 'floating scales'? I think at the ti they were called the 'Scales of the Leviathan'."
My eyes instantly jolted open as both mories from my current life, and from my ti as Nott resurfaced. -Huh?- "Actually.. I think I might..."
Pausing as she noticed trying to recall so blurry mories, she spoke softly, as if trying to help. "They were huge scales that would surface on certain days every year around The Forgotten Islands. They all varied in size, from a couple of ters wide, to several hundred. At the ti, we thought they were all from so unknown species of serpent that liked nesting around the islands, but as ti passed we found more and more of the sa scales resurfacing."
As things finally clicked, I cut her off. "That's because they all ca from the sa serpent..." Although still blurry, a connection between the mories of my current life and my past was ford, bringing a faint clarity to them.
But the mories only made my expression darken. -That fucker...- 'The Leviathan' was a na that resonated with more than any other, being one of the many aliases of a creature that had existed on Delphi far longer than I, living beneath the planet's crust, not as a protector, but as a cultivator in a symbiotic relationship with the planet itself. -Is he the bastard that nearly killed in the void?-
His na was Jormungandr, a creature known by many nas I hadn't been able to recognize until now. -But while he looked similar to what hit in the void.. that couldn't have been him...- While he was certainly strong, accessing the void wasn't sothing that could be done with strength alone.
However, just because he wasn't that being didn't an we were on good terms.
As a bit of anger was suddenly woven into my expression, Hera beca cautious.
But I had to be cautious too. -Is he trying to beco a god?- Although I couldn't rember the details, he was soone I was on irredeemably bad terms with, but sothing about the idea of him becoming a god simply felt off.
"Did you.. rember sothing?" Hera spoke sowhat anxiously.
"Yeah..." Pulling myself out of my thoughts for a mont, I Iooked out toward the distant blue sky hanging over the horizon. "If it's what I'm thinking.. this might be a really big problem... But..." As my gaze thinned, my aura started warping the lightly colored sky around . "Sohow I'm nervous it's not that simple..."
Suddenly becoming serious, Hera's gaze stiffened. "What do you an..."
"I.. can't be sure..." -But my gut is telling the idea of him wanting to beco a god is a joke...- And that wasn't because he already was one. -If I rember right.. he never showed a hint of interest in the surface...- Living around the core of the planet, he had no interest in the life that had evolved on the surface, but rather cared more about the 'life' of the planet. -But even the Acardi docunted him coming up to the bottom of the Death's Gape...- "Why..." I mumbled as I let out a stressed breath.
But while it was eerie, and had stressed, at the sa ti I had to simply focus on taking things one step at a ti.
Keeping most of my theories to myself, I followed Hera to Nkremo, a city in the northwestern mountains of Bahamut, in order to investigate her own theories.
Her idea was that the dragons could be worshipping the leviathan because of a huge scale that surfaced in the ocean. "There would be no reason for a cultist to be making a sacrifice sowhere with no religious significance, so I'm thinking we should check around Nkremo for one of the scales... Although I only rember them existing near The Forgotten Islands, it's possible one got dislodged and floated to the surface near there."
Considering how fast it got deep right off the coast of the city, it wasn't a terrible idea. The idea that the dragons unhappy with their choice of gods would turn to worship such a scale wasn't unlikely either. -But I'm not so sure it could be boiled down to coincidence...-
Sothing about it felt off.. almost as if an artificial scenario.
But the issue was, only ti would tell.
Simply thinking about it got nowhere. -Maybe it's ti I reactivate the other laboratories...-
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