Aru Shah and the Soul Trident

Hello From the Other Siiiideee

No one answered him, and as Aru watched on, pieces of rock started to crumble away, revealing little cracks of light on the other side, until the whole wall gave away and they were exposed to sudden, harsh sunlight.

Mini pointed to the now-broken wall, and turned to Aiden. "Well, that's how, I guess?"

Aru had only taken a step forward, when Brynne suddenly asked, "By the way, Shah?"

"Yeah?"

"What did you have to do to get the scythe?"

Aru stiffened and stopped in her tracks. The rest of them turned to look at her.

"Aru?" Mini asked softly.

Aru shook her head and forced a grin. "It wasn't anything hard."

Rudy looked skeptical. "There's definitely no way it was that easy. It's a highly guarded weapon-there's no way you could have just strolled in there and taken it."

Aru glared at Rudy, then fidgeted with Gandalf and stared at her feet. She didn't exactly want to reveal everything. Plus, there was that matter with Aiden...

After a moment, she looked at her friends and laughed nervously. "It seriously wasn't anything much. I just...saw some stuff and I was able to take the SSS. No big deal."

Without waiting for an answer, she quickly walked out of the cave and shielded her eyes from the blinding rays of the sun.

"Did it have anything to do with your fath- ow, Mini! What was that for??"

Aru turned around just in time to see her sister jabbing her elbow into Rudy's side.

"You don't have to answer that, Aru," Brynne said quickly.

Aru shook her head. "Nah, it's fine. And yeah, Rudy, it did." She didn't elaborate, and no one pressed her either.

"Was there...anything else?" Brynne asked hesitantly. 

Aru was about shake her head, when she suddenly remembered something. "Oh, right. I completely forgot. The Sleeper has our celestial weapons!"

"What?" Mini asked, confused. "But how?"

Aru shrugged helplessly. "I dunno. I just saw them. And I also saw the Sleeper's army marching through some sort of cave."

"Cave?" mused Aiden. "Do you think that they were headed towards Pathal-Loka?"

Rudy nodded. "It seems pretty likely. Shah, do you know where?"

Aru shook her head again. "Nope. Just saw a whole bunch of demons strolling through a dark cave."

Brynne groaned. "Great. What do we do now? We have the SSS, but it's gonna be pretty useless if we don't find a way to Pathal-Loka."

The SSS on Aru's finger let out a tiny spark, like it was offended that it was being called useless.

"Well, you would be a little more useful if you happened to have an in-built GPS to the Pathal-Loka," she muttered to it. The SSS sent a shock up Aru's arm, and so did Gandalf for some reason.

"Ow," she hissed. She glared at Gandalf and at the SSS. "What was that for?" The two weapons remained silent, but Gandalf heated up a little in her hands. Maybe her glaive was defending the ring. She scowled.

"Ungrateful weapons," she mumbled underneath her breath.

"What was that, Shah?" Aiden asked, looking over at her confused.

Aru snapped her head up and was about to answer, when she suddenly heard a couple of voices arguing behind the large shrubs and ferns in front of them.