The Return of the Beloved Son

The Guardians

You've got to be kidding me. Ken slowly lifted the welcome mat, underneath was a key. Oh fuck me.

Slipping the key into the door, Ken turned it. The whole door moved, the gears turned and the pistons pumped. The bars keeping the door closed slowly retreated from their places and sunk into the metal door. When the parts on the door stopped moving, it swung open, revealing a dark room. Ken turned around to get Rem and Oki. Thanks to the bocco fruit Rem gave him, Oki was good as new.

"I found a way in, come on." Ken led the way to the entrance while Oki was fanning himself from the sun's heat.

Once inside the tower, Oki felt relieved, the room was surprisingly cool. The only problem was the lack of lighting in the room.

Rem looked for any candles in a corner of the room that had stacks of empty boxes, "Rem cannot find any candles. Ken, have you found any?"

Ken was at the other side of the room, looking for candles as well. However, he also came up empty handed. He resorted to searching the walls for any wall mounted candlesticks, what he found confused him.

On a small metal box, stood a small switch of some sorts. Ken saw words below and above the switch, but couldn't read it in the dark. Flipping the switch from its down position, the room they were in lit up. Strange looking lights were on the ceiling, shining brightly over the room, making everything visible.

These odd looking lights were something the group had never seen before. Rem looked in awe as she tried to touch one, but was a few feet to high above her. Oki reached up to try and pluck one, but he couldn't, they were being kept into the ceiling by something. He didn't want to break it so he gave up.

Ken was the first to speak, "What...what are they?"

After touching the strange lights, Oki determined that they were made of glass, "It's glass, you can even see something inside of it that's making the light."

"What is it?"

"I don't know."

Rem spoke with her hands to her chest, "They look like spirits, so....pretty."

Remembering his discovery, Ken flipped the switch again. The room was once again plunged into darkness, then Ken flipped the switch again, bringing back the light. He scratched his head as he looked at the switch, "I don't understand, is this magic?" He repeated his switch flipping a few more times before stopping. "If this is magic, then it's one I've never seen before." They were in the middle of a forest where a clock tower was built for no reason and in it was something the world has yet to ever see, this amazed the three. After they were done they promised to check out the lights later.

Rem peeled herself away from the light bulbs and began looking around the room. Subaru had to be somewhere, even though they were a day early. She should have figured from the beginning that Subaru was not in the room since it was so small and they would've seen him by now. However, blending into the wall, a door knob jutted out. While Oki and Ken were searching for....anything, Rem walked up to the door knob. It turned easily, but opening the door was heavy and created an extremely loud squeaking noise that rang throughout the quiet area. Looking back, Rem saw Oki and Ken, both bent down to check something, both looked at her now, because of the noise. Seeing them stare at her made her blush, "Rem.....umm Rem found something."

.

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Behind the door was a staircase going only one direction, up. Next to the stairs was a plague that said: 1 of 30. Oki didn't like the sound of that.