ARTHUR LEYWIN POV:
Stepping into the relic portal created by the compass, we were met with a sharp, ringing sound.
My body arched forward due to the sudden assault of the sound against my eardrums. Blood seeped out of my ears, while aether started to heal the wounds almost instantly.
I let out a grunt before straightening my posture, promptly imbuing aether around my ears, to shield it from any further damage.
I turned to my side to see Caera in her knees, her hands clutched against her ears, with eyes shut tightly and her complexion pale and sweating in pain. "Damn it." I cursed out loud, but I couldn't hear my own voice through the menacing sound.
The high pitch noise reverberated throughout the entire chasm that we were standing on. I spun around my heels, to identify the source of this gut-wrenching sound, but it was of no use.
The sound seems to be echoing throughout the entire fissure, making it harder to identify the source.
'Regis!' I yelled in my mind, hoping that he would hear my call. 'On it, Chief!', his voice echoed back through our mental connection.
Regis's wolf form jumped out of my body, running towards the cracks on the sides of the rocky surface to search for the source.
I bent down to see how Caera is doing. Bleeding had stopped seeping from her ears, and her face relaxed a bit. 'She's using mana to shield her ears', I thought. She hastily stood back on her feet before dusting off her clothes, taking out her blade.
I gestured to her, to make sure that she's alright. She nodded hastily, her confused gaze darted around the walls of the rocky surfaces, before settling on the surface above.
We were standing at the base of a large chasm, stretching out on two directions endlessly till our eyes can see.
The only source of light seeped through the large cracks on the top. The sky radiated a pinkish hue, which was reflected by the- odd looking- 'glittering stones', embedded on the rocky surfaces at random positions.
'Did you find anything?' I asked my companion. I could feel the confusion seeping out of our mental connection. He didn't reply... 'Regis! Talk to m-' my message was cut short by a huge explosion that resounded from the surface above our heads.
The earth shook as the effects of explosion reached the chasm. It was followed by an eerie silence, as the echoing sound had abruptly stopped, for the first time since we reached this region.
Before I could let out a sigh of relief, another explosion resounded, this one much louder than previous.
"G-Grey! Look-" I heard Caera's voice as she gestured me to look at the surface above us. I followed her direction to see huge clouds of brown smoke flowing across the sky.
The momentary silence was broken by a series of clanging noises that reverberated from the surface where the brown smoke was emanating from. A series of screeching sounds followed by loud bangs which shook the entire earth around us.
An alarm rang through my mind, making me look around for the source of such an unsettling feeling.
"G-Grey!" Caera shouted as I saw her figure jumping to me, where I stood. I felt my arms being tugged, as I noticed Caera pulling me off to the side.
Large boulders started falling from the surface above us, covering the entire chasm in dust and debris.
Pulling Caera closer to me, I wrapped my arms around her waist. Activating my God rune, I let my eyes relax to focus on the aethric pathways. "Grey-y! Move-!" Caera shouted next to my ears, breaking my concentration. I immediately jumped away, with Caera in my hands, from the position I was standing in where a large boulder had fallen seconds after I reacted.
"Caera- hold on tight." I said. Caera wrapped her arms around my neck and held it tightly. I grabbed her thighs and lifted her up, making her body jerk in surprise as she let out an audible yelp, and glared at me. "I-need some room to move before I can teleport" I said, while dodging another falling mass of rock, as I tried to focus on the aethric pathways again.
Caera's lips quivered a bit as she bit them, but she quietly nodded her head before pushing herself up against my body and wrapped her legs tightly around my waist.
I kept dodging the upcoming boulders before finding a safe spot to activate God Step.
I sent out a mental note to Regis, asking for an update. But I was met with a silence. Ignoring the raging sensation boiling up inside due to my companion's actions, I finally activated the God rune and promptly teleported to the surface.
Caera and I reappeared on the edge of the surface. "You can let go, now", I said as Caera jumped down and separated from me. I noticed her avoiding my gaze and face bright red, but my attention was broken from her reaction by the sound of the battle going on the other side of the surface.
A large bat shaped aether beast with large wings, was fighting with a six-legged creature ten times its size, its body mimicking the texture of the rocky surface.
The six-legged creature had a series of small spikes protruding out of its arms, jutting out to the back in an arching manner, making them look like spots of lump on its skin.
Brown gas like substance oozed out of those spikes, which looked to be hollow at its centre. The creature had two pairs of large pincer like hands, its back hunched over as it tried to flex its arms.
The creature spat out dark flames that mixed with the gas. encircling it's figure, while the bat shaped winged beast tried to flap its large wings to get rid of the smoking flames.
The six-legged creature focused the flames on the large winged beast, increasing its intensity as it stood on its hind legs, trying to reach out to the flying beast. It's maw opened and closed making audible clanging sounds, while drool-like substances covered its entire face. But the flying beast was too nimble for its attack to connect. It effectively dodged all the flames, as it tried to circle back, where the six-legged creature's body was open for attacks.
But, before it could fly pass the smoking flames, the beast was caught off-guard by the drool-like substance that was shot off from the six-legged creature's maw, as its large wings got stuck to its body. The six-legged creature took this chance for a direct attack, sending out its combination of gas and flames.
The flying beast writhed in pain as it's body got engulfed by the brownish flames. It momentarily stopped flapping its wing and started falling to the surface, finally getting in range for the six-legged creature's physical attacks.
The six-legged creature let out a shrilling sound, as it lunged towards the now falling beast, with its maw slack open trying to get a bite out of the flying beast. The flying beast looked angry, it's body full of burns and cuts, as it tried to flap its wing, but to no avail. It let out the now-familiar echoing sound out of its open mouth, targeted at the six-legged creatures face.
Wincing in pain from the sound attack, I covered my ears with aether again, and watched the creatures fight, before turning to Caera, not willing to interrupt the beasts till one of them dies. I didn't want to take any risk till we were noticed by the creatures.
Caera had regained her composure, standing up firmly on the ground in her battle mode. With her crimson blade out, ready to fight.
"Grey, did Regis find the portal?- Where is he?" Caera asked. I shook my head, "Our mental link is unstable. I think the sound waves has caused some disturbance, probably. But- he's nearby."
'Regis, what the hell are you doing?' I asked my companion, who has gone silent after the large explosion. 'Uhh- Arthur. Can you hear my voice?' Regis sent out to me.
'What the hell are you doing Regis?' I asked him in annoyance.
'I found...something.' Regis said, in an exciting tone. 'What is it? And- where are you?' I thought back to him. 'I'm at the edge of the chasm, there's a huge opening in the ground. Maybe you should just come here to check it out yourself.' His voice practically radiating excitement.
'Can you see the exit portal?' I asked my companion expectantly. 'Uh, no. Not the portal. But I'm pretty sure that you would like this more. Get here quickly?'
'I'm on my way', I said, and turned to Caera. "He found something. Hold on tight", I said to her as I grabbed Caera and pulled her close before teleporting down to the chasm.
We reappeared several meters away from the position where we entered this region through the portal, standing atop a large boulder that had fallen off from the cliff.
There were still dust settling around, with chunks of rock disrupting the entire area, making it hard to see through.
I reactivated my god rune and fixed my gaze on the farthest I could perceive. After a series of teleportation's, we reached a dark part at the edge of the chasm, completely devoid of light.
My eyes adjusted to the lighting as a large winged beast appeared in my vision. The beast was on the ground, obstructing the 'opening' that Regis had mentioned. It's body unmoving, as smoke rose of it's injuries. 'It was the same species as the bat on the surface- but several times bigger', I thought.
"Grey, it's...still alive" Caera said in a whisper, not wanting to get the beast's attention.
I didn't answer her. My mind went back to the explosions that shook the ground. And from the size of this creature, that echoing sound must've come from this bat.
I saw Caera stepping forward from the corner of my eyes. "Let me take care of it, Grey" she said, her eyes fixed on the beast.
The beast's eyes darted to Caera as she approached its defenseless body. It tried to moved away, slowly crawling to the opening, as black blood seeped out of its injuries painting the ground even more darker. The beast came to an halt, clearly at the verge of death, one side of its body has been burned to crisp with smoke still coming out from the large holes, filling the air with a disgusting stench.
I could see the aether trying to heal its body, but clearly the flames of that six-legged creature prevented that from happening. 'How the hell are these common creatures so effective in handling Aether?!' I puzzled.
The beast lifted its head, facing towards the approaching Caera, as it tried to open its mouth to deploy one final sound attack. I immediately shouted, "Caera! W-".
But, Caera was calm. She stood next to the beast, her blade in hand, lifted to her side, as she swung it horizontally, cutting the beast's head off in one swift motion. Blood spluttered out of the creature, painting Caera's clothes black, as she flung her crimson blade in the air to clear the blood of its blade.
"Let's go, Grey. It's that opening, right? We need to remove some of the debris to enter." Caera said, pointing to the hole behind the now-head less beast's corpse.
I silently nodded at her words and walked towards the opening.
Caera and I started clearing the debris, making it wide enough for one human to enter the opening.
'Regis. We're here.' I sent a mental message to my companion, hoping for an answer, while entering the opening.
Caera grabbed my hand and pulled me back. I turned around to look at her in confusion. "Grey, I think I should take the lead here. Those flames, I don't think your aether can be very effective against it. You saw that aether beast getting affected by that flames and unable to heal. Let me try with my new version of soul fire!", Caera said in a confident tone.
I paused at her words. Thinking that she might be right, I simply smirked at her and made a miniature bow as I gestured for her go in first.
I saw a hint of sly smile appear on Caera's face. I just shook my head with a small smile at her confident stride and followed her lead.
"Just be careful. We don't know if Regis is still inside. There might be more of these beasts inside." I whispered, moving closer to her, ready to jump at any obstacle that could harm her.
We traversed down the hole, it's pathway completely devoid of any light.
Caera took out her light artifact, illuminating a smaller part of the tunnel-like hole.
The ceiling was around 4 meters in height, and its width, slowly widening as it stretched deeper. It's size wide enough to allow a dozen men to stand shoulder-to-shoulder comfortably. The surface of the tunnel had claw marks all over, which made it look like the whole tunnel was clawed out by hands. 'Maybe this is supposed to be the winged beast's lair', I thought.
We walked in silence, not wanting to get any attention from whatever creatures that may be residing inside. Soon tiny specks of amethyst light came into our view in the distance.
Caera and I stopped on our tracks, turned to face each other as our gazes met. We both nodded at each other before picking up our pace, and continued deeper into the hole.
As we got closer to the light source, I noticed that they emanated from shiny amethyst-coloured crystals with a pinkish tint in the middle. "So these were the glittering stones that we saw embedded on the surface walls of the chasm", I muttered.
But the most important aspect is the aether contained inside the crystal, slowly swirling inside. 'Must be similar to the ones I found in the millipede's lair', I thought.
I tried focusing on the core of the crystal and what I saw made me confused. There were unmistakable 'pinkish hue' dancing around with the swirling aether particles. Although their movement looked more aggressive and chaotic, with no set 'purpose', as they 'bombarded' with the aether. But aether being somewhat 'sentient' the particles tried to 'dodge' the 'pinkish hue'.
Gesturing to Caera to come near, I gave her a crystal and asked her to sense the energy hovering inside, hoping it might be some 'higher form' of mana particles. But disappointment came, as she only shook her head.
Sighing, I crouched down next to the pile of crystals and inspected every single one of them. They all had the same pattern of aether and this unknown particle wrestling in tandem.
There were around a couple dozen of them some broken and devoid of any particles, as their sizes ranged from fist-sized to some wider than the width of my torso. I took a smaller crystal to inspect it.
Although. I could only sigh in disappointment as the amount of potent aether contained in the crystal seemed minuscule. 'It'd take me few thousand of these to see a decent growth in my core', I thought.
'Art. You're here!?' I heard Regis's message at that moment. Nice timing, I thought. 'I'm inside the tunnel. And did you see these aether crystals?' I questioned my companion.
'Uh- yeah, about that- why don't you come in? Like I said, you're gonna wanna see this...' Regis said, cryptically.
I stood back up to see Caera standing guard with her blade out, her gaze fixed on the deeper part of the tunnel.
"Caera- let's go", I said, slightly patting her shoulder, and gesturing her to move forward, as my mind brimmed with curiosity to see what had made the shadow wolf excited.
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(A/N: This is 'Part-1' of 3)!