Chapter 128: A Cruse for Eternity 1
"W-wait! You guys misunderstood my question," Grace said with a frown on her face, as if she got the meaning of her own question.
"When we fell down, I felt heat, like the heat we feel from flames," she clarified her words, making a strange face.
’Is she talking about the wings?’ I thought as I looked at her.
"Anyway, we should be going now," I said, ignoring her question.
"Which side are we choosing?" Aeloria asked as she stood up, her eyes alternating from one path to another.
Well, just like any other labyrinth, it had a rather cliche and typical design, with one correct path while the other paths led to traps or dead ends.
"Eden, which side should we choose?" Grace asked in a soft voice as she arrived beside me.
"Hmmm..." I placed my finger over my chin, pondering.
Truth be told, I wanted to check both sides, as I didn’t know which side had better rewards.
But right now, I needed to quickly choose one path.
"Both of you, get behind me."
"Why?"
"Just do it."
I dragged Aeloria behind me, who was tiptoeing right in front of me, trying to check what was on both paths.
{Star Sense}
I let out a small amount of Star energy from my body as I used {Star Sense}.
A clear 3-D map formed of what was in front of us, and I quickly tried to memorize the path.
The first thing I noticed was that on the left path, there were some moving things.
I didn’t know if they were some monsters or living plants, but there were a huge number of them.
"We are going on the right path," I declared as I looked at both of them.
"Where is she?" I asked, looking around, and Grace pointed towards the left direction.
With quick steps, I arrived in front of the left path and saw Aeloria crouched down, caressing the plants on the path.
"What are you doing?"
"Look, Eden, aren’t they beautiful!"
Well, they were beautiful, as they were plants that reflected light, so they glowed a lot. But they could also be harmful.
"Don’t touch them; they can be dangerous," I gently grabbed her wrist and jerked her to stand up.
"Let’s go."
"Let go, idiot, I get it."
I freed her hand as she grumbled.
With me in front, we started to move towards the right path with Grace and Aeloria behind me.
"....by the way, how did someone create this big labyrinth beneath the city, and nobody has any idea about it?"
Halfway through, Aeloria asked as she looked around, the wall were creaked with large numbers of damage here and there.
But they still stood strong and if I have to make a guess, it should be quite old.
"Over time."
"I know that much."
"So stop asking."
"That’s not even the question I asked. How could they forget about this place?"
"Maybe they made it a long time ago, and the descendants forgot about it," Grace added, as I ignored her question.
"Or maybe they wanted their descendants to forget about it," I replied, thinking about it.
Something they made and then kept secret about it, as if they didn’t want others to know about it.
"...is this place for ’that’ god?" Grace asked, echoing the same thought that was in my mind.
The Human God.
"Maybe."
"Still, how could this be present, and nobody knows about it? I mean, how could this place be hidden?" Aeloria asked again, frowning her brows.
"They can hide it."
"How?"
"By manipulating the space," I replied, considering it.
Considering it, this way, nobody could find it, as no human has an affinity towards space, and no one other than humans is allowed in this city.
A good guess, if I say so myself.
"... Eden, look at that." Aeloria’s words brought me back to reality as she made me look in front.
As we moved forward, the damaged and creaked wall soon started to change, as dark purple-colored marble adorned the ground and all the sides of the wall with just little to no damage.
"Is that... light?"
And on all the sides, round-shaped stones were attached, emitting soft light that illuminated the ground and the path.
"It’s warm," Aeloria mumbled as she got closer to one of the light stones.
Hearing her words, I felt an urge to touch the stone, but I held back, knowing that in a place like a labyrinth, touching a shady-looking object might trigger some trap.
"Hahaha... It’s really warm..." But unlike me, there was an idiot who was messing around with the stone.
"Stop that, Aeloria!"
"Why?"
"... Hey, Idiot!"
_Clank!!!_
"Ahh, fuck."
As I tried to warn her, a strange mechanical voice resonated in the path.
"E-Eden!?"
Rushing, I quickly arrived beside Grace, wrapping my hand around her waist and bringing her closer as I formed a mana shield around me, while another one formed around Aeloria, who was a little further away from me.
"What are you doing?" Grace asked, but I didn’t reply as I looked around in tension, trying to find what that sound was.
_—crack!!_
But something unexpected happened: the wall, which was looking normal a while ago, collapsed, and a new path opened in front of us.
"Seriously," I mumbled as I looked at the path with a blank expression.
Is this the luck of a [Main Heroine]?
I am pretty sure if I had touched some shady looking object that would have definitely triggered some trap.
"Eden..." Patting my chest lightly, Grace called me once again.
"Ahh, sorry," I replied as I removed my hand. She quickly moved away without much change in expression.
She gently fixed her blazer and shirt as she glared at me, but her red ears gave away her real feelings.
"Let’s go!" As if she knew this would happen, Aeloria took the lead this time, arriving in front of us and walking inside the new path that had stairs taking us down.
"Hmm, where will this place take us?"
"Hey, wait..."
I grabbed her hand, stopping her in a hurry to go inside.
"....."
But I didn’t have a choice but to look blankly upwards towards the words that were written on the wall in front of us.
AT THE DAWN OF ATLANTIS THERE WERE NO GODS
.
"....W-what does this mean?"
"..."
I remained silent, unable to reply to Aeloria as I looked at those words.
Those words were written on an old cracked slab that hung over the wall.
They weren’t in the language of humans.
Those words were written in ancient Phoenix language.
The language that only the royal family of the Phoenix clan should know.
The language that shouldn’t exist in this place because the only exception of learning that language in thousands of years, except the royal family, is me.
"Eden?"
Grace gently tugged the hem of my shirt as she softly called me.
"Huh?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I am," I assured her with a small smile as I took the lead again, moving down the stairs.
"I will be in front from now on, and don’t try to act on your own, Aeloria. That’s the last warning," I ordered strictly as I took the step in the front of her.
"Fine..." Aeloria grumbled as she took a step back.
*Tick...tick...*
In the silence, the sound of our footsteps echoed as we slowly moved downwards.
I was too preoccupied to think about something else as I moved absent-mindedly.
"Did you know what that language was, Eden?" Aeloria asked as she observed my face.
"I have seen them somewhere, but I’m not sure," I replied vaguely as I looked at her.
"Where?"
"In some old textbooks. Those words matched the words of the Phoenix language," I mumbled as I tried to give her vague information.
Everyone knows what type of race Phoenix are, and if she tried to ask more, she would only get in trouble.
Phoenix are known for their aggressive nature when it comes to their clan.
"Have you ever seen a Phoenix before, Eden?"
"No, they are not known as a legendary clan for nothing."
"I heard about their young monster, though."
"Young monster?" I looked at her in confusion.
Since when did they have a young monster, and I don’t know about him?
"You don’t know? His name is Neil."
My lips twitched slightly as I heard my name from her mouth.
"He isn’t a young monster."
"I heard he acts like one."
Why is she acting like a chatterbox?
I ignored her and looked at the light that was coming from the end of the stairs.
But I halted my steps once again as my gaze landed on another slab hanging at the end.
Without the gods, the world maintained its peace, but they destroyed the ’order’. Read exclusive adventures at NovelBin.Côm
I took a deep breath as I mumbled the last line written on the slab.
"
And so, to restore peace, I assumed the duty of slaying the gods, for it is I who bears the moniker of the God’s Bane
."