NOVEL WEB Chapter 11 – Energy and portals, a brief interlude.
An unknown amount of time passes before I awaken, I open my eyes and look upwards spotting a rocky surface. I turn my head and look at the room and spot nothing but another bed and a curtain.
A luxurious yet old fashioned set-up for this survival setting, I lean forward and force myself to sit up through the immense amount of pain coming over my body. I kick my legs over the side of the bed and feel strange.
My legs don’t reach the ground, I grit my teeth and slowly slide myself down onto the ground balancing myself on the ground wondering why we’re in a place that giant people are staying.
I’m unsteady on my feet as I stand on the uneven ground, I push open the curtains and spot Tabi and Razia on the other side except they seem different than before. They’re both asleep on some desks nearby somehow at peace with the situation.
I walk up to Tabi and tug her on the shoulder, she takes a moment to open her eyes before shaking her head and looking at me.
I raise an eyebrow at the change, “Where are we?” I ask.
“Underground, the treasure cave. What about you, why are you like that?”
“Like what?”
Tabi stands up from the chair and towers over me, it suddenly dawns on me what is different as I look downwards and notice my body is much shorter than it usually is.
I lift my top out and look down my body, “What… shit…,” I let go of my top and look up at Tabi who has a funny smile on her face.
“You look cute like that. I almost didn’t recognise you.”
Tabi reaches down to rough up my hair, I fight away her hand and look around but spot nothing of use, it just seems like some sort of empty office or something.
“Did you find treasure?”
“We didn’t look yet, Razia was tired and you were unconscious. This is a room outside the protective barrier that has come down since the beast was killed. Good job with that.”
“That beast wasn’t an easy one to take care of, it had mastered the six elements and had a chance of advancing to the next stage. Most of them take sometime to generate each orb but it still left me like this.”
“You’re still cute like that, you’re like a cute little girl that I can pamper.”
I reach forward and grab Tabi by her hip as that’s all I can grab with ease, I pull her forward causing her to basically fall to the ground as she kicks over the chair she was sleep on causing a loud noise and Razia to suddenly jerk about.
Tabi is being held in my arms unsteadily looking at me, I struggle to keep myself upright as she is being held by me. I hold this for a moment before I cannot hold it and drop Tabi to the drop.
Razia softly giggles in the background drawing attention to herself, “You two should look around.”
I break eye contact with Razia and look around the room while Tabi looks down at the ground, I spot what Razia is speaking about laying about all over the ground in the corners blending in.
I return my gaze to her before squeezing Tabi in my arms still struggling to keep her steady, she looks to me.
I lean forward thinking I’ll reach her head but simply poke my head up, Tabi raises an eyebrow while Razia becomes quiet. Tabi leans forward and plants a kiss on my lips quickly while pulling away.
“You are too little like that for this sort of thing,” Tabi stands up out of my arms and towers over me again.
I frown at this reaction, “that’s not true,” I say as I look at the two large women now towering over me.
“Listen to us.” Razia says as Tabi also nods.
I frown and cross my arms, this lasts several moments before the two women laugh.
“You certainly are cute like that.”
I ignore Razia’s jab and look at Tabi, “How long was I asleep for?”
“Only an hour or so” Tabi leans down to fix up my clothing ensuring the skin-tight survival suit is able to do its job. I let her do as she pleases while thinking about what to do, there’s no need for me to seek out these treasures especially in a place like this but it might benefit the two people here.
I look at Razia, her pink hair almost sparkles on its own in this dimly lit office building like place.
“Do you know what was meant to be in here?”
Razia shakes her head, “Only the master knew that.”
“Did you find his body?”
Razia shakes her head, “He might have been eaten by the beast.”
“Let’s hope” I say just as Tabi backs away from me, she has finished fixing up my clothing allowing us to continue walking.
I walk towards the door nearby, it’s just a standard office door while I walk through but it reveals a weird metallic hallway on the other side.
I begin to walk left when Razia shouts from behind, “That’s the way out, the barrier is down so we should hurry before other people show up.”
I turn around and look at Razia and Tabi who have begun walking the other way, I turn around and join after them quickly, my body strangely full of energy.
Perhaps this is the gift of youth? An almost unlimited amount of energy.
We reach the end of the hallway revealing the target, a large room in a hollowed out cave. A large circle structure is standing in the middle but it’s strangely hollow. We cannot see what’s on the other side yet it looks undisturbed from this distance.
“This was blocked previously, let’s go.”
Razia steps ahead, Tabi pulls me along with her as they walk up the stone steps towards the giant circle structure before reaching an apex and going back down, an expanse with a few holes in on the distant wall.
The plant life within here is beautiful and lush, but as we walk into the first room and spot the dust and decayed plant-life on the tables we know that it hasn’t been lived in for some time.
Tabi walks to the side of the room and picks up a book while Razia walks over to the table picking up the opened book sitting there, she blows the dust off it and reads it for a moment while I look over the room and spot nothing of interest.
I walk out of the room causing Tabi to chase after me, Razia stays behind.
I walk to the next door and push it open, it’s much the same as the previous door except this time there doesn’t seem to be a kitchen where it’s purely workshop, Tabi catches up and holds my shoulder.
“You shouldn’t explore by yourself.”
“I’ll be fine, you should watch after yourself as I can’t always protect you.”
Tabi nods her head and looks around the room with me yet we come up blank, so far there has been no treasure nor sign of anything valuable. It’s an empty and old workshop that hasn’t been cleaned or used in some time.
Tabi and I walk to the door where Razia meets up, she is holding up the book.
“This book tells me that they were part of the Heaven’s Reaching Sect trying to make something that could allow them to ascend but dark forces took control and they were never able to finish.”
“Does it say what?’
Razia shakes her head, “It just mentions their holy item.”
I shrug while walking towards one of the remaining doors pushing it open as I arrive there, the heavy doors easily open revealing an empty room, this one much cleaner than the previous yet it simply looks unused instead of better.
I stand at the doorway while Tabi and Razia do a loop of the room before returning to me, I begin to feel frustrated and walk out the door and stand before the last doorway.
I punch my fist into the wood door causing it to fly open and slam into the wall behind it.
The group look into this place and spot a room with three items inside it, two statues and a large bowl.
Tabi and Razia walk into the room and inspect the statues and bowls yet my attention is drawn by something carved into the walls. A figure of something that doesn’t have a name yet most people will recognise.
A figure that shouldn’t be possible to engrave, I frown while staring at the figure for several moments as the two women return to my side.
“What is that thing?”
“It feels familiar…” Razia says softly as she stares at it the figure too.
I blink my eyes and turn away looking at the rest of the room, “It’s something like a god, don’t worry about it. It’s a good thing that this engraving was here though as I have an idea where she’d hide it.”
“She?” Tabi notes and questions immediately.
“Maybe, I don’t know. It seems like one doesn’t it?” I say pointing to the figure on the wall again, Tabi returns to looking at it for a moment before shaking her head in confusion.
Razia speaks up, “it doesn’t seem like one to me.”
I smile at this and walk out of the room, I don’t reply and stand before the empty room next door for a moment.
Razia and Tabi catch up quickly and look into the empty room, “Is it hidden here?” Razia asks.
“Shh,” I snap back and close my eyes. Razia and Tabi both become quiet allowing me to listen closely for a moment, it doesn’t take me long to find me target as I walk to the second room.
I walk to the wall being shared with the first room and gather my energy, a light comes from my fingers as I place them in the atmosphere multiple times before finally,
“Success.”
A beam of light comes into existence where my hand was, a bright blindly light appears from no where and replaces the wall.
“Let’s go.”
I grab Gabi who grabs Razia, we all step inside the portal in unison just in time for the portal to collapse.
We step through the portal and into a dark room that allows no vision.
A light comes from my side, Razia has used some device to light up the room allowing us vision of the whole place. A room entirely engraved out of rock is shown to us as the etchings can be seen from the countless hours put into it.
The only things inside the room are two tables, I cannot see the top of them clearly so I walk over to one of them while the girls follow closely.
The table has several items on top of it, I quickly scan it and speak, “These should be prototypes. I doubt any of them are any good…”
Razia and Tabi both reach down as though ignoring my words, Razia holds up a large sword that is all rusted while Tabi picks up a spear with a black shaft. They both bring the weapons before them and before I can even speak the obvious happens.
Razia’s weapon disintegrates leaving her a grip to hold while Tabi has the shaft collapse causing the spear head to slam into the ground.
Everyone’s attention is drawn to the spearhead as it sinks into the solid stone ground slowly, Tabi is holding a small section of thin shaft so I yell to her.
“Put that thing into the spearhead before this place explodes.”
Tabi moves forward and jams the black stick into the end of the spearhead, it’s too short to be a weapon now but it’s under control as she holds it in her hand, the spearhead now pristine.
“Prototype doesn’t mean it wont work,” I say that while walking over to the second table taking a quick look but spotting something instantly, I reach down but I’m beaten by someone else as they reach down.
My hand touches theirs as they hold it there, Razia speaks up, “You wanted this?”
We have both gone for a short sword, it includes a scabbard and all with delicate engraving, the sword itself is in pristine condition and glowing slightly.
“I just wanted to look at it, I don’t want to keep it.”
“Oh, here” Razia lets go of the sword and picks up another weapon.
Tabi has picked up her own leaving me time to inspect this short sword, the straight sword is light as I hold it before me in perfect size for my current body. I closely inspect the blade where intricate engravings of creatures and other natural phenomenon are present and without blemish.
A soft silver glow comes from the sword as I hold it, but my attention is drawn by Tabi who has swung her weapon causing it to fly to the wall and explode.
“Ah…” Tabi says while I shake my head and return to the sword.
Razia stabs with the spear carefully, nothing bad happens yet she places the spear back down on the table and turns to me while Tabi looks at the spear she left on the table.
I hand the sword over to Razia, “This is a good sword, I think this was a more successful prototype.”
The pink haired girl takes the sword and immediately begins to take a few practise swings with it as though she is trained at this already, I turn my attention to Tabi who has taken the spearhead from the other one and is trying to replace it on the other shaft.
I reach out to help her when I look down and notice a large fissure appear, I grab the two girls and leap towards the portal space, it instantly opens allowing us to escape to the outside in the second room.
A large rumble and boom occurs as we land on the ground, I turn around quickly and click my fingers trying to force the shockwaves away but it’s no use as we’re blown through the wall luckily landing on something soft.
“Everyone ok?” I asks.
“Yes.”
“Yea, I’m alright.”
The two of them respond as they get up out of the rubble, I look at the rubble and spot a huge portion of the rock above missing revealing the power of that explosion. It’s fortunate that we were able to get away.
I pick myself up off the ground while the girls both help themselves, they dust themselves off while I walk to the door that is intact, the exterior is mostly the same just a bit more dusty apart from the missing second room and the above rock.
Gabi and Razia catch up, Gabi pats my body down getting rid of the dust while Razia looks at the other rooms.
“Is there anything else?” the pink haired girl asks.
I shrug my arms and begin walking towards the stairs, Tabi places the spear on her back while Razia catches up as we reach the stairs and begin our ascent, this was a rather uneventful trip as the only thing that was acquired was some rusted out prototype weapons.
It was hardly worth expending the energy to kill the giant beast on the outside, back when I was engaging the beast there was a faint hope that the treasure would be related to the six-paths power the beast was using yet it turns out to be related to her…
I shake those thoughts out of my head as we walk through the stairs, I’m holding hands with both of the women enjoying it for some strange reason, myself and the women when we reach the bottom of the stairs.
I pause my step and yell, “Come out, I know you’re there.”
