Amais could only stare up at the statue; he clenched his hands into fists. Everyone else had been asleep except him. As he just stood there, he was near; he could see all of them so nothing would happen, but God, I'm so scared. The boy slumped on the ground; the smooth and cold floor was bad, though his body was worse. He was always cold, really numb to it by now, just looking up at the sky blankly.
"Only I know, and only I'll remember," he murmured under his breath. How many weeks had it been since he began? He wasn't sure; he didn't keep a very good track of time. Everything was a blur, happening too fast for him to see, and even like this, even now, he felt so utterly pathetic even if he shouldn't. He wasn't too sure why he felt this way either; it was all so confusing, and I'm so tired.
He lay on the floor, curling to his side, just looking there; it felt nice to just relax like this for a single moment. Just one moment—that's all he needed. One by himself, a nice respite from everything else. Everyone else. Where he was all alone again. There was peace in that. There was sorrow in that. I don't know what to do. He curled further into himself, hiding from the world. As he heard footsteps, he sprang up.
Elentera looked at him curiously, watching as he was doing what seemed to be laps around the statue. "So were you doing this the whole time?"
"Oh, yeah, you know, cardio and exercising. Can never be too careful, especially in this place, right?"
She went alongside him and joined him. Her eyes gleamed into his teasingly. "Oh yeah, for sure," she whispered as he stopped momentarily. "Finally a moment alone; shall we have some fun?" she whispered.
He shivered, feeling her breath, and looked to his side at her, looking at her suspiciously. "What's that mean?"
"Oh, nothing really. Why do you ask?" She smirked, a teasing glint in her eyes.
Oh, poor Amais, if only he could decipher the complexity of what she meant, but he had not even a clue. Is this flirting or teasing? No, it's flirting because we've been flirting, or she's been flirting, but what about me? Have I flirted? Does this mean I should flirt? Oh god, I should then, right? Oh, please tell me, God?
He cleared his throat; he was going to act as cool, and just as he gathered the courage to make his move, he bailed immediately. "I'll go sleep; thanks for taking watch."
She raised an eyebrow at what he said. I thought you didn't need to sleep? She had a knowing smirk to herself while Amais was berating himself as he walked off.
How does one manage to accomplish what he had just done in that very moment when it was perfect? I'm not even sure why I did that. Did I do that before? Then I shall go back, but I can't go back. Oh DAMN IT.
An uneventful slog of an hour passed before he returned awkwardly as she was grinning viciously. "My, what's the long look did you not get a good nap?" she mocked playfully, squeezing his cheeks as he pouted and murmured an apology.
"Hmph, I guess it's ok," she sighed and let go of his cheeks. "Though don't hesitate next time; everyone's awake now."
Amais looked back and she was right, though he felt a bit guilty. He also felt happy, as there were butterflies in his stomach, which he quickly quenched because most of all he was thankful in this moment to her. Did I ever tell her that?
Well, it didn't matter now; as they would carry on, they looked at the statue. they had come from behind and faced the front of the statue; now they would descend further. there were eight passageways, with one right behind the statue leading to a giant gate made of the obsidian-like material that they couldn't get through.
"You think we can get through?" Scion asked in Elvish as Elentera faced the door.
The northern girl watched, intrigued by what Elentera might say. "Maybe," she grabbed her sword and thrust it. her sword shattered to glass as she looked at the hilt and Amais seemed the most surprised of all of them there, though she simply shrugged, throwing it away.
"It wasn't meant to be then," she muttered in the ancient tongue as the wolves noticed, though the other two boys were left unsure.
Elentera looked up and down the door as the wolf girl looked as well. "Do you need help?" she asked her voice sounded raspy but still soft and held a gentle charm to it as Elentera nodded.
"This isn't my forte; if you wouldn't mind, could you figure out how to undo the magic?" The woman nodded, looking up at it. The girl looked, then nudged her brother as he leaned into her; she whispered something to him and he looked at the magic barrier and shook his head as the northern girl almost seemed puzzled by what he said. "It's not magic?"
Elentera turned her face, surprised by what she said. "It's not magic, then what is it?" She murmured as Amais, meanwhile, had no idea what they were talking about, but he felt it beyond that wall; shadows vaster and darker than any other were made apparent. It was worse than even that of the abyss walker; it didn't fill him with dread; rather, it was holy. Beyond this gate was divinity. How the hell do I know that, though?
Amais looked at himself; he had changed unfathomably, and he knew that, but now he had a sixth sense, and his presence sent fear through even the creatures of the maze, so he could only reckon he was becoming a deity or something along those lines, which was both an amazing and horrifying thought. He'd have to ask Tobi once they meet each other again. Shit.
Elentera noticed the panicked look on his face and raised an eyebrow. "Is the abysswalker back?"
"N-No, uhm, shouldn't we look for Tobi and your friend, whoever that was?"
She shook her head casually. "They'll find us after all; your friend has a god, right?"
Amais closes his eyes as he realizes how big of an idiot he was in that moment. "He doesn't have a god."
His voice was hoarse as Elentera snapped in his direction. "Pardon?" she asked, her voice too calm for his liking, and he took a breath before speaking.
"He lost the god after fighting another god. Remember when you talked about seeing two giants fighting in the sky? He was one of them and lost the god around then," he said as he could feel her staring daggers at him, and he felt like they were to his neck as he struggled to breathe. Luckily, he didn't need to.
She stopped talking for a few moments, as she was stuck in thought. They're both mortal, and neither can see in the dark. In this hellhole there was only one explanation, which Elentera saw, and it made her heart ache. She was angered at Amais, but even if he had told her sooner, she didn't see the outcome changing, especially after they saw that horror from the depths.
"We had the moose, though, and despite the fact he wasn't there at the time, I imagine he would have returned, and Tobi, despite no longer having the god, still has his cool fire powers and whatever the hell he learned from his past since he was able to kill an angler, or the big fish monster."
She felt relief fill her body as she sighed, "Is that so? Well, that's something to go by, but don't give me a heart attack like that again. Mention this stuff, Amais."
"Y-Yeah, I'm sorry I forgot."
He looked at her sheepishly as she smiled, no longer worrying about it. "Well, it doesn't matter; we don't know where to go anyway and we have no idea how to open this gate so we'll find another way."
They walked up a few steps away and they could see the statue, which was facing them even though it shouldn't be. This is like something that would happen in a horror movie? Amais should have been scared but oddly he wasn't, though the rest weren't either.
There was nothing particularly alarming about it and other than his own heart and mind, his sixth sense didn't seem to say anything of it.
They made it up fully; by the statue was a man lying against a leg of it with a spear in his hands his armor closely resembled the statue's own but was less extravagant but even then held a glamorous silver with the highlights a shining whitish blue as his eyes met theirs. he stood and was the size of an average man actually… Is that how tall I was before? The man stood clutching it in his hand but not facing it towards them simply watching and evaluating them his face hidden by the helmet. After a few minutes he started to walk away; as he began to descend the stairs, he looked back.
He wants us to follow him?
The four had a talk while Amais was left out, though that was fine with him; there was a language barrier between them after all. He just kind of stood there looking at things around him. The sea up high. The obsidian down low. The rock wall where his eyes stood still as he just thought of a million different things before getting snapped back by a tap to his arm by his only friend and only noticed now the rest leaving. He soon kept pace as they walked in; just left of the path of the gate was where they were going now, and the soldier walked precisely and carefully, then stopped and spoke just one word with a serious and gruff voice.
"Naruym"
"Silence"
That's what Amais had learned it meant, as Elentera told him, and they shuffled now from what he did not know, though he guessed it was like the darkness before since this section was so clean. How does this darkness work? Why can I sense some of the dark and not all of it?
They would stop again after a few minutes, as the soldier was looking up at the sea now.
"Ess uf murr"
"It is here."
What the hell does that mean?
A giant tentacle came down and stopped just short. Amais could only look at the tentacle. Ah, I see, as the soldier grabbed onto it and looked at the rest of them, now waiting for them to join.
"Forer"
"Follow"
Amais could only look skeptically; after all, that was Cthulu, was it not, and he sure didn't trust Cthulu, and he wasn't alone. There wasn't a single person who didn't look at the soldier incredulously.
Of course they would have no choice as darkness dripped and began to form into an amalgamation and so Amais found himself flying through the water as he held tight and they were soaring. Amais felt like he was on a roller coaster until he wasn't, as they were brought to a random part of the maze. The tentacle slowed and carefully set them all down with some of their crew. There was a quick worry, which soon faded as more tentacles came with the stragglers in their grasp and released each of them.
Amais looked every which way; this was just the maze right and before any of them could catch a breath, the man continued walking ahead. They had followed as he went. They went through many different paths before finally reaching a gate as the man looked above and yelled.
"Kura nii fu arnyri valkyr veyr warvyr"
A man looked down and yelled behind before someone slid across the gate from above with a rope attached to this knight's waist and looked at them, inspecting them carefully. Elentera watched as they spoke, curious about what each said.
"Kail ehyl…"
"Hail the"
"Valkyr"
"Light"
"Voro ehyl onam veyr…"
"Honour and glory to"
"Ranan"
"Ranan"
"Furuer narv…"
"Your name"
"Arum ef ehyl Arcyr"
"Arum of the Black"
The soldier nodded to the other knight and raised his hand to the men above, who all understood and raised the gate slowly as she watched. Her eyes widened as all of theirs had as light filled the world and they all winced, confused, as ahead of them was a sprawling lake of darkness and above hung buildings that went as high as the eye could see, connecting to the inverted sea above. It was quite the sight with three layers: at the top, the inverted sea; in the middle, the towers of buildings that hung below from it; and finally, at the bottom, the abyssal water.
The buildings were made of black bricks and connected by bridges that went from building to building and were bustling with people, each frolicking in their society as curiosity filled Amais, wanting to see for himself. As he looked, he saw windows were made of aquamarine, and despite the usual darkness, this place had been filled with light, as glowstone was covered everywhere in houses and out of houses. The city was quite lively and extravagant and you could hear the laughing of children and buzzing conversation of adults.
Amais looked up in awe for a few moments before he heard something coming and looked ahead and right before him was a boat and came just short of him as he looked at the young woman standing atop the boat; her azure eyes looked into his grey ones, she had aquamarine tattoos sprayed across her arms and was wearing a blue tunic, gazing at Amais thoughtfully and tapping her chin.
"Where are the other two?" she asked.
Amais was startled that someone else had known English here but Who the hell are the other two?
"Are they not with you?" she asked.
He only looked at her extremely confused. "Do you know me?" he asked as she looked at him confused and pursed her lips.
"Yes you are Amais and I see now; you haven't met them then, have you?"
"W-What the hell are you talking about?"
"So you are the one called godslayer then?"
Amais was utterly confused as he looked at her and pointed to himself, wondering if she was speaking to him and she just continued to stare so eventually he asked. " godslayer… me?"
"Yes and then there was the one called lightbringer and finally… It's quite funny; I can't see the last one clearly but I know there is a third one."
"The lightbringer?" Amais asked as the rest behind him all stood lost except Elentera, who listened keenly curious.
"Oh yes, have you not heard of him yet? The man named Ryo Amra?"