Chapter 188

  The Unspoken Hurt (VI)

  The cave itself was rather damp but also... surprisingly warm? Like, I expected it to be warmer--on account of it blocking the wind and such--but I actually could stop using the Art and just enjoy the... nope, it swung the other way.

  Within two or three minutes, I was outright sweating with how much raw humidity just assaulted me. It's like someone took a bat to my sweat glands, and now they are crying.

  ... wow.

  We walked quite slowly, never making a sound and blending in with the seemingly never-ending darkness. However, it was relatively quickly into our journey that I picked up on the stray tendrils of odd energy--it wasn't quite what I felt when Lilia used her magic, though it did feel related.

  It was like a mixture of warm and cool swirling and twining in an eternal dance, and it was quite... heavy.

  The feeling only grew stronger the deeper in we went.

  It was about two hundred feet in or so that we stopped, with Lilia signaling us to; it quickly became evident why, as we reached a slight dip and bend, at the end of which I saw a faintly flickering light.

  She drew out a few extra runes and gently shook them all as stirs of unknown energy permeated the air around us. The world around, I found, started blending into itself--like someone smudged a perfectly fine painting, but only so much that it gave an unsettling feeling without being immediately obvious.

  And when I tried focusing on those individual spots, I found that nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

  We resumed walking, slowing down even more if possible, and slowly made our way to the end. The humidity persisted, growing, even; I don't have any experience with spelunking, so I don't know if these conditions are normal or odd. The only time I came close to 'exploring' a cave was that time Jim dragged us to the forest behind our place where there was a small opening in the cliff, not even a cave.

  By the time we came to the edge of light, it felt like I'd exited a pool. Just like with the cold outside, at some point it became impossible for the art to deter the humidity any further.

  It wasn't hot, which was the worst bit, I think--just... humid. Like the air itself felt kind of heavy.

  I don't know. I don't think I've ever really experienced anything like it--I've been in humid places before, of course, but even there the heat was felt. Dry places were a nightmare of their own, of course, but there's just something about the combo of humidity and heat that has me screaming for a winter (which I hate even more, oddly enough).

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  I took a peek beyond the edge of the gap and saw it open up into a rather large chamber--strange, crystalline structures emitted a faint glow, though most of the harsh, crimson light came from the six containers placed into a hexagonal shape.

  They were all levitating about two feet off the ground, spinning in a circle, seemingly made out of a strange metal. Their centers opened into hexagonal pairs, locked opposite one another, and were oozing smoke-like scarlet vapors that drifted upward with and against gravity both, coalescing toward the elevated center--into a spherical orb hovering just a foot or so above the suspended body.

  "No need to hide like vermin," a voice broke through the darkness, startling me; I instinctively pulled my arms back and hid the kids behind me. "Oh, come on out. You are just in time to bear witness to something that has never been done before."

  Lilia was the first to step out, with Zhu right behind her.

  Seeing there was no point in 'hiding' any longer, I also walked out, with the kids right behind me. Long Tao was the last, appearing quite interested in the strange containers and ignoring everything else.

  "If it isn't Little Zhu." It wasn't a man but rather a woman who spoke; looking over, she was seated atop one of the stones, leaning lazily against another one, with a smirk on her face. "You've grown."

  "You really are trying to do it!" Lilia gnashed her teeth. "Are you insane?!"

  "... hm," she hummed. "Insane? Hah. Insanity is merely an adjective the weak use against the enlightened," she added. Yeah. I'm gonna love this gal... "I'm at the brink of achieving something that all our forefathers deemed impossible, and you label me insane?"

  "You're at the brink of doing something that will bring death and decay upon this world!!" Lilia suddenly whipped out a few more runes, but just as she was about to use them, they... disintegrated.

  Before I even knew what happened, both Zhu and she were lifted off the ground and brought forth toward the strange woman.

  "Do you know why I left you to live? Do you think it was because I thought you could best me? Hah! No. Perhaps if that old Patriarch of yours came here, I might have run off. But you two? Children playing at being a Shaman, still using the runes to channel their magic. Your incompetence is only overshadowed by your stupidity. Wait for a little while," she tossed them sideways, turning her attention toward us--or, more precisely, me. "I have someone far more interesting to chat with."

  She stood up off the stone and rounded the massive sigil of blood on the ground that was drawn between the containers, stopping about three or four feet in front of me, tilting her head in curiosity.

  "I'm rather curious as to how you found me," she asked.

  "... the mark." I replied; I'd already taken out the little turtle, ready to deflect whatever attack she threw at me.

  "Oh? The little thing I left on the girl? Interesting," she chuckled. "Cultivators, truly, have the strangest means."

  "Why did you choose accylate containers?" Long Tao, oh Long Tao, can you not read the freakin' atmosphere?!

  "Hm?"

  "Obsidian would have been much better; it would have leaked less Life Qi--sorry, I mean, 'blood energy'--and it would have needed far fewer purifying arrays--sorry, 'runes'--drawn on it."

  "... a rather well-versed child," she chuckled strangely. "Obsidian is hoarded by your kind more than any other material. Perhaps I should have asked you to source it."

  "Would have given you a fair price," Long Tao said, glancing over with a smile. "Would have also chopped your head off when I found what you would use it for, but hey."

  "Oh? Quite harsh words. Did you not teach them any manners?" She turned toward me, and I could only sigh.

  --Creator's Eyes! Right! I don't know why it isn't even my instinct by now to just use them by default.

  Oh.

  That's why.

  [--Creator's Eyes used]

  [Target: #$!%#!/)]

  [...]

  [Major Anomaly Detected]

  [Two Ordinances of Heavens are being desecrated]

  [...]

  [Free Hint: Illusions are raindrops drifting against the firmaments]

  Huh.

  ... what?