Though the group was mesmerized by their discovery, they still remembered their original goal—finding Peppy the toad. So, under the loud crashing and seemingly roaring of the river of soul juice, they continued their journey on the mirror-like ground.
Every now and again, the path would wind and the river would angrily crash into the wall, spraying multicolored juice everywhere and making everyone jump back to avoid it, before swerving in its new direction.
They followed the river, witnessing the sheer power and grace it commands; if any of them accidentally fell in, there would be no telling how they died. This continued for another mile or so before the surroundings suddenly expanded exponentially into a giant cavernous hole. It was literally like a gaping maw. While everything was shrouded in darkness, glittering lights, like the shine of teeth, shone from the walls and ceiling, reflecting the light off the river.
Yet, within this "maw", a strange structure made of rocks was just above the middle of the river's several mide-wide diameter.
The structure had wide bridges, also made of rock, that connected both sides of the river to its base.
Yet, when they saw this eerie structure, they were shocked. And that was because the bottom of the base, which they could see, was a reverse funnel. Basically, the whole bottom was a hole which then constricted itself into a small hole. But that wasn't the point.
The point was, the soul juice of the river was flowing into it like a spiral! The river was falling upwards! Well, just that part was, it was obviously being absorbed by the structure for some reason.
Now, the question is, will they stop here and enter the creepy tower, or will they continue looking for Peppy somewhere else? I'll be honest here, they actually did go past the tower to look for him…
Before excitedly running back to explore this mysterious place. It was indeed like I said it would be. They walked on the bridge, and every step they took, a strange sound would suddenly resound. And with every other step they took, a strange light would appear.
While the tower was right in the center of the two sides of the river, under their excited and speedy feet, they reached the tower within just half an hour.
When they reached the end of the bridge, a giant iron door stopped them from entering.
There was no seeable mechanism to open the door and they were afraid of the consequences if they were to attack it. Maybe it would break the whole thing, or maybe it would retaliate—no one knows.
"Well, that was a bust. Why don't we leave for now, and go somewhere else?"
It was Ran, surprisingly enough, that suggested doing a tactical retreat. This was completely out of character from what we've seen and what I've said of him.
But it was deeper than all that; there were not many times where his gut feeling or instincts had so directly warned him of potential danger like it had done just now. It was so deep, he could feel his soul quiver despite his consciousness being in his body.
And just as he started backing away, to everyone's bewilderment, he felt something change. Something… was here.
Abruptly, just as he thought something was going to attack and reap his life, making his heart race, he looked down as he felt as if his arm had gained weight.
And wouldn't you know it; in his left hand was his sword.
Yet, he didn't summon it.
It hummed dangerously, almost like it was giving a warning. Unfortunately, it was too quiet, it wasn't powerful enough to really drive home that sense of fatalness to make Ran leave.
It lifted his arm up as it seemed to align itself with the door and all Ran could do was watch. He tried to put his hand down with the sword with all his might, but he found himself unable to do so. He looked intensely at the sword.
The runes encoded on the sword – his name – were no longer sparkling with the color of his soul. Rather, it was blazing with inky black flames. And this truly shook Ran to his core; of all times, why now? What did this mean?
Suddenly, as various thoughts were running wild in his head, a presence was almost made known to him; it tried to communicate something to him, and the sword even dropped itself to the floor willingly, but it disappeared before anything else happened. The black flames on the name grew and spewed itself on the ground.
Then, like a spark hitting a bunch of tinder, the whole tower was set ablaze with black flames. Black runes began appearing one by one on the sharp rocky surface, and their apparent resemblance to Rans name was almost uncanny.
It was like they were written in the same language. But they were runes, so that doesn't make sense.
The runes then emitted invisible rays that absorbed light and made them appear black; the whole sight was very ominous. Some of the rays hit the river and from the river sprang long obelisks full of black runes. They hovered in the air around the tower in a hexagonal shape, ablaze with black flames.
And only now did Shirley recall what her father said. Could what he said about this man have to do with this, she thought. No its not possible, they had just arrived, he would know nothing of them; fuck, theres something missing. She involuntarily took a step back, not knowing what to do.
And not just Shirley, everyone else was absolutely astounded by the current situation. They all tried to retreat, and Ran wanted to as well, but he couldn't leave his sword behind. It was now stuck to the ground like a cat whose claws were stuck on the couch when you tried to stop them from scratching it. Okay, that got way too specific. But no matter how much he tried he couldn't pry it off. And when he tried to summon it back, he found his connection to it completely severed, or rather… blocked.
But before he could even have the chance to achieve any success and retreat like the rest were going to do, a loud clang reverberated across the whole of the cavern. Black runes appeared on the iron doors from both sides, and they dropped down vertically as thick chains held on. With a loud crash and the moving of dust, the several ton door revealed the inside.
Fortunately, they were already outside the range of the door, or they would be flattened to the point they would have to change their name to Stanley Lambchop.
Yet, it was only then that the sword let go of the ground and Ran was able to pick it up.
It felt… weak. No longer was it full of vigor and no longer was it happily humming as it usually would. Now, it felt much lighter and its humming was slow and irregular—it was like it was whimpering.
Presently, Ran now had two things to deal with.
He had always thought the way his sword acted was just its natural state. He thought it was like Bob's sigil. While it can simulate emotions and use them, that does not mean it can experience them. It was not alive.
Actually, he did not know that, it could in fact be alive. But if that was the case, then Bob would probably be the main character. But, he was not. And I'm not kidding this time.
But seeing his sword in such a feeble state, he felt his heart crack. Was it truly alive, he continuously questioned. And that only led to more speculation like its special ability "thought exchange". He came up with it on the spot and thought it fit nicely, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Now, It seemed
to be too nice a fit.
However, just as he was apparently going to finally see the light of truth regarding his sword, the enigma that is his name was beginning to unravel at the same time.
There was just too much going on!
But will he find out the truth about his sword, his name, and even the tower which presents itself to him?
Find out next time on dragon ball—I mean on the next chapter of Heir of the World.
…
Was that… too cringy?
Okay, I'll stop now.