Mika arrived just in time to prevent Sougo from unleashing a dangerous attack that could have put the whole gang in jeopardy.
When Sougo opened his eyes, he was startled by the near-miss catastrophe he had narrowly avoided. Acting on impulse, Sougo had been unaware of his actions, lost in a trance-like state. Taking deep breaths, he tried to calm himself, realizing he had been acting without conscious thought. It was his own instinct who controlled him from the very moment he witness those crazily ominous energy.
Mika illuminated the room to gain a clear view, guided by the powerful magic energy emanating from Sougo's blade. With urgency, he intervened to prevent Sougo from recklessly destroying the tomb with excessive force. One second too late would have hurt himself and Luna.
"Are you okay? What's gotten into you?" Mika expressed his concern for Sougo, who finally began to cool down, admitting, "I guess I got carried away... Never mind that... Call it a a slight overreaction."
Mika and the crew then found a large stone door with an inscribed mark after brightening the entire space, it was sealed with magic.
Mika's eyes were wide as a fly, "I suppose you weren't joking when you said you were overreacting. This door is very amazing in its size."
The door, however, would not open just by a simple push or pull.
"Violence won't do the trick because it could destroy the entire treasure. By any means, a spell is what we need." Mika sat down cross-legged with his hands on his knees, appearing to be in a state of meditation.
"Kamaru" "Lavanthos" "Exïma" "Intoriou" "Madrāmā" "Uembronyä" "Vivōsa!" With each incantation he spoke, letters started appearing spontaneously with a bright blue light.
With his words, he called forth those letters, and they suddenly arranged themselves in the shape of a magic circle and the letters were much alike runic letters. The giant door then produced a clicking sound, indicating that it was going to open while the circle was glowing more brightening blue light.
"It's my grandmother's spell. For only this door, it needs only a simple incantation." Smiled Mika, proud to be one of the family.
Due to the fact that his grandmother had taught him the secret chant to open the door, Mika knew that it was his grandma's old hideout because of how she often spoke about it.
Subsequently, lay a myriad of treasures could be seen down their path. The whole room was filled with gold-adorned edges with little ample space. The floor was surrounded by gold, even the corners were too. Shiny coins, artifacts, and random materials all came before their very eyes. The treasure to behold was enough to buy 7 archipelagos with it.
Baffling at how Mika's unexpectedly rich grandmother kept her treasures as part of a family heirloom made Mika realized that this could support all their expenses for their journey.
Thankful for his granny, Mika remembered how he had wished to travel afar to seek his true destiny as to see the whole world with his eyes. Overwhelmed with emotions, Mika tearfully whispered, "Thank you, granny..."
The three entered the treasure room and used the bag that Luna carried to pack all the treasures they could. Starting from the shiny gold coins, artifacts, jewelries, and so on.
However, Sougo wasn't intrigued by all of the treasures. He kept his sight on one thing that caught his attention...
The dark energy from before, the very thing that freaked out Sougo...
From the very front of the room beside the treasures, a monumental statue holding an orb was what piqued Sougo's interest...
According to Sougo's point of view from the last he gained his enhanced vision, he saw an immense aura emitting from that statue. The statue displayed a figure of a man with hooded clothing, holding an orb in one hand and the other holding a some kind of magic staff. The statue had no mosses, it was clean, so clean it was almost unbelievable because none ever really came here.
The moment when Sougo's attention was magnetized by that statue, it spoke, "Sougo..." With a voice of an elderly woman.
"..." Sougo went silent, throughout the whole tomb, he could not hear any single thing but those repeated calls of his name...
"Sougo..." The voice changed into an elderly man.
"Sougo..." The voice changed again, a voice of a young boy.
"Sougo..." This time, the voice of a young woman.
The voice kept changing inconsistently...
Intrigued by those voices that kept flying through his ear drums and what he saw, Sougo cautiously advanced toward the statue, only to witness the orb emanating a deep black radiance. Tempted by this weird glow as it kept deafening him with swarm of voices, he touched the orb.
Sougo went blank, and his thoughts were shrouded in darkness. Again, he was trapped in an endless void, like from where he obtained his Syyon. Nevertheless, it felt different. Its distinct feeling was much more powerful. It was darker than the previous, the sounds, the cries from before deafened his ears, it struck his soul to the point he was in a brink of insanity... He felt like he was being chewed alive.
His chest was in agony; he breathed until his lungs squeezed tight; eventually, he dropped to his knees. Never before had he had such an intense headache, feeling like it was about to burst. The pain lasted no more than 10 seconds but for him, it felt like months worth of pain...
His hearing was filled with the sound of war and screams akin to his home world back when he was a samurai at war, but now his vision was clear as translucent waters. However, the first sight he saw was himself, much like in a mirror.
His eyes opened wide and he jerked, grabbing the handle of his blade frantically. In dread, he slashed his clone and it disappeared, letting out black smoke.
Another appeared, exceedingly more than one. Countless of them stared at Sougo.
Sougo utilized his wind blade and spun himself, creating a massive hurricane and killing all his clones instantly. However, after killing all of those clones while they let out black smoke, it turned into the shape of his family.
His wife...
His daughter...
Appeared.
Like a nightmare he wished to forget, those that kept haunting him. They were the reminder of his guilt.
In a state of disombublation, he dropped his blade, his pupils shaken by the dread of seeing their faces, his heart rate rapidly increased. He couldn't control his breath any longer, nor could he keep his consciousness from fading.
"Dear?"
"Father?"
The way their voices were similar...
"I-I... n-no... what deception is this?! No..."
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!"
Sougo, suffering from mental trauma, tried to erase them from his mind while staying away from them. His eyes lack of belief, his mouth agape, Sougo had reached his breaking point.
Consumed by fear of his own kin, he could not even lay one hand on them. Running away endlessly, he was trapped with countless of his family faces, covering his ears with their voices. Sougo closed his eyes and ears, hoping it would end. The agony was too great to bear, to the point he was losing his mind.
"This is all your fault!"
"You should not have left us!"
"Do you not love us...?"
The echoes of their words tormented him ceaselessly, a relentless reminder of the weight of guilt that gripped Sougo's soul.
Mika seized Sougo by the shoulders, giving him a vigorous shake that jolted him awake. "Hey, you with me?"
The shaking did its job as Sougo's eyes snapped open instantly, shadows of exhaustion etched beneath them.
Right after his awaken, Sougo pushed Mika away roughly, "Ouch, what was that for?"
Drenched in sweat, with heavy bags under his eyes and his heart racing like a runaway stallion, Sougo's body finally gave in, collapsing to the ground in a dead faint.
"Sir Sougo? Hey, stay with me! Sougo?!" Mika hurried to check Sougo's condition. Placing his hand on Sougo's forehead, "he's... Feverish... It's abnormally hot!"
Analyzing the statue, the orb that once shone black slowly died out. Mika tended to Sougo's fever, but it didn't work. Somehow, Sougo was affected by a high magic power that led his whole body and magic to be weakened.
"Luna! Forget the treasure. We can do that later. Our main objective is now to heal mister Sougo, pronto!" Mika commanded Luna to return home with Mika by also forgetting the treasures.
"Right!"
And now, both Mika and Luna while carrying the sickened Sougo, returned home to ensure his recovery.