As Gary and Alfred both silently reflected, Gabriel found his way over.
Seeing his arrival, Gary's countenance brightened up a bit. 'Perfect timing.' he thought, still holding his throbbing foot.
"Hey Gab," he excitedly motioned to Gabriel, "Got enough juice for another spell?" The pain was only getting worse, and he was starting to miss having toes that weren't bent in all the wrong places.
Gary watched as Gabriel walked towards him, like a saint come to relieve the suffering of a martyr.
'Come, my healer. Release me from my agony.' he pleaded internally, ready for the pain to be washed away.
But Gabriel's eyes were locked somewhere else. Seeing the golden aura of the chain, his steps drifted away from the hopeful Gary, clasping his hands in a show of deep piety.
"I knew I felt the presence of the Goddess." he deeply proclaimed, slowly kneeling down a few feet in front of the golden chain. His eyes reflected the warm yellow rays, as if he had become a part of the chain itself. "This warmth, this golden light! Oh, how wonderful it is that the light of the divine can reach even this unholy ground." He reverentially bowed his body low to the ground, his forehead touching the cold floor.
"Don't act like the Goddess guided you; what happened is you saw some light and walked over to see what it was," Gary hissed. "So cut the shit and heal me already! My foot feels like it's going to pop out of my boot."
"A tribulation from the Goddess," Gabriel hummed. "For your blasphemy, no doubt. Stay strong, my child, and trust in the divine. The path of redemption is one best walked alone." Gabriel encouraged him, oblivious to the death glare sent his way.
"Is that how you priests tell someone to go fuck themselves?" Gary wondered with contempt and sorrow. It sounded like that heal spell he desperately needed wasn't coming anytime soon.
"We would never do such a vulgar thing." Gabriel immediately denied it with a slight smile.
"Really? Then allow me the honors. Go fuck yourself, Gab. Feel free to take that glowing chain and shove it so far up your ass, you actually can feel the presence of the Goddess." A relentless tirade poured from his mouth, cursing everything that a believer of light would hold dear in their hearts.
But alas, Gabriel's faith was a rock, unmoved by the waves of anger and hate that washed over him as he offered his prayers to the holy chain.
"Alright, that's enough," Alfred interjected, cutting off Gary's relentless curses. "He does have a point." That sentence immediately earned an incredulous look from Gary, who was shocked that anyone would buy into Gabriel's show of faith.
"I don't mean he is right about all of it!" Alfred speedily added. "But no matter how you look at it, that is obviously the work of light magic. See?" He pointed to the chain, "If you focus, you can feel the flow of mana. At least, I can."
Gary frowned upon hearing that, although he did not debate it immediately. Despite the common consensus, he wasn't stupid. Did it feel and look exactly like a chain made of light mana? Yes. But the last time anyone with light magic was here...
"Ridiculous," He whispered. "There isn't a single mana construct that can last longer than a few minutes without something supplying mana to it. Are you telling me this thing has existed for a thousand years? It isn't possible."
"I wouldn't say impossible," Alfred argued. "We are talking about the heroes who saved the world." He said, a look of worship gradually dawning in his eyes.
"I agree," a feminine voice stated. Gary shot his head around to see Brandus, Shasa, and Edwin standing several meters away.
"As much as we may try, we can't apply normal logic to the feats of the heroes." Shasa declared with certainty.
Gary bit his lip at that, though he did stay silent for good. He had no idea how much of the conversation the others had heard, but it was enough for Shasa to leave no room for arguing.
Even if Gary and Shasa did not always get along, he could respect her expertise. As the de facto mage and ex-student of the Roshan Magic Academy, her opinion had greater weight than his when it came to anything magical.
Her words were textbook too. The journey of the hero party was as unbelievable as it was documented. Plenty of their achievements were viewed as impossible, even by today's standard of magic and adventuring. But all of the historians agreed that the stories were factual. All of the records were in agreement over their achievements.
So what if the warriors and mages of today are unable to achieve what they did? They wouldn't be much of a hero party if that wasn't the case. Besides, one would be hard-pressed to find a document that was critical of the recorded history. Even at the Academy, all of the professors would tell you exactly what Shasa had said. 'You can't judge their accomplishments with your own idea of logic.'
"Is there anything you can understand about the construct?" Brandus nodded upon hearing Shasa's statement and asked, earning a shrug from her.
"Beats me," She confessed. "I can normally get a feel for whatever spell was cast based on the runes, but this is way out of my league." She walked up to the chain with an investigative expression, rubbing the glowing surface of the chain in a calm manner.
"Can you give us your best guess, then?" Brandus pushed. The calm adventurer was also eager to learn a bit about the spell cast by the heroes.
"I can do that, at least." Shasa nodded, her face basked in the golden glow as she peered closely into the mana that flowed underneath the surface of the spell.
"Obviously, this spell has been here for quite a while. It wasn't activated, it has always looked like this. The only reason this entire room isn't lit up is because of the dust that had settled onto it."
"If it was cast when they battled the Demon King, then there would have been plenty of crushed stone and dirt that was being tossed into the air," Edwin said with realization.
"Exactly," Shasa concurred. "With that type of environment, it's no wonder that they had such a deep layer of dust. Gary didn't activate it; he just cleaned it up a little." She covered her mouth as she giggled a bit, leaving Gary to feel even more aggrieved. He loathed the idea that he had broken most of his toes just to dust off some light spell.
"Anything else you can see?" Alfred chimed in. "I doubt it could be dangerous, but..."
"Not from the runes, no. But the cool thing about magic is that you don't need to know what the runes spell out to learn about its purpose. And you shouldn't be too worried. I am almost certain it is nothing dangerous. Light magic is rarely a threat to humans, and it is way too obvious to be any sort of trap. These chains, with this layout, it would most likely be..." Her tone-- which had been even up until now --became rather serious towards the end of her deduction.
"...Likely be what?"
"Tell me," Shasa asked, turning to look at the mass of chains that wound tightly around each other, as she questioned with a sense of helplessness and unease. "What type of light magic would make use of chains, have them wrap around something as tightly as possible, and then nail them down to make sure that they never budged, no matter how much anyone tried to push or pull on them?"
Gary, along with the rest of the team, sharply inhaled after hearing that. When spelled out, the answer was obvious. The only sort of magic that it resembled was sealing magic. But if that was the case, then there was only one reason that such a high-level sealing spell would be used in the Demon King's throne room. If so...
"A-are you telling us that... HE is in there? Buried under the same chains Gary broke his foot on?" Alfred fearfully asked, taking several steps back. Away from both the chains and Gary.
"You asked me what I thought." Shasa gave a feeble acknowledgment and turned to Gary with a strained smile. "Kicking the same chains that are holding the being that devastated most of the known world... That has to be a new low, even for you."
Gary left that unanswered as he plopped down on the ground, lost in another world. After realizing the gravity of that kick, even he couldn't play it off with a joke. The thought of it was enough to twist his stomach, churning what little food was in it. He threw his hands over his mouth as he began to violently heave, feeling the disgusting bile rise up and burn every inch of his throat, threatening to paint the ground that he sat upon.
What if the spell needed to remain untouched? What if he had loosened the chain, even just a bit? It was enough to nearly give him a heart attack. He was okay with being viewed as a scumbag, but the idea of bringing about the end of the world was too much. Even for him.
While Gary was fighting to keep his supper, Brandus was already on the move.
"Get up! EVERYONE GET UP!!!" He bellowed with a twisted expression, running up to Gary and yanking him onto his good foot. "Alfred, get Gabriel! We are all leaving RIGHT NOW!" He ordered, already on his way towards the door. It was the first time he had shown any form of fear, and it had reached a level of magnitude that shocked even himself.
What he felt was almost primal, as if his soul itself was warning him to just turn and flee. The Demon King may be sealed, but Brandus was not going to take any chances. No human would.
Alfred Took no time in complying, roughly yanking the still-bowed Gabriel off the floor. As he prepared to carry Gabriel out of the room, Gabriel let out a small sound of surprise. His eyes were still focused on the chain, but they were no longer clear. Instead, they were clouded in innocent confusion.
"Dear Goddess, why is your light fading?" He asked, his voice tinged with a tinge of loss. He didn't understand what was happening. Why would the divine light turn dark?
Alfred and the rest thought nothing of it until they heard the sound of ominous creaking echo out from behind them.
The moment they heard the deep groan of the chains, their bodies froze in fear.
No, this fear was different.
Before, it had been their instincts that had ordered them to flee. Now, the chains inspired something else. It held a power that left their bodies unable to move, only able to shiver with dread.
Like something had taken away their right to move in its presence.
Something far greater than them.