The tar like pressure against his body forced breath out of his lungs. He was floating. He tried to flap his hands but his efforts were meet with greater resistance than normal. When he tried to breath water choked inside his lungs. Overcome by sudden panic. He realised he was drowning.
His consciousness jumped back to surface as panic and fear of drowning to death got hold of him. His back was touching something hard, he had no breath, he was at the bottom. If he was at the bottom then above there must me surface.
He couldn't see anything, his body pushed itself up hoping to reach the surface before his blood ran out of oxygen. Suddenly, his head popped out of the water, his eyes were burning.
Gulping down the discomfort he gasped for air, trying to push air through his water filled lungs. His efforts to keep his consciousness worked as he heaved and coughed water out in pain. His surroundings were dim to the point it was hard to see anything but he could make out hard ground at a distance.
Struggling to keep his consciousness he swam. His hand were met with hard surface like concrete, it seemed he was inside some manmade structure. Crawling out of water, his body coughed and heaved at irregular intensity trying to push water out his lungs.
After struggling and exhausting all it's effort into staying alive, his body fell on ground and relaxed. Slowly his breathing became rhythmic and his awareness slipped out as lightheadedness took over his mind and body.
He was alive.
He consciousness jumped back and forth. He was meeting the queen with celena when a shadowy figure attacked them, Celena had successfully protected them from first attack but had no choice but to exhaust majority of her mama reserves in doing so. After that, she casted something that cracked the space around them. It was as if reality was made of paper, easily torn and wrapped.
As space around him wrapped, the figure attacked them, celena pushed him out of path to save him. She said something...
As memories played through his mind his eyes opened. Sudden gasp exceed his lungs current capacity to inhale as he coughed out of reflex.
Getting on all fours—his focus went to the bracelet on his hand—, and then on two.
*That's right she said something related to this...* "Something about find or use?"
Then it clicked to him, if she had anticipated something like this would happen, then by find she probably meant " Use it to find."
He inspected the bracelet, but there was nothing. His attempts at forming mana didn't seem to work..."whom am I supposed to find— her? And how?"
Giving up on finding something in bracket, he turn his head to look around. It seemed the place he had nearly drowned in was actually some kind of pool or man made water reservoir. The room was dim so he could not make out much of the walls at distance, but he could make out that this closed space was big. It felt like he was seeing some underwater ruins of some old castle.
Looking for any path that led here, he saw several.
*Here is classic maze that I was missing so much* Shugel complained.
On his peripheral he noticed red light. He brought the bracelet on his hand close to see what was happening. The patterns carved in it were emitting soft crimson light. Soon the glow flowed to centre of bracelet and a small luminous ball of light formed in air, floating in front of his eyes. He was immersed in the beauty of light for moment before he came back to his senses.
The orb of light was circling around him in air, as if trying to get his attention.
"Wohhhh~"
Soon it started moving away from him.
"Do I have to follow it?" He asked no one particular as he followed the light.
He didn't have to worry about the visibility as the orb of light was luminous enough to light few metres around them.
Of many paths that they could have taken, light went into path isolated other side of the pool, covered moss and vines— One he had not noticed at all due to low visibility.
He was still wet from nearly drowning and was struggling to walk on slippery surface while also maintaining his balance as to not sleep into the pool again.
After he reached the other side, he could now clearly see the entrance, covered in vines, and moss... The air was itchy, trying to avoid the vines from touching him, he followed the light inside.
The path was narrow tunnel like and the silence was almost killing him. But he feared opening his mouth too. His soles resonated against walls as he followed the light.
It was cold. The deeper he followed, the more chilling the air became, as if devoid of any life. He was starting to grow anxious, the tunnel didn't seem to end and fear of being lost somewhere no one could find him grew—the fear such that it forgot all rationality.
His attempts to talk to himself didn't seem to work so he focused his mind on coming up with a plan. It was not like he would be safe even if he reached Celena or anywhere.
The attack, the white flash like attack, which celena had shielded them from, was so intense that even with the shield protecting them he could almost feel himself burning. It almost made him think of first loop, if that attack had actually hit him he would have died before he could even process anything, the queen's smile and celena's expression of fear or shock it all made sense now.
He had died in first loop. In second loop too, if that didn't give him any reason think of this then nothing could.
*I reverse or come back in time by dieing!*
He was unsure about of it, and didn't like to try it either. The fear of death was in a sense even greater in him now.
After thinking back to two loops he could fill in blanks and more more clear picture of what had happened to him.
He was certainly one of the mysteries that had appeared in the castle, and that too in time when something like this had happened. It was obvious, anyone would think of him as a threat. But by being one to initiate he had been able to balance the board of life and death to certain extent.
But even if he assumed he had return back in time. The condition that he needed to die for that to happen was something that made him afraid and almost never wanting to be in situation where he has to use it.
He wondered if he could reset time without dieing but gave up after seeing his attempts looked child trying to do "Ka-me-ha-me-ha"
"It sure would sound cool to name it something like 'Return from death's embrace' or 'Reversing Time Via Death'." He Muttered to himself in amusement.
Noticing that his thought were getting more stable he slapped both his cheeks ready to think about future.
*Now then If I wanna make most of my life, there is no time to even consider using this ability. Time to plan Shugel Kasane!*
The Queen, Siale Edgarm, is trying to kill her husband. Assuming from his first loop, the king was the only one dead. Celena and laya were both present in the court.
The fact that no one had realised who had killed the king in first loop was proof that if all went smoothly no one would have found out and only king would have died. But for some reason, Shugel questioned why was he too assassinated in that loop then?
*If Only I could come to some agreement with queen to spare me and others in exchange that I keep my mouth shut. But* "Then again reality isn't so simple."
Then if there was the assassin too, but still how did they manage to assassinate the king so smoothly? No one even noticed?
Shugel wasn't sure how many enemies they had in this castle. Anyhow if he wanted to survive he had to reunite with Celena and others. It would be hard to explain them about queen's betrayal, but with celena's help was sure he could get them to believe.
They were short on time. Just why did the queen wish to kill the king? He didn't understand.
He had been following the light for almost some moment now when he saw a fork in front of him.
His eyes narrowed to make more details. The left path was at 10 o'clock, and right one was at 2:30o'clock, as if both forks let complete opposite corner of the world.
He waited for light to guide him, but suddenly it stopped for moment. Shugel was surprised by subtle pause, but light went on right path.
Not after walking some distance he saw exit similar to that open entrance. Hoping he would be able to see some open space, he prepared himself. But as he got closer he noticed vines which had broken through the walls and spread all over the tunnel, the numbers and density growing as he got closer, when he reached the exit he realised he was walking on vines by now. The hard surface was gone.
Beyond the exit though, he could not see anything. It was pure darkness. Was it really an exit or something else? He wondered. When the light went inside, the darkness subsided making him able to see where he was.
What he saw made take step back, it felt like he had entered some kind spider's nest. Only difference was that room he was in was completely covered in vines. It was as if he was inside some kind of creature. At centre of the room there was a cokoon made up of vine.
It look sickening, it looked like something you would find an pyramid, a mummy. The vines were covering something and forming that cocoon like structure.
The air was lifelessly cold, his throat was itching for water. Suppressing his body from chattering teeth, he ignored the cold and looked carefully around the room.
Wall, ceiling and even the floor was covered in layer of moss and green tentacles that looked crimson in that light. Looking if there was some way out. He found out that it was a dead end.
The path led him to this small room with no other entrance or exit, as if some prison or torcher chamber. Why had the light brought him here? Was some exit hidden behind the layer of vines that covered the walls.
He looked, begging it to give him some clue. That crimson orb of light was orbiting around the humonied cocoon, hanging from the ceiling, nearly a feet away from ground.
*Is something there for me see?*
Why had this light led him to this dead end. His patience has started to run thin, at this rate, by the time he got out of here everything might be over.
He moved to the cocoon, as if light noticed him approaching it it stopped orbiting the cocoon and simply hovered in the air.
The was around five feet in size, made up of sickly green vines. Some portion of vine had started to break around the some area but not deep enough to reveal what was inside.
"Just how am I suppose to find a way out of here?" He noticed the parts of vine forming the cocoon were had broken off from some areas, and it's texture was different. It was dry, as if life had sucked out of it. Dead.
He looked at the branch or root like vine attached to which the cocoon was hanging from the ceiling—drying. Just what was the purpose of this place and this thing, had someone made it intentionally or something else.
He looked down and noticed that vines were dieing. One would ask what was so strange about it if only they didn't noticed the almost subtle yet fast process of decay of vines. It was as if life was being sucked out of this place.
That didn't seem to help him. Why had light focused on the cocoon? Shugel once again moved to look closely at the cocoon, he traced the surface which kept getting dry it was almost unnoticeable to normal eyes but his finger could sense it.
His hands reached an area—if he could call it the head of the cocoon— where the vines were crumbling. He tired to remove the dead vine by applying some more force, the dead vine crumbled to the ground and his hand felt the sensation, a sensation was akin to touching something rough and brittle, a damp slimy feeling in some area. The sensation was unsettling and grim. Curious to see what it was, he got closer— nearly feet away from the surface—
"Eeeeeeek!" Shrill scream ran down his throat, as he fell back, away from the cocoon. It was a face. A Decaying face, inside the cocoon was a decaying body.
His hand was touching the decaying skin of the dead face in the cocoon just moments ago, he felt repulsed.
He wiped his hand of ground trying to forget that sensation of rotten skin.
His breath was heavy, he had yet to compose himself. He looked around himself in fear. Why was something like this here.
"No... I need to get out—" Suddenly, the crimson orb of lights got sucked inside the vines, all the vines surrounding him glowed crimson before the room lit for second. And then everything was darkness.
"Ak!" A suppressed yelp escaped his throat at the. The light was gone. Panic and fear of absolute darkness and unknown were strumming his instinct and senses. He was growing anxious his breath growing rigid.
He needed to find way out in darkness. His attempts to crawl and trace the wall untill he could find the entrance took many straiggles, he had rough sense of direction but worst case he would have trace whole room to find the exit.
Just when he thought he was near the entrance he heard footsteps. Echoing in absolute silence. His breath instinctively got suppressed in his lungs.
As footsteps got closer, he noticed it was headed to this room. Where should he hide, in the absolute darkness he had no idea where. Still trying to get away from the sound he stumbled and fell on his back.
This time when he open the eyes from blinking, he noticed a soft light approaching the room, he was in perpendicular to the entrance so he could not see who it was but.
Fear and hope both got grip of him he anxiously waited for unknown. Hear that Celena had found him or Fear that something unknown and bad was approaching this room.
Light from hall had made the room dimly lit, and as light got closer footsteps became louder and clear.
The he saw the figure cross the entrance and enter the vine made room, it's gaze fell into cocoon, the most obvious and striking things in the room, then as if it had realised something quickly turned to him.
"Shugel!" The figures said in familiar voice as it ran towards him.
The anticipation of hope and fear had made him almost shut itself as it took him while to figure out who the owner of the voice was, but as the voice resonated in his mind and ears. He recognised that voice, and his mind relaxed.
"Laya?" Soft voice leaked from his lungs as a recognition of her voice.
"What happened here? Were is Celena? What happened to mom, what exactly is going on..." Her voice panically bombarded him with questions. He felt no energy to answer them but he was glad to hear a voice other that his own and silence for the moment.
___
On realising Shugel was struggling to slip up anything between her uncontrolled barrage of questions, she coughed to herself, and gave him some room to stand up and calm himself.
"I know you have a lot of questions, but I can't answer them all at the same time."
"Y-yeah you are right. So what happened?" She asked.
Shugel got on his legs, regaining his balance, now that the room had a stronger source of light, he could look around more clearly.
"I will tell you what happened, but before that where are we? Do you know where others are?"
"That's what I am asking."
"Sorry about that"
Realising that his hope were in vain, he apologized.
"Fors was able to tell that there was some kind of space distortion magic used. I was able to find you using the bracket you have."
He looked at the bracket in his hand, remembering Celena had given it to him just before the space seperated them.
"You mean this?"
"Yes. And as for where we are... For now it would best say we are somewhere no one would have found you. The underground ruins of ancient castle." Laya replied bluntly.
At her words, he could imagine dieing without finding any exit, if she had not not found him. The thought alone sent chill down his spine. If laya had given him her bracelet then what about her?
"What about Celena? How will we find her." Sweat rolled down his face, as he feared running out of time.
"Fors will find her, we don't need worry about them right now." Laya assured.
Shugel was struggling to wipe his wet face as his hand trembled.
"I should have asked this earlier but how did get you wet? Did you drown somewhere?"
His whole body was wet, clothes soaked in water, accelerating the heat loss process to an rapid extent. She was wondering why he didn't use mana to warm himself. But then she realised, she had some doubts earlier but seeing him In this state.
"Don't tell you can't use mana at all!?"
Shugel eyes darted as if wary of something, but then he nodded.
She reached her hand towards his chest, her hand met to cold damp shirt—it was cold.
Not wasting any time she embued mana into her hand, then it spread to the air surrounding Shugel's body forming a thin blanket of warm air which covered him. After few seconds his body started to relax. All the while, he looked at her and his body like a baby who had been dangled something shiny in front their eyes. No matter how many times he looked, the sight of magic was surreal and beautiful.
"Thank you." He murmured.
"Sorry for not noticing earlier. How is it now?" Laya regretted, if she would have not noticed the could have risked hypothrmia.
"Enough to keep my mind working." He said bracingly.
"We need get out of here then, tell me everything on the way." Laya said looking around, noticing something abnormal about her surroundings.
Shugel seemed to have noticed her gaze shifting around, "Ah, before we leave. Do you know what this room is?"
She shook her head, "My mind was occupied with you and others, but was this room always this dry."
So it was abnormal, Shugel thought. By room she meant the vines. For Shugel who had been in here longer, the change was so dramatic that he didn't even need to doubt what he was seeing.
"No. Infact it feels as if life is being sucked of this place." Shugel put it in metaphoric terms.
Laya moved started to move towards the nearly decaying and breaking cocoon. Her expression unreadable. Shugel looked at her back. Then she stopped.
Laya hands were, "There is a body inside... Just who?"
This place had been out of access for generations. and even if people had used it before, any corpse of person who could have died here would have decayed beyond skeleton. Was it the vines? We they preserving the body from decaying.
Laya's eyes followed to root to Ceiling.
"What's above?" Shugel asked.
"Graveyard of ancients."
Shugel's brow furrowed. Probably, noticing the confusion etched into Shugel's silence. Laya elaborated, "It's where all the previous rulers have been buried for generations. Though, the custom has not been followed for last 300 years."
"Is something wrong?"
"There is. We should head out of here." Laya eyes narrowed.
"Explain to me." Shugel found it hard wrap his mind around her words. What was see seeing? Or sensing perhaps?
"Life is being sucked away from this room through this cocoon. and I have no idea why? And how?" Laya signed. "We should unite with them first. And—"
"Yeah I will tell you everything that happened with us." Shugel completed, sensing where she was going.
Thar he noticed there was slight tension in Laya's expression, as she looked at the bracelet in her hand.
Sensing something was wrong he came close her, "What's wrong?"
"The paths are changing. We can't go back. At this rate, we will have to cross the ancient grave." Her tone tone suggested that even she could not believe what she was seeing or perhaps sensing.
"How does this device work?"
"It tells the shortest path to the other bracelet . But that's not I am talking about, the bracket has already done it job, you are with me now as a result."
That's when Shugel noticed the crystal that had turned black with the bracelet.
"This crystal shorts through the tangible word and connects a path to its other part. It's kinda very rare, and has many..." She trailed off "Sorry I got lost there. Anyways, it says we Fors and Celena are around half an hour walk from here."
"What about the path you came from?"
"That's the normal plan but, finding you took and an hour and half. And if go by that path we will have to walk for 4 hours to reach them."
--What the fuck is she saying!? Are we in the core of Earth or what?
Shugel lips twitched, just imagining the distance made is legs give up. They were short on time too.
"Are you sure this some underground structure—not a city?"
"Don't tell my you are afraid to walk." Laya poked. "This structure was built to keep invaders away, and many mysteries are still unknown behind how this place was constructed. Some paths are made to keep you making rounds while some lead straight to exit. You are pretty unlucky to have been dropped here."
"I understand. So what do you suggest? I would prefer if we don't waste time. We don't have any of that."
Laya nodded, "It's decided then."
___
As they crossed the place, where Shugel had once drowned, they took one of paths that Shugel had seen earlier before the light had guided him in some different path.
"So that was the place where you got teleported to huh?"
Shugel nodded. Lost in his thoughts.
"Just how much time do need to think? Just tell me what happened." Laya's frustration leaked.
The frustration was not towards the her recent question but, "I know it's just..."
Shugel had been trying to delay it, he didn't know what Laya's reaction would be? would she believe him?
Laya's had already told him about what had happened on her side. From how in midst of chaos Ulius attacked her. How all the people in castle where victim to some kind not spell that made them lose consciousness. How he or some people immune to this. about the crystals and everything.
It was evident by the way Laya described everything, she was worried about her mother the most. How would she react if he told her that her mother was behind all this? Would she even believe him?
The answer was probably no.
"Fine then I will begin from where we separated from you." Shugel prepared himself.
Laya looked back as if ready to not miss any details. Her heart was impatient yet it didn't want to. An emotion that was ready to grab her heart.
Something she didn't want to hear was coming. She could she it in Shugel's eyes.
If his hesitation was not enough already to tell that.