"A…"
"ko…"
"…hi…"
"Akihiko."
'Huh?'
The pitch-black surroundings slowly shifted into faint glowing lines intertwining together to form the silhouettes of things.
As the floor, walls, and ceiling became clear to him again, his noise picked up the scents of the surroundings again.
The strong scent of dirt and rocks, the stuffy air, and the faint scent of sweat.
"Akihiko." – Nyza called again.
Groggily getting up, Akihiko felt his head heavier than when he went to sleep.
Shaking his head, he turned his attention to Nyza.
The latter had a worried look in her eyes, as did the others.
"…" – Elizabeth silently gritted her teeth – guilty blooming in her heart again.
"A-Are you okay?"
A nod.
"Really? You were trembling just now." – Olivia's blue eyes stared at his figure – her vision catching the smallest movement from him.
"…" – Again, a nod.
"If you say so…"
She took her eyes off him and shrugged – obviously not buying it.
"It has already been four hours. Do you want to rest longer, Aki?"
No one believed in him.
Akihiko got up and stretched in a seemingly lazy manner – his movements mirroring a cat's.
With a few cracking sounds he turned to Elizabeth and shook his head.
"If you show any strange behavior I'm dragging you back."
The others nodded.
Akihiko gave another nod as a response.
Elizabeth then checked the twins through the hole but saw that both of them were still asleep and decided to let them be.
"Aki, do you know where Xia is?"
Akihiko took off the gauntlet on his right fist, then got on one knee and touched the earth.
He gave it a few taps before digging his fingers into the earth and started to massage it.
Seeing his sudden actions the others got confused but it soon changed to embarrassment.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
He was just massaging the floor but his movements looked strangely erotic.
Beatrix's ears and cheeks reddened, and she quickly averted her gaze – she chastised herself for having improper thoughts.
Olivia watched with a mix of interest and incredulity – her expression torn between smiling or frowning.
Nyza tried to maintain a calm expression but a weird sense of embarrassment was welling in her heart.
'…'
'Elizabeth.'
'…'
'Don't tell me you're jealous of the ground.'
'…'
'Please.'
Elizabeth averted her eyes from the ongoing scene.
'...'
'Oh my God, you hopeless black hole.' – Elizabeth's master wished she had a body so she could slap her disciple in the head.
After almost a minute of weird silence and Akihiko displaying his unusual skill of massaging, one of the walls in the room opened.
"Tsk, tsk?" – Xia entered the room by the just-made door and smiled at the group.
"Tsss, tsk." – Akihiko stopped massaging the floor and got up.
Xia's smile widened at his clicks of tongue.
"Tsk? Tsk, tsk?"
"Tsk."
"Tsk~!"
Seeing the ongoing exchange, the others put the previous weird scene at the back of their minds and focused on Xia.
After a few seconds of exchanging clicks of tongue, the latter nodded.
"Tsk." – She motioned for them to follow her.
Akihiko conveyed the conversation's contents to the group.
"I see. Let's go." – Elizabeth's eyes glowed and she established a telepathic connection with the others except for Akihiko –
Nodding at her, the group positioned themselves and followed Xia out.
Walking amidst the tall pillars, they soon arrived at the temple's entrance.
As soon as they stepped out, the busy streets outside stopped.
All the earth dwellers stopped in place and turned their heads toward the temple.
"…" – Silence descended onto the center of the city.
"Tsk~" – Xia, uncaring about the silence, greeted the earth dwellers with a smile on her face before walking toward the node.
"Tsk!"
"Tss! Tss!"
"Tsk~ Tsk~"
"Tss, tsk!"
Her greeting was the starting fire that caused the explosion of clicks of tongues. The earth dwellers jumped, danced, and talked with Xia.
When they sensed her moves through the ground, the crowd quickly split apart, making way for her – no clicks of tongue were needed, their movement was uniform and timed.
The crowd looked almost like a wave – where Xia went, the earth dwellers took a few steps back to allow her to walk unhindered.
– Nyza commented while following along and glancing around the crowd.
After a few minutes of walking – mostly due to Xia answering the crowd and interacting with them – the group finally arrived at the node.
Akihiko's ears twitched, his tail stilled for a second, and he felt his throat dry.
Licking his dry lips, he put a hand on his head as an annoying and weird buzzing sound made its way to his ears.
Feeling his body grow hotter, Akihiko quickly used some techniques to try to help him.
"Tsk, tss, tsk, tssssss, tsk." – Xia clicked her tongue, trying to calm him down.
"Aki?" – Elizabeth quickly noticed his unusual behavior and her eyes swiftly drifted to the portal, hundreds of meters away.
Understanding Xia's words, Akihiko shook his head and resumed walking.
"Aki, are you okay?"
"…" – He shook his head.
"Can you explain what is going on?"
"…" – Again, he shook his head.
Akihiko's head throbbed, his hearing was occupied almost fully by that buzzing sound, and his body temperature was being kept under control by using some techniques from his clan – formulating sentences and translating them to hand signals wasn't something he was currently able to do.
"Is it because of the portal?"
He nodded once.
"Is it dangerous?"
He shook his head.
"…" – Elizabeth glanced at Xia and saw that the latter was calm despite the situation.
From what Akihiko understood according to Xia, what he was currently experiencing was a reaction to the portal's energy – something that happens with beings more sensitive.
'It's one after another…' – Akihiko wanted to go back to sleep. He just got over the headache from being subjected to a mental skill and now his condition worsened because of the portal.
"Is it going to pass soon?"
This time, he took a few seconds longer to understand her words before nodding.
"…"
"Hu-Hum… Excuse me…"
Akihiko half-turned his head back, facing Beatrix.
"Yo-You seem hot." – She raised her hands but flinched – "I-I mean your body looks hot. N-No, I mean your temperature… Ugh, forget I said anything…" – She gave up and her blue hands glowed in a brighter shade of blue.
She touched his suit and Akihiko felt the heat in his body recede, giving way to a soothing and cool feeling.
"…" – Absentmindedly facing up, he soon snapped out of his brief daze and nodded at her.
Her small gesture was much appreciated by him.
"Tsk, tsk."
They arrived at the entrance of the node.
The ground changed from just earth to solid rock bricks and even the air felt less stuffy around the structure.
The gray pyramid trunk with glowing golden lines emitted an ancient feeling – like something that truly didn't belong to the current era – and the several engravings through its structure gave it a weird artistic aesthetic.
Standing at the beginning of a colossal staircase, the group could see the portal floating at the end of the stairs – almost as if it was the final destination of the stairs.
Xia tapped the ground thrice with her foot before taking a step back.
*Rumble*
The bricks on the ground sunk into the floor before moving aside and revealing a staircase going downward.
"Tss, tsk."
Xia walked inside and motioned the others to follow her.
Sharing a glance, Elizabeth, Nyza, and Oliva positioned themselves both ahead and behind Akihiko before entering.
*Tap*
*Tap*
The cold and worn-out floor made it clear that this place wasn't visited frequently.
Looking at the walls, Nyza saw a myriad of engravings – ranging from simple humanoid-shaped drawings to depictions of full-scale battles. Her red eyes scanned all the engravings but there seemed to be nothing noteworthy or anything that connected one drawing to another.
Olivia's nose twitched – the scent of dust, metal, and something spoiled could be faintly sniffed in the air.
As they descended, the number of engravings on the walls increased and reached the point of completely occupying the walls.
"Tsk." – Xia's click of tongue echoed through the silent passage and produced an echo that went up the stairs.
She stopped in front of a featureless black door.
Putting both of her hands on it, she stood still.
After a few seconds, the door distorted and just like Akihiko's suit, the door became a liquid-looking substance that entered the walls, allowing for the group to enter.
"Tss."
She then stepped inside while leaving a piece of advice for the group.
Akihiko, feeling a bit better, moved his hands and translated her words.
Nyza and Olivia looked at Xia with mixed feelings – part of them wanting to believe in her but the other was still suspicious.
'Master?'
'I don't sense anything off. Your friend's instinct also seems to be the same.'
'I see.' – Elizabeth created a rope using mana and made everyone hold it.
The glow in her eyes diminished and the others' vision started to darken.
In less than two seconds, pitch-black darkness engulfed the group.
Nyza and Olivia walked forward using the walls as support and pulled the rope along.
Walking through the corridor, the cold and worn-out feeling started to change and became cold, metallic, and rusty.
As they kept walking, they eventually arrived at the end of the corridor.
The moment the group got out, a flash made everything turn white, making everyone but Akihiko and Xia shield their eyes.
After a few seconds, with the whiteness receding, the women opened their eyes with a burning sensation in them.
"What the hell…?" – Olivia muttered in disbelief.
In front of the group was an enormous room with destroyed robots, mechas, and heavy machinery lying all around.
The lights on the ceiling were working properly despite the low chances.
Elizabeth quickly surveyed the room with her gaze and a preliminary look already gave her almost everything she needed to know.
'Good thing we didn't bring the twins.'
The others probably had an idea of what this place might be, however, Elizabeth was probably the only one who knew about it the most.
In front of them was an almost useless yet high-level secret from the higher-ups.
An Old World research installation, and by the looks of it, it was still working.
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A/N: Hello there I hope you're having a wonderful day.
I will make a quick announcement that my update schedule got inside a rocket and went to space with no prevision of returning. I have personal things IRL to do so I'm a bit busy and when I finish them, I normally am mentally tired and have some difficult in writing the novel without forcing myself to do it, so I will be changing the schedule for now.
No one asked but I'm still active, so if you have any question or want to say something, you can either comment or enter the Discord community and call me there.
Now, putting this aside, I hope you had a good reading with this chapter.
Give me your feedback so I can figure out which part to work on so I can entertain you more.
If you don't, then Santa ain't giving you any gift this year.
And if you don't believe in him, you ain't getting any good discount this end of year, so forget about getting a console or PC.
Well then, that's it for today.
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
Bye kids.