Walking down the titan-sized hallway, things were much quieter now that Mason wasn't causing a scene. Mason, who before was crying profusely like a child, was now extremely silent, like a predator stalking its prey in the night. He held his right hand as it spasmed and shook violently, clenching and unflinching at random. His fingers wiggled, twisted, and turned with each step he took. Every so often, I would hear a popping sound coming from his hand as he cracked his knuckles due to the uncontrollable movements of his hand and fingers.
Mason's steps were uneven. One moment, his legs would be fine, and then in the next second, his joints would stiffen up, causing him to stumble, wobble, or fall on the ground. The number of times this happened was so great that I was tempted to carry him like a princess to the meeting room where The Queen was waiting, but I decided against it as Mason would NOT be happy with me.
Instead, I asked a question, "Can you summon still?"
Mason, who stumbled into me and almost caused me to fall over, straightened himself a bit with my help before answering, "I can, but nowhere near normal. Orochi can only be summoned as a head if I were to guess. As for The Behemoth, I estimated he would summon as a pair of legs if that."
"Good enough. Summon Orochi and ride on top of him so I don't have to have the princess carry you to the end." Heating this caused Mason to snort.
"I'll give it a shot, I guess. Come forth, The Shadow of the Serpent, Orochi." Mason whispered into the air. The shadows beneath him rippled like a rock thrown into a water pool. Splashes of liquid shadows flew around us, flying onto myself and the perfectly clean marble granite tile floor. Each drop splashed violently before flying to Mason's shadow once more, and a white skeletal head emerged, growing larger until Orochi's head was roughly 12 feet in length.
The shadows splashed underneath the head with each movement as he nuzzled Mason's right caff, purring like a cat.
"Hey buddy, I missed you," Mason said in a nostalgic and sad voice, reaching down and stroking the head of the ancient killing machine. After petting Orochi, he fell onto the rough and hard bony head of Orochi, almost completely missing due to his legs locking up.
Mason mumbled a couple of times to himself as Elaine continued moving deeper down the extravagantly majestic hall, with a whirlwind of colors shining brightly onto every speck of space within sight. The entire color spectrum was on display, dancing swiftly for all eyes to see. Words could not describe the feelings I had watching these colors mixing together to create even more sophisticated and delightful hues.
Elaine stopped after a bit and turned towards a door exactly like the rest and this time knocked three times, each knock louder than the last. After the third knock she waited 5 seconds before opening the door. Immediately upon entering, a heated conversation.
"-about me!" A familiar female voice stated.
"-more important than my life! I was entrusted with your safety! How can I go against father's wishes?!? This is the mission our family has been given and I will NOT fail!" A male voice retaliated in anger.
"That's fine, but you must value your own safety as well! What's the point of having a body guard when he isn't around to protect anybody!" The female voice commented, now recognizable as Merlin's voice.
"My life my rules. I will do whatever i please with it and you have no say. My life was forefit the moment you were born with that ability!" Arnold, the male voice said as the door creaked open to announce our presence.
"Coming in," Elaine announced in a proper and refined voice, fitting for the next heir of the kingdom.
With light and gentle steps, Elaine entered the room and the rest of us followed. Our steps echoed into the now quiet room as the door gently closed behind us, creaking with each movement.
The first thing I noticed was that this room was the exact same as my own that I woke up up as it was completely empty except for a singular king sized bed and a old fashioned maple wood chair. In the bed was none other than Arnold, underneath the wide assortment of blankets that piled so high that only his hair and pointy ears stuck out.
Next to him, on his left, was the chair where Merlin his sister sat. Her face was pure red with tears running down her face, or at least was as now she wiped her face to make herself look more presentable. Sniffing her snot away, she changed her face to a more pleasant one as she saw who we were.
"Hello, Elaine, Leon, and Mason. I'm assuming it's time?" She asked with a hint of anticipation on her face.
Elaine, who was at the head of our group, nodded, "That is correct. It's time to speak with the ruler of this mansion and The Regional Guardian. Please make yourselves presentable and come with me."
Merlin, who got up from her chair, wore a simple white and green elf tunic. The colors were split, with the green starting at her right shoulder, spiraling to her back, and going down to her left ankle. Golden cuffings were around the neck, waist, and armholes of the tunic, which glinted and flashed with her movement.
"Just a moment to have him properly dressed," Merlin firmly said as her yellowish-blue eyes twinkled.
She walked closer to the bed in her middle-splitting silver sandals and helped Arnold up and out of the bed after covering him in the bright green blanket. Arnold shivered slightly, the blanket rustling with each movement.
Each step he took required some effort, as it looked like his body was weak and had no energy. It made sense, as he had all of his limbs cut off except for his head. It must take time for him to regain full feeling in his legs and arms.
Limping his way to the bathroom with the help of his sister, Arnold made grunting sounds with each movement. After a couple of minutes of standing in silence, they both came out. Arnold wore his majestic green, white, and golden-shaded short tunic that flowed a bit over his leather light brown leather shorts.
The tunic was mostly white with golden accented bracelets around the neck and hand holes, while the green was a cloak-esk cover on the front of his tunic that started from his left shoulder and crossed over to his right side. His high-top silver sandals twinkled brightly with the golden accents on them. Draped over his back was the blanket that allowed him to move, fluttering behind him with each move.
'Wait... those aren't his normal shoes?' I brushed it aside for now and set it back in the corner of my mind as I mentally prepared for the meeting.
"Sorry for the delay; let's go," Merlin said as she had her arm around her brother's shoulder.
Walking out into the hall and past the numerous maids, we walked in silence, and what filled it was the scuffing of shoes and light breathing.
While walking, I asked myself various questions, each one pertaining to what The Queen would ask us and what I would respond with.
She would surely ask what I saw within the last month regarding Abaddon and The Hidden Figure, but what would I be able to say? That I severely underestimated the strength and power of these monstrosities because I let myself get to my head due to recently graduating from school and that I am contracted with the Fire Elemental Ifrit.
I would sound like a fool to openly say that, but there was no way I could lie and get away with it.
At the same time, she must certainly know something about Abaddon, if nothing about The Hidden Figure. Abaddon has existed for thousands of years, and the Queen has existed since the dawn of humanity and Terra. Both of them watched The Golden Age fall into ruin thanks to the Holy War in which humanity was forced to join God and his creations against his demonic and uncontrollable disgraceful monstrosities.
The Demon Clan, creatures created from the fears, nightmares, and worst possible imagination of humanity, rose up against their creator, hoping to topple the chain of stability that has held up creation for eons, and almost succeeded if it wasn't for the mightiest mortal warriors of that time.
King Gilgamesh Von Astrea, King of Heroes, gathered the mightiest mortal warriors, whether human, elf, dwarf, dragon, or any other subspecies, and stood side by side with God's mightiest angels to bring down the dark empire the demons created in the shadows.
All manner of beings took his call to arms, such as the King Of Dragons, Lord Tyrus, the King Of Beasts Kaio, the Four Elemental Lords, and the King Of Spirits.
The battle, which should have been an easy victory, was FAR from what it was supposed to be. Legendary creatures of the night rose from the dead thanks to Death siding with the Demons. Mythological entities of mass destruction regained life and rampaged across Terra, rocking havoc to all of creation.
The Bastard Child of The Seas Allankathra, a massive serpent-like creature with blue armored scales, revived from the grave, sending raging tsunamis, hurricanes, and other water disasters. The Bastard Son Of Cinders Tindera, a massive, mainly red and some blue humanoid snake-ish creature, sends star-level temperatures across the globe. Crops disintegrated into nothing; water turned to dust, and livestock turned ash. The Bastard Child Of The Heavens Zydrake is a large 50-meter-tall red and black colored bird that sends rampaging winds across the planet. The Bastard Child of The Earth Dongora, a massive war elephant of stone, sent earthquakes, landslides, and various land disasters across the world of Terra.
The mortal side had The Representatives Of the most powerful clans join the fray, including the Rodrigues, the Flamesworth, the Woodstiff, the |_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _|, and various other prominent clans and their strongest warriors.
Each one of the mortal champions had an equal match, if not stronger, making morality low. World-shaking and ending calamities were seen with every attack, from the splintering of the ground several hundred thousand miles long, miniature suns appearing all over the skies, winds that vastly surpassed the speed of light, and the boiling, freezing, and vaporizing of all liquids across the globe.
Seeing how things were evenly matched, God had his greatest craftsman, The God of Forges and Knowledge Vulcan, to create the greatest weapon.
King Gilgamesh gave his general, Jason Rodrigues, the strongest mortal at the time, Excaliber, the weapon personally crafted by Vulcan. Using this legendary weapon, he turned the tide in the favor of the Gods and mortals. The power contained in Excaliber was so immense that limiters were placed on it not to destroy the body of the mortal wielding it.
Even with the limiters, Skysplitter Canyon was created due to the power within the blade, which was far surpassing any other. Certain canyon parts are still sizzling and steaming hot from the power unleashed by the attack to this day.
I briefly came out of my thoughts to look at the others and wondered if our ancestors participated in the war other than Arnold's, Merlin's, and Elaine's. Could my great-great-something grandparents have been in the war that would shatter the foundations of all of reality? Was it possible that I would never have been born if the gods had never won? What would the world be like if the outcome was different?
Thinking about the nearly infinite possible "What ifs" gave me a slight headache, so I decided to stop thinking about the past and lifted my head up toward our destination.
At the same time, we stood just before a equally titanic-sized stairwell that spiraled downward.Elaine took the first step down, with the rest of us following closely behind.
The railing was black with golden vine-like accents. Golden leaves grew out of the vines every other step, each from a different plant and with a different design.
"Don't look at the pictures," Elaine warned in a firm voice that made me slightly shiver. Taking her advice to heart, I kept my eyes squarely on the steps beneath me.
Shortly after Elaine told us not to look at the pictures, sickening whispers slowly seeped their way into my ears. The voices crawled their way into my mind, inaudible at first. That wasn't a issue as I could ignore them.
The problem was that I could sense their purpose even if I ignored what the voices said. I could not fight the underlying urge of the voices—to "look" at whatever was in the "pictures."
Sinister, writhing appendages slithered into the periphery of my vision, where the "pictures" lurked. Each time I moved away from or closer, those "tentacles" twisted and contorted according to how far or close the "pictures" were. Their colors, forms, and intricate details were shrouded in a haze, obscured and "restricted." They loomed before me, tantalizingly close, yet the truth remained veiled, leaving me confused.
An unseen force shackled my senses, constraining my ability to grasp the unfolding horror. I sensed an impending doom if I dared to gaze at the "pictures." Despite knowing this, insidious whispers began infiltrating my thoughts as if a trusted presence urged me to look. The silent murmurs morphed into voices I recognized: Sam, Arnold, Mason, Elaine, and my father. The very souls I held dear beckoned me toward the one act I dreaded most: to look.
'What would happen if I closed my eyes?' The thought gnawed at me as I felt the weight of my lids increase until I gave in, closing my eyes and leaving me in suffocating darkness. In that oppressive silence, the whispers surged, ravenous and insistent, clawing at my mind, hungry for my attention. They slowly peeled away at my self-control, unraveling the fragile threads of my will, urging me to give in and take a small look.
Now that I think about it, what's the harm in a small look? Surely, nothing can happen if I only take a quick peek.
My left eye creaked open, hungrily scanning everything in sight. The light glinted off the immaculate marble tiles, my reflection mockingly showing my blood-red eye. My shoes thudded against the floor, each step echoing like a heartbeat, while the "tentacles" in my vision writhed with manic energy, beckoning me to "look."
When I was about to look, the whispers around me faded, leaving a chilling sense of "regret" for not getting me to look. My left hand rose, and I found it entwined with another's. Turning my gaze upward, Elaine stood next to me with a troubled look on her face. Beads of sweat trickled down her forehead, dripping off and splattering onto the floor.
Raising my right hand to my head, I realized sweat was covering me as if I had just come out of the pouring rain.
Merlin, the one most deeply scarred by the encounter, spoke with a disturbing intensity, "If any of us dared to "look" upon the horrors concealed within those "pictures," we would be stripped of our very individuality, lost forever in a void of despair. The most merciful fate would be to slip into a comatose state, a lifeless shell for the remainder of your life. The far grimmer outcome? To become a host for the malevolent entity lurking within those "pictures," as it methodically devours your body, mind, and spirit, leaving behind only a desolate husk, a mere vessel for its ascent into our realm as a Calamity."
Her words shook me to my core, reminding me how close I had come to that fate had we stayed even a moment longer. Would I have been reduced to a puppet, a pawn for a calamity to wield? The thought sent shivers down my spine, knowing my loved ones would be the first to die in such a nightmare. Elaine's grip on my hand tightened, her fingers digging into my flesh until I felt numbness creep in, yet I remained silent, swallowed by the fear that enveloped us.
Mason was the one who dared ask the question that was slowly creeping out of my mouth: "How exactly... do you know this?"
My eyes remained fixed on the ground, and I listened closely to my ears as I heard someone shifting around. Their clothing rustled before an answer was heard: "Let's not dwell on that. Continue to where the queen is."
Elaine again tightened her grip on my hand, addressing the group, "It's safe now. You can raise your eyes, but please do not look back. Beyond this door lies the queen, so I urge you to conduct yourselves with the utmost decorum."
Reluctantly raising my gaze, I saw an enormous door adorned with an unfathomable array of flower petals and intertwining vines. Each was exquisitely designed, flawless in every detail, devoid of imperfections, scratches, or blemishes. The sheer volume of these, easily numbering in the tens of thousands, was astonishing, as if God had meticulously crafted them.
"The Authority of Beauty! I can't believe a divine-level power is being used like this. Wow! Just wow! Leon, come look!" Elaine exclaimed as she pulled me along, tugging me and causing me to stumble slightly. She halted in front of the colossal door, her fingers gliding over the intricate floral patterns with a sense of wonder.
Elaine gasped in surprise as her hand made contact with the door, quickly retracting it as if stung. Alarmed by her reaction, I instinctively took her hand in mine, examining it closely for any signs of injury, but found nothing wrong with it.
What happened? Did you cut yourself on the door? Are you alright? Should I-" My words were abruptly silenced when she placed a finger gently against my lips, causing me to stop. "Just touch the door and see for yourself," she answered, seemingly unwilling to give up any more information. With a sigh of resignation, I lifted my left index finger and pressed it against the door.
The first thing I felt was a delightful warmth, a gentle, fuzzy sensation radiating throughout my body. This warmth began at my fingers, toes, and head before finally flowing toward my chest, where my heart was the last place to experience the feeling. The sensation seemed to yearn for attention like a dog eagerly seeking affection. This was love, a feeling I was intimately familiar with.
"Love. This is the Authority of Beauty and Love," I said with a voice twinkling with understanding. I turned to Elaine and the others, smiling, "Ready to meet her?"
"Yes," Merlin and Arnold answered wholeheartedly.
Mason, on the other hand, mumbled an amalgamation of incomprehensible sounds and words. After realizing that no one understood what he said, he raised his head, allowing his face to come into view. With a swift motion, he wiped away the tears that streaked down his face before responding with a simple "Yes."
I turned to face Elaine, who stood next to me and gave me a firm nod. My eyes then drifted toward the door, and a sudden instinct surged within me, compelling me to act. "Open," I commanded.
The door creaked open, and a dazzling array of colors burst forth from the widening gap, illuminating the space around us. Alongside this ethereal glow, I was immediately struck by the soothing sounds of water cascading and the distant melody of birds singing in the air.
I saw a stunning array of creatures gracefully gliding through the skies above the estate.
Every familiar bird I could think of was energetically flapping its wings, darting in and out of view. In addition to these, a variety of mana beasts, including majestic Griffins, electrifying Raijus, enigmatic Nue, elegant Tiaraffs, enchanting Harpies, regal Sphinx, fierce Wyverns, and countless other mythical beings coexisted in perfect harmony. The clouds above were alive with vibrant hues of yellow and orange, casting a warm glow that added to the ethereal and dream-like landscape.
Looking down, I was met with an even more astonishing spectacle than that of the sky. A vast expanse of white flowers danced in the soft breeze, creating a mesmerizing scene that would sway the hearts of thousands. Hundreds of blossoming flowers swayed gracefully, their movements harmonizing with the gentle gusts, while the dark green grass beneath provided a rich contrast to the delicate petals above.
A serpentine trail of stone steps emerged from a flowing stream, stretching just beyond the tiled expanse before abruptly ending at a distance. In the distance, a grand bronze and golden-roofed gazebo awaited, its roof sheltering a large wooden table with matching chairs.
Elaine was the first one out, stepping onto the stone path, with us following closely behind her. As we traversed the path, we found ourselves over the splashing water, where vibrant fish danced alongside us, leaping joyfully from the surface in a delightful display. With each step I took, my perspective widened, revealing a breathtaking panorama of a flower-filled landscape that swayed gently in the soft breeze. Each blossom danced gracefully in the gentle breeze, sending delicate white petals soaring into the air. The scene reminded me of cheesy romance novels where the main character admits his feelings to the main love interest. The view was truly spectacular.
With each step I took, the edge of the cliff drew nearer. After traveling for a bit, we reached the top of a waterfall that fell for miles. After a while, we found ourselves at the summit of a magnificent waterfall that cascaded down for what seemed like an eternity. A series of floating stone steps floated just beyond the waterfall, guiding us toward a charming gazebo.
Elaine hesitated, her uncertainty causing small rock fragments to tumble into the colossal flowerbed below. I quickly reached her side, gently grasping her hand to offer comfort and assurance. With a sense of relief washing over her, she inhaled deeply, her left leg trembling slightly before it found solid ground. Her foot landed securely on the stone platform, easily supporting her weight.
Seeing that it was safe, I followed her closely, taking deliberate steps while absorbing the breathtaking scenery. As I gazed forward, the gazebo emerged on the horizon, its elegant silhouette poised gracefully against the backdrop of the landscape.
My head was filled with anticipation, and I was expecting one of the most important conversations in my life. I was right. I just wouldn't know it until I saw the full repercussions of my decision.
As Elaine approached the end of the floating stone slabs, she gracefully ascended onto the marble floor of the gazebo, the sound of her heels fading in the gentle breeze. Towering above were the grand Corinthian columns, which supported the gazebo's roof, which had an ancient mural depicting two majestic dragons soaring through the sky. My curiosity was piqued, but there was no time for that as Elaine halted and bowed deeply before the figure seated at the far end of the long, weathered wooden table. We all followed her example, rising to our feet, standing tall, and bowing in deference to the woman.
In response, she graciously commanded, "Please, rise, my esteemed guests," and we complied without hesitation.
As I lifted my gaze, the first thing that captivated me was the woman's mesmerizing reptilian eyes, a striking blend of orange, green, and blue. They twinkled with a familiarity that gave me a sense of nostalgia.
"I am Christina Valcaress, Queen of the Dragons. Welcome to my home, my esteemed guests."