I gasped a little and staggered back a little bit. Right in front of me is a lever that's just been pulled and loud mechanical hum filled the whole cavern.
"Okay, nothing changed, great…" I turned around and saw Marulk standing beside me. "Okay Marulk! The gate is open!"
Marulk didn't respond however. He just walked towards me as his empty look slowly formed into a picture of pure grief and relief.
He embraced me into a hug and buried his head in my chest. His breathing turned uncontrollable and his hand gripped my trench coat like a life line.
"You… remember?" I whispered in utter shock and confusion. The boy nodded amidst his grief. "Marulk… Oh no..."
I really couldn't say anything. What I did was unforgivable, I just literally destroyed his innocence in the most horrible fashion. Forcing him to kill his own friend…
"Come here…" I lead him towards a wall near the temple entrance and sat down in front of it. Marulk snuggled up closer on my lap and starts sobbing in pain and relief.
We decided to take that moment to comfort ourselves. Drowning all the tension and depression away in each other's warmth and soft cuddles. The way he snuggled to my chest in the most comforting ways possible, I found myself smiling a little while softly stroking his head.
After about ten minutes break, Marulk finally regained his composure. He let go of me and looked at me with wide eyes. "Di-did it hurt?"
"Comparing that with these bad boys…" I showed him the thousand men pin on my arm. "Is like comparing a soft cuddle with being eaten alive by corpse weepers."
"You had been eaten alive?"
I cringed a little in embarrassment. "Yeah, not my proudest moment. But still a hundred times better than the pins."
Then, I thought about something else. "Hey Marulk, can you pinch my cheek a little? I wanna try something."
"At least you're not asking me to kill you…" Marulk said before softly pinching my left cheek. "How's this?"
I can feel him pinching my cheek, but not enough to create any pain. "a little bit tighter…" Marulk increased his strength and I can finally feel something.
"That's enough…" I muttered while rubbing the side of my face. "What the fuck is wrong with me…"
Marulk looked at me in slight concern. "Did that hurt?"
I shook my head and chuckled a little. "No, that felt good actually…" I sighed and looked up at the cave ceiling. "I lost the capacity to feel pain, probably because of the pins…"
Marulk blushed a little and looked down. "Y-you mean…"
"I will moan if you stab me." I said simply before standing up from my position. "Come on, let's tackle this temple one more time."
I grabbed Marulk's hand and helped him on to his feet. "You ready?"
"Do we really have to?" Marulk asked.
"Trial and error my dear friend, trial and error!"
The two of us stepped into temple one more time. But instead of walking there, I took out my grappling hook gun. "Where's the lever?"
Marulk pointed at the general direction to the right. "It's almost identical with the one outside, just a bit smaller."
I pulled the trigger and the hook came flying out of my gun. It soars through the air in a huge arc before disappearing into the darkness.
"Okay, it hits something." I pressed a button at the side of it and the hook starts pulling me in. "Really hope this deactivates the traps."
After struggling for a while, I managed to pull the lever and retrieve my hook. Loud humming filled the cavern and bright light starts filling up the corridor.
We didn't see it before in the darkness, but the walls are filled not only with holes but also murals of ancient civilization. There were depictions of humans, huge mechanical structures, and many more stuff.
"Okay, wow… this gotta worth something, right?" I said as the two of us stepped into the temple once again. "You think we'll find a first grade relic here?"
Marulk just shook his head while staring at the holes around him warily. "To be honest, I don't know what to expect at this moment…" he looked at the murals around him. "However, I think I've seen that before…"
He pointed at an illustration of a giant robot with stretchy arm. "You've met a giant robot before?"
Marulk smiled a little. "Not giant, but yes he's a robot. His name is Reg, he came to the camp six months ago along with a girl named Riko."
"Oh yeah, back in the surface, a bunch of blue whistles asked me to deliver them a message if I ever meet them." Then I thought about the huge craters near the corpse weeper's nest. "Also, does Reg by any chance is equipped with a Megaton cannon?"
Marulk shook his head. "I don't know, but I remember Ozen and Reg fighting and there was this laser that put a hole on the ceiling."
Ozen and a robot dude fighting? Now that's what I wanted to see. "Who won? How's the battle like? How many casualties? Does Ozen gets serious?" I asked him, wanting to hear all the juicy details.
The boy cringed a little after hearing that. "Ozen won… it was a curb-stomp battle, Reg really didn't stand a chance…" he looked down for a moment. "I was scared so I called the bandits to stop the fight. When I get there, Ozen was pounding Reg on the ground…"
Whoa, Ozen is hardcore badass. "Then.. did Reg die?"
Marulk gasped and shook his head. "Of course not! Reg's body was too sturdy for even Ozen to break, though it could be that she wasn't using the full power of the artifact…"
After conversing about robots and Lord Ozen, we finally made it to the end of the corridor. Giant stone door stood between us and the rest of the temple. Ancient Nether Glyph writing were carved on the door.
"Only a sound reverberating with life may open the door." Marulk read the text out loud. He looked at me in slight regret. "Sorry Haios, but it seems we need a White Whistle to get through this area…"
I looked at the door for a moment. Then I grabbed my own whistle and start blowing it as hard as I can.
"Look, it's not going to work…"
I kept blowing for one full minute, but no such luck. "Aww man, can't we… I dunno, force our way in?"
Marulk shook his head. "That wouldn't be wise, we could accidentally destroy some precious artifact or even activate some sort of self destruction sequence." He explained. "Let's go back and tell Ozen about this, maybe she'll help us?"
I sighed in dismay and raised my fist. "You win this time giant stone gate, but mark my words! I will be back!! You hear me? I will return!" I exclaimed as loud as I can.
I can hear Marulk chuckling a little. "Now, now, Haios-san, the door can't hear you."
With that, the two us left the temple and made our way back to the Seeker Camp, eager to tell Lord Ozen about this mysterious temple.