Author's Notes:
Hey guys! I hope you're all having a warm and safe February! I'll try to make it even better by releasing two chapters a week, so look forward to that! Also, there is a pole on my profile page that I really need you guys to answer. Please, please, please take the time to click a few of those buttons! It would really help me! Anyway, enjoy chapter 53!
Chapter 53: Gods Reveal Themselves
Saito and Louise stepped through the world door and arrived in Sasha's house, expecting to see a scene of destruction. However, when they looked around, everything seemed fine. They're kids were rolling around on the floor, playing together happily.
They looked up at their two parents and immediately crawled towards them, wanting to be picked up. Saito picked up his daughter and Louise picked up her son, happy to see that they were okay. They then walked outside, where they could see their friends looking at something.
"Sasha, why did you call us here?" Louise asked, slightly irritated that she had to leave her new family.
Sasha simply pointed at what they were staring at, the white feathered dragon which was laying next to the black furred Hayai. Saito looked at the dragon closely. It stared back at him, almost like it could read his thoughts.
Suddenly, he felt something poke his back. He looked behind him and saw the white dragon trying to unravel his tail from his waist. When he looked back at the spot where it was before, he could still see it laying on the ground, staring at him.
It appeared to be in two places at once, something which frightened him. He decided that it would be best not to move, and instead let it feel him out. After a few seconds, it disappeared from behind him, seemingly satisfied with whatever it had been searching him for.
"What is it?" Saito asked.
"It's the source of the magic that was within that mountain." Mariel replied. "It seems to have some kind of relationship with your dragon."
"It seems like it's not a good one." Saito said as he observed Hayai ignoring the other dragon.
"Perhaps we should show them to Colbert." Louise said.
"You think there's something similar in his books?" Saito asked.
"Yes. We also never got his answer about what that strange symbol was, so we might as well ask him." She replied.
"Oh yeah. I guess it's settled then. Let's go." Saito said.
Saito and Louise had their kids hang from their backs, then hopped onto Hayai's back. Louise opened a door to Tristania, where Colbert was stationed to oversee reconstruction. Both dragons walked through the door without hesitation.
Sasha and Mariel chose to stay behind and try to study their books for any clues. When Saito and Louise had arrived in Tristania, they saw that it was being rebuilt and a fast and steady pace. As they and the two dragons walked through the streets, Saito noticed that the white one was extremely agitated.
It was extremely hostile towards anyone that came close to it. Hayai seemed to be the only thing keeping it from attacking someone. Eventually, they reached the centre of the city, where the royal palace was still under construction.
After walking through a busy crowd of workers, they entered the palace, looking for Colbert or Henrietta. Several minutes of searching later, one of the workers directed them to a room where Colbert was looking over blueprints for the city.
When he looked up from his blueprints, he was shocked to see the two rulers standing before him, although this feeling quickly disappeared when he remembered who they were.
"Hello you two! It's been a long time!" He said, walking towards them.
"Hello, Professor! It's good to see you again!" Louise replied.
"Oh my, such beautiful children! Why didn't you tell me you were having children?!" He said, picking up their son and daughter.
"We're trying to keep it secret for a little while." Saito said.
"They are absolutely adorable!" Colbert said, rubbing his cheeks on their own.
"Thank you, Colbert." Louise said. "But the reason we came here was because we needed some questions answered."
"Ask away." Colbert replied, still happy to be playing with the babies.
"Do you remember the symbol we asked you to research a while ago?" Saito began. "What did it mean?"
Colbert's face immediately became serious. He handed back their children, then wiped his glasses with a handkerchief he had in his pocket. He then cleared his throat and began to speak.
"Remind me, where did you get that symbol." He asked.
"I found it carved into a stone during the war while I was in Gallia." Saito said, lying convincingly.
"That's awfully strange." Colbert said. "This symbol belongs to a dead language from a civilization which is said to have existed at the edge of the world. We do know that this civilization existed, but we don't know where."
"Were you able to figure out what it means?" Louise asked.
"Luckily, over the thousands of years, there have been well documented findings of strange objects that washed up on the beaches of Halkeginia." Colbert explained. "One of them was a hollow stone that washed up on the coast of Gallia. It had several symbols on it. Each symbol was accompanied by a carving of an animal or something else to deal with nature. We deduced that each symbol must correspond to the sound that each carving made. For example, a snake making an 'S' sound."
"I see. So you were able to translate it after all?" Saito said.
"Yes." Colbert replied. "It appears that the symbol translates to 'Sooran'."
"Sooran?" Louise said, confused at the strange sounding word.
"Yes." Colbert replied. "I then did further research to see if I could find the same symbol in anything else which us Halkeginians had identified as being from that lost civilization."
He went to his bookshelf and took from it an ancient looking jar. It was chipped in several places, but was otherwise in good condition, with all of its decorations and colors clearly intact. He looked at it for a few seconds, looking for something in particular. When he found it, he showed it to Saito and Louise.
On the jar was painted several pictures. The one that Colbert wanted them to see was a picture of a six tailed creature. It walked on all fours and looked just like the dragon which laid on the ground outside the room. Inscribed above the picture was the same symbol.
"I found paintings like this on several artifacts. It seems that this creature, Sooran they called it, was extremely important to their culture." Colbert said.
"I see. That's very interesting." Saito said with another thought in his mind.
"One more thing." Colbert said. "There is another creature which is eminent in the artifacts. A three-tailed creature. It looks so similar to this 'Sooran' that I thought they were the same being. However, upon further inspection, I noticed that there was always a distinction between the two, particularly in the number of tails."
"And what was this one called?" Louise asked.
"I translated it as 'Tompass'." Colbert replied.
"I see. Thanks for your help." Louise said. "We'll speak again soon."
Colbert bowed, then went back to looking at his blueprints. Saito and Louise walked outside where the two dragons lay. Louise then opened a world door back to Sasha's house. When they arrived, Shion, Alex, Sasha, and Mariel were nowhere to be found.
"Louise, did you hear what Colbert said?" Saito asked, looking pale.
"Yes." She replied, not quite understanding what he meant. "What of it?"
"Sooran and Tompass? Doesn't that sound familiar to you?" He asked. "Those are the names of the two entities that supposedly control time and space."
"Their names were Soren and Tempus. Perhaps it's a coincidence." She said. "Besides, the illustrations of what Soren looks like in our books doesn't look anything like these two."
"Descriptions change over time." Saito replied. "Besides, think about Hayai's power. He can travel anywhere he wants by bending the space between to places. That's something that could only happen if you have control over...well, everything."
"I don't think we should jump to conclusions." Louise replied, more from fear of what Saito was saying than from trying to be logical.
Saito turned to the black furred creature and looked directly into its eyes.
"You can understand me, right?" Saito asked it.
It nodded its head once.
"Are you the being called Sooran?" He asked.
Yet again, it nodded its head.
"Are Sooran and Soren the same being?" He asked.
Confirming his hypothesis, it nodded its head again. Saito sat on the ground, both afraid and shocked at the same time. He then looked at the white feathered creature which laid on the ground with its eyes closed.
"And is that the being called Tempus?" He asked.
Hayai, or rather, Soren nodded his head, although he seemed quite irritated to be forced to acknowledge the white creature. However, he walked over to the feathered being and poked its head. They traded a series of threatening sounds, as if arguing about something.
Soren gestured for Tempus to show Saito something, which it seemed hesitant to do. However, after more bickering, Tempus finally conceded. It walked towards Saito and touched one of its three tails onto his forehead.
Saito's eyes immediately changed color, mimicking Tempus's eyes, as he began to see several images flash before his eyes. Eventually, everything turned black. When he opened his eyes again, he was shocked to see that he had been seemingly transported to a massive, bustling city.
It looked liked the kind of city he would see in his history books about ancient Egypt. The area was desert like, but had several small rivers running through and around it, causing a lot of greenery to grow in the area. The houses were made of brown bricks and there was an intricate systems of roads between the buildings.
The people who walked around had reddish skin and several colors of hair, from black to red to blonde. As Saito walked through the city, he noticed that none of the inhabitants noticed him, so he assumed that it was just a vision.
In the distance, in the centre of the large city, was a large pyramid being built. It was being made of polished stones, giving it a silver, shiny appearance.
"Where am I?" He thought to himself.
"Kalpalōka, the largest city ever built." Said a calm female voice behind him. "Capital of the country which bears the same name. A country which, at this time, is the most advanced in the world."
He quickly turned around to find the source of the voice. There, he saw the feathered creature that touched his forehead moments ago.
"Y-You can talk?" Saito asked with fear.
"I didn't take me long to learn your language. At least...not from your perspective." She replied.
"What do you mean by that?" Saito asked her.
"I have control over the flow of time, accelerating it, reversing it, and stopping it as I please." She replied in a somewhat condescending voice. "To you, it may seem like I learned to speak instantly, but for me, it has taken about...one and a half years."
"One and a half years?!" Saito exclaimed. "But if you're the god...or umm...goddess of time, couldn't you make yourself learn faster than that?"
"I cannot change the speed in which I am able to understand information." She replied "However, I can change my perspective of time as well. That one and a half years only felt like moments to me."
"That's amazing." Saito replied. "But...why did you bring me to this place?"
"Soren and I had a dispute in the past. It's the reason why I sealed myself in that mountain." She said. "It's also the reason why he...was injured."
Saito remembered the injury he found on his dragon. It took him a while to piece it together, but he realized why it was so hard to heal the wound.
"You two fought?" Saito asked.
"Indeed. I brought you here to understand why we fought and why he no longer longs for my company." She replied. "There's something else as well. It seems I was wrong about humans all those years ago. You have accepted the creatures I put onto this Earth. As a reward, I will give you information that will save your life in due course."
"Save my life? Is there another threat I don't know about?" He asked.
"No, you certainly have been told about this threat, although you've never seen it before." She replied. "This particular being is bothering me at the moment as well, so I would like you to take care of him when the time comes."
"Him? Is it a human? An Elf?" Saito asked.
"It is a thing that was born to a human woman, but I will give you details later." She said.
"I guess that's okay." Saito said. "By the way, you made it sound like you like Soren's company. I thought you hated him."
"Did it seem that way? No, I do not hate him. I was trying to appeal for him to forgive me, but it seems to be a fruitless effort." She said. "Nevermind that. Watch, and I will show you what you need to see."
She let him sit on her back, then walked up higher into the sky, as if stepping on invisible steps. Once they reached a certain height, Saito had a clear view of the massive city.
"This is where our little story will begin, in the city of Kalpalōka" She said.
Saito took a deep breath, in awe of the massive city. However, he soon calmed down, realizing that he was there for serious reasons, not to be a tourist. After a few seconds of mental preparation, he looked down at the beast he sat on.
"I'm ready."
Author's Notes:
Hey guys! I'm actually on time for once! Also, yay! We're getting more lore! I hope you enjoy both this, and the next chapter. Please leave a review or send me a PM. Also, I highly encourage you to vote on the pole on my profile page. It will dictate which series I will write a fanfiction for next, so make sure you get your opinion heard! Thanks for reading, and see you next time!
