Heya everyone!
Here's the third chapter, hope you enjoy it!
DISCLAIMER: English is not my first language, so please be patient with me!
Chapter 3 — "The Ghost Serpent incident."
The next day, as agreed, Zach and Zorian teleported near the Ghost Serpent Acolytes settlement.
Thanks to Zorian's understanding of the aranean specie, he quickly sensed and mentally contacted a sentry as they approached. It was only recently that he could so easily converse with these types of araneas, those who never learned to interact with humans or any other species. Zorian realized that it would go a long way to ease the nerves of this particular paranoiac web.
Zorian remembered the last time he came. At that time, he did sensed the sentries but couldn't communicate with them efficiently enough. All he did was sending them a rough bunch of emotions to convey his message. In their eyes, the boy had simply barged in without really announcing himself, which obviously would put anyone on edge at least a little. Even more so through the prism of aranean culture, which highly valued patience. Some webs, such as the Luminous Advocates, would even deliberately prolong negotiations. Not for any particular gains... just because of their customs.
The time travelers could see and hear a bunch of araneas skittering around, toward their destination, probably announcing them to the colony. To give them time, Zorian quietly advised Zach that the two of them should slow down.
As they approached the entrance of the cave, they were immediately ushered inside. Zach and Zorian gave each other an incredulous look. They tried to ask why they admitted strangers so readily, to which their aranean guides simply responded that the Ghost Serpent wanted to see them, and that they neither knew the reason why nor cared. They simply did what their adopted deity told them to do.
As they navigated the narrow tunnels, it was clear that those araneas weren't particularly fond of being in the presence of humans such as themselves as they swiftly discarded any attempt at conversation along the way the moment any of the two tried initiating it. Or maybe it was also an instruction from their deity that forbid them from interacting with outsiders more than what was required.
Eventually, they arrived at their destination. A large circular cavern entirely filled with a beautiful translucent body of water, with the exception of a lone outcropping of crystallized rocks in its the center and a stone bridge connecting it to the entrance. The ceiling contained a number of glowing white crystals, giving it the appearance of a starlight sky.
Strangely enough, while most would be in complete awe in front of such natural wonders, Zorian felt an eerie felling swelling up in his stomach. The reason floated in the center of the room, willfully ignoring the rules of gravity.
Just above the rocky outcropping, a giant, milky-white, translucent snake hovered. Its eyes had a soft pink complexion, glowing in the barely illuminated underground lake. Spirits were often said to have fanciful and poetic names that rarely depicted the reality of their being, but it seemed the Ghost Serpent wasn't one of them.
Both Zach and Zorian could feel the ancient and powerful aura emanating from the owner of this place. It wasn't anything magical stricto sensu, just a primal feeling that indicated that they were in the presence of a higher being. As they entered the cavern, the Spirit focused its large slitted eyes on them. A wave of pink light rippled across its ghostly scales, travelling out from its eyes and down to the very tip of its tail.
"Leave us, leave us, leave us," it ordered the araneas. Its voiced wasn't what Zorian expected. It was soft and melodious without a hint of a hiss.
As they waited for the last araneas to skitter away, both party studied each other. A certain weight hang in the air as the silence became louder and louder by the second. Zorian heard a sound behind him. The araneas had sealed the entrance. Though it wasn't anything Zach nor Zorian couldn't easily obliterate to smithereens, being physically enclosed with such a powerful entity was unnerving.
"How?" it demanded, a note of incredulousness in its voice. "How can there be two of you? I know the rules — only one can enter and only one can leave."
"We don't know what you're talking about," Zach responded, a bit of arrogance slipping through his tone. "Why don't you start from the beginning, okay?"
"Don't order me, Branded One!" the Ghost Serpent snapped, recoiling angrily in the air. "I hate you, hate you, hate you! Thief and murderer! Liar and egg smasher, lowest of the low!"
"Hey, watch the slander, serpent!" Zach protested, pointing his finger at the Spirit. "I don't even know you! First time we've ever met!"
"Liar, liar, liar!" the Ghost Serpent said, narrowing its eyes on the boy, analyzing him for any sign of falsehood. "I wouldn't know, even if it was, now would I? I know how this works, you filth! After all, you both bear the Brand, but how could this be?!". It glanced at Zorian. "I remember it, most have forgotten but I didn't! I am older than the mountains and rivers, and I remember the Cycles! The crimes they did — the way they made me fall. If they behaved as they did at the End, who dares to even imagine what they did in the In-Between, free of the constrains of consequences? What they made us go through to greedily achieve their twisted goal! "
"Ghost Serpent, you must believe us when we say that we understand very little about our predicament," Zorian intervened, trying to calm the Spirit before Zach had the chance to piss it off for good. "From what I understand, you are aware of the time loop, yes?"
"Time loop?" It repeated, inclining its head in confusion. "An odd choice of words. You're wrong. Nobody remembers the In-Between. Nobody is aware of it. Only the Branded One. This has happened again and again in the past. It is not difficult to understand."
"Are you saying there have been more time loops in the past?" Zorian asked, incredulous.
Fortunately for them, it seemed that while the Ghost Serpent knew of the mechanism of the time loop, it didn't retain its memory across restarts. It just identified them as Branded and as such, realized that he was stuck in the time loop. Maybe there was other factors that gave it away, but Zorian couldn't think of any aside from their isolation from the spiritual plane. It meant that this encounter was possibly reproducible if they bungled things up right now.
"They were once regular like the seasons," the Ghost Serpent replied. "Every four hundred years, whenever the planets aligned, the Gate would activate. But the Gate has been lost for some time now, along with its Key. Alas, it seems someone has finally reenacted this wretched thing again." A dangerously bright pink aura started radiating from the Spirit. Heat in the cavern seemingly skyrocketed in a matter of seconds. "May he burn in the molten heart of the world forever! Immoral speck, fool of fools, blindest of worms! He ought to suffer an eternity more than even them, foul cringer!"
The Ghost Serpent writhed in rage in the air, overcome by outrage at the person responsible for the time loop. Zorian caught a glimpse of Zach tensing, ready to fend for himself at the slightest sign of aggression. Zorian quickly put a hand on his shoulder. Fighting the spirit was not an option, especially if it was as old as it claimed to be. Zorian didn't know a lot about them, but he knew spirits were very closely related to the divine in some way or another.
After a few seconds that seemed like hours, the air regained its stillness and the heat died down. The Spirit came back to its senses. It focused on each of them before speaking again.
"I do not understand how the Brand can be shared, but it has happened, and you're ignorant of the reasons why. It is useless for me to continue this talk. I do not wish to talk to you anymore."
"Please, O great spirit!" Zorian knelt a little panicked, betting on his last card — flattery and humility. "I can see that you have been grievously wronged by past Branded. We're not here to invalidate your grudges. But, we've been thrust into this unknowingly and without any say on our behalf. We need someone to guide us."
"I know how this works, works, works... you will come again, and again, and again! Sucking me dry of any knowledge and wisdom! Learning my fears! My weaknesses! You will simply take, take, take until there is nothing left. The only right answer is to not engage with your kind. What can you do, after all? Even with all your preparation, training and manipulation? Today I might die, but tomorrow, I live once more."
"We only want to know how this time loop works," Zorian said.
"Yes! If we're as bad as the last one who wronged you, you'd tell us information we already know. And if we're not, you'd simply help us by giving us something that cannot be used to harm you anyway," intervened Zach.
The Ghost Serpent floated in the air silently, considering their request. Zorian could feel a bid of sweat traveling down his temple. Zach seemed more relax, but clearly still on edge after the Spirit outburst.
"Very well," it finally accepted. "But after that, you must leave. And if you have any honor left at all, you will never visit me again. Even after I have forgotten."
Both promised to his demand, though Zorian couldn't help but doubt if his partner really meant it considering the speed he had answered.
"Promises are but wind until actions prove one's character... but they are better than nothing at all." Ghost Serpent said, before starting his explanation.
From the water emerged a large sphere. It flew over to where Zach and Zorian were standing. After shifting around for a few seconds, a crude diagram unfolded — a single horizontal line with an upturned triangle balanced in its middle.
"The bottom link represent the Beginning and the End," the Spirit started. "The world of the Branded One, the one you were born in, and the world you will die in. The triangle is the world In-Between, existing for only a moment, constantly destroyed and recreated anew. Lifetimes condensed into a single moment. That is were we are all trapped, us, recreation of our originals. So that Branded Ones like you can learn and evolve without the constraint of consequences. Once the fire that fuels the In-Between fades, we shall all wither away into the void... except for the Branded One, who will return to the line, to the End, to live through this month one last time, time, time..."
"Wait, are you saying this world is all fake?!" Zach asked, taken aback. "Is it just some kind of illusion?!"
"Not an illusion, a reproduction," clarified the Ghost Serpent. "If you could mimic a painting in every stroke and shade, would it not be as real as its original?"
The entrance of the cave opened again, a number of araneas behind. Zorian guessed that the Ghost Serpent had telepathically given them the order since their meeting was over.
"Now leave. I have given you what you asked for. Honor your end of the bargain and never come back, back, back!"
Zorian acquiesced politely while Zach simply headed out of the cave, not acknowledging the rudeness of the Spirit nor giving it a glance back. The Ghost Serpent simply watched them leave with its fierce slanted eyes.
Zorian lagged behind, torn on whether to push his luck with one final question or not. Zach had already exited the room. Standing on the edge of the entrance, he pondered momentarily before deciding to try his shot.
"Oh, right. Ghost Serpent, may I ask you a final query?" he dared to ask, innocently tilting his head back to the Spirit.
"You wretch! you would go back on your word—"
"Nothing of the sort, I assure you, esteemed Spirit. It has nothing to do with the time loop." Zorian quickly clarified. He could feel the araneas guides beside him getting agitated seeing their deity's anger.
"Leave, leave, LEAVE!" it ordered, repeating it again and again, anger flaring the air around it, its aura manifesting and waving dangerously, almost bursting.
"Than, you don't have to answer me. Just hear me out." gambled Zorian, raising his voice and speaking faster, sure that if the Ghost Serpent had something on the subject, it would react accordingly. "Does the sentence [Akio tunbi fua ya dorita manitera kro eloni fi nazari-k ario Ain Ol gon-] means anything to you? Especially that last part — [...fi nazari-k ario Ain Ol gon-]?"
A second of complete silence passed .
To Zorian's surprise, the Ghost Serpent stopped dead in its track, its rumbling gone as if it had never existed in the first place. The heated up air of the cave yet again regaining its stillness.
It had been challenging so far for Zorian to read the Spirit's facial expression considering its serpentine appearance. But at this instant, the boy would've bet anything that the Ghost Serpent was utterly chocked, its eyes bulging out of their sockets.
It had only been a few seconds, but the silence was deafening, and the shift impossible to miss. The Ghost Serpent, the ancestral Spirit of this region, who was withering in rage a moment ago, was shivering. It was subtle at first, but became more and more pronounced.
Zorian perceived fog coming out of his mouth. He realized that the air hadn't just regained its stillness, but had become glacial.
The fifteen-years-old also noted that the aura's effect of the Ghost Serpent probably wasn't something it conjured, but merely the result of its emotional state. Fiery and agitated when angered, unmoving and freezing when...
Is it... scared? Zorian thought.
It would have been hard to believe if it didn't happen in front of Zorian's very eyes. An immortal, powerful and ancient being rendered shaking like a leaf. It wasn't hesitant or even anxious. The Ghost Serpent was full-on petrified on the spot.
Zach, realizing that something had happened, quickly regained Zorian's side, unsure of what exactly transpired. He discovered the state of the Spirit.
"What happened to the serpent?" he warily asked Zorian.
Before he could respond, the Ghost Serpent finally spoke.
"How? Where did you find it, it, it?"
Zorian considered if he should answer. Since it already knew about the time loop, the Spirit would trust them if they spoke, but might also panic at the mention of the release of a primordial, something even the silent gods couldn't get rid off.
"It was uttered by a primordial after being released. The loop ended before I could hear the rest of the sentence." admitted Zorian.
The Ghost Serpent visibly recoiling through the air.
"Those horrid spawns of the dragon?!" hissed the Spirit, opening its giant mouth. "I see now why they activated this wretched artifact again."
"Do you mean we were put in this time loop to stop the release of the primordial?" asked Zorian. He had strong suspicion about this, and thankfully this confirmed it.
"We agreed that no more information shall be exchange on this subject! I shall let it slide since it was my comment that prompted your query, but expect no answer, Branded One," it answered almost calmly.
"Yes, excuse my zeal O great Spirit," apologized Zorian. "Can you however illuminate our ignorance about what the primordial said? It seemed to have had a deep impact on you."
The shivering of the serpent had lessened, but the cavern still felt freezing, confirming that whatever the Spirit feared was still deeply imprinted inside his mind. It focused its gaze on the two humans standing at the entrance of the room, considering what it should do, before relenting.
"That wretched being tried to call upon a higher existence," the Ghost Spirit said, cursing at the primordial. "Offering an exchange for their assistance."
"Did he try to call upon the silent gods? But they're the one who imprisoned him, that makes no sense." Zach commented, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"Not necessarily the gods, Branded One. I do not remember anything going by that name... but I can sense its nature to be... vile, an evil of the highest order. That of which I have never felt before. Not even from the dragon below."
Realization slowly crept upon Zach and Zorian's mind. The dragon below is said to be the origin of all monsters, the source of all evil, creator of the primordials. Of course, their perception of the dragon is somewhat skewed because of the Triumvirate church and their depiction of it. Realistically speaking, none could ascertain with certainty what really happened between the gods and the dragon.
But still, if an immortal spirit, older than the very mountains, claimed this unknown entity to be worse than the infamous progenitor of calamities... well, they started to understand the reason behind the absolute horror the Ghost Serpent was feeling.
"And I guess our sentence does not mention the terms of this exchange?" Zorian asked.
"No."
"Do you know if the primordial's call could be answered by whatever abomination it tried to conjure?"
The Ghost Serpent remained silent. Zorian was beginning to understand the somewhat prideful nature of this spirit. It wouldn't admit not knowing something, Zorian thought. He needed to word his future questions the right way if he wanted its cooperation.
Then, water from the lake started rising through the air, levitating and reshaping itself in lines and diagrams. The work of the Ghost Serpent, obviously. It started creating numerous magical circles, none of which Zorian nor Zach could understand the meaning off.
Of course it have esoteric magic unknown to mankind, Zorian realized.
"What are you doing?" asked Zach.
The magical structure started glowing a shade of light pink, the same color as the Spirit's eyes, and spin around, gaining speed with every second, the Ghost Serpent as its center.
"I shall channel a ritual to investigate the origin of this name," the Spirit explained, not burdened at all by the effort of conjuring the monumental spell. "Something is amiss. Such a powerful entity shouldn't be an unknown in my memory, memory, memory."
Its eyes shone brightly. The whole cavern illuminated by the spectral color.
Zorian hesitated for a second, sensing his stomach turn. He had a bad feeling about the whole ordeal. If the situation was any different, he would have taken offense at the spirit for going on a whim, but right now only uncertainty bordering on panic gnaw at his mind.
"Prepare yourself," he whispered to Zach, amidst the cacophony of noises generated by the ritual. "Worst case scenario, you need to protect us until I can activate my instant teleportation ward."
Though it didn't seem that way, Zach was a veteran mage fighter with decades of experience. He didn't even need a second before nodding his head as he started casting subtle defensive spells on them.
Zorian cursed the serpent mentally, he didn't want Zach to know of his hidden cards, especially after what he gleaned from their earlier conversation about the time loop. So far, there was a lot he hadn't informed Zach of, such as his device that could instantly teleport, and he had hopes that it would've remain that way. Being forced to show his hands really soured the boy's mood. But he refocused on what was happening.
"Are you sure about that, O Ghost Serpent?" he asked, speaking louder too cover the noise. "Isn't the name we're researching incomplete? And, is it even wise to meddle in the affairs of such powerful being?"
"Silence, fool! The name you speak of is only the medium that convey its power," the Spirit snapped at Zorian, turning its head to face him. With brightly shining eyes and an incomprehensible spell hovering menacingly above him, the Ghost Serpent seemed far more imposing than even before. "If one can sense the power hidden behind the medium, one can find the source. The state of the medium has nothing to do with—"
Suddenly, as the spell converged on itself, finally activating, something unexpected happened.
To everyone present —to Zach, to the Ghost Serpent, to the araneas, and especially to Zorian— time seemed to slow down.
The spell that encompassed the entire cavern, mid-way through its convergence, collapsed into a million pieces.
Another magical sigil instantly formed near the Ghost Serpent, as if it had popped into existence on its own. It only lasted a fraction of a second before activating.
Thanks to his excellent mind magic, Zorian could register everything that was happening, even though his body couldn't necessarily keep up. The magical formation that had appeared was completely foreign to the young boy, even more so than what the Ghost Serpent was trying to conjure a moment ago. It was colored in a deep scarlet shade. As it activated, it instantly brightened.
One could've easily blinked and missed the entire formation and activation of the spell, it had just been that fast. This speed went against nearly every fundamental law of magic formation that anyone inside this this room —including the Spirit— knew of.
The Ghost Spirit seemed to hiss out of desperation, but no sound made it out of its throat quickly enough.
At the same time, Zorian turned to Zach with all his might. He cursed that his body couldn't equal his mind. Almost agonizingly slowly, he began moving his mouth.
"SHIE—"
Than it happened. From the cursed unknown spell appeared an explosion whose temperature was so high that it nearly instantly melted the outcropping of crystallized rocks in the middle of the room, along with the Ghost Serpent. A miniature star given birth.
The ever-expending sea of flames and deflagration propagated through the empty space and toward the entrance where the others were.
"—ELD!" finally finished Zorian.
Zach reacted instantly, understanding the danger of the incoming explosion even before Zorian could finish. Zach's mana reserve was immense, he knew it. As such, it was rare for him to ever cast a spell that would put a significant dent on it. Yet, he wisely decided to pour everything he had in his next conjuration. What he created was probably the sturdiest magical defense ever created by a single mage in modern history. As he narrowly finished it, Zach was convinced that it would've easily swatted away even the strongest attack of the mightiest Dragon Mage, Oganj, who's raw magical power was leagues above even that of the millennial lich.
Simultaneously, Zorian also began channeling power into one of his ring, faster than he had ever shaped mana before. The ring in question was the beacon that would activate the instant teleportation ward.
On the corner of his eyes, Zorian saw the cataclysm that was approaching. The water had completely evaporated, probably adding to the force of the deflagration. The walls of the cavern were as bright as the sun, and began melting away.
When the explosion reached them, the poor araneas around them that weren't behind Zach's protective shield were instantly vaporized.
The ultimate shield lasted only for an instant, cracking and collapsing faster than the blink of an eye, to Zach's astonishment.
Zorian's ring finally activated. As he touched Zach at the same time, both instantly disappeared from the aranean underground settlement. Their field of vision shifting from a bright, inescapable sea of impossibly hot flames to a somber field of overgrown grass atop a hill overlooking the mountain where they just escaped from.
Silence reigned between the two as they gazed upon the destruction. The explosion had continued all the way toward the surface. An entire chunk of the mountain's base had been pulverized by the deflagration. Every araneas inside and near the entrance of the settlement were either obliterated or charred into oblivion.
The time travelers remained there, in complete shock of what had happened. Zach was panting heavily after the spell he just conjured, his mana reserve almost entirely depleted. He fell to his knee in the grass, gasping for air. Both could feel their hearts beating out of their chest, adrenalin cursing through their veins, bids of sweat rolling down their faces.
"We need to run," Zach said between breath, his years of honed experience screaming him to flee as far as possible, as soon as possible.
Zorian nodded heavily, trusting his companion's acute instinct.
"I don't think— No, I can't teleport myself. Can you take us both?" he asked.
Zorian simply acquiesced again, understanding the toll that weighed on Zach's body. Mana depletion was never an enjoyable experience, especially in such barren environment where ambient mana was low.
He quickly prepared the teleportation spell, and they both disappeared again.
Unbeknownst to both of them, they had been noticed.
[. . .]
Panicked as he was, Zorian didn't forget to abide by his security measures concerning teleportation. Those golden rules were edicted in order to protect himself, and most importantly, his friends and family from Red Robe's soul-kill ability. As such, the duo went from place to place as to confuse whoever would've, somehow, bypassed his anti-divination protection without him noticing and located him. He had to pause between every few jumps to recover his mana. After a satisfactory number of blink through space, they finally appeared within Cyoria, inside a dark alleyway some distance away from Imaya's place.
At some point during their multiple teleportations, Zach had recovered enough to walk without assistance and even cast the teleportation spell himself, but Zorian advised against it, preferring the boy to focus on regaining his strength. It wasn't a decision born out of compassion, but a strategic one. Zorian simply thought that, were they to be ambushed in the very-near future, he's rather rely on a rested and operational Zach instead of a weakened one.
Instead of heading to Imaya's house, they decided to go to Zach's estate, where they would be alone and where the ward protection system was the heaviest. It didn't take them long to arrive through another quick teleportation casted by Zorian.
They silently entered, verified that everything was in order, that nobody was nearby nor searching them, and finally collapsed in the couches, letting out a heavy sigh.
Nobody spoke for a time, both simply letting their nerves relax. They felt like their entire body suddenly lost energy, the after effect of the adrenalin they had been drowning in since their escape.
"Ah... ah... what the fuck was that shit?" Zach chuckled, his face still buried in the couch.
The question was rhetorical, of course neither of them understood what had happened.
Zorian wondered if this light chuckle from his companion was born out of stress, as a way to loosen up, or genuine. Zach had always enjoyed fighting... and action in general. Zorian wouldn't have been surprised if the boy honestly found the experience exhilarating. After all, he had fought and died across a dozen or so restart against Oganj, the mightiest Dragon Mage, simply because he felt like it and wanted to test his strength.
"Did you ever encountered something of this magnitude?" Zorian asked, sitting himself on the couch after having laid there.
"No. At least not this powerful," Zach admitted. "The closest I can think of would be a certain spell from Oganj. But it was never as destructive and fast as that. The only similarity I can think of would be their area of effect."
"It seemed to me that it was some kind of countermeasure against the Ghost Serpent's divination attempt," said Zorian. "I don't even understand how such thing is possible. It was as if the magic conjured itself out of thin air!"
Zach said nothing back, probably because he didn't know either.
"Its almost certain that this is related to the name from the primordial's sentence," Zorian stood up, mainly speaking to himself, frustration finally spilling out. "First that thing with the time loop, and now this? He might have brought us into an even more impossible situation, that shitty lizard! Fuck! When will this end? Do we now have to contend with a damn godly being too?!"
It was the first time Zach saw Zorian lose his temper so openly.
"I don't even know where to begin with this shit!" he continued. "I— I need to think."
Zorian went to the door. He really wanted for them to separate for a few hours so he could get some alone time to think all of this through. Godly matter aside, they're initial talk with the Spirit had given birth to a terrible suspicion in Zorian's mind about their situation, one that he wanted to deeply ponder and reflect on before doing anything rash.
But Zach and he weren't of the same mind.
"Where are you going? We should talk it through now," Zach argued. "While it is still fresh in our memories."
"I have a really good memory," retorted Zorian. This wasn't just a snarky come back. Thanks to his mastery of mind magic, he had registered every moment of their encounter with the Ghost Serpent, and could review them as many time as he wished. "I need to... think about the spirit's words."
"Great, you do that," Zach said with a dismissive shrug. "But there's no reason why you can't do that here with me. I'll be patient, I'll just... sit here quietly until you're ready to talk. My memory is not as good as yours, after all. I need to rely on you for this kind of things."
Zorian gave him an annoyed look. He knew that Zach's was being full of it. There was noway this meathead would sit for hours just waiting in silence. He wanted something out of him, Zorian just knew it.
"Okay, let's cut the bull, you and me, Zorian," Zach expressed with a sigh, matching Zorian's annoyed gaze. "I know how this goes. If you get away now, you'll find time to think of some stupid story to throw me off, and you know I'll buy it."
Zorian tried retorting, but was cut off before he could.
"Don't insult me, Zorian. I know you know something. Something more than what just happened." Zach continued. "There's no way you would explode like you just did just because you nearly escaped death."
Though he didn't show it, Zorian was quite impressed by Zach's observational skill.
"I don't know anything for certain, Zach," admitted Zorian. "Beside, even if I did, I wouldn't have bothered inventing some kind of elaborate lie to deceive you. What I did with the araneas was an exceptional circumstance and you know it. You can't keep that up against me every time you—" Zorian stopped himself mid-sentence. Better not diverge too much from the topic at hand, he thought. "...Anyway. I would've just refuse to tell you anything and that would have been it."
"Right, sorry," Zach apologized, seemingly genuinely. "I guess I was being a little unfair here. Still, you're not seriously considering leaving me in the dark, are you? After everything I've done for you? Informing you about that arrogant snake and helping you with your mind training? Surely you realize how that would kill any sort of trust there is between us, right? "
Zorian remained silent, but averted his gaze. Of course he knew, but their situation wasn't that simple! If his suspicion were proven correct, there might not even be room for trust between them at all...
He remembered the words of the Ghost Serpent "Only one can enter, and only one can leave.". If only one could quit the time loop, and everybody else were destined to vanish into the void along with the world of In-Between, how could they truly cooperate with each other? Any kind of alliance they might form would only last until the inevitable final decision — who shall escape and live.
And given Zach's position in the whole ordeal, Zorian easily recognize he was the underdog in all of this. If push comes to shoves, what could he realistically do against him? He might not sound or act like it, but Zach was a foe Zorian could never match in combat, even with thorough preparation. And, if nothing else, Zach seemed to be recognized as the most legitimate time traveler by the system of the time loop ; Zorian only inherited a defective part of the marker.
With all that said, it wasn't as if Zorian wanted to keep Zach in the dark. Zorian knew himself pretty well, he knew he was the cautious type, bordering on paranoiac. Half of him screamed to never let this secret go and keep the advantage over his friend until the very end. Yet, another part of him refused to let go of his morals, to maliciously deceive and manipulate the person he had come to call a friend.
Zorian remembered how Spear of Resolve had also kept him in the dark during the Red Robe incident, and how he resented her for that. How it had made him miserable. And while conductive her secretive scheme for a better tomorrow, the catastrophic end of the Cyoria's web and of their entire plan had still happened.
Wouldn't it be better to treat Zach the same way Zorian wished to be treated back then? After Zach had opened his hands to him, could Zorian truly reject him and fall back to his old habits of suspecting ill will of everyone? Zorian decided. Trust had to start somewhere. So he relented, and turned to Zach.
"Fine," he sighed. "I'll tell you my suspicion."
Zach punched the air in victory.
"But I have to warn you beforehand. It has the potential to destroy any lingering trust between us." Zorian continued seriously. "I mean, we already don't trust each other very much. Don't think I haven't realized that you keep a mind blank spell when you're around me. And I don't believe for a second you don't know that prolonged usage of this spell is dangerous for one's mind. You're ready to risk causing harm to yourself because you're afraid I'll mess your mind with my power once I get the chance."
Zach visibly recoiled, shock and embarrassment visible on his face. It reminded Zorian of an infant caught in the act. Actually, he had a perfect image of Kirielle appearing in his mind.
"I don't blame you," Zorian said, a bit of regret in his tone. "I would do the same in your place. But it proves my point, we already distrust one another. How much more can we realistically bear before stabbing each other in the back, especially if we knew that only one of us can exit this time loop alive?"
Zach flinched, flabbergasted. His look simply expressing 'explain'.
And while the two continued their heavy conversation, the premise of untold despair was slowly unfolding itself. All across the country, shadows started moving. Whispers and murmurs ushered His great name in secrecy.
The wave caused by the two unknowing time travelers had attracted His attention.
The calamities of old shivered away in their inter-dimensional prison, unsure of the reason why. Except for one, who, in his folly, thought he, who was ever-changing, could control what he couldn't understand.
[. . .]
The underground lake of the Ghost Serpent was no more. All that remained was a charred wasteland where only molten tar remained. A part of the ceiling had caved in, revealing the upper section of the aranean settlement. Carbonized remains —or rather ashes— of once living-being floated in the air.
Amidst the destruction, an oval shaped hole opened itself out of thin air. If one could peer inside, one would only see a purple darkness of nothingness. From the portal, He appeared. In his hand was a golden scepter —depicting intertwining serpents with gems in their mouths— radiating impossible powers, seemingly distorting the very air around it with its vile aura. Wearing his regal robe, that of which even the gods would be jealous of, the being's entire body was covered in such a way to let nothing of his appearance known to the world.
Behind him, two other individuals followed though the threshold of the portal. Similarly to their master, their presence also seemed to disturb the environment of the burnt cavern. One was a female warrior clad in dark armor pulsing sporadically with life. An equally disturbing weapon rested in her hand, that of which the mere sigh of it was enough to send the weakest in a state of shock. Her eyes glowed a bright yellow behind her helmet, a hateful glare directed at anything that ever existed.
The last one was the less frightfull of the trio. It was a child, not even ten appearance wise, lacking human ears in favor of pointy ones. Tanned and androgynous, it would've been a gamble for anyone to guess the gender of this person. The young one donned a magnificent uniform whose craftsmanship was otherworldly, as if sewed by a higher existence. Its heterochromic eyes briefly analyzed its surrounding, before seemingly losing interest, yet remained focused at the same time.
The man in regal robe took a few steps, studied the cave, and spoke in a low tone.
"Find them," he ordered, his annoyance thinly veiled.
Aaaaand that's it for the first batch of chapters. I hope you liked it! It was more of an introduction than anything else, really.
As I am in the busiest period of the year in my profession (March to May / early June), I can't exactly guarantee that the next chapters will be released soon. But note that I've already written most of chapter 4, and have started a bit of chapter 5.
Anyway, I'll do my best! Until next time!