The pyramid was, needless to say, extremely large.
The structure towered into the sky, dwarfing everything around it, blotting out even the sun to those underneath it.
Those underneath it happened to have been none other than what Ren was rapidly concerned was liable to become a bunch of grave desiccators, but he was mostly sure that despite Miki, ghosts probably did not exist.
In front of the group stood the entrance, but there did not seem to be a door to speak of. Instead, five pillars were built into the front of the pyramid, each one attended by a different statue, each with a different head: a falcon, a hawk, a bizarre anteater-like creature, a jackal, and an ibis.
Viviane stared at the five pillars with a frown. "The jackal is the gatekeeper to the underworld right?" she asked. Her knowledge on Mshir wasn't exactly top-class. Or mid-class really.
"Something like that," Ren nodded. "There's an inscription on these pillars, but…"
Viviane shrugged as she walked a bit closer. She wasn't going to be able to read other languages, but maybe there was something else on the statues.
She noticed that at the foot of each figure, a guillotine-like blade, edge skywards, was fixed to the base of each statue.
"…that's not ominous at all," she mumbled. "Can none of us read this inscription? Ugh, we should've grabbed a translation book or something…"
"It looks like an older form," Ren shook his head. "I don't think a book would have helped… at all?"
Viviane gave Ren a pointed glare before sighing. "Okay, let's try…interpret them or something I guess. They're all pictures and stuff right?"
"I don't think that would work either…"
"Then let's just blow up the wall and make our way into the pyramid," Viviane said in a sardonic manner, waving her arms to mimic explosions as she did.
"Maybe I should start calling you 'Miss Vivi'." Miki deadpanned.
"Well do any of us have another way in?"
"We can try, but I don't want to set anything off," Ren frowned. "I think if it was that easy someone would have scratched one of the bricks already over the thousands of years this has been here…"
Viviane sighed, walking over to the blade in front of the hawk-headed man with a frown. "Honestly, what are these for…" she mumbled. Blades jutting up out of the ground like that? It was meant to draw blood or something right?
Miki squinted for a moment, focusing intently on the blade. "They're enchanted. Probably. It's hard to tell."
"My guess is we spill blood on them in some order and we'll get an entrance to pop up out of nowhere," Viviane said. "Any takers?"
"Do we have anything to clean these with if it's not blood…?" asked Ren anxiously.
"I could spray some water over them," Viviane replied.
"Well, you're the one with the blood…" he muttered.
Viviane made an indignant huff, before walking over to the ibis-headed statues and pulling out her carving knife. "Just a few drops," she mumbled, nicking her finger before letting it bleed onto the upturned blade.
No response.
"Terrific," Viviane grumbled, suckling the finger she cut as she glanced at the statues again. If only they could understand hieroglyphs…
As Persephone stood in front of the place, she attempted to take all of what she was seeing in. She seemed to be a bit absent as the others talked about the statues and such. She'd never seen a place as strangely beautiful as this. Her eyes wandered around until she finally heard Viviane grumble, which snapped her out of it for some reason. "I wonder what this place is…"
"Well, it's a pyramid, so I guess it's a tomb?" Ren cocked his head. "They usually are, right? But this isn't the Valley of the Kings…"
Persephone blinked, unaware of what the Valley of the Kings was. "Ah, I suppose. My mother never really taught me anything about pyramids…" She spoke to herself, "So that's what these are, huh? Ren, how do you spell that?"
"Well, there's a 'P' in it," he said jokingly. "P-Y-R-A-M-I-D. Pyramid."
Persephone nodded and wrote the letters into her hand. "And what do we know about this pyramid? If it's a tomb, who's buried here?"
"Ah, I guess you weren't there back when we covered this in Soothsaying, right?" he said. "If you want, I'll show you my notes when we get back, but the short version is that a pyramid was built during a pharaoh's reign and they were buried in it once they died. The thing is, they were usually built in a place called the Valley of the Kings, so having one in the middle of nowhere is a bit of a curveball… That's why I wonder if there's a king buried here at all."
"Maybe they built it to look like a tomb to ward off grave-robbers," Viviane said. "Or try attract them with the idea of treasure and stuff."
He shrugged. "All I know is my friend lives here."
Persephone tried to take in this information rather quickly. "Mmhmm, so… These pillars have to relate to… What exactly? Pharaohs?"
"Egyptian gods," Viviane replied, pointing to the jackal-headed one. "He's…Anubis? I think. Protects tombs."
Persephone nodded. "If it's just gods, how do we find the way to open the entrance? The pillars seem random to me, but the blades are a little weird…"
Ren gave a small giggle.
"What's so funny Ren?" Viviane asked.
"Ah, it's not important. I was just thinking that Persephone is cute when she's focusing on something," he said offhandedly.
Persephone blushed a little and her tails swirled slightly. "Sh-Shut up… I'm just trying to be helpful…"
He nodded. "I appreciate that. I like that earnest expression of yours even more knowing you're serious."
Viviane cleared her throat quite loudly. "Now as much as I would like to see you two get it on," she said as earnestly as she could. Truly, without sarcasm. "We do need to get into this place first."
Persephone turned bright red and was tempted to punch Viviane on the arm. "You know, I want to get into this place too! I wasn't the one who started the flirting and s-stuff! B-But let's just figure this out quickly. Who are all of these gods?"
"Uh… Hold on, I think I know this," Ren frowned. "Let me see. There's Thoth there, and Ra there, so that makes that one Horus, and that one must be Seth from the weird head. That one is Anubis, like Viviane said."
Persephone nodded. "Do you see any pattern to the statues based on what gods they represent? Like… I know that sometimes religions follow a specific story and timeline…"
"Well, Ra is the sun god, and Horus is his… son, I think. Ra's archenemy is Seth, and Anubis is kind of like Seth's good counterpart? Thoth is just kind of there. He invented this damn language, whatever it says…"
Persephone pursed her lips. "Well… It's good to know about all of that, but… Is there… Any way that they could be put into a pattern based on what they represent or something? I don't know… I'm not too good with things like this."
"Not really," Ren admitted. "I'm having trouble working out a link myself…"
Miki looked at the animal heads blankly. "Maybe their age? Ra would be the first one that was created right?"
"If I remember the mythology right, even though I don't think I do… Ra was created ex nihilo. That means all the other gods can trace themselves back to him," nodded Ren.
"Maybe we're supposed to pick the odd one out. Which god would have absolutely no reason to be in a tomb?" Viviane said, glancing about.
"You think it's that simple…?" Ren asked. "Well, it would have to be Thoth."
"I thought Set or Anubis maybe? Because the head's are different? I also lean towards Set because Anubis is the tomb protector."
"Thoth is just a literature god though." Miki pointed out.
"Well I already tried spilling blood on Thoth's blade," Viviane said pointedly. "So if it were Thoth, what are we supposed to do?"
"Viviane, I really don't think it's blood…" Ren frowned.
Viviane rolled her eyes before staring down the blade. "Fine, not blood," she mumbled, pressing a hand to the blade and trying to inject it with exin.
Miki prodded one of the blades with a frown. "It's supposed to be more… fleshy from the enchantment. Seems a bit useless."
Persephone blinks for a moment. "Oh right I can just check the enchantments on these blades and such." Persephone focuses for a moment and almost has an instant epiphany. "Ah. Viviane, pour healing potion on Ra. Just trust me on this one."
Viviane did just that. She didn't really have a reason not to. They were expensive, sure, but she could manage. It wasn't as if she aimed to fight on the front lines and stuff.
Something beyond the pillars seemed to shift, a sound of stone on stone as a wall opened to… another wall. This one, however, had only a single statue in front of it, specifically of Anubis on his knees, arms raised, with something in his hands. At the base of the statue, there was an inscription, as well as several marbles of various sizes, and a scale just above them with a block of gold on one side. Each of the seven sizes seemed bigger than the size before, and they were sorted by these same sizes.
"Please be Babel please be Babel please be Babel," Viviane mumbled as she walked forward, leaning down to check the inscription.
It was still written in hieroglyphs.
"Fuuuuuucking," Viviane grumbled, minorly flipping her shit before she sighed. "Great. More puzzles. Okay, Anubis. Three pots we have to balance this stuff."
"Seems like it, but don't these marbles seem too small to be fair…?" Ren pointed out.
"Well, I could make the gold into pearl. That would make it lighter right? Oh, before that, what's in his hands…" Viviane mumbled, walking over to the statue.
Anubis seemed to be holding frogs in an awkward way, with two fingers on his left hand extended and three on his right. He held one frog in each hand, and they seemed to have a bunch of plants in their mouths.
"…why do we need frogs. Or plants," she mumbled, glancing at the extended fingers. Maybe they were a hint, though it didn't seem like it'd help much with how many marbles they had.
There seemed to be three plants in each frog's mouth, each tied up by a coil of string.
"So there's nine marbles of each type," Ren frowned. "That makes 63 total."
"Maybe we need the twenty third marble," Viviane mumbled. "However you count 23. From highest to lowest or lowest to highest."
Ren counted through them, and then took the fifth marble of the third smallest size. "This doesn't seem heavy enough…" he muttered.
Persephone pursed her lips. "Maybe it's the third marble in the second row? Maybe it has a special property about it or something."
Viviane moved to try said marble.
She picked it up with ease. It really wasn't that hard to lift.
"Fairly light on my end too."
"How did you get to 23 anyway?" Ren asked.
"Fingers were two and three on the statue holding the frogs eating plants."
"This is obviously a mathematical riddle," he frowned. "I just don't know if… Hm..."
"Voice your thoughts, Ren," Viviane said, making a motion for Ren to lift his chest up more. "Confidence!"
He shook his head. "I'm working on it. Ignore me."
Persephone looked at the frogs and was very interested in their construction. And did the string have anything to do with this puzzle or was it just there for whatever reason. Persephone also looked at the fingers and was in awe at the careful construction. "Mmm~ I certainly would've loved to meet the craftsmen who made these!"
Viviane instead took what Ren said about it being a mathematical riddle and walked back around the marbles. Perhaps they were meant to take the second marble from the first row, the third from the second and so on…
"…nah, you could screw up and pick the wrong marble still," she grumbled.
Persephone's gaze suddenly shifted to the gold block on the scale. It was… Curious. She imagined that they needed to… Do something with the scale to make it not so… The way it was. As this thought went through her head, Persephone picked up the middle marble among the middle-most sized marbles. She examined it with her eyes and pursed her lips a little, her tails swirling slightly to show her curiosity. "Ren… Have you come up with anything yet? Because… I'm tempted to just put this on the scale and see what happens."
"Go ahead, I guess…" he shrugged.
Persephone nodded and went to place the marble on the scale, but right before she was going to release it onto the scale, she turned to Ren again. "Do all pyramids have puzzles like this?"
He shook his head.
"How would you know? Have you been through many pyramids before?" Viviane asked.
"A few," he admitted.
Persephone smiled, her hand still inches away from the scale. "How dangerous do you think these puzzles are?"
"They're perfectly safe if you get them right," he said.
Persephone wanted to smack her hand on her forehead. "Ren, obviously that's the case. But do you think we could die if we get it wrong?~"
"I don't know," he admitted. "I'm still alive."
Persephone sighed. "I guess I shouldn't try this out then since we might die as a result. Let's take our time to figure this out instead of me dying of curiosity." Persephone put the marble back in its original place. As Persephone put the marble back, she turned to Ren again. "Do you know what direction hieroglyphs are read in? And… What kind of mathematics do Egyptians use?"
"I have no idea," he admitted again. "I don't have the most education on this at all…"
Persephone sighed. "I mean… I have an idea, but I need more information… I don't want us all to die, after all."
"What are you thinking?"
"Well… I figure that you could calculate the row and the number of the marble that you need to use based on the statue. However, I don't know if you need to multiply the fingers and the plants or if you need to add them. Based on the direction of reading for hieroglyphics, I figure that will determine which one is the row and which one is the specific marble."
"Well, it's not a bad idea, but…" Ren muttered, then sighed. "Look, I think it's a little presumptuous to think it's only one marble with this much information…"
"So you think it's only one of the sizes? This seems like an awful lot of information for such a general answer."
He shook his head. "I think it's probably a combination of different numbers of different sizes. Like a kind of ancient combination lock."
"So… Maybe a marble from the 2nd row, then three 3rd row marbles?"
"Something like that, but these don't seem nearly heavy enough, you know?"
"Hmm… Maybe three from the second row and three from the third row?"
Ren shook his head again. "That's not what I mean."
He picked up one of the largest marbles, weighing it up in his hand. "This isn't even going to do it, see?"
Persephone sighed. "I'm really not much help in this instance, it seems… I've always been bad at practical things like this, but I suppose I can't give up just yet. We don't actually know how heavy that gold block is though. For all we know, it might be hollow."
Miki shrugged. "I don't think so, it doesn't feel like it's hollow in any case."
Persephone nodded. "I see… Well… I'm just trying to interpret what each of the numbers provided by the statue mean… But I keep coming up with things that don't seem to make sense…"
"Like what?" Ren asked.
Persephone seemed somewhat upset with herself, despite the fact that she was still generating ideas. She was frustrated this wasn't being figured out quickly. "Well things like we take all of the marbles from the second row and put them in there and then the third row and then the third row after the removal of the other two and then the third row after that one is removed, but I think that would be too many…"
"The gold is around ten kilograms?" Miki supplied. "Were we supposed to use only one of those?"
Persephone shrugged. "I'm not sure…"
"I'm certain we'll need a few," Ren pointed out.
Viviane grumbled as she continued to inspect the large amount of marbles. "Two three three three…" she muttered, moving to pick up one of the heaviest and one of the lightest marbles to compare their weights.
The smallest size seemed massively lighter than the largest, to a degree that made it seem like an obvious enchantment on the larger.
Viviane hummed quietly as she put them down again. "Is it a linear increase or exponential…" she mumbled. "…shit wait, I have my own scales. Fucking."
A moment later, Viviane had her own scales setup, measuring a few balls to see how heavy they were.
The weights were massively inconsistent with their sizes, but it seemed like their masses went up by a factor of ten with every size, with the largest at a kilogram.
Viviane frowned as she finished measuring. "Miki, you said about 10 kg?" she called. "I think Persephone might be right in that we need to put a lot on except for a certain few balls, because if my measuring is right, we'd need to put…well, every single ball on to get super close to 10 kg."
"Then it's either not ten kilograms," Ren said, "or we don't have to balance it. I don't know much about Mshir, but its engineers are mathematical geniuses. There has to be a twist here."
"Isn't there something about Anubis weighing people's hearts when they die? I don't remember it, but I think he eats it if you fail or something…" Viviane mumbled. "If we can't get over ten kilos, maybe we should just put on those specific marbles."
"Your heart had to be lighter than a feather. It was eaten by something with a hippo's rump." Miki supplied. "We had to write an essay on the afterlife around the time I came, I think."
Viviane nodded. "So, assuming this…gold bar is the feather or our heart…" Viviane mumbled, frowning as she did. "It'd make more sense for it to be our heart, wouldn't it? Because otherwise it'd be too easy to make one side lighter than the other if it were the feather…"
"How much does the heaviest lower the scale by?" Ren asked abruptly.
"A bit? Do you want to try it or…?" Viviane said. "It's 1 kg, if that's what you're wondering."
"Why not," he shrugged. He picked up the marble, holding it over the tray.
"…eh, why not," Viviane mumbled, taking a step back just in case.
Ren dropped it, and the scale shifted, falling around a third of the way down, and a switch popped up.
"Ah, I get it."
"Then go for it, I guess," Viviane said, shrugging. "If it isn't weight based…"
"It is. The block is under a material alteration enchantment."
"So should we just assume everything has triple it's initial weight and try to balance it that way?"
"No, it's more precise than that," Ren shook his head. "That's what the statue is for."
"Alright then. Two three and three three. What're we to do."
"One and five," Ren corrected. "And two and six and two."
Viviane frowned. "I can sort of understand one and five. Why two six and two?"
"The frogs and the plants and the string," he explained.
"Fair enough," Viviane mumbled, moving to grab said marbles and placing them on the scales.
Nothing happened.
"I guess… the switch?" Ren frowned.
"Probably," Viviane mumbled, moving to flick it.
The statue and pedestal descended, the ground rumbling as the contents and boundaries of the room alike lowered themselves into darkness below.
In its place, a hallway lay ahead.
"I can't see a thing," muttered Ren. "But I think we did it."
"That or we're about to desceeeend into deaaaaath," Viviane said over dramatically. "Ren, you go first? You can make a light and stuff right?"
"I… can try," he nodded uneasily. "I'm really not sure about this murdery stuff, you know. I don't think there's anything down there, but…"
"If you don't think there's anything down there, then there shouldn't be anything to fear from going first," Viviane said calmly. "Of course, if you'd like one of us to lead instead, you need only ask."
He narrowed his eyes. "You're making fun of me again…"
"Yes. I am," Viviane said pointedly. "Honest opinion though, no one requires you to lead if you don't want to."
He sighed. "Well, I guess I have the light magic, huh…?"
He lit a single sphere of white, carrying it down the shadowed corridor with him.
Viviane followed after him, idly staring at the walls to see if there was anything interesting on them.
There were what looked like murals, carved tapestries of old engraved into the walls, all unfamiliar and etched upon with characters foreign to her.
"We should've done more research into Egyptology before we came here," Viviane murmured.
"They're a bit too faded for us to read anyway." Miki muttered drily.
"Seems so," Ren agreed. "Keep an eye out, everyone. I don't know what's here."
"My eyes can see through the darkness," Viviane said facetiously. "…honestly though, ocean floors are really dark, so this is…not horrible."
"If you could do that, shouldn't you have gone first." Miki deadpanned. "What kind of person is your friend anyway Master?"
"Well, he's… a little like you. But he's kind of bad-tempered. Like a grouchy old man," recounted Ren. "Well, I can't say too much bad stuff about him. He's the one who taught me magic."
"I'm hurt Master," he drawled, "being like me is a bad thing?"
"I said 'but'!" he cried.
"Exactly. He's saying you're everything but a bad-tempered, grouchy old man," Viviane called back. "Meaning there's a ton of other 'bad' stuff he has to leave out."
Persephone kept quiet until now because she was upset she hadn't been more helpful in the process of solving the last puzzle. She held up the rear of the group as they descended. To let her see behind her, Persephone also summoned a ball of fire that floated behind her. She made sure to look back every few seconds to make sure nothing was following them.
Val had just walked out of her final class of the day and was headed to her room, baby dragon trailing behind, with a sense of uneasiness. It had been unnaturally quiet in her life today, and she was having problems putting her finger on exactly why.
She had done all of her work, fed herself and her pets, and was left with nothing to do. This never happens. Val hasn't had nothing to do in months, maybe even a year or two… Suddenly, it hit her. Now, what was the reason for her extra-hectic life as of late? Not a what, a who. Ren. He had been absent. Now that she was thinking about it, she hadn't seen Miki around either, or Viviane, or Persephone.
"Oh god," Valentina exclaimed, for she knew what must've happened. They've gone out for a "brief trip" and this time, without her.
"Still, shouldn't there be more…well, they'll probably pop up as soon as I say this, but traps? Or puzzles?" Viviane said. "I mean, two in a row immediately and nothing now? Seems a bit weird to me."
Persephone nodded in agreement. "This hallway is very eerie… I don't like this very much…" Persephone focused on her Exin Sense ability to properly see if there might've been anything dangerous in the area. Persephone senses four creatures ahead and whispered, "I can sense four creatures ahead, so… Be careful please."
Ren nodded. "Got it. Let's see if we can avoid them…?" he suggested.
"At least two of us have two left feet, I don't know how well avoiding is going to work," Viviane hissed. "Why not just knock them out or something?"
"I can fly and become invisible, but I don't think I have enough firepower to manage to knock some creatures out… But if you do it Viviane, I can support you." At this point, Persephone began to hum quietly, activating one of her abilities for her Singer job.
"If you think it's going to work, go ahead, I guess…" Ren shrugged. "It seems too easy to me, so everyone make sure you have a weapon or something to hand."
Persephone nodded as she stayed behind a little bit while humming. She didn't want to alert the creatures to the others' presences. If she flew, she knew she could reach them in time to offer aid.
Viviane nibbled her bottom lip a bit, before sighing. She already committed to this idea. Clearing her throat slightly, she sang a quick tune in key with Persephone's humming, hoping it would knock out the four creatures that she couldn't exactly see.
Silence. No immediate reaction came.
Persephone frowned a little bit. She was hoping something would happen. Maybe her feeling about the creatures was wrong? She still hummed to herself, despite this thought.
"…well, only one way to find out if they're asleep or not," Viviane mumbled. "One concrete way at least. Ren, lead the way?"
He nodded, taking another step forward. He only needed one.
Four creatures, comparable in size to great danes, made entirely of stone, leapt from the darkness ahead, a fifth the size of a lion behind them.
Ren held his hands out, condensing white light into them.
"Well, I guess it's about that time."
With a flick of his wrist, twelve blazing comets rained down upon the largest beast.
It did not have a single opportunity to dodge as the stars crashed into it, glowing cracks splintering the surface of its form. In response, it howled, the ground beneath it snapping upwards like fangs and launching several stalagmites towards him at lightning speed, slashing across his body, ivory flame marking his wounds.
Persephone flew into the air and spat oil on as many of the stone lions as she could, specifically focusing on the one that had just attacked Ren.
The spray covered the entire corridor, her allies included, and Ren spluttered a bit as some got in his mouth.
"Marvelous. Terrific," Viviane replied, the rope around her arm coming to life as she flung it to try bind the nearest dane-sized creature.
She managed to rope the beast around its ankles, binding it in place.
The other three, however, were free to move around, and took advantage of this privilege immediately.
One of them rushed at Viviane, slashing with its claws as shadows enveloped its foot.
Viviane gave a small hop out of the way as the creature came rushing by. "Idiot," she grumbled.
The next, however, was more interested in Persephone, lunging at her with glowing claws.
Persephone flew to the side of the claws, dodging them. "You're not ripping up this new outfit I got."
The last went for Ren, using the same move that Viviane's opponent had used.
But even Ren saw this coming. Behind him, a shield of flame formed, separating into twelve huge barriers, which the stone beast ended up tumbling through with an enormous explosion of fire, reducing it to dust and magma.
The largest guardian seemed to take this as a cue.
With a roar, it released a blast of wind down the corridor, tearing up the distance between it and its prey.
Ren was blasted down the hallway, striking the ground with uncomfortable force.
Persephone noticed that Ren was getting battered and so she did her best to heal him a little bit.
He shot a meaningful glance of gratitude to her as his wounds sealed up slightly.
Miki drew his sword, waving it at the largest stone beast in an obvious taunt. He closed the distance in moments, aiming at its neck like it was any other fleshy beast.
He easily slashed across it, almost slashing it all the way through in a single clean strike.
Viviane, instead, decided to kick things into higher gear, and retracted her rope back to her arm as she grabbed the new bow-lyre from her bag.
One of the smaller beasts rushed for Miki in response to his attack, but he managed to cleanly avoid it without a hitch.
A third, now unbound, launched itself at Viviane, deflected by a wall of ice.
The fourth went for Persephone, slashing at lightning speed.
Persephone attempted to dodge the attack, but it was to no avail. The lion tore at her and she winced, but… Felt no pain. It was… Strange.
Ren moved as a white flash, aiding Miki with one last blow, punching the largest beast's head off its shoulders and into the air.
Persephone smiled as she saw Ren punch the largest beast's head off and decided that she was going to try and help as much as she could. It was time for her to ignite the oil that she had sprayed onto the smaller lions, especially the one who had attacked her. She summoned as many foxfire orbs with the staff she wielded and sent them as fast as she could at them.
The flames spewed down, bursting over her allies as well as her enemies, with only Miki escaping. Viviane was instead thrown out of the way.
It was Ren who was enveloped head-to-toe in azure flames, howling in pain as he was seared from the outside in, but once it faded, he still stood, teeth gritted, breaths sharper than a razor blade.
As Persephone's foxfires went out, she fell back to the ground in tears. She… Didn't think that she would've done that. She didn't think she had that much power in her. H-How was she able to do such a thing? And… Make Ren go through so much pain… It was unforgivable.
She was clearly not the only one who felt that way, but there was something more important to deal with. "Ren?!" Miki ran to his side, pulling out a small vial.
The small boy wheezed, letting out a small choking laugh. "I'm fine," he said. "I can heal myself, so don't waste something that could save your life on me, okay?"
Viviane was totally fine too. Shoved aside, narrowly avoiding certain death. She'd really have to thank the small boy later.
Persephone, at this point turned invisible, but she was audibly crying.
He glanced behind him, and his eyes immediately widened, firing another rain of stars.
Despite the blaze, despite being reduced to shrapnel, one of the smaller beasts had gotten back up, but was fortunately blown to bits immediately.
"Get dead already," he muttered, wincing as he got to his feet. "Everyone alive?"
"Sure. Alive," Viviane shouted back, shaking slightly as she picked herself up off the ground. If Ren hadn't thrown her aside…shit she needed to flip her skirt down again. At least no one was looking.
Persephone continued to cry in response, not even noticing that one of the beasts had gotten back up.
Miki continued to hover, not really touching him in fear of aggravating his burns. "Really Master, just drink it. I'll take one of yours later if that's what's worrying you."
"If you do that, how can I save mine for you?" he grinned, tapping Miki's arm with the back of his hand, making his way over to where Persephone could be heard sobbing from and placing a hand on what he was reasonably certain was her head.
Persephone continued to sob, her head tilted upwards as if she was bawling like a baby. Her arms were relaxed at her side and she suddenly felt a hand… On her breast. She didn't expect anyone to come over and touch her, so this scared her. "AH!" Persephone became visible and tears were still streaming down her face. "St-Stay away from me… I… I hurt you…" Persephone grabbed his hand and moved it back to his side. She wasn't making eye contact with him and her tails and ears were completely relaxed and drooping, having none of the usual energy that they had in them.
Ren, flushing, rubbed the back of his head with his groping hand, and shot Miki a meaningful glance. "Well, you're not exactly the first one to injure me this badly," he pointed out. "It's nothing new, so I'm not mad or anything. Just be careful to save the fried fish for dinner, okay?"
Persephone was touched that he was trying to help her, but she didn't appreciate the joke at all. She felt more tears flow out of her eyes, but she tried to hold in her urge to wail once again. However, her willpower was not strong enough to stop herself. She got up and pushed past Ren, heading straight for Viviane. "VIVIANEEEEEEE!!!" Tears streamed down her face as she attempted to hug the siren.
Viviane herself was still fairly shaken from the entire ordeal, and gratefully accepted Persephone's hug. She was going to thank Ren, but fucker called her a fucking fish. Fucker. He didn't deserve shit from her now.
Anyways, hugs always helped near-death experiences. This was, of course, before she began reprimanding Persephone.
"PERSEPHONE HOW COULD YOU DO SOMETHING SO…SO…SO UNREASONABLE," Viviane shouted, sharply bopping her nose. "WHAT IF I HAD ACTUALLY BEEN HIT? I WOULD'VE...GAH," she grumbled, pushing away as she took a deep breath. "Never. Never again, Persephone. Don't do something like this again, where you can injure us," she growled, pulling out her pet slime as she began to stress-pet it. The cool and bouncy liquid pet was doing wonders to calm her down.
「I did it when you weren't actually in danger.」 Miki pointed out. He apparently had enough tact to not say that out loud though, and just averted his eyes from the other two.
「I know, I know,」 he replied, 「I just wanted to cut any hard feelings off at the root. I wouldn't be as comfortable with you as I am if you'd actually been trying to kill me, you know?」
He didn't answer, apparently finding the potion in his hands more interesting.
Persephone walked away from Viviane to go back to Ren. "Do you need me to heal you? I know that we have potions, but… I feel like I owe it to you to help you out so we can save the potions for something more important."
"If you would feel better helping, I'd rather we used magic for it," he said, sitting down. "Save the potions for when we need them, right?"
Persephone nodded and sat directly in front of Ren. "I need you to close your eyes and lean your head forward. This is the way my Mother told me was the most efficient way to heal someone." Then Persephone would touch her forehead onto his and touch his shoulders to imbue him with healing magic. As she could feel her exin leaving her, she smiled a little. It was… Nice to be able to do this to someone, rather than having it done to her. She could feel the heat of Ren's body through her hands and head and she could tell exactly what she had done to him. It… Made her hesitant to continue, but she had promised to heal him and… She figured that this might patch up what she had done. It wouldn't forgive it, but… It might things a little better. She'd make sure she didn't make a mistake like that again. Not ever.
Val had asked around, much to her classmates dismay, as she was never the friendliest and kind of intimidated people. She much too slowly for her taste found out that the four had gone to Mshir. Without her.
Sighing loudly, she made her way to the portal room after picking up a small bag she always kept at the ready in her dorm.
"Those idiots better not have gotten themselves killed…" She growled, and stepped into the portal to Mshir.
Viviane sighed as she felt her heartbeat finally drop below 'blood-rush racing'. Continuing to hold her pet slime, she jerked her head down the hallway from where the beasts had come from. "If we're all good…we should get moving. Who knows what else there is," she grumbled to the group, not really looking at anyone nor speaking to anyone directly before she spun around to face the darkness. As she did, she also placed her fire core into her bow-lyre, and the darkness one into her rope. To avoid having to frantically grab said cores again. "We can set up camp or something to rest once we know we're safe."
He wanted nothing more than to tear Persephone apart, if not physically than at least verbally. Accidentally hitting Ren wasn't an issue this close, but he'd hate to be that close to Persephone's still warm body. "Yeah. A safe camp. Are you... two, okay to walk?" including Viviane was so obviously an afterthought, even Ren would've noticed.
"Viviane should be fine if I've done what I was supposed to do," Ren nodded, "and I'll live either way."
"I'm fine," she replied curtly to Miki, even if she was only an afterthought, still staring down the hall as she pet her slime. "Perfectly. Fine."
"There's probably a room or something up ahead we can use…" Ren frowned, leading the way.
Persephone smiled as she was content with what had just happened with Ren. "I'm just fine. I wanted to make sure Ren could walk."
"Exactly whose fault is that?"
Persephone sunk her head down a little. "I… Know it was me… That's why I'm trying to take responsibility by healing him."
"Hey, are you guys coming?" Ren called. "Hurry up!"
Persephone poked her head up as Ren said this. It seemed as though Persephone was attempting to hide how sad she was. She followed Ren.
Val pretty quickly found where they had gone. She didn't even need to track them, for she only had to see the giant pyramid in the distance to know that the group couldn't have stayed away from something as terrible as that. She quickly found the entrance they had already opened, and very soon came across the scene of a massive battle. There was fire still burning in some parts of the room, and the smell of death. Val felt terror for a moment before she found the second door, and knew they had just gone further in. Not far, however, because she could hear just the faintest voices.
Sure enough, the group found themselves in a large room, lined with jars and statues, with sandstone steps leading further down to more dark corridors.
"There we are. This should be fine for now," Ren commented.
Persephone attempted to sense if there were any creatures in the room by using her Exin Sense.
She found them just as she realised that she had no need for sensing at all. Four lion-sized guardians made their way out from among the statues, accompanied by two even larger ones.
"Oh, crap!" cried Ren.
Miki pressed a hand to Persephone's shoulder, forming his sword. "Don't do something stupid this time." He pushed past her, slashing at the smallest statue.
His attack landed enough to almost shatter it in a single blow, sharp cracks forming across its body.
Ren followed up not with an attack, but a different kind of spell, gathering and condensing energy, forming a Res Novae.
One of the larger golem beasts took notice of Miki's attack, slashing at him with its claws.
He brought his sword up against it, easily deflecting the blow.
The other seemed to snarl, lurching back as metallic wings sprung from its back; gears and clockwork dancing around each other.
Two more rushed towards Viviane, and the last two towards Ren, the main source of light in the room as of this moment.
Viviane…well, fucking dodged. She didn't want to bother erecting another ice shield, so trying to dodge two attacks would be the next best thing. She didn't even come close to success, the dual slashes slicing across her. Which hurt like a bitch. She'd have to make ice shields at this rate. Pulling her bow lyre around, she aimed down one of the smaller guardians that had just hit her before firing an arrow.
Ren took a good deal of damage as well, not having the slightest chance to evade before being hit hard.
Viviane's arrow soared, striking home and chipping a small chunk off the side of the creature.
Miki pressed it further, sending a kick to its cracked body, shattering it.
"Miki I was going to use my fire core to send it into one of the other ones," Viviane shouted.
Ren continued condensing. One star was enough, but its dust… Could he do something with it?
The force of the astral light inside him flared in intensity, roaring, miniscule particles bombarded with each other, fusing. A single silver point became a constellation, seventeen stars created from one.
Persephone spaced out for a short while, suddenly coming back into reality. She needed to attack something. She imagined that one of the larger statues would be an easier (and less risky) target to hit. She threw two balls of foxfire in the direction of the large beast.
It dodged with a dramatic margin, rushing at her in direct response to the spell.
Persephone scoffed as she went invisible and flew away from the large statue that attempted to target her.
It didn't seem to faze it in the least, continuing its rush with a claw of such relentless speed she couldn't possibly have avoided it.
"You idiot!" Miki snapped, running to push her out of the way.
He only just managed to intercept the blow, his body shielding the kitsune.
"This isn't working!" Ren cried. "Viviane, Persephone, get back!"
As Persephone's hit was taken for her, she bit her lip to the point where it bled. She was completely useless here and it aggravated her beyond all belief. All she could do was sit back and let Ren and Miki do everything for her.
Viviane had no problem stepping back and letting the two of them take care of things. She was not made for fighting toe to toe with things. "If we can't knock them out, we should at least help Ren and Miki," Viviane called.
Persephone nodded to Viviane, becoming uncloaked. "I'll do my best to help Miki if you want to focus on Ren."
"Uh…my focus is mainly on sleep and…okay I do have one thing that can help both of them," Viviane replied.
Persephone nodded. "Then let's do our best from here."
A pair of lion-sized golems decided to pursue the pair that had leapt back, the other pair rushing at Miki and Ren.
With Persephone's lip bleeding, she went invisible and flew away from the lion golem that was attempting to attack her.
Viviane had learned well from the first double attack, and threw up a few ice shields to block the attacks instead of trying to dodge.
The golem's attack broke against Viviane's shield, but Persephone was not so lucky, her lack of speed betraying her once again as she took a direct hit.
Persephone yelped as she was hit by the attack. She was tempted to spit oil onto the lion statue, but she held it back. She needed to support Miki.
Miki brought his sword up to counter, effortlessly deflecting the attack, whereas Ren attempted to evade with what little skill and grace he possessed, and failed dramatically.
The final, largest golem reared its head, prepared to strike, dashing at Ren with its claws bared.
It slammed him into the wall hard enough to crack it, causing white flame to spurt out of opening wounds.
Miki made a distressed sound when Ren hit the wall. "I hope you know what you're doing..." he muttered, joining the other two out of his range.
Ren gave a wordless nod. He held out his arms, a magic circle forming in front of him, growing with layers upon layers as seventeen stars traced its outline.
"Pluit Astra -- Nocte Caelum!"
An unstoppable stream of light spilled forth, dozens -- no, hundreds -- of comets rained down from his body in an instant, a silver aurora of destruction that shattered not just the golems, but even the surroundings, rending them to magma in a mere moment.
Viviane winced as the bright lights flashed in front of her eyes, bringing a hand up as she watched their surroundings melt away. "…fucking hell," she mumbled giving Ren a very suspicious look. Who was he? She'd assumed he was just an adorkable kid who could take a few hits…
Persephone looked away from the attack, as all of the enemies burned away. She… Really wasn't much help at all, was she? And… If she was, she was about to kill someone as a result. Persephone was afraid the party wouldn't want her after this whole ordeal, so she kept eerily quiet after the attack.
Miki gave an unconcerned glance to the remains of the statues. "Master… you really need to take better care of yourself."
Ren gave a sheepish laugh, rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry about that. I was trying to take their fates so I knew that I would be able to hit them, but I guess with that kind of speed, I didn't really need to… Ow."
Persephone looked up to see Ren laughing, which made a small smile come to her face. She may have been useless, but at least Ren was there to keep them all safe. At the very least, she could heal him once again. "Ren… Would you like me to heal you once again?"
He gave a single nod. "If you could… Sorry that I keep doing this."
Persephone frowned a little. "You don't need to apologize. I'm the one who can't do much in these situations. At least you can get hit. I can't even seem to do that without worrying everyone else." Persephone planted herself on the ground, gesturing for Ren to sit in front of her like before.
He made his way over anxiously, slowly lowering himself to the floor in the least painful way he could.
"This one was pretty bad," he muttered. "Sorry about this, really…"
He looked around a little bit as he shuffled in.
"Viviane? You look a little shell-shocked."
Viviane shook her head slightly. "Just…coming to terms with some things," she mumbled, still staring at the molten hallway. "How are we going to get across…?"
Persephone looked toward Viviane, moving almost sluggishly. "We can figure it out after I'm done healing Ren." Persephone leaned her head toward Ren and expected that he would lean his in as well, which, of course, he did. She cast her healing seven times to make sure that he was healed up to something that was close to what seemed to be his maximum health.
After finishing her healing, she took a deep breath. "Does anybody else need any healing?"
Viviane shrugged slightly, digging into her bag for her old potions before popping the caps off and drinking two of them down.
"I'm fine for now." Miki answered.
Viviane wasn't taking a second of Miki's shit, having taken hits from the guardians, and tossed him two of her old potions as well. "Drink. Now."
Persephone sighed. "You don't have to drink potions. I am right here. And I will get better at healing if you let me heal you."
"And we need you to save your energy in case we need you to fight or heal more than these silly potions can later. So let's just use my old potions when we can afford to Persephone. Please," Viviane replied, glancing to the kitsune as she spoke.
"If we need to save them then I don't need to drink any." he insisted. "It was just a scratch."
"Yeah, just a scratch," Viviane said, air-quoting as she did. "Their old potions anyways, won't heal as much. Save the ones I made today for when we really need them, and drink these ones now, Miki," she finished forcefully, all but dumping the potions into his mouth.
Miki fumbled with the vials, not really having a choice unless he wanted to just drop them. He settled for a vaguely annoyed look as he nursed one of the potions.
Persephone stood up and dusted off her outfit. "Alright. Now. To the task at hand, what are we going to do about moving through this room?"
Viviane shrugged. "I could terraform something? Take the corridor behind us and put it in front of us."
"Doesn't Miki have metal and crystal magic? Could you make a path for us?" Ren suggested.
"The last time I tried to use magic on something molten, it just melted." He answered sheepishly.
"Viviane has an ice spell, right? Couldn't we use that as a foundation to buy us some time? Water has a high… uh…" Ren mumbled, wracking his brains for chemistry lessons. "Specific heat carpet or something."
"I'm afraid that… That might not be the best. I remember my Mother used to add ice to molten sugar and… That went very badly for her." Persephone added.
"Well, maybe, but we're not adding it directly," he pointed out. "Just lay it over the hole so it melts quickly enough."
Persephone put her finger on her lip, which had stopped bleeding at this point. "You could always lay a few over it as well."
Viviane sighed, flipping one of her shields face down so that it could catch things. "Miki, some metal. I guess."
He nodded, conjuring a sheet of metal over her shield.
"Let's go," she mumbled, laying both over the top of the hole before hopping on and across.
Persephone was at the back of the pack and waited until the others would cross before she would in case something melted.
Ren followed suit… leaping straight over the ice and landing at the other end with arms outstretched like a professional gymnast waiting for a perfect ten from the judges.
"Ha! I can't believe that actually worked!"
Miki was close behind. "Well if you thought of it, it couldn't have gone that badly."
"...Are we both talking about the same person?" Ren blinked. "You were there when I knocked the bookshelves over and stuff, right? And Taltic...place."
"Well you weren't really thinking with that stuff." He reasoned.
"I thought the jungle was a pretty good idea actually," he mumbled, clearly giving up Tlalticpac's name altogether. "Anyway! Let's get going, everyone!"
Viviane nodded as she tossed on her cloak before she picked up her slime and it's bowl again, falling into step behind Miki.
Persephone made her way across the bridge and followed the others. "We should definitely get moving."
The hall ahead led out to what looked to be a legitimate hall. No golems in sight, nor any sound or sign of movement. It was dark, but not built in such a way as to be hard to illuminate, and it was airy enough that the group had space to even light a campfire if they so pleased. This was certainly a rest stop if Ren had ever seen one.
Up ahead, there seemed to be a doorway, but nothing was blocking it off. On the left-hand side of the room, however, there was a carving in the wall -- no, a sealed entrance to somewhere, with four gaping lion maws positioned around the middle.
"Uh…anyone else scared that four lions will jump out and attack us?" Viviane asked as she pointed at the wall with the four mouths on it.
"Those holes look too small for that," Ren shook his head. "Bet you my head wouldn't even fit."
"Let's not take that chance," Viviane mumbled, sighing as she stretched her back. "Should we set up camp to rest for a bit?"
"I'm getting a closer look then." Miki said. "I think I can handle them if they actually attack."
Viviane shrugged as she walked over to the wall as well with Miki. "What do you think the lion heads mean?
He shrugged. "I don't really care. You might as well give me a white painted canvas and try again later."
"What does that even mean…?" mused Ren in the background.
The lion heads, upon closer inspection, had suspiciously rounded mouths, at least on the inside. It didn't seem like it was intended to be particularly natural in its design.
"…it pains me to say, but I think Ren's idea of sticking his head in them may actually work," Viviane mumbled.
"That wasn't my idea!" he protested. "Don't put words in my mouth just because you're mad!"
"Hah," Viviane replied dully, moving to inspect the wall to see if there was any loose spots.
There didn't seem to be anything along those lines. On the contrary, it seemed to just be an embossed sheet of metal with ornaments attached here and there. Or, more likely, a slab.
Ren, apparently feeling left out, came over to inspect as well.
"These round bits…" he murmured. "I guess we have to fill these up, but don't these seem like kind of familiar shapes to you guys?"
"Like the marbles back at the scales?" Viviane offered.
He shook his head. "More than that… I feel like this is exactly the right size to be something I studied recently… You know?"
"Ren, I'm not a mindreader. What have you been studying recently?"
"Ah, I don't remember…" he grumbled. "Too much work, not enough nap."
"I could make you nap right now if it would jog your memory," Viviane muttered under her breath.
"No, please don't. That won't solve our problem."
Viviane huffed as she regarded the mouths again. "Maybe we should look around for something that would fit?" She glanced around for a moment. "…if only there were something that would fit…maybe have Miki use magic to make some balls that would fit?"
"I wonder…" Ren said. "I feel like it was supposed to be something specific but…"
Metal gathered at Miki's fingertips. "Whatever happens can't be worse than Vortigern right?"
"How bad was Vortigern?"
"An undead dragon god possessed one of Master's old friends." Miki frowned. "She was our friend, right?"
Ren nodded. "What that fox woman said about Renya and you… still kind of bothers me…"
Viviane whistled quietly. "Uh…yeah, probably won't be worse than that," she mumbled. That story was a lot more depressing than she expected.
"Anyway!" Ren declared. "Are you guys sure you don't have any ideas what this could be?"
Viviane shrugged. "Cores?"
Ren nodded. "Right! That's what it was!"
"Why were you studying cores?"
"Mage class," he answered.
"Okay. So should we go back and grab the cores we skipped then?"
"Sounds good. I bet those are the key here."
A short trip there and back brought them to the front of the wall again with all four cores.
"So I guess we just put these in the lion's mouths…" Ren raised his eyebrows.
"Yup," Viviane replied, moving to place the cores in.
Sure enough, after a moment of silence, the wall began to shift, rising into the ceiling above with a grinding rumble.
And then, a booming roar.
A corridor was wide open, walls painted with images of the cosmos, and ahead a room filled with gold.
And just in front, the unmistakable form of a divine beast.
"A sphinx?!" Ren cried. "For real?!"
An absurd gravity emanated from the beast, a pressure that made it hard to breath. Its body was coated in flames, radiating with godly force that was barely compatible with the mortal plane.
"Ren, can you do the star thing again?" Viviane called as she quickly placed her slime bowl aside.
"That takes time!" he cried. "And more to the point, are we sure it'd even work on something like that?!"
"We can do that thing we did for Cath Palug?" Miki shifted in place, staring at the sphinx knowing his magic wouldn't work.
"Is a roof going to work either? Cath Palug wasn't divine, right?" replied Ren.
"Just putting the idea out there." he answered blithely. "I'm not sure I can help if one of you gets hit."
"…yeah, I think Ren's star thing is our best bet here," Viviane mumbled.
"A-alright, but you'll have to cover me," Ren pointed out. "Like I said, it takes time."
The sphinx roared again, and from the walls, Anubis statues slid out onto pedestals, eyes glowing a verdant green.
"Oh that doesn't look good," Viviane mumbled, quickly digging into her bag for her smoke core.
Electricity rushed through Miki's gauntlets as he eyed the glowing statues. "So your orders, Master?"
"Orders… Uh…" he pondered. "W-what are those statues…?"
"Not our friends," Viviane grumbled. "Want to try blow one up, see if it affects the sphinx?"
"As long as you don't die trying…"
As if on cue, the sphinx took a battle stance, a blast of blinding light tearing down the corridor at the group.
"Fuck," Viviane mumbled, trying to get out of the way. It was a better chance than trying to block the damn thing.
Miki tackled Ren, trying to get them both out of the way.
All three evaded the blast handily, it shattering the wall behind.
"This thing…" Ren muttered.
He hadn't encountered many sphinxes before, but he could tell at a glance that this was no ordinary one. From his best guesses, it was some form of ascended species, exalted with divinity, but that didn't help much in discerning a weakness…
『What's the matter?』 whispered a cattish voice. 『Can't think of the opposite of "divine"?』
No, he wasn't going to do that. Despite appearances, he definitely didn't trust those swords yet.
Instead--
He focused, dropping firing hammers in his head. Right now, above all, he needed more speed.
Once again, gathering energy within his being, a Res Novae formed.
Viviane figured her attacks weren't going to do much against the sphinx. Instead, she focused on Ren, using one of her newfound equips to give him what was most easily described as an accuracy boost. "DON'T MISS."
Apparently deciding to step it up, the sphinx's aura flared as it rushed towards the group, blades of flame springing out like claws.
Miki lit up one of his runes, leaving him with no choice but to brace for its attack.
It slashed firmly across his body with the first strike, the second pointed at Ren, who cleanly managed to evade with space to spare and followed up with a barehanded counterattack.
Thanks to the Res Novae, it sailed forth with incredible force, but the sphinx was easily fast enough to evade that too.
"YOU MISSED, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU…AAAAAAGH." Still, Viviane didn't let such a setback get to her (okay it did a little, but she'd manage) and instead focused on making some shields after watching Miki take such a clean hit.
"I'm trying, okay?!" Ren cried.
The sphinx didn't seem to be intent on giving him any leeway though, and fired a powerful blast of light once again at the small boy who had attacked it just a moment before.
The light struck him directly, not giving him an instant to spare, only to be immediately annihilated.
Miki's breathing stuttered, but he could tell Ren was unharmed so he focused on conjuring swords that shot towards the sphinx.
It nimbly dodged through each of them, not taking a single hit.
Ren, meanwhile, focused his mind again, allowing a stellar wind to well within him as one light formed after another.
"Get ready!" he called.
Viviane mumbled something to herself under her breath that said something very unflattering about the sphinx as she glanced to Ren and gave him another accuracy boost for good measure.
The creature itself went for Miki this time, dashing at him with its fiery blades.
His gauntlets crackled and he brought them up to counter its fire.
Counterattacking seemed to do something to throw it off, but it evaded Miki's blow quickly enough, throwing off its own attack too.
This gave Ren the opening he needed.
"Alright, now!" he cried. "Nocte Caelum!"
Another blinding stream of stars shot forward towards the beast, light that subsumed even its divinity as a sudden burst of magnitude that practically vaporised the sphinx instantly.
Practically.
The light died down, but all that had happened was the production of rubble. Nine of the ten statues down the hall lay scattered in white-hot pieces, the last one still standing right next to the sphinx.
Ren took a step back. "N-no way. The statues resurrected it… nine times in a row?!"
"Fucking," Viviane grumbled, pulling her bow. "Miki, get the statue too please," she called, firing her bow. It was easier to hit a statue than hit a giant sphinx, after all.
The sphinx, however, was absolutely not putting up with that, rushing at Viviane immediately.
Miki ran towards her, trying to push her out of the way. 「Master, try using that again!」
「Right now?! I don't have enough stars, it won't work!」
Just then, the blades struck Miki, dealing another clean hit.
Viviane groaned as she was pushed out of the way, pushing herself up before the sphinx thought better and tried to attack her while she was done. "Thanks Miki," she called, nibbling her bottom lip. This seemed to be a recurring theme for her; being pushed out of the way of danger. Maybe she should find a better vantage point or something.
Ren, meanwhile, was busy forging new stars, a silver light emanating from his body like streaks in the night sky.
"Let's try something new," Viviane mumbled, closing her eyes as a pale silver moon seemed to fade into existence, bathing the room in a new light glow that wasn't. Well, wasn't coming from an entity at least.
The sphinx, blades still burning, suddenly recognised Viviane as a threat again, rushing her.
Viviane grumbled, raising her ice shields to take the brunt of the flaming blades.
It cleaved through them, striking her directly.
Viviane made a quiet whimpering sound as the burning blade struck her.
Miki picked himself up from where the sphinx had flung him, sending swords towards the statue.
That was Ren took his chance again. Another Nocte Caelum spilled forth, bombarding the sphinx with falling stars.
The cracks that Viviane and Miki had made in the statue only worsened, spilling white light, shattering, and a moment later, the sphinx itself quickly followed.
Viviane sighed, dropping her bow as she fell onto her back, making a dull ouch sound as she did. "That's over," she mumbled. "Yay."
Ren let out a long sigh. "I think we went hard mode, guys."
Miki pressed a hand to the burns with a hiss. "Why was a divine beast even here?"
Ren shook his head, making his way over and placing his hands on Miki's wounds, emitting a soft silvery glow.
"I can probably make a guess… This is a pyramid, right? A tomb for kings. Pharaohs were always given divine authority, so that might have something to do with it…"
"At least it's over," Viviane mumbled, rolling over onto her front as the moon above her eventually faded.
"I don't know…" Ren frowned. "I-I mean… There couldn't be more of those things… Right…?"
"Don't jinx it," Viviane said, pushing herself up as she regarded her own burn. "At least I wasn't wearing my dress," she mumbled, fishing out another two of her old potions to heal the burn.
"Hold on, don't waste those! I'll heal you too!" he cried. "Just give me a second!"
Viviane gave a blank stare, before shrugging and tossing the old potions back into her bag. "If you say so," she said, making her way over to Ren and Miki.
"We need to save your work until we really need it, you know," he chastised. "Don't undervalue them like that."
Viviane rolled her eyes slightly as she sat down. "Even the old ones that don't heal nearly as much as the ones I made today?"
"Those are useful too. What if you get lost?"
"Get lost…? How would they help then?"
"They'd keep you alive until we find you! This place is a death trap!"
"That…" Viviane sighed, nodding as she shifted her bag. "Fine, I'll save the old potions," she replied, waiting idly for Ren to finish healing Miki. "So…Ren…how did you learn to do that star thing?"
"It's pretty simple once you get the hang of making the stars themselves. You basically make a bunch and blow them up by shooting your magic through them. Then the pieces go like comets or lasers or something and all crash down on whatever you're aiming at."
Viviane clicked her tongue. "That's a…well, okay," Viviane mumbled. She probably would never get the hang of it, so she'd just have to take Ren's word for it.
"Here, I'm done. Miki, you'll be just fine in a minute or two," he beamed. "Viviane. Hold still for a second."
Viviane turned slightly to show her injured side before waiting for him to start healing. "You know, this may be the first time I've had healing magic cast on me. I usually just drink potions."
"It's important to save resources that valuable for emergencies," Ren shook his head. "Let me tend you."
Viviane made a half-hearted humming sound while she waited.
"Alright, you're pretty much patched up. You're pretty easy to heal," Ren admitted. "Easier than I remember anyone else being, anyway."
"So it's good being easy?" Viviane said, flashing a smirk over her shoulder.
"...Sometimes," Ren answered carefully, eager to not dig too deep a hole.
Viviane shrugged as Ren healed her, not too willing to dig deeper either. Brushing death so many times in a day took the wind out of her sails a bit. "Did the sphinx drop anything?" she asked, glancing at the remains from where she was lying.
"A core, I think," he looked over. "I don't know about anything else. Can we use divine pelt for anything?"
"Armour? Clothing? Who knows. May as well take it with us though," Viviane said, picking herself up after Ren finished healing her.
He nodded. "We can go and check the next room too. I think I saw a glow in there."
Viviane nodded, pulling out her knife to get the pelt and core to bring with them. They could decide who got what later. "This'll take a while…"
"Want help?" Ren offered. "It's probably quicker to take the body though…"
"Help would be nice," Viviane said as she mapped out where to cut. "And…can the storage amulet fit such a large beast?"
It turned out, it could not, so they took the long way. Ren gave up halfway out of nausea, reliable as ever, as dragged himself inside the treasure room up ahead. The entire place was ankle-deep in shimmering gold, objects of all kinds sticking out from the piles, all surrounding a large gilded coffin.
"More hieroglyphs…" he muttered. "Hey, guys, this place really is a tomb!"
Viviane would eventually make her way to the room as well, wiping herself off with a red towel with splotches of white on it. "A tomb?" she asked. "I wonder who was buried."
It was at that moment that the sphinx -- no, an image of the sphinx -- stood up, walking calmly into the treasure room and curling around the sarcophagus, a mirage whispering into existence. A young woman, surrounded by a trio of cubs running in circles around her, sat cross-legged atop the casket.
『I'm glad you asked,』 she smiled. 『My name is Nefertari, and I ought to be furious with all of you.』
Ren leapt back, yelping in astonishment at the sudden appearance of an actual ghost.
"I-I-I'm sorry!" he cried. "We'll leave if you want! Um! Who are you…?! Are you dead?!"
『Quiet down. You could wake the… Well,』 she muttered. 『Now, explain yourselves. You have broken into my tomb, destroyed my custodians, vandalised the architecture, and murdered the eldest sister of these dear four. I should kill you all on the spot, but as my beloved, I shall at least hear you out before coming to my judgement.』
Viviane quietly nudged Ren.
"Ah?!" Ren squeaked.
『Well?』 asked Nefertari.
"Um! It's kind of… self-defence! We came here to meet a friend and then everything started attacking us!" he spluttered. "So we fought back! We didn't know it was a tomb, we just thought there was a possibility, so we didn't come as graverobbers or anything!"
Nefertari blinked, then gave a long sigh. 『You get into these situations a lot, don't you?』
Ren nodded. "A bit."
『If you aren't graverobbers,』 she announced,『then you are guests. Make yourselves comfortable. I am sure you have journeyed long and hard to get here.』
"...A bit," Ren said again.
With a wave of her hand, the spectral sphinx materialised a physical body once again, revived with ease. 『I will call off the guards. Where have you come from, young ones?』
Miki glanced at the others. "We're from Schism. There aren't many people there compared to other realms so you might not know of it?"
『I cannot pretend to,』 she admitted. 『I have not exactly been exposed to news recently.』
"We can tell," said Ren.
『I presume you are undead?』 Nefertari asked Miki.
"It's close enough to being alive." he shrugged.
『Never pass on,』 she advised. 『It's usually not worth it. And you.』
"Me?" blinked Ren.
『What are you, little myriad?』
He blinked again, as if that constituted a response.
『I see. You do not know,』 she nodded. 『A pity. You are quite the curiosity with those countless souls.』
"With what?" he asked.
『Souls,』 she repeated. 『Did you not realise?』
"Countless?" he echoed.
『I mistook you at first for a legion unlike any seen on this world. At first I thought the dead were rising,』 she said. 『You are not like any I have ever met. You are not a person, but perhaps a walking cosmos in yourself.』
"Is that why he glows white?" Viviane chimed.
"V-Viviane!" he cried.
"What, I was curious."
『Perhaps,』 Nefertari said. 『After all, despite having the shape of a human, it is more accurate to think of him as an entire night sky. A universe of living souls, and yet only one possesses the awareness in such a state to hold consciousness.』
Her bright eyes became sombre for a moment.
『I cannot imagine what manner of power you must have originally possessed to become such a being, terrible spirit, but I fear the all-powerful Isis herself would be reduced to grovelling before you. Do you remember your name?』
He took a step back. He was pale to begin with, of course, but he was visibly shaken. "M-my name is Ren. Ren Vedas. I don't know where it comes from. I just know it's mine."
She nodded, her expression softening again. 『I see. I do not know who you were or how you came to be as you are now, but to have forgotten everything is likely for the best.』
Viviane would've been drinking something if possible. This conversation had went to 'holy shit' territory quite a bit too quickly for her tastes. "It makes some sense," she mumbled. "The whole star thing you did from before. Maybe part of your power is coming back, whatever it is."
"But that's just magic!" Ren protested. "I made it! You just make stars in yourself and then--"
『You are aware that being able to create stars inside your own being is only further evidence that you are a sentient cosmology.』
Viviane shifted quietly where she was before sighing. "I'm sorry Ms. Nefertari, but could we talk about something else? This is a…well, a lot to take in. For all of us, I think."
『Quite right,』 she nodded. 『It is not a thing to dwell on. In the meantime, as honoured guests, you may take anything of your choosing in this room. I shan't be needing it, after all?』
"Wait," Ren said. "You were going to punish us for being graverobbers, but now you know we aren't you want to give us stuff?"
『Ye who shall take forcibly not shall receive from hospitality,』 Nefertari declared, as if reciting it from memory.
Viviane blinked, mumbling a dull "Are you serious" under her breath before slowly looking around.
"Can you warn us if any of this stuff is cursed?" Miki muttered, scanning the room. "Curses aren't exactly..."
『None of it will be cursed,』 she assured him. 『Only I have the authority to do such a thing.』
As she glanced around, Viviane's eyes settled on a slight…glow, as it were. Walking over, she carefully shifted around in the pile until she came upon a seemingly golden chain, a shorter than usual short-blade attached to the end. "Ms. Nefertari?" she called as she turned around. "May I take this?"
She looked over. 『That chain… It is somewhat dangerous,』 she warned. 『As I said, it is not cursed. On the contrary, it is blessed, but by a somewhat disagreeable god who caused a bit of trouble for us for a few centuries.』
Viviane hummed as she carefully wrapped part of the chain around her arm, holding the rest in her left hand. "That's fine with me. Thank you, Ms. Nefertari," she finished, curtsying slightly.
『I am glad it is well-received. Please, as much as you need.』
Miki stepped around one of the piles, picking up a box. Locked. "You wouldn't happen to know where the key to this is?" he looked around the room, picking up on even more boxes with keyholes. "...Or where any keys are?"
『They… can't be far,』 she said. 『They'll doubtlessly be in the pile, but I don't know...』
He sighed, setting down the box to begin digging through the pile, setting aside any interesting things he happened to find.
Viviane, having already been semi-satisfied with her find, moved over to help look too.
Persephone, who had been somewhat absent during this whole endeavor, looked around at the large room and all of the treasures that sat inside of it. "Oh wow… This is certainly astounding." She walked over to a piece of cloth that she could only assume to be a shawl and smiled. "Am I allowed to take this?"
Nefertari gave a silent nod, but just as she did, the cloth moved a little.
Persephone looked down at the cloth and realized that something was actually wrapped in it. She blinked and looked down at the small creature that was wrapped in it. It seemed as though it was a baby Sphinx, which made Persephone smile widely. "Hello little one!" She held the Sphinx in her arms and cradled it a little bit.
"You seem to have suffered severe trauma from that last fight," Ren snarked, glancing up at the large one. "No hard feelings, right?"
It gave an uninterested glance in a completely different direction.
"I-I will take that as a yes."
"Viviane, what do you think about this?" Miki called. He was still elbows deep digging through the pile, but he nudged an iron crown with his leg. There was a stone arrow already beside it, along with a collection of keys. "Oh, this one is good." He pulled out one last key, holding it up for Nefertari to see.
『That should open the strongest box there,』 she said, demonstrating to the container in question.
Viviane happily twirled the crown before placing it on her head. "I like it," she said cheerfully.
Miki nodded, moving over to unlock the box. Inside was a dagger, a bit on the plain side. He flipped it around in his hand, giving a few arbitrary spins and stabbing the air in front of him.
Ren stifled a giggle. "Watching you practice never gets old."
Nefertari raised her eyebrows. 『Are you a blade expert? Your form is a little… No, it's nothing. I'm sure times have changed.』
"I wouldn't say I was an expert… I just saw it so much that I picked up on it. Why?"
『For a knife like that, your posture is too rigid,』 she commented. 『Ram showed me. A fight is a time where it's not easy to think flexibly, but as long as you're calm, then a knife will come much more naturally than any spear.』
"Ram..." he echoed, "Ah. Right."
The translucent ghost of Nefertari went a little pink in the face. 『What's with that reaction?! Got a problem?! We knew each other from childhood, so what's wrong with giving him a nickname?!』
"Aah," breathed Ren. "So she does that thing as well. I suddenly relate to you a lot, Nefertari."
『Mmnmngrr...』 she made an indignant, grumbly noise and fell silent.
"Would 'Master' count as a nickname?" Miki wondered out loud.
"I think it's more of a title," Ren commented.
"Sex title," Viviane mumbled under breath as she checked how the crown fitted.
"That's definitely not a real thing!" cried Ren.
"It definitely is," Viviane replied. "Or it will be one day, if it hasn't already come. Though I doubt it hasn't." As she spoke, she frowned as she pulled out a…jar? "Miki, isn't this your colour?" she said, carefully placing the vase to one side.
"Bit too blue." He corrected, picking it up. "It's probably useful though… I can kind of tell what it does."
"The terror of Miki wielding an ancient pot," Viviane said in a droll tone before inspecting the keys. "Hmm…" Viviane hummed. "The key should fit the lock…" she mumbled, picking up one of the keys. Were they missing some? Well, who cares if they were. What was the worst that could happen?
Perhaps Nefertari should've been less generous, but Viviane really went crazy, having finally sat down with no less than three more items in her lap; an earring, a bell, and an odd cloth with a bunch of eyes on it. "Hmmm…can I punch a hole in my ear right now…?" she mumbled, bringing the jewellery up to her ear for a moment.
"I refuse to heal self-harm on principle," Ren pointed out.
"Self-harm is but one step in self-beauty," Viviane responded. "Dieting, for example, is restricting yourself from eating so your body will learn to eat away at itself so you look slimmer."
"That's starvation," he replied. "Dieting is just eating less and moving more."
Persephone sat with a selection of music, a shawl, and a baby sphinx in her lap. The baby sphinx pawed at the shawl as Persephone suddenly began to sweat. "Uh… R-Right Ren, it's just uh… S-Starvation… Right. Hahaha…"
He blinked. "Are you…?"
Viviane glanced over as well, squinting for a moment. "Persephone…are you starving yourself? You know, you should only get so thin."
Persephone rubbed her cool hand against the back of her neck. "Well… Um… I'm not starving myself… Technically."
"I am going to bring meals to all our study sessions," Ren said slowly. "And we are going to eat together. And on days where we don't have any, we are going to go and have picnics outdoors so you get extra sunlight."
Persephone waved her hands around and blushed. "Y-You don't have to do that! A-And my Mother would have my head if I ate too much, so p-please! You really don't have to! A-Although… That does sound lovely…"
"Life is different now, Persephone," he reminded her calmly. "This time in your life is all about you. You don't need to worry about your mother, you just have to worry about what you want to do next. You know, there's no way you can perform at full potential if you don't eat. Haven't you ever heard of the Cognitive Revolution?"
Persephone pet her baby sphinx as she listened to Ren. She blushed a little more and looked off to the side, her hair covering her face. "I… I suppose you're right. J-Just don't hate me if I get fat, okay?"
"If we keep running into people like Zhihao I don't think you'll have an issue." Miki pointed out.
Viviane quietly made her way over to Persephone, nudging her shoulder before sitting down with her stuff too. "Look at it this way," she whispered, quiet enough so the others couldn't hear. "You get to spend more time with Ren now. Isn't that nice?"
Persephone looked at Viviane and said, "Yeah… You're right. I'm just scared of gaining weight, you know? I've been thin my whole life… And… Things might be different if I put on some pounds, you know?"
Viviane gave a blank stare before glancing down at herself. "No, I don't," she replied in a deadpan voice before smiling again. "Plus, you heard Ren. You'd just need to exercise a bit more. You could go jogging or something."
Persephone looked at Viviane once again. "Ah… Sorry. I said something mean. You're right that we could go jogging. That could be a good opportunity to spend with Ren too!" Persephone pet her baby sphinx and nuzzled it. "Wouldn't that be a good idea little…" Persephone suddenly shouted. "AH! I HAVEN'T GIVEN IT A NAME!"
Viviane hummed, shrugging. She hadn't even named her slime, now that she thought about it.
Persephone turned to Nefertari. "U-Um… Would you mind if I asked you for a name?"
『For this little one?』 Nefertari asked. 『Well, my naming sense has never been wonderful, but for a name… I did always like 'Meryre'. I even named one of my sons that way, so…』
Persephone smiled and looked at the little one. "I like it. Meryre. It seems… Regal almost. Befitting of this little guy." She scratched Meryre behind the ear and saw him become like putty in her hand. She turned to Nefertari. "It's the least I can do since you're letting us take things from here. Thank you for such a wonderful name." Persephone bowed a little to Nefertari.
『A-ah, no, it's alright! Please don't bow, it's embarrassing…!』
Persephone laughed a little. "No need to be embarrassed. I am just showing you respect after all. Uh… Would you mind if I ask you for a favor?" Persephone seemed a bit embarrassed by this question.
『Of course not. Speak your mind, young one.』
Persephone looked off to the side. "I know I've already taken more than I should've, but do you know where I might find something for this little one to wear possibly?"
『Let me see...』 she pondered. 『It is not exactly magical, but there ought to be this tiny poncho in that pile there...』
Persephone went over to the pile and began to look for the poncho while she placed the little one on top of her head. It seemed to enjoy playing with her ears. "Thank you, it might take me a moment to look."
Viviane hummed as she looked over the treasures she had, pausing as she turned slightly. "Ms. Nefertari?" she asked, bringing up the cloth. "What a…is this?"
『Ceremonial dress,』 answered the pharaohess, 『in the likeness of the unseen smiter Medjed.』
"Ah…" Viviane mumbled, turning it over in her hands. "How should it be worn?"
『Over your head. Make sure the eyes line up with yours.』
Viviane carefully took off the crown she'd been wearing before slipping on the smiter, putting the crown on her head again after to try make the cloth move less after she got it lined up. "This is…quite fun," she said, her voice slightly muffled.
Persephone laughed as she grabbed the object she had been looking for. "That certainly is fun Viviane! I wish you luck if we ever encounter any wind." Persephone laughed a little as she sat down and played with the little sphinx.
Viviane made a small huffing sound, putting her hands on her hips beneath the dress. "It's not like I'm naked under this. A little wind would just make it harder to see if it blew the eye holes aside."
Persephone smirked. "Well I know that, but wouldn't it be fun if you were naked under there?" Persephone then laughed a little more.
Viviane hummed, turning slightly to face Persephone. "Be careful what you wish for," she said, before humming more. "Though I guess it would be, wouldn't it? Not like it'd be that different from how I usually dress. This one just covers my head too."
Persephone laughed a little, not fully realizing what Viviane meant.
Miki blinked, shooting her a look. "You're a lot more dangerous than I gave you credit for."
Viviane turned to shoot a glare back. "Hey, you try shifting your legs to a tail with damn underwear in the way, then you can judge me."
Persephone looked at Viviane with wide eyes. "WAIT! That's what you meant!" She paused for a moment before bursting out laughing, holding Meryre above her with both hands. She was practically rolling on the floor as she realized that all this time Viviane was completely and utterly commando while wearing her dress.
Viviane crossed her arms, huffing again beneath the dress. At least no one could read her expression with the dress covering her face. "Don't laugh. It actually hurt the first time I tried," Viviane grumbled. "My tail actually got tangled up in it…"
Miki looked down at her harem pants completely blank faced. "Life is hard huh..."
"It's hard," Ren agreed with a nod.
"Knowing you, it's probably not the only thing that's hard," Viviane grumbled under her breath as she knelt down to pick up the rest of her treasure. She'd punch a hole for her earring later.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Ren cried. "Don't make me out to loose just because I get picked on!"
Persephone laughed at Viviane's comment and then looked at Ren. "I don't think it's because you get picked on." Persephone stood up, baby spinx in hand. Her tails began to swirl as a smirk came across her face. "I could just brush up against you with some of my tails and I'm positive I could get that," Persephone quickly moved her eyes down to Ren's region that would occasionally grow, "Kind of reaction out of you." Persephone kept moving forward, never looking away from Ren. Her gaze would probably remind onlookers of a lion looking down prey.
Miki's expression bordered on thunderous, but he seemed to be managing with just grinding his teeth.
『Ahem!』 Nefertari interrupted. 『Excuse me, but this is a place for dead things, not procreating things!』
Ren let out a tiny sigh of shallow relief.
Persephone's smirk grew wider as she turned to Nefertari. Her tails began moving with more heavy and intense movements now. "Whoever mentioned anything about procreation? Now now now, you must be in a delirious state Nefertari. I would never do that inside of a tomb. I, at least, have the decency to do it immediately outside."
"Aren't you pushing it a bit?" Miki bit out. "Consideration for the dead and everything."
Persephone's smirk vanished. "You're right." She didn't look at Miki and her tails stopped moving. "I'm very sorry for the inappropriate way in which I spoke. Please do forgive me. I will not desecrate the land around here with his seed either."
Viviane coughed slightly beneath her dress as she made her way over to Persephone during all the talking. "That, and Miki probably would've made sure you joined the dead things if you continued," Viviane mumbled under breath.
Persephone looked over her shoulder to Viviane. "No need to keep whispering. We're all going to be together, so we might as well be frank. Miki probably would've nearly killed me if I did continue." After a breath, Persephone seemed to suddenly lighten up. "F-Forgive me. I… I am a bit tired. I get… Less like myself when I'm tired." She turned to Miki. "I… Hope you'll forgive me. I say some…" Persephone blushed. "Some… F-Forward things when I get this way. I know we haven't been here long and we still have part of the day, but I'm not used to exerting myself so much or being exposed to so much excitement."
He grunted more petulant than anything now. "Realistically, I can kill you in one hit." He muttered in lieu of acceptance.
Persephone sighed. "Thanks. That's... Reassuring..." Persephone then turned to Ren. "I… I am sorry for how I acted. It was inappropriate and I get caught in my old ways of acting sometimes. I hope you can forgive me. I… I don't really think that I can… Y-You know…"
Viviane coughed lightly. "I should take some of the blame," she mumbled. "I did sort of provoke in the first place…" She then turned to Nefertari, curtsying and apologizing too.
"I-i-it's fine!" Ren spluttered. "It's not a bad thing, it's just not for everywhere!"
『I miss Ram,』 mumbled Nefertari.
Viviane glanced up at Nefertari. "Uh…if you don't mind me asking, were you very close with a…Ram?"
『Ramesses, King of Kings!』 she declared proudly. 『"Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!" Something like that.』
Ren blinked. "Oh! Ozymandias!"
『Right!』 she nodded. 『He was righteous and dignified and wise and just probably the best king ever born… I want to see him...』
"Why isn't he buried with you?" Ren asked.
『He was supposed to be in the other pyramid, but I heard he isn't anymore… These were supposed to be part of the Ramesseum together. They got split up over thousands of years.』
Viviane awkwardly scratched the back of her neck. "I'm a…sorry to hear that," she said. "You can't check the other pyramid?"
『I can't leave,』 she sighed. 『I have the sphinxes to keep me company though! It is not all bad!』
"Wait," Ren frowned. "Backtrack. How can pyramids be separated from a huge temple complex hundreds of miles away by time?"
『Ah… I guess the Ramesseum Dendera can't fly these days after all.』
"...Come again?"
『Ram had his friend use his miracle magic to have the complex take to the skies because it was impossible to build on earth. It used to soar over the deserts where nobody could touch us.』
"His friend… Móxī?" Miki frowned.
『I'm… not sure about how you're pronouncing it, but I think it's who you're thinking of,』 she nodded.
Viviane cocked her head to the side. "Uhm…could someone explain it to me…?"
"I got lost too," Ren admitted.
"He's a prophet I think," Miki explained. "He was a mage that could do godly feats even though he was a normal mortal. Master talked about him at one point."
"Eh?" Ren blinked. "Did I?"
『He was Ram's best friend, but they began to argue about what was best for their own people. Once he split the sea at the end of the world, Ram didn't send anyone to follow. He said to me that they had to go separate ways now. I don't know if he gave up, but I think he had accepted his decision.』
"I… see," Ren nodded.
『Actually, the boy downstairs is somewhat similar. Maybe they're related?』
"Boy?! Iryankh?!" he cried. "He's just downstairs?! He's the one we're here to see!"
『Oh, really? How convenient. There is a stairway behind here that should take you to him.』
Viviane turned slightly. "Should we go down?" she asked in a deadpan voice, before turning again and bowing to Nefertari. "Thank you for showing us such hospitality."
Persephone nodded. "Indeed. Thank you for showing us such kindness. I'll never forget it and surely Meryre won't either."
Miki looked over at Viviane, mimicking her bow. "I'll keep your advice in mind. Thanks."
With a hasty bow and another word of thanks, Ren quickly hurried to the staircase, turning to wave to Nefertari before hurrying down. "Come on, everyone!"
Viviane hummed as she followed after, careful to make sure the top of her new crown didn't hit anything. She was like a big bowling pin…
As Persephone positioned the new crown on top of Meryre's head, she smiled and sauntered over to the staircase. "I'm coming, I'm coming." Persephone decided to carry little Meryre so that she could move a bit faster.
"He won't be far," Ren said, rushing as fast as he could without tripping. "Oh, I should warn you guys, he won't look at anyone."
"As in he's blind?" Viviane asked.
Persephone looked at Ren a bit confused. "Is something wrong with his eyes or something?" Persephone smiled and playfully said, "Will he turn us to stone if we look him in the eye?~"
"No, it's not that exciting. He is just blind," Ren said. "Don't make him angry though. That part is exciting."
Persephone smirked. "Mmm~ Someone who goes all out in a rage, hmm?~ Sounds like an interesting fella if you ask me."
"Uh… It's not really all-out…" he frowned. "More like when he gets mad he turns into something else."
"So Persephone, don't make him angry," Viviane said. "Even for fun. I don't know if I want to see what 'something else' is…"
Persephone pursed her lips. "I won't make him angry. I'm just kidding… I don't honestly want to see someone turn into something else and probably beat my ass."
"Really? Your ass looks like it could take a pounding," Viviane chirped, smirking as she did.
"I don't know if I could survive him," Ren admitted. "So uh… yeah. He's smart though."
"Quit badmouthing," a voice grumbled in the darkness.
Ren stopped in place, glancing around in astonishment, as a large black flower smacked him in the back of the head.
"Owowowow…" he whined. "Hi, Iryankh… Long time no see…"
There was silence for a second.
"...Not funny?"
"No," grumbled a young man. Tall, with dark cocoa skin and blank eyes that stared at nothing in particular, clad in a dusty white robe from the waist down -- an imposing image, for sure.
Persephone looked at the young man and smiled. "Hello I-Iryan… Uh… I'm afraid I'm not too good at pronouncing foreign names, so I hope you'll excuse me. I'm Persephone, a companion of Ren. Well… In case you couldn't already figure that out."
"Hi Iryankh," Viviane said as well. "It's nice to meet you. Ren's said some nice things about you."
"I somehow doubt that," Iryankh said.
"I have! She's right!" Ren insisted. "H-how are you doing…?"
"Same as ever. Come downstairs. We'll talk," he shrugged, the long flower staff clinking against the stairs as he guided himself down it.
Persephone felt the urge to scoff when she wasn't addressed at all by the blind man, but she knew better. She'd been around blind people before and their senses were sharp. Ren didn't want her to make Iryankh angry, so she held in the urge. "So… How did you happen upon this place? Did you build it or something?"
"The pyramid? It's always been here, so I just holed up," he answered. "Apparently, the heir of Solomon has that right or something."
"You're the heir of Solomon?" Viviane said, keeping ridicule out and genuine curiousity in.
"Seems so, since I have the staff right here," he said. "I'm underwhelming, but I'm long-lived enough as a djinn that I have time to improve."
Viviane hummed as she glanced at the staff. It seemed to be made of an exotic black metal, a thin shaft that bloomed into a large flower on the top. It was peculiar, but held an aura similar to divinity, only… darker. "I thought it'd glow more. And be white for some reason."
Persephone observed the staff and continued to look over Iryankh. This was the first djinn she'd ever met and… He seemed… Odd to her. Maybe that was because he was blind.
"I'm a shut-in," said Iryankh, as if reading her mind. "I have all of Solomon's old tomes down here. I'm trying to decipher the Greater Key. It isn't working."
"What's the Greater Key?"
Persephone nodded and said, "I have the same question."
"The Greater Key of Solomon is a grimoire that is, for better or worse, the man's greatest work," he explained. "At least, I think it is. That said, I'm not familiar with the contents, but since the Lesser Key is a manual on how to summon and bind demon gods, I'm inclined to think this must be incredible."
"Ah…" Viviane said lightly, her voice belaying a level of worry and disinterest. Summoning and binding demon gods wasn't really her thing, you know.
Persephone looked at Iryankh and lit up. "Ah! Does that mean you can use the Lesser Key to do such things as summon and bind demon gods? If you can, that really is incredible!"
"I don't possess the power to actually use it," he explained, "but I have the knowledge and skill. One day I aim to summon Furfur to start."
Persephone cocked her head to one side and her ears twitched. "I'm not very familiar with such names. Who is Furfur?"
"One of the demon gods," he sighed. "Furfur is a low rank, so it should be easy enough."
Persephone blinked. "Ah, of course. How stupid of me…" Persephone nervously laughed and rubbed the back of her neck.
"If you want actual details, I'll be happy to teach you a few things about demon gods," he offered, a little gruffly.
Persephone clapped her hands together. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to learn a few extra things! Ah, to think I'll even be learning about demon gods while I'm learning to read and write from Ren!"
"I think only one of those things can get you tried for heresy…" Ren laughed anxiously.
"I doubt any of you actually have the predilection to actually dedicate yourselves to this kind of thing, but it is useful enough," sighed Iryankh.
"Uhm…not that this conversation isn't incredibly interesting," Viviane said slowly. "But didn't we come here for something else, Ren?"
Persephone looked at Viviane. "Ah! Right!"
"Y-yeah! We--!"
"Tell me in a moment," said Iryankh, reaching the foot of the stairs. A large chamber, poorly lit, surrounded them, all kinds of what looked like sandstone furniture laid about in a questionable arrangement. "None of you are hungry, are you?"
Persephone rubbed one of her feet on the floor as Meryre started mewing. "Uh… Would you mind if I could get something for this little one?"
"I guess. How big?" he asked.
Persephone looked at the little one and said, "Hmm… What do you have to eat? Something moderately sized would probably be best."
With a tired semi-sigh, Iryankh opened an odd box and dragged a slab of meat out of it around the size of his entire torso. "How's this?"
Persephone blinked. "Uh… I would say that's a bit… Large. Sorry…"
"Moderate means a lot of things, you know," he grumbled, putting it back and looking through it some more.
"Ah… I suppose you can't see how small this baby sphinx is. I meant moderate in terms of his size, so something probably half the size of him. Sorry…" Persephone squeezed Meryre a little bit.
Viviane glanced over at the baby sphinx. "I think something about the size of a human liver would tide him over for now," she said, sorely tempted to pet the new pet.
Persephone could see that Viviane wanted to pet Meryre and so she moved a bit closer to Viviane and stretched out her arms for Viviane to take the little one.
Viviane made a small, excited sound before reaching over and petting the sphinx. That was enough for her. After all, she did still have her own pet slime.
Iryankh seemed to have given up on searching blind and just tore a chunk of meat off and chucked it to the floor.
"There," he shrugged. "So what exactly are you all doing here?"
Ren raised a hand. "Actually, we were wondering about something called a paramatman."
Iryankh's face screwed up. "I do vaguely remember that name. Why?"
"Well… There are these hunters or something that keep calling me that."
Iryankh paused. He almost seemed like he was staring for a moment, and then he sighed.
"A paramatman is another name for something called a World Soul," he said. "Come on. There are paintings in the tomb about it."
"Hold on," Viviane asked. "Why are there paintings about it in this tomb? We couldn't read any of them, so…this is sort of new."
Persephone was simply interested and followed Iryankh without much of a thought until Viviane posed a question. "Ah… I suppose I'm also curious about that. Why are painting pertaining to a "World Soul" specifically here? Does this tomb hold special meaning to world souls?"
"This place was part of the Ramesseum temple complex once. The diagrams on the walls are a combination of a spell book and a spiritual encyclopedia. Think of this place as one giant sandstone grimoire," explained Iryankh, leading them up the steps. "Lucky for me, the writing was carved out."
Persephone gasped. "A-A giant grimoire?!"
"Wait, hold on again…how old are these tombs? Were they prophesying Ren's existence?"
"They're something like four thousand years, but they're no prophecy," he corrected. "Rather, they recorded phenomena that was both observed and theoretical at the time. In its prime, this complex was the largest collection of arcane knowledge in all of Mshir, and debatably still is."
Persephone rubbed her head. "So you mean to tell me that this 'giant grimoire' has a bunch of magical knowledge in it? And… You said this is only part of the complex, right? Where are the other places in the complex?"
"Scattered in the desert. The other pyramid you saw across the town was another part of the same wing," he explained.
Persephone nodded. "I see… Does each wing contain the same types of information?"
"In a sense, yes," he said. "It's generally what pertains to the function of the wing. I am led to believe that this was part of a spiritual hospital. We have restored some of the functions of the other pyramid, which has largely confirmed that theory."
Persephone smiled widely. "So there might be knowledge on how to heal someone better?! If there is, might I be able to learn something to make my healing capability stronger?"
"Possibly. These spells are all high-level ancient rituals though. I hope you're an expert at healing magic," he said, "because I doubt you can work through these without at least a hundred years of study. These are things like repairing a soul that has been banished from the physical plane."
Persephone raised her eyebrows. "Maybe I'll have to come back here once I get a lot stronger to learn how to do that!"
Viviane coughed slightly. "So. Mr. Iryankh. Paramatman and why Ren might have people hunting him?"
"Right," he nodded, walking up the steps. "Nefertari!"
"Back so soon?" the ghost replied. "Not that I dislike company…"
"Help me read this," Iryankh said, reaching the top of the steps as he immediately approached the back wall.
There was an image, presumably of a planet, trailing white light as it fell from the sky like a comet, surrounded by hieroglyphs on all sides.
"If I recall, this details the creation process of a World Soul," he said, placing his hand on the wall. "In the event of an afterlife being destroyed, souls are known to gather and gravitate towards each other. The effect wherein a disembodied spirit is drawn to others is how afterlives are formed in the first place in which the laws of the world allow it, but if it does not, it is likely due to a law of cycles or a mechanism of reincarnation in place."
Nefertari nodded. "Right. That was common knowledge in our time. A realm that you can consider an afterlife is a byproduct of wandering souls coalescing there, but not every world could sustain that."
Iryankh kept reading.
"In the event that souls are no longer bound to their own world, usually through the destruction of that world, then they will inevitably gravitate towards each other as normal. Depending on the mechanics of the world's laws, they will either give birth to a new world, or condense into an entity in the image of any survivor if that survivor is compatible with the concept of a cosmology. In an ideal circumstance, the completed entity will contain the memories, personalities, and collective wisdom of all the beings it once subsumed, forming a being known as a World Soul."
"So in other words…" Ren frowned.
"A World Soul is the debris of a destroyed world," Nefertari clarified. "That, I suppose, would be you, little one."
Ren stared blankly at the image on the wall -- a fallen world, the illustration of what he was supposed to believe was his own birth.
"But… I don't remember anything…" he whispered.
So he didn't know where he came from because he hadn't come from anywhere? He didn't remember his parents because he never had any? He had never once found a member of his kin simply because they did not exist?
Viviane quietly motioned for Persephone to come over as she quietly rubbed Ren's shoulder. "…this is a lot to take in for you," she mumbled quietly.
Persephone went over to Ren and ran some of her tails across Ren's back. She got down a little so she was at eye level with Ren. "Ren, will you look me in the eye please?"
"I-I…" he murmured, but slowly complied.
Persephone could see the pain residing in his eyes and it was breaking her heart. However, she knew that she had to comfort him in some way. "Ren… I've known only a few people in my life. Most of them never knew who their parents were if they were friends of mine and I can't imagine how much this must hurt, but… Now you know exactly where you've come from and what you are. Although… It may be painful to think about what you're missing out on, there is probably more for you than anyone else. You are a collection of many people and… Even if you don't seem to remember, I'm sure that there is a way to understand exactly what happened to… The place that all of the souls reside from."
"I… I don't know…" he whispered. "I don't know anything. Even before, I was me, but now…"
Now I'm not even that.
"That is not completely true," Nefertari cut in. "You do, with certainty, contain souls beyond number, but there is only one that is speaking at the moment. Whoever it is, it is still you. The others merely reside inside you. I did not lie when I said that you are a walking cosmos."
"Th-then… But I don't remember anything…" he said weakly.
"However," Iryankh continued, "in the event of an imperfect creation, it is possible for the World Soul to fracture into pieces mid-creation, causing the asynchronous souls to deny the host access to memories and force a singular consciousness into a primary acting role. In such World Souls, it is possible to recover and absorb lost pieces, with primary consciousnesses competing for a dominant role. A conflict will be entirely resolved when a World Soul is complete, at which point it will be filled with blood."
Persephone now looked very confused. Did that mean that Ren could be considered incomplete? No no no. Persephone was almost sure that that might be how Ren would take it though. And how would they be able to gather the rest of his pieces? How could they restore Ren? Persephone didn't say anything out loud, looking incredibly perplexed.
"Filled with blood?" Ren echoed. "That… makes sense. After all, I…"
"…you bleed white soul stuff?" Viviane supplemented.
He nodded. "That's how I know I'm complete, I suppose…"
"In addition, the model for a fractured World Soul's bodies will also gain a share of the souls, allowing it to use the Soul Empathy, Soulburst, and Resonance of the World Soul if it has the capacity to do so," Iryankh continued. "The model will have variations on its reflections, but they will all be fundamentally recognisable as the original model. The origin of the World Soul is considered a part of it in itself and will be able to become the true World Soul should it absorb all of its components."
Nefertari frowned. "This is sounding like a world that I know, but it could not possibly be destroyed, could it?"
Iryankh shook his head. "No such luck. Vedasaria was already annihilated around ten years ago. In other words, the vague memories of it formed Ren's name. Vedas."
Persephone frowned in response to this. This was much more… Pressing than she originally thought. If Ren wasn't the original model, then he would be unable to absorb the other pieces. He would be absorbed instead. This thought resided in Persephone's mind, causing her to be unable to speak for the moment.
"What are the hunters called?" Iryankh asked.
"I don't know," Ren shook his head. "They mentioned following a Great Black One, but…"
His eyes narrowed. "Pitris."
"What?"
"Ancestrals, translated. They're a cult to the transcendent being known as Kala. You're in more trouble than I thought."
"Kala?" Ren asked.
"He's said to have 108 names, and that is only one of them. A vast dark entity that exists above and beyond reality itself, holding time and space in the palm of his hand. A supreme being that surpasses the very definition of a god. Omnipotent and all-seeing, with no escape from his machinations. He has taken roles from a lord of death to the conceptual cosmic force of destruction between cycles of his world, not fazed even once by the death of the ultimate reality itself."
Ren took a step back. "Th-there's no way something like that would be after me. I wouldn't be here otherwise."
"Exactly. He was most likely destroyed with his world, but if even a fragment of his power remains, his cult will still possess it, and that makes them extremely dangerous," Iryankh explained.
Persephone frowned once again. "Oh dear… It seems like we've got our work cut out for us then."
Viviane clicked her tongue. In all the time she'd been hanging out with Ren and Miki, she actually had yet to meet this Kala or these Pitrs…
"I wonder where they are now," she mumbled, glancing around the room.
"Not in here, I assure you," Nefertari promised.
"There are thirteen seats, as I recall," Iryankh said. "I do not remember precisely what they entail, but I do recall that there are traditionally three deities and one herald."
"A herald?"
"A summoner, in short. Someone who can pinpoint an exact location for their lord to descend. Useless without someone to worship though."
Persephone pursed her lips. "Hmm…"
"So we can expect three gods and nine other followers?" Ren said. "So that's Zhihao, Namacuix, Lady Li… and Vortigern would be one of the gods, I guess?"
"I guess so," Viviane mumbled, a little lost in thought. There were gods to fight on the other side…
Persephone was unsure who any of those people were, but Zhihao sounded like a cool name. She wondered what kind of person they were. Well… Evil, of course. But she wondered what kind of evil.
"I don't like how we don't know anything. They're all from different worlds," Ren frowned. "We can't predict what we'll be fighting next… Zhihao must have been the weakest but it took four of us working together to take her out for real, and I got lucky with Namacuix. Li and Vortigern… I don't think we stand a chance. I mean, Vortigern blasted the top off a mountain with her breath."
"I'm feeling faint," Viviane said. "Are we supposed to fight these people?"
"Running away is good too," suggested Ren enthusiastically.
Iryankh folded his arms. "Vedasaria… There's a way to confirm it."
"R-really?" Ren blinked.
"I just thought of it. There's something I want you to see in the other pyramid," he said. "Come with me."