Another few months pass after finding the first map with the temple’s location marked on it.
Every new pedestal we climb up now has one less location to travel to, and the temple marked at the very end of it.
This measurable scale of progression begins to alleviate the monotony of exploring the darkness without progressing in our Celestial Energy purity or Royal Vibrations maturity at all.
Though, it does break us out from a completely isolated flow state and causes me to think about our predicament more.
The first thought that begins to linger in the back of my mind is the fact that I still have no access to the system at all. No matter how much Celestial Energy I try to focus into it, or activate the pure mana in my body, it’s no use.
It’s like some kind of seal is pressing down on my soul.
I couldn’t sense it before, because I couldn’t sense much of anything at all.
The only instinctual sense I had of it was that there was something strange in the air. It’s what makes the atmosphere so dense and dark. It is the reason there is no sound, and that I still get disoriented every time I try to look away from the compass orb in my hands.
The longer I stay in this environment, the more I begin to feel its similarities to the Celestial Seals I placed on myself back in the Green Zone. Then, I was doing it for my own good, to stay concealed, and not be a danger to those weaker around me.
However now, it is like a seal of suppression is affecting every particle of air, stone, matter, and energy that exists in this zone. I cannot sense its source, or even its commands or structure; but with every passing day, this feeling grows stronger.
It makes me wonder what happened to everyone left in the Green Zone, and if the powers that control this darkness will expedite or change their plans of sealing the Upper Realm from the plans I managed to siphon from Miriel’s memories.
One of the beings in the Green Zone I’m most conflicted about is Ember.
Every few pedestals we conquer, a new depiction of a Demon and Dragon being pulled apart resurfaces. Sometimes it is just one Demon or just one Dragon in various scenes. The Demon stabs the Dragon through the chest, and sometimes, the Dragon breathes fire down on the Demon. Other times, they too are carved sitting behind the ominous pictures of the Void Creepers staring down at an entire galaxy.
The words “Fallen One” and “Emperor” are carved over and over in this thin handwriting near the original works.
It makes me continuously wonder who or what wrote this, and why are they guiding us to a temple? Is this all the doing of a Demon? A temple guardian of sorts that has a vendetta against me? Or for Ember? Maybe this entire Ravine was created for this purpose alone, to be a trap for the Fallen One.
Looking back in all of the Vermillion Family Demon’s memories, many failsafes and schemes were constantly being put in place to kill Ember in the Green Zone; and even some in the Lower Realm, where families have protocols to scan and snuff out life on new planets they conquer.
However, if this really was the case, that it is only a trap, I don’t see what the purpose is behind all of these markings reading “The Great Split” or “The Great Cycle” or “The Final Reset,” and so many drawings of Void Creepers. The rarest one of all is the Void Creeper with wings. We only come across extremely old carvings of it a handful of times.
They show up in the caves, or in faded portions of the pedestals that have not been worn by battle too harshly. They all call this monster the “World Eater,” and there are a few of them that swap out this winged Void Creeper with the black dot that many of the long limbed beings praise.
The first few were coincidences I could look past, but after almost two years of seeing these depictions over and over again, I cannot help but start to relive the moment Maria and I shared before diving into the Cyan Zone.
The last moments in the light I saw of her were the bright Angelic wings of her Celestial Energy Form.
Now, as this black dot keeps appearing in the cave drawings, it deviates our Royal Vibration’s harmony more and more; because I see the black dot in the depths of her Soul Energy core with greater intensity every time.
This goes both ways, in fact…
Every time the carvings of a “Half Demon” called the Emperor, and a Dragon with the name “Fallen One” that many enemies have called Ember in the past, I feel the probing Vibrations of Maria’s Soul energy cycle flowing around my Demon Core’s outer edges.
It becomes clear that our arrival here is far less likely to be a coincidence.
I want to explain what is behind these protective barriers, but without releasing the corruption and resentment and rage-filled intent of Miriel back out into reality, I can’t do so. With this fact slowly eating away at the depths of my mind, the ominous question of what Maria is holding back grows in my mind too, and why she needs to keep it hidden from me.
Instead of something that we can suppress, every one of the pedestals we come across brings it back up now, and the underlying tension becomes a constant.
The feeling of the temple growing closer makes this mental divide more potent.
–
However, as we’ve grown to know how each other thinks so well, we both know that the tension can’t be broken so easily. If we could, both secrets would have been revealed already.
We jump off the final pedestal with a map only showing the temple as the last lone point to follow.
The pools of liquid avatar remains and demon horns are still fresh and spreading across the flat text filled platform as we do.
Yet, even after killing that last Noble Demon, the pressure of vibrations in the air hasn’t returned back to normal.
When we land to the bottom of the Ravine again and move forward, many of the small dots on the compass artifact begin to glow far brighter and larger.
The Noble Vibrations in the air have even increased in their intensity from where we left the last guardians.
They grow stronger and stronger, and come from all sides as we run together through the darkness. Soon, the source of these waves reveals themselves. Every few kilometers we travel on this last trek, dozens of 1st Class and Noble Demons attack us from all sides whenever we come near.
Each of them is strong enough to be a pedestal guardian, yet they all slowly walk in the same direction that we’re headed.
We slice through every single one of them with ease. This is the most potent source of Celestial Energy we’ve gathered throughout our whole time in this Ravine.
A week passes as we fight through the growing hordes of Demons, killing over a thousand bonded pairs with Noble Vibrations. Our armor has become extremely bright and strong, and we even made some slight progress, increasing our ether senses to about 550 meters with this increase in pure energy; but we’ve hit some kind of natural threshold that doesn’t allow us to cycle faster or refine it much further.
The Demons we come across start to dwindle in number, and the ones we do find are extremely strong, but look increasingly tired or suppressed.
Very similar to the weaker demons on the steps of the pedestals.
Instead of a constant low tingle of Noble Vibrations, an aura I have not felt in a while ripples through me.
It is the presence of a High Noble… or maybe even two of them… it’s hard to tell.
Though, as we slice through sluggish demons, and the visual of a staircase at the base of the Ravine comes into view, I start to hone in on these auras.
They’re coming from above us, and for the first time when I look up the stairs in their direction, the single bright dot on the compass artifact looks like it quivers slightly.
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