Chapter 14 - Eclecia [4]
5 hours later, amidst the capital of Eclecia.
"…That was anticlimactic."
Noah sat down on the ground and sighed, unsatisfied with how quiet our journey was to the tower.
"Your fault for being scared of my stories on what happened to Eclecia."
"Then you shouldn't have told me that story in the first place!"
"You were the one who wanted to know!"
After some time, we reached the tower's entrance, which served as a bridge between the two inverted spaces.
The capital of Eclecia was enormous, and it took us a long time to reach it.
I didn't expect us to take this long, honestly. Was it because Noah and the others were in a hurry?
…I guess it's fine. I got to see and explore Eclecia anyway.
As Noah mentioned, there wasn't anything worth seeing. We could've entered more houses to see what we could find, but Noah and I agreed among ourselves that it's best to let the dead rest, not because we're scared or anything.
Most of the structures here don't work because the power here has been stagnant for thousands of years.
Though some critical structures do work, this could be either good news or bad news.
The good news is that the convenient facilities were working, like the house Noah and I stayed in.
The bad news was that during our trip, Noah accidentally pressed a random button, and a loud siren blared for a few seconds.
It was thanks to my firearm that I shut it off by shooting it with pinpoint accuracy, so nothing bad happened.
His face when he made that mistake was priceless though, heh.
"What are you looking at?" Noah tilted his head, irritated by my constant snickering.
"Pfft… Nothing."
I held myself back from laughing at his face and looked away, changing the topic.
"Anyways, this giant tower is where the artifact we're looking for is located."
I pointed at the tower from the middle. It extended on both our side and the other side above, connecting both cities.
This tower was known as the Equilibrium Tower, the pillar that supported Eclecia as a whole.
"Damn, that's huge…"
"Don't let it bother you, let's go."
—Click!
Although I boast about my knowledge of Eclecia to the extreme, in reality, I don't know how to open the gate in front of us.
I could try to push the gate with my own strength, but I'm aware that unless I'm a giant with unrealistic strength, then it's impossible.
—Beam…!
"Hmm, how do you open this… wait, what the…?!"
Taken aback by surprise, I took a step back and braced myself.
The moment my fingers made contact with the gate, it burst forth with a radiant blue glow, and the earth beneath us trembled as the doors creaked open.
"W-What... what did you do?"
"H-How would I know?!"
—Vrrrr… VOOOM…!!!
The gate of the tower opened with all its splendid grandeur, revealing what it had hidden from us.
The tower, as big as a colossal monolith, revealed an astonishingly vast interior, as if we had stepped into an entirely different realm.
I had no words to express my thoughts, either beautiful or captivating; it's the same as discovering magic all over again.
Not from an outsider's perspective, but from someone who envisioned the tower myself.
"This tower is somewhat important, right? Why did it open so easily?" Noah deemed this suspicious, prioritizing wariness above curiosity.
"…" Hearing what he said, I got nervous again.
I… didn't think that far ahead when I wrote this part of the novel.
"Ahaha… uhh, I think they forgot to lock it! Or maybe you know, it might be because we have pure mana cores, no?" I made a lousy excuse, and Noah looked at me like a fool.
"…Mmm, whatever you say." Noah looked at me with his red eyes and moved forward. He didn't question me afterward.
He… bought it? My flimsy excuse.
Acting like that plot hole never happened, we went inside the tower.
Noah went back and forth between inside and outside after he noticed something unusual.
"Hmm? Is it me, or is everything inside bigger than outside?"
"It's Spatial Magic, as unbelievable as it sounds."
"Spatial Magic exists? At such a range, too?"
We glanced above us and saw a bunch of stairs spiralling around the tower. It was so high that we couldn't see an end to it.
"Ugh… for some high-tech structure, of course there are stairs. Wait, why not take the elevator?"
"As alluring as it looks, it's too risky to use the elevator as things are now."
"Fair enough."
We knew it'd be impossible to use such a convenient method of travel in the first place, especially down here.
—Crack!
—Cik… Creaak…!
Before we could weigh our options, an unexpected sound cut through the silence—a noise that clearly didn't originate from us.
We exchanged anxious glances, the air thick with tension as we strained to listen.
Our hearts raced, and every instinct urged us to remain alert and to keep each other alert.
"…Noah."
"I know."
Tension hung in the air as instinct kicked in, compelling us to crouch low and conceal ourselves behind the railings.
"□○●○■●□○"
From its cryptic tongue and its behaviour, unbefitting a sentient, living thing, an Eldia.
Eldias are creatures of the void, born from malice itself in its purest form.
All things negative gave rise to entities called Eldias, spawning endlessly like a relentless swarm.
Born directly from human malice, they strive to mimic humanity, driven by an insatiable thirst to comprehend our existence.
In summary, they're Eldritch monsters that cannot be defined.
This Eldia had no eyes or limbs. It looked like it wasn't meant to be alive in the first place.
It was simply floating in the air, drawn by the noise of the gate opening a moment ago.
To communicate with Noah without making a sound, I wrote letters in the air using magic after I found out that the Eldia was blind.
—You're right, let's take the elevator.
Words floated gracefully through the air, emanating from my fingertips.
Noah was surprised by how I did it, but he quickly mastered writing in the air with mana.
—I told you. :)
Noah drew a smiley face with an infuriating smirk on his face.
'He'll get a beating after this is finished.'
I stood up and threw a pebble I made with Earth Magic to lure the Eldia away.
Noah panicked when he saw me do something reckless, but he decided to trust me instead.
—Click clack…!
"■●□○●¤▪︎●□"
The Eldia made incomprehensible noises and slithered to where I threw the pebble. Just a slight noise was enough to grab its attention.
Seeing that it worked, I threw another pebble farther out the gate so we had plenty of time to get into the elevator.
—Click… Clack!
"●¤□○●¤▪︎●□?"
One last time, I threw a pebble to the point where we could no longer see the Eldia.
—Isn't it far enough already?
Noah tapped my shoulder and wrote in the air.
—Alright, let's move.
We descended the stairs carefully, crouching to the elevator in the center. Each step felt agonizingly slow, the ringing in my ears a constant reminder of the tensionm surrounding us.
One step. Three steps. Ten Steps.
My breathing became stagnant due to anxiety, and my heart was pounding at an alarming rate. It was suffocating.
The thought of death, looming against the corner; a single mistake is all it takes to get us killed.
—Tap… Tap… Tap…
'We made it…!'
All we needed to do was figure out how to activate the elevator mechanism.
Thinking that it used the exact mechanism as the gate, I placed my palm in a hurry on the elevator door, only to regret what I've done.
—Beep! Bwooom…!
A beeping sound rang at the worst timing possible, indicating that something went wrong.
That sound was enough to shake us to the core, especially when an unidentified creature was behind us.
'This was a bad idea! Was there no power?!'
Catching me all shaken up, Noah refused to give up and noticed two mysterious spheres beside the elevator door.
With his critical thinking, Noah patted my shoulder and wrote something.
—Requires magic. Inject here.
He wrote that in the air with his left hand, barely readable because he wasn't using his dominant hand.
Since now wasn't the time for bad jokes, I nodded my head without saying anything.
—Criiiiik…!
The Eldia's face, which was face-planted on the floor, noticed the beeping sound and slithered its way back to the tower.
Before the Eldia arrived, I carelessly placed my left hand on the orb from the right to inject as much mana as I could, gradually forming a blue glow.
—Vooom…!
'Urk… this is draining more mana than I thought...!'
—Rumble Rumble…
Thinking that it was going to get better from here, the entire tower shook violently, taking Noah and me by surprise.
The tower, initially shrouded in sorrow, sprang to life as all its lights flickered on, illuminating the surroundings as if we had flipped a switch that brightened Eclecia itself.
This can't… be a good thing, isn't it?
"□○…? ●○■○■●■○■□○■!!!" The Eldia reacted violently to the change and flailed around uncontrollably, destroying everything within its range.
Since the loud sounds came from the tower itself, the Eldia didn't know where we were.
"Noah, I don't think that was for the elevator." My sweat obstructed my eyes, blurring my vision and soon began to form a prayer.
"W-Well, what other choice do we have!" Noah shouted, inevitably attracting the attention of the Eldia.
"■●○○■●■□●○■■¤■○●!!!"
"Ah. Shit."
—Ding!
Right before the Eldia charged toward us, the elevator door dinged open.
“…!”
Our minds at this moment turned into one singular brain cell, and our instincts screamed at us, advising us to run as fast as we could.
Without batting an eye, we jumped in fear and ran for our dear lives.
"SHUT THE DOOR!!!"
Once we made it in the elevator, we mashed every button we could find to escape before he spotted us.
"Come on, come on, COME ON!!!"
—Ding…!
"■●■○●□-"
Before the Eldia noticed, the gate to the tower shut by itself, crushing the Eldia within its grasp, saving us somehow.
That was the last thing we saw before the elevator door closed.
—Vooom…! Ding!
...
...
"Haaah… haaah… that was… a close one…" My legs lost strength, and I collapsed on the floor.
"Ughh… are you sure this artifact would help us defeat those monsters?"
"Yeah, I can guarantee that… blegh…"
We slid down to the floor and sat down in relief.
Although we barely escaped, encounters with Eldias are now drastically increased because the power has been turned back on.
This is by no means a good thing.
"Well, can't afford to mess up now."
—Kachick!
I loaded my magic firearm in case we confronted the Eldia's nest.
Noah also prepared two Magic Arts, Wind and Fire, to blast them away.
Struggle, or die without fighting back. We were both at the edge, doing whatever it takes to stay alive.
—Ding…!
The elevator reached our destination, and we held our breath to see what lay beyond.
...
...
—Vooom…!
A familiar light blinded us upon arrival, and we were met with an atmosphere different from the usual blue lights.
…Finally. This time, we were lucky.
"Are we safe?" Noah lowered his guard when I did at first.
"Yes, this is what we came here for in the first place."
There, a golden orb asserted its presence in this empty hall—a fitting site for a legendary artifact.
'Hope does exist after all…' My worries dispersed, and I took a deep breath.
"This is the artifact that allowed you to save the world, Noah."
The singular artifact that empowered Eclecia as its core.
Without it, Eclecia would've ceased to exist before we got here.
Nations would crumble apart if this were ever taken, an invaluable jewel.
Its name was…
"Ichor, the blood of the gods."
