Chapter 7: Goggles
The Saillislight, a long wriggling strand of luminescence, slowly vanished into the encroaching darkness, leaving Yusciel suspended in the void. She scanned her surroundings, her eyes drawn to the violet glow emanating from the wand still clutched in Leo’s small hand. ‘Now… Just where are we?’ she pondered.
As Yusciel turned her gaze to the seemingly endless expanse before them, she was met with the familiar, yet unsettling emptiness. Swallowing hard, quickly considering their predicament. ‘I’ve heard there are multiple layers in these dark passages. The fact that we can still see the Saillight means we’re in the upper regions. I don’t want to descend any lower with this boy. We need to find an exit once we reach solid ground.’
Summoning strength in her arms, Yusciel began to swing through the darkness, holding Leo securely against her. She searched desperately for any physical surface that she could step on. Suddenly, she felt the boy’s head stir against her chest, followed by his soft, confused voice breaking the eerie silence.
“Um, miss?” Leo murmured.
Yusciel clicked her tongue, stopping her actions to conserve her strength as she tilted downward. “I was hoping for a block to step on —we’re not in the best position here. Boy, do you still have that light bulb I gave you?”
“In my pocket?” Leo replied, uncertainty in his voice.
“Good,” she said, ignoring his hesitation. “Take it out and turn it on.”
Without waiting for Leo, Yusciel deftly manipulated her grappling gear, its string extending with a soft, rhythmic clicking. One of her legs swept through the void, still searching for any physical block to step on. Suddenly, something struck beneath her foot, causing her stressed hand to loosen its grip on the grappling gear. ‘Oh. Is this the ground?’ She wondered, her feet stretching to feel the rough surface beneath them.
Without warning, a soft click followed, and a dim light slowly grew brighter. Yusciel glanced down to see Leo’s hand clutching both the glowing light bulb and the wand.
“Done,” Leo said, looking up at her with wide eyes.
Yusciel nodded approvingly, “Good. I think we’ve landed on solid ground, but there’s something I need to tell you about this place.”
As she spoke, Yusciel’s feet confirmed there was ample ground around them. She knelt down, gently placing Leo on the surface but keeping him close. Looking directly into his face, she added, “There are many monsters here that don’t want to be seen—so for now, don’t look anywhere in the dark. Look only at me, or the ground, is that clear?”
Yusciel locked eyes with Leo, her gaze piercing through the glass of his goggles. ‘I’ll need those later,’ she thought. Leo responded with an understanding nod, his underdeveloped Adam’s apple bobbing.
Releasing his arms, Yusciel spoke, “Let’s change things up. Hand me the wand and remove your goggles.”
Leo complied, offering the wand immediately, Yusciel accepted it and quickly stopped its glow with a simple chant: “Notos ein.” She then tucked it away in her shoulder bag. Her gaze shifted to Leo, who was obediently removing his goggles. She felt relieved; Leo wasn’t as stubborn as she had initially assumed. At the very least, everything was progressing more smoothly than planned.
“Will this be alright?” Leo asked, his eyes lowered, focused on the ground where Yusciel sat as he held out the goggles.
“What do you mean?” She accepted the goggles by the headstrap and began adjusting them to fit her head.
“The goggles… What if my eyes become crystallized because of the surroundings?”
Yusciel paused, her fingers stilling on the strap. “That’s not something… No. Wait.” she collected her thoughts before opening her mouth, “Where did you learn about environments with high mana density?”
“Well…” Leo began, pulling his legs closer as he stared down. “I used to work in a factory where we immersed parts of airships in liquefied Yoks and Rutens. That’s where I heard about environments with high mana that can crystallize flesh.”
As she adjusted the headstrap, Yusciel listened to his words. “Is that so? That… I guess those factories could be considered as high mana density environments, but they’re fundamentally different. In a factory, you’re affected by mana radiation and other energy-emitting sources. Your resistance against those energy—or your adaptability to those kinds of things determines the impact, or well… the thing you call crystallization. But here?”
Yusciel paused, meeting Leo’s eyes to ensure he was following. “In this place, everything depends on the mana you possess.”
“Depends on the mana you possess…” Leo repeated softly, his words trailing off. He lifted his chin from his ankles, a dry chuckle escaping him with a wry smile. “I don’t think I understand it. Can you explain a bit more?”
Yusciel took a deep breath. “In simple terms, in this environment, you can survive as long as your mana matches your surroundings.” She suddenly paused, realizing this might not be clear enough, she elaborated, “The density of Mana here is incredibly high. The environment is trying to homogenize everything—its trying to make all mana similar. Essentially, the environment is forcing every non-similar to be similar.”
Leo pondered for a moment before replying with a hesitant nod. “I… think I’m starting to understand?”
“Good,” Yusciel said, pointing at the canisters on her shoulder strap. “That’s why we have these. They’re mana stabilizers—they enhance the quality of our bodies’ mana to match the environment.”
“Oh, I see. That actually makes a lot of sense now,” Leo nodded, his understanding visibly growing.
Yusciel checked the canister she was using, noting the glowing line that indicated about 35 minutes left before the Gen crystals inside depleted. After confirming this, she secured it back onto her shoulder strap and began tracing the rims of her goggles, searching for a small protrusion.
Leo tilted his head, curiosity evident in his voice. “But why do you need the goggles?”
‘Why, you ask?’ The words nearly escaped her lips, but Yusciel held them back. Instead, as her fingers found the protruding small button at the top left of the goggles’ rubber edge, she answered simply, “To do this.”
Pressing the button, Yusciel activated a feature of the goggles. Immediately, the edges of the glass lenses glowed a bright green. Her vision of the surrounding area flashed with green light, briefly revealing contours and shapes nearby before it was consumed again by the darkness. This fleeting visibility was quickly followed by a downward-sweeping beam of green light, precisely tracing the outlines of objects in her field of view.
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“Huh? What does it do?” Leo’s confusion made Yusciel’s lips curl into a grin.
Ignoring the screening of the lenses, Yusciel removed her fingers and fished out something from her shoulder bag. As she did, she asked, “Have you seen pictures or printed images before?”
“Printed images? I think so. It’s like what you see on the newspapers or posters, right?” Leo wondered.
“Yes, exactly,” Yusciel confirmed. “One of the features of these goggles is called image printing. It’s similar to that—like a camera that captures a moment of what’s in front of me, which then allows me to navigate without looking ahead.”
Leo’s voice was filled with amazement, “Whoa… That’s actually so cool. I had seen print machines before—they were never that small. But its in that small, little thing? That’s actually so insane!”
Yusciel chuckled silently at Leo’s childlike wonder. She pulled out a black towel from her shoulder bag and handed it to him. “You should wear this,” she suggested.
Leo nodded, accepting the towel. “How do we get out of here?” he asked. “We came from… the top right, right? Do we need to go up again?”
Yusciel’s eyes widened. “Oh, right. I never explained that to you,” she realized. “There are no ups and downs here, actually. Sides don't exist either. In fact, if you remember where we landed earlier on Saillight, we were ‘below’ it at the ‘back’, not the ‘top’.”
“Oh, I see,” Leo replied, his voice tinged with uncertainty. He rolled the towel, making it thicker in his hands.
“We’ll try to find an exit,” Yusciel continued, her eyes closing in a reassuring smile. “Just by walking, we should be able to find one.” She paused, then added, “By the way, did I mention before that I’m an investigator?”
“Yeah?” Leo tilted his head, lowering the towel to his thigh.
“Well, I’m not here alone,” Yusciel explained, making awkward gestures with her hands. “In fact, I’m here with twelve other investigators. We try to find cracks between here and there, locate entrances and exits—that’s what we usually do.”
Seeing Leo nod, Yusciel reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a round object. “I believe some of my friends should be here,” she added. “Compared to me, they’re more professional, after all. “
Yusciel set the object—a metallic round device with a small chain attached at one end, onto the ground. Four arrows twitched inside the glass display, but unlike before, they weren't moving erratically or blinking randomly. Now, two arrows glowed consistently: one green and one red, with the red one flickering intermittently.
“Huh?” Leo’s voice was tinged with confusion. “I think I’ve seen that one behaving… quite differently before.”
Yusciel’s eyes shifted, and she raised a brow. “Curious… Have you noticed me using this previously?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed, his gaze meeting hers. “Like, the time, we got to the mountainside and at the entrance of the dark passage—it worked quite differently then.”
Yusciel hummed thoughtfully, picking up the contilepass by the chains. “You have very keen eyes,” she remarked.
“Of course, I do,” Leo replied mischievously. “But what’s that contilepass gonna do now? We’re in the dark passage, right? Does it still point to other Contiles? Like the green one—it should be pointing to the Sortegez Contile, and the red one… uh, what was it again?”
“Nvontuny Contile outbound,” Yusciel answered.
“Yes, that one!” Leo snapped his fingers, pointing at Yusciel excitedly.
“Unfortunately, the contilepass works differently here. The modified ones do, at least. Ordinary commercial contiles just break in this environment.” Yusciel twirled her contilepass by its chains, each rotation catching a glint of light on the glass. She continued, “The one I’m using is modified—the green arrow points to another contilepass, while the red usually indicates… danger.”
At those words, Yusciel noticed Leo’s eyes widen, their black depths reflecting the yellow sheen from the light bulb below. His body stiffened, and sweat trickled down his forehead. Yusciel thought, ‘Is he not feeling cold? Well, If ilI remember correctly, Yhelmen is in a high, cold place. That must be it.’
“There’s no need to worry,” she said, tapping on the contilepass. “Since the green light is more constant than red, it means we’re closer to an ally.”
Leo nodded, though he still seemed unconvinced, his expression remaining tense. Not that it mattered much to Yusciel; as long as Leo acted consistently for this whole trip, it wouldn’t be that different from going alone. She added, “Now, cover your eyes with that towel. We should get going.”
Leo began wrapping his head with the black towel as Yusciel attached the contilepass to her shoulder strap, its metallic chain dangling. She picked up the light bulb from the ground. “I’ll take this one,” she said, clipping it to her shoulder strap.
With preparations complete, Yusciel stood and closed her eyes. Her left hand traced the familiar contours of her goggles, fingers seeking out the buttons on the side. She pressed, feeling a slight vibration as air around her eyes became warmed. Opening her eyes, she found herself enveloped in darkness, save for the faint outline of the goggles themselves.
Her fingers found another button. As she pressed it, a green beam of light descended from the top of the lenses, mapping out her surroundings. The ceiling above was peculiar, studded with cubic blocks and jagged spikes. In the space between, mysterious cubes floated—objects she knew that helped during descent.
‘How do others adapt to this thing?’ Yusciel wondered, her lips pursed. 'It's horrendous to navigate with this and a grappling hook.'
As the scanner traced the ground’s contours, she observed a rough, tiled expanse stretching before her. Some tiles jutted upward into spikes, others sank into depressions, and a few formed small hills. Just as the scan neared completion, Yusciel caught a glimpse of the boy’s head at the edge of her field of vision. Then, the entire process began anew.
“Ready?” Yusciel asked, turning her head to see Leo with his arms stretched wide in a hugging gesture. She knelt to take him but paused to ask, “Are you cold?”
“No, not at all,” Leo replied.
She proceeded to take him in her arms, securing him tightly. Though every part of her body was covered, preventing her from feeling his skin directly, she concentrated on her senses. Leo didn’t seem to be trembling from cold. Pushing her doubt aside, she continued, “I’m going to start running. If you have any problems, tell me immediately. Respond to my instructions, and be careful if you can see outside.”
“Yeah, got it,” Leo responded.
With that, Yusciel began walking, quickly picking up speed to a sprint. She was conscious of her slow, deep breaths, repeating steadily as she ran, but not so fast that it felt draining. Through her eyes, every printed image of the horizon was devoid of any entity—it felt weird, but then again, nothing made sense in this void.
After a brisk half-minute sprint, Yusciel slowed to a halt. Her hands deftly reached for her shoulder strap; fingers skimming over the shapes of canisters and a light bulb before finding the contilepass. She pulled it into her field of view, waiting as the green light beam swept across her lenses, imprinting its shapes in luminous outlines. Suddenly, she realized she couldn’t see the blinking colors, causing her to click her tongue in displeasure. ‘Terrible…’
“Miss?” Leo inquired.
“It’s nothing,” she replied quickly. Releasing the contilepass, Yusciel traced her fingers along her goggles, deactivating the shading feature. The darkness that had shrouded her vision of the outside world slowly faded like dissipating fog. She immediately lowered her gaze, unwilling to risk death by accidentally glimpsing a being that preferred to remain unseen.
With her vision now unobstructed, Yusciel raised the contilepass again. She noted it was pointing in their current direction but at a slightly incorrect angle. Carefully, she adjusted her position to align properly with the constant green light arrow.
‘I know I need to check this every time, but it’s so much more challenging with a child in my arms—it just consumes so much time and energy,’ Yusciel mused, tucking away the contilepass before reactivating her lenses’ shading feature.
Yusciel continued, her pace steady as she spoke, “Boy, there’s something I need you to do.”
“What is it?” Leo asked, his head moving against her chest as if trying to look up.
“This is for later… I want you to check the contilepass inside my robe to see if we’re facing the right direction,” Yusciel explained.
“Got it,” Leo affirmed.
“Good,” she replied, satisfied.
Without warning, Yusciel suddenly halted; her eyes registered a different image printed on her goggles. The green beam of light slowly traced the contours of a being—cloud-like in form, with numerous dotted lines outlining what appeared to be a spiky body. Yusciel gulped, unconsciously squinting as she took a step back. ‘What is that?’
“Miss?” Leo whispered.
“Shh,” Yusciel responded, her voice barely audible over her whining mask. “There’s something here…”
Yusciel took another step back, anxiously wishing the green light would move faster—it had restarted its scan. As the green light passed, everything in sight transformed into a sea of dotted green.