Fortunately for the two of them, the fall was short and crisp, and no legs were broken in the process. As they collapsed onto a pile of dried grass before bouncing and started rolling down its gentle slope, Wu felt Lera's body pressed against his while she literally ate dirt before it became his turn.
"ARGHHH!" Lera let out a groan and tried to wiggle her arms loose, but it's to no avail, "Perhaps we should have paid more attention to where we were going."
"Maybe just a little bit," Wu said before he rubbed the buckles of his backpack loose and popped it open. From there, he did what he has done in this world exactly once before and removed the backpack from his back, "Do you guys not have backpacks around here?"
"We.....we carry around massive sacs or sewn bags if we want to bring things with us." Lera admitted as the black bag flopped through the gaps between their body and was dropped on the ground, "Though you wore it so tight around your body it looked like a part of your strange clothing."
"Fair." Wu shrugged. When cycling down the bumpy roads of Oxford and/or running for his life in the woods, the last thing he wanted was to have something bobbling behind him, thus he always did the chest and wrist straps really tightly.
Freeing their tied-up arms first by reaching for a small swiss knife in his collection of tools, Wu then turned around and cut their feet loose too.
"Maybe this is my superpower," Wu murmured as he tossed away the ropes and almost got flashed by Lera's beautifully smooth ankles, "Resourcefulness."
"If that's the extent of your power, then we are all doomed." Lera laughed, "Don't worry. I am sure there is something only you can do, and I am here to help you figure out what that is."
"Well, whatever it is we can do together, it will have to come after whatever this is." Wu said, packing everything up before throwing on the backpack again. Lera's looking at him all through that movement, and she couldn't believe her eyes when his black backpack visually blended into his black shirt and trousers.
It really just looked to be a part of his outfit, or Wu's just that carefree about what he wears.
"Now maybe the time to bring back our favorite ice-breaker." Looking around their immediate surroundings, Lera became the first one to speak, "I am sure you have a lot of questions."
"Well.......How much do you know about the Dwellers?" Wu said, reaching over to pick up one of the branches from the pile of dried grass before looping around a few pieces of dried grass around its tip. Then, he pulled out his fire-making tools and made a simple torch.
The hole that opened up above them had somehow managed to magically close up, and the only reason that they are not completely enveloped in darkness is because of a strange glow coming off the walls of the caves, lighting the way forward.
However, Wu isn't going to trust that their good luck will continue. It doesn't matter which world he's on, the word "Sacrifice" is not a good thing, particularly when it involves one party being tied up and tossed into a hole in the ground.
"I will power the torch," Lera said, reaching over as Wu made the fire.
"I thought they took your Book of Casts?" Wu asked, and Lera nodded.
"The book is what allows me to produce complex Casts, but keeping the fire lit only requires me to keep pumping out a steady flow of Wave whenever the flames are weak." Lera said, and Wu handed the torch over, their fingertips scraping against each other at the handoff.
The cave walls looked smooth and untouched, though the pile of grass where they just landed on was definitely put there artificially. There is all but a single corridor in front of them, and Lera and Wu both moved forward while keeping an eye out for any hints of danger.
After about twenty meters or so, everything started to widen more and more before a massive cavity and network of caves became apparent. The structures in front of them grew both vertically and horizontally. When they emerged, they spotted a grey-skinned girl sitting at the bottom with a pile of firewood and rows of insects that are being currently.....slow roasted?
"Um...?" Lera and Wu shared a strange glance before they took a step forward. That was when a ripple formed in the midair and blue lines suddenly formed into what looks like a spider's net, catching Lera's feet and holding it in place.
"Lera!" Wu called out as he reached out to grab her, but those blue lines wrapped around her ankles tightly and yanked her far out and away from the corridor they were just in.
"Shit! NOT AGAIN!" Lera cursed, conjuring up a ball of Wave energy as she tried to shoot at the lines, but they felt as strong and stiff and the most well-made ropes, plus the rapid wobbling of her body made her miss the shot.
"Damn it!" Wu cursed, reaching down and picking up the torch that Lera dropped on the ground. Sets of blue lines also wrapped around the torch, though they quickly dissipated away with more time. He hesitated for a moment, before reaching his hands towards the invisible boundary.
He felt nothing, and there was no response. Wu moved his hand back and forth through it before trying to get to where Lera is. However, she's simply hung upside down in the air with her skirt and shirts all flipped and covering her face.
"ARGHHH! HOW COULD I HAVE FALLEN FOR THAT TRICK?!" She growled frustratingly, trying to unwind and tuck her shirts back in, "It was so obvious in hindsight!"
"Don't feel bad." The little girl said, looking up from the slow-roasting insects, "He was very meticulous with how he set his traps."
The little girl turned her attention towards Wu who's just casually walking down the sets of stairs, and her jaws dropped on the floor as he stopped mid-stepping down with his knees over his toes.
The two simply looked at each other awkwardly for a moment before Wu made a face and continued walking.
"Ah." The little girl looked up to Lera and down at Wu for a few times before sighing, "You are a strange one. I don't know what's going on anymore."
"Neither do I. Can you let my friend down?" Wu asked, stopping a few meters away from the little girl.
"I can't." She said straight away before turning to look at the girl, "Only he can."
"And who is that he?!" Lera asked from above, and she's already feeling a little dizzy from being hung upside down.
"He's the one that's responsible for the recent disasters for the Dwellers." The girl said, sitting down and poking the pit of fire with a branch, "My father thought the god was angry, and he said he saw the only way forward was to offer me up to him."
"So are we facing a god right now?" Wu asked, and the girl chuckled before shaking her head.
"Not really. He calls himself the remnant."
"Do you.....hate him, or your father, for what happens to you?" Wu asked, his voice quieting down.
"Why would I?" The girl asked, and her grey skin glows with warmth in the lighting of the fire, "My father did all that he can, and the remnant has treated me well."
"What do you know about the remnant?" Wu asked, and the girl shook her head before turning and pointing to one of the many caves.
"He told me that he wants to talk to the one that didn't get caught."
"None of this makes sense." Lera said, "The Dwellers may be outside of the societal norm, but I do not remember from doing something like this to visitors!"
"Well, perhaps those visitors never left to tell the tale," Wu said, looking up at the girl that's looking funnily grumpy while hanging upside down. Then, he turned towards the girl, "Can I trust you to look after her while I go talk to the Remnant?"
The girl nodded as Wu walked off. Then, right as he stepped into the cave that she's pointing to, the girl continued, "He also said he has been looking forward to meeting you."
This may very well be a trap, but why?! And what other options are there but to spring the trap?
As Wu walked into the deeper and deeper parts of the cave, his torch started to reveal various lines and writings on the wall around him. To him, it looked more like circuit diagrams than paintings and drawings, and from the way, Casts looked in Lera's book, there is no doubt that this is something similar.
In that case......Wu's thoughts traveled back to yesterday when Lera mentioned how there can be Casts that are built into structures too. Intuitively, that would seem like just a sort of engineering and architecture, but there must be more to this particular Structure Cast.
He tried to turn around and look back, but the paths behind him had been closed up already. The only way forward is...forward.
He continued walking down the winding paths, and the caves contained vast junctions, though all of the side corridors were swiftly closed by the time Wu walked near them.
That's when Wu realized how this really functions like the digestive tracks of humans. As the food is moved down the throat, the paths down the trachea is blocked up to make sure nothing gets in the airways.......
"What a great fucking start." Wu shook his head and thought about how he can maybe burn his way out of the stomach with his torch. That was when the closed-up cave walls now shoved him forward.
Everything opened wide by the time Wu reached the 'stomach', and instead of seeing a sea of digestive fluids, skulls of previous victims, and the worst stench ever, he simply saw a piece of stone with a spiraling pattern drawn all over it.
Then, everything lit up, and a construct of a human was slowly created by sets of bluelines rising up from the ground around them. The entire surrounding humed and shook as the figure's being formed, and Wu bent his knees slightly to stable himself.
At last, the remnant showed himself.
"Look at you......" He laughed painfully, "Here you are......"
"How do you know me?" Wu asked.
"I.....know you. I have been seeing you for the longest time. I have been catching glimpses of you, the flashes of you..." The remnant figure said, now looking like a man wearing a neon light costume as he swirled his finger and conjured up sets of glowing blue lines around Wu, "Now that you are finally here, let's talk."