The monkey grabbed me by the arms with one hand and lifted me into the air, holding me up as my legs dangled down.

‘This is it.’ I thought, bracing myself for the inevitable.

Instead of my limbs being torn off though, I felt the feeling of a sticky, wet substance being wiped on my face. Opening my eyes in annoyance, I saw that the monkey was putting some type of red paste on me!

“You f*cker! The absolute balls you have to put sauce on me before you eat me!” I shouted, enraged now.

The monkey ignored me however, and instead grabbed me by the torso as it lifted me into the air.

I was unable to move as the monkey held me high above the pyramid, directly above the sea of white figures below. The monkeys below me began to let out intense cries and screams when this happened, and I watched it all with a dumbfounded look on my face.

‘Doesn’t this feel familiar somehow?’ I thought, remembering a classic family cartoon involving a lion.

Each time the six-tailed monkey thrusted me into the air, the swarm of monkeys below hollered with an increased intensity. I was speechless at this point, and no longer knew what to expect.

The monkey eventually put me down after a long minute or two of displaying me to the audience. It was like he was showing off some type of legendary object, except that object was me.

He set me down on the stone bricks atop the pyramid and left me there as he turned to head back the way he came. I watched in utter confusion as he began to walk down the bridge towards the other pyramid.

The huge monkey stopped to turn around and look at me, and it even made motions with its arms as if it was saying, ‘Hurry up’, or ‘come on.’

‘Weren't these things trying to kill me earlier? What’s with the sudden change in the atmosphere?’ I wondered, not knowing if I should follow the intimating monkey or not.

It was obvious that the monkey no longer held any hostile intent towards me though, and when it looked at me its eyes held reverence.

Sighing to myself, I managed to draw out just enough of my aether enough to float after the creature. There was no point in sitting around while I waited to die, and I figured that if the monkey had wanted me dead it would have already done so earlier.

With this mind, I gingerly floated after the monkey, crossing over the stone bridge that sat between the two pyramids.

The stone bridge had to have been over fifty meters long, and it was draining every ounce of my energy to try to keep up with the monkey. I would have much rather walked with my powers weakened like this, but my limbs had yet to fully recover from my earlier thrashing.

On that same train of thought, I wondered why my entire body wasn’t broken. I had clearly broken my rib cage and all of my limbs at some point, but they were no longer in such a state.

While they still throbbed with intense pain, I could at least move all of my body parts now. I doubted I could walk more than a few feet in this state, but at least I wasn’t half dead.

I began to realize that I must have some type of advanced healing factor!

This rate of recovery was absolutely not normal. I just wondered if this was a result of Picea’s essence, or Celeste’s blessing.

The six-tailed monkey walked with steady strides and had now reached the end of the bridge, it was now approaching the adjacent pyramid.

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I watched it disappear through the dark doorway, and its figure quickly vanished into darkness. Not knowing if I should follow this beast, I floated in the air for a long few seconds as I contemplated what I should do.

After the monkey entered the pyramid though, my surroundings once again became a cacophony of screams.

The sea of monkeys below the pyramids made up my mind for me, so I hesitantly drifted towards the doorway.

I didn’t know how this monkey society operated, and I didn’t want to end up attacked by the swarm of creatures on the ground now that the leader had left. I simply raised my guard and dropped my altitude as I passed through the doorway into the pyramid.

My eyes took a moment to adjust to what I was seeing, for the interior of this pyramid was surprisingly well lit.

Tiny blue orbs floated through the air here, and they flickered like ethereal lights as they illuminated my surroundings.

The pyramid itself was rather wide even on this upper level, and the stone floor stretched for thirty meters in either direction.

The ceiling was quite tall as well, and it sat around fifteen meters above the floor.

Large blue crystals that looked like shining sapphires were also scattered along the walls of the pyramid. These crystals radiated with an intense celestial energy, and I realized that the floating orbs were being released from them!

‘Those crystals hold immense power, where did that monkey find them?’ I wondered, now bringing my attention to the center of the chamber.

Sitting in the middle of the room was a veritable horde of treasure. Vast piles of gold lay scattered across the floor there and dazzling trinkets sat submerged in it.

I spotted glimmering gems and jewels in the pile, and even shining swords and pieces of broken armor. Many of the items were releasing celestial energy of their own, and they were all clearly priceless artifacts.

Picea’s vast array of books had taught me many things about celestial crystals and artifacts. Those crystals could each hold power amounting to a score of mages, and celestial artifacts were tools imbued with energy to perform various tasks.

According to the forest spirit, my own sword was actually a type of celestial artifact. Apparently, instead of being imbued with celestial energy at its time of creation, the runes inscribed on its blade actually required energy of your own to activate its effects.

I knew from one of the brothers that had originally kidnapped me that the runes could create fire. Unfortunately, I could not yet use celestial energy to activate that power for myself.

The six-tailed monkey was now walking towards the center of the chamber, trudging across the piles of gold as it reached the middle of the pyramid.

In the center of the mounds of treasure sat what appeared to be a strangely normal sofa. This sofa was red in color and had plush padding that was worn away from years of use.

The towering white monkey promptly sat down on this sofa, his weight causing the cushions to sink in beneath him.

‘This guy is definitely a hoarder, right?’ I thought in amusement.

However, my eyes widened in shock when I watched the monkey start to pull an object out of thin air!

After a moment, it became clear that this object was a sword, and the monkey pulled the handle as it emerged from nothingness.

Belatedly, I realized that this was actually my sword!

“Hey, you bastard! That’s mine!” I shouted, floating towards the center of the room.

The monkey simply tossed the sword into a pile of gold though, the action sending coins clattering off to the sides.

He looked back at me and barked out strange words in a low tone, and I stopped moving as I stared at him.

“I don’t know what you’re saying, what do you want from me?” I replied, wondering why this creature had even brought me here.

The monkey didn’t respond however, and it bent down on the couch as it began to dig in a pile of gold at its feet.

I watched on in bewilderment as I saw the monkey throw different treasures around like toys before it seemingly found the thing that it was looking for.

It stopped as it held up a small pair of what looked like ear muffs!

These ear muffs were made from some type of black fur, and the monkey held it in the air as it made motions towards me. The monkey was clearly telling me to come over there, and I couldn’t sense any hostile intent from its action.

I rubbed my temples in consternation as I slowly floated forwards, not knowing what the hell this creature wanted from me.

It took a long few seconds to reach the sofa, but I stopped a good few meters away from the monkey’s position. I watched as the monkey held the ear muffs in its hands, miming the act of putting it on their head.

‘Does he want me to put that thing on?’ I wondered, my eyes narrowing.

The object didn’t look dangerous, but it radiated with the faint pressure of celestial energy. I knew from my studies that celestial objects could be used for devious things. There were collars that could control your mind, or crowns that would make you insane.

I had never read anything about.. Ear muffs though, and I saw that the monkey was now looking at me expectantly as he held them up to me.

Even though I didn’t feel comfortable putting strange artifacts on my head, the monkey seemed to be friendly.

I didn’t want to piss this creature off if it didn’t plan on killing me.

Sighing to myself, I sent a tendril of my aether towards the ear muffs, picking them up from the monkey’s grasp. As I floated them to me I saw that they were actually quite large in comparison to my tiny frame.

Taking the ear muffs in my hand, I felt the soft black fur beneath my fingertips. The object felt completely normal at first glance.

Without preamble, I slipped it onto my head.

Immediately, I felt the ear muffs shift over my hair as they quickly tightened to fit my head.

I heard the sound of a faint buzz begin to drift into my ears, and I was amazed to realize that these were actually headphones!

The monkey’s deep voice suddenly shocked me out of my trance.

“Monkey with no tail, do you hear my sounds?” he asked, his voice clear through the strange headphones.

I was stunned to say the least when I heard the monkey’s human-like voice, but I quickly snapped out of my shock to reply.

“I can hear you. What is this device?” I asked, my amazement apparent.

What was even more remarkable though, was that my very words seemed to change in the air. They left my mouth in a low rumble that didn’t match with what I was saying.

“Device? I not learned that word. This is sound tool.” the monkey said as if it was obvious.

Without waiting for my response, the monkey made a motion towards my figure.

“You are the flying pup, yes?” it asked.

His words confused me, for he was speaking as if he knew who I was.