- Elicia -

“What's wrong Urie?” Elicia asked.

Urie had suddenly come to a halt in front of her and Celeste.

“Why did he stop?” Her hands started trembling again as she thought that he must've detected something nearby, but, except for the pillar and another huge rock formation, nothing seemed to be amiss.

“I'm sorry Celeste, but I just can't keep myself calm.” She reached for Celeste's arm as she needed someone to hold on to stop her hands from shaking.

“This time as well...” Feeling like a burden this entire trip, she thought back to how excited she was about seeing a magic creature.

“I was lucky to even hit it, I could barely move after that!” She felt helpless.

“What if another one showed up? We would have... No!!! This is all the headmaster's fault, if only he hadn't left us alone!” She was in a state of disorder.

“Just you wait, when we get back, I'll tell aunt Merea everything!”

A child, thrown into such a situation without warning, she tried her best not to be a hindrance to her companions. Urie had taken charge from the start while Celeste had kept her calm.

“What about me?” Elicia thought.

Both of them were at the same age as her. She assumed that belonging to one of the named Houses, they were setting the level of standard one had to be at to represent it. She was frustrated at her own cowardice, her inadequacy. But, she knew this wasn't the time to be engaging in self-pity. She quickly dismissed her thoughts and tried to look around once more.

“Hmm?” Her attention was drawn to the direction of the rock formation near the central pillar. Something about its appearance had struck her as familiar.

“Eh? Aren't they alike?” She muttered.

“What do you mean?” Celeste heard her and asked.

“That, over there, the huge rock looks the same as the one from earlier. Where we took a break, I mean.”

Of course, rocks would have the same appearance as other rocks, but it was the arrangement of it that was peculiar.

“It... does?” Sounding a bit unsure, Celeste still nodded her head in agreement.

“Hey, Urie!” Elicia tried to call out to Urie, but he didn't answer.

Without paying attention to what they were talking about, Urie resumed walking towards the pillar. Earlier, he had also gone quiet. What's different this time was that he wasn't responding after being called.

Elicia was about to call him again but was suddenly yanked forward as she was still holding on to Celeste's arm as she hurried to follow Urie's steps.

“C-Celeste, don't you think something's wrong with him?” She whispered.

Celeste didn't answer. Elicia cried out in resignation as she reluctantly allowed herself to be tugged along.

Just as they got closer to the pillar, they got startled as they felt the air around them vibrate. A low hum had begun reverberating throughout the area.

“I knew something was going to happen!” Elicia exclaimed.

Elicia and Celeste steadied themselves as they kept an eye on the pillar in front. The sound of something crumbling, however, had caused them to turn their gaze towards another direction as the rock formation a dozen meters away started to grow limbs and stood up.

“What is that!?” Elicia shouted.

“A rock drake!” The sight of the lumbering creature seemed to have snapped Urie back to his senses.

It was as huge as a single-story house. Covered in hard and stony armor, it usually spent its time sleeping. The ground trembled as it used its bulky tail to hit the ground and balance itself. As it had just awoken from its slumber, it was awkwardly getting up on its feet. It was no wonder that they weren't able to spot one earlier, they were hiding in plain sight.

“Urie! Is-Is it the same with that place we were at earlier!?” Elicia referred to the rock formation where they spent some time to rest.

“Most likely, but I heard these guys were usually docile. They wouldn't attack anyone without provoca—“

At the end of his sentence, Urie caught sight of the eyes of the huge creature, partly visible within the recesses of its craggy exterior, it was glowing. Similar to the shadow wolf from earlier, its eyes were glowing with mana.

“Never mind! Everyone, run toward the pillar!” He yelled.

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The three of them ran for the pillar as fast as they could. A loud slam and the ground trembled, the mana beast's heavy front limbs dug into the ground behind, causing the three of them to jump a foot off the ground.

They continued to run. They couldn't beat it, nor had the thought of fighting it crossed their minds. Unlike the smaller shadow wolf, the rock drake was bulkier and covered with stone.

Elicia didn't think she could do anything to it. Wind magic? A gust of wind won't even scratch it. Earth magic? She hadn't learned a thing about it.

Managing to reach the foot of the central pillar, She looked over her shoulder. The rock drake was slower than expected. She heaved a sigh of relief as they were able to outrun the huge beast.

“What now Urie?” Elicia asked.

They were at the pillar. What now? There was no headmaster in sight, and the rock drake was catching up. They couldn't just run around the pillar playing tag with it.

“No way.” Elicia thought.

- Urie -

Urie felt a sense of urging from the pillar. He held his hands up toward the surface of the wall and gathered mana around his fingertips. A bright red light spread out from his hands and the humming sound around the pillar grew even louder.

The pillar's surface was like a dry lake bed. The mana he had let out soaked in like water from a sudden rainfall. The light from his hands passed along the wall and reached a large slab of protuberance on its side. Pieces of the outcrop started falling down as the red-colored mana passed along its cracks and slowly revealed a huge doorway resembling the one on Erden's Tower.

“Get inside, quick!” Urie took his hands off the wall and grabbed the wrists of the two girls before running towards the entrance that had appeared.

He didn't know what awaited them inside but maybe it would be better than staying out here with the rock drake.

Past the large doorway, they entered a long corridor that led to a wide, circular room. Aligned with the room's interior were a few pedestals encircling a small mirror. The mirror, facing up, was reflecting a concentrated column of light coming down from above.

“Is everyone alright?” Urie asked while trying to catch his breath.

“Both—both of us are fine... hah...are you sure that—that thing...hah... won't be able to come in here?” Elicia spoke while she and Celeste were supporting each other and staggering. They were heavily panting and looked worse for wear. Leaning on the wall, they sat down with the feeling that they were, for the moment, out of danger.

“You guys keep sitting, I'll go take a look around.” Urie urged them to rest. He got up and started walking around to investigate the room.

“It's surprisingly well-lit in here.”

The small mirror, the lighting was coming from the column of light being reflected by it.

“I wonder what it is?”

He stared at it for a few seconds before shifting his gaze to the strange pedestals that surrounded it. He stood in front of the nearest one and observed its details.

The pedestal appeared to be made of the same type of material as the room they were in. On the top part of the pedestal was a small platform, wide enough to place a vase. There an indent in the middle, the size of a coin. A few grooves that didn't seem to be part of the pedestal's design were running across from the indent to the platform's edges.

Urie brought his hand forward and reached out, intending to touch the small hole, only to feel his fingers pierce through a layer of cold, biting air, a foot away from the pedestal's platform.

“Wah!” Letting out a small cry, Urie drew his hand back in surprise.

He waved his left hand towards the two girls who were about to stand up to check on him and indicated that he was fine. Looking at his right hand which he used to reach for the indent, a thin layer of frost had gone up from his index finger to his wrist.

“Odd but... It doesn't hurt so I guess it's fine.”

Urie shook his hand to remove the frost and moved to see if the other pedestals were the same.

“This one is different from the first one.”

This next pedestal looked as if it were newly made. There was also an indent in the middle of its platform, but no signs of damage on its surface, unlike the first one.

“It's not as cold as the other one.”

Feeling nothing unusual as he skimmed his hand along the pedestal's flat surface before proceeding to the next one.

“Clean. It doesn't look as brand new as the other one but it isn't covered in dust or anything.”

This pedestal didn't have much of a difference from the previous one, aside from being free of dust build-up and having a few scratches, it had the same small indent as the others.

“What are these things?”

Urie saw Elicia approaching the second pedestal. Watching him place his hands one by one on top of the pedestals had enticed her to get up and do the same. Once both of her hands were on top of it, her grim expression from earlier had slowly disappeared and turned placid.

Placing her hands on the thing seemed to have a calming effect on her as she closed her eyes and started to relax. Celeste, curious at Elicia's sudden change in facial expression, also went over to a pedestal.

“Wait! That one—“

Urie tried to say that there was a problem with the first pedestal but was met with Celeste's indifferent gaze. She had no problem. A soothed expression, the same as Elicia's, appeared on her face before she also closed her eyes.

Urie decided to let it be and turned to look at the second to the last pedestal. It was the most eye-catching one. A layer of green had covered every inch of it, except for the small indent on its head.

“I'll skip this one.” He passed on touching the moss and moved on to the final pedestal.

“It's warm...”

Having a built-in heater in his body in the form of his red seed and mana roots, he still felt the warmth from the air surrounding the pedestal. A familiar stirring had bubbled up from inside his body, a pulsating heat.

“That feeling from earlier, was it coming from this?”

Different from the empty holes in the other pedestals, the indent was slightly larger. A wisp of red light was peeking out from inside it. The heat spreading out into the air was coming from that small flickering light.

Wondering if he would experience the same sensation of comfort that the other two seemed to be feeling, he raised both of his hands and placed them on the warm surface of the platform.

As he closed his eyes, the small light flickered with more intensity as if it were welcoming his presence.