"The legacy is in that door?" Bonnie asked.
"Yep, I got a message pop out asking if I want to start the legacy trail," Shane said.
"Really? Let me see," Blue walked over, but Shane stopped her.
"What do you thinking you are doing?"
"I'm going to see the message," Blue replied with a confused expression.
"The hell you are. This is my legacy. I'm not going to let anyone try to steal it," Shane scoffed.
"I'm not trying to steal it. I just wanna see the message," Blue gasped.
"Don't care. Mylo, mind being the bouncer? If anyone gets close to the door, toss them away," Shane turned to the fighter.
"Sure," Mylo moved closer to her, standing between the door and the rest of the party.
"Shane, you do know that none of us have any intention of stealing your legacy, right?" Helena asked.
"Maybe, but there is a chance that one of you is lying. I trust you guys, but not enough to let any of you get too close to the legacy. I don't know if just by saying you want to attempt the test, you would lock everyone out," Shane wasn't even looking back. Her eyes were glued in the door.
"I get it… but it does make us feel like shit, you know," Alex crossed her arms.
"Sorry if I hurt your feelings, but this is business. I'll be happy to let you know everything that went down on the test. After I come out," Shane continued.
"Are you sure you are coming out?" when Hera spoke, everyone started at her, surprised by her seemingly aggressive remark, "What? I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but these tests are supposed to be hard, aren't they? I'm genuinely worried."
"You are too good for your own good," Silah shook her head.
"Why?"
"She's super mean to us, and you are worried about her?"
"Of course! I mean, it's her life's work or at least something she's trying to get for a long time. I get why she's paranoid like that," Hera replied.
"Still, you don't have to be that sweet all the time. You always offer to help people, " Silah rolled her eyes.
"Is this really the time for you two to start having a fight?" Bonnie side-eyed Hera.
"This is not a fight. We are just talking. Going back to the topic, can anyone blame Shane? Legacies are weird, Blue got her because of an egg, and there weren't any options for her to say no," Hera continued.
"I don't blame her, but she didn't have to be that much of an ass about it," Blue huffed.
"I wasn't an ass. I'm just honest. Anyway, all of you behave and don't try to come to the door after I enter. Seriously, I heard about a legacy that let more than one person take the test at the same time, and in the end, they had to fight to the death to see who would get the legacy," Shane touched the door and pressed something in the air.
The door behind her rumbled and opened slowly. Revealing a long corridor covered in ice. Shane just tapped her feet, and small spikes appeared under her feet, turning her boots into ice shoes. Without saying a word, she kept moving inside that hallway. A few seconds after she entered, the door closed behind her. There was something different in the door now. Among the runes, the one that represented ice was starting to glow. Only a tiny piece of it was illuminated, and as the group stared at it, the light began to fill more and more of the drawing.
"So… that is like her progression?" Blue asked.
"It seems like it," Helena nodded.
"Well…staying here kind of sucks. I'm going to look at the other doors. Anyone wants to join me?" Bonnie turned around.
"Sure, are you coming, Mylo?" Hera turned to the fighter.
"I'll stay," he replied while looking up. With a shrug, Hera and the others headed back to the spiral path that brought them here. Mylo turned back to the group, "I'm sorry, by the way. Shane has trust issues. I know it's not an excuse, but she didn't mean anything bad."
Bonnie, Alex, Silah, and Blue just waved that comment off, not even replying to it. Hera nodded with a smile, but Helena was the one who spoke up, "I know. Still, she dealt with this situation in a really crappy way. It's much harder to rebuild trust than to get it from the first time, I told her that before, but she seems to have forgotten."
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"She hasn't. I swear," Mylor quickly replied. He had a serious expression on his face.
"Either way, we are going to have to talk after this," Helena replied and joined the rest in the ramp.
It took around half an hour for the group to get back to the room with the constellations. The incline was steeper than everyone expected, and although it wasn't enough to make them slip and fall, it was a taxing journey. Everyone was mostly quiet. Even attempts at small talk were quickly shut down. The group was not bothered by each other, but they didn't want Mylo to hear their conversation. As soon as they exited the chamber with the constellation and closed the door, the silence was broken.
"I can't believe that bitch! Why the fuck was she accusing me of being a thief!" Blue yelled.
"That's a bit of a stretch, isn't it? She never said you were a thief," Hera replied.
"She might as well have. Saying I would steal her legacy just because I was curious about the message that was in the wall," Blue huffed.
"I agree with Blue. She didn't have to say the words to show that this is what she thought about us," Alex nodded.
"Oh no, it was worse. We were just a tool for her. I bet that even if one of us died, she would just push our body to the side and keep going," Bonnie scoffed.
"I think you are exaggerating a bit. She wouldn't do that," Hera protested as they reached the central room once more.
"I agree, that is a bit much. Then again, I didn't expect her to not trust us," Silah got closer to one of the pillars.
"Girls, that's enough. We are all hot-headed right now. Let's distract ourselves with something ok. Which door should we go to?" Helena clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.
"I don't care. Any of them is fine," Blue sighed. It was clear that she was the one most bothered by the situation.
"So let's go to the green naga then. It's the more snake-like. Right?" Silah suggested.
"Actually, green snakes are kind of rare. Most of them are brown or yellow," Bonnie replied.
"Oh.. still, the green one seems the prettiest," Silah insisted.
"That I agree," Hera nodded, pulling her girlfriend closer.
The group walked towards the green door, and with a push, it opened. Inside there was what looked like a sandpit arena. When they stepped inside it, the four naga appeared once more, doing the same hiss they did in the constellation chamber. Alex stepped into the arena, and three of the naga vanished, leaving only the green one behind. With a swift movement, the naga pulled a pair of daggers from its back and hissed. Alex pulled her own weapons in response as a reflex. Even if the projections didn't seem solid, she didn't know what to expect.
The naga started moving in a mix of dance and combat moves. It did a series of attacks like it was training its combat style. Hera couldn't help but notice that it had some similarities with her [Subtle Strike], mainly how the movements would spin around almost as if to confuse or mess with the opponent's flow. However, unlike her fighting style, this was more aggressive and focused on dual-wielding large hunting knives. [Sutble Strike] was more of a footwork than something offensive. If Hera could somehow learn this, it would be a great addition to her skills, especially now that she was using more two handaxes than her chakram. The naga kept going, showing movement after movement and going back to the starting position every time. Unlike what happened with the constellation room, the door was still wide open, and people could come and go as they please.
"Is it just me, or does this style seem kind of good?" Alex said.
"Yeah. Do you think we can learn it?" Hera kept staring at the naga, trying to understand the footwork she would need to do those movements.
"Maybe, hang on," Alex pulled up her tablet and started recording the naga. After a few seconds, she stopped the recording and took a look at the file. Thankfully, despite being just a projection, the green naga was crystal clear on the video, "Great, I'll start recording now, but I kind of want to get it from the beginning," Alex looked around, "Could you make like a cellphone stand somewhere?"
"I could only do that with rock, and I don't like the idea of messing up with the temple like that," Hera replied.
"Lena, how about your grabbers? Or your clouds, Blue?" Alex turned around.
"I don't think my clouds would help. Some of the actual clouds would be on the way," Blue replied.
"I can use my grabbers, and it can probably stay there for a while," Helena walked over to see if they could get a good angle to see all the moves.
"Could you keep more than one? It would be nice if we could have different angles for the recording," Hera pulled her tablet and walked to another side, trying to make the naga stay in the shot.
"It depends on how long it will take. Let's see how much mana just one tablet would spend," Helena and Alex found a good spot. The mage followed that up by using her spell to created a tendril that could hold the tablet in place. After double-checking how much mana she was spending, Helena asked Hera to tell her when she got to the right location. She also passed her own tablet to Alex and told Blue and her to find locations getting all the angles. Using her grabbers for a tablet was cheap enough that she could hold 4 without any issues, as long as she was nearby.
With everything set up, they started recording just in case. The idea was to get the movements from the beginning, and close to ten minutes had already gone by. However, they couldn't be sure that the projection would appear again when they exited the room. For one hour, the naga continued showing its movements. During that time, Alex and Hera were the only ones paying attention. The rest of the group took that chance to take a break and talk among themselves. That only lasted a while. Bonnie, Blue, and Silah got too bored with the situation and went outside to check the other rooms.
One hour later, when the naga was finally done, they exited the room and closed the door while leaving the tablets inside and recording. Then they all entered again. The projection restarted, and this time they would be able to record the entire thing. Alex had suggested that they only record the part they missed and then edit the files together, but that would be too much work. It was easier and better to record the entire thing. Another 80 minutes went by when the projection finished its exhibition once more. The three women left that room and went looking for the rest of the party. Among the two remaining doors, the one with the yellow naga was open. Inside there was a small library with only two bookcases filled with tomes and scrolls. Inside each of them, there was some writing, runes, and a spell circle. Helena quickly recognized the layout of the scrolls. They all seemed to be instructions on how to use specific spells, although she couldn't tell what would be the effect without being able to read the writing on them. Bonnie, Blue, and Silah were busy taking pictures of each scroll and didn't even notice the rest of the group entering the room.
In just a few minutes, they were done. Now the only remaining room was the one represented by the red naga with black rings on their scales.