Chapter 52.5
Side story: The Fermi paradox (1)
Location: true Alfheim
Date: xxxx
-wake up Elvey, we need to prepare for your brother’s soboa’a-
A blonde elf with blue eyes wearing a white tunic calls out as he enters a dark room.
Flinches!
The elf immediately flinches as he notices a pair of glowing amber eyes staring at him from within the darkness.
The pair of glowing eyes leap out of bed and run toward the elf.
The light from the hallway illuminates the body attached to the pair of eyes revealing the body of a young light elf boy who looks to be around ten years old.
-Soboa’a-
The young elf shouts excitedly as he runs past his dad with a wide grin on his face.
-haaa-
The elf lets out a sigh of relief as soon as he realizes it’s his son.
He reaches out and grabs his son’s arm preventing his son from running past him.
-where are you going?-
The elf boy looks up at his dad with a confused look.
-soboa’a?-
-aren’t you forgetting something?-
-no?-
The elf boy tilts his head while looking up at his dad.
-shouldn’t you take a shower first?-
-oh right! Hehe, be right back-
The elf boy runs toward his bathroom excitedly while taking off his clothes.
-Tara skirt, Ralph top –
The boy calls out as he enters the bathroom.
Two articles of clothes respond to his call, fly out of his closet, and join him in the bathroom.
-pffft-
The elf chuckles to himself as he watches his son.
- I will be waiting for you outside-
He calls out then turns to look at the clothes his son took off.
-now what are you waiting for? Go to the laundry basket-
The clothes Elvey took off earlier rise up and fly to the laundry basket.
The elf smiles and leaves the room.
After a few minutes, Elvey comes out of the bathroom wearing the two Articles of clothes that flew to him earlier.
The first one, a long piece of leather with a few metallic segments attached to it, is wrapped around Elvey’s waist forming a skirt that goes down to his knees.
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The second one, a piece of cloth that is made from a wolf’s hide, is wrapped around Elvey’s torso taking the shape of a sleeveless shirt with the wolf’s head forming a hood.
-Atlee –
Elvey calls and a wooden comb flies to his hand which he uses to comb his hair then goes outside.
When he goes outside, he sees his dad dragging a large statue of an octopus like creature with numerous arms.
The head of the creature has a large mouth with jagged teeth and two eyes positioned at the front of the head like a predator.
The forehead of the creature is abnormally large and has a door on it, similar to a carriage door.
-Elvey, you are ready, that’s good. –
His dad announces, then climbs the large statue and opens the door revealing a circular couch inside the statue’s head.
-come-
His dad calls after sitting on the couch.
Elvey eagerly climbs the statue and sits beside his dad on the couch.
-Widu and Cato-
His dad calls and a white staff with a crystal at the top and a grimoire fly from the ground to his dad’s hands.
-Cato life spells-
The book flips open on a chapter titled “life spells”
The dad raises his staff and crystal glows with a serene sky blue glow.
The sky blue light covers the entire statue and then the statue comes to life and starts to move.
-I shall name you Eri, now Eri straight ahead –
The statue bows then jumps into the air and uses its arms to swing from one enormous tree branch to another.
-why do you have to rename it every time dad?-
-hm, oh, that’s because every time you inject it with life it’s technically a different creature, it doesn’t keep the memories from the last time it was alive-
-then why not keep it alive then?-
-well life spells are not easy to get, your great grandma is the only life mage in the whole tribe you know-
-but we keep our clothes and the stuff inside the home alive right?-
-well, those we use every day so it can’t be helped, but we rarely need to travel long distances like today so keeping Eri alive would be a waste of life-
The father and son duo continue their conversation as Eri carries them through the forest, occasionally the father stops the conversation to give Eri directions.
Roughly an hour later, Eri arrives at a massive white temple.
The temple is built on the edge of a river with half the temple being on land and the other half floats above the water of the river.
The father and son duo jump out of Eri’s head.
Elvey raises his head up and his eyes widen as he marvels at the massive temple.
-waaaaaw-
The blonde elf glances down at his son and chuckles.
-you like it?-
-it looks bigger than I remember –
-that’s because it is-
The blonde elf pats Elvey’s head and smiles.
-every year build upon the temple of life to make it bigger, this way it looks like the temple is growing just like how living creatures grow, it also grows like how our knowledge grows, and every time we learn something new, it gets recorded in the temple of life –
-wow –
With wondering curious eyes, Elvey holds his father’s hand and the two of them walk inside the temple of life.
The two of them are met with a long path that leads to the inner halls of the temple.
The path is lined on each side with numerous statues of sphinxes that have the bodies of lions and the heads of rams.
As the two of them walk along the path, the eyes of the sphinxes watch them carefully.
Elvey hides behind his father trying to avoid the gazes of the sphinxes.
The father chuckles and pats his son’s head.
-don’t worry Elvey they only attack intruders-
The father and son duo soon reach the grand hall.
The grand hall is a massive hall that floats above the water of the river.
The father and son duo walk to a priest and bow toward him.
The priest returns their bow and then smiles at them.
-congratulation Ailwyn, I look forward to your son’s Soboa’a, follow me, I have already prepared water from the holy river for you-
-thank you, Aldon-
The father thanks the priest and then follows him along with Elvey.
The priest leads the two of them to a shelf with a single ceramic bottle on it.
-thank you again, Aldon, I look forward to seeing you in the Soboa’a-
Elvey’s dad when he hears a feminine voice call his name.
-Ailwyn, wait-
Elvey turns in the direction of the voice.
He sees a beautiful woman with silver white hair that looks to be in her early twenties.
Her body looks youthful and full of vigor, although her facial expression is-
Elvey tilts his head to the side and struggles for a moment trying to figure out what her expression looks like.
It looked plank and somewhat tired, not exactly bored
An idea finally flashes in Elvey’s mind as he realizes what her expression reminds him of.
‘it looks like the expression the village elders usually have’
-how may I serve you, great grandmother-
Elvey looks at his dad with wide eyes and his jaw drops as he watches his dad respectfully bow to a woman who looks half his age and addresses her as his grandmother.
- I am coming with you, I will personally lead your son’s Soboa’a-
Elvey’s father raises his head and looks at the woman with surprise.
-may I ask why, great grandmother? You normally never lead any Soboa’a-
The woman pauses for a moment debating if she should answer.
After a moment it seems she came to a conclusion and she gestures to the other priests to leave thee grand hall.
The priests quickly follow her command and leave the hall and once they have all left she turns to Elvey’s father and answers his question.
-your son was born with decay magic -