Zachary choked as he tried to hide his laughter. He quickly covered his mouth as Wander continued to complain.

“Hahaha… not funny! Those idiots that built this monolith, those stupid hairless monkeys, I have already cursed their souls to eternal torment and peed on their graves!”

“Alright, alright,” Zachary interjected, “That was in the past. It's not good to think about those things. Let’s think about opening the doorway and what we’ll find on the surface. Remember the wolves I told you about and pinecitta tree. We’ll have to make a run for it once we reach the surface.”

“No problem! A mangy wolf like that won’t be able to hurt you, not with me around.”

Zachary hoped that was the case. He couldn’t be sure as Wander was only at the Eight Paths Novice Rank while the wolf king was strong adept rank Ensouled. He didn’t expect Wander’s super-secret path to the surface to be the monolith. Perhaps, he should have given second thought to the idea of climbing instead. Then again, this was probably the easier way even if it was somewhat dangerous.

“So, how do I open it?” He asked.

Wander didn’t reply. The turtle was still upset from the prior matter. Zachary rolled his eyes and dug into his food sack for some emergency rations, three pieces of seaweed he had pilfered from Sugo the other day.

“Wah?” Wander blinked and sniffed the air, “Big bro Zach, I knew you were hiding snacks!”

He waddled over and stuck out his tongue in expectation, his tail wagging side to side. Zachary chuckled and quickly handed over the goodies, watching as the turtle gobbled up seaweed in a few bites. He would have to quickly raise Sugo’s soul cultivation so that he could continue to provide food for this hungry turtle.

Wander smacked his lips in satisfaction and licked his beak, “Ahhh, that hits the spot. I was hungry from all that swimming and walking. Anyway, the door is located on the earth side.”

Zachary understood and they headed to the western side of the octagonal monolith that corresponded to the earth path. There, Wander shuffled around he the right position and then looked up at the flat, featureless stone surface.

“Up there, the height of about two turtle shells, place your hand there and use your soul force like you are trying to capture an Ensouled with a summoning card.”

“Okay.”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Zachary reached up slightly above his head. He immediately knew that it was the right spot as he felt faint feedback of Eternum as soon as he ingested his own.

“Slide your hand right a hand width… move it up a hand… now back to the original position… left two hands… back to the beginning and… that should be it!”

Hong!

A familiar square doorway appeared, outlined by reddish-brown light. At the same time, a wave of Eternum swept out the monolith in all directions and into the ruined city.

“What was that?” Zachary asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing. The doorway used to close at sundown and open at sunrise. It was used to let everyone know the start and end of a new day.”

“Ah.”

Zachary stood with Wander and his other summons and waited patiently as the doorway slowly opened. Once it was wide enough, he peered inside. There wasn’t much except a stone staircase that led upward. Some carvings dotted the walls but that was about it. Surprisingly, it wasn’t pitch black. There was a strange pale ambiance even though there were no light sources.

Wander went in and sniffed around, “Yeah, your cat lady was definitely here. I can still smell her stink. It's several months old so she left a long time ago. In case you were curious, no, I didn’t see her.”

“I didn’t ask.”

“You were curious.”

Zachary snorted and didn’t respond. He recalled all of his summons except for Onkie. Using some spare vine rope, he fastened the heaviest leather sack onto her back and they set off. Naturally, Wander didn’t want to climb a hundred stories of stairs so he retreated into Zachary’s soul space.

“Onkie, you’re still the best.” He said and rubbed her furry head.

“Onk, onk,” Onkie replied and enthusiastically started to climb.

“Hey! What about me?” Wander complained from within his soul.

He ignored the lazy turtle, or was it lazy dog? Sometimes, it was hard to tell.

The climb up the monolith was long, boring, and exhausting. Step by step, they went around in endless circles as they slowly spiraled upward. It was difficult to tell how far they had gone or how far was left.

The ordeal was made slightly better by Wander chattering non-stop about what he was going to do once he was outside. He wanted to smell the flowers and the trees. He wanted to fight some wild Ensouled. Finally, he wanted Zachary to catch a whole farm of seaweed slugs so that he could have an endless supply of food.

Eventually, they reached the top where both Zachary and Onkie collapsed in a heap. They leaned against each other, panting heavily from the exertion.

Wander took the opportunity to reappear, “Yay, we made it!”

Onkie glared at the turtle but was too tired to retort.

“Why doesn’t the door stay open?” Zachary asked after finally catching his breath.

“It's designed to close up if no human summoner is controlling it. Again, those imbeciles…”

Zachary waved his hand to stop another rant, “Okay, okay. Moving on.”

He patted his summoner’s belt and brought out Blue and Boba. He let the boa curl around his left arm while Blue perched atop his head.

“Boba, stay sharp when we head out. One squeeze for enemies on my right and two squeezes for enemies on my left. Blue, you’ll fly out first and provide as much distraction as you can.”

“Chirr!”

“Good, Onkie will lead. I will be right behind. Wander will cover my back with his shield. We’ll charge for the land bridge in one go. Don’t stop for anything. Understood?”

“Onk!”

“Chirr!”

Boba gave his arm a squeeze.

“Yeah!” Wander shouted in his head, “Let’s go!”