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Chapter 13

Sera's heart pounded, an echo of the recent battle. As she worked to try and calm herself, Sera’s body jolted as Akane's exuberant voice filled the air.

"Sugoi!” She shouted in a comically deep voice. “Sēra wa sugoi zo! Mata shōrida!

Laughter bubbled up within Sera, washing away the remnants of tension as she watched Akane's whimsical behavior. The woman laughed, mockingly in her theatrical voice as she approached the corpse of the Satyr that she and Sera had fought together.

“Ho ho ho! Oi, dōda?” She said tauntingly as she repeatedly kicked the dead Chimera’s head. “Baka Kimaira. Sēra ga omaera zen'in o yattsukete yaru! Ho ho ho! Baka monsutā."

Akane's revelry was contagious. Sera didn’t understand what the woman was saying, but she couldn’t help but share in her joy as Akane’s words carried on weaving a musical sense of triumph. The woman's joyous energy lifted Sera's spirits, her fatigue from the battle momentarily forgotten.

Cabrin stepped forward, an encouraging smile on his face. "You did well, Sera. Truly."

Bashful, she demurred, "I didn't do much. I only killed one of the Satyr.”

“You also killed the Centaur, and you followed it with a fluid attack on a second enemy.” Cabrin pointed out. “Given your lack of experience, that was very impressive, Sera.”

“You and Akane killed the Centaur.” Sera modestly protested as her cheeks began to glow red.

“We finished it off. It would have died even if we didn’t.”

Sera shook her head, trying not to smile. “You two would have been fine without me."

Cabrin's eyes held honesty and kindness. "Maybe so, yes, but it would have been a much harder fight. We were fortunate to have you with us."

An overwhelmed laugh escaped Sera. "Thank you, Cabrin. I'm still not sure I’ll get used to all of this."

Cabrin placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Give it time. Your abilities will continue to improve, and we'll be here to support you every step of the way. I’ll admit, I’m eager to see what magic Celeste’s successor has yet to show us."

Sera only blushed, she still dreaded the idea of what her life would become, but Cabrin’s encouragement and Akane’s joyful attitude did much to ease her worries.

As the euphoria of having survived another intense battle wore off, the three of them took time to rest. Cabrin's gaze remained inquisitive, searching for their next path. Akane's animated Asunese chatter continued unabated, and Sera felt the corners of her mouth tug upward. She was beginning to feel a fond comfort with the two Asunese rangers.

Sera gingerly turned the pages of Damien’s Journal to find his entry regarding this “Great Chamber” which led them here. For a moment, Sera wondered if this was the chamber that he had mentioned, but decided that it couldn’t be. Damien had written that the power of the gods resided in that place. The chamber they were in was impressive, to be sure, but all that existed around her was more lifeless rock and the encroaching nature which had taken over.

Finding the entry, Sera read aloud, "...successfully been removed from the path blocking the way into... deep underground where... power of the Ancestor Gods still breathes with life... exists a great chamber…"

She focused on the phrase, "…successfully been removed from the path blocking the way into…" and deduced that the Reclaimers had excavated a path into the Great Chamber. This meant she should search for a passageway that looked to have been cleared of debris.

Her intuition proved correct as she found a passageway by which rubble was precariously stacked and piles of dirt with rusted shovels and picks nearby. As Sera cautiously approached it, she saw that a stairway existed beyond it.

“Oi! Kaburin-kun!” Akane called, having seen Sera looking curiously into the stairway. “Sēra ga nanika o mitsuketa mitai da zo!”

As Akane rushed to join Sera, Cabrin followed and the three of them entered the door and made their way down the dark passage, eager to uncover the mysteries that awaited them.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The trio traversed a corridor adorned with tall, organically designed archways. The dull white stone seamlessly blended into a muted metal at their peaks, where vines or roots interlaced in the gaps. Small, empty circular rooms lined the corridor. What drew their interest was what lay at the far end of the corridor.

A silvery-blue light, ethereal in its glow, guided them to a doorway that revealed a larger chamber beyond. As they entered the room, they were struck by its peculiar beauty. The chamber, circular and expansive, spanned roughly fifty feet in diameter. The floors and towering ceiling mirrored the dull-colored white stone of the corridor arches, curving gracefully to meld with the textured black stone walls.

At the center of the room lay a small, slightly raised disk, made of a kind of dull silver. A triangular depression marked its center. Sera approached cautiously, and as she did, a small column slid, gracefully up from the depression in the floor. The column, triangular in shape, matching the depression, was the same dull silver as the disk. A crystal cut to be perfectly flush with the lines of the column capped the top of the waist-high column. The crystal was a translucent black, with a silvery, cloudy-looking ring at its center, resembling a gray iris looking out at her from beneath its glassy surface.

Sera hesitated for a moment before reaching out and touching the crystal with one hand. From the cloudy image at the center of the crystal, silvery tendrils snaked out to meet the places where her fingers lay upon its surface. Suddenly, the walls around the room filled with a massive array of magical runes lighting up along the walls.

Everyone stood in silent awe at the display of magic surrounding them. The runes cast a mesmerizing glow that painted the chamber in hues of otherworldly light, their intricate patterns revealing the wisdom and power of a long-forgotten age.

Akane's voice broke the silence, her tone a mixture of wonder and excitement. "Kirei na…Sera, this is amazing! What did you do?"

"I'm not sure." Sera said, her voice, barely a whisper. Her breath was shaky, but not out of fear, but awe. All around her was a language that was completely unfamiliar to them.

“The language of the gods.” Cabrin whispered reverently.

Akane approached one of the walls, tracing her fingers along the glowing runes. "These symbols... I've never seen anything like them. I can only imagine what they mean."

Sera's gaze lingered on the runes, her mind racing with questions. What secrets did they hold? And what role did she play in all of this?

Together, they explored the chamber, exchanging theories and conjectures about the meaning behind the runes and images.

Feeling a surge of courage, Sera touched her other hand to the surface of the crystal. As before, more tendrils grew from the center within the crystal to touch her fingertips. The connection intensified, the runes along the walls pulsating with energy.

Sera’s body seized up. Her eyes rolled up into the top of her head as she shook violently. Somewhere distant, she could hear muffled voices speaking in panicked tones. She felt something. Something like hands touching her body, but it all felt so far away, somehow. It didn’t matter though, Sera was in complete rapture.

Information poured into her like a fountain. Images, words, meaning. It was all so much, she couldn’t make sense of any of it. The crystalline stone that she had touched was a river and Sera was its basin. Her body was completely paralyzed, she had no choice but to let it fill her. And then, everything went black.

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Celeste stood at the entrance of the Flesh Farm, the overwhelming stench of death and decay making her stomach churn. She watched as the filthy, naked figures of men, women, and children slowly made their way out of the pens, blinking in the sunlight as they stumbled towards freedom over the broken bodies of Chimera which Celeste had butchered.

She couldn't help but feel a sense of detachment as she observed them. Their lost, empty eyes meeting hers, as they passed. Was this truely what her masters had been reduced to? After all that they had accomplished with this world, all of their work and wisdom. Reduced to something more akin to animals. At least, she thought, it would make her task that much easier. It wasn't that she didn't care about their suffering, but she would be forced to become pragmatic in her fight against Sephra and her legions of Chimera.

As she watched, Celeste's mind raced with plans on how to turn these former captives into soldiers. She knew that they would need to be trained and prepared if they were going to have any chance against Sephra's and the legions of Chimera which she had created. She had a job to do, her ultimate goal was to save humanity and restore their place as the rightful rulers of Soror. To do that, sacrifices would have to be made.

As she watched the wretched, devolved forms that only vaguely resembled those who she once answered to, she drew up plans in her mind for the destruction that she would bring against Sephra for what she had done to them.

She would travel from farm to farm, liberating the masses and taking on potential recruits. As Celeste encountered people who had been broken by the Chimera, she would form them into a force that would shake the world.

She felt a twinge of pity for them, but she knew that she couldn't afford to let her emotions cloud her judgment. She needed strong, capable soldiers who were willing to fight and die for their cause.

Despite her reservations, Celeste would work tirelessly to train and motivate her army. She would push them to their limits, driving them to become the warriors that they needed to be in order to defeat the Chimera and reclaim Soror. She saw potential in many of them, and she hoped that they would rise to the occasion when the time came.