Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 147: Waiting Game
It stood proud and indifferent.
SPLAT!
A wet crunch echoed.
Uriel’s body slammed against the pale crimson surface of the statue, his blood splattering across its smooth smoothness, deep red stark against its almost rosy hue.
"UHHH!"
The pain of his ribs shattering and his head cracking open as all that accumulated momentum discharged into his body jolted him awake, his mouth opening into a wide ’o’ of raw agony, his pupils trembling.
"UH! UH! UH!"
He gasped for air again and again, and slowly, his scrunched body peeled slightly away from the ruby surface, allowing his lungs to expand and greedily drink in rivers of air.
Had it not been for his Simple Domain and reinforced Elemental Mantle, not even his shells would have been enough to keep him from turning into minced meat.
Even then, with all those protections layered over him, he was nearly entirely debilitated; organs on the brink of failure, bones broken, mind ringing with a deep, disorienting confusion, and his core aching from overuse for only the second time in his life.
But he had made it.
He had reached the statue.
And that alone was enough to flood him with a relief thick enough to push back against the pain tearing through his limbs.
[Welcome, dear Ascendant of the [?]!]
Uriel’s body began to slide down along the ruby surface, his blood lubricating and easing his descent. His mantle, however, kept the friction high enough to prevent him from simply dropping.
He could not survive another fall.
Slowly, he continued to slide.
[Blood of Ithuril detected! Permissions have been granted!]
[You are eligible to enter the Spiral Core-House!]
Even through the fog clouding his thoughts, Uriel could not help but let out a weak laugh, pride seeping from him, overpowering even his relief.
His gamble had paid off.
’Who... would’ve thought... gambling could be so lucrative...’ he thought between shallow breaths and strained laughter.
[To gain access to the Spiral Core-House, you must solve this runic puzzle and undo the Spiral Rune Lock!]
Uriel’s bloody smile widened.
A test of runes? He would have laughed harder if he were not in such blinding pain.
[Would you like to attempt the Spiral Tests?]
’Yes.’
Uriel felt the statue quake for the briefest moment, its dotted stars of azure radiance lighting up as a deep crimson hue rose to swallow the amethyst haze that filled the surroundings.
The ruby surface began to vibrate.
Multicolored runes manifested across its entirety, linking together to form a gigantic formation the likes of which Uriel could not begin to comprehend, unable to make sense of even a fraction of it.
’...’
He felt a stream of energy extend from the statue, attempting to resonate with his mind, and with a thought, he allowed it.
Currents of information flooded him, transforming into runes that formed and overlapped so rapidly that all he could perceive was a shifting mass of red, blue, and purple.
The mass churned, thickening, condensing, layering into structures he could not even begin to conceptualize.
He blinked, and suddenly the transformation was complete.
In his mind, all he could see and sense was—
’...a cube?’
A simple cube.
It was entirely black, each of its six faces covered in faintly glowing runes of dark gold. No, calling them runes would have been a gross overstatement.
The markings etched into the cube were closer to unintelligible squiggles than anything else, their structure chaotic, unreasonable, and beyond logic.
As he continued to slide down the monument, Uriel inwardly blinked several times, confusion staining his soul and his eyes trembling with pure shock.
He... could not understand.
’What?!’
He could not comprehend a single inch of the cube.
He did not even know how it related to runes in any conceivable manner, and though he had clearly watched it form in his mind, from a storm of runes and clouds into that cube, he could not grasp that shift either. The transition itself eluded him entirely.
He attempted to use mind, body, and core resonance on the cube within his consciousness, but in that moment he finally seemed to realize that the object was intangible.
It was within his mind, yet it was not born from it. He could not influence it in the slightest. Though it was present within him, it was not made of energy or matter, so he had no idea how to resonate with it.
It was as though he were trying to resonate with a thought, a concept, or a universal law. Uriel was certain such feats were possible for greater mages, but he was nowhere near that realm.
He was lost.
SHH!
He slid down.
Eventually, he stopped, his feet touching the sandy ground at the monument’s base.
A tremor ran through the statue, and his body shuddered before unsticking completely, falling the remaining distance until his back struck the sand, bloody and torn, his shaken eyes staring up at the obscured skies above.
Sand slipped into his eyes, and his body shifted repeatedly as more waves slammed down around him, but he remained frozen, staring up at both the skies and the titanic monument he had run toward and risked his life for.
’I was wrong.’
His gamble had failed.
While he had been correct that reaching the statue would grant him a chance at survival, the possibility of facing a challenge he could not overcome had never even crossed his mind, and so he had prepared no alternative.
’I got arrogant. Too reckless.’
He closed his eyes.
There were not many waves around the statue at that moment, but he could feel that it would not remain so for long. If he did not move, one would swallow him whole.
He had to move. But he did not.
He let himself breathe, sensing his Spring-Borne and Lotus-Heaven Shells rapidly mending his body while his Simple Domain struggled to replenish his core.
He drew in a deep breath, his shattered ribs and lacerated lungs flaring in protest, then exhaled, finding even that simple act laced with pain.
He opened his eyes.
Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet. The trembling ground made the effort laborious and unnecessarily difficult, but he managed.
Swaying slightly, his gaze fixed on the sprawling ruby surface before him, which curved inward at the far edges of his vision.
Had he not known it to be a statue, he might have mistaken it for a colossal wall randomly planted in the heart of the desert.
’This thing is really big.’
He tore his eyes away and looked to his left, toward the horizon, where waves rose and fell and sand blurred everything beyond recognition.
SHAH!
His mantle trembled, and as he stepped forward, dozens, then hundreds, of vines surged outward around him.
He walked until he stood an inch from the ruby wall, then turned and let himself fall onto his backside, his back resting against the surface.
Half of his vines wrapped tightly around him before driving into the ruby structure, anchoring him to it.
The other half dipped into his blood and used it as ink, carving and drawing hundreds of formations to ensure that his body would never again slip from the statue.
Seated at the monument’s base, lone and insignificant, he chuckled.
’Now... it’s a waiting game.’
He closed his eyes.
