Chapter 603 - Abyssia (Patreon)

Going beyond that first set of houses, the party started to explore the city. First, the buildings that were close to the docks where they arrived. Those structures looked like houses with something else in the mix. Some seemed to be barracks or hotels, while others were just homes with some extra rooms that maybe could be used for storage. One interesting thing they found out was that the triton here seemed to use something close to a hammock for beds. But instead of it being open, they could close themselves inside, almost like a cocoon.

Blue tested that out, and it felt surprisingly cozy. Bonnie let Ruby move around without restraint since she didn't need to breathe. However, having a small monster that looked just like the ones that had everyone on edge moving around was not a great idea. Eventually, she agreed to have the slime on her waist as they moved around. They spent about half an hour looking around and only managed to cover four houses. If that kept going like that, it would take way too long for them to be able to explore the entire city. However, moving alone was too dangerous. So they split into two groups. Hera, Nimbus, Adriel, and Mylo would head to the outskirts while Shane and the girls moved toward the city's center. Searching for something that could be interesting.

It didn't take long for them to find the edge of Abyssia. It seemed like the farther away they were from the center, the shorter the houses were. Maybe because that way, the houses on the very end of the city would work as a barrier to protect those inside from the current, which was getting increasingly strong with time. Or maybe it was just a way for everyone to see what was beyond the buildings. They were discussing their theories by writing when Adriel came up with a unique spin on that concept. Echolocation. Maybe the city was set up to both help them see things from far away and trick other sea creatures into seeing this place as a large monster. In a way, the houses were set up as if they were tentacles, or at least that's what he was thinking about.

No one was entirely sure if that was the case, but it was fun to come up with those ideas. What they didn't consider was that the light coming from the Illusory Script would be helping a creature track them through the city, and now, they were already far enough from everything that the monster had a chance to strike. It still had to be careful. Most beings who came deep underwater could pick up on small movements in the water. Because of that, the creature moved slowly, close to the ground so as not to be seen.

Hera and the others walked closer to what seemed to be a flat piece of ground. They assumed it was just a weird formation, but when they got closer, they realized their mistake. The floor was made out of some inorganic material that made even the sand that fell on top of it move away, almost like an invisible force was cleaning the platform. When they got closer, they noticed three sets of oddly shaped crystals attached to that structure. They looked almost like stars in the green light created by the dark vision spell.

"Mylo, Can you use your flowers? I can't see them very well with the goggles," Hera asked.

The fighter just nodded, he seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable, but no one could blame him. Breathing water in was horrible, and even worse was the effort that it took to push it out of their lungs. As the glowing petals appeared, everyone noticed that the crystals were in a normal diamond shape, but some clamps were attaching them to the structure that formed the star shape that they had seen before.

Adriel reached out to touch one of them, and it glowed blue before springing to life. The leftmost crystal became almost a turrent pointed to the void of emptiness beyond the city. Using her [Inspect], Hera found out that this was part of the defense mechanism to protect Abyssia. Each crystal had a different function that would be revealed as they activated them. The one Adriel triggered was a sonic cannon. It could generate a sound so loud that it would scare away most monsters and damage anyone impacted directly. In the right corner, there was a green crystal that could deploy an electrified net. The current would be weak enough not to hurt anyone who got close but strong enough to paralyze those caught in the net. Lastly, the middle crystal would only work as a trigger of sorts that would release some of the extremely hot vapors from a path. That was the only crystal that came with a warning. Using it would cause the temperature in the city to rise several degrees for a few hours.

Hera considered triggering that just for a moment to help everyone with the cold, but since there was a warning, she decided against it. There was a good chance that the increase would make life unbearable for her party, and she wasn't the only one who thought that. Her court agreed that it was a bad idea.

'Mum, if you are cold. Why don't you use the fire elemental armor? That should work to make you hotter, right?' Daskka asked. The snake was still around her neck, even underwater.

'That's…. A good idea, actually. The fire elemental armor doesn't glow, right?'

'Not unless you are actually using the fire for something.'

She triggered the armor and instantly felt more comfortable. Even better, right now, she could keep that spell up for a few hours as long as she wasn't doing anything else. Adriel and Mylo also stepped closer to her to enjoy the warm water that surrounded the Empress as they talked about the weapons. If the people who lived here had something like that, it had to mean that they weren't in a peaceful place. Strong monsters could be around, and they had to be strong enough that just sending warriors wouldn't be enough, or something like this would never be constructed.

As they were talking, the creature stalking in the shadows was backing away. A long time ago, it tasted the pain those crystals could cause. Back then, there was only a single prey, and it was already enough to push it back. Now with a group, it would be even worse. Frustrated, it decided to get away, but it would still follow that group. Soon, it would come, and with it, a perfect opportunity for the creature to feast on something new.

Hera and her group walked around the perimeter for a while and found a few other sets of those defenses. All of them were spaced out evenly, being about 200 meters away from each other and slightly angled to see another part of the void. When they realized that the rest should be just like this, they decided to go towards the center of the city and look for the rest of the party. It didn't seem like they would be able to find anything else on the outskirts or at least nothing on this side.

It didn't take long to find them. Just by moving to the center of the city, they were able to notice some lights. At first, it was just a piece of bioluminescent coral that was growing along what should be the main street, even if it wasn't paved. Then, a stronger light coming from a different source giving the area a red tint. That was Bonnie's low light spell. The red color was intended to bring less attention to them since the wavelength was lower, but it made the place feel very ominous.

The rest of the party was around a large crystal crate, talking about something.

"Hey guys," Hera wrote in the air around them.

"Hey," Helena replied, "Did you find anything?"

"Just some defenses. These people really knew how to fight, and they were ready to face something big. How about you," Adriel chimed in.

"That's not great. But we already know that there is at least one big monster around. Or two if we count the snake Hera saw," Alex said. The red light against her black eyes gave her the look of a monster in a horror movie, "We didn't find anything yet, but this. We were saying that this crate might be the waste that Sky created. Maybe this poisoned the water slowly."

"That could make sense. People didn't realize that it would be a problem until it was too late," Adriel nodded.

"Do we know where the dungeon is?" Mylo asked.

"Dungeon?" Blue turned to the fighter.

"There is a dungeon here, right? Isn't that part of the reason we all came?"

"Sort of. I still don't think this would be a good idea. What if the dungeon takes more than a day to complete? We can only stay underwater for so long. Also, Bonnie tried to find it, but she can't see it while we are underwater for some reason," Helena explained.

"Really?" Hera turned to Bonnie.

"Yeah. Outside I can see it without any issue, but down here, I can't. It might be because of the goggles, but I'm not about to test that out. Hera, can you ask Yarnball about this crate?" Bonnie turned to the Empress.

"I can't. The cooldown will still take around 40 minutes," the explorer replied, and there was a pause where no one was entirely sure of what to do next.

"Anyway, I don't think we will find anything else about this crate. Shall we keep going?" Shane turned around to where the center of the city should be. When they were in the Flying Slime Fish, there was a large structure that looked like a cone seashell, which seemed important.

Luckily for them, it didn't take long for the group to arrive at that central structure. By all accounts, it looked like a temple and not the type of structure that a Naga would make. There were details and carvings all around the outside, forming intricate patterns that were utterly destroyed by time, leaving only what looked like scars behind. The whole feel of it was of something bigger than life, and there were some symbols that felt religious, even if it was impossible to actually see the symbols properly. Unlike the rest of the buildings that were holding on pretty well, this didn't seem to have any magic to stop it from deteriorating with time. In a way, it felt ritualistic, as if they wouldn't soil the temple with magic and let their care be what kept it standing.

Shane started walking towards the entrance, but as she touched the side of the door, the wall crumbled, and the entire thing shook, making the entire party move away in worry.

"Shit… do you think we could swim inside?" Shane asked.

"I don't think any of us is good enough of a swimmer to not touch anything inside there. Besides, with water in our lungs, it will be hard not to touch the ground. Have you noticed how easily we are walking on the bottom of the ocean?" Bonnie replied. Even through the goggles, everyone could tell that she had an annoyed expression.

"I have an idea," Hera stepped forward and shook her bracelet, letting the 30 snakes come out. Before giving them the order, she turned to Lurize, 'I have a quest for you, but first, can you move around in your beetle form?'

The Royal Tutor changed shapes and started moving around. Swimming wasn't exactly his forté, but he could manage. And, unlike Shane, the structure didn't seem to mind when he walked on top of it.

'Great. Now you go with the snakes to explore that area. This is your quest. If you need to talk to me, give a signal to the snakes, and I'll look through their eyes.'

Lurize nodded and assumed his humanoid form for a moment. He kneeled in front of the Empress and kissed her hand, receiving 200 thousand mana in the process. With that, he returned to his beetle shape and went inside the temple. Hera decided to stay close by. That way, the Royal Tutor wouldn't spend too much mana with his movement. Mylo and Adriel stayed with her while Shane and the others continued exploring.

A full hour passed, and Hera only saw a couple of things through her snakes. A mural that only had a little bit of paint still on the wall. More of those symbols, now Hera could tell that there was a small edge, like a curved tip of a blade, and a whirlpool on the corner. Lurize also found a large area filled with those hammocks, but it didn't look like the place was supposed to be a dormitory. Instead, it appeared to be something made in a hurry, with the hooks in the wall still in good condition like the rest of the houses.

Hera was starting to give up on finding anything interesting in the temple until Lurize passed by a gap behind a small altar with nothing on top of it. He followed a very long path until he reached what looked like a storage unit, but it was empty with one exception. On the back, there was a leather armor in perfect condition. It was standing on a headless mannequin, and the piece would just cover the chest, leaving the arms completely free. In the center of it, there was the symbol of a squid in a crescent moon shape with a couple of star-shaped whirlpools around it. Hera realized that the symbol was just like the ones that were no longer around the temple, or the shape was very similar to it.

Lurize was using a light spell to see the things around him, and he turned to one of the snakes that were following him before writing in the air, "Empress. I'll bring you this armor."

'What? No, you can't do that. How can you even do something like that in that form?' Hera tried to send that message to him, but she couldn't contact him using the snakes. Shane and the others had returned and were already asking questions. However, the Empress was too preoccupied with her titled blade to pay attention to whatever they were writing.

Lurize first tried to take the armor off of the mannequin but to no avail. He at least knew that he couldn't just transform to grab it. Changing tactics, he pushed the armor, trying to make it fall to the ground to make it easier to remove it. After a couple of tries, he was successful, but when the mannequin slammed into the ground, the entire temple started to shake. The ground crumbled and caved in. Seeing that, Hera told the snakes to get Lurize out of there. One of them quickly went after him and swallowed the Royal Tutor in a single movement before it continued to run out of the temple. Everyone had to run away from the structure not to be caught by the debris, and the cloud of dust that raised as the temple crumbled. As the dust covered everyone, Alex looked up at something, lost in thought.

When it finally stopped, Hera waited to see if any of her snakes would move. She could still feel some of them, but a good number had vanished, and she had no idea which one of them was carrying Lurize. After five long minutes, one snake jumped out of the rubble and moved towards Hera before spitting out a small golden orange beetle.

'Lurize!'  Hera yelled in her mind and grabbed the beetle, giving him a big hug. After a moment, she patted the snake that brought him here as thanks.

"What happened?" Shane and Helena asked at the same time.

"Guys," Alex called, but her message was quickly hidden by the others.

"What did you do?" Bonnie turned to Hera.

"Was it a monster?" Blue was looking around in a frenzy.

"Guys," Alex tried again, but Hera was the one who interrupted her this time.

"It was just a mistake. We are all ok. Don't worry about it. It wasn't a monster. Lurize was trying to…."

"GUYS!" Alex wrote in all capital letters, making the entire party stop and look at her, "Hera, I need you to ask Yarnball what is happening on the surface. Now."

Hera frowned, but she did as she was told. It was a good thing that she didn't have to speak to ask a question. She used 300 thousand mana just to be on the safe side, and the message sent a shot of adrenaline through her body.

'It started to rain.'