CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
A fae ice wolf, a behemoth titan cyber guard, and a military fae who specializes in making scrolls and potions on the side—wasn’t expecting a party like this. I’d asked Red if he wanted us to drop him off to see Gavori first, but he refused. He said after the fight, he’d be more than happy to, but right now, his country needed him. It sounded like Jezz had told him everything to the last detail, except for the fact that I was carrying Alzera-Kar. I told him that I had met his mother a short time ago, and relayed her message to him. He nearly fell in tears, and I could tell that he had a strong bond with her. He hadn’t seen her in years with how they moved the Hox branch around, and as soon as this was over, her shop was his next destination.
The branch thought he was dead anyway. With Hox, if you didn’t report to your station in a certain time frame, you were presumed to have been captured by the enemy or dead. They weren’t out there looking for him. Soldiers in Hox were replaced in a heartbeat. He said he’d visit the unit one more time to resign, and had ideas about following in his mother’s footsteps. According to him, his mother might feel some type of way about him dropping, but after the shit he went through, she’d appreciate him being alive more.
Jezz being here was still making my chest flutter. I seriously wasn’t expecting Rufian to keep his word, especially with how we’d left things. The whole ‘a fae’s word is gold’ was total shit when it came to that two-timing prick, but he did locate Jezz and brought her to me.
However, what he’d said about her being in Dradersi left me uneasy. I wasn’t ready to talk about the time we were apart just yet though. We needed to focus on getting this shard, and putting Alzera back together again.
Speaking of the goddess, I was thankful that her power had settled down, or I would have been a walking nuclear reactor.
“So, you two made up or something?” Jezz suddenly asked me as we walked south toward the shard’s location, her question snapping me out of deep thought.
I snickered. “Or something.” She and I were ahead, leaving Red and Gerald a few meters following behind us. We were waiting for her cool-down timer on her teleporter, so we had a few more minutes to talk.
“Judging by the sarcasm in your voice, I take it that you don’t want him in our team? I wouldn’t knock you for pushing him away, Silas. I know your history with the titan guard.”
“It’s nothing like that. I… just need time. I understand that he can be an asset to our party, but we can’t chaperone him. He’s like a happy trigger finger, and for his size and power, being unpredictable is no joke.” I turned to her. “So you’re telling me you forgave him?”
“Felt like I had to,” she said almost regrettably.
“What are you talking about?”
She paused. “Long story…”
“Heh, our go-to word. Nothing good I can imagine. I don’t want to get into it right now if you don’t w—”
“Let’s keep our heads in the game!” she cheered, but I knew Jezz, and I could tell that she wanted to avoid the topic. “Besides, I wanna know about you! Like, how you handled yourself without me?” she said cheekily, giving me that cute but confident look. God, I couldn’t stop staring at her—I missed her so much. But I also didn’t want to tell her the truth about her brother just yet. Instead, I wanted to enjoy our reunion with no tension or conflict. Telling her about her brother would just ruin her mood.
“Heh, like you said, long story. We will talk more about everything soon.”
She nodded. “Okay! My teleport is ready, anyway.”
“Then do the honors, cute ice wolf.”
We teleported to the temple of Ocary, the most RPG looking place in Mavriel thus far. The area seemed vast beyond the thick fog, but this claustrophobic feeling begged to differ. My sense of space said that it was tight and secluded, the smallest sub realm I’d been to since I started this journey.
Beyond the fog and the long path in front of us, I spotted the silhouette of the castle-looking temple. As we got closer, I noticed it was made out of black metal, its foundation hovering over the mouth of a god damn volcano. The four bridges that branched from it connected the temple to the surrounding platform that was shaped like a huge circle, and around the circle were seven sky-high statues.
Tall mountain-sized statues parting the dark clouds in the heavy sky.
Red mentioned they were the seven members of the High Order. I guess that was what Rufian meant when he’d said the fae council was guarding the crystal. But what really took me for a spin was how we were able to stumble upon them so easily. Visiting Gavori’s home was a trial, and visiting Jezz’s old house was a challenge also. Entrance to the barons’ homes were warded or protected, so why was it so simple to visit this sacred place?
“I had teleported us to a sub realm,” Jezz said, looking over her shoulder left and right. “I don’t get it, my teleportation skills aren’t advanced enough to bring us to another realm…”
“No teleportation skill has such a feat,” Red said. “Even I don’t understand how you brought us here, Jezz.”
“Maybe it’s a trap!” Jezz blared, then snapped her head at me with a skeptical look on her face. “Are you sure this source of yours is not messing with us?”
“I’m pretty sure.” Rufian must have casted something on Jezz so she could bring us here.
Man, that Grimoire sure was a time saver.
“Let’s keep going.”
The four huge towers on the platforms connected to the bridges grew bigger the more we approached the castle, each of them burning hot with huge purple flames at their crowns. As we walked around the centerpiece, I started to catch onto something strange. This feeling was odd, but familiar. It felt like Alzera-Kar was trying to tell me something, or maybe her crystal shield was trying to communicate with me. For a second, I was worried, because I didn’t want to blow up like I did back in the chasm.
I placed my hand on my stomach and stopped short, Red, Gerald, and Jezz all looking at me as they broke their stride in front of the bridge.
“What’s wrong?” Jezz asked, and I couldn’t put two words to describe what was off. I looked up, the statues of the High Order loomed over us, their faces stoic and unmoving. It was almost as if they were watching us, or maybe…
Wait, the eyes on that one started glowing…
No, on all of them!
Were they watching us? Like actually watching us?!
What’s worse, they started to move!
“Mother goddess…” Red gasped, all eyes pointed upward. Giant limbs started to creak and grunt, the sound of stone rubbing into stone echoing in the vast sub realm. They were animated, each of the seven statues lumbering from their spot. It was like a nightmare come to life, and with every movement they made, the ground beneath us shook.
Red panicked, his face screaming at me. “What do we do? Do we fight?!” he shouted.
I kept my eyes glued on the statues. The more they moved, the more it seemed that their gaze wasn’t focused on any one of us in particular…until one of them mean-mugged me with his finger pointing my way, making the other six do the same.
I felt my body lock up as his finger cut through the air like a knife. It felt like time had stopped itself for a moment when the realization of fighting seven god-sized statues finally set in.
As if it wasn’t bad enough watching seven giants come alive right before our very eyes, they were level-less, which meant that we had no idea how much HP they had.
