Magical Formation
Magical Formation
Chapter:28
Walking forward, while the two light spheres were floating around them in the air. The path was long and all the group could do was to walk and look out for the plant that they were searching for.
The cave-like path around them was full of uneven stones, but some of them had smooth places here and there. It was like the way formed naturally. But some unknown means forcefully made the cave bigger at a later time.
After a few hours were nothing important happened, other than some water dripping from the ceiling, which made a few puddles on the floor. There was finally some change in the pathway, and it was narrowing down. After the group of 5 adults and 3 kids walked on for one more hour, the path had now narrowed down to the size of only 3 meters in height and 4 meters in width.
The end of the path could be seen into the distance. It split up into 3 more channels.
"We need to go right, that was the way our informant took and it should lead us to our goal." Said Rodolfo with certainty in his voice.
Soon after they took the right path, they found the way was bringing them downwards at a lot faster rate than they were going down before. The way turned into, from gently going down, into a slope. With their unnatural bodies, the group of vampires and Richard had no troubles with this at all, and Richard looked at how Sniffy handled this steep slope. She had no great physical body and had just trained her endurance a bit.
Each day when Richard did his morning run, she would now also join him and they both found some enjoyment in this. Therefore, she had no trouble walking for this long while adventuring. Every other normal person would have long since been out of breath and needed a break.
Seeing that Sniffy had no troubles going down the slope, it stunned him when he saw this and asked her in his curiosity. "Oy Sniffy, how are you able to move down with no troubles at all? Even I need to concentrate to not roll down?"
Sniffy turned her head to Richard and was startled by his sudden question. She did not even notice the slope at all, because she focused herself on a tiny bat flying around them. Nobody other than her seemed to notice it and she found it quite cute, therefore she was being surprised when she heard Richard talk to her while she thought.
'Oh right, we are moving downwards. It seems I lost myself a bit there, but my affinity with earth magic around me seems to help me out a lot. I have no troubles at all, but I should not say that I lost track of my movements and was looking at the cute bat for the whole time. That would be too embarrassing,'
She replied with a confident look on her face and told Richard. "I get along really well with earth magic, since a few days ago and that helps me a lot in here."
Her statement confused the others, except for Richard and Kyle, and could not understand one bit of it and shrugged it off. They thought it should be childish talk, but were being confused at how easily she and Richard handled this downward slope.
Richard smiled at her improvement with earth magic and said back with a boring face at nothing exciting happening in this mountain cave. "That's good to see that you are improving so much. We can only hope that something exciting will happen soon. It is rather boring in here."
Hearing this, Kyle replied after he saw that Sniffy seemed to not have any trouble descending this downward path. It was littered with stones and rocks all the way, with some having sharp edges that would directly slice every foot that would step on them.
He needed to concentrate on not taking the wrong step and falling. He was happy for his friend, but also a little jealous at how easily she could get down.
"It's good that you have no trouble on this steep path. But for how long will we have to go down?"
"Click"
Kyle asked and in the same moment when he finished his talk, he felt a stone he stepped on was sinking into the floor. After that, he heard a quiet clicking sound and was shocked by it.
"I just stepped on something. I guess it is some kind of trap."
He said this and everyone came to a stop. Suddenly, the earth shook and a loud rumbling sound came into existence.
'That feels like the old rolling stone trap. I hope I am not right.' Richard was thinking. After he heard what Kyle said. But at the moment they could hear the rumbling sound, he turned his head and cursed at his thoughts.
Richard focused magic inside his eyes, and his view became a lot clearer. He could now see in the darkness. He looked up the pathway which they came down from and found that his fears had come true. There was a giant stone rolling down and all of them would be dead for sure if it would hit them.
"Ruuuuunnnnnn, everyone." He shouted. Scooped Sniffy up in a princess carry, and sprinted forward with all his might.
Not knowing what was happening, because they could see nothing behind them and only had a bad feeling. But after hearing Richard's warning and trusting him, Kyle sprinted ahead alongside Richard.
Kellam could only curse the kids for running ahead and could do nothing but follow them. After a few more moments, he thought. 'How troublesome. We could have just destroyed the stone. With our strength, it would not have been any trouble at all, but now I have to play babysitter for these kids. I cannot lose sight of Kyle and his little friends.'
At the moment Rodolfo turned his head to see the giant stone roll down, he got a bizarre feeling of dread and wanted to shout to the guards to run downwards, but he was too late.
Because they stopped a second ago when they heard Kyle. They were almost all grouped up. Only the guard in the back was some distance away, and Rodolfo could not shout a command or warning to the guard at the back in time.
All he saw was the guard taking a fighting stance and was storing up power to smash the stone into bits and pieces.
"Baaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnng"
The stone reached him and he let loose the strongest punch that he could, but he was underestimating the rolling stone in this unknown place and was smashed into bits at the next moment.
Rodolfo looked at the sight of this and cursed their bad luck and Richard's words for wanting this adventure to be more exciting. He turned into a blur and was following the others.
Back at the front, Richard carried Sniffy and ran alongside Kyle. They were running at full speed to gain distance from the rolling death. Richard knew they were too weak to do anything about it and his flight instinct took charge the second he saw the rolling death coming down to hurl them into their next life.
They were now ahead of the rest. Since they used all their physical prowess to stay away from the rolling stone. They felt the rumbling of the earth getting closer each second and he knew they would be no getting away in this way.
Out of any other options, besides running away, they kept searching for other ways out of this demise. They were now drenched in a cold sweat that was running down at the backs of Kyle and Richard.
Sniffy was having no such troubles and was in her little world at this moment. She could only think of the warmth that she felt in the arms of Richard and was hiding her bashful face in Richard's clothes.
'What can we do? We are too weak to outrun this stone. With the speed we are running away, we should have no trouble outrunning the stone at all, but it is closing in on us every second.'
Out of any ideas on how they could survive this, he shouted to his friends while he was completely anxious.
"Has anyone of you any idea to get away from the rolling stone?"
Hearing his fearful tone and realizing that they were now in deep trouble, Sniffy came out of her head and felt something.
In the last few weeks, she was training her affinity with nature and any spells related to this. She had found out that she could now feel earth magic particles, even without entering a meditative state. But she needed to focus her mind to feel them.
Sniffy instantly knew what bothered her since entering the cave-like pathway. She felt like she did at home in the forest. She felt for this down here and was therefore daydreaming and looking at the bat for most of the time. The feeling of being at ease. Encased her the whole being, and she now realized why she felt like this.
It was magic, or to be exact, earth magic. It was everywhere in this pathway and it got stronger on the way down. Only now did she realize this and concentrate on it to feel it more in-depth.
The whole pathway they were running through was full of these magic particles. After feeling the surrounding magic, she found out what could help them out of this misery.
At the moment, they got around a curve, and Kellam lost his sight of them.
She then shouted at Kyle and Richard. "I have found something. Turn right when I say it."
Hearing this and feeling the assuredness in her tone helped them calm down a lot. Kyle and Richard were trusting her with no second thoughts and waited for her signal.
Feeling all the earth magic make a turn ahead of them, right inside the wall, and Sniffy could instinctively feel how to open the wall.
"Now," she screamed when they were in the right place and she used her magic to put it inside a particular part of the wall.
Richard and Kyle turned their feet at the exact moment Sniffy shouted and felt like they would collide with the wall in the next moment. But that did not happen, and the three of them sprinted right through it.
Right after they vanished through the wall, Kellam sprinted around the curve and was being stunned since he could no longer see the three kids. He scanned every nook and cranny but could find nothing and kept running ahead.
The three kids were coming to a stop and turning their heads to look back. All they could see was a wall behind them. They stood there for a few moments and Sniffy thought she had to say something after they were out of danger.
She said then in a silent and embarrassed voice to Richard. "Äähm, can you put me down now?
Richard snapped out of his stupor and put Sniffy back on the floor.
Realizing that Sniffy had rescued them from their deaths, both Kyle and Richard took her into a hug and shouted. "Thanks, Sniffy, that was amazing. How did you know that there was a hidden place inside this wall?"
Sniffy then explained what had happened and she could feel the magic that was flowing to this place and that she instinctively knew how to open the wall.
This stunned Richard and Kyle, and they were happy for her to have such an ability. Even Richard could only feel the surrounding magic when he entered a meditative state and could not do so in such a dangerous situation. At least not for the moment.
Richard was being lost in thought and Kyle got back to the wall and tested if he could get through again. But all he could feel was the cold stone wall and nothing else. He asked Sniffy in a concerned tone while he thought about his dad and uncle.
„Sniffy, can you open up the wall for the others?"
Hearing this, Sniffy then concentrated on the magic around her once more and then shook her head.
"Sorry, that seems to be one-way and I cannot open it up from this side of the wall. Also, it would have been too late.
Hearing the rumbling sound pass by them on the other side of the wall and move downwards at a speed they could not even follow anymore. It was just passing by on the other side of the wall in one moment and the next it was far away.
The trio could only shiver at the speed of the stone, and they were quite happy to have been able to get away from it. They were sure that they would not have been able to outrun it at this speed.
Richard then saw the downcast look on Kyle's face and encouraged him.
"Don't look so sad. The others will be fine. I am sure of that. You should know how strong they are. I think they should at least be able to outrun this little thing. We will just have to find them again, that's all.
So, where are we?"
At this question, they all turned their heads and looked ahead and were being stunned at the sight they found around them.
They looked at the biggest cave they had ever seen, and it looked like a castle could be stored inside it with no problems at all. It formed the cave in the shape of a pentagram, and on each starting point of the pentagram was a platform. The three currently stood on one of these platforms, and it was a curious place.
Under each platform could be viewed another strange sight. Under the first platform was a place full of lava, which extended till the middle of the room, but got thinner and more concentrated as it reached the center of the cave.
In the beginning, the lava was more outspread and in concentrated patches here and there, but the nearer it got towards the middle of the cave, the more lava appeared.
Until it was a line of lava that got thinner but hotter the closer to the middle it got. The air seemed to distort there, because of the great heat at the end of the line.
On the other side was the same thing happening, but with water, at first were only a few patches of water. But they formed into a stream and it changed along the way into a river. Not in size, but intensity, near the middle of the cave. It was flowing so fast that it looked like nothing could ever stop it.
Under the third platform was the same thing happening, but with air, some whirlwinds were floating around the beginning. In the end, they turned into a full-fledged tornado. The air seemed to rage and built storm clouds. Some lightning was raging down occasionally.
Looking down their platform, they could see a stretch full of life. Trees, grass, and flowers were everywhere. The further the path of life got from the platform, the bigger these grew. In the end, all they could see was a giant jungle.
The only thing that surprised them was the 5th corner of the pentagram. It looked like nothing was going on there and it consisted only of rocks and stones. The thing which seemed odd though was that on all the other sides of the distinct elements, fighting between themselves. The lava tried to eat away at the water, and the water tried to exterminate the air and so on.
But when they were looking at the 5th side of the cave, they saw nothing like that. There was only a distinct line to the next 2 sides. It looked like whatever was down there was claiming its own space and let nothing interfere with it.
Everywhere else, the lines had divided into fights between the elements, but on the two borders at the fifth side was found nothing like that. Only calmness reigned there.
The trio stood there stunned at this sight and was looking down at this crazy spectacle. They realized they were good 50 meters above the floor. The view of the stark contrast between each side awed them and they were looking confused at the fifth side. But got over it soon and looked with marvel in their eyes at the rest of the cave.
After they had seen enough and got their bearings back together, they spoke with each other.
"Such a strange cave. I have seen nothing like this in my whole life or read about any of the happenings here." Said Kyle and looked for answers at Richard, who seemed to know many things and hoped that he could explain what was going on.
Richard thought for a bit, after hearing what Kyle said, and asked Sniffy. "Sniffy, can you tell me what you feel with your magic sense?"
Concentrating on the feeling of magic, she explained what she felt. "It feels like there are 5 different magical particles flowing from every platform down into the cave. I can feel the fire, water, air, and earth, but don't recognize the 5th one."
"Then it is as I thought. From the looks of it, it is likely that this is some kind of natural formation or an array built for something. It uses the 4 elements and one another that I do not know of, and uses it for some unknown purpose. It's also my first time coming into contact with something like this. I suspected something like this when I felt a magical line around the mountain, but seeing this, we need to be more careful from now on.
We have underestimated this place. We can consider ourselves lucky that we only found one trap so far. I guess when this place hides such a big secret, there should be much more traps placed around this place to protect its secrets.
However, if this much magic gathers inside here, then there is a much better chance of finding the plant we are looking for. Such plants should thrive in places like this.
The only thing we can now do is to get down from here and follow the pathway into the middle. Hoping we will find the plant for you. After that, we should search for a way to find your dad and along with the rest."
Hearing the reasoning of Richard and understanding that they had not much of a choice if they did not want to stay on this platform forever. They followed Richard's plan and were getting ready to descend downwards.