The Search for Knowledge - Chapter 15

Kara activated her intelligence power and set to work trying to decipher the writing. She knew the shackles had the same form of runic as the walls and floors. So she started studying the chains first, so that she would not have to wander all around the room. She sat on the ground, taking the chains in hand, then began to study them closely. The shackles were cold to the touch, almost unnaturally so, as well as very heavy in her hands. Extremely well made, even without any fancy designs she could tell that a master craftsman had forged them. As for the seal itself, at this early stage she could only tell that the number of magics involved in the sealing was higher than six. That information alone was enough to tell her that this was going to take a long time.

"Rox, you spent a lot of time here, right? Did you ever try to decipher this?" She asked, taking a shot in the dark. Kara did not think Rox would have the capacity to decipher something like this normally, but he did spend a thousand years here, plenty of time to do it even with minimal related skills. Besides, the man was constantly surprising her anyway, no reason to doubt him this far into the adventure.

He turned away from the entrance to look at her before responding, "Of course I have. I entirely deciphered it around two hundred years in, or so. It would have been weird if I didn't, right?" His tone suggesting that what he said was the most obvious thing in the world, to him at least.

Kara took a deep breath, then let it out. She replied to him while reminding herself not to get angry, her words spoken in a controlled manner. "Then please enlighten me, Rox. There's no reason for me to sit here for hours on end if you already know the answer."

"Oh, but Kara," He started with a teasing tone already apparent in his voice, "This is your quest, not mine. Besides, didn't you say you wanted to increase your intelligence ability by doing this? Truly the honorable endeavor, I wish you luck." His wide smile felt like it was suggesting she could not do it, which only made her angrier.

She ground her teeth and decided to not respond, her face reddening in frustration as she went back to work trying to figure out the runic writing's meaning. Her mood being darkened so close to one of her goals did not help her think, even with her ability, but she still tried to make some progress. While focusing, her mood steadily improved again and she became completely immersed in her work.

As Kara became enamored with her work, Rox began to wander around the room. Following the runic writings along the wall, reading them to himself. Memories began to flood back of his time here, of a time where everything was dark and was a blur in his head.

For thy sins of destroying our brethren and the arrogance of opposing us, these four walls shall hold thee mind captive. Within this seal, thy mind will be gone to wander in the purgatory of the void, unless a mortal enters these chambers. Suffer during your sentence, cursed Aetherous, Nihil.

Anyone would feel bad for the poor sap who was sealed here after reading something like that. The last time the Aetherous clashed with the gods, they were sealed in various places as a punishment in locations where it was difficult for life to find a way to go free them. Luckily the one who had been imprisoned here had gotten help. However, the chains told another part of the story.

For the traitorous actions of the Aetherous known as Nihil, we have worked with the gods to create two seals and he shall be sentenced to be sealed in this spot for all eternity with only one exception. To be released, he must understand the gravity of his sin as well as his curse. Aetherous to Aetherous, how could you have done this to us? We thought we were friends, nay, closer than that, family. Stay here, for your sake and ours.

The writing on the chains seemed to tell a different side of the story, seemingly from one or all of the Aetherous' points of view. That this Nihil had somehow betrayed them to the point that the two enemies had worked together to put both of these seals in place.

When he had finished re-deciphering all of the runic writing for the walls and chains, he pulled a magic tool from his cloak. A small pocket watch that told the time and was powered by mana in the atmosphere. The same way someone who used magic would use it normally, but automated. Glancing at the watch face he saw that a surprising amount of time had passed, it had already been four hours since they had entered the room. It had not felt like that long at all. A pain shot up his arm as he thought to go check on her progress, reminding him that he had an injury from the giant and had to be careful. He did not want her to know he'd gotten hurt protecting her, not yet.

Kara stood up suddenly, the chains of the shackles clattering to the floor. She turned to face him with an excited look on her face, "I did it, Rox! I cracked the code!" She said like an excited child. He could not help but be surprised, what took him years to do took her a mere few hours. A level four intelligence ability was not to be underestimated.

"My ability leveled up just by cracking the code, then again when I finished reading it! I now have an intelligence level of six, the first person in over eight hundred years to accomplish such a thing." She compliments herself, reminding Rox that she was still an arrogant person. That said, it was certainly a monumental feat, so he could not exactly put her down from it. "Anyway, that's not important. What's important is what I've discovered. The Aetherous aren't just as powerful as the seven mediator gods, they are the seven mediator gods! This is incredible! Did you know this the entire time and never told me?" She continued while still being excited, questioning him afterward.

Rox mulled it over for a moment, trying to decide whether to tell her or not. "Yes, I knew. However, what was the point in telling you? You would not have believed me if you didn't find out for yourself. When you asked me earlier, if I told you, you would have just set to work deciphering it anyway to prove I was messing with you."

She blushed, every word he said was entirely true. "No, I wouldn't have!" She denied, doing her best not to stutter her words. "You're my companion and I trust what you say!"

He raised an eyebrow at her and she averted her eyes, refusing to admit he was right. Rox shrugged his shoulders, deciding to drop the subject, "Anyway princess, if you're so great at deciphering things now, then you should have no problems reading the other seal."

"Yeah, watch me!" The girl responded, instantly recovering from her embarrassment and setting herself to the new task.

With her new level she should be able to read through everything in less than twenty minutes, so he decided to sit himself down in the northwest corner of the room, opposite of the stairway entrance. He put his arms in his lap in such a way that it would not cause him pain, or at least not as much, and decided to watch the girl go about her business.

Rox had been right in thinking that it would not take her very long to get through the reading the runic. With her ability active, she seemed to almost be running to follow the writing on the walls in an attempt to keep up with her own comprehension speed. While she ran, her mind began to connect dots. She figured things out that she was not even thinking about, they just popped into her head along with the new information. Some simple things, like difficult magic concepts she could not grasp before. Other things far less simple, something about Rox. Something about him just did not seem to add up. He left too much information out, avoided topics that most people would have no issue with, and never talked about himself if he could avoid it. Everytime he had spoken about himself it had been a begrudging interrogation session due to some kind of circumstance after he had done something outrageous, or when he first joined.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she was on the verge of figuring it out, however, as she finished reading the runes along the walls. The moment that she had finished, she felt like she had finally stumbled on a huge clue for both of her research topics simultaneously. "Nihil?" She said to no one in particular. Nihil, one of the seven mediator gods and Aetherous, had been kept here. It seemed like the next step would be to go to a different Aetherous sealing ground, or to hunt Nihil down.

However, Rox in his dozing state, did not realize this. He woke with a start at Kara's inquiring voice and responded, "Yes?"

The room, which had already been silent, was now even more so. They both locked eyes and Kara's brain, with assistance from her ability, had arrived at the final piece to the puzzle. This was the answer the whole time. In any other scenario, to any other person, without the intelligence ability active, it would have been a meaningless reply. However, Kara was the one who heard, while her ability was active, while she was trying to figure things out. She knew. She knew that it had been no simple fumble, Rox was Nihil.

This Aetherous, this God, then stood up while maintaining eye contact with her and spoke. "I screwed up, didn't I?" He said with a defeated tone. Like he had just been seen slipping on the peel of a banana and had given up on trying to seem like it was on purpose.

After she had deactivated her intelligence ability, Kara's breath caught in her throat. She did not know what to say. Here in front of her was one of the beings that she was doing research on, in the flesh, and he had been next to her all along. It was entirely lost on her that he had just exposed himself in one of the dumbest ways possible, she was too distracted by the revelation. Good gods, she had even thought herself above him for most of their journey. What an embarrassing thought, that she had thought herself greater than one of the gods who had started one of the seven families, and had even slain gods by himself. What arrogance she had shown to this being.

Rox sighed as if dropping a weight he had held for thousands of years. Then removed his cloak and tossed it to the ground, showing his annihilated arm. It barely looked like an arm anymore, being mangled and twisted from being hit with the full force of a giant's strength. It was bleeding from several places, and incredibly bruised. The makeshift wraps he had made from the bottom of his cloak seemed to only barely be stopping the blood from flowing freely. The most noticeable thing, however, was that his blood was an electric blue. It seemed to be pulsing between a vibrant and a dull version of the color, as if the blood itself were alive.

Just as Feera's intel had stated, Aetherous blood was blue. Before Kara could recover from her revelation, and this new sight. Rox drew his sword, the one she had never seen him use. It had a blue and a red side to the blade. She took up a defensive stance, expecting him to attempt to strike her down now that she knew his secret, but instead, he turned the red side inwards and cut along the length of his own injured arm.

Surprise now too simple of a word to describe how she was feeling, it felt like far too weak of a word at this point. Rox sheathed his sword, then immediately fell to the ground and began screaming in agony. A simple cut along his arm could not have caused such intense pain, even on an arm that was already mangled beyond even high-tier healing magic.

Seeing this scene unfold before her she immediately began to focus on using healing magic on him, however, before she cast it she noticed that his arm was healing. It seemed to be reversing the injury to the point right before it had been destroyed, in fact. The pain that Rox was now feeling was more than likely the effect of having his entire arm forcefully shift each and every part back into place while simultaneously fixing the places that were damaged.

After nearly ten minutes of Rox rolling on the cold ground while screeching in pain, he finally calmed down. Clutching his now-healed arm, he slowly stood up and faced Kara once more. He was panting as if he had just run multiple kilometers. After a few moments his breathing slowed and gradually returned to normal, he then spoke to her.

"So, Princess. You know. What now?" He said, melancholy thick in his voice.

Kara put her hands on her hips and confronted him with, possibly, the greatest question on her mind. The question she had wanted to know since, possibly, she had met him.

"What in the hell?!" Kara yelled.