Keys to Answers

"Agh!" Zenon stumbled backward, falling on his back.

His ears were ringing with such intensity he lost all kinds of contact with the real world for some seconds. Clutching his head with both hands, Zenon tried to muffle the next scream tingling his throat.

The massive headache he was going through was slowly becoming weaker, and the ringing in his ears was disappearing as well. Though this time his vision was starting to cloud.

"Hey, hey! You alright?!" Aurea summoned Phoenix, who quickly began treating Zenon's entire body in search of something out of the norm.

Still hyperventilating, Zenon noticed a certain metallic taste touching his tongue. Cleaning his mouth, he was shocked by the amount of blood drenching his palm.

His nose was bleeding like crazy.

'Fucking hell! Why is my head… agh, it hurts!'

Leviathan transformed yet again, crawling toward the boy.

*Slap!*

He then used his tail to slap Zenon as hard as he could in the cheek.

After receiving the first wave of pain, Zenon's mind became more aware and ignored the headache.

"Hey! You could've waited! I was recovering!" He shouted at Leviathan.

He tried to stand up - helped by Aurea - but a trace of dizziness was still traveling around his head, making him sit down.

Aurea kneeled beside Zenon and said,

"What happened? Phoenix hasn't found anything out of the usual inside you."

"How long…" Zenon took a deep breath, "How long was I asleep?"

Aurea blinked, "Asleep? You… just touched the ashes and began nose-bleeding. Did you see something?"

Zenon looked at Aurea dumbfounded before realizing what this meant. Seems like time inside a memory goes way faster than the real word, so it's instantaneous for an outsider.

He sighed while clutching his head and said,

"I saw some serious shit there… perhaps I found answers as well."

Aurea remained quiet before sitting in front of Zenon. Of course, this was an invitation for him to tell what he saw. So naturally, he didn't hold back.

Everything he saw and heard. Everything about the Fire Keeper, the Prophet Kthali, Fire appearing inside this place… he told everything he saw.

Mainly because it could serve as serious help when they get out of the Fungal Caverns.

When he finished narrating, Aurea had her eyes wide open while writing everything inside her notebook. After five minutes of writing and asking questions, she closed it and said,

"So… an actual Prophet lived here? That's conquering the Third Layer. I wonder what their methods were to enhance their Soul as they said."

"I'm more interested in Fire appearing to kill a Void Carrier. Kthali said that what he was doing would have consequences… but so far, Fire has been ruling over the Void Carriers.

Well, ruling over is an understatement. Executing is a better way to describe it."

Aurea got up from the ground and looked at the metallic chair in the middle of the room. Then she pointed at it and said,

"And he died right here… and seems like he left something inside these ashes."

Zenon's eyes widened and - as if he never suffered from a headache before - got up to carefully look at the chair.

First of all, the void sphere disappeared. It all dispersed around the hidden house, leaving the metal chair now unprotected.

Second of all, there was indeed something hidden inside the ashes. Did Kthali eat something metallic that couldn't get melted even with Fire's flames? That looked… cheesy.

Aurea slowly leaned forward and touched the ashes. Not getting any backlash, she grabbed the entirety of them and pulled a solid object from the interior.

After cleaning it a bit, it was revealed to be a key.

"A key? What the hell is a key doing here?" Aurea muttered.

The key looked extremely old as well, similar to those rusty metallic pieces you'd find at the corner of the street. Nonetheless, it was extremely big since it had a hole that could fit his entire forearm up to the elbow.

After looking at it for a while Aurea said, "It's not responding to anything. Have you found any keyholes inside this place?"

"No, not a single hole suitable for a key. Not even a box or anything similar."

Zenon scratched his head before taking the key himself. It weighed more than he expected, making it shift a little bit forward.

The first thing he did, based on the nature of this hidden house, was to search for any trace of the void inside the key. As he expected, the key was flowing with void.

The old black and scratched key changed, giving way to a more violet and vivid key. Not only that, the void around the room slowly moved towards the key and created a straight line outside of the room.

"Found something… again."

Slowly walking outside, Zenon noticed how the void was forming a thick line that got to the end of the tunnel. They began following it, and it wasn't long until Zenon reached the destination.

He stopped right in front… of a wall.

"I don't think a wooden wall has a keyhole." Aurea mocked Zenon.

Instead, the boy was focused on the Runes written on said wall. How did he miss it the first time?

The void was extremely thin and transparent, meaning that unless you concentrated everything on the same spot, it'd remain invisible.

'Kthali sure was clever. What's so important anyways?'

The Runes were extremely simple, they simply said, "Closer."

So? Zenon did exactly what the Runes were telling him to do. He took a step forward and brought the key near the wall. After some seconds of inaction, the wall suddenly rumbled.

And a door opened.

Both Unseens remained still as well, looking at the door. Eventually, it opened completely and the key disappeared into ashes again, spreading all across the bedroom.

Zenon looked at Aurea and said, "You were right, the wooden wall didn't have a keyhole."

Aurea looked at him with an indifferent look before entering the hidden room inside the hidden house.

Surpringsily, some violet stones brightened the place up. At least they wouldn't search inside the darkness, unlike the past ten minutes.

It was an overall small room, not well decorated. For instance, everything was made out of rocks with some roots coming from the walls. And a certain object shined across the room.

On top of a rock, armor remained untouched. And in that same rock, a set of Runes was carved beside the armor, which Zenon didn't wait on reading,

"Master, I finally completed Wyvern's armor. If only you were here to appreciate it. Doppel."