The Gospelion of Barathrum

"Fair headed like a sage, towering like a giant, and with the countenance of an archmage", said the tiny boss, whose name was Mavros, "Those are the signs of the prophet passed on by our ancestors."

I looked between Claire and Sight who, on that account, looked the same. Although Claire wasn't as tall and Sight didn't exactly have the right face.

"I, as the sole heir of the tribe was destined to marry the prophet as was instructed by our dear forefathers. Only a child born of both bloods could activate The Gospelion and save the world."

If I didn't know better, I would have believed her story.

"However, ", she said authoritatively, "I seem to have given my heart to the wrong man. Oh, but it can't be helped."

She snuggled close to Sight while calling him the wrong man. Sight chuckled, cluelessly.

"I see. But how is The Gospelion to be activated now?", unlike me, Claire seemed to be buying her story.

"Nothing to fret about! If both of us spill our blood onto the great Gospelion, our voice shall reach it."

I wondered if this Gospelion was a god or something. Soon enough, we were escorted to the right place. We had to climb a rocky mountain. The Gospelion was a monument, located inside a cave. The barbarians seem to think it an altar. I wonder which god they were reaching out to, considering they were proud thieves.

Lubbock was still out of it, seeing as his adventure was shattered by common sense. I had to drag him with me since Sight was too occupied with Mavros.

"Should we go with you?", I asked as we all stood at the mouth of the cave. Mavros's thugs hadn't followed us up the mountain.

"Only I, the priestess, and the prophet shall touch The Gospelion. But since you are his dear companions, I shall allow you to watch the ceremony from a distance."

Thus we were allowed to enter. Soon, we were standing in front of a stone pillar with a strange engraving on it. A single huge gemstone etched at the top, glimmered in the dark cave. It was a strange color, like that of blood. In fact, the longer I stared at it, it seemed blood was pulsing through it. It gave me a weird feeling, like I couldn't avert my eyes from it.

When Claire and Mavros had gone near the pedestal, Sight pulled my arm.

"Don't look too hard at it, boy", he whispered.

"When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you", said Claire, overhearing him.

I averted my eyes, looking at Claire instead.

"The Gospelion of Barathrum was erected by Triglav", said Claire, standing next to it, "This is the last connection left on Earth, between the underworld, the Earth and the heaven."

"What? So you're really trying to reach some god with it?", suddenly Mavros's words sounded true.

"Ahaha, no, I'm not a prophet, as you know. But there are incantations that let you see beyond what can be seen by our magic. The whole universe, above and below. I will find the source of the red sky. I just hope my hunch isn't right about this."

I didn't know what his hunch was but I didn't ask because Mavros and Claire began performing the incantation. They slashed their palms and poured their blood over the glowing stone. I wonder if it wasn't unnecessary since it didn't seem to have an effect. I think Claire was just playing along with Mavros. Mavros finished her incantation sooner than Claire. Claire then placed his hand over the gemstone and began a different spell.

"Nuit...Helios...Luna...Amaterasu...Houtu...Ki...Akka...Persephone...Gonggong...", his expression changed, seeing no change in the stone. He slowed down and mustered some courage, bearing a tense face as he continued.

"Osiris...", there was a fluctuation in the glow, his expression darkened, "Veles...Mannanan...Hel...Thanatos...Izanami...Ereshkigal."

The stone glowed every time he said any of those words. His eyes went blank and I could tell Claire's hunch that he didn't want to come right had come right.

"...Hades", he finally said before closing his eyes. The stone lit up the entire cave, bringing in view a most hideous picture etched on the back wall of the cave for a brief moment.

We had to shield our eyes from the light but it only lasted a few moments. When we opened our eyes, Claire was leaning against the pedestal, gazing into the stone as he trembled and sweat rolled down his face. The stone was back to normal now.

Lubbock, who had come to his senses, went over to retrieve Claire.

We all went outside of the cave and settled Claire down. He seemed to be all out of energy. That spell wasn't something anyone could pull off and he'd managed to do it perfectly. But even so, he seemed dejected.

"It is as I feared", he spoke, "A god of death. And one no one knows of. The calamity is close. I don't know if there is any power that can prevent it. Not even all of Norn mages can avert the will of a god."

"A god?", I muttered to myself.

"What did we do?", Lubbock asked, "Is this god mad or what?"

"The whims of a god and such a careless one at that, how could we know what brought this on? That is why I say, not even all of Norn can prevent this mischief."

I wasn't much of a believer but in our world a god was different from The God. What that meant was that even us humans could go against a god in a fight. A god was bound by certain laws, they weren't infinite. These rules weren't known to many but there sure was something in place. There had been stories of humans battling and going to war against these gods.

While there was nothing solid to go on, it still meant that we weren't completely lost yet. At the very least, we knew gods had human form. In many ways, they were like us. That made me think that all hope wasn't lost yet. And last but not least, the thought of Lucifer came to mind. He was a god too. I may have faced the most humiliating defeat at his hands, but still I was standing right here. Regardless of the circumstances, it meant death wasn't the only possible outcome.

The real problem might have been the fact that we didn't know who this god was. A god of death, sure. But those were the types no one even liked to talk about. Without a lead, there was a chance we'd be too late in finding him and whatever calamity it was that was right around the corner would hit us first.

Incidentally, there was someone who may have had an idea of who this god of death was. The one man we could always count on when it came to knowing things. As it happens, all three of us were thinking the same thing.

"Hey", Lubbock said.

"Let us head home, boys", said Sight.

"Yeah", I nodded, "I hope Chopper-san's home."