Open Up

"So you let him go?"

"There was a demon." Roko shrugged, "I had no choice."

"I mean, I get that but..." Lavinia sighed, "What are you going to do now? You're going to run into them again and you're on your own this time."

"Thankfully, I managed to scan them before they disappeared."

"Yeah, I still don't really get how that spell works." Lavinia raised an eyebrow, "But you know there's an army there too right? You don't look like you have an army with you."

"I was hoping for some help on that."

"Don't look at me. I don't know any spells."

"You're studying magic but you don't know any spells?"

"Theorimari. And yes, I don't. I want their worldly knowledge, not some words I can't even use."

"Well, you aren't the first person studying magic...al fields who doesn't know any magic."

"I'm not?" Lavinia frowned, "That's weird. Who is that? How do you study magic without learning any spells?"

"I don't think you're one to talk." Roko sighed as he stood up, "In any case, it's about time we head to this on field research camp you've talked about."

"Sure." Lavinia said as she put down her book and stood up, "Just let me know how you plan on getting to the other side now that you've collapsed the bridge."

"Give me your hand."

Roko walked over to the spatial seal that he had placed on the wall of their research facility. After securing his bracelet, Roko took Lavinia by the hand and walked towards it, allowing the space to warp around them until they appeared on the sewer path again. This time, they were on the other side of the facility, with their only path forward leading deeper into the sewers.

"Good thing I placed one here earlier." Roko said as he let go of Lavinia's hand, "Their camp should be deeper in right?"

"Yep." Lavinia replied as she looked around, "It's a good ways in so get ready for a bit of a walk."

"That's what I've been doing."

"Still, spatial magic sure is handy." Lavinia said as she studied the seal on the wall, "Now if anybody ends up chasing us, we can escape back to the facility safely. Without a bridge, they won't be able to get to us at all."

"They can still rip off the seal so let's try not to do that too much." Roko warned, "Now, let's get going."

Lavinia led Roko through the depths of the sewer. Though after a while, Roko began to suspect they had left the sewer behind and entered some sort of catacombs. The tunnels were still cramped but the air was less damp and the smell was less noticeable. Soon the tunnel opened up into a sizable cavern that held the remnants of what looked like buildings that had been buried by the earth underneath the city.

"This way." Lavinia pointed to one of the more intact buildings, "This entire place used to be part of the city. These buildings are ruined for the most part except for this one."

"Corissa told me about a war that sunk part of the city." Roko said as he continued to follow Lavinia, "Is this part of that?"

"I'm still surprised you can just refer to the princess of Cordis by name." Lavinia frowned, "But yeah. I mean probably. History wasn't my field of study."

The pair walked into one of the buildings, entering a large open hallway. Larger than what the building itself could have ever indicated with no ceiling in sight, the walls stretching upwards into an endless void. Likewise, darkness stretched in front of them with nothing in sight to travel to, the only lights coming from a few torches set upon pillars near the entrance.

"This doesn't seem physically possible." Roko frowned.

"Remember that illusion I told you about?" Lavinia said as she looked into the endless darkness in front of them, "This is it. There's a path forward but without knowing how it works you'll just travel endlessly in the dark."

"You said you know how to get past it?" Roko said as he retrieved two torches from his backpack and used one of the fires on the wall to light them.

"Yeah." Lavinia replied as she took the torch that Roko handed her, "There's a button on both of the pillars there."

Following Lavinia's direction, Roko walked over to the pillar that she had indicated and found nothing that looked especially button-like. Turning to check on Lavinia for a moment, he watched as she pushed in one of the bricks in the pillar. Turning back to his own pillar, Roko reached for the brick directly in front of him and to his surprise, pushed the button on his first try. A small stone panel rose out of the ground in front of the path forward. Moving to the panel itself, the device was embedded with a large gem. Magical displays floated over the gem, completely baffling Roko. Lavinia strolled up to it and handed Roko her torch as she manipulated the displays, creating a light far off into the darkness that illuminated a stone door.

"There we go." Lavinia nodded, "That's our exit."

"Good going."

"Just be prepared for what comes next." Lavinia said as she took her torch back.

The two moved forward into the darkness, the light from their torches barely illuminating the ground beneath their feet. It was too dark to see if there were any other structures in the darkness. No pillars or walls to mount any source of light on. The only thing they could see was the door in the distance. Roko waved his torch around, trying to see if he could light up anything else hidden in the dark. As it stood, anything could attack them from the darkness. If there was a hole or some sort of large debris on the ground, they wouldn't have enough time to see it before hitting it. Still, Lavinia strolled through the darkness confidently so the likelihood of something like that was probably low. Looking forward again, Roko could still see the lit door in front of them, though it was still as distant as it was before.

"Is it just me or are we not moving forward at all?" Roko frowned.

"I was hoping you wouldn't notice that." Lavinia winced, "Yeah, it seems we're not making progress."

"What do we do now then?"

"I guess...we go back?"

Turning around, Roko could see the lights surrounding the entrance not far from them. Thankfully, they were able to make their way back to the chamber's entrance without trouble.

"Okay." Lavinia sighed, "So this was a bit more complicated than I expected."

"You have an idea then?"

"Nope. None at all." Lavinia bit her lip, "This was what they always did so I figured it'd work this time."

"Was there anything else they did?"

"Not that I can remember."

"Well for now, we can just check our surroundings. Make sure there isn't anything we missed."

"Alright."

Roko and Lavinia split up to explore separate sides of the room. Roko looked over the pillar, poking at the bricks to see if there were any switches he missed but none appeared. He then moved over to the walls of the chamber which seemed to have been carved with an intricate mural that disappeared into the darkness before Roko could make any sense of it.

"What are we looking for?" Lavinia called.

"You're asking me that?" Roko scoffed, "I have no idea. Maybe the mural can be a hint if we can analyze-"

Roko stopped and let out a sharp cry of pain as his mind was suddenly filled with information. Information that was completely different than what he got from his usual Scan spell and that quickly disappeared from his mind without a trace.

"What's going on?" Lavinia looked over, perplexed, "Did you see something?"

"I...I think so?" Roko gulped as he held his head, "Have I ever said that word before?"

"What word?"

"Analyze."

The information appeared in his mind once more, but this time his mind was prepared enough to parse it out.

"What is this?" Roko frowned, "Health? Mana? Attack and defense?"

"What's going on?" Lavinia asked as she walked over to him.

"I think I learned a new spell." Roko replied as he turned to face her.

"Wait really? What is it?"

"Analyze."

To his surprise, the information suddenly changed as the spell focused itself on Lavinia, "Interesting."

"What? What do you see?"

"Lavinia Vincenza

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Attack: 10

Defense: 20."

"What does that mean?"

"Well I'm going to hazard a guess and say that if your Health falls to 0% you will die. And if your MP also hits 0% you won't be able to cast spells. Or you could die. Depends on the metric."

"O...kay? Anything else?"

" 'A Theorimartist with no combat experience. Not particularly strong, fast or dexterous and equipped with simple clothes that provide no protection. Perfectly healthy but with no training to overcome her weaknesses. Unarmed.' "

"Okay, what was that?"

"Seems I get a small blurb about you." Roko smirked, "Though it only seems to consider your combat abilities."

"Well I can't say it's not unfair." Lavinia sighed, "Like I said, don't go expecting much from me."

"Still, we should at least give you something." Roko nodded, "I know. I have this magic staff that one of these Red Wind mages dropped. Maybe it's enchanted or something?"

"Let me see that." Lavinia said as Roko handed her the staff, "I know a bit of archeomancy. I can find out what kind of enchantments this thing has."

"I don't know what that means but alright." Roko shrugged as he turned back to the wall, "Now...if I wasn't mistaken, this spell activated here as well. Analyze."

Illusory Wall

Health: 30%

Mana: N/A

Attack: 0

Defense: 100

The wall of an underground chamber that has been overlaid with an illusion that prevents any attempt to enter further. Murals of an afterlife are carved over the length of the wall though much of it lies obscured.

"Hm. An afterlife huh?"

"What do you actually believe that exists?" Lavinia asked, not looking up from studying the staff.

"Do you not?"

"I don't really care."

"Me neither. But it seems like the mural was about an afterlife."

"How do you know that?"

"Spell."

"That new one?"

"Yep."

"Does it tell you anything about a switch or something? Something that can turn off the illusory barrier?"

"Nothing quite like that." Roko said as he raised his torch to study the mural closer. Starting from the wall that they entered from, the carvings began with seeds that grew into trees. Along the way, humans appeared, walking forward as they aged along with the tree. Soon the humans in the mural collapse and their spirit drift upwards into a reaper like figure who continued forward while carrying...something. The darkness of the illusion covered up the rest of the mural and even bringing his torch right up to the wall didn't help much. The darkness just seemed to overtake the light from the torch in an unnatural manner. Roko squinted his eyes as he tried to make out what was in the reaper figure's hands and…

"Wait." Roko frowned as he thought he saw something in the darkness.

"What is it?" Lavinia asked, looking up from the staff.

"The mural depicts the afterlife." Roko muttered to himself as he walked up to the panel hurriedly, "Then if what I saw was correct..."

Roko takes out his dagger and slid in into the tiny gap between the panel and the gem that was on it. With great difficulty, Roko managed to pry the gem off the panel and into his hand. Once he did, the light around the entrance completely disappeared, plunging the two intruders in pitch black darkness.

"Roko?!" Lavinia's voice echoed out from the dark, "Where are you?!"

"I'm here." Roko called back, "I've got the gem."

"Are you sure you're supposed to do that?"

"The mural depicts a reaper like figure guiding the souls of the dead forward with a gem like this in his hands." Roko explained, "Therefore, the only path forward is if you have this gem. Look."

Off in the darkness, the only thing that had remained illuminated was the door forwards.

"It's a metaphor, I think. In the darkness of death, the only way is forward into the afterlife."

"Okay hold on."

A moment latter, Roko felt something whack his head, "Ow!"

"Wait, wait."

A hand suddenly clawed at Roko's face, "OW!"

"Sorry."

"You poked my eye!"

"Sorry! I can't see anything! I'm just glad I can still find you!"

Lavinia's hand moved downwards until it rested on Roko's shoulder, "Okay. We can move forward now."

"Was this really necessary?" Roko frowned.

"You're the one who said you needed the gem to move forward."

"Fine, fine." Roko grumbled as he moved forward.

The journey forward was an unsettling one. Roko had never been in anything quite as pitch black as this. Most humans probably hasn't. Looking down at his hands Roko couldn't see it at all, much less the gem that he desperately clutched on to. He continued forward with nervous trepidation. But it wasn't long until they reached the light coming from the exit. Finally able to see each other as well as themselves, Roko and Lavinia quickly rushed into the small corner of light and let out a breath that neither of them had known they were holding.

"Thank god." Lavinia cried, "That void was starting to scare me."

"Now we have to get this door open." Roko said as he passed his hands over the carvings of the door.

The door had carvings and paintings over it but in the middle of it was another large gem, larger than the one Roko had in his hands.

"Door is usually open." Lavinia said, "They are probably expecting us."

Roko passed the gem in his hand over the gem on the door and the door responded, its gem opening up and revealing a crevice. Roko slid the gem in his hand into the crevice and the door's gem closed around it. With a steady rumbling, the door slid downwards revealing a path forward, well lit with plenty of torches.

"Seem familiar?" Roko asked.

"Yep." Lavinia nodded, "From now on, it's the real deal."