The Last Names 2

"Contained...? They are very much so NOT contained... Hikari killed Boo, she's not too contained to me!" I shouted out, throwing the burnt cloth back down to the mural.

"Hey! Calm down, what about these other murals around? We saw Achamo, Danafall, Eternia, and Asterio, but those back there. Don't you see those?" Chi distracted me again and pointed to some other murals behind us, hiding in the darkness of the room where the sunlight could not reach.

"Leyndell," I mumbled walking past it. Chi picked up the note again and read it out loud.

"My people stand tall and proud, nursing this world back to health..." She mumbled, setting the note down with a disgusted face.

"But, why are they here, of all places? This is the middle of Ultima Tower, probably farther than anybody else could get... and why did Boo's Stone things lead us here? What's so important that we needed to see in this exact bunker or whatever the hell this is?" Asoh asked, looking back up toward the ceiling.

The trapdoor was gone.

"You two are the professionals. Are these all puzzles, or something?" I asked, but Asoh only shrugged.

"No idea, I've never been to this part before. I've only been to the parts where we can escape, and I've never seen this before. The one thing that bothers me, is that your name was on that sheet that Chi read earlier. Shike Asterio... you're related to Sky Asterio?" Asoh asked me. It did sound confusing, but I would have to explain.

"We aren't related at all, we just share the same last name. I couldn't even justify that explanation to you, but The Deity told us that we were all in this Guild thing back a while ago... and we all fell under the name Asterio. Sky Asterio is the only pure-blood Asterio I know of, so we're not related. My girlfriend, Belle Asterio, isn't related to me either, do you get it?" I asked her, but she shook her head.

"Not at all... but Chi-Chi might know of something. Why don't you tell them, since we have an Asterio among our ranks," Asoh said. Chi quickly followed up with her own last name, which happened to follow right behind Ultima's.

"It's Eternia... but as you said, I'm not related to her at all. She said I share the same blood, that's all. I don't put a lot of thought into it," Chi said, kind of distantly.

"Our last names don't matter, it's the people we are... that's why Sky tells us. I know you two probably don't believe me, and you might not until we bring you to him... but he is truly a good guy. Beyond all that blood he's shed, beyond that hatred he harbors... he would never let anything bad happen to us, and I can say that with full certainty," I told Chi and Asoh. I maintained eye contact for as long as necessary while doing so, just to help make what I was saying believable.

"You want us to go back with you to him?" Chi asked. She was surprised by that prompt only, not even doubting my messages.

"Of course I do. We're friends, and that's where you should be. Unless you want to stay in this hellhole with that red-haired devil," I said, pointing my eyes at a shrine called 'Love'.

"Boo, look at this. What does that remind you of?" I pointed. Her distant stare refocused on the 'Love' mural, and she sat down on the bench nearby to closely observe the small ring of weird letters.

"Home. Mom," She muttered.

I took the time to explain to everybody what was going on. Those letters on the ring around that mural happened to be the same ones in Boo's old house. When Sky was in exile for two years, we went back to Boo's home with Mitra and Myth before it was demolished, and saw a lot of strange things. At first, we chalked it up to Providence's weird mentality and how much effort she put into running from Ali and Lucas... but the more I witnessed this room, the more I started to uncover a hidden story.

It was in my perspective that I started to understand Providence wasn't just exclusive to The First Trial. Not only that but there were several entities that could travel between the Trial Worlds and Earth... most specifically, Ultima Tower. They had all been here... but why here? That was the last thing I couldn't solve.

We were trapped in here, and couldn't escape. I wasn't worried about the lack of resources like food or water, I was more worried if we could connect these dots, and what Sky would think about this all.

Chi suddenly screamed out in surprise and directed everybody's attention over to her. She tripped over something on the carpet, but she didn't shrug it off immediately like I had done.

"It dips here... like, look," Chi said, pushing her hand into the indent of the carpet that was near the middle of the room.

"In the dead center? Let's rip it up," I said, clutching a part of the carpet and pulling upward.

It slightly ripped, revealing another trap door. This time, it had a padlock on the handle, with a note by it.

"Okay, seriously?! What the hell is up with these puzzles," I said, picking up the note and reading it.

"Blank... blank... Full-Scale... Reality... Shift..." I read out loud, exclaiming that the place for the first and second words had blank spaces where they belonged.

"Full-Scale Reality Shift? Why does that sound familiar?" Asoh asked, standing up from crouching by the trap door.

"Alternative, Virtual, Full-Scale, Reality Shift," Boo mumbled. Right after she did so, the padlock burst open into shards of metal that broke like glass, and the trap door swung open once more.

"How did you know that?!" I exclaimed.

"I can see it..." She mumbled again.

"Uh... okay... let's go then," I said, helping Chi, Asoh, and Boo down into the trap door.

I jumped down last, crouching as I hit the far jump, and looking ahead into another dim room.

"Shike?" I heard. I turned my head, seeing Charlie, Alex, and a man with brown hair and green eyes in the room, sitting on the couch before we landed in the room.

"Charlie...? What... you guys are okay!" I shouted out, walking nearby.

As soon as I got close, Charlie pulled a knife on me and put it close to my throat, holding me by my collar, and peering at Asoh.

"You think I wouldn't catch you, Genesis?!" Charlie screamed out at me.