Aaradhya scanned the group that he walked with and counted 14 servants not including the old woman that he had grown fond of seeing as she was competent. So altogether, 15 people other than himself. They all carried, apart from Mrs.Lagrange who was using a makeshift cane, a lit torch or large candles in their hands and pockets. They waited for the right time to light one of the candles to leave it at a crossroads. The servants followed Aaradhya all the way to the hub area that had been, sort of, scouted out beforehand. Leading the way was the young man and woman who had reported back on what they had found.
'I don't know what to expect since Wilfred never came to the island in the original story. Since there is gunfire and a mysterious figure, I can only assume that one of the other champions is helping me out,' Aaradhya thought to himself as he waddled forward without any worry.
'I can't even fathom how they can go against guns this soon in our rebirth,' he shook his head as he imagined the other champions running faster than bullets or taking the shots right to the chest without it penetrating. His musings were short and simple as he was right behind the two young servants that led the way. He naturally noticed that there were two things off about the path that they were taking. The first was a distinct lack of flow in the Verdant. It was as if the spiritual world in his immediate surroundings had turned stagnant. The second was that the path had turned into a long straight passage that did not break off to either side. It was apparent that after reaching the most recent intersection, the one where they all heard the gunshots, the hall remained linear. It took ten minutes to walk down the straight.
Upon entering the immaculately crafted underground chapel Aaradhya was left speechless. There were no gunmen and nor was there a man in yellow robes. There were, however, unlit standing torches and doorways to either side of the hall.
"Fan out and search the room, report back anything that looks out of place, " Mrs. Lagrange ordered. The young man and lady that flanked either of her sides remained nearby since they served as her left and right hands. One held a torch while the other held four candles of various sizes in her apron and pockets.
'Where is all of the danger,' Aaradhya waddled forward with a frown plastered to his face. He took up his writing tools and wrote, "are we alone?" Mrs.Lagrange didn't say anything immediately as she opted to receive reports from the servants that had wandered around.
"From what the staff could gather, there is no evidence that anyone other than us has been down here," Mrs. Lagrange reported what she learned from her people.
"What about the passages, are there any leads on the way out," Aaradhya wondered and wrote it down on the page.
"From what I have been told, some of the passages are closed off by stone walls while others lead to dark halls that stretch on for who knows how long," she said.
'That is unfortunate. Hmm, what's that then,' Aaradhya didn't write down his question as he looked at something in the middle of the circular crossing. It was on the edge of the torch light, barely visible. Aaradhya walked forward and his servants followed.
In the middle of the stone floor was a hole that was filled with blackened soil. Beyond that, merely a few meters away, were stone sculptures of ten people laying over one another as if they had been too tired to space themselves out as they went to sleep. Their faces were contorted and twisted into masks of dread and ecstasy.
'The Verdant is thick in this location. It's not moving either, why,' Aaradhya pursed his lips in thought and activated soul sense by closing his eyes. There were blue embers all over the statues, more so around the heart and heads, hinting that the stone may have been alive at some point. Most notably, there were blue handprints on their bodies, almost as if their souls were pulled out of those locations.
'What happened here, it's like their lifeforce was sucked out of their bodies,' taking stock of the oddity, he shook his head and exhaled heavily.
'This must be the power of one of the champions. The power to turn someone to stone huh? That wasn't an inheritance in the store so how exactly was this accomplished. It is related to the soul but also has to do with lifeforce. It must be a combination skill that becomes available upon buying the relevant literature in the system store,' he thought about it for a short while before he realized that there were other matters to handle.
"Did anyone see a way out? Specifically where these people came from? They were alive at some point and came down here recently," Aaradhya wrote in his little notepad and lifted it to Mrs. Lagrange. From what he could see, there were at least three dozen doorways and paths that they could go through to get to other parts of the island.
"There are multiple paths that we could take but nothing that looks like the way out just yet," Mrs Lagrange listened to her people that did not speak the same language as the one that she used with her lord and reported.
"My lord, I know that I should not make requests of you but could use the same power that you used to guide our way," Mrs. Lagrange asked.
'If the passages are about as long or longer than the path that we just came from, I'm afraid that it would be impossible to guide the way. It would be too long for my vision. I am capped out at around 10 meters. The Verdant makes things too hazy to see through after that...', Aaradhya thought about it.
'I may actually be over or under that limit since I haven't exactly measured the distance of my vision just yet," he crossed his arms and came to a quick conclusion.
"Have everyone stop by one of the archways. I will observe each path that we can take and make a decision on where to go afterward," Aaradhya wrote. Mrs. Lagrange wasted no time explaining her lord's wishes to the rest of the servants.
'The only special thing that I have is the ability to see the spiritual world. Hopefully that is enough,' he observed the Verdant and made a point to track anything odd and irregular within the stagnant spiritual energy that had filled the underground cathedral. As he scanned the environment and the servants that were awakened, he realized that people with high energy left an imprint in the Verdant much like a hand print in wet sand. With the Verdant having stilled in this sacred location, thickening to the point of stagnation, it was easier to tell where the servants moved or had been.
'Interesting, I can track where people have moved in an environment like this,' he realized that what he needed to do was take in and tune himself to the Verdant. If he could, he would be able to see where the man in yellow went, or where the ten, now dead, people came from. That is, if he or they left an imprint.
Fanfaire aside, It took a few minutes and a double check but Aaradhya managed to use his spirit sense to track the movement of someone who managed to basically create a livewire in the Verdant. It was as if someone walked with a thread in hand and laid a fine line of Verdant down one of the paths. He reached out to touch the wire, only to find that it went through his body. After a few more tries, he managed to activate his spiritual energy that was being tugged on by the spirit worm even at this very moment and pulled on the wire. All of the servants could see a green line like fishing wire in their Lord's hands as a blue light emanated from his palms.
'This could be a trap. It could also be assistance. I am leaning towards the latter since I have met with Woad, a clear product or assistant of one of the other champions,' he raised a finger to his lip and pondered the matter for around a minute before he simply decided to walk into the dark path while pulling the cord. The servants and Mrs. Lagrange, as their leader, nearly lost their lunch seeing how their lord fearlessly stepped forward.
There was no evidence of traps thus far but that didn't mean that there weren't any so they all rushed forward and got into formation. Mrs. Lagrange limped beside Aaradhya while the young man and woman took point. The remaining twelve servants followed in a line and placed down a lit candle at the doorway the moment that they passed the entry.
They moved for around ten minutes before they walked up an incline and into a round room with three doors that had Verdant slowly flowing back and forth through them. Aaradhya opened his eyes and turned his head to observe the room the moment he passed the threshold of the door that he could see outlined by the Verdant. Two of the doors were inaccessible as the floor seemed to have been lowered based on the scraping that was apparent on the walls. What he focused on was the floor just over the cusp of the incline. Near the center of the room, there was a misplaced stone that stuck out of the ground.
'A stone surrounded by worm corpses. Woad must have been through here,' he quickly closed his eyes to confirm that the remaining path that was accessible was where they had to go and upon seeing that it was, he guided the group.
'Hopefully, we are not kept in this forsaken place for much longer,' the cord of Verdant that Aaradhya pulled on seemed to be fraying.
There were intersections and branching pathways but he remained focused on the Verdant cord that coiled all the way to some direction. It was getting more difficult to see with each passing moment as the stagnant Verdant moved more with each second that passed. He closed his eyes and kept them that way until Mrs. Lagrange said, "I see light, my lord."
It was not a direct light as he noted upon opening his eyes. There was a soft glow reflecting off of the wet floor. By then, the Verdant stopped being stagnant as it flowed unbidden into the caves that they were coming out of. He would have long lost the cord by now if it wasn't for the fact that he kept it within his hands. After walking for another two minutes, they found themselves in an area that was covered in faintly glowing algae.
There were seven things that stood out as they passed the algae covered walls. The first was a sheer and circular drop in the middle of the wet room. Water swirled at the bottom where a body seemed to float.
'That person must have slipped or been pushed down there,' Aaradhya thought as the water churned. The body turned rather abruptly revealing that it belonged to one of the elders on the extended council.
'That's to be expected. He must have spent some time as an archivist for the cult,' Aaradhya noted with a contemptuous sneer.
'That's what you get for leading others to kill me,' he quickly adjusted his mindset and scanned the other six oddities. There were stone bodies in various stages of surprise and fear, ranging from minor confusion clearly printed on the face to a jaw dropped look of bafflement.
All of them, under Aaradhya's spirit vision, had blue sparks around their hearts and heads, and a handprint somewhere on their body signifying that they were once alive and were now drained of both spirit and life. It was difficult to see the spiritual traces with the light of day behind his eyes but he still managed to make it out.
"Where are we now," Aaradhya wrote as he dismissed the idea that one of the other champions was capable of turning people to stone. This was definitely some combination skill. Something that he could potentially learn with enough time and practice. Mrs. Lagrange asked the rest of the staff if they knew anything about their location since she did not, and surprisingly, someone responded.
"We are on the south east side of the island," she quickly responded.
"How long until we get back to the Crystal peak," he asked.
"On foot, around three hours since we would have to traverse thick jungle," Mrs. Lagrange said.
"What do you suggest we do then," Aaradhya asked.
"We should go to the airport. Depending on where we are, we could get there in an hour or so and commandeer a vehicle," she advised.
"We'll do that then," Aaradhya walked forward confidently but stopped the moment that he realized that the only way out of the caves was to go up or down a steep and rocky path.
"Have someone carry me," he commanded.
"Of course my lord," Mrs. Lagrange picked out her left and right hands to pick up Aaradhya. They were so overwhelmed with joy that they froze on the spot and shook. Mrs. Lagrange had to snap them out of it by waving a hand in front of their faces. The young man was the first to come out of his enraptured state and was able to pick up Aaradhya before the young woman could.
Elsewhere on the island, just a few moments before Aaradhya embarked on his journey through the underground, Masih Sr walked up the stairs of a familiar and previously trodden path. It was the same route that he had used to drop off his lordly son. He felt a tug in his heart.
'Anger,' came through the connection that was forged between him and his son.
His mental and spiritual state was in shambles as he constantly muttered to himself and ignored the sensation.
"My son, please forgive me for leaving you by yourself. I understand your anger," he could feel his lord try to connect to him to speak but no matter how hard he focused on the connection that he bore, it was impossible to tell what his lord was saying. His thoughts were just that preoccupied.
"Why are there uninvited guests on the island? There's no way that any foreign party should have been able to mobilize enough forces in such a short amount of time. This must've been something in the works for a long time. I need to control the guard and get rid of this threat within the next few hours. I cannot have dangerous foreigners on the island before our guests get here," he pondered the matter for a while before another set of emotions bombarded the connection that he had with his son.
'Paranoia, fear, concern,' flashed in the heart of Masih Sr. Enough to stop him dead in his tracks. Before he had the time to study his lord's emotions, the ground quaked beneath him. It was a subtle shake but it was enough for him to realize that something was off. Instead of proceeding to take control of his military, he went back to the vault. He was greeted by a warped gate and bloodied guards that were missing limbs. There were scorch marks along the wall and floors and cracks in the stone that bore the metal gate.
"My lord…", his jaw dropped as he approached the gate with a dazed expression.
"Are you injured," Masih Sr held his quacking knees.
'Annoyance and relief,' came through the connection.
"My son. What do you plan on doing," Masih Sr's heart skipped a beat as he interpreted his son's emotions from the other side of the vault door.
'Power, confidence, and determination,' were what Masih Sr felt. There was no pain or worry so he chose not to over concern himself.
"How could this have happened," his mind was in turmoil but after a few seconds he realized that his son was still okay. He received constant input from their connection. Focusing, he could tell that his son was fine in both mind and spirit. He, however, was furious.
"Only the honor guard and the grand elders know of this safe room. Where was the leak," Masih Sr came to a quick conclusion as he mentally reviewed the short list of people that could have betrayed the Shepherds.
"Someone betrayed my son, our lord," that was the only thing that Masih Sr could focus on as he stepped back to take stock of the situation. There was no way that they could get the vault opened in a short amount of time. There was also an issue that he thought about that his son would face. Waiting in the safe room was a non-starter.
"There are secret passages that lead into and out of the vault. They were installed long ago on the off chance that the vault was compromised and an escape route was needed off the island," Masih Sr put a finger on his lip and frowned
"Mrs. Lagrange knows where the secret passage begins but she doesn't know the routes out of the catacombs since there was never a need to study them before," Masih Sr gritted his teeth as he thought of something.
"There is a scroll with the passages written down. I have seen it. It should be somewhere in the archives of the main temple though," Masih Sr crossed his arms and looked at the damages.
"If the enemy has managed to set off charges in the most secure location on the island, they most definitely have the plans to the catacombs. If they do, they must be working with someone who used to or currently does work in the archival departments of the faith," Masih Sr put his hand down and read his lord's emotions, 'surprise, fear, and anticipation.'
"My lord must have found the entrance," with his own emotions somewhat regulated, he was granted an image. His lordly son sat down on a couch while the servants revealed a passage into the unknown behind a bookshelf.
"They will be fine. The issue is finding them in the tunnels before the enemy. They could appear at any of the underground access points," Masih Sr glared at the guards that were slowly bleeding out and turned away from them.
"I need to have a team waiting at every entrance that I know of. There are around three dozen in total, some of which I know are incomplete so if I send my guard to each location...", Masih Sr paused his pacing steps as he looked back at the busted vault door.
"I can't do that. If my guard has to deal with the intruders, they will be spread too thin. I have to choose which locations to send my men," he swallowed the air and held it deep in his lungs until he felt a burn. Masih Sr was familiar with the secret passages underneath the island but he was unaware of which were fully accessible.
Deliberating, he left the gate behind and nearly jogged up the steps that were through the massive hollow that was full of scaffolding, floating passages, and lanterns that were like stars. He walked up the steps to the secret opening in the wall that was in his son's room. He was surprised to see stone statues all over the room. He was even more surprised to see a medium sized hole in the ground that had scorch marks all over it.
He was not surprised to see a handful of guards standing around the room with decorative sabers on their hips and automatic rifles in their hands. They all wore gilded masks of their faces as the honor guard of the faith.
"High priest, we heard an explosion and came to check on you and the lord," a man with feathers in his mask bowed his head and placed a palm over his chest as he spoke. The others followed along.
"Where's Prath," Masih Sr got straight to the point as he scanned the statues that were spread around the room. He noted the ropes that were hanging from the sides of the ceiling.
"I have been told that he is receiving our lord's gift," the man with the feathered mask adjusted his posture, not seeing the connection between the explosion and the previous captain of the honor guard.
"How long has he been in the state," Masih Sr thought about it for a split second and realized that there was something wrong with the masked man's statement.
"I am not sure high priest, I could get my men to ask about master Prath's state...", the man continued but he was paused by a hand that went up.
"No need. It seems our lord has friends of the mortal persuasion that we can count on to assist us in our endeavors," Masih Sr seemed to have realized that the Prath that he communicated with just before leaving with his lord, was in fact a stranger. It was just like that time where there was fire in the main temple. A familiar face assisted but it turned out that they were somebody else entirely.
Masih Sr, didn't stay flummoxed for long as he cleared his throat and gave orders. The servants were to remove the statues that littered Aaradhya's abode and fixed the broken stone tiling before their lord was to return. The honor guard along with the military of the Shepherds of the Golden Horns would spread out across the island within the hour and stand by at underground access points.