I walked toward the two giant gates, knocking on them relatively hard.

No response arose.

I pushed on the right door, it creaked and groaned, sliding against the hard sediment beneath it. Esther and I looked at each other before slipping into the darkness, there wasn’t a single ounce of light inside.

||FIREBALL; MODIFICATION, PURPLE FLAMES OF HELL||

A small purple flame lit up in the palm of my hand. There was a dark pattern on the floor that led deeper inside, it was at the center of the room and led down a thick corridor.

“Should we follow it?” Esther looked toward me.

“I mean, it can’t hurt right?”

We started walking toward the thick pathway. We were in that tunnel for maybe five minutes before we noticed something that was off. The corridor was becoming narrower, it was only big enough for maybe three shoulders worth of people now. It gave off a tight claustrophobic feeling…

The pattern spiraled up the walls and onto the roof. I raised my hand higher trying to trace it so that the fireball kept it lit, it was a darker color and was slowly fading the deeper we got. At some point it sank into the ceiling, the ground beneath us felt rough and rigid as well. Almost like all of the fine craftsmanship from the corridor had vanished.

“Heh? It disappear–”

My foot landed down onto air, my body started falling forward. Esther quickly reached out and grabbed the bottom of my coat, but my momentum pulled her light body down with me.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh—”

We fell down this dark chasm, my fireball being extinguished almost instantly. My coat slipped out of Esther’s reach.

“Cyn- I can’t see you-!”

Shit. Fireball can’t cover for me this time-

Wait…

I started shifting the materials my coat and body were made out of. My red eyes started glowing neon red, the green outline on my coat switched to a lime green neon as well. I changed the red streak in my hair to match my eyes, before forming a gem into my gloves. It was a glowing red, the outline of my body becoming visible even in the pitched darkness.

||SEARCH||

A red outline of Esther’s body appeared above me. I saw her head moving around, trying to see in the blank darkness.

“Ode, what are the chances of flight working?”

<None. You’ve been falling for relatively long enough that if you suddenly start flying, Esther will collide with you. The force would be enough that when you catch her the whiplash would snap her neck.>

Ah…

That’s bad.

I’ll just work something out then-

I expanded a bunched group of slime from my chest up and around Esther, pulling her down into my embrace. My arms wrapped around her back tightly. I warped my slime, shooting out tentacles that wrapped us into a tight oval-like ball. Within a few seconds we collided with a rock and our trajectory went all over the place. It was like a car rolling off the side of a mountain, the continuous build up slamming us over and over. Luckily, unlike a car, we were practically in a rubber ball.

We flew out into this giant cavern, the oval-like ball rolled and rammed into a stone wall. We finally stopped moving, I reabsorbed the barrier. Esther was laying on top of me, her head buried in my neck.

She was breathing kind of heavily, her hands clutching at the front of my trench coat.

“You alright…?”

“Nngh~... comfy~...”

“Esther?”

“Heh-... uh- y-yeah.”

She sat up quickly, pulling herself away while blushing slightly.

We looked around, there were a bunch of tall white figures surrounding us. They had hollow dark eyes, their arms and legs like long sticks. Some of them had facial hair, but all of them were bald. They gazed down toward us. I looked back and forth around the super dimly lit area, it almost looked like we were in an underground village of sorts. I saw rock and mud structures that resembled housing in a sense.

I didn’t see any dwarves though… So monsters?

There was a hint of light around us, a small flame in a few scattered lanterns.

“Um… you’re dwarves right?” Esther asked while looking at one of the entities.

They all had blank expressions. They stood tall, their posture slouched forward. They looked the complete opposite of dwarves honestly, and their eyes… they just looked like eye sockets.

“Indeed… Why have thou entered our home?”

“Oh- uh… we heard that this continent was a safe place so…” She gave them a gentle smile.

Esther and I both stood up, most of the ‘dwarves’ started dispersing and returning to whatever they were doing beforehand. One of them stayed and continued speaking with us. He had facial hair down to the center of his chest, and he seemed to be up in his years. 

“Who art thou?”

“Ah… I’m Esther, and this is Cyn.”

“Esther… Cyn… ‘Tis pleasure to see youthful ones.”

“Y-youthful, huh…? Th-thank you…”

Esther’s face was a slight red.

“Make thyself at home.”

The dwarf turned around and slowly walked away from us, his hands were held behind his back. He took large long strides away. We stood there, our eyes adjusting to the dark setting of the cave.

“This world is just full of surprises, isn’t it…”

“Did you imagine dwarves differently?”

“They weren’t even the same creatures.” 

I sighed and turned toward Esther again.

“So, how were you even speaking to them?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Is Elven similar to Dwarven?”

She looked up for a second to think.

“Uh… kind of? Dwarven is similar to an origin language with Elven being sort of a branch off…”

“I see… so similar to Latin?”

“Latin?”

“No, nevermind.”

We then went further into the village. We explored around until I spotted a forge, there were anvils and raw materials lying around. A huge stone chimney was coming out of the back of the building.

“No way… they actually forge things…?”

Finally! Something that’s actually normal to my thoughts!

A dwarf came up behind us.

“Ah… the old forge.”

“Huh? Old?”

The being nodded its head.

“We have not touched it in near hundred years. Hoh… how old we are.”

I was jaw dropped. Yes, they had a forge… but it's been way too long since they’ve used it. There’s no way they can handle it now… especially with their lack of muscles.

“Um… can anyone here teach me how to forge for myself then?”

“Hoh… No.”

I let out a displeased groan.

“Fu-”

“The time shrine should have answers to that however…”

“Time shrine?”

“‘Tis in the back of our village… the only natural light in our entire cave unit.”

After that Esther and I walked toward the back of the village, passing by all of the ‘dwarves’ and their stone huts. I cautiously watched my step, now paranoid by the previous hole in the ground.

A bit out into the cave was this hint of green light. We made our way over, eventually reaching what looked similar to a shrine.

It appeared old and had this small glowing green light inside of it. I stood in front of it… a small glowing green orb. I picked it up with one hand and turned it around, there was a pattern on the orb that spiraled around it.

“This can’t be a variant right…?”

…

<I got nothing. It’s just some gem.>

“It was worth checking out at least…”

I sighed.

The moment I placed the orb back down onto the altar, my world felt frozen. I couldn’t move either, it was like time had completely stopped. My vision was a distorted green and white, the area around me warped and shifted. I felt an effect similar to falling, my stomach churning as my eyes laid upon this green realm of sorts. Similar to the Lacuna in a sense. I felt my hand drop and I quickly analyzed my surroundings.

The atmosphere above me was bright and hazy green, almost like fog. The ground was this rough, close to reflective green material. It seemed similar to the gem the orb was made out of. There were also these rough pillars that shot out, creating this sort of enclosed barrier. There were carvings across the pillars and floor that spiraled to the center, and at the center of this realm was a singular being.

A person.

When he looked up, our eyes met.

And in his left eye which held a blue-green lapsing clock.

Was the yellow-gold number ‘224’.