Chapter 4: The Seven Bloods Of Karishika

Three tunnels about six feet appeared inside the cave. Originally, the use of these tunnels was to provide an escape route in case the mansion was attacked and the insiders needed to flee. But that scenario had never occurred since the inception of Xylem and this made insiders neglect the importance of the tunnels.

Vester stood in front of the tunnel in the middle as he estimated the chance to his success rate.

'Old Guss said if by chance I enter the wrong tunnel I might end up in one of the rooms to some guards.'

The insiders paid little attention to the tunnels didn't mean they were completely unconcerned about their safety. And to protect themselves from external forces who plan to dig their way in, a certain number of guards were stationed after the extreme end of two tunnels. To keep the intruders in the dark, the guards were only to be noticed after the intruders had crossed over to the other side of the tunnel, making them ignorant of their latent pitfall.

'Now I just have to take the right tunnel.' said Vester as he unruffled the back of his hair, 'How am I supposed to find it… this place is so dark.'

Just as he was lost in thought, he suddenly found his way out with a light – he thought of an idea.

He moved in closer to the tunnel at the middle and brought forth his left arm. Immediately, silver-coloured motes encircled his hand before they began joining and coalesced to form a bright silver light three inches around his wrist. The ring's light illuminated the entire cave and brightened the dark tunnels to a stage.

'Classic Seraphim experts, making you think too much.' Vester's tone sounded disappointing. He could only shake his head as he entered the middle tunnel.

Making the tunnels three was just a part of the insiders plan to confuse intruders based on their choice of entry. Normally, when the intruders are presented with the three tunnels, they would undoubtedly stop to decide on which path to take and the fact of multiple routes existing could make some fall victims to the doom ahead.

Shortly after, he came at the end of the tunnel and at the end laid a pale-golden gate like a door. The tunnel could fit in for only four people and the door spanned up to two metres which made some of the part buried inside the walls. The door itself looked complex to understand without a blueprint, so Vester wasted no time to slide in a grey disk into one of the slots.

Zzz!-Chnngg!

The gate vibrated and rattled before automatically opening, causing the tunnel to briefly shake. Vester himself had to subconsciously take steps back and watch in awe as the door halved itself and a bright light shone from within. Soon after the light waned away, what came into sight was far too enthralling for Vester.

Inside the door were four scroll shelves at the four corners of the room that went up to thirteen feet and covered four metres each. Amidst the scroll, shelves was a raised platform that emitted deep blue light from the inside and penetrated the papers and scrolls with zodiacal symbols placed atop it. In a nutshell, the room looked to be like a secret chamber used by some rebellious organisation.

'Woa…!' Vester calmly exhaled as he went in through the gate. The glowing platform provided light for the entire room so he put off his ring and surveyed the room first. After being dumbstruck by the mechanism of the platform, he went ahead and took what he came for.

'Psuche paper scroll, I have you now.'

Vester took out a golden-silk scroll from the shelf slowly and stored it inside his shoulder-bag.

'Old Guss didn't mention how many paper scroll… taking one more shouldn't be so bad, besides this place is full of it: they won't suspect a thing.' thought Vester while scratching his hair and snatching another scroll out from the shelf.

Ppshh!-Bbngg!

His moment was caught short when the gate unexpectedly began emitting rattling noise. He twirled his head back to find the cause of the noise and when he did, he dashed through the gate before it closed.

'Phew! Old Guss didn't say the gate was timed.' Vester wiped the sweat out of his head as he stood and watched as the gate shut itself.

Slop!

After automatically relocking itself, the gate slotted out his disk back to him. Vester at first was shocked, but he quickly regained himself and pulled the disk out from the slot, made light with his ring then skedaddle out of the tunnel.

Somewhere at the other parallel shoreline of the river, two guards on a ring-mail stood side by side and watched as the figure of a boy ran out from a cave and into the abyssal night.

'Should we inform the Seraphim Leader?' a feminine voice sounded in the dark.

'There's a saying, that which you do not know off cannot harm you. That is not our job, they would find out sooner or later.' said a deep manly voice. 'Ready your army, the start of our revolution has just begun.'

'What about the remaining blood?' asked the lady.

'As the forth and second blood of Karishika, we are obligated to our work needless to say our superiors have plans of their own.' the man spoke with traces of superiority.

'I, the second blood owe my loyalty to my cause.' the lady spoke.

After a quick pause of silence, the man stepped out into the moonlight and, lo, his image was of a man in his late twenties as handsome as a sculpture. Both his ring-mail and his hair were both of the same colour – red, coupled with his crimson eyes that pierced further into the night.

The man clasped his hands behind his waist as he continued with pride, 'The divination was certain, the last blood has appeared in this kingdom.' He turned to face the lady, 'You know what that means?'

The lady had a huge scroll hung horizontally at her back, she stepped ahead and unmasked her unrivalled beauty to the moon. Her indigo hair smooth as a rabbit's fur and thick black eyes darker than the night stared deeply at the man, saying, 'Our brotherhood would live again.'

The man extended his arms forward and waved it in the air while whispering, 'Mantra of Azerell's Eyes.'

Shh-Clnngg!

A bright crimson circle appeared behind him with zodiacal signs twirling inside. This signs continued to turn and connect till they amalgamated to form an eye akin to that of Horus while numerous absurd text danced around the circle's circumference. Immediately their environment started spinning around them and turning blurry till everywhere turned pitch-black. Inside this darkness, a sperk of light twinkled as it got closer and gradually increased in its brightness.

Behold, the source of the light came from a glowing ring located at the wrist of a teenage boy. Meanwhile, the two interlopers watched as the boy cautiously strode forward, unaware of their presence. Soon as he came closer to them, but instead of making contact, he obliviously phased through them like a phantom and went further to open a gate ahead.

When they saw what laid before the gate, the man's brows jumped as he waved his right arm in a convex manner and their immediate surrounding travelled past them while the room ahead was pulled before them like a magnet.

'Secrets of the Seraphim Hand.' the man deeply spoke as he gazed at the shelf in front.

Meanwhile, the lady watched as Vester took out two psuche paper scroll from inside the shelf and was about dashing out from the gate so it doesn't close, the man tightened the fist of his right hand and caused Vester to pause in his tracks.

The lady moved in closer to the empty space Vester made after taking two psuche paper scrolls out. She stared inside this space and said, 'They posses something so extra-ordinal but yet aren't on top the power chain.'

'Can you locate the secrete of Ka'al Tumal?' asked the man authoritatively.

'I need to be physically in contact with these scrolls. I doubt it would be here anyways.' the lady placidly spoke.

The man stepped closer to the shelf at his front. Gazed weirdly at it through the way he tilted his head all directions. 'Someone is headed our way.' he drawly mentioned and snapped his fingers.

Foosh! They appeared previously at were they stood in an instant.

'Intruders!' a female guard on white mail yelled. And while she tried to manifest her ethereal ring, the lady, known as the second blood of Karishika, jerked her mighty scroll up and unrolled it. Numerous shapes and writing inside the scroll danced around until suddenly, a huge eye appeared on the moon. The moon itself began shaking till it detonated and the detritus disperse on the earth. These remnants of its automatically located the rest and formed a bright ethereal statue.

The guard was so carried away to perform any sort of action so the statue stepped on her. Turning every blood, water, and bone in her to not just paste but white ashes.

'The reign of Karishika has begun. And of those who do not assent to this.' the man spoke, mildly concerned about the dead lady.

'All be damned.'

Luckily for them, not a single soul of the earth can account for the guard's death because none saw what had just occurred. This was the start of rapture. This was the start of a killing that no man nor god could attest to.

This was the reign of Karishika.