Chapter 21: Adventure Awaits Pt. 4

Oza jumped back as he simultaneously kicked the skeleton away. It broke down and is now a pile of bones. Oza dusted himself off as he approached the pile of bones.

"Jeez, that caught me off guard.."

"Well, that is to be expected in a place filled with skeletons. Nice kick by the way, Master."

"Yes yes.. onto the next tablet."

The trio threaded their way through the skeletons' corpses and made their way to the stone tablet. Oza looked around as they walked over the sea of skeletons to see tombstones. He paid it no mind and lead the way to the tablet. After that, he picked it up and once again examined the new riddle.

"The more you take away from me, the bigger I become, what am I?"

Oza placed the tablet back down. He directed his attention towards the two trying to solve the riddle, but Oza noticed that the skeletons were now moving and got his sword and dagger ready.

"Guys, I'll leave the puzzle up to you. I'll deal with the skeletons."

Ali and Harley nodded at the same time in the process of watching Oza pound the skeletons. They now directed their attention to the tablet's riddle.

"What could it be… This place isn't really giving out any clues."

"Yes, but Harley, look around. Skeletons, tombstones, and overall. This room has all the appearance of being a graveyard of some sorts." Oza was occupied with the skeletons which were surprisingly overwhelming him.

"These guys look stronger than they really are. So, about any time no- Woah!"

Oza continued his fight with the skeleton swordsmen as Harley brainstormed with Ali giving her ideas.

"The more you take away from me, the bigger I become… Wait, I got it!"

"I also have realized what it is." They both nodded to each other and both told the answer.

"A hole!"

The ground was starting to shake and soon at the center of the room, a gaping pit showed itself. Oza saw the hole and looked towards the other two and smiled.

"Nice work, you two! Now, jump!"

Ali and Harley followed Oza's lead right after he jumped down the pit. Oza frantically looked around as Ali and Harley noticed his distress. Harley transformed into his adult form and got Oza on his back.

"Brace for impact master!"

Oza held on tight as they fell faster. The strong gust of wind almost blew Oza and Harley out of their balance, but Harley got his balance just in time. They saw a glimpse of light at the almost endless pit and as the light grew bigger signaling them getting ever closer to the ground.

When they got full view of the next room is, Harley had crashed down, throwing oza off. Oza slowly got up and rubbed his head.

"The landing needs a little work there, Harley."

"Forgive me, Master. I haven't had someone ride on my back before, for that reason might have gotten you hurt, but believe me, I tried minimizing the impact as much as I could."

"Haha I'm messing with you, and I probably lost about a thousand of my hp haha."

Oza smiled and looked around, the third room was the biggest out of the three.

"Is this the final one?"

"Maybe so."

Oza spotted the tablet. This time around the tablet looks more older compared to the previous ones and the weird part was that it had a podium next to that comes with letters. Oza picked it up the tablet and dusted it off, Ali and Harley approached him as they saw the tablet in his hands.

"That must have mean no one has ever gotten this far yet.. Well, aren't I special eh? Kidding.. aside, the riddle is, "The beginning of eternity. The end of time and space. The beginning of every end, and the end of every place."

"What do-" Ali was cut off when Oza blew and wiped off more dust on the tablet and saw more riddles inscribed on them.

"There's three more… "What has one in every corner but two in a room and only one in the world." Harley then read the other two.

"Happens to only occur once in stop, but will never continue." and the last one is…

"Has one in everyone but each has two in none"

Oza placed the tablet back down and let Ali and Harley decipher the riddle while he looked for clues around the room. He noticed something on one end of the room. He walked towards the item and upon closer inspection it was a treasure chest.

"Do I open or do I open." He shrugged as he opened the chest to see that it was empty. "I was sure it would have had something in it when I opened it.. the start and end of this room has not-"

Oza got a sudden realization as he ran back to the two. He saw them still racking their brains on the answer as he smiled and called out to them.

"Guys! I think I figured it out!"

"What is it, Master?"

"Look."

Oza got to the podium with letters and took out some letters. He then started explaining as he searched for the letters.

"The riddles have nothing to do with actual words but with letters!" Ali and Harley were still confused. So, Oza continued "Listen to it, The beginning of eternity? The end of time and space? Look at the letters at the start and end of each word." They did as he said and realized it as well

"Master, if I'm correct, is it the letter E?"

"I have no idea but it's the best possible answer. Why would letters be here anyway?"

"Oza, that would mean that the second riddle, has one in corner and two in every room, the answer is the letter O."

"E.. O.. if we're going with that then the third riddle's answer is S or P."

"Yep, but I think it's P.. and the final riddle is N!"

"So, the letters we get are E, O, P, N. Rearrange them and you form the word Open!"

Oza properly set the letter in the podium and it started to move downward and so did the stand for the tablet. When both of them sunk into the floor, the wall beside them started to open, thenceforth Oza smiled and so did Harley and Ali.

"This turned out to be pretty fun."

"And you were moping about it at the start."

"Yeah. Ms. Ali is right."

"Oh shush.. Let's go, this is the final stretch."

"Right." they both answered with a smile as they followed Oza through the doorway.