The Temple (pt.2)

In a white room, someone stood motionless. Their head was lowered to the ground, staring at their feet.

'Bored.'

They felt bored, the room was empty. The corridors were silent, the temple was soundless.

'There is no one in this place.'

A living being at least. There were no living beings here, not even one. The person got used to this eventually, yet they always complained about it from time to time.

"Can I ever get out?"

They asked, knowing there was nobody to answer them at all. How sad and pathetic they are now to reach such a stage, where they could only ask the air?

But that also made them realize something once more.

"I'm stuck here for eternity…"

A shallow laugh passed their lips as they sat down. Their eyes slowly closed, and they were ready to go back to their long slumber.

It was then.

"Perhaps calling it a cave is wrong, the fog is obstructing your gaze. This looks more like a tunnel."

"..."

Someone was here? In this broken and abandoned temple?

The person jumped to their feet with excitement. Someone was here! Finland, after hundreds of years- someone was here!

Lips quivering up, the person shook uncontrollably. Their eyes watered as they intertwined their fingers together, trying to stop themselves from hurting accidentally.

'Today is a good day, no blood, no harm.'

Chiding themselves, they sat down again and closed their eyes.

'I am curious about them!'

Through her head, the two people appeared. One was Alastor, and the second was Viany. In addition, there was a young phoenix accompanying them.

Alastor carefully let Vian down back to her feet, she stretched and gave a soft yawn before frowning.

"I was wide awake a moment ago, why am I suddenly sleepy?"

Chuckling, Alastor ushered her inside with him as he explained.

"Don't worry, you are not going to die. But this is a poison."

"..."

"What? Don't act so surprised, it is merely some paralyzing poison gas. I suppose the owner of this temple does not want any visitors, look around you."

Looking at where he pointed, Vian's eyes shook. There was a pile of bones, their postures showed how they were hugging each other while gasping for air.

Her heart twisted.

Alastor noticed her expression and gave her a soft smile, "You are with me. You won't end up like them, I assure you."

"Ah."

She nodded, trying to hide the blush that tried to creep up to her face. In her heart, she was almost weeping.

'If only you knew my thoughts, Alastor… I wonder if you would ever be okay with me being by your side?'

No matter how much she thought about this, the answer was either negative or unknown. As much as she wanted to be delusional, her rationality always gnawed at her once she thought of her relationship with Alastor.

'He cannot know. He cannot know how I would be happy being here, amidst the poisonous gas, just as long as he is by my side.'

Whatever the cost was, Vian had made up her mind.

'Sorry.'

Meanwhile, Alastor, who did not know about any of what was going on in her head, was inspecting the walls.

"Hmm, we are definitely in a temple."

The walls were engraved by many weird signs and symbols, Vian squinted at them, trying to make out some familiar looking ones.

"I guess it's a temple of multiple gods of sorts?"

"What do you mean?"

"Look at this," her finger was caressing a rose engraved on the wall, one which appeared to be a red spider lily, "We can assume this is a sign for the God of Death."

Then, her finger pointed at the Sun on the other side of the wall, "Yet, some engravings on that side worship the God of the Sun."

As she looked more around, she counted it, "Sun, Water, Love, War, and… Despair."

"Ho."

Nodding, Alastor then continued in his way. He, as secretly as possible, let his mana roam.

'This is weird,' he thought while guiding Vian deeper into the temple, 'There are no traps here… Nothing at all.'

Something like that could happen, but the chances were almost nonexistent, why is this place so empty?

'Or, were all the traps activated before us coming to this place?'

Given those skeletons around, that was not important. However, Alastor was only even more alerted since coming up with that conclusion.

'The place is well maintained. There is not much dust or anything of that around to show that this place was abandoned.'

Then, why were the traps never renewed if they were activated before?

"Something is iffy here, Alastor."

"Have you noticed it as well?"

Vian nodded, her sensitivity for mana was even better than Alastor. In addition, the phoenix was calmer than usual, as if it was feeling something weird.

"The atmosphere here is getting heavier the more we go. I thought it was poison, yet…"

This did not seem to be the case.

Alastor suddenly stopped, causing Vian to stop as well. She noticed his body was shaking and gasped, "Alastor! Are you okay? Is something wrong?"

"Ha… Hahahaha…!"

"Huh?"

The sudden laughter she heard made her pause.

"Um, Alastor, are you okay?"

'Why is he laughing all of the sudden?'

As he wiped his face, Alastor's laughter died down. He was still smiling as he looked at Vian though.

"Look around us, the answers for our inquiries are there. We thought we were heading in the right path, but we have been circling around this temple."

"Eh. Oh, that-" she looked at the walls and noticed what he meant finally.

The signs she saw before and pointed to a few gods from them were the same. The same arrangement, the same setting.

There was nothing different. They moved in a circle.

"Due to the poison in the air, alongside the appearance of this place, we wouldn't notice anything."

"Then, what are we supposed to do now?"

"I sensed only one trap in this whole place, yet I kept avoiding it.

"And…?"

"Perhaps the only way to leave the loop is by jumping through it."

Saying that, he lightly pushed Vian back. Her foot stepped on a tile, and the tile somehow went down.

The next thing Vian knew, she was falling through the air.

"Alastor!!!!"

"Hahah, don't worry, I'm about to follow you now!"

'Finally something more entertaining…'