Iridescent Spirit - Chapter 59 Underground Maze

“Where are we?” Scarlett Fenn’s voice echoed.

Hardened ash was reformed into thick, grey walls. Uneven paths diverged to several destinations. Chilling air filled the corridors as she could hear a deafening screech in the distance.

Dusting off the ash from his clothes, Jae observed the surroundings, “Well, we are obviously in some kind of underground labyrinth or cave.”

“Do you have any idea about all this?” Nora asked Allen, but he simply shook his head.

“This is all new to me. It might be a trap or maze that the specters created to kill us,” Allen emptied out a boot filled with ash.

“Layla, did you speak or not speak of being able to see the specters?” Clara scrutinized the skeleton.

“I believe that I can see wisps and souls,” Layla answered.

“Hm, you might have a talent to be a shaman,” Allen commented while unaware that Layla was a skeleton or part of a race that could see souls naturally.

“Do you see any right now?” Jade asked.

“Yes. Crackle. However, these ones were not as large as the ones that tried to possess us above ground. Crackle. Right now, they are avoiding us as our souls are bigger than it,” Layla mentioned.

“Wait, Layla, can you see our souls?” Jae remembered something that Ialantha Pherlorna had once said.

“Crackle. Yes.”

“Are our souls attached or connected together in some way? Can you see some connection?” Jae whispered to Layla while making glances at Allen.

“Yes. There is a string connecting all of our souls. Crackle. While I cannot see my own and souls cannot be seen through mirrors, I can tell that there is a connection between all of us to you. I do not think that severing the connections is an option at this point.”

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Jae hissed.

“No one asked me,” Layla responded with indifference.

Jae wanted to retort, but Layla was correct.

Instead, he proposed, “Could you tell us if any specters are approaching us? I mean, the ones that could possess our bodies.”

Layla nodded.

“So, how are we going to deal with the specters? Except for Layla, we can’t even see them, not to mention touch them!” Scarlett squinted in attempts to find a specter,

“Even I know a few simple spells,” Allen rolled his eyes.

“That is different from what you have said before,” Jade replied.

“That was before I had a way to detect those specters. There’s no point in casting magic if I can’t hit anything,” Allen scavenged through the remains of the carriage, “Yes! Paper! I was worried I would lose my only means of using magic!”

“How do you use magic?” Jae asked with a renewed interested in the subject. Compared to the body reinforcement that the Onyx Crew and beastmen had taught the children, magic was some unknown territory.

“You use magic by choosing one of the four goddesses’ techniques of magic. I can teach a few basic spells anyone can use for a price, but I normally don’t use them since I have my own system,” Allen shrugged.

Jae remembered that they did not sell the fruit or his arm at the auction. From the start, they knew that the auction would be interrupted by Sazroth’s minions, so they planned on stealing the magic crystals during the chaos.

“Will either one of these work as payment?” Jae glowered at Allen.

“You have the Fruit of Vanity?” Allen started as he eyed the fruit.

“Let me take a look,” Allen frowned.

“If you steal this, then we will kill you,” Jae threatened the legendary thief.

“My thieving business and normal transactions are different stories. If you don’t trust me, then I will either draw up a contract or do an oath,” Allen replied, hiding his memories of the previous illusion.

For an average-minded man like Allen, being sliced in half was a frightening experience.

“Fine, we can offer either one or both for a deal. In return, you must help us out of here, get that alchemist to fulfill our request or find another to do so no matter what and promise to not steal a thing from us,” Jae demanded.

With Allen’s experiences in appraising treasures over the years, he could easily tell that the fruit within Jae’s grasp was real.

“Deal,” Allen had nothing to lose in this deal as he swore an oath, “Oh, Goddess Eva, hear my promise. In return for the Fruit of Vanity and crystal golem arm, I shall fulfill his requests. Should I fail to fulfill the three requests that–f***. What was your name?”

“Jae Farley.”

“That Jae Farley had stated, then my soul shall be burnt to ash by the Goddess Letum, never to see the netherworld after death,” Allen completed the oath, albeit in a non-traditional procedure. However, as long as the keywords were there, the oath would be realized.

“What’s the point of a verbal promise?” Nora asked.

“Goddess’s tits, I still feel like I’m mentally ill by speaking to a slime,” Allen cursed toward the air before sparing a look at the pink blob, “Anyway, oaths are promises proclaimed to the goddess that force the one making the oath to accomplish it. Otherwise, he or she will face divine retribution.”

“Rude!” Nora slapped him with a tentacle.

“The specters are acting abnormally,” Layla suddenly interrupted.

From her eye sockets, she could observe the silvery white wisps group up together while making erratic movements. They reminded Layla of what happens to water molecules when boiled.

“We should get moving. Allen could teach us magic and explain while we are walking,” Jade proposed.

As they complied with Jade’s words, Wendy and Scarlett scoured the ruins of the carriage remains for their belongings and the bag of magic crystals. Meanwhile, Wendy noticed that the two-headed horse did not drown into the ash with them.

Walking through the dimly lit pathways, Jae held a torch in front of the group. Since his rapid regeneration ability could deal with most, if not all, injuries, he was essentially their meat shield.

However, he really hoped that no lethal traps would slice him in half again. After all, he was not willing to see his organs strewn about.

Ash crunched beneath their soles. Voices of diverse ages and tones resonated with unclear meanings.

The trails diverged from one to two. And, from two to three and so on.

“Hey, what was the basic magic you were speaking of?” Jae asked.

Allen finished writing several talismans on the blank pages of the romance book. Tearing those pages out, he threw the remaining parts of the book away.

“I was talking about the Goddess Eva’s standard procedure of magic. For some reason, most races with a decent magic capacity, except Letum’s unnaturally born races, could use these techniques. Let me explain”

Allen stated several spell invocations that could be used to utilize Eva’s guidelines of magic. For instance, he gave the chant to create light magic that could be aimed at the specters.

While specters were immune to physical attacks, they were extremely weak against magic attacks.

Although Allen chose to teach the basics of magic, he refused to disclose his own method of magic and lend any of his talismans.

“We already walked this way,” Jade checked a familiar nick she created on the walls. Next, to every divergent road, she would leave a different marking.

“Sh*t! Are we going around in circles?” Scarlett tugged her twintails in dismay. They had been sauntering around the maze for just about an hour and a half nonstop.

“How many times did we cross here?” Nora asked.

“Around seven,” Clara reflected for a moment and then turned to Layla, “How many times?”

“Eight,” Layla answered.

“I was merely off by one,” Clara muttered.

“From what I see, I would guess that either the walls or the floors are changing,” Allen pointed at a marking he left on the ground, “Instead of marking the walls that specters could possess, I tried the ground. The pattern here should have been a circle, but its a square.”

In order to check Allen’s conjecture, the children did another lap around the maze until they discovered the same marking as Jade’s on the wall. Sure enough, they discovered a triangle instead of a circle or square.

“F*** this, I’m gonna punch the hell out of the walls!” Scarlett charged, however, Wendy quickly seized the lizard girl.

“No~! What if it collapses~?” Wendy cried out.

“Wait, It might work,” Iris smiled.

“What?”

“While the specters do wish to bury us, they won’t. Otherwise, we would have been buried by now. If the underground maze did fall, then their pagoda and garden would fall as well,” she mentioned, “Supposing that I am incorrect, then Jae and I could construct a barrier out of vines.”

“That wouldn’t work; the specters might possess the vines,” Allen countered.

“Then we would be able to trap the specters in the vines in order to destroy them all at once in that case,” Jae suggested, “But other than that, do we have any better ideas?”

Allen stayed silent as Jae took that as an agreement.

“Scarlett, let’s do it,” Jae positioned himself with his mace while Scarlett prepared a fist.

“That’s why I like you, Jae!” Scarlett’s lips curled up to a charming grin.

Baam!

Surprisingly, the ash walls were denser than the group had expected. However, they were not sturdy enough to withstand the duo’s blows.

“Let’s go!” Jae shouted. From the holes they created were more pathways to choose from.

Instead of collapsing, the underground labyrinth was unfazed by the group’s attack. But soon, numerous specters screamed at the intruders.

Sceeeeech!

As if their previous stillness was a dream, the specters began to attack.

“Get ready for battle!” Jade commanded.
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