Nine Paths Of Asura - 68 The Nine Doors

Plop!

For a terrifying second, Lineir was surrounded by nothing but golden purple glowing honey, then he seemed to pass through a solid layer of deep purple rock. Vaguely, he caught sight of what appeared to be mystical runes swirling in the dark depths out of sight. Then he emerged on the other side into thin air, freefalling again!

Whoosh, Tap

He quickly righted himself, wiping honey off his nose with a hand at the same time and after a short fall, alighted on the floor of this strange underground place. His eye’s quickly scanned for threats, but while he felt a terrifying imposing air about the place, he did not yet feel any killing intent. While sweeping the room, the first thing he noticed was purple. He was in a chamber, a small box made of an unknown purple rock. It was clearly not natural as the walls were flat and he was essentially inside of a boxlike room about six by six meters. Everywhere the light of purple runes glowed dimly, and etched into the walls was endless scripts of some forgotten language. There didn’t appear to be anything special about this room, however, at the end was an opening about twice as tall as Lineir, and he felt a slight tug towards it. Looking up to where he had fallen from, he did not notice anything unusual, the ceiling was perfect and whole, not a crack in sight. Evidently, he had literally just sunk straight through it like it was water. Yet, it was clearly solid now. He shot a slice of darkness infused Qi up just to test it and it didn’t even tremble in the least. There was clearly only one way out of this room, and it was straight ahead into the hallway.

“Come on kiddo, it’s clear the maker of this place, whoever it was,expected people to enter from the surface, and planned for you to go this way. Be careful, but take heart.. if whoever made this place wanted you dead, you would probably already be so.”

Mei wryly commented. Of course, her assumption was based on the idea that someone was meant to enter from the outside the way Lineir had. It was very possible that Lineir had randomly fallen through a broken array of some sort. If that was so, then unless he took care, any traps laid out in this place could be terrifyingly powerful. In some resting places or treasure holds of powerful cultivators, there were traps which could even kill unwary Immortals! However, Mei didn’t mention this to Lineir, she didn’t want to subconsciously influence his mental state with fear. Besides, she was sure Lineir could feel that this was no ordinary place…

Dash Dash Dash!!

Lineir burst out in a zig zagging z pattern, flitting around like a butterfly, but when nothing attacked, he stopped and marveled at the sight before him. A massive expanse continued endlessly into darkness, high arching walls illuminated by purple runes stretched seemingly unto infinity. This temple was… huge… it was the size of a mountain!

“But how can this be…? The mountain outside was half obliterated by the descent of the Celestial Honeybird, how can something this large be here…?” It was true, outside, he had clearly witnessed half the mountain disintegrated, there was no way a temple this large could fit and not be seen from the outside in what was left. Puzzled, Lineir examined the complex runic etchings, but could not make heads or tales of them. There was clearly some sort of pattern, but the symbols just seemed to…flow along the walls, like purple water swirls.

“Kiddo, I think this place is no simple structure. Oftentimes, experts with a mastery of spacial laws will create spacial spaces which can be used for housing themselves, and of course, treasures. This place could be as simple as some expert’s vacation home, his mansion, or even a tomb, but tread carefully and disturb as little as possible, you cannot afford to trigger any traps or offend the master of this place!” Mei’s warning was clear, this place was not to be trifled with!

Lineir walked carefully, but as far as he could ascertain with both his sixth sense and his mortal senses, there was no imminent danger. The room was vast, and empty, the walls appeared to be straight, but upon closer inspection they seemed to slant ever so slightly up to some unseen point far above. In Lineir’s mind, the room took on a roughly pyramidal shape, though it was so massive that he could not see the ceiling or end in the dim light of the runes, even with his keen eyesight. On and on he walked endlessly. Slowly, a side entrance appeared, and as he neared, it turned from a blurry dark spot in the distance to a massive gaping door on which the wrought runes which layered the walls appeared to be twined about as if chains. However, these runes were different, instead of having a slightly cheerful and mystical aura of light, these chains of runes were far darker, the purple almost fading to a horrifying black. They seemed…not just worn, but spent and almost….diseased. The door, larger than most castle’s entrances, was still, who knows how long it had stood and what terrors lay behind it for the runes laid by an expert to have withered to such a degree. Suddenly Mei’s voice rang out,

“Don’t touch that! There’s a massive force of decay at work here. Something ancient lies behind that door, the power of Time is strong enough to spin away your lifeforce and turn you to dust in an instant!”

Hastily, Lineir backed away quickly. While he wasn’t going to touch it, the thought of him turning into a pile of dust flitted through his mind.

“Alright master, I’m going.”

He took one last look then continued to walk down the path. After an indeterminate amount of time in the darkness, another door came into view. It was similarly vast, rising far up like a gate to the Heavens… or Hells. The runes on this one were also much darker than the ones on the walls, but this time, they seemed blurry, and they faded in and out like Lineir’s eyes had suddenly become unfocused. It was almost like they were not a fixed distance away, sometimes near, sometimes far. However, they were definitely not moving…

BOOOOM!!!

A deep grating crack shattered the eerie silence of Lineir’s lonely steps.

RUUUUMBBBBLLEEEE!!

The entire structure began to shake and all of a sudden a fantastic show of lights illuminated the world as the runes on the temple came to life! The once sleeping purple runes suddenly flared up in response to the shaking and rippled as unknown impacts came from wide. As Lineir raised his astonished eye’s, the impossibly high walls pulsed and purple light flashes reverberated throughout as the runes chained together and resisted the assault.

Ting! Ting! Ting!

Everywhere mystical lights exploded, and it was as if the room had suddenly been lit up by the bio-luminescent creatures of the deep. Only instead of living organisms, these were runes, dancing and cavorting in such a way that they may as well have been alive! Soon, the rumbling passed, and the deep grating which Lineir could feel even in his joints came to an end. Cautiously, Lineir swept the room, and discovered it changed! With the passage of whatever strange happening had caused the rumbling, the runes had ceased to pulse and ripple, but they had remained active and lit. Their bright light now illuminated far more of the room in fluorescent purple and Lineir could see the true vastness of the room. Suddenly, Lineir realized that the room was not a box as he had assumed, but actually more of a circle! Far off in the distance, he could see that all around him were those strange massive doors, a total of nine! High above, like sky to earth, untold amounts of runes flew across the ceiling no unlike clouds in the mortal realms. Slowly circling, Lineir wondered exactly what the purpose of this room was.