Trope World - Volume 1 Chapter 27 The Kiln

“I can’t believe you exposed yourself like that.” Od said. She returned to her room angry and stomping her hooves. Her face was a mix of pride and anger. Od couldn’t seem to choose one. “You don’t understand what you did or what it means to summon fire in this world. You’ve made Batu Chu furious. If he takes the matter to Patriarch Chingis, I won’t be able to protect you. He’ll force my hand. I’ll have to give you to Gan.” Od yelled.

“I developed that technique because of Gan Chu. Haven’t you heard? He plans to **** me when the siege starts.” I yelled. Od looked at me then shook her head.

“That donkey of a stallion is nothing if not treacherous. He’ll jump at the first opportunity. I’ve purchased rights to a crematorium. You’ll live there until your dragon is at least core formation level. They’ve forced my hand. I can’t have you in the limelight.” My eyes widened at her words. How could they do this to me? I was just learning how to read their language. Soon their knowledge would be my own. I could finally begin to understand this world. Now all that was gone.

She hooked a silk rope to my collar and led me out of the building and to a place that radiated fire qi. In the lower recesses of the city a old stone building stood. The building resembled a kiln. Bodies were dumped in through a shoot and that was the sum of contact people had with the building.

I looked at Od. She was frozen in place staring at the kiln. “I was born on this street. I remember throwing the bodies of my parents in the shoot after they caught the plague. I was only in the first stage of qi condensation. Their bodies were heavy. If I hadn’t push them inside, they would rot in the street.” I placed a hand on her side. We waited there for a minute in front of the crematorium’s doors.

“There isn’t a fire inside, how long has it been since someone burned the bodies?” I asked.

“Close to three centuries. No one wants to open the door to this place. The fire qi is considered heresy. The kilt keeps the qi from spreading.” Od said.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“The ages of the world fall upon the five elements. Steel, fire, water, earth, and wood are the five elements of the ages. We have reached the waning of wood and another age will soon take its place. Many of the wood demons and angels desire the water age to rise next. Those angels and demons of bygone ages wish for another element to take the place for the new age.” Od said.

“Is that why Low Port exists?” Od nodded her head.

“Low Ports primary function is to cultivate water qi and flood the world with it. Then once the age of water draws to a close, a new age of wood shall arise.” Od said.

“What about the army marching to lay siege to us? What type do they fall under?” I asked.

“The earth, they are from the long past age of earth.” Od said.

I didn’t know a lot about the five-element cycle. I did know that some elements became another but there were gaps in my knowledge. “What if another element took the place of the five? Is that possible?”

“You’re speaking of the age of dark. That is the time when the strongest demons, devils, and satans arose. That time only comes about when one ages continues for six times. Only then will an age of dark appear.” She unlocked the door and the scent of rot shot out of the building. “I’m locking you in it’s the only way to ensure the plague doesn’t spread. You should have all the materials you’ll need in here. She quickly closed the door behind me and locked it. “Not even Gan would look for you in here.” Od said.

The second the door closed, I felt the fire qi in this place swell up and beat against the walls of the kiln. A multitude of strange sapphires on the chimney kept altered the fire qi into water. Most of the stones had changed from a deep blue color to a light purple, orange, and eventually bright red. The air around those stones was so hot I could see waves.

The crematorium was a massive building. It towered nearly 10 stories and descended even further downward. I took a glowing spirit stone from my bag of holding and tossed it in the hole. The glow lasted for a few seconds before darkness took it. I never heard it hit the bottom.

There were three ways down. I could drop over the edge like the dumped bodies, use the broken elevator, or take the stairs. So, I descended the stairs. I raised my hand and a small fire ball appeared. It hovered over my hand as I descended flight after flight of stairs.

I don’t know how long it took me to reach the bottom. Bodies littered the stairs in some places, and I had to push them off the side. Eventually, I found the corpse of a giant infant its ribcage shattered handing off the stone steps. It was a little girl her had was nearly five times my size. Her bones glowed with stored fire qi. So, I did the logical thing, I stored her body in my spare bag of holding.

The stairs continued to descend until it felt like a day had passed. Eventually, I saw the light from the spirit stone I dropped. My last day had been filled with the sound of falling bodies and buzzing flies. Blood, guts, and bodies of various humans, centaurs, and monsters littered the place. Giant blind flies waited on the wall. Maggots squirmed in their trillions. Only hot ash in the center of the room remained from the once powerful flame.

“Don’t light it, the flame will consume everything.” I turned to a withered fly creature. It was the only creature in this place that had eyes. Stories upon stories of bodies piled up in this place after centuries of misuse. If I was to reach the ashes, then I needed to cross over the bodies.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. My children will hear you and attack. They may be blind, but their hearing is sharp.” The fly demon chuckled. A smile spread across my face as I thought about the shear bounty of ash this place had.