《Babel - The Path To Ascension: Heaven》Chapter 7: The Land Of Red Skies
Advertisement
They stepped into the stairwell and the doors slammed shut behind them, sealing the group in. As usual, there was a rumbling underneath them as the six of them ascended up each step. After fifteen hundred steps, they finally crested the staircase and stepped out into the eleventh world. Laurence, in the lead, made the group halt as they looked out at the land before them. Soft hills stretched out in front of them and a deep red light covered the sky, giving the plants and trees a scarlet light to them.
They funneled out of the stairwell and looked beyond, wondering how the world had become so sparse. It reminded Laurence of a slightly more florid version of the wasteland of the second floor. It had not been ravaged by the Chaos Storm, but there was something else that had torn the land asunder. It had not ruined the landscape, but there was a noticeable silence that permeated the land. There were birds, but no mammal sounds, and no insect noise. It was too quiet.
Yun looked at Laurence and the rest of the group. “There is something very wrong with this place. There is no earthlife here. No insects, or animals. There are only birds for miles around. This is very unsettling”.
“Is it something like the Chaos Storm?” Said Cleo, her heart in her mouth. She remembered that storm. It had been a nightmare to her, but she and Winoa had found a solid mound to hide inside.
“This was not a storm. Cloudbanks have come and passed, but this... this was something other. This was something worrying”. Yun frowned. Laurence understood why. There was a sense of wrongness about the land. Like someone had ripped strips of mana from the very land and air itself. Not all the mana was gone, but it was like someone had taken a plow and ripped apart the lifeline of the land. “We need to find a place where people are. We need a settlement to find out what’s wrong with this place”.
Advertisement
“Surely we should just use the pointer ring to make our way to the stele as fast as possible. This world... We should leave it quickly,” said Jim.
“I agree with Jim. We walk, and if we find why this land is like this, then we can leave with some understanding, but we should focus on leaving,” said Laurence. He held out his right hand and watched as an image of a great stone doorway appeared in front of him. Below the doorway there was an arrowhead with the number one thousand two hundred and seventeen etched below it. Everyone stared at the number and took it in. It was the largest number between steles yet, and none of them were really prepared for it.
“Four years...” said Louisa, her hand at her mouth. “At this rate, It will take centuries to climb to the top of the tower”.
“Well then, let’s get moving,” Jim replied.
They walked for three days before seeing anything like a settlement or place of rest, but eventually they came across a disused road. It stretched one way into a forest, and the other towards a flatland region with three hills popping out of the centre. They were not mountainous, but they caught the eye, as did the settlement that appeared as the group got closer and closer.
The fact that they had found a settlement was a blessing to most, but to Yun it was disconcerting. He was frowning more than ever, and Laurence could see that his heart was in his mouth. This town was the nexus, or at least a nexus of the issues that had struck this land and rent it of so much life.
With each step they took the settlement loomed closer and closer. It was not a large place, but the sense of wrongness and foreboding loomed over them. This town had been greatly affected by whatever had happened to it, but they could still not tell if it was the cause or conclusion, or even a middling point of the terrible blight that had struck the lands.
Advertisement
After about three hours from when they first caught sight of the town, they arrived at the outskirts. The town was dilapidated, roughshod with carts strewn everywhere and broken walls in half the buildings. It had been torn apart by beasts and by people obviously fearing for their life as they ran. Laurence climbed over the rubble and detritus to get a look at the main highway that ran through the settlement. It was a mess. The street was shattered. Large rocks were puncturing through the walls of the various buildings, obscuring the entrances of two of the larger buildings while leaving the skeletal remains of two or three people left to desiccate outside. There was no way to tell how long they had been dead for, but the way that the corpses had just been left under rocks or on the side of the street. The wind and rain had thoroughly scored and cleaned the surface of the sets of bones that had littered the street paths, but oddly enough there was very little plant life that grew in the city. It was like the plant life itself was afraid of growing there.
“This place is creepy,” said Cleo. “It’s setting me on edge. Something awful happened here”.
“No joke... We should look around to find out what happened. I don’t feel comfortable staying here, but it seems like whatever killed all these people has long since passed us by”. Jim frowned, hopping over to one of the buildings and peering into the dim building. “We’ve got a couple of hours until nighttime. I’d suggest holding up in here for the night and exploring in the morning. This place looks like a house”.
“I’m all for it,” said Laurence. He walked up to the building and began looking at the windows. “What are you guys waiting for? There’s got to be a way in without us disturbing anything, come help me look”. Following Laurence they all began to look over the building for ways in. One of the large rocks was in the way, blocking the doorway from them using the entrance, but other than that, the building seemed to be completely intact.
After around twenty seconds, Louisa shouted from above, “I have an entryway. There’s an open window up here”. Immediately, they all attempted to leap up to the floor above, but as they tried to soar into the aether not one of them could employ their world defying strength. “You’re going to have to climb up the side, guys. I probably should have mentioned that. The messed up mana means that we may not be as strong as we should be normally. It seems like our natural abilities are still usable, as I ended up shrinking to open this window from the inside, but our strength is suppressed. It’s bizarre”.
“Alright then,” Laurence said, and moved his hands apart. As his hands split the side of the wall pulled out and gained clear handholds. As he did this, only Cleo and Winoa looked bothered. The stared at each other in shock then back at Laurence, but they did not say anything. They followed the rest of the group and then entered the room through the window that Louisa had opened, and entered the room beyond. It was dusty, and dark, but looked like some sort of barracks that had not been lived in for a long time. Quickly the group settled down and Cleo began igniting torches to give more light to the building. Laurence sat down and immediately pulled out some food for people to eat from one of the rings on his hands. After making an impromptu fire pit, Laurence set up a grill and began grilling the meat and vegetables together on skewers.
He began handing his food round and said “I’m sorry that it’s simple, but there’s nothing else I can really cook in the situation”.
They nodded and all sat down to eat and mull over what they had seen that day.
Advertisement
She, the one (old)
There is a girl, who was born by other's deaths. A girl who just follows her fate. Not knowing what awaits her she tries to learn the meaning of her life. Not only she has to survive, she also has to fight herself, and her feelings. What will happen with our demon in this fantasy world? Hold on to your stomach, heart and mind, I'm gonna mess them all up. MORE TAGS: demoness,""reborn"", strong female mc, ""author's regret" MATURE WARNING: RAPE,GORE,VIOLENCE Temporary cover(drawn by me, original: Chaser.) Currently on HIATUS (writing other novel)
8 127Stonenanny
Infamous assassin of the past, now the next on death row. He had his chances, but loyalty towards the goal took the better of him. There was no going back now, he knew it. After death he would go back to the cycle of souls and start anew as it meant to be. Or so he thought. Assassin to hero babysitter because giving choice to others is overrated.
8 203The Sovereign (UNDERGOING REVAMP)
Rewrite: an ability to alter a physical phenomena as long as the person using it is in contact with the object…..She needs no saving.She needs no man.Betrayed, Lena Hugh died with nothing but revenge in mind. She was the ruler, the sovereign, yet she was killed by her own stupidity. How ironic.Waking up two thousand years after her death only meant one thing.She was given a second chance.But this world was no longer the world that she knew. The magic that she was used to was now forgotten, buried and replaced with technology designed to alter physical phenomena of an object while limiting individuals’ abilities.Now in a new body with a new name, ability and appearance, Lena will traverse the world of magic with nothing but her wits and innate talent.And nothing will stop Lena from reclaiming her title as The Sovereign. ..... Updates: Daily >>Newbie Writer
8 205The Darkness In Your Mind
The darkness in your mind is a novel about a killer named Harold who meets his inevitable demise and says that if he had a second chance at life he "might" not be such a bad guy he is then reincarnated into a fantasy world without the memories of his past life and gains dark powers that are extremely strong, yet despite gaining these obviously evil powers that could be used in so many wrong ways, he stays true to his word from his past life, in his own ways. Volume 3 will begin sometime in may since thats when summer vacation begins, so early may. (This is also on webnovel, I have edited my description there so it says it is on this site. Here is the Webnovel link)
8 62Beneath The Surface
Aika Robredo was a poster child: with a Masters from Harvard, a respectable career trajectory and dependable eldest daughter of the Robredo family. Everyone was telling Aika that all she had left to do was finding her 'dream guy' to settle down with until Nathaniel Lee came into the picture...with a young daughter and an ill-fated destiny with the Philippines in tow. The eldest daughter of the Philippines' most respected civil servant couple and a single father with a crippling emotional burden seemed like a total mismatch. In the face of adversities, was love really enough to overcome all?
8 72Spoken Word Poetries
sa lahat ng tula ,ikaw ang paboritong paksa.maubusan man ng mga salita ,aalayan ka pa rin ng mga talata.- A collection of the random poetries that i write. Consists of English and Tagalog poems.
8 94