《Ashes of Empires》Chapter 135 - Inside
Advertisement
At that time at unknown location.
"They are going in again", a voice said with some corcern. "Do you think its this time?"
"You know as well as I do that we aren't able to know that", another voice replied.
"Neither was I able to sense anyone matching among them", a third voice added.
"Then we can only watch as usual", the second voice replied.
--------
Considering how the entrance worked where Kaden had entered, it made sense that no one else followed him and Emina into the same path. Despite this, Kaden could hear fighting and also some shocks as something exploded. This gave him idea to try making his own paths, but nothing seemed to break when he tried to, for example, shoot a wall.
"This entire place is infused with mana", Emina told Kaden. "If you compared this place to a person, it would at least be an Archmagus. Your attacks wouldn't even count as an annoying mosquito bites. Nothing will break unless its is 'intended' to break or will restore itself right away."
"No harm trying", Kaden replied. "Do you expect this place to follow any rules?"
"No, but if it follows some rules, its the rules of mana", Emina replied.
Kaden chose not to reply. There was also little sense trying to determine where the sounds and explosions happened. In fact, Kaden was pretty sure, if he listened carefully enough, he could hear things that probably didn't exist. Everything inside the remnant was completely messed up.
Also, Kaden and Emina quickly noticed things were not going what one could say 'well'. They had been inside that corridor for quite a while, but had found no end. In fact, they could not see the end, but neither the start of it.
"This isn't good", Kaden muttered.
Luckily Emina had a solution. The same object she used previously back at the void. Kaden wanted to ask more details of it, but didn't.
"It picks up connection even here", Emina said calmly. "Perhaps this place isn't some spatial trap, if it can get a signal. I recommend we continue moving."
Kaden didn't have any better ideas so he followed Emina. The corridor didn't seem to change at all, but eventually Emina slowed down.
"The connection is stronger here for some reason", she said as she looked around.
"Are you sure that trinket isn't malfunctioning?" Kaden told Emina. There were no visible changes. "I feel like we have been at the same spot for the entire time."
Emina frowned, but said nothing.
"Hmmm, then again, we did get here somehow", Kaden said after thinking for a while. "They way back looks exactly the same, but perhaps we can return and chalk this up as bad luck to pick endless corridor out of all the possiblities that were available in the distorted space."
Kaden turned around without even waiting Emina's reply. After a few steps something happened. There suddenly was a door on the side.
Advertisement
"What the hell?" Kaden muttered.
Emina turned around too and was just a surprised. They should have seen the obvious door along the way, but it was never there... until they turned back.
"We better take this chance", Kaden said after a while. "Who knows if we will find another door ever again."
"I agree", Emina replied.
Just before they were about to open the door, they heard sounds from behind it. It seemed some people were in wherever the door led to.
"... are just dried up corpses", a voice said. "I don't wish to join them. This place is creepy. We should go and find something actually useful."
"They could have something valuable", another voice replied. "I'd rather pick stuff from these bodies than kill some saints for stuff."
That does it. Wherever the door led, it was out of the infinite corridor. Not only that! There were people from Sacronan to kill!
"We will go in and surprise them", Kaden told Emina.
Kaden quickly opened the door instead of simply crashing through, even if it didn't look very tough externally. He wouldn't mess his surprise by slamming against a possibly impenetrable door and alarm the people inside in a pathetic manner.
"What? There was a door?!" One of the Sacronan's soldiers inside managed to shout just before Kaden slammed against him. Luckily for the soldier, he had some defensive spell that triggered around then and Kaden's talons only caused minor external wounds and was able to step back and prepare for next attack.
Emina played her quitar and was dealing with the other soldier. The sound based spells were already making that soldier's ears bleed. That soldier was basically incapacitated.
Kaden quickly observed rest of the room. It was very clean, no any sort of damage visible. White walls, chairs around a table. A few cupboard in the corner. In general a very slick appearance. It was like a meeting room. What was not something fitting in a meeting room were the mummified corpses sitting in the chairs. Some of them looked extremely old, but were clearly not ancients. Possibly people from previous times the remnant had been open?
Still, he was fighting and he had no time to do more than that quick observation.
Kaden's opponent proved to be stronger than he had expected. The soldier seemed to be good at defensive magic. Kaden still he had the advantage, but the soldier from Sacronan still had to be at least of similar strength to his own. Emina's seemed weaker, though. If he wasn't able to end it by then, with Emina's aid the soldier would be doomed.
The room stayed strangely intact and pristine through the entire thing. Even by the time Emina's opponent was bleeding from all of his orifices and was dead on the floor, the blood didn't seem to stay there for long.
Noticing the death of his companion, Kaden's opponend was starting to throw everything he had at Kaden and attempt to get away. He took an advantage when Kaden used a Flame Burst to knock him away. He allowed himself to get further than expected. Due to this he crashed against the cupboards in the corner.
Advertisement
The cupboards were almost as high as the room and had large doors on them. As the soldier from Sacronan crashed against these doors, they shattered unexpectedly like normal wooden doors. Considering the place, this could have been strange, but what happened then was the stranger thing.
With a horrified scream the soldier fell into some kind of darkness that seemed to just exist within the cupboard.
Kaden who had leaped after to continue fight, stopped just in front of the cupboards. He looked inside and there was nothing in there. It seemed a bit too familiar in comparison to the void he had just seen at Brit, but it wasn't the same. He could still hear the screaming from the soldier that was starting to quiet down as the soldier kept falling deeper into... whatever place the dark and empty place was.
"What the hell...", Kaden cursed and stepped back.
Emina took a few steps closer and to get a look.
Around at that time, the wooden fragments of the cupboard door shuddered and started to float. Kaden and Emina both leaped back. There was no telling what was going to happen. The wooden fragments then collected back to the cupboard and 'unbroke' itself, if thats a word. It seemed like the breaking process went backwards rather than it repairing itself.
Both Kaden and Emina stood there for a moment quietly not sure how to react.
Yet again the remnant was messing with their sense of logic.
"Lets just leave", Kaden said. "We also should pay attention to any objects we see from now on."
Emina nodded with agreement.
Yet, the oddities were not over yet. As they were going towards the second door, the one the soldiers from Sacronan had to have used, something happened.
*CRASH*
Kaden and Emina prepared for a fight, but it proved unnecessary. Something had fallen through the ceiling panels. It was a mummified corpse and it somehow landed on sitting pose on one of the empty chairs in the room. It looked just like the others.
As the ceiling panels reformed just like the cupboard, Kaden noted that the mummified corpse looked familiar. Indeed, it was the soldier from Sacronan who had fallen into the darkness.
"Could it be that the darkness sucks things out of all life and vitality and then spits them out?" Kaden said question outloud.
Emina went closer and examined the newly appeared mummy.
"This seems... old. Very old", Emina said after a while. "He fell in there just a few moments ago, but this body is old. The body, the clothes its wearing. Everything shows degradation that happens over long period of time."
Emina looked closer.
"Cause of death is a cut on his neck", she then pointed out. "There are some remaining blood stains on the clothes. I do believe he commited a suicide."
Kaden had no idea what to say.
"The time for someone to of his cultivation level to mummify and degrade into this condition is extremely long", Emina continued. "I can only guess that what seemed like a moment or us, the body probably spent unknown length of time in there. Hundreds of years probably. Perhaps that darkness was some incredibly long spatial tunnel or loop. Not that I know much of spatial manipulation, but considering how this place and its internal spatial structure is, I wouldn't be surprised."
Then she turned to look at Kaden.
"What would you do if you found yourself inside dark emptiness with no way out?" Emina asked. "Would you wait until you perish due to lack of nutrients? Or would you perhaps eventually choose to die? Regardless, your body would have more than enough time to mummify."
"I have no plans of jumping in there so I won't bother thinking about it", Kaden replied. It was an irrelevant question.
Instead he went to open the door away from that creepy meeting room. At least this time the outside looked normal and not some infinite space distortion. He also could hear fighting, but with a quick look outside, it wasn't right there.
"I recommend we continue going deeper", Kaden told Emina. "Rooms such as this one are not only deadly, but most likely contain nothing valuable, because all of it, if there was ever any, has been looted likely in ages past each when the remnant opened previously. There had clearly been visitors before. We need to go deeper to find ones that no one ran into before."
"Danger also increases", Emina pointed out.
"Such is the way of things", Kaden replied. "Weaklings will not reach that far. Powerful ones do. I do not wish to be a weakling."
Emina didn't refute the point as she followed Kaden out of the room.
Not long after Kaden and Emina started running into corpses. It seemed they had originally picked a tunnel that very few or likely no one else did. The others had likely ran into each other and started killing each other. Not only that, but along the way they also saw more of the bizarre things. There were literally tears in space leading into ... things. From far away they even watched someone be dragged inside by tentacles that seemed to be two dimensional lines in appearance seemingly be something that a child would have drawn with colorful crayons.
Minor remnants were active everywhere. In fact Kaden assumed almost every room, possibly even the corridors they were in, were minor remnants with different levels of mana stagnation and available concepts. Luckily the pathways at least were something that were passable.
Still Kaden wanted to press on. The deeper the better.
Advertisement
- In Serial49 Chapters
Sorcery in Boston
The timid daughter of some of the greatest spellcasters ever to have lived has found herself in another world, courtesy of magic gone awry. In Boston, Massachusetts, in the year 1935, she finds some kind souls in a hard era. In the heart of the Great Depression, as war looms around the corner, she seeks to find her place, and must come to terms with both who she is and what she truly desires. Author's Notes: Release Note: I recently realized what the hold up is. My current mental state is not compatible with the planned ending. If I wrote the ending according to what currently feels right, it will be a wretched, cruel ending that feels monstrously unfair and invalidates the work of the various characters... because that's how my life feels at the moment. The planned ending is coming out hollow and awkward, no matter how I write it, and so I've been bashing my head. I will finish it, once I manage to either brute force something decent out, or once my head gets screwed on straight. Audience: This story is not for young children - it contains some profanity, sexual content, violence, gore, and significant adult themes. Most of these are handled delicately enough not to upset teens or adults (hopefully), hence the lack of relevant tags, but it is nonetheless unsuitable for youth. It's fairly slow paced, and focused on the development of very human, very flawed individuals. Length / Completion Estimates: The outline currently involves two books. Book 1 is expected to be done with Chapter 43. It'll probably be completely finished by sometime in March of this year. I expect to move on to the far-more-lighthearted Of Gods and Dungeons (currently in progress / on hiatus). Afterwards, I may decide to redo Book 1, or write Book 2, or actually start sharing the story most dear to me, that I've been working on for several years now. Draft 1: Please be aware that this is first draft material. I do intend to come back to do a second draft after the story is complete. If anyone notices any issues whatsoever with the story, please let me know (pm, etc) so that I can improve the second draft. Writer's Pledge: I've taken the Writer's Pledge, meaning I'm commiting to completing this story. I'm a proud member of WriTE, a group dedicated to finishing stories. It will be done! Behind the Scenes notes: This picture was commissioned from an inked artist by the name of DanP. Up until the time of the protagonist's arrival, history has proceeded as before. Some places and characters have been borrowed from wikipedia entries of interesting figures from the time. I will make note in the chapter comments when such things come up. Naturally, I've taken a great deal of liberty with them. In interest of respecting individuals, I've either attempted to portray them as accurately as possible, or modified them sufficiently enough that they're simply an inspiration, instead of a real portrayal. I've attempted to be as accurate to the era as possible, but I'm not a historian. If you're aware of inaccuracies, please, bring them to my attention so that I can correct them.
8 118 - In Serial2241 Chapters
The 3rd Law of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2
In which we find the Science behind the Dao. An average Xianxia with sprinkles of sciences, memes and lots of avatar and pokemon references. *** Uploads whenever I'm alive. Typically M-W-F
8 1046 - In Serial12 Chapters
The Fate Eater
What might a man really do if he found himself reincarnated into a fantasy world as a dragon prince? How would he come to terms with his new nature, his larger-than-life family, the agendas of warring factions, and the destiny he never asked for? This is a story that intends to defy some isekai tropes, but play into others. It's mainly about exploring a rich hand-crafted world, full of its own history and mysteries. Its characters have their own lives and aspirations, and our protagonist is but a piece of the greater tapestry. This story is not about right and wrong, or good and evil. It's about a dragon-man being tested by fate, power, and time. It's about what it's like to live as an outsider who lost their home. But perhaps the most central theme is freedom. What does freedom really mean? What will it cost and how much might one be willing to pay for it? Does it even truly exist? Let's find out together.
8 340 - In Serial25 Chapters
Starchild
“It’s life’s illusions I recall. I really don’t know life at all.” from the song, Both Sides Now, by Joni Mitchell Starchild is an adventure novel set within an understanding of reality that is rooted in Eastern spiritual traditions.It takes as its starting point experiments in remote viewing that were genuinely undertaken by the American military in the nineteen-nineties under the name of the Stargate Project. It then imagines how a more advanced attempt to weaponise the capabilities of consciousness might have been developed in the present day.The story then explores how Ultimate Reality might respond to such a threat.Deep, elemental forces thus bring together Samantha Martin and Sahadeva Varma, old colleagues from the Stargate Project, to avert the apocalyptic consequences of this military attempt to weaponise consciousness. This fast-paced story spans genres including romance, action, adventure, science fiction and more. Although this story is based on concepts drawn from established spiritual traditions, these have sometimes been extrapolated to the point of very extreme speculation for the needs of an adventure story.Much of the underlying philosophy, however, as explained in the dharma talks given by Samantha Martin, is paraphrased from the guidance of respected spiritual teachers. Scheduling: Starchild is a previously unpublished novel of one hundred thousand words which was serialised in weekly instalments over twenty-five weeks from 15th November 2021 to the 29th April 2022. Each instalment contains five chapters – an average of approximately four thousand words in each instalment. Acknowledgements: All the mandala images, with one exception, were drawn by Brian Huggett using the Spirality mandala drawing application. The mandala associated with chapter 82 and which occupies the centre of the front cover of Starchild is attributed to Jgmoxness, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons. The comet image is derived from a photograph by Marco Milanesi downloaded from Pexels. The cover image was assembled from these images by Brian Huggett.
8 108 - In Serial19 Chapters
Bright Feather
I'd like to say something like this is a unique story, blah-blah, but it's not. The story itself is your typical fantasy story with magic, fightings, plot armors, good friends, beautiful ladies and whatever there always is in such stories. I pretty much enjoy typical stories. So I've decided to write one myself. The only thing is the story isn't going to be centered about the Main Character. So let's leave all of the above to him, we'll meet him eventually anyway. This is the story of MC's counterpart. While our greatest Main Character conquers the world, cultivates, and whatever else, what does his destined other half do? Sit and stoically wait for him to come out of the closed door cultivation? Really now... Just thought it might be interesting to write such a story. Let's see if I manage. I'm new to this so, dear readers, please, don't be harsh on me. But if you have some words for me, so I can improve, don't keep them to yourselves, all help is deeply appreciated.And I officially promise to be very slow and inconsistent with releases (myriads reasons for this.) But I'll still do my best to finish the story someday. WARNINGS! (I thought a lot, and in the end, I'm putting it here. Better safe than sorry.) First of all, you can probably easily guess, but English is not my native language. And everything that comes with it. I don't think that it excuses me though, so I will improve with time, but warning you nevertheless. Second: No harem, no BL, no Romance And the last but not least: Beware of psychological pressure on characters and characters' deaths. Not much, in my opinion, but still, if you're overly sensitive to violence or mind games, better drop before starting. In any case, you've been warned. With all the above said, welcome, and enjoy.
8 164 - In Serial49 Chapters
Lost time (eremika au)
Everything comes to an end for better or for worse, unfortunately Eren and Mikasa's friendship came to an end and it was not for the better. After leaving in the middle of freshman year of high school Eren and Mikasa's friendship is nothing but memory's. They are merely strangers again and strangers with a burning hatred to each other. Who would have thought their paths will cross again four years later? Better yet when no one was expecting it. Tension will be high, drama will rise and tears will come. #1 in Eremika (May 2021)#1 in Mikasa Ackerman (June- August 2021)#3 in gossip (January 2022)(these characters are not mine they are Hajime Isayamas)(Cover by _sweetspicy_ on Twitter)
8 618

