Chapter 10: Home Sweet Home

I cradled Cecilia in my arms as I sped through the forest heading to where I have been staying for the past week or so. The journey on human legs would take days but for me it took only about three hours. Judging from my estimation I can move at about 40km/h at full travelling speed. I couldn’t achieve that speed in battle of course, the rapid movement of battle and the momentum from my body made it so that I couldn’t go this fast without risking falling over.

As I sped through the forest I could hear Cecilia laughing as the wind blew through her hair. I looked down and I saw her face alight with pure sincere happiness. I guess feeling the wind in your hair after being caged for years would be quite exhilarating.

We soon arrived at the opening of the cave that led to the tomb where I was “born”.

“Here we are home sweet home.” I say as I stand at the opening of the cave.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand?” Cecilia asked as she looked up at me.

“Hmmm? Don’t worry it’s not as bad as it looks on the outside.” I replied.

“I think you are seeing something I’m not…” Cecilia said as she began looking around.

“Do you not see the cave entrance in front of you?” I asked as I looked at the entrance right in front me.

“No…” Cecilia said as she casted a spell, her eyes glowed for a moment. She looked around and then she casted another spell, then another, then another… four spells later she shook her head as she looked back at me.

I put her down and reached forward towards the cave entrance.

“Ah please keep your hand there.” Cecilia said as she walked over.

She placed a hand on this barrier and I saw a barrier flicker where she touched it.

“I’m not detecting any magic, it’s a very well hidden barrier… feels like stone as well, this is a very well crafted illusion… or is it an illusion?” Cecilia said as she touched the side of my hand that was supposedly inside this stone wall that she was seeing.

“The entry is seamless, it looks like your hand is phased into the stone…” Cecilia muttered.

“Could it be? A manifestation?” Cecilia asked.

“A what?” I asked as I looked down at her.

“A manifestation is a more advanced form of illusion. Illusions are just creations of magic that mimic something but they cannot fully mimic the properties of the original. Some are better than others in mimicry but the copy is usually far inferior to the original.

Manifestations are almost perfect copies with additional properties, they are a piece of a new constructed reality. Much more complex to cast and execute. If this is truly a manifestation it should have the same properties of stone with the added ability to allow a select type of individual to enter.” Cecilia explained.

“Do you have any idea if you can go in?” I asked, this was awfully inconvenient…

“I am not sure, manifestations are ancient lost magic. The last recorded use of it was in the Elysian Empire almost 5000 years ago. The only manifestations that are found now are usually defence mechanisms held within old ruins. I suspect this is something similar...” Cecilia said as she turned to face me.

“Yeah there’s this tomb on the other side.” I replied.

“As I thought… if you are keyed for entry… perhaps… try holding me close to you and go in, but go in backwards so I don’t get crushed, just release me if you feel me getting stuck on the barrier.” Cecilia said.

“Ok… I’ll go in slowly, hopefully nothing happens.” I reply as I pull Cecilia as close as possible to my body and turn around before slowly retreating back into the cave.

Luckily for us, she went past the barrier easily… well that’s good I just got my first ally who can provide some semblance of a long term plan. It would be really awkward if she just got squished here...

“Ok… we’re in…” I say as I look down at her.

“Yes, shall we proceed?” Cecilia replied calmly.

“Can you see the other side of the barrier?” I asked as I looked down at her.

“No, it’s pitch black here, I assume for you some light is leaking in from the opening?” Cecilia asked.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of runes in the tomb, maybe you can make some sense of them.” I say as I began carrying her deeper into the cave and finally we arrived at the door.

The door was now much bigger, it was quite the shock honestly when I got back here after the first night. What was a bigger shock was that the room had changed to accommodate my larger size.

This time when I entered I saw it had done the same, the ceiling was now almost 8 metres tall and the room was as wide as a basketball court. Along the walls strange blue runes glowed, for me that was more than enough light to navigate but I have a feeling it’ll be hard for Cecilia to see in there.

“Amazing…” Cecilia said as she looked around at the runes around the room as I put her down.

Cecilia snapped her fingers and a light appeared in her hand as she held it out to have a good look around the room.

“These runes, they are old… powerful… How did you find this place?” Cecilia asked as she turned around to look at me.

“This is my home.” I replied calmly.

“But that pawn said you appeared recently.” Cecilia said.

“Some iron ranked adventurers woke me up, they somehow got through the seals to this place. They made for a nice breakfast though.” I replied.

“I see… so you have slumbered here for who knows how long…” Cecilia muttered as she looked around the room.

“Yeah, I’ve been here awhile… kind of...” I said. Cecilia paused as she turned to look at me, confused by my odd reply.

“How old are you?” Cecilia asked as she turned to face me.

“About a week old.” I replied calmly and I saw her eyes widen in shock.

“You are just a hatchling? I can see why it took every living creature in creation to ensure the extinction of the devourers. I can only imagine how powerful you will be in a year…” Cecilia said as she looked at me in awe.

“Well that depends on my meals.” I replied, this was another interesting thing about my new body.

I knew instinctively that I don’t grow per se, at least not in the sense of a human eating food and his body growing naturally over time. I eat things and I evolve, my growth is dependent on my food. No food and I don’t grow, simple….

“Hmm, then I must get you the right food, growing boy that you are…” Cecilia said with a sly smile.

“Let’s get you settled in first shall we.” I said as I let out a small laugh.

Honestly, I’m not going to lie, I kind of like Cecilia. Her odd twisted personality seems to fit nicely with my slightly psychopathic one… ok maybe a little more than slightly…

“Yes… although these runes… I have a suspicion…” Cecilia said as she walked over to a section of the wall that had this weird magic circle written on the wall.

“I think this is a control panel…” Cecilia said as she gazed at the magic circle.

“What makes you say that?” I asked as I gazed at the strange magic circle. The thing is, there were alot of magic circles all around in the room. Some were on the floor, some on the walls and there was this really big one on the ceiling. The one on the ceiling looked to be made of hundreds of small runes... What made this particular one special? Don’t get me wrong they all looked a little different, maybe she could read some of these runes.

“I recognise some of these runes… this one is Axotl, when combined with these two, Regar and Wix. This combination is common in control crystals, I don’t see this combination of runes anywhere in this room as far as I can tell. I can’t really see the runes on the ceiling clearly but it makes little sense to put a control panel up there anyway. The creators of this place needed a way to test the magic of this place.” Cecilia said as she ran her hand over the magic circle.

“Ok… but that’s three out of the twenty or so runes there…” I say as I gaze at the magic circle.

“Do you see how the runes are arranged? Linked in a triangle formation at the corners of the formation?” Cecilia said as she ran finger along each line forming a triangle.

“Yeah why?” I replied, listening intently.

“When these runes are placed like this it forms what is known as an interface control structure. All the other runes are merely command runes that run within the structure. The exterior runes also have the formation of signal nodes which implies this formation is designed to send signals to other parts of this room.” Cecilia said as she pointed at the edges of the formation.

“Ok… so do you know what to do?” I asked.

“I might… Give me a moment.” Cecilia said as she took out that cube from before and from it she summoned an old tome.

Cecilia then lifted the ball of the light into the air, leaving it floating. She then opened the tome and began to flip the pages looking for something. I stood there quietly as she read from the book occasionally looking up at the magic circle and looking back down at the tome. All the while she muttered to herself as her brow creased in concentration.

For the next hour, I just stood there as she muttered to herself and examined the magic circle.

It’s a variant… unstable though…

Rael, Hex, Rast, Igni… but why in this arrangement?

Ah it’s a stabiliser… but for what?

The variants of the runes, their excess power where does it go?

Could it be?

Yes… yes it is, the flow of power… is the formation…

Fascinating…

Finally she slammed the tome shut with a victorious smile on her face as she gazed at the magic circle.

“Figured it out?” I asked, by now I was lying on the floor and just gazed at her in boredom.

“Yes…” Cecilia said as she turned around and realised I was lying on the ground.

“Oh… how long did it take?” Cecilia asked, a little embarrassed.

“About an hour, it’s fine.” I said as I rose back up to my “standing” height.

“Ok… I should be able to mark myself as allowed within this tomb’s magic system…” Cecilia said as she tapped at the magic circle. The runes spun and glowed then suddenly they froze and began to glow brighter than before.

Authorisation Required

I heard this voice ring out in the room. Huh… this seems a little sci-fi…

“I think you need to touch this circle.” Cecilia said as she pointed at the magic circle that was now protruding from the wall and slowly spinning.

“Ok…” I said as I reached forward and touched the circle. Immediately the room began to shake and I heard that voice rumble out.

Authorisation Acknowledged

Adjusting Parameters for Human Habitation

The voice said as I saw the room seemingly shift before my eyes. The stone floor started to shift and the walls began to move. This is the first time I have actually seen the room change, previously the room was always changed when I arrived. It was oddly hypnotic to see the dark stone walls shift and move like there was some great mechanism just beyond these walls…

“Amazing… the complexity required to create such a functionality… the only ancient ruins I have read about are old and dilapidated. None of the original internal systems were still functional…” Cecilia said in awe as the room shifted.

The room grew larger and I saw what looked to be a room appear. Magic lights appeared in the room as the walls shifted and they popped out of the walls, illuminating the dark area. I saw an area of the floor open up and I saw what looked to be a fountain appear. From it sprang clear sparkling water, then a hearth with flames crackling within popped out of one of the walls.

By the end of it all, this place looked much nicer and it looked much more livable as well. Whoever designed this place knew what they were doing. I knew this place could change but I didn't think it could change like this…

“Well this looks much more hospitable,” Cecilia said cheerily as she clapped her hands.

“Huh, didn’t expect this…” I say as I look around the room.

“There’s even a bath!” Cecilia said in delight as she poked her head into the room that was formed.

I went over to the door and as I peered in I saw a steaming pool of water. I watched as Cecilia began offloading whatever she packed into her magic cube. As far as I can tell she brought everything in her personal bedroom. Soon the whole room was filled with her things,

She had a lot of books… she had enough books to fill a small library. Good thing her personal room was rather large. Then she summoned out one last thing…

From what I could see it was a small gold locket. I saw her open it and I started to sense sorrow from her as she gazed down at the locket. The sorrow slowly turned to anger, then anger became rage and rage became wrath. I saw her eyes fill with hatred as she closed the locket with a snap, her lips curled into a snarl. If looks could kill, her expression would be a bomb, a bomb primed with explosives, waiting to explode and destroy everything at just the right moment…

Then I heard her whisper under her breath as she gently put the locket onto one of the shelves. It was too soft for most to hear but I picked it up all the same.

I will make them pay

I will make them suffer

I will take what is rightfully mine...