Chapter 384: Meeting The Gate Wardens Again (Bonus PS)

The second time I entered the Caelith, I had climbed towards this location I was heading towards, and I could remember the fear of the unknown that I had experienced... I did not know what I was heading towards, and if not for the voice of the Hollow Avatar with me, guiding me towards the core of the Caelith, I know that it would have been much harder to enter this place at first.

Ah, this place had been so alien and terrifying, with rivers of blood flowing through it, and that persistent smell of iron and something else. There was no more blood, thankfully, and the Caelith now knew me... even if our connection was in another timeline, my soul persisted and held that connection.

The stones rippled in front of me as I flew through the Caelith, and the experience was a bit odd, as the black stone simply opened where I needed to go and closed behind me, over and over, so that I descended through kilometres of celestial architecture in a series of rooms that each existed for about four seconds.

The blue glow travelled with me. I noticed it was not lighting the stone. The stone was lighting itself, ahead of me, a little further each time, like somebody walking down a hall turning up lamps for a guest they were not expecting and could not refuse.

Awwnn... you did not need to roll out the red carpet for me to feel welcomed.

I shook my head, "Focus, Elric."

I stopped once, about halfway, because something in the wall to my left was a door. My senses just sank against it, and if I did not see it with my eyes, I would not have known that there was a door here.

It had a rune on it I did not recognise, and the rune was not blue like everything else. It was dull grey, and it did not respond to me at all. There was something oddly strange and familiar about this rune, and I put my hand on it and nothing happened.

Frowning, I kept this place in mind as the pulse in my chest tugged, and I took my hand off and kept going.

Somewhere behind me, the wall closed over it. I had travelled a few hundred meters before my eyes lit up... I remembered why these runes were familiar; they were the same as the runes I saw inside the flying prison used in binding the Core of the Gate Warden, used in powering that ship.

I sucked in my breath, remembering the hint of fear I had felt in the voice of the Hollow Avatar when he said that the inscription I had seen came from Abyssal Energy that represented chaos, and that it was impossible for such a thing to exist.

Then, if that was the case, why was there a Rune in front of an unknown door that could channel what I thought was Abyssal Energy?

I thought of going back to investigate the runes further, but I thought it was better to synchronise with the Caelith first; I would undoubtedly gain more information in this manner.

I kept following the blue glow, all the way, fascinated by the way it lit up the stone, and why I could not sense the sort of energy within it.

I wondered what I would uncover before this day was done.

∞

The blue light leading me slowly faded, and I descended in front of a chamber I remembered... I was right; this was truly the core of the Caelith that I had found the last time.

This space was vast, and even my enhanced sight struggled to peel back the darkness hiding in the farthest corners, and not far from me were the Gate Wardens.

Two of them, three times my height, black metal, humanoid with arms at their sides, and palms turned toward the door they have been guarding for who knew how long, without heads.

The heads are still at their feet, and the killing blow that nearly tore their bodies in two was visible.

I stood there for longer than I meant to, and I wondered how long the Caelith must have been floating in the void before they crashed into this world ten thousand years ago.

I have grown a great deal since I last looked at these two. I have crossed my body into Sovereign, comprehended a Law, imprisoned the arm of the Pale Matron, killed a Soul Flayer wearing the head of a Dragon, and so much more, and still, standing before these broken Wardens, I felt a bit... less.

Each of these was built to be equal to a Sovereign, and judging from the strength of the Celestials and what I knew of their powers, these two Wardens may be able to crush any Sovereign on this world, and yet, someone had walked up to two of these and took their heads with two cuts and no struggle at all.

Whatever came through here did not consider them an obstacle, and I have felt the shape of that thing once, in the residue of a Warden’s magic, and it is the cold between the stars, and it does not cross a distance so much as decide the distance does not apply.

It was at this moment that I froze, and I considered my magic, and the Law Shards that had appeared inside me, and I began to wonder if the sort of shards in my body were influenced by the sort of things I had seen and experienced.

I knew that I would never forget this void, and why did it seem that my magic was unconsciously mimicking one of, if not the most terrifying thing I had ever witnessed?

In fact, was my becoming a Warden related to using the Hollow Avatar to push into the souls of these beings and discovering their unwavering purpose, despite the fact that they had been broken?

"Still here," I said to them. It came out quieter than I intended.

They did not answer. Their palms were still turned toward the door. I could have pushed my mind inside them, but I held back; perhaps there would be another way to access these loyal guardians, and maybe place their heads back on their shoulders... after all, we were all Wardens.

I looked past them towards the door, and it had not changed either. A slab of black metal taller than a gate, seamless, no handles, and the last time I was here, there had been thin red lines bleeding around the edges, which was the radiance of the blood being used to poison the Jade Oracle.

I also remembered that I had to earn my way through this door with the aid of the dead Warden’s magic, after I had taken the smallest part of it into myself with Soul-Forge. Remembering this, I almost chuckled, because it seemed I had been unknowingly laying the foundations of what I would become, even at that time.

This time I got within ten feet, and the door simply opened.

"Right," I muttered. "That is going to take some getting used to."

I stepped through, and it shut behind me.