Chapter 285: A Song of Light

Jacob and Maria were playing catch with a small piece of stone to pass the time.

"How long do you think they will be in there?"

Jacob caught the stone in his hands and shrugged his shoulder.

"Who knows? The thing that I’m most curious about is what sorts of things they will find in there. Think about where this place is located. We are in the middle of an infinitely vast jungle brimming with leviathan creatures where the only way to survive is by constantly fighting or hiding. Nobody with a sane mind would actively hunt this place out unless there was something hidden here that makes the dangerous trip worth it."

"Not only that, but Lidia is also supposedly the queen of this place. Wait, does that mean I’m a princess?"

"Cmon, you’re not a princess."

Maria caught the stone and stared at him confused.

"Hm? Why not?"

"Princesses are supposed to be elegant and peaceful. You’re crueler and more energetic like a war general."

Maria’s eyes glimmered in the dim light.

"You really mean that?!"

Jacob nodded his head.

"Of course I do."

Secrectly, Jacob was just teasing her. He did not expect her to have such a happy reaction to being called cruel and compared to a war general. However, that kind of thing was just like Maria, and that was what he really adored most about her. Maria was never afraid to be herself. She prepared to throw the stone back.

"I’m still pretty like a princess though, right?"

Jacob laughed.

"You are much more beautiful than a princess!"

Maria chucked the stone so hard at Jacob it shattered on his face. Luckily, he was so strong he didn’t even flinch.

"Good answer!"

Suddenly, the doors next to them started opening up slowly. Jacob and Maria both turned their bodies and looked at everyone flying out on Sheeby’s back. Sheeby was acting very strange. It was as if she was rushing to fly away from the place as soon as she could.

’Isn’t this supposed to be special to Luminators? Why does she look so scared? What happened down there?’

Maria and Jacob rushed over to where Sheeby landed. Immediately, both of them noticed the state Sarah was in. Maria rushed over to Lidia and helped her jump off Sheeby.

"What the hell happened in there?! Is Sarah okay?! Wait... what is..."

Maria and Jacob stared at their friends for a few moments before staring at each other. They wanted to confirm that their eyes were seeing the same thing. Jacob nodded his head at her to signal that she wasn’t seeing things.

"Mom... you’ve... grown quite powerful, haven’t you? What exactly happened in there? What did you all find?"

Lidia held on to her wounded shoulder and straightened her back.

"There was a staircase inside the main room. It felt like it went down for miles with multiple rooms every thirty steps or so. However, every room that we passed by had been destroyed or blocked by rubble. We assumed there must have been some sort of clash inside and that’s why the place is on lockdown. At the very bottom of the stairs, there was a room with another serpent statue along with walls of different names on them. We saw all of our names on there and they were glowing brightly. However, there was also a faded letter below all of our names."

"What was the letter?"

"It was the letter L. It looked like there was another letter starting to form right next to it, but I couldn’t see what it was."

"What about the other names? Were they glowing too?"

"That’s the thing, we were the only ones whose names were glowing. We came to the conclusion that must mean we are the only Luminators left. Well, besides whoever L could be."

Slimo cleared his throat.

"There was this other name that had a strange effect on it, but that name wasn’t glowing brightly."

Lidia sighed.

"There was one other name there whose name was dark black. However, it wasn’t really a name as much as a title. It was the name ’Traitor’. There was also this dreadful red eye surrounding its symbols. I’ll come back to that in a moment but looking at it gave me the creeps."

Jacob took Lidia’s words carefully.

’Dreadul red eye...’

"Anyway, we had Sarah read the plaque on the stone statue like what I had done to gain my powers, but the statue went crazy and hit everyone except Squabee and Sheeby with its tail.

Maria pointed to Sarah.

"Did the statue hit her eyes and mouth?!"

"Actually, while Sarah was reading the plaque, she started freaking out. The symptoms almost reminded me of what would happen when we stared at your marks. She kept yelling about how she shouldn’t have seen what she read and that we needed to leave. I think Zalo must have really hated for this information to get out."

"So, what did it say?"

"I tried asking her, but she passed out before she could answer. However, there was a single piece of the plaque left from the destruction. All it said was one word: Synopsis."

"Synopsis? Of what?"

"That’s what we were trying to figure out, but whatever this synopsis was, it had to have been important to someone powerful to get Sarah into a state like this."

Jacob cursed under his breath.

"On the bright side, it looks like her power is most likely going to be the most useful one yet."

Lidia raised an eyebrow.

"So, it worked? Sarah has a power?"

Maria squinted her eye reading the words flowing next to Sarah’s body.

"There’s... something else she has. I don’t know how to break this news lightly."

Jacob turned his head and looked at Sarah, a small bit of Sorrow grasping his heart.

Name: Sarah Frost

Serpentine: Song of Light

Serpentine Description: This user’s ears have tuned itself to hear melodies of lost clans, granting her anatomical knowledge to a god-like scale. Her hands can heal almost any wound, her concoctions cure almost any sickness, and her creations can fuel bodies for days at a time. However, this user’s power does not seem to work on themself.

[Anatomical Knowledge]: This user understands every part of the human structure.

[Helpful Hand]: This user’s hands are capable of vast wonders.

[The Truth]: Your curiosity reaps no reward without punishment. The very eyes you have used to gain such a boon shall be the very thing you give up. The very memory you have gained of this knowledge shall be stripped of your person. You did this to yourself, Sarah.

Despite the ominous meaning behind the last sentence of her curse. Jacob couldn’t help but be somewhat grateful they had a healer with them now. He spoke up before Maria could get the chance to break the news.

"Sarah is blind. I don’t know what she saw, but whatever being was protecting that knowledge didn’t like the idea of it being shared. It also seems like she won’t remember what she read when she wakes up."

Lidia stared at Jacob distraught.

"Blind? Like, forever?"

"I’m sorry, mom."

Lidia grit her teeth.

"If they didn’t want to share the knowledge, why the hell would they write it down in the first place?! That makes no sense!"

"Maybe it did want her to see it, or maybe it wanted someone else to see it. Either way, Sarah was unlucky enough to be the first. I’m really sorry."

Lidia shook her head.

"It’s my fault. I should have been the one to read the plaque. It should have been me, but I just wanted to give her a chance at gaining the power she lost! Even she was hesitant to walk up to it in the first place!"

"To be honest, the power she gained is beyond helpful. She can heal us now. From what I can tell, it’s an extremely powerful healing ability. Her cooking also appears to have been improved greatly. Even so..."

"I should have been the one. I’m sorry, Sarah."

Lidia looked down at Sarah mournfully. Slimo rested his hand on her shoulder and gave her a small hug.

"I think we should count our blessings where we have them. This situation could have turned out a whole lot worse. Lidia forgot to mention it, but there was actually a person down there."

Jacob raised his head slightly.

"A person? Like a human?"

"Indeed. There was another one of those red eyes painted on the ceiling. After the statue collapsed, a black goo dripped from its iris and built itself into a person."

"Was it the traitor? Did you fight them?"

"Well, about that. He killed himself right in front of us before we could do anything. I asked him if he was the traitor and all he did was look up at the eye, laugh, then shove his own sword through his throat."

Jacob scratched his head trying to wrap his brain around all these confusing events.

’Sarah was blinded, everyone appears to have been blessed with stronger powers, a man killed himself, there was a traitor in the Luminators, and there’s a weird eye symbol floating around? I think my head is going to explode if any more information tries entering it.’

Jacob didn’t say anything, but ever since he had become incapable of forgetting anything, his mind always felt like it was trying to shove information inside of it that didn’t fit. He had constant headaches and sometimes felt lightheaded because of it. Even so, he tried his best to not let it bother him.