Chapter 59: Forgotten City [9]
Aegon stared right back at him and nodded.
"That’s it."
Chrome, hearing his confirmation, turned to the building as they stopped walking.
He stared at the untouched building and thought in his heart.
"This doesn’t make sense. How can we be in a loop?"
He had thought he spoke in his heart, but he didn’t, as his voice was audible that Aegon could hear him.
"It is probably the ability of some kind of monster." Aegon replied.
"They know we are trying to make it to the castle, therefore they are using all they can to stop us."
Chrome turned to Aegon after he heard Aegon’s words.
"What do we do?" he asked.
"Hmph... never thought this was going to be easy." Aegon began. "And I don’t think it will be simple either. But we have to play with them."
Chrome was puzzled as the words came out of Aegon’s lips.
’Play with them? What does that mean?’
Aegon saw his puzzled expression and knew he had to explain to him because at his current level, there was no way he could understand it.
And so, Aegon continued.
"We have walked around this loop three times, maybe even more, counting before we knew it was a loop. And yet, there doesn’t seem to be a loophole."
"What do you mean?" Chrome asked, puzzled.
Aegon pointed to the untouched building.
"That! That building plays a crucial role in this loop and since we can’t find the loophole outside, then it means we have to go inside."
Chrome’s eyes widened as he heard these words, "Go inside?" he asked, confused and worried.
"Yes. If we want to break the loop we need to enter that building and face what has been installed for us."
Aegon had already done the analysis. Before Chrome knew they had been in a loop, he had already known and begun to find a loophole.
However, there wasn’t any. Then the thought came to him when he first pointed at the untouched building, to Chrome.
He knew that this building played the obvious and biggest role, and that the loophole was surely there.
’It is almost as if the person who designed the loop is telling us to come and find them. But it could also be a trap.’
Aegon put his hand down and stared at Chrome, then back at the untouched building.
Then he began walking to the building and stopped at its front. Chrome’s eyes followed him but he didn’t move.
While in front of the building, Aegon looked around it carefully. It was intact and clean, almost to a fault.
’It is almost as if the building is newly constructed. The windows are closed, and clean. No dust is on them, or even the door or the entire building itself.’
"Hmph, this is definitely a trap."
Aegon turned his neck and looked at Chrome. He didn’t say anything but Chrome understood and began walking towards him, then stood at his left side.
Now, they were both at the front of the building, at the doorstep and were ready for whatever was to come.
"Stay alert, we don’t know what might appear after we open it."
Aegon said this and materialized the dagger into his left hand from thin in.
Chrome noticed the sudden appearance of the dagger and was dumbfounded. He didn’t know where Aegon had drawn it from and could only conclude it appeared from thin air just like he saw before.
’So I wasn’t crazy?’
Aegon raised his right hand and placed it on the door handle, then he felt a massive flow of mana on the door.
After that, he could feel that the entire building was made up of mana. Strange and highly concentrated mana, that he couldn’t believe it.
And while he was about to think much of it, his hand pulled the door handle and the door opened.
"What?"
Chrome was shocked to see the inside of the building.
It was very dark and thick, even as the blood moon bathed into the house, the light didn’t pass through as the darkness absorbed it.
"Hm."
Aegon was not puzzled, but he expected this. Of course, it wasn’t going to be a playground that would appear.
They were in the abyss, and this place was full of mysteries and everything was deadly. So there was no way a monster or being, who was dragging them into a building and would have prepared a playground for them.
"Be careful."
Aegon stood still as he felt confident. Even if he couldn’t see the inside, he knew what something was inside.
"Let’s go in."
Just as he said this, they both stepped and moved their legs but didn’t land on any surface. Realizing this, they immediately fell down into a deep darkness.
Chrome was screaming as he was taken by surprise.
However, Aegon, although it was dark and he couldn’t be seen; had had his hands folded while standing straight with his trench cold dancing with the flow of his movement.
They continued to fall for what felt like ten seconds and Aegon was hearing the cry of Chrome’s voice.
However, just a little after fifteen seconds Aegon’s legs touched down on the ground, and although he almost fell upon impact, he regained his balance.
"It is pure dark."
His surroundings were pure dark as he looked around, and couldn’t even see a damn thing, it was indeed black.
"Chrome... can you hear me?" he spoke, but there was no response.
"Chrome!"
Aegon shouted his name but there was no response from Chrome again.
"Chrome!!"
He wanted to move forward but since it was very dark he couldn’t risk it, since he wouldn’t know if he was just going to fall into another pit.
"He’s not here, huh?"
Since there was no response again after the third call, Aegon had concluded that Chrome wasn’t with him.
Then he summoned the system; it was bright but only illuminated a part of him and could barely light the entire place.
However, that wasn’t why he summoned it. He went to the inventory, pulled out his bag and brought out a torch which he had prepared beforehand.
"Since I didn’t have money to buy a phone yet, this was the best I could get."
He switched on the torchlight and his entire front view was illuminated with light.
"As expected...."
In front of him was a straight path. It wasn’t wide, but very long. The walls were moisture looking and the ground was wet with water.
"It looks like I’m in a tunnel."
He raised the torch above his head and looked upwards, but there was a roof above his head, the place which he had just fallen from wasn’t there at all.
"Hm. As expected of a building constructed with mana."
Aegon began walking forward, while he thought inwardly.
’Both I and Chrome fell at the same time, but didn’t land in the same place.’
’It is obvious, and I am certain now. Whoever is making this happen is surely smart, and definitely isn’t a mere monster.’
’But, even if it was a monster, then it is one with a high level of intelligence. Separating me and Chrome like that? That was a calculation indeed.’
Aegon had already been walking for a long time. He didn’t know how much time it was, but it was indeed long.
Just then, began hearing a sound coming from far beyond and recognized it as the;
"Sound of a stream."