Chapter 546: Nothing Creepy About a Stone Daddy
They walked into the third room, more out of curiosity than anything. To their surprise, it was almost empty. The only feature was a pedestal in the middle, around which was drawn an intricate magic circle. A single pebble stood on the pedestal. The moment they entered, the pebble cracked open to reveal a mouth, and its booming voice washed over them.
“Welcome, monsters! Experience my three trials of Will to—”
“Franky?” the Stone’s voice echoed in Jack’s mind. A moment later, surprise turned into joy. “Franky!! It’s you!”
Jack laughed. He summoned the Stone from his inner world, covering it in a bubble of stable space to save it from the pressure. “Franky!!” the Stone exclaimed again as it appeared, falling to the ground and rolling towards the pedestal.
The pebble paused. “Stone?” it muttered, then again, “Stone!”
The pebble fell off its pedestal, and it too rolled on the ground, crashing into the Stone in what could charitably be described as a hug. All sense of awe was cut short as the two pebbles rolled around each other, talking excitedly and enjoying their reunion.
“And that’s how I graduated Daddy’s teachings! I then spent the last three hundred million years guarding this chamber,” Franky said. His voice was slightly deeper than the Stone’s. “It was a bit boring. I started talking to myself.”
“Oh my gods, me too!” the Stone exclaimed. “I was riding that broken meteor shuttle for like a billion years!”
“At least you had a view,” Franky said, spinning towards the brown walls around him.