Chapter 188 - Bad Luck

The hairs on the back of Argus’ neck stood on end as he heard the strange voice echo back his words.

“Who’s there?” Argus called out, reaching over to the lantern and grabbing it. It burst into a bright blue flame once more as fog billowed out, rapidly covering his body.

Tiny galaxies spun in his eyes as he cast his gaze about the room frantically, but he failed to see any mysterious presences lurking in the shadows of reality. What’s more, he didn’t sense any stray thoughts that he normally would if there were someone in his presence.

Just as he thought he might have imagined the echo, a voice quietly repeated, “Who’s there? Who’s there?”

A soft giggle echoed through the chamber, .

Above!

Argus’ eyes shot up to the ceiling as a shadow passed over his head. It swooped down along the walls like a stream of water, pouring onto the fluttering parchment attached to the stone walls.

It flowed across the tattered papers, bouncing curiously from rune to rune as if reading each one before passing on. Each time it bounced the sound of tiny, dull bells tinkled playfully. After circling the room it trickled down to the base of the wall and examined the chalk circle that Argus had drawn for his spell.

Argus stood in a guarded stance as he quickly evaluated the situation.

Giggling… bells… These are the sounds that I heard at the beginning of my ‘ritual’… Did I really attract an astral plane entity?

Based on its appearance, movement patterns and the fact that it only echoed his words, Argus had two guesses as to what this entity was, both were monsters that lived deep within the void.

The first possibility was a Rattler. This monster was territorial, typically lying dormant in its nest until disturbed. Once a prey approached, it would wake and try to mimic the sounds of its target to make it come closer. The telltale sign of a rattler was the sound of jingling that it would start to make when it became excited for the kill. Typically the rattling would be last thing a person would hear before it lunged out of hiding, tearing the victim into many pieces and devouring them on the spot.

The second possibility- Forget it!

Argus cut his analysis short as he bolted for the wall which originally housed the fog door that led out into the entrance hallway. His heart was beating out of his chest as he inwardly fought against the urge to cry out in fear. It was his bad luck that he’d attracted a terrible creature from the void, but the saving grace was that void creatures did not or could not venture far from their territories in the astral plane.

Even though Argus had released the connection to the Astral plane, there was still a lingering attunement. If Argus could escape from the chalk circle, the monster, Rattler or not, would not be able to follow him. As the connection to the Astral plane dissipated, the chamber would once again be safe.

The shadow on the wall caught Argus’ sudden movement and reared up. Two long, slender arms with clawed fingers spread up across the ceiling as Argus pulled out the golden astrolabe and infused his spirit into it. The emblem of the six petaled flowers blossomed on the wall in front of him as a doorway was outlined in fog.

Argus didn’t even wait for the doorway to completely form before he dived into it. The two clawed arms sliced down at him, gouging deep into the stone walls and floor. Argus’ body was cloven cleanly in two - but it was just an illusion that concealed his true location!

Argus tumbled through the doorway, hitting the stone flooring hard on the other side.

As soon as he passed through the doorway he deactivated the astrolabe, which caused the fog door to flicker and quickly disperse. His appearance returned to normal as he released the cloak of concealment. Fog stopped billowing out of the lantern as the empty room was illuminated in an orange glow.

Argus lay sprawled out against the cold stone floor, staring up at the ceiling as he caught his breath. His heart was pounding so heavily that he could scarcely hear himself think.

“That was close…” He spoke out loud to himself after recovering a bit, his speech interrupted by deep breaths, “Normally my Cloak of Concealment is enough to hide my presence from unwanted attention… The past history hidden in that room must have been buried extremely deep in the astral plane… Thus increasing the danger several fold… That was most certainly a Rattler… what bad luck!”

“In any case, I am whole and unharmed.” He slowly stood up and brushed himself off, a gloomy look on his face, “Though not any better off for the amount of danger I put myself in…”

Despite delving so deep into the past, after examining the information revealed by the Light of True History he found he had not gained much insight at all. A mysterious Angel of Fate guided him to complete a ritual to split his soul, saying it was for his own good…

“I was clearly not in a good state of mind back then… Was she truly a friend, or simply manipulating me to my own demise?” Argus muttered, “Based on our conversation, this wasn’t the first time my soul was split… Were the other parts of my soul hidden away as well? If I can recover those pieces, perhaps my questions can be answered…”

The memory of a majestic landscape bubbled up in his mind. Tall, jagged mountains dominated the western horizon. Dramatic plateaus cut with fjords and rocky cliffs spread out underneath the mountains. Little villages and towns  dotted the landscape, surrounded by fields covered in grass and wildflowers, connected by winding roads and bridges that spanned the sharp terrain. Foamy, vibrant blue seas splashed against a rocky coastline that surrounded the plateaus and mountains on all sides.

Atop one of the lower mountain peaks, a pearly tower shone under a blazing sun, a beacon of power and strength that was the crown of a majestic white castle. A winding, multi-tiered town with white walls and grand structures cascaded down the mountain, the capital of this island kingdom.

“These memories were locked away in that room… They must be five hundred years old.” Argus reminisced, “This is the kingdom of Ying Chu… Before it became the Ashlands…”

As Argus contemplated to himself and mulled over his memories, he failed to notice a shadow creep out from the base of the lantern. It crept along the floor, staying behind Argus as it quietly merged into his shadow.

“What-“Argus’ spiritual intuition triggered, his hand instinctively reaching into his pocket as it began to glow with a bright blue light.

He pulled out the astrolabe and flipped open its lid to see that it had spontaneously activated. Its two arms spun chaotically as a beam of light burst out and illuminated the stone door. The geometric pattern composed of overlapping six petaled flowers glowed bright as the door began to swing outward with the heavy crunch of stone against stone.

The brightness of daylight bloomed through the door as an icy wind blasted a flurry of snow into the room. Argus shielded his eyes as he blocked the gust. Several light grey flakes landed in his hand, that smudged as he rubbed them between his fingers.

“…Ashes?”

Argus’ brows knit together as he stared out the doorway, scarcely believing his eyes. A dramatic vista filled with fjords and rocky cliffs spread out before him to the horizon, where a range of jagged mountains cut sharp shapes in the sky.

This landscape was unique in the entire world. Without a doubt, Argus was staring out at Ying Chu, though he couldn’t comprehend how. The kingdom was hundreds of kilometres away across the Altic Sea.

Argus stepped up to the doorway and peeked his head out.

The late afternoon sun was pale and weak, shining down on the landscape. In his memories, this land was hauntingly beautiful, with many strange flowers and wide, grassy fields. But that Ying Chu did not exist anymore.

The land in front of him right now was bleak and grey and devoid of life. The cold wind bit into his skin and smelled of charcoal and sulfur. Every part of the land was covered in a blanket of ash.

“This isn’t just a temple… It’s a dimensional pocket…?” Argus had an epiphany. The Angel who this temple belonged to clearly was attuned to the same elements that he was. Perhaps they even shared the same pathway.

Argus’ dimensional pocket existed in Noga and formed the basement of the import shop network that he ran. It did not exist in the real world but was inextricably linked to it, with exits that connected it to the physical world.

Argus glanced down in wonder at the golden astrolabe, unsure what caused it to spontaneously activate and how it changed the door’s exit point. As he looked down, he suddenly saw the edge of a shadow slip into his sleeve.

“Ahh!” He cried out, raising his arms as he nearly dropped the astrolabe in surprise. He didn’t have time to figure out what the shadow was when a hoofed foot suddenly materialized behind him and kicked him through the door.

A mischievous giggle crackled in various points in space around him, accentuated by a number of jingling bells.

The sun shone brightly above as Argus hit the ground outside the door and bounced down a rocky, ashen slope. The lantern was flung out of the door after him and clattered down the slope.

Argus skidded to a stop, leaving a swath of disturbed ash behind him. As soon as he gathered his bearings he launched himself to his feet and scrambled up the hill toward the door.

The door was inset into a decorative arch that on the side of a crumbling stone watch tower. The three other walls were already completely broken down, leaving only the wall with the arch free standing. The dark, hallowed space beyond the door disappeared as it slammed shut just as Argus reached it.  The flower sigil engraved in the center of the wall flickered as the energy dissipated, until it disappeared without a trace.

Argus’ first thought was to reopen the door and escape from this strange environment. He instinctively reached into his pocket to pull out the astrolabe, but it wasn’t there. He frantically patted down his pockets before rushing back down the slope, looking for the special item.

“Looking for something?”

“Are you looking for something?”

“What are you searching for?”

A number of playful, childlike voices spoke up around him, layering on top of each other.

“Who are you?” Argus shouted, inwardly panicking as he realized that the shadowy entity in the room had actually managed to follow him out of the chalk circle. This wasn’t a simple monster, and it absolutely wasn’t a Rattler like he had originally guessed. Somehow between launching him out of the room to now it had stolen his only way back.

He grabbed onto his lantern and injected his spirituality into it to activate his shroud. To his surprise, nothing happened. The lantern remained dead and unlit. He tried again, with no result. He tried to activate his spiritual vision to scan for the presence of the entity - nothing.

The entity hadn’t just taken away his astrolabe. Without him even realizing it, his powers of concealment and revealing had been stolen from him!