The doors led into a hallway of shifting shadows, like vines that blocked a brilliant white light in the far distance.
The two walked silently towards this light, Feo staring in awe at the strange magic around him, while the boy in black seemed focused on something far away.
"We'll get off here," the boy said, and another door appeared in front of them.
Feo hesitated, his attention now focused on the white light in the distance. "What about that? Aren't we going over there?"
The boy shook his head. "Not yet," he explained, grabbing Feo's hand gently and leading him through the new door.
They were spat out into a large stone room. Feo's eyes took a moment to adjust to the lighting. It seemed to be an altar of some sort. The statue of a religious figure, dressed in a cloak and mask, stood proudly over the altar, one hand stretched out.
From that hand, crimson water flowed down, towards an altar below. There it flowed like a red stream into several tombstones. Each of them had runic symbols glowing brightly, fed by the stream.
"What is this place?" Feo asked, taking a step closer to the altar. It smelled of moist rock and honey. Not what he expected from such an ancient-looking place.
On the walls were paintings, torn and browned by time. He could not discern which historical figures they were supposed to represent, but one thing about them was similar. In all, a figure dressed in a white cloak and an ornate mask stood behind, staring like a watchful phantom.
"This is the sanctum of the Messiah," the boy in black explained, walking past Feo towards the altar. He stopped at one of the tombstones, this one had a rune shaped like a dragon, glowing red with purple smoke breathing out of it.
Feo followed, his heart racing at the prospect of new magics. "These are... runes, am I right?" he asked. "But, no, that's not possible. The runes were lost to time," he continued.
"You mean just like this temple?" the boy in black replied.
Feo looked around with even more excitement in his eyes. In the academy, he'd studied ruins older than empires, always just beyond reach. And now, here it was. Magic not in books, but in blood and stone
"Earlier, a voice should've whispered something to you about being chosen as a candidate for the next Messiah," he continued, gesturing towards the dragon tombstone. "Come forward, and see if you hear another whisper."
Feo rushed forward. He still had many questions that needed answers, but right now, he wanted to enjoy himself. He had just been on the brink of giving up on everything... this second chance, he wanted to see and study all he could before it was taken away from him... just like everything else in his life.
He approached the tombstone and ran his fingers over it.
━━━━⊱༒︎ 『Rune of The Dragon Queen』 ༒︎⊰━━━━
Effect: Summons a fallen dragon from the Dragon Queen's army. Dragon rank scales with the user's mana pool and arcane understanding.
Flaw: Summoning is a two-way gate. The user may be summoned by the Dragon King should she see fit.
Gold Cost: 1,000,000
━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━
Feo's eyes widened at the description. 'Summoning magic? No. There's no such thing. Besides this... this implies that teleportation and time manipulation are being used as well, which makes even less—'
"Sense?" the boy in black interrupted. "Feo, if you're going to pass this exam, you'll need to get rid of the notion that you have even an inkling of an idea, on the limitations of magic."
Feo turned to look at him. 'Can he hear my—'
"Thoughts?" the boy interrupted. "No. I can't. But you and I are the same person. There are no thoughts that you have that I have not."
Feo stared at the boy with a skeptical gaze. "Okay, enough. You've healed me, offered me the thing I wanted most, and showed me this... pretty place," he said, approaching the boy. "Now, what's the catch? What is this talk of an exam? What do you want from me in return?"
The boy laughed at that. "I want what you want, Feo," he said between laughs. "You need to be worried about what he wants." The boy pointed to the statue standing above the altar, the same one in all the paintings. "And as for the exam, you will find out soon enough."
Feo studied him. "Who is that? He isn't one of the Lord's apostles, is he?"
The boy shook his head at that. "You can't call that god your lord anymore, Feo. You gave up your faith, remember," he said. "That is the Messiah, the new god."
Feo sighed at that. When the boy had mentioned being baptized again, Feo had imagined that he served another denomination. After all, in this world, different cultures revered the One-god in different perspectives. That much was apparent from how some cultures had water magic, while others could only use ice.
"So, this is one of those things? You think that just because you have a big statue, you can start a new religion?" Feo asked. "It takes more than that. You need power— real power, and you need to be able to grant it to others."
Just then, something moved in the darkness behind the statue.
Feo took a step back, but the boy in black just stared at the source with a cold expression on his face.
The sound of someone clapping followed right after. "Good, I was worried about the sort of candidate someone like you would bring back," a hoarse voice called out.
A moment later, two figures emerged from behind the statue. One was an older man, dressed in a black suit similar to the boy-in-black, however, this one was more ornate, with gold stitching and medals over the chest. Behind the man was a girl, blonde hair, blue eyes, and high-set cheekbones. She was whiter than anyone Feo had ever seen before, and dressed in a strange fur outfit.
'A foreigner?'
"Galen," the boy-in-black whispered. "I thought I heard a door creaking, it must've been your knees."
Galen scoffed, stepping forward. "What a strange similarity you two have," he whispered, studying Feo's face. "Need I remind you that clones are not allowed—"
"Clone?" Feo interrupted. "You mean cloning magic exists?"
Galen's brows furrowed at Feo's interruption. "Indeed, you two are similar in more than just looks," he said dismissively. "I will look into this further."
The girl who had been following Galen stood right beside him, studying Feo as well. She glanced at him with something colder than disinterest. In fact, he wondered whether she saw him as a human or a piece of scrap metal on the sidewalk.
Right as Feo was about to open his mouth to say something, a door, much like the one he and the boy-in-black had gone through earlier, materialized behind the group.
"The others are here," the boy-in-black sighed. "We will be starting soon. Try not to anger anyone."