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Chapter 12 - [The First Ritual]

Flame stared…

But this time, it was different.

He wasn't staring in the darkness anymore, feeling the frightening sensation of being a blind. No! he was actually seeing something.

After Flame fell from the thick root, he landed on the warm stoned ground and instantly fell asleep.

That felt like one of the best sleeps of his life. Even though his stomach was wriggling from hunger and his parched throat let out dry coughs, Flame felt his whole body relaxed and warm. When he woke up, he was instantly greeted with the side effects of extreme exhaustion.

But for Flame that muscle pain wasn't anything compared to the horror he faced while hanging down on a root of the huge ancient tree, none less inside a thick blanket of suffocating darkness.

And of course, without a right hand!

Fortunately, he didn't mull on the pain for long as his eyes fell on a different wonder.

Huge pillars of an unknown stone stood stalwart all around the place, supporting the ancient stone-roofed ceiling. A myriad of colors, including gold, silver, crimson, violet and various other contrasting colors splashed chaotically on the magically glowing ceiling, forming something akin to a sacred geometry.

A comforting warmth permeated in the entire hall as a soft orange glow filled the residing air.

Under the naked feet of Flame, the floor was slightly dark due the dusted soot from the charred roots of the colossal tree.

Who knew that the roots extended even deep into this majestic hall!

The entire structure felt like it was enveloped in the countless fire torches or cressets, like some forbidden underground passage, but strangely there seemed to nothing which could act as the source of light.

It almost felt like, the Fire had been removed from this place, but the light and warmth provided by it remained firm and stubbornly stuck to the ancient stone walls.

however Flame didn't notice anything. he didn't look at the marvels of the ancient architecture, he didn't look at the abnormally glowing stones in the majestic hall, nor did he looked at the esoteric sacred geometry on the roof.

His eyes were fixated somewhere else.

Surrounded by the tall pillars, the center of the hall suddenly dipped, almost caving into the floor in a sophisticated rectangular pit. Inside the pit, the pure serene water glistened as the stubborn glow of the Fire danced intermittently.

As the other remnant of Fire remained there, the warmth, wisps of orange floated high into the air, before forming into tantalizing steams and disappearing with a woosh! sound.

The whole setup could have been considered ethereal, divine or like a sacred palace of some deity… if not for the fact that it was located somewhere in the depths of a ruined world.

A world behind the Rift.

Flame briefly remembered the Elixir pond, the lecherous leech, before quickly forgetting them both. he ignored the uncanny similarity of the obnoxious Elixir pond and the artificial pool of warm water presented him, and quickly ran forward without a second thought

Pah!

The water splashed all around the ancient hall and empty galleries as Flame's lithe body touched the pool of water.

After quickly taking a dip, he soon resurfaced from the pool and drank the magical water greedily. He almost choked a couple of times, before quenching his parched throat.

"Ah! Who would have thought I will find an artificial hot steam at the bottom of the chasm! Hah…"

Flame moaned as his body felt limp and the tight strained muscles of his body loosened and he felt like euphoria.

Two of the most basic needs has already been solved just after coming here. he had taken a heartful sleep on a warm bed and quenched his days long thirst.

Flame floated in the artificial hot steam for some time, before he eventually decided to move out.

But what could he do now?

In fact, now that he was deep inside the huge chasm, he couldn't even access the Rifts anymore. There was no way for him to return to the earth back to his friends and family.

He had only created more problems by climbing down, but what better could have he done? He wasn't 'able' enough to climb up the thick roots as it was a common sense that ascending was lot tougher than descending, especially when someone has a whole missing right hand!

At that moment, Flame did not had many choices.

He could have either died from hunger and thirst while reddening his eyes due to sleep deprivation, or he could have succumbed to the chasm's eternal darkness.

At least, he was in a better condition now. currently, he had a ground to sleep, a pool of water and maybe he could also find something else to eat too—

"oh wait! by food, I just remembered something. Where are the headless monsters?"

Flame suddenly turned his naked body backwards while sitting on the steps of magical swimming pool and frowned.

"…"

Many questions appeared in his mind just by looking at the vertically hanging charred roots which had finally terminated at the ground. Though, some of the frisky ones, still managed to enter into the crevices of the ancient hall, it was still better to see something logical.

"yes something logical. Something of common sense"

He spoke aloud his thoughts before shaking his head.

The missing monsters were currently not his primary target and also shouldn't be any element of surprise. He had already faced too many bizarre things, including burnt thick roots, a forgotten right hand, an eternal darkness and an extravagant artificial steam in the depths of the foreign land of Marble city.

So, in the end Flame shook his head looked around him.

All around magical swimming pool, fences of the glowing stones were erected. A gallery was also left there between the fence and the sidewalls.

Looking at the odd structure of the hall, Flame wondered

"what could have been the reason of such odd way of this underground structure?"

In fact, why would even someone build something so marvelous at the bottom of a chasm nonetheless.

It made no sense at all!

'if anything. it looks like some sort of mini colosseum from the ancient history…wait! then am I currently in the person who is supposed to die and crowd from the gallery will begin cheering seeing me bleed and suffer?'

…Suddenly Flame felt shivers run down his spine and quickly decided to get away from the comforting warm water.

Who knows how many rivers of blood flowed here?

After he walked up to the gallery using the stairs, his eyes instantly fell upon the side walls.

On the sidewalls, Flame saw various stone doors adorned with intricate patterns, seated in the magically glowing walls.

Flame didn't touch anything and instead moved around the gallery watching all the doors one by one as he had wanted to observe them first.

Suddenly, he stopped in front of a particular door.

It was huge. Very huge that Flame would have thought of it as a wall, if not for the intricate patterns of floral vines vividly contrasting on the golden door.

Suddenly, Flame had an intriguing question. He mulled over it for a while, before shaking his head in dejection

"I don't think I can even move this huge door, much less open it. not to mention the kind of thing which are stored behind such big door"

After moving around all the doors and finding nothing 'useful', Flame finally decided to open them.

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