The duo of Lucy and Flame quickly passed through the blanketing darkness and appeared on the other side.
Flame thought he won't feel any different. Initially, seeing the familiar darkness swirling on the ceiling, he hesitated a little. He remembered the feeling of becoming a blind and hanging naked around the charred ancient roots, before ignoring them all.
He had survived in the darkness once, alone, but now, he had his best friend wrapped around his neck, immediately alerting him for any lurking danger.
He could finally relax.
Or so he thought…
"what… was that? It felt very different from before. I almost felt temped to stop between the stairs, almost like…enchanted"
Flame took heavy breaths while Lucy's grip tightened around his shoulder, almost like she was also affected by that darkness.
He tapped his shoulder a little and the grip loosened immediately.
after coughing a little, Flame eyes wandered as he saw the familiar magically glowing stones all around him. Walls of the magic stone stood stalwart on the all three cardinal directions, supporting the bland looking ceiling. Behind him, he saw the familiar swirling darkness.
The entire chamber didn't look much different from its lower level. In fact, it was almost identical, except for the missing magical swimming pool and the huge galleries.
Flame also didn't see the heavy stone doors, adorned with the intricate patterns in the walls either, instead, turning his head by the side, he noticed the chaos spreading across the wall.
squeezing his eyes, he found the irregular array of colors arranged in an artistically meticulous manner. The bland walls were finally not bland anymore!
"better than nothing, I guess"
Flame took some breaths and quickly stood up and walked towards the nearest wall.
The wall glowed with a bright orange glow as the contradictory colors of black and white were splashed across them, creating something akin to a painting.
Ancient paintings perhaps.
On the wall before him, Flame saw an interesting image.
he squeezed his eyes and racked his mind, before he was finally able to discern something.
"I see..."
Many people were shown, lying on the ground in a disordered manner. Spears and arrows were drawn from the dark colors as they pierced through the men and women alike who were shown by white.
In the next image, there was the image of a hall supported by the thick pillars and fences drawn around a rectangular pit, filled with pure serene water. a large area was left devoid of any colors in the center as the painting glowed with orange, almost looking a huge door
"it's just like the hall from below…"
Flame sucked a deep breath and quickly moved to the next image where he saw the same people from the first image drowning inside the magical swimming pool with their hands and heads peeked out of the surface. They looked dead and lifeless.
Next, he saw the lifeless people walking out of the serene water and climbing back the stairway to the galleries and eventually passing through the first room they encountered, which was either coincidently or not coincidently the same room as the stair room.
Suddenly, Flame felt his breath ragged as he turned to see Lucy's reaction who didn't even opened her eyes and rested without a care in the world.
Flame didn't disturb her and moved to the next image.
'if she was here for the last two days, then she might have already searched this floor... Right?'
Flame was just about to look at the next image, when suddenly he felt the air around him warmer. Even though the air inside this underground structure was already warm, but as he moved closer to the next image, the comforting warmth felt more and more like blazing inferno.
He suddenly felt his blood heating up from inside as he gazed in the wall
In this image, he saw a room dancing with the blazing crimson flames and covering all over the walls. The people from the earlier walked through the blazing flames without resisting and stood there motionlessly with an amorous expression on their face.
It was like, as though they have finally reached the destination of their pilgrimage.
The tendrils of flames penetrated through the disappearing bodies, quickly merging the lifeless souls within them.
Swoosh!
Suddenly Flame turned around. he didn't know why, but he suddenly had a strange urge to look behind him and find out the Origin of the crisp crackling sound.
Flame had wanted to see through all the paintings and learn more about this majestic underground structure and possibly… find a way from to the upper-ground.
But for him, so many strange—uncanny coincidental incidents had occurred, to just allow him to fulfil his wishes.
As soon as Flame turned around, the wall in the opposite direction was no more, instead, there were various slabs of stones placed horizontally, vertically and in a criss-crossed fashion. The stone slabs glowed vigorously as they encased the swirling flames of blazing crimson behind.
At the center of the perforated wall, a stone door stood. The door was blank, with no intricate designs like its brothers in the galleries below, but even then, it made the back of the young boy cold.
"it…how is it…possible?"
Flame couldn't find the right words to express his thoughts, as he saw the similar crimson hall like in the paintings just behind the perforated wall.
On his shoulder, the little white snake was showing a similar reaction as she had fully awaked from her dazed state and staring at the flames warily.
'It seems like she didn't encounter this in her earlier expedition'
Flame rubbed his eyes multiple times and looked again and saw the perforated walls again.
What was he supposed to do now?
Just as he had seen the image in which the dead people bathed in the magical swimming pool and then walked into the crimson blazing fire, only to eventually become dead again…or disappear.
Flame was already controlling himself from getting a heart-attack after witnessing the fact that he had already completed one of the rituals of dead people shown in the paintings and even entered the multiple chambers in the galleries…
And now, he was just a step away from completing the last ritual of the dead.
Burning into flames.
Flame burning into flames.
'no…that is no way funny'
Flame sucked the warm air and breathed heavily.
Suddenly, his eyes widened again as he felt a chill run down his spine.
He quickly turned around and looked at the wall covered with the ancient paintings.
"W-what???"
however, there, he saw a spotless wall glowing a soft orange glow. the paintings were no longer there. They just disappeared
"j-just great!"
Flame stuttered as he saw his hopes turning grim.
He had initially thought, maybe the people who died, didn't actually die twice. Maybe they are special people who were summoned in this hall by the people—perhaps deities living in the other chambers to give them their life back, in honour to their valour...
'I don't know where the dead people exactly go after disappearing from those flames? Maybe they are summoned in some other chambers like this one...maybe?"
But there was no way for Flame to confirm his ridiculous thought, as the paintings had disappeared without a single trace.
Flame felt all his hope lost and felt like there was no other way for him. the whole charade started since he started hearing the murmurs and after that…there was just one strange coincident after another.
In fact, the number of coincident he faced, made him a little scared. It was good to be alive, but it felt worse when someone else was trying to keep you alive. It was like someone was feeding a goat to sacrifice it in the end.
Flame felt his heart quicken.
The swirling darkness was still there, preventing the skulls from entering. Meaning, that the he was still there inside the underground chambers, but it seemed like he had activated some hidden mechanism—or perhaps ritual in other words, resulting in the appearance of the blazing flames.
"or maybe the painting itself came alive, or maybe I am inside that painting itself, oh wait, maybe I am hallucinating again, this all is just a bad dream I am currently in my house…yeah! That must be it!"
…
Crimson flames danced as they enveloped the entire chamber behind. Occasionally, tendrils of blazing fire shot from ground and burned the surrounding air.
The young boy, stood there and watched them encased behind the perforated wall, surrounding the bland stone door at the centre, which strangely looked cold and dull. Not emitting its own magical radiance like others.
Looking closer, Flame noticed the artistic designs of wall in a meaningful way
The designs somewhat resembled the esoteric patterns he had seen on the stone doors of the chambers below. In fact, there was even the designs of the floral vine similar on the huge door.
The floral design was exactly right above the non-glowing stone door stretching from one side of the wall to other and then, eventually disappearing into its neighbouring edges.
"why such convoluted structure? What is even the use of it, when Lucy can easily enter inside through the holes and check it out. right Lucy?"
Flame turned towards his shoulder and saw the still exhausted little snake. It was little odd for him to see his short-tempered best friend not responding to his jokes, but then Flame remembered that she has stayed a long time without him and had tightly wrapped herself around Flame.
He then shook his head and decided to push the stone door.
…and as soon as he did, the whole world shook.