Chapter 155: Truth Seeker

Orphella took a gamble and made her step inside the glowing metallic gate. There was no other exit anyway. The hole where she fell from was way too far and too high for her to reach. It wouldn't be a good idea either to stay there with the humanoid creature's corpse, who knows what would become of it after it stayed there for a while. She doesn't want to be the first and last to know what it would be.

But of course, she couldn't just leave the monster lying there, just incase it has some delayed high-speed generative ability. Orphella had no choice and took the laborious task of decapitating the horrendous creature. Even with the sharpest dwarven dagger she had on hand, penetrating the creature's thick neck proved to be a task in itself.

She did what she had to do. She cut into its scaly hide, then sliced its tough sinew, until she nicked the bone. It took her a while, but she finally took the head out from its torso.  She flung the head into the mossy waters of the deep pond before finally leaving the rest of the carcass lying on the muddy ground.

After washing her dagger, she hurriedly approached the glowing metallic door. As she went closer, she felt her skin prickled from the warm gentle glow of the light touching her skin. She took a step inside the door and felt a strong shiver in her spine. It was a weird sensation, but it was a good kind of weird. The energy surrounding the place beyond the door was welcoming.

Orphella closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she entered the door. The energy began to shift and suddenly she was overwhelmed with so much pressure pressing her chest as the door shut close behind her. Her knees suddenly weakened, and her body shuddered as the felt the surge of energy coursing through her body.

The pathway glowed a pale blue light, a color she was very familiar with from a dream she had before. After a few moments, she was able to regain her strength. It seemed like her body had already adjusted to the energy the pathway emitted when she entered.

She stood up and dusted herself, while her eyes curiously traced the mysterious pathway for traps. She was well aware with these kinds of places; the uneven terrain could be utilized to hide a booby trap or two. Orphella was well-familiar with these places. The Indescens sect had temples set with hidden traps to protect their deepest secret that only the higher priestesses and priest knew.

Although blind to the knowledge hidden inside their temples, the acolytes and priestesses or priests in-training were well taught with the nature of the traps hidden within their silent walls. The priests and priestess along with acolytes lived inside the temples and so knowing the traps was as important as knowing the next verse to the prayer they silently prayed to.

She tiptoed as she made her step on the ground. The uneven terrain made her suspicious of the small bumps on her path and she simply choose to avoid the bulges altogether. She also didn't dare to lean on the tunnel's walls in fear of activating any traps that might have been set-up there.

Orphella had already walked a good distance away from the door when suddenly, a flashing light passed by her right side. She immediately ducked and closed her eyes in surprise, she thought that she activated some trap while walking. 

When she opened her eyes, Orphella was surprised to see the gem in front of her. The glowing gem hovered above her head just in arms reach. She tried grabbing the gem, but it immediately swerved away from her reach, as if it wanted not to be held. She tried it a few times more, but she always ended with the same result.

Orphella gave up on grabbing the gem, she just hopelessly stared at the gem with heaps of questions swirling her mind. The gem seemed to speak to her through its lights. The way it blinked and dimmed, was like a language.

She took a gander out of the strange gem's light and nodded at the gem. The gem started to move forward, Orphella followed the gem without question. She was apprehensive at first but then again, the gem did save her from the monstrous bat.

The longer she followed the gem, Orphella noticed the terrain changing from the primitive dusty ground to a more man-made structured path filled with stones, to an elegantly elven road she never thought she would see there.

Orphella halted and touched the marbled floor. It was indeed real and was meticulously made by elven hands exactly as how an elven artisan does. The gem hovered right unto her face as if asking her what she was actually doing. She stood up again and was ready to follow the gem once again, but the gem didn't move. It instead simply floated right in front of her face, unmoving.

She tried grabbing it again, but when she did, the gem glowed blindingly bright. It happened only in a fraction of time and when she opened her eyes, the gem was gone. She looked around, trying to find where the gem went but there was nothing on sight. It more likely expended itself and faded away.

She was thankful for that gem, it did save her life earlier, but it still got her confused. Why would it lead her there? What's its point of guiding her there? Could it be just a gem that was randomly floating around and her following it just led her to lose her way?

"Bummer." She whispered under her breathe.

Her eyes widened in shock as she heard that voice again coming out of her.  She covered her mouth for a while and then tried to utter a word again. But just before she did, the entire place suddenly illuminated. She covered her eyes as the glowing light engulfed her.

When she opened her eyes a few moments later, she was shocked to see the room filled with bright lights and some writings that seemed too alien for her to read, let alone understand. She saw visions flashing out of thin air about exploding lights, flaming spheres of what seemed to be land, falling stars and seven moons.

The visions came in spurting images too hard for her eyes to catch, yet her mind seemed to understand. She saw strobes of light melded into one and formed beings of a thousand. She saw those beings bear their own creations from the dusts and elements floating in the void. Everything she saw made her head ache until the last vision, a vision of a being spurting horns. She felt what the being felt and heard the ridicule the being suffered as he groveled at his creators' feet.

She had a lot more visions flashing in front of her, so much so that she finally fainted from all of it. Orphella laid on the cold marbled floor as the light slowly faded and the visions came to blur.