78 2.33 Fountain of Immortality - Part 4

"Guys, would you stop doing that?" I said when their argument became annoying from irritating.

We were walking on the passage leading to the top. Since I couldn't sense any creatures up ahead, the atmosphere wasn't tense. But I was on my guard nonetheless because who knows what might show up in a place like this.

The light stones embedded on the walls were making the passage bright— almost too bright. If I was sensing right, we would reach the door to the top floor soon.

I was anxious about what was waiting for us there. There were several questions in my mind, and I was trying to find the answers to those by connecting the dots. But these two weren't letting me focus with their pointless argument.

"Nara, you see, she keeps on staring at me," Yoru said looking down. I could understand why she would feel down though. Flare, who was sitting on my shoulder in her small bird form, had been continuously keeping an eye on her as if she was some kind of threat.

"No, I am just keeping an eye on you. Who knows what you might be after here." Flare replied. Her tone sounded a little arrogant than usual.

"Okay, just stop this. Who knows what might be in that place. We need to work together here."

"If that is what you order master," Flare replied. This time she was the one who looked a little down.

'Man, being a master of multiple summons is a hard job,' I thought. I was hoping that the meeting I was planning to do after all this would help solve the problem. Because if it didn't, it would be impossible to handle the two of them like this.

"This is not an order Flare, it's just a request," I said in an attempt to cheer her up.

There was an awkward moment of silence as we walked through the rest of the passage. And at the end of the passage, there was a big golden metal door with a strange flower pattern and a chalice craved at the center of it. It could have been because of the bright lightstones but it felt like the metal on the door itself was glowing.

I reached closer to the door and touched the flower pattern on it. And right as I did that, the big door slowly slid open with a heavy metallic sound.

Yoru and I slowly stepped inside. I was not sure how a normal person would feel, but I could sense immense mana inside the place as I entered.

Inside there was a large space, almost as big as a small town. There was a lake at the center. But surprisingly, instead of looking blue, the water looked green. I could sense waves of mana floating in the water. And the source of this wave was a golden chalice at the center of the lake.

The chalice was on a small islet at the center of the lake. It was a small chalice, but it was clearly visible because of the four shining gems embedded on the four sides. The gems were up of different colors, blue, green, purple, and red.

"Flare, let's go towards that chalice."—I looked towards Yoru— "Yoru, can you fly too?"

"Yes, in divine form," Yoru replied.

With those words, she started absorbing the surrounding mana. The mana then changed into the dark cocoon that covered her. And out of that cocoon came Yoru in her divine form. Her transformation process took a bit longer than Flare's who could transform by absorbing surrounding mana.

Following her, Flare also changed into her divine form. When Flare was in her divine form, I could control more mana without feeling much effect. But I would still need to pay a toll later as my body would feel all the piled-up exhaustion at once.

I raised myself in the air with the help of the raw mana that I absorbed from the surrounding. With that, all three flew towards the chalice that was at the center of the lake.

"BANG!"

When we were about to reach the center, a loud bang was heard. But before I could look towards the direction of the sound, something caught my leg. And before I could see who it was, I was thrown towards the ground.

I crashed on the ground but thankfully my mana cloak was still active. And because of that, I didn't suffer any life-threatening injury. But when I tried standing up, my legs felt heavy.

I could feel a sharp pain in my forehead, so I tried touching the part where I felt the pain. And when I looked at my fingers, as I suspected, it was blood. The cut was small, but it would be dangerous if the bleeding wasn't stopped.

"Master!"

"Nara!"

I could hear Yoru and Flare's voice. It sounded like they were coming towards me, and before I could look towards them, I could feel Flares tail on my chest.

The damage I suffered just now was in the form of physical injury. I was surprised that someone was able to cause me this much damage despite having my mana cloak on. But this wasn't time to stay surprised. As soon as I felt enough energy in my feet to stand up, I stood.

"Hasty, aren't you?"

I looked towards the source of the voice. And there she was, a woman who looked to be in her late twenties, floating in the air above the lake.

She was a green-haired beauty dressed in a green gown. And just by looking at her, every instinct in my body was telling me that she is the one whom Zagan warned me about.

"I gave her a choice, but she couldn't choose. She was naive. Now, let me give you the same choice."

More than the question, I was worried about the 'She' that she was talking about. I tried looking around, and on my left Marina was laying on the floor with lucy.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" I said in anger.

I was worried and sensing that worry, Flare quickly rushed to her to check her condition. When flare nodded saying she was okay, I took in a long breath. I felt a sense of relief.

"She may be alright for now, but she probably won't be for long. If you aren't able to make a choice, I may end up killing all of you."

I looked towards her straight in the eyes and asked, "What are the choices?"

"It's simple actually, choose whom you want to save: Life of your friend, or the lives of the countless people living in this nation?"

"What!" The word slipped out of my mouth in surprise.

"You look confused, let me explain." With those words, she slowly came towards the ground near me.