Chapter 429: Reminisce (1)

Taking a short breath of the investigation room's slightly stale air, Aiden slowly closed his eyes, focusing on the memories he wanted to transfer to the device. 

Assisting him from his soul space, the floating bright ball of a spirit guide, Enya, and the childlike girl of Rygintarth were doing their best to assist their master from behind the scenes.

Soon, the small mirror lit up, its reflective surface began to change. As if a cover was placed over it, the mirror vanished, covered by what seemed to be a thin layer of pale yellow, butter-colored substance. 

Seeing the device's state, Sir Arthur gently smiled, picking up a larger mirror that looked identical to the smaller one, only larger, and with the addition of a hollow, large crystal embedded at its back.

As he placed it in front of his hands, Sir Arthur pressed on the back of the device, placing his fingers over the empty-looking crystal. His hands lit up briefly, as he injected a bit of his own energy into the crystal, causing the tool to suddenly activate. 

Slowly, the crystal began to fill up with the same colored energy that covered the smaller mirror, which in turn began to clear out at the same rate.

A weird, mysterious connection was made between the two devices, and as Aiden continued filling the smaller one with his memories and recount of the day's events, an image from the larger one appeared, telling the story from his perspective.

—

After the group made a unanimous decision to continue their venture to explore a bit more of the unknown that awaited them, Aiden and his group soon found themselves at a junction. 

The route split into two, one leading towards the south whilst the other roughly towards the north and east. Unsure what to pick, they looked in each direction, trying to make out a bit more of what could perhaps lay waiting for them.

Traps, may perhaps some sort of sewage dwelling monstrosity? 

Leading at the front, Drake and Aiden looked in both directions, focusing, honing their senses trying to make out more of the ever-present eerie darkness that dominated this world.

"Hmm… I can't feel any danger from this side…" Aiden commented after a brief silence focusing on the southern path. "After a bit, it curves back and leads more to the west. Beyond that, I can't tell, we would need to get closer, but I do feel smaller… routes? I guess… Not sure." 

"Well… I don't have your hyper-sensitive hearing and sight Aiden, just my honed [Battle Sense], but even with that measly ability, I can say that this path seems to end with a dead-end not too much further in. Beyond that, I couldn't tell…" Following up his friend, Drake added his findings at the other side.

With that, although the group was hopeful of finding something interesting in the dead-end Drake found, they sadly had to be disappointed. Only a wider section of the sewage system awaited them, a large circular-shaped room covered with brick walls and a couple of braziers providing the dim lighting. Not much, just enough to not walk in complete blindness.

Due to the structure and design of the room, the flowing river of nasty sewage gathered to a small pond at the center of the room, where a small grated hole at its bottom drained it to somewhere further below. 

The disgusting, putrid smell, didn't really favor the girls, so after a brief scan of the layout, the group quickly made their way out and towards the other, southern path instead. They didn't even wait for Aiden to give the go-ahead, the girls and even Sammy and Biggs almost dashed away as soon as they got in.

Unlike the northern route, the pathway to the south went on for quite a while without anything out of the ordinary happening. The putrid, foul smell dominated this section of the maze, the walls were covered in what seemed like some sort of moss or maybe just some thick layer of grime. 

The group ventured forward steadily, although they made sure to keep their vigilance as they trekked the unexplored darkness. Aiden and even Drake used their own abilities to the best of their abilities, focusing on any potential changes, irregularities, or signs, lest they would be caught unawares.

Eventually, after slithering all around with the snaking tunnel, they reached another crossing, however this time, instead of a simple split, four distinct seemingly parallel dark tunnels looked back at the surprised group.

"Eh… What now Aiden?" Looking at the identical-looking routes Drake was helpless. His ability proved to be useless this time around, he couldn't find out anything. To him, all four paths were completely the same.

There was no response to his inquiry, however. With furrowed brows, Aiden has fully focused on his own [Dark Gaze] ability. Several, [Soul Power] enhanced energy pulses were sent out to each of the dark entrances in hopes of finding something that could give them a clue of what could await them in each of these similar options.

Yet, his confusion only increased as he kept trying to investigate the forking paths. No matter how much he tried, in each case his pulses were blocked by something after a while, apart from feeling the sudden loss of connection, there was no other information that he could take out from any of the tunnels.

"Hmm…" He sighed, pondering what would be the best course of action. Should they just give up and return? But, if that would be the case, they would return without anything to show for their hours of effort.

Also, the fact that even his abilities were blocked was a surefire sign of something extraordinary happening no matter which path they would pick.

Should they split up and check out each pathway? While that would certainly increase the area they could cover, it would also cause a level of risk Aiden wasn't comfortable with subjecting his loved ones to.

No… The only option would be to pick one and hope for the best. They could still backtrack and select another route if they find that the current one wasn't worth spending any time and effort. 

The thought of calling some of his servants back with a small group of their own and sending them to explore the tunnels first also crossed his mind. However, for the same reason that he didn't want to risk their safety, he eventually decided against it.

"Aiden? What do you think, which one should we take?" Not sure what to make of his friend's continued silence, Drake walked over and called out his friend.

"Hmm…" Brought out from his thoughts, Aiden warmly smiled back at the concerned friend of his, before glancing over the girls who were also doing their best in scanning and scouting the dark tunnels.

Without much extra thought, Aiden turned towards the tunnel at the right end.

"Let's go this one." He said with a confident-looking smile, causing Drake to look at him with an inquisitive gaze and ask, thinking that perhaps his friend found something interesting that way. Maybe even a treasure?

"Why? What is in that way?"

However, Aiden's chuckled response caused him to sigh in frustration in the next moment…