CH 20

Chapter 20- Helos, The City of Sun (5)

The path to the Sun was a straight line, and there were various pictures on both sides of the walls. Most of the pictures were rabbits walking like Rabbit men while looking up towards the sun. 

And how long had it been since I walked while observing the pictures?

Thud!

I could hear the door shut loudly behind me.

“That scared me!”

After I quivered after getting scared from the loud thud, I managed to look back. The door that had been open was now shut closed.

“What are you doing?”

I could hear Arje’s frustration across the metal doors.

“Did you all just close the doors to lock Aris inside?”

I heard Arje’s angry voice for the first time. She was still speaking formally, but it made it sound even more scary that way. I promised myself to never get her angry.

“We did not do anything!”

The priests were flustered as well. Then, who was it? Banu?

“They never got the chance to do so, since we were watching them here the entire time. The doors automatically shut themselves, my lady.”

But from the calmness in Banu’s voice, he must not be the culprit either. Did the doors just lock automatically after I entered?

“No way! Aris, can you hear me? If you can, answer!”

Koom! Koom! Koom!

Arje shouted while pounding on the door., 

“It’s all right. It’s just the doors that closed. 

When I calmed down Aris, the sound of the door slamming stopped. 

“Hold on! I will make sure you can get back out!”

“It’s all right! I will try to go further inside.”

She seemed ready to bring another bunny to get me out, so I stopped her then.

“What? You don’t even know what would be there!”

“Anyway, it seems that the temple only wants to deal with Aris, so we should keep watching.”

Arje sighed helplessly, from Banu’s comment.

“If you run into trouble, let us know immediately. All right?”

Wow, she sounds exactly like a mom.

“All right, I will do that right away.”

Then I followed the path inside.

“Phew, it’s hot.”

As the path of the temple of Sun, it was steaming hot. It would have been warm if I had come in winter, but in current situations, walking alone seemed to be a test. I sweat as rain pouring down from the sky. I wanted to get this over with.

“There we are.”

I could see the end of the path. I wished that the sword would just be sitting there.

…What?

Still, the place in which I entered was no ordinary room. 

How shall I describe this? There was nothing between the entrance where I was standing and the other entrance across from me. I realized that I had to jump over the gap, but it was too long of a distance. Unless I had some crazy jumping skills, I would fall down, and the depth of the hole was so deep that I couldn’t estimate. 

It was at that time that I was checking out the place.

Booooom!

I heard a strange sound from somewhere, and there was a hot wind blowing behind me from the path I came from. 

“What is this?”

And the windstorm was rushing my way. I managed to look back while holding onto my hair. The path was already hot, but now it seemed as if there was fire spouting from the path. 

Kwaaaaahhh!

And it was approaching me at an immense speed.

“What’s happening?”

Was it a trap to block intruders? I had no idea why it was happening, but I didn’t recall this scene from the original novel.

Crackle! Crackle!

There was no more time left to ponder. The flame was approaching me to turn me into ashes, and no fool would just stand there. I quickly ran to the tip of the board and jumped up as high as I could. If I had to choose between burning to death and falling to death, I had to put my chances in the more probably option. 

“Ahhhhh!”

I tried my best to land on the other side while flapping my arms and legs. Had my efforts worked? I was able to reach the entrance of the other side safely.

THUD!

Although I had to roll over instead landing in fashion, I was in disbelief that I had managed to reach this far. Was it because I was a bunny? A normal human would not have been able to reach this distance. 

Hwaaaahhh!

But it wasn’t over. When I looked back, the flame had eaten up the wooden board I was standing on and was now approaching me closer.

“Ahhhhh!”

I got up quickly and then started to run towards the path that I could see ahead. The flame approached fast, but I had confidence over all other races that I could outrun them. 

Crackle!

After running so fast, I could see another door. The only difference was that the door was moving down from above, trying to prevent me from entering. 

“Not so easy!”

I sped up, and 

“Hayah!”

I flung myself inside with the last step.

THUD!

The door shut as soon as I entered, and the flame was not able to follow me any further. Had I entered a second later, I would be a barbeque bunny.  

“Phew.”

I wiped off the sweat that was flowing like a river and kept walking further. Was it because the flame was gone? It was still not pleasant, but I felt that I could breathe again. 

“It’s an altar.”

When I walked further inside, there was an altar placed inside an unlit room. Since there wasn’t anyone taking after the place, the altar was so dusty and unfit for such a grand temple.

And no matter how much I looked around, there was no sword visible in sight.

Crackle!

Instantly, the brazier next to the altar fired up. And the flame spread across the room, lighting every corner. 

Boom!

A great flame rose on the altar.

“So, you are the chosen hero.”

I could hear a deep, male voice from the fire. Fire would not speak, but since no one other than the fire was around, I had to believe so.

“Who are you?”

It would be crazy to talk informally to a god like this, but I did not want to bow to this mass of fire. 

“Do not be afraid. I am Helios, the god of fire.”

The city is named Helos, after the god Helios. I thought that people named it without putting in much effort. 

“Wait, you are Helios?”

When I thought about it, the name Helios sounded familiar. Still, it was different from the original plot.

“Wait, you are not the god of Sun, though.”

Helios was not the god of Sun. He was the god of mountain rabbits. In the original story, Jarrod climbs to the top of the mountain and receives the double dagger with godly powers. This was not the mountains, but a temple. The story was changing somehow.

“Yes. As you know well, I am originally the god of mountain rabbits. Still, I am called as the god of Sun amongst humans.”

But from the appearance of Helios, I understood why you had to be a Rabbit man to enter the gate, and why Jarrod received a weapon with power of the Sun.

“Are you allowed to have two jobs?”

The flame shook vigorously from my joke.

Crackle!

Then, the flame turned into an actual rabbit, not a Rabbit man, and then looked at me. 

“It is the work of gods. There is no need for an earthly creature to get involved.”

Although it was a god, the bunny face looking at me while sniffing its nose was so adorable to watch.

“So cute.”

I crouched on the floor, then patted Helios on the head.

“How dare you do this to a god!”

The bunny got angry, but it was purring as if it was enjoying it. When I took my hand off, the bunny looked as if he was disappointed, but realized it and shook its head.

“Cough, cough. Anyways, if you can tell who I am from just looking at me, then you should know why you are here.”

From his words, I predicted that it would be something about fighting for the ‘peace of rabbits’ or something corny like that, but I didn’t want to say it out loud.

“Yeah, yeah. I know well. Just give me the sword already.”

A weapon with the power of the Sun god is a great weapon that can even melt armor. The reason that Jarrod was able to become famous with a dagger was all due to this power.

“You are so arrogant for someone to become a hero.”

Jarrod would have been polite, but I wasn’t him. One shouldn’t expect such things from me.

“I have heard that before. Just give it to me already.”

From my repeated questions, Helios sighed.

“Well, at least you have a heart of courage. You must be the right hero.”

Then he shot a flame in front of him.

“Fight the enemy with the weapon holding my powers! The evil masses that touch my sword will turn to ash, and all that blocks your way shall melt away!”

He shouted out some phrases that were originally supposed to be said to Jarrod and a weapon appeared in front of me.

“It’s big!”

But what was placed in front of me was a large sword even taller than me.

“Yes. This is the sword made for you.”

I tried to hold it, but it was too heavy. Even if I were to lift it, it would drag me along with its weight.

“How do you hold this?”

When I complained, Helios looked at me speechlessly. 

“My hero seems to be weaker than I thought.”

“Just lifting this would make one a hero.”

The bunny sighed again.

“Fine. What kind of weapon do you want? A long sword? Spear? Battle ax?”

There was a wide variety of weapons that he mentioned.  Even really expensive ones that only royalty use.

“Rapier.”

Of course, I only wanted my rapier.