Chapter 327 Ominous Steps

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The well-dressed, scarlet-haired spirit clasped his hands together for a moment as a swirl of light-purple energy gathered around him. It was the first time Emilio witnessed what the spirit soulbound to him was capable of, leaving him enamored in what he was doing.

"Come, Owls of The Twilight!" Gavill invoked.

All at once, the radiant energy, akin to mana but distinctly different, formed into physical constructions; there were six owls with black-and-scarlet feathers, all summoned and perched on Gavill's arms and shoulders.

"Woah, you can summon owls?" Emilio remarked in astonishment.

The spirit smiled, "These owls share my senses and possess unique traits of their own–though their proficiency in battle is not needed today," Gavill smiled before waving his arms, casting the owls into flight, "--Go, my twilight avians; find the path that leads out of this cave!"

Each of the mystical owls heeded the command from Gavill, choosing a tunnel for their own to fly down and investigate.

"Handy," Blimpo said with his hand to his chin.

Gavill smiled, "And now we wait. I will inform you once one of my twilight avians finds the proper path."

"Sure. Thanks," Emilio nodded with a smile of his own.

"No need to thank me, I am glad to be of service to you," Gavill responded.

Standing there, the red-haired spirit of proper manners kept his eyes closed as his senses linked with the owls.

While they waited around for the owls to scope out each and every tunnel, he watched as Blimpo circled around Gavill, who stood like a statue in his linked senses, looking the figure up-and-down as if trying to understand a mechanism.

"What're you doing?" Emilio asked with a raised eyebrow, leaning against one of the rocky walls.

Blimpo responded, "I've always wanted to see a Soulbound Spirit up close; it's quite rare, ya know? There's only been one inventor who's managed to make tools that utilize spiritual essence. I'd like to make that two inventors."

A gadget was pulled from one of the pouches Blimpo wore on his belt, retrieving what looked like a spyglass, made of redwood and emerald-engraved steel.

"What's that?" He asked.

It was something he'd noticed the elf use on occasion, though never thought to ask until he witnessed the inventor peering through it while it was aimed at the statuesque spirit.

Blimpo kept looking through it for a few moments more before answering, "It's an "Ethereal Lens"—well, a magnified version. It lets you see the flow of mana and spiritual essence."

"Really?"

"Yeah, try it out," Blimpo happily handed it over.

There was no doubt a contagious excitement that exuded from the eccentric tinkerer even in such dark places, prompting him to accept the offer as he brought the end of the special spyglass to his left eye.

All he could hope for was a change in scenery wherever the narrow tunnel led, growing tired of the scent of clammy stone and the musk of whatever creatures had passed through before.

It was a monotonous march down the path for an unknown, but gnawing amount of time before they arrived at an entrance to an ominous cavern. There was an unmistakable feeling of "something" lurking beyond; a close listen resulted in perhaps hearing breaths, though it could be tricks of the mind. Either way, the earlier warning from Gavill didn't fall on deaf ears as he stopped his elven companion from entering just yet,

"I'm going to create some backup for us," he quietly said.

"Gonna summon Soulbound again?" Blimpo asked in a whisper.

He shook his head, "Salamander. Undyne. Gnome. Sylph."

With those four, quietly spoken words, he conjured the four lesser elemental spirits, which brought an intrigued smile on the elf's lips.

"Gnome, Sylph, stay with him," he ordered.

The brown and the green spirit followed the command, floating over to the tinkerer who happily accepted the support.

"Let's try not to get 'explosive' right off the bat, alright? If we can avoid a fight, we should. Even if we need to sneak past whatever is in there," he whispered.

"Sure, I can be stealthy, too," Blimpo gave a thumbs-up.

Though he was hesitant to believe the eccentric elf could be anything but volatile, he had to accept his words before leading the way, staying crouched down as he quietly walked into the dark chamber awaiting ahead.

It took some control, but he managed to use a passive wind spell to cancel out the sound of his footsteps. Something like this was multiple times more difficult to apply to another person, but he did his best to maintain it with Blimpo's steps as well.

...I don't have endless mana or stamina; if I want to make it out of this realm in time, I can't take every fight, he thought.

He could vaguely see it on the other side of the vast, hollow cavern: a pathway leading upward that held faint light beyond it. However, there was quite a way to cross before reaching it, and it was a trail of complete darkness.

There was something truly chilling about it; quietly and slowly walking through the large, unlit cavern, knowing "something" occupied it, or perhaps not, but having no true way of knowing until something made itself clear through that total darkness.

All he could really see was the exit, but nothing around him; even glancing back at his companion who followed closely behind him, he could hardly see Blimpo through the veil of shadows.

"Hey, 'Milio..."

Blimpo's whisper aimed at him brought him to a stop, though he wanted to flick his companion for making any sort of noise amidst the ominous cavern.

He quietly responded, "What is it? We need to stay quiet and need to stay moving."

"Yeah, but, err...do ya hear that?" Blimpo asked.

It was only when he once more honed in on the silence around him did he hear it: faint, but heavy breaths that carried through the cavern like a dormant wind. There was no doubt that "something" was there; "something" foreboding, and "something" in which they had trespassed into its abode.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

–Footsteps heavy enough to make the ground he crouched on vibrate beneath his feet with a bone-chilling hum were heard. It was close–far too close for any sort of comfort or restraint now.