Chapter 597 - Poking and prodding

“Man, you’re really… You’re starting to look like some sort of queen or something. Crown, cape, scepter, at this rate all you lack is the white horse,” Alith commented, seeing Sofia bring thing after thing out of her storage, “Do you really need all that?”

“Uh? It’s just my usual stuff? Though the ‘cape’ is new, I guess, but I’m not going to not wear a divine item, especially this one…”

“Ahah,” Alith laughed, “I’m not saying you shouldn’t wear it, just that you’re starting to look like you borrowed your style from Zerei and Ihuarah.”

“I- Hmm… Should I take off the Saint set?”

“No need to take it so seriously, Sof, I doubt anyone’s going to judge our looks out there, I’m just saying.”

“I know… I’m just a bit more self conscious about my image these days, have you seen that statue of me in the sect? It’s frankly a bit embarrassing.”

“Saying that when you’re the one making statues of everyone? Well anyway, it’s still fine, just  that if you get more things you’ll need to give up some at one point. The crown and headband together is already pushing it a bit in terms of looks, but I don’t think it’s anything you should get embarrassed over. Just look at me, a talking bra, black pants and mithril boots, I have the opposite issue, basically.”

“Yeah speaking of… That’s all you’re taking?” Sofia asked, pointing at the multi-pouch belt that Alith had put on as the entirety of her preparation for the expedition.

“Hey, this thing cost me a small fortune, you know? It’s all I need, along with my weapons and this!” Alith explained, showing off her new dangling jeweled emerald earring.

“What are those? Also that sword is new.”

“Stamina regeneration earrings. And yeah, the Kamas are great most of the time but some monsters I really don’t want to go so close to, so I got myself a pointy stick to poke them.”

“That is a long rapier indeed,” Sofia commented, looking at the slender sword longer than half of Alith’s height.

“If everything’s ready, should we go?” Alith asked, seeing that Pareth was also waiting after putting on his commander jacket.

“Hmm… Actually, do you have some space left in your pouches?”

“Not much but I do.”

“Alright, then here, take this,” Sofia said, handing over three of her [Crystalized] mana pearls to Alith, “I have one hidden in my armguard but it’s inconvenient to keep more on me so… You can use them yourself if you need.”

“Oh, sure. Smart having those on hand.”

Alith took the pearls and slid them into the pouch hanging over her left hip. After that, the two women checked over their preparations a final time before walking over to the closed doors.

Unable to stay still any longer, Alith was first to the doors. “There’s something written there. Can’t read it. It’s Draconic, I think,” she said, prompting Sofia to come quickly.

Sofia quickly translated the two lines in her head.

“Oh… These… Are warnings. Two different messages… The first one says something along the lines of, ‘You who have come here, turn back while you still can.’ Signed A & M.”

“Avross and Moon?” Alith guessed, “Not shocking considering what Erredis said. The second one must be from the admin, then?”

Sofia shook her head, “The second one isn’t signed so we can’t be sure. It says ‘It will be my lifelong regret that we failed to heed the advice above. There is only pain and suffering ahead.’”

“Great.”

“Yeah… Not very reassuring. But we knew what we were getting into descending into that screaming face,” Sofia said with a shrug, trying her best to convince herself that it was going to be fine even though she was starting to have a hard time believing it.

“Either way, we’re not turning back now, are we? Then let’s get to it,” Alith decided, grabbing the door handles and pulling them open. “Oh woah,” she reacted with a shiver running down her spine as she observed the scenery that had revealed itself beyond the doors, “It feels like the day we discovered Zangdar all over again.”

Sofia looked over Alith, sharing the exact same feeling as she overlooked the scene.

The doors led directly to the exterior, although the flooring of the hall continued past the doors, but it seemed the round hall and the flooring were the only things left of whatever this building once was. Beyond that, it was all ruins, old ruins, with almost nothing left but chunks of debris and crumbling walls, all tarnished by layers and layers of dark gray moon dust piling up in every corner like sand in a desert. 

There were no signs of plants, life, or color anywhere, just dusty ruins that seemed like they hid horrors untold in their every shadow. The air was cold, always with that faint floral scent, but there were no signs of the violent winds that rustled the red clouds, nor of the red clouds themselves. The sky was pitch black.

“I’m surprised you can even see anything,” Sofia finally said, as she could barely see a few hundred meters away even with her dark vision.

“I’m still a ghost, I can see in the dark a bit. What about you Pareth?”

Pareth seemed to hesitate, before turning around and pointing at the opposite side of the hall.

“That’s about how far you can see?” Sofia interpreted, “About fifty meters, it isn’t too bad. Are you comfortable looking through my senses yet? Just use my eyes if you want to see further away.”

“He can do that?” Alith asked.

“I can see through him so it wasn’t too hard to work it the other way around now that we know our way with magic a bit more. He’s been reluctant to use it though. I’m also still trying to find a way to teleport myself to him but no luck on that front yet.”

“Right, you’ve been on that since the academy days.”

“I’ll manage sooner or later. We should focus though.”

“Good point. I’m surprised that there’s mana on this moon. And air. But that’s beyond the point. Feel or see anything strange?” Alith asked, since Sofia had the better vision and mana senses of the group.

“Let me see…” Sofia answered, closing her eyes. She did not see anything at first glance even with the fake eye, so she spread her mana senses instead. She had enough mana and divine essences now that she could spread her mana senses for several kilometers in such an open area if she simply focused a bit.

Sofia felt nothing strange, at first. Although there was some mana in the air, it was quite calm, more than the regular outdoors, and there were no signs of any living being disturbing that peace anywhere.

Something feels wrong.

She could not tell what exactly, but it was like one of those times when one forgets what they were about to say. Like missing something obvious.

Of course… Sofia finally realised. One of her biggest worries about the forbidden moon was already revealing itself to be true.

“Deep creatures,” she whispered.

“Oh shit,” Alith whispered back, “should I close the doors?”

“They’re not moving, yet. But there are HUNDREDS,” Sofia whispered louder.

“Parasites like the one you killed in the sun temple?” Alith asked.

“I don’t know. They’re small, so not likely a main parasite. But it could be the flying swarms… I can’t tell their exact shape because they’re not moving. They’re just… Like holes in my mana senses, hiding in the ruins. But the streets seem mostly clear.”

“Damn…” Alith said under her breath, “so they’re hiding in the piles of moon dust? How did you get rid of them back then?”

“Two ways,” Sofia answered quietly, “Erredian rot, but it’s hard to make it stick… Or baiting them into falling toward the sun…”

“One option is better than no option I guess,” Alith whispered back, “I have a lot of new spells and so do you, so we might find more ways. And what do you mean by making it stick?”

“I needed to cover them in black shade dust to make the rot’s light actually touch them. They ignored the light otherwise.”

“That might not be an issue here then, there’s already this gray dust everywhere. I bet it’ll be super sticky if you add some blood. Should we try going out now?”

Sofia was about to say yes but Pareth stepped in, pointing at himself.

“Understood,” Sofia told him with a nod, “Stick to the main street going straight ahead. Don’t go too far.”

Don’t forget what Erredis said. Spatial magic is greatly restricted. If you feel our connection getting any weaker return immediately.

Pareth only took one step outside before he stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Alith asked. In response, Pareth shared the system prompts he had just received with her and Sofia.

[WARNING!]

[YOU ARE LEAVING SYSTEM RANGE]

[YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER A CORRUPTED AREA]

[AREA GUARDIAN - ERREDIS - HAS BEEN NOTIFIED]

[AREA GUARDIAN IS COMING TO RETRIEVE YOU]

[DO NOT PROCEED ANY FURTHER]

[WARNING!]

[AREA GUARDIAN HAS DENIED REQUEST]

[NO HELP WILL BE SENT]