Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Nine: ‘Pursue thine bounty...’

Their inspection continued for a while longer, but they had nothing to show for it. Despite Garovel’s assessment, they found no apparent means of doing anything with the monument. No keyhole. No mechanism of any kind.

And though the reaper clearly did not wish to, they eventually decided to go meet up with Diego and tell him what they had discovered. He was the one in possession of the Kag, after all.

However, Garovel decided not to bring up Rathmore’s name. As far as everyone else was concerned, it was just a strange monument of entirely unknown origin.

And indeed, it really was almost everyone else. They ended up bringing more than just Diego back to the park with them. Manuel, Lorios, Elise, Carver, Mr. Sheridan, and all four of the Hun’Kui came along as well. Only Zeff and Axiolis were left out, which seemed a bit of a shame, but the consensus in the group was that Zeff wouldn’t come with them even if they went to go ask him.

Diego walked around the monument several times, rolling the Kag between his hands all the while, breaking only to scratch his chin or his temple intermittently.

‘So?’ said Yangéra. ‘What’re you thinking?’

Diego crouched down in front of the molten pool, then looked over at the reapers. “You guys really can’t tell me anything else about this thing?”

The reapers all shook their heads.

Hector wondered if Garovel’s choice of secrecy was truly the right one, but he figured he would just trust his judgment for now.

“Hmm.” Diego smacked his lips. “Hey, Hector. C’mere for a sec.”

A bit confused and curious, Hector ventured over and crouched down beside the man, in front of the pool.

“...Think you can safely move all this lava for me?” said Diego quietly.

Hector blinked. “Hmm...”

“I’d do it myself, but it’d probably be easier for a materializer,” said Diego.

“Ah... alright.” Hector rubbed his gauntleted hands together, gathering his concentration.

He’d never tried to materialize anything inside lava before, but as he feared, it proved impossible. It was still too close to a solid, it seemed, and therefore too dense for his iron molecules to accumulate. Pushing all the lava out on a simple platform would not work. He would have to be a bit more creative.

He started by adding iron to the stone wall that already existed around the pool, and from there, he began growing his material downward and into the lava.

Fortunately, Hector knew from the research he did all the way back in Atreya that the melting point of iron was around fifteen hundred degrees Celsius, and this magma didn’t seem to be quite that hot. Less fortunately, it was still hot enough to make control of his iron more difficult, causing it to weaken and bend against Hector’s wishes. Temperature manipulation helped, as expected, but he had to work quickly, because as per the First Law of Materialization, once his iron was created, he could no longer affect its temperature.

He grew his iron all the way to the bottom of the pool and then began making his platform in order to lift it all out. He created a funnel for it so that the magma could safely spill over to exactly where he wanted it to, and soon enough, he’d moved the entire pool into a large iron tub.

There’d been more magma there than perhaps anyone had expected, and once Hector annihilated all of his excess iron, he and Diego were both able to jump down into the now-empty moat around the monument.

“Hah!” came the exultation from Diego, and Hector looked over to see the man crouched down again, examining the bottom of the moat with a lamp in hand. “I do believe we’ve found our keyhole, boys and girls.”

Even now, Hector almost couldn’t see what the man was talking about. The keyhole in question blended into the dark rock so well as to be nearly invisible.

Diego readied the Kag with his right hand, then threw one last look up at all the faces staring down at the two of them. “I hope you won’t think less of me, but if it turns out that this Kag actually doesn’t fit in this little hole here, then I may need one of you to hold me while I have myself a good cry.”

‘Just hurry up and get on with it,’ said Yangéra.

Diego exhaled audibly. “Okay, here goes.”

He slid the Kag into place, and it appeared to fit.

But nothing happened.

‘Try turning it counterclockwise,’ said Garovel.

With noticeable strain and using both hands, Diego did so.

A deep shunk rang out, and Hector felt a sudden vibration in his feet.

But after a moment, it went away.

There was only silence as everyone waited, holding their expectations in check while they looked around, wondering if anything was going to happen.

Then the world bent in half.

Hector’s vision distorted like a smeared painting, and he lost all sense of direction or balance or footing. For a brief time, he felt as though he was floating through empty space.

A familiar feeling.

And for an even briefer time, he could see. Everything. Ethereal lights. In all directions.

As soon as he grasped what he was looking at, it was gone, and he was standing on his own two feet again, senses gradually returning to him.

He shook his head, as if to shake away the disorientation itself, and his hand searched for the wall of the moat, but it wasn’t there.

When he regained enough of himself to actually observe his surroundings, Hector realized that they were completely different. The others were standing beside him instead of above him, and it was pitch dark in all directions.

Save one.

Straight ahead.

A mountain of apparent jewels lay there, glowing and sparkling softly in the darkness.

‘Holy lakefire!’ said Lorios.

“That’s it, isn’t it?!” said Manuel. “The Sosho’Diyu?! It must be!” The man took a couple steps forward, but Diego extended a hand in front of him.

“Everyone,” said the Lord Redwater, no longer even remotely jovial, “be exceptionally cautious. We currently have no idea where we are, what just happened, what we’re looking at--or even whether any of this is real.”

Manuel fell silent at that, as did everyone else, even the reapers.

Oddly enough, though, Hector did have an idea of what had just happened. Vaguely, at least. True, that briefest glimpse of so many ethereal lights suspended in space hadn’t been much to go on--but it was enough.

“Just now,” said Hector, “I’m pretty sure that was teleportation. It was more disorienting this time, but I’ve seen it before.”

Diego looked at him. “That was--?” He stopped himself, gears turning in his head.

Garovel had some private words for him. ‘That’s what it was like when you were teleporting all over the place with Ibai?’

‘Yeah. Wait, you weren’t with me?’

‘No, I was quite busy cowering underground, remember?’

Hector did not. Large parts of that whole experience were simply a blur in his memory, especially the period immediately after their encounter with Rasalased.

“So what’s the plan, then?” asked Mr. Sheridan. Rather than looking at the apparent treasure, he was facing the opposite direction, using his small lamplight to cut through the murky blackness all around them.

The others seemed to realize in unison that the man had the right idea and so decided to join him in trying to illuminate their surroundings. Working in tandem, they were marginally successful.

It was a tremendous cavern, seemingly. The rock walls in each direction were so distant that everyone’s lamps were barely strong enough to reveal them.

Next, they followed Diego’s lead in illuminating the path to the treasure, and eventually, after they’d worked up enough nerve, they began inching toward it as a group.

It was farther away than it first appeared to be. A trick of depth perception. The vast majority of the jewels were much larger than they’d seemed. Where they’d previously looked pea-sized, now they were looking more like golf balls. And their individual glows began to reveal distinct colors as well--blue or white or yellow, mainly.

There was a whole lot more than just jewels, as well. As they grew nearer, a kind of cove in the side of the glimmering mound revealed itself, and within it, Hector spotted a number of golden chests and shelves with all manner of unfamiliar objects on them.

Hector still wasn’t quite sure what to think. Even as he stared directly at that gargantuan pile of treasure before him, he didn’t feel much amazement. It just didn’t feel real--not yet, anyway--and he was wary of allowing it to.

Diego raised a hand for everyone to stop again.

They were close now--close enough to make out several of the items in the cove in more detail. A globe. A pair of gloves. A bejeweled sword. A doll posing mid-twirl. A painting of a temple or something. A statue of a man in a chair.

Wait. No.

That was an actual man, actually sitting there.

Hector blinked behind his visor. Were his eyes playing tricks on him? Hadn’t he been gray as stone a second ago? Perhaps he was still a little disoriented from that weird teleport. Now the man looked as normal as normal could be, though maybe a bit strange in attire. He wore a white tunic, tied together with strings near the collar, and brown pants and shoes. And his chair--tall and featureless stone.

But he really was a normal man. Not a Hun’Sho or a Hun’Kui. Not wearing a climate suit, either. Blonde hair, average height, pale skin, mid-forties by appearance, maybe.

And he was staring right at them, too, while he rested his cheek on his right fist. He had something in his lap as well, with his left hand draped over it. Some kind of jar? Hector couldn’t really tell.

“So you’ve come,” the stranger said. He sounded profoundly uninterested in what he was saying, as if he were making a passing note to himself rather than actually speaking to someone.

Diego was bold enough to speak the question on everyone’s mind. “Who are you?”

“I thought I sensed three of you,” the man said. “Yet I only see two.”

“...What are you talking about?” said Diego. And he tried again. “Who are you?”

“Oh well. Frankly, I’m surprised Ettol managed to get even one of you here, let alone two.”

Diego turned to the person next to him for help, who just so happened to be Hector. “Am I talkin’ to myself here?” said the Lord Redwater.

Hector just returned an armored shrug.

Diego turned back to the stranger. “Hey, you in the chair! Who the hell are you?!”

“Be silent,” the stranger said with sudden weight in his voice.

And Diego tried to respond, but he couldn’t. Hector saw him open his mouth as if speaking, but no words came out. Diego’s expression turned to confusion, then to shock.

“You there,” the stranger said, sounding wholly apathetic again. “Iron One.”

Hector twitched, realizing whom he meant. “Y-yeah?”

“How would you like to become a god?”