Chapter 30- Pity

Morpheus brought his axe and smashed the metal lock on the wooden door. He kicked it open and saw a cave running by the river.

Purple crystals embedded in the walls created natural light. The water, so transparent that you could see the bottom with small fish darting around.

“Look at these crystals.” Rose said.

“What’s special about them?” Morpheus asked.

“Space crystals, pretty rare. Kingdoms will buy them at any price.”

“Why?” He asked.

“They can be used to transport people instantly, the process is extremely expensive. Probably ten thousand of these fully charged could send fifty men.” Rose replied.

“So it didn’t really make sense for them to do it for the battle.”

“Yeah, Ervos wouldn’t send their best only to get slaughtered.”

The two walked through the cave slowly, Morpheus could feel the space become sturdier around time.

“You’re right about the space crystals, the space around me feels like concrete.”

“If you feel any abnormalities you need to to tell me. If I see another manifestation I’ll be gone with Hermes speed.”

Morpheus chuckled and looked down. “I don’t think we'll see another one of those for a while.”

As the pair walked down, Morpheus started to feel fluctuations in the space. Not as if they were weak or distorted, but a strengthened wave. He decided to keep it to himself, because he didn’t want to freak out Rose.

They came to a split junction, where one followed the river and the other split off into the stone.

“Meet back in half an hour.” Rose ordered.

Morpheus half saluted and strolled down the stone cave.

Soon the cave came to an end with a wooden door in the stone. He could feel a dense space presence behind the door.

Themetruük’s tattoo was almost calling to him at this point. He snapped off the lock with his axe and slowly opened the door, the intense pressure hit him like a heat wave.

It was a large circular room with a huge glass cylinder in the middle. Paper was sprawled out around the room, with runes littering them. Equations written with chalk on the wall stretched half away around the room.

“Fuck me.” Morpheus said under his breath.

Behind the cylinder was a desk with a few books piled on it. He carefully walked over keeping his distance from the cylinder where the intense pressure was coming from.

He picked up the first book on the pile.

‘Tako’s journal’

He looked through the rest of the books.

‘Shadow World-Fiction’

‘The Abyss-Fiction’

‘Beginners guide to space magic’

Beneath the rest of the books there was an extremely old one, barely holding together. He placed his axe on the table and blew the dust off of it.

‘Journal of the Royal Dwarf Grandio’

He carefully opened up the cover.

‘For anyone who finds this book please keep it away from the filthy half giants. My research into the Abyss, if in the hands of the half giants could mean our doom.’

He turned the first page over.

‘My first interests in the Abyss started when I was a young dwarf. I longed for exploration but I was not allowed outside of the city. I had heard that the river was a dangerous place so of course I had to look.’

‘I had just received my secondary class as a chronomancer which was classified as an extremely unique class. I could sense fluctuations in space and time which drew me to the river.’

‘The space seemed concrete and waves of space seemed to be floating around me. I walked for a few minutes until I found an extremely dense part of space down the cave on my right.’

‘At the end of the tunnel I found a large black floating sphere in the middle. It was so dense I couldn’t even manipulate it with my class.’

Morpheus looked behind him at the cylinder, it was completely empty.

He flicked through mid way into the book.

‘Test #132’

‘I have managed to manipulate the sphere to disappear. The density of space remained but it is gone. I believe it has vanished to a different realm or dimension. To travel to the past is impossible so my only hypothesis is that it has travelled to a realm called the Abyss which then sends it to another dimension.

He flicked a few pages forward again.

‘Test #175’

‘I have managed to put an advanced communication crystal in the sphere. My hypothesis about the different dimensions is correct. The communication crystal connects to me and is giving me information about the environment of these different dimensions.’

‘I can confirm that this sphere travels through the Abyss to arrive at these different dimensions. The abyss acts as a pathway to these other dimensions.’

He flicked closer to the end of the book.

‘Test #365’

‘My interest in this dimension I have named the shadow world has increased. I have detected life forms not born of matter, but of pure energy. I believe there is no light in this place given from Ra. ‘

He skimmed to the end of the book.

‘This will be my last entry into this journal. I believe I am able to enter the sphere itself and control it. My first stop will be the place I have called the shadow world.

‘I am sorry mother, but this is my dream. I intend to travel across the different dimensions in our Realm. If you’re reading this I am either dead or lost in the pathways of the Abyss.’

‘Whoever reads this do not follow me or try to control the sphere. It is extremely dangerous, I have already lost an arm through sticking it in the shadow realm.’

‘May the first dwarves live and half giants die.’

The journal ended.

“Fuck me.”

Morpheus sat down in the wooden chair pulled out from the desk.

He lifted his left hand up and spoke into it.

“Themetruük.”

His left hand glowed white and the image of the spirit began to form behind him.

“Hello child, you have called for me.” The spirit said.

“Yes I believe I have discovered something worthy enough to call you.”

“Who is the other presence in this dungeon?”

“She is my partner Rose.”

“Very well.”

The spirit turned around to look at the cylinder.

“My my, what have you found Morpheus.”

“The journal here says it is a way to access the Abyss.” Morpheus said.

“You are correct, this is a node of the Abyss.”

“It was found by a dwarf long ago, he apparently entered it.”

“Yes, the space seemed to be more dense than usual for an Abyss node.”

“What does that mean?” Morpheus asked.

“It means something is trapped inside.”

“The dwarf?”

The spirit didn’t answer, just stared at the cylinder.

“Themetruük.” Morpheus said.

“Yes sorry child, it is not the dwarf trapped. He seems to be still travelling through it. Using this node as a point in space to plan his journey.”

“He’s still alive?” Morpheus asked.

“Indeed, time moves slower in these sorts of places. Where space is weaker.”

“Can we get him out?”

“I can, but he is on a journey of exploration. I would never want to take that away from anyone.”

He thought about the spirit's answer for a moment. Morpheus didn’t realise it would have been the dwarfs dream to travel through the Abyss.

The spirit turned around and grabbed the book off of the desk, and began flicking through it at unbelievable speeds.

“He was interested in the dark place, or as he refers to it here as the shadow realm.”

“What is the dark place like?” Morpheus asked.

“A very dangerous place, you cannot breathe. The beings that live there are made up of pure energy as he said in his journal.”

The spirit looked over to Tako’s journal.

“This book reeks of Ditorian.”

“We are in a Ditorian dungeon.” Morpheus said.

The spirit looked towards the wall for a moment.

“Oh indeed we are.”

Morpheus smiled internally, the spirit did not even realise this was a Ditorian dungeon.

He picked up Tako’s journey and began flicking through it with the same pace as he did with the other one.

“This Ditorian called Tako was also interested in the node.”

The spirit paused for a moment.

“He does not have space related skills, but he was much smarter than the dwarf. Rather than through skills, he used mathematics to study the node.”

Themtruük turned to Morpheus.

“Where is Tako? This was written recently.”

Morpheus froze.

“Urm, the Ditorians kind of attacked Ervos and Southcross.”

“Oh, and I suppose he has moved on.”

Morpheus nodded.

“Ditorians are odd ones, always so obsessed with Axon. It is a shame this man was a part of them.”

—————————————————————

Rose whistled down the cave, kicking stones in the river.

She couldn’t get over his eyes, they were beautiful.

“No Rose, you’re on a job.” She said to herself while slapping her head.

‘But he’s marked by two gods and a spirit!’ She thought.

Her thoughts argued until she had reached the end of the cave. It only led to a large underground lake.

“Nothing, thank Zeus for that!” Her voice echoed around the cave.

She headed back, the journey in total only took twenty minutes so Rose decided she would try and scare Morpheus.

She looked down the cave, no sign of him at all.

Walking down, she felt an intense pressure coming from down the cave. She broke into a jog, if the chimera had saved her life she would need to save his.

It was gradually getting more intense as Rose jogged down, she spotted a wooden door and kicked it straight open.

—————————————————————

“Are you looking for information about the Ditorians?” Themetruük asked.

“Yes the Scarecrows sent me on a job.”

“Here it is.” The spirit showed Morpheus a page from the book.

Suddenly the door was kicked in, it was Rose.

She looked at Morpheus then her eyes met Themetruüks.

She froze completely.

“Your.. Your… Greatness.” She spluttered out.

Morpheus burst out laughing.

“Rose you know Themtruük?”

“Urm, ye… yes I do.”

“Hello child, you have incredible intelligence for your level.”

“Than… Thank you.”

Morpheus laughed again.

“Rose, he's just helping us with our findings.”

“Please child, I am not great, nor a king. Come and speak.” The spirit said with his hand open.

Rose walked in and carefully closed the door behind us.

“Look, turns out the Ditorians have a bigger hideout in the North.” Morpheus said, handing her the book.

“I’m sorry Morpheus I cannot even think right now.” She said while intently staring at Themetruük.

“Don’t mind him, I called him because a Ditorian was testing something with the Abyss.”

Rose took the book slowly, not breaking eye contact with the spirit.

“So they are in Northcross, and it’s a lot bigger than this place.”

Morpheus nodded.

The spirit seemed eager to fiddle with the abyss node.

Morpheus quickly explained to Rose about the book he found and about the node.

Themtruük took up after he had finished.

“The Ditorian called Tako was attempting to extract this trapped being.”

“Where is it from?” Rose asked nervously.

“The dark place, or as you may know it as the shadow realm.” The spirit replied.

“I thought that was fiction?” She asked.

“No my child, it is real. Stories have been passed down through generations.”

“I see.”

“I would like to finish his work, it seems the being has been trapped in there for millennia.” The spirit said.

Morpheus quickly jutted in. “Oh before you unleash Hel, would you mind explaining my wings to me.”

He quickly sprouted his wings.

Rose seemed excited and talked before the spirit. “I have read that you discovered the arcane apex’s.”

“Indeed, your knowledge is impressive. The rare type of apex’s were incredible. I could only get close enough to see them. They were called the Lamacruss Gigantus Hippogriff.”

“Why did you not record it?” Rose asked.

“I’m sworn to not speak of their kind, only a description.”

Rose looked defeated but didn’t question why.

“I must say Morpheus, I am very curious as to why you received those wings, intervention from powerful beings must have had an influence.”

“Which gods?” Morpheus asked, assuming it was a god.

Themetruük sighed.

“I suppose my time has passed. I took an oath for as long as I may live that I may not name these beings.”

A silence followed.

“They are Vishnu’s tames.”

“Vishnu!” Rose exclaimed.

“Yes my child, extremely powerful tames.”

Rose sat down on the floor.

“So Vishnu gave me these wings?”

“No, you earned them Morpheus.”

Morpheus sat down on the wooden chair and put both hands on his forehead

“I wouldn’t think to much of it child. Anyway let us free this trapped being.”

Rose stood up and so did Morpheus.