Clasping her hands in a solemn prayer, Celestina revealed what she had been ordained to do now:
"My most merciful Lord has just sent to me a revelation:
To enter my most hallowed of grounds, you must do quests of 3:
1) Venture forth into the Valley of Silence, and seal the great evil within
2) Head towards the End Of The World, and see whether the Demons have escaped
3) Vanquish the remaining Demon Generals, and free the realm from their malice
Only then would you have the qualifications to come to the hallowed grounds
Please forgive me for my pronunciation, but this is what my Lord hath spoken: without accomplishing these quests, you will not be qualified to Enter the hallowed grounds..."
"Okay, now how're we supposed to do these quests!? We don't even know half of these locations, not to mention the fact that our mission, no, quest, is to collect-"
"Thank you, your ladyship, we will do as we're told..."
"Ufufu, no need to worry. I know that you people came from beyond the skies, for our Lord has entailed us to treat the Visitors From Beyond The Sky with great care – to be honest, I've had premonitions of people coming from beyond the heavens, coming to save us. My Lord's prophecies have never been wrong..."
Eyes scrunched, Knoxis and Scaramond looked at each other, suspicious of the 'Lord' she spoke of – no leader of any Pantheons had ever discovered their ships, and even then, it was with only those THEY had contact with!
Shit, this is getting increasingly more complicated as we speak...
"Very well then, as the 'Lord' degrees, we shall accomplish these holy trials, and earn our way into the holy mountain."
With these final words, Knoxis dragged the rest of the group out of the room (despite a certain hero's insistence on staying for a couple of more minutes, for the sake of receiving a few more 'blessings' – if you know, you know...)
As her body remained fixed in place, her eyes never changing, never blinking...
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
"Damn it, how did she know!?"
"I bet she's the cause of this, that witch always has shifty eyes..."
"No, no, this is on a more fundamental level. Whoever that 'Lord' is, they seemed to know a lot more than usual, considering the fact that this world is not part of the List..."
As they entered their room back at the inn, the trio of Vylara, Scaramond, and old man Knoxis immediately began discussing their meeting with the so-called Saintess. "Also haven't you lot noticed it?"
All turned around, giving an inquisitive stare at the old codger. "What'd you mean? The fact that she became more and more beautiful over time?"
Unable to hold it in any longer, Vylara quickly fell into a fit of giggles, but slowly stopped as she realised that her crow's mouth had struck a bull 's-eye. "I'm not right, am I...?"
"Mhmm. Every 3 milliseconds, the lassie's face changed ever so slightly, eyes shifting millimetre by millimetre, lips shading micro-palette by micro-palette... To me, she seemed more and more like a projection, an artificial life-form: no way on God's green land can anyone freely change form without any issue."
"Well, what if she was a Succubus or something –"
"Kid, even Succubi release energy, though faint, when shapeshifting– I'd be a monkey's uncle if I didn't catch it!"
Tutting Natsuki, Scaramond once again showed Natsuki the gap between people. "Kid, once you're on our level, it'd be near damn hard to get tricked by illusions and whatnot– until then, enjoy your 'dreams'! Heheheheh..."
Resisting the urge to strangle the 6 trillion cunt, Natsuki turned towards their leader. "So, what do we do now then..."
"For now, we'll do as she says– we'll split up into two teams, and tackle the first two tasks:
Scaramond and I will take the first one, while you and Vylara take the second one. Try to finish them as fast as possible, and if you take along others, try to see what their life signature looks like– the more I look at them, the less and less they feel like anything I've encountered before..."
Just as Knoxis was about to adjourn the impromptu meeting, he clicked his fingers, remembering what he had forgotten. "Oh, right, have you done what I asked you to do?"
Giving a wide, toothy grin, Scaramond replied, with a sharp glint in his eyes. "Last I checked, they had managed to sneak past the defences of the central chamber..."
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
With soft chittering, a small horde of mechanical bugs marched through the marble floor gaps, their green eyes flashing dimly, willing to go through hell itself to fulfil their master, nay, creator's wish:
No matter the cost, find yourself a way to get into the Mountain