Chapter 511 – Aquira’s Temple
The next morning, we set out early to head to Aquira's underwater temple. Of course, to get there, we would need a boat. It was in the middle of the ocean, after all. So, as a result, we ended up calling upon the sa dude who once took us over to Japan oversea: Mr. Zhou.
Why did we choose him? Well, the answer was simple. Since he was a freelancer, he didn't have to follow regulations or rules of the system in place. As long as we paid him a respectful amount of money, he would do what we asked him to do without question.
Our destination was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. That ant the journey by boat was a lot longer, but that's also why we set out early. We originally thought we weren't going to find Mr. Zhou there given the ti, but surprisingly enough, he was actually there at his old shack where we expected he was.
In any case, by the ti noon rolled around, we had roughly reached where we were ant to go according to GPS. It was quite literally in the middle of the ocean, with no land anywhere in sight. No one would've guessed this was in fact the location for the hidden lair for a primal god's inheritance (or rather, goddess).
"Alright, we're here now. The only problem is… how we're going to get down there," I muttered, rubbing my chin in thought.
"Hmph… step aside," Yu An Xue said to my surprise, and she stepped past on the edge of the boat deck, before closing her eyes gently.
"Level Three Water Magic — Bubble Shield."
Instantly, a bubble ford around my body, like a thin layer of protection. It was spherical, and unbreakable. I could reach out, but the bubble only extended to accommodate my movents. It didn't limit anything, and I could still cast magic and stuff just fine, but…
"… And this does…?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Try jumping… into the water," Yu An Xue said, pointing at the blue sea below. I gulped.
"… You're not trying to kill , right?"
Yu An Xue shook her head. "Believe."
"Okay… believe. Alright. I suppose I should believe in one of my future wives…"
At this, Yu An Xue smiled briefly, liking the title I just gave her, and I leaped into the water below.
Surprisingly enough, my body remained completely dry. The bubble served as a thin but useful layer of protection, keeping the water out and air in. It essentially allowed to breathe underwater, extracting the oxygen from the water around. I didn't know how deep I could go until the pressure overwheld this bubble wrapping, but since An Xue's been around for a while, her magic has been influenced by my Chaos sowhat, so it should last longer than the norm.
Soon, the other three girls dived in beside , all encased in the sa bubble layer. The chosen ones for this squad were Lan Xiao Su, Yu An Xue, and i Gui, all three of which had Water Magic. i Gui was always a must-have, since she had the highest fighting power out of all the girls, and especially now since she was the only one other than who could resist antimagic.
Deep in the water, it was incredibly hard to see. As such, I created lights for all three girls and myself, and held hands with each other to avoid being swept away by the tide. As we were directly above the coordinates of the temple when we hopped off the bridge, we just had to head straight down. Naturally, it was a bit difficult to make sure we were heading straight down, but we could always check our direction by looking up at the surface and seeing the bottom of the boat.
Soon, we arrived on the ocean bed. Or at least, what we thought was the seabed. Considering how deep the Pacific Ocean was, there was no way we should've landed on solid ground this early.
Which ant that we had landed on sothing else—and exactly what we were looking for. Below us, a circular lock was embedded within the stone roof of the structure, colored a deep teal by the ocean water all around us.
"There's so kind of combination lock-like thing here," I said using Sound Magic. "Any ideas?"
"Hm… I don't think it's a combination lock," Lan Xiao Su replied. "It should be sothing a lot simpler… like this."
Swimming closer to the circular-looking chanism, Xiao Su gently set her hands on it despite the bubble wrap, and pressed down on it.
The circular stone spun around upon being pushed down into the depression, and the middle of it opened up like a vortex. It wouldn't last for long, however, as it was already beginning to close.
"Hurry! Let's go!" I yelled, and swam towards the vortex as fast as I could. The girls followed since I was practically tugging them along with my hands, and soon, we just barely managed to make it inside with the help of the suction force from the opening itself.
Naturally though, going inside the structure ant the buoyancy of the water was no longer there, and the four of us collapsed one after another onto the harsh stone ground of the interior, before being splashed by a bucket-full of water that didn't make us wet thanks to the bubble shields but still hurt sowhat from the impact.
More accurately, though, I landed first since I went in first, and the three girls all fell on . I'm sure there were people out there who enjoyed getting fell on by girls, but I wasn't one of those people. They weren't heavy, but the three of them combined hurt. A lot.
"Gah…" I struggled to my feet, deciding against complaining. If I did that, they would get mad and think I was saying they were heavy. They were pretty self-conscious about things like that, so going into that territory probably wasn't a good idea.
Still, we were here, it would seem. I looked around and took in the view. This place was an underground temple, made of stone that had aged for eons now yet still stood firmly in place. We were on a stone sidewalk between the walls, with streams of water on either side of the sidewalk acting as space that separated us from the walls.
On said walls, various small statues made to describe the Aquarius zodiac sign arched out of the pillars, each holding a vase in their sculptured hands that poured out a seemingly endless supply of clear blue water. It had a nice aesthetic to it, and the temple seed to go deeper in and down.
"… Well, we can get rid of these bubble wraps now," I said as Yu An Xue disabled them for all four of us. "And now… let's head in."
The temple's structure was a downwards spiral staircase, circling around over and over again as we descended further in altitude. Thankfully, however, it was nowhere as long as Aerim's sky castle or Terrarim's mountain descent. We only had to go a few rounds before arriving at a set of double doors, and for a second, we thought that was it—we had completed the Temple and the prize was right beyond these doors—but that wishful thinking was quickly perished as we pushed them open and saw what lay beyond.
"This… wow," Lan Xiao Su murmured.
Wow indeed.
Before us, a glorious descending staircase lay, and beyond it, a massive waterfall. In front of the curtain of water, a enormous statue of a chalice lay, and to the left and right, two paths diverged and headed into different directions.
"Aesthetically speaking, this already beats both of the other two temples combined," I said, folding my arms. "And practically speaking too… this has been far easier than the other two to traverse, despite being underwater."
The other girls nodded in agreent, and together, we headed down the staircase, soon arriving before the massive chalice. Embedded on the pedestal was a white gemstone that looked like it could be pressed.
"Hm… the waterfall… there is a door hidden behind it," Yu An Xue suddenly said, and we turned to her, who was busy inspecting the waterfall ahead of us carefully.
"Oh… now that you ntion it…" I narrowed my eyes, just able to make out a set of large stone double doors hidden behind the waterfall. "You're right. Let try opening it."
Creating a wind wall above myself using Sky Magic, I walked closer to the double doors. The water collapsed above heavily, but my Chaos air wall was impossible to penetrate with a re waterfall.
These double doors, however, were quite interesting. I attempted to push them open, but they didn't budge. There were six gemstones similar to the one on the chalice on the door, three white and three blue, spread out evenly among the two doors.
It would seem this was a puzzle we would have to solve, if we wanted to progress through here.
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