Blocks of strange tal, the sa unknown material that composed the flaming braziers, were suspended in the wall. Each block was bigger than Seth himself, almost two tres in height, and solid tal from what he could tell.
They weren't completely square and were instead shaped like Trapezoidal Prisms, aning one side of them was thinner than the other. Like a miniature pyramid that had its top cut off. The reason for this odd shape was evident enough, as the blocks stacked together to make the semblance of a grand arch that was as tall as the cave itself.
The arch was incomplete, as it was missing roughly half a dozen of the tallic blocks, so of which were still resting on the arms of the forklifts the old worlds governnt had brought down here to transport them. Although, it was unclear how they were planning on getting them out.
Each tallic block was identical in shape, design and material. All except for the symbol that was carved into the face of them. Judging by the size of those that remained and the scale of the arch, Seth had to guess that there would be thirty blocks in total that composed this imposing gate.
Each block sporting a different symbol, symbols that were of course letters of the runic alphabet that had the mystical ability to bend reality to its whim.
Strolling over to one of the blocks resting on a forklift, Seth brushed his finger against it. His fingers running along the grooves of the intricate carving. The tal itself was cold as ice, yet the lines of the rune were hot as the hells themselves as they overflowed with the sa feeling that the braziers gave him.
These must have been carved by the sa master craftsman as before.
"Do you know what they an?"
"What? Oh... No, I don't. Not right now, at least. Give a few minutes, I'll see if I can translate."
Blinking softly, Seth snapped out of his thoughts for a second to answer Alfie's question before losing himself in study once more. He could hear Erik muttering sothing about 'supposed to be the expert' and 'take your ti' but he chose to ignore it. He was getting good at ignoring him, even if he only had a few minutes of practice. It seed to co naturally.
He wasn't lying however, Well not entirely. For the most part he didn't know what the symbols ant. Despite what others might think, he was in no way an expert, he could barely be considered a novice.
There was a few symbols he recognised, but for the rest he was going to have to consult the closest thing he had to an expert. In fact, he was already doing so, that was the wondrous thing about his abilities.
Back in the city of Ravenkeep, in the depths of hillside on which the castle rested, there was a laboratory hidden within the earth. Within this laboratory were two people, surrounded by lifeless puppets that were awaiting orders.
Julius and Titus were currently on break, sharing a al together while they swapped stories, conspiracy theories and design ideas. That was until one of the immobile puppets twitched slightly, before standing upright as life was infused into it once more.
Titus looked over curiously, while Julius let out a sharp yelp of surprise and imdiately turned away, shielding his head from view with all of his hands.
"Hello again Father."
"Hello Boys, Oh... Did I disturb you? Is he... is he alright?"
The puppet turned around, standing tall with its hands behind its back as Seth's voice echoed from its non-existent mouth. The puppet tilted its head like a confused puppy as it looked at Julius with its empty eyes, the lanky Anima still hiding his head from view.
Titus let out a soft sigh and smiled solemnly, standing up from his chair and walking around so that Seth had to turn away from Julius to keep his eyes on Titus.
Leaning close, Titus whispered softly into the ear of the puppet.
"We were eating. He's self conscious about his mouth."
Seth bobbed his head in understanding, or at least pretended to. Last ti he saw Julius, he didn't seem to have a mouth, especially since he spoke with floating words instead of a voice. Seth had just assud that Julius was incapable of actual speech.
In fact he was a little surprised to find out that the Anima did eat. He had just assud they were like Bob and simply... existed without it. He had just let his own food supply there as a precaution, and also because he forgot that so of it was there. A surprisingly good call, even if it was completely unintentional and mostly accidental. But all that mattered was the results.
As much as he wanted to sneak a peak, to see what all the fuss was about, Seth respected Julius' wishes until finally, both of his crafty Anima were standing in front of him. Words painted themselves into existence beside Julius' head.
"What may we do for you father? Are you not on a wonderful adventure?"
"I am. But I've found sothing interesting. Sothing I need you boys to help with, especially you Julius."
At the ntion of his na, Julius stood ever so slightly taller and seed to puff out his chest, making Seth chuckle softly.
Taking out a piece of paper, he described to them the wondrous things he had discovered all while drawing a diagram of the archway.
Thankfully, he didn't need to do it by mory. He simply walked around the room with one body, taking a close look at the details of the archway, whilst another body sketched a copy of it. It wasn't an artistic masterpiece, but the focus was mainly on copying the runes for Julius to translate.
The pale Anima blinked his inky black eyes, keeping them glued to the page with rapt attention as he absorbed every detail.
After a few minutes of pacing, examination and secret sketching, the body in the cave spoke up once more as Seth brought his mind back from the laboratory.
"It's a teleporter. Of sorts. Most of these symbols refer to transportation, while others refer to a destination although I have no idea what the destination is. The asurent system is completely different and it refers to a na, I'm assuming it's what the device is called. The most direct translation would be 'Door that breaches the earth and connects the heavens'."
"Damn... That's one hell of a na."
"Yeah, I know. That's why we don't do literal translations. A more accurate na would be 'Heaven's Gate'."
"Heaven's Gate..."
Alfie stepped forward, brushing his hand against the side of the arch as he looked up at it in awe. He couldn't help but laugh softly at how tiny and insignificant the towering structure made him feel. How it made them all feel.
"You know, you could probably fit an entire army through this gate."
"Yeah... or just one thing that was really big."
Pulling his eyes away from the Heaven's Gate, Seth searched the rest of the room just in case they missed anything. This was a wonderful discovery, but it was also a problem. The gate was built for teleportation, but it was broken.
The governnt of the old world had torn it apart, most likely because they were unable to get it working or because they feared soone would discover it. God knows this thing could spawn a whole ten series of Ancient Alien shows on its own.
It was missing six, maybe seven, blocks to be complete. It depended on the size of the capstone. But there was only three in the room. One on the bed of a forklift, the other two in the back of the semi-aquatic vehicle. A vehicle that assudly was how they got them out, but it didn't seem like it would be capable of the flight necessary to reach the floating pool of water that led them here.
So they must have found another way down, either that or...
Aha!
Hidden behind a tipped over forklift was a panel, a biotric scanner and a nuric keypad. The type that scread 'secret door' more than the other entrance did. Which kinda defeated the purpose of a secret door, in all honesty.
Stepping towards the door, Seth's boot clipped sothing and sent it skittering across the ground. When he found what it was and picked it up, he wasn't entirely surprised.
It was a shard of crystal, much like the one that he used to power his arm. However this single shard was larger than his previous core, and this looked like it was barely a fraction of the whole that it had been chipped off of.
If he had to guess, this ca from the core that powered the door. A core that had to be absolutely massive, and would have required a lot of soul power to condense.
Pouring a little mana into the core shard, it glowed with a soft light that stayed relatively solid. There was a touch of flickering, but nothing dangerous.
Confirming that it was safe to use, and wasn't going to explode on him, Seth filled it to the brim with mana, an effort that actually made him slightly light headed as this re sliver absolutely devoured his essence. It might have been roughly the sa size as his previous core, but it held a hundredfold more power.
He actually had to stop himself before he passed out, cutting off the gluttonous core, but even then it didn't even feel half full.
Slotting it into place, his arm twitched before regaining its movent once again. Flexing his fingers to test the movent, Seth could feel the difference in the power. It was like putting rocket fuel in an RC car, he had all that power but barely anything to do with it. It almost felt like a waste.
As if answering his call for sothing to use all that power on, the cave shook and small pebbles tumbled from above them, as a powerful roar reverberated within the stone corridor. A roar that was a mix of a whale's call and a territorial Tyrannosaurus. A very pissed Tyrannosaurus.
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