He watched as the words flowed out into the void, slowly drifting into view and passing through him.
Adam stared blankly ahead before responding, baffled by the message.
"What?"
He had awoken, and the words flowed from his mind and through his mouth.
"We must slay the demon."
His eyes widened, and he jerked upwards, almost slamming his head into Sophia, who seemed to be talking to Rain.
The amulet hummed with excitement.
"Excellent idea, Adam. You seem to be far more brave than I had originally imagined. Your response was faster than my ability to read the words in your head… was it truthfully from the heart?"
Adam looked at the amulet.
"NO, NO IT WAS NOT. I DID NOT SAY THAT."
Sophia spoke up after watching for a moment.
"Regardless if you meant it or not, it seems we may not have a choice. The beast seems to have been made aware of us somehow. I think it may be due to Rain accompanying us. I don't understand how else it could be possible for this to happen."
Adam looked at her, still baffled.
"You're kidding, right? We have no way of doing anything to that creature, do we?"
She took a moment to ponder, walking around the clearing they stayed at.
"I believe with just me alone we have no chance of winning. However, I have heard stories of dives that still exist here. We might be able to use those to find something useful. At least we may be able to find you some real equipment."
Adam stood up for a moment.
"What is a dive, first? Secondly, why can't we just try to sneak out? He hasn't quite found us yet, right?"
Sophia looked at him with determination.
"Adam, it's only a matter of time. This isn't something we have a choice on anymore. We do this, or we die in vain, and I'm not going to die here in this damned jungle. Long ago, the gods bestowed us a final lasting gift for mortals. We call them dives. They are places that hide deep within the rubble of destroyed lands that bestow mortals with equipment and power. However, they did not make it easy to gather for mortals because we continue to hold seeds of malice in our heart, so only the most worthy can make the expeditions into the dives.
Locations like this tend to be made for a group; however, we have no choice but to find them. They must reside somewhere within the rubble. It will not be easy, but gifts from the gods are gifts we would need to at least escape, let alone slay the beast."
Adam, as much as he wasn't particularly thrilled about the idea of going into more danger, was excited. He wanted to see it more than anything.
"Well, let's go then. What are we waiting for?"
They began their trek into the wilderness. The jungles held many massive clearings where the demon had stamped down entire pathways through it. Occasionally, the sounds of life had abruptly stopped in some areas. They went silent and would revive further away from the trails the demon had walked. Adam closely examined the trails as they continued. It seemed to have a pathway that it constantly walked routinely, which made him think.
It took about half a day of time and utter silence between him and Sophia. In this time, he focused on his word he had chosen from The Lexicon. The more he was with Rain, the more he felt when Rain was looking into his thoughts. It wasn't always happening only occasionally he felt eyes in his mind.
He decided to think about the word he chose, and a book appeared. He walked towards it and opened it to see the word he had chosen.
[GIFTED WORD:WORDS: THE ABILITY TO BE UNDERSTOOD AND UNDERSTAND, TO BE LISTENED TO]
He looked at it and sighed once more. He couldn't understand how something like this could possibly help him in his time of great need.
Maybe he should have picked something normal instead of being impulsively angry at the time. Now he's in a mess with something like this.
They had made it to a land where the jungle had overtaken what once seemed like a beautiful civilization built from a beautiful white marble. The structures looked strange, with massive cracked pillars that rose into the sky and bronze figures that occasionally could be spotted amongst the rubble. Several of these buildings seemed intact, while others were hardly capable of being recognized as a building.
Sophia looked over at Adam and spoke softly.
"We should split up a little but stay nearby to a degree. Do not go too far out. We'll search little by little to find what we're looking fo..."
Adam put his hand up, cutting her off.
"Hold on now. First off, I don't know what I'm looking for at all, and secondly, does that not seem like a ridiculous idea to leave me out in the wilds by myself? I can hardly defend myself."
Sophia, annoyed by being interrupted:
"As I was saying, don't stray too far. Just go check this section of buildings out, and I will be just in the one next to it, okay? Dives look different every single time you see them. Some often appear as doors, while others may simply look to be as normal as a sinkhole with something amazing in them each time."
Adam grumbled as he walked away, but did so, finding himself amazed by the architecture and history he walked through. Who knows how long this had been destroyed and how many people lived here? He searched the ruins, finding beautiful depictions of warriors from the long past battling great beasts and ceramic pottery everywhere, completely untouched.
Adam had an idea that had been brewing in his mind. The capabilities of his words seemed indirect; he wanted to try it as he walked. He found himself staring into the eyes of a bronze statue of a head. A beautiful patina had been slowly covering the shine of the bronze in this statue. It was quite strange. He decided he would give it a shot.
He put his hand out and thought of the word. Power flowed through the air, and it felt as if it was humming around him.
Rain interceded before he could speak it out.
"Boy, what are you doing? This is not the time for this. Do what you have been told and continue to search."
Adam settled on doing it. His frustration over the way he continued to be dragged along was enough. The word flowed out of his mouth and echoed across the ruins.
"Words."
They flowed and formed from a green light that Adam himself didn't truly understand. It rippled, and then finally, it ceased.
He looked around, and it seemed as if nothing happened.
He could feel how disappointed the amulet was when it washed over him, but frankly, he didn't care. He finally got to do something he wanted to do. The use made him body strain. Under its use, he felt like he would collapse. Maybe there was some sort of limit to how the body could use a word's capabilities he was not sure.
The amulet spoke up.
"Do you feel better now, wasting your power on a statue head? Of all things, I have never seen anyone utilize The Lexicon with such waste."
Adam was quiet, and he waited to see if something or anything would happen. Sophia rushed into his building, eyes wide, and asked what happened. Her hair fell down wildly, and she looked confused.
Adam looked at her and said
"I used my power I earned through almost dying from The Lexicon."
She was shocked.
"YOU? You hold a word!?"
She looked like she wanted to say more angry and flustered but held her tongue. She grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him along.
"We must leave. The demon will soon be on us. I have no doubt he felt and heard what you did, Adam."
Before she could pull him out of the building, a voice came from within the statue. It had a deep and rich voice. They both turned around, shocked.
"I answer to the one who calls, Holder. What does thou seek of me? An answer to trouble or to converse of the past?"
Sophia and Adam both looked at each other for a moment before Rain spoke into his head.
"What is this nonsense?"