Am watched as an unbelievable show of strength unfurled and stared back at him with intensity.
'How'
Was she so powerful?
He wanted to ask this simpleminded question to her, but just couldn't do it.
The crater was not as large as the sound hyped it up to be.
But the effects wrote themselves in.
Iye, in the center of the crater, huffed and raised her dizzying head up.
Her eyes rolled to Am and the wide entrance right behind him.
She began walking, her legs twisted and crushed, but did not stop her steady march. The pain couldn't even register to her.
Only the shitty situation she caught herself in mattered.
Everything had a limit, she, the tuskless platys, along with every living and breathing creature were the same in this regard.
And she had hit the ceiling of her limits.
She could barely stay conscious under the immense penalty she had suffer from.
Blood trailed from behind, following and painting each step she took.
Until she stopped right before Am.
Her dry mouth stitched itself open. Bated breaths scrambled her voice.
"I...saved you"
She spoke, the body of Cale grew faded, the black strings making up his body becoming dull.
"I didn't...betray you"
Remembering what Am spoke of when she asked the reason why he saved that pitiful humanoid monster, she recounted his morals.
"So....will you help me?"
Am's eyes naturally rolled to the boy.
'Could it be?'
A theory strung itself together when he realized that Iye had never once left Cale's side for too long.
"In resurrecting this boy?"
"....."
Am turned silent at Iye's words, he knew. Knew what she wanted, her goal.
And it was to use the shrine of Natura to resurrect the boy. The same shrine he...had once used.
"Is he important to you?"
Iye did not answer the question Am probed for, she only waited whether or not he would agree.
".....Fine"
Finding the silence suffocating enough. Am decided to at least give his savior this much.
Without a shadow of doubt, the three of them would have been annihilated if it weren't for Iye.
Though, he also knew she'd be disappointed when resurrecting her partner.
Am tried raising himself up, his body trembled and wobbled, but he still managed to get up.
Pointing behind him, he said.
"Follow me in there"
Seeing him walk, overlapped images of Am made Iye's head feel all fuzzy.
'I want to sleep, the human world has comfy and nice pillows'
She wanted to go back no matter what, because now that she is fired.
Her doppelganger should have also ceased to exist.
Doppelgangers are only given to the staff and students after all.
And, being neither. There shouldn't be any reason a doppelganger should exist to cover her now, is there?
'This, doesn't it kind of look like a cavern?'
Despite the Ohrn Tree being made of wood, the entrance seemed entirely made out of jagged stone formations.
Deducing her curious thoughts about the place, Am answered like how a tour guide would.
"This place. 'The Olden Tierre Path' is an odd tree that our ancestors found and named"
Iye strained her ears to listen, this information could prove useful one day.
"That is because, a herbivorous animal has taken control of the entire tree and has created underground canals since centuries ago, the rocks you see here are deliberately placed by us to slow predators in case they follow"
'Ah, when the fuck is he gonna stop with the world building? My literal breathing is louder than his voice, can't he see how useless it is?'
The information may prove helpful one day. But as he kept speaking, Iye made sure to never allow that day to ever come.
"This is the one"
Due to her vision being heavily blurred, she could barely see it.
"Being domesticated, it will lead you to where you need to be for the resurrection as long as I give the order and treat"
That was all she needed to hear, she didn't care how the creature looked or how it would get her there.
Just the fact that she could rest without needing to worry about anything eased her fatigued mind.
"You see these two?"
The animal peeked its rock hard head out of its black shell.
Red-slit eyes creaked open at the voice.
It looked at the bloodied cloth carrying a faded concentrated mass of strings on their back.
A part of its shell burst open, the sound alerted Iye to want to step back, but her lack of strength and tiredness made her unable to do so.
"Get in"
Iye walked towards the voice.
Tuk!
Her foot, caught by a rock caused her collapse.
Thud!
Landing abruptly to the floor, she looked up.
The space ahead was pure darkness.
Below her was something that resembled a rock, but seemed too curved to be so.
Trrrrr!
The curved 'floor' beneath her vibrated violently and slowly raised itself up.
Gravity tugged her and Cale down.
Thud!
Both fell, their 'faces' sat opposite to each other.
Iye could not see in the dark, and she didn't like it either, not at all fond of how vulnerable she was in it when it kept hugging her from every side.
Outside the sealed space, a muffled voice said only one thing, one singular thing that gave her peace.
'The destination is the 'Shrine' of Natura'
Trrrrrrrrr!!
The animal shook wildly at the words.
She could feel it 'drifting' forward.
Her glowing-cerulean eyes which only she could ever see in the mirror grabbed her lids and drew it shut as if it were a curtain.
Iye, continuing to bleed out, left Am who was rushing to get Famu and the frightened Tiju inside of the Tierre Path. Waiting for his ride to get back.
Pitying Iye's wish to get her 'loved one' back alive, knowing that the specific person she wanted to resurrect won't ever come back the same as before.
***
**
*
The animal that resembled a turtle on a closer glance skidded against the rocky road, its feet were planted into the gaps wide enough for its legs and tall enough to barely have them touch the floor.
Its hard stomach kept smoothly surfing it on the road tilting downwards.
Finally reaching down, the tunnel had grown very small compared to before.
Flailing its legs for a bit, the turtle could feel cold metal brushing on its scales.
Its paws fit perfectly into the molded metal.
These 'rails' were something created by its ancestors who adapted and evolved to escape predators quickly.
Being created from insight, they were difficult to physically damage.
And, taking advantage of the magnetic forces they exert from their claws.
Their paws slightly 'levitate' from the mold, just like maglev trains, although on a much smaller scale.
Whoosh!
They speed up immensely from the slightest propulsion they cause by flicking their tails against the ceiling.
The railings and their claws do the rest of the work.
Not only that, due to it experiencing adrenaline from the speed, the magnetic forces in its claws only grow stronger, making it go faster over time.
Turning does kill its speed considerably due to fear of crashing into the wall however.
Other than that, it is a fast ride that the Oksi make use of to get around safely and quickly.
The tortoise's red pupils dilated when faced with a completely straight road. It was about 100 feet down in the underground.
It could hold its breath for many hours, but the same could not be said for the passengers.
Somewhere along the road would be a myriad of routes.
For example, the route down below to the left led to the village of the Oksi, it didn't lead to the shrine which is why Am did not come running along with Iye.
The route right above it would shift it to the domain of The Spatial God of Motion's domain. Which was 'Erymos'
A starkly different place from the Sabe Serotifio. Being placed outside the Sabe's 'mouth'
But where was the shrine of Natura?
Well, for that route.
Vrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was an exhilarating straight line ahead, with no stops anywhere, and no turns to ruin the fun of going fast either.