Secrets of the Universe

After climbing the ladder, the group found themselves in a chill room.

The walls of the room had begun cracking, the furniture in it had been eroded by time, growing green life on their surface.

Cobwebs, accompanied with visible dust littered around. Ants and other insects came out to play in this outdated room.

However, if there was one thing that remained clean even after all these years, it was the bed.

The king-size bed was free from the eroding dust. There was not a single cobweb that dared linger around the edges of the beds. Even the playful ants avoided going near the bed.

"Why is it cold?" shivered River.

She couldn't afford to coat her body with her energy. So, she wrapped her arms around herself in a bid to create natural body heat.

Eden ignored her as he inspected the room. He touched the bed and trembled in shock.

At the tip of his fingers, a cold sheet of ice started spreading!

Immediately, Eden removed his hands and the sheet of ice disappeared.

He glanced at his hands a few more times before he gave his opinion, "It's not naturally cold. It is said that the air most incorporeal netherans exhale is very strange. It is said to be cold. Yet, it isn't cold, but we perceive it like that."

"So, you are saying….?" asked Renee.

"Someone lives here. Judging by the makeup of the room, this bed should be where the banshee queen sleeps," mused Eden.

While he directly said the banshee queen slept here, it was widely known that netherans don't sleep. Nonetheless, most of them rest their mind by closing their eyes, imitating the other races' method of sleeping.

"See this"

As he kept examining the room, Eden was called by River who had noticed something.

He went to her positioned and looked at what she pointed at.

It was a painting of a beautiful woman sealed in thick clear glass. The woman in the painting smiled widely like she owned the world. 

She was all alone when she commissioned the artist to take her painting. Yet, she still arched that alluring smile on her face.

On her neck was a beautiful necklace and on her fingers were expensive rings. Coupled with the long invaluable gown she wore and the way her hair was packed, Eden was able to guess that it was the lady of the manor.

"Do you think she is the….?" wondered River.

"It doesn't matter if she is the banshee queen or not. That wouldn't stop us, would it?" reminded Eden.

Scouring this part of the room, he was surprised that it was kept clean, not even a single dust could be found on it.

Beside the portrait were many other portraits. There was a portrait of the same woman and a child, the portrait of the woman and what looked like her husband, the portrait of the town from a remarkable perspective.

Trailing his hand across the portraits, he found a small bookshelf close to it.

He read the titles of some of the books, "The gods of mortals. The mystery of Heaven. Hymn of the night. The Emperors. Gods or Emperors? A brief history of the world. The inauguration of emperors...."

"These books are all ancient," murmured Eden.

He just realized that to be able to afford all these, the manor lord and lady were probably richer and more influential than all the southern kings. 

They most likely were on par, if not greater, than the Astral sect. What a pity they fell....

Shaking off his awe, Eden led his group out of the room.

With Jake acting as their scout, they encountered no problem on their way.

After checking other rooms, the group saw a large door at the end of the corridor.

Their hearts wildly beat as they could see the yellow color of fire shining through the edges of the door. This could only mean that someone was on the other side of the room.

Jake analyzed the door and kept thing of the various scenarios that would happen when they opened it.

The best scenario would be them only meeting the queen in the room. So far, he hadn't spotted a single netheran in his way. It was safe to say that all the netherans were outside busy protecting the queen.

Should the group cause any loud noise, they would rush at them.

'Hmm...' Jake cocked his head.

His senses gave him strange feedbacks. It told him of a disturbance in the air close to them, but when he looked, he couldn't see anything.

Not wanting to take the risk, Jake brought the group into one of the closest rooms while they watched from under the door.

Jake couldn't see much, but he managed to spot footprints appearing on the floor.

After a few more seconds, the large door was opened and the footprints led into the room.

'Interesting...' smiled Jake.

He didn't need his [Akashic Eye] to know that someone or something cast a technique that turned them invisible on themselves.

"It's Heath's group," mentioned Eden, "He has an illusionist in his team."

"He is going to take the bounty. Why aren't we doing anything?" whispered River.

"Patience….," soothed Heath.

He said in a low tone, "Was it ever going to be this easy?"

The moment he responded back, a scream was heard from the room.

It was a scream of pain, but it didn't come from what would sound like a banshee. Instead, it came from a human.

The group glanced again at the door. They could see sparks of lights igniting behind it.

*cLANG!* *cLANG!*

The clashing of weapons and techniques filled their ears. Suddenly, the sound died out, slowly.

When they thought, it was all over, multiple banshee, ghosts, wraiths, and phantoms came rushing into the room.

They were alerted by the sound and checked to see if anything at happened to the queen.

The group watched as none of them paid any attention to the room they were hiding at.

They found themselves lucky that the netherans didn't have time to be curious about the banshee's smell coming from the room.

After a few more minutes of struggling moans, the netherans left the room.

Some of them had blood on their mouth, some of them on their teeth, while some on their hands, leaving the group to wonder what happened to Heath's group!