Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Chapter 297

The two doors that represented the path and convictions of the two brothers was located at two different corners of the hall overlooked by two gigantic statues of warriors.

One had a huge sword in its hand, the other only had a shield. Aesthetically, they looked visually marvelling. Needless to ask, the statues that stood tall in this place was the depiction of the two warrior ins the tablet.

The group sat down and calmly investigated their situation and their options. It was clear that just with the trials earlier, if they made any mistake, their life would be in grave danger and thus they need to make a right choice as to which door they should open.

Who knew what lay beyond that door? The tablet at the centre of the hall other than telling them the history of the two warriors and reminding them to choose a door wisely, didn't give them any other clue.

The only inference they could make was from the story. The torches in the hall flickered with the flow of time; however, the group was unable to come to a decision. They searched the room all around in hopes of there being more clues hidden somewhere; however, it turned out to be a wasted effort when all they found was dust and moss left by the passage of time.

It was at this time when it seemed like the group would require additional time to make a choice, one of the torches died down. Since there were so many torches hanging below the ceiling, the change was so subtle that it was unable to attract anybody's attention.

It was only when more than three torches went out and the lighting around the hall dimmed down ever so slightly, did Lucine stretched her head to look up.

At first, the dying of the torches didn't seem out of ordinary; however, the way they were dying out in a sequence was what seemed suspicious. 

Counting all of the torches, there was 36 of them out of which seven had already died down. The torches were placed in a neat row with 36 of them covering all the sides. Weirdly enough, the seven torches that died down, went out in a clockwise sequence starting from the centre.

As if to prove her right, one more torch that was next to the seven in a clockwise direction, went out. Lucine narrowed her eyes, she did not know what these torches signified; but whatever it was, it was giving her a feeling of foreboding.

This time she waited patiently and counted the time it took for the torch next to the eight to go out. From what she noticed, the torch only lasted 3 minutes before dying down. It might be just her thinking too much but the torches looked like a countdown to her.

Seeing that Lucine was distracted by something else, Simon couldn't help but voice out "Hey you seem sidetracked, did you find something?".

Nodding her head, the woman told the other two about the peculiarity that she had identified. Since what she told was the truth, it didn't take long for Simon and Denzel to believe it.

They too focused their attention on the torches as they thought about how it may or may not be related to the trail they are about to go through.

"Say Miss, don't you think the dying down of the torches seemed to be like the countdown of a clock?" Denzel pointed out tilting his head.

"Hmph, who are you calling a Miss? If you want my advice address me as big sister?" Lucine said begrudgingly.

The little boy scratched his and did what he was told.

"You are right, they can indeed be seen as a countdown to something. But to what, even I don't have a clue. Though my instincts are telling me we should make our choice before that countdown hits zero" the woman remarked.

Simon who was lost in his own thoughts, suddenly widened his eyes at those words. He glanced at the tablet in the middle, the two doors guarded by the two huge statues before clicking his tongue. 

The hall, the story, the riddle, everything made sense to him now. He finally understood what choice they had to take and the meaning of the riddle they had encountered back at the start.

"Quick open up the door to the right" Simon did not have the time to explain it to them hence seeing their clueless face, he couldn't help but ask them to hurry it up.

Perhaps in their mind, they thought this was the right answer and that Simon had found it, they chose the door with the statue holding the shield.

Simon glanced back and looked at the thirty-six torches out of which only twenty-two remained lit before heading in with Lucine and Denzel.

What lay beyond the door, was a wide path of stairs that led towards the ceiling of this hall. The walls around the staircase had drawings illustrating how the shield-bearer lived his life, dedicated his time to train his shield, his techniques, years of battle and his time with his brother, the sword bearer.

Simon observed the drawing as he went up the stairs without stopping, the group hurriedly followed behind him.

'His techniques are beyond that of a King Pin, he must have touched the level 900 Sovereign Stage' Lucine mumbled observing the various carvings depicting the exploits of his life.

From these drawings, one could see how powerful the shield-bearer was; No, the two brothers were as they ran rampant and unstoppable on the battlefield with their combat prowess.

No matter who the enemy or their size was, they would be impartially mowed down or brought down to their knees in front of the two of them.

  "Hey, don't you think you have some explaining to do? Why did you tell us to choose the door on the right? Did you figure out something?" Lucine asked gazing at the figure of the man in front of her.

Ever since she met him back at the Ghastly winding forest, he gave her a mysterious feeling even though he was just a low-rank Demon viscount. Then and even now when he activated the coordinator and was chosen as a potential inheritor by that thing, the feeling he gave her was complex.

The more she tried to see through him, the more she felt like she was diving inside an abyss with no beginning and end in sight.

The little boy nodded his head, he too wanted to know the reason.

Simon explained while not stopping his feet even for a second "Remember the riddle written at the start of this ruins, [Every hour, every minute, every second counts… directions are never-ending flowing like a river yearlong… go right or left… right or wrong?]".

"Yeah, what of it?" Lucine asked.

"I believe, the riddle wants to say is that there is no real answer, both the answers are correct and at the same time incorrect. We should believe in the choice we make is right because if we keep on delaying making a decision, we would never be able to take any action" he answered recalling the situation.

"The hall had a countdown in the form of the torches which goes out after a fixed interval. It didn't matter which door we choose, we had to finish the trail within the time limit".

The two people who were following behind him, were shocked. They didn't think that the trail would disguise itself like that. If they kept on dilly-dallying until the time limit was up, they would have automatically failed and in that case, who knew what might be the consequence they had to suffer.

Thinking about the consequences, the bottomless pit and the effects of this place that made them unable to fly came to mind. 

"If choosing any of the doors didn't matter, why did you make us choose the door on the right?" Lucine asked, the more she conversed with him, the more she understood why he was recognised by that thing as a potential inheritor.

After climbing the stairs, they found themselves in a small room that could barely accommodate more than ten people. The space was narrow and a peculiar energy fluctuation covered every corner of this room.

The moment they stepped foot inside the room, the place started moving, the walls and ceiling started shifting mechanically and before long, the floor that they were standing on arrived in front of the hall suspended in front of the huge bottomless pit below.

It was also at this moment that they realised that the entire hall was hovering above the pit. Inside these ruins which restricted their flight skills, they would have only one ending if they failed this trial.

"You asked me why I chose the door to the right? That is because we have less than 22 torches worth of time remaining and in that time limit we would have to defeat…" Simon couldn't get to complete as his voice was drowned out by the trembling noises of the two huge indigo statues suddenly moving.

As evident from the booming noise they made whenever they moved, the stone statues were incredibly heavy and made of a material that made them appear very sturdy.

BANG.. BANG… the two statues moved stepping towards the centre of the hall. From the closeup, they looked like two giants who had woken up from their slumber and were about to stir up a storm.

"W-w-what?!" Denzel couldn't help but stutter an exclamation when he saw what he thought were dead statues, suddenly start moving like a golem.

"So we have to defeat that?" Lucine who was good at adapting to her situation asked, her eyes had a peculiar glint with which she observed the two statues.