Emery's POV
The howling blizzard audio cut out the second our characters walked through the gate, replaced by dead silence and the faint, ambient trickle of running water. Instead of some dark, claustrophobic dungeon corridor, the space was huge and completely open.
Massive stone pillars lined both sides of the hall, supporting high vaulted arches draped with long, faded blue banners that hung down from the crossbeams. The floor had a long central aisle paved with intricate, patterned mosaic tiles, flanked by shallow gutters where clear spring water flowed quietly along the edges. Big, decorative ceramic urns and stone planter boxes were tucked against the bases of the columns, half-buried under dust.
Down at the far end, the chamber opened up entirely. There wasn't even a back wall, just a wide, elevated stone balcony lined with decorative railings that looked out over the cliffside skybox. Sitting dead-center on that terrace was a raised, octagonal stone platform, bathed in natural light streaming through the massive arched openings.
It looked completely out of place for a combat dungeon.
No enemy aggro markers on the minimap. No loot chests. No quest markers.
Nothing.
"It looks like my intuition was correct," Sasha muttered under her breath.
"Oh my god," Lucas blurted out, pushing his head in between mine and Sasha's. "I've never seen this anywhere, and I own all of the official artbooks!"
I had the same sentiment. While I couldn't afford to own all of the official artbooks, I played this game more than anyone, and not once was it even hinted that this temple existed. I moved my traveler around and... Okay, this is all very real. I couldn't really deny it.
"Alright, Sasha," I said in resignation. "I have no idea what's going on with you or this game, but I have to admit. This is all very real."
Sasha looked at me with a blank expression and nodded, the determination returning in her eyes.
"Let us go explore then."
While my body froze in awe, Sasha led the way inside the temple.
Lucas leaned in closer, his hand gripping my shoulder for support. No, seriously. His nails dug into my skin.
I shrugged his grip off. He looked back and noticed that he'd basically been putting his entire weight on my bony frame.
"Sorry, Emery! But I want to see!"
Lucas moved around the desk and squeezed himself onto the same chair beside me.
I sighed and gave up on fighting the very curious Lucas.
I looked back at my screen, only to see that Sasha had already entered a good amount of distance into the temple.
I quickly ran behind her and looked around at how detailed everything was.
I could not believe that an entire area was hidden in the game and I had no idea of it.
I swear there were no hints directing to this area. No missions that required you to access the mountain. Hell, I couldn't even remember an NPC mentioning a place anywhere near Slebek Ruins.
And I knew this game.
I mean, really knew it.
I'd memorized maps from grinding for hours. I knew where most hidden chests were. I knew which NPCs gave which quests. I knew which areas had enemies that spawned after certain conditions.
This place wasn't supposed to exist.
Weathered stone arches and pillars stretched throughout the temple, all carved directly from the mountain itself. There were no mechanisms, machines, or anything else that looked remotely modern. The architecture looked old enough to belong to a completely different civilization.
There were also carvings along the walls.
Two figures stood together in several of them, dressed like royalty and holding court over what appeared to be one enormous, uninterrupted kingdom.
Judging from the massive stone map carved into the floor, Yabbat wasn't divided into Slebek and Zesseyel yet.
They were still one country.
There were even small stone boxes placed around the edges of the temple. Offertory boxes, probably. Combined with the statues and the water running through the temple, this looked less like a palace and more like some ancient place of worship.
"What the hell?" I unconsciously blurted out.
Sasha zoomed in on her screen and squinted her eyes as the camera focused on the inscription on the sculptures.
"The heirs of Yabbat, Lord Teirnbat and Lady Ahhibat," Sasha read out loud.
Oh, come on, she couldn't have understood that. It's literally a bunch of pixels.
"Is that what it says, Sash?" Lucas chimed in.
"Yes." Sasha nodded courtly before examining the details of other corners of the room.
"Let me check the artbook! I have the electronic copy on my other phone." Lucas hummed as he took out his work phone out of his pocket.
Right.
I'm not believing anything until it's confirmed.
I adjusted my screen in the same way Sasha did earlier and waited for Lucas to get the details out.
"Alright, let me see." Lucas adjusted the grip on my phone so he could also read it properly.
"Hmm..." He glanced up and down, alternating between the sculpture and his art book.
"It matches the text here! The name for Ahhibat, Teirnbat, and Yabbat!" Lucas exclaimed excitedly. "You're amazing, Sash!"
"Yes, well..." Sash hesitated. "I'm fluent in the language."
Please, it's easy to memorize a few letters for three major characters. Not to mention that Sasha is known in the whole school to be skilled at memorization.
While I was criticizing Sasha in my head, Lucas had taken the liberty to move the d-pad in my hand and run around the temple.
"So this is the original Yabbat?" Lucas asked. "The water aesthetic is really similar to Zesseyel!" Lucas exclaimed.
"Yes. Lord Teirnbat strictly preserved the tradition." Sasha answered quickly before wandering to the next room.
I took the control back from Lucas and followed behind Sasha.
At the center stood a raised stone dais, its edges carved with curling patterns that resembled waves. A narrow staircase led up to its surface, where an ancient stone lectern stood beneath an arched alcove.
It looked almost untouched.
"It's an ancient scripture of Yabbat..." Sasha murmured just loud enough for us to hear.
I looked at the same exact scene so I could confirm.
Dots.
Just a bunch of dots.
It's almost ridiculous how hard Sasha was trying to sell this whole fantasy, but with her reputation? Everyone would think I was trolling them if I called her out.
"Can you read it, Sash?" Lucas asked, adjusting my screen on his own.
"Hmm..." Sasha went silent as she squinted. "The whole prophecy is written here. This is what I was looking for!"
"You can read that? It's literally dots, Sasha." I said exasperatedly.
"The visibility isn't the best, but... I can make out enough to read...." She zoomed in closer.
"Whoa?! What does it say?" Lucas leaned over to Sasha.
I leaned forward too, mostly because I didn't want to be uncomfortably close to her.
"The divine child will be born with... purple eyes... a year after the 70th heir of Slebek is born...." Sasha moved the character as she read aloud. "The divine child will have the blood of Teirnbat and can control.... She cannot spill the blood of.... before.... night. On the night of the 100th Blood Moon, the Chosen... would end the reign of Slebek... Holy Waters....
"Sorry, that's all I can read," Sasha said flatly as her eyes darted around the screen.
....
Alright, I could admit it. That was convincing.
I hadn't encountered the first half of the prophecy before, but the last part was the exact same prophecy introduced in the event.
"I can't say I've heard of that before." Lucas thought out loud. "But! The last part is the prophecy, right? Could this be about Faenikzha?"
Then Sasha suddenly winced.
Her hand went up to her left eye.
"Sasha?? Are you okay?!" Lucas immediately scrambled around the desk. "Here, let me get you something. Eye drops?"
"No, no. I'm okay."
She lowered her hand and looked back at the screen.
I didn't really know how to help so I just faced back to my screen.
A little farther ahead was a lectern.
This one had several large gemstones arranged around it. In the middle was a glass emblem shaped like a nine-pointed star, glowing faintly.
"This smells like a classic RPG puzzle." I said and looked at Lucas for confirmation. He gave me a stiff nod.
Sasha looked at me. "Excuse me?"
"This." I pointed at the screen. "It feels like if we made it glow, something would come out."
"Gemstones..." Sasha muttered. "In-game, these are..."
"The concentration of magic!" Lucas suddenly shouted.
"Yes, Lucas. We are all very proud of you." I said flatly.
"So, instilling them with magic is required, perhaps?" Sasha rubbed her chin.
"Why?" I blurted out almost immediately. "These are already magic."
"Hmm...."
Sasha stared at the screen, and silence filled the air.
I mean, they were already gemstones, so they were magical. I thought it was more a matter of harnessing their power or triggering their magic.
"Well..." Lucas leaned into my shoulder again and reached for my phone, zooming in on the lectern. "There's a star in the middle made of glass. Look."
He moved the camera around.
"The lights from the gemstones seem to stretch toward the points of the star, but they're all different lengths."
I looked closer.
He was right.
Each gemstone gave off a faint glow, but the light wasn't spreading randomly. Thin strands of it stretched toward the nine points of the glass star. Some reached almost all the way. Others stopped halfway. One barely reached the center at all.
"Huh," I muttered.
"So, maybe it's not about instilling magic but making the magic travel to the middle of the star?" Lucas suggested.
"That would make sense," Sasha said with a nod.
What Lucas said made sense, but that was easier said than done.
"How are we supposed to do that?" I asked.
"I don't know," Lucas said, shrugging. "If this is an RPG puzzle, then the clues have to be somewhere in the temple."
"You're right. Let's go, then," Sasha said.
We started walking around the room.
Eventually, we found another feature in the middle of the hall.
A sunken circular pool sat in the center of the floor, fed by ancient mountain springs. The water was completely still. Not even the usual game physics were making it move.
It looked like glass.
Lucas stopped moving.
"Is this the lake they were talking about in the prophecy?" he asked.
"It looks like it," I said. "Except it's in a temple."
Sasha walked closer to the edge and zoomed in.
"There's writing on the side," Sasha commented.
She crouched her character down and adjusted the camera until the inscription was centered on the screen. Her head tilted slightly as she stared at it.
"Still waters carry the light of the stars best," Sasha read aloud.
"Waters carry the light of the stars best...?" Lucas repeated, his eyes widening. "Sounds like a clue."
What?
So Lucas did believe her reading?
I thought he was just being nice.
I looked at Sasha, and she was still staring at the water.
There was something strange about the way she looked at it. She wasn't examining it anymore. She just stood there, completely still, like she was trying to remember something or had remembered something.
"There are no other rooms!" Lucas suddenly declared.
I looked down at my phone and realized he was controlling the d-pad in my hands again, moving my Traveler around.
"Maybe there's writing that Sasha can read again?" Lucas said sheepishly, scratching his head.
Sasha turned toward us.
"...There actually is," Sasha said.
"Huh?" Lucas and I both said at the same time.
Lucas immediately brightened.
"Might be another clue!" he said, leaning toward Sasha again.
Sasha walked toward a wall near the pool.
"There's something written here," she said.
She paused.
"Connect all elements, radiance magic, Rondos flowers, and the blood of a Zesselyan cleric..."
She stared at the screen for a few seconds longer.
"You'll open a path to another world," Sasha read.
I already had all the other items. They were all materials used for support builds, usually dropped from bosses. Things I had no use for as a DPS main.
"The only thing we're missing is a Zesselyan cleric," I said.
Zesselyan cleric....
The most well-known of them all is Faenikzha, and Sasha was on Lucas's account, so...
"What if I just stabbed you?" I asked.
Sasha's character immediately stepped back.
"Al-alright," Sasha stammered.
"Stabbing my best girl on my account hurts to see, but..." Lucas gripped the shirt over his chest. "Okay."
We went back to the lectern.
I looked around and we didn't really have any openings for us to drop the items in.
"Wait. Where do we put these?" I asked. "The entire thing is just floor and scriptures."
Sasha didn't answer immediately.
"...Perhaps the replica of the lake?" Sasha suggested.
Her voice was unusually quiet.
She seemed to be thinking hard about it, but I couldn't tell if she was solving the puzzle or remembering something.
"Alright. I'll throw them in. You tell me how the gemstones react," I said.
I moved the Traveler toward the pool and opened my inventory.
One by one, I selected the required materials.
One by one, I took out the Rondos flowers, the radiance magic, and the other required materials and placed them into the water.
They sank to the bottom of the pool, resting against the smooth stone beneath the clear surface.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the water began to glow.
"The gemstones' lights are stretching to the middle!" Lucas exclaimed, leaning into Sasha's phone.
Why didn't we just exchange seats?
"We're just missing one star point now!" Lucas said with a smile.
"Alright, come here, then. I'll stab you," I said.
"I hate how nonchalantly you said that," Lucas said, fake-crying.
Sasha moved Lucas's character into the pool, carefully positioning him across from my Traveler.
"Like this?" Sasha asked.
"Yeah, that's fine," I said.
She adjusted the character a little more, turning him until he was facing my Traveler.
I moved my Traveler closer to the center of the pool.
The two characters stood across from each other in the middle of the still water.
"Ready?" I asked.
"No," Lucas answered.
"Great," I said.
I moved my Traveler forward.
The sword came down.
One clean hit.
And... nothing happened.
"That's a flop," I said, letting out a small chuckle.
Sasha looked at the screen. "Perhaps I misread..." she said.
"Well, technically, I'm not a Zesselyan cleric," Lucas said. "I have Faenikzha's skin, but my Traveler is still the Traveler."
He pointed at the screen. "Faenikzha is still in the world."
Oh. Right.
Lucas was still using the Traveler underneath it, and I had just stabbed an avatar wearing Faenikzha's skin.
Sasha looked at me for the first time since we got here.
"Is there a way for us to get a Zesselyan cleric?" she asked.
"Hmm. I don't know. I'm still not far into the story, honestly." Lucas shrugged. "I just like Faenikzha."
"Act 2, Episode 3," I answered.
Lucas looked at me.
"Go to the Palace of Zesseyel. There's a side quest where they ask you to escort a Zesselyan cleric to the church near the Forest of Rumor so she can meet with Faenikzha."
"What?" Lucas blinked. "I don't know any of the acts or episodes."
"Hmm... I believe I'm simply in Act 1," Sasha said, seemingly trying to remember.
"That's the part where Slebek asks you to accompany Panlias outside of Slebek," I explained.
Lucas stared blankly at me. "Huh?"
Whatever I said was clearly foreign.
"What part are you in, Lucas? I'll interpret it for you." I sighed and turned toward him.
"There's a mini quiz there, and they ask you about some stuff, then they'll give you a character you're compatible with." Lucas laughed. "I cheated to get Faenikzha, haha!"
"Quiz...?" I thought for a moment.
"The one in the Slebek-Ahhibat Festival?"
"Yeah! I think?" Lucas tilted his head. "I remember it being in Slebek at least."
"You're near it." I looked at the screen. "Maybe you can unlock it."
"I can?!" Lucas jumped.
"It's not part of the main story. It's in a hidden—"
I stopped.
"You know what."
"I'll do it." I took Lucas's phone from Sasha and handed her mine.
"You have Panlias' Sword, don't you?"
"Of course I do! The amount of failed gacha attempts I've gotten—"
"Right."
I knew that tone. I stopped him in his tracks.
He was about to start talking about Faenikzha again, but we had answers to find.
I exited the team and went to the Palace of Zesseyel through the waypoint to trigger the cutscene. It didn't take long for me to talk to the cleric and start the side quest.
From there, I escorted the cleric up the mountain.
Panlias' Sword made the trip easy enough, but Lucas's character had nowhere near enough mana compared to mine. By the time I got back to the temple, I'd used up almost his entire food supply and divinity orbs to get light for the shadows.
"Sorry, Lucas. I'll get you more later," I apologized.
"It's fine! I can just buy some more," Lucas said, waving my apology away.
Right.
Of course he could. He's rich and paying for the game.
"Anyway."
I brushed the thought away and walked into the temple again, the Zesselyan cleric following behind me.
"I'm coming into the temple, putting all the items in the lake, and then I'll stab her."
I moved the Traveler toward the lectern and placed the materials into the pool again.
The gemstones lit up.
One by one, their light stretched toward the nine-pointed star until only one point remained dark.
I moved just enough to get the cleric standing in the middle of the pool. I couldn't get too close to her because of the programming, but I could at least use Panlias' fireball to make her bleed.
From outside the water, I attacked her, and immediately, the screen turned white.
A blinding light burst across the screen, swallowing the characters, the temple, and even the edges of the interface. The nine-pointed star flashed once, brighter than anything else in the room, and the entire screen turned white.
I instinctively pulled the phone closer.
Then everything disappeared.
A few seconds passed, and the loading screen appeared.
The three of us didn't say anything. We just watched the phone in anticipation.
Then—
A new server loaded.
I stared at the screen.
The temple was gone, and I was in front of the Forest of Rumor, the server name displayed at the top of the screen.
"...That's anticlimactic," I said with a sigh, shaking my head.
Sasha said nothing. She was staring at the screen with her hand hovering near her mouth, her brows drawn together. She looked less surprised than she did confused, like the result had given her an answer she hadn't expected.
Lucas, on the other hand, burst out laughing.
"Well, THEY DIDN'T LIE! WE ARE IN ANOTHER WORLD!" Lucas shouted.
Sasha's eyes remained fixed on the screen.
"...Or her Radiance Magic wasn't enough," Sasha muttered quietly.
"Huh?"
Before I could ask what she meant, the school intercom suddenly crackled.
"Calling Sasha, Emery, and Lucas to the Principal's Office," the intercom paged us.
I slowly lowered the phone.
My stomach dropped.
My mom is gonna kill me.