The sun was setting. Ciel looked out the window to see if anything was going to happen.
The moment the sun was out of sight, Ciel started feeling a freezing cold once again.
It was not because the sun setting changed the temperature, but because he found himself outside of the ice structure.
Rein was there as well, looking slightly bewildered.
'Why were we sent out? We can't enter the ice structures again…' Ciel thought
The doors leading into the ice structure were still there, but they wouldn't open no matter how much force they put.
After a minute of standing in the freezing cold, the ground started trembling slightly.
Suddenly, in an open space next to some ice structures, the ground cleanly split apart, and there was an icy staircase leading somewhere underground.
"What the hell… I thought that doomsday was about to happen again…" Rein said in a shaky voice, with a slight tremble
Ciel couldn't blame her. He also felt a sense of unease when the ground started trembling and the staircase appeared.
It wasn't easy for past trauma of that caliber to easily fade away.
"Let's see what's down there… we don't know what to expect, so we'll go slow and steady." Ciel said
They finally found something that could lead them to clear the Gate, so there was no question about exploring it.
Rein entered Ciel's shadow and he started descending down the staircase.
It was better for one of them to gain night vision and enhanced senses, since it was a dark and unknown environment.
After 5 minutes of steady walking, Ciel found himself entering a large, wide open chamber, with no decorations or furnishings.
On the opposite side of the spacious chamber was a large tunnel in the wall that spread in multiple directions.
The entrance of the tunnel was at least 20 metres tall and 10 metres wide, making it feel grand.
'What's up with this tunnel?' Ciel thought
[ I have a strange feeling that we shouldn't enter that tunnel. ] Rein said
Entering that tunnel seemed like it would lead to certain death.
Suddenly, the darkness in the underground chamber was illuminated by a blinding light.
The light flickered a few times before the room went back to it's previous darkness.
'What the hell was that?' Ciel thought with intense wariness, as his danger senses were tingling
"Hello, young humans. Welcome to this eternally frozen hellscape." They heard an ethereal voice from behind them
Ciel tensed up, but there was no one in sight behind them.
He then looked down, towards the floor in the center of the chamber. There, a beautiful and elegant lantern had suddenly appeared at some point in time.
It looked like it was crafted by the best craftsmen and designers in the entire world.
It gave out a faint radiant light that was similar to the light that was flickering a few seconds ago.
The light of the lantern also looked like it was made up of a wondrous, pure starlight that was taken straight out of a star.
[ Hey… that lantern…it wasn't there before, right? ] Rein asked in uncertainty
[ I'm pretty sure it just appeared… be careful, that thing seems to be quite dangerous. ]
[ The lantern also seems to be the one who just spoke…It seems to have already noticed your presence somehow. ] Ciel said mentally in a somewhat calm voice
They had never met an existence that could notice one of them while in their shadow merged form.
How strong could a lantern be? That was not a question that would have crossed their minds a minute ago.
Yet, at present, they were being fearful of one.
The presence the lantern gave off made them feel a hint of terror.
"Don't look so shocked. Why wouldn't a lantern be capable of speech? I just want to make a deal with the two of you." The beautiful lantern said while being eerily still
Not that it moving would make anything better.
There was no reason to fight each other if the other party didn't show any hostility.
Thus, Ciel decided it was better to probe for information.
"It's just the first time I've ever seen a talking lantern. What is this deal you're talking about?" Ciel asked, cloaking his unease
"It's simple really. I'll help you clear this Special Gate. In return, you must take me to the outside world when you clear it."
'Take it to the outside world… there's no real disadvantage for us… unless it has ulterior motives when getting out of here.' Ciel thought
[ We'll accept. We're not here to save the world, we're here for answers. It doesn't matter what the lantern does in the outside world, as long as it doesn't bother us. ] Rein said sullenly
'Right. We don't need to worry about that stuff. We only have one main goal.' He agreed and thought
They weren't warriors for justice, just regular kids at the end of the day. Why would they care about the fate of an unknown planet?
They just wanted answers.
Even if they looked sane on the outside, inside, they were both filled with madness, seeking some sort of revenge or vengeance for their original planets and loved ones.
Especially Rein, who's planet hadn't been entirely corrupted by humans.
Also, what harm could a lantern really do? Surely there would be some Soul Sorcerers capable of dealing with the lantern if it tried anything funny.
"How can you help us?"
"I'll give you tasks that you must complete. Every task you complete, I'll answer a question about this Special Gate."
'Special Gate again… what's a Special Gate? There was no public information about there being different types of Gates…'
'Is the lantern lying? No… I don't think so. This Gate is really strange… what exactly is this lantern anyways?'
"Won't we be able to find the answers ourselves with time? Why should we accept your deal and listen to your answers?" Ciel asked
"You may find some answers, true. However, there are some that only I know. Those being the most important ones as well." The lantern said with a hint of pride
"Alright. But why can't you just tell us right now? Why do we need to complete a task? Ciel asked
"If you ask me a question without completing the task, I'll lose my memory of the answer that you need."
"That is if I try to answer. Don't think you can just ask me random questions and erase my memories."
"The reason I can answer these questions of yours is because they're related to me."
'Is that some kind of curse? I don't know if something like that exists in this world… but I should be careful about any question I ask, I wouldn't want it losing its memory of an important question.' Ciel thought
"Alright. We accept the deal. What's the task?" Ciel asked
"You must survive the first night while only being able to use 10% of your total Spirit Essence. That's it."
"If you complete the task, you will find me here on the second night. From there, I'll answer a question you have about this Special Gate."
"Alright… thanks… by the way, what should we call you?" Ciel reluctantly asked
It felt quite strange asking for the name of a lantern.
"I am known as… I guess you can call me the Starlight Lantern. Good luck on your first night, young human."
"Before you go, let me warn you once again. This is a Special Gate. Don't think of it as a regular Gate. If you mistake this place for a regular Gate, you will die." The Starlight Lantern warned
It's light then dimmed, before completely vanishing. All that was left was the lightless, beautiful looking lantern.
'What exactly is a night though… and where are we going? I guess we need to figure out how to get past this night before we get any answers.' Ciel thought
[ What do you think we need to do to complete the night? Also, the first night… that means that this isn't the last one. How many nights will there be? ] Rein asked rhetorically
[ Let's hope there won't be too many. We won't have enough food and water supplies to last more than a month. ] Ciel said
Ciel could melt the ice in the Soul World, so water wasn't much of a problem if things got desperate. The problem was how they were going to find food.
All of a sudden, they heard the sound of heavy footsteps rushing towards them from inside the tunnel.
[ Get ready for battle. A Twisted Forsakened is charging towards us. ]
Rein could instantly tell it was at Soul Tier 2 with her enhanced senses. Forsakened didn't know how to hide their strength at all. At least the weak ones...
A few seconds later, a blurry figure jumped out of the tunnel, and landed a few metres away from Ciel.
It had white fur, blood red eyes and stood 2 metres in height, having razor sharp claws and teeth. It was a Twisted Wolf.
'This thing is probably related to the night… of course it had to be a Forsakened. Why else would we only be allowed 10% of our total Spirit Essence for the task?' Ciel thought with slight irritation
It seemed like they wouldn't be able to escape fighting Forsakened for the time being in the "Special Gate".
With a bestial growl, the Twisted Wolf pounced towards Ciel with frightening speed.
Ciel's arm was grazed by the terrifying claws, with blood now spilling out of the new wounds.
[ We can't use our Spirit Essence right now… ]
[ Also, we can't fully trust that lantern. It's definitely up to something. Still, we'll follow the rules of the task. ] Ciel said
If the duo wanted, they could easily take down the Twisted Wolf if they used their Spirit Essence, as Void element was an overwhelming advantage in fights.
However, if they did that, they could lose valuable information about this Special Gate that they were in.
Since Void element cost too much Spirit Essence, they would be forced to fight it head on with Ciel's Abilities.
Ciel's Abilities were more utility based, resulting in them having to defeat a Twisted Forsakened with just pure skill, and a few small tricks.
This wasn't going to be an easy fight, even at their level of strength.