Bab 237: The dance
The crowd that followed behind Snow whispered and spoke out in concern. Sometimes their voices got loud as they argued with one another. Other times, silence was harsh, leaving all of them uncomfortable in the darkness. Nobody liked how suffocating the darkness was, and their voice picked up once again.
"I swear, I saw the Pope getting ferried away." One of the younger Priestess blurted out. She had short red hair, a heart-shaped face, and was quite small. One would have thought she was a child because of her height. She covered her mouth, which made everyone around her stare at her with interest.
"What are you talking about? This is the Pope we are talking about."
The Priestess shook her head vigorously. She then raised up her right hand and spoke, "I swear it on the God of Light. He was taken."
The crowd murmured. To swear it upon the God of Light was a heavy responsibility. Especially because it was their words and integrity on their line. Anyone who broke it would likely be excommunicated if they lied.
"Are you sure, Daphne?" An elderly man spoke, crossing his arm behind. "The Pope is the strongest light practitioner that we have in the eternity of the church."
"Well, I wouldn't say the Pope is the strongest light practitioner any longer," Daphne said. She then motioned her head toward Snow, who was leading the pack with her triple balls of light that swirled around her. "She is the Saintess."
"True, but we haven't seen the extent of her power. It could be close or even higher. We have been told for generations about the power of a Saintess."
The elderly man snorted, waving his hand in front of him. "It could also be all lies to bring up hype. Yes, she saved us, but that was all her physical strength."
"Old man, I think you need to clean your eyes. We have been brainwashed and even possessed. She cleared all that away and brought us back to how we are. What would happen if that didn't happen?" Daphne crossed her arm, she waited patiently for him to reply back, but the elderly had nothing to say. "See, even you would know that we would have been trapped in this godforsaken place for a very long time. We were lucky that she had come when she did."
"Bah." With a wave of his hand, he dismissed her words. "We are still in this hellhole. Until we get out of here, we shall see what happens."
"Whatever you say, old man."
There were a few more chats between the debate on what had happened to the Pope and Snow's power, which Snow eventually tuned out. Her attention was on the changing scenery.
Everything around her had now become much more well developed. There were large pillars carved into the cliffs and even large statues of humanoid monsters. Many of them were a repeat of the same being with a falcon's head and a half-naked human body, covering parts of its lower half. Even its hands were falcon-like, giving it an intimidating aura.
Right next to it was a large female with a hippo's head with its mouth wide open. It's beady, stone-cold eyes glared down upon the group as if it was spectating everyone's very soul. Her body wasn't slim like the usual female but had tough muscles that accentuated the body. She was holding a long staff that were hooked at the end.
The deeper they went, the more and more statues of different animals were lined up on both sides
of the walls.
Snow felt dwarfed in the presence of these statues, but she continued to move forward. Her steps became quieter and more cautionary. Her magic summoned her sword, the White Gryphon, in front of her.
White Gryphon hummed, waiting for its master to play with its power. Every time, Snow gripped the hilt a bit stronger, the light around it aesthetically glimmered, catching quite a few people around her.
They went silent, looking around with a hint of fear. Not many people had dived into a dungeon before, making this their first time. Everybody had heard horror stories about the dungeon dives and even the many deaths that had come with it. They have even healed the injured outside the gates but never step foot.
Eventually, Snow stopped in front of a large wall. There were multiple different statues posed in various forms as if they were in a dance on both sides of the wall, flowing freely to the other. Starting from an alligator man statue in different forms, moving into a crane with open wings, followed closely behind by the hippo stomping its feet, and finally ending with the falcon-headed man in a praying form. All around the body were hieroglyphics writing in a language that wasn't in their world. To Snow, it looked like squiggles.
"Did we come to a dead-end?" Jay asked. He came over next to Snow. Curiosity glistened in his eyes, he stepped forward and touched it with his hand.
"Careful!" Daphne had rushed out, grabbing Jay's hand. She snatched it back so he wouldn't touch it any longer. "It could be a trap!"
"I highly doubt it."
"You don't know that." Daphne chastised him, glaring at him to pay attention.
Jay pulled back his hand away from her. "Look, the Saintess is doing the same thing." He pointed out.
Snow, who wasn't paying attention, was diligently trying to find out clues. She had coated her hand with magic to sense for any fluctuation of traps or even hints of magic. It didn't take long for her to be surprised at the amount of magic embedded in the wall. One would have thought a giant creature was living in it at the way it pulsated with life.
Suddenly, a flash of energy smashed into her body, making her tingle. Snow froze. Her eyes became wide as she saw the image of the dance that was happening in her mind. It was a simple dance that mesmerized her.
She snatched her hand back and took a step back. Looking up, she tilted her head.
A soft wind blew across her face, bringing her a soft chill. There was a heavy scent of blood that followed closely behind.
"Is something wrong?" Daphne asked; concerned, she took a step back and gulped. Her gaze straight at the wall.
"No, I got a vision."
"A vision?"
"Yes, the statues on the wall are actually different stances. I believe we need to do the same thing to get some kind of result."
Daphne thought over what she had said. She detached away from Snow and turned around.
Suddenly, a large circular rock rumbled out from the ground, raising up to a good six feet.
Everyone jumped back out of the way, wondering what was going on. Until finally, it stopped.
Daphne carefully walked over. She walked around a few times. Eventually, she reached out and pulled herself up onto the rock. Everyone else gathered around her, wondering what she was going to do.
On cue, she danced exactly like the statue in a circular formation. It was an odd dance. The way Daphne moved was static and robotic that one would have thought she didn't know what to do. She looked back and forth from the walls, then taking a step to be in the statue's position.
"Daphne, what are you doing?" One of the priests standing on the outer edge of the stone ridge looked at her funny.
"Dancing."
"Dancing? What? Why?"
Daphne stopped, placing her hand on her hips. She then waved her hand around the wall. "Look, the statues are dancing. Snow said that we need to dance to make something happen."
"Are you sure?"
"No." Daphne also had a hard time believing it as well. "I need to try it again. I stopped halfway."
Daphne went over from the beginning, going through the motion over again. It took a moment for her to get around, but her movement was very stoic that it was hard to watch. Snow wanted to go up there herself. But her curiosity of what was going to happen kept her in place.
"Is anything happening?" Daphne called out. She was in the middle of the dance, where her hand was raised up and her knees bent.
"Nope," Jay said. "Maybe you have to move faster?"
"I'm already moving fast enough," Daphne grunted. She moved her body erratically, causing herself to twist up into an odd knot and making her fall face down onto the ground.
"Well, that didn't go so well," Jay said with a sigh. "Maybe I can do it?" He jumped up onto the raised stone.
Daphne grunted. She rolled over and slid off the side. The other Priestess helped her down.
Jay moved without much difficulty, going through the motion as if it was the most natural thing. There were a few laughs at his odd dance. He sweated, struggling to get the movement in order. Everyone could see that the dance entitled position was a lot more difficult than one would think.
One of the priests called out, "bend a bit more!"
"I'm trying!" Jay hissed back. A bead of sweat rolled off his nose.
"It looks funny."
"Why don't you try it?" He snapped.
"I'm fine. I don't like Dancing."
"Then be quiet."
"Sheesh, temperamental, aren't we."
It took Jay three to four tries to be able to get the dance into a smooth rhythm.
Eventually, Jay was able to go through the whole process without stopping once. He finished until the very end, stopping in a praying position.
A loud sound of clapping burst through the crowd, impressed by Jay's reenactment of the dance. Everyone
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone