章 141: Significantly Colder
"On the right," Roy directed, leading the cohort through a fork in their path.
They swerved right, entering a canyon in the forest. Sprinting through the canyon, tall, perilous walls surrounded them. The walls were adorned with dry and cracked roots protruding from the mix of stone and dirt.
The roots were large and thicker than normal, the size of Emile's thighs and they all separated into distinct, sharp edges like razor blades.
On the ground, the usual dilapidated foliage that accompanied them withered away leaving nothing more than minced wood and crushed, abandoned leaves.
High above them, peering over the edge of the canyon walls, a figure hunched over. Unbeknownst to the cohort, the figure's eyes followed the group strictly.
Towards the end of the canyon and the overarching walls, another split appeared in their path. Roy directed them left and the group obliged.
Above them, the figure leaped across the canyon and landed on the other side. A subtle cloud of dust kicked up from their landing and a handful of pebbles broke off from the wall, tumbling down and crashing against other rocks on the canyon floor.
The cohort kept sprinting. In the last few hours nobody had spoken other than Roy, their dedicated navigator. As they raced through the canyon, Roy suddenly stopped and pushed his feet into the slightly loose dirt, sliding across and reducing his momentum until he eventually stopped.
Noticing his abrupt stop, the group followed his example and came to a raging halt.
"What's up?" Blood asked.
"This wall—" Roy slowly approached the canyon wall beside them with his arm extended forward, "it's colder than the rest, significantly colder."
"Huh?" Blood responded, "So?"
"So it's a different material," Emile answered, "right?"
Roy didn't respond and instead continued walking towards the wall. He arrived a couple inches away while his hand hovered just out of reach.
"It's a wall just tou—" Blood beat Roy to the punch and placed his hand on the wall Roy was facing.
Immediately, Blood's hand passed through the stone exterior. His hand kept moving forward and Blood already shut himself up.
Soon after, his arm stopped being consumed by the wall as his fingers pushed against something sleek and cold. His arm was two feet into the wall, up to his elbow, and he turned around to face the cohort:
"I'm touching something," he said.
"Come over here—" Roy directed, "there's a lever in front of me."
Blood obliged and nudged himself closer to Roy. He ran his fingers along the cold wall until they eventually collided with something solid coming out of the wall.
He ran his fingers around the object, getting an idea of the shape of the device, then wrapped his fingers around it and pulled down.
As he pulled the lever down, the stone wall in front of them flickered in and out of existence a few times before vanishing entirely revealing a perfectly smooth, nearly reflective metal wall.
The wall was large, but not as large as the canyon itself. It didn't reach the top of the canyon, but still towered above the cohort.
Also, the metal wall wasn't particularly wide. It stretched about fifteen feet across, no larger than a standard gate entrance.
Blood let go of the lever and stepped back along with Roy; the two returned to the sides of Emile and Willow as they all gazed at the metal wall before them, unsure of what it is but more so unsure of how to proceed.
"Where's the door?" Blood suddenly asked, disrupting the silence caught in everyone's throat.
Although they could clearly see the metal wall now, that's all there was to it. Other than the wall itself, the only other visible features are the lever Blood pulled to reveal the wall and the symbol carved into the center of the wall itself.
The symbol reflected an array of circles, each of varying sizes that sat within the center of another circle. Five circles total, between the third and second circles triangles appeared, connecting the two perimeters of the circles and traveling around the entire image.
In the dead center of all the circles existed another symbol, the heart of a flower. The flower stood without a stem or leaves, it was nothing more than the petals.
The petals, meanwhile, were stellate in nature, forming the shape of a six pointed star.
"Do you see anything else, Roy?" Emile asked.
"No."
Since Roy couldn't see any other entrance or lever, Emile approached the wall himself and ran his fingers along the symbol in the center. The grooves were smooth, perfectly so.
There were no awkward junctions, the symbol never overextended or was cut too deep in some places and shallow in others. It was as if a highly concentrated laser constructed the symbol, it was too neatly embedded in the metal to be carved by hand.
"What do you want to do?" Willow asked from behind.
"I'm not sure—" Emile replied, "I just wish I knew what it was."
"Do you want to keep going or stay here?"
Emile studied the wall, taking particular interest in the flower petals in the center.
'A six pointed star'
"Maybe we need to find this flower," Emile said.
"We can't even find the color green, what makes you think we're gonna run into a living flower?" Blood mocked.
"Do you have a better idea?" Emile responded.
"Willow can smash through it," Blood suggested.
Emile immediately shook his head, "That's too loud. We can't afford to be reckless this close to the center."
Emile walked next to the lever and pushed it back up. The illusory canyon wall flickered a few times before solidifying completely, hiding the metal wall once again.
"Let's keep going—" Emile decided, "we can come back to this later."
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