บท 629: Hera is back
As Hera appeared outside the doorway, she noticed it was already late at night. Looking at the clock, it was around 2 A.M., and the room was very cold. The red dunes were terrible at holding heat. However, Hera was very curious about the magnets. She looked around and couldn't find any of her friends, which meant that they were probably inside someone's room.
"Well… I know that I won't be able to sleep if I don't do this first," Hera walked away from the doorway and called her entire court out. They were in their weapons forms, and all flew in front of her waist as the magnets shot out from Ariadne. Each of her blades got one magnet, including Armory and Scythe. However, the earrings only got one magnet despite being a pair. It was the same thing with Nimbus. There was only one magnet shared between the two tonfas. There was no need to give one each since the twin blades could never be too far from their other halves.
"Armory, let's start with you. Go up. I'll keep an eye on my mana. Try getting 200 meters away from me. Can you do that?"
'Of course, Hera!' Armory replied in a chipper tone before taking off. She started moving very quickly but then slowed down when she got closer to the 200-meter mark. After around 2 minutes, the blade called, 'I think I'm at the right distance. Can you feel any difference?'
'Not really, but even if a single one of you goes beyond 200 meters, my mana wouldn't take that much of a dive. I would only notice when you get to 300 meters, but then I'll notice that quickly,' Hera replied in her mind. It was odd. Even at this distance, she didn't have to struggle to communicate with Armory, although her voice sounded slightly muffled as if they were talking through a phone and not face to face. Either way, the connection was perfect, and there was no delay in their communication.
'Right, the ones down here, your turn. Move everyone to the left. I want you all 200 meters away. Armory, you tell everyone when they get far enough away.'
The blades agreed with that and continued the testing. Thanks to the magnets, Hera's initial range was 200 meters, and then, using the conga line trick, that range increased by 100 meters with each court member joining the line. With the eight blades currently there, the last of them could be almost 1 kilometer away, and she wasn't even losing any mana at that point. With a smile, she called everyone back. There was one more test she wanted to do, but that would have to be left for later. She was freezing right now and very tired after the test. Later, she wanted to see if sending Nimbus and Lurize on a Royal Quest with the magnets to see if there would be any changes. A part of her doubted that this would work, but maybe there was an odd interaction between Ariadne and the skill.
With that out of the way, Hera went to her private room, showered, and went to bed. She was too tired to even reply to the messages from the guides, even if there were quite a few of them. The Empress ended up sleeping in only when she woke up that she reply to them all. There were a couple of odd messages. Lodi sent one on the day she got inside the Red Dunes that she and Ruma would try to talk with someone, and they might take a while to come back. Hera wasn't quite sure what that meant. After all, guides should be able to send her messages no matter where they were, but as she said, neither of them sent any other texts after that one. Capri asked her permission to show Tara some of his collections. Hera had no idea what that meant, but she said it was fine. Whatever that collection would be, it was Capri's, not hers. There was no need for him to ask her permission about it. Aside from that, most of the guides were just talking about the Red Dunes and the monsters she faced, giving some advice on how to fight them or how to optimize her travel time. All of those would be very helpful if they sent it a day or so before when she had no idea what to expect in the room. However, most of their advice ended up being things that Hera and her party eventually figured out. The only thing that would be new was the idea of using water to kill the monsters. When the sand got wet, they couldn't move around without any issues. After answering everything, she quickly went to the bathroom, brushed her teeth, and headed out. It was already 11 A.M., and the rest of the group was probably waiting for them.
"Finally!" before even opening her eyes after the transfer, the Empress heard Blue's voice, "We've been waiting for hours!"
Blue was on the shore of the oasis with her bare feet on the water.
"Blue, chill. You talk as if we were fighting non-stop. It's nice to have a moment to breathe," Alex was lying in the sand without her armor, just basking in the sun, with Adriel by her side, shirtless. Helena and Bonnie were by the water, half submerged, while Shane and Mylo were resting by the shadow of a tree while grilling some food. No one was wearing any armor, and they all seemed very relaxed.
Seeing that, Hera chuckled before calling her court out, "I was going to feel bad about being late, but seeing this, I refuse to apologize."
"C'mon, they are just too comfortable here. We need to move fast!" Blue gasped.
"Why?" Hera tilted her head. Blue never seemed too bothered by everything that was going on, and having that change in a day made the Empress suspicious. But when walking closer to her friend, she noticed something in her eyes, "Why are your irises so big?"
Blue instantly flinched and looked away, "I…Don't know?"
"Blue…" Hera got even closer, putting one hand on the controller's shoulder.
Blue bit her lip as if she was trying to hold back the words, but eventually, she broke, "I missed my family…. So I asked a bunch of questions about them…."
"You asked the curse?" Hera asked just to confirm what she was hearing.
"Yeah…"
"And now it is advanced enough so you can hear it?" Hera pressed.
"I even got the title," Blue added.
"Blue!" Bonnie yelled, "I can't believe you. We agreed not to toy with that! Apparently, Helena is the only one with a shred of self-control in this party," she huffed.
"Actually, I might also be cursed. I was thinking about some spells last night, and the answer kind of came to me. And not in an epiphany kind of way," Helena added.
"Well.. at least we are already going to get rid of that," Adriel tried to lessen the blow.
"But I don't want to be cursed. I can't see my family like this!" Blue gasped.
"It's not like you would be able to see them now anyway. Try to relax," Shane added, "Also, lunch is ready."
"We will eat, and then we can go. I promise," Hera smiled at Blue, who let out a long sigh.
"Ok. This voice is just really annoying."
"Tell me about it," Alex rolled her eyes. It's been a long time since she started to hear that voice.
Hera was curious, but at the same time, she knew better than to ask about it. Suddenly, she heard a shrill and gargled voice inside her mind, 'Like thissss.'
"What the fuck was that?" Hera gasped.
'I'm sorry!' Edge gasped, 'I just thought about how the curse should sound like.'
"What? But… I ordered you guys not to interact with it. How did it bypass the order?" Hera asked out loud.
"What's wrong?" Helena asked.
Hera explained to them as they all walked to Shane and Mylo, who were taking care of the food. The working theory was that Hera's order was unable to stop the blades from seeing something. Or at least it wouldn't be able to stop their senses. So even if she asked them not to see the color red, their eyes, or whatever they used to see things, would still see red, but their brain, or consciousness, is what would stop them from actually registering that thing as red. Because of this, the curse could still hear them and understand what they were looking for. To make things even worse, Hera realized that part of her new relic wasn't made by her. During the time she was trying to make some of the spells that were currently on Ariadne, she had a lot of 'moments of brilliance.' Random ideas that popped into her mind out of the blue and worked right away. She was too focused on finishing the job to pay attention to it, but now as they talked, that seemed more and more obvious that not all ideas were truly hers.
"You know…. I get why people used this curse," Hera sighed.
"Yeah. It's a great tool. You mentioned you changed Yarnball. What does it look like now?" Alex nodded and quickly changed the subject, knowing this might make them discuss the curse more.
"It's no longer Yarnball. I changed the name. It's called Ariadne now. Before I forget, Nimbus," Hera took one of the magnets out of Ariadne, "I'm giving you a Royal Quest. Take this and fly one kilometer up. I want to know if you can still talk to me even when you go beyond your range."
Nimbus took the magnet and kissed Hera's hand to receive the 5 thousand mana she gave him, "I will do as you command," the Sentinel took off and placed the magnet in his mouth. Then he turned into his griffon form and started flying. Hera wasn't worried that he wouldn't be able to return to the oasis since her blades could always come back to her, no matter what.
'Why are you asking him and not me?' Lurize was in his zweihander form, but Hera could swore that she heard him crossing his arms.
"Well, for one, he is a much better flier than you are," Hera answered truthfully.
'I could just run for 1 kilometer,' Lurize huffed.
"Lurize, you know you are amazing, but you can't even walk in the dunes without being buried alive. If I ask you to run for 1km, you will take hours to get there and back. I'm not playing favorites here. I'm just taking the best one for the job," Hera patted the zweihander. He avoided staying in his bipedal form so he wouldn't fall through the sands.
'Fine,' Lurize replied but he was clearly sulking. Hera pulled the zweihander and a few tools to maintain the weapon. Even if she didn't have to, after all, her court would always be in the best possible condition as they were summoned. Doing this was akin to giving them a massage.
"Oh, by the way. I checked that whole ascension thing," Hera turned to the group. She forgot to ask if she could mention Tara to them, but she assumed she would be under the same rules as the guides. Being careful not to mention the Ancestor, Hera explained to everyone about the ascension, avoiding some details that would seem too unlikely for her to know, like the fact that she would get benefits from being the first one to ascend, getting the skills of the others who ascended if she didn't have them. In the end, everyone agreed that she did the right thing by not ascending right now, but the topic of whether she should go through that or not was debated. Shane was completely on the side of ascension. Being closer to the Naga like that felt like a dream to her, and if she got the chance, she would ascend as well.
In the middle of their lunch and that conversation, Hera felt her entire mana pool being drained in an instant. She wasn't paying too much attention, but Armory told her that Nimbus had just passed by the 380-meter mark. Since the cost would double every 10 meters, there was a point when the cost would spike really quickly. The Empress tried calling the Sentinel but to no avail. When she took a look at Ariadne, she saw how it was marking 14 out of 15 magnets, meaning that the one Nimbus had with him was now gone.
Eventually, her first titled blade returned, confirming her suspicion. The magnet had vanished at some point, and Lurize had to spend the mana she gave him to reach 1km and come back. Still, that did work for a while. After finishing their meal, everyone suited up and walked towards the doorway. They all touched it, making a notification pop up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would you like to be transported to:
Temple of Sands - 11th layer:
[Yes] [No]
Or press the button below for your private room:
[Enter your Private Room]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They all looked at each other and, with a nod, pressed yes. This should be the last room they had to travel to before being able to get rid of the curse, which means that this step of their journey would soon come to an end.
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