Chương 28: Ziggurat
"What are you doing with your hands, Exile?" Time's silent and careful words brought my mind back to reality. Because of it, I instinctively folded my fingers into a fist; the screen continued to show a bird's eye view of the horde and the rocky terrain.
"Err... Nothing, nothing!" I chuckled while waving my hands with a troubled expression. "I'm just uhh... fooling around! Look, ow, ow, ow!" I barked while mimicking how dogs' mouth moves with my hands; this kinda messed up with the ZOOM screen, inching closer and going farther on and on continuously as my fingers moved.
Times grumbled and looked away at me again while the soldier beside him looked at me with eyes filled with discontent and disgust.
'This guy is already getting on my nerves...'
<Can you blame him? You're acting kinda cringe, dude.>
'Is it my fault your finger commands look fucking silly?'
<My, the profanity, Aleph! You kiss your mother with that mouth?>
'Don't bring my mom into this, you fucking asshole. And you curse harder than me, cunt.'
<And you best fucking remember it!>
I sighed and shaped my hand like a dog again; only then did the ZOOM screen finally return to its default look. There, I saw the kapre I was surveying; he's starting to create a new and still piping red sword. I moved my middle finger and ring finger away from my thumb for a few centimeters and saw two other kapres right beside the one I was observing closely. It seemed like the first one is melting the raw materials, the second is hammering the weapon, and the last is finishing it up.
'They move fast.'
<You're right. It looks like a mess down there, but an unspoken unity is keeping these workers organized. From the looks of it, the kapres' workers are also their soldiers. Quite a bold move; I bet these soldier-slash-workers are darn exhausted now, and their energy would just deplete even more once the battle starts. I'm not sure if this siege against the Keep is working well in the kapre's favor, really. We can definitely find a way to capitalize on this.>
'I bet. These soldiers would be unusable after all these non-stop work, but it didn't look like any of them are as drained as we would have expected.'
<Willpower, perhaps. Or maybe it's strength coming from the kapres' never-ending faith. All I know for sure is that they're already well-armed. They might attempt to sack the Keep soon; chances are their attack has already commenced before our arrival. The fact that they're donning that violet armor says it all. They'd be storming the mountains soon.>
'Do you know what they're wearing, Dominion?'
<Aye. It's a durable and sturdy light armor made from balete leaves. From the looks of it, they're using spider silk to weave the fabric together.>
'They're using leaves as armor?'
<Yes. Your tone sounds very condescending, Aleph. I assure you that their armor is much tougher than that garbage you were wearing earlier. Those leaves are inflammable, light, and sturdy enough to withstand steel. I haven't got a clue how those leaves managed to be that strong; the power coming from the soil and water of this land might have something to do with it. Life here in the Gardens thrives through the mystical and untapped magic lurking from beneath the lifeless soil. Hah. If our leaves can withstand your homeland's steel, can you imagine how strong our iron is compared to the shabby ones your people have?>
'Hmm... Damn. Looks like I'll be on an ANALYZE spree once we're done with this war.'
<I'm sure the Vyurs doesn't even need us. They easily outnumber the kapres with the soldiers in the Keep alone. I don't know where the reinforcements from the human settlement are, but with the Keep in front of them and the humans on their rear, there's no way the kapres can win. Unless, of course, the humans work for the kapres, but I'm not seeing any of them, not even slaves.>
'But Times still looks worried.'
<That means the kapres has some kind of trump card.>
'Dominion.'
<What's up?>
'I think I know what their trump card is now...'
<What do you mean?>
'Look there.'
I focused my gaze on the gigantic structure on the ground as well as the kapre sitting on a throne above it.
"ZOOM 2," I uttered the command, and a second ZOOM screen popped below the already existing one on the upper right corner of my vision.
<What the fuck is that?>
As we flew above the structure I've detected, the hot air balloon raised higher into the air; it must have been because the Vyurborne soldier did something with the heat. There's a visible nervousness in his expression, but once we've flown high enough, the soldier let out a sigh of relief and continued glaring at me again. The fuck is this guy's problem anyway? Is he asking for a beating or something?
Whatever. I just focused my attention on the familiar structure below; thankfully, I managed to capture the damn thing on the ZOOM 2 screen. When I looked at the two screens, I realized something new with them. Each now had small blue texts written above them. The ZOOM screen that showed the kapre blacksmith now had the words ZOOM 1 above it, while the other one that displayed the enormous structure had the text ZOOM 2 instead.
<Oh yeah. You can change those texts if you want. Just say, "CHANGE ZOOM NAME." If you have more than one screen open, just be more specific and say something like, "CHANGE ZOOM 1 NAME.">
'Good to know.'
"CHANGE ZOOM 2," I whispered, and immediately, the text at the top of the second ZOOM screen glowed.
<Good. Now just say what you want to change it with.>
"Ziggurat." With my whisper, the glowing name on the second screen disappeared and immediately changed into Ziggurat.
<What a fitting name.>
Dominion was right; it's the most fitting name for that structure.
A towering pyramid-like structure, imposing staircases on each of the structure's four sides with innumerable steps, and a raised platform at the very top with a gigantic throne made out of wood, stone, and metal, there's no better name to call this marvelous architectural wonder other than ziggurat. I had seen many similar structures in the Vitality God Throne's domain in Firmament beside the endless floating rivers connecting his domain to others; the only difference was that Throne's ziggurats are made of diamonds and pearls. My question now is how does the kapres learn how to make such an impressive copy of Throne's signature structure?
Is it because of that man sitting on the throne above the stone ziggurat?
I looked at his appearance from the second ZOOM screen: a crown made of brambles and bones, a bloodied body much larger than any of the other kapres, and the same violet light armor with countless wooden and vine ornaments dangling on his neck. The man on the throne is screaming orders from above his ziggurat with a whip in hand. He was pointing and shouting orders to the servants at the foot of his ziggurat. His voice was loud enough that I could hear glimpses of it even from a few hundred meters above.
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