As we leave the cave and stay within ether-sensing distance of the black rock walls, this strange realm we've been dropped into grows into a far larger mystery in my mind than I thought it was before.
I had theories that this might be one of those Demonic breeding grounds, like the Noble Grade worlds I've seen in many past demon memories; but after seeing the writing of another race, I'm having second thoughts on this.
The fact that there are fledgling demons weak enough for me to kill without much effort, and a commoner demon, makes me even less sure of what this place could be.
–
We get into a rhythm of walking through the darkness again, and get closer together so that our full arms touch for greater surface area to cycle Celestial Energy than just our palms.
The energy is far more pure and hot than it was before our battle with this demon, because I absorbed a lot from its core. However, the more we walk through the darkness, the efficiency of our cycling to refine it further begins to slow down.
This is because our minds are not completely focused anymore.
Part of me still feels the presence of celestial footsteps appearing randomly in the darkness, but in reality, we are still in an empty abyss, and it is just my paranoia playing tricks. Maria feels the same exact thing and turns her head toward nothing to disrupt our cycles periodically.
In my own mind, I'm constantly scanning the wall we walk near, waiting for more text markings to show up; and simultaneously trying to think back to any of my past experiences that might reveal what the words I read before meant.
To top everything off, we are still in the dark and completely isolated in silence. No matter how many times I try to use telepathy or speak out loud, there is no difference. Hand signals and trying to read lips can get small points across, but they are not able to transmit complex thoughts.
Our vibrations are capable of resonating and sharing emotions, but even these have limitations.
One of these limitations in particular grows the further we get from this cave as well.
It is the two secrets we are hiding from one another.
Before this fight with the Demon, we both pushed away the uneasy thoughts about my Demon's Core and her black hole within her Soul Energy Core. However, after such heightened emotions and use of Celestial Energy, the comedown after has brought this suppressed issue to the surface again.
These tensions grow, but with no simple way to resolve it, we continue forward with our main objective: survive and find a way out of here...
–
Our Celestial Energy Cycles have sped up, so it's not as easy to keep an accurate track of time; but what I believe to be over five days pass.
The black wall we follow is slightly slanted, and there are portions of it with cracks, but I don't find any massive opening like the cave we entered. There are a few small ones, which we follow inward, but have no luck in finding more text.
Dozens of fledgling demons are slain, as they come out from the cracks in the caves at the lowest points of our energy cycles.
It seems they can't tell the difference between living and dead corpses, only beings that are weak or strong. So, when little to no energy is flowing through us, they attack.
Single sword slashes are all it takes to kill these pests as we scour the caves for more potential clues.
Then again, the more we find of these openings in the rock wall, the more I even second-guess if these are caves at all, or just holes in the side of a giant cliff. This is because in none of them have I ever sensed a cave ceiling.
The darkness just gives off the impression that it is a tight fit, but for all I know, there could be endless dark sky above.
–
Another five or so days pass. Making it a total of 10 since our battle with that large Demon.
In addition to my fuzzy perception of time, it is also extremely difficult to get a proper scope of the distance we have traveled.
Maria and I are walking almost non-stop.
We take small breaks every once in a while, but even these, it seems unwise to stop for long.
Not only could there be a demon lurking around any corner, but also neither of us gets very tired in general.
As True Cyan Cores, the need for sleep is basically nonexistent. I believe I could go on forever at this rate...
Food and water are not necessary either.
The Celestial Energy cycling through us is more than enough sustenance to live off indefinitely.
Considering this, we've walked hundreds of kilometers, in and out of cracks and fissures in the rock wall, and now killed over a hundred fledgling demons. It makes what we ran into first seem like a fluke.
We were not near this wall when we encountered that demon.
I begin to think we're not going to run into any more major threats as long as we stay against the rock wall.
But eventually, as we approach another random break in the wall we follow; light pulses of white Celestial Energy ripple through the ground beneath my feet, as well as the wall to my side.
Instead of fear this time, as we summon our soul swords, there is excitement coursing through us. The last few caves haven't even had fledglings, so feeling this much energy is good news.
Finally, opportunity for progress, and hope that we won't be wandering in this abyss for eternity.
The pulses through the floor and wall are far lighter than the fledglings we've been dealing with for almost two weeks; but not as strong as the Demon from before.
As we walk closer to the source, the wall beside us curves inward to reveal another opening.
We've seen dozens of these in our travels so far, but this one is the first to have actual Celestial Energy readings bursting out from the exit.
From the looks of it now, as we get closer and slowly walk in, there's more than one of them.
My eyes widen as a flash of white light bursts not only through the floor, but with waves that travel through the dark air as well from the sky. This illuminates the walls of this opening even further in than I could see before.
My heart rate rises as I see scratches on the cave walls again, in orderly patterns.
Yet, my attention is jerked forward again from a Vibrational warning from Maria, as her gaze is still up in the air.
No fledglings come raining down on us like before, but instead the massive head and open mouth of a Demonic Dragon emerges from the darkness.
It's letting out a screech, but nothing at all can be heard.
Our ether senses have grown slightly since the last battle, so we have about a 9-meter head start in order to shift our stances and get ready to fight.
Maria is nearly at her peak, so she lunges forward to be the attacker, and she grins almost as wide as the Dragon that dives down at us.
Its head is completely filled with bright Celestial Energy, and so are the tips of its wings when it emerges from the corners of my ether senses.
Right before impact, Maria jumps upward, and I follow, jumping even higher than her.
In perfect rhythm, we dodge the downward chomp of this dragon and spin connected in the air.
Maria's cycle peak is timed perfectly as we lose altitude, and she plunges her icy sword into the back of the dragon's neck. A long blue sparkling trail of ice opens as she slices a wide 3-meter-long gash all the way down its back, then kicks off its side to have us both slam into the cave wall.
Large areas of ice spread to the base of its wings and start to fracture pieces off of them; but the dragon lets out a silent screech and concentrates its Celestial Energy to the affected areas as fast as possible.
This saves it from losing its wings but leaves gaps in its defenses in other areas..
As Maria's cycle passes through her and back into me, I shift and take the attacking role, lunging in and jumping upward to leave a fiery gash through the underside of the demonic monster's head.
It claws at us with its arms and legs, but we've already moved out of the way and prepared for another counter.
This closed-in space is not optimal at all for a creature of that size. Its wingspan alone is almost 12 meters, drifting outward further at the tips than my perception can see. The two cave wall sides are about 20 meters apart, so after running away from the dragon's opposite side after slashing through its jaw, I can just barely sense it.
After killing that Demon when we could barely even stand, and see more than a few meters in any direction with far weaker Celestial Energy, fighting a beast like this is easy.
We use the cave's other wall as a brace to kick off of while swapping positions, and watching the Dragon's movements as it lifts its head in the air to screech from the pain. It gets reckless and sends in a wing full of Celestial Energy our way.
Maria clashes with it, sword against scales, at nearly even strength, but uses its momentum to spin us both around it and open up its blind spot.
A flash of blue ice at the base of its spine instantly shatters off its tail while the white wing of this beast slams against the cave wall.
My cycle peaks next as we run beneath its other wing.
I slash through it, carving a wave of red fire through its strange avatar flesh, and slice a massive chunk off.
The adrenaline and flow state we felt before returns, and for a full three minutes straight we fly, flip, and slice through the darkness, methodically killing the Demonic Dragon that attacked us at the mouth of this cave.
Just as both of us stab our blades into the mutilated flesh of this beast and shatter its core, another wave of Celestial Energy comes from deeper within the cave.
It is not the fledgling demons that wish to feed on this dragon's corpse, but instead its bonded demon.
Another 4-meter-tall commoner, with battle scars all over its body and two small white glowing horns peeking out of its forehead, approaches ready to fight, but it clutches its chest as we shatter the dragon's core.
The Celestial Energy flow in this monster stops moving, and it falls to its knees.
The Dragon stops screeching, and the Demon faceplants onto the hard rock floor.
However, the waves of strong Celestial Energy do not stop coming from behind it.
I sense far more of a similar strength, footsteps coming our way. Some have the wave patterns of dragons like this one, higher up in the air; while others have footsteps like the Demon that just tried to save its own life.
Others... send much denser waves of Celestial Energy our way.
This cave is far different than the dead ends we've been finding so far.
Maria pulls her blade out from the Dragon's corpse, and we jump off it before our feet start to sink into the fast-decaying flesh.
I stand behind her in a similar battle stance, now absorbing the waves of raw Celestial Energy from this kill. But, my mind is partially wandering away from the threats as we've made it further into the cave. All these pulses of Celestial energy coming our way have begun to illuminate and reveal the vast amount of markings all over the walls.
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Author's Note:
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