Chapter 254 254- Tower Of Time (Part 2)
"What should we do, Kai?" Kaya asked in distress. Although she can already predict what they were going to do.
Kai, however, didn"t reply and instead took a look at the jump beneath him that he must take if he really wanted to approach the tower. It was going to take some effort to swim toward it. Then, his eyes went to Kaya and then to Aria before he sighed and then said.
"I will go alone. You two stay here."
"What? Are you joking? I won"t let you go there alone." Kaya blinked in surprise.
"It doesn"t seem to be dangerous. I"m just going to check it out and then come back. Kai really saw no worth in them entering the tower as a group. Perhaps it was a wiser idea for him to enter it and then quickly leave if he had to.
"Who knows what could be inside that place, Kai! If you"re going, I"m going too."
"Listen to me. Our plan is to go back since we already spent too much time away. If we don"t hurry back, we might be suspected. I"m not going for long so don"t worry." Although Kai"s words were calm and direct, Kaya still could see an apologetic look in his eyes.
He was conveying his a.s.surance to her that he was going to be fine, something that Kai rarely does.
"..." Kaya tried to retort, only to find herself speechless. In the end, she could only give up and accept since she really couldn"t bring herself to refuse Kai when he seemed this dead set on doing it.
"Keep an eye for Chal if I don"t come back quickly." Kai said as he gave his phone to Kaya. "If she contacts you, you know what to do."
"Ok, please take care of yourself."
"I will."
After that, Kai approached the edge before he looked back and then jumped into the ocean. His movements were swift and skillful as he pierced the surface of the water with his hands first.
The water was very cold, almost icy. However, Kai"s body was protected by Origin so he only felt warmth around him as he swam to the surface and started making his way toward the tower.
Kaya and Aria watched anxiously as he approached his destination with inhuman speed. For a second, Kai seemed like a fish moving through water with his speed.
"Hmm?" As Kai got closer and closer, more and more details of the tower started appearing. One of these details were the engravings on the outer walls. Countless gray lines filled the outer layers.
The lines went from its base to the highest point of the tower as they converged into one single line that connected directly with the hourgla.s.s like an energy cable.
"Interesting."
Kai didn"t know what was the reason behind these lines and he frankly wished they weren"t really anything apart from some decoration on the walls. But, he knew deep inside that he was very likely wrong.
But, he still continued swimming toward the tower nevertheless. Eventually, he reached his destination and finally jumped on a small platform that led to the main gates of the tower. The black doors looked thick and very durable even without touching them. Their ancient aura further proven the fact that this tower was at least a few thousand years old if not way more than that.
Then, with careful steps, Kai approached the gates. He didn"t notice nor feel anything weird happening around him. When he was right in front of the doors, he put his hand forward and touched the door.
He naturally tried to push it open at first using pure strength. However, weirdly enough, the door didn"t budge at all even though he used a good amount of force to try and open it.
But, Kai wasn"t surprised since this didn"t seem like a normal door.
The feeling of the rough rocks on his hand was rather unpleasant. But, other than that, nothing happened. Or that was what Kai thought as he was about to retract his hand when something happened. A circular area of the door suddenly flipped as if it was triggered by something before showing a small tray made out of rocks with a weirdly shaped cup on top of it.
"What is this?" Kai murmured as he approached the cup curiously and examined it with his eyes.
The material the cup was made out of seemed to be gold with beautiful engravings on it that made it feel high-quality even without touching it.
However, other than that, he couldn"t find anything else particularly eye-catching about it. Standing there, thoughtfully, Kai decided to experiment with it.
In his head was a morbid idea that he was almost certain would work. So, even though he was rather hesitant about doing it, he still put his hand on top of the cup, barely an inch away from it.
Then, with a swift movement, he slit his wrist open as fresh red blood came down from it, pouring directly into the cup. The sound of the blood splashing against the cup was rather weird. However, Kai still watched carefully what was going to happen.
A few seconds pa.s.sed in silence before something finally did happen. The old cup started shining with a bright, golden light as if it just got rejuvenated. The bright light was weak at first but quickly grew till it covered Kai"s face completely. Then, that bright light started moving through the cup into the tray and then pa.s.sed to the gates themselves.
The successive events made Kai rather wary but he still waited patiently. The shining light kept growing till it even reached Kaya and Aria on the other side.
"What is happening there?" Kaya asked with a frown. She was starting to worry.
"Let"s wait. Kai knows what he"s doing." Aria exclaimed as she tapped Kaya on the shoulder.
At the same time, the gates finally made a clicking sound before they started parting open slowly. Kai had to back away and watch as they fully parted for him, showing what was inside.
The Black Phantom squinted his eyes to take a closer look at the interior. However, all he could see was a large chamber with stairs at the end of it that led somewhere up.
That was when Kai found himself in a dilemma. Should he enter this place or simply turn around and leave? Both had their downsides since the tower itself was the most important discovery out of the whole entire trip.
He didn"t know what would happen if he left it now. Perhaps it would disappear forever or could even be found by someone that shouldn"t find it. One of those people are his father.
"Tsk…" Clicking his tongue, Kai finally decided on what he should do. So, he turned around to look at Kaya and Aria before he signaled for them to wait there. After that, he turned around and walked inside.
"No, don"t tell me he"s intending to enter!" Kaya stepped forward with an angry look on her face. "Don"t do that, Kai!!"
"Hey, wait! We don"t know what he saw there!" Aria tried to stop her. However, the latter quickly shrugged her off and yelled. "But, he said he was going to take a look and come back quickly!"
Kaya felt really annoyed by Kai"s actions. He didn"t tell her that he was intending to enter. This was the first time Kaya was truly angry with Kai for doing such a thing. She was on the verge of jumping and follow him. However, as she was about to do that, suddenly, a wall of blood appeared in front of her.
Kaya was surprised for a second before she looked back at Aria who had a conflicted expression on her face.
"I"m sorry, I can"t let you go. We agreed to wait here." She said.
"I don"t want to do this, Aria. Let. Me. Go."
"I don"t want to do it either but you left me no choice." Aria responded.
The two faced each other with intense silence. One had an expression of boiling anger and the other had an awkwardly conflicted expression.
"I"m not going to warn you twice. Move your blood wall, Aria."
"I really can"t, Kaya. I know that Kai can handle any situation he finds himself in. Even more so when he was the one who willingly went there. Have some trust in him, would you?"
"I trust him. But, we know nothing about this place. He could be going for his death for all I know!"
"Those are just a.s.sumptions! There are barely anything in this world that can kill Kai."
"Except for his illness…" Aria finished the sentence in her head.
"Those are also a.s.sumptions! You don"t know what such a weird tower hides inside of it."
"And what are you going to do when you go after him? If whatever could kill him was indeed inside that place, you can"t do anything about it!" Aria retorted with a cold tone.