Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 129

"Ahh, I remember this place." Suddenly says the fox, nostalgia and something odd, bitter, coating his voice. "One of the reasons that the magic of taking things from other universes works so well is because it’s users obeyed one single major role, to not ever, never, bring another life form into our planet, it is known that a few of our demon ancestors did way back then and, wow, it never ends well, but this one, these mushroom looking plants accidentally did well with the plant life, some say it was a mistake from the caster but others even questioned the properties of this so-called mushroom plant and if they are alive at all or if there is magic at foot somehow."

As interesting as it may sound I was not too worried about it and in doubt would rather avoid getting close to it at all, even more after the experience with the pulsating substance up above that had us in this mess.

That’s when, to my surprise, something dead and long forgotten makes itself known once more by shining dimly against my chest.

I clench it under my robes, and with a glance in Ethan’s direction I say:

"The guiding crystal, I thought I had broken it but... it is shining again." The crystal that has been given to us to find our target inside this place, which less and less I believe to be anyone’s daughter as surviving here would be impossible for the common folk, and yet the oddity of this mission does not take away my focus of finishing it and saving my dear fairy friend.

"Still, it’s quite odd ... " Ethan starts saying as we make our way down the building we are at, one of the few connected to the ceiling and with access to outside the underground city. "We saw what the fog did with any organic material, even the water did not escape it, so how can there be any sort of life down here?"

Quite strange indeed, which makes me even more wary of the mushroom life and more attentive to our surroundings, avoiding walking close much less touching any o them this time around.

What I notice, too, however, is that the fog seems less predominant the more we walk down, deeper into the underground city, and as much as the city is quite visible from here for myself the walk takes a little longer than what I expected, and looking back at a tall building resembling castle towers at the four edge direction with a building style similar to the merchant city, Demonshell, it implies that those were built by the demons themselves to connect the surface of this place.

And explains why so many stairs too.

"You know, you bite your tail." Suddenly Ethan says as we descend.

"Uhm?" I say, not sure if I heard him right.

"Your tail, you bite it in your sleep, is very cute."

"T-that!" I’m loss for words at such commentary, being teased by him many times before but not for this, especially when it mostly stays hidden, but not only did he watch me sleep but saw such a childish act of mine that I did not get to lose over the years.

My only reaction is to flush from head to tail and humf away from him, feeling it is pointless to dismiss his cute commentary at this point.

But that’s something Ethan would do, he has never passed an opportunity to poke my nerves a little, even with the veil covering my face, is almost as if he could see beyond all that.

Although I cannot help a glance towards him, only to realize his eyes have never left me, and a warm smile turns his lips up when he notices me looking back.

This little devil... only him and his heartwarming smile can have him getting away with things like this, I think, but turn around with a smile of my own as I sigh.

The mood quickly turns sore, however, once we find the first body.

Since entering the domains of the fog we had not seen any bodies but rather the husks of the living, but here there are full on skeletons lying around, truly dead and deteriorated by the time as they stayed exposed there, original citizens that had a different fate from the ones above.

We chose silence as our company for the rest of the journey down to the city, the number of corpses increasing the deeper we went, following the guidance of the crystal.

I start to wonder about many things, the remains of a story, of a civilization, staying dead silent right in front of me, a story right there to have its mysteries uncovered, but only guesses remain and tried their bests to remanence the past of this place.

And the questions remained unanswered. Why the ones down here died? Why they were not consumed by the fog? And why the constructions of the strange universe had a ceiling but no windows? Round domes in great buildings, a square simple format in others, a single brush on a frame for me to guess the whole painting here.

Imagine my surprise once we go down to the central area, where a big round building sits behind the main street, and find someone still alive... so to say.

The main area seems to have stopped in time, with bags and wooden crates on the floor and over merchant stall, the products long deteriorated, the wood so out of place in this dwelling with no forest, thrown and broken as if a commotion had taken place here centuries ago, and by the many bodies around such mess with all different positions and placement, I can almost see everything in motion here.

The only thing to break such an untouched historical scene are the mushrooms, big and luminous in this part, under the light of the big crystal, growing in abundance without predators around, but one in particular catches my eye, not the huge one sitting right in the middle of a circle of them, but actually the single solitary one in front of it, a circle of empty space bringing that single mushroom forth from the group.

And also because that one... is shaped just like a human.