Further into the mana cave we found a large cavern with an impossibly deep abyss at its center. A series of distant walkways and strange hovering stairs allowed adventuring souls to traverse the giant hole.

  This place was still connected to the mana cave, so a large amount of crystals lit the place up in a bluish white hue, but failed to reach every nook and cranny, leading to portions of it remaining in the dark.

  Looking over the edge of the cliff we were on, we spotted some man made structure embedded in the wall of the cave… Very old and made of stone bricks, but not the same stone as the cave wall. A large almond shape hovered behind the aged pillars of the structure, almost like a closed eye.

  Most of the space between here and that structure was dedicated to a large bridge that connected the two areas together. To reach the level the bridge was on, we descended downwards on a staircase of floating stone platforms. The steps were bouncy, as if magnetically held in place, so we had to carefully pace ourselves as we traveled down.

  “This is very dangerous…” Amanda said, suppressing a fearful tone.

  “I hate gravity defying stairs,” Indena commented with an oddly specific contempt.

  At the base of the stairs was the main bridge, which seemed all the more ominous with posts holding ever-burning lamps. Their bluish glow added a hint of the paranormal to our cautious march toward the structure. Skeletons composed of metal, which my scanners were claiming to be lead, lined the rims of the bridge like creepy effigies.

  “Eh, nobody said anything about this cult stuff going on down here…” Indena commented. “The mafia must be into some freaky stuff.”

  I had my doubts that this was their doing. Maybe they came through here, but they didn’t exactly scream a cult scene when we encountered them twice on the surface.

  A rattling like chains clashing behind us caused everyone to turn back and scan the part of the bridge we’d just been, but I wasn’t picking up on anything moving.

  “The Bowler family has their hands in a lot of shady things, but hardly something so...” Amanda paused as a loud cave ambiance blew by like a wind, “...f-frightening.”

  I just realized how huddled up we were. This place was really giving us the creeps…

  “You sound pretty familiar with them,” Indena tried to continue the conversation for sanities sake.

  Amanda didn’t look too thrilled at her for bringing that up, but she decided to spill some beans.

  “I don’t approve of organized crime, but they have a large hand in protecting our borders from any illegal traffic. Contraband, slaves, ideas… They keep quite a bit of that out of our country.”

  When I first saw the mafia, they were chasing down that bird demi-human named Tori. He was coming in from Arba, and I guess from an eastern country before that. Her explanation shed some light on why they might have been after him.

  “They were after that Tori kid, right Shrimp?” Indena said, thinking the same thing as me.

  “Yeah,” I nodded.

  “Tori?” Amanda’s brow raised. “What happened?”

  Still trying to ignore the spooky noises around us, I explained how they were originally hunting down a kid named Tori and his caretaker, both of which were coming from a different country, trying to get to the church.

  “They attacked a train to try and capture him,” I mentioned. “Now they’re hunting after me for stopping them.”

  “Odd…” Amanda adjusted her glasses and furrowed her brow. “They’re usually rather sympathetic to demi-humans… I can’t imagine Joseph attacking one at all.”

  I guess by Joseph, she was referring to their boss…

  “What? Why would they care about demi-humans?”

  “Hmm?” her head tilted. “Do you not know? His wife is…”

  Indena made a noise that interrupted Amanda.

  “I uh… hate to interrupt our talk…” Indena pointed to the structure, which was only a few hundred meters away now. “We’re here.”

  The giant pillars placed out in front of the structure were close enough to touch. We all rightfully neglected to do so, fearing a curse may follow along with it. Across the base of the strange stone were hieroglyphic marks.

  The hieroglyphics were hard to interpret… A strange mix of pictures and symbols that included animals and people, sometimes even a combination of the two, set in some haphazard hierarchical display. Way above all of what we could see from down here were larger depictions of creatures, many having distinctly hand shaped proportions. It might have just been my angle, but it seemed like the creatures above were lined with shiny gold.

  “This is ancient Nazalian,” Amanda imparted some wisdom. “I assume it's from the Age of Subjugation, seeing as humanity is at the bottom here,” she pointed to a group of vaguely defined people holding up stones, lifting others with golden eyes up on them.

  “Age of what?” I tilted my head.

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  “You don’t know?” Amanda turned back to me. “Modern history is broken up into different ages depending on who ruled that period. It’s one of the few things that is agreed upon internationally without sparking controversy.”

  “Yeah,” Indena nodded along. “Even in Okitoshi we used that system. And hell, we’re on the other side of the planet.”

  I’d never heard of this before. Uncle never mentioned it to me, so I assumed that recorded history started about 516 years ago, considering that was the year. Not that I believed time and all its fullness started 500 years ago or anything...

  “Aren’t we in the year 516?” I asked.

  “516 of the Age of Order,” Amanda revealed. “To be more precise, this age was named by my ancestors when they conquered the continent 500 years ago. That is why you’ll also see an ED following the number. It denotes the Elkhearts Dominion.”

  I knew about the ED thing, but not about the different ages.

  “Why did your ancestors name this the Age of Order?” I asked.

  “It might require a bit of a history lesson, if you care to hear it…”

  She explained that the age prior to this was known as the Age of Chaos, which was presided over by the ruling family of Arba. Arba is a large region to the south east of Erdereich. In that time period, horrendous magical anomalies were appearing all across the globe. Giant monsters, terrible storms and utter destruction that brought humanity far too close to extinction. At the time it was considered a punishment from the gods for failing to worship them. Others believed it was the beginning of the End Times, as stated in Ecclysian scripture.

  The scriptural Book of Pireel takes place during this time period. Pireel was the Seventh Star Angel… So she was the one that came before me.

  Whatever the cause might have been for the chaos, the Elkhearts tribe of the west managed to survive with the aid of the Seventh Star Angel, also toting a relatively large population compared to other tribes, giving them the numbers to overthrow the rulers of Arba and take the Known World for themselves. After some 400 years of rebuilding a world on the brink of destruction, Amanda’s bloodline took the Throne of the World in Esma.

  This throne was actually a physical thing, and since time immemorial it had been seated in the Holy Lands, but was eventually moved to Congerlin.

  “Whoever sits in that throne is said to be the ruler of the Known World,” Amanda revealed.

  “Which would be you, right?” Indena concluded. “Since you are the queen here.”

  Amanda shook her head. “I wish I could say so, but ever since the establishment of our constitutional monarchy, that seat has been vacant as a symbolic gesture of the monarchy and parliament sharing power… Until yesterday…”

  Amanda looked at me, then Indena’s eyes went wide as she realized her implications.

  “Huh?” I however was unsure why I suddenly became the focus of the conversation.

  “Shrimp, she’s saying you sat in that seat yesterday during the meeting. Remember?”

  -...-

  I had to stand there and process what she was talking about… But it hit hard when I realized the fancy seat I took was actually the mythical Throne of the World.

  Oh hecken nuts! Were they seriously trying to tell me I became the ruler of the Known World by sitting in that seat?

  “Uh… Wait, can you explain what that means?” I requested, biding time to let my brain take that in.

  “You are the Eighth Star of Heaven. The most hallowed angel of all, and by extension Deus’s greatest, most powerful creation,” Amanda said. “It is said that neither gods nor man will be able to stand against you. This world, and everyone within it, will be inherited by you.”

  The heavy weight of her words were almost as much of a burden as the spooky cave atmosphere. It was a reminder of how privileged of a position I had stepped into here on the surface.

  “So, we get that Yalda’s important…” Indena spoke up. “Let’s go back to these cave paintings here. What’s so special about them?”

  Why does Indena call any ancient carving “cave paintings?”

  “Hieroglyphics, you clod,” Amanda verbally struck back against Indena’s silliness. “It’s likely these were made either in or just after the Age of Subjugation. That would put them in a period where the Nazalian people still openly walked the planet.” Amanda breathed a heavy laden breath through her nostrils. “If that woman from Research Group 9 were here, she’d know all about this.”

  “And?” Indena rolled her hand. “What does all this mean?”

  “Humans were enslaved by Nazalian people in the Age of Subjugation,” Amanda spoke bluntly. “Thanks to the unification of the tribes of Arba however, we were able to escape it…” Amanda grumbled in frustration. “Didn’t any of you learn this before? You spent time with the half-Kanai girl's mother… What was her name… Lauri Samual!”

  According to Amanda, the official ages went something like this… Age of Subjugation, Age of Rebellion… Which were about humanity being enslaved and then freed from Nazalian control. Then after Arba took over, there was the Age of Reclamation, Age of Magi, and then the Age of Chaos… Those were about the rise and fall of Arba as the world’s leading superpower. Then finally we reach the Age of Order, which is what we were currently in. Anything before these were considered prehistoric and very controversial, seeing as every culture had its own creation story.

  “Arba ruled for five thousand years,” Amanda started, “meaning this temple we are looking at is potentially much older than that. Who knows what will be inside?”

  That didn’t make this structure anymore comforting, but we had no choice but to go in. Whatever awaited us in this temple, we needed to be ready for it. It might have even been the Holy Steel production plant she was looking for.

  Another rattling sound came from behind us, but nothing was there, just like before.

  “We should keep moving,” I ordered. “Let’s go. We can continue this history lesson later.”

  “Of course,” Amanda nodded.

  Putting that conversation on hold, we approached the large pair of double doors that acted as the entrance into the structure. Above those ginormous stone walls on hinges, a mysteriously spooky eye hovered. It was closed, but only until we were a few meters away from the door.

  Its freaky golden pupil looked down on us, slowly dropping in altitude until it blocked our path.

  “Steward…” It spoke out in a grumbly voice, looking at me.

  “I’m not Steward,” I pouted at the eye. “My name is Yalda.”

  The eye blinked once.

  “Steward…” It repeated.

  Why did he keep saying that? Nobody here was named Steward.

  “What’s up with this eye?” Indena asked, looking toward Amanda for an explanation. “Why’s it keep saying that?”

  “I’m not sure…” Amanda thoughtfully folded her arms and held her chin. “But whatever reason it may be, I have a feeling it won’t let us pass just yet…”

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