Chapter 604: Sleep
Sylas took a breath.
His usual control over his emotions and psyche seemed to be skewed right now. It was no doubt the influence of the statue before him. If he wasn't careful, he would spiral quite quickly until he began to act irrationally. At that point, he might as well be throwing his life away.
After his thoughts reached this point, Sylas took a seat on the platform, allowing his legs to dangle to the ground below. He tried several methods of making it more comfortable, like using Ice affinity Aether, or maybe casting a domain of wood that used the platform as a sturdy foundation, but nothing worked.
In the end, this was his only option, so he took it.
Staring out ahead, he felt that smirk lingering behind him once again.
It wasn't the first time he had felt it.
When he was in the Secret Realms, this smirk appeared every time he was about to fail, almost like it was taunting him. No... exactly like it was taunting him.
And now, here it was again, even fiercer than before.
The rules of this sky they were stuck in weren't here for any functional reason; they were here for no other reason than to force them to respect the statue of this man whose face they couldn't even see.
Sylas closed his eyes, regulating his breathing.
Whatever the purpose of this was, he wasn't going to be such a willing participant of it.
Sylas' actions, though, began to throw off those that had come with him. Alex, Cole, and Cole's wife and son all didn't know what to make of this. However, they were hesitant to question Sylas at the same time.
After several minutes passed of nothing at all, though, it was Cole's son who couldn't help but speak.
"Um, sir... do you need us to do anything?"
Cole's son was quite soft-spoken, seemingly getting that from his wife. He hadn't said much on the journey at all, and Sylas only knew his name because of a casual scan he had done.
Jake.
It was a surprise, then, that Jake was actually the first one to speak up. At least, it was a surprise to Sylas and Alex. As for his parents, they could only smile bitterly.
Their son tended to do stuff like this. During usual times, he wouldn't speak if he didn't have to. But he was always the first to take a leap when those he loved were facing a dilemma.
He knew that his father didn't want to question Sylas because Cole was currently subordinated to him, and his mother was very much aware of this as well. They were already taking a risk by trusting Sylas; giving him a reason to be annoyed by them wouldn't spell good outcomes for their futures.
Jake could only try to use his youth and naivete as an "in." And hopefully, since he was the only useless one of the three, even if Sylas wanted to deal with him, it would be fine.
"There's nothing to do but wait," Sylas said lightly, seemingly not minding. "There is no puzzle here. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of this place is, but at least for now, this is the only answer I have."
The answer was much more fleshed out than any of them were expecting. But while the
answer itself was refreshing, the contents were anything but.
Could they be stuck here? Had Sylas made a mistake after all?
Another silence fell between them all, and Alex ended up taking a seat much like Sylas had. However, after a while, he frowned and stood.
Sylas' eyes opened and he looked toward Alex, finding his actions odd.
"What's wrong?"
"When I sat down, I felt my stamina draining much faster than when I was standing."
"Is that so..."
Sylas gave the statue another glance before closing his eyes. He had felt it too. It was just that it was such a minor change that his pride didn't allow him to stand back up.
If it was just a matter of accomplishing this task and clearing this "Dungeon," he would do it. But whenever he felt his Will provoked, somewhere deep inside, he knew that if he took even one step back, he would regret it for a lifetime.
He didn't have the words to explain it, but he knew that his decision was the correct one nonetheless.
An entire hour ticked by.
The discomfort of the group was only growing. With their stats, standing for an hour wasn't a problem at all. But not only had they already been on their feet for several days now, the statue was attacking them in ways they didn't understand.
They might not have had Sylas' Will and couldn't feel the process clearly, but as more time passed, they were able to understand that something odd was happening here.
Something was grinding away at their psyches, slowly and subtly, but surely nonetheless. After the second hour, they had grown somewhat pale, but Sylas' rhythmic breathing echoed. He had actually fallen asleep.
He sat there slightly tilting forward. It made all of their hearts skip a beat. If Sylas fell to his death, they would all be finished.
They weren't fools. If it took Mastery over something they didn't comprehend just to get here, without Sylas, they would surely die when the final challenge inevitably came.
Sylas slept for a full four hours before he woke up slowly.
His dreams had actually been so vivid. He wondered if that was related to thinking to Ithkuil or not... it must have.
Dreams usually had vague boundaries, and nonsensical things occurred all the time. But Sylas, despite being aware that he was in a dream, felt that everything was logically consistent, although still somewhat frayed at the edges.
'They can't hold on for much longer,' he thought to himself, looking over at the state of Alex and the family of three.
However, he felt that he was still no closer to a solution to this problem. He was starting to believe that the statue wanted at least some of them to die... maybe that was the purpose the
entire time.