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Rather than showing images, it felt as if we had traveled to the past. It was this very same room, but something had changed, everything seemed less… old. Instead of a deteriorating cave, the entire area was covered with the same metal, walls which had decayed through eons were now back to where they used to be.
However, the same nest remained. Made of blue crystals, there was a large blue egg resting on top of the nest. And surrounding it there were many Mermen, the name of the Aquatic Anima. They were the servants of the Nymph goddesses. However, their face expressions seemed… concerned.
"Our goddesses have changed… Since that incident that they have become… childish."
"The Divine Ocean Dragon Egg which they planned to revive as their Familiar… it is slowly losing its life force."
"It might soon die. Without the true Divine Essence of the Ocean Core, it cannot truly hatch. We should had never unsealed it if we knew this would had happened…"
"Without our goddesses aid, we cannot continue their plans, what a pity."
The mermen lamented, glancing at the egg slowly die.
"The priced child of the Ocean Dragon Queen, now shall perish… alone and abandoned."
"Hahh… If only our ladies could regain their reason, which seems to have disappeared completely…"
"There might be a way, however."
The third mermen spoke, glancing at the other two.
"How so?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't you remember how the goddesses lost their reason after the creation of that Relic? Perhaps within that Relic… might remain their reason, their wills."
"You mean…?"
"Could there be a way to save them?"
"Yes, perhaps, but not within our realm of possibilities. We do not possess her powers, and we cannot manipulate this technology as we please either."
The mermen sighed, glancing back at the egg.
"But perhaps, one day… somebody, maybe someone far, far in the future will obtain our goddesses divine protections."
"And if that day comes, you think…?"
"Perhaps that divinely protected might find a way to bring them back to their former selves."
The men sighed one last time, leaving the room. Only the third one remained, glancing at the egg as it slowly lost its life force.
"That egg, even within death, shall only respond to the true inheritor of our lady's divine powers."
FLASH!
And after that, we were back to normal.
We were all left speechless once more.
What we saw there… revealed more than I could had imagined.
It seems that they really lost their "reason" which turned the goddesses into child-like nymphs.
However, based in how they acted in the visions we saw in the first floor, it is very possible they were ruthless and quite selfish, lacking any sort of compassion for their own creations, the Aquatic Anima.
This also brought the theory that… we might descend from a race the gods originally created to serve them, a race created as slaves. We were made to serve them as slaves, but upon their defeat, perhaps many of us, much like those mermen abandoned in these ruins, ended abandoned in the planet.
And due to that, we were able to spread around the world and multiply, conquering it. Perhaps the gods themselves decided to approach us in a way as if they had done this from the beginning, even though perhaps our own multiplication… might had never been within their plans.
Do the gods see us as mere tools? Most likely. Just recalling that conversation we had with them, it was quite clear they seemed to not look at us as anything else than servants. They even found funny how we tried to resist them, thinking we were playing around.
Yet… this only puts me even more nervous.
"Aquarina, drop that thing!"
I quickly grabbed Aquarina's arm, forcing her to drop the relic she was holding. Her eyes slowly stopped glowing bright blue, as she let go of the egg as well.
It felt as if she woke up once I helped her.
"Eh? What… what happened?" She wondered. "Ugh… my head."
The relic dropped into the floor and began glowing bright blue, as if protesting, but then it receded and calmed down, going back to its former inconspicuousness.
"Seems like you were hypnotized by that thing…" I sighed. "Are you alright? Alice! Can you check her mental state?"
"Sure!" Alice emerged in front of me, quickly coating Aquarina with her divine light. "Hmm… She seems to be alright now. But that thing… it seems to have a very strong presence, even a will of its own. It only reacts to her divine protection though."
"Weird…" I sighed. "Well, whatever's the case, she seems alright."
"Sigh… That relic was… could it have tried to control me into touching the egg? But why though?" Sighed Aquarina.
"No idea, but I think its better to throw things inside the Dimensional Bag for now…" I said. "I am quite worried things might get worse if you try to touch these things."
"The Gods seem rather manipulative. Whatever will was left out in that relic… maybe it wanted Aquarina to do something with the egg." Said Celeste. "Seeing how gods are, we should never truly trust them."
"Yeah, even if having a divine dragon pet seems amazing, I think we should take it easy." Zack said.
"I agree…" Mist sighed worriedly.
"Are you feeling okay Aquarina?" Celica wondered.
"You were all weird back there!" Zephy pointed out.
"She seems stable. The egg, however, has regained life force." Nephi pointed out.
"Huh?! It did?!" I asked in surprise.
"It seems dormant, but it might hatch…" Said Nephi.
"This is weird, if it hatches, will it attack us?" Aquarina wondered. "Ugh, well, we might as well bring it with us for now, if it hatches and attacks, it is my responsibility to defeat that thing."
"True, I guess." I nodded, grabbing the relic using branches made with magic and storing it inside the dimensional storage. I couldn't do the same with the egg, which was now alive, so we decided to carry it by wrapping it around Furoh's back using vines made by Naturia.
"Whatever that was, we've still got the whole dungeon to clear, so let's get going… I want to also get to the bottom of this entire story." Aquarina seemed rather angered and yet at the same time, filled with some sort of responsibility to discover what happened here.
.
.
.
Within a realm far beyond the dungeon, an entity glanced through the eyes eight red eyes of her underlings. Her webs moving rapidly, channeling the divine power of an evil goddess that has blessed her and given her divine protection.
"The Will of the Three Fallen Nymph Goddesses seems to have not been awakened… Just as you predicted, Lady of the Webs…" A smile surged in her lips. "If things go accordingly… Soon, those relics shall be within my hands. For now, you lot, keep trying to find the future heroes scattered around this continent. And bring them to me."
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