Chapter 357: 130: Dawn of Mankind – Part 2

There's no way we're staying on these obsidian platforms floating above pools of lava during an earthquake, so we quickly return to the elevator, but then the temperature drops drastically, and the molten rock starts to harden.

I once again turn to our guides for guidance.

"Things are going to get a bit chaotic, so keep calm and pay attention to the details," Lolo cryptically advises.

The illumination then begins to turn yellow.

"Well, that's reassuring," I sarcastically remark.

"Considering how cold things are getting, it's most likely going to hail soon," Nikolas grumpily adds.

I turn to the scantily dressed bunny girl and genuinely offer, "Would you like a coat? I'm a Space mage, and I have an actual wardrobe for my wives in my [Item Box]."

She shakes her head and smiles politely. "I'm fine."

So I just shrug, but then I become solemn again. "If you say so… Anyway, I'd just like to apologize for getting you two involved in the shady conflicts of nobility. We were too eager to come here and forgot that you might get harassed for what you would see here."

"Ain't that fucking great," Nikolas angrily grumbles, his mouth twitching as he holds back a scowl.

And Yunia joins us to help me out a bit, "I apologize for our lack of consideration. Even I almost forgot the elven way."

Though the wolf man isn't fully appeased, it's hard to remain angry when such a beauty earnestly apologizes.

Lolo gives him a concerned glance, then anxiously asks us, "Are we in any actual danger?"

Kyora gives me a stern stare, waiting for me to tell them the truth.

I breathe in and carefully explain, "We don't think anyone will kidnap you, but we do believe that they'll ask questions, and it's in your best interest to answer them truthfully. In fact, you might as well just write down a few copies of our combat style and hand them out to whoever asks because showing such boldness would actually be in our favor."

Nikolas glances at Kyora's group behind them.

"Sounds about right," she grunts with a nod.

"Why do you even have a Templar escort?" He confusedly asks.

"We're friends with Ciel, so we're leeching," Alonso cheekily answers.

But then Timas tactfully states, "They also have a tendency to attract the Wicked, so we're here to help them out if any appear."

The two guides frown in worry, then Nikolas gives his partner an "I told you so" look, his red eyes making his stare that much more intense.

Nobody but us has been targeted by the Wicked so far, but I don't think that would sound reassuring to the duo.

Lolo lets out a nervous laugh and plays with a floppy ear as she coyly stares at me. "Well, it's too late to go back now."

I just return a guilty smile. Maybe we should give them some hazard pay after this is done.

The obsidian platforms suddenly collapse on top of the hardening lava, then an ice meteor the size of a person falls from the sky.

"See? Told you," Nikolas tiredly points out.

When the ice collides with the cooling rock, it explodes into steam, water, and crystals with a loud sound of glass shattering. A couple of seconds later, more meteors follow, and the deadliest hailstorm I've ever seen begins to fall.

The lava is still red-hot under its crusty surface, so the meteor shower exposes it again, and the thermal explosions from contact between extreme hot and cold just make things even more chaotic.

Steam starts to obscure our view, but the temperature continues to drop, and after a few minutes, the steam condenses again, revealing that the landscape has changed completely.

The yellow world now shows a valley with a small river running across it, and there's even a little hill with an active volcano gradually increasing its own height as it spurts molten rock that slowly cools and hardens. Snow, crystals made of ice, obsidian, and loose rock dot the surface, but then we notice faintly glowing orbs just like the one we destroyed, giving the chaotic environment a mysterious air.

There are no Symbols nearby, and the shower seems to have ended, so our curiosity takes over us, and we go inspect the nearest orb.

It's blue-gray and the size of my fist. [Sense Mana] activates once we get closer, but we all feel that the "power" within it isn't exactly attuned mana, though it's similar, and its "flavor" reminds us of [Water Magic] with a hint of [Earth Magic].

"Is this 'divine power'?" I question Lina.

"It's definitely not mana," she quietly replies, her mind deep in thought.

"Be careful about touching the orbs! Especially if you're a mage!" Lolo shouts, and I give her a thumbs up in appreciation.

"Why?" Jarn immediately questions, and the two guides almost jump in surprise at her creepy robotic voice.

"They're like crude and unstable magic tools for battle," Nikolas categorically answers.

I stare at the orb and get a vague, alluring feeling of "divinity" coming from it, similar to a dungeon's core.

I eagerly, but gingerly, touch the orb with an exposed finger and feel a stinging pain as a thin layer of my thick hide dissolves into the orb.

Uh…

I immediately pull back and almost hiss at it, feeling betrayed.

Nobody but Hana has the courage to touch it next, but once she does, nothing happens, so she grabs it fully and tries her best to not accidentally activate it.

Like a normal enchantment, Hana feels like she's at the edge of a "slope" as the orb tries to draw in her mana, though it's much harder to hold back than with a properly enchanted magic tool, so she could accidentally activate it with a sneeze.

She hands it to Lina so that she can study it, and the little girl immediately feels an "itch" as her mana is steadily drained away.

"Ah!" Lina exclaims fearfully as a finger-sized [Water Blade] filled with gravel launches out of the orb and sinks into the porous volcanic stone, then Hana takes the orb back before Lina can drop it.

"Well, now we know how it works," I wryly remark, and Lina frowns in frustration.

Hana hums in thought, then points the orb at the valley, and a jet of dirty water launches out of the river and shoots towards her. Just like how the Symbols' orb did, Hana's absorbs the jet and then glows just a little bit brighter.

"Hmm~…!" She hums excitedly, then she unleashes a long [Water Blade] full of gravel onto the floor that sinks deep into it, but the orb almost immediately shatters into sparkly magical dust that simply disappears after a couple of seconds.

Yunia narrows her blue jewels and harshly points out, "An orb that absorbs a mage's MP but is easy to use for a warrior. This should tell you what Man's society was like before levels and skills."

Though the age of the Dawn of Mankind was mythical and mysterious, the girls are starting to lose interest in it.

"But how did these orbs appear, to begin with?" Alissa curiously asks.

We all turn to Lina, but she shakes her head negatively and explains, "We're in a dungeon, so these orbs aren't necessarily based on something that was real. Not only that, but the Dawn was the age where most of the myths were born, like those of dragons, dwarves, succubi, and so on that all of the other races-to-be and monsters were based on. So, even if we looked at the records, they'd likely be wrong."

"Maybe everything has a bit of truth to it," I cheekily suggest, but she just sighs and shrugs.

"Should we collect these orbs?" Hana asks with a grin, quite eager to play with them.

I think they might turn out to be important since there are so many around here, so we spread out and start gathering them. Touching them is a no-go for me, but [Telekinesis] works fine, so I just leisurely pull them in from range with the spell.

When a fire orb touches a water orb, Roxanne and Aoi feel a horrible chill, so we keep them separate. Their colors vary a bit, and it seems that as long as two orbs aren't too far apart in the visible spectrum, there's no risk of a "pseudo" runaway mana reaction.

Suddenly, a naked Symbol with a red orb following after it comes out of the mist, then it immediately runs towards the active volcano once it notices us.

Hana summons her wings and lands right in its way, then waits there for it to come to her, but once the monster gets within ten meters, it unleashes a jet of lava towards her and tries to go around her.

"How often did Man fight each other?" I curiously ask Lina.

She scholarly answers, "All the time. It took thousands of years until monsters were created, so Man fought mostly for resources and only sometimes against beasts of nature."

Hana chases after the Symbol and defeats it before it can begin to absorb lava from the volcano.

"I love it how knowledgeable you are," I kindly praise her.

But she pouts and turns her head away to hide her blush. "Not in combat…"

I chuckle softly and turn to the next Symbol that appears at the edge of the mist, this one holding a blue orb.

I deal with that one and collect its orb, but then more and more start to appear, and so, they have more time to launch spells at us, making us wary as we're forced to defend the volcano and the valley from all directions.

Roxanne and Aoi focus on powering up our orbs as it's more efficient than physically fighting every Symbol that appears.

Then the ground trembles, and another vent of lava opens up, increasing our power intake, but the Symbols' orbs also become brighter.

A meteor of ice falls near us, bringing with it a few more ice orbs, but it also causes the volcano to violently erupt, making it dangerous for us to collect lava from it.

An ashen rain begins to fall, and since the orbs are too unstable for our [Item Box]es, we have to hide those with a fire attunement underground to prevent them from blowing up.

The rain helps the porous, fragile rock crumble under our steps, and a landslide reveals another vent of lava, this one a lot more unstable and burbly than the first.

Meteors, ash, rain, mist, eruptions, landslides, and the random appearance of Symbols. Our situation is becoming increasingly dangerous, and Roxanne is starting to worry about runaway mana reactions from our still growing number of orbs.

If the reckless master of explosions and dangerous materials is concerned, I won't be the stupid one by saying otherwise.

We still have the riddle to solve, though. "But what should we do with the orbs?" I question and stare concernedly at our large stash of unstable magical explosives. "The Symbols are clearly aiming to increase their own power, and to me, that doesn't seem like something we should allow."

"The orb that I destroyed didn't feel anywhere near as 'dangerous' as these," Alissa fearfully points out.

"Maybe we can 'stabilize' them?" Roxanne hesitantly asks Lina.

But I immediately retort, "If you can't do it without the help of an enchanter, then I doubt the average adventurer would be able to."

"We also don't need to fight the Symbols the moment they appear. We could easily hide and then assassinate them when they become too powerful," Yunia cunningly points out.

"Alright," I hum.

I summon a few birds for scouting, then we create a safe bunker for ourselves under the dark rock and leave a couple of orbs around to see what the Symbols do with them.

Before long, a Symbol with a water orb appears, and it immediately goes for the nearest free orb, then it grabs both orbs and pushes them together. They begin glowing, the telltale sign of magic, and fuse into a bigger orb, though none of us know how that happened, exactly.

I stealthily summon a Shad and a Holly and order them to sneak closer to the Symbol so that we can sense what it's doing in more detail.

The monster goes for all of the orbs and merges them together, even the red ones, creating a head-sized ball that glows in a rainbow of colors, eerily similar to the modern moon.

"Anyone get what's going on?" I bemusedly ask.

Roxanne blows a raspberry and shrugs.

Another Symbol appears, and the two monsters promptly begin fighting, then another Symbol appears, then a meteor falls, then a geyser erupts, then the ground opens and reveals another vent of lava.

While we calmly watch the chaos unfold from the safety of our bunker, Lina, Aoi, and Yunia all start to feel fidgety.

Another volcano erupts, and even I start to feel like things are getting a bit too chaotic.

More rainbow orbs are created, and then they start to change hands while continuing to grow.

Aoi suddenly growls impatiently and declares, "Using the orbs makes everything unstable." But that gives me an idea.

"Alissa, Yunia, get me the biggest psychedelic orb you can find," I order as a daring smirk graces my lips.

But they just stare at me concernedly.

I roll my eyes and add, "Hana will use it, not me."

"Oh, fuck yes," Hana whispers with a fearsome grin.

But that just makes them even more concerned.

"I agree with Wolfy, and I'll keep a close eye on her through [Bind]," Roxanne affirms.

But Roxanne doesn't have the right reputation to appease them.

"Come on!" I exclaim in annoyance, and they begrudgingly obey.

Once we finally have it, Lina creates a raised platform with [Earth Wall], far above the reach of the average spell from the Symbols.

Hana eagerly takes the orb with both hands and immediately coos in wonder once she feels the chaotic power within.

"Suck it all up, you slut, just like how you always love to," I cheekily order. Then I slap her ass, and even though I only hit her wooden armor, she gets my intention.

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The ground starts to rumble once again as she uses the rainbow orb to take control of everything.

The other Symbols try to stop her in a clash of "Willpower," but Alissa and Roxanne snipe the stronger ones, and Hana overwhelms the rest.

Then she does as she was told and sucks it all up.

"Yes, yes!" Hana shouts excitedly as the orb begins to glow brighter and brighter.

Lava, water, ash, bodies, meteors, blood, obsidian, and even some of the mist, everything flies to her orb and is unceremoniously absorbed.

It becomes so bright that we have to turn our eyes away, but its "divine" allure gradually grows along with its size, then it becomes so well attuned to Hana's mind that she can make it float with just a thought.

But the most impressive (and frightening) thing is that she can vaporize Symbols with concentrated beams of plasma the moment they appear, so Roxanne and Ciel keep a very short leash on her through [Bind].

"HAHAHAHAH!" She laughs maniacally, but then Ciel gives her soul a poke, and she holds back her excitement a bit more.

"They make everything look so easy…" Penelope remarks in wonder, then sighs while smiling warmly.

"Don't forget how dangerous they are…" Nikolas quietly replies, his awe tempered by mistrust.

"Don't be such an empty bottle," she grumbles back with a frown.

And he frowns back. "Just go suck his dick already."

Then the two share a glare and start ignoring each other.

Alright, I admit that going for the NTR route is kind of dickish of me.

But now's not the time to eavesdrop.

The temperature drops once again, but the meteors stop falling, the little river dries up, the Symbols stop appearing, and even the underground lava subsides. Hana is absorbing everything, leaving only dry, cold rock and the orbs that belonged to the Symbols.

Then the illumination starts to shift from yellow to green.

"LOOK INTO THE ORB!" Lolo shouts.

We hesitantly try to look into the mini sun, but it hurts our eyes too much. The "divine allure" I feel from it makes me keep trying quite persistently, and I feel my eyes gradually adjust to it.

Emboldened by my success, the girls stare intensely at it and also begin to feel their eyes adjust, then the mini sun starts to look like a mini moon as its psychedelic colors are revealed to us.

What in the fuck are these tests even about, again?

Hana stops the absorption, and the rainbow storm within the moon calms down considerably. Curiously, we can barely see any green in it, excluding the green coming from the ambient light.

"Do the colors of the 'aspects' have any relation to those of the elements?" I question Ciel.

Her eyes remain glued to the little moon while she answers negatively, "Not really. What element do you think would be represented by orange and yellow?"

I grunt and pout, deep in thought.

"Now what…?" Roxanne hums, but we all remain silent.

"Ask the guides?" Alissa suggests.

So I relay our question through Jarn.

Nikolas is very displeased by being startled once again. "What the f-… can they hear us through you?"

"Yes…" Jarn dryly replies.

"'Think of an elemental, but permanent,'" Lolo cheekily repeats my words.

He waves his hand dismissively and groans, "Ugh, whatever… Anyway, there are many paths you could take. Destroy the orb, feed it your blood, try to swallow it, perfectly balance the elements within, continue absorbing until even the mist is gone, or just explore the landscape away from the elevator, though we don't recommend that last one because you will get lost."

"'Swallow'…?" Aoi grunts confusedly, then she gives the obviously too big orb a measuring look.

"'Swallow'?" Jarn echoes her question.

He tiredly shrugs. "Some of the crazier mages did it, and they said that it helped them grow their magic, but I dunno about that. It ends up breaking the orb, so it progresses the 'events' all the same."

"Let's go with balancing the colors," Ciel prudently suggests.

"Awn…" Aoi moans, then she turns to me and gives me her best cute hatchling eyes.

Ack! My weakness!

"How about… one of the smaller ones…?" I hesitantly suggest.

"What will we do if she starts to feel sick?" Ciel sternly questions.

"Open her up, and pull it out?" I jokingly reply.

"I'm fine with that," Aoi calmly agrees, because of course, she would.

I'm not going to open her up at the drop of a hat, so I summon a spirit elemental, which will allow me to see inside her, and we tie a rope around a small rainbow orb, then we let her swallow it.

The orb goes down her esophagus and into her stomach, causing internal "itches" inside her as it slowly absorbs her MP, and all the while, she controls herself from accidentally activating it while it's inside her. I'm kind of envious of how she's even allowed to touch the orb without her body dissolving because she's a damn magical being.

Nothing happens at first, so we just wait.

Meanwhile, we decide to cheat. I pull out some nutritious dirt, and we [Grow] grass on it, then Hana absorbs its "lifeforce," quickly turning the green plants into dried husks.

We suppose that we would've had to release that little amount of "green" power onto the rocks or muddy ash and then grow plants with it, but why do it the hard way?

Actually, what the fuck are we doing? I can just summon some damn elementals!

I heartlessly feed my elemental-wives to the orb, and though they don't feel a thing or even complain, it's still horrifying to see them get sucked into the orb and suddenly "die."

Then we just unload the excess red and blue, giving back some of the life that Hana had absorbed from the landscape.

"I see all of the colors in it now, except for black," Alissa grimly points out, then slowly turns to me.

I hate dark elementals…

I'm already feeling a bit traumatized after killing my elemental-wives, so I hesitate.

Alissa hugs my back and kisses my sweaty neck, then the girls all give me a little bit of their love through [Bind], bolstering me with the last bit of courage I need to pull on that tooth.

It's useless to close my eyes, so I just summon the horrid fiend right under the orb.

Even though it's instantly absorbed, its flayed and mutilated face is stamped into my mind, but like all pain, it'll fade with time as long as I have my wives with me.

Then the ground trembles once again as the ambient light shifts to blue.

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