CHAPTER 61: LILLITHS DEN (3)

As various teams began to filter through the building I tried to note any key features of them however their was just such a variety of peoples that most of them tended to blend into one another, however, that’s not to say that none of them stood out. I already knew two teams quite well. One being the Silver Wings lead by Senithathey were a bit of a mix matched appearance wise but they all used high quality but well worn armour and equipment.

The second team I had the displeasure of knowing is the one that was lead by ’Lord Michael’ she didn’t exactly know if they had a name for their group but they were all kitted out in shiny full plate armour and looking both heroic and incredibly pompous all at the same time, well maybe they don’t look pompous but just imagining that man’s sneering face makes it impossible to imagine them any other way. They were the 3rd team to leave and I did note that Michael tried to lock eyes with me but I studiously ignored him and made a point of inspecting my nails when I felt his gaze on me. Just imagining the face he made when he was ignored brings a small smile to my face.

I did notice a team of all mages which is quite surprising, or at least I’m assuming they are mages given they all wore classic mage robes and held staffs of varying sizes, and I swear one of them looked exactly like Gandalf! The grey not the other one.

The last team that I took particular note of was another group of 4 humanoids, well 2 Beastkin a dwarf and a demon I think? But what caught my eye is that like Dawn counted as my teams 5th member they have a beast companion taking up their 5th slot, it is a bear of some kind but it is a particularly large bare easily 2 meters tall if it were to stand on 2 legs, the demon seems to be his bound companion just based off the closeness of the two.

But past those few teams they all just kind of blend together given the short amount of time I had to observe them all. Eventually though we are called up by Atar and we make our way into the building and witness the portal that fills a beautifully decorated archway in the centre of the room. Not to waist any more time myself, Kana, Amanda, Zara and Dawn all make our way through the portal.

I am hit by a wave of dizziness and vertigo when stepping through the portal. It feel like that single step I have taken has somehow transported me miles away, it is a hard thing to describe but all of my senses have gone out of whack and when I find myself back on solid ground I am unable to hold back the roiling in my stomach and I find myself heaving up my breakfast onto the ground besides me. I am soon joined by everyone else in my group as we all evacuate our stomachs from that truly disorienting experience of traveling via portal.

"Urgh that was awful." I mutter out once I have my gag reflex back under control. I also quickly get out a waterskin and wash out my mouth as I finally look up and take in my suroundings and as I do so I get greeted by a system screen as well!

[Welcome to Liliths Den. In the next 7 days you have to locate and collect as many keys as possible.

Keys Collected (Group) = 0

Keys Collected (Solo) = 0]

After giving that a Quick Look through I nodded as it confirmed what we were informed about by Atar. Happy with that I resume scanning my surroundings and I feel my jaw drop open as I finally register what I am seeing.

We are standing atop a plateau facing over a truly alien landscape that makes no sense but is utterly stunning at the same time. Directly in front of us is a island that is floating over a void of nothingness, but to make it even odder the island itself appears to be made of clouds. Further the isle appears to be connected to the plateau we are in by a bridge made of cloud. Looking around further their are a number of other bridges connecting our little plateau 5 in total now I look properly.

The plateau we are in is roughly circular in shape around 20 meters in radius and the 5 bridges ring it. The first bridge is the cloud one. The second appears to be made from Ice. The third is a strange black and pink stone. The fourth is made of solidified lighting, it crackles and shifts slowly as if it has just been contained in bridge shape but not fully halted. Lastly the fifth is made from water also shaped into the form of the bridge.

Attached to each bridge is an island that appears to be made of the same material as that of the bridge that leads to said islands. To add to this peculiarity there is no ’ground’ these islands and I assume this plateau are simply hovering above a void of nothingness. I shivered when I imagined what might happen if you were to fall off the side of one.

"How is any of this even possible?" Lana asks of no one in particular, and I have to agree this sight is just too strange, too magical. Oh right magic... but even still this is ridiculous! Right?

"Well this is a trial ground. The usual rules of the world doesn’t apply here only the will of the one who made this trial matter." Zara replied, still though her voice held a hint of awe at what we all were looking at.

After taking another few moments to observe the bridges and islands I tried to figure out what exactly we are supposed to do? Do we have to guess the correct island or do we just pick one and explore? Each island looks pretty massive given that I am unable to even see the other side of it from my current vantage point so id imagine them to be quite large anyway. "Well it seems like we need to pick an island and start exploring it in search of one of these keys no?" I state drawing the eyes of everyone to me.

"That’s is true, do we just pick an island at random? Because I don’t know about you but I don’t fancy walking over a bridge made of lightning." Zara announced.

"What about the cloud bridge? Isn’t that one worse?"

"It’s a cloud if it’s shaped as such I’d imagine it will be able to be stood on. Plus come on Kana imagine sleeping on an actual cloud! That’s gotta be worth something right?" I mention, I mean I have always wondered that exact thing and now I potentially have the chance to actually try out how comfy a solidified cloud can be!

"Well let’s see what everyone thinks then yeah?" Amanda stated in her usual calm and collected manner. "Everyone point to the bridge they want to cross the most." Saying so she pointed towards the black and pink one. I naturally pointed to the cloud and may or may not have made Dawn do the same. Zara joined Amanda in pointing to the black and pink rock leaving Kana as the last to vote.

"Urgh why do I have to be the deciding vote here."

"We’ll just pick what you want, maybe we can loop back around and explore the other one later on. We do have a week after all." I concede. That seems to do it for her and she unhesitatingly pointed to the black and pick rock bridge. "Traitors." I mutter to myself as I dejectedly turn away from my dreams of cloud furniture.

And so we all gathered together in front of the rocky bridge. It extended for a good 100 metres with no support holding it from the void beneath past where it connect to both our plateau and the island. Zara took the first hesitant step onto the bridge to test if it was properly stable or not, thankfully she was satisfied and waved us all over and together we began to cross the bridge.

Thankfully crossing said bridge was quite uneventful and we soon arrived on the island of black and pink.

It was quite the desolate landscape at first glance, rocky plains stretched out before them all before shifting into a spreads of valley and cliffs that created a maze of stone. They had maybe a few hundred meters before the landscape underwent this shift, within this flat space the black rock dominated with only thin veins of the pink stone showing through.

Kana moved up to take the lead thanks to her role as scout, Zara took her spot behind her then followed by myself and finally Amanda was covering the back. Dawn was obviously still wrapped around my neck although she was noticeably more alert and was keeping a careful eye on her suroundings.

As the party approached the first valley they quickly discussed which one they should travers down, no one really had an idea or preference, at least until Dawn seemed to take a particular interest in one of the smaller paths to the right side. Not seeing any reason to not try this one out over any of the others the group advanced. This particular valley started off quite narrow and had hardly any of the pink veins running through its rocks but this soon reversed, the passageway soon expanded out with the prevalence of the pink rock increasing noticeably every step.

After they had traveled almost 100 meters into the valley the pink was now on an almost even split with the black rock. Here they seemed to be met with a choice to make about how to proceed. In front of them the valley came to an abrupt end, but their were seemingly two choices for how to proceed, well technically 3 as they could just turn back around. Regardless the rock in front of them seemed to split in two with the left side becoming entirely pink and the right entirely black. On each side was an archway which led within the rocky walls and in between the 2 archways was a singular word carved into the bicoloured rock wall

"Choose"