Chapter 163 Pathway

I put the draconic core into my pocket as my other hand wiped the blood from my pants. There was so much blood but I tried my best to get as much as I could off. Once both the core was safely stored away and my hand was done wiping the blood from my pants I looked towards the pathways that the creatures had used to escape the wyverns wrath. There were dozens, maybe even hundreds of them but most of them were small, pocket sized holes, fit only for small creatures but there were some that actually looked like we could fit through them. They even looked man made at second glance, like a path abandoned to time. The way that they were arched, the faint sight of travelled ground. It all looked like something man made.

"Do you see that too?" I asked Aoif, my hand raised to point towards the most obvious man made path that I could find.

"Yeah" It wasn't Aoif that responded but Delta, "Made approximately 20 years ago judging by the decay and growth of the surrounding vegetation"

I nodded my head, "Should we follow the path then?"

"Up to you." Was the prompt response of Delta as she shrugged her shoulders.

I just nodded my head in understanding and gestured for both to follow as I jumped from my perch on the wyvern. I flew through the air and landed perfectly, the sound that I had expected from my drop not echoing as my feet landed.

Though most of the ground was covered in blood I was able to dodge most of it. The place that I landed was in one of the higher ledges that lead to the path that I had decided to follow. It was only due to the height of the ledge it was able to avoid being covered in blood.

pαпdα`noνɐ1`сoМ Next to me both Aoif and Delta landed, their eyes looking to my back as I walked forward into the unknown pathway.

…

Dark, the light was gone, nothing remained, not even dregs of light were able to make it into the path that we had chosen. Luckily we had Delta, she had created a flashlight and was currently working with it to turn it on.

"Guh" I grunted, my eyes closed momentarily as light flooded the pathway that we walked. Though when I opened my eyes I saw nothing but rocks and vegetation. For some reason I had expected the place to have more natural beauty but I could only chuckle to myself at the unrealistic thought.

There was nothing for as far as the light that Delta had made could reach but that didn't mean the path didn't lead to anything, the light didn't reach far, maybe a few miles out and that was really stretching it. Though no matter how far I stretched my sight I couldn't see an end which was good for us, it could mean that further down there was something. There might even be another cavern with another realm protector just like this one had. Though I doubted that, the protectors in our realm were far apart, hundreds, even thousands of miles away from each other.

For now though we just walked in silence, miles passed by as time passed on. The only sign that we had even moved was the slowly changing terrain.

…

"Is that…" I said, my eyes opened wide as I looked on at the massive cave in the distance. It had already been more than a day since we had started walking. By the time that we had found this Aoif and I had already had to eat again, our mouths swallowing in disgust the paste that Delta had created to fill our stomachs.

"Can you turn the light down to a lower setting?" I asked Delta, my head turned from where it was looking on to the city and over to Delta.

She nodded, the light that was once powerful enough to look miles on was turned down to something a common flashlight almost out of batteries would put out. Though that didn't bother me as I reinforced my eyes once again and used the small bit of light I had to gaze onto the city.

It was massive, walls made of what looked like a blackened stone rose miles into the sky. Lights could be seen from the gates as citizens of unnatural beauty went out and about. The only thing that differentiated them from us was the doll like joints that they all had. It was as if they were made up of pieces. It would explain their beauty if they were all dolls but that brung up the question of if they were dolls then what created them.

"Delta, can you make us cloaks, enough to cover our joints and blend in" I asked, looking from the castle walls to Delta.

A nod was all the response that I got before a light appeared, two cloaks created in her hands. They were plain and long, just what I wanted.

"Should I come with you?" Delta asks.

I nod my head, "Yeah, but are you able to disguise yourself better? You stand out compared to them" I said, my hand pointed to the people coming and going. They all wore either cloaks or plain looking clothes, compared to the pseudo maid outfit that Delta wore it would make us look like royalty or something and attention would be drawn. Attention that we didn't want to have.

"I can" Delta responds as her clothes rapidly change into a more casual style with a cloak to match ours.

With that we were off at a normal pace, not one that would show us as higher tiered beings. We needed to blend in and to do that we needed to act as one of those dolls did. We even needed to enter from one of the pathways that they did, it would raise questions if we entered from this path.