Note: This is just a update of "The First Gate". Nothing else.
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Nat and the baby bunny dragon was panting hard as they finally made it through the door at the top of the pillar.
Nat notices the baby was exhausted so she picked it up in her arms and started petting it's head. The baby lust spawn cried in affection as it rubbed against Nat's chest. This made Nat feel weird. Nat is older and taller then Mary, yet her sexual organ hasn't appeared yet. Not even her breasts. Because of this, people sometimes mistake her as a kid even if she is taller then most people. Nat is frustrated that her maturity period hasn't happened yet. Everyone expected it to happen two years ago. But it hasn't... But Nat is grateful for that. In a way, she's glad she doesn't has to experience sex let. She still considers herself as a kid and if she did had her maturity period, she would have been carried off to the king's castle a long time ago. She's one of the lucky ones and she'd be happy if her sexual organ never does appear. Especially after she seen and heard all those disgusting things regarding sex. What if she's one of those freaks who gets the wrong sexual organ!? She will never accept something like that. Hopefully, her maturity period doesn't come for a long time. And when it does, it will be female like it should be. If it does come, at least until after this whole thing is over.
But sex is not the only thing on her mind. Now that she had time to think, she realized that she just killed for the first time. And not just one living thing, but a lot of them. The Dust bunnies could reform with their living dust but the ones Nat fought were burned to a crisp by her fire sword. She didn't think much of it then, but now that she had time to think, she realized she became what Isaac is: A killer.
Nat burst out in tears at the thought of it. The baby air dragon sensed that Nat was distraught and decided to lick her face until she was happy.
And it worked. Soon, Nat was laughing at the ticklish feeling the baby air dragon was giving her. She was enjoying herself so much, that she failed to noticed the air dragon's slobber was being absorbed into her skin without notice.
'I'm glad you're feeling better now. There is always a cause and effect in our actions. Sometimes, those actions will have a effect on others. But no matter what choices were made, someone will get hurt and sometimes killed. That's just the way of life. We as living things must do keep ourselves alive. And sometimes that means another life must perish. Those dust bunnies attacked us first. If we didn't fulfilled our need to survive and defended ourselves, then those creatures would have fulfilled their need to survive and eaten us to keep themselves from starving.' Excalibur reassured.
Nat had no energy to argue so she just accepted Excalibur's advice. But she doesn't feel like thinking about that advice right now.
Now that things has calmed down, Nat examined her surroundings. They were currently in a stone room with four walls. It was a perfectly boxed in room. On each wall was a door. Behind her was the door she just entered through. To her sides were faceless doors. And in front of her was the most interesting door. On the door was a stone spinning wheel. Complete with a engraved arrow pointing at the chosen panel. It's not unlike the spinning wheel Nat has seen at cloud carnivals. On each panel was a engraved picture of a monster. One of the panels had a picture of a door on it.
How can a carnival wheel made of stone even turn? Didn't Isaac mentioned it was heavier then clouds? Come to think about it, how is this basement even staying a float? So far, she has seen the first floor of the basement and it was completely made of stone just like in the material plane. How can that old magic user's mansion stay afloat on the clouds if her heavy stone basement was weighing it down? It doesn't make sense! Even it there are clouds just beyond the the walls of this basement, they shouldn't be able to support something as heavy as this fortified basement! She can understand the mansion staying afloat. There are only a few thing from the material world in there. That's not enough weight to drag the mansion down into the clouds. But it's impossible for this basement to exist in the cloud plane! It just too heavy. It would have fallen into the abyss years ago! Even the first floor that she just saw is already too heavy to stay afloat in the clouds! How is this even possible! Is it magic? But then again, it's going to take a huge amount of magic to keep this place afloat. Not even that old lady should have enough power to consistently keep this place afloat for years. She should have ran out of magic years ago. It's impossible for this basement to exist in the cloud plane. Especially since Nat has only seen one floor of the basement. Something doesn't add up.
'Don't panic. I agree with you.' Excalibur said. 'Maybe the writing on the walls could give us some information.' He offered.
Nat looked at the walls next to the doors and there are indeed writing on the walls. But they weren't written in cloud tough so Nat couldn't read them.
'Here. Turn me back into a pen. I have vast knowledge of languages from many civilization. It believe I can translate this for you.' Excalibur volunteered.
"Thanks Excalibur." Nat clicked Excalibur's golden hilt and turned him back into a pen.
Excalibur started guiding Nat's hand as he wrote the cloud tough translation underneath the foreign symbols. There was a a lot of complicated terminology in this language but he was able to translated into words that Nat could understand.
When Excalibur was done, she turned him back into a sword. Better to be safe then sorry.
She read the glowing blue ink out loud.
"Welcome to the catacombs. The local prison and training area for feisty fighters. Beware that once you entered the Well of No Return, there is no escape unless you beat the four guardians on this floor. Above each of the four stone pillars on the bottom floor are the rooms of the guardians. To make every visit to the catacombs a varied one, a spell has been cast on each of the guardian doors. The challenger must spin the wheel on the guardian door. Doing so will select which guardian you will be facing. Think that there only four guardians? Fat chance! There are hundreds of enclosed prison rooms that carries monsters worthy of being a guardian. Each panel on the wheel represents a currently living guardian. Spin the wheel and it will guardian wheel corresponding to the panel it landed. And don't try to manipulate were the wheel lands! If you do, the magic of this place will turn you into a monster and you will become a new guardian! So be sure to honestly spin the wheel. Oh, and one more thing. The panel with the door picture gives you a free pass. Once all four wheels are spun and all four guardians are defeated, then you will be transported up. Oh, and if your are too lazy to go back to the bottom floor and climb up those pillars, the faceless doors should take you to the other guardian gates. Good luck!
Sincerely,
Alice.
The writing ended.
Whoever this Alice was, she sure sounded very youthful.
"Hey Excalibur. Was that a literal translation?" Nat asked.
"Yes." Excalibur admitted.
That was interesting. So they must defeat four guardians before they can proceed to the next floor? Nat looked at the blank doors to the side. So they lead to the other guardian gates? Do those rooms look exactly like this one? Nat then looked up at the ceiling. There is a hole on the ceiling. That must be the "Well of no return" that the wall was talking about. Too bad the hole looks too long for the baby bunny dragon to fly up. Nat doesn't want to risk triggering a curses by flying up the well anyways.
But before Nat even considers spinning the wheel, Nat must wait for Ilivir. What's taking him so long? Maybe Nat should go back and help Ilivir. He is possessing Isaac's body and Isaac is her friend.
But before Nat could go back through the door she came in, she started feeling a intense pain from her left foot and her cheeks.
She sat down on the stone floor in pain as her left foot expanded and ripped her cloud shoe to pieces.
Nat watched in horrid fascination as her foot grew thicker and longer. Her foot grew to about two feet long and flat just like a rabbit's foot. She even grew paw pads on the bottom on her foot. What made Nat scared was that her left foot doesn't look like it's made of clouds anymore. It looks like her new rabbit foot was made of living dust just like the dust bunnies.
"What's happening to me!" Nat shouted to herself. Why would her foot be changing like this! Transforming is Isaac's thing! Not hers!
But then she thought back to when she was helping Ilivir get back up after he started screaming at the top of his lung and grabbing his head. A dust bunny bit her left foot!
Nat screamed in pain as her left cloud foot fully transformed a left dust bunny foot. But her painful transformations wasn't done yet.
She could feel a burning sensation on her face as the skin on her face reconfigures itself to matched the texture and color of purple dragon scales. But her cheeks wasn't the only thing that changed.
Nat shut her eyes tight as she felt them change as well. Purple streams of tears flowed down her face as she felt her eyes reconstruct themselves.
She was in a world of pain and darkness.
But just like that, the pain stopped. She opened her eyes to a world of light again. It seems like her vision was still the same. The only difference is that things seemed much more sharper and clearer then before. Oh heavens! What happened to her beautiful eyes?!
Nat used the reflective surface of her sword as a mirror. And what she saw plummeted her hopes of being a normal cloud woman again.
Staring back at her was fierce purple reptilian dragon eyes. Those scary monster eyes are hers.
Nat felt like her world was shattering. Why her?! What did she do to deserved getting her body changed?! She liked her body just the way it was! How dare her beautiful cloud foot, cheeks and eyes were transformed into that's of a hideous monster's! Not even her beautiful fairy wings makes up for these transformations. She will never be accepted by other cloud people again! She is a monster just like Isaac!
The baby air dragon/dust bunny hybrid sensed Nat's sadness and climbed up on her lap. But just before it could lick her left hand, she slapped the baby spawn away in her childish rage.
"Stay away from me y-you monster!" Nat pointed to her eyes. "You did this me! You made me a monster like you! Don't you realize that I don't want to be transformed! I like my body the way it was! TURN ME BACK RIGHT NOW!" Nat shouted at the top of her lungs.
Her angry dragon eyes makes the baby dragon think of Nat as its mother. And he just made his adopted mother angry at him,
The baby dragon chirped in despair as dragon tears flowed from it's face.
In it's depression, it ran towards the guardian door with the spinning wheel.
But before it can slam face first into the door, the guardian door opened up and let the baby dragon in.
"Oh no! What have I done?!" Nat chased after the air dragon but the guardian door slammed shut right in from of her.
In her forward momentum, she blamed face first into the door.
Nat painful landed on her butt.
But she quickly got back and starting pounding on the door. "Let me in! I got to save Chirp!" Nat shouted out the new name she made up for the dragon on the spot bu to no avail.
As she repeatedly hit the door, a magical force knocked to her back.
As Nat sat up, she felt a itching on her hands. She examined them to see that her hand were turning to stone! Nat was in shock as she felt the stone material spread up her arms. The strange transformation stopped at her shoulders. Once the transformation was complete, she could feel how heavy her arms were. Is this what it's like on the material plane?! Nat tied moving her arms and to her relief, they move just like before. Just a little more slowly. Nat stared in wonder at her new living stone arms. Why is she not freaking out like the other transformations? Why is she so calm? Nat started freaking out again when she thought she was starting to think like a monster. That must be the reason she is so calm about her arms. Well her arms are freaky too! Even if they are so hard and firm against her cloud flesh...
A disembodied female voice sounded throughout the room.
"This is your final warning. Try to break through the door again and the curse will spread to the rest of your body, thus completely turning you into a living stone statue. Your arms are just a warning. If the curse turns you into a living statue, you will be considered a monster and you will become a guardian just like your animal friend." The sentient magic said.
"Does that mean you will open the guardian door and let me find chirp!" Nat said hopefully. Her new food parental instincts were staring to take over. She must find her baby air dragon at all costs!
"No." The voice said bluntly. "You will be transported into another room were you will never escape. You will be treated as a guardian and forced to fight whoever enters your domain. This place is not just a place for adventurers to train. This is also a prison for dangerous monsters. Monsters who are unsuited for civilization. They are the guardians you will be facing. The baby air dragon is already a monster so it was openly accepted as a guardian and a prisoner. It may have the potential to live in civilization but it also can grow up to be a destructive monster. As the spirit of these catacombs, it's my job to take precautions. If you want your baby air dragon back, you must spin it's panel on one of the guardian doors and defeat it in battle. If it proves to be worthy of living among civilization, then we will leave it in your care. But that's if you spin the baby air dragon's panel in the first place. Remember, you can't manipulate the wheel's spin. And you must fight four guardians to leave this place. There is no guarantee that any of the guardians you fight will be your precious air dragon. Once you spin the wheel, you must enter the room of the selected guardian. There will be no do over spins until four guardians are defeated.." The spirit of the catacombs said.
Nat slumped down in defeat huh. She looked at her arms of living stone. So she's doing to be stuck like this and she's responsible for getting a friend stuck in prison and forced to fight whoever gets chosen by the wheel. This sucks.
'We must retrieve Ilivir. He has in his possession, the ring of purity. Inside it is Angela, the deity of purity. If we hurry, we might still be able to reverse the corruption done on your body if we seek her aid.' Excalibur explained.
Well, it's a start.
Nat got up on her miss-matched feet. It was hard to balance on her freakish rabbit's foot.
'Don't worry Nat. The sooner we retrieve Ilivir and the ring of purity, the sooner we can save Chirp. One thing at a time.' Excalibur reassured.
"Right." Nat said determinedly.
Excalibur had his doubts. For some reason, the deity of purity refused to wake up. If Angela doesn't wake up soon, Excalibur fears that Nat's corruption will spread. If they leave things unchecked, Nat could fully transform into a hybrid creature.