“Damn IT!!!” Navia’s shout echoed through the land enveloped with fog, the sky grim with a crack in it. She was lying on the ground, and as she screamed, she turned from one side to the other, kicking her legs around and covering her face to muffle her screams.
“Who do he think he is?! Calling me worthless!” Navia lifted her head and torso, sitting on the ground and clenching her fists in anger, crushing the sand in her grasp. “If only I had my previous Gates… Oh! He would be the one called worthless. It would end up in seconds with just one use of Wind Step. One!” Navia punched the ground, and the dust lifted off the ground flew away with a light and dry wind of the land.
“And it’s your fault!” Navia aggressively stood up and pointed her finger at the closed gate with stone hands around its frame. “If you wouldn’t be so complicated to open! I would solve the puzzle and unlock this power!” Navia kicked the ground in anger, leaving a mark in the ground and ripping a few dry grass that was somehow staying alive in this barren land. Looking down, she let out another scream as her fingers grabbed her face, wanting to rip it off in an outburst of anger. When she opened her eyes, she saw something confusing.
Looking back at the statue, she tried to look for any changes, but the statue remained the same. Except for the shadows beneath it. Each shadow of a hand gesture was different than the ones on the gate.
“Was it like that earlier? The shadows don’t match the hands on the statue… I didn’t pay any attention to the shadows… They must be part of the puzzle!” Navia’s hand gladly reached for the shadow on the ground, but all she felt was the cold sand on the ground. As she pushed it, the only thing that moved was the dirt.
“That’s not it?” Thought confused Navia, still not understanding the mechanism behind the puzzle of the gate.
Looking to her left, away from the gate, there was her own shadow, slightly above what the gate had cast to the ground. Slowly moving her hand down, she noticed that the shadow of her hand acted as if it was pressing the hand’s shadow. She squeezed her hand as if she was grabbing the stone hand and pushed it, the shadow moved while the real stone statue remained in its place.
“Okay. That’s more progress than I did previously. All that’s left is to finish the puzzle…” Navia pushed the shadow on a hand toward the right place compared to the gestures on the frame of the gate. Switching the places of all the shadows to correct places according to her assumption. Only one hand didn’t budge, no matter how hard Navia tried to push it, but its shadow was already in the correct place.
“Let’s see…” Navia placed her hand on the gate and tried to push it open, but the door didn’t budge. Even as she tried to feel the power of the gate, there were no answers in her mind. “It’s not unlocked? Have I done something wrong? No. I must be missing something. It must be connected to the last hand at the top. The one that I cannot move for some reason…”
Navia’s hand slowly reached the shadow of the last hand, but she didn’t know what to do about it. The hand was clenched into a fist that couldn’t be pushed like the other hands. “Should I grab it? Fist bump? No… That’s ridiculous… Unless…”
Navia was about to fist bump the shadow, but a voice, like it was whispering into her ear, startled her, making her flinch and bring her hand back, wrapping it around the other hand as if something had happened to it. “With that approach, you won't unlock new gates…”
“You…” Navia already recognized the person by the voice without having to take a look to make sure. Right behind her stood the woman in a black dress and veil over her face. Her gaze wasn’t on Navia or the gate, it was on a crack in the sky.
“I came here to check on you. Not unlocking any new gates and struggling to strengthen the one you already have made me suspect that something was wrong, and I was right. Your body got resurrected, but your soul… It’s in shambles.” The woman explained the reason for her being here as if she were just taking a stroll and saw Navia near her path. “Did he do it on purpose? No… He knows better. Godan’s soul was normal. Was the presence of gates a factor? Or something before the resurrection. Maybe a mental state?” The woman was whispering to herself, almost forgetting Navia’s presence, until she was approached by her.
“The name of an observer doesn’t suit you… You’re more than that… You’re a god.” Navia’s answer made the woman smile for the first time. She enjoyed the presence of smart people and, compared to savage Godan, Navia was a much better companion for a conversation.
“Close but not there yet. I am a creation of God. More omnipotent than humans created by Hanis. Made by the one above all…” The woman continued her amusement with Navia's answer, slowly letting on toward her intentions.
“A demigod?” Asked Navia, thinking about the word the woman was searching for.
“That’s… A suitable name… for us.” The woman’s smile lingered for a second longer before vanishing as she had more important things to talk about than her origin.
Seeing that, Navia was quick to ask a question before the woman could give her no space to speak as previously. “Did I prove myself?”
“Not entirely. I won’t abandon you, but I won’t lend you my full help. I’ll guide you like I did this whole time. So before Godan comes back from his ‘hunt’, you’ll train… Oh.” In the middle of the explanation, the woman stopped and turned around as if observing someone behind them. “Change of plans. You’ll have to escape the pit and head to the Monastery. There you will work on repairing your ‘soul’ and working on your gates. You need to leave now. Don’t stay too long in one place if you want to stay alive.”
Navia was annoyed with the orders given by the woman, but her expression changed as it seemed like the woman was worried, explaining everything in a rush. “Why is that?”
“Someone will be trying to assassinate you with a blade to your heart.” That warning with the terrifying confidence from the woman made Navia quickly wake up with cold shivers all over her body. She was looking for the assassin in question, but she couldn’t see him.
“He is… No… He was here. Did I scare him? Not likely. It must have been the job of the Voice.” Her eyes constantly darted from one side of the room to the other, looking in each corner, even the one on the ceiling above. The demigodess' words weren’t taken lightly by Navia, after all, she did help her against Sive.
It was almost the same feeling as back then; she could feel the presence of her enemy, but this time it was hard to pinpoint the exact location. She only knew that the person was in that area.
Using the blood from her bearly healed wounds, she created dark bracelets and two daggers. Being on high alert, she waited for the man to show himself or even let out a sound of a simple breath. As the place was dark, she barely noticed that the colors were slowly drained from the place, turning into shades of grey.
“Don’t stay in one place too long.” Echoed in Navia’s head, making her jump from the place she was sitting toward the doors. Her blades were near her throat and heart to block any potential attacks, but they didn’t appear. Standing in the corridor, the colors came back, the torches gave warm yellow light to the place.
“Escape the pit, huh? Easy to say… If only I had Wind Step, I could… But I don’t. Like she said. My gates are broken.” Navia ran toward the arena, as it was the only place she could even attempt an escape. The Voice herself confirmed that this is the only way.
As she ran, she tried to confirm if the assassin was following her, if there was any sign of him, but the only sign was a single torch that was grey for a few seconds, no color of the light it was previously giving.
“He is definitely following me. I can’t see him… But I am sure of it. Not a single drop of doubt in my mind.” Navia picked up the speed, running almost at her full speed, making the turns in the tunnels the biggest challenges. At the next intersection of tunnels, she almost ran into a slave who watched her in confusion, not sure who had run past him. Looking back, Navai saw the man disappear when the colors drained in that section of the tunnel. A second later, he appeared again, lying on the ground with blood dripping from his throat and mouth.
“Can’t slow down. But how do I get to the stands? There is no way for me to climb up there. Think Navia. Think!” With a kick, she opened the doors to the arena. Turning around to look for anything that would help her get out. The only helpful part of the arena was the unrepaired iron bars that were sticking out into the arena.
Looking back, she saw the shades of grey closing in on her. The assassin’s gate was about to get her. With no plan, she decided to run and risk everything on a plan she would make on a whim. Jumping on the bars, she used them to get further up toward where the wall started and the bars ended. Her hand touched the wall with no place to grab, as the wall itself was smooth with no gaps for her hand to grab. The blood dagger she previously held melted and hardened once it attached itself to the smooth wall. Creating a grip for her to hold.
“If I focus enough, I can climb up like that-” Navia found a way to escape the pit with her power if she had more time. From the colorless part of the arena, a hand appeared and grabbed her leg, pulling her down into the colorless realm.