"Are you okay now?"
Eren's eyes still hadn't returned to normal. His vision was spinning. He felt like he had the nastiest vertigo and that had been multiplied by many folds as the voice kept talking to him.
"Hm. Maybe not. I think you'll need some help...
Leela, come down here and help him."
The voice spoke and commanded the caretaker. Immediately, a young lady appeared in front of Eren. She looked a lot like Layla. But there were a few subtle differences. Too bad, Eren couldn't spot them and thought her to be the one who had spoken before coming here:
"Lay… la. Is… that… you? Ta… take… me away… from here. Like, right now. Please… ple… I don't… *cough cough cough cough*... I don't want to… die here."
Eren spoke with some difficulty. Only after speaking did he find out that he had a sore throat. His windpipe felt like molten lava had travelled through it.
"Poor boy.
Eren, is it? My name is Leela. You can consider me to be Layla's sister.
It seems you are not... well. Anyway, I'll just cure you with this."
Leela sat near Eren with her legs folded and gently placed his head over her lap. She smiled lightly as she did that and caressed his hair.
Eren still couldn't control his body the way he wanted to. But he tried to stay still and allow the young girl to pour some potion into his mouth. He figured it was better to take the potion than suspect anyone in his condition.
The contents of the vial were soon emptied inside Eren's mouth. His mana circuit quieted down quickly as soon as the potion was dispersed into his body. His mana core started spinning as usual. And his atrophied muscles were already on the path to normalcy.
"You will be alright now. I'll take you and let you have a word with the master. Take care, Eren. It was a pleasure meeting you."
Leela said and made Eren sit with his back straight. She then gently got up from her position and waved her hand to say goodbye.
'No, don't leave. Stay with me.'
Eren wanted to verbalize his thoughts. But Leela had already disappeared after an array was lit up below her feet– leaving Eren behind. Eren had only realized that the girl he had met was not Layla. Because she was so sweet and caring towards him.
Eren didn't want to look at the origin of the voice that had spoken to him earlier. But he didn't have a choice. The sooner he gets over with this dreaded audience, the better it would be for him.
Eren looked ahead. The giant hall had been explored further. As it turned out, he had been moved by Leela without realizing it.
The skeletons of the giants were behind him. Nevertheless, when he turned to look ahead, he saw another skeletal structure. It was a humanoid cranium. Just that. The rest of its body was missing.
This time, Eren could look at the cranium normally. He didn't understand why at first. But then he observed a thin layer of mana had coated the cranium's surface. He guessed that the layer was what prevented the cranium from affecting him.
'Even if I don't have to face the repercussions, I can feel it. This part of the skeleton… the entity it belonged to…'
"Yes. You are right. He was almost beyond the S-Rank when he was killed. It was pretty challenging, I might add. Killing him, I mean.
Especially when I had just broken into Sage Rank. I was on the verge of joining them in afterlife once I was done with these lots. So what you see here are my trophies. They might not look pretty. But they keep me company."
The ancient voice spoke again. The voice was laced with unwavering pride this time.
Eren observed that there was a throne placed above the giant cranium at the furthest end of the hall. The red carpet that the cranium was placed on had been stretched out. It was as if it was the giant's blood escaping from his cut neck.
Eren, in his delirious state, traced the carpet with his gaze and found himself sitting on its other end. Then he looked at the giant cranium that was looking at him with hollow eye sockets, which looked like two abyssal tunnels to another world.
Eren shifted his vision and looked above the cranium again. This time with more clarity than before. He could see a person sitting on a throne made of white bones. These bones seemed to be made of normal human-like bones.
'There's… someone there...'
Eren rubbed both of his eyes with his feeble hands and looked at the seat again. He then narrowed his eyes as he observed who was sitting on such an intimidating throne.
Eren saw a mummified body of a person. It was properly clothed, armoured even. But the armour looked worn down. It had barely any hair leftover its head. Its skin was so dry and wrinkled that Eren assumed it would turn to dust the moment anyone even tried to touch it.
Eren didn't dare to look at the face of the mummy. He didn't know if it could be interpreted wrongly by a higher-ranking entity present here. Of course, he didn't think that Mummy was trying to speak to him. Upon seeing the mummy, he assumed that it was part of the trophy collection arranged in an intimidating manner.
'What are those? Chains?'
Eren saw that the mummy's body had been connected with the chain pattern that disappeared behind the throne.
Eren then tried to look elsewhere when the mummy's mouth moved. He then heard the voice once again. The information was processed more clearly this time. It was the voice of a female.
The voice seemed frail at first. As if it could be overridden with a single 'shhh'. But Eren could tell there was an unmasked right of dominance embedded in that voice.
'Don't tell me… this mummy…'
This time, Eren felt the mummy's gaze landing on him as he slowly opened his eyelids and looked at him. His skin had tingled when that had happened after all. The voice continued before he could say anything in his defence.
"Yes, boy. It's me you are talking to. A ghost from the past, if you will, fukufukufuku!"
Eren dared to look at the Mummy's face when he heard the voice again. The skin on the mummy's face was almost superficial at this point. But the dark green eyes told him a different story.
They looked as if the will to live and survive was burning strong within them.
