Rise of the Spiritualist: Entry Nine

Rise of the Spiritualist: Entry Nine

Rise of the Spiritualist: The Personal Accounts from the Events of Shiro-Ryu High School from the Memories of Leonardo Yarafen Krilangi

Ninth Entry.

My previous pilgrimage to the ruins of Lereshrana took a full forty-eight hours, as I had been walking on foot to avoid detection by my spirit energy. Now, however, I was speeding towards the fallen city, caution thrown to the winds, at supersonic speed, and I had only made an hour's walking distance away from it before turning back; this return trip lasted a mere thirty seconds, perhaps less, thanks to my chakra. As I dared to wonder what kind of torture my half-cousin could have been enduring at Forte's hands, anger rose in my blood, and after casting my instinctive fear of the place aside, I ran into the mouth of the cave beneath the ageless toppled skyscrapers. I summoned a small orb of light into my hand with my light chakra, and using it as a lantern, I descended into the tunnels.

A few minutes of silence, save for the echoes of my own footsteps, passed as I started down into the deep labyrinth of Lereshrana. The cave's tunnels were wide and tall, so I had plenty of room to maneuver about while avoiding obstacles. More than once, I found myself walking upon the metallic framework of an ancient building; at one point, I nearly lost my footing, almost toppling through a large gap in the metal where a window would've been thousands of years ago. Once I had regained my balance, I used my earth chakra to cover the hole in the steel frame with a sheet of solid rock, to prevent another mishap on my trip back to the surface.

Thirty minutes passed before I finally found myself at one of the multitudinous forks in the tunnels. I looked up and saw a single tiny hole leading straight upwards; when I listened closely, I could hear air rushing down into the tunnel and back out again with every breath I took. That hole had most likely been dug by the indigenous monsters that had populated the tunnels long ago; even those damned creatures needed the precious gas to breathe. Not knowing in which direction to proceed, I removed a small stone from my pocket and channeled my spirit energy into it. Almost immediately, the small stone squeaked as it sprouted a tiny nose, a tail, and two ears. This miniature sentient life form was called Navi Rat, and it was actually a living being used by warrior monks to navigate mazes.

I pointed down the left hand path with my small orb of light, nodding to the Navi Rat, and it glowed with a strong yellow light in acknowledgement. I set it down on the ground, and the yellow light turned green; the little stone rodent took off down the tunnel, its green light illuminating the mouth of the tunnel branch until it had turned out of my sight. I waited only two or three minutes before the little mouse came whizzing back towards me, shining with a red light; that path had been a dead end, according to its luminous glow. I picked it up, and as it turned yellow again, I ran down the right hand path.

I had not been mobile again for even sixty seconds before I heard the sound of footsteps, many more than just my own, echoing from the passage ahead of me. I pocketed my Navi Rat and doused my ball of light, taking a fighting stance and waiting for the source of the footsteps to reveal itself.