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Chapter 57 The sacred Cenote
"No matter how you put it, this is just a small pond." Nika said as she was taking off her shoes to take a swim in the water.
"No, it's not a pond, it's a Cenote! They're usually pretty deep and can be dangerous to go in if you don't know them well. Also..." Uriel explained and attempted to warn Nika, but she cut him short.
"You're going to tell ME about Cenotes!? I was born in Mexico, I know all there is to know about Cenotes! Besides I'm a heavenly rank so I can take good care of myself." Nika scoffed and jumped into the water from the rocky height they were in which was about thirty meters.
"You really don't need to worry about her Mister Sage, she's not lying about being a heavenly rank." Flanagan added.
"I do believe her, it's not really about safety in this case, it's just that..." Uriel's voice was muffled by a loud shriek coming from below. Only when Nika's loud yelling and cursing finally subsided, he continued. "The waters of 'Ik Kil' has been stagnant for years."
Everyone in the group, even the most serious among the bodyguards, let out a chuckle taking advantage of the fact that their boss, Nika, was at a distance. Suddenly, the laughter shifted into fear as a hideous figure emerged from the shadows, creeping and crawling upwards, its hair wet and covering its face. It resembled a human but, at the same time it did not.
The eerie creature moved awkwardly in short and abrupt bursts, it looked like it was moving in between seizures with it's articulations bent in impossible ways as it climbed out of the shadows, resembling a scene from a horror movie.
"Did- you- did you know the water was dirty!?" Nika asked in a deep growl after using her trait to emerge from Uriel's shadow. "I'm talking to you, Mister Sage..." The gritting of her teeth was so loud it made everyone flinch.
"N-no I didn't... Ok I did, but I tried to warn you." Uriel said scratching his cheek. "Anyway, we need to hurry up, we're losing daylight and we're far away from camp."
Nika remained in place for a few seconds, heaving in anger as mud slid down from her hair, face and clothes as if she was melting. A small part of her wanted to exact revenge from Uriel who knowingly let her take a dip on dirty water, but that was against her mission and her paycheck was on the line. In the end, thinking about money managed to somewhat calm her down and she was able to continue performing her duty as Uriel's assistant.
The expedition party comprised of Uriel, the four bodyguards, Flanagan and a very upset Nika started going down the stony stairs to reach water level. Although the water was crystal clear on the surface and it was really beautiful to look at, just like Uriel stated it was stagnant and had a lot of vegetation on its bottom. There was a platform slightly above the water that lead inside the cave where some carvings had been previously discovered by the Mapple corp. archaeologists, but thanks to his ability to read the ancient glyphs Uriel found something really promising.
[To hear the message of this sacred place
You need no soles, no padded leather.
All you need is to walk with grace
and the path will come together.]
"That's more like it!" Uriel exclaimed in contentment after discovering his first ancient riddle, the kind he always dreamed about. Of course the 'emergency exit' one didn't count because he made it up, but this one was the real deal. "Take off your shoes, now!" He commanded before even explaining what he just read.
The group of professional bodyguards complied without asking any questions, except for Nika who was already on her bare feet after taking a dive on the murky waters of the ancient Cenote. Uriel walked around while Nika was pointing up the gas lantern all over the cave, but there weren't any more carvings.
"Is there something wrong?" Asked Nika after noticing Uriel's frustration.
"I can't see any paths or carvings." He complained and then told them the riddle he just read a few minutes ago.
"So, this is a sacred place, huh." Nika pondered. freёwebnoѵel.com
"Uhm, yeah... that's a given." Uriel scowled at Nika who only pointed out the obvious.
"And we're supposed to walk with our bare feet." She lingered for a few seconds. "And then what?"
"What do you mean and then what?" Uriel didn't follow Nika's reasoning.
"It says we need to walk with grace, but what does that even mean?"
Due to Uriel's excitement after finding out that he needed to take his shoes off, he completely omitted everything else.
"Walk with grace... It could mean dancing, I think the Mayans were great dancers." He tried to remember each and every Mayan dance ever recorded, but that wasn't of any help because there were no exact records of any that lasted to this day and, even if there were records, he didn't have any practice dancing. "If we take it literally..." He muttered different kinds of theories while staring at the stone platform he was standing on.
The platform itself wasn't that interesting, it was made so people could access the cave near the Cenote without the need to wet their feet.
"Walk with grace... this Cenote is sacred... huh..." Uriel pondered as the sound of Nika's wet footsteps resounded in the silence of the cave. He took a short walk across the platform when something strange happened. It was faint, but there was a glimmer coming off from the platform just below Nika's feet. "That's it! Look at Nika's footsteps! We need to wet our feet and walk on the platform and then the path will come together!"
"This glimmer looks like bioluminiscent algae." The medic claimed as he leaned close to the stone floor.
"Uh? That doesn't make any sense, since when is it graceful to walk with wet feet?" Flanagan was dubious.
"In this case grace doesn't refer to elegance, but the divine grace! This sacred water is the divine grace!" Uriel was in absolute glee as his odd theory proved to be correct. The group wet their feel and proceeded to walk all over the platform until they were able to hear a strange mechanism click below their feet, but nothing else happened.
"It sounded like it was about to be activated, but then failed." The female engineer said after placing her ear on the floor.
"Should we crush an essence orb?" Said Nika after taking a small purse from her belt.
"I don't think so, I mean, we don't know what will happen if we do so. I chose to investigate the Cenote because it's far from the site and it won't be that easy to come and go without a vehicle, it's about three kilometers distance and the road isn't well kept. That also means if something dangerous happens we won't be able to get any backup."
"What worries you, Mister Sage?" Nika asked in suspicion.
"At this point I can't be sure of anything but, I fear that one of the structures is in charge of keeping cryptids away from the site, it could be any structure, even this Cenote. That's why we can't just go activating stuff just because we can. Thankfully, there's no need to rush things."
The group started to retreat, leaving only Uriel behind on the farthest point of the stone platform. When the rest of the group were at a distance the mechanism clicked again. Nika's first instinct was to use her trait to reach Uriel, but he quickly raised a hand signalling her to stop.
Then, an ominous stone altar slowly raised from bellow, right in front of Uriel, with the grinding sound of stone gears resounding in the previously silent cave.