Chapter 42: Martha the Basilisk
Diana hummed as she closed her eyes and allowed her consciousness to drift towards the Fates. As a seer, Diana had the ability to consult with the Fates and ask them questions about what was going on around the world. There were times when the Fates would even reach out to Diana by themselves and give her visions of what was to come in the future, and Diana regularly used these visions to improve the kingdom.
But even though Diana could find out about nearly anything using the Fates, it was impossible for her to use her powers to track Verati! Verati was an anomaly that Diana couldn’t figure out no matter how hard she tried! To the Fates, he was an invisible thread that they couldn’t pull on, and no matter how many times she asked, the Fates had never told her anything about him! That was why Diana hadn’t chased after Verati ten years ago. If Diana knew where Verati was, then she would’ve run away from this church a long time ago!
After learning that Verati left on a journey, Diana had spent days in her room trying desperately to find where he went, but there was no way for the Fates to find him, and it took nearly a whole week of crying and depression before Diana finally came out of her room and returned to her duties as the priestess!
Sylvester stayed silent, and he allowed Diana to connect with the Fates. There was an aura of pure energy surrounding Diana at that moment, and Sylvester felt his entire body relax peacefully as he basked in her presence.
’No wonder they treat her like a goddess. I would worship her too if she made me feel like this every day.’
"This doesn’t seem right."
Diana suddenly spoke up while opening her eyes, and Sylvester asked her what was wrong. Diana looked at the ground for a moment before she answered.
"The Fates told me there is a Time Displacement Paradox happening at the Aquinas Valley."
Sylvester’s brow furrowed immediately!
"Time displacement? Does that mean someone came from another time? Do you know who it is?"
"No, they can’t tell me that. But it’s likely someone came here from the future. The Fates have a hard time looking into time displacement events from times that haven’t happened yet."
Sylvester hummed before he asked:
"Do you think a sage used True Magic to come here?"
"No, that’s unlikely. I haven’t received any visions of a disaster, so I don’t think it’s a Sage using True Magic. And we all know how Verati feels about going back in time. He understands the implications of manipulating time, so he doesn’t do it. Just be careful when you go to the valley. You’ll likely meet someone from another time there."
Sylvester hummed in understanding, and he thanked Diana for her help.
"I’ll let you know how my journey goes when I get back."
Diana smiled.
"Thank you. And if you happen to run into Verati while travelling —"
"Don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know. I promise."
Diana nodded thankfully, and she watched as Sylvester vanished from the room in a burst of speed that left an afterimage behind!
....
[Verati Academy Library]
[Downstairs Storage Room]
Viva swallowed as she moved slowly down the dimly lit stairs that led into the storage room. It had been two days since Viva started working in the library, and after trying her best to avoid this particular part of the job for as long as possible, Viva could no longer put it off! Today, Viva was going to join Lana to clean the storage room!
In front of Viva, Lana was humming happily as she walked down the stairs, and there wasn’t even the tiniest bit of nervousness in Lana’s body, but Viva looked like she was only a moment away from jumping in the air. With each step Viva took, she felt more and more like she was walking into the belly of a great monster!
All around Viva, giant basilisk babies slept peacefully! Lana said that they were babies, but the snakes were so large that Viva was sure they could swallow her entire body in one bite! They all had pitch-black scales, so it was difficult to see them, but Viva’s feline eyes were extremely sharp, and they allowed her to see all the snakes around her easily! There were hundreds of them lying across the steps and moving like massive black worms as they twisted together. Viva had a feeling that placing one foot wrong would be the end of her, but thankfully, she was very agile as a feline, and that allowed her to move without stepping on any of the snakes.
Hiss~
"Ngghhhh!"
Viva suddenly bit her lip hard when she heard a low hiss come from beside her, and she felt her heart rate rising rapidly as she thought she was about to be swallowed! But nothing happened for a few seconds, and when Viva looked to the side, she saw that the snakes were still asleep! Viva put her hand on her knees and let out long, quiet breaths to try and calm herself before she swallowed and continued following behind Lana. Finally, after a few more seconds of walking, Viva and Lana got to the bottom of the stairs, and they entered the storage room.
Viva felt her eyes widen in shock when she saw the room! It was humongous! So large that she couldn’t even see the end of it from where she was standing! There were a few shelves scattered randomly on the floor, but there was a lot of space between each shelf, and Viva wondered why the room was built like this!
HISS~!
A loud hiss suddenly echoed from beside Viva, and Viva felt her entire body lock up in shock as a giant creature began to slither past her! It was a snake, but its body was so large that even when it was lying down, it towered over Viva! The black snake slithered forward for a few meters before it turned around and raised its head to look down at Viva with large white eyes.
"Don’t look in its eyes. You’ll turn to stone."
Lana suddenly spoke up from the side, and Viva put her head down immediately!
"You should’ve told me that earlier!"
Viva spoke up in annoyance since she had been a second away from looking in the monster’s eyes, but Lana just chuckled and said that it was fine.
"Master Percy can bring you back even if you get petrified. But I don’t want to have to carry you upstairs."
"You -!"
HISSSS~!
Viva wanted to give Lana a piece of her mind, but Viva froze up again as the snake hissed at her! The snake came down and put its massive nose beside Viva’s face, and Viva heard it sniff the air a few times! Viva didn’t know it, but this snake was the one that gave birth to all those babies, and it was checking to see if Viva was a threat to its children or not! Once the snake was sure that Viva was harmless, it brought its long black tongue out and gave Viva’s face a long lick before it turned away and slithered into the darkness of the storage room.
"Awwn, I think Martha likes you! She only licks the faces of people she really likes!"
Lana spoke up from the side, and Viva immediately dropped to her knees and began to breathe heavily! Viva had been holding her breath for more than a minute now, and Viva felt like her heart was about to break out of her chest! The only time Viva had ever felt this terrified was when she saw the Eldritch monster that Percy kept in his basement! Viva had a feeling that the longer she stayed in this library, the closer she would get to being eaten by one of these monsters!
