The God of Gravity part 2: Olympus

Roots

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"Okay, Hiroki," said Jasper after he sprang up from the ground and he can stand on his feet. "Let's find a way to get out of here." It's been an hour since they started to rest, and they feel that they have wasted too much time.

"But where are we gonna go?" asked Hiroki. "We don't know what is this place."

"I'm sure we'll figure it out! Now, do you happen to have a flashlight?"

"I think so," he said while tapping his pockets as he lies down the ground. "Here," he said and turned it on. They squinted because their eyes aren't yet adjusted. He gave it to Jasper.

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "How long does this flashlight left?"

"A year."

"Cool!" He used the flashlight to look around and they found out that they are in some kind of hall with the ceiling full of paintings, surroundings full of furniture, vases, jars, and skeletons. "This place is even cooler." He went closer to a skeleton and noticed that it is a woman wearing brandished clothes with fine silk and golden threads. He inspected the skull by lifting it off from its shoulder. He held it with his left hand while pointing the flashlight using his right hand.

"Hey, Jasper!" whispered Hiroki. "Pay respect for the dead or it will haunt us!"

"What? You're mistaken. There's no such thing as haunting ghosts. As soon as they die, their souls are sent to the Underworld for the ferryman to take them to one of the three levels."

"Yes, but touching it doesn't feel right."

Jasper ignored Hiroki's superstitions and continued inspecting the skull and he speculated something. "Hmm...," he hummed. "I don't think I have seen this kind of clothing before but I can say that this woman has a Ra ethnicity. It looks like she died thousands of years ago." He looked around once more, and he saw a root protruding from a c***k in the floor below the skeleton. "That's strange." He went near it and inspected its appearance. "How can a root of a tree survive under the darkness and dryness of this place?" He sensed it throbbing once. "I don't think I've seen this kind of-" As soon as he touched it, his right hand dried. "Argh!" he yelled out in pain and dropped the flashlight.

"Jasper?!!" asked Hiroki. "What happened? You nearly destroyed our only source of light!"

Jasper just held his right wrist with his left hand and said, "Whatever you do, don't touch any plant."

Hiroki is still confused and can't see what happened to Jasper's hand. "What plant?" he asked as the flashlight lit up another root beside him on the ground. He slowly held out his hand and the root is throbbing like a blood vessel.

"Hey!" Jasper kicked his hand away. "I told you not to touch any plant!" He showed him his dry hand that the flashlight on the ground lit up. "Look what it did to my hand!" It looks like the hand of an old man because of its dryness.

"What the-? What happened to you?!!!"

"I don't know, it seems that the root took all of the moisture from my skin but I am fine, I know how to fix myself. But if you touched that, you would've died instantly because you're a human."

"Eh... this place is giving me the creeps. We really have to get out of here now. I also need to fix my broken leg as soon as possible."

"Okay, hop on my back. I'll carry you."

He carried him on his back and Hiroki held the flashlight for both of them while they randomly went anywhere they can in the hope to find a way to escape. They walked on the sandy tiled floor. Jasper's crushing footsteps against the sand is all they could hear along with their breaths. Everywhere they went, there are thousand-year-old corpses with the same style of garments they found from a woman at the hall they came from. Hiroki constantly looks around and not pointing the flashlight in the same direction for a long time.

Jasper says, "I will trip if you keep doing the flashlight like that."

"Oh, sorry. It's just I never saw this kind of culture before."

"I haven't but I've read this in books."

"Really? Then what kind of culture is this?"

"Ra."

"Are you sure? Because these don't look like the garments, furniture, and decorations of the Ra people we met and on the books."

"Yes, but this is the Ancient Ra Civilization. You still remember the story of how the reincarnation of the gods started?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Ancient Ra started to thrive into a superpower continent in just years after the Beginning ended and the Age of Immortality began. The powers of the gods have been scattered across the demigods of the world and a lot of demigods in the Ra Continent - even before it was named as it is, have luckily got the powers of the great gods. They conceived powerful deities. The famous one was Ra, the God of Light, the first reincarnation of Helios, and the first ruler of the Ra Clan that he started. The sun shines the brightest near the equator, and it is a perfect place for the God of Light to use his power. At that time, the Ra continent is still fertile and very thick like the South Columban forest. The bounty of crops and natural resources has been a great deal of help for him to build his empire. The gods and goddesses in the continent even swore allegiance to him as under his roof as members of the Clan. There were supposed to be many demigod clans all over the world, and they were all constantly fighting for prayers and land. The Ra Clan is left untouched by others because they consider them as the 'Second Olympus' just like the Miyamoto clan of our goddess once was before it got destroyed. I also have a suspicion that Olympus has something to do with it but I don't have enough evidence, so it's just a hunch. Anyways, the other small demigod clans formed alliances across the different continents of the world.

"Olympus of course is a governing power of the Realm and became stable as soon as the Age of Immortality started. The Oriental Clans except the Miyamoto Clan became one with Olympus. That is why we have so many Oriental deities there like Seok - the God of Wisdom, Aiko - the Goddess of Teleportation, Rai - the God of Wind as the current King, the Three Pillars of the Realm: Danae, Mila and Aurelia, and many others. They are too many to count. Given as it is, they still have an outpost at the center of the East to govern the people but still under Olympus's absolute rule.

"Asgard also has a bad reputation because of how much rogue gods and demigods they produce. In the time that Jack lost his limbs, the God of Death went rogue and Olympus sent its greatest warrior: Rai to deal with him. However, Asgard remains loyal to Olympus. You might also heard about Thor - the famous reincarnation of the God of Lightning with his famous Mjolnir that only he can use. Thor also was the first reincarnation and was the son of Odin - the first God of Wisdom and the first King of Asgard. Through difficult times, Asgard and Olympus were loyal to one another so there hasn't been a real war between them.

"The next Demigod Clan that has been formed is the Telemotu Aiga - they are located in the middle of the Serenic Ocean and they are just carefree islanders that sing songs all day. I kinda like their culture because all they do is chill. Damn, how badly I want that life. However, I don't have much interest in them because they never entered any conflict but they are famous for their demigod, Maui that is almost as strong as Enzo. But heck, Enzo is very powerful. Only the King or a fool would want to seriously fight against him and I don't see anyone going to surpass him except for our goddess of course.

"The Akkadios Clan is just at the east of the Ra Continent. They have records of rebellion against Olympus. It was frequent and they paid a heavy price each time they did. There's not much amazing about that clan because they are always ruled by a stupid leader but Olympus annexed them and it has been peaceful ever since.

"The last, but not the least, the Apisto Clan! Famous for their God of Trickery," Jasper pointed his thumb at himself. "- my past reincarnation, and my father is named after him as Narada. He fooled the whole world and peace was achieved but of course only the past Olympians knew about it until they decided to let everyone know."

"You sure know quite a lot of things," said Hiroki.

"Of course. I was supposed to be a candidate for the Third Thrones of the new rulers of Olympus Mons on Mars. It is supposed to be me, my sister, and Mila but I guess they will have to find a replacement for me because I will never go back."

"You lost quite a lot, haven't you?"

"Pretty much, but if that's what I have to pay for freedom, then to hell with everything."

Hiroki is surprised about Jasper's resolve. He thought to himself: "Everything for freedom, eh? You're quite something, Jasper."

Then Jasper stopped just before a corpse that is holding an old journal on his chest while lying on the rooted floor.

"This guy has a journal," said Jasper. "Interesting."

He pulled it from the corpse and its fingers were snapped, dust came flying around and he opened it as Hiroki aided him to read by pointing the flashlight at the old journal that looks fragile and could be shattered like dried leaves if treated harshly. Jasper opened it and was surprised.

"Oh, no...," he shook his head.

Hiroki can't understand what was written because it is in a different language. "That's just the first page," he said. "How can you understand-"

"We've got to get out of here now!!!" he yelled.

Meanwhile, Jack has been carrying his goddess on his back after she got tired of carrying herself with her powers. She feels unwell, and her temperature is high, her breath falls short, and she is just closing her eyes trying to sleep so that she couldn't feel her suffering. That impact when she tried to stop the debris shouldn't have made her unwell but Jack suspects that her swelling ankle is the cause of her fever.

He thought, "So, even a goddess can get a fever?"

He has been carrying her for hours and he discovered that this cave is very long until he saw the dead end. The roof of the cave just collapsed not that long ago and completely covered the way. Jack inspected the pile of rubble and he put Sayuri at the side of the cave. Then he started to dig the rubble and noticed that there is a hole above it. He figured out that it could be their way out so he dug faster. He was right so he carried Sayuri on his arms and jumped up into the hole. Then he landed on sandy ground. Fresh sand and rocks from above covered the surroundings. He made his flashlight light up stronger and found roofs of houses as they were buried deep in the sand. He used his sonar to locate any signs of life that will likely make a sound in the air. It could mean food and the presence of water inside this mysterious vast space under the desert.

He walked on the roof tiles of a house and saw a hole. Through it, there's a room full of sand and rubble. Some roots spread throughout the floor. He prepared to jump down when he saw closed jars everywhere and thought that there could be water in one of those jars. He decided not to leave Sayuri alone at the surface because he feels that something could snatch her away because of her vulnerable state.

"My lady," he whispered. "we're jumping down." She didn't respond and just slept while frowning. Jack jumped down and landed softly on the sand. He went to check the jars at the corner. He let her sit against a wall and beside a root and opened each of the jars to check if there's water. He also just noticed that there are roots at the bottoms of the jars. There are even roots that looked like they sought the contents of the other jars by growing and extending to enter the lids. Others, looked like they entangled bigger jars and crushed them. He felt quite disturbed about the roots.

"That's peculiar...," he muttered while touching the roots with his metal hands and the sensors of his fingers recreate the sensation of what it's like to have a real flesh hand by sending signals to his nerves. He felt the root throbbing.

While Jack is busy inspecting the roots, Sayuri is there sleeping while sweating too much. The roots beside her felt the presence of her sweat as water and sought it. They began to move like snakes, slithering towards her hungry for water.

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