Chapter 170: Aether Pool?
The group was still deeply engrossed in their daze, utterly captivated by the magnificence of the cavern, when Aelric’s sudden clearing of his throat snapped them out of their reverie...
The sound wasn’t particularly loud, yet within the enormous cavern, it carried with peculiar clarity. It travelled across the crystalline walls, bounced from one formation to another, and eventually returned as a faint, lingering murmur that seemed to whisper through the chamber.
One by one, the group recovered their composure.
They then shook their heads, their eyes darting around in a disoriented fashion, as though attempting to reacquaint themselves with reality after being pulled from a dream.
It was as though they had temporarily forgotten where they were and needed to remind themselves that the impossible spectacle before them was actually real.
Caelestra realized that she had spent an unhealthy number of minutes staring at the same collection of crystals, and for that reason, her expression was perhaps the most embarrassing of them all.
She quickly straightened herself, simultaneously clearing her throat before feigning nonchalance, as though she hadn’t just spent several minutes staring at the cavern like a merchant who had accidentally discovered an entire treasury.
In a bid to conceal her embarrassment, she was the first to almost break the awkward silence that had descended upon the cavern.
However, just before she could speak, Kaeloris beat her to it.
The failed Gnost adjusted his cracked, circular spectacles before speaking as he turned toward the green-eyed youth.
"Aelric, just what is this place?" His voice was thick with awe and astonishment, his expression coloured with intense fascination he felt towards the chamber.
Honestly, today had been a rollercoaster of emotions for him. And it wasn’t just for him alone as all of them had experienced something similar. It felt as though today had been designed specifically to test the limit of how they could feel and react towards certain situations.
At first, they had been disappointed when they discovered that the cave was nothing more than an unremarkable hollow buried within the depths of the Crimson Forest.
Then, after entering the tunnel and discovering its walls adorned with Essence Crystals, that disappointment had transformed into delight, surprise, and a myriad of astonishing emotions.
Yet upon seeing this cavern, their reaction had become even more profound.
They had thought they had seen it all. But apparently, there was still more wonder concealed within the Nether Lands than they had ever imagined.
Although they had previously asked Aelric how he had stumbled upon this place, Kaeloris was now suddenly intrigued by what this cavern actually was.
His curiosity didn’t just stem from a mere desire for knowledge.
Instead, it came from something deeper; a need to understand what this place truly meant at its core.
Throughout history, the Nether Lands had been regarded as a place of death, desolation, and destruction. And despite the fact that their experiences during the past week had begun to challenge that perception, it still wasn’t enough for them to associate the Nether Lands with something as paradisiacal as this cavern.
In fact, if someone had previously told them that something on the level of this cavern existed within the Nether Lands, particularly within the Crimson Forest where they currently stood, they would have assumed that person was insane or simply lacking basic cognitive faculties.
And that alone demonstrated just how profoundly their perception and conception of the Nether Lands had been shaken.
Aelric looked around the cavern before shifting his gaze back toward Kaeloris.
Then, with a smirk that seemed to imply far more than his words did, he spoke.
"Actually, I also have no idea what this place is."
The blatantly candid and almost ignorant statement caused several members of the group to furrow their brows.
Even Kaeloris narrowed his eyes. For a moment, he instinctively suspected that Aelric was pulling their legs.
They simply couldn’t accept that Aelric knew nothing about this cavern.
After all, he had supposedly known about this place for three years. And three years was more than enough time to uncover some particular and peculiar phenomena associated with it.
Also, he couldn’t possibly accept the fact that Aelric would bring them to a place that even the green-eyed youth himself wouldn’t know about or understand.
Before anyone could respond, however, Aelric continued in an almost nonchalant voice.
"However, if I were to make an educated guess, I would say that it might have been the focal point, an eye if you will, of some astonishing Aetheric phenomenon some years past." He concluded.
"What do you mean by that?" Kaeloris asked, taking a few steps forward.
Aelric didn’t answer. Instead, he gestured toward them.
"Let me show you something."
He then began walking toward the center of the cavern.
His mysterious demeanor immediately intrigued the group, and because they were curious about what he intended to show them, they followed almost immediately.
Besides, considering what he had shown them thus far, the group knew that whatever it was had to be on the same level as this cavern.
Aelric led them toward the center of the cavern, through the ephemeral mist that floated through the chamber and reflected the lights of the Essence Crystals like fragments of a shattered rainbow suspended in the air.
They walked through the mist for quite some time before eventually arriving at the edge of what appeared to be a pool.
However, calling it a pool hardly did justice to the structure before them as it was far too magnificent for such an ordinary word.
The pool stretched across dozens of meters, occupying a considerable portion of the cavern’s center like a miniature oasis hidden beneath the earth.
Its basin appeared to have been carved into the stone by some colossal and incomprehensible force, its smooth edges contrasting sharply with the rough, irregular formations surrounding it. Yet its strange architecture was not what captured their attention. It was the liquid within.
From afar, it appeared to possess countless colors; blue, violet, turquoise, gold, and silver. But upon closer inspection, they realized the liquid itself was almost perfectly transparent and the colors themselves were merely reflections cast by the surrounding Essence Crystals.
Beneath that radiance, the liquid possessed an eerie, otherworldly clarity, so pure that it seemed less like water and more like liquefied essence, carrying faint ripples of luminous energy across its surface.
Upon seeing the pool, varying degrees of astonishment crossed the group’s faces, and once again, they found themselves struggling to remain calm.
Except for Aelric and Sylveris.
Aelric remained calm simply because this wasn’t the first time he had ever seen the pool himself.
Sylveris, on the other hand, was only able to remain composed because she had absolutely no idea what the pool was.
The only reason she showed any surprise at all was simply because of its picturesque beauty and ethereal magnificence.
A small silence settled over the group and for several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Kaeloris stared at the pool with widened eyes.
His cracked spectacles reflected the multicolored radiance dancing across its surface as he spoke.
"Impossible." His voice was barely above a whisper, tinged with shock and confusion. "How can an Aether Pool exist here?"