The Earth Online

45 Preparations for the Next World Part 15

Irkalla was staring at the team with a Cheshire grin, while the beast tamer and his friends just cautiously stared at the goddess.

“Oh, come now! I won’t harm you, I mean, if you can keep yourself safe.” The goddess teasingly started. Seeing that the group of four still had those wary stares, her grin shifted into a small frown.

“Ah, it’s quite boring how terrified the lot of you look. Enki told me to give you guys a chance. He said that you guys are pretty nifty compared to the other humans. Trust the god of ‘wisdom’ to say such things.”

The goddess complained and when she saw that they still weren’t reacting, she just rolled her eyes.

“Anyways, I’ll be the game leader for the game you choose. I hope you enjoy.” After such an anti-climatic statement, Irkalla just disappeared in a poof of smoke.

“Great job! We’ve managed to convince her that we’re boring.” Thaleos held his hand up for a high-five, to which only Ygritte responded.

Kedrick just chuckled for a bit and jokingly chimed, “Bro, what are you talking about, you are boring.”

As the bearded man was just about to roll his eyes, he suddenly saw the scene of the painted house flashing before them.

“Hey, that’s the scene! We need to go there!” He exclaimed in a loud voice, making the other three team members look at the painting.

When they say the amazing scene, they felt inclined to jump straight into the marvelous view. And so, they did.

After Thaleos jumped first into the scene, the others followed suit.

Upon entering the scene, they felt like they were in the world that was debating between being 2D and 5D. The painting strokes appeared to paint colorful characters, but whenever they moved they shifted from being 2D to 5D.

The scene was surreal.

When they looked around the room, they seemed to be in the house’s living room. The living room appeared to be big and small at the same time.

There was a mini castle in the middle of the room and it had little red people chasing each other through the rooms.

 The gray-bricked structure was extremely detailed and meticulously made, as one could see the throne room’s treasures and the princess’ room’s canopy bed.

The red figures seemed to be running through each room, without making single mess.

On the castle’s pointed roof and through its windows, one could see crows steadily staring at the red figures running around.

“What the hell is happening?” Kedrick muttered under his breath while staring at the structure. The figures couldn’t seem to hear them, as they continued with their game.

“I’m not quite sure either, but what the hell do we have to do?” Haya asked, as he stared around the living room that had murals and odd ornaments surrounding it.

Ygritte spotted two red figures at the living room’s threshold. They were as small as children, and were seemed to be nervous at seeing them.

The druid was fascinated at red children that appeared to have no gender and only black buttons for eyes. The only thing distinguishing them from the other were the clothes and toys they had.

The slightly larger red child appeared to be dressed in a cute black wizard outfit, complete with a black cloak and tiny staff. The other red child seemed to be dressed like a knight and had a small doll horse with it.

Ygritte gave the two children a warm smile and beckoned them to come closer.

When Thaleos saw that the druid seemed to be talking to someone, he stared at what she was looking at and saw the two red children.

“Guys, we need to keep quiet for one second.” The beast tamer distractingly uttered, as the priest and berserker were seemed to be theorizing what their goal in the game was.

“Hello, you can come closer, if you want to.” Ygritte warmly started, as she sat on the floor to assume an eye-to-eye level with the children.

This encouraged the red children to go pass the threshold and slowly make their way to Ygritte’s position.

As they spotted the three large and muscular men behind her, they slightly flinched and pause.

“Look nicer!” The druid berated them. The three men crouched down on their position and gave their best gentle-looking smiles.

The kids appeared to get more frightened and Ygritte just rolled her eyes at the three men. The druid took out two small Rubik’s cubes from her utility bag and patiently offered it to them.

Ygritte held these little versions of Rubik’s cubes in her bag because her brother was obsessed with them. 

After a short while, the two children finally took the cubes and attempted to shuffle it around. This little action warmed all their hearts. A cold but seductive voice suddenly cut the heart-warming scene,

“Wow, didn’t know the twins were that easy to please. Hmmm, anyway, the task of this game is that you have to find all the black crows and destroy them.” Irkalla’s voice made the children hide behind Ygritte in deep fear.

The druid could feel them shaking, making her glare at the voice.

“There are five of them scattered around the house. If you win this game, you get two paralyzing staffs and one chainmail. You have 30 minutes. Good luck!” The underworld goddess nonchalantly muttered. Without giving any other clues beside her initial statement, Irkalla’s intimidating presence disappeared.

The four of them immediately stood up and they all agreed to first go outside the living room. Outside the first room, they arrived at the kitchen.

Compared to other one, this was slightly more subdue, but still a bit loud at the same time. The odd thing they found were how three crows were playing poker in the kitchen table.

They seemed to be wax figures, since they weren’t moving and were just staring at each other harshly. The two children tried approaching the three crows but were immediately stopped by Ygritte.

Although, they struggled at first, they chose to stay with Ygritte instead. It seems like the children couldn’t speak at all and just communicated through hand gestures.

The kitchen was incredibly large, but only had one large refrigerator and the three wax crows. Upon closely observing the crows, they noticed that one of them was about to win the game.

Since they’ve been there for five minutes, Thaleos decided to move one of the cards to see if they can trigger anything.

Upon taking the winning card and placing it on another crow player’s hand, they heard a creaking sound.

When they looked around the room, they saw that the refrigerator was slowly opening. Peaking through the open space was a sleeping crow.

This made everyone in the room pause and hold their breaths. Before they could even unsheathe their weapons, the crow’s eyes suddenly opened, revealing red irises.

It quickly flew out of the refrigerator and started attacking them with its beak and claw. It had these metallic claws that almost sliced them in half.

The two red children were terrified and hid under the table. This little action caused one of the wax dolls to wake up and fly up the room.

When it saw their little group, it suddenly swooped down and started attacking them. Ygritte started her sleep enchanting spell, as Kedrick activated the Ward Evil skill.

Kedrick’s skill gave them a few seconds to think of what to do, as the ward evil skills made beasts run away for 15 seconds.

The difference of these crows is that regular blades didn’t seem to be working. Their feathers appeared to be made of some metal that was acting like a shield or something.

“f**k, what the hell do we do?” Haya asked, as he was racking his brain for a quick solution. Thaleos calmly thought of a solution and activated two of his skills, Painful Torture and Anger Strike.

As the feathered creatures were about to approach them, yet again, the beast tamer directed his Anger Strike at one of the crows.

When it was hit by the electrical attack, it started shaking from shock and fell on the kitchen floor.

Ygritte spotted one of the children shaking from crying and although they weren’t making any sounds, this seem to have triggered something in the room.  

The house appeared to breathing like an actual live creature as three other crows went inside the room.

It seemed like they weren’t required to go through the other rooms now, as the crows were going crazy.

Ygritte used her skill Reanimate the Dead on the fallen crow, and it seemed to be effective as it started attacking the other crows. Thaleos brought out his two wolf-eagles and ordered them to attack the other remaining crows.

The whole house shook from all the attacks and the air started emitting this blue color. The crows paused and formed one group together, within a split second, they merged together into one big spider.

It stamped one of its foot on the ground, expanding the space of the kitchen and turning it into this one big spider web. They all fell into the metallic cobweb and could barely stand up.

They felt like they could hear Irkalla laughing from a distance. As the spider was quickly climbing down the cobweb ready to attack them, one of the red children dressed as a wizard threw a Rubik’s cube at the spider’s direction.

This action triggered the spider to shift direction and climbed up towards where the red children was. Thaleos could feel himself panicking and he couldn’t move no matter what he did, so he activated his mental whipping skill.

Just as the giant black spider slashed the red child’s left arm, Thaleos used his mental whip on the black spider.

Compared to previous opponents, the spider didn’t shake or anything, it paused for a minute or two and made some weeping noises as it was staring directly at the two red children.

The black spider suddenly started shifting into one whole woman, and the cobweb room gradually changed back into the kitchen.

The black figure seemed to be crying and then it knelt to the ground. Seeing the figure, the two children started approaching the figure and cautiously hugged the figure.

The group of four had a bad feeling about this as they felt their hearts aching. The black figure’s color started changing into the red color and two black button eyes appeared on its face.

Upon seeing this, the two red children quickly hugged into the red woman’s figure and started weeping along with her.

“I…I think it’s their…mother.” Ygritte faltered. She felt her eyes stinging a little bit as she realized why the two children were trying to stop them from attacking the black crows.

“Amazing, isn’t it? A whole mother’s love giving life to this scene, to this very house even.” Irkalla voiced penetrated throughout the whole house. This made the red-skinned family glare at the voice.

Haya and Kedrick were fuming at what the goddess did to the small family.

“Well, you have to finish them off to get the chain mail and paralyzing staffs. The children have them.” Once the goddess muttered the last words, the children’s little costumes from earlier shifted into larger versions of itself.

In placement of the past toys and clothes, there were two wooden staffs with blue gems, and a golden chainmail.

“If you want those prizes, you need to destroy them. Otherwise, you lose the game and stay here with them.” The goddess threatened in a mocking voice.

“You have three minutes to decide.” This time, the intimidating presence never left the room.

“What the f**k do we do?” Haya cried out; he was the most affected because he knew how losing a mother felt. Ygritte felt herself tearing up as she was torn about the whole thing.

“We can’t do this, T. There must be another way.” Kedrick whispered to Thaleos in a sad tone. Thaleos agreed and tried racking his brain for a solution.

He could hear the clock ticking, a petty move from the goddess who wanted to pressure them some more. 

Before he could even say anything, the red mother figure approached them and gently clasped his arm.

The two children were clutching at the red woman’s long black cloak, almost as if not understanding anything. Thaleos was first confused at the gesture, but the red woman just shook her head and gave them a warm smile.

She had this accepting and somber look, as if telling them that it was okay. When the beast tamer understood what she meant, he could literally feel his heart aching.

“No, there must be another way. We can find a way!” He desperately responded, but the red figure just shook her head and brough left hand, which was clutching the black katana, and placed it into her neck.

This made the two children cry, triggering Haya into a mini PTSD-attack.

“What a touching picture. I highly suggest that you should do what she says because time is ticking.” Irkalla spoke in an indifferent tone, almost yawning at the end.

Everyone felt frustration sinking into their bones, as they were slowly losing hope. But 30 seconds before the game ended, Haya ran back to the living room and started destroying the castle with his sword.

When Thaleos and the others felt the house shaking, they copied what Haya was doing and proceeded to break the tiny castle into pieces.

“No, no, no! You’re not supposed to do that!” Irkalla shouted in an angry tone. Before they knew it, the house started deconstructing itself as items started disappearing.

The big house seemed to be unravelling before their eyes.

Once they finally destroyed the castle, the house they were originally in was no more. They were just in a blank canvas.

When they looked for the little family, they saw them hugging each other and smiling to each other. They slowly approached their little group and gave them warm hugs.

Before they could hug them back, the family of red figures waved their hands goodbye while gradually disappearing. Before they finally disappeared, they mouthed the words thank you.