“Mama, is this the statue?” Mo Na flew up to the statue and started picking up apart the vines wrapping the statue with a tenacity that could have only been fueled by curiosity.
Seeing my little baby approach those vines like that immediately gave me the shock of my life. One had to know, those were the exact same vines who, until recently, had been attacking the queen ant –what if they were to harm my little sweetie?! But before I could say a word to stop Mo Na, she touched them. Thankfully, the worst didn’t happen as the vines were of the docile variant.
“Doesn’t seem all that special.” As she said that, she gathered mana into her palm, causing it to burst into flames and coalesce into a blade. With blade in hand, she quickly made short work of the vines and was finally able to touch the statue itself. Surprisingly, nothing happened. She had even given the statue a couple of light pats and yet it didn’t respond at all. “It’s just rock, Mama. Do you think that black kitty was lying to us?”
“Black kitty…”
‘Sweetie, that little kitty you mentioned is probably even older than me…besides, she was right in saying that there was a statue here. Even though I still can’t really make out its facial features, it should be a Fallen Angel statue.’
There was no way Purgatory would have a complete depiction of any Angel other than a Fallen Angel. Thus, Meisian wasn’t lying to me and this had to be the statue she mentioned. More importantly, even though she hadn’t been here before, she knew that there was a statue here! Just based on that alone, I could tell that she wasn’t tricking me.
If I had to guess why it wasn’t reacting, it was probably because we hadn’t uncovered the right mechanism yet.
“Mo Na, get back here, don’t touch that statue.”
“Alright, Mama.” She obediently flew back to my side.
For some inexplicable reason, the statue just struck me as odd. After having my daughter return to safety by my side and having Big 4 and No.3 watch over the queen ant, I called out to Sinmosa, Sasani and Nola: “Be careful everyone. Sinomsa, Sasani, Nola, I’ll leave my daughter to you all. Best if Cinderel stays near her as well.”
“What’s up? Is there something wrong here?”
“I’m not sure, but it just feels like this statue is calling out to me…” That was the best explanation I could give for now. My gut just knew that it was calling out to me; from the very moment I laid eyes on it, I had the urge to touch it.
“Yes…there is something off about this place…perhaps…perhaps we should leave first.” For the mighty Nola to be so apprehensive was truly a little out of character for her. Normally, she would be the first one to charge into the fray, just like how it was when we first met her…
“If we back away now, all that we’ve done would have been for naught…” I shook my head and rejected her proposal. Placing my little baby onto Sinmosa’s back, I gently kissed her on the forehead and said: “Sweetie, remember to stick close to Aunty Sinmosa, don’t run about, okay?”
Unable to understand the meaning behind my words, she tilted her head to the side in confusion: “Mama, what are you up to?”
“I’m not sure as well, all this just feels off to me, that’s why I don’t want you to run about for now.”
“Kay.”
As if I had just settled my dying will, I took a deep breath and then exhaled. Despite that, my heart refused to calm down in the least bit. I was worried. Extremely worried that something bad might happen the moment I touched that statue. But if I didn’t touch it…wouldn’t all that we had done thus far been pointless? All those brushes with death…weren’t they for this very moment?
The statue was definitely calling out to me. I could feel that from the very depths of my soul. It wanted me to go over and it wasn’t my place to reject it.
Slowly walking up to the statue, I breathed in deep and then reached out with my right arm, gingerly pressing onto the statue with my finger…
Suddenly, just as my finger made contact with the statue, a blackish-purple dome barrier blasted outwards and rapidly enveloped the surrounding area with that statue as its center. In the time it took for me to blink, my entire field of vision was covered in it.
Panicked, I nearly tripped on myself as I stumbled backwards. I turned my head to look at Mo Na and found that not just her, but the rest as well, had all been frozen there as if some curse had caused time to stop for them…no…to be precise, time had indeed stopped for everyone except me…only me…
‘What’s going on…exactly what has happened…why aren’t they moving? Why am I the only one awake…’ My legs started to soften and my body crumbled powerlessly to ground. I hurriedly tried to break my fall with my arm but I still ended up landing butt first anyway.
*crunch*
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