Finding the Legacy and A unlucky meeting.

After my overnight stay, Levi and I started preparing to explore the locations she had traced after so much hard work.

We had slept in different rooms because I didn't want her to feel uncomfortable after last night's events.

We stepped out of the house and started moving towards the ride station.

"Every car uses Raizen-orbs these days, don't they?" said Levi. I gave her a small nod of agreement. The atmosphere between us was awkward. None of us started a proper conversation, only small talk.

What she said was true, Raizen-orbs were becoming the norms, but we were going to find a better fuel.

Raizenantium is a metal that was found nearly half a century ago. It is a metal whose occurrence stays a mystery but it has reformed our country. Its property to handle energy by not self-destructing while holding the energy stones makes it a good gift for humanity.

Though, Energy stones are minerals that are found only near the shores of the country, which is truly an enigma to the whole world. They are mysterious stones that give off energy without releasing any known harmful radiation.

'Raizen-orbs' made from Raizenantium metal are used to store these energy stones and thus the orbs are used to power the vehicles. It has nearly zero risks and it is good for the environment too. This thing was truly a god's gift. But here we are on a near-impossible quest to challenge it and find something better and superior.

In a short while, we reached our destination.

It was a large cave near the eastern shore of the country. The cave was a huge mining spot for power stones years ago. We looked over to the ocean. The morning sun looked like a pearl upon the ocean, Its reflection on the water made the ocean look Golden in colour.

"The ocean is truly beautiful!" said Levi, mesmerized by the beauty of the ocean.

"I agree. But alas, you aren't."

"Hah, Says the guy who got rejected twice in one day in 7th grade."

...That hurt me in every way possible but I can't come up with a comeback on this one.

After a bit of sightseeing, Levi and I got to work. As planned, we will head deep north of the cave.

The thing we were looking for is a special type of Mineral stone. It is the one rumoured to be found by Levi's father.

Energy orbs seem to be perfect at first but they have flaws too. For example,

Its high production cost, rarity and it's still unknown nature makes it an object looked at with doubt. And some of the rumours about it randomly exploding are a thing we could exploit and earn some big bucks. There's a recent rumour that is spreading. Its about a man who lost his sane after coming in direct contact with these Energy stones.

"But, How did you calculate the locations in the first place? Do you have some sort of magic or supernatural tracer brain..?" I asked Levi my doubt.

"I searched my store for my father's research paper, I didn't find anything special except a paper on a topic called 'Affinity' and some equations written on it. I took it and spent the whole night crossing it with our research."

She was working hard for her father's legacy. I greatly respected her for that.

"It was revealed to me in the checking that we were exploring the wrong areas. The mineral is not found around the Raizenantium deposits. Rather, its found around the energy stone deposits." she said. Listening to this annoyed me, I spent all those hours mining, just for the mineral to be at a completely different location. I breathed an annoyed sigh. After walking for some minutes, we found two paths in the cave. One of them was blocked by a barricade of some kind.

"Looks like someone's been here before."

I said.

"It's not important! We need to get to the mineral, Quick !"

It looks like she's quite excited to find this new source of energy.

We kept on moving ahead inside the cave while she was explaining the details to me. The cave got darker and darker the further we went in. Levi took notice.

"Woah...The cave's gone really dark." She was genuinely afraid of the darkness and the mystery of the cave.

"Yes, It's quite big too, But don't worry, I am here. There shouldn't be any harmful animals here anyway." I comforted her. While my legs were shaking. Why can't I stay calm?

There were no animals there. Right?

"The deposits should be around here." claimed Levi.

"Are you sure? Because it doesn't look like the place was even mined before."

The end of a corner of the cave was ahead with small holes throughout the ends. It didn't look like it was mined, more like The energy stones were placed in the cracks for someone to take.

"These are the real mysteries. They only appear at the caves near the shores. They have less to no trace of appearance in any other areas." said Levi.

"I believe that these caves were formed inside the sea bed and weren't found due to high sea level." I gave my theory on the subject.

"This could be true, but we need the mineral, not theories about energy stones." she said.

"Agreed, Let's get to it then."

"Ok, so we need to mine the internal corner of these holes. Let's get to it."

We both started mining the cracks using our pickaxes. We took our time and finally broke through a stone wall and saw behind the walls that looked like they were made of crystalline. I had an immediate thought in my mind.

''This is just quartz, are you kidding me?!"

I snapped. "Did we do all that hard work, research for this? This!?"

"Calm down, will you? An ordinary person will say it's quartz, But it is not. It's different, just you see."

After saying this and ignoring me, she brought out a Metal canister with a pump bottom. She opened the bottom of the pump and then used the pickaxe to break the crystalline mineral, and it released a lot of smoke which made me understand the point. It all made sense now.

The crystalline mineral which was exposed to the energy stones was filled with energy.

"Now we go boom!!" after saying this, Levi threw the broken pieces of the mineral into the pump and started looking at me, grinning.

Realising her intentions, I said,

"Are you stu-" But...before I could stop her, She pushed the pump and it exploded right after she threw it the other way. The explosion made a huge sound and shook the whole cave. The sound of the explosion made all the bats act up.

The whole area got covered in white smoke and we ran towards the exit of the cave.

The smoke started to clear after a few seconds. We got out safely and then looked at each other.

"What the hell did you just do?!" I said.

"C'mon..it was fun !!"

I was a little annoyed by her saying this. Considering she could've been blasted into a thousand pieces right there.

"You idiot! you risked your life there!! What if something were to happen to you?!"

"Ohhh...is the 'Smartest Guy in the town' 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝗲𝗻𝗶𝘅 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 in love with me?" she said mockingly.

"I-Im not! I was just telling you to be careful. Because you are of great importance to others and there are many people who care about you."

"...that's not true."

"huh?"

I said as I looked at Levi and saw an unfamiliar expression on her face.

"No one really cares about me, you know...

with my father gone, my mother always picks fights with me and scolds me for almost everything. Almost all of my friends are friends with me because of my parents' money...You are the only one who I actually enjoy my time with." Hearing those words come out of her mouth, I felt a sense of guilt and sadness rushing down my spine. It's almost as if I could feel the pain in her voice.

She was looking down on the ground while saying this.

I hadn't seen Levi's face like that in a long time.

"O-Oh...I should've known that... I'm sorry."

I truly felt sorry for scolding her just now.

After a while, she said, "It's fine. At the end of the day, I still get to spend most of my time having fun with you because of working on this exploration."

Having spent almost my whole life in an orphanage, anyone could predict that this was the First time someone has ever said this to me. That sense of guilt and sadness got replaced by an overwhelming emotion that can't be explained.

"Th-that's good to know." I can't tell why I gave her such an underwhelming reply. But maybe it was because I didn't expect this kind of behaviour from Levi. Usually, she doesn't let her true feelings slip out.

As I was in the middle of thinking this,

The sound of Heavy footsteps coming out of the darkness of the cave sent shivers down my spine. I looked at Levi and saw her frightened face. We could sense the Menacing Aura coming towards us.

I hadn't felt that much energy coming from a Person in my life.

Though, There was one thing we knew for sure. That '𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴' coming towards us,

was not Human.

A figure covered in a Robe came out of the darkness.

"Wh-What...is that?" said Levi.

"I- I don't...know." those are the only words I could gush out of my mouth at the moment.

A voice came out of the Mysterious Robe,

.

"𝕾𝖔 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖆𝖗𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗 𝖘𝖎𝖓𝖘..."

(So you are the other sins...)

.

"Wh-what do you mean?!" Levi asked.

.

"𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖜𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖐𝖓𝖔𝖜 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖓𝖊𝖆𝖗 𝖋𝖚𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖊."

(You will come to know in the near future.)

.

And before we could ask anything else,

The figure vanished!

*𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗲?*

*𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲?*

*𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿, 𝗪𝗛𝗢 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗵𝗲?*

My mind started to fill up with these thoughts

but then,

I could sense him right behind us...

I wanted to tell Levi to run for her life. But I didn't. Or one could say, I Couldn't.

I was too scared to move.

He lightly touched our backs with his fingers and the skin on my neck started burning. As if someone was sewing my skin with Burning needles.

My vision went blurry as I fell to my knees, still in agony. I looked at Levi to see her already passed out. And I lost consciousness...