Ori and the Spirits Within: Revitalized

Chapter 22: Corruptions of Home

Vini and Sein continued stepping down the flights of stairs, leading them deeper into the shrine towards its core. They would have talked about the things they saw in the shrine since the walls were covered in carvings depicting spirits' past. Unfortunately, nearly all of the murals were blurred and broken, having decayed from the time of its construction. In fact, the whole shrine seemed to have decayed as well. The stones on the floor were uprooted by moss and flora and there were some minor dirt cave-ins from the sides, but none of them seemed to disrupt the overall integrity of the shrine. They just had to complete their ritual in the shrine's main chamber... which led Vini to question the actual process of his soul extraction...

"Hey, Sein?" Vini piped up.

"What is it?" Sein looked at him.

"So... how exactly are we going about doing this? I know you're going to extract my soul and whatnot, but is there anything I have to do?"

"Well, most of the ritual's casting I can handle," Sein answered. "It's really nothing more than coaxing your soul out of Ori's body while keeping Ori's soul inside."

"Alright..."

"However, I do need you to do something to help..."

"What is it?" Vini questioned.

"Once we're in the shrine's main chamber, I am going to send you back into the Soul Scape," Sein explained. "Once you wake up, I need you to find Ori and bring him back to the point you enter from."

"Why?"

"Well, it's technically not necessary, but it would hasten the overall process since your souls are close together..."

"But... Ori's all the way in Nibel, right?" Vini asked. "How am I going to get there from Niwen?"

"It's not as bad as you think," Sein replied, shaking her head. "The Soul Scape resembles the real world in the way its owner believes it to be. Ori probably didn't remember the ocean he traveled across to get to Niwen, so the gap between there and Nibel must be much shorter in his mind, if not non-existent."

"Alright," Vini nodded back. "Then you separate our souls, and all's well that ends well..."

"... hopefully," Sein replied in a somber tone, knowing that Vini might not come out on the other side alright. She was attempting to capture Vini's soul and transform it into a tangible object in the real world, but she had never tried something like that before. Furthermore, from the research she has done for this ritual, making a tangible object of a living being is a very volatile process, its results varying from success to... horrible catastrophe. Still, she wanted Vini to live on in this world, and she was going to try to help him out as much as she could.

Sein felt an arm wrap around her shoulder, and she turned to see Vini looking at her with a soft smile...

"All we can do is hope for the best," Vini said.

"Right..." Sein nodded back, patting Vini on the back. Once she turned back, she saw the bottom of the staircase and a small hallway, a brighter light shining at the end of it.

"That's it?" Vini asked.

"Yep, that's the chamber..." Sein nodded back, walking a bit quicker to reach the main chamber of the shrine.

Vini and Sein quietly entered the main chamber of the shrine. The walls of the octagonally shaped room were made of the same stone, filled to the brim with carvings and murals depicting various aspects of spirit culture. Again, some of them were torn up and unreadable, but there was something else: The carvings in the room were glistening, as if holy light was being emitted from every stone in the room. Both Vini and Sein could feel a flow of magic circulate inside the chamber.