RE:WRITE

38.0 Grayscale_Chapter 13: Lead

Despite all the sparkly stones and the shiny design outside, the Observatory was surprisingly simple on the inside.

Maybe a little too simple though. It was, after all, completely empty.

It was just a large, circular room with nothing in it. No people, no furniture, no machines and most importantly, no stairs.

But then again, Runir had told me that there would be no stairs. Just an elevator of some sort. I couldn't see anything that looked like an elevator so I had no idea what to do.

Was Runir wrong? It wasn't like his Ability was perfect. It hadn't helped us much against Origin nor had it helped us find the Fire Goddess. Then again, he'd been pretty confident.

I'd always wondered how he could be so confident about everything he said. Was it because of his Ability? Did it make him feel like he was always right? I suppose there must be something satisfying about knowing things that no one else does. Almost like you could tell the future. Or maybe like you've done all this before.

I didn't have a lot of time. Who knew how long the others could keep the crowd distracted?

Could I walk up the walls? I couldn't see the ceiling and the building had seemed pretty tall from outside so that probably wasn't a good idea.

"...how dare those villains," said a voice from up above.

"Sacrilege! These are holy grounds! We must rid them of these hooligans at once," said another voice.

I stiffened as a couple of gray robed men descended in the center of the room on a circular platform. They glanced at me before making their way out while cursing the 'delinquents' ruining their holy event.

Well that was convenient, I thought as I stepped onto the platform.

I poured in some Air mana into platform and it began to slowly rise upwards. I injected some more mana, making the platform shoot up even faster.

I still managed to catch a few strange sights on my way up.

Machines pumping out colored smoke. Robed figures punching a large gray rock. People whipping strange animals. Vats of bubbling fluid with gross shapes inside them.

What the fuck is wrong with this place?

Soon, I couldn't see anything but dull gray walls. Pretty ironic really, since the outside was full of bright colors and lights.

I closed my eyes tight as a bright light shone from above. The platform rushed up even faster before gradually coming to a stop. I blinked my eyes open and saw a metal door standing at the end of an empty hallway.

I walked up to it and pushed but it didn't budge. Frowning, I pushed harder but it still didn't open. I'd risen to level 258 thanks to Kai's training but I couldn't open a fucking door?

Wait, what if...

I put my hand on the door and poured in some Air mana. The door glowed with a shimmering gray light before opening gently and noiselessly. Inside was a messy room full of all sorts of strange stuff.

Broken glass tubes, empty metal canisters, and torn papers littered the ground. Pipes ran all across the room, rumbling sounds coming from within as something surged inside them. They led up to a desk piled with junk.

I carefully walked up to it while making my way through the junk on the floor. As I approached the desk, I noticed that the bits of metal and paper would occasionally shift as something moved under them.