Chapter 409

The liquid in the pool, or the Spring of Knowledge of the Temple of Knowledge did not feel as dense as either Professor Atkinson or Dolores thought. In fact, it was quite light and thin, not that dissimilar from a normal swimming pool with water inside, aside from the strange glowing streams with words, characters and symbols within them, and undercurrents whose trajectories formed into different symbols and words flowing around them. When they were slowly sinking towards the shining bottom, both felt like they were being gently pulled down by an invisible force.

Though surrounded by liquid, both Professor Atkinson and Dolores noticed almost immediately that they were totally able to breathe even when their whole bodies were entirely under the surface. Though they were not aware how this worked, they’d decided not to spare any effort on figuring things out, but focused their minds on soaking in the knowledge and information from the pool.

The pool was named the Spring of Knowledge, and after Professor Atkinson and Dolores got swallowed by it, they were gradually made aware of what it truly meant. For them, the pool became something like a very responsive Q&A machine, one that as long as they were able to endure the consequences and weight, they could get an answer to almost anything. What seemed strange and inordinary, however, was that the answers provided to them seemed to be uttered by different individuals with different voices; sometimes, the voices that provided an answer could even switch mid-sentence.

Professor Atkinson rubbed his temples while his body was still slowly sinking to the bottom, because he just asked what turned out to be a really weighted question of the pool - he asked what the origin of the “husks” were - and the answer was quite shocking, but yet not totally unexpected: that the birth of husks were due to the deteriorating condition of the elemental realms to the original void.

“Professor, I think - I think this pool water somehow enhanced our abilities to withstand the weight of knowledge.” Dolores looked at Professor Atkinson with her eyes strangely glowing in a pale light: “It feels like some kind of blessing.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Professor Atkinson sighed then looked down at the bottom of the pool: “But be careful, I don’t think we can gauge how much weight this blessing could lessen, or how long it will last.”

“Of course. You as well - I don’t think I will be able to bring you back if your brains are burnt.” Dolores looked at Professor Atkinson with a smile, as she could tell that the professor himself couldn’t help himself and had asked a pretty weighted question already.

The gentle force that kept pulling them downward was not from the pool, nor was it from anything outside, but something Professor Atkinson brought with him - the black scythe that was the symbol of the contract between them and Xyn.

Just when they thought they would keep sinking down until they reached the absolute bottom of the pool, they felt that their descent started slowing down and eventually coming to a stop. The black scythe, on the other hand, got away from Professor Atkinson and kept on sinking, and sunk into the shining and bright and blurry bottom like it was a portal shrouded by thick mist and fog with a strong light source behind.

Two thin pale energy chains shot out from the bottom like a couple of grappling hooks and wrapped around the left wrists of both Dolores and Professor Atkinson. Neither of them were prepared for this and tried to shake the chains off, but some kind of extremely cold energy crawled from the other end of the bottom and on their wrists, then into their veins, and then their brains and hearts.

Some kind of broken pieces of visions started flashing right before their eyes, they didn’t make much if any sense to either of them at the moment, but that did not stop the terrible feeling effect of being struck with weighted knowledge - they felt as if their skins, their veins, all of their internal organs were burning and churning, extremely powerful electrical currents seemed to be coursing through their whole body while their entire bodies were locked in their places, and they couldn’t even twitch or move or roll around in pain.

Both Professor Atkinsonand Dolores saw a giant grey stalactite, hanging from the sky and not attached to anything above. Some kind of condensed and shiny liquid slowly rolled down from the root of the stalactite, and it seemed to be harnessing an unimaginable amount of power and energy with every in it crawled. Though it was just a vision, Professor Atkinson and Dolores could both feel some kind of unknown energy field radiated from the liquid and the stalactite, which pressed upon their chests, shoulders and faces like invisible and untouchable weights.

After a few very long seconds, the liquid dripped from the tip of the stalactite, but before it could travel far, a grey hand made of solidified fog caught it and held it in its palm. Then, the hand waved, and the liquid turned into thousands and thousands of streams of energy and shot across the sky, becoming firestorms, blinding thunder, fiery meteors, hail, rolling clouds and countless other phenomena of nature.

It might not be totally fitting to call them phenomena of nature, since the professor and Dolores could sense something special and different about them. And on the backs of their heads, they knew what it was.

Some kind of dark beam came from the “ground” below that giant stalactite and shot into the sky, even though neither Professor Atkinson nor Dolores could see where and what the “ground” was, as their angle and area of vision was limited. But what they could tell, was that the “ground” was being torn apart, and something dark, chaotic and full of corruption came out, and the large stalactite was directly impacted by this sudden outburst.

“Boom!” the serene surface of the pool was disturbed in probably the most violent way possible, as something exploded from beneath, throwing both Professor Atkinson and Dolores out into the air and away from the pool. Precious liquid was splashed and spilled on the floor and onto everyone standing beside the pool waiting for the two humans to come out.

The next moment, the liquid from the entire pool gushed into the air, to an almost invisible height.