The Ancient Genes

Sky Piercing Peak, Hell Volcanic Ranges

"Huff! Huff!"

Two guys currently stood a few hundred metres away from the peak, sweating profusely. They were thoroughly exhausted, and were gasping for air as if their life depended on it.

"F*ck! This was way farther than I thought it to be.." Blinken cursed as he wiped the sweat off of his face, and looked at the peak of the mountain.

"The heat is really becoming unbearable.." Max muttered with a frown too. If it was not for the fact that both of them were well versed in dealing with fire, the heat truly might have been unbearable for them.

"Do you think we will find anything up there.." Blinked spoke with his eyes still focused on the peak with a little hope of discovering something.

"Who knows…but I feel that this isn't going to be a wasteful journey," Max replied to him as the two of them began to walk.

There wasn't much distance left to traverse, the two had already climbed most of the park. And, now that they were inching closer to the vent, they could feel the heat rise, and black rocky terrain becoming hotter. There were even places where small streams of lava could be seen leaking, while the ground seemed viscous at some places. It was very likely that it had been much time since the lava had cooled down at the particular place.

All of this indeed pointed towards one fact: that the volcano was very active. And, the danger of approaching such a place was really high. And, if they really did something here, it might not be impossible for the volcano to erupt from the disturbances.

It took a while, but soon, both Max and Blinken had arrived at the top of the Volcano, looking down into the crater. And, the scene in front of them was not something shocking honestly.

The crater was indeed full of boiling hot magma. The heat really was terrible, and the two pushed their energy to protect themselves from catching onto flames.

"Is this it?" Blinken frowned.

All he could see down there was a sea of red hot magma. There was nothing else to see. But, if that was the case, then what was with the roar, and the strange feeling of calling?

Were all of it just hallucinations?

That definitely wasn't..

Something was definitely missing here.

Suddenly, Blinken noticed Max sitting down by the side.

"What are you doing?" He couldn't help but feel a little confused about Max's actions.

"Do you want to leave just like this?" Max asked as he looked at the guy.

"No.." Blinken immediately shook his head.

"Then let's wait…" Max smiled. He then just closed his domain and released his senses trying to see if he could detect something.

Blinken on the other hand stared at Max for a few more seconds, before beginning to move around. He was trying to see if they had missed something. Any clue was fine as long as there was one. He really didn't want to return empty handed.

…

Ancestral Hall...

The Matriarch stood in front of the giant window pane looking out into the sky. The weather today was particularly worse, and it had really changed very quickly from the one in the morning.

"Can you feel it?" Second Matriarch's voice suddenly rang from behind as she walked upto the Matriarch.

"Umn…something is different today.." Matriarch nodded. She had lived in this place since her birth, and it had been pretty long. Her father used to say that the Spatial Pouch had its consciousness, and overtime she had grown to believe it too. It was like a child, and she could tell what it was feeling.

But, today there was something different. This place was giving her a feeling that she had never experienced before. It was as if the playful child had suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a serious natured person.

"Do you think it has got something to do with him?" The Second Matriarch asked as she looked towards the Hell Volcanic Ranges. "Should I go after them?"

The Matriarch shook her head, "How many years have we been living here? If it was our fate, we would have found it a long time ago. If we interfere now, we might end up spoiling opportunities for them.."

The Second Matriarch sighed. The two of them were at a level where they could see a little though the truth of the world, and the line of fate. Even if it was not enough for them to go beyond, it still gave them a little insight on things which went beyond the realm of common sense.

…

Time slowly tickled..

And, as if it was there seemed to be some kind of relationship between the weather and time. With the passage of time, the weather on the peak only got worse.

"Crackle!"

A thunderstorm had engulfed the peak of the Mountain, and heavy wind and rain created chaos on the top.

Max and Blinken still were present on the top, their body drenched wet. There was no place for them to take cover, and the only thing the two of them could do was embrace it all.

'I know you are here..' Max's eyes were fixed on the crater filled with Magma. When he had come here, and tried to check out, he clearly felt something from within the Magma. Even though it was blocking all his senses, it still couldn't hide its existence when Max used his spirit energy along with Andriel's help to probe.

This had helped him to catch a little glimpse of something, and this made him feel like something definitely existed down below. He didn't know whether it was a cemetery or something else. But, something was there, and he wanted to see what it was.

And, since he started to observe the crater, he noticed a few things..

The level of Magma seemed to be falling little by little, and on careful observation, he realized that the volcano seemed to have overflown a week or so before their arrival here. And, it was currently in the process of receding. When he put it like that, he realized that it was very likely that the Volcano was following a cycle of its rise and fall.

If that was the case, they might very well see what was hidden below when the magma receded below a certain level.

'It should take a little more while..'