Chapter 119: The Great Mother 4
"I can't help but have the feeling that something has gone wrong with this plan." Naiha said, her brows furrowed from stress, one that came, not physically, but in a form difficult to explain.
"Of course, you don't need two heads to figure that out." Helga responded, not even wanting to understand Naiha's thinking process to have stated something so obvious.
"No, not in that sense, I mean something wrong with the plans of the great mother herself. Even though we were a little short on people, we carried out the entire ritual perfectly, there should be no reason for this to happen. The only way this is possible is in the event that the great mother's plans are faulty." Naiha expressed her thoughts clearly, not hiding anything.
"What are you saying? There's no way her plans could possibly have been wrong…" Helga refused plainly without giving it much thought.
Listening to her, Naiha couldn't help the sour expression as she sighed heavily, "I know you had the opportunity of staying beside the great mother and all, but that doesn't mean you should be blinded in such a manner. You're the wisest of us all, apparently, I expect you to apply that wisdom here also, instead of blind faith, that won't help us.
We are not that rotten church, we don't believe in blind faith." Naiha said.
Helga was going to retort, but after seeing the look in Naiha's eyes as the latter turned to look at her, she held back her words. After a while, she couldn't pull her thoughts away from Naiha's words and naturally, her mind wandered towards those very words, digging into them to see if there was sense in them.
Well, it didn't take up to a minute for Helga to agree to her words. In truth, even she knew there was something wrong at a more fundamental level, even before Naiha said it. Perhaps, she moved to protect the image of the great mother out of instinct rather than reason or logic.
Feeling a little weakened, her back slumped against the wall as she thought of their experiences so far in this strange place.
"These creatures, it's as if they do not have a mind of their own, like they operate on the command of something else." Helga said.
After a brief moment of silence between the two women, Helga spoke in a serious tone "we are not getting anywhere just trying to survive. First, we need to revisit the origin of this entire ritual itself and start from there, then what the effects are. By analyzing everything, we should be able to draw some possible causes and at least, make head way."
"I agree. Something tells me that the more time we spend here, the worse it'll get. Those beasts aren't our only concern in this place, time itself is." Naiha responded, placing a hand on the ground to support herself as she rose to her feet.
"Right, let's waste no further time."
..
"No matter how you look at it, the great mother is not the same anymore, she seems to have been corrupted. If she truly is in control of this entire realm, then I can only imaging just how much more powerful she is. We'd have no chance of winning." Naiha spoke with a contemplative expression on her face.
"Before that, we should think of a way to get out of here first." Helga spoke.
She had already tried some spells she knew that could perhaps teleport them, but being in a completely different space and in an astral form, it didn't work.
"This is all just stupid. With our own hands, we brought this upon ourselves." Naiha said in a dry tone. Helga didn't respond and remained silent while looking elsewhere. "We are witches, aren't we supposed to go against the norm? Against the corrupt church and against those god believers?
We are not those devil worshiping Red Gate Order even though we do not follow the god of light… we are supposed to be free of such, things, and yet we spent all those years under servitude to a dead human, hoping to one day revive her. Look at us now." Naiha gritted her teeth as she spoke, thinking of some of their sisters that had left the lunar cult.
"Don't speak nonsense, Naiha, words build and ruin, don't forget." Helga reprimanded softly, given their current situation.
"Hah, you say so, but…" cut short before she could say more, a violent tremor rocked the entire place, powerful enough that it threw both of them off their feet.
The tremors lasted over a minute before they subsided, and once they did, Naiha and Helga found themselves exposed once again as their cover was no more and the monsters had fixated their eyes on them.
"Oh great…" Naiha said sarcastically while on one knee. Helga only looked up in disbelief as a wolf-like monster leapt towards her with open jaws, bearing its razor teeth filled mouth against her.
Just before the huge wolf-like monster bit off her face, both of them felt their vision shift instantly as the surroundings before them changed before they could conceptualize what had just happened. Even for people used to teleportation, one that happened so instantaneously was very much disorientating, enough that they needed to ignore all else and close their eyes to combat the feeling.
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*Cough *Cough
'What just happened?'
*Cough
"What was that? Helga, you never mentioned knowing such a spell, where did you bring us?" Naiha asked, a little relieved they could evade the hoard of monsters.
*Cough *Cough
"I-I don't know, it wasn't my doing…" Helga responded in a strained voice.
All of a sudden, as if a response, a voice came from behind them, "It was my doing, you're welcome." The voice said, prompting both women to turn around immediately to see who was speaking.
While Naiha's face scrunched up and her brows furrowed, Helga expressed shock as she looked at the person who spoke.
"Aeress?" Helga spoke in a soft tone, almost weak, while looking at the lady before them. The lady had lustrous thin and long black hair that went all the way to her knees. Coupled with the complete black dress she had on that seemed to have almost no style but covered her entire body up to her neck, wrists, and ankles, the lady showed a delicate beauty rarely seen.
Naiha who was beside Helga couldn't help but look at her fellow sister in surprise, "Aeress?" she muttered under her breath.
Naiha turned to look at the lady in front of them, 'does she know her?' though only a second or three had gone by, Naiha's thoughts shot at a much faster rate as she her brain tried to make sense of the situation… 'don't tell me, she is the great mother?' Naiha thought to herself, her eyes widening in the realization.
"Helga, you look well." The lady standing before them who Helga referred to as Aeress said as a warm smile appeared on her face, giving a soft and welcoming feel to the atmosphere.
Deep in Naiha's mind, she wanted to believe it to be false, that this lady was the great mother, but she was well aware that Helga never gave birth to any daughters, hell, she never had any children or romantic relationship as far as she was concerned, so it couldn't be her child. The possibility of it being a friend was also very little.
Besides, all these could only happen if they were in some other dimension, say, maybe the underworld, hell.
"Helga, Helga…" Naiha called out in a voiceless tone, trying to whisper to her fellow sister that seemed lost in the marvel before her, apparently.
Naiha who couldn't understand much of what was happening and could only guess couldn't do anything but watch the interaction between Helga and this lady who could potentially be the great mother.
Helga almost broke down into tears as she stared at the lady before them in a solemn expression. Gaining some strength in her legs, she picked herself up and ran towards the lady, pulling her into a tight embrace when the tears finally broke through and began flowing out of her eyes and down her face.
"Aeress! I can't believe it, it really is you!" She cried out.
"Of course it is. What? Did you think I would really lie to you or give you a spell that doesn't work?" Aeress said while chuckling softly in a motherly manner, caressing Helga's back affectionately, just like a mother would to her child.
From Naiha's perspective, their interaction appeared very weird and out of place. As Helga physically looked way older than this Aeress, it looked weird that she would be the one to be treated like a child instead of the other way around. 'I know she was supposedly brought up by the great mother, but still…' she thought to herself.
Naiha was still apprehensive and a bit tense, looking at the interaction before her.
A brief moment goes by before Aeress looks at Naiha with the same soft and motherly expression, speaking, though her voice started trailing off, "you must be Naiha? You two have had a rough time, why don't you…" Aeress's voice kept fading into nonexistence as Naiha looked at her directly in the eyes.
In that instant, Naiha saw a vision, or did she revisit something that she had seen before? Something that drew out a strong feeling of dread in her, making her look on in trepidation as she fell to her ass.
Out of share instinct, before Aeress finished her sentence, Naiha's expression darkened in fright as she screamed at Helga, "Helga! Get out of there! That isn't the Great Mother!!" Naiha screamed in alarm, crawling backwards on her ass as she looked forward.
"What are you talking about, Naiha? How could she not be the Grea-"
*Shruk!
"Impressive."