SWNOVELS Chapter Chapter Eighteen: More Than He Seems
Robert had unintentionally stumbled into the basement of Ethan’s Manor. Earlier, when he was in the corridor, he had heard footsteps. Knowing Ashley was upstairs, Robert was sure it must have been Ethan. Of course, he didn’t wait around to find out. He had quickly run into the room at the end of the corridor. He hid inside one of the closets in that room and that was when he discovered a hidden door and stairs that led to where he was now.
“Alright Alzreel, you can show yourself,” Robert whispered.
A rush of air blew past Robert from behind. He turned and saw his three-eyed, four-legged, and winged reptilian-like demon friend. Alzreel was in a form the size of a small puppy and was flying as Robert walked with his torch lit.
“Figures a guy with who’s lived for so long would have this much stuff,” Robert said and Alzreel growled in agreement.
The basement was as big as a storage warehouse with stacks of boxes, books, ornaments, chests, and trunks. There was so much in this basement that it would take Robert forever to sort through it all.
“Why don’t we start here and—”
Robert was about to open a small red chest when Alzreel whipped one of his hands with her tail.
“Hey, what the big idea?” Robert asked, scratching the red mark on his hand.
“Maybe your friend is trying to warn you.”
Robert’s heart jumped. This voice... he knew who it belonged to. Was she following them all this time?
“Sam?”
Samantha, hiding behind a large stack of boxes, walked out of the darkness and stood before Robert. Robert shined his touch at her.
“Would you mind?” Samantha said, raising her right hand over to her eyes.
“How do I know you are the real Samantha?” Robert asked, slightly tilting his head. It came out like a joke but in he was being serious.
“Really Rob?”
“I am dead serious,” Robert replied sternly.
“And soon you’ll be just dead if you don’t get that torch out of my face”
“See, that’s definitely something not-so-Samantha-sounding!”
Alzreel flew in front of Robert. Lately, Robert had learned that Alzreel was able to sense if anyone had any evil intentions against him or her. She tilted her head and Robert understood what she was trying to say.
“Well, it seems like Alzreel trusts you,” said Robert, raising his hands in admittance. “But just to be safe. How about a test—”
“Your first girlfriend was Camille Decker and when she caught you kissing one of her friends she also became the first girl to kick in the--”
Robert quickly interrupted. “Alright, alright, no need to awaken past trauma. So, how did you get here? Usually, Alzreel can sense people if they are near me.”
“Alzreel? You mean your lizard friend?”
Alzreel hissed.
“Hey, she’s not a lizard. She’s a Demon.”
“Right? That actually makes me feel better,” Samantha replied, using obvious sarcasm to ruffle her fear.
“No look... Alzreel here is a good demon,” Robert pointed out, holding Alzreel in his hands.
“Like Richard?” Samantha asked, forcing a smile.
“Well, more or less. You see, Alzreel is sort of like an actual demon. You know, from... down there.”
“Oh... Guess that’s enough. We can discuss this later. What are you guys doing here?”
Robert tried his best to explain what was going on. Samantha seemed to get the picture but he found the story of how she got here rather confusing. According to her, she was in her room, preparing to sneak out when suddenly she felt dizzy, and the next thing she knew she was standing in the middle of a huge expanse of land. She said she saw him and Ashley enter the barrier and followed them.
“Wait, if you were here before us then how did you know what magic words to say when entering the barrier?” Robert asked.
“Magic words? I don’t know about those but as I said, I don’t even know how I got here. The same thing happened when I met Ethan in the woods and—”
“Wait— what about Ethan?” Robert quickly asked. Samantha’s last sentence was more of a whisper but Robert was sure he had heard her right.
“N-- Nothing,” said Samantha, shaking her head.
Robert wasn’t the kind of guy who liked prying into other people’s secrets; well at least not his friend’s. He was secretly a genius hacker and knew about most of the clandestine activities people at school participated in. Thinking about all this suddenly reminded him about the Midnight Owls. He was supposed to give them an answer about whether he would join the organization four days from now.
“Anyway, earlier you said something about Alzreel trying to warn me,” Robert said, walking towards the small red chest. There was a symbol in the middle of the chest which looked like a serpent wrapping itself around a trident.
Samantha stood beside him.
“Perhaps there is some kind of magical spell that protects it from intruders,” she said, not sounding very sure.
Robert looked at Alzreel. She blinked twice and nodded.
“Well, Alzreel agrees. She also says that we should refrain from touching any of the stuff in here,” Robert said.
“You can talk to her?”
“Not exactly. It’s more like I can understand her; how she feels... what she’s trying to say.”
“Reminds of how Leah is able to tell what’s on Ashley’s mind,” Samantha commented.
“Yeah... The only difference is, Ashley is probably much scarier than any demon I’ll ever come across,” Robert laughed.
“I can’t disagree with that”
“I mean you should have seen how fearless she was when she said she wanted to see Ethan.”
Samantha raised her head in shock.
“Is that the reason you guys came here? Because Ashley wanted to see Ethan?”
Robert saw confusion cloud Samantha’s features.
“Yeah,” he replied.
“Um... why?”
“Who knows? But this is Ashley we’re talking about so I wouldn’t be too worried. Besides, she did say that for now, it seems like Ethan is pretty interested in making sure that she stays alive.”
“Sebastian and now Ethan,” Samantha said. “Ashley has a way of grabbing people’s attention,”
“People and creatures,” Robert corrected. “That’s what makes her so special.”
“Special huh?”
Samantha began walking further into the basement. She appeared to be downcast for some reason.
“Was it something I said?” Robert asked, looking at Alzreel. The demon closed her eyes and dropped the corner of her mouth whilst nodding in uncertainty.
“Hey wait up!”
Robert caught up to Sam. There were several doors inside this place and despite his ever-growling curiosity, Robert was sure he didn’t want to find out what was behind them.
“So, if Ashley wanted to talk to Ethan, why are you here?” Samantha finally said.
“Trying to find something we can use against the Chimera,” Robert proudly said.
“Something... as in a weapon. Do you think Ethan would be dumb enough to keep something that can destroy him here? In a place, two humans had no trouble sneaking into?”
“You and Ashley are more alike than you realize you know that,” Robert replied, recalling that Ashley had told him the same thing.
Suddenly something caught Robert’s eye causing him to stop and turn to his side.
“Robert?”
Don’t freak out man, he told himself as he gazed upon it.
“It’s just a steel door,” Samantha said.
“What?!” Robert exclaimed. “Just a steel door?”
“Shh, do you want Ethan to know we are here?”
Robert walked near it. He placed his hands against the cold metal and slowly slid them into the digital lock.
’This is an AX-77R3 security door,” Robert said. “Developed in 2009 by Nexus.”
“Nexus? You mean the company once owned by—”
“Nelipher Diaz. Smart as she is beautiful.”
“And on the run,” finished Samantha. “Wasn’t she one of the fugitives involved in blowing up her own company building? I hear her son died in that explosion.”
“You shouldn’t believe everything you see on TV... or the internet,” Robert said with a smile. “In any case...”
Robert dropped his backpack, opened it, and got some electronic devices.
“Rob... what’s all this?” Samantha asked, pointing at the stuff Robert was removing.
A chuckle made its way out of Robert’s mouth. “I figured someone would know my secret sooner or later but I didn’t know it would be this soon.”
“Are you some kind of hacker?”
“Something thing like that,” Robert answered, interconnecting some devices. The electronic lock on this door was pretty basic. A brute force would result in an alarm being triggered and so would any mistake. Robert had to be careful.
“But Rob... does your brother know about this?”
Robert sighed and almost stopped what he was doing. “If he knew I wouldn’t be standing with you now would I?” he said briskly. He took out a camera and examined the touchscreen keypad on the lock. Good, no fingerprint-resistant protectors of any kind he thought. He took a photo of the keypad, enhanced the picture, and changed the color settings of the photo.
Damn it, he cursed in his mind. Ethan was careful to wipe away any smudges every time he used the keypad. However, this only meant that whatever was inside was pretty valuable.
“What were you trying to do?” asked Samantha, noticing the frustration written all over his face.
“It’s called a Smudge Attack,” Robert replied. “It’s a pretty basic way of hacking and it relies on the fingerprints left after a user operates a device. Well, even if I did manage to reveal the numbers Ethan pressed there would have been the hurdle of actually figuring out which pattern to use. This particular lock requires a six-digit code to unlock it so that would have limited the number combinations to about—”
Robert suddenly stopped when he realized just how weirdly Samantha was looking at him.
“D-Did you just... Did you just start geeking out?” she asked, her jaw dropping.
No time to think about that now he thought gritting his teeth.
“Alzreel is this door spelled?” he asked.
Alzreel shook her head.
He picked up some screwdrivers and managed to remove the module of the keypad. After several minutes, Robert was able to carefully connect his devices to the module and bypassed the security alarm. All that was left was to press a small little blue button and...
The door hissed as a rush of air went in. It slowly opened and without hesitating, Samantha went inside. Seems like both of their curiosities had reached their peaks.
“Now, time to see what secrets the Chimera hides,” Robert said in a triumphant voice. “An ancient sword that can destroy him? Or maybe some old scrolls that can be used to banish him to the abyss... Oh, I can’t wait to see what’s inside.”
“Um, Robert... I wouldn’t raise my hopes just yet,” he heard Samantha say.
Robert packed his equipment and also walked inside the room. “What are you--”
His eyes almost popped out of his skull and he felt the joints that held his jaw loosening.
“This is some kind of trick right?” he said, his lips parting slightly.
“Well, you were right for once Rob,” Samantha said laughing silently. “This is a super-weapon... It could destroy our entire way of life.” Even Alzreel fell on the ground in laughter.
The door led into a small room. Robert gnashed his teeth as he walked towards one of the shelves. He extended his hands and picked it up. The words on the cover were written in Japanese. Though Robert couldn’t read it he recognized the picture of the figure on the cover.
“Oh, I remember watching this one,” Samantha exclaimed, reading the one Alzreel gave her. “Dragon... Something... This guy here... His name was Giko right?.”
“IT’S GOKU!!!” Robert shouted, slamming the Naruto manga he held on the ground. Everywhere he turned he could see them. Stacks upon stacks of books, scrolls, DVDs, and even some cassettes which he hadn’t seen in a very long time.
“Take it easy Robert,” Samantha said, smiling. “So Ethan loves novels, graphic novels, and watching anime; that’s something worth noting.”
“You’re enjoying making fun of me, aren’t you?”
“Every second of it,” Samantha replied. “But seriously, look at all this.” She picked a scroll. “This one must be hundreds of years old.”
Robert sat on the ground. After being so hyped up, this is what he gets. Samantha and Alzreel seemed to have to be having a good time; a good time teasing him. The other doors didn’t have any security lock which meant they probably had been sealed shut with magic.
So, no weapon huh? Robert thought to himself.
Watching Samantha and Alzreel, Robert looked up at the metal ceiling.
Who in the world are you Ethan? he thought.
...
Okay, that was an unexpected turn of events.
Are you guys enjoying the progression of the story?