Ezkron????
Louis didn't know how he felt in that moment; his emotions were a mixture of astonishment, wonder, and disbelief.
He turned his eyes to meet Luca's, as if he wanted to confirm whether what he was seeing was real.
He saw Luca looking at him too, with surprise, as if sharing the same amazement. Louis then returned his gaze to the scene.
It was as if they had stepped into another place entirely.
The area was surrounded by trees that were not charred, but leafy and strange, with colors they had never seen before.
There were flowers glowing with a soft light, spreading a faint, refreshing fragrance that displaced the familiar heaviness of ozone and smoke.
The Eerie Silence: The roar of the hellish waterfall had completely vanished.
The place possessed a profound, peaceful quiet, broken only by the light rustling of leaves and the sound of a strange bird chirping a soft melody.
In the middle of this hall, there was indeed a place to sit, but it was no ordinary place.
It was a round table made of dark, unfamiliar wood, surrounded by a set of elegant, large chairs arranged in harmony.
He noticed a collection of books, pens, and slightly scattered papers on it, along with a decorated pitcher and a cup beside it.
Luca and Louis hadn't stepped into a monster's lair; they stood watching the scene in utter bewilderment!
"Are... are we in the wrong place?" Louis finally muttered, his low voice echoing in the new silence like a deafening shout.
"Impossible..." Luca replied, raising his hand to wipe his face, making sure he wasn't dreaming. "The only way in is behind the waterfall. This is the den... but it's not a den."
"So... now what? Do we turn back, or do we go in and hope fate doesn't have us killed here?" Louis whispered, then put the cube back in his pocket and looked at Luca.
Luca paused for a moment, absorbing the entire spectacle. This strange, tranquil environment, with its glowing colors and peaceful quiet, was more terrifying than any dark, desolate cave.
It felt like a trap designed with extreme care, or a sign that the 'Storm King' wasn't a stupid beast hiding in the dark.
Luca looked at Louis, then at the round table and the set of elegant chairs.
No monster sets up an elegant dining table for itself.
His attention was momentarily drawn to the scattered books and papers, then he turned back to the table, then looked around as if to confirm his surroundings.
Louis pointed his hand at the books and papers on the table.
"Look... papers and books. The monster reads? Or writes? Doesn't matter. The important thing is that this place oozes intelligence, or at least, a kind of civilization or organization we didn't expect."
Luca put the cotton piece back in his right ear, which he had removed upon entering the cave, signaling that he was still ready for any sudden noise.
"We are not turning back," Luca resumed, his eyes flashing sharply. "We just crossed the waterfall. Whatever this thing is, it has the ability to control its environment in a way that surpasses our understanding. This quiet, the trees, the heat... everything is designed. Louis, don't touch anything. Don't breathe deeply around the plants, I don't have a good feeling about them."
Luca removed the hood from his head and began to advance with slow steps, avoiding any contact with the glowing grass. Louis, despite his shock, took out his cube and gripped it tightly, as if preparing to press the button at any moment.
They approached the table slowly...
The table was clean, devoid of any dust. The chairs were elegant and carefully crafted, distributed around the table.
Luca noticed something on one of the chairs; it was a heavy coat, skillfully draped, reminiscent of a modern coat design.
Perhaps the Storm King had a taste for elegance, or perhaps the coat belonged to... someone else.
Luca reached out his hand slowly and curiously towards the coat, but stopped halfway.
An instinctive feeling of danger made him withdraw his hand and take a step back.
Louis whispered, lowering his voice to barely a breath, pointing at the coat:
"Private property, Luca, don't touch it."
Luca nodded in agreement, then shifted his attention to the surface of the round table covered with papers and books.
The papers were scattered haphazardly but suggested that someone had just been working on them.
He looked at them with extreme focus. They appeared to be manuscripts in an elegant and firm handwriting, filled with strange drawings. They weren't mere sketches; they were complex anatomical studies.
Mutated Monsters: There were drawings of winged beasts, but the wings were not for flight; they looked like metal plates intertwined in a strange pattern. They contained precisely defined internal pathways, as if they were conduits for transporting energy or fluid.
Humans: There were also drawings of humans, but they specifically focused on the nervous system and blood vessels. The strange pattern lay in the presence of radiation marks around an implanted regulatory device that seemed to connect directly to the heart and brain.
The description written next to the drawing was in an ancient language, but Luca was nevertheless able to read it and said: "Bio-Ignition System."
And there was an open book, a massive volume with a dark leather cover. The open page was entirely filled with text about Elves and ancient monsters.
Louis looked at Luca with deep surprise, his eyes filled with more questions than the words he couldn't yet utter.
"Do... do you understand this?" Louis whispered, gesturing toward the manuscripts and the ancient language Luca was focused on. "This isn't a known language in our world, is it, Luca?"
Luca nodded slowly, his eyes still fixed on the scattered papers, as if they were an existential puzzle awaiting a solution.
"Kind of," Luca replied in a very low voice, recalling the long hours of study he spent in the archives of old libraries. "This is a very ancient language. When I was preparing for the entrance exam to the University of Archaeology, I had to have knowledge of many ancient languages... You know the day I asked my grandfather to take us to that old library, I found a book that talked about this language. Well, it was hard to decipher, so I enlisted Alyot to help me with it."
"And... he could read it?" Louis wondered with a hint of doubt, or perhaps wanting to confirm his suspicions.
"You know Alyot is obsessed with new things and crazy knowledge, so yes, it was easy for him to decipher it," Luca said calmly, as if what he was saying was a normal thing for them.
Luca looked at the most important manuscript, the one discussing the 'Bio-Ignition System' implanted in humans. The page was filled with complex diagrams.
"The Storm King is not a monster," Luca finally said, raising his eyes to meet Louis'. "Or at least, not in the sense we expected or know. These papers are not the work of an unconscious beast; they describe advanced biological engineering. They look like those papers on Alyot's desk."
Luca whispered the last words, recalling the pile of books on medicine and human anatomy stacked on Alyot's desk.
"If they resemble Alyot's papers... does that mean the Storm King is... a scientist or a doctor?"
Luca pointed to the drawing illustrating the 'Bio-Ignition System' implanted in the chest.
"He's not a scientist in the conventional sense. Look at the drawings and this language; this isn't just research, this is modification. We're talking about a being, or a force, perhaps deeper than that. This book mixes mythology and biology. It's as if this person is studying ancient history to build a future. Maybe the Storm King was trying to create a monster, or to resurrect a legendary monster, but in a new way."
"So... he's not a conventional monster. The plan is ruined. Let's go back now." Louis concluded, pulling Luca toward the exit, towards the curtain of water where the muffled roar of the waterfall still hinted at the desolate outer world.
"Wait, Louis!" Luca insisted, forcefully pulling his arm out of Louis' grip.
Louis looked at him seriously and said:
"We have to leave now. All the information we had, all our expectations, have just been shattered. This place, these manuscripts, everything screams that the Storm King is far more dangerous than we thought. As for me, I'm leaving. And you're coming with me, willingly or unwillingly."
Luca looked at Louis sharply, his eyes reflecting a determination that didn't match the fear visible on both their faces.
He pointed his finger at the scattered papers on the table, then at himself, and then reached for the book that spoke of world civilization.
"One minute, please. You know I can't leave a book that caught my eye." Luca whispered, his voice pleading, echoing in the new silence.
Louis raised his hands and grasped his face with a sigh, then gestured them toward the ground, signifying surrender, and said:
"Damn your scholarly obsession! Fine, one minute, and I swear I'm getting out of here."
Luca smiled at him gratefully, then began to study the book on civilizations and spoke softly:
"The Ilar Civilization... a civilization that disappeared two millennia before the Age of Cataclysms. It is said they reached advanced levels of biological modification and weather control using what they called 'Soul Engineering'."
"Why does the name sound familiar?" Louis wondered quietly, looking at him, putting the magnifying glass and radio back into the bag and placing it on the ground.
Luca pointed his finger at a text in the book in the ancient Ilaric language, and then at the manuscript discussing the 'Bio-Ignition System'.
"Look! This explains everything. To them, the monsters probably weren't just biological beings."
Luca whispered questioningly, engrossed in reading, when he heard a voice say:
"Yes, they were energy conduits. They would take an ordinary creature, implant this 'System' in it, connecting this device to its body, or more specifically, its nervous system. To them, it wasn't a living creature, but a living biological weapon... or perhaps, an experiment."
"This... this is brutal," Luca whispered angrily, his grip tightening on the table. "What's their goal with this nonsense?...."
Luca turned to the voice for a moment, as if he momentarily forgot that this wasn't Louis' voice.
Luca felt Louis' strong pull, which placed him behind him. This movement was instinctive from Louis, driven by a protective impulse.
In that moment, the false serenity of the place shattered. The peaceful quiet began to recede with a terrifying slowness.
The glowing lights of the flowers began to fade and flicker as if their power source was weakening, and the heat inside the cave suddenly rose as if signaling a spark.
Luca and Louis slowly, deadly, retreated towards the source of the voice. Every expectation and warning had completely collapsed before the image they saw.
The 'Storm King' was not clad in blood or monster fur, nor was he standing menacingly. Instead, he was sitting.
He was sitting in one of the elegant chairs surrounding the round table, leaning back with absolute coldness, one leg crossed over the other, in an eerie state of relaxation.
His appearance screamed that he was at home, and that he was not in the least bothered by their presence.
He was wearing the dark coat Luca had noticed earlier on the chair, complete with an elegant dark suit and a striped tie, giving him a stern, academic look.
His hands were covered with polished black gloves.
On his head was a tall hat fitted with vintage copper goggles.
At first glance, he looked like a noble figure or a reclusive academic.
But the thing that stole their breath was not his clothes, but what was beneath the hat: he did not have a human face.
His head was a huge, ivory-colored clock face, surrounded by a faint gleam of copper gears.
The clock hands pointed to a fixed time, giving him an aura of mechanical coldness and mystery related to time itself. The glances he directed at them were terrifyingly dull and neutral.
He slowly and calmly raised the cup to a non-existent mouth, taking a deliberate sip of the hot liquid from which a light steam rose.
That quiet movement, drinking tea in complete serenity in the heart of the storm he had created, was a thousand times more threatening than any shout or violent action.
Luca and Louis froze in their tracks. It wasn't just a surprise, it was a complete violation of all their expectations.
"Am I hallucinating, or is there a person with a clock face in front of us?" Louis exclaimed sharply, his hand about to press the cube's button.
"You're not hallucinating, Louis." Luca whispered in a hushed voice, his eyes fixed on the ivory clock face that served as the being's head.
"No. You haven't lost your minds yet, and that is quite interesting." The being's voice, which came from where there was no mouth, was deep and calm, like an echo inside a vast engine room, and it tore the new silence with a terrifying weight.
The being with the clock face raised the teacup, then returned it to the table very slowly, letting out a sharp porcelain click.
"The clock talked... this is strange. I feel like I'm in one of those virtual reality games." Louis whispered, still trying to quietly shield Luca with his body while looking at the being in front of him with surprise.
"Louis, he spoke before. Didn't you hear him?" Luca whispered, his eyes fixed on the ivory face of the creature.
Louis pointed to the back of his head, where the cotton piece was still in his left ear. "I only took it out for a moment when we started to leave... then put it back when you went back to studying the books. I didn't hear anything but a hiss... I still feel like I'm in a weird dream."
"I am not a clock, though I appreciate the symbolism of precision and time," the being said, and we felt its concentrated gaze on us, then it continued: "And it's strange how neither of you has lost consciousness yet, nor do I sense absolute fear from you."
Luca tightened his fist, no longer able to endure the silence of this terrifying being. This stillness was harsher than any scream. Luca took a cautious step forward, stepping past Louis, his entire focus on the ivory face.
"It doesn't matter what you are," Luca said in a loud, steady voice, piercing the false calm of the place. "What matters is why are they doing this? What is their goal?"
"The minute is over, the whole life is over! We must leave now, no more crazy curiosity, Luca!" Louis said, pulling Luca back behind him.
The being with the clock face ignored Louis' angry shout, remaining reclined in his chair, maintaining his absolute stillness. His only movement was a slight tilt of his head, making the copper gears around the ivory face flash in the dim light.
The Storm King: "There is nothing more interesting than humans who focus on the question instead of survival... I commend you, human, for your curiosity, but your colleague is partially right. Time, indeed, is running out."
"We apologize for interrupting your rest, or your chain of thoughts and crazy inventions, or whatever you were doing. I hope you consider us a couple of ants or larvae or something small and let us leave," Louis said with a forced smile, looking at the monster. He was ready to move quickly if he didn't receive any positive reaction.
"Ants? No." The being's deep voice, which carried no real inflection, echoed in the falsely peaceful hall. "Ants work diligently and without curiosity. They move to a predictable rhythm. You two... specimens. A type of insect drawn to the light, even if that light will burn them."
The being with the clock face tilted his head slightly, and the copper gears made a faint, barely audible sound. His neutral gaze was focused on Louis, but his words were directed at Luca.
"Oh, my head! We're done for. Didn't I tell you to get out a minute ago? Now look who we found. A man... or a clock. Sigh. I don't even know how to categorize him." Louis whispered in a low, exhausted tone, looking into Luca's eyes filled with curiosity.
"How about you both sit down? It's been a long time since I've spoken to anyone, perhaps about a thousand years... because the vast majority of 'visitors' don't even have the awareness to stand on their feet in front of me. Congratulations on retaining some logic and strength." His gaze was fixed on Louis as if it were a command.
Louis gripped the cube in his hand, looking away from the elegant chair the being pointed to. His heart was pounding violently, but he held onto his sarcasm as a shield.
"Thank you for your hospitality... Mister Clock," Louis said with a strained smile, trying to inject some defiance into his voice. "But we would prefer to have our tea outside, away from the eyes of... curious clocks. Can you just let us leave? We'll forget we ever saw this suspicious place." Louis wanted to get out of this place.
Well, Luca didn't seem to want to leave yet, so he looked at Louis and whispered to him:
Luca whispered in a very low voice, clinging to Louis' coat from behind:
"Wait, Louis! This isn't something we see every day. You mentioned we ruined the plan... but maybe the plan hasn't started yet! These manuscripts, the Ilar Civilization, the 'Bio-Ignition System'... perhaps if we knew the real purpose, we'd find a loophole to escape. He hasn't killed us yet, and he's enjoying the conversation. Let's play along a little."
Louis exhaled sharply, oscillating between the desire to flee and the desire to punch Luca for his insane curiosity. The tension was tearing at his nerves.
"Play along?" Louis whispered nervously, trying to keep his voice below the muffled roar of the waterfall. "You want to play along with a giant clock in an elegant suit and a dial head who's planning to modify humans and connect their nervous systems! Luca, one more minute here means our end. Are you crazy?"
"For the second time, I am not a clock, child. And no, I won't connect your heads to a device," the clock face said, looking at Louis, then was about to continue but was interrupted by Louis arguing:
"I am not a child, I have a name, Clock!" Louis said, pushing Luca forcefully behind him.
The being with the clock face tilted his head slightly, emitting a low growl like the sound of a gear grinding, then said with a sigh:
"Ah... what an exhausting day to meet a stubborn idiot like you."
"An idiot? At least I have a face to put in a teacup instead of an old clock face!" Louis shouted angrily, as if losing his composure.
"Why should I care if I have a face or not anyway, you ant?" the being said, looking at Louis with a sharp gaze.
"Louis! Calm down, calm down! Don't provoke him!" Luca muttered in a low voice, but Louis was in a state of raging anger.
Louis said, raising his voice with a strained smile:
"Fine, Mr. Clock Face. I repeat my request: a non-curious ant requests permission to pass. We won't tell anyone about your elegant biological lab and we won't say we saw a clock drinking tea."
Luca looked at the imaginary spark between them, then sighed in disappointment as he slowly walked to the table and sat down in the chair quietly.
Louis quickly turned to him, as if looking at someone who had tricked him into eating the last slice of pizza.
"Luca, you traitorous fool!" Louis glared.
"Traitor?" Luca whispered, his eyes fixed on the clock-faced being, but his voice was directed at Louis.
Luca placed his forearms on the table with feigned calmness, then gestured them toward the empty chair next to him, mimicking Louis' previous gesture.
"Look, I'm playing along. Sit down, my friend. Come on, I don't want to be the 'only ant' who gets the chance to have tea with... Mr. 'Storm King'."
Luca didn't wait for Louis' response, but leaned slightly towards the clock-faced being, and with an exaggeratedly polite smile, said:
"Sir 'Storm King', we apologize for my friend's misconduct. He doesn't understand the value of mechanical elegance or the charm of a vintage ivory face. He prefers vulgar human faces over the timeless expression of time."
The Storm King seemed displeased, but his displeasure was quiet, like the faint sound of a giant machine starting to heat up. The clock hands on his massive face slowly flickered, as if calculating the extent of the insult he had received.
"What a waste of energy," the being said, his muffled voice piercing the false silence. "I enjoyed my last guests because they were at least polite. We could have dealt with you in a more... academic way."
The being with the clock face tilted his head slightly towards Luca, then slowly pointed with his black gloved hand towards the chair opposite Louis.
"You, at least, understand the principles of hospitality, human of curiosity. Taking a sitting posture amidst danger is a sign of rare awareness of the moment. As for you, child... your empty threats seem to have exhausted your energy. Do you prefer to remain standing? And one more thing, why do you call me 'Storm King'?"
"Don't you control the nature of this place and the creation of these storms and rains?" Luca asked, his eyes fixed on the clock face. "There have always been many rumors, all indicating that the being who controls the weather here is the 'Storm King'."
The being with the clock face tilted his head slightly, and the movement of the copper gears was more evident, as if expressing a cold laugh.
"What a dramatic name. 'Storm King'. Humans have a crazy tendency to give ready-made titles to everything they don't understand. Are you an idiot?"
The being raised the teacup again, and returned to his appalling tranquility.
"I am not a king, I am merely someone who desires knowledge, some quiet, and perhaps a little fun."
"Accept your reality, Mr. Clock Face. They called you that, so you are a king. You know rumors spread faster than the truth. And one more thing, congratulations on your unchosen title," Louis said sarcastically, sitting in the chair and applauding him.
Luca looked at him with a desperate look, then looked at the being, who he felt for a moment wanted to throw Louis out, and quickly said:
"Luca... my name is Luca, and this is Louis. We are umm... brothers."
"Luca, seriously! Where is the charisma? Where is the excitement? Why did you betray me twice today?" Louis said in shock, clutching his right side as if trying to act, then corrected himself and clutched his left side.
The being with the clock face said in a voice that seemed to carry some emotion, or so it seemed from the glint of the gears:
"Brothers? That explains a lot. Siblings are usually a unique mix of absolute loyalty and a desire to choke each other."
He placed the teacup on the table, making a delicate sound, then tilted his head towards Luca. "Luca, an elegant name. And Louis... a name that screams a constant desire for debate. Isn't that right, Louis?"
Luca squinted at Louis and said:
"Charisma? Excitement? Louis, we are sitting with a giant clock talking about Soul Engineering! Do you want me to ask him for a tango?"
The Storm King intervened calmly, "Dancing is not my interest. And for the third time, I am not a clock. I am called 'Ezkron'."
As soon as he uttered the name, both Louis and Luca turned to each other, looking puzzled.
'Ezkron'. This name had not been mentioned in any of the four parts, not even when this island was mentioned, and that was strange.