BXBX NOVEL Chapter 33: Modern Art is so Bad it Hurts
Chapter 33: Modern Art is so Bad it Hurts
Kat and Minor walked through the now well lit halls but at a drastically reduced pace. Where before they were constantly jogging the damage Kat sustained and the mana that Minor burned through meant that neither of them were keen to simply sprint ahead even if the destination was likely so close. Despite this Kat was putting her new muscles to work, keeping hair steps extremely regular and limiting the impact on her wings creating a surprisingly graceful scene. Minor on the other hand was focusing on regenerating her mana as fast as possible. This involved turning her gaze inwards and as such she looked a sorry site compared to Kat.
The silence was companionable though, Minor wasn\'t shaking, content to focus on her mana she felt calm enough to ignore the unease she felt using the body in Major\'s place despite the fact that Kat had not continued to use her calming aura after passing out.
It didn\'t take the girls long to reach the end of the tunnel where it expanded into a domed room with an intricate mural of tiles along the ceiling and the upper sections of the walls. The mural featured numerous scenes that also seemed to be connected by a white-haired fox with a varying number of tails.
"Woah, is this a compilation of Grandma\'s adventures?" mumbled Minor mostly to herself
"It looks like it, assuming that the white haired fox is your Grandma? Do you recognise her?" said Kat
"Well, the pictures aren\'t quite as detailed as I would like to figure that sort of thing out, and I haven\'t seen my Grandma since the ritual I\'m, well I\'m not sure I\'d recognise her even if they were perfectly detailed" said Minor
Kat took a second look at the murals but found she couldn\'t understand Minor\'s confusion. Everything looked like a perfectly renditioned version of the events and she could even see the signs of age on the Kitsune as she passed from event to event without the aid of increasing tails.
"Hey Minor, you Grandma put that illusion on you before correct?" said Kat
"Yeah why?"
"Well, this mural has details to my eyes, I can see all the faces, the joy in that first picture when she is setting off on her first adventure, I can feel the joy radiating from her. And later on in the fifth seen the sadness in her eyes as she looks at what I presume is a grave is quite impactful" said Kat
"What? Why would she hide something like that? I wish I could see these pictures with your eyes Kat" said Minor
*It is rather strange, why bother placing illusions over these murals. Or a better question I suppose is why make them with such detail if you\'re going to prevent people from looking at it?*
"Um, Kat, do you think, maybe you could tell me about the murals if you don\'t mind. I don\'t really know anything much about her" said Minor
"Well, um sure. As I said, the first one seems to be your Grandma setting out on an adventure, she is wearing travelling gear with a slightly oversized backpack on and a smile on her face" said Kat. Minor nodded along with the story
"The second, is what I\'m guessing to be her first fight, it\'s made up of three scenes and it has your Grandma trying to use magic on a wild boar but panicking and missing with the spell. After that she was charged by the boar but managed to miss being impaled but was dragged along anyway, and the final section has her using her hands to dig into its eye" said Kat who could feel a faint pressure building in her head.
"The third is your Grandma meeting someone, they look to be human I think, hard to tell because they are wearing a thick cloak and bandages, with burns on their skin but your Grandma seems so happy to see them I can\'t think of whoever that is as creepy" said Kat.
The heavy weight on her mind increasingly noticeable. *What is going on, I know I\'m not just imagining things, something is wrong with these murals.* Kat\'s thoughts were cut of as she was shaken physically by Minor
"Keep going Kat, you can\'t end the story now" said Minor in a panicked voice, practically begging for Kat to continue. Kat stared at minor and was shocked at what she saw. Minor had a massive grin on her face but there were tears dripping down her face. And her eyes, they looked like there was no life in them.
Kat slammed the full weight of her calming aura into Minor, eyes glowing purple she reached out to grab the now collapsing Kitsune who went completely limp in her arms. *What the hell was that? Are the murals cursed or something? Why am I fine but Minor was acting out.*
Slowly lower Minor to the ground the girl didn\'t move at all. Only the slight movement of her chest gave Kat any indication she was alive at all. *Shit, what do I do about this. Is she asleep because I slammed her with calming aura or did my aura actually break whatever effect was on her but freeing her from it forced her to sleep?* Kat looked around the room nervously, looking for anything that might help but all she could see were the murals, and the strange patterns on the floor.
*Right, now the question is do I try and wake her up or do I leave her to rest. We\'ve just woken up so I don\'t think its exhaustion keeping her down but what\'s the appropriate response to, uh I don\'t know? Mind Control artwork? System help please?*
INFORMATION ON MAGIC OF ANY KIND IS LIMITED TO AT LEAST RANK 1 CLASSIFICATION.
*Of course, I guess I\'ve been getting away with too much stuff because it\'s more closely related to me but because this isn\'t in the slightest, I guess the system won\'t give me much. Which is fair I guess; it did warn me about this but I just wish it would help. Um what about, system why wasn\'t I affected by whatever that was.*
USER KAT\'S IMMUNITY TO THIS MAGICAL INFLUENCE IS UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME. D.E.M.O.N.S RECOMMENDS FURTHER TESTING. POTENTIAL SUGGESTIONS INCLUDE, STRONGER MENTAL FORTITUDE, ABILITY RELATED TO EYE MUTATIONS, DEMONIC NATURE
*Ok, that actually gave me some information. So it can really depend on what type of question it is. This means the magic is probably some kind of mental thing or it\'s related to visuals. That gives me something to go on. And Minor said she couldn\'t see them and I don\'t think anything went wrong till I started describing them. Ok I think I\'m going to try to wake her up and be very careful not to mention the murals. Even just casual like I did the first time lightly describing them, I can\'t be sure that wasn\'t when the manipulation started*
Kat placed her hand over Minor\'s eyes so that when she started trying to wake up Minor she had no chance to look at the murals again. Shaking the girl she twitched and seemed to wake up, the girl started to squirm and break free of Kat\'s grip but Kat pushed a small amount of calming aura over Minor while speaking "Something is wrong with the murals, I\'ve covered your eyes for now but I\'m not sure if your back can you give me a sign or something" said Kat
"Um, what are you talking about? The last thing I remember was asking you to describe the murals to me" said Mino