"Father, what is happening?"
Yarmagül rushed forward in panic.
"Don't be afraid, my daughter! This is just a risk we need to take for the future. We will come back somehow!"
After the strange farewell, the duo slowly advanced through the narrow road and separated from the main forces. As soon as they stepped through the narrow entrance passage, a hot steam hit their faces; as they walked, waters flowing from the walls were filling the places they stepped on.
"What is this mystery, pretty boy? I guess the journey is into the unknown!"
They had survived many bad situations together, but Nafız was seeing her friend this uneasy for the first time.
"In my master's memories, not very pleasant things were said about this place. I am only sure it is the most dangerous place on the continent!"
Alyon's state and attitude heralded that a great danger awaited them. While descending through the gradually widening road, the noises reaching their ears were also increasing. Finally, when they finished the road and landed on the ground, they would be tongue-tied in the face of the scene before them.
A dense fog dominated the air. Their attention immediately turned to the direction where the sounds came from. The duo, starting to advance by squinting their eyes, could finally see what was going on. Although Nafız rubbed her eyes a few times, her brain wasn't accepting what was in front of her.
A stream consisting of giant flames and ice was colliding ceaselessly. While an old but attractive woman wearing a dress with a red skirt sweeping the floor caught the eye at the exit point of the flames, a man with his deep blue robe stood on the other side.
While carrying out their attacks with their hands extended towards each other, the lust in their eyes was striking. While Alyon and Nafız watched the collision of two giant elemental attacks as if hypnotized, their eyes suddenly shifted towards the ceiling of the large and high cave.
The situation formed above the two people was at least as beautiful as the spectacle created by the collision on the ground. The side where the man in the blue robe was located was covered with ice, and icicles formed on his ceiling were about to touch the ground.
In the part of the woman parading with her red dresses, it was as if a section from hell was laid before the eyes. While the ground was cracked and scorched, there was something constantly bubbling on the ceiling.
These bubblings attracted Nafız's interest the most. The water heater she constantly forgot open in the shop involuntarily came to her mind. When thoughts rushed to her brain, the Blood God woke up to the situation. The place they were in was under the lake, and the boiling things were the lake's waters.
If my guesses are correct, the side where the woman is must be the Arid Region, and the place where the man stands must be the Glacial Region.
While analyzing the situation internally, Nafız came to her senses with Alyon's warning poking her arm; at the same time, she would feel the pressure of eyes turned on her.
"Kagutsuchi, we have visitors, my liiiiiife!"
The old man in the blue robe called out to the woman standing opposite him with a playful tone of voice.
"Shut your mouth, Susanowo! How many more times do I have to tell you not to open that toothless mouth of yours in front of me!"
After what he heard as an answer, the old man laughed a laugh that would freeze one's blood. Meanwhile, Nafız could also see how right the woman was in her words. The man whose hood fell had a wrinkled face and a nose like a crow. The number of teeth in his mouth was also few enough not to exceed the fingers of one hand.
"My life, why are you embarrassing me in front of the guests? Whereas we had the chance to see someone for the first time in a thousand years!"
When the man named Susanowo spoke softly but harassingly without minding the insults he just heard, the woman in the red dress increased the power of the flames coming out of her hands. As the temperature rose suddenly in the environment, Nafız and Alyon fled back due to the water vapor coming onto them.
"Ugly geezer, don't you know what you look like at all? Is it possible for a woman with my beauty to be with someone like you? Very little is left; everything will end when I turn your bones into ash!"
While her anger increased the intensity of her attack, her words were at least as burning as her flames. Her interlocutor was calm as if the words weren't said to him. He was content with increasing the amount of ice coming out of his body.
"Kagutsuchi, I have a proposal for you. A thousand years have passed since the last person came here; why don't we play a little game with them. We would have a little fun, what do you say?"
The old man's attitude changed one hundred and eighty degrees; he addressed the woman standing opposite him in a quite formal manner.
"Look, now that's better, Susanowo! Only, if they lose, I will give the punishment, or else I won't play!"
The woman in the red dress finished her words giggling. A top with a wide décolleté complementing her skirt sweeping the floor caught the eye. Unlike the man, this woman possessed the beauty of a middle-aged person; her state and attitudes would manage to affect even Alyon a bit.
"Agreed then! Now let's reduce our attacks by half. If we continue like this a little more, our orc friends will be boiled!"
The ugly old man was right. The increasing humidity inside the cave was starting to be like millions of needles pricking their skin. While having difficulty breathing, they had to be very careful to protect themselves from pieces of the attacks scattered around.
"Speaking of orcs, did you remember those two? I think it was a hundred years ago; you know, they came up to the entrance of the cave and then ran away in fear!"
It was understood from the woman's emphasis that she didn't know the exact time of the event, but Nafız had already found the main characters of the story. When Demirdöven and Cesuryürek discovered the inter-regional passage, they had also found the entrance of this cave, but they couldn't enter due to the sounds and lights coming.
"Yes, I remember like it was yesterday! How happy I was that someone would come to us!"
The old man finished the sentence he started with joy with sadness. He was practically reliving the disappointment he felt then.
"Children, we will play a game with you! If you win, your reward will be great. Would you tell your names?"
The man in the blue robe was very polite in his address. Words spilled from his mouth one by one; he was blowing fresh winds into hearts with the feeling he gave.
"Sir, my name is Nafız!"
The female orc took priority. Those facing them were not types to be trifled with. Therefore, she responded to the treatment given to them in the same way.
"They call me Alyon too!"
When the hulking male orc introduced himself, the woman in the red dress laughed a wanton laugh. She was examining the duo with fire-shooting eyes.
"How the manners levels of human and orc differ, don't they?"
The words of the woman standing on dried lands entered Nafız's ears and struck her brain like lightning. She was being addressed as a human; she couldn't help looking at the owner of the words with surprised and questioning eyes.
"Are you surprised, sweetie? The selves you inherited still stand inside you without sprouting!"
While the old man spoke grinning broadly, he assumed a flirting attitude again. Around these times, there was only a single question in Alyon's mind; what would happen to them if they lost the game? Just as he was about to open his mouth and voice this, the beautiful woman's voice rang in his ears.
"It won't hurt much, my big-headed one; poof, you will become dust!"
"Hahahahaahahahahahahaha!"
Her cheerful state indicated that the fire-shooting woman would enjoy this job. She was showing her pearl-like teeth to everyone while speaking.
"Ma'am, we learned what will happen to us in case of failure. Can we get information about the reward we will receive if we win?"
The Blood God spoke turning to the old man with sporadic teeth in his mouth. In the face of the question directed at him, the ugly old man raised a single eyebrow and started speaking.
"Don't worry, the reward you will receive will be at least as great as the punishment. Instead of tiring my jaw in vain by explaining, best let me show you my gift!"
When he swung the sleeve of his robe, a blue sphere flew and landed in his hand. The texture of this object, the size of a marble, was exactly the same as the ice surrounding the old man. With a sudden movement, the man named Susanowo threw the object to where the beautiful woman was. The marble-sized sphere falling on the scorched soil immediately froze an area fifteen steps wide.
"Wow, what kind of thing is this?"
The words came out of Alyon's mouth involuntarily. The effect made by the tiny thing falling on the area where the temperature peaked was enough to make him lose himself.
"You idiot-faced! With what right do you perform a show on my side?"
When the woman in the red dress completed her words, more than one sphere appeared in her hand. Their size was also as much as the object freezing the ground just a moment ago, but they took their colors from a fire turned into embers. They had a color between dark red and black. A few breaths later, the two orcs would also witness the effects of the objects flying towards the ice-covered area.