Once outside the temple again (which had taken a little while to find their way out) they stood ready to head back. But staring at the large trek ahead of them they were a little hesitant to start.
Rena on the other hand went over to the two statues guarding the entrance of the temple. With the very same chant from before Rena made both the statues gems release and fall on the palms of her hands. And then she put the gems back in their rightful places. The eyes in the statues glowed green, then red and then returned back to normal.
"Well are we going?" Rena addressed the others motioning to the temple.
"What do you mean? Why do you want to go back in? Aren't we going back to town?" Sylphy asked in confusion.
"We are. But don't you guys want to take the faster route? Or would you rather go all the way back through the forest?" Rena smirked.
Remembering what Rena had told them about the statues before they had gone into the temple, the group went and tried to re-enter the temple again. And much to their surprise they weren't inside the temple as they had thought they would be. Instead they were outside the forest.
"So where do you guys want to go now?" Rena asked them.
"I guess we should just head back over the town we were just at and then decide where to go from there." Lina suggested.
Since no one objected they made their way back to town. It was still a bit of a walk a ways since the that trick entrance to the temple didn't take them all the way back, just right outside of the forest maze. But it still shaved off a lot of time off the length of the trip back. Of course they still have to be careful because they could still get lost.
It was nearing dinnertime by the time they got back to the inn. The innkeeper was a little surprised to seeing them all come back so quickly. Not that he was complaining though, he didn't get a large amount of business as it was. And since they ate so much food they gave him quite a profit from just one night. The innkeeper's only worry was that he might run out of food to feed them.
Lina and the others sat down and Lina barked at the waitress for the menus.
Rena was deep in her thoughts about what to do next. She had no clue what this task that her doppelganger and company needed to do. There was the thought that maybe it's some very important task liking defeating some really dangerous demon or creature threatening to destroy the world.
Though Rena knew of a few demons and creatures that the world could benefit killing off, there wasn't one especially threatening. Well there was one, but she didn't want to think about him. He was one whom seemed indestructible. Going after him would be overly dangerous even for all of them combined.
Now of course Rena really didn't have to worry about their doubles from the other dimension. If one of them were killed they would be sent back unharmed. It was those from this dimension that she worried about.
Though Rena's old enemies would more likely target Lina, it wouldn't top them from attacking the others. Zelgadis, Amelia, Sylphy, Garry and even Zeros were in danger the more time they spent with Lina. That's why it was important that their doubles complete this task as soon as possible.
But that brought Rena back with her other problem. What was the task? If it wasn't killing odd some dangerous and threatening creature then perhaps it could be something else that was important. Like aiding a man whom might seem ordinary but would someday do something important for the world. So in a case like that they wouldn't even know that they needed to help that person.
And then there was the chance that it might be some small, random but otherwise random thing. They really had no way of knowing.
Rena snapped her mind back to reality once the food came. She already knew that the group was already suspicious about her eating and drinking habits. There was no avoiding it; she was going to have to eat again. Especially since she avoided eating lunch when they had stopped on their way trekking back to town. Rena frowned. If she continued eating like this she was really was going to be sick.
Well looks like I'm not going to be able to hold up this rouse much longer. Rena thought miserably. Too bad I'm not like a monster. They can eat mortal food easily without any side effects.
So with the food on the table Rena got the only thing she could eat slowly that her body might be able to digest without too much trouble. Soup.
No one paid too much attention to Rena as she ate at an abnormally slow pace. They were all too evolved in the food in front of them. Zeros and Xellos included, they observed the food feuds with amused grins.
Once dinner was over everyone sat around the table discussing on what to do next.
"Well before we came along what were you guys generally doing?" Lina asked Zelgadis.
"We were looking for and up possible cure leads for my condition."
Lina frowned. "Do you have any more?"
"Not at the moment."
At this point everyone turned their heads in Rena's general direction.
Rena hadn't been paying too much attention to the group. She had been too busy concentrating on her hurting stomach. Damn soup. She thought to herself. When Rena looked up she was a little surprised to see that everyone was staring at her. "What?"
"Do you have any more cure leads for Zelgadis and Zel?"
Rena chewed on her bottom lip in thought. "At the moment I can't think of anything. But give me a night and maybe I'll have something for you guys in the morning." She requested.
"Well we weren't going to leave till the next morning anyway... Alright lets see about getting some rooms."
Hours later everyone was in their own respected rooms getting ready for bed or already asleep. Well almost everyone...
Now what do I have here that can be useful? Rena thought to herself as she sat sprawled on the floor. What she had laid out in front of her was lost of magic items and rare things that Rena had collected on her travels.
She had some magic ruins, demon eyes which were these little green and yellow gems, various types of powder and dust, more gems, several maps, books, crystal orbs, vials of supposed magic potions and other various things.
Rena picked up one of the supposed magic potions. Hey looked and smelled and even tasted to be real, but they were fake. They just turned out to be water, dye and some added ingredients for taste and smell. There were no magical properties to them and all they were likely to do was to give someone a stomachache and bad breath.
"Why do I still have these?" Rena lightly chuckled. "Maybe it's about time I got rid of them. And who knows the money I might be able to get if someone actually thinks the are real." She laughed again. Now that's what I would have done back then, but I guess I'm just not that money hungry as I used to be.
Rena went to throw the false potions away when she saw among them a few vials of a colorless but sparkling clear liquid.
With a raised eyebrow she opened one of the vials in curiosity. From the smell Rena knew right away what it was. The water smelled what purity and holiness would smell like if it had a smell.
"When did I get this...?" She thought back to the temple she and the others had gone to earlier that day.
The water in the vials was the same water from that temple only before it had been tampered with and dried up. Back when she had gone to the temple before the water had been running but it proved to be useless to her since it wasn't able to cure her of her curse. But for some strange reason she had five vials of the stuff in with her array of false potions.
"I never took any of the water back then. So how did I get this stuff? I know it's from that temple, I'm sure of it. But why do I have it?" Rena drummed her fingers in thought. It could have been one of the temple followers. One of them could have stuffed in my cloak when I wasn't looking. Man I really must be getting old if they could have managed to do that without me knowing. Oh well at least I can try the water on Zel and Zelgadis tomorrow. But that doesn't solve my problem on hand. She thought looking back through her stuff. She picked up one of her books and started to read through.
Back at one of her many 'homes' she had a massive library and laboratory that stored quiet a few interesting items.
In fact she probably had at least six or seven different library/laboratories scattered around in different cities.
That's where I should take them! Even if it ends up not having anything to cure chimeras it should at least have something useful.
The question was, which one should Rena take them to? Even though she knew exactly where each of them was, she couldn't remember what sorts of things they contained.
"Oh well might as well start with the closest one and work from there."
The next morning Rena was the first one up and downstairs. She sat at a table drinking what looked to be a dark colored tea as she planned the route they could take to Vallases where the closest one of her libraries was.
Like the last time they had stayed at this inn, Zel was the next one down after Rena.
Zel didn't say much when he went to join Rena at the table. The sight of her pouring over books and paper with a cup of tea remained him of how he must look like some mornings.
"Good morning Rena." Zel finally said to her one he had sat himself down and ordered his breakfast.
"G'morning." Rena mumbled.
And that was the end of their conversation till Zelgadis came.
Rena had decided to wait till both Zelgadis and Zel had gotten downstairs before mentioning the vials of water. "Okay now that you're both here I've got someone I want to talk about." Rena said closing one of her books once Zelgadis had sat down. She fished through her cloak and produced four of the five vials of the healing water. "When I was looking through my stuff last night I found these. I don't how or when I got them, but I can only guess it was when I had first visited the temple. But it's the healing water that we were looking for yesterday. And it's the real too, not corrupted and not just normal water." Rena handed two vials each to Zel and Zelgadis.
"How can you be so sure it's the real water and not just ordinary water?" Zelgadis asked skeptically.
"Smell it you'll know."
They did so and saw what Rena had meant.
"So what do we do? Drink it?"
"Yeah either drink it or splash it on yourself either is supposed to work. But that assuming it works. It doesn't cure everything."
Zel and Zelgadis both looked at each other before drinking a vial each. But sadly nothing changed.
Thinking that maybe you do need to splash it on themselves so they splashed the remaining vials in the hands on their faces. But again there were no results.
"Well the water may be healing but it doesn't heal everything." Rena said thinking back to her own experience.
Both Zelgadis and Zel sigh sadly.
Their breakfast continued in silence.
Once everyone was downstairs and either eating breakfast or finishing it up they began their discussion on where to go next.
"So Rena did you come up with anything?" Lina asked in between mouthfuls of food.
"Yeah I did." First Rena went into the details of what happened this morning with the healing water that didn't work.
"So how did you get it?" Ameria asked.
"I really don't know, but they didn't work as you can see. Though it might be because the water is old and hasn't been in the fountain for awhile so maybe it's lost its' healing properties even though it seems like it hasn't. That or it wouldn't have healed either of them anyway." Rena didn't tell anyone about the fifth vial of water. She wasn't sure if it still had healing capabilities but she wasn't about to throw it away. Maybe at the moment it wasn't useful but it might come in handy someday.
"What else do you have for us?"
"Well I was also looking through some of my books when I remember about some of my library/laboratories that have scattered about and I was thinking of taking you all there. Because I've got a massive collections of books and rare stuff stored away. But I can't remember what each library has so I was thinking of just starting with the closest one in Vallases." Rena suggested pulling out some of the books she had with her.
Lina and Zel picks up one each and both were surprised to just how old the books were.
"Where did you get these?" Zel asked in wonder.
"I've collected lots of things in my travels so I really can't remember where I got them specifically."
"You said you had collections of rare stuff as well? Like how rare?" Lina asked hopefully. You could tell where she was going with this.
"If you are asking if the stuff is valuable, then yes, most of it is."
"And books on lots of information such as magic?"
"Yes lots of books on powerful spells."
When Rena said the word 'powerful' Lina's greedy smile broadened. "Alright lets go!" Lina said gleefully. But then she thought about something. "Where's Vallases? I've never heard of it."
"I've never heard of it either." Zelgadis said frowning.
The others also expressed confusion about this town.
"Well I'm not surprised it's a very secluded town that might not even be standing anymore." Rena said dryly though she was thinking otherwise. She was a bit surprised that no one had heard of Vallases. And it wasn't a secluded town, it was a bustling city that was known very well for its' exports and merchandise. Why have they never heard of it before? I can't have been that long that I had last visited it... can it?