Arpious of the Planes

"Wait, what am I doing… I should be trying to find a way out," I mutter, lowering my scythe while scanning the room once more.

But as I finished scanning the room, my eyes landed on the sleeping Anna. She was curled up into a ball and slightly drooling. Her light snores were very cute as well…

Maybe I should make her my pet- no, I can't make everybody my pet.

I know she will definitely agree to be my pet, but that's not what I want. I need a caretaker instead of somebody to provide entertainment for myself.

tsk

"I'll stay guard for now. It's so eerily quiet that it seems like anything might jump out of the shadows," I mutter to myself, scanning the room once more just in case.

Nothing was here… It was so creepy that I had goosebumps.

I can't believe Anna stood here for so long, just standing still next to me. If I did that, I would've gone insane or just left my duties…

Tump

Sitting down on the floor, I closed my eyes while activating [Godly Senses: 8].

The floor was clean so sitting down on it wasn't a problem, and since I had to stay guard, why not train something related to it.

My senses will definitely alert me of anything even as I struggled to process all the information… which made standing- er, sitting guard not as wasteful.

…

"Mistress, I'm awake now. Forgive me for wasting your precious time," I hear a tired voice come from behind me.

Before sitting up, I deactivated [Godly Senses: 8] since I was still trying to process all the information.

I've already grasped the 5 basic senses, which were greatly enhanced. Even though each one took about an hour, I was finally able to grasp the bare minimum.

"This is going to take a while- oh, it's finally daytime," I mutter after seeing my lit-up vision not changing.

This was due to my seventh sense, which basically caused everything to become bright, no matter how dark it is. Even if it is a shadow, it will appear as light.

But it's very trippy as it's not natural light that I see but very artificial. It doesn't have the layered glow that the sun gives… not even from a bright lamp that you would see on earth.

It's like everything is just set at the same light level, which was much higher than any sunny day.

"Let's explore now. If we can't get through the invisible wall, then we'll take the other 4 arches as it seems they don't have anything behind it," I say to Anna, who had just stood up.

"As you wish,"

After un-summoning my phoenix, we make our way to the closest arch, which was the one on the far left.

As we arrived in front of it, we took our first good look at what was down the hallway.

Nothing.

It seemed to stretch for eternity, so we decided to check the other arches to see if they were the same.

Same. Same. Same.

They were all the same. Each archway had a hallway that seemed to go on forever. And the only light that illuminated the hallways were massive chandeliers that hung from the ceiling.

"Got any ideas as of now?" I ask Anna, who stood behind me with proper posture and the aura of wanting to guard me with every ounce of her being.

"We should first look for any clues within this room. Maybe there is something that could tell us where we currently are," Anna suggests.

"Good idea… should we try breaking the actual wall now? Or is that a stupid idea?"

"If you would like to do that, then please allow me to go first. I have regenerated most of my health, so if there is any backlash, I should be able to tank it,"

"*sigh*... I don't know. We have to be wary as we have no information… but we need the information to collect information… how stupid… guess we can start with this… [Summon: Blood Slime Wings],"

10 of my new summons appear around me, and I immediately order them to split up. They are sticking into groups of two, and each group goes down one hallway, while the last group of two searched the room we were currently in.

"Is there anything you would like me to do?" Anna asks.

"No, relax for now. We'll probably have to wait for another hour or so to make sure everything is cleared," I mutter before sitting down cross-legged.

"As you wish,"

I then switched between each blood slime wing for the next 30 minutes, trying to find any information or gather any clues.

…

Nope… Nope… Nope… Nope… Nope… Nope… Nope… Nope… Nope- oh, wait a second.

I jolted up from my position, slightly scaring Anna, who seemed to have zoned out a bit. But as soon as she saw me run towards the middle of the room, she fully awoke and ran after me.

"Mistress? Is everything okay?" Anna asks as I stand in the center of the room, staring at the dark ceiling.

The light emitted from the largest archway didn't reach the ceiling, so I would've never found this interesting piece of information if it weren't for my summons.

"[Ancient Fire Magic: Ichimei],"

Hundreds of white wisps of fire appeared in the room, entirely lighting it up.

"Damn, I could've found this earlier if I actually tried to look around… unlucky," I mutter.

"Mistress? Don't you have above-average luck? How could you be unlucky?" Anna asks me after hearing my own spoken thoughts.

"Well, I guess I didn't really intend to search the room. While you were asleep, I was mainly focusing on trying to search for any movement, vibrations, or just the slightest signal of an enemy so I wouldn't have seen this… as it's just a mosaic," I respond, shrugging my shoulders.

"It's beautiful,"

"I know… but what does it mean… wait, maybe if I turn this way,"

Slowly, I turn my body to where the mosaic made sense.

There were three colorful layers with a very sporadic color pallet. The top layer seemed to represent heaven.

Turquoise-colored grass and trees, thousands of clouds in the sky and on the ground, and finally the massive golden palaces that were filled to the brim with angels who didn't look much different from humans.

Some angels had blue skin, but the rest had white skin with massive, angelic wings.

And then the second layer, which seemed to represent a normal world. Lush green grass and trees, hundreds of what looked to be humans, large rocky mountains… but most importantly, black and brown clouds near the top?

What does that mean? Are they supposed to represent the underside of a plane since it's made of dirt… I'm probably wrong…

Finally, the third layer, which I assumed to be hell. Red and brown dirt as the ground, pits of fire and waterfalls made of lava, and finally, black palaces with demons who didn't look much different from humans.

Some demons had purple and red skin, but the rest had white skin with massive, demonic wings.

"What are those things separating each layer? They look like a magma tortoise," Anna comments.

Anna was right… Each layer of the mosaic was sitting atop the skeleton of a massive tortoise which separated each layer from the other.

"Do you know what planes are?" I ask Anna.

"Unfortunately, I do not. May Mistress please enlighten me," Anna responds.

"That's a bit much… planes are basically giant pieces of land that sit atop each other…."

I explained what Paimon had taught me… regretfully, though, as it was extremely long and boring.

"You need me to explain it again?"

"I'm fine. I think I understand now… thank you very much," Anna bows deeply before looking back up to the mosaic along with the ceiling.

"I see… I see… yeah, I have no idea what the tortoises are for. Though I'm pretty sure the layers of the mosaic represent the different planes… but the tortoise skeletons… that's really strange,"

"Mistress, if I may speak my opinion,"

"Go ahead,"

"Judging from what you've explained to me, we might be inside that skeleton right now… also, even though this is just a hypothesis, I believe that the tortoise skeleton is in reality actually inside the bottom of the plane… maybe serving as support?" Anna explains.

"That sounds crazy... but it's plausible from just judging what I've seen so far in this life... Not a bad idea, but we don't have much concrete evidence as of now, so let's keep waiting for my other summons to find something… only then will we make a move,"

"If I may speak my opinion once again,"

"Go ahead,"

"I believe even if Mistress's summons don't find anything, we should still go down one of these hallways,"

"Don't worry, I was already planning on doing that anyway,"

"Thank you, mistress… and if I may speak my opinion again-"

"Say it. You don't need to ask for permission right now,"

"As you wish… Are we going to try and find out where the other maids are, or will you decide to drop them?"

"It really depends on what happens,"

"As you wish,"