Hera spent one day home with her dad before she was about to leave for Deakoshara. She had talked to Shane about it, but she was still back in Spiral learning more about the Naga language and spells from Darni and the others. While she really wanted to discover more about the Naga homeland, the knowledge of how things worked back then was also something she was very interested in. Which was something that Hera understood.

It would be very helpful to know more about the place. And in a sense, it was likely the right thing for the Ophidianite to do as well. However, so many people stopped her from getting here, stopped her from exploring this place that she had an itch now, and she was going to scratch it one way or another.

When she was coming back from Clan Azure, she had to pass through the room. During that brief stop, Nimbus checked the situation with the poison lake. And now, the thing was mostly fine. The water was still mostly green and clearly poisonous. But it was starting to get somewhat clear.

The water no longer looking like the water of a bog and now just a green-tinted lake. That was much more progress than Hera was expecting, and hopefully, things would just continue to move that way. Which also meant that it should be safe to travel even if it started to rain. As long as there was not another poison lake somewhere in the room. Which was very much a possibility, but there was nothing she could do about that aside from actually looking into things.

Still, Hera wasn't irresponsible enough to just leave without saying anything to anyone. She talked to her dad and made sure he was okay with her exploring Deakoshara. When she was about to start her journey, she gave the Harpy Queen a call. She made sure to be voice only since she didn't want Typhera to see her face as this would mess with what she wanted to say.

After a moment, the call connected, and Typhera asked with a worried tone, "Hera? Is everything okay?"

"Sort of," Hera replied. "I'm calling you to let you know that I'm stuck in the MAZE."

"What?" the queen gasped. "How are you stuck? What happened?"

"Nothing that you have to worry about. But to all effects, if anyone asks, I am stuck in the MAZE."

The Harpy Queen paused and asked, "What?"

"It's exactly what I'm saying. If anyone asks, I am stuck in the MAZE."

"But are you really?" She sounded very confused.

Hera stopped for a moment and asked, "Who's asking this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you asking this as the Harpy Queen, or as my friend?"

"As your friend," Typhera said. It was clear she was smiling, even though Hera couldn't see her.

"I'm fine, and I'm not stuck anywhere. I'm just exploring. But I am done working for other people for a while. So, if anyone asks, I am stuck in the MAZE somewhere, unable to be reached by anyone. If my friend needs me, just give me a call and I'll show up as soon as I can."

Typhera chuckled. "You know, you're not the first one who does something like that. It usually doesn't work very well. People kind of figure that no one gets stuck in a MAZE that often."

"I know," Hera replied, "but usually people don't get stuck in a MAZE three times in five years. I figured I have enough of a history with that kind of thing for people not to find it too strange."

Typhera chuckled. "Fair enough. Do be careful though. I might have an idea where you're going, and despite everything, that's a high level room."

"I have no idea what you mean," Hera replied. "But I will be careful. Thank you."

She turned off the call and walked over to the doorway. In her bag, she had gathered enough rations to last a month, a first aid kit with various things from bandages to medicine. And a rather powerful antidote for general poison. It wouldn't be enough to cure everything, but it could at least slow down most poisons. Some people who were exploring the highest layer of the MAZE used this particular concoction. to withstand the venom that some monsters had. Hera felt that this would be enough to deal with anything that might be in the Naga homeland.

And yet, while she did have about 100 doses of that anti-venom, she also had a much stronger version in the form of pills that could be taken if she found something truly horrible. This second version was harder to come by and absurdly expensive. About 10 million gold per dose, but Hera didn't really have any issues with money anymore. Especially since the alliance still had agreed to bank her, since much of the monetary rewards she was supposed to receive from the war was still not there yet.

She was starting to gain some value from the Kobold Road again, but it would still be a few months before she got to the point of being able to spend a hundred million on a few doses of antidote without batting an eye.

Aside from that, Hera was also taking her pocket tent. The same type that she was using together with Neria, Flint, Vash, Skylar, and Roan during the war. But a model that was made for a single person. Yet, five titled blades could be inside it without any problems. This was basically everything she needed to spend a very long time in the area. Which was all that she wanted.

As soon as she crossed the doorway, a feeling of freedom washed over her. Hera knew that she still had some responsibilities. There were things she was supposed to do. People she had to check up on. More importantly, there were people who she would be worried about during her trip if she vanished for a long time. And she wouldn't want those same people to worry about her. But still, for the first time in a very long time, there was nothing trying to pull her in a random direction. She was doing what she truly wanted to do.

Once the Empress crossed the doorway, the first thing she did was call Nimbus and have him take her up into the sky. She didn't really have a chance to get a bird's-eye view of this part of the room, especially since they were always worried about either the poison ring or random monsters that could be appearing.

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But for now, according to the cameras and all the sensors that had been left by the doorway, there was nothing like that here. No flying creatures that could become a problem, and the poison rain was no longer that much of an issue. So, for once, the Sentinel took flight with Hera on his back. They took the scenic route, going all the way around this particular plateau and took note of all the sights.

Although there wasn't much to see. There was a mountain chain to the south. A very expansive ocean to the west, and one of the valleys with some monsters roaming about down below in the mix of sandy desert with arid plains. To the north were dunes, this one much more sandy than the one in the west, and beyond it another plateau. Going to the east was the ocean. An area that Hera had seen before, or at least Nimbus had seen before, but they never were able to see any monsters or creatures roaming about that area. Yet, even from this distance, they were able to see some splashes in the water. Not the aggressive splash of two monsters fighting, but just the natural splashing of fish or other small creatures living their lives.

'I guess removing the poison from the lake made it so that area of the ocean became more sustainable,' Hera said.

'I guess so,' Nimbus replied, looking in the same direction. "It's good. It's kind of nice to see that we are already making a difference."

'Even though saving the environment wasn't really the intention,' Hera said.

"How could it not be?" Oberon asked. "Even if you were trying to change the room just to help yourself, that didn't change the fact that you saved the environment. It was very much the intention behind your actions."

Hera nodded at that comment. It was so much stranger to have one of her Court members be wise like that. The Empress was used to dealing with a bunch of over-eager weapons. But it felt like a nice balance. As if it were something that she needed to have. Which was a good thing since Oberon was now an honorary title blade.

They flew around the area one more time, with the Empress trying to see if there was anything else to find. Under the water of the lake, there were some gelatin cubes filled with poison. They were very similar to the one that Hera fought on the island. Meaning that they were indeed the regular monsters in the room.

Beyond that, the Empress, Nimbus, and Oberon didn't find anything else that caught their attention. That is, until they were flying all the north perimeter once again. Both of them were attracted to a strange formation by the very edge of this plateau. Not even saying anything, just sensing her intentional curiosity, Hera guided Nimbus in the direction that she was thinking.

Once they arrived, covered by vegetation, there were a pair of pillars made out of stone very close to the edge of this plateau. Right below it, the sandy desert that would take them directly onto the beach. But here, in this place, the structure felt out of place. This wasn't supposed to be the kind of thing that was just a natural formation. Instead, it felt something more intentional. Something that was made by someone. And although Hera wasn't exactly sure who, she had an idea. This was the Naga homeland, and it only made sense that the Nagas were the ones responsible for the creation of anything she was going to find here.

Hera really grasped what this was supposed to be. Why did two pillars just five meters away from each other exist near the edge of the plateau? Could it be some sort of portal system to allow the Naga to travel from one plateau to the next? Or maybe it was part of a weapon or a lookout structure. She was trying to understand while standing in this position.

The rest of the entire court had come out to see if they could notice anything that was escaping her view. But after a couple of minutes, Filigree flicked her wrist and let a set of chains follow the path of her bladed wire. The chains were being created by the Blade Accord, but Filigree was just using her own weapons as a pathway for them to follow. They wrapped around the structure, and at first no one really understood what the Weaver was doing.

Only when she shifted those constructs a bit did everybody realize that there were some grooves where chains could fit in those pillars. The chains were not exactly like the ones she created, but it was still enough of an approximation to allow some of the pieces to slot in and become almost flush with the rest of the stone pillar.

Hera thanked Filigree for the discovery and tried to clear up some of the vegetation to see what they were dealing with, but that didn't help. Any engravings or markings that were supposed to be here once upon a time were gone. Only the thick grooved parts of this pillar remained. As a matter of fact, even if they had the original chain, it should also be sticking out. Since the stone itself had been battered by the elements for such a long time that it was now just the skeleton of what it was supposed to be.

But before Hera could finish analyzing this pair of pillars, Grudge noticed something.

"On the other side? What about that over there?" he pointed to the other plateau in the north. Beyond the dunes that created the desert below.

It took a moment for the Empress to understand what the new court member was talking about, but eventually, she realized that there was another set of pillars on the other side of this area. Roughly pointed in the same direction too.

As a matter of fact, she paused.

Hera had Whisper and Mock create a connection to her with the Blade Accord, the chains wrapping around the handles of the weapons, and positioned herself to be between the two pillars. Then, Hera asked the court members to move around a bit until they lined up perfectly with the two pillars on the opposite plateau. The image of the chains moving from one pillar to the next revealed the reason for those structures.

"Those were supposed to be bridges," the Empress gasped.

Vulcan looked around and nodded. "That's kind of impressive. A bridge of this size would not be easy to do even now."

Hera had to agree. It should be easily between fifteen and twenty kilometers between one plateau and the next. It was a wide enough space for an actual ecosystem to exist down below. And it made sense that the Nagas had something that allowed them to move from one plateau to the next. After all, they were not all capable of flight.

As a matter of fact, Hera couldn't remember any Nagas that were capable of actual flight. The one possibility that came to mind was that maybe they had a guardian beast that functioned as a bridge for them, but even then, having to depend on a giant creature to cross from one place to the next was hardly an effective way to travel.

"Do you think that it was chains or just rope?" Vulcan asked.

"Probably rope," Nimbus replied.

"I'm not sure," Daskka spoke up. "From what I remember from when we were with Darni and the others, they did have some metal weapons. And we found some at another temple too. Maybe they were already at the age of metallurgy."

"I mean, to create something like this, it would require a very advanced technology," Tooth said.

"But technology is not the only thing that could accomplish such an endeavor," Avalon spoke up. "It is possible that they also had magic users specialized in metal and grand structures like this one. In that case, it is much more likely for the ancient Nagas to be on the level of creating grand structures like a bridge such as this."

The Empress nodded. She knew that the Nagas were somewhat advanced. Especially considering the water channels back in Zaxalam. However, she was still surprised that they were capable of creating a gigantic suspension bridge over this cavern. It was pretty obvious, especially considering the lake, that they were more than capable of creating grand spells.

Meaning that it was likely that here, existed a bridge. A stone, wood and rope bridge that was sustained by magic. Maybe they needed to have people coming here all the time to renew the mana in the stones, or they had spell circles that took from the ambient mana to do so. But without any repairs, those circles were destroyed which led to the bridge falling down.

One way or another, the Empress started speaking, "we need to get to the other side to continue. Nimbus, do you think you can take us there?"

The Sentinel nodded with a smile. "Of course. I've made much longer trips with much heavier weight."

The Empress turned to her Court. "Is everybody ready to step out of this plateau for the very first time?"