Rise of Legends - DISCONTINUED

Widow's Crypt V

Arthur POV:

After the mysterious woman teleported us away, we found ourselves in a passageway of some sort, with small lights along the sides. Further down the hall came a brighter source of light.

"Wh-Who's there?" a female voice echoed.

"Please... I need help," she murmured.

"Hold on!" Gary replied as he led us all there.

Tess had a worried and desperate expression on her face as if she recognised the voice.

As we reached the end of the tunnel, my vision took a few seconds to adjust from the change in brightness after being accustomed to utter darkness for so long.

"This... cough... way."

"..."

Before I could respond, I almost fell back as I stumbled in horror from what I witnessed. I saw everyone except for Gary do the same, and I don't blame them.

The warzone created by the hundreds of snarler bodies scattered and piled on top of each other seemed like it was from a children's picture book compared to the scene that I couldn't seem to peel my eyes away from.

Corpses. Corpses of humans, elves, and dwarves lay dead and some in pieces around the cavern that would've been considered beautiful otherwise.

The once green grass-like moss spread over the ground was dyed red while the stream crossing through the cavern had floating bodies with blood spreading around them.

There were around forty-fifty corpses spread out in the cavern with their weapons next to them. The damage done to their bodies revealed torture as some had their limbs torn apart and others had cuts all over their beheaded bodies.

I heard her cough again. "Are you... still there?" The weak voice came from my left.

"I can't see... oh..." My heart dropped and I couldn't even finish.

The woman that was lying against the wall of the cavern was probably in a worse state than the carcasses spread around, split apart.

The woman, an elf, it seemed, had most of her limbs torn off. Where her right arm and both legs should've been were holes, cruelly sealed by burning the wounds. Her eyes were gone as dried blood that streamed down from where her eyes were stained her cheeks. In the woman's abdomen, right where her mana core was, a sleek black spike was impaled through her and once again, sealed.

Tess dropped to her knees as tears flooded her eyes/ "No, ALEA!" she screamed out.

'The Six Lances... The Six Lances! She was one of the six strongest mages in all of Dicathen, chosen to represent the Continent.'

"You're one of the six lances!" Kathyln sputtered out.

"Indeed I am..." She let out a ragged sigh.

"As for how... If you are all asking me how I'm still alive in this state, it's because he left me alive." Her eyebrows furrowed and the dried blood crusted in between her eyelids crumbled, letting out a faint stream of fresh blood from where her eyes once were.

"He?" I felt like I was asking stupid questions but I was so lost.

"Yes, he. He called himself Vritra." With her left hand, the only limb she had left, she slowly reached for something behind her and pulled it out.

Inside her hand was a sleek black stone fragment of some sort. As I squinted my eyes and analysed it, I was suddenly reminded of my time with Sylvia.

As the memory clicked and the pieces were put together in my head, my hand squeezed tightly around the black shard as my whole body shook from anger.

I remembered why this black stone looked so familiar.

It was part of the horn of one of the black-horned demons that Sylvia first disguised herself as, and also the very species that killed her.

Suddenly, bloodlust overtook the entire place. It wasn't anything much, but both Tess and Kathyln struggled against it. Gary quickly dissipated it before turning towards the source.

My eyes widened as I looked at Alistair, a look of true, unfiltered rage on his face.

"This, this is from the species the one who killed my mother is from!" He roared out, pushing us back with mana waves.

"Can we keep this?" asked Gary as he knelt down next to her. She simply chuckled that seemed to tell him enough.

"We are the Paladins. We were in an E-class dungeon but found ourselves here after an explosion," Gary told her while mixing in a white lie, "We will remember to inform the Council about this."

Tess was crying non-stop as she hugged the elven woman, telling her to stay and not die. My heart thumped from pain seeing their interaction.

Alea continued to cry about how she didn't want to die, while her life slowly slipped out in Tess's embrace. After what seemed like an eternity, her body went limp and she died.

However, Tess refused to leave her. Alistair tugged on her shoulder, "Tess, we need to give her a proper burial."

She shot up and hugged him, pushing her crying face into his chest. Gary was consoling Kathyln so Lancelot, Rachel and I took care of the coffin.

Rachel was more relaxed than I expected her to be. However, I saw a weird emotion in her eyes. 'Why is she feeling like she betrayed someone?' I kept my thoughts to myself while creating an ice coffin for her.

After we were done burying everyone, Gary told me, "Call Sylvia to pick us up. We must discuss our next actions in the meantime."

I nodded and the seven of us sat in a circle. Tess's eyes were red from crying while Kathyln was much better than her. Alistair was holding his rage in while consoling Tess.

"First, I need answers," Gary said as he looked at both Al and me, "Tell me what you two know about Vritras."

Al first began by explaining about this life with his mother. He then talked about the man he saw kill his mother and how she gave him a spatial ring before telling him to escape.

"This spatial ring can only be opened by my mana signature and there are some sections of it that I can only unlock after reaching a certain core stage," Al said as he finished explaning.

Tess already knew about Al's mother's death but hearing it again seemed to have reignited her sadness as they both embraced each other.

Lancelot turned towards me with an inquiring look and I knew I had to speak the truth. I let out a sigh before talking about Sylvia.

After I was done explaining, silence descended upon all of us. Finally, Gary opened his mouth, "From what I can see, it seems that these Vritras are from the other continent. Sylvia seems to have been a traitor of that continent seeing that she had the same horns as well. Al's mother on the other hand may have been a secret powerhouse of our continent who was assassinated before their plan to invade."

My eyes widened in shock as I listened to his analysis. He was able to deduce quite a bit of information using what Al and I had told him.

Finally, Sylvie arrived and we were ready to return home.

(A/N: Widow's Crypt is finally over. Next will be some personal development before the terrorism and the fall. Remember to comment and vote on this chapter!)