Adventures beyond the void

Chapter 35: Blood and Gold (part 1)

3RD POV

Five minutes earlier....

Selin landed gracefully on the underground cave floor after jumping in the giant sinkhole and using her staff to slow down her descent. She straightened, eyes adjusting to the gloom. The place was massive. A dome-like expanse stretched hundreds of meters wide, swallowed in darkness, with ancient stone pillars spiraling up to support the vast ceiling above. Moss clung to the crevices like veins of darkness, covering the fragments of the forgotten structure. Time had all but swallowed this place. Selin stepped forward, boots echoing slightly as she paced between two towering columns. Her gaze was sharp, cautious, trying to trace anything that could be helpful, but to no avail. The air here felt thicker. Denser. Not just in magic, but in memory. Like the stones themselves were still watching. Waiting. Selin furrowed her brow.

      Selin: - This place....it's not in the kingdom's registry.

She muttered. And then it hit her. Her staff dipped slightly, her body going rigid.

     Selin: - No way....a dungeon...?

Her voice vanished into the hollow stillness.

BOOM!!!

The shockwave nearly knocked her off her feet. Dust rained from the ceiling in thick clumps. The stone beneath her trembled with violent groans as a distant crash thundered through the tunnels, followed by multiple noises that sounded like cries or screams. She steadied herself on a nearby pillar, blinking through the falling dust.

      Selin: - An explosion? Guess my squad is there.

She didn't hesitate. Clenching her staff, she bolted toward the noise, instincts overriding caution. Her boots flying over broken tiles and uneven ground as she sprinted down one of the side tunnels.

She didn't see it.

Didn't feel it.

The figure, half-swallowed by the shadows near one of the piles of rocks, didn't move. It didn't need to. Its single eye glowed dimly, an unnatural purple that pulsed once...then again. Watching her. Calculating. As Selin vanished into the tunnel beyond, the masked figure slowly exited the shadows. The mage's gaze flickered for a moment upwards, to the mouth of the hole, when he heard some muffled voices. It was clear that the rest of the reinforcements had arrived. Silent and fast, the mage walked to the far-right side of the dome, not following Selin, like he knew exactly where he was going. He stood in front of a wall covered in moss and dust, placed a finger and moved it across the stone, creating a purple glowing symbol of a sun with a crescent moon inside. The moment he finished, the wall shook, as more glowing symbols appeared. The stone opened wide, revealing a hidden passage. Without delay, he entered, leaving the wall to close behind him on its own.

Meanwhile....

Stone dust still filled the air like smoke after a fire. A few large slabs of ceiling smoldered with the residual heat from nearby lightning and magic blasts. Ronan smashed a bandit into the ground with a clawed uppercut, then spun to help Nicholas, who deflected a blow with the haft of his spear. Lyra knocked an attacker back with a resonant shock-chord, only to have a second one lunge toward her from behind with a spear of pure light, aimed at her back. Kenju's axe sang through the air. The man went down before he finished his war cry. Airos hovered above the ground now, lifted by the current of his own winds. His eyes flared grey as a torrent of compressed air blew three cloaked mages off their feet and into a crumbling wall. He danced through the air, riding gusts of wind conjured from his outstretched palms. His hair whipped across his face as he faced off against three wind mages, each conjuring slicing gales and razor-sharp gusts.