FFXV: After the Fall

Chapter 11

   "Here we go." Noctis commented as they crept slowly down the stairs after riding in the dungeon's rickety elevator.
   "What did we find in here, again?" Gladiolus asked as they walked along the tunnel. "Been tryin' to remember."
   "Uh...pass?"
   "Think it was some sort of map piece." Prompto said. "That thing made up of like, twelve different pieces?"
   "Oh yeah- yeah, that was it. Never did find the treasure."
   "At that point I think we kinda lost interest in it. And can you blame us? We went all over Eos doin' other stuff, so to like, drop everything to find that whatsit from twelve map pieces? Nah."
   "Maybe after all this is over, we could take a shot at it."
Helena smiled. "Sounds like a challenge."
   "Don't even know who Sylvester was."
   "...Sylvester?"
   "It was apparently his map." Ignis said. "All of the pieces had his name written on the back, and local legends in Leide tell of a great explorer who went by the name of Sylvester before the previous war. Whatever he found, that map's got the secret."
   "Hmm. Interesting."
   "Well, that's two people sold." Prompto said. "If I can summon the interest, I might be up for it too."

Around the next corner, they all started to feel a creepy, oppressive feeling that was like they were being watched.
   "...anyone else feel that?" Prompto asked.
   "Uh-huh." Noctis said.
   "Yep." Helena nodded.
   "We've got company." Gladiolus thirded.
   "Let's find a safe spot, I need to imbue your weapons."
   "There's a room just up here, could try that. Watch out if it's occupied, though. Could be."
Thankfully, it wasn't. It appeared to be an old storage room, caked with dust and containing rusted workbenches and tools.
Helena nodded. "Guess this place is as good as any...okay then, can I see your weapons, please? One at a time." She pulled out the mixture bottle, and borrowed the cleanest cloth she could find. She then soaked the cloth quite liberally.
   "So...what's this for? " Noctis asked.
   "This'll help for any Daemons we need to fight." She told him. "Any curative or restorative liquid- such as a Potion- is harmful to the undead. It also helps with Daemons, as they're primarily of a Darkness element."
Prompto shook his head. "I don't get it."
   "Some people call it the beggar's Holy." Ignis said with a smile.
Helena nodded. "That's exactly it, yeah. It's non-elemental, but technically it's classed as also being Holy as its effects are directly in opposition to Dark spells, such as Drain and Death. An undead would get the opposite effect from a Potion cos' they're alive by unnatural means. So a Potion that cures..."
   "Would cause damage instead." Noctis said.
She grinned. "Exactly! And a Regen spell would?"
   "Cause a Drain effect." Gladiolus also grinned. "That's...wow, I never thought of that before. You're one smart lady."
   "Heh. Thanks." She said shyly.
Noctis held out his sword. "Alright, let's do this."
   "It's gonna leave a mark." Prompto smiled, holding out his gun.

It took maybe five minutes to rub all of the weapons with the wet cloth, during which Helena said that it should last for a good few battles before it would need redoing. After that, they left the room and carried on down their current tunnel, the oppressive feeling taking hold of them again not long after starting out.
It was as if the very darkness itself had eyes, and they still weren't entirely used to that feeling despite all the previous such places they'd travelled into. Maybe, they never would be.
When the first attack came, it was without warning or fanfare.
From out of seemingly-blank shadows, a group of eight Goblins leapt out at the party to try and take them unawares.
As it so happened, Helena had just been looking at that very area, dismissing one object within it as some kind of barrel or drum. She never saw the Goblin perched on top of it, acting as scout for the others hidden behind him, and that scout leapt straight at her armed with a pair of jagged, cruel-looking daggers.

She didn't even have time to scream at the shock; she just reacted, raising one hand to lash out at the fast-approaching Daemon with a ball of lightning. It struck, and as the Goblin then went hurtling the other way and back into the drum with a loud crash, the sizzle of impact was heard a fraction later.
   "Heads up!" Noctis drew his sword and warped ahead of Helena to charge into the group, closely followed by Gladiolus, and the others hung back to use their longer-range weapons while watching over the very-shocked woman. She then recovered a second or two later and despite what she'd done to the first unlucky Goblin on instinct, she still tried to avoid further bloodshed on her part. Instead, she herded some of the Goblins around, pushing at them with blasts of an unseen force to prevent them from surrounding either of the two front fighters- which they tried to do very frequently, she observed.
One by one, the humanoid creatures fell beneath either an Engine Blade or War Blade in quick succession, and the last two Goblins gave no thought to a retreat; they stood, and they fell.