Arcadia

Memory Lock

While Ren was busy fighting, Yura went along the other path. Unlike Ren, after being left alone, she felt unsure of what to do. With every corner she turned, she found time to stop and catch her breath. After some turns in the serpentine passage and some time traversing corridors, Yura found herself at a crossroads. Instead of left or right, the directions this crossroads presented are up and down.

"I could climb that platform, or drop down the hole. Which way should I go..."

Yura visually measured the high platform. It was positioned pretty high and had to be jumped on, but the hole to the lower level was positioned dangerously close to it. She stepped back and braced herself. After a deep breath, the girl made her leap and managed to cling to the upper platform.

She exhaled after clinging onto the platform. "Whew! Now, to get up..." 

She pulled herself up, but just as she got her upper body up, a snake darted past her face.

"Eeeeek!" 

Out of surprise, she loosed her grip and fell down through the hole. She fell all the way down and landed on her butt.

"Ouch! Awwww!" yelped Yura as she fell. She sat in place, rubbing her lower back, which took the impact of the fall. 

"So I ended up down here anyway. Jeez..." grumbled her as she got up and looked at where she landed. The ambience around her changed. The underground level of the temple looked more like a dungeon. The lighting was dark, the walls were made of loosely attached brick, and the floor's tiles changed to rough rock flooring. 

"Ugh.. I would not want to be stuck here..." muttered Yura while she continued on the path. She screamed a bit when a spider landed on her head from the ceiling. She managed to quickly stop herself from giving away her location and swattered it off. "I hope Ren-senpai would finish the job already... What am I thinking, he put his trust on me. I need to impress him!"

Yura puffed up a confident look after encouraging herself. Feeling re-invigorated, she hurried forward. 

After minutes of walking and avoiding enemies, Yura came across a door with two hooded guys standing in front of it. She observed them more carefully after finding cover.

"Looks like they're guarding it. Ren-senpai asked me to not make a commotion, but... that door looked really suspicious."

Yura thought of what to do, before she made up her mind to try a quick attack on those two. Before she could close in, she heard one of the cultists scream.

"Hey, who goes there!"

Yura swallowed hard. There's no time to waste, and she quickly leapt out of her hiding place and met the first person with a quick kick. The man was promptly knocked down with a thud. 

"Hey, intruder!" shouted the second guard, who prepared a small fireball on his arm. 

He threw it on Yura, but the agile girl dodged it. She got closed and raised her foot overhead and brought it down on the second man across the head. This promptly knocked the second one out cold, while Yura quickly held her skirt down. She looked around her, and seeing that nobody was around, decided to open the door.

The door opened with a creaking sound. When Yura entered, she hurriedly shut the door behind her with a soft thud before taking a look at what's inside the room. 

Yura stopped at what she saw. She entered a room which seemed like a library, with shelves surrounding her. Several tables were inside the room, with somewhat moldy books and dirty documents. 

"Is this..." she flipped through some of the documents. "An archive room?" 

She slowly went through the texts. Her eyes shifted with every page she turned, yet her brain failed to comprehend most of the words. They were too archaic for her. "Man, these people are patient. Who still reads stuff like this?"