Chapter 42

'So, this is what a story dungeon normally looks like.' Ryder thought to himself as the group approached a massive tree, easily over a couple hundred feet tall and wide.

Though not as large as the hollow he'd seen with Vincent it was still impressive, though it held a strange tragic air about it.

It felt closer to a monument, one for those who lost their lives during this event.

"Ryder, you ready?" Oto asks from a bit further ahead, he stands with the rest of them at the entrance to the dungeon.

No surprise to anyone, Melia decided to wait, though no one could blame her either considering what they were walking into.

"Yeah!" he replies, marching to catch up, though as he approached the darkness began welling up within him once more, warning of what awaits.

There would be no turning back from this.

"Everyone remember the plan?" Aranea asks, looking back at everyone one last time with the slightest amount of hesitation in her eyes.

Though as everyone nodded she realized it was time to go, and with one deep breath turned and pushed open the door. "Everyone in one at a time."

Slowly everyone began to file in, each one vanishing into the darkness one by one until only Ryder was left, still feeling a bit wary as he approached.

Upon making it up to the door he saw that the entrance itself was a deep dark pit, one going on for who knows how long.

He couldn't see the bottom of it, but it didn't feel like Omen's depths, no, it felt like something else.

It felt… wrong, terrifyingly so.

As if this was a singular final destination, one that all life ends up at.

Despite his fear though, he couldn't stop, not with everyone else already diving headfirst into it.

Yet as he was about to, a new voice called out for him.

"Ryder, wait! I Changed my mind!" Melia's panicked voice cried out, begging for him to wait. "I can't just sit back and wait for you all!"

He pauses, slightly surprised at this as she catches up, now having to stop and catch her breath.

It took them a couple hours just to march here… did she sprint the entire way to catch up?!

"Melia-" Ryder begins, only to be stopped by her raising a finger to stop him.

"I know what you're going to say, and yes, I don't have to do this." She begins, taking one last deep breath and standing up. "I want to do this, I want to help as much as everyone else is!"

"And you're sure about this?" Ryder asks, still being a bit worried about her.

"I'm certain, I'm going in that dungeon and you can't stop me!" she proudly states, crossing her arms now and standing her ground firmly.

"Alright, then I'll see you inside." Ryder calmly says, stepping into the dungeon and falling into the pit now.

The fall was surprisingly short, landing him right into an underground chamber that looked to be made up entirely of dirt and a few tree roots.

However no one else was around strangely enough, did they walk off without him? They wouldn't, would they?

Instead of moving aside he looked back up instead, now curious to see if Melia would come down the same path he did.

Sure enough the sound of screaming confirmed his suspicion, letting him prepare.

No sooner than she had emerged into the room did she find herself being caught by Ryder, with surprising grace as well as he didn't even move a muscle.

"Are you alright?" He asked, looking slightly amused by the screaming and scared expression on her face.

"Yes, I am… I just have a slight fear of heights." She reluctantly admits, now looking more embarrassed than ever.

"Well everyone has a fear of something, yours just happens to be heights." He replies calmly, now carefully letting her stand on her own two feet. "Guess we're stuck now though, I wonder why the others aren't here though…"

"I couldn't tell you, I'd need to know more about the dungeon before I could really say anything." Melia admits while pulling out her journal and a quill. "I'll message the others though, can't hurt to see if messaging finally works."

"Good idea, in the meantime let's slowly make our way forward." Ryder draws his sword and takes the lead, moving to the only accessible entrance in the room. "I'll lead, you stay close so we don't get separated."

"Right." Melia calmly walks behind him, ready to make a note of where they were passing.

The dungeon was surprisingly quiet for being a story dungeon, the few enemies that did pop up fell relatively quickly, putting up little resistance to Ryder's attacks.

Though it was strange, it felt like it should've been way harder to clear, perhaps it was the effect of having such a large group clearing it or perhaps it was Yuria's help.

Ryder couldn't say for certain as he walked into a new room, looking very similar to the one they'd first landed in.

They were underground though, maybe things just looked that similar.

In the time between rooms the silence between the two of them had grown surprisingly heavy, almost uncomfortably so.

"So, Melia, Mind if I ask something?" Ryder asks a bit quietly, all the while moving into a new hallway.

"Huh? What is it?" She replies, now a bit surprised as she looks up from her journal.

"Your weapon, what is it?" Ryder barely glances back, making the briefest of eye contact before focusing on the path forward once again. "I only ask because I haven't seen a weapon on your person, at least not one that I can tell."

"Oh! That's because I don't use traditional weapons, I'm a spell crafter after all." Melia proudly states, her ego seeming to jump up a bit.

"A what?" Ryder asks in a rather deadpan voice, not knowing if she's messing with him or not.

"A spell crafter! I don't use traditional catalysts, instead carving out magic in the air and casting with a verbal component! It's a lot trickier but has a huuuuuuge skill ceiling!" She happily states while walking up to his left to show it off. "See, watch this…"

Melia puts the quill down into her journal and holds out her right hand, the tip of her index finger begins to glow with a small but noticeable white light.

Carefully she draws a circle with it, placing a little dot in the middle before quietly speaking "Luminous Veil."

Suddenly a strange, almost angelic, glow radiates from Melia.

It was a soft but brilliant glow, comforting and warming.

"This spell isn't anything special, just a night light with a bit of warmth basically." she happily comments, even more proud of the spell she'd done.

"That's impressive, I didn't know spell casting like that was possible." Ryder admits while moving forward, happy to finally see a new looking room ahead of them.

"Yeah, they don't really tell you but the spell casting is surprisingly deep and varied, I spent my first month or two just studying to get this down." She now sheepishly admits. "But it's nothing compared to what you've got, ancient magic really is something else."

"Oh please, you actually had to work to gain your powers… if i'm being honest I just kind of stumbled into mine, though that's what I've been doing the entire time I suppose." Ryder calmly remarks while walking into the room, pausing to note various signs of battle.

Broken bits of armor.

Weapons scattered about.

Nothing that looked like it belonged to the group though.

"Even if you did, you've still been taking the time to master it though!" Melia happily responds. "It was especially clear when you fought Teach!"

"Yeah, I kinda just lucked into that… trusted the feeling I was getting." Ryder replies, picking up a broken sword to examine it now.

The blade certainly looked like something that'd have belonged to Lucent's followers, too ornate to be any of Radogan's handiwork.

"Hey, that's half the battle of magic! It's not just about studying and knowing all the thousands of incantations, spell circles, runes, and all that! You've got to feel it as well!" Melia exclaims while moving in front of him now. "Magic is a living and flowing thing here, you can't just force it any time you want, you have to feel the flow of the world around you!"

"Man, if I didn't know any better I'd say you know more about Magic than even Demea or Laurence." Ryder lightly replies while pocketing the broken sword now, curious if Radogan could reforge it later. "Anyways we'd better keep moving, I think the others passed through here already… did anyone message back?"

Melia pauses, quickly looking down at her journal again and then smiling again. "Oto did! He said everyone got separated after diving down the hole… he's with Alice right now, but doesn't know where anyone else is." She pauses and thinks for a moment. "So, the entrance is a teleporter then? If that's the case then how much of this dungeon is also like that?"

"You mean there could be more?" Ryder asks warily.

"There could be… the flow of magic in this place is rather weird." Melia comments before getting an idea. "Wait there!"

Without warning she puts her journal away and begins running around the room, drawing strange symbols on each wall, looking to be a moon with some kind of rune engraved in it.

"What are you doing?" Ryder asks, not sure what he should think of this.

"Finding our path forward!" She replies before clapping her hands together. "These magic symbols are markers of Io, Goddess of the moon, knowledge and magic." Melia then takes her place at the center of the room and places one last symbol in the air. "And if I did this right then our path out of here should be clear…" Upon taking a deep breath she claps her hands together one more time and calls out. "Lunar Guidance!"

Suddenly all the symbols begin to pulse with a pale blue light, tiny wisps of magic from each symbol begin to flow to the center of the room and then down through the floor.

"That's strange, but at least we know the path." Melia says, though looks a bit confused. "Now the question is how are we supposed to dispel all this?"

"Leave it to me." Ryder says while putting his sword away.

Quietly he kneels on the ground, placing his hand down and taking a deep breath. "Astaroth."

[Already ahead of you.]

A wave of black flames bursts forth from Ryder's position, ripping away at the illusion and revealing another pit for them to jump down.

Ryder quietly stands up and looks at it, the pit certainly seems like the same one as the entrance, no telling where it'd go.

"You ready?" Ryder asks, looking at Melia.

"Same time, right?" She asks, nervously.

With a nod Ryder steps back. "Now!"

The two of them dive down into the darkness once more, letting the tree take them wherever it pleases.

For it was the only path forward.

Little did they know just where they'd wind up.

For soon, they'd see a glowing light, one of a deep azure hue.

It was then and there that Ryder's heart sank, for as he fell into the light he saw what it was.

They'd fallen right into the pit.

Right to where Saint Lucent was waiting.