Start

"We will still be going in despite what is happening?" asked a small woman wearing a light white armor and a cloak.

"Yes, we can not pull out of this mission, don't worry the situation in the dungeon is not as bad as it appears" answered a man clad in heavy armor, his helmet held under his arm, allowing all see his pointy ears, indicative of his possession of an elven heritage.

Both of them belonged to the Holy order and were meant to delve into the dungeon and discover its many secret, as they required all of it the be documented they had brought a scribe with them to do just that.

There was also a space mage, thanks to him they should have no issue getting provisions as they went deeper, as he could simply teleport back to get provisions and store them, hiring a skilled space mage was not cheap but thanks to the influence of the Holy order, it hadn't as expensive as it would usually have been.

They had also enlisted the help of a ruin knight, thankfully their intrinsic need for exploration allowed to have his help for free, however they hadn't expected the ruin knights to be so strange, he didn't seem to have any name and only went by a code name and didn't seem to ever fall asleep.

As for the scribe, he just had a weird presence that didn't make anyone who could feel it want to trust him, the space mage was just doing his job and that was all.

Despite his reassuring words, Malmiere wasn't so confident seeing the members of this group, of course they were many members of the Holy order but the few bizarre ones appeared especially concerning and with the recent situation in the dungeon it was difficult not to worry, the last day, he had heard that an adventurer had come out infected by the strange flame and had caused a forest fire with this very flame.

Nobody knew what was the cause of this but the difficulty on the first floors had increased exponentially, monsters that weren't even supposed to be there had also showed up and the amount of special and evolved monsters had also increased.

Hopefully, the deeper floors wouldn't be affected but it was but wishful thinking, Malmiere needed to prepare as if it was the case, at least the traps that had also appeared shouldn't be an issue thanks to Imiril's presence, she should be able of easily detect them.

He put his helmet on, making sure to not get his ears stuck in it like he had the first time he had put one on, it would soon be time to depart.

The ruin knight, known as EOTHO-1A, usually just called EOTHO had been ready from the start, his armor which texture ressembled that of old stone had been cleaned and his sword of similar appearance sharpened in advance, exploration was what was most important to ruin knights and EOTHO-1A was no exception.

Lando, the scribe, shuddered in anticipation, he had never gotten into a situation even remotely dangerous, he was both excited and terrified of what was to come, he would be staying in the dungeon for an extended amount of time, exposed to the dangers of the dungeon.

The space mage was just waiting, no particular things on his mind.

The expedition entered the dungeon, their fate, yet to be decided, all that was certain was that they wouldn't be exiting the dungeon any time soon, if they ever did.

They traversed the first floor, dispatching the few monsters affected by the flame on their way without much effort, as Malmiere had expected Imiril was able to detect the traps easily and they were avoided, Lando was furiously writing down the whole time, he never raised his head from his writings but still somehow managed to precisely follow the movement of the group at good speed.

EOTHO-1A led the expedition to a large opening, where they would be setting camp while exploring every nooks and crannies of the first floor, even the first floor was large in the world dungeon.

As they were setting camp Malmiere turned his head to a hallway, ready to fight but saw nothing, he could have sworn something had been staring at him but nothing was to be seen, the hallway was illuminated and in a straight line, nothing could be hiding there.

"Malmiere" he heard the voice Imilir calling out his name.

He turned to his colleague, seeing a serious expression on her face.

"Something has been watching since we entered the dungeon" she said before approaching Malmiere even closer and telling him something in an even lower voice.

"I don't think it's a monster" she said, a slightly worried look made his way on the elf's face, hidden by his helmet.

"For now, keep that information secret, tell me immediately if you sense it again" he told her, she nodded and walked away.

They were only on the first floor and there was already a mysterious being watching their movement, hopefully it was just a curious adventurer and nothing more but Malmiere could feel that something was off, the presence he had felt before Imiril had spoken to him, he had momentarily thought to be hallucinating but it had felt as if the presence was split in two.

The elf didn't know what to think of all of this, he couldn't just end the mission, even if there was actual proven danger so to cancel it because of an unseen presence was not a possibility, they would have to continue the mission.

As the holy expedition set up camp, a dark, faceless figure watched as it all happened accompanied by another being, both of them with the same objective.

The true start of it all was soon to happen, one smiled in anticipation and the other brightened, excited to fullfil its purpose, as it brighened all of the monsters effected by the mysterious orange flame, felt a horrible pain, worse than anything until now, in this pain they suffered and relished, understanding what they should do, they writhed and yelled out, their voices full of condradiction echoed in the dungeon.

A third being, who too was observing, was happy with how things had turned, its decision had been the right one.