Tu Moritūrus

Chapter 2 "You are about to Die !"

Monolithic and Ancient, An edifice that none could possibly begin to comprehend.

The Doors to the underworld itself has been revealed towards these unsuspecting abled mortal flesh, granting passageway towards the end of their life, With the intentions of scarring them through eternal trepidation.

For the mere sight of this Antediluvian Horrifying Masterpiece would make them shiver and their bodies would simply fell limp, Features becoming pale as their minds may nearly lose its sanity to this cryptic entryway that stood looming over them with an invisible godly shadow.

They begun questioning their very own existence as the men never had the chance to truly known and understand their worldly origins, And with that thought . . . madness takes over them, slowly but surely, While an overwhelming terror etches itself deeply into the hearts of these poor and low born commoners that merely sought out wealth and youth.

Not expecting for this sort of oddity to appear amidst their presence all the Suddenly.

The thing, No . . . It was made out of Pure stone, yet not, For its deep blood red color betrayed it's true creation, All the mean while depictions intricately carved on it that weren't known to the current civilization has imprinted itself deep inside their memories.

Below the stone door are images of tiny figures resembling that off the races numbering to millions of them, they stood in a praising and celebratory manner towards Behemoth sized amalgamation of creatures maketh in all manner of Shapes and unintelligible forms.

These creatures sat in a full squatting position on top of enormously over sized columns as if they presented themselves to be the true creators of this world . . . No are the Makers themselves.

Their Bodies seemed Cephalopod in nature as their heads would resemble that of a octopus with bloody red ruby eyes deeply looking towards the distant darkness of the caverns interior.

Or staring right at you . . .

While tentacle appendages hanging out of their mandible, and other parts of the form they took littered around its disgusting guise.

Some had Snakes tails for legs, while others had arachnid parts, the rest were fleshy morbid mockeries of animals joined together with creatures of gooping mass.

Oversized bat like wings covered their muscular features, Only showing off their hands and feet being tucked keenly to their abled bodies.

While it's webbed and grotesque looking claws holding the knees deep is placed together as if presenting itself towards its Acolytes, Blessing them with its incomprehensible features that none would ever dare to vandalize out from fear of affliction.

It didn't make any sense nor followed any logic or biology that would be able to describe such horrifying looking creatures.

That however wasn't the only thing that caught these men's breaths.

It is the Beautiful Piece of art that stood floating at the center of it, A Giant Woman who's Looks were unparalleled to this world and the stars in the sky, This woman was unlike any other beauty, Her shapes are so well made that you could only gasp or leave your mouth agape to her full splendor.

However this art form also gave off the eerie feeling of dread, As if it was alive, full of malice and perpetual torment.

The Goddess stood alone with tears trickling down her eyes, the depictions seemed almost life like that it became even scarier for these men to approach such monolithic structure.

Lars was the first to try and approach the breaches of the smoothed surface, But before that could even happen, The ground began to shake once again, Bit this time only slightly . . . as the Doors began to open against them.

Slowly it started moving steadily, inwardly away, and crept its way to full coverage, As the Terrifying Art form began to detach its features from their sights, A singular hall greeted them beyond their line of sights.

This startled everyone present, For in such occasions would the door open all the sudden means that a trap has been set or activated.

Yet nothing happened while they rooted themselves facing towards the exposed path way that welcomed them with its life like clamouring. While this happened a Bag left at the center of the cavern supply lines began to glamour slightly in mesmerizing beauty.

Robert saw this and took a look at it with curiosity as he missed parts of the event that unfolded from his side due to his short stature, With a quite surprised look in his eyes that gazed over the object made out of strange textures.

He felt seduced by it.

A quick pause stopped his composure, He then began to cover it up with thick folds of cloth over his own baggage in a hurried manner as he didn't want Belford to see what he has just uncovered from it.

He was at the back of the bunch as they never looked at him when he took this course of action, but this opted a little longer for time wasn't at his side.

Once again everybody was silent, Each waited patiently for one another to address the situation that they encountered, Yet none seemed to be at the right mind currently as they were all full of disbelief and wonder.

But as the silence went on, one of them all the Suddenly said out loudly a certain form of whimscal validation to assess themselves, If whether or not they're ready to explore the new task at hand or to question something.

"Is this . . . the Temple we have been digging a whole Six Months for?" leaving his mouth agape to the edifices mysticism.

With this question Robert took out a old parchment of paper from his pocket, unfolded it steadily and looked at the picture drawn on it in comparison to this door or any of its symbols that signifies it's resemblance.

Looking at the slightly familiar cephalopod's head and shape, with the black Sun looming over the goddesses features on top of her. He was able to deduce that this is the place that they have been excavating for the whole Six months.

With out any further ado he announced happily in a booming voice that it is what they were looking for.

"Yes this is it Men! You don't need to fret over it Harry, We have finally did and found it! That over there is the place that we have been looking for a long while right now!"

Once they heard this, They finally exclaimed their desires with relief for their efforts weren't in Vain anymore. Some slumped to the ground out of exhaustion, While the rest could only act rowdily with their peers in great disbelief.

"Yes Finally We can get all the gold we need"

"Is this really happening? Were going to be really Wealthy?"

"Ahh all our hard work has been paid off, I can't wait to help myself on all the woman in the world"

"We were a hundred before . . . And now that this is done, I am ready to count my blessings"

Some cried out to their hearts, some happily danced clumsily with energized spirits.

Others already started scheming their plans of betrayal to keep the Accumulated wealth for themselves.

But one of them felt Sceptical of the whole thought off entertaining it, That they have finally obtained their life long goal, As the idea itself was very early to celebrate, And the area is suspicious beyond nature.

Lars didn't know what to think, Seeing them be like this, The actions left to take were limited to a few options but hopefully it would be worth the time being.

Looking at Belford for answers, Lars waited for his next move, But came awfully disappointed, Only to be left with a dumbfounded persons expressions.

Then Lars looked back to were the rest of the men were standing, Catching a glimpse of Roberts actions, and noticed him holding the artificer bag that the Old Man Count Hannibal would carry for himself tightly in his arms when he was alive and well.

Not like the rest of the people before them.

Robert gestured with a quiet sign when he saw Lars attention to him, For deep inside he too knew that there was something fishy about it.

Lars looked away, Making a slightly quick motions of shaking profusely with warning against the Con - Mans antics, But was reassured by Roberts reasonable cautionary nature.

While this went on Belford went out of his long stupor and told everybody to get ready.

"Alright Boys let's pack up our stuff and get ourselves ready to explore this place, Old Hannibal told us not to worry much about traps inside a Temple as they won't usually place any of those in there."

However Harry the man the asked the question a while back wasn't convinced and retracted the asserted order with his pathetic Finnish accent.

"But what if it is actually filled with all sorts of traps and suchs, I mean we could easily lead ourselves to our doom for what we could all know?" The rest nodded slightly as they did not agree with the rash decisions that Belford made for them to follow blindly.

Belford got irritated by the looks they gave to him, and asserted what he said.

"Yes I am sure of it! And if there really were traps! It would be harmless, they would have been also done out by the millennium that would have passed already . . . This wasn't my suggestion but Hannibals, If you had any questions . . . try talking to a corpse, let's see it talk back to you . . . If not bugga off and let's go."

When he said this, None could ever argue over a dead man's words, For they tell no tale, But would always leave one in the form of a note or map.

And if the old Count Hannibal is ever right, then they would have to thank him for not letting them waste their precious time over worrying about something that does not exist to begin with.

They bet on it with their very lives though, which is a daily thing in to them, whether you are down the caverns to a dilapidated sunken temple or Fighting above there in the growing monster infested corrupted world of Asteria.

Packing their gear swiftly with trained movements and fast phasing, they soon all gathered around the entry way of the temple and begun their plan of actions.

"Alright" Robert paused for a while deeply letting himself have a breather, "Since our light is very limited right now, I suggest that whenever you see any sconces embedded into the wall, You may feel free to take a break and light it up" . . . . .

"This is the one and only torch we have left at our disposal and I don't want anybody to start screaming blindly at us when we could cause our own deaths from it" . . .

"Now hop on and let's go and take this temples coffers" And through this command, the group of twenty began to enter carefully inside the large halls of the Antidiluvian Temples doors.

They separated themselves a meter away from each other to ensure the availability of space just incase of any mishaps.

And as they straddled slowly inside, More stone depictions of these Elder creatures caught their sights.

When they stared at it for too long, Their minds begun to feel feeble and drowsy like they have longed for resting.

Likewise, they continued on with determination oozing out of their body, Slowly but surely decreasing though, But as they went deeper inside the dreaded singular pathway of the ancient hall, the more fear and dread they felt.

Innumerable stone statues of these creatures and amalgamations came protruding from the walls, Still yet life like.

'It littered it like a Wall of Flesh'

The numbers of these horrifying works artistical display seemed to multiply, While the path before them still long and endless, Added it up to their fears of being stared at these Monstrosities.

Wandering in a linear direction, they begun to grow a fear they have never experienced before, The Fear of the Unknown, For they now understood that they were blindly moving forward to their demise if not a horrifying end if this lingering went on any longer.

Not knowing if those grotesque statues or images would ever become life like all the Suddenly, like those Infamous Golems from the Kingdom of Sky Magic, Home to all Magicians of the near realm.

The fear and Anxiety grown on them, But after what felt like a life time of traversing on a singular road. They began to sigh in relief, As the pleasant sound of running water enters their ears.

And as they did went on with it, What followed next greatly irked them once more, silently Praying for their fortunes and lives.