prologue: The turning point (2)

'Shit!' Aldrich cursed as he got up looking around was simply too hard even after his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Aldrich also noticed a curious fact, that while the outside was hot the inside of the ruin was actually a lot cooler.

His whole back burned with pain, but Aldrich was excited and happy his plan actually worked. 'wait till the guys hear about this, I'm gonna be a hero.'

"Gk BgJRc GashiKP…"

"Gk BgJRc GashiKP…"

"Gk BgJRc GashiKP…"

'W-what was that?' Aldrich felt a shiver up his back as he suddenly heard a strange, unclear voice. In a tongue he hadn't heard before, it was definitely not the common tongue.

However he could tell the voice or voices maybe? He could not be sure—they were coming from deep within the ruin.

Aldrich knew that it was a bad idea to follow this unknown voice, but he just felt that he needed to see what these voices were about. The voices… they call to him… the voices… he had to go… he must go now…

Aldrich found himself heading deeper and deeper into the ruins as the voice got louder and louder, he was walking in an absentminded stupor but with great familiarity.

But the voices were becoming too loud. His head hurt too badly, as if someone was hammering several nails to his head. The pain was too much he fell to his knees.

Aldrich held his head in pain, yet despite the pain he didn't let out a single cry his throat was dry and heavy all of a sudden, then he heard the sound of a drop of water hitting the ground—no, not water, blood.

Aldrich touched the underside of his nose and winced. The voices didn't stop, and they never will, mercilessly they got louder as if admonishing him, telling him to keep going.

The pain sobered Aldrich up and he suddenly realized where the voices were coming from, they were not at the depth of the ruins at all, they were in his head.

They always were.

He looked at the ground to find a strange symbol drawn with his own blood, it seemed like at some point he drew the sign unknowingly.

No, perhaps it was not a strange symbol, although it was the first time that Aldrich had seen it, he could swear. But apparently he could understand this strange symbol. It said—

"Tindalor"

He read out loud, and the voices disappeared, like a lie that never was. After he muttered the strange word Aldrich watched in stunned silence as the surrounding walls started to glow.

Now with the darkness alleviated he could see that the stone walls were carved with strange marks. It was these marks that started glowing, releasing a soft but eerie blue light.

Aldrich observed that he was in the middle of a hallway, an incomparably huge hallway. The ceiling was so far up he had to strain his neck to look at it properly.

Before Aldrich could take a better look he felt his surroundings grow terribly cold. A moment later he saw the reason.

At far end of the hallway that turned right, the head of what could only be a gigantic serpent appeared at some point. The crimson serpent had a head that was as big as a horse and twice as wide, three eyes rested in that head and it was looking in his direction.

Caught by surprise and bewildered by the ridiculous turn of events, Aldrich could do nothing but tremble in awe and fear as the serpent made way to him.

Aldrich had to move, but he couldn't, he commanded his legs to move, to run, yet to no avail. His whole body was shaking in fear but also frozen in place.

The biggest monster he ever saw was the owlbear that attacked the village last year, an intimidating beast, but this serpent could snap it in half with a single bite.

The serpent crawled on the roof of the hallway with ease, uncaring about Aldrich's thoughts, when it's advance came to a sudden halt.

Aldrich estimated that distance between them to be around fifteen meters. Aldrich imagined that he could feel the creatures breath on him. Perhaps it was not his imagination. Even now when it was almost upon him, he could not see its tail.

The crimson serpent was weirdly looking around the hallway, as if it couldn't see him. Aldrich was suddenly struck with a thought. 'Could it be that this thing that lived in these dark ruins was so used to the darkness that it was blind to the light?'

Aldrich suddenly got some feeling in his legs, he started to back away slowly, still keeping his eyes trailed on it. As he kept walking back, the serpent was still looking around, proving his assumption correct. The crimson serpent was blind to the light.

'I will make it out of here!'

As if insistent to crush his hopes, the crimson serpent opened it's jaw. What came out was three huge tongues, each was filled with bumps like acne along their impressive lengths. The tips of the tongues had a jaw of its own with protruding jagged fangs above which was a human nose.

Each tongue headed in a different direction, one of which was coming straight in his direction as the human nose kept twitching as if it could smell him.

'Shit‼'

Aldrich felt that it was stupid of him to compare this creature to the owlbear, this creature was no beast, it was true monster.

Aldrich felt his options dwindle into nothing, at this point he could only turn around and run the best he can, only Aldrich was certain that this monster would sense his hasty escape and in a contest of speed Aldrich didn't exactly like his chances.

But then again, should he just wait for the twisted tongue to catch up to him, is god so determined to harvest his soul this badly?

"DUCK!"

Aldrich obeyed the command without much thought, he saw a mass of flames hit the unsuspecting vile tongue. More fireballs shot with incredible speed and power targeting the head and opened maw of the serpent.

The creature let out painful screams as it fell to the ground. The ground shook with weight and the impacts sent him rolling back a dozen meters.

The bruises didn't stop him from observing the scene but before Aldrich could watch anymore, he felt a strong grip hold him and he found himself suspended on Mr. Krynts shoulder as the Crestmaster broke into a run that didn't suit his age.

"Whoa! What? Mr. Krynt how'd you—"

"Shut it! Lets get out of here first. That thing is still alive, that kind of attack won't do much against it."

Aldrich found it hard to believe, until he heard a furious hiss behind them. Mr. Krynt was running with such a speed that Aldrich found it hard to believe that he was a middle aged man.

While Mr. Krynt was running he suddenly turned around and sent blasts of fire to the ceiling, before the heavy stone could crush them they were already on their way.

Aldrich felt his eyes grow increasingly heavy. This was the last thing he remembered seeing before surrendering to sleep, but his last thought was imprinted to his mind clearly.

'Crestmasters and monsters, truly frightening beings, if one day I were to awaken my Crest, I'll be just like them'

Of course after he woke up he got in so much trouble he wished he was eaten that day.