Back to Darkness

They are quickly approaching that groove, they are being as cautious as possible, only Rikka and Krastinaff feel the pressure of time, their mates still do not understand the seriousness of such situation, a large tangle of vines covers and interconnects that groove, Amira sees that as bad omen, they clear the way with their weapons.

"Well… there must be something important or very useless around here" Ramon comments and sees that Krastinaff shares his thoughts.

"It's worse than just useless…" Krastinaff doesn't complete his reasoning, he may be seeing sparks of bright light, but he's not fooled.

They manage to reach the center of that groove and find another totem, bigger than the others, it has an irregular and very reflective surface, that material is very rare, Krastinaff is quick to write down what he can of those inscriptions, this time he is not contemplative, it's purely a practical effort, he wishes he hadn't wasted time earlier, he could better analyze this totem, the information he gets only increases his anxiety.

Rikka is the first to trust Krastinaff's judgment, even though he hasn't said anything yet, just watching his reaction. Amira this time looks like she would support Krastinaff, but her ego is hurt, she keeps her face closed and acting grudgingly.

Susano watches and feels something strange around him, he can't tell what it is, it's as if his mantra is necessary, but he doesn't want to use it. Krastinaff tries to be as fast as he can, but this totem proves to be more challenging, he often needs to cross references and re-examine past passages.

Many hours pass and everyone starts to feel nervous for being there, Krastinaff perspired a lot in that place, the temperature is pleasant, but he is soaked.

Krastinaff still understands very little, but it is enough he thinks to get out of there, he calls his mates close and when he goes to speak, the bell announces the beginning of the sixth cycle since they entered there, Krastinaff and Rikka tremble with the tolls.

"Do as I say, there won't be time to explain" his mates look at each other, except for Amira, Krastinaff points at her and Ramon goes to get her.

Amira is being pulled by Ramon by her arm, Ramon tries not to hurt her, Krastinaff takes this opportunity to think about this moment and make sure what should be done.

"We're going to become the animals, what we hunted were people trapped here or people trying to get out, on the other side just run after me, Ramon you cover the rear, it's quite possible the monsters will attack us, it's the people who stayed trapped here…" Krastinaff's mind is a little scrambled and he takes a second to reorder his thoughts.

"It's very difficult to explain, just repeat what I do until we reach the door, getting there Rikka must lock it" Krastinaff turns and touches a relief of the totem with the shape of a waning moon.

His companions see him turn into a hare and bounce around the totem, then Rikka follows Krastinaff's lead, she turns into a dog and runs alongside Krastinaff. Ramon is a little tense because of the sparks and black light, he knows they don't always mean something bad, but this seems to be the case.

Ramon turns into a bear to Susano and Amira's surprise, Ramon walks slowly around the totem, Susano turns to Amira and say.

"Now or never, if you want to stay it's your problem" Susano touches the totem and turns into an eagle and flies to the top of the totem looking at Amira, Amira scratches her head, and slaps the waning moon relief, Krastinaff leaves in a sprint followed closely by Rikka and Amira, Ramon a little further behind, Ramon feels his body tardy.

They see the terror even though they can barely see it, the totem on the other side looks like a gigantic tree and the inscriptions are carvings in the bark. Where once there was a groove, there is a tangle of twisted metal and stone pillars in place of trees.

When leaving that groove, the gentle hills gave way to steep hills, monsters howl in the distance and the path is full of stone and metal columns, they run and Susano can pass through his companions, they don't waste time thinking about it.

A group of monsters chases them, there are seven in total, they run for hours, despite the more difficult terrain they reach the door faster, especially as Krastinaff is going forward, he doesn't need to strain his eyes, he sees the same light coming from the door when they had entered.

Ramon finds it difficult to dodge those monsters' attacks behind them, when they reache the door Ramon stands between his companions and the monsters repelling their attacks, Krastinaff tries to do this once and is flung away, Rikka tries and tries but nothing seems to open that door.

"Come on Rikka" Krastinaff sees that Ramon is already suffering superficial injuries.

"I'm trying, it's my third spell to unlock this seal and nothing works!" Rikka is now sweating like Krastinaff was translating the last totem.

"Nooo! It's to lock it, not to unlock it!" Krastinaff wants to scream, but his voice is little more than a whisper, he repeats closer to Rikka as Rikka doesn't seem to hear him.

"I'm not even going to ask" Rikka upon receiving that order quickly reverts her previous spells to open the seal and tries to seal the door, Ramon already has a serious wound on his torso and he is tired.

"This time Amira and Susano, we'll have to make way for Ramon" Susano and Amira agree, but Susano is disconcerted, he has already spent several arrows on these monsters and it seems to have no effect, will it be that? when they leave everything will return to normal? he question himself.

This time Amira and Susano go forward trying to incapacitate the undead chimeras and Rikka follows close behind, Krastinaff unsuccessfully tries to pull Ramon out, he seems to weigh a ton, but Ramon notices his friend trying to pull him and throws himself in that direction.

Hikga'ard and his group are stunned, they almost killed that big bear, but he disappeared into the wall along with other weird animals.

"Friends, I think we've been eating some berries we shouldn't have! HAHAHA" Hikga'ard doesn't mind that, they lost the hunt, but it was fun at least.

"Worst part was that eagle that kept shitting on our heads!" complains Sahn-fu.

On the other side when the door closes they can't stop, Krastinaff forms a shield of light in front of him and tries to cross that sea of monsters protected by the flanks by Susano and Amira, Rikka is almost out of magic power and guards to heal his friends, especially Ramon who is already in need, they go ahead.

Strangely, no traps are set, and Amira is sure from the little she can see from the environment illuminated by Krastinaff's shield, there are traps there for sure, it doesn't take long for Susano to feel his head hurting again.

Krastinaff isn't strong like Ramon so he can't push everything in his path, his light shield starts to fade away.

Ramon is weakened, he howls and manages to partially transform into a gray wolf, maintains his bipedal stance, he lifts Krastinaff from behind, his claws bruise Krastinaff's soft skin, which unfortunately has no cartilage or scales there.

Ramon uses Krastinaff himself as the shield of light, Ramon is in no condition to run, but can push those creatures that way, they advance to the chamber at the end of the corridor and Rikka seals the entrance on that side.

Ahead of them are five undead chimeras and the giant beetle they had escaped from before, Ramon can no longer maintain his form due to injuries, Ramon returns human form, Kratinaff's shield is also about to crumble, as Krastinaff himself for using too much magic power.

There is no way to avoid the battle, Krastinaff stays in front with the shield and Susano decimates the chimeras, a combat he can easily win from a distance, with each arrow Susano manages to injure a pincer, claw, tentacle or incapacitate a member of those creatures.

The beetle lunges against Krastinaff shield, Ramon supports Krastinaff from his back to prevent Krastinaff to fall or being pushed, so everyone doesn't get exposed, Krastinaff's wounds ache and he bleeds with Ramon's support, the beetle's onslaught, Krastinaff moans and cries in pain but keeps his fractured shield working.

The beetle prepares to attack again, Susano did well to deflect and disable the chimera attacks with their arrows, Susano's vision starts to blur again, this time it hapenned faster and he doesn't understand why.

Ramon takes a while to see, behind the creatures it's not a hallway, it's a door with what looks like a wall of black light.

"Rikka you have to go with Amira behind the creatures to open that door!" Ramon has no way of explaining, he just runs to the side catching the beetles' attention.

The beetle advances on Ramon, Krastinaff tries to block with the shield, but he is pushed aside and his shield shatters, Rikka and Amira go to where Ramon said they are protected by Susano's arrows, the arrows no longer have the same precision and they don't do much damage anymore.

Amira tries to help finishing off those chimeras with her spear, behind Susano many chimera throw themselves against Rikka's barrier, which starts to give way and the parchment glued to the door starts to tear.

Amira kills two chimeras quickly no problem, the other three back off when they see Rikka trying to deactivate that seal, it's not something she knows about, she tries to use necromancy counterspells to break the seal, she can't see the seal itself, Rikka is gasping for breath.

The beetle throws himself on Ramon trying to crush him, he rolls over and his right arm is dyed by one of the beetle's paws, Krastinaff runs and throws himself at the beetle's head to grab on it, he uses his light darts directly into the creature's eyes, the creature staggers dazed and squeaking.

Susano continues shooting at the chimeras and not causing real damage, Amira takes advantage of the chimeras retreated and tries to attack the beetle with a blow embedded in the openings of its carapace, she hits a few times, but it barely penetrates.

The beetle is very angry and throws itself back and forth against the walls of the chamber without being able to see and squeaks with every hit, Krastinaff breaks free before he is crushed and Ramon stands up moaning for his arm and careful to not getting in the beetle's path, he goes towards Rikka.

Before Ramon can get to her, she says something no one can hear and a purple glow explodes beneath her throwing her body upwards, she falls back to the floor inert, Ramon can now see the door, he turn its handle with just one hand, his colleagues couldn't do it with two.

The chimeras come back towards Susano and Ramon, Krastinaff grabs Rikka by the wrists and drags her to the other side of that door, Rikka's Barrier easily gives way with her master's fall and more chimeras start to enter that chamber.

Amira, Susano and Ramon then enter, they close the door and see that Krastinaff is facing a being that looks like a starfish made of clay, Krastinaff is using a piece of wood as a makeshift club.

Ramon collapses and Susano can't see more than the figures in front of him, the lighting of the place comes from sparse mystical torches in that corridor, besides he can barely hear, there is a whirlwind of voices in his mind wanting to drive him crazy.

"Sorry Krastinaff, I can't do it anymore" Ramon faints and Krastinaff is distracted, the creature pushes Krastinaff against the wall and he hits his head and already exhausted faints too.

Amira Notices that among everyone there seems to be only her left, she sees Ramon, Krastinaff and Rikka fallen. Susano is beside herself and there's a monster in front of her, there's no sign of a trap from what little she can see, she doesn't think twice, she runs and dodges the creature by passing to the other side and leaving her friends behind.

Susano doesn't believe what he saw, he thinks it's his eyes deceiving him, his mind has succumbed to an illusion, the creature rushes towards Susano, he picks up his short sword trembling and prepares to face it, he's not able to abandon his mates like Amira.