At the other end of the cave system, voidmaws and quinoids led by Zihan and Madame Dembe made their way through bodies of sanc flowers. The 19 individuals had imposed the rhythm of the battle and compared to the groups of Albella and Enok, they were in better conditions to face these creatures.
Quinoids had very good senses and super developed reflexes. Even Madame Dembe, who belonged to those with the slowest animal characteristics, could safely dodge most of the creatures’ attacks.
The voidmaws for their part, were the nightmare of the sanc flowers, as their bodies reacted to the acid as if they were throwing water at them. Making the most powerful attack of the sanc flowers useless.
The combat began in the colossal cavern with the two great crystal pillars, but soon the battle changed locations to a tunnel and from the tunnel to a cavern full of acid lakes. This large cavern of considerable size was home to the most powerful hive of these creatures in all the underground cave system.
The advantage the voidmaws had over the sanc flowers was so overwhelming that the quinoids were soon relegated to walking behind them. A situation that Madame Dembe thanked.
The nine metallic beings made their way through the cavern as if they were trimmers, taking the lives of all the sanc flowers who dared to approach them. Zihan personally took down the leader of the sanc flowers.
Such was the advantage of voidmaws over the plant creatures that Madame Dembe began to view them with caution. Although they were not very intelligent, their physical strength placed them above most living beings.
Once the battle was over Madame Dembe approached Zihan, who was sitting next to the corpse of the leader of the sanc flowers.
“Great performance,” commented the turtle quinoid walking carefully not to touch the acid on the floor.
“There is a second magnitude creature ahead,” said Zihan without paying attention to Madame Dembe. He was staring at the tunnel on the other side of one of the acid lakes.
“The sanc flowers are also of the second magnitude,” answered Madame Dembe without caring about the tone with which Zihan spoke to her.
“It’s not the same. Whatever is on the other side of that tunnel is much stronger.”
“Perhaps the mighty Zihan is afraid?” The turtle quinoid scoffed.
“Not of the creature we will find, but there is something dark in the environment that makes me shiver.”
“Considering the amount of energy emanating from this place it would not surprise me that several creatures have arrived attracted to the treasure.”
" I would not be afraid of something as simple as a powerful creature, " said Zihan getting up.
Madame Dembe's comment had upset him. Now that he was in a bad mood the best way to vent was by fighting the creature on the other side of that tunnel.
“Let’s move forward!” Zihan shouted starting to walk through the acid lake.
He stepped into the acid pool on purpose to avoid talking to the turtle. The other voidmaws stopped the activities they were doing and started walking towards the tunnel that their leader was going to.
“What do we do?” Rosha asked approaching Madame Dembe.
“We follow them. The further we can move without spending our energies the better for us,” replied Madame Dembe indicating to the buffalo quinoid to follow her. Unlike the voidmaws, they had to walk around the acid lakes.
Not far from them, Helvella and his men advanced through tangled passageways where the voidmaws had faced the spiders.
Meanwhile, Darthañan and Frigglene were entering the deepest cave of all. The sheer size of this one embarrassed all the others. There was no sign of flora. All they could see were huge crystal columns in a shade of purple, unlike any other crystal they had seen so far.
Admiring the gleaming crystals, they soon saw that in the center of the cavern were the ruins of what looked like a castle tower. Due to the width and height of the structure, it could very well pass as a fortress by itself.
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Crystals protruded from this tower as if they were going through it. It seemed as if someone had used all those crystals to destroy the fortress.
Frigglene, the one with the best vision in the dark of the two noticed a slight movement on the first level of the ruins. Giving her husband two gentle taps on the back, to warn him of what was possibly an enemy, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Leaving her husband behind, who had gotten on guard upon receiving the warning, Frigglene sped toward the ruins. Taking advantage of the way she was, she began to investigate the place and soon found what she was looking for.
Walking next to one of the tower walls a small crystal imp yawned. Frigglene approached from behind without making the slightest noise and determining that no one was around, materialized her body, and broke the neck of the unsuspecting imp.
After assassinating the creature, she waited for Darthañan to arrive. Lifting the small creature with one hand, she showed it to her husband who, without making a sound, nodded, closed his eyes, and when he opened them he began to point to different places.
Frigglene didn’t need clarification. Darthañan was indicating the locations of the crystal imps around them. Although these little creatures were not very resilient or intelligent, the magical attacks they could unleash were powerful enough to put anyone on the spot. For this very reason, the best way to proceed was to kill them all stealthily, without any of them realizing that they were being killed.
For the next ten minutes, Darthañan and Frigglene hunted down the Crystal Imps while exploring the ruins of this enigmatic tower. Carefully walking through the corroded corridors of the fortress that time did not spare.
It was while climbing the intermediate levels of the tower that they ran into a large hall. Unlike the places they had explored so far, this hall had a stone coffin in the center with eight statues of demons around it. The grotesque sculptures lacked some of their parts, but they were very well preserved compared to everything else in the tower.
“I think we can guess from where that being came from.” Darthañan tried to joke while nudging his wife gently.
The coffin in the center of the chamber was open, the top was split in two, the pieces had fallen to the ground on opposite sides of the coffin.
“Fuuu!” Frigglene sighed trying not to get angry with her husband.
“Study the symbology of the coffin. From what I see it was a demon that was sealed here many years ago.”
“That makes sense, maybe we can find some way to deal with the damn thing,” replied Darthañan running towards the coffin-like a child at Christmas.
Frigglene couldn't help but smile, her husband was the only person she knew who could go through such a terrifying encounter, and two minutes later be entertained as if he had no problem. If she didn't know him, she would have thought he was stupid. In fact, that's what she thought when they first met many years ago.
Letting Darthañan dive into the study of the coffin, Frigglene passed each of the statues of the demons and tore off their heads. Although she didn't feel any energy inside them, the last thing she wanted being for them to come alive around them when they were least expecting it.
Destroying the statues, Frigglene found a small passageway that led to circular stairs.
“My love, there are some stairs around here, I 'll go upstairs to see what I can find!” Frigglene warned her husband while she starting to climb.
“Yes, yes I love you too,” Darthañan replied lost in the symbols of the coffin.
Frigglene's face turned red, but she took a deep breath as she reminded herself that she loved him, before continuing up the stairs.
Upon reaching the top Frigglene could see what looked like some kind of altar, much better preserved than the chamber with the coffin and demons. This room was decorated like a library. The walls were carved with books, letters, numbers, symbols, and quite oddly: phrases in Terram (Almawarth's official language).
'Time has a cyclical behavior, but it is continuous'
'There are only two gods left'
'The books hide the secrets of the world'
Frigglene could read various phrases like these as she walked around the altar. At the end of the room, she was able to observe a wooden book. That upon close inspection she realized that it was a kind of box. A lock that looked like a puzzle hung from one end of the box.
Frigglene thought as she touched the lock.
After several attempts without being able to open the box she decided to take it and show it to Darthañan; because, although she could open it by force, she knew that magic locks worked in strange ways so that the interior could be destroyed or teleported to another location if they were not opened in the right way.
Walking down the stairs Frigglene found her husband sitting on the floor reading the inscriptions on the coffin.
“Darth look what I found.”
It took Darthañan a few seconds to turn around and when he did, his eyes widened.
“This place is an incredible treasure.” He exclaimed when he saw the box that his wife was holding.
Frigglene rolled her eyes at Darthañan's comment. A real treasure would be filled with beautiful jewelry, gold, legendary weapons, and mystical artifacts. Not coffins, statues of demons, and an altar of books.