There was a stirring in the caverns. The sound of many voices waking up from a nightmare or worse. Marshall had dragged the two siblings away before the rest had woken up, though he had been seen by the onlookers standing around the path leading down. So, he had only dragged them away from the center of the mass of people.
Bodies of dead monsters also spaced around the people, all of them showing huge bite marks as a sign of death. This was a clear disaster and would likely have a lot of consequences. Yana's staff was firmly placed in the center of the circle of people. The orb on top pulsing with rainbow light, and Marshall had no clue what was going to happen with it.
He was just glad it seemed to be inert right now, and that he couldn't move it. Which would mean no one could move it. The first to get up was the powerful, old man that seemed to be very important, and he promptly walked right up to the staff.
"What a fascinating artifact..." He says, voice carrying over the rest of the people waking up. A few grumble at him before realizing how fancy his clothes are, and deciding that he was too important to deal with. At least most of them do.
"Hey, what the hell was all that about? This all your doing?" It was a quiet looking fellow, who seemed to be a bit frazzled by what he went through. Marshall wasn't sure but he had a feeling it was like what he went through when upgrading his body. Some kind of nightmare or dream thing.
"I haven't the faintest idea, and that's what makes this artifact so interesting." The old man replied, waving a hand at everyone, "Go back to your little clubs while I deal with this thing." The blessing was that the staff had undergone some changes. Where once it had just been a straight piece of carved wood. Now it looked like the wood had tried to grow into a tree, and glowed faintly with a golden light. No one would connect this staff with Yana except the location of both, but Marshall hoped by dragging them to the edge of the group it would push away suspicion.
The old man's hands moved around the staff, and a few tried to step forward to protest. Yet, they were pulled back by their parties until they started to all leave. Which made one small issue when Pyra and Yana failed to wake up as the minutes ticked by. In the end he decided a few angry hits were worth not being the last ones down here. That old man worried him, since he was messing with that Orb.
---
Rasputin sighed as the last groups left the dungeon, leaving him alone with the fascinating item. They would all have seen the orb and staff as the prize, but for him it was the small figure wedged into the wood near the Orb. It was some kind of child's toy figurine. Obviously made from metal, but no mana swirled within or around the item at all. Which would lead most to assume it was a mundane object, but he could feel something significant from the thing.
It seemed to pulse like a heartbeat, and trying to touch it only lead to his body locking up.
ERROR 404: Object Not Found...
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ERROR 5: Access Denied
Those windows constantly popped into his vision when trying to touch it. He hadn't seen such reliable 'errors' from the System ever, outside of trying to walk into the chaotic clouds near the edge of the Realm. Though that was something to do with the wide, stretching anomaly found at the edge. This was far too strange...
tick
He looked around at the sound. It echoed in his head, above the muttering of voices in the space around him.
tick
He shook his head, they had all gone hours ago, but he could swear there was a large group of people walking up the tunnel before him. Dressed in odd clothing and carrying packs like soldiers returning from war.
tick
His shaking hands retreated as fast as his feet, and he couldn't help but look back at the staff. From a distance it looked like a dragon's maw swallowing the sun. With the cracks in the air around it looking like sweeping wings.
He blinked and it was just a staff with an orb, but he wouldn't be the greatest mage in the world without a streak of mad intent. He decided to come experiment on this staff everyday if he could. He would unlock it's secrets.
---
Remus sighed as he sank down into his shaped, wooden seat, and looked at the capital of Masire. He had been chasing ghosts and rumors for months, but now had a solid line on the girl he remembered, Pyra. That was the name he had been given, and her features, and connection to that dungeon, was assured now. The Felbeasts had broken with his leaving, but only a handful of true followers had come with him. The rest content with fighting the kingdoms for the freedom of their people.
He knew it wouldn't do any good. The humans needed to leave the Realm for their people to be free, it wouldn't fix the past, but it would give them the ability to return to their height. His fingers opening his journal to the pages containing the secrets he had found so long ago.
Today I decided to explore the ruins of Gul near the feet of the Door. I feel that they would have the secrets to destroying those filthy humans once and for all. The Empire would know the best ways to wage such a war!
He chuckled to himself, so full of fire back then for the death of all. It hadn't been so long after the death of his village, and his motivation to rise to the heights of power.
Gul has been picked over by the humans so many times over the years, but I have this feeling there is something they are missing. These symbols and glyphs are really similar to the constellations that our people have followed for hundreds of years. There must be a connection between the ancient language and our modern people.
It hadn't been a new idea, and he didn't find anything at first either. Until...
I don't know if I will survive this...I have fallen into a sinkhole that lead into a complex far below the ground. There is no food and only minimal water from cracks in the stone walls, but there is magic everywhere down here. It's like the surface structures were just something for show, and everyone was living underground.
I FOUND IT!!! It must have been common knowledge at some point, because it was on a mural in a large chamber. The Door can be opened with a sentence, but the words are lost to some kind of magical destruction. Though, judging by the map with markings on it, there is some connection to this sentence and the Dungeons of the Realm. Perhaps they have the secrets in them?
It was a foolish idea, but it had borne fruit to his own surprise back then. Now he only needed one word to complete the sentence and then he could access the 'Realm-heart'. It was the only way to open the Door, and the only way to save his world from the greedy humans who couldn't live in peace.
His gaze moving to buildings in the slums through his window. He would bet a lot that Pyra was at the center of that twister of magic, and only a few groups went down into the dungeon at that time. His fingers tapping a piece of paper with the names.
"The hunt is on." His old voice whispered.