He turned around and ran towards the other tunnel, the one that he had not explored yet. Jonathan ran down it, noticing that it was basically the exact same thing as the other one, except without any sundered coffins. There was nothing of note in there, and Jonathan quickly left. He had explored every part of this area, and there was nothing useful here anymore.
Jonathan reached the edge of the pit wall and then started to clamber up it, using his fists as pickaxes to break through the rock and created handholds for himself. He reached the top a few minutes later, clambering out into the city above. He had discovered many interesting things by simply wandering around the place, and he was not ready to leave yet. Jonathan stretched and then took off, running towards the center of the city. He was happy with his discoveries, but he was eager to find more. He had as much time as he needed here, and he was going to use it to the fullest.
Over the next few hours, Jonathan made his way across the city, searching for anything else that might give him clues into the provenance of the book that he had found. It seemed that the strange space bending effect that had prevented him from leaving had disappeared after he had defeated the undead in the cathedral,and he eventually came to the edge of the city. After having been in it for a decent amount of time, it was a little bit strange to suddenly be facing an empty expanse of ash.
Jonathan turned around at the border, and started walking towards a point of interest on the nearby topography, which was a tower that had not been fully covered by the ash that had engulfed the rest of the city. The tower stood about a hundred feet tall, and extended up into the sky like a finger pointing accusingly at the heavens. It was made out of stone, and was mostly ruined, with a jagged crack running up the sides. Jonathan had sensed something within it however, and he decided to follow his hunch, as he had followed the one earlier that had led him to the book in the burial pit.
He walked cautiously up to its base, and studied the tower, noticing that it was ornately carved, despite being weathered by age. The carvings had been softened, but they were still visible, and they seemed to spell out the story of the city, with pictures of settlers milling around, building the ruins that lay around Jonathan. Of course, back then they had not been ruins, but rather proper buildings, rising out of the ash. Then the pictures began to grow darker in nature, and the inhabitants began to die, killed off by the forces of Granath. Eventually, there was a final carving, which was near the top of the tower, and barely visible to Jonathan, even with his enhanced eyesight, which was of Granath, depicted as a multi hundred foot long worm, devouring the last defenders of the city, and reducing it to rubble. Jonathan raised one eyebrow, and then walked over to the door of the tower, heading in.
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The door had long since disappeared, but the reception area was still intact, and the vague suggestions of where sofas and chairs had once been still were visible, in the form of a few marks here and there. Jonathan ignored them for the most part however, and kept going, heading for the twisting staircase that led towards the top of the tower. It was crumbling in spots, but it seemed to be sturdy enough, and he didn't really have much to worry about in any case, even if he fell. Jonathan could survive such a fall without even a scratch on him.
He took his first step onto the foreboding steps, and took another after he realized that they were completely safe. He picked up the pace, and walked up the staircase, looking at the engravings on the walls as he did so. It seemed that the people that had lived here had been fond of recording information in the forms of pictures or glyphs, and there was no change in that trend here. The walls were covered with various scenes, all of a markedly peaceful nature. There were pictures of children playing in the middle of the city, one of a trading caravan coming into the city, and a large group of people waiting to buy from them. Like with the outside however, the pictures slowly started to grow more sinister, and the staircase eventually ended with the same picture as had been on the top of the tower, of Granath devouring the citizens of the city.
Jonathan shuddered, and walked past it, and onto the top of the tower. There was a faint wind blowing up here, an oddity in these parts, and Jonathan enjoyed the subtle breeze, taking off his helmet to feel it on his face. He looked out over the Ash Heaps, feeling a sense of discovery, almost as if he was some explorer in the olden times entering some ancient ruin.
“I met a traveler from an antique land…” Jonathan began, remembering a poem that he had learned in high school, about the folly of a king who had wished to leave his legacy upon the world. All that had remained of him thousands of years later had been a pair of weathered feet standing in the middle of the vast desert, showing that such mortal ambitions were pointless.
Jonathan smiled, and then walked over to the edge of the tower, peering out at the city itself. The city was about ten miles wide, and the buildings seemed to be uniformly distributed. He could not see anything of note among the buildings, save for the cathedral in the center. The rest of the city was made up of towers and uniformly constructed buildings, covered in piles of ash. It was a stark, but also strangely beautiful sight, as if he had been the first person to lay eyes on this place in millennia.
As Jonathan stood there, savoring the view, he suddenly heard a faint noise coming from the distance and he turned around, looking towards the far horizon. A small cloud of dust was rising up from the north, and it looked to be the product of a large army, heading across the ash. Jonathan instinctively knew that they were coming from him, and he quickly leaped off the tower, landing safely on the ash. He knew that this time, whoever was coming would be ready for him.