...and leave the fiery pit on my own...

~

I woke up what must have been ages later, and wished with every ounce of me that the monster would've just finished me off.

I was in complete agony, by every definition of the word. At least I went full badass mode during the fight, but that's all I've got left in me. There were genuinely no reasons for me to get up, or at least there weren't until I got a giant crick in my back from laying on the stone, which somehow was worse than uncountable puncture wounds, cuts, scrapes, bruises, and probably broken bones by this point.

Sefal was still out when I got up, and I felt like an old man - shuffling along, holding my stomach with one hand and using the other to hang on to the wall.

The lighting in this room was low as well, and had a large door at its center, along with two halls at its side. I got on with my difficult hobble, inching my way to one of the doors, which I discovered led to an old, yet fairly comfy living space. A small and humble area with a bed and basic amenities, probably where the guards once slept.

So, I came back to Sefal, woke her, and we held each other with an arm over the other's back while we made our way quickly - well, I guess that's relative - to the room.

From there, I got some of the best sleep I've ever had. Yes, you heard me right, sleep.

I could sit here and ponder but it's obvious enough to me that it comes down to: I got my shit rocked, got big hurty, body go sleep while it heal.

Pain and sharing a bed and being in an old and probably spider-filled room were all things that completely escaped my mind, and probably hers too. It was a place to rest and heal. Neither of us were that great after the battle before and hadn't healed all the way before heading into this one, so you can image the kind of state that left us in.

And with the big fight all done and probably a ticket home somewhere in this underground castle, we had nowhere to go and so much time to kill - so I got more than a little bit of shut eye.

It felt kind of like when you go to bed a little late, so when you wake up and let yourself get 5 minutes more of sleep, those 5 minutes are the most heavenly ever. Except it was that for the entire probably multiple days I slept on and off.

We had the rest of our rations to last us long enough to get back on our feet, literally, and once we did, we figured it a good time to explore. That and the both of us, in our pained, tired, and grouchy state, were ready to kill each other after sharing such a small bed for so long.

So then came the next set of giant doors, and with these, I was only confirming to myself that these people were pretty damn full of themselves. Nevertheless, Sefal and I locked eyes and both sort of waited for the other to give that silent "okay".

We could push open the doors to anything, but what we did open them to took our breath away.

It was another giant, grand hall, but this one had a much happier, more proud and welcoming style, versus the grim, you're-about-to-die feel before the shapeshifting beast we fought. That and this hall was way wider and had a bunch more rooms and halls and the like sprouting from it.

"What is all this?" I asked in an awestruck whisper.

"I don't know... but this is more than just a tomb. You got some steps left in you?"

"Oh please. I'm doing more damage to myself being near you than I would be throwing myself at a wall in this state."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, and we decided to explore. The upper level of the entry hall led to a grand throne room, and outside of that, it had just about anything you could think to find in a castle. All of it was left unlocked and in surprisingly good condition, too.

After what I'm sure must be an unthinkable amount of time, the whole of this underground castle hadn't rotted away, faded, or lost most of its life and vibrance. And it didn't cut corners when it came to detail and crafsmanship.

A small treasury room had the riches of the castle literally sitting on a floating platform, which completely melted Sefal's mind.

It wasn't the biggest, and had its fair share of living spaces, most of which appeared like they had been lived in at some point or other. In a small handful of them, we found skeletons, which got my mind ticking and starting to think about who might have lived here.

Going past the throne room, the grander bedrooms adjoined a feast hall, a large living room, and a decently full library/study - most of the stuff here seemed like it was written or drawn by the inhabitants of the castle.

So I say again, this really was just a full and proper castle. Sefal and I had some honest fun exploring it, both in awe of every meticulous carving in the trim of the tiniest corner, to every marvelous cut in the thousand pieces of glass in each chandelier. There was much to behold, and time and curiosity were all too abundant to the beholders.

My questions about who lived here and why this place was made so deep in a cave were running rampant. All sorts of theories formed. Like what if it was a prison like that city, or maybe this was made so long ago that it was above ground then? Maybe this world works differently than Earth and that's a possibility. Not that it seems likely, but I wasn't ruling out anything.

The master bedroom, which was kind of like its own tiny house - castles will always be castles I guess - had a room at the end of its hallway. In some weird way it felt like this was the end of the castle, like its whole flow led to this one place.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Inside was a carpeted, round room, full of portraits, ever slightly faded, but all of them still bore well-detailed glimpses at the people I could only assume lived here. A podium right in front of the entrance held a socket, and a purple gem sat in a box attached to the front of it.

I placed the gem in the socket, and magic shot out from the base of the podium, connecting with the edges of the portraits and wiping the flames from the torches of the room. It was a deeply-intricate magic circle that was woven into the room itself, and I've only ever seen a magic circle once or twice as Lydia, so this only set me further on the edge of my seat.

I was on guard, and Sefal outright drew her knife (which I was kind of jealous of, since I no longer had a weapon at all), but a light shined from the other end of the floor. It was a gleaming speck that slowly morphed and evolved into a translucent, eerily holographic shape of... a man.

"Is it working?" The hologram spoke, looking towards us. His voice sounded completely real, like he was actually standing there, but I knew a little better.

Another voice with a face or form we couldn't see, sounding like it was standing right by Sefal and I, said, "hold on."

The sort of magic hologram flickered for a moment, then grew more and more and more, until it revealed a whole slew of people, all of them posed up against one another and seemingly wearing their best, like a wedding photo or a class photo.

They were still settling in and in the process of posing, which in a sense was surreal. A photo of a family only tells you so much. The tiniest intricacies in how they moved about one another and just looked as they lived spoke so much more than a thousand words.

"There we go," the same second voice said, before skipping into view herself.

All we could do was stand there and watch.

"You're supposed to start speaking now, silly," one of the girls near the first man we saw said.

"Right, right." He cleared his throat and put his hand on his chest. "My name is Levahn Cassliamastro. I'm known by many names, and have much of a legacy to leave behind. There's so many things I want to say, but I unfortunately don't have a lot of time."

"Way to be all professional," a shorter man in the back said.

The man known as Levahn sighed.

"I guess the best place I should start is with congratulations. I think. If someone is seeing this, we're almost definitely all dead." When he said this, nobody in the room really seemed to mind. "This means you've beaten our golem. You've beaten the creatures that lurk in this mountain. To at least some extent, you're very clearly a formidable fighter. Or fighters. That or our golem didn't work. I'm getting ahead of myself."

"If you know anything about me or my people, or the nation I built and raised, or the time in which I lived, I'm sure there's still some things you don't know," he continued. "One of them might be the fact that I'm still here, alive. There are a lot of stories left to tell," he continued, but was cut off.

"I like bedtime stories," spoke a practically naked, dog eared woman that looks like she eats dragons and shits concrete blocks, curled up at the base of the group. I got it. Strength in the body, but not the brain.

"Hey, hush!" Another, seemingly constantly annoyed man right next to Levahn commanded. Levahn dug what was basically a dog treat from his pocket and tossed it at the dog girl, which she proceeded to eat... like a dog.

How um... atmospheric.

"What's important is that you learn the truth, in its entirety. Given that you're here and you've witnessed the scale of our creation, I trust you - as the not just strong, but intelligent people I'm sure you are - can appreciate the knowledge in these walls.

We've left behind many things, and as a price for all I'm sure you went through against the castle's defender, what lies here is now yours. Call yourself the castle's lord, for all I care. This is, in the end, a well-glorified tomb for us all."

"Hey hey, nobody touches this shirt I'm wearing!" Someone piped up.

"Yeah, they better polish the statue in the garden."

"If anyone even thinks about taking the sword on my mantle, so help me-"

"That's enough. All of you," Levahn commanded sternly, and they all snapped into obedience. He stepped a bit closer towards the center, letting us get a good look at a noble, majestic stature and dress that commanded attention, respect, and oozed confidence and leadership. "We're now echoes of the past. But the best I could ask of you, hero or bandit, is that you use the knowledge and possessions I grant you for the good of the coming war."

I wasn't sure what he meant about that. Could he have known about this new war all that time ago? Or was it another war between the two?

"I think that's about all the time I have. Please, above anything else, create your own future. To be strong and give all that strength to every command of another would be to have no strength at all. Good luck."

Everyone waved, now starting to seem just a little sad and regretful, and that was it. The recording ended, and Sefal and I were standing there left with a million and one more questions than we started with.

I'd heard that name somewhere before...

"That was- that- he was the leader of the Golden Warriors," Sefal stuttered. "This is definitely their tomb."

I was silent in thought for a moment, then shouted, "I call dibs on the castle!"

Sefal was about to regurgitate some insult or other when a rumbling stopped us both short, followed by the other end of the room folding outward to green grass and... sunlight?

"What's this all about yea?" I asked in a mock British accent, and got a weird look from Sefal since she didn't understand English.

A few curious and uncertain glances at each other later, and we ventured out. Did we make it to the surface already?? I don't feel like we've gained that much distance vertically, but then again my idea of where I am relative to where I started is a complete joke, and that would be putting it real sweet.

As we looked around, it became quickly apparent that we weren't above ground, per se. What we were in was a mind-melting replication of it. Deep within this all but forgotten about underground castle, we were seeing what Sefal described as the greatest feats of magic to have ever had the misfortune of not gracing humanity.

Some force we couldn't even comprehend basked a humble, yet no less sizable mansion in artificial but all-too-real sunlight, along with the somehow-still-alive flower arches whose shadows perfectly crossed over the paths within an impressive garden while a mysterious breeze gently caressed the perfectly healthy life complimenting the countryside-feeling landscape.

I could only describe it all as just... a breath of fresh air. Somehow these people crafted a perfect haven with life. Green grass. Nothing here had been touched by time or wear. I half expected to open the doors to the mansion and find the people we just saw holograms of having a meal at the table.

But that wasn't the case.

We did, however, find a house that had absolutely been lived in. While having a fair number of rooms, it wasn't anything overly complex. There were some areas I didn't understand the purpose of, but they all probably had something to do with the fact that the people who lived here most likely never left.

Well, either way, there was all kinds of stuff here. And nobody's left to claim it, so like that guy said, it's mine now.

I kinda have a loot goblin mindset when it comes to times like these. I just like having stuff, okay?

As soon as we got inside, I went upstairs, found the biggest bedroom, shouted, "aaaand goodnight," walked up to giant bed, and plopped right on it.

I guess appearances were a little deceiving, on that front. Not only was I greeted with a rock-hard mattress and felt like I might as well have jumped on a bed of jagged spikes given all my injuries, but I wound up with a mouthful of dust, too.

So after that extremely painful coughing fit, I was able to brush off the dust and get some rest.