POV: Altair Oberon Lyrius

The tunnel was dark and covered in moss and other plants as it comfortably crumbled away under the weight of time itself. I looked back, over my shoulder, and saw the man that had led me here, still wrapped inside his ragged and dirty brown cloak with his face nothing but a layer of black beneath his hood. He stood behind this thin layer of green that constantly moved and reminded me of the strange effect one could see in the heat, something I had never seen in person but in old western movies that I occasionally watched. The man suddenly disappeared.

'You know, whatever that guy does, I really don't like it,' Ira said.

'I think I get what you mean...' Arva said.

"You can come back out now," I said as I studied the walls of the tunnel.

They were lit up by a strange turquoise light of sorts that came from small openings within the beautiful wall. Patterns had been engraved into it, it was slightly darker than the rest of the wall, which was a sort of pale brown with some spots that more closely resembled the colour of sand. The engraved markings were a sort of dark greyish brown.

'No, I don't think I will. It's better if I can actually hear that demon queen in your head,' Arva responded.

"If you say so," I responded.

'I have a name, you know, it's Ira,' Ira said.

'Right, of course, great demon queen of wrath,' Arva responded.

'I swear to the eight...' Ira said.

"Alright, now would you two kindly stop arguing inside my head I can't hear my own fucking thoughts!" I said loudly, my voice echoing through the tunnels.

As I would realize only moments later, that might have been a mistake. A loud roar rang out from deep within. I didn't know what creature could have produced such a roar but it was something that might have once made me drop to my knees and beg to live. But now, now it barely affected me. Rather, I was excited to face whatever had just roared.

The tunnel was straight, just leading deeper and deeper into the mountain itself at a slight downward angle. Somehow it was cold down here but also warm, the air was wet and dry at the same time and the walls and floor and ceiling managed to look dusty and immaculately clean all at the same time. It looked old due to the cracks that were all over the walls but the parts that weren't cracked seemed as if they had been put there maybe a week or so ago.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

'I think we're in a dungeon,' Ira said.

"So this is a dungeon? Now I'm wondering who built this place..." I said as I took off my black leather glove and let my bare hand slide across the wall, feeling each crack, the roughness but in equal parts smoothness of the stone the walls were made of.

'They say these things have been around since before the Times of Beginning...' Ira said.

"I thought there was nothing before the Time of Beginning... since, you know, it's called Time of Beginning," I said.

'That's what I thought... until I first met the eight greater devils,' Ira said. 'They're far too old, but they seem to be too... full of themselves to ever tell anyone about that time.'

"Hmm... now that's something that I want to find out more about," I said as I passed through an archway and stepped into a large chamber.

Before me, was a bridge-stairway that led down to a platform made from natural stone instead of the pale brown stone the walls of the tunnel were made of. The entire chamber seemed like it had either been naturally formed within the mountain or had been dug out by people that liked the natural look of stalactites and stalagmites that aggressively stuck out of both the ground and ceiling of the cave chamber. The platform in the middle of the chamber was largely empty, except for one large black creature that I could barely see in the darkness. It seemed to be guarding another bride-stairway that led up to another tunnel that was at around the same height of this tunnel.

"Seems like I'll find out what roared like that," I said as I walked down the stairs, smiling and cracking my knuckles before putting the glove I had taken off back on.

POV: Rudolpho Alami

I stared down at the documents that had been given to me. On them were many villages, all written down with great detail of what he did there and who was sent after him. Crosses next to the name of every man and woman sent after him told me that he had become so powerful that no paladin could deal with him easily. But for some reason, the church seemed to think that sending more and more paladins after him as well as callers would work out at some point.

I sighed as I looked at his last known location. A small village at the very edge of the Galgar crater, a village near the Silent Mountains.

"I will get you, you dirty heretic. And I won't make your death painless..." I said as I put the documents into my satchel and activated my magic mark.

With the highest speed I could I ascended towards the sky and changed my momentum, now charging towards the Silent Mountains, just standing in the air, wind blowing against me as anger boiled within me. In the distance, I could see the mountains slowly grow and become more and more visible. Some of its peaks reached all the way beyond the clouds. I changed my direction and shot down to the ground, killing all my momentum just metres above it.

People were staring at me as I walked along the dirt path of the small village in the middle of the valley. I only stopped once I reached the village inn, pushed open the door and went inside. The first things I saw were the multiple wanted posters hanging on a blackboard. And there it was, his wanted poster. Written beneath his name was his bounty: Five Hundred Golds... a large sum only possible because he killed a member of the Signia family.

I turned to the counter and walked to the innkeeper.

"H-How can I help you?" the old man asked.

I pointed to the wanted poster of Altair Oberon Lyrius.

"Any clue where he is?" I asked.

"W-Well, af-after he s-stayed here he, he went into the mountains and some paladins and callers went after him," the old innkeeper said.

"So he's still in the mountains?" I asked.

"H-He should be," the innkeeper said.

"Good... good," I said as I turned away, throwing a few silvers onto the counter as I left the inn. "I'm going to get you!"