Silence. It was so very silent; whatever had happened here…had concluded well before she had arrived.

The foreigner stood at the edges of an entry-point, one that led into a large…contained chamber of sorts down below, one that was rather bright and well lit.

Yet, despite all the luminescence around…her vision was still rather rustic. It was not necessarily blurry, for her eyes worked fine, rather…none of it made sense. Light was taken in yet…nothing was made of it, unprocessed by her brain. Though, she was not necessarily blind either…and could still make some things out, her ears doing most of the initial work.

However, her senses were quickly readjusting and readapting to this new environment. It did not take that relatively long before…her visual processing returned more towards normalcy, her returning vision confirming most of the inferences her own ears had already drawn.

This chamber of a space was volumetrically large and wide, far more so than any of the nesting grounds she had been to prior. It was also…rather ‘dome’-like in shape…the roof extending quite high up, suggesting…she must deeper underground…for certainly nothing like that was protruding into the surface.

The chamber was exceptionally luminant relative to that pitch-dark narrow pass through which she had traversed to reach here. Strange crystalline materials were imbued in every facet of this space…from the actual crystal growths…to these strange columns and pillars scattered around…to the very rocks and minerals composing the floor and walls.

The entry-point on which she stood…was rather high up compared to the ground…quite so, though she could…probably slide down…without major injury.

Likewise, her entry-point was among dozens of such holes scattered around the walls of this dome of a crystalline chamber…all points of entry from similar narrow passes converging onto this one single point. Yet…all of them, much like hers, were rather high relative to the ground and floor…none being accessible from the ground-level.

The walls themselves were rather smooth…as if meant to deny any ability to climb out…though…she could…probably climb back up, for it did not seem impossible.

Regardless, the only way out of this chamber from the ground was…a rather tall…and gargantuan…corridor of sorts at the very far end to her far right…one that led into a dark and obscure…wherever; quite the many…strange and anomalous…sounds had been bouncing and echoing out from there.

The foreigner, however, spent only a few seconds taking in these details. Rather instantaneously, as soon as her brain could make sense of all the light stimuli around…she noticed…quite the anomaly within the middle of this chamber, one that was…impossible not to notice, and had snatched her attention quickly.

It was a large ‘bubble’…exotic in all ways…radiant and glimmering away in ‘heavenly’ color. So ‘pure’ and ‘energized’ in appearance, as if made from pure concentrated ‘energy’…yet while being absolutely not. So smooth and squishy yet so firm and hard…though with faint traces of dusty exoticism flaking and wisping off. It was somewhat transparent, she could make out…the vague presences of four shadowy figures; animate and alive…yet frozen and scared.

Huh…fascinating…a total protective shield-bubble…most likely produced from the arcane, for certainly the locals had not the technology for…make such a bizzarity. Hmm…though wait…she quickly realized...this bubble...had very faint ‘roots’ connected from the outside…none emanating from within the bubble…rather…somewhere someplace else.

Hmm…so wait…did that mean that the source of this bubble was—oh whatever, now was not the time for such a thing.

All she cared to know was that bubble seemed to be where the survivors were…but the survivors of what? Indeed, she within seconds shifted her attention…to the scene itself.

Truly…as she focused in detail…she began to realize just how much carnage had befallen this chamber…truly, all those echoing sounds she had heard prior…began to make sense.

The ground area seemed damaged all around…full of holes and small craters along the littered fragments and remains of destroyed crystalline debris…with spikes impaling the walls around.

Corpses were scattered about…and they were in rather the horrific state. She counted four…no five…no…seven…that were still vaguely identifiable as a single…cohesive…former-person, though even then…hardly in any…proper condition.

One was riddled with clear holes of missing flesh and had been cauterized into something truly inhuman. Two had been…seemingly overwhelmed with spikes that had burstingly torn through, and the remaining four had been…thoroughly impaled…either into the walls or…from the bottom up.

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Besides these seven…all of the rest…were bits and pieces scattered about…but she…had enough…experiences…in such affairs…to be able to deduce from these scattered pieces…an estimated total count of twelve…maybe fourteen…denizens.

The foreigner stared in the direction of that large…dark and obscured corridor entryway at the far end to her right.

Whatever had done all of this…was most certainly somewhere…down in that direction. For how long…she did not know, but she had already inferred…from those bouncing sounds whil in route…never mind upon arrival…that whatever it was…was not only large…but also dangerous, even for someone like her.

Time was absolutely crucial then…she needed to find a way to extract those four survivors before—

“Gods’ sacred toilet…what…what in the Demon-King’s fiery inferno happened down there?” so suddenly blurted in remark from behind…the wagoneer…panting somewhat…having finally caught up to the foreigner.

The foreigner jerked somewhat as she quickly twisted her head in a glance…a rare instance of…genuine startled surprise; so utterly fixated her attention had been on the scene at hand…that she bad not at all…noticed…the wagoneer’s encroaching arrival.

“Do not…surprise me in…such a way…” the foreigner stated, somewhat sternly and bluntly…before her eyes quickly returned their attention to the chamber in front.

“Heh…I didn’t even think you of all folks could be sneaked up on…” he replied rather humorously…his mind trying…to cope with what he was staring at…for indeed, it was rather the awful scene.

The wagoneer leaned in as he began to peer along with the foreigner. “Hmm…I guess that…holy barrier is where…the stragglers are holding-out…lucky they brought a priestess with them…a Trinitarian one from the looks of it…” he commented in observation.

The foreigner sighed; “Well then, now that you are here…I need you to stay and watch with the gun…I am going to go down there and try to help” she stated.

“…” the wagoneer stared at her…blankly; “Lady…you might be a little menace but…I’ve seen the type of things that make this sort of carnage…not even an Imperial anti-monster regiment could get rid of them…it’s why these sorts still exist these days at all” he remarked bluntly.

Yet, the foreigner simply glanced at him partially, her empty mask-obscured ignited eyes indifferent and flat; « Ergo? » she replied coldly; “I do not have the plans of fighting…I just need to retrieve those survivors” she stated.

The wagoneer stared, unamused; “Alrightly then, fine, but then…how?” he inquired bluntly; “I mean…look around, lady, this place is a clear trap-den…once you fall down there…nobody’s climbing back up…and I mean, sure, I’ve got no doubt a little menace like you can maybe climb back up…but…those folks down there? I doubt it. If they could…then they would’ve done it already, but they haven’t…they’re still stuck down there doing nothing” he added…even more bluntly.

He sighed; “Let’s face it, those folks down there…they’re as good as dead and they know it too…I say we get out of here before whatever monstrosity did all this comes back and drags us to the grave with them…” he stated frankly, and by no means…easily; “I don’t like doing this either, but…I’m just saying…none of us will make it out if we stay and get involved…which means none’ll be able to tell what happened” he remarked.

The foreigner, however, tsked; “Do not ask me to leave them behind, I will find some means. And also, do not presume that there is the logic in the fear…they could be with the capability of climbing but are paralyzed by their fear…I have seen such more times than you could possibly begin to understand” she replied, very coldly; “now, be quiet and let me do my job. If you are without the interest of helping, then simply leave…but I am going down into there…” she said, rather standoffishly, her mask-obscured eyes drifting away and down somewhat; « …și jo pería, dunc ita’st » thus her voice remarked in fainter tongue.

The wagoneer…remained silent; he could immediately tell from this…rather stark divergence in her otherwise calm…even if stern and distant…demeanor that she was serious and…adamantly so. No words or implorations would convince her otherwise; she was simply not having it.

He sighed with a groan of begrudging acceptance…as he promptly readied his firearm…taking a more appropriate stance and position. “Fine fine…I’ll stay up and do my best to highwatch” he said begrudgingly.

The foreigner simply…exhaled a faint and quiet acknowledging breath; “I give thanks…if that…whatever…comes, I just need you to—” she began to say, now more cordially, but “Yeah yeah little menace, I was a sharpshooter in the strongest fighting army to ever be in these lands; I know what you want me to do…now get down there already!” the wagoneer interjected.

The foreigner nodded…tossing her empty sack to the wagoneer’s boots; without any more delay, she quickly hopped down. Her boots and figure slid down against the smooth…yet hard…crystalline wall, only barely avoiding a sharp tumbling roll and fall. She reached the ground…relatively unscathed…though perhaps it hurt quite a bit more than she cared to admit. She could still walk, move, and react…which was all that mattered.

She immediately got up and made way for that…‘holy’ barrier bubble-thing, reaching it quickly as she halted before it. She could quickly tell that the obscured figures within…were reacting to her presence, suggesting they too could see her.

Hmm…they seemed confused and startled…turning heads to one another…communicating? Talking? She could not tell, for no sounds emanated out from it.

“…hello?” she greeted loudly as her hand began to touch and prod at the bubble…which slushed and waved as if it were…‘energized’ goopy liquid, radiant dust wisping off, yet…it was so hard, stiff, and solid…incapable of being penetrated.

Truly…the feeling of touching such an exotic and unnatural thing…was one almost impossible to describe in words…only understood from the experience alone.

“Hello? I greet you! I am friend here to help” she said further, knocking at the protective barrier…but it was very clear that they could not hear her…either.