Ezekiel stood at the edge of the high bluffs hundreds of feet above the ocean water below. White water frothed near jagged rocks and broken cliff faces. Even if he were to be Tier three, he doubted he’d survive a fall from this height. Yet as he stood at the edge, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe overpower and fear or concerns he had at the possibility of falling.
“Oy, Ezekiel! Come here! We think we found something!” Sasha called out from further back. Ezekiel turned, jumping a small distance away from the edge as he returned to his team.
“I’m coming.” Ezekiel said. Making his way back to where Sasha was calling him from, Ezekiel noticed that their group was the only one still in this location. Looking to the distance, he saw that the other groups had apparently moved on.
“What did you find?” Ezekiel asked as he approached.
“It looks like the remains of a structure of some sort. We also have what might’ve been a road at one point but has since been worn away by wind and rain.” Fiana said. She was examining several lifted pieces of stonework that were arrayed in a circular shape. It was fairly large, being nearly twenty feet in diameter. All they could see were a few worn down pieces of stone with gaps in between them. Though some pieces reached nearly six feet high.
“Walls for a signal tower, perhaps?” Ezekiel thought aloud.
“Obviously. The road looks like it might lead to whatever town might’ve been here before it was destroyed.” George said derisively. He wasn’t too pleased with how he and his team had been diverted to investigating the bluffs. The jungle inside the caldera had been what he’d been hoping to investigate. Not some rocky cliffs with little life on them.
“Well, let's map what we can then try to catch up with the rest. Sorry for the hold up. I just haven’t seen anything like this before.” Ezekiel said as he began to draw in a sketch pad. He knew that his group had been assigned to map this area because he’d been distracted by the view. But he couldn’t help it. It was beautiful. He wasn’t sure if he’d get a chance to see such a thing ever again.
George just grunted in reply to Ezekiel’s words. He let the younger Void Mage finish his mapping before moving on. Sasha helped by providing a sketch of the underground supports that were used to anchor the building. Apparently, it had been given additional support, rather than just shaped by Cavern Mages. Something that Ezekiel made note of.
From this information, he figured that something in the area must've been a threat to the stability of the tower. From the way the rocks were worn down, he figured that the area was likely buffeted by windstorms regularly. He and his team moved quickly to catch up and convey this information to the other teams. They’d need to be extra careful. If the winds got too strong, they’d be blown either into the sea or into the caldera. Neither were good options, even for Tempest Mages and their Spirits.
After informing the other half a dozen teams, Ezekiel and his group broke off from the rest. They were going to scout out an area separate from the road that had been marked out. The teams with Tempest Mages went to examine the areas near the caldera and ocean facing cliff, while the rest branched out much like Ezekiel’s team. Only one team stayed true to the road.
The exploration of the top of the bluffs continued for several hours, until all the teams eventually converged on the road once again. Markers had been left up by the Cavern Mages in the road team to show where the path had faded and made way. It seemed like smaller watch towers had been lining the road once upon a time. As the teams met up, they all reported their findings. Few as they were.
The teams that explored the random areas in the middle of the rocky expanse found next to nothing. A few misshapen areas of rocks here and there, but nothing of importance. The Tempest teams that examined the caldera and cliff faces had much better luck. They both managed to find the remains of what appeared to be shaped pathways leading down. It was decided that, after meeting up with the road team, they would try to examine the ocean facing cliffs first.
Meeting up with the road team threw those plans out the window.
Apparently, when the road team managed to find the end of the road, it was in the middle of nowhere. There were no remains of buildings, no remains of watch towers, no anything to indicate that a Ruin once sat here. Upon some initial examination, they only discovered two other pathways, each leading to another series of watch towers. One heading into the caldera, the other heading further down the bluffs. But a quick rundown with their Spirits showed that those paths also ended in dead ends.
Thus, the party remained at the convergence of the three paths. They decided that they would explore for a bit longer before heading back with their findings. They were told to search for anything interesting, so they would continue until it got close to nightfall.
Thus, for about an hour the parties continued to search. The Cavern Mages and Spirits spread out their senses in order to check for any subterranean abnormalities but found nothing. The Tempest Mages took to the skies, looking for any possible shapes or outlines that were too big to infer from the ground. There was no luck there either.
Ezekiel, having little ability to scout like some of the others, took to looking at the different maps drawn by the various teams. It was only after he managed to put most of it together as one greater whole that he noticed something interesting.
“Is that what I think it is?” Shine asked when they noticed the same thing as Ezekiel.
“I hope so, but we should have this double checked.” Ezekiel replied.
“Hey, Fiana! Can you check something for me?” He called out. The Scholar looked up from her own investigations and moved over to check what he was looking at.
Arrayed out on the ground were several copies of the maps made by each of the teams. They were all of different sizes and shapes, so there was a great deal of controlled chaos in their layout. However, Ezekiel had taken to redrawing the maps onto a single large map that covered all three paths leading to and from the convergence point that they were currently at.
Looking at the map that Ezekiel had drawn, Fiana shook her head in confusion. “What am I supposed to be looking at?” She asked.
Pointing out the shape of the map, Ezekiel explained.
“I know there’s points missing, but if we fill in those blanks with watch towers that have been fully eroded due to natural causes, or even Wild Spirit conflicts, then doesn’t this layout look a bit like a Spiral Path Formation?” Ezekiel asked. “I even took the small markers of stonework from the random areas that weren’t attached to any of the three paths into account.”
Fiana’s eyes grew wide as she checked over the map once again. She mentally filled in some of the blank areas as she took into consideration Ezekiel’s words. She immediately started writing down notes and marking off seemingly random areas on the map. The same ones that Ezekiel had mentally placed but hadn’t yet written down.
A Spiral Path Enchantment was a large-scale reinforcement formation meant to cover a large area. It used three anchor points surrounding a central focus. The central focus was never on the same horizontal plane as the anchor points, so as to allow the reinforcement to cover a three-dimensional area. Such a formation also served as a hub for other formations that could be incorporated into a large area for various purposes. Such as modular architecture.
Such a formation was extremely costly in the modern day, and required mana rich materials that weren’t readily available. They were known to exist in the Age of Hubris, but only a few cities in the world had them nowadays. As far as Ezekiel knew, the Willowbrush Empire had only one, which was their capital city of Trillious. From what he understood, there was no way, currently, for any cities in the Archipelago to have such a formation.
“I think you might be right. It would explain the layout perfectly. But the convergence point shows no signs of having a central tower.” Fiana said after she finished marking points on the map.
“The Spiral Path Formation only requires a central point at a different horizontal plane. It says nothing about that plane being above the ground.” Ezekiel explained. “If concealment enchantments were incorporated into the formation, that would explain why the Cavern Mages and Spirits haven’t sensed anything. Our best chance to break through it would be to just dig straight down. No indirect inspections will work.”
“Any one capable of laying such a formation would’ve thought of that. So, it’s probably protected from Cavern Magic.” Fiana refuted. “Unless they didn’t bother to, since the watchtowers and anchor points would’ve been visible already. But in that case why hide the underground pathways?
As neither of them were experts in Cavern Magic, the two decided to call back the rest of the teams. While there were only a couple of Scholars mixed into the other teams, there were enough of them to be able to provide a number of theories in addition to Ezekiel’s examinations. It was agreed, however, that the placement of the roads and watch towers, when combined with the miscellaneous buildings, did indeed make a rough and incomplete layout for a Spiral Path Formation.
Given that agreement, it was decided that the Cavern Mages would first try to open a hole in different areas of the road’s convergence point. To see if they could find anything. They immediately discovered that something was there, from the fact that none of the stone could be moved. The ground could not be moved, at all, by any of the three Cavern Mages, and their Cavern Spirits couldn’t dig through the earth either. Something was blocking them. Ezekiel was, similarly, blocked when he tried.
When going outside the convergence area, the Cavern Spirits were able to dig down a few dozen feet, but no deeper. They also noticed that there was a distinct lack of Ambient Cavern Mana. Something that was overlooked due to the fact that there was an abundance of Tempest Mana. So, it was considered that this area was simply of a high enough vantage point to have a specific Tempest elemental focus.
The group continued to examine the area as best they could. Moving some of the loose stones around, they noticed that there seemed to be a few hidden areas that could’ve concealed Runes for the enchanting. Overlooked due to the concealing nature of the enchantments. Ezekiel and the other Scholars frantically searched for whatever scraps of Runes they could find. But they were beginning to run out of time. The winds were starting to blow.
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“Catch that paper!” One of the Scholars called to one of the Hunters.
“Quickly! Quickly! We need to mark those Runes down now!” Another called out.
“Make a bunker off to the side! It’ll be too dangerous to head back now!” The sole Adept Cavern Mage screamed over the fast-moving winds.
It happened in a flash. At first the wind seemed to come in slightly more frequent gusts. But it quickly turned into a constant swell of air being thrown into their faces. The Tempest Mages tried to fly up to see how bad the weather was getting. But they barely made it a hundred feet up before they were nearly thrown off their Spirits. Worse yet, in the distance there were storm clouds brewing.
“How the hell did this happen?! It was clear skies barely an hour ago!” George screamed. He was trying to make some branches that could support the walls that the Cavern Mages were putting up.
“The island is fairly huge. As far as we know, this could be the aftereffects of a couple of Legendary Tempest Spirits having a dispute!” Called out the Adept Cavern Mage. “Put an angle on those walls! Ninety-degrees will just make the winds hit them harder!”
Sasha and the other Apprentice Cavern Mage did as they were told. The fortifications were tiny if you were to compare them to the base camp. But they had to make do. Less space meant stronger walls in this case. But there was no guarantee they would last until the end of this storm.
“At least now we know why they didn’t build on top of the bluffs.” Ezekiel thought to himself and Shine.
“Yeah. But that doesn’t really help right now, does it?” Shine said.
Ezekiel did not reply. Turning his focus back to the rune scheme that he’d discovered. He and the other Mages that were adept in Runic enchantments had yet to find the door to the Spiral Path. It was somewhere on the convergence point, but they just couldn’t find it.
“I think I’ve got it!” one Scholar suddenly yelled. “It’s a Three Mountains, Nine Peaks gateway enchantment! Glacial, Tempest, and Cavern!”
“Stop Building the Walls! NOW!” Fiana screamed at the Cavern Mages Building the walls. “How Much mana do you have left? At least a Tier two Step?”
Sasha nodded her head, as did the Adept, but the Apprentice looked nervous. “If I borrow from Hinge, barely.” He said as he pointed at his Spirit.
“It’ll have to do. Where do they need to be?” Fiana asked the Scholar that had pointed out the enchantment.
“At the edges of the Paths.” The Scholar states. “It should open a hole in the center. The standard is one second for every Tier one Step of Mana.”
The Three Mountains, Nine Peaks, gateway enchantment was an enchantment that was used on openings and gateways to ensure that unwelcome people could not gain access to certain areas. It was not an enchantment that Ezekiel was familiar with prior to his second year at Sanafalls. Also, the other Ruins he’d been to before were either destroyed before they could be fully explored or were nothing more than common townships. Not fully fortified cities like this Ruin seemed to be.
This particular enchantment required nine sources of elemental mana. Three of three types. Three people, one of each of the three necessary elements, would have to stand at three different points. By channeling three different types of elemental mana into these points, they would activate the Runic engravings that sealed away the enchanted gateway.
In the Archipelago, Tempest and Glacial Mages were abundant. Cavern Mages less so. They were incredibly lucky that they were assigned as many Cavern Mages as they had been. If only because it was expected that they’d come in handy when searching atop a tall rock face.
The mood was still solemn, however, as they knew they’d only have one shot. A ten-second window to get everyone through the gateway before it closes. Anyone left out would get thrown from the bluffs into the ocean when the storm fully picked up. Worse yet, there was the possibility that they were wrong, and this was not the correct enchantment.
As the nine Mages moved into position, the rest moved close to the center of the convergent point in the three paths.
“NOW!” Fiana screamed. She was barely heard over the howling of the wind.
The nine Mages immediately channeled a full Tier two Step’s worth of mana into the ground. Unlike previously, the mana from the Cavern Mages was accepted, as were the other types of mana. Tri-colored lights spiraled inwards from the Mages. As they reached the center or the area, the ground rumbled as the stone moved aside.
The wind was nearly caught in this now hole in the ground. The resulting cyclone nearly threw Ezekiel and several others off their feet. They needed to move, or they would be thrown into the sea. Fiana screamed something again, but no one heard it this time. It didn’t matter though, since they were all moving toward the hole in the ground anyways. As were the Mages at the edges of the center area.
A part of Ezekiel wanted to wait. To make sure that Sasha and the others made it into the hole. But he knew that he couldn't. He didn’t know how much time had passed since the gateway was opened. He just knew that he would die if he didn’t get inside.
Struggling against the wind, he pushed himself as hard as he could, before he was almost thrown into the ground as the wind shifted and he was pushed downward. Rolling down what he could tell were several dozen stone stairs, Ezekiel tried to reinforce his body as best he could as he fell. He landed with a sharp crack as reached the bottom, landing on his arms. The pain in his wrists told him he’d likely strained or broken something. The pressure from the wind told him they weren’t quite safe just yet.
The sound of several more bodies hitting the ground surrounded him. Though it was barely a muffled thump with the wind making noise from above. Barely a few seconds after he’d landed inside, the gateway above closed. Then all that remained was darkness.
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A small light illuminated the area around Ezekiel and the rest of the Mages were currently resting underground. A torch had been lit and was perched in the center of the platform that they found themselves on. There was a spiraling staircase off to the side. It led up to the top of the bluffs above. Around them were several tunnels, clearly manmade and with enchantments engraved along their walls.
Looking around, Ezekiel saw that everyone had made it through. Although, that was mostly due to the two Life Mages forming vines and yanking the Mages that had opened the door through the wind and into the gate. Such actions had resulted in several injuries, but all the Mages had made it through. As had the Spirits of the Hunters.
They had all been resting for nearly an hour now. Both to recover from their wounds, and to regain as much mana as possible. Unlike above ground, in these tunnels the Cavern Mana was abundant, while the Tempest mana, and several others, was practically non-existent.
It had been debated as to whether or not it would be better to wait until the Cavern Mages had regained enough mana to re-open the door. However, it was ultimately decided that it would be more efficient to camp out here for the night and return to the base camp in the morning. They had no idea how long it would take for the storm to dissipate, but given the recent weather changes, it would probably be clear come morning. At least, that’s what the Tempest Mages said.
With that decision made, the groups decided to once again split into different parties. That way, they could do some initial exploration while those who needed it could rest. Everyone else would be busy setting up their temporary camp with what supplies were available in their Void Pouches.
There was some concern that they would run into the Death Worms from below, but the Scholars who had more extensive knowledge of the Spiral Paths Formation determined that that was unlikely. If the formation held up above ground, then it would’ve held up below ground as well.
Even with the missing components. Given that the three anchors were still standing, the Formation would remain until purposefully dismantled, or one of the Anchors was destroyed. Thus, nothing would be coming up from below. Especially since the Formation’s focus was somewhere below.
With the scouts getting ready to depart, Ezekiel looked to his previous team. Sasha would remain, as she would be necessary for opening the gateway again. Fiana was one of the leaders with the best management skills. George was a Life Mage, and there was no desire to have him put into danger yet again. As such, Ezekiel volunteered to be the member of his team that joined the scouting party.
There were two parties formed from members of the other teams. There weren’t enough of them to search every tunnel connected to the central area they were at, but they could at least get somewhat started. Ezekiel ended up being paired with a Scholar, two Apprentice Hunters, and three Adept Hunters. They would pick one tunnel to explore, returning when they either ran into a fork in the road, or when an hour had passed. Then they would return to rest for the evening so that they were ready to set out back to base in the morning.
Ezekiel and his party were quiet as they scouted out their tunnel. There was little to no talking as they descended. They spent nearly twenty minutes descending. The party passed through multiple rooms, some big, others small, but even as they stopped to inspect the rooms, there was nothing of import to be found. As they moved, Ezekiel took charge of marking out a map. This continued until they reached a large set of doors in an open area much larger than any of the previous ones they had passed through. To the side, Ezekiel also saw a smaller set of doors. But they appeared to be just as heavily reinforced as the massive doors directly in front of the team.
“Fork. Let’s turn back. Kid, mark it down.” One of the Adept Hunters said in a gruff and dismissive tone.
“Wait. I need to check something.” Ezekiel said. The party turned to him as he looked through the pages he’d made into maps. Looking through them, Ezekiel noticed a pattern. “We’ve been slowly walking outward, before walking back inward. I think we’re nearing the tip.”
Ezekiel’s words drew a startle look from the previously bored looking Scholar.
“Are you certain?” The Scholar asked.
“I’ve checked three times. I know my maps are correct. Please, check for yourself.” Ezekiel said. He handed out his maps for the Scholar to check. It took a couple of minutes, but the Scholar saw the same pattern as he did.
“What is it?” The Adept Hunter leading them asked.
“Well, it seems like one of these doors leads to an area outside the Spiral Paths Formation. While the other most likely leads to the focal point of the formation itself. Hence why Ezekiel said we’re near the tip. Most likely the focus is behind that door.” The Scholar said, pointing to the smaller, but heavily reinforced, door to the side.
“So, the big door’s the one leading to the city?” Their leader asked.
“Most likely, but we can’t be certain. Either way, it shouldn’t be too troublesome for us to open either door. None of them are trapped, nor are they tied into the formation.” The Scholar said. Ezekiel found himself nodding along. Nothing was out of place as far as they could tell.
“Why were there so many rooms if it all just led to and from the city?” One of the Apprentices asked.
They were likely checkpoints. The other paths probably have more rooms and connecting doorways. The structure we’re currently in might be an inverted castle.” The Scholar explained. “We just got lucky to have found the most direct route out.”
The party fell silent for a moment. They were all internally debating whether or not they should open the door. Being the first to confirm the presence of the city Ruins, not just the underground castle they were currently in, would be incredibly rewarding in its own way.
“Let’s open the door. But no one goes through. Understood!” Their leader said.
Agreements were made all around. Everyone wanted to look through the door. Ezekiel was somewhat apprehensive but decided to go along with the party. Though he decided to hold back a bit and stay near the rear. Something that was overlooked by the rest of the room. Shine silently agreed with his intentions. Even if it did mean they wouldn’t get a good look at the other side.
“One. Two. Three!” The Scholar quietly called out. A loud creaking sound echoed through the room as the doors slowly opened. Runic engravings glowed along the door as they created an opening a couple feet wide.
“By the Ancients...” The Hunters and Scholar all gasped in amazement.
Ezekiel took the chance to move forward. Looking through the gap in the doors, he saw a shallow slope winding downward. At the bottom lay a sprawling city with mostly intact buildings. The lights from their torches were drowned by the natural bioluminescent glow coming from countless strange and unusual plant life growing in the underground cavern.
Slowly, reluctantly, the party closed the door. Their party’s Scholar resealed it with the Runic enchantments. The party then made their way back to the top of the tunnel. As they reunited with the rest of the groups, they suffered a minor reprimand for not immediately returning after reaching the two doors. But none of them really cared. They had been the first to find the Ruins.