"Huh... Where is that note?" Amber drummed her fingers on the desk as she let out a frustrated exhale.

She was sure she had not sent the orders to the Flower Girls and others to investigate that tomb as Hestia had asked. Even though Theon reluctantly agreed to the exploration, Hestia said it could wait until they seized that part of Cridia. Nonetheless, the orders she prepared back then had vanished from her desk.

"Qirún, have you seen the draft of the orders I left on my desk five days ago?" Amber asked her secretary.

Qirún looked at her with a terrified expression, slowly raising both her hands to cover her lips. "I beg for your pardon, my Queen!"

"What have you done?" Amber asked inquisitively, but calmly.

"The orders were sealed with your insignia, my Lady, so I delivered them..."

"Oh Gods... When?!" Amber weakly covered her eyes.

"Five days ago, my Queen." The Elf swallowed nervously.

"Has the group already embarked, or they are still gathering the necessary resources?"

"They left Avalon the same day, my Lady. I am so sorry!"

"It's not your fault, Qirún. I shouldn't have sealed that letter in the first place..." Amber would laugh if not for the danger of that mission. "Anyway... I must now find Hestia and Theon. Rather immediately."

•••

Ian was whistling a merry melody as he assessed the unassuming cave right in front of him. They reached their intended location after two days of slow travel to avoid being detected. The cave, where a supposed tomb was located, was in a fairly big mound between huge boulders that looked like remnants of some crude gateway. The rest of the group were preparing a small camp and masking traces of their presence. Lilly was standing behind him, observing him nervously.

"I don't sense any traps," he finally declared, making her take a deep breath.

"What a relief. I was afraid it would be like the last time..."

"Well... I don't sense anything here. But who knows what's deeper?" Ian shrugged, and she nodded.

"Shall we go?" she asked with apprehension in her voice.

"The Queen sent us here to investigate, so I guess so..."

Rose, Iris, Dahlia, Lanka, Idna, Tulir, Thiule, Xavier, Daniel, Re-kari, and Auburn had just finished covering their tracks and were masking the camping wagons as part of the dense bushes that grew in the area. The shadow wolves were patrolling the area, but leaving a few people behind would be a good idea. Ian scratched his neck, wondering who should stay. After a while and a few more nods to himself, he finally decided.

"Xavier, Daniel and Auburn. You three will stay to guard the entrance. I don't like the idea of stepping into a cave while some bad guys might find out about us."

"Yes, sir," Auburn grinned.

"All right. We should return in two or three hours. If we find anything nasty or dangerous, we will call it a day and return to camp." Ian took out his crossbow and after a moment, the group entered the cave.

They entered a narrow passage that soon opened to a big chamber scarcely lit by the outside light. Rose and Lilly summoned two bright orbs of magic that soon pushed away the darkness so the group could see their surroundings.

"That's it?" Re-kari was the first to break the uncomfortable silence.

The chamber was a dead end. No other corridor or gap led deeper into the cave, causing confusion. However, they proceeded to inspect the walls to make sure there was no hidden passage. After almost an hour of knocking and even straight-up hammering the walls, they left the cave. There was nothing behind the walls, making it quite pointless to investigate any further. They exchanged their opinions about the cave, but despite the obvious, they all felt that something was not right.

"All right... We will take turns during the night watch. Three people watch while the rest… rest," Ian ordered, wondering why the hell he was appointed the leader. "First watch goes to the camp team."

Auburn nodded while Xavier and Daniel grinned. First watch meant they would be sleeping the whole night later. Ian changed his equipment and, after setting free a massive yawn into the wilderness, he lay in his bed thinking about the cave. They should have taken Vernon with them. Ian went to sleep thinking about the mysterious cave and he couldn't shake a feeling they had missed something important.

•••

The next day, during breakfast, they all were silent. Everyone barely ate their meals, and they were strangely tired. Everyone had a feeling that they should return home and report there was nothing there. Suddenly, Lanka cursed and stood up angrily, summoning them all to come closer.

"Mass Cleanse!" She shouted, and they felt much better. Their gaze darted around as if they were surprised where they were. "Mass Dispel!"

A second wave of Lanka's magic washed them over and they felt more like their usual selves. She trembled in anger, so Thiule tried to calm her down. When she finally calmed down, she took a deep breath.

"This place is cursed. The curse is so exceptional that I can't be anything but impressed. For so little it does, the area and complication of its seal are just breathtaking. I can't dispel it, but I can clean us from its effects. To dispel that thing, we would need at least twenty bishops or even Queen Irene herself," she explained and took a bite of her meal. She chewed the sandwich angrily and after a moment she looked at Ian. "You can't detect it, because it's not directed at us like a trap normally would be. I realised it only because Rose and Lilly were so silent!"

The two girls laughed and pointed at the cave. "Maybe the way deeper is protected by some kind of illusion?" Rose suggested.

"No..." Ian slowly stood up. "I thought about that yesterday. I think it is mechanically sealed."

"What do you mean?" Lilly looked at him curiously.

"The way deeper into that cave must have been sealed using the earth's magic to look like a part of the wall. I think it's a good chance that it's thick enough to fool our senses."

"What do we do now?" Iris finished her breakfast and started gearing up.

"I have a few ideas," Ian admitted.

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They returned to the cave and Ian instructed everyone to look for any crack in the wall or any odd discolouration of the stone. Lanka, in the meantime, was standing in the middle and she used her purification and dispel magic a few times more. After five hours of searching, they exit the cave, defeated once again.

"There is something," Ian stated grimly as he ate his lunch and muttered agreement arose from everyone. "This is personal now. I will fucking find the way deeper."

"How about we start blasting the chunks of walls?" Lilly suggested.

"Nah... That could compromise the cave structure and make the ceiling..." Ian froze with his spoon halfway towards his mouth. His eyes widened as if he realised something. "Of course..."

He ran towards the cave, and everyone followed him. He was looking at the cave ceiling and just after fifteen minutes, he finally found what he was looking for. "There you are!"

"What?" Tilur looked at him, confused.

Ian took out the pickaxe and a large ladder from his storage space and climbed to the small nook near the ceiling. He smashed the wall just under the ceiling, and everyone heard the echo on the other side of the masked passage. They all smiled and started preparing the equipment while Ian got down from the ladder. After some preparations, they built a wide scaffolding that allowed for easier access to the masked passage. They slowly moved forward, carefully using magic and a pickaxe to confirm the direction. After the next hour of digging mostly downward, they finally dug their way to the cave proper. The air was still and the smell of death was more than apparent here.

"Traps." Ian grinned, stopping everyone in their tracks.

For the last half an hour, Ian was slowly cleaning the chamber in front. Suddenly, Thiule raised an alarm. "The passage behind us is closing!"

The stones were slowly but noticeably growing back. Iris and Rose used their magic to trim them again, and Lanka tried to understand what was going on. Ian, without stopping his work, tried to disarm as many traps as he could.

"I don't know what made it rebuild!" Lanka screamed after desperately looking for any active magic in the area.

"We can't stay here if the passage closes! We are going to suffocate!" Ian screamed, and as he turned away, he noticed a strange figure near the wall. "What is that?!"

Re-kari came closer and poked the figure with his sword. "It's just a figure... I don't think it's alive."

He almost turned away from it when he sensed movement behind him. He leapt forward and rolled on the ground, yelling. "It's a monster!"

The human-like stone statue was moving strangely towards Re-kari, who was already on his feet, hidden behind his shield. Thiule and Dahlia quickly arrived to help their friend. Dahlia took out a massive crossbow from her storage space and, after ducking down for better weapon control, she fired towards the creature. The bolt smashed the stone-like skin, biting deep inside the monster's abdomen and creating large cracks from which a dark and smelly ichor dripped to the floor. The creature screeched with a bloodcurdling howl that shook the entire cave. But the beast was not dead. Despite its wound, it tried to run towards Re-kari and Thiule, but the first one smashed it with a shield. That stunned the creature for a moment, allowing both men to stab it with their swords. However, the slim and deadly blades of Avalon couldn't pierce the stone skin. At that moment, they heard Ian shouting for them to watch out and when they stepped back, something hit the creature, buzzing in the air like an angry hornet, bursting the monster's head into pieces.

"Everyone is all right? What's with the passage?!" Ian shouted.

"It stopped closing," Rose reported, relieved that they managed to avert the crisis.

"What's that?" Re-kari kicked the headless creature.

"I think it's a golem. The golem core is still functioning. Impressive!" Ian leaned over the creature and grabbed his pickaxe he threw to smash the creature's head.

After a moment of consideration, Ian took out a small ring of holding and stored the still-functional golem inside. They took a deep breath and inspected the new cave chamber properly.

"That thing was placed right on our rears, in a way that was easily overlooked." Thiule inspected the hiding spot of the golem. "If it just waited and allowed us deeper into the cave, we would have been in deep trouble. Imagine it closing our escape route and no one knew about it. We would die without even knowing what killed us."

"You are right. Most of the traps I disabled were so harmless I thought they were jokes. A few alarm traps, a few more simple arrow walls, and one fireball trap. Normally I would just disarm them, but I noticed they would inform someone if they were triggered or disarmed. So I disabled them." Ian nodded slowly. "I guess that whoever set that trap expected that anyone who gets this far would simply move forward, leaving maybe some rear guard that would be easily killed by that golem. A horrifyingly impressive trap."

"Should we retreat for now?" Iris asked uncertainly.

"No... We should, however, send a report to the camp. Iris and Idna, can you go tell them what happened? We will wait for you here and try to set some alarms in case the passage starts closing once again," Ian decided after a moment.

It took just fifteen minutes for the girls to return, and Ian managed to build a simple contraption that would alarm them if the passage started closing again. They slowly moved forward, using Avalon’s spiders as their scouts. Soon they found themselves in some man-made room. It was far too regular for the work of nature, and what was more, it was full of strange writings on the wall. Tulir took out the paper to start writing down the letters, but Lanka stopped him.

"Don't do it. Everyone, don't stare too much at these letters. These things are evil. I have never felt so much malice in just writing. I am afraid that by writing them down, you will invite that evil to your soul. Our lack of knowledge about these letters saves us from a bigger danger." She raised her staff, but after a few seconds of hesitation, she lowered it and took out a scroll.

The spell she cast from it covered the walls and evil letters with a golden light that created a barrier which protected the group. The air in the room changed, making it more breathable, but the feeling of dread was gradually rising in them. At the end of that room were rusted iron doors, closed shut.

"Behind these doors, evil awaits. Be ready," Lanka whispered, grabbing her staff tighter.

Everyone nodded, and they prepared themselves. Ian focused his power on the doors, but soon he shook his head in frustration. Then he smirked. From his holding space, he took out a large sledgehammer and started smashing the doors. The sparks lit the room with each hit and it took almost ten minutes of hard work to finally burst the doors open. The heavy stench of decay hit them, making Lilly and Idna recoil back and vomit.

"Purify!" Lanka yelled, fighting off a wave of nausea.

The white light that emanated from her staff pierced the darkness of the next room. While its light was far too small to illuminate the darkness, they managed to see rows of corpses that lay on the floor. Lanka's spell managed to purify the putrid air, allowing them to enter. Just one glance at the room was enough for them to realise they saw the outcome of some forbidden ritual. With the Tanks leading the way, they slowly entered the chamber with dozens of dead people.

"It's even worse than the Lich's den..." Ian looked around with anger.

"All these people... How much did they suffer before they died?" Idna asked with a pale face. She struggled to move, seeing the mutilated bodies all around.

"Idna..." Tulir put his hand on her shoulder and she felt much better.

"Sorry. It's just..." She took a deep breath and calmed down. " Thank you, Tuilr. I'm better now."

They moved slowly inside as Ian collected the corpses into another storage ring. With each body taken, the heavy and menacing atmosphere lessened. They reached the outer wall of the offering chamber and saw a stone altar, on which the horribly mutilated body of a young woman was pinned by a dagger that pierced her belly. The dagger was the main source of the unholy and dreadful aura. It oozed a thick black smoke that covered the girl's body.

"By Eriar!" Lanka dropped to her knees and started breathing heavily. "Stop! No one can come any closer!"

Everyone stopped and assumed a defensive formation, with Lanka, Lilly and Rose inside the circle. Ian inquisitively looked at the dark dagger that shined with unnatural, violet shades. Around them, scattered on the ground, were many torture devices, still soaked with blood.

"It looks like this happened recently. Maybe a few days ago, yet I just know for a fact that these people have been dead for years now." Thiule raised his shield. "That girl over there is our retrieval target?"

"Most likely. But I don't want to trigger anything," Ian sighed as he glanced at the dagger one more time and added, "And I am sure as hell we are not bringing that shit with us."

"Guys... I think we should get out of here quickly. I can't open the Shadow Realm gate here!" Tulir informed everyone.

That meant the Shadow Wolves couldn't reach them, and they couldn't escape using the Shadow Realm as well. As the realisation settled in, they nervously looked around at the ominous shadows around them. While Lanka and Ian tried to think of a way to neutralise the power of that otherworldly weapon, a gentle bell sounded in everyone's ears, making their eyes go wide.

Their escape route started closing itself.