Sweat all over his body, he woke up and nearly jumped. Deep breath before his wide dilated eyes wondered through the surroundings. His arms were being used as support, but he was trembling too much, with no hint of stability. His bones acted like a rusted machine and let cracking sounds escape.

He coughed as there was just too much dust and noticed that he was over a hard stone tablet. It was hard to see the details in the dim place, but there were some sort of carvings, drawings, around the rock.

A groan got out of his mouth as he fell back and was forced to hold his chest in pain. Looking at the ceiling, his hand felt something over his body. It was a pendant. He let his fingers wonder through it to feel its circular form.

He pulled it to see the steel circle made like a knot and an artistic tree inside. The symbol was familiar, but he couldn't remember. His face contorted and he pressed his hands over his head to stop the hurting, but he failed.

Memories flooded his mind. A village, an old man with light brown beard on his knees while holding a child's shoulder to look right into his eyes. A woman, pregnant and working around the sheep. A man, a soldier, holding a spear while walking through a town.

The images faded like they never existed to let a new one appear. Fire, from the woods to the sky, the man was dead, his cloth drenched in blood. The old one was running while carrying the young boy in his arms. The woman was nowhere to be seen.

He opened his eyes again to see the whole room glow. The carvings around the steep rugged walls and blocks of stone shone with a gentle green color. The lines of the drawings were pure art, like waves on hard rock.

It was too much for him to handle and his heart accelerated with his breathing. He took time to adjust his vision and see the room, the chamber. He moaned as the headache finally came to an end. A tear fell down his face. He was so confused.

His mind was conflicted and couldn't decide between rage, sadness, relief or any other feeling it didn't remember clearly. His strength was used to push him up, nearly propelling him. It was his ttempt to stand up, but it failed miserably and he fell to the ground.

"AH!!" There was definetly something broken around his legs. "AH! SHIT!" The thin pain, like a needle going thorugh his body, took over his mind. He was on the ground, trying to hold onto his legs to see what was wrong.

The carving's glow intisified and there was a burning sensation on his chest. It was his pendant with eerie aura, a mix of blue and green. The mist seemed to grow and cover him as he felt suffocated.

Like to avoid drowning, he raised his head so it would not be covered by the fog. The burning became a warm wave and all the pain vanished. Like a drug, it seemed to get rid of all his problems.

The lights got back to their original vigor as the mist faded. Silence ruled over the chamber, but his condition was better. His heart was beating normally and his breath was calm. He hesitated to move his legs. Instead, he pressed his hands around to check it.

Every inch added to the movement, he could see that his legs were fine. He finally gained the courage to stand up, but he didn't let the the leg carry the weight of his body yet and used the stone block as support.

He could see it, the whole thing. It was not simply big, it was huge, the size of a palace. He turned his head from one side to the other to let his eyes wonder through the place. Lined up, the block he was laid over was among hundreds of equals.

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The carvings over each of them was different, like they had something unique. He still didn't know what he was doing there or what was that place, he didn't know anything. He couldn't answer who was himself.

He cautiously walked to the nearby stone. Its drawings were not shining like his, none of the others were. He noticed a gap. It was a cover and the curiosity won. He pushed it with more effort than he had imagined.

He took a few steps back, nearly stumbling. No treasures were there to be found, only a body, or what was left of it. Bones and dust, a skull that looked at him even though it had no eyes. He looked around. All of those, they had bodies on them. It was not a temple, not ruins, it was a thomb.

The lines started to waver, they were losing their power. Fear hit him, if the glow stopped it would be completely dark again. If someone put them in the chamber, there should be an entrance, an exit. His mind refused to consider the possibility of having no way out.

Turning from side to side, he found a place. It was different from anything else. A different stone, it occupied a part of the wall on the oposite side, nearly ten times his height. There was an ominous feeling being emanated, but it was his best hope.

He moved in a hurry. So many coffins, he could count them for a day and there would still be much left. It was hard to see how big that place was, but its size became clear when he spent almost a minute to walk to the other side, nearly running.

He pressed both of his hands over it. A breach indicated that it lead to the other side, it was a door, everything he wished for. But it just didn't move. He kept on going and going, using more and more energy in an attempt to open it.

Darkness was slowly taking over and he felt nervous. It felt like he would get stuck there forever if he didn't manage to unlock the passage. "Shit! Why aren't you opening!!??" He punched it and hurt his fingers, a drop of blood ran down his hand, but he punched it again and again.

... ...

--- P.O.V. of Kenna Leonclaw ---

"Impressive.." King Brohm had sent her to the lands beyond the mountains of Exaron. She didn't like it, but it was a way to prove her worth as a mage, to find a place among important people. She was looking from above into a deep ravine. There they were, something she thought could only be real in legends. The ruins of a great city, from the mouth of the steep formation, going deeper for miles.

Reiner was just beside her. He was a knight, or should be one, but he was actually a squire. He had one job: to defend Kenna against anything that might come to harm her. It wasn't a hard job, considerig the other twenty men that came with them in their journey.

"We are going down! Someone help me prepare the ropes!" Captain Ron shouted his orders and people moved to follow them. Safety was a rare thing when doing things like that, but that was what the mages were for.

It didn't take long for them to start going down, but it was deeper than expected. But it was indeed not something they would see many times in their lives. There was a single problem. Rumors and stories also told about crazy traps to kill all invaders or maybe spirits, guardians of their holy space, or even demons, souls of the dead haunting their own homes.

Most of them didn't believe such a thing, but they couldn't help but to feel that it could be real. They didn't reach the ground, but the top of a house. Reiner got down first to help his lady. There was no time to stop "This is a good spot! We will set the camp here! It is better than doing it on lower ground! After we are done, we can explore"

A breeze hit Kenna's face and she felt some kind of power, very thin, very far. She turned around to see a giant door on the other side of the ravine. Reiner had bent down to look into some of his stuff, but stopped when he felt the strong grip on his shoulder.

"What is it, my Lady?" She blinked twice before looking at him in the eyes ".. I'm not sure.. I just.. I think I felt something coming from that door" He frowned as she pointed at it. No other mage had felt anything, or they simply didn't mind it, but she was certain that there was something there.

"We can take a look after we set the camp if you want" The breeze hit them again and she didn't answer him. She kept on staring at that giant door that led into the ravine's rocks. It wasn't just paranoia.

A muffled humming slowly grew to take over the entire ruin and the marks on that entrance shone some with some sort of green tone that reminded of grass. Scrunch. It moved. She widened her eyes as the members of the group halted their actions to focus on the source of the sound.

 Whoosh. The wind flowed inside and outside of the dark place and everyone stood still.