The staircase led them down into a smal room with a double sided door on the otherside. The whole room was made from the same stone as the place above it. There were four blue flames at the sides of the room ligthing the place up. Catherine walked up to one and held her hand into the fire.

"These are not actuall fires, but mana lighting the room up."

Maria just arrived when she said it.

"So what do we have here?"

She looked around and started to investigate the room. She went from one wall to an other and looked at every part of them.

"Doesn't seem like there are traps here, but we should be mindful of what we are doing."

Joseph and Catherine was waiting for her at the door while she finished her look around. They opened the two sides of the door and entered a circle shaped chamber, lit up by more torches and with a chalice shaped thing in the middle. It was at least one meter tall and had some water like substance in it.

The walls around it had four pillars in them, on the corner of a square around the chalice. The middle of the room was below the entrance and they had to walk down some stairs to get to it.

Maria instantly started to look around in this room as well. Joseph walked up to her and touched her shoulder, when she did not notice him. She was startled by him.

"Next time say something instead of creeping on me!"

Joseph smiled at her.

"You are too worried. If you walk around like this, you might get separated."

She looked at both of them and shook her head.

"Not really. This place looks like only holds that water in the middle. I was looking for some inscription or paintings, that would explain what it is. These kind of places usually have some... But so far nothing."

Catherine made some ball of light to lit the room up in a yellow light and the walls changed. All three sides had multiple pictures on them. Joseph looked at her.

"How did you know?"

She shrugged.

"It's a common trick. Make light in the room, so people coming in won't use other light sources."

"Good trick."

"Except that it is too commonly used."

Catherine looked at Maria.

"Have you never ran into these kind of tricks?"

Maria shook her head.

"On the first layers there were no tricks like these."

She was looking at the pictures while speaking to her.

The pictures were showing different people drinking the water and then lit up with different colors, except for the last one. The last picture showed people lying on the ground around the water. Only of them was standing with grey skin and blood on his hands.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Maria looked at the last picture and was supprised by it.

"Who painted the picture if they all died?"

Joseph also looked at the picture.

"Maybe there were others here as well and they came after the massacre?"

Just as he said it, he saw the eyes of the last standing people look at him. He rubbed his eyes. It was still looking at him.

"Maria did you see that?"

She didn't answer. As Joseph looked at her, he saw as she was backing up from the wall sweating.

"This place is cursed! We have to leave! Now!"

She ran to the door, but it shut before her. She started to pull it, but it did not move. She screamed hitting the door.

"Let me out!"

Joseph looked at Catherine, who draw a circle and a few symbols on the ground around her meanwhile, then shouted at Maria.

"Come here and stand in the circle!"

Maria looked back and ran into the circle. It lit up and a transparent hemisphere appeared around her filling up the circle. Catherine walked out of it.

"She will be safe in the... Look out!"

Joseph just looked back at the picture when the last standing mand jumped out of it and grabbed him on the shoulder. His hands were different then first Joseph saw, they had claws on them which sunked deeply into his shoulders.

Joseph shouted from the pain while he fell to the ground with the creature on top of him.

It looked like a human, but had fully black eyes and sharp teeth in it's mouth. It wanted to bite into Joseph's shoulder, but a white light hit it's head and it flew into the wall.

Joseph stood up and held his hands on his shoulders to heal the wounds, but they did not heal up.

Catherine sent more white bolts at the creature while speaking to Joseph.

"This creature is cursed! You can't heal the wounds and you can't damage this thing with normal magics and equipment. You'll need something that disrupts the magic that turned it!"

Just as she finished speaking the creature leaped on her, even though more and more bolts hit it. Catherine flew away when she got hit by it and landed next to the chalice.

Joseph meanwhile thought about how to deal with the thing. He pulled out his wand and filled it with mana, but had no idea what to do.

The creature flew up in the air from Catherine, when a pillar of light emerged from under her.

"Try the magic that I thought you to power up your magic. But do it in reverse!"

The thing fell down on the chalice and spilled out some water. As it got down one more bolt hit it.

Joseph ran up to it and pushed his wand into it's side, then tried to push his mana into the creature and disrupt it's mana flow.

The creature roared and showed the sign of pain for the first time. It instantly swiped at Joseph and pushed him to the side. Why holding it's side it ran to Catherine, but tripped on the way and fell to the ground. It caughed up blood, but still stood up.

Meanwhile she finished an other circle, without symbols this time, pointed at the creature and then pulled her hand back. The creatur flew towards her and she barely jumped out of the way as it fell into her place.

The circle lit up and the thing was in the middle of a transparent energy, like Maria, but as it tried to get out, it got stuck on it. It started to wail on it, then Catherine turned to Joseph.

"It won't hold out for long. Can you keep it away form me?"

Joseph stood up meanwhile and felt like the world it spinning aroun. He shook his head when he heared her speak.

"I'll try!"

He ran to the circle and held his wand to the ground next to it. Meanwhile the hemisphere almost dissipated.

He led his mana into the ground and used it to manipulated the ground around the circle. The ground split in half in a few meters lenght. The two sides he made closed up on top, enclosing the creature.

"I don't know how long this will last. How much time do you need?"

Catherine was still drawing an other circle on the ground. It looked just like the one she used for the worm egg. She was sweating while doing it. It looked like she had very little mana left.

"Not much... Just a little more!"

Just before she finished the sentence the creature pushed the rocks aside, panting and held out it's hand.

"!ydob siht ekat em pleh dna rewop ruoy em eviG !anuL hO"

Joseph felt dizzy for a moment and then the whole world spun around. He fell to to the ground and felt like he had to puke.

Meanwhile the thing fell down on the ground as well and looked like it couldn't move.

Catherine finished the circle and looked at them. She gasped and ran to Joseph.

"Are you allright?!"

Joseph felt something warm on his right hand and then some liquid flown down on his hand. As he looked on Catherine's body, his hand was in her stomach.

She caughed up blood as she jumped back from him.

He got up, but it wasn't him controlling the body. He saw Catherine healing her stomach and running to the creature's body. She moved it into the circle and then turned to Joseph.

"This will be problematic..."