Remembering her first experience with doors in this world, Kya let out a long-suffering sigh. She had pushed on the door, with absolutely no effect. She honestly hoped it was locked, in fact, it would probably be better if it-
She pulled lightly on the door, and it noiselessly swung inwards.
“God damn it…” Kya muttered as she peered inside. She narrowed her eyes at the sudden brightness pouring out from the open door. There were still red glowstones, thankfully, but they were far more numerous and far brighter than the single one on this side of the door. The stone hallway continued for about twenty-five meters or so, before she saw an iron railing and a massive yawning cavern or complex.
What the actual hell was Arthur doing down here all this time? She couldn’t think that all of this was remotely ordinary for a random farmer to have. If it was, well… that opened up several more questions, but she would assume the former for now.
Creeping forward in a low crouch, Kya approached the railing, and her jaw went slack as she saw what lay beneath and ahead.
Matching sets of stairs split off and curved ahead going down another story or so. The room looked like an enormous five-point star, with a single massive chamber ahead of her spanning at least a hundred meters from end to end, and five smaller rooms cut into the stone at regular intervals. She saw similar small rituals in each of the alcoves like the ones she’d seen above ground. But she paid them almost no attention at all, merely acknowledging their presence. No, the thing holding her attention, the thing from which she couldn’t tear her eyes… was the enormous ritual at the center of the room.
She wasn’t exactly a scholar on magic rituals. She was unfamiliar at best, having seen them for the first time hardly a couple hours earlier with a decayed dwarven skull in a farm shed. But as far as “clearly sinister magical rituals” went… this one was pretty unambiguous.
It was a massive pentagram, a star in a circle, deep channels cut into the stone housing suspiciously dark crimson liquid that filled the air with a metallic taste. Black writing lined the outside of the outrageously large circle, in a language she couldn’t identify. Within each point of the star, ornate golden bowls held small, blackened hearts in pools of the same dark blood from the channels. But the cherry on top, the crowning jewel for the entire thing, apart from the dozens of glowing black death crystals, was the stark white, pristine human skeleton placed delicately and deliberately at the very center of the entire thing.
It looked like it was taken directly from a coffin, the bones placed to look like it was lying there, hands clasped over its chest.
Just as Kya was taking in the whole scene, and wondering if she should just go ahead and start destroying the rituals now, a door just below the balcony on which she stood clattered open so loudly, she almost jumped off the ledge entirely.
She saw a tall, muscular with close-cropped black hair stride out into the main are mid conversation.
He spoke with a similar rural accent to Arthur, though less pronounced. She wondered idly if her Translation ability was making it into a "rural" dialect in the way she thought of it, or if they just so happened to sound like that.
" -ich is why yah need to let me simply go git her. In fact, she's probly fled the area already."
Walking stiffly after the man was none other than the hunched and wiry frame of Arthur. Kya had last seen him passed out drunk out of his mind and was momentarily confused before coming to the obvious answer: magic.
"I've already told yah a hundred times, she hasn't left the area yet. We would know if she had. The dwarf’ll be… signalin…” Arthur trailed off as he looked down at his wrist, possibly at a watch? Kya couldn’t tell from this distance, but the other man had noticed the lapse in the conversation.
Wheeling to face Arthur, Kya felt a heavy weight settle on her shoulders at the man's radiant yellow eyes, discernible even from this distance. She consciously made an effort to narrow her own eyes, assuming they were as brightly pink as his were gold in this dim gloom.
“I swear if that’s a message sayin she’s left, imma lo-” He cut off suddenly at a sharp gesture from Arthur.
Arthur held out his wrist, displaying the device for the man to see. Without a word, he dropped through the floor of the cavern like it was suddenly open air, disappearing in an instant.
What happened next happened so quickly, Kya would have undoubtedly been dead if not for her aura. Ever since coming down into the darkness like this, she’d been spending a concerted effort to keep it at a large radius, about fifteen feet in every direction, and to make a point of anything she could sense from within. Which is why, as the man rocketed towards her from under her feet, she sensed him a fraction of a moment before he appeared.
Did Kya make use of that moment? Not in the slightest, no.
She stumbled back, trying to both stand, turn, jump, and run all at once and instead failed at all four, falling to her butt on the rocks at the exact moment he vaulted up through the floor like a life-sized jack in the box.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Without thinking, without waiting to see what would happen or what he would say or do, Kya attempted a full strength push to force him away.
His feet, still buried in the ground, anchored him in place. The metal railing behind him, against which Kya herself had been leaning not five seconds earlier, braced him against the sudden push. She saw him struggling and straining against the force of Kya’s ability, but not in vain. He looked like a kid pushing his face against a window, or a dog with their head sticking out of a car. All the loose skin and fabric of clothing on him was pushed back, and his muscles started to compress.
The metal railing started to groan and began to bend, when he slowly and lethargically picked one foot up and out of the stone below, immediately struggling to keep it in place, before slamming it back down with as much force as he could muster.
Kya had been so focused on maintaining the ability at such a high output, she’d hardly moved since starting it. But seeing him begin to act again startled her out of her stupor, as she began to retreat across back towards the hallway behind.
The man, with equal parts raw strength and pure will, stuck out his fist palm up like he was fighting against a hurricane, and again with a sharp motion, pulled his fist back.
Again, through her aura alone, she saw a fist sized hunk of rock flying towards her. Whipping her head around on instinct, the last thought that crossed her mind before everything faded to black was that this was going to hurt like hell, and that she just wanted to wake up again.
~ ~ ~
It was the third week of basic training. They had, for some inexplicable reason, woken up at 0300 to form up with their rucks outside the barracks building. They, of course, didn’t actually need to be there until 0500, but the day before, another soldier had hid in the barracks until after morning PT, and was also caught by a Drill Sergeant.
There were several things you learned very quickly in the military. One of them was unquestionably the ability to read your Drill Sergeant. It was usually some variation of anger. Were they mildly annoyed? It was going to be a good morning, maybe they’d get a light exercise and some extra shower time. Were they positively irate? The next span of time would be a living hell, and you could mentally prepare for that.
That day, our Drill Sergeant had been calm. Quiet. Peaceful. It scared us more than anything else in living memory. A blind and raging bull was a beast best avoided. A cold and calculating fury was wholly unavoidable.
Which was why, as they repeatedly got down into the pushup position, then stood back up in the cold morning rain in the fluorescent stadium lights for the twenty-ninth time, heavy ruck hitting the back of her head or causing her to stumble with each movement, Kya again reaffirmed that this was something she wanted. She hadn’t truly been mad at the guy who had skipped out. He was a seventeen-year-old, here with his parents' permission. Hadn’t even graduated high school yet, he was just here in the summer before his senior year. He was young and dumb and did dumb things. Besides, in the weeks since arriving, Kya could feel herself changing.
Oh, some days it was easier and some days harder, but this pain in her arms and legs, this soreness and tiredness, it was exactly what she had felt. This was what she had gone through and passed.
If she could do it, so could I.
At the bellowed, cacophonous command, Kya dropped in one smooth motion, and shot her legs out to the back. But this time was different, her ruck had loosened little by little each time she dropped and rose again. This time, the thirtieth repetition, the stuffed ruck slid up her back, and knocked her head against the only rock she had seen in the yard. Pain blossomed to life, as she collapsed into the mud.
~ ~ ~
Snapping awake, Kya tried to immediately clutch at her head, but groaned in both pain and frustration as she found her hands bound behind her back.
Her eyes fluttered open as she tried to take in her surroundings, and then shot open when she saw the stark white skeleton laying just next to her. She then noticed the blinking notification in front of her eyes. The weird, excited narrator read this one in a hurried, breathless tone like it was trying to say it all as quickly as possible. She could see why.
- - - - -
- Objective Failed!
You have failed to stop Arthur from beginning to cast his spell, and instead, become a part of it!
- Quest Update
- New Objectives:
1) Escape from Arthur’s spell and/or stop it from being cast
2) Kill, incapacitate, or capture all cultists participating in the spell. 0/3
3) You still need to figure out what exactly is happening down here!
- Time Remaining: 4min:27sec
- Rewards: You won’t be sacrificed. That should be reward enough. Further rewards contingent on manner of quest completion.
- - - - -
Holy fuck, holy fuck, holy fuck, holy fuck, she had four minutes before she was sacrificed for a death cult ritual or whatever, she struggled to an upright position as the channels of blood around and even underneath her started to glow from within with an ominous light.
Searching frantically, she could see both the taller man and Arthur sitting at the top of the balcony where she’d been earlier. Arthur, arms outstretched, and hand covered in a pale golden light, was chanting something she couldn’t make out.
As soon as she began moving, the man from earlier stiffened and then shot down the stairs, Arthur growing more frantic in his chanting. Kya pinned the new timer to the corner of her vision just as the clock hit exactly four minutes. She would not die in this cave, under this weird old man's house, without a clue what the hell was going on.
Without much idea of what to do next, Kya frantically prepared herself.