“Hey hey! Great work you guys.” Tristana laughed, giving a thumbs up to the adventurers of Grembell as the twitching corpse of a furred creature –halfway between a lion and a bear– fell to the floor in two, distinctly separate pieces around their leader.
“Thank you, Miss Tristana!” One of the members, the only male of the three, called out with a sharp nod of his head and straightening of his posture.
‘Military man, probably went from a knight-to-be program or a knight family into being an adventurer.’ Tristana logged internally as she grinned toothily at the three of them.
“Yeah, you’re welcome. You keep an eye on things up here and make sure that nothing gets deeper, kay?” She quasi-ordered, stepping closer to a steep drop-off further ahead.
“Will do. Is whatever’s down there dangerous?” The leader, the young woman with long black hair, questioned.
Her expression was twisted ever so slightly in worry for the [Platinum-rank] adventurer, which Tristana could only internally scoff at.
Of course, she had no way of knowing what was at the bottom, even Tristana hadn’t been told much before they’d entered the mine, but the fact she had so little faith in a fighter of her caliber was vaguely insulting to the white-haired woman.
Though she wouldn’t hold it against her, the unknown was always scarier than reality, after all.
“Hah! Come on, you know I can’t say jack about what’s down here. Talk to some of the Guild supervisors around here if you want that info.” Tristana crowed, swaggering to the edge of the drop, only the briefest light at the bottom letting her know the guild operatives had actually made their way to the bottom.
“If they’re trying this hard to keep it a secret, I highly doubt they’d tell us anything.”
“Yeah probably, they’re all paranoid like that.” Tristana rolled her eyes before turning around to face the three of them.
“You three keep up the good work and let the other [Tungsten-rank]’s know the same deal, ok? Nothing gets further down.”
“Understood.” The leader of Grembell nodded once more, turning her head to look behind her as the sound of heavy breathing echoed through the dimly lit ruins.
“Welp, looks like it’s my time to go. Have fun!” Tristana grinned, giving them a two-finger salute before tipping backwards down the hole that was easily over 500 meters deep.
For a brief, peaceful, moment the woman just let herself enjoy the feeling of gravity pulling her faster and faster towards the ground and the wind rustling through her hair and clothes. It was a calm enjoyment, probably one of the few that she –as a person– actually had.
Though it couldn’t last forever, and with a flow of magic into her body and a quick flip of her orientation and rotation, the woman hit the ground with a loud crack of stone and small shockwave of dust.
Walking out of the dust as if she had only jumped off the top of a table, and not a nearly universally agreed lethal fall height, the woman let her gaze wander as she walked.
All around her stood members of the Guild’s “Shadow Mooks”, as Tristana internally called them, doing various things from setting up lights and perimeters to actively taking samples of materials around them. These were the people that, for whatever reason, chose to work on things that the Guild didn’t want to go public. Things that, whether for the greater safety of the general public or the Guild’s own image, needed to be checked out with as much secrecy as was possible with this many people poking and prodding around the same area all at once.
Ironically, Tristana actually knew a few members of the Shadow Mooks that had been recruited specifically because they had managed to follow the clues and stumbled upon one of the various worksites they had had set up at the time.
Continuing her walk through the very obvious path that had been cleared out by the reconnaissance squad that had originally found the ruins, Tristana cleared a small low-hanging branch and whistled. The woman too focused on what she saw ahead of her to notice the way that several people around her jumped like spooked cats and reflexively held weapons out towards her.
Something which they were genuinely grateful for, considering that the last time a similar situation had happened, she had teased the poor operatives for the next six months about how jumpy they were.
“Ah, Promethea. You’re finally here.” A middle-aged man with balding hair and a mild amount of heft to him called out, walking over to her with a small clipboard held in his hand and a quill etching something into the paper trapped into its grasp.
“Hey, you guys are all huddled down here, Keev. Not my fault that there’s actually beasts that have to be dealt with up there.” She scoffed, getting a tired sigh from the man as he seemed to deflate just a little.
“I was not lambasting your arrival time, Promethea. I was merely making small talk.”
“Boo. Boring. Hit me with the interesting shit, like what exactly I’m looking at.” She hummed; her green eyes still locked directly onto the point of interest itself.
A point of interest that seemed to be a humanoid figure with jagged horns curling out of their hair and large, bat-like wings spread wide behind them. Their skin, and everything on them, was a pale grey colour and completely unmoving yet seemed to be frozen in a state of struggle against the thick chains wrapped around its four limbs, neck, chest and wings. Probably the least interesting thing about the figure was their height, which even then sat at about 230 cm tall.
Though its not like they were standing straight up in such a state, so Tristana wasn’t 100% certain on if that guess was correct or not.
“Well, while it looks like, for all intents and purposes, a statue. What you’re currently staring at is a real, living, Asuran frozen in complete stasis from the time that the city fell, or perhaps even before that.”
“I’ve never run across an Asuran before, but I’ve read the reports on the few adventurers that have. They don’t normally look this big and gnarly, right?” She questioned, resting her weight on one leg and crossing her arms under her bust.
“No. They normally exhibit horns or wings, not both. And their height falls primarily in the same range as a human, elf or beast-kin.”
“Hah! So, we’re looking at some kind of Super Asuran then?” She joked, looking over at him.
It was probably a testament to how often they’ve had to deal with each other that even in the face of his stone-faced expression of disappointment, her own expression of glee never faded for even a second.
“It seems so. Given the quality of the stasis it is trapped within, we can’t tell how powerful it is. But given the quality of the stasis rituals set up, we can make some educated guesses.”
“Let me guess, we’re looking at a [Platinum-rank] Asuran aren’t we?” Tristana grunted, her gaze locked on the unmoving eyes of the creature, pupils shrunk and veins evident even in its grey-scale, frozen state.
“It’s the only estimate that makes sense at this current moment. It’s the only think that describes making fifteen separate stasis rituals all overlapped and working in tandem for a single living entity.”
“Fifteen?” Tristana gave Keev a confused look.
There was each individual chain wrapped around a portion of his body, eight in total, and then the wider ranging stasis field encompassing the entire Asuran itself. Which, unless Tristana had suffered some kind of concussion in recent memory that completely messed up every memory she had of how mathematics worked, added up to nine not fifteen.
“Yes, given the time that has passed since the fall of this city its only natural that the rituals would have degraded over time until they couldn’t be maintained any longer. We’ve found evidence of another six layers that, for various purposes, have fallen since their creation. Of course, the possibility of there having been more layers is always possible but unlikely.” Keev explained, stroking his chin as he looked over the Asuran, much like Tristana.
“If nine is enough to keep it in a stasis this strong, I highly doubt that they needed more than fifteen at its peak.” Tristana huffed, unfurling her arms as she took a few steps closer.
“I’m glad you agree, Promethea.” Keev smiled, writing a few more notes down as he walked closer to the Asuran to stay by Tristana’s side.
In response to him she merely huffed and rolled her eyes as she crouched by the boundary of the outer stasis field, resting one arm on her knee as she traced each character carved into the ground that made up the basis of the boundary.
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There was something here that didn’t quite make sense, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Something that she remembered hearing back when she’d been a gremlin of a teen smashing her way through adventurer after adventurer on her way to the next Big Rank.
Though whatever that was, she just couldn’t bring to the surface currently. It had something to do with this whole ‘Super Asuran trapped in a stasis field’ situation though, of that she was absolutely certain. Yet which part of this situation it applied to slipped out of her grasp like sand caught in a net.
“Is there something about the boundary that interests you, Promethea?”
“Nothing in particular.” She lied as easily as she breathed, “Just taking a look at its matrix to see if I could recreate it.”
“Of course, no doubt for some kind of combat technique.” Keev sighed, well aware what kind of person the [Lunar Warrior] before him was.
“What else? Besides, there’s a few characters and symbols we’ve created since the creation of this field that could streamline the process a bit and make it more combat viable, I reckon.”
“You just mean Fyi, don’t you?”
“Of course I mean Fyi, Keev. Fyi makes every spell better.” She huffed in indignation as she stood up and pointed a finger at him accusatory.
Keev was hardly surprised to hear such a thing; Fyi, as a thaumaturgic character, was developed roughly 278 years ago and was remarkable in its ability to condense. Usually, in the case of turning a ritual like this stasis field into a combat viable technique, it was placed within the casting matrix of the magic circle. Turning what was previously a time-consuming ritual to cast into a simple action at the cost of its longevity and power without having to tear the spell apart and rebuild it from scratch in the first place.
Unsurprisingly, it was one of the most used thaumaturgic characters across all fields of magic since its creation.
“If you say so, Promethea. Now I need to supervise the rest of the operatives here.”
“Yeah yeah, off you go.” She muttered, waving him off belligerently before she turned around to continue looking over the stasis fields boundary.
‘Now…What exactly am I missing here?’
XXXxxxXXX
Meanwhile, multiple layers upwards
“AAAAAHHHH!”
In a chaotic surge of water and tangled limbs, the three members of Blessed Catalyst –plus Haley– burst out of a cracked and dilapidated aqueduct and into a large pond that it had formed beneath it. The previously still blue water now going this way and that as the four of them struck its surface and shattered the previous calm equilibrium that it had managed to form over the who-knows-how-many centuries it had been here.
However, the impact and rushing water finally allowed the four of them to pull apart and regain their baring’s enough to actually swim back to the surface.
The first to break the surface, rather fittingly, was Peter himself. A loud gasp leaving his mouth the moment that he had his head above the water and his arms and legs moving with quite a bit of force to keep him treading water with all his gear on him.
The next to rise to the surface was Haley, which Peter wasn’t surprised to see in the slightest given what rank he knew her to be, though she was fairly quickly joined by his sister and friend as they both gasped for air at the exact same time.
“Is everyone ok?” Peter asked, his head on a rapid swivel as he looked between the three girls with worried looks.
“I’m fine, just rattled.” Haley answered simply.
“Annoyed and wet.” Felicia muttered, clearly displeased with their current position.
“I’m fine as well, maybe a bruise or two but that’s it. Let’s get up on that bank over there, I think I see a path leading away from here.” Angelica responded, flinging a hand out of the water to point at the bank in question and getting a loud cry from Peter as she flung some water in his eyes.
“Suck it up.” Felicia huffed, beginning to lazily swim to the bank in question, getting overtaken by the other three who seemed to be in much more of a hurry than her.
“Crap! I’ve got stuff in here that the water is gonna ruin!” Peter yelped as he launched himself out of the water the moment he had solid ground within reach of his feet.
As quickly as he could, he began to pull all of his gear out of his bag, trying to separate papers and other more water-soluble items from everything else. He didn’t have as much as Angelica and Felicia, he knew that for certain, but he still had more than a few items that he couldn’t afford to have submerged in water for as long as he had.
“Girls! Are all of your- h-huh?” Peter’s shout petered out with a confused mumble as his entire body slackened.
Swirling her hand in the air, with a small magic circle hovering over it, Angelica silently pulled droplets of water out of her clothes, hair and bag. A growing sphere of water hung perfectly still at her side, rippling and wobbling minutely with each and every drop that left her person and joined the greater whole that she was slowly forming.
At her side, with a rather displeased expression, Haley was currently using magic to slide thin sheets and spikes of ice off her herself and her gear. Shattering the ice to peel it off, telekinetically, with seemingly ludicrous ease before just letting it fall to her feet and rest on the damp soil that they stood on.
And behind them, only just making her way out of the water, Felicia hummed lowly. Like small hearths, her eyes glowed a dim golden-orange and steam began to waft off her form and off her possessions as well.
In the face of the three girls dealing with the problem so easily, and without even letting Peter know that they all had ways to easily deal with the issue, the red-haired teen could do nothing but kneel there silently. His eyes blank and his expression seemingly made of stone as he contemplated all of his choices in life that led to this current situation.
“Here, Peter. Let me handle that.” Angelica finally spoke, walking over and continuing her spell on Peter’s gear.
For a moment, a brief few seconds, the teen considered making some kind of joke simply to try and get some childish revenge for the embarrassment at being the only one to freak out over his gear. In the end though, he just gave her a small smile and thanked her as he stood back up and stretched his arms above his head.
The fact that they’d come out in an area as –relatively– safe as this was an absolute miracle. They’d been at the complete mercy of the aqueducts through the city and if they hadn’t gotten sucked into the very specific tunnel that led to this area, who knows where they would have wound up, or what might have happened to them.
“Man, what a lucky break that we managed to get out of that with only a few bumps, huh?” Peter laughed, getting a slight exhale from Felicia and a small smile from Haley.
The reporter would have preferred not to take the tumble in the first place, but the young team lead was absolutely correct in the fact that escaping with so little injury was the luckiest of lucky breaks.
“Mhm. But who knows where we are at the moment.” Haley sighed, trying to recover a mental map of their rough location in comparison to the bridge but utterly failing.
“Yeah, and its not like we’ve managed to map out much of the ruins yet. Following the streets and paths was confusing enough. The aqueducts are sure to be much more sporadic than they were.” Angelica huffed, waving her hand and throwing the large sphere of water in the large pond with a loud ‘plop!’.
“Our only option is to go along that path there and hope that we run into some of the other teams deeper into the ruins.” Felicia stated simply, pointing in the direction of the path that connected to the bank that they currently stood on. “I think we went a lot deeper than [Iron-rank]’s like us are meant to go so we’ll have to be careful.”
“If push comes to shove, I’ll definitely help you guys.” Haley informed the three of them firmly, fixing some of her hair that had come loose from her ponytail.
“Alright! If we’re all ready then, lets get going!” Peter cheered, trying to pick the mood of the three ladies back up as he grabbed his gear and slung his bag strap over his shoulder.
“You’re such a child.” Felicia snorted quietly, getting a loud whine from her friend as the four of them started walking.
XXXxxxXXX
A cracked and broken chunk of wall slowly tipped forward; stopped from falling by the short-clawed, red-skinned hand that reached out of the shadows of the tunnel behind it.
“Alright, all of you out one by one. Remember, while combat is allowed it is to be avoided if at all possible. Understand?”
“Yes sir!” An average-height, but stocky, male nodded as he passed their leader as he held the stone wall.
Despite his stocky build, however, a good amount of muscle could be seen over his exposed arms and his steps were surprisingly light for a man of his size.
“Aye aye.” Another man, this one easily the tallest of the eight, with a very lanky build saluted casually as he ducked through the hole after their stockier companion.
“Yes sir.” A female, slightly taller than average but far from unnaturally so like the second of the eight, saluted far more strictly as she made her way out of the tunnel.
Her steps were tense and measured, covering the exact same amount of distance with each and every one, her posture perfectly upright.
“Whatever you say.” Another male scoffed as he made his way passed, the one that had raised objections to their plan earlier in the day before they had entered the ruin itself.
“Loud and clear.” A female, easily the shortest of the eight, said as she skipped past the leader and did a small twirl before hitting the ground, clearly enjoying herself as she smiled innocently at her compatriots.
“Mhm.” A somewhat tall male merely hummed as he nodded at their leader, his cloak well pinned to stop any unnecessary fluttering or movement and a blank black mask adorning his lower face.
“Yes, captain.” The last female of the eight –the one that had spoken to their leader before entering– saluted seriously, far from the abject strictness of her earlier colleague but also far from the very casual nature of some of the others.
Tied to her waist, a thick leather bag was held, covered from top to bottom in magical runes and inscriptions that glowed faintly even right now. Their forms pulsed with low light as she moved, getting a small gulp from the young woman as she held the bag with her right hand to try and secure it more.
‘No matter what, I can’t agitate the key and ruin this bag before we get there. Just keep calm and stay steady. That’s all you need to do…’
The runes pulsed dimly one last time before dying down, a bead of sweat trailing down her temple as she held the bag slightly tighter and took a deep breath while closing her eyes.
Slowly she opened them once more, her body uncoiling at the same time as their leader walked up behind her. His face twisted into a serious yet concerned expression at the same time as he grunted and gestured forward.
“Let’s get moving.”