Peter turned his head this way and that as the four of them travelled through the dimly lit caves heading towards the ruins. As one of the very few [Iron-rank] parties allowed to actually take the quest, they had been amongst the last to enter the mine, left at the back of the pack to make their way down at, pretty much, their own leisure.
It was understandable, even Peter could admit that much, since if there was something dangerous lying in wait –whether beast, trap or otherwise– then you wanted somebody strong or skilled enough to handle it to come across it first. Instead of the far more dangerous, far more gruesome, alternative that was letting [Iron-rank’s] like Blessed Catalyst go in first and get turned into potentially brand-new paintjobs for the ruins.
For as much as Peter complained about having to go near last and not getting to fight anything off the bat, even he stopped to shiver at the idea of that. He was excited to fight some ancient beasts, perhaps even some types lost to history; he was not excited to run head-first into an early death. More than just the fact that he would be, you know, dead he absolutely didn’t want to go out without even being able to talk to Alec again; especially after the promise that he had forced the blue-haired teen to make before he left.
“Huh, this cave looked like it was pretty busy before…all this.” Angelica suddenly spoke up, her voice petering off a bit at the end.
“The mana in this mine is quite concentrated, there were probably quite a few mana-infused crystals. Maybe even a few combates if they were really lucky.”
“Hmmm, given that the colloquial name for combates is ‘battle lust crystals’ I don’t know if finding any without protection is really lucky.” Haley piped up enthusiastically from behind them, looking around herself while jotting something down in a small notepad held in her hands.
“Given the mana in this part of the cave they wouldn’t have been very large. Only a couple broken bones per person that found it, I think.” Felicia hummed nonchalantly, missing the deadpan looks her friends gave her and the slightly fascinated look the Guild Reporter gave her.
“That’s still too many.”
“Better than it could be.”
“I guess you’re right…” Peter muttered, averting his gaze and scratching the back of his head as the four of them began to go down a noticeable descent.
“Wow, I knew that the entrance to the ruins was deep but going down this decline really puts it into perspective.” Haley commented as she leaned back slightly on instinct to counterbalance herself against the steeper topography.
“Do you know how far?” Felicia asked, a thumb rubbing over a medallion of Solyre’s symbol faintly.
“It’s about 800 metres below the surface, and the ruins themselves are meant to go much, much further down than even that! Oh, the stories and things that we could find down there, it’d be the scoop of the century!” Haley squealed, doing a few hops in excitement as the other three continued their trek below the surface.
“I can only imagine. Being a settlement on the Vianthian peninsula they likely had a very advanced understanding of magic too. There may even be things hidden here that we haven’t been able to rediscover since.” Angelica tacked on; small stars in her eyes as she imagined the scenario that she, herself, had just described.
Slowly Peter leant over to Felicia, placing a hand beside his mouth to try and deflect his words away from the two excited young women as he spoke.
“I feel like you and I are the only ones not freaking out over these ruins…”
Purple eyes only blinked slowly at Peter, as if in disbelief over his words. The young [Saintess] not quite positive that her childhood friend had just spoken the words that came out of his mouth.
However, she’d never turn down a chance to make a fool of the red-haired adventurer, especially when he made it so easy for her.
“Oh look, a monster.” Her tone was as dry as fresh ash and her mannerisms –as she pointed further ahead to nothing at all– as stilted as a puppet in the hands of a small child.
Yet none of that mattered even slightly as Peter whirled around in the direction, she had pointed with his blade already drawn and gleaming in the dim light of Angelica’s spell.
“Where!? I’ll take it out now!”
‘Now make that ‘I’ am the only one not freaking out. He just makes it so easy sometimes.’
And so, the four of them continued to descend further into the rocky depths of the mine. Three of them active spitfires of excitement and intrigue while the fourth just watched in amusement.
Had they known what would happen later that exact same day, there was absolutely no doubt that such a happy scene would never have been so exuberant. But that’s the thing about the future, no one ever knows it's happening until it occurs, and that goes much the same for the members of Blessed Catalyst, once in a generation prodigies or not.
XXXxxxXXX
Three Hours Later, Krinvoth Ruins
The ruins of Krinvoth, even as high up as the members of Blessed Catalyst currently were, was a sight to behold even after being inside them for a solid two hours by this stage. Plants and crystals grew in near perfect harmony with each other as they coated spiralling staircases at least thirty metres wide with a cylindrical gap in the centre of the spiral at least 200 metres in diameter.
The reason for such a large gap in the spiral staircase became evident the moment that anyone deigned to look: a gigantic, sea-blue, crystal that sat suspended in midair.
Water cascaded down its form from its uppermost tip to the bottom where it practically gushed like a waterfall into a basin that then led further into the city itself. A source of fresh water unreliant on the natural topography of the land and unable to be tainted or ruined by natural disasters.
Not, however, an infinite source of water as Angelica had been quite eager to point out to the others amidst their descent of the staircase. Even well into their entrance of the city’s ruins itself.
“It’s just such a fascinating artefact! An Aqualis that large must have been the find of a century! No! A millennium!” Angelica gushed as she handed a small plant, plucked from the ground, over to her brother to stow away.
“Well, if its size has gone down as much as you said it had, I don’t even know where they would have found such a thing…” Peter muttered, shivering a little at the idea of an Aqualis about four or five times larger than the one they could currently see hovering in its place.
“Hmmm, if its anything like a Magmite crystal then one this large was probably found at the bottom of the ocean somewhere.” Felicia pointed out calmly, wading through a bush since she thought she had seen some speck of colour at its roots.
“Or a large lake.” Angelica tacked on, only to get a dismissive sound in return.
“A lake large enough to form an Aqualis of that size would definitely still be around, or the evidence of its existence would be super easy to see all around this area.”
“Hmmm, you’re not wrong…But that just makes it all the more impressive! I wonder how they managed to move it so far?”
“Well, supposedly the topography of the peninsula has changed rather drastically in the last few centuries, so it may not have been as far of a trip from the ocean to this city before….Well, this happened.” Haley said, trailing off a little as she gestured around at the ruins around them.
“That’s true. Whatever did this was strong. [Platinum-rank] without a doubt.” Felicia nodded, disappearing into the bush that she was searching through entirely.
“I mean, an entire city sunk beneath the surface capable of moving and harnessing an Aqualis of that size as well as they did? That would have to be the minimum force required. I don’t even think a natural disaster could ever get that bad…” The Kroll sister pointed out, standing up and patting her knees off on instinct as she looked around for the next place to inspect in their collection of plants and items.
“Well, natural disasters affected by concentrations of mana can come close…But that doesn’t explain how everything is still in as good of a condition as it is. Or why its buried beneath the surface.” Haley hummed, crossing her arms and looking around.
Her words, and inquiries, held an undeniable grain of truth to them. For as much as the city and its infrastructure had fallen into disarray over the centuries that it had gone undiscovered and unmaintained it was still in remarkably good condition despite all that. At least at the highest point of the sunken metropolis where they currently stood, whether it was worse further in was difficult to tell.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The idea that any damage was on the opposite side of the city was also a viable option as well, as the city was large enough to comfortably house hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of people.
“Well, enough about that!” Peter suddenly proclaimed, clapping his hands together sharply.
Angelica could see some tenseness in his shoulders and in his expression. The idea of something being strong enough to wipe out or severely damage a city of this size must have put him on edge.
‘Understandable. It makes me shiver just thinking about it…’
“I found something!” Felicia called out, popping out of the bush she was in like a jack-in-the-box with a strange bright red root held above her head.
“Ooooh! That looks interesting, in the bag!” Angelica grabbed the bag from her brother and held it out to their party member, getting a loud whine from the teen.
“Angelicaaaaa! Now I’ve got nothing to d-“
Scree!
From the point of view of Haley, who relied primarily on mana enhancement to follow and keep up with the movements of [Iron-rank] adventurers and above, the speed that Peter moved at was almost like a flicker in reality. Only the briefest image of him in transit from his previous position to his newest one letting her know that he actually had moved the distance, and that he hadn’t just decided to whip out the world's new most powerful spell to cover a few metres of distance.
A rotted wooden wall –once something that she was sure the owners would have been proud of and admired for hours– exploded into planks of wood and shards of shrapnel thanks to Peter’s sword. The screeches of beasts that Haley couldn’t quite see from her position lit up the previous peacefulness of the city’s ‘entrance’ and thick leather-like wings began to flap as they launched themselves out of the ruins and away from the red-haired teen’s blade.
“What the hell are these things!?” Peter shouted, yelped and strafed to the side to avoid the large claws –talons? – of one of the beasts as it tried to divebomb him.
The beasts in question looked not too dissimilar to a bat, but above five times the size and with matted red fur over their head and abdomen and somewhat loose, pitch-black leathery skin. Their eyes a disconcerting milky-white and their ears about fifty percent larger than was comfortable to look at.
“I’m….not entirely sure. Oooh do you think they’re a new species!?” Angelica gasped excitedly, her staff appearing in her hand.
“They look similar to some bat-like beasts found in deep caves and other ruins but their colouring and body-proportions are unique!” Haley called out helpfully as she hopped back a few metres, not wanting to get in the way of such a prime opportunity to watch the three teens in action.
“Good enough.” Felicia’s staff appeared in her hand much the same as Angelica’s, her eyes glowing brighter with each moment that passed.
The first to start the battle, somewhat unsurprisingly, were the bat-like beasts.
A screech that seemed to echo off the ruins ripped itself out of the mouth of the closest beast to Peter, the air picking up and swirling around it as it began to flap its wings, charging directly towards the red-haired adventurer.
“Wind-based creatures? Interesting! Peter keep an eye on your flames, one wrong move and it could backsplash!” Angelica called out, magic circles lighting to life in front of both her and Felicia to block some of the faintly visible gusts of wind.
‘Undoubtedly due to the mana comprising its form, without that it’d be basically invisible.’ Angelica let the thought pass through her mind without a second’s hesitation so that it could finish its course and let more important matters take up precious processing seconds instead.
The charge of the first beast was easy to dodge for the party’s leader, a light leap bringing him up and over the beast as it flew underneath him. In a spark of orange, flames lit up the blade of his sword in the middle of his leap, an excited grin on his face as he heaved his blade forward.
The arc of flames that spilled from his blade was far from the size or speed of his Power Stance, but that was to be expected considering that this was just the technique it was based on and not the Power Stance itself. Its flames ignited the winds beginning to swirl around the other beasts and violently expanded in a plume of light and heat that swallowed Peter whole before his feet could even touch the ground.
“AH!” Like a cannonball, the teen was flung back, colliding with the back of the first beast and sending the both of them into the ground in a chaotic blur of limbs, smoke and rocks.
“Peter! I told you to be careful!”
“Need healing?”
Haley could only blink owlishly at the wildly differing reactions from the two young women partied with the reckless red head before giggling quietly to herself. She wasn’t too surprised to see such wild personalities, it seemed to be a staple of being an adventurer; some kind of quirk or personality defect that set you apart from those considered ‘normal’.
“Uuuggghhh! I’m ok. I just wasn’t expecting it to be that violent.” Peter waved off his sister's worries, pushing himself off of the struggling beast before it screeched once more, its voice transforming into a twisting vortex of wind sent directly at the two mages.
The once again flaming blade of Peter was quick to bite into its head and neck, slaying it on the spot, but by then the vortex was already halfway towards Angelic and Felicia. Its twisting nature seeming to draw more and more wind into it, feeding itself and growing stronger on its way towards the two.
“Angelica, you handle that-“ Felicia’s words were cut off by even more whipping winds, cancelled out by a golden barrier of mana that appeared between them and the two ladies. “And I’ll keep the other ranged attacks off our backs.”
“You got it.” Angelica nodded her head, her pupils the size of pinpricks as she tried to take in as much of the wind vortex at once as humanly possible.
Of course, she could always just strengthen and increase the size of her barrier to block the vortex, that was a very realistic possibility. However, that idea was boring. She had what was, in effect, a brand-new spell before her and she wanted to add it to her arsenal. It was a simple process, so long as she knew the correct characters –she did– then she just needed to put them together to get the exact same effect but with a reversed rotation to cancel it out.
A magic circle whirled to life before her outstretched palm, characters and rings appearing and disappearing at seemingly random before clicking into place with a soft glow. Only for a vortex half the size of Angelica herself to rip out of the opposing end of the magic circle, the slightly tinted winds of her own spell striking the rotating winds of the beast and cancelling it out in a large, continuous, burst of wind that nearly grounded all of the beasts and had Peter holding onto a chunk of debris to keep himself in place.
“YAY! IT WORKED!” Angelica yelled happily, so that she could be heard over the roaring winds, her vortex finally achieving victory over its rival as it came to an end, letting her rotating winds tear through the ruins and slice into most of the still living beasts in splashes of blood and pained screeches.
“Why do you always test things out mid-battle!?” Peter yelled out as he held his sword-wielding arm over his face to block against the winds even as they began to die down.
“Wha- You do the exact same thing!” Angelica yelled back; an accusatory finger pointed directly at him.
The sibling’s argument, as amusing as it was for the two onlookers, was cut off by three beads of white-gold mana shooting between the two of them. They were fast but nothing impossible for either of them to follow, and their origin was as simple to deduce as breathing for the two teens.
“Felicia?” Angelica turned to give her a confused look.
“They’re trying to run away.” Felicia huffed, clicking her tongue as the three beads detonated in balls of light and only one of the five remaining beasts dropped to the ground.
There was a yelp from both Kroll siblings before Peter shot forward, chasing after them without even a moment’s hesitation.
Which, however, meant that the other three ladies were forced to chase after him as well to avoid being left behind.
Ruins turned into yet more ruins as they chased the bat-like beasts, vortexes of wind and arcs of flame heralding their arrival even before they arrived. Their journey brought them deeper and deeper into the sunken city and further from the ‘entrance’ as they kept moving.
The beasts, for all that their winds had the ability to damage any of the four of them quite easily, weren’t the strongest creatures in existence. From what the four adventurers had seen they seemed to have high offensive power and rather lacked defensive power.
‘They’re probably ambush predators that use the darkness of the ruins to their advantage.’ Haley mused as she leapt over a fallen pillar to follow Blessed Catalyst.
The ground beneath their feet turned from somewhat broken and chipped cobble streets to a large stone bridge that, while undoubtedly damaged by the ravages of time and battle-marks, still seemed to be standing tall and proud.
“Aaahhh dammit! Get back down here!” Peter hollered, waving his blade angrily in the air as the lack of buildings around them allowed the beasts to fly further into the air and spread out more.
An issue for all three teens, not just the mostly-melee oriented Peter.
“Peter! Stop running ahead without warning-“ Angelica exclaimed as she came to a stop beside her brother, her breath coming out somewhat heavily as she hunched over a bit while trying to catch her breath.
‘No! What are they doing!? Right here is-‘
“DON’T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!” Haley’s shout, as she ran up to the three of them with her mana-blazing, made the three teens jolt and turn to face her on instinct.
Above them, the three remaining beasts began to breathe in deeply. Only the quietest hiss of an inhale letting any of them catch onto what was happening.
Haley had seen the skills of the three teens first-hand, she knew that they were remarkable for their ranking. She knew that the three of them had talent and instincts above even that. However, she had been so busy jotting down notes and following after them that she had forgotten the most basic differences between them and herself.
Angelica’s eyes widened in mild horror as she saw two of the vortexes closing in on the three of them, her magic circle only halfway through its formation. She was an idiot; she should have expected this. Of course, the beasts would strike back when it was advantageous to do so. She should have focused on slowing her brother down rather than-
“E-eh?” Her pink eyes softened a little at the sheen of ice that suddenly surrounded all of them, the arm suddenly around her waist tackling her and Felicia into Peter’s side via the launched form of Haley.
“Everybody hang on tightly!”
Haley had forgotten one of the most basic differences between herself at [Silver-rank] and Blessed Catalyst at [Iron-rank], and that was –most importantly– experience.
The three vortexes of wind carved into the bridge around Haley’s hastily erected sphere of ice, carving through stone as easily as a knife could go through a leaf and shifting the dome further and further onto an axis until, finally, it could maintain its frozen grip on the previously flattened terrain of the bridge no longer.
Peter and Angelica’s shouts bounced off the wall of the sphere they were trapped in as the four of them suddenly started to rise towards the ‘roof’ of the construct. Meanwhile, Haley and Felicia, knowing what was beneath the large bridge, simply tried to suck in the biggest breaths that they could and prepared themselves for impact.
And with a crack of ice and spray of water, the sphere struck the rapidly flowing water beneath the bridge and disappeared beneath its roiling surface.