The old temple stood with ruined walls and many large holes in the ceiling. The foundations of the structure were far from being stable and it looked as if one strong gust of wind would do this building in. Oddly enough, the air here was completely still. Rita looked around at the trees surrounding the dead clearing, there were branches moving just outside the clearing, indicating a strong enough breeze to be felt, yet there was no wind moving down here, just stillness.
“Even the wind is dead here,” Rita said while fighting back a shiver.
Lamont walked forward. “Like last time, this place is filled with enough nether energy to even kill the wind.”
Wonder drew herself closer to Rita. “I-I don’t like nether magic.”
Lapis was already skipping ahead of them. “Let’s go check out the creepy old temple! I bet there’s lots of cool stuff inside! OOOOO like skellemans!”
Wonder’s hands found their way around Rita’s left arm. “Skeletons aren’t real! Necromancy doesn’t exist!”
Rita rolled her eyes and started walking forward, half dragging Wonder with her in the process. “Lapis, don’t go in there by yourself.”
Lapis’s entire body started to glow a dim blue. “It’s okay!”
Rita drew her light gun out in her right hand. “While impressive, I don’t want you thinking that your little light trick will save you from an ambush from these things. There’s no telling what they can really do.”
The four of them advanced a little more slowly after that. Each step across the dead grass brought with it a crunch. It wouldn’t be such a bad sound normally, except that it was the only sound outside of their breathing. This place was dead silent. It was worse than waking up in the middle of the night in Starsera only to realize that the entire city was asleep and that virtually nothing could be heard. Usually Rita could listen for the sound of passing trucks, or of the nocturnal animals. This time however, there was no sound, no life, no nothing. Just deathly silence. She really could use some of Heath's bardic music now, too bad she'd never hear it again.
Upon reaching the entrance of the temple Rita could see how little light there actually was inside despite the easy access for light in the ceiling through the many holes in the arched roof top. The old wooden doors stood wide open, halfway destroyed from some kind of violent attack. Just on the inside of the structure, where the light barely touched it, Rita could make out something hard and metallic.
“Lulu,” Rita said quietly while keeping her revolver trained on the darkness. “Light it up.”
Wonder’s right arm was shaking as she pulled out her wand and aimed it at the darkness. A small ball of lavender light appeared at the tip of the wand, and Rita could feel the familiar and warm tingle of aether magic going into the little spell. The orb of light shot out from the wand and into the darkness. It traveled to the middle of the room before climbing up into the rafters and exploding into a series of larger white lights casting their brilliant radiance across the temple.
Armor and weapons littered the floor. Some of the armor had the depiction of an orange sun, while others held the depiction of a blue moon. Some of the armor with the sun design was torn as if some horrible beast had taken it apart with its claws. As for the moon armor, there were scorch marks on them, melted bits of metal having frozen mid drip off of the armor like an iron icicles, and even chunks of glass hanging inside them. There were the signs of death everywhere, yet there was something missing, the bodies. There were no skeletons, no corpses, no mummies, and not even any dust piles to indicate where corpses could have been. Just empty arms and armor.
Lapis pointed forward with her tentacle arm. “What’s that?”
Rita peered through the temple and saw an old stone statue of a woman kneeling. She seemed to have been holding at her stomach, but it was difficult to tell as it was still too dark around her. The light didn’t seem to penetrate the darkness there.
“So,” Rita asked, “How far did you get last time?”
Lamont gripped his stave tightly. “About this far.”
Hearing that only increased the tension in Rita’s shoulders. “How many did you say you saw last time?”
“A half dozen at least,” Lamont admitted.
Rita took a few very cautious steps forward. Wonder practically clung to her back, Lapis behind her. Lamont took a few of his own strides inside, though he looked a bit more tense then before. The Stave he had was rather thin, and much more like that of a bo-stave then a usual wizard stave. One side was red and black, the other was blue and black. The blue side was touching the ground leaving little bits of frost where it landed, and the red tip sticking up in the air had a small flame the size of a candle light atop it.
The corners of the room were still very dark where Wonder’s light didn’t reach. Rita nodded toward those shadows to indicate to keep a watch on them. While they slowly made their way, step by step closer to the statue. Despite growing ever closer, the darkness around it wouldn’t let up.
“Where are they now?” Rita asked.
Lamont walked close by, but kept just a little bit of distance, likely so that in case of a fight he wouldn’t accidentally burn the girls with his magic. “That’s the question now; isn’t it?”
Rita stopped only a few feet away from the statue. She pulled out a flashlight from her backpack and pointed it directly at the statue. Most of the darkness around it filtered away and Rita was able to see the piece of art much more clearly. It was a beautiful woman with long flowing hair, a star pattern on her forehead, and a pair of feathery wings. Her mouth was open slightly to show off shark like teeth. She wore armor which looked cracked, chipped, and scarred. Her hands were holding her belly where Rita could see a large gash. From the gash a steady trickle of darkness ebbed out leaking into a puddle which lead to an old rusted over sword lying behind her.
A bone chilling energy spread throughout the room emanating from the statue. Cracks spread along the statue’s body starting from the bleeding wound. A lump of iron formed in Rita’s gut as the cracks spread further still. Black shadows poured forth from the cracks like water. The stone fell off like flakes revealing navy blue skin beneath. Rita bumped into Wonder as she stepped away.
Lamont’s voice rang out clear as he pointed his stave toward the statue. “Get out of here!”
It was too late as the statue exploded into a fountain of shadowy energy. Out from the shadows stepped the dark skinned beautiful woman. Her wings were black with dots of glowing white like the night sky, and her hair was very similar. A pair of green eyes matching the green star on the woman’s forehead stared at Rita. The pair of green lips curled up into a sickly seductive smile.
The woman’s voice came out sounding more like music then words. “Oh what do we have here? A bunch of children come to pay homage to their deity?”
A bolt of fire flew from the tip of Lamont’s stave and towards the woman’s face. The woman shifted in the blink of an eye and the fire went right past where her head used to be. A shark toothed snarl from the woman caused a pang of fear to shoot through Rita’s heart.
The woman moved faster than fast, and like lightning appeared before Lamont. Her arm swung down and Lamont for his part moved just quick enough to put the stave between himself and her. The sound of the blow against Lamont's stave echoed through the old ruins.
Rita steeled herself and looked at her friends. “You two, leave now.”
Wonder nodded jerkily and Lapis gave Rita a determined stare. Rita however wasn’t going to take no for an answer, she looked toward Lamont and the woman once more and saw them trading blows at such speeds she could barely keep up with them. “We need you to be outside so that Saturn can find out what happened.”
Lapis frowned. “We won’t leave you.”
Rita nodded toward Wonder who was shaking and staring wide eyed at the battle that she clearly couldn’t see. “Get her to safety, please.”
Lapis nodded and didn’t need any more prodding to help Wonder start running toward the exit. However, the two of them stopped just outside the building, still able to look inside and watch. Rita could accept that.
After pulling out both of her revolvers Rita faced toward the battle once more to see Lamont aiming a steady stream of flames from his stave at the woman. The woman however was running so fast that she was actually outracing the flames. Lamont cut the flames and turned his stave around so quick that Rita couldn’t even see it, as he did ice spread across the floor toward the woman and grew around her feet.
The woman froze in her place as the ice grew up to her waste. She merely smiled at Lamont as the ice kept growing. “Oh, please, did you really think that a goddess such as myself could be so easily stopped?”
Lamont grinned. “Oh this dance is just beginning.”
Rita could see through his bravado though. He was only able to slow her down, he didn’t have any methods of actually stopping her. What he also didn’t realize was that stopping the dark creatures was Rita’s job this time around. She took aim with her light revolver and waited.
As the ice grew over the woman’s shoulder’s she let out a sigh. With just a flex of her muscles the ice surrounding her all shattered at once. Just as this happened Rita pulled the trigger and a bolt of white light flew straight towards her at lightning quick speeds. It hit her in the shoulder and the navy blue skin melted revealing pale blue flesh beneath. She screamed and grabbed at her shoulder.
Rita grinned. “Let me brighten your day a little.”
The woman set her eyes on Rita and a cold shiver ran down the young woman’s spine. Rita’s hand worked on reflex to pull the trigger, but the woman shifted out of place and the bullet missed. The woman moved so fast it was like she'd teleported five feet closer and Rita pulled the trigger again. Once more the woman moved in the blink of an eye growing ever closer and Rita continued to pulled the trigger. Each bullet missed, and each time the woman dodged a shot she grew steadily closer until she was only a couple feet away from Rita.
A wall of ice formed between Rita and the woman, just moments before a dark fist smashed through the ice stopping only inches away from Rita’s face. Rita looked over to see Lamont as he was nodding toward the doorway while shouting, “GET OUT!”
Despite her fear Rita was able to steel herself once more. She didn’t need to be as fast if she could just outsmart her opponent. Rita jumped back as the entire ice wall shattered before her and she quickly checked to see where the woman had been shot only to reveal that the layer of navy blue skin had reformed over the previous wound.
The woman was snarling at Rita, her mouth larger than any human’s had any right ought to be. “That hurt!”
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