- Get a move on! Konrad called with an alarmed voice. We need light here!
Aravashnial had finally extricated himself from his robes and was standing up, using his cape to protect himself from the treacherous floor. Whatever the creatures attacking Celia and Konrad were, they must have thought that they were more dangerous than the frail elf and left him alone. Big mistake on their part, the proud wizard thought with a grin. Light? Oh, he could do even better than light! It was time for him to act and show these youngsters how a truly powerful mage fights! Stranding straight up, he reached his hand to the chimney, just at the same time when Elemiah, who just finished his ascension, came out of it.
- Die, ungodly creatures! Aravashnial hurled with an imperious tone.
The wizard quickly chanted. Elemiah had the reflex to let him fall off by a few grips, narrowly dodging the flames coming from the elf’s hands that were coming his way. The mighty Aravashnial’s Burning hands spell’s sole victims were the feet of a gigantic statue and a few locks of hair from the aasimar’s head.
- Hah! Burn, monsters! Aravashnial exclaimed, triumphant in his blindness. Be the witness of the power of the greatest wizard in the Crusade!
The spell had failed to complete its primary task, being to burn the two monsters to a crisp, true. However, maybe it was because of the aggressiveness the wizard had put into his spell, or a happy mistake in his somatic components due to his blindness, but the Burning hands were much more powerful than he was counting on. The flames shone with an impressive strength, enough to banish the darkness that had invaded their surroundings.
Elemiah climbed back up and focused for a moment, making his halo shine brighter. Their enemies were then clearly visible, fixed to the ceiling: two sorts of dark octopuses the size of a human, their way too many tentacles linked together by a leather membrane and ended by menacing stings, their multiple red eyes glaring at the unfortunate travelers. Celia recognized them immediately: they were darkmantles, cave-dwelling hunters and the source of the magical darkness in which the cave was plunged previously.
Once the initial surprise passed, the hunger forced the monsters to attack once again. They came down of the wall and let themselves fall on their preys, their tentacles deployed in order to try to ensnare them.
But, this time, the fighters were ready to greet them. In synchronized moves perfected through years of training, Celia jumped backward and Mali took her place, launching her tail at the creature and striking it head on. The darkmantle shrieked while the spines on the stegosaurus’s tail pierced its hide. Before her target had the time to be propelled by the force of the impact, Celia had launched herself on the monster’s predicted trajectory, elven sword in hands, and violently slashed the air, cutting the darkmantle in half.
For his part, Konrad skillfully dodged the creature, sliding where he supposed his back would be. With the flat of his palm, he struck a group of the monstrous octopus’s eyes making it shriek once again. Disoriented, the attacker did not see Elemiah approaching with haste while unsheathing his weapon. It could barely instinctively dodge when the bastard sword cut off a good part of a pair of its tentacles.
Desperate, the monster flew away and hold onto a stalactite. Strangely, instead of attacking again or escaping, it started oscillating, in an almost rhythmic way.
- It’s casting!!! Celia yelled.
They had to act quickly: if the darkmantle finished casting, they would be plunged back into the dark and would not be able to defend themselves. In a hurried move, Celia unhooked one of her chakrams and threw it at the creature. However, the stress prevented her from aiming correctly, and the weapon struck the ceiling. She internally cursed. She would not have the time to grab another chakram before the creature would be done with its casting…!
When they heard the huntress’s warning, Elemiah and Konrad had moved into action. They caught each other's eyes. They nodded. Then they ran.
Elemiah was in front, Konrad on his heels. Perfect, this distance should suffice. Suddenly, after a few steps, Elemiah made his sword spin and stopped it behind his head and back, holding it with both hands, as if to protect himself from an attack from the back, and dropped on his knee. Konrad, him, did not slow down. When he was but a few steps from Elemiah, he leaped, his inertia carrying him to his destination, and landed on the flat of Elemiah’s blade. Elemiah then swung his sword to the front, propelling his friend like a springboard. The aasimar’s strength combined to the human’s inertia allowed Konrad to cross the distance to the ceiling. His fist crashed into the creature and the stalactite behind it before it could react with the sound of pierced flesh and broken stone, the scene momentarily hidden by a cloud of dust and blood.
Konrad soon had to abandon his dreams of aerial acrobatics and fall back to the floor tumbling over. Still exultant under the influence of adrenaline and covered in dust and blackish blood, he raised his fist in the air and let out a victory cry. The horrible nightmarish octopus stood there, dead, pierced by the brawler’s arm, like a grotesque and way too big bracelet. Celia allowed herself a sigh of relief, putting a hand on her heart to try to slow its beat.
The three fighters quickly scouted the room to make sure that no other menace was roaming around. Once the zone secured, tension fell back down. Konrad, Elemiah and Mali took care of making the rest of the group climb up with the brawler’s rope. Meanwhile, Celia caught up with Aravashnial who was wandering off once again, and described the room to him to keep him occupied.
With the magical darkness dispelled, the statues that Konrad talked about were visible thanks to the torch’s and Elemiah’s light. Giant stone men looked down on the visitors, lined up along partially collapsed old brick stones. The torch’s light barely reached their face, making it difficult to see, and the obscurity was giving a disturbing air to their inexpressive stare. They were made even more frightening by their enormous longswords that were at least three times as tall as Celia and that they were holding in their hands, the tip planted in the floor at their feet, in an almost religious pose. Each of them wore a heavy plate armor. The armors’ design reminded the huntress of those of Kenabres’s paladins she rarely crossed path with. But these ones had something… different. As if someone had tried recreating the armors she knew, but changed some details.
Once the latecomers finished their climbing, Elemiah explained what happened to them while Konrad was stashing the rope. Aravashnial joyfully jogged to them, almost skipping, Celia on his heels. He had a big grin going across the face. He looked like a kid who just got his favorite sweet. Celia had to move quicker to catch up with the elf before he fell through the chimney.
- It’s a discovery of prime importance! Aravashnial exclaimed with a triumphant voice. Let’s go, we must absolutely continue our search!
Celia had to struggle to prevent the wizard from immediately setting off again. The rest of the group just looked at Aravashnial as if he just lost his mind, some surprised such as Konrad, Elemiah and Anevia, while Séliss and Horgus seemed irritated. Seeing how the elf mage was not going to explain anything to his audience, the tiefling volunteered:
- What’s going on? she asked with a blasé voice.
- The mole people! Aravashnial answered, overexcited. We found the mole people!
The silence he got as an answer indicated to the blind elf that he had to elaborate. He raised his hands, pointing at the statues surrounding them in a theatrical gesture.
- Little Celia was kind enough to describe this room’s statues to me, down to the very last detail. What you have in front of your eyes, it’s a true travel through time! To the start of the Crusade!
- Statues… of crusaders? Konrad questioned, not too sure of him.
- Not any crusaders! Aravashnial continued. The very first ones!
A long exaggerated sigh from Horgus cut him, making the elf jump a bit.
- We don’t have time for this bullshit, the merchant interrupted. I want to go back home!
A black look from Anevia and Séliss put a stop to Horgus’s whining, and he settled with grumbling under his breath and crossing his arms. The merchant moved away to go sit, sulking. Aravashnial was nervously playing with his fingers for a few moments, his lowered long ears slightly jumping at each of the human’s steps. After a moment of awkward silence, he resumed, way calmer than before:
- S-so, as I was saying, those statues, they’re very important. Most of you weren’t born yet at the time, but it’s been centuries since the mortals went to war against the demons. Since Aroden’s disappearance, to be exact. The moment all the priests who venerated him suddenly lost their powers, multiple extraplanar breaches opened up in the north of Avistan, and hordes of demons like we never saw before escaped from them. Thus creating the Worldwound that we all know.
“ The invasion was a surprise for every surrounding kingdoms. The church of Aroden, which had in the meantime turned to the goddess Iomedae, would not have had the time to react if a number of heroic warriors and adventurers looking for glory didn’t throw themselves in the front line to repel the demons, even more so with the sudden loss of their link to their ancient patron saint.
Elemiah closed his eyes, nodding solemnly, while the others were listening with great attention. Yes, he heard about the First Crusade. An incalculable number of times. His former family reached the peak of their glory during this time, after all.
Luckily for the mortals, the demons were not expecting the army the church of Iomedae had gathered for the Great Crusade. Their chaotic nature prevented them from organizing adequately, more so in front of a cult based on a strict war philosophy and hated their tribe. They were repelled group after group further north. Busy with the barbarian clans in the north who were trying to annihilate the survivors without success, the demons left Mendev, Kenabres’s tutelary country which would become an important actor in the next crusades, in peace, until the second wave of the demonic incursions.
- And so, these statues, they’re of those crusaders? Konrad asked, sitting on the floor cross-legged, his full attention focused on the storyteller.
Aravashnial rewarded him with a single clap to signify his good remark.
- Exactly! he responded.
- Fascinating, Séliss said observing the statues, truly impressed. If it’s truly them, it’s indeed a true historical discovery. In other circumstances, I wouldn’t be against leading an expedition to know more.
- What happened to them? Elemiah questioned. You mentioned “mole people”...
The elf’s smile widened again while he was rubbing his hands. There was something sinister in his expression, almost crazy.
- This is where things get interesting, young man, he continued. A good part of the iomedian army got annihilated by the demons, of course, and others went back to the civilized lands to get back to their normal lives… But! Among the survivors, some decided to stay in the Worldwound to keep an eye on the breaches and continue the hunt. And we never heard of them again. Did you ever wonder why we stay at the limit of the Worldwound, instead of having outposts nearer to the breaches?
Séliss raised her hand by reflex before answering:
- That’s because the extraplanar breaches let through the energy of the Abysses, the demons’ original plane. All the land further away in the Worldwound, and the fauna and flora we can find there, are corrupted by demonic energy. So it’s really difficult to live there. We used to have an outpost further, Drezen, but its inhabitants fought in deplorable life conditions, so much that they were not ready when the marilith Aponavicius attacked the city and captured it. But we can settle near the frontier thanks to the guardstones blocking the demoniac essence.
- Absolutely! Aravashnial concluded. And so…?
The others looked at each other, not knowing what to answer. After a few moments of reflection, Séliss’s ears lowered and her eyes furrowed.
- You don’t mean…? she started.
Aravashnial’s grin widened even more.
- Yes, I absolutely do. I think they ended up being corrupted by the Abysses, and hid themselves underground! And this explains so many things! First, it explains where they’ve been to. Also, there’s a lot of people in town saying that they saw weird humanoids getting out from the sewers and observe the surface, or stealing food!
The sound of Séliss facepalming resounded through the cave.
Everyone jumped when another sound echoed it: a scream. A deathly silence then fell down on the cave. Each of them turned to one of the tunnels getting out of the underground room, where the yell came from. Obviously, they had to wait a bit longer to take a rest.
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