The job listing showed that the location of the tomb was located outside the lands affected by the arcana disaster. We speculated that if we traveled on foot, it would take us more than two days and the risk of being attacked by chimeras or other beasts. If we took a carriage, it could take a day to leave the area.

I was a little hesitant to leave the safety of the falling city at risk of being found by Uranos. However, I pushed my worries away as I needed to do this in order to grow stronger and be able to fight back against them.

I meet up with the others by the guild hall, where Victoria stood next to a man, seemingly trying to strike a bargain with the man.

Lilith stood next to Kasper reading a small notebook.

"Hey what’s going on?" I asked the two as I walked up to them.

"Victoria is trying to get us a ride out to the tomb. And Lilith here got her hands on the book written by the explorers that found the tomb." Kasper explained.

"apparently this tomb is pretty big and with new information from the guild staff it seems like we will be the third exploration team there as well as the first group to take on this job, even if it's been up for over two weeks." Kasper said.

Lilith looked up from her book.

"It also seems like there are some parts of this place that the explorer didn’t look into. She mentions this one door, it looks almost like it’s one with the walls of the tomb. With a mixture of weird runes scattered on it." she says.

"Maybe there will be some sort of hidden treasure scattered around?!" I say feeling a rush of excitement run through me.

"So, we just have to be extra vigilant for those unexplored places." Kasper said.

Then Victoria walked up to us.

"I have arranged a deal with the man over there to hop on his carriage and have him make a detour to drop us of by the tomb, and for him to pick us up again tomorrow." Victoria explained.

"And the price?" Kasper asked.

"30 Oura for there and back." Victoria said as if she had made the deal of the century.

The man then walked up to us.

He had short, disheveled hair and smelt like horse dung.

"I’m Ben. I'll be ya chauffeur to wherever you’re going." Ben told us with a tiered look.

"I have just one rule. Don’t talk to me during the ride. I have had enough of adventurers talking about their grand dreams while riding my carriage." Ben said.

We agreed to his terms and took our stuff. We had to walk our way to the edge of the third district and jump our way down. Ben led us to the stables where he brought out his carriage drawn by two brown horses. We packed our equipment onto his carriage and headed out.

As we headed out, we saw a pack chimeras run past, chasing a wolf.

"So, how’s it like to be trained by the genius Johan le Blanc?" Victoria asked.

"Well, it's okay, I guess. I'm not really sure what’s genius about him though." I answered.

"I mean yeah he has done some cool tricks but not more than that." I said.

"You’re kidding right?" Victoria asks.

"I mean he is a genius at his craft, people used to go far and wide just to ask him to teach them." Victoria told me.

"Yeah, even my clan has heard of him. He was even one of the reasons why I wanted to visit the falling city." Kasper jumped in.

"Wait isn’t the Loup clan situated in the Bartra Desert? He is known all the way out there?" I asked surprised.

"Yeah, the chimera and thunder hawk are right. Your teacher’s name stretches all over Koporia and even out to Apeth." Lilith said.

"Holy... I never knew this." I said.

"Well just wait until the next storm and you will see what we mean." Victoria told me.

The next five hours we just sat and discussed about what the explorers book said.

It told us that the tomb had seemingly existed for over a hundred years but that it was only recently that it was discovered.

It told us about how the tombs entrance consisted of some stone slabs, and that the tomb itself consisted of a network of hallways n at different rooms. It seemed to be as big as a small town.

The carriage driver took us out to where the listing said the tomb would be. A small patch forested land, with weird looking trees. The trees where deformed in a way that it looked like horrendously outstretched people with what looked like eyes carved into them.

"Well, this place looks welcoming." Lilith said, sarcastically.

"Hey Grizzly! You grew up in a forest, ever seen trees like these before?" she asked me pointing to the trees.

"No, never."

As we got of the driver told us.

"As agreed, I will get back here tomorrow afternoon. If you’re not here by then, then you will have to walk back."

We took our belongings and paid him half of the agreed amount. After that Ben headed of.

We followed a beaten down path down the forested area. The forest was quiet, and it felt like we were the only ones here. Not a living creature in sight. The path led us down into a small glade where a stone structure stood. It looked like a large grave, with a stone slab the size of an adult man with text written on it. Under the slab was the opening to the tomb. Built into the ground was two stone gates that acted as the entrance.

Walking up to the slab it read.

"I have failed you once. I shall not fail you another.

Rest now.

As I shall stand guard once more.

Rest now my friends.

Head my warning any who wish to disturb my duty.

Any who wish to disturb their tomb shall be judged."

Despite seeing this me and Kasper went to pull open the door. The doors where more like two addition slabs of stone. Both as heavy as a boulder, with a chain on both slabs. Working as makeshift locks and doorhandles for the tomb. Nevertheless, we tried. I grabbed onto the chain on the left and Kasper the one on the right.

I grabbed on to the chain with all my strength pulled it towards me. Nothing happened at first but after my second try I felt the door start to budge, and slowly it started to open.

I looked over to Kasper to see his progress, however he was nowhere close to opening it.

With a strong grip I used all my strength and janked the chain. In a moment I felt how the door suddenly flew open, causing me to fall back.  

With one door open we decided to go in. The stairway was lit with torches as far as we could see.

However, Lilith insisted on that we have another light source in case these go out.

"They could be part of some sort of magic trap that leave us in darkness." She said.

So, she stretched out her arms and crossed her fingers, whilst chanting.

"Open gate. Sol bright as midnight. Blossoming path. Shredded dread. Lumita Flarum."

From her hands five balls of radiating light rose. Each floating towards one of us, and the fifth to Hellen.

We let Hellen take the lead using her as a scout.

"Hellen crow two times for danger." Victoria said putting up two fingers and pointing to her sword.

"And three times for something hidden." she says putting up three fingers and pointing to her coin pouch and the doors to the tomb.

Hellen then flew down into the tomb with us following close behind.

Walking down the stairs we were met with an awful stench of mold and rot. Strangely enough that wasn’t all, along the walls hung lit torches. Lighting up the long halls of the tomb.

Along the walls ran obscure paintings of what looked like elves living in a great forest. As well as weird scriptures or symbols.

"This is just weird..." Lililth mumbled.

"You can say that again." Victoria replied.

"No, I mean this entire tomb is weird in that it’s wrong. It shouldn’t exist." Lilith said.

"What do you mean?" Victoria asked.

"Elves don’t have a reason to have grave sites. Throughout their recorded history and culture there hasn’t been any sign of a resting place for the dead." Lilith explained.

"When Elves die their bodies turn into trees or other wonder of nature. And these symbols. Elves don’t have any form of written language or alphabet. So, it doesn’t make sense." Lililth explained.

"Maybe they evolved?" Kasper asked.

"An entire species doesn’t evolve like this in such a short matter of time. And if they did it would news across the realm at this point." Lililth told us.

We continued down the halls seeing more and more weird paintings and scriptures being painted on thew wall.

Depicting a group of elves standing behind what looked to be a knight, as the knight fought back some huge beast.

The hallway eventually connected to a big open space, with graves lining the wall and a pillar in the middle of the room lined with books.

Beyond the pillar was two paths to choose from.

From the graves there had grown roots, plants, trees and flowers. The tomb looked more like a garden then a grave sight.

Whilst Victoria and Kasper inspected the graves, Lilith and I decided to inspect the books.

The bookshelves where covered in dust and webs, and where seemingly stuck in place. However, the few we could take out where nothing more than a list of names followed by a string of numbers. Some of the books included notes or stories from going by the initial "E".

It seems as if this E had named all of these elves buried in this tomb.

The notes were mostly a message to the elves in this tomb. Teeling them how sorry they were and how they wished they could have been stronger for them.

The stories seemed to mostly be recordings of what the elves did on a day to day basis.

E described how the elves would hand him flowers or other goods they found out in their forest. Or just describe what their daily activities. Like guiding lost animals or sometimes lost children back to their families.

E would even describe how they would sometimes trick humans off the beaten path only for them to fall off some cliff or drown in a river.

Showing both sides of these unruly creatures.

"Hold on..." Lilith said.

She took one of the books walked over to one of the graves. Dusting of some of the moss she found a string of numbers.

"23." Lilith read out as she flipped through the book.

"Litle rose, number 23." Lilith muttered.

"These are catalogs of knowing which elf lies where." she said.

"This E person has named all these elves and even categorized which grave they belong to." Lilith said.

"All this by himself..."

"Do you think he is also the one who build this tomb?" I ask her.

"There is always a possibility."

"But why? Why for just these elves. As you said, they don’t get a burial place or memoirs. So why would they do it?" Victoria asked.

"Maybe he felt a responsibility to do so?" I said.

"The notes talk about how they are sorry for not being strong enough to protect them. And if these paintings are anything to go by then. it wouldn’t be a bad guess to think this E person and the knight in the paintings are one in the same." I tell them.

"So maybe he felt responsible for not being able to protect these elves from some threat, so he built a grave in order to remember them." I say.

"It's a possibility..." Lilith said.

Our thoughts where quickly disturbed by three echoing crows from our feathery friend. Coming from the second hallway.

We rushed down the second hallway until we were met with a dead end and Hellen sitting in front of a strange part of the wall.

The part of the wall Hellen sat in front of looked like a door being molded into the wall of the tomb. With strange symbols and runes on it.

"That must be the door the explorer’s book was talking about." Kasper said.

Victoria and Kasper tried to push the door open whilst Lilith tried to decipher the runes on the door. hoping to find a way to open it via them.

After many failures on both sides the three of them looked at me with expecting eyes.

With Kasper and Victoria not being strong enough and the runes seemingly just meaning the same thing as the text on the slab by the entrance, just in the natural script of Apeth.

"What do you want me to do?" I ask.

"Maybe use that giant strength of yours?" Victoria asked with a look in her eyes similar to a child begging their parent for toy.

I looked towards Kasper and Lilith who both gave me the same sort of look.

"You guys are unbelievable..." I said walking up to the door.

I pressed my hands against the door and took a deep breath. I focused all of my strength on pushing the door open. I felt a small budge as I did. I kept on pushing, imagining the door being a beast that I had to push away in order to survive.

It seemed to help as the door slowly started to open up. Eventually I felt it move with ease and I almost fell over.

As the door opened, we were met with a lit empty room. All that it contained was a knight, who’s armor was dressed in roots and mos. The crest on his chestplate had faded beyond recognition. On his back was a greatsword that seemed to equally as overgrown as the knight himself. The knight laid against the wall away from the door.

Hellen flew in and circled the knight. It didn’t move, on further notice it actually looked more like a corpse than anything else.

As we entered, I felt a chill run down my spine and a feeling like I was being judged by a thousand prying eyes.

A slam echoed from behind us as the door had shut.

"Shit." said Victoria as she rushed to try and open the door.

However, it wouldn’t budge.

"It's stuck!" she said.

"What? are we stuck in here?" I asked panicked.

"Quickly, look and see if-"

Victoria was interrupted by a horrid scaping noise.

We turned around and saw that the knight had gotten up and was slowly moving towards us.

"Thou who enter, what wisheth thou with this grave?" the knight spoke.

"W-we mean no harm." Lilith says, holding up her hands as a sign of peace.

"Lies. Thou who enter carry sin. So, thou shall be judged." the knight said.

"Sin? What do you mean? We don’t wish to cause any harm." I said.

"If thou wish to continue thine lies then so be it. But hear me sinner. Thou shalt not spread thine poison to these fallen creatures. Never again shall thou sinners harm them. So let thine sins be confronted and judged. Let it be the role of Eric the fierce to judge thou." The knight said, unsheething his sword.