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| Tally ho, Dickbags! |
Chapter 9: The Golden Hour
Morgan, Robin and Florence approached the temple at the middle the evening, Robin in awe along with her little brother by how big and impressive it was. It looked at least a thousand years old, and had massive stone spires shooting nearly a hundred feet into the air. There was a massive but worn staircase at the front along with a cracked stone walkway. There were plants growing up and along the building, as it was clearly overgrown. The trio headed up the stairs as they talked with one another. “So, This is the temple? It looks kinda like crap...” Morgan said sardonically, approaching the front gate and met with a massive pair of stone slabs coated with various paintings. They were so faded that she couldn't even read them.
Robin looked at her, walking up to the door as well and feeling her hands along it. “I have to say it's quite the contrary. It's amazing a building just made from stones and mortar has passed the test of time.” Morgan chuckled at that, placing her palms against the entrance of the door and pushing with all of her might. Yet the door didn't seem to budge. “I kind of wonder what this temple was for...” Florence wondered aloud. Robin leaned up to push the door along with Morgan, but even with their combined strength, it still wouldn't move. “Good question.” She said, between each push. “Maybe they prayed to their gods here.” She continued, turning around and pushing it with her shoulders and back instead.
“Maybe this is where they keep all their dead.” Morgan said jokingly, pushing onto the door a little more. Florence quietly squeaked in fear from that, looking away from them both. “W-would they really keep all their dead in there?” He said, sounding strangely scared of finding spooky skeletons of some crap. Morgan just shrugged. “Hell if I knew, hurry up and help push already.” Florence blinked a couple of times before realizing that he probably did need to help. He ran up to the door and began to push on it as well. “This isn't working...” Florence said, defeated. Morgan shook her head and looked up at the big door. “How much you bet that we're idiots and one of those ancient writings on the wall says 'Pull the door, asshat.'” She said, amused. Reaching her hand into the crack and trying to pull it, though the doors seemed heavy and there was no way that would work.
“Damn, I thought ancient societies would have a sense of humor.” She said, before Robin slid to the ground and sighed. “I didn't expect doors to give me the most trouble so far...” Robin said with a sigh, Morgan quickly giving up as well and leaning against the wall as Florence continued to push. “Any more of that and you'll get a hernia, kid.” Morgan snarked at him, rubbing her sore shoulder. He sighed and gave up as well. “Yeah... Seems like we'll need to wait until more people arrive.”
They sat there, waiting for someone to arrive, when suddenly the small group of four appeared out of the forest, Lily was looking at the map as the rest of them arrived at the long staircase. “Shoot, I thought we would have got here first.” Erika said, with a tinge of disappointment compared to Jonah's pure joy. He grinned and pumped his fist. “Yeah! I knew we would get here second! Pay up, Erika!” He demanded jovially, Erika sighing and pulling a 10 geld note out of her pockets and handing it to him. “Pessimism is awesome!” He said, folding the note up and placing it in his back pant leg.
Morgan walked down the staircase and observed all four of them as Robin climbed down the stairs just behind her. Florence still trying to push the door open entirely by himself like an idiot. “Looks like the gang's arrived.” Morgan said with a smirk, but Robin noticed something. “Where's Roth?” Robin asked, Lily folding up her map and revealing to the duo that her eye was bandaged over. “Maria got injured, she isn't here.” She said, walking past both Morgan and Robin and heading up the stairs, her voice oddly cold sounding.
Morgan shrugged her shoulders and walked back up the stairs along with her, Lily leaning onto the door and trying to push it open with Florence. Morgan just stood behind them both and watched with her arms crossed together.
“So princess, what happened to your face?” Morgan asked, Lily just leaned to push a shoulder against the door to see if it budged. “Nothing.” Lily responded, giving up on pushing the door open and looking at the taller black haired girl with her good eye. “Well, you didn't just wear that bandage because it looked cool.” Morgan said jokingly, trying to get her to explain herself. “My face got cut up, that's all.” Lily finally disclosed, Morgan shook her head and sighed. “Well ain't that a bitch.” She said, mockingly, Lily just frowned and watched as everyone else made it up the stairs. “We need to push this door open.” Lily said flatly, and everyone agreed and pressed against the wall shoulder to shoulder.
“Everyone ready?” Lily shouted, everyone began to push the heavy stone doors. Eventually, they began to creek and swing wide open, slamming against the walls of the temple so hard that there was a huge smashing sound that let loose a massive amount of dust into the air, obscuring everyone's view. Morgan pulled a bandanna out of her pocket and held up it over her mouth as she walked in to filter the air. It was dark and musty, and there was so much dust it was almost blinding. It quickly settled back onto the floor as everyone else began to walk inside. The place was dark with brown stone on the walls and ceiling, the dancing flames on the torches on each side of the huge entryway.
“This place is Massive...” Florence said in awe, looking around as just how huge the main hall was. There were three paths, one that had a huge pair of double stone doors, though quite a margin smaller than the last ones. The other three ways were just hallways. Morgan walked up to the doors and kicked them open, another slam with a huge surge of dust flew up. But not enough to clog everyone's windpipes.
“Look, I don't want to ruin the reunion or anything, but we're under a pretty strict time limit. We need to find these relics and be on our merry way.” Morgan explained, looking down the lit walls of the next chamber. Robin nodded and looked over to everyone else. “To be honest, she's right. We took enough time to get here and now we're closing in on 30 hours until the deadline. We have to make a move.” Robin added, as Morgan began to walk around the room, her claymore strapped firmly onto her back.
Jonah stepped up, looking around at everyone. “I think everyone should go with their partners, though since Maria isn't here, we have a lot of options to be honest.” Jonah explained, everyone watching him. “We either can go as one big group, which will be slower but less dangerous... Or we can go with our teammates, with one person going with another pair. “ He said, though Morgan cut him off while she was glaring at Lily, who was currently staring at the paintings on the wall. “Or one of us can go solo, and everyone else pairs up. It'll be the fastest.” She interjected. Jonah looked confused and stepped forward in protest. “That's pretty risky, Morgan. What if it's dangerous?” He implored, but Morgan shrugged him off. “It's dangerous in general and we all know it. Maria knew what she was getting into and she learned that as well.” Jonah sighed and shook his head. “Fine, but if you get hurt then don't blame me for it.” He said with a sigh, Robin walked up to Lily and began to speak to her quietly.
“Would you like to accompany me?” Asked Robin, Lily nodded and quietly replied to her under her breath as well. “Yeah... Morgan made me want to pull my hair out. What about Florence?” She mentioned, Robin just looked at him while he spoke to Jonah about joining him as well. “I guess I'll just have to trust him” She replied, looking as Morgan left through the double doors. “We'll meet back here when we're finished.”
“Let's make sure this is quick, Lily.” Robin said, leaving the other four on their own as they headed to the hallway to the west side of the room. The torches were lit on each side of the hall to signify that someone else had arrived before them to even light those matches. “The air in here is so musty...” Lily complained, the air was wet, dirty and stagnant and irritated her lungs. Robin gave a soft chuckle as they began to walk down the long hallway. Occasionally passing paintings and carvings in the stone walls telling messages of old they couldn't read.
“You call this musty? Heh... You should have seen my parents wine cellar.” Robin casually mentioned as she slipped her hands into the pockets of her waistcoat. “When I was down there, I wasn't sure if I was breathing air or pure cobweb and mold. I was coughing my lungs out for nearly a week.” She continued, Lily giving a little bit of a giggle. “Why were you in a wine cellar?” Lily inquired, Robin looked at her as she continued down the hallway, a small staircase leading further downward by a floor or two. “Oh, To get wine, of course.” Robin started, adjusting the spear strapped to her back a little bit. “I was kind of a rebel back when I was a teen. My parents haven't been in that cellar for years so it was pretty much stocked with tons of old vintage, I wanted to get a taste.” She said, stopping at a three way split. But she only noticed one of the ways had lit torches.
“How did it taste?” Lily asked Robin, starting to walk down the firelit path as the indicator where they're supposed to be going. “Way more bitter than I was expecting... I thought it was just grape juice you got drunk on.” Robin said with her own friendly chuckle. “So uhm... What happened with you and Morgan?” Robin asked next, Lily looking at the dark torch lit floor. “Well...” Lily trailed a bit, before Robin quickly swung her hand out in front of Lily to stop her. “W-wha?” Lily asked, confused as Robin looked up at the ceiling. “Something's off..” Robin said, The area began to creak as dust seeped through the cracks of the roof. “Move, Now!” Robin said, diving forward as fast as she could, Lily stood confused, but followed her just afterward. Suddenly there was a loud rumble as a massive pile of stoned fell from the ceiling and crashed onto the floor. Along with that came a massive pile of mud on top of it, before finally seeing the sunlight seep through the damage.
“WHY DID THAT HAPPEN!?” Lily shouted at Robin, Robin looked up at it and sighed, standing back up and dusting herself off. “I'm guessing the roof just was at it's limit. Either that or the water from a recent rain” Robin theorized, sighing a little bit and offering her hand to Lily to help her stand up. “Hopefully that won't keep happening.” Lily said quietly, Robin nodded and they went back to walking. The hallway turned into a somewhat large room, possibly an old altar of some sorts to an old god, from the seats all facing a small shrine.
Lily walked between the seats and up to the altar, looking at the little statues, two wooden carvings of a bird holding the moon, and a dragon holding the sun. “Wow... These are really cool. Do you think they're the Relics we were supposed to get?” Lily asked, Robin walked up and inspected them, grabbing one and lifting it up to inspect it. “It has a very thick layer of dust on it, The relics would only be placed here relatively recently.” Robin explained, as Lily put them in her backpack anyway. “Uhm... I wanted to paint them and put them in my window, sorry...” Robin laughed and pat her on the back of her shoulder. “Don't apologize to me! Whoever owned those are long past this world... Now let's go find the real relic.” Robin said with a smile as they left the altar room and headed down another hall.
“So... About what happened with Morgan...” Robin continued. Lily looked up at her and sighed. “...It was because apparently me not knowing how bad off some people are means I don't care about them.” She disclosed, Robin nodding her head as she kept pace with her. “Well, Do you care about those people?” Robin asked, crossing her arms behind her back as she walked.
“Of course!” Lily exclaimed, turning to her as she walked. “I do care... just sometimes I don't know how to actually help... Morgan suggested I do charity work or donations...” Robin nodded as Lily spoke, looking ahead to see a pit coming up. “Charity is a pretty good cause, though why was this an argument?” Robin asked, Lily shook her head. “I don't really know... She was right that charity is a good cause... But she started to guilt and insult me over it and she barely even spoke to me.” Lily explained, Robin shook her head and sighed. “That just seems like a clash of personality more than who is actually right.” She said, Lily sighed and nodded, before stopping just before the pit.
“How are we gonna cross this?” Lily asked, Robin swiftly reached into Lily's backpack and pulled out the rope it had. “Hold onto this for dear life.” She said, looking down into the pit and noticing it went much farther than she expected. “HOW DEEP IS THIS THING?” She said, But Robin just bent down and peered into the hole.
“It doesn't seem to go into a pit,” Robin observed, reaching down to rub the underside of the stone. “This is an underground lake. What's holding this building up?” She said, looking down and seeing the shimmering of the water reflect the soft glow of the torches nearly 50 feet down. “It might explain why the roof collapsed earlier, this entire building is shoddy...” Robin grabbed onto the rope and backed up as she spoke. “Seriously, hold onto this rope for dear life.” She repeated, Dashing swiftly past her and making a grand leap across the gap, landing perfectly on her feet before wrapping the rope around her arms several times.
“Lily, jump.” Robin demanded bluntly, the hair on Lily's neck began to stand up, as she shivered and looked down the hole in fear. “A-are you serious? What if I slip...?” Robin looked sharply at her. “Don't slip, then.” Lily sighed and held tightly on the rope. “Seriously... Isn't there a better way?” She asked, Robin shaking her head in response. “Do you see another way? I sure don't. So, tally ho and fucking jump already!” She shouted, tugging the rope to coax her a little bit.
She sighed and backed up, dashing forward and making a leap to quickly fall into the hole. She quickly wrapped the rope around one of her arms as she plummeted 50 feet, before suddenly the rope tensing around her arm and giving her massive rope burn. “AGH!” She shouted, feeling the rope dig into her arm, but she refused to let it slip from her hands. “You good?” Robin shouted down at Lily. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Lily shouted back up at her in pure fear of not having anything beneath her feet but dank cave water. “Okay, you're good.” Robin responded, slowly pulling the rope up to get her back up. Lily gripped onto the rope like her life depended on it, and Robin dragged her up all the way onto the other side. “Now that wasn't so bad, was it?”
Lily was hugging her rope, shivering on the floor in a fetal position. “...Right then.” She said, slowly pulling the rope away from her and placing it back into her backpack. Lily stood up, still shivering out of pure fear of what just happened as she slowly followed Robin. “I could only habit one guess as to why there wasn't a foundation in that area.” Robin stated, Lily hugging onto her invisible air pillow that she somehow had. “Water erosion.” She finished, Lily looking at her with another shiver. “W-water erosion?” She inquired fearfully.
Robin nodded and began to explain. “When water flows in an area, it cuts a swath to allow it to flow. It'll slowly whittle down wider and wider as the flow continues... A massive water flow caused all of the foundation to disappear. This could only mean one thing...” Robin deducted. “What would that be?” Lily wondered, the shivering slowly stopping as they turn a corner. “This place is a timebomb, and will collapse at any time.” Robin warned, Lily shrieked quietly again. “THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!” She shouted, Robin sighing some.
“We need to be quick about this, I don't want to wait until this place comes crashing down.” Robin explained, picking up into a brisk jog to hurry up. Lily picking up the pace just behind her until they reached another pair of double doors. hey opened it and there was another area, a massive area with nothing in it except for a small pedestal. Atop the pedestal was a bright jade color statue with a pair of silver wings. They both approached it quietly and Lily picked it up. “This doesn't have dust on it... It was put here recently!” Robin smiled at Lily's joy, feeling some of her own as she held out her hand. “Good job, partner.” She said with a grin, Lily grabbing her hand and firmly shaking it. “T-thanks!” Lily said, turning around to head back to the door as they heard a growl.
From the shadows, out walked a black mountain lion like monster, with bone like armor plating on it's back and face, and glowing red eyes. It wasn't any ordinary rift fallen mountain lion either, it was the size of a small car. It prowled toward them both and released a low growl. Lily and Robin both drew their blades as they saw it approach. “Oh god...” Lily quietly squeaked, holding her blade out and feeling her spine began to shiver. Suddenly the mountain lion pounced them both, swiping it's claw so hard that it caused a huge slash mark in the wall, even if it was nowhere near it. They both quickly ducked out of the way from it and watched it as it turned to Robin.
“It cut the wall without touching it!” Lily shouted. Robin held out her spear, ready for it to attack again. “That must be the power of Pulse...” She said, as it suddenly leaped at her. She spun her spear and caught it's claws in one swift movement, holding it back. “I AM NOT AFRAID OF A CAT!” She shouted at it's snarling face. Looking over to Lily as she struggled to hold it back. “JUMP ON IT, LILY!” She shouted. Lily nodded and leaped onto it's back. Robin ducked down so it went on the floor, before rolling out from underneath it. Lily shivered in fear but reared back to slash at it. She made a couple of slices on it's back and shoulder, jet black blood leaking from it as it growled and began to thrash around the room at full speed. Lily grabbed onto it's neck and ducked her head, shouting in fear as she kept trying to slash at it.
“Over here... you rapscallion!” Robin shouted, from nearly across the entire room by quickly repositioning herself. The huge cat with Lily currently on it's back, it looked at her and growled before ducking into another dash. Rearing down and leaping up at full speed at her. His back tilted upward and Lily flew off, landing on her back as the big cat tried to pounce Robin. Robin slammed the hilt of her spear down into the stone and bent her spear forward, making her blade pierce his jaw, skull and entire head as it sunk lower onto the pole, his body slamming into the ground, dead. She quickly yanked her spear back with a grin. Lily walking over to grab the trophy.
“That was awesome, Robin!” Lily exclaimed, holding the trophy over her head. Robin turned back and smiled, before noticing the ground began to rumble. Suddenly, the bricks under her feet began to slide and drop. Robin dashing and stumbling away as the huge cat fell through the bricks in the floor, along with half of the room as all that was left was a huge gaping hole where they could see the underground lake. Another huge heap of dust stirring in the air. “IS THIS ENTIRE PLACE COLLAPSING?!” Lily shouted out of panic. Robin grabbed her by the arm and slowly began to sidle along the side of the wall back to the door. Both of them walking as another couple of bricks fell into the water.
Once they were finished, they felt another Rumble. “COME ON!” Robin shouted, breaking out into full speed as they exited the room. They dashed along the hallway and Robin took another full leap across the huge gap. Lily stopping just short as she panicked. “ROBIN, THE ROPE!” She shouted at Robin, Robin shook her head, got in her knees and held her hands out. “NOT ENOUGH TIME, GRAB MY HAND!” Robin shouted back.
Lily gulped and made a running leap across the gap, and Robin snatched her hand before she fell. Robin quickly pulled her up, The bricks falling away as they both stood and ran away from the collapsing side of the temple. Finally, they managed to outrun the collapse, panting and leaning up against the walls of the hallways as they caught their breath. “How did you learn to do that, Robin...?” She asked quietly, Robin looked up at her with a tired grin. “House Goldshore always teaches their family members how to fight.” She replied, standing back up as they walked back to the entrance.
“So... are you still royalty, Robin?” Lily asked, Robin shook her head and sighed. “No, when the government of Rosewall was established by the people, we lost all of our rights to our fiefdom and became defunct. We still had some money left in the manor's inherent value along with the gold ingots we had. We're called 'goldshore' for a reason, back in the day we had tons of gold, but our reserves are now meager, at best..” Robin explained, Lily nodding her head some as she spoke.
“Does that bother you?” Lily asked, not entirely sure just what to actually say. Robin shook her head and smiled at her. “It's bothered some of my family members that we lost the right to our land, but I want to be remembered by my whole name and not my last.” She said with a brave grin, Lily smiled back at her as they returned to the entrance of the temple. In the middle of the room sat Morgan. Her blade coated in black blood as she gently played with her trophy. Which was a pair of deer horns on a similar jade color trophy. She looked up at them both and stood up.
“Took you long enough, Did you explode or something on your way back?” Morgan asked Robin and Lily. But Lily walked away instantly from Morgan to lean against a nearby wall, still clearly not on any speaking terms with her. “Not exactly. But if it's any condolence, that entire area is currently sitting at the bottom of a lake along with the corpse of a massive panther.” She said flatly, Morgan gave a chuckle and sighed. “Sounds like a party.” She commented, sitting back down. “I got to fight a bunch of bats, had to cleave them out of mid air. The good thing was at least it wasn't too far from the entrance.” Morgan replied, giving a yawn and waiting for the other groups to arrive.
“I wonder what's taking them.” Morgan wondered, Robin sitting next to her as they both waited. “Well, I know Jonah still has to get his, Florence is helping him with that. And then there's Erika and Gabriel...” She said, turning to the hallway they were supposed to come back from. But sadly, they weren't on cue.
“Damn, I thought that was going to work.” Morgan commented, but after a couple more minutes both Erika and Gabriel arrived. Gabriel pumping the trophy in his hand a couple of times, this one was a pair of claws. “Woo! Did it! That was super easy” He shouted, looking at the three others in the room. “Uhh... Did something explode? While we were heading back we heard something crazy.” Erika wondered. Robin gave a chuckle and stood up, wiping her blade off on the ground from blood. “We came across some opposition and a tiny bit of the temple collapsed into an underground lake because of it. Did you have any trouble getting yours?”
Gabriel shook his head as he went to sit with the others. “Nope, it was just A REALLY LONG HALLWAY.” Erika nodded to confirm this. “Seriously, that was one really long hallway... I got so bored by how long that hallway was. I think we might have traveled through the core of the planet at one point.” Morgan shrugged and yawned a bit, walking to the front door and pushing it open to see that the sun was beginning to set. The orange sky of the evening air becoming much more prevalent. “Damn, it looks like we'll need to hurry.”
Morgan, Robin and Florence approached the temple at the middle the evening, Robin in awe along with her little brother by how big and impressive it was. It looked at least a thousand years old, and had massive stone spires shooting nearly a hundred feet into the air. There was a massive but worn staircase at the front along with a cracked stone walkway. There were plants growing up and along the building, as it was clearly overgrown. The trio headed up the stairs as they talked with one another. “So, This is the temple? It looks kinda like crap...” Morgan said sardonically, approaching the front gate and met with a massive pair of stone slabs coated with various paintings. They were so faded that she couldn't even read them.
Robin looked at her, walking up to the door as well and feeling her hands along it. “I have to say it's quite the contrary. It's amazing a building just made from stones and mortar has passed the test of time.” Morgan chuckled at that, placing her palms against the entrance of the door and pushing with all of her might. Yet the door didn't seem to budge. “I kind of wonder what this temple was for...” Florence wondered aloud. Robin leaned up to push the door along with Morgan, but even with their combined strength, it still wouldn't move. “Good question.” She said, between each push. “Maybe they prayed to their gods here.” She continued, turning around and pushing it with her shoulders and back instead.
“Maybe this is where they keep all their dead.” Morgan said jokingly, pushing onto the door a little more. Florence quietly squeaked in fear from that, looking away from them both. “W-would they really keep all their dead in there?” He said, sounding strangely scared of finding spooky skeletons of some crap. Morgan just shrugged. “Hell if I knew, hurry up and help push already.” Florence blinked a couple of times before realizing that he probably did need to help. He ran up to the door and began to push on it as well. “This isn't working...” Florence said, defeated. Morgan shook her head and looked up at the big door. “How much you bet that we're idiots and one of those ancient writings on the wall says 'Pull the door, asshat.'” She said, amused. Reaching her hand into the crack and trying to pull it, though the doors seemed heavy and there was no way that would work.
“Damn, I thought ancient societies would have a sense of humor.” She said, before Robin slid to the ground and sighed. “I didn't expect doors to give me the most trouble so far...” Robin said with a sigh, Morgan quickly giving up as well and leaning against the wall as Florence continued to push. “Any more of that and you'll get a hernia, kid.” Morgan snarked at him, rubbing her sore shoulder. He sighed and gave up as well. “Yeah... Seems like we'll need to wait until more people arrive.”
They sat there, waiting for someone to arrive, when suddenly the small group of four appeared out of the forest, Lily was looking at the map as the rest of them arrived at the long staircase. “Shoot, I thought we would have got here first.” Erika said, with a tinge of disappointment compared to Jonah's pure joy. He grinned and pumped his fist. “Yeah! I knew we would get here second! Pay up, Erika!” He demanded jovially, Erika sighing and pulling a 10 geld note out of her pockets and handing it to him. “Pessimism is awesome!” He said, folding the note up and placing it in his back pant leg.
Morgan walked down the staircase and observed all four of them as Robin climbed down the stairs just behind her. Florence still trying to push the door open entirely by himself like an idiot. “Looks like the gang's arrived.” Morgan said with a smirk, but Robin noticed something. “Where's Roth?” Robin asked, Lily folding up her map and revealing to the duo that her eye was bandaged over. “Maria got injured, she isn't here.” She said, walking past both Morgan and Robin and heading up the stairs, her voice oddly cold sounding.
Morgan shrugged her shoulders and walked back up the stairs along with her, Lily leaning onto the door and trying to push it open with Florence. Morgan just stood behind them both and watched with her arms crossed together.
“So princess, what happened to your face?” Morgan asked, Lily just leaned to push a shoulder against the door to see if it budged. “Nothing.” Lily responded, giving up on pushing the door open and looking at the taller black haired girl with her good eye. “Well, you didn't just wear that bandage because it looked cool.” Morgan said jokingly, trying to get her to explain herself. “My face got cut up, that's all.” Lily finally disclosed, Morgan shook her head and sighed. “Well ain't that a bitch.” She said, mockingly, Lily just frowned and watched as everyone else made it up the stairs. “We need to push this door open.” Lily said flatly, and everyone agreed and pressed against the wall shoulder to shoulder.
“Everyone ready?” Lily shouted, everyone began to push the heavy stone doors. Eventually, they began to creek and swing wide open, slamming against the walls of the temple so hard that there was a huge smashing sound that let loose a massive amount of dust into the air, obscuring everyone's view. Morgan pulled a bandanna out of her pocket and held up it over her mouth as she walked in to filter the air. It was dark and musty, and there was so much dust it was almost blinding. It quickly settled back onto the floor as everyone else began to walk inside. The place was dark with brown stone on the walls and ceiling, the dancing flames on the torches on each side of the huge entryway.
“This place is Massive...” Florence said in awe, looking around as just how huge the main hall was. There were three paths, one that had a huge pair of double stone doors, though quite a margin smaller than the last ones. The other three ways were just hallways. Morgan walked up to the doors and kicked them open, another slam with a huge surge of dust flew up. But not enough to clog everyone's windpipes.
“Look, I don't want to ruin the reunion or anything, but we're under a pretty strict time limit. We need to find these relics and be on our merry way.” Morgan explained, looking down the lit walls of the next chamber. Robin nodded and looked over to everyone else. “To be honest, she's right. We took enough time to get here and now we're closing in on 30 hours until the deadline. We have to make a move.” Robin added, as Morgan began to walk around the room, her claymore strapped firmly onto her back.
Jonah stepped up, looking around at everyone. “I think everyone should go with their partners, though since Maria isn't here, we have a lot of options to be honest.” Jonah explained, everyone watching him. “We either can go as one big group, which will be slower but less dangerous... Or we can go with our teammates, with one person going with another pair. “ He said, though Morgan cut him off while she was glaring at Lily, who was currently staring at the paintings on the wall. “Or one of us can go solo, and everyone else pairs up. It'll be the fastest.” She interjected. Jonah looked confused and stepped forward in protest. “That's pretty risky, Morgan. What if it's dangerous?” He implored, but Morgan shrugged him off. “It's dangerous in general and we all know it. Maria knew what she was getting into and she learned that as well.” Jonah sighed and shook his head. “Fine, but if you get hurt then don't blame me for it.” He said with a sigh, Robin walked up to Lily and began to speak to her quietly.
“Would you like to accompany me?” Asked Robin, Lily nodded and quietly replied to her under her breath as well. “Yeah... Morgan made me want to pull my hair out. What about Florence?” She mentioned, Robin just looked at him while he spoke to Jonah about joining him as well. “I guess I'll just have to trust him” She replied, looking as Morgan left through the double doors. “We'll meet back here when we're finished.”
“Let's make sure this is quick, Lily.” Robin said, leaving the other four on their own as they headed to the hallway to the west side of the room. The torches were lit on each side of the hall to signify that someone else had arrived before them to even light those matches. “The air in here is so musty...” Lily complained, the air was wet, dirty and stagnant and irritated her lungs. Robin gave a soft chuckle as they began to walk down the long hallway. Occasionally passing paintings and carvings in the stone walls telling messages of old they couldn't read.
“You call this musty? Heh... You should have seen my parents wine cellar.” Robin casually mentioned as she slipped her hands into the pockets of her waistcoat. “When I was down there, I wasn't sure if I was breathing air or pure cobweb and mold. I was coughing my lungs out for nearly a week.” She continued, Lily giving a little bit of a giggle. “Why were you in a wine cellar?” Lily inquired, Robin looked at her as she continued down the hallway, a small staircase leading further downward by a floor or two. “Oh, To get wine, of course.” Robin started, adjusting the spear strapped to her back a little bit. “I was kind of a rebel back when I was a teen. My parents haven't been in that cellar for years so it was pretty much stocked with tons of old vintage, I wanted to get a taste.” She said, stopping at a three way split. But she only noticed one of the ways had lit torches.
“How did it taste?” Lily asked Robin, starting to walk down the firelit path as the indicator where they're supposed to be going. “Way more bitter than I was expecting... I thought it was just grape juice you got drunk on.” Robin said with her own friendly chuckle. “So uhm... What happened with you and Morgan?” Robin asked next, Lily looking at the dark torch lit floor. “Well...” Lily trailed a bit, before Robin quickly swung her hand out in front of Lily to stop her. “W-wha?” Lily asked, confused as Robin looked up at the ceiling. “Something's off..” Robin said, The area began to creak as dust seeped through the cracks of the roof. “Move, Now!” Robin said, diving forward as fast as she could, Lily stood confused, but followed her just afterward. Suddenly there was a loud rumble as a massive pile of stoned fell from the ceiling and crashed onto the floor. Along with that came a massive pile of mud on top of it, before finally seeing the sunlight seep through the damage.
“WHY DID THAT HAPPEN!?” Lily shouted at Robin, Robin looked up at it and sighed, standing back up and dusting herself off. “I'm guessing the roof just was at it's limit. Either that or the water from a recent rain” Robin theorized, sighing a little bit and offering her hand to Lily to help her stand up. “Hopefully that won't keep happening.” Lily said quietly, Robin nodded and they went back to walking. The hallway turned into a somewhat large room, possibly an old altar of some sorts to an old god, from the seats all facing a small shrine.
Lily walked between the seats and up to the altar, looking at the little statues, two wooden carvings of a bird holding the moon, and a dragon holding the sun. “Wow... These are really cool. Do you think they're the Relics we were supposed to get?” Lily asked, Robin walked up and inspected them, grabbing one and lifting it up to inspect it. “It has a very thick layer of dust on it, The relics would only be placed here relatively recently.” Robin explained, as Lily put them in her backpack anyway. “Uhm... I wanted to paint them and put them in my window, sorry...” Robin laughed and pat her on the back of her shoulder. “Don't apologize to me! Whoever owned those are long past this world... Now let's go find the real relic.” Robin said with a smile as they left the altar room and headed down another hall.
“So... About what happened with Morgan...” Robin continued. Lily looked up at her and sighed. “...It was because apparently me not knowing how bad off some people are means I don't care about them.” She disclosed, Robin nodding her head as she kept pace with her. “Well, Do you care about those people?” Robin asked, crossing her arms behind her back as she walked.
“Of course!” Lily exclaimed, turning to her as she walked. “I do care... just sometimes I don't know how to actually help... Morgan suggested I do charity work or donations...” Robin nodded as Lily spoke, looking ahead to see a pit coming up. “Charity is a pretty good cause, though why was this an argument?” Robin asked, Lily shook her head. “I don't really know... She was right that charity is a good cause... But she started to guilt and insult me over it and she barely even spoke to me.” Lily explained, Robin shook her head and sighed. “That just seems like a clash of personality more than who is actually right.” She said, Lily sighed and nodded, before stopping just before the pit.
“How are we gonna cross this?” Lily asked, Robin swiftly reached into Lily's backpack and pulled out the rope it had. “Hold onto this for dear life.” She said, looking down into the pit and noticing it went much farther than she expected. “HOW DEEP IS THIS THING?” She said, But Robin just bent down and peered into the hole.
“It doesn't seem to go into a pit,” Robin observed, reaching down to rub the underside of the stone. “This is an underground lake. What's holding this building up?” She said, looking down and seeing the shimmering of the water reflect the soft glow of the torches nearly 50 feet down. “It might explain why the roof collapsed earlier, this entire building is shoddy...” Robin grabbed onto the rope and backed up as she spoke. “Seriously, hold onto this rope for dear life.” She repeated, Dashing swiftly past her and making a grand leap across the gap, landing perfectly on her feet before wrapping the rope around her arms several times.
“Lily, jump.” Robin demanded bluntly, the hair on Lily's neck began to stand up, as she shivered and looked down the hole in fear. “A-are you serious? What if I slip...?” Robin looked sharply at her. “Don't slip, then.” Lily sighed and held tightly on the rope. “Seriously... Isn't there a better way?” She asked, Robin shaking her head in response. “Do you see another way? I sure don't. So, tally ho and fucking jump already!” She shouted, tugging the rope to coax her a little bit.
She sighed and backed up, dashing forward and making a leap to quickly fall into the hole. She quickly wrapped the rope around one of her arms as she plummeted 50 feet, before suddenly the rope tensing around her arm and giving her massive rope burn. “AGH!” She shouted, feeling the rope dig into her arm, but she refused to let it slip from her hands. “You good?” Robin shouted down at Lily. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Lily shouted back up at her in pure fear of not having anything beneath her feet but dank cave water. “Okay, you're good.” Robin responded, slowly pulling the rope up to get her back up. Lily gripped onto the rope like her life depended on it, and Robin dragged her up all the way onto the other side. “Now that wasn't so bad, was it?”
Lily was hugging her rope, shivering on the floor in a fetal position. “...Right then.” She said, slowly pulling the rope away from her and placing it back into her backpack. Lily stood up, still shivering out of pure fear of what just happened as she slowly followed Robin. “I could only habit one guess as to why there wasn't a foundation in that area.” Robin stated, Lily hugging onto her invisible air pillow that she somehow had. “Water erosion.” She finished, Lily looking at her with another shiver. “W-water erosion?” She inquired fearfully.
Robin nodded and began to explain. “When water flows in an area, it cuts a swath to allow it to flow. It'll slowly whittle down wider and wider as the flow continues... A massive water flow caused all of the foundation to disappear. This could only mean one thing...” Robin deducted. “What would that be?” Lily wondered, the shivering slowly stopping as they turn a corner. “This place is a timebomb, and will collapse at any time.” Robin warned, Lily shrieked quietly again. “THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!” She shouted, Robin sighing some.
“We need to be quick about this, I don't want to wait until this place comes crashing down.” Robin explained, picking up into a brisk jog to hurry up. Lily picking up the pace just behind her until they reached another pair of double doors. hey opened it and there was another area, a massive area with nothing in it except for a small pedestal. Atop the pedestal was a bright jade color statue with a pair of silver wings. They both approached it quietly and Lily picked it up. “This doesn't have dust on it... It was put here recently!” Robin smiled at Lily's joy, feeling some of her own as she held out her hand. “Good job, partner.” She said with a grin, Lily grabbing her hand and firmly shaking it. “T-thanks!” Lily said, turning around to head back to the door as they heard a growl.
From the shadows, out walked a black mountain lion like monster, with bone like armor plating on it's back and face, and glowing red eyes. It wasn't any ordinary rift fallen mountain lion either, it was the size of a small car. It prowled toward them both and released a low growl. Lily and Robin both drew their blades as they saw it approach. “Oh god...” Lily quietly squeaked, holding her blade out and feeling her spine began to shiver. Suddenly the mountain lion pounced them both, swiping it's claw so hard that it caused a huge slash mark in the wall, even if it was nowhere near it. They both quickly ducked out of the way from it and watched it as it turned to Robin.
“It cut the wall without touching it!” Lily shouted. Robin held out her spear, ready for it to attack again. “That must be the power of Pulse...” She said, as it suddenly leaped at her. She spun her spear and caught it's claws in one swift movement, holding it back. “I AM NOT AFRAID OF A CAT!” She shouted at it's snarling face. Looking over to Lily as she struggled to hold it back. “JUMP ON IT, LILY!” She shouted. Lily nodded and leaped onto it's back. Robin ducked down so it went on the floor, before rolling out from underneath it. Lily shivered in fear but reared back to slash at it. She made a couple of slices on it's back and shoulder, jet black blood leaking from it as it growled and began to thrash around the room at full speed. Lily grabbed onto it's neck and ducked her head, shouting in fear as she kept trying to slash at it.
“Over here... you rapscallion!” Robin shouted, from nearly across the entire room by quickly repositioning herself. The huge cat with Lily currently on it's back, it looked at her and growled before ducking into another dash. Rearing down and leaping up at full speed at her. His back tilted upward and Lily flew off, landing on her back as the big cat tried to pounce Robin. Robin slammed the hilt of her spear down into the stone and bent her spear forward, making her blade pierce his jaw, skull and entire head as it sunk lower onto the pole, his body slamming into the ground, dead. She quickly yanked her spear back with a grin. Lily walking over to grab the trophy.
“That was awesome, Robin!” Lily exclaimed, holding the trophy over her head. Robin turned back and smiled, before noticing the ground began to rumble. Suddenly, the bricks under her feet began to slide and drop. Robin dashing and stumbling away as the huge cat fell through the bricks in the floor, along with half of the room as all that was left was a huge gaping hole where they could see the underground lake. Another huge heap of dust stirring in the air. “IS THIS ENTIRE PLACE COLLAPSING?!” Lily shouted out of panic. Robin grabbed her by the arm and slowly began to sidle along the side of the wall back to the door. Both of them walking as another couple of bricks fell into the water.
Once they were finished, they felt another Rumble. “COME ON!” Robin shouted, breaking out into full speed as they exited the room. They dashed along the hallway and Robin took another full leap across the huge gap. Lily stopping just short as she panicked. “ROBIN, THE ROPE!” She shouted at Robin, Robin shook her head, got in her knees and held her hands out. “NOT ENOUGH TIME, GRAB MY HAND!” Robin shouted back.
Lily gulped and made a running leap across the gap, and Robin snatched her hand before she fell. Robin quickly pulled her up, The bricks falling away as they both stood and ran away from the collapsing side of the temple. Finally, they managed to outrun the collapse, panting and leaning up against the walls of the hallways as they caught their breath. “How did you learn to do that, Robin...?” She asked quietly, Robin looked up at her with a tired grin. “House Goldshore always teaches their family members how to fight.” She replied, standing back up as they walked back to the entrance.
“So... are you still royalty, Robin?” Lily asked, Robin shook her head and sighed. “No, when the government of Rosewall was established by the people, we lost all of our rights to our fiefdom and became defunct. We still had some money left in the manor's inherent value along with the gold ingots we had. We're called 'goldshore' for a reason, back in the day we had tons of gold, but our reserves are now meager, at best..” Robin explained, Lily nodding her head some as she spoke.
“Does that bother you?” Lily asked, not entirely sure just what to actually say. Robin shook her head and smiled at her. “It's bothered some of my family members that we lost the right to our land, but I want to be remembered by my whole name and not my last.” She said with a brave grin, Lily smiled back at her as they returned to the entrance of the temple. In the middle of the room sat Morgan. Her blade coated in black blood as she gently played with her trophy. Which was a pair of deer horns on a similar jade color trophy. She looked up at them both and stood up.
“Took you long enough, Did you explode or something on your way back?” Morgan asked Robin and Lily. But Lily walked away instantly from Morgan to lean against a nearby wall, still clearly not on any speaking terms with her. “Not exactly. But if it's any condolence, that entire area is currently sitting at the bottom of a lake along with the corpse of a massive panther.” She said flatly, Morgan gave a chuckle and sighed. “Sounds like a party.” She commented, sitting back down. “I got to fight a bunch of bats, had to cleave them out of mid air. The good thing was at least it wasn't too far from the entrance.” Morgan replied, giving a yawn and waiting for the other groups to arrive.
“I wonder what's taking them.” Morgan wondered, Robin sitting next to her as they both waited. “Well, I know Jonah still has to get his, Florence is helping him with that. And then there's Erika and Gabriel...” She said, turning to the hallway they were supposed to come back from. But sadly, they weren't on cue.
“Damn, I thought that was going to work.” Morgan commented, but after a couple more minutes both Erika and Gabriel arrived. Gabriel pumping the trophy in his hand a couple of times, this one was a pair of claws. “Woo! Did it! That was super easy” He shouted, looking at the three others in the room. “Uhh... Did something explode? While we were heading back we heard something crazy.” Erika wondered. Robin gave a chuckle and stood up, wiping her blade off on the ground from blood. “We came across some opposition and a tiny bit of the temple collapsed into an underground lake because of it. Did you have any trouble getting yours?”
Gabriel shook his head as he went to sit with the others. “Nope, it was just A REALLY LONG HALLWAY.” Erika nodded to confirm this. “Seriously, that was one really long hallway... I got so bored by how long that hallway was. I think we might have traveled through the core of the planet at one point.” Morgan shrugged and yawned a bit, walking to the front door and pushing it open to see that the sun was beginning to set. The orange sky of the evening air becoming much more prevalent. “Damn, it looks like we'll need to hurry.”
Finally, Jonah and Florence showed up,
black blood drenching both of their bodies as they panted, Jonah
walking over to the rest of the group and coughing. “Just for
reference, I now hate spiders more because I saw one the size of a
small van...” He said, panting. Florence placed his bow onto his
back and nodded. “Yeah... It was kind of a hard fight.” Florence
agreed, but then he pulled out the trophy which was a fang. “We did
it though!” He said with a smile, Robin walked up to him and gave
him a hug. “Splendid job!” She exclaimed, before Morgan began
heading out the front door.
“Come on, do we even get a break first!?” Jonah exclaimed, placing his hands on his knees and hunching over to catch his breath. “There's no time, we need to hurry back to the meeting point or else we won't get the promotion to the main roster.” She said, Everyone else standing up and following her down the stairs. “You people are nuts...” Jonah said with frustration, before realizing he was entirely by himself.
“Oh damn it...” He said to himself, before tiredly jogging out of the entrance and down the stairs to follow them. “At least wait for me!” He shouted. Chasing after the group of six who left him behind.
“Come on, do we even get a break first!?” Jonah exclaimed, placing his hands on his knees and hunching over to catch his breath. “There's no time, we need to hurry back to the meeting point or else we won't get the promotion to the main roster.” She said, Everyone else standing up and following her down the stairs. “You people are nuts...” Jonah said with frustration, before realizing he was entirely by himself.
“Oh damn it...” He said to himself, before tiredly jogging out of the entrance and down the stairs to follow them. “At least wait for me!” He shouted. Chasing after the group of six who left him behind.
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