I stay nearby and have the spiderlings climb their way to the temple. Xelu's spiderlings can just fly towards the temple so they reach it a bit quicker. When they reach the top though, something ridiculous happens. A large rumbling occurs and my view becomes distorted. When everything settles down I finally understand what happened. The entire cave flipped leaving the lake on the roof while the temple lies on ground level.....
Kess and Xelu are greatly confused while Vulki and Neme are closely guarding me. Set is on edge right now as it seems like she is trying to drill her way deeper into my skin. I try to guess what happened. I can't tell if the entire cave just flipped or if.... Gravity for us was reversed. I start sweating at imagining the consequences..... If we were to go outside wouldn't we fall into the sky? Well..... We would still be technically underground so I guess it would still be fine?
I check my status and find out I was right. Under condition it has reversed gravity with an unlimited time attached to it.... It seems that we 'have' to explore the temple now. I tell the others what I've discovered and other than Xelu, they seem a bit worried. Neme even proposes something horrible.
"Well, I can be resummoned after death right? If I die in there I can just try again and again until I conquer it." Nemesis
She seems rather eager.... That kind of mindset is something I can't approve of though. The rest just think I should use spiderlings but, who knows if we can get more from the nest. I have Kess have her spiderlings check out if the tunnel is still ok. I get really bad news. The tunnel is gone....
After contemplating I come to this decision on how to conquer the temple. Kess' spiderlings will act as tanks, Vulki's will act as mages and by the most heavily defended. Xelu's will be similar to aerial assassins. Unfortunately Neme doesn't have many spiderlings at the moment so they won't have too much of an effect. I can use them in emergencies as bombers when the time comes though.
We will follow behind this group and have another smaller group of spiderlings covering our rear as we advance. Retreat is an important thing to keep in mind as well. It would be better to retreat well ahead of the time that we would be 'forced' to retreat.
My planning was ruined though.
When we advanced to the entrance, all of the centipedes fled quickly into the temple. We did manage to kill one but, unlike what I imagined, it only provided one experience point..... proceeding through the temple was easy as well.... No enemies or traps paved the way making me slightly nervous. I would have felt much better if we met some form of resistance. This is just eerie.
As we continue down the passage, metal statues of cow people start to pop up on both sides of the passage. Buried into the brick, they stand really tall, about three meters. Unlike the ones outside, these are covered in heavy armor with only their horns and hooves exposed. They each carry blue halberds with cloth covering the ends.
I thought that they would spring to life and attack but, I was only partially right. They followed behind our group without showing any signs of aggression. More and more of them escorted us as we went along.
"I don't like this" Vulki
"Do you have any clue on what's happening Vulki?" Gin
"No, this is quite a bizzare event. The fact that none of the things in this temple are hostile....." Vulki
"Perhaps the temple isn't abandoned as we thought?" Kess
I'm suprised as Kess actually gives a thoughtful answer. She seems to be interested in the living statues. Perhaps seeing another form of life that is made of metal caught her interest? I just hope she's not interested in them as a source of food....
The tunnel opens up into a twisted room. Extremely odd looking as the walls ,floor and roof are twisted together. Not sure if this due to a strange power or if the room naturally looks like this. The very end of the room goes back to normal though as there are steps that go up to an altar. The top seems to have brick thrones with two giant metal statues covered in even heavier armor than the ones from the passage. I'm guessing one male, one female due to their structures.... King and Queen?
When we reach the altar I get to see that it looks like the same kind that aztecs ripped the hearts out of people on..... Uhhhhh..... Thats not going to happen here right? After a few minutes a shadow congeals itself in front of us bowing its head down while it raises the palms of its hands up. Three cards appear. One black with a shiny gold lining, one white with a dull blue lining, and finally, one Grey with a glowing red lining.
Is this an oppurtunity or a curse? I've seen similar scenarios happen in games and stories before and the results are usually drastic. Some people are gifted with great fortune, While others are rewarded with death or sometimes, a fate worse than death. Cards seem to hold some sort of significance in the grand scheme of things though. Between reading the future or determining someone's fate, cards are important items.
So how should I choose which card to pick? Honestly I don't know. If they were all the same I would just pick a random one. However they all have unique aspects to them. The black and gold one give me a feeling as if I had everything in my grasps. The grey and blue one give me a feeling of tranquility as if I don't need to worry about anything. The grey and red one makes my blood boil as if I could fight for the rest of my life and never tire. However..... This all seems wrong. Why would I just be given this chance? Is it because we discovered this temple? Is this whole thing a giant and elaborate trap to somehow enslave me by making me pick up a card? I don't trust any of this so inaction is my only option.
I pass a few hours discussing things with Set. She is the most cautious out of all of my subordinates. She seems to have a similar mind to me.
'In the end, this is all too convenient. I wouldn't pick up any of the cards. I doubt that a temple like this would just 'give away' some sort of benficial opportunity. As for what to do from here.... I haven't the slightest clue..... We'll most likely have to fight our way out. With the amount of metal statues here plus those two huge ones.... It'll be hard.' Set
Hmmmmmmmm....