The giant room was filled with sounds of rushing water and flowing mana. The echoes of the waterfall fought against the constant humming of the whirlpool of mana in front of them. It was beautiful, the mana moved slowly and gently, taking care to not disturb even the air around them.
An ingot was situated in the middle of the altar which was placed atop a protrusion from the runic walls. Ancient writing dotted the walls giving them a mystifying feel, urns placed ceremoniously inside the indents in the walls further accentuating the temple look.
Donis moved his eyes from corner to corner and saw that there were statues of a being. Tall, strong and it held a weapon that resembled a trident, but with far more of a menacing look. The tips were flared out to make them seem like a hook, almost rake like. Long flowing hair and a small garb to cover the lower half of the body.
The statues were all the same being, but in different positions. His body resembled those the ancient Greeks would consider gods. Perfect physique, and an aura of grandeur. One could tell just how much awe the creators of the statues had for these beings.
Donis considered them beings, for they resembled men, except for their oversized arms, and titanic bodies. The statues depicted scenes of battles, where they stomped, stabbed, or tore men that were of an insignificant size.
The room was perfectly lit, with dark brown walls free from the grasp of the moss that infected the hallways behind them. It was like walking into a temple that was kept daily, yet the same feeling of it being an ancient place never strayed from the palate of the room.
"Wow," sighed Rona, Cypher and John in unison.
"Cypher, anything to report?" said Striga, snapping her out of her reverie.
She quickly collected herself and began a careful inspection of their surroundings. Though no matter how much she looked, she could see nothing out of the ordinary. There were none of the ancient Hran traps, nor were there any signs of damage to the walls or even signs of ageing anywhere. It was like someone just up and left here yesterday.
Donis also relied on his keen senses and his [True Inspect]. Though there was nothing to see. The room itself seemed plain, though it couldn't be so.
'System, what is this place?' thought Donis.
Yet, for the second time since his inception in this world, the [System] did not reply.
'System?' he asked again.
The only thing in his mind was an eerie silence that he had only felt once before. When he met Variis. Realisation struck Donis like a hammer. He must be in a separate space that the [Systems] AI cannot access.
He couldn't tell Striga anything, but he needed to tell them that this isn't a normal space, nor can they consider it safe. He looked at the metal ingot in the middle of the room and realised that it must be something to do with that. He had no information but it was the only thing that made sense to him right now.
He quickly whispered for Striga to come over, not certain what to tell her, but he knew he couldn't stay entirely silent, this could be too big for him, or even for them.
"Slowly spread out and look for clues, by no means approach that giant pool of mana. We don't know enough about this place to start touching things randomly. That means Jimmy you stay where you are and don't even breathe too hard," commanded Striga.
"Yes cap'n!" saluted Jimmy.
Striga walked over to Donis, and sat down. He followed suit and sat beside her, lowering his voice as much as he could.
"Something's horribly wrong."
"Are we in danger?" she replied.
"Not sure, but my uh... abilities don't work here. I've only experienced it once before, and lets just say, it was not of this world."
Striga looked at him, confusion rippling through her demeanor. She could feel the bridge of her nose and temples needing a rub.
"Fuck, okay, I don't know what that means, but it's definitely not something I wanna try and deal with," she sighed.
Standing up, Striga commanded the crew to be even more careful than before, stressing that something seemed off about this whole thing. Herself and Jimmy decided to set up a camp a little bit before the room, inside the hallway they came in from.
A few tents to house the crew, a self contained fire to heat up food and themselves, and some cushioned seating.
After a few hours of scouting the room, Cypher and Rona came back with a few pieces of information.
"So, the room is clear, and there seems to be no traps that are known by the Hran, nor are there any traps that could even be seen," said Cypher.
"Wonderful. Do you think we can inspect the artifact?" asked Striga.
"It seems to be safe enough, but I think we should inspect the waterfall. There seems to be some sort of pathway behind the water. Though we cannot find the mechanism to unlock the entrance. We know there is one because a slight breeze can be felt coming from the wall behind the water, and when my hands touched the stone, it was far colder than the walls around us," said Rona while unravelling her parchments of notes.
"Further, the Hran on the walls isn't what I'm used to. I was expecting the writing to be from the year 2,300AC, but it seems to be closer to 3,000BC. It's going to take me a while to adjust what I know and translate the writing," continued Rona.
"Great, if you think you can do that, then continue. Jimmy, is our exit sealed like how I expected it to be?" Striga said turning her attention to Jimmy.
"Yeah, she's sealed alright. No way back out unless we figure out what's going on here, typical passage trap," said Jimmy while he was knocking back a glass of what definitely wasn't water.
"Okay, few questions. What's AC and BC? Also, no way back out? Isn't that like, terrible?" asked Donis. He was no longer scared of these things, since he realised none of the group flinched at his words.
"Jesus what did you even learn at the Academy?" blurted out Striga.
"AC is 'After Cataclysm' and BC is 'Before Cataclysm'. An essential part of our history in which the world was nearly over as we knew it. Yeah, there's no way out anymore until we leave through the other side of this ruin," said John.
"The Hran, as you know, were people who worshipped Tekkun, but it wasn't just a regular religion. They were THE religion back in the day. Their dynasty reigned for over 7 thousand years, and clearly, they had an advanced form of magic that we try to unravel every day," said John as he pointed at the slow moving enigma that was the whirlpool of mana.
"Alright John, enough of a history lesson for tonight, lets rest and tackle this tomorrow with fresh minds. Marching and then painfully checking every corner for traps has weighed heavily on our minds. This is an order; sleep," commanded Striga.
Everyone went into their set up tents for the night, including Donis. Who was beyond happy to not only rest, but digest the information he was once again offloaded with.
'What the fuck is even the point of the Academy if I don't even learn the history of the world? I know I have one more year of it left, but they cannot possibly cram everything into that year can they? I'm starting to think that there might be something wrong with the schooling of this world,' he thought to himself angrily.
The more he learned from the encounters he'd come across, the more he realised that the Academy was just a title. He learned magic, sure, but there was clearly so much more to the world than he could have possibly guessed.
After snuggling up to his blanket inside his tent, he tried calling Etheria out, yet she didn't appear. He couldn't even hear her through his mind link with her. This worried him slightly, but he rationalized it because the [System] itself wasn't able to reach him here, then probably Etheria wouldn't be able to either. It was the only thing that gave Donis some peace of mind.
The only thing that was even weirder though, was the fact that he still felt like he could access the corrupted memory at any time. It was akin to an itch at the back of his mind that he could scratch at a moments notice, he had just refrained from doing so since he was still busy with the crew.
Having a potential few hours of sleep had given him the breathing room to flesh out the memory and let it flood over him.
It started off like any other, an intangible sensation of being reminded of something he had always known but always escaped him. Like having something be on the tip of the tongue for hours, until it finally clicked and he remembered.
His mind was taken away, a blackness washed over his vision and his head hit the pillow.
A series of nauseous movements overtook his senses. Bright lights and sounds he had never heard washed over him with smells accompanying him for the first time in his memories. There was a sense of awe and grandeur, everything felt surreal and holy, though he saw nothing just yet.
He felt gravity come back to him, he felt like he was standing and bowing. Opening his eyes, he could see the same floor below him as when he was inside the ruin. Something was off though. Those weren't his legs.
His skin colour had taken on a beautiful tanned colour, while wearing what seemed to be beige slippers. He raised his head and looked around. There were people there now, and the giant whirlpool in the middle of the room wasn't there anymore.
The people surrounding him all had the same tanned skin like him, all wearing beige ceremonial clothing, speaking in tongues he couldn't process, but understood at a deeper level.
Some of the people were situated in concentric circles of a few meters apart. Some of the people were carrying baskets, others were weaving the clothing they were wearing but all of them seemed busy, walking with purpose.
He looked at the man in front of him and spoke.
"I am ready father."
"Good, my child. Your sacrifice will not go in vain, trust us. Caerebar will take you to the 4th circle of paradise and you shall continue your journey."
"Thank you father. I must ask, before I go. Will this help our people?"
"Of course Tekkun. Your sacrifice will help you become more for yourself, and more for the people. You'll lead us into an age of prosperity. You'll give the Hran a way to use magic,"