The hallway the two boys entered was devoid of the petrified people and pitch dark minus the small amount of illumination provided by the sword in Kellen's hand.
The sinking feeling in the pit of Kellen's stomach refused to dissipate and instead increased with every step down the familiar hallway. Although the kingdom was now just an ancient mess, Kellen was still able to pick out the similarities it held with the once flourishing Myria Kingdom.
'Fuck... It really is almost identical.' Kellen cursed in his mind as he followed the hallway to a staircase that led into some lower chambers, and finally the area he was most familiar with, the dungeon.
The old iron door that led into a small room was covered to the brim with rust, and as Kellen pushed it open, a painful screeching sound of old metal echoed off of the room's cold stone walls.
Near the back of the room was a small metal chair and a table with an assortment of cruel looking instruments littering its surface. A single petrified person was standing over said table with one of the instruments in his hands and a doting expression plastered on his frozen face.
Kellen squinted his eyes in disgust and resentment before quickly exiting the room.
"That's what you came down here for? To see some old ass torture chamber? I mean to each his own but still." Commented Tommy in confusion.
"I just need to see one more thing and then we can go." Bluntly stated Kellen as he led them halfway back up the winding staircase.
Another hallway with a few petrified people occupied the two as they walked passed the frozen robed stones. Kellen clicked his tongue as he saw a group of the petrified priests all tightly gathered before a specific doorway.
'Looks like some were trying to make an escape... Even into the void.'
Kellen kicked a few of the stone priests out from the blocked doorway before entering.
"Hey! I thought you said these were all people!" Shouted Tommy in dismay.
"Not the kind that deserve anything other than this." Coldly remarked Kellen as he brutally pushed passed and squeezed his way through the stone priests cluttering the small room.
Finally making his way to the back of the room, Kellen sighed as he placed his hand against a strange looking gateway that led to nowhere besides the solid wall behind it.
'I wonder if the ones that made it through are still trapped in the void.'
Kellen traced his fingers over the dull carvings on the posts of the black gateway. Unlike his first time when encountering the strange void-gate, the white runes covering its surface were no longer lit or glowing, and the strange substance that made up the void was nonexistent.
"It's just some weird posts stuck to a wall?" Questioned Tommy after finally managing to squeeze his way through the huddled stone priests.
"Yeah..." Answered Kellen without bothering to explain the gate nor his history associated with it.
"Uh... Cool I guess..." Responded Tommy, unable to decide what else to say.
Kellen paused his tracing fingers as a he felt a strange vibration arise from within his jacket.
'Huh?'
Poking his fingers into the inner pocket of his jacket, he felt the ring vibrating incessantly like it was having a miniature seizure. Grabbing the ring inside the grasp of his hand, Kellen pulled it out from his jacket and was amazed by its odd status.
White runes and words of languages unknown to Kellen fluttered around inside the blue gem atop the ring. The closer he brought the ring to the void-gate, the faster the runes inside the gem moved like the frantically pinpointed spinning of a compass.
Out of curiosity, Kellen touched the odd gem against one of the void-gate's dark posts. Some of the white carvings lit up momentarily before regaining their unilluminated state as Kellen withdrew the gem from the post.
'Weird...'
Kellen was currently experiencing a myriad of emotions and did not know what he should exactly be feeling at this moment. Sadness, rage, disappointment, happiness, or confusion; it did not register. After confirming the accurate locations and existences of the torture chamber and the void-gate, Kellen was certain that this was the Myria Kingdom. But the sword and strange gem only made the situation a whole lot more chaotic.
As per usual, Kellen was left with countlessly unanswered questions and he did not know even where he should begin.
'Why is the Myria Kingdom beneath the Roman capital? How did it reach this state and who did it? For what purpose did they do it? What is this weird connection between the Goddess's artifact and the void-gate? Are there more of them?'
The questions seemed to jumble together as they raced through his mind like the weird runes inside the gem.
Tommy was the one to finally break him out of this confused state.
"Wow! Did you see that? The posts just lit up all of a sudden!" He shouted in excitement from the other post.
Tommy's stupid voice helped rein Kellen back into the present moment.
"Yeah... I think it was because of this." He said while showing Tommy the blue gem ring.
"Really? It was because of a small stone?" Tommy asked in amazement.
Kellen placed the gem back against the post next to him to prove his words. Sure enough, the posts lit back up and a weird darkish substance began to manifest itself between the posts.
"Woah!" Exclaimed Tommy while curiously reaching out his hand towards the strange matter.
"No! Don't!" Yelled Kellen as he quickly shoved the ring back into his jacket pocket and with his other hand grabbed Tommy's wandering fingers.
Swiftly, he pulled the curious boy back away from the closing gate, resulting in them crashing against one of the stone priests behind them.
"Wha- What was that? Why'd you pull me back?" Asked Tommy, who was currently in a daze after falling over the stone priest.
"Don't touch that! It leads to the void!" Warned Kellen gravely while wiping a bead of sweat away from his forehead.
"Alright; Alright! Calm down, no need to get ballistic. But what's this void thing your talking about?" The curious boy couldn't help himself from asking.
Kellen stood up from the toppled stone priests and dusted off his jacket.
"Just know that it is a hell you do not wish to experience and one with rarely any escape. Trust me." Cautioned Kellen in a deep and serious voice.
"Uh... Okay." Responded Tommy as he gulped before untangling himself from underneath the stone priests.
Kellen looked back towards the fading lights of the runic carvings on the black posts of the void-gate.
'This "piece of garbage" can actually activate the gate to the void...' Pondered Kellen as he watched the trailing lights finally extinguish on the posts.
'What does the Goddess have to do with the void?' He wondered after trying to determine what the real connection between the artifact and the void really meant.
Thinking back to near the end of his entrapment in the void, Kellen remembered when he was suddenly set free by a rift. He and Osiris had assumed it was the Goddess's doing but did she really have complete control over that chaotic space that even Osiris could not wrangle.
It just didn't make sense why an artifact like this even existed if the Goddess could handle it at a mere whim.
Kellen was now unsure whether or not the void was something that a God could actually create. If they couldn't even control it then how could they have made it in the first place? If it was created by someone then it definitely was someone above the Goddess, Osiris, and maybe even Nergal at his peak power.
The thought of such a powerful existence made Kellen shudder slightly. If the other celestials would be considered ants to this being then what was he?
To calm his roaming thoughts, Kellen took a deep breath and decided to focus on what he could control and do at the moment. Whether such a being existed was still unknown, maybe not even to the other deities, since if they did know, Kellen doubted they would act in such eccentric and foolish ways.
Moving the temporary torch of a sword in his hand, Kellen helped Tommy up from the mess of stone, and led them back to the throne room.
Before deciding to leave, Kellen took in one last look at the crumbling and petrified kingdom.
'You all casted me aside like everyone else and yet I'm the one that remains.' He thought as he soaked in the irony of the situation with welcoming acceptance.
"Let's just get out of here already! So much for my awesome hideout... Now this place just creeps me the hell out!" Annoyingly complained Tommy as he looked at the gruesome expressions of the petrified people around them.
"Yeah, it's just an old chapter now anyways." Agreed Kellen as he followed Tommy back to the hidden passageway leading to the underground and forgotten Kingdom of Myria.
Inside a small chapel, hidden deep within a mountain, a bunch of cloaked figures bickered between each other.
"The activator cores just went haywire!" A cloaked figure shouted as he pointed to the blue gems stationed inside a metal contraption shaped like a diamond.
"Someone activated one of the gates." Another one of the cloaked figures suggested as he frantically wrote down the changes between the white runes occurring inside the activator cores.
"We need to let the superiors know!" Boomed a voice from behind the panicking cloaked figures.
The cloaked men stopped their panicked actions and turned towards the voice.
"But sir! We don't know yet which gate was triggered!" Whined one of the men.
"Unless you wish to fall where you stand then I suggest you follow the instructions left by the directors!" Barked the large man, who wore a torn and faded cloak with a missing hood that once must've resembled the ones worn by the other men.
"But sir-"
The voice of one of the cloaked men was cutoff as the greatsword from the large man's back flashed across the man's neck. A red tattoo of a lock with an eye in its center, glistened from the almost invisible flash of the sword, on the side of the large man's exposed shoulder.
"Mutiny and the weak are not welcome in our order. Unless you are able to teach me otherwise by cutting me down right now, then shut up and report!" The fierce man ordered as he turned and walked out from the chapel.
The remaining cloaked man shakily looked towards the head of his comrade rolling on the ground near his feet, before quickly grabbing a bunch of papers and running off.