The sound of silent steps on a wooden floor headed towards the door, which was opened, and the bright sun shone upon Darrian as he walked out of the house, gazing upon the sky before stopping next to Kaylee and Haylee, who were playing in the garden. "How are you two?" Grandfather Darrian asked his two granddaughters, who seemed to have recovered to some extent from the curse. "We are fine and well, but... do you think he will survive in the dungeon?" Haylee asked Darrian, who tried to put up an act as if he didn't know what she meant. Well, he tried. "We are not that stupid and dense as to not notice that the curse weakened. "It may not be completely nullified, but it has weakened, and we appear to be improving... With this in mind, we concluded that he is in THAT dungeon... She explained while looking straight into Darrian's eyes. "I don't know Haylee."
After answering her question, he looked at the sky again. Grey and dark clouds started to appear in the sky, and a cold wind blew through the trees. "Something is going to happen, and it is making me uncomfortable..."
In the meantime, Arthur was fighting against one monster after another, some stronger, some weaker, and some equal to him, yet he didn't stop going deeper and deeper. After some time had passed, he discovered something strange, mysterious, and frightening.Driven by his curiosity, he walked towards that place before he knew it. Then suddenly a spider attacked him from behind, Barely dodging its attack, he put up his guard and was ready to fight. "A-a-a-a-a KNIGHT GENERAL RANK MONSTER!!" he exclaimed, his voice trembling, unable to believe what had just appeared in front of him.
With an incredible speed, he got attacked, barely following them with his eyes, and he could only deflect as well as block some of its attacks, but not without taking damage himself."Analyze! Wow, there is not much I can se- huh?! "I can outrun him; I should flee!"He was severely injured in that fight, having bruises everywhere on his body and getting lacerations, and stumbled out into the empty place around a corner. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Arthur exhaled and inhaled again, feeling his stomach tighten, and he threw up. "What is this feeling?..." "DUCK!", a voice inside his head resounded, and as if his body were controlled by it, he dove and barely made it , because the spider's leg, which was a blade, cut through the wall.
With one of its legs, which was like a blade, it cut through the wall and missed Arthur by a hair's width, who rolled on the ground. Then he slashed down at Art, who tried to block his strike; suddenly, the ground collapsed beneath him, and he fell, hitting the ground. It was dark down there, and the stone floor was cold. "Arghh... my entire body is numb."Huh... his consciousness is fading away, and he passed out cold. His fingers flinched, and he tried to open his eyes, but his vision was blurry, and just like this, some time passed.
His eyes focused on a piece of brick, wondering about its origin inside a dark cave like that. Glancing aside, he saw many other parts forming a wall-like structure. He was confused and curious to know about it. He stood up, looked at himself, and found himself alright with some bruises and lacerations as he wasn't feeling any pain.
Darrian was taking a walk to find some herbs and plants in order to cook something delicious, but as he made his way back to the house, something didn`t feel right. Glancing from behind a tree, he saw a group of soldiers grabbing and pulling his granddaughters out of the house. "What are they doing and where are they from?! Just you, that crest," Darrian feared, "it's the royal family. "Damn, how did they find me?" "This is clearly a trap, but I can`t leave the two princesses behind and flee alone..." And he dashed at them, killing quite a few with his sword and saving both of his granddaughters from their hands. "Oh my. Who do we have here. "My dear Darrian?" she exclaimed, smiling maliciously at him and the two girls."Damn you, Griselda! "Why do you keep bothering us?!"
"Do you really need to ask? You have the rightful heirs to the throne... so they need to be killed in order for our princess to be the heir. "Now die, all of you." As soon as she ended her sentence, the soldiers rushed at Darrian and attacked. He pushed Haylee and Kaylee inside the house and kept killing the guards in front of it, yet no matter how strong he was, he could not stop all the knights without getting injured. In order to gain an advantage, Darrian dashed into the house and killed the soldiers in the corridor, where they could not surround him.
"How is there a pillar inside a cave... and walls too?" ..." With an uncomfortable feeling, he went further inside, and even though he was scared, he was also attracted to it. He walks towards that broken wall and is stunned to see many such things. There were some broken pillars, and that place seemed like an abandoned hall. Something grabbed his attention. The posts weren't just a part of the hall but also led somewhere. Step by step, he went deeper along the passageway. "This cave no longer looks like a cave; it looks more like a huge hallway... and these pillars are no longer completely destroyed, at least not all of them."
He came to a halt in front of a pillar emitting a mysterious energy and placed his hand on it."What are these weird inscriptions on the pillars? "They look like runes, but.... from what races and languages?..."
"There are also drawings and symbols on the walls..." He took off his hand right after putting it on the pillar. Then he went to a wall and bent down to take a look at it because it caught his eye. "It has monsters and beasts engraved on it, as well as runes and some sort of circle..."Just what is this place?" This is what he thought as his hand wandered over all these symbols and runes, unable to identify them, he was more attracted to them. Still, he continued until there were no more signs of this place being a cave, because it looked like the interior of a palace, fancy but in ruins. Admiringly, he walked through the long and magnificent corridor of the ruin, The ceiling, which was supported by huge and mayestetic pillars, was like a piece of art, captivating its explorers. Even if all that remains are ruins.
"Aura Vision... As I thought... there," he said, pointing his finger to the ceiling, "are also weird figures and inscriptions engraved." As he traveled, he noticed that things were becoming less shattered.The pillars led him to another hallway, which was guarded by stone gates.
[POV Arthur/ First-Person]
"Huh?! "Why is there such a massive gate at the end of the corridor? They're quite intense, enough to stop a few healthy humans."Upps!! I shouted it out loud out of shock, and I just hope that there are no enemies nearby. Still... what the heck is going on here? ""Huh? Host, do you want to go inside the forgotten ruins?"What did I just read... Why did the system ask such a question? "Can you show me what my survival chances are if I were to enter right now?" The system window showed a loading image for quite a long time before saying, "ERROR!" Ahhh... so even the system finds it hard to calculate... at least not zero.
The Gate was huge and had an enormerous and mighty mythical creature sculpted on it. Even though it was a sculpture the pressure and Energy it emitted was no joke. He heard a sound as he moved forward and tried to step inside that hall. Arthur put his hands on the two doors trying to open them through pushing, he used all of his physical strength, yet the doors didn't budge even a little bit.
Art couldn't take his hands off the gate, as if he were stuck on it, and the creature's eyes began to glow, followed by it sucking his energy out of him.He struggled to get his hands off and take his energy back, yet all he could do was nothing, instead, it pushed Arthur away with incredible speed and power. He collided with a pillar, which crumbled slightly and accumulated dust as a result of the impact.Gasping for air, he tried to rise from the floor after hitting the pillar. As if the shortness of breath wasn't enough, he felt some of his ribs slightly broken and how his muscles tightened from pain as he stood on all fours on the floor.Nevertheless, he does not give up and tries to continue even though his mobility is limited.
His blood dripped onto the ground and seeped through the dust onto the ruins' ground.Arthur barely managed to get up after his impact with the pillar and tried to find his balance once he was on his two feet again. "What exactly happened just now?" He asked himself that while grabbing his chest in pain and stumbling forward while feeling dizzy.After reaching the next pillar, he leaned on it and slid down with his back to the pillar. He started gathering energy and eating the remaining herbs he had on him in order to recover to some extent. *spits blood* *ARGHHHHH! *"My body is burning up inside. urghh... hahh haahhh... damn... it hurts a lot more than I thought it would!" He thought to himself as he wiped away the blood from his mouth.
Once again he stood up and walked towards the gate; step after step he approached it and pressed on something that he gave no more attention to, but suddenly there was a heavy and powerful earthquake that stirred up all the dust, which became like a thick fog. making him unable to see anything. He crouched and put up his guard in order to protect himself from falling boulders. He waited and waited, but nothing fell down; instead, the ground started to glow—no, the grooves in the ground started to glow, and only now did he see that there was some kind of array or magic circle engraved into the ground. He didn't notice it, but when he looked around, he had unknowingly activated a magic circle.
His blood was absorbed, and a bright and powerful energy-shock wave erupted from the middle of the hall and shot to the walls. Everything that was touched by the energy wave reacted with it, every rune started to glow, and every magic circle and array started to glow and emit energy. A lot of blue energy particles were floating in the air, and now a dark hall, they made him feel secure and comfortable. and it started absorbing his energy. He tried to move out, but his body wasn't moving, as if he had lost all control of his body. Helplessly, he tried to fight against it and regain his energy, but in vain. Yet, on the edge of giving up, he felt no pain but a weird sensation.
The particles flew slowly towards Arthur and were slowly absorbed by him with deep breaths in and out, in and out, and so on. Hours have passed, and he is still absorbing energy from the air that's floating around. The absorption rate became faster and faster with time, the grand hall was shaking slightly, and some of the pillars started to crumble.
The runes started to float out of the pillars, with a body made out of energy, towards Arthur, who ended up absorbing them too. Massive amounts of energy began to surge through his body, vessels, and meridians, but nothing is perfect, and an unbearable sensation of pain rushed through his entire body.Like it would rip him apart and burn him from the inside out at any time, he coughed up blood and did his best not to lose focus. The runes flew out in their non-physical form and rushed into Arthur's head and got themselves imprinted there. Not that he knows their meaning, but thanks to that, he managed to break through the wall he was facing.
After another deep breath, he stood up and walked towards the gates. The gates moved. How is it possible for a nonliving thing to move on its own? He was inside the hall, he tried to get outside, but the gates closed with a smash. Arthur tried to open the gates again, but there was nothing he could do. He was in a state of confusion, unable to find a way out, and stuck inside a broken place with no sign of another human but a beautiful landscape inside this ruin. As he moved forward, he could see the landscape better, there were trees and rivers, some sort of hills or mountains, and even a cave-like ceiling inside a ruin where a small portion of light beams could pass through.