As Rethys left the workshop, the sliding stone door automatically moved to seal the room again, and he could feel it growing increasingly resistant to his senses.
Eventually the door fully closed, with Rethys' senses becoming blind to what's on the other side. It once again seemed like a dead-end wall.
Taking note of the workshop entrance's unique quirk, he turned away and began climbing the stairs down, descending back to the catacombs' level.
He pondered for a while trying to find another of the workshops but decided against it. He had what seemed to be a map after all, and if the trapped mage could help him decipher it, he might be able to use it to navigate towards the remaining workshops and labs instead of trying to backtrack through a path he was already starting to forget.
Brandishing his newly acquired weapon in hand, he carefully began tracing his way back to the sealing chamber, mindful not to attract any creatures on his way.
Halfway back, however, he noticed that something had changed from when he had set out earlier. There were large cracks running through the stone corridors, as well as badly wrecked or even completely collapsed walls. The most terrifying sight was of the torn apart corpses of various kinds of catacomb dwellers, their blood and viscera smeared over the walls along with massive claw marks.
'What the hell happened here.' He wondered, cringing at the bloody sight before him.
Checking further, Rethys noticed that the destruction was not arbitrary, instead following a clear path, with the terrible claw marks dotting the floor and whatever was left of the walls marking the passage of... something.
Focusing his senses exclusively on where the trail of destruction led, he caught a glimpse of a massive, extremely powerful creature, its soul shining very brightly and in horrible shades, revealing its extreme corruption.
It stood stationary in one of the burial rooms, atop the binding magic circle in the center of it, seemingly just staring at it. Peering further into the creature, he could get a rough sense of how it looked like.
'Oh gods...'
It stood at a height of what must've been over three meters at the withers, with a large build that just barely fit through the halls, and had four unnervingly long arms, each ending with long, thick, and probably very sharp claws. It resembled another other type of creature Rethys previously saw, but instead of crawling on walls, this one seemed capable of knocking them down, effortlessly too, judging by the obscene concentrations of ether in it shining so brightly that it was difficult to see the creature's silhouette.
Peering further into the magic circle it stood on however, he noticed a very interesting detail.
'Gods damn it! I knew I shouldn't have done that!' He screamed inwardly.
It was the exact same circle he had tampered with, and it seemed that its owner had detected the difference and travelled back to it. The creature didn't do anything though, simply just standing there.
Utterly regretful of his actions and not wanting to find out what the creature might do, he began slowly retreating backwards before turning around and deciding to take a detour.
The detour he took saw him coming dangerously close to one of the passages to the inner mausoleum that the trapped voice had warned him about. And as he approached within a few hallways' distance from the stairs leading downwards, he could feel... things that were shuffling about near the entrance.
He couldn't detect any bright radiance of a soul around them, but instead small clouds of the densest, and darkest ether Rethys had ever seen.
Deciding not to stick around to find out what exactly he had seen was, he continued onwards, mindful to keep his distance.
Eventually he managed to get back on track to reaching the sealing chamber, making a note not to head through that way ever again.
Passing through the empty halls and then into the long hallway, he was once again greeted with the heavy but reassuring pressure the thoroughly enchanted room emitted.
Walking into the room's light, he heard the ivory chains hum and sensed the black blade's aura grow thicker, as if awakening, before feeling himself once again under the azure gem's harsh stare. It seemed to see completely through him, and Rethys didn't like that feeling.
Looking away from the azure stone, he set down his satchel and sat down against a wall.
Looking around, his attention wandered to the enchantments dotting the entirety of the chamber.
Before, he could not make any sense of them, as they all shone too brightly to gain any information from them. Now however, after familiarizing himself a bit with how magic circles worked, he could at least see the direction their ether took.
Some had their ether flowing into the glowing nullstones in the ceiling, jagged white stones which he noted had properties of ether absorption, not much unlike his own element's dispersion effects. The ether then flowed back downwards, from the nullstones towards the ivory chains that bound the dark blade.
Other circles stacked with one another to perform some role he couldn't fathom as they combined to create what seemed like enchantments made of enchantments.
Most of the installations in the room however seemed to follow a recognizable pattern, converging their effects upon the ivory chains, channeling into them a frankly dizzying amount of ether that he identified to be that of Purity, an element he knew nothing of.
He couldn't truly appreciate what he was seeing, but he could nonetheless recognize that it was a monolith of effort and care that appeared more than a little majestic.
All to imprison one soul.
"You return safely, and with your prize in hand. I am impressed." The voice intonated with a soft, almost melodic voice.
Trying his best to keep a straight face, he decided to brief her of his findings, hoping that she would enlighten him with her expertise. He told her about what he found in the workshops, which weren't that interesting, before moving to talk about the binding magic circles, and the one he had tampered with.
"Those circles are not meant to bind souls, though I see how you arrived at such a conclusion. Those are summoning circles, and you should not tamper with them that way, it might attract the attention of one of the truly large creatures that inhabit the catacombs, and those lack the intelligence necessary to not bring this whole place crashing down on all of us." The voice explained.
"Summoning circles? What do they summon?" Rethys asked.
"Daemons, of course." The voice replied as if it were the most obvious thing but noticing Rethys' confusion continued. "Ah I see, you do not know of daemons. It is pointless to go into too much detail, but just know for now that a daemon is a freer, more complicated kind of elemental. The remaining creatures inhabiting the whole of Yvtar now are the failed results of summoning such daemons, and thus remain incomplete beings, neither human nor daemonic.
"But enough of that, I am more intrigued by your element's ability to affect magic circles. It seems to me an incredibly potent skill."
Rethys had expected her to be interested in that ability, seeing the circumstances of her existence, and he was correct. Now it was only up to him to steer the conversation and hope for the best.
"It didn't seem useful to me; it took a lot of time and a lot of energy." He scoffed.
"So you say, boy, but do know that no other element could do the same. And of course, it would be inefficient if you only relied on simple emission to accomplish it. Using channeling, you would be able to dismantle a magic circle with little energy. Or perhaps opt for an instantaneous effect using a spell." The voice mused.
"Emission? Channeling? A spell?" Rethys repeated, somewhat recognizing those concepts but making sure to convey his ignorance.
"Yes, a boy of your age should know of these concepts. You yourself said that you had a master presiding over you, is that not so?" The ancient mage asked.
"Uhm, yes but I have never truly been taught magic, lady mage. My... element only surfaced after I came to this place." Rethys revealed.
"That would not mean- Wait, how much do you know about magic and the Ether?"
Rethys did not instantly answer, instead pondering the voice's question, he didn't want her detecting any lies after all.
He knew magic as a craft, the materials, ingredients and many processes he had witnessed over and over as Fulgrith's assistant. Magic as a power however, he knew little of, only the surface knowledge he managed to grasp from here and there, as well as the abilities he could instinctively command, in part thanks to the Origin entity.
This wasn't due to Fulgrith's teachings being lacking, rather that it was forbidden for true magical power to be trained outside of the Kingdom's academies. This saw Rethys learning much about Fulgrith's specialties but not much else. He guessed it was the Kingdom's attempt to somewhat prepare future students of magic without granting them any actual knowledge that they might misuse.
'Damned nobles.' He sneered inwardly.
Finishing his introspection and returning to the voice's question, he answered in the clearest way he could, hoping the conversation would go where he was hoping.
"I was only an assistant, I know magic only from what I needed to help my master with, and maybe bits here and there, but I never really received any true training or tutoring. To answer your question, lady mage, aside from what's known by everyone, I don't really know anything."
"I see. It is impressive then that you have survived thus far with such rudimentary knowledge and usage of your element. I do wonder if your unique element would develop as all the other elements humans are capable of using. I could help you with your power, if you are willing, of course." She suggested.
'There it is. And look at her trying to be subtle about it.' Rethys thought, but his voice didn't betray his suspicions.
"I appreciate the gesture, lady mage, but why?"
"I do not have much to lose by helping you, I am not about to give you my legacy after all, only the few pointers that you would need." The voice explained. "It would help distract me from the ennui of this place as well, it does get boring here you know."
'I know what I'm walking into here, it should be fine. And even if it's not fine, it's definitely still worth it.' He thought.
"Thank you again, lady mage." He answered.
"You are welcome." She said in a pleasant voice that unnerved Rethys. "Now let us begin, shall we?"