Thud!
I crashed against something hard and everything in front of me, become clear.
"Fuck!" I cursed in pain as I sat down from a strange position, I fell in and immediately got shocked, seeing where I am.
I am in a grand corridor with huge, intricate pillars. It seems to be made for the giants and is a radiating a feeling of oppressiveness, that feels as strong as Viscount Atre's aura.
One moment, I was in the carriage, and the other; I was here.
I want to believe that I am under some kind of illusion spell and that High-Mage would soon relieve me of it, but it is not. I could feel in my heart and my bone that it is real.
As for how I get pulled into this place, I don't have a fucking idea, but it is a world of magic, and stranger things happen.
I don't know where I am, and how I get out of here. On top of that, I do not feel great. I felt like danger is everywhere.
Instinctively, my hand went to my waist, but my sword was not present there.
I had placed my sword beside my chair. If any trouble came, I would have been able to take it in an instant, but never in all scenarios I had imagined. I would be pulled into a strange place.
Next time, I will remember that.
I am unarmed; I don't even have a knife. The only thing I have that could be called offensive is the charm I have in my pocket.
I touched and felt a little reassured before looking around.
I don't have a map of this place and don't know what it is, but I couldn't stay in one place.
So, I turned back and begin to walk through these dim corridors, which seemed to be made for the giants.
The size of the corridor and the beauty of it I have never seen before. It awed me and if my father had been here, he would have tried his all to take away these pillars.
But I know enough to consider any art connoisseur would sell their souls to have them.
I stopped beside one pillar and looked at them. The beautiful carving that is done on every pillar.
They carved the pillars in great detail, each telling a story.
The stone pillar I am looking at is showing humans, elves, dwarfs, orcs, and even undead among them. It is not just, there are even elder races among them.
Giants and Crystal race, among two others, which I could recognize. There is also another one, which I didn't.
All these races seemed to be fighting unitedly against a single enemy, which has come from the sky when it had split open.
"Incursion," I said.
It is, without doubt, the scene pillars describing is of the incursion. The incursions are the gravest danger to this world. Every time they came, they would wipe out more than half of the population.
The kingdoms are destroyed. The empires turned to dust. Races extinct.
If anything, that has the greatest influence on this world, then it is incursions. The last incursion had been more than two thousand years ago, and people are saying the next incursion would be in this century.
They have been saying that thing for the past centuries and it did not happen. I hope it didn't happen in this century either.
I moved to the next pillar, and it had scenes of incursions. Some were so painful that it had brought tears to my eyes.
I looked around the seven pillars before I stopped. The pillars wouldn't provide me with any information about this place. It is better that I increase my pace and get out of here.
Hun!
Minutes passed when I suddenly stopped.
The corridor that had been in optimal condition had collapsed. I climbed through the rubble and found the way is completely blocked.
I could go around it through the overgrown to the right, but just looking at gives me shivers all over. I will not go there, unless there is really no choice, and even then, I would think about it hard.
Seeing there is no way back, I turned and walked forward.
An hour passed, and I was still walking through this corridor. It seems endless with a wall to my right and an overgrown garden to my left. Leaving me no choice, but to continue walking through the corridor.
I had walked for another half an hour when something changed. Seeing it, I nearly ran and soon reached the end.
"Gasp!"
A visible gasp came out of my mouth as I stopped in my tracks. In all my life, I have never seen something so beautiful. It is so beautiful that unknowingly tears have started to come out of my eyes.
In front of me, or rather a few miles away from me on a tall hill, is a building. The building did not seem like the right word to describe it; it looked more like a temple.
Yes, the temple would be the right word to describe it. It is radiating holiness.
The temple is completely white and has a square base, with a long spiral going high in the sky.
I looked at it for a minute before taking a step into the open ground. There is a large open ground between the temple on the hill and the building I am.
Miles long, that would take me hours to cross. There are also many buildings. Such as the one I had come from.
Forming a circle around the temple on the hill, with a gap of miles between them.
Hun!
The moment I took a step out of the corridor, I stopped, and a great shock appeared on my face. The oppressive aura had become powerful, that I am having a hard problem breathing.
Still, it is not a thing that shocked me. It is energy coming from the temple. It is more suppressive than the oppressive aura.
The death energy.
It is different from the oppressive aura. It is much softer but more powerful than it is. Far more than I had ever felt; in the Navr or from the undead that attacked the island.
The temple which I was considering holy is unholy. Though since death is a part of the natural order, it is holy; I do not want to get into the debate, which is waging for thousands of years.
Before, I wanted to take a look at the temple from close as possible, but now I want to run the other side as fast as possible.
I did not, instead; I forced myself to take slow, deep breaths. It was hard, but slowly, as I started to breathe. I still felt like every breath is a challenge and I continued taking slow and long breaths.
It took me more than ten minutes before I was able to breathe, without focusing my everything on it.
It was when I noticed another shocking thing.
I was not able to see it before, but now I got out of the corridor. I could clearly see it. I am underground.
They have disguised it very well, but time unravels it all. When I looked clearly, I could see the signs that show me, it is underground.
Which opened the can for all sorts of questions.
The first one is all the greenery; everything is green here. The place I am standing had verdant grass and strangely. It is well cut, not like the overgrown garden I had seen through the corridor.
There is also the question of oxygen.
I have been in the deep underground on the earth, and I know what the air in the underground feels like. Here, everything seemed fresh. It did not make me feel like I am underground at all.
It is likely why it took me so long to notice it.
Seeing there is no choice, I walked ahead, but this time, I am a lot more cautious.
I aim to find the exit of this place, which wouldn't have been challenging if I had been above ground. As every architecture follows some rules and if one knows them, it is very simple to find an exit.
Here it is, a lot more complicated.
Exit could be anywhere, there might be only one or several. It might be in the building or the temple, where I do not want to go.
The unholy temple had an allure, despite knowing it is a source of all death energy. I want to go to it; though, even if I want to, I could not.
In these few minutes, I found out, with every step I take, the aura and the death energies are getting stronger. In my current state, I am too weak to bear the death energy and aura that the temple has.
Hell, I don't think I am strong enough to even reach near the hill, much less the temple on top of it.
I would need to find an exit in the surrounding building. They are huge, and each one of them looked like they have made for the giants.
From what I know, even before Navr was established. This place had been the majority occupied by orcs and humans, with a few tribes of Elves. There was no record of any elder races being here.
Maybe this place is older than records go or maybe it is built with a purpose of grandiose, or maybe I am not in Navr.
It is quite frustrating when you didn't know anything. I do not have any single idea about this damn place, not even a hint. It is making me frustrated and angry, with nothing to go on.
Hun!
I had just thought about that when I noticed something. A man came out from behind the trees.
'It is not a man!' I realized a few seconds later, seeing the way it was running toward me. it is undead and it is coming off me.
My first instinct was to run away, but I even took a step to do that when I stopped myself.
Running would get me killed faster. Even at a distance, it is running faster than I could, and with it being undead in such dense death energy. It will catch up with me and at that time, I will be tired, and ready to die.
Though staying did not seem like an appealing choice either. I am unarmed, but it is still better than running.
Unless of course. I want to enter that overgrown garden.
I waited for the undead while thinking about how I was going to deal with it. Nearly all my skills require a weapon, and I did not even have a stick. I have searched for it and while there were several; they were useless.
Still, I do not have any choice. If I want to survive, then I will have to be finished, this undead.
Soon, it came closer to me, and I couldn't help but became surprised.
It is a man with a pale undead face, but the face looked a lot more vibrant than any undead I had ever seen.
Even with paleness, I wouldn't have considered it undead. If not for its gait and dead eyes.
The thing that shocked me is its clothes. It is wearing a business suit, which is new. There are some wrinkles and dirt on it, but I could tell it is still in excellent condition.
It couldn't help but turn my expressions bad, because this is no old undead, but one that is recently made.
One which had fairly new clothes and a dress sword in hand. If I am not wrong, then this person is also like me. He is pulled into this place and died in some way, likely due to the aura and death energy, before turning undead.