But they battled forward, until they've reached the heart of the temple. The room was vast and well illuminated a somber yellow hues emanating from some type of fungus peculiar to the area.
Elizabeth was relieved to be able to step leisurely once again, but she had questions. She felt that there was something Edward had not revealed to her. What ancient powers had they disturbed with their intrusion? Why did he need her with him? What if they fail to climb out of this temple?
As she was ruminating over their situation, Elizabeth's foot cracked against something solid half-buried in the dust - a brittle skull. Revulsion rolled through her stomach as she surveyed the malformed bones scattered across the passageway.
The skull shapes were oblong, the sockets perfectly circular and situated at the lower end of the cranium, and thin fangs protruded beneath two slit-like nostrils.
"Greaves!" Elizabeth finally found her voice. "What are those things?"
"Skulls and bones," responded Edward, dismissive of her reaction, he was crouched in a corner digging as a mad dog with his bare hands, looking for something buried deep. She tried to reposte against his answer, but he cut her off immediatly.
"Best not to dwell on it," he said, before resuming his grim work. But how could she not? No human bones could possess such queer proportions, and it couldn't have been the remains of mere animals.
The acrid scent, the bones' charred edges and brittle formations, the grayish dust beneath her feet. She was undoubtfully standing in the cremation area, and it was unmistakably related to the strange rituals she has witnessed engraved in the walls.
Greaves remained absorbed in his work, ignoring Elizabeth's growing disquiet. She stood watching him in silence, trying to make sense of the esoteric scene.
"The secret to transmutation." Whispered Edward Greaves, breaking Elizabeth's attention away from the bones and directing it to the item he excavated.
She stared at the relic in his hands. It was a large phial made of jade and glass, containing a bubbling liquid that shone with a spectral iridescence, as if the glass prism was reflecting and dispersing the dull light beams emanating from the fungi to create a rainbow effect, It seemed to be an alchemical experiment.
Whatever its content and effects, Greaves seemed to prize it deeply as he carefully fixed it inside his battered leather satchel.
Elizabeth heard the faint tread of approaching footsteps while Edward Greaves remained crouched nearby, someone else was present in the temple.
As she stared down the corridor, a gigantic shadow stretched and morphed on the wall, announcing the coming of some lurking being aroused by their noises.
"We must make haste," Greaves declared, springing to his feet and into a sprint towards the edge. The approaching being seemed to have took notice of his reverberating steps and a sudden chase began, footsteps transforming into echoing trampling.
Elizabeth hurriedly followed Edward, recklessly maneuvering along the treacherous narrow ledge. Her chest grated against the bulging stones, while her fingers scraped against the convex, distended wall.
With each step, she teetered on the edge, feeling her toes strain against the confines of her boots, their tips pressuring the interior fabric into balance as if bearing the weight of the terror animating her entire body. Fear, a palpable weight pressing upon her and keeping her from plunging to her death even amidst her frantic, heedless pace.
The sounds of pursuit swelled behind Elizabeth, urging her to press onward. She dared not glance back, her face firmly pressed against the wall, her focus locked on Edward Greaves, who was steadily nearing the safety of the ropes. A terrified Elizabeth served as an obstacle between him and the beast on the narrow ledge.
And the relentless sound of their pursuer intensified, an instinctive cry escaped her lips, only to be abruptly silenced as a hand with disconcertingly elongated claws, clamped onto her face with a smacking grip.
She propelled herself forward, desperately seizing Greaves' arm in a desperate bid for salvation. In an act of sheer force, their connection resulted in Greaves' shoulder dislocating from her sudden pull, and caused the mysterious creature to plummet into the unfathomable abyss below. With pleading eyes, Elizabeth implored Edward Greaves to summon every ounce of strength he has to pull her up.
As she was staring helplessly into his eyes, she perceived a spiraling figure forming behind her, emerging from darkness. His pupils were reflecting a swirling, tornado-like evil ravenously yearning for her vulnerable form. The creature reached out with smoldering limbs, intent on capturing her suspended, dangling body and to drag her into the void. Acting swiftly, Greaves drew his machete, severing the arm that threatened to impede his escape.
He then climbed the rope, With leaps and using only one functional arm, not exerting pressure on the arm with the dislocated shoulder and which had an imputated manicured hand still clinging to it. The sacrifice was offered, yet the beast, still ravenous for more, kept reaching upward. With no barriers left between Greaves and the creature, Edward Greaves lunged toward the exit.
And once out of the temple, he started charging the boulder with his dislocated shoulder as a raging bull, in an effort to trap the beast inside. Each collision with the stone shattered the glass of the phial, small creaks at first, until it finally burst open, releasing a kaleidoscope of intense colors into the atmosphere.