Previously in NWC-
Reno's run in with the shadow figure causes his head to begin pounding with pain, putting him in a vulnerable position. CeCe snaps him out of things by putting her hand on his shoulder, checking his health. After convincing CeCe not to call off the mission, he goes to sleep. The next morning, CeCe makes him promise to tell her when he was in pain again, conditions to which he accepts. They pack up camp and enter the ruins, quickly finding themselves at a dead end. CeCe spots an activation area for an unknown magic spell, and Reno accidentally activates it, sending both of them down a trap hole that opens up. With no other option, Luna and Medusa enter the newly opened and previously hidden doorway, beginning the search for CeCe and Reno...
Medusa quickly catches up, concerned about Luna's sudden yell. Luna hovers over a pile of barely recognizable skeletons. She looks in horror at the pile of bodies, the bones slowly turning to dust due to the test of time. "Universe have mercy, that startled me!" She breathes a sigh of distress as she calms herself down.
"Muh?" Medusa looks at the skeletons, not aware of what they are. She looks further down the hallway and sees another door way. Getting curious and excited, she moves further in, taking the lead. She enters the room, Luna following behind. "Muh?" Medusa looks around with curiosity, inspecting her surrounds. The room was a small square room, roughly 3m x 3m (10ft x 10ft). On each wall was an entrance to another room. Medusa looks at the three entrances then up at Luna.
"How about we try going right? I think that's the direction they fell down. I can't tell for sure since we went in circles on the way down, but I feel good about going right." Medusa nods her head and heads right. They enter another hallway that's only a few steps long. "I wonder why they have so many hallways? Wouldn't it have made more sense just to build the rooms right next to each other?" The two enter the next room, once again gathering their surroundings. The room was long and rectangular. It stretched for 10 meters and had a large stone table that took up the majority of the floor space. There were stone chairs surrounding the table, all chiseled and connect to the floor as if the room was carved out. "The architecture her is intriguing! IT's almost like they carved the entire room out of a large rock!" They admire the room as they walk to the other end. This time, they're met with a wooden door. "An actual door? How odd, seeing as everything else was just open. Medusa, may you please open the door?"
"Muh!" Medusa gives a playful salute and gently tries twisting the door knob. She giggles the handle a couple of times, met with an echoing clunking noise. "Muh?" Medusa continues to attempt to open the door but is met with failure every time.
"It's locked. I wonder if the key is around anywhere?" Before Luna could begin to search, Medusa violently rips the door out. Luna lets out a scream of surprise as wooden bits fly everywhere, leaving nothing in their place. "Medusa! You need to warn me next time you're going to do that!" Luna shouts, quickly calming herself down. "While under normal circumstances, we should leave locked doors alone, this time it is okay since the owners have long passed. Good job, Medusa." Medusa does her dance before heading into the room. The hallway on the other side makes an immediate right. Medusa walks in without a care in the world and enters the hallway, turning right. In front of her is another wooden door that she rips out of place without even trying to check the lock. Medusa watches as the door is violently discarded into the wall, shattering into seemingly endless numbers of pieces. She sighs before finally turning the corner, watching as Medusa enters the next room. Beyond the door is another hallway with multiple doorways on the right, leading into equally sized rooms. They poke their heads in the first room, cautiously inspecting it. On each side of the room is three stone objects, presumably beds due to the extremely worn and tethered blankets that lay lazily upon them. Not seeing anything of interest, they make their way down the fall. They come upon 2 more rooms that appear entirely identical to the other and they quickly round another right corner. "It's seems rather odd for a church to have this many rooms. I'd understand if they had a shelter room in case of emergencies, but these almost look like dorms." Luna wracks her brain as they reach another right corner. Now heading in the same direction they came but in a different hallway. They almost think they got turned around somewhere as they see more doorways on the right. It's not until they approach one that they see there are actual wooden doors. These ones were left open, allowing them to simply wander into the rooms. In these next three rooms, there were only two stones beds, one on each side, as opposed to the other rooms with six. Each room had a stone desk on both sides of the entrance. "These are most definitely dormitories… but why would they need these? I'm beginning to think this is more than just a church of sorts." Luna and Medusa make it to the end of the hallway, being met with another locked door. Luna instinctively uses Medusa as cover as she sees a vine reach out and grab the door handle. A loud crashing and ripping sound echoes throughout the hallway as Medusa effortlessly tosses the door around, sending it flying behind her like a missile and crashing into the wall at where they turned. Medusa walks in, lighting up the room and looking around. Luna follows behind, her heartbeat raising slightly as she looks around. There was a large bed, made of more modern materials like finished wood and even bed sheets and a pillow. On the wall to the left after entering the room was a desk with multiple books stacked on top of it. Wherever there wasn't another piece of furniture, there were bookshelves, dominating the space in the room. The wall was all bookshelves, save for the area behind the bed and desk. The number of books wasn't what caught Luna's attention, rather it was the fact that there were hundreds of the same unmarked and black covered book. Her attention is then slowly drawn towards the middle of the room where a skeleton wearing regal clothing and resting in a praying position, right in the middle of an oddly shaped symbol. The symbol appeared to be an 'X' with a base at each end and a diamond crossing the lines of the 'X' with smaller 'x's at each point. Underneath the skeleton was a large outline of a darkish brown, almost black, stain. Luna can feel her heat beating harder as she realizes the skeleton's apparent lack of a head. "The traps, the dorms, the symbol!" Luna begins to feel sick as she thinks more and more about finding the other two party members. "This place belonged to a cult!" The doors to the three dorm rooms slammed and opened repeatedly, sending loud echoing banging sounds throughout the hallway and the room they were in. Luna begins frantically flying around Medusa, acting as a tiny ball shaped barrier against whatever malevolent spirit was in their presence. The doors suddenly stop and a deafening silence takes it place. Suddenly, the sound of feet hitting the stone floor begins echoing from around the corner. It starts off slowly, getting slightly faster as it rounds the last corner. They stop for a second before the sounds indicate a full sprint towards the room they're in. "You stay away from her!" Luna yells at the door, preparing to put herself between Medusa and whatever it was that was rapidly approaching. "Ahh!" Luna yells with fear as the running sound reaches right outside of their room. Suddenly they stop, leaving the only noise in the room their own breathing. Luna breathes heavily, her heartbeat racing as her eyes are glued to the door.
"Reno?" Medusa cocks her head in curiosity, running to the door, thinking the noise was Reno and CeCe.
"Medusa, no!" Before Luna could finish, Medusa hops out of the room, looking down the hall.
"Muh?" Her curious voice oddly soothes Luna.
"Medusa!" She rushes out of the room, looking down the hall and then down at Medusa who was still standing in the doorway. "Thank the Universe, you're okay!" She sighs with relief before her brief moment of happiness is interrupted. "Medusa, I need you to pay close attention." Medusa turns and looks up at Luna, tilting her head as she listens. "There's something in these ruins besides us. I'm not referring to CeCe and Reno either. I need you to stay close to me, and make sure we walk slowly, okay?" Medusa nods her head, her smile slowly fading as she senses the fear behind Luna's voice. "Good girl. I'm very proud of you, you know that?" Medusa slowly nods her head, slightly concerned for Luna's sudden tone shift. "Now, we need to find CeCe and your daddy before whatever else is here does, okay?" Medusa nods her head and begins making her way down the hallway. Luna follows, sighing and keeping close to Medusa. "(Please be okay you two.)"
TO BE CONTINUED...