Previously in NWC-
Reno and CeCe crawl through a tunnel they find behind a pile of bones. They make their way through the tunnel that seems to continue on for a long time. After exiting the CeCe recollects herself, trying to force her normally bubbly personality, but ultimately failing. She admits to her fear of the undead and Reno takes the lead, going further into the ruin. As they're walking, they have a run in with an invisible spirit that causes them to panic and run. They lock themselves in a room and the voice finally disappears...
Elsewhere, Luna and Medusa make their way back to the large open room with the benches and podium, checking behind them as they walk the entire time. Luna paces back and forth, muttering to herself. "Should we keep actively looking for them or stay here and wait for them to find us? Are they even okay? Are they unharmed? What if they think the same thing and wait for us and nobody looks for the other?" Luna continues to panic, her mind racing with countless questions but not a single answer. "What if we start looking for them but we get lost? What if we find them but can't find our way back? They have all the supplies! We don't have anything to eat or drink and there's nothing for days! We HAVE to find them! But we'll get lost!"
Medusa watches as Luna panics, listening to her concerns. Her eyes flicker with an idea as she rushes over to one of the benches. She wraps a vine around one of the benches and rushes over to Luna, waving her arms. "Luna!" Medusa looks up at Luna with excitement, glowing brighter.
Luna looks down towards Medusa, confused. She takes a moment to recollect herself, breathing in and holding it before exhaling slowly. "Yes, Medusa? What's wrong, sweetie?" Luna looks at Medusa's smiling face, slowly noticing her vine that's been anchored and is trailing behind her. Her heart begins racing with excitement. "Medusa, you're a genius!" Medusa jumps with joy and begins running around Luna with excitement. "Now, shall we go find the others?"
"Reno!" Medusa nods her head with excitement and begins following Luna.
They make their way back to the intersection, looking to their left. "We went right before and it was a dead end. Perhaps we should try the left?" Medusa nods her head and they approach a wall with a small cut out indicating the presence of a stone door. Medusa immediately begins trying to pry the door open. To her surprise, the door doesn't even budge, so she doubles down. She uses all of her available vines and brings trying to force the door open. After struggling and grunting, straining her entire body, the door moves roughly 1 centimeter. From underneath the door a chilling aura bellows out, causing Luna and Medusa to reel back, their flight-or-fight instincts running wild. Their eyes are wide as they stare at the door, expecting an evil and ominous being to appear and open the door. After staring at the door, holding their breath, they look at each other, calming down. "How about we go straight instead?" Medusa violently nods her head and turn around, going down the other path. They step inside a long room that has what appear to be three sitting areas, surrounded by half walls with entrances on either side. To the right of the door is a caved in entrance that is no longer accessible. They make their way further, checking out the sitting areas. On the floor in the sitting areas is the same sigil they saw in the room previously. "Let's make sure to stay close to each other, okay Medusa?" Luna speaks to Medusa, primarily due to the unnerving silence. They walk around the room but don't find any sort of door way. Concerned that their only option is the path with the ominous aura, they begin to deeply inspect every small detail. Medusa, as she's walking around, senses a small amount of mana coming from the far-left corner of the room. She points with excitement and begins rushing towards the source. "What is it, Medusa?" Luna curiously flies over and begins inspecting the wall in front of which Medusa was jumping. "Is something up with the wall?" Luna, out of curiosity, slowly flies into the wall. To her surprise, however, she doesn't stop, instead going through the illusion and entering a dark hallway.
"MUH?!" Medusa watches with shock, utterly confused and unaware of the concept of an illusion.
Luna returns, looking down at Medusa. "Medusa, sweetie, the wall isn't real! It's an illusion! We can go this way!" Luna demonstrates by going through the illusionary wall multiple times. Medusa jumps with surprise each time before finally running head first into the wall. She squeals with excitement as she emerges unharmed on the other side. "Come, Medusa, let us find our companions!" Luna excitedly floats down the hallway, glad that they didn't have to take the other path. The path quickly turns left, which they follow into a right turn soon after. As soon as they turn the second corner, their bodies tingle with the same ominous aura they felt previously. This time, however, the feeling wasn't as strong, but still enough to stop them. "Medusa… we need to be careful, okay?" Not even Medusa could deny the ominous feeling as she nervously nods her head. They slowly begin to creep down the hallway, noticing a dark staircase to their right. As Luna glances down it, she feels herself looking into the eyes of hundreds, if not thousands, of pained souls. Deciding she wants to live; they continue down the hallway. To their unfortunate surprise, the hallway leads to a dead end, giving them no choice but to turn back around. Luna stops and looks around, looking for any magical traps that might trigger another door to open. After finding none, she tries to find any illusionary wall, but only ends up flying into the wall countless times. With no other choice, they have to make their choice, continue on or turn back. As they begin to make their way back, their ears are met with the sound of deep breathing. The breathing wasn't form a single entity, rather it sounded as if it were coming hundreds of individual entities breathing at once. Both had no way to confirm, but they each knew that something ominous was waiting for them at the bottom of the staircase. They slowly creep their way back, standing outside of the door. Luna's mind races with questions, asking herself what the best course of action was and if it was worth risking their lives.
"Muh?" Medusa does her best to get Luna's attention but can't. Uncertain of what Luna was thinking, Medusa is left to guess. She takes the first step down the staircase, shivering as the sound of the breathing once again assaults her ears.
Luna, who'd been in a state of panic, doesn't notice Medusa descending, leaving her in the hallway to confront whatever monstrosity awaited them. Finally, she makes her decision, but it's much to late. "Come, Medusa, we need to get back to safety!" She looks down, expecting to see Medusa looking at her with curiosity like usual. However, all she sees is a single vine, leading into the staircase. "Medusa?!" Luna runs to the door, looking down to see Medusa's light fading as it turns a corner. "Medusa, get back here!" Luna tries to speak loud enough for Medusa to hear but not loud enough to disturb whatever is in the room, but it fails.
The staircase she used was steep, and each step required her to hop down them. Medusa slowly reaches the bottom of the staircase, turning to her left. The room was large, larger than the first room. In fact, it was larger than the barn in which they slept back home. The ceiling was so high to the point where not even Medusa's natural light could illuminate it standing at the bottom of the room. She scans the room, before her eyes focus on a large blob-like figure lying in the middle of the floor. She slowly made her way closer, sliding as slow as she could as her mind tells her to turn back. She hardens her nerves by reminding herself she was looking for Reno. The thought of Reno in need gives her just enough courage to cautiously approach the towering entity in front of her. The being in front of her could only be describer as a grafted monstrosity; an amalgamation of many human bodies, writing in its sleep. Arms and legs lazily swung in response to the natural breathing of the creature. It was nearly impossible to tell which part of the amalgamation was the front as the entire being seemed to be one grotesque unit with hundreds of faces. The creature, while laying down, was significantly taller than any living being Medusa had seen, coming in at 7 feet (2.1) meters. Medusa, finally getting close enough to illuminate the creature enough to fully grasp what was in front of her, begins to panic, shaking violently as she inched closer and closer. Almost ready to turn around, she breathes in and slowly exhales. One thought flashed through her head in order to maintain her sanity. "Reno." She says, as she begins to approach the creature again.
TO BE CONTINUED...