A purple light bled across the entire space, painting Aldric's face in a mesmerizing glow—one that soon turned eerie when one realized the source of the light. Not too far from where Aldric sat was a dungeon rift.
Aldric had only ever seen one a couple of years ago when it had opened up close to his home. Aside from then, even after becoming an awakened, he was never considered useful enough to be taken to a dungeon—until now.
This evening, upon following the girl, he was half certain that after reaching this location, he'd find out it's simply a setup they use to rob people.
However, only people with valuables could be robbed, and Aldric was no such person, so despite his doubt, he came anyway.
Seeing an actual rift gave a heavy dose of shock that still left Aldric subtly disoriented. As he sat on a small rock just meters away from the rift and watched all the other awakened gear up in preparation, he couldn't help but begin to reconsider.
An opportunity he had gone from place to place searching for his entire life, and now that he stood here, doubt somehow still managed to creep into his mind.
"Okay, is everybody set?" The hazel-eyed girl, whom Aldric had found out was named Mia, asked.
Everyone, with a mix of nods and audible affirmation, confirmed their readiness.
"Alright, let's go then," Mia instructed, as they began to enter through the rift and into the dungeon.
Aldric followed behind them, not wanting to 'chicken out' at the last minute, lunging into the rift with a determined stride.
The first thing he noticed was the cold—a chilling shift in the air around them, so drastic it was irritating. Then Aldric began to look around, his gaze scanning the surroundings. He realized they were in a jungle of sorts.
"Remember, stay close and don't go off wandering," Alzine, Mia's partner, told them.
However, Aldric needed no reminder; he already knew to make sure he clung to them like a cloud of smoke to a nicotine addict.
With every crunch of leaf underfoot as they threaded the dungeon, Aldric gripped his cheap sword even tighter, preparing for the low-level monsters he was told about but had yet to see.
Aldric, however, wasn't complaining; his fear did well to drown out the battle anticipation he originally felt.
After over an hour of walking, they reached what, if Aldric were to describe it, seemed more like a temple than anything else.
The temple, erected of polished stone, seemed a worship for gods forgotten. Vines crawled across each corner and crevice of it as if to highlight its neglect, and the closer they got, a creak or thud would sound from it, almost in attempt to defy its own abandonment.
"Let's move in; we don't have all day."
Mia marched into the temple, Aldric and the rest of the awakened followed her, into what most of them assumed was the dungeon lord's keep. If so, this would make for a far easier expedition than they had thought; with no monsters, all they needed to do was simply defeat the dungeon lord and they would be done.
Thud.
The sound of the stone door slamming shut behind them caused a few, already on edge, to jolt in fear. Aldric turned to the now-closed heavy stone door and realized there is no turning back now; they were locked in. If he wants to leave, they'd need to defeat the lord.
[You have entered the temple of the perpetually lost. The Firsts have ordained you a candidate. To save the greater past, you must forsake your future.]
Aldric read the notification with a squinted left eye before shifting his gaze to everyone around him in an attempt to discern if they received the same thing. Everyone looked unfazed.
So either they did not, or perhaps it was a normal notification type gotten when entering a dungeon lord's keep; either way, ignoring it seemed the better choice for now.
Inside the temple was a hallway of subtle darkness. If considered, it should have been completely dark, pure, and absolute; after all, there was no light present, sun or torches—none were visible. Yet somehow, it looked, although dimly, lit up regardless.
Each step they took through the hallway brought a creak that echoed, silencing whispers they had all internally concluded they hallucinated, only for them to resume moments later.
Finally, they reached a large round room; the floor was etched with strange patterns and engravings. However, most paid less mind to that since a far more attention-grabbing scene lay at the middle of the room.
A knight, large and imposing, kneeled on a platform, its absurdly huge blade finding rest plunged into the ground before it as its hands, covered in indescribable metal, wrapped around the hilt carefully. It showed no sign of movement or life.
"This the Lord?" One awakened inquired.
A man clad in armor that seemed more stylish than it was effective; his patchy beard struggling to reflect on the armor's rusting gold.
"I guess so... a big bastard he is," replied another man who wore only a chest plate.
It took Aldric one glance and a thought to begin to notice a pattern in this group of people. They all were like him. All of them—low-level, low-rank, fodder.
'Why would a guild be searching for such a demographic of awakened?'
As the thought flickered in Aldric's mind, he watched as Mia walked over to the Knight in the middle.
"What the hell is she doing?"
"Is that thing dead?"
The flurry of whispers that shot around Aldric voiced his own thoughts. He was no dungeon raid expert, but even he knew how stupid it was to senselessly approach a dungeon lord, even if it was a low-rank dungeon.
Suddenly, she materialized a blade in her hands, runes etched and carved into its black steel. She slammed the sword into the ground with a resounding thud that echoed through the room.
'That sword... Have I seen it before?' Aldric thought as he watched.
The Knight, which had seemed lifeless and inactive moments ago, began to slightly move, causing everyone present to raise their weapons in preparation.
Then the Knight stood, towering over the entire gathering, sending a chill down the spines of all of them. Heart rates shot up and sweat beads began to form on necks and faces, yet Mia remained before the Knight, unfazed and unafraid.
"I am the true candidate who possesses the blade, along with me is the required sacrifice... Please, begin."
Something about the girl's words made Aldric tense up. However, to the rest, they were simply nonsensical, and what they truly worried about was how close she stood to the dungeon lord. At that point, they came to the conclusion she was either extremely stupid or extremely strong.
'She must have everything under control,' Aldric affirmed as he gripped his sword.
"You bear the sword... But not the mark."
Those words from the Knight rang through Aldric's ears with a familiarity that made his skin crawl.
Then the Knight swung its blade, a clean strike that Aldric could not imagine executed more perfectly than it was. It sliced through Mia's neck, crimson spraying from her decapitated body like a macabre fountain.
'She did not... Have it under control.'