A green magic circle appeared on the ground as Ayana cast her magic, undoing the sealing and concealing formation she has placed…something about her mana felt pure and gentle like the voice of a loving mother putting her child to sleep, it calmed the minds of those around.
A magic circle appeared on the floor, this magic circle had strange inscriptions and runes, clearly it was a different type of magic circle. A large hole appeared on the ground, it was completely dark, as they stood around it staring, it seemed like an endless abyss calling them to its cold embrace.
'…'
"Are you sure this is the way?" Enya asked as she swallowed the saliva in her mouth. She glanced at Astro who was strangely quiet this whole time, with his head down staring at the dark entrance.
"I'll take your son, I'll take care of him and raise him as my little brother, I give you my word". Astro raised his head, an indifferent expression on his face with his corpse like voice.
Those emotionless words, shocked both Enya and Ayana to the core, this was all so sudden they had a hard time processing it, the guy who was basically screaming murder all the time had a change of heart. Enya quickly realised this must be the boy she met back in the forest.
"Astro, is that you?" She cautiously as she got closer to him.
"I'm sorry". Those were the only words that left Astro's mouth as he turned to look at Ayana.
"Give me the boy". Ayana was a little bit scared of what was happening but she calmed down as she couldn't sense all that malice and evil from before, but now the bigger problem was parting with her son, the tears just came down harder, as she gave the little boy multiple forehead kisses and hugged him, pulled him closer to her chest holding him tight.
"Pasha… his name is Pasha Evergreen, he turned six this year, he loves small animals and plants, he's favourite food is pumpkin pie… please take care of him". Ayana was already on her knees but she still handed the boy named Pasha over to Astro. The boy reached out his hands to his mother as he cried.
"Little brother, don't cry". Astro murmured as he hugged the boy who reminded him of the younger him who was nothing but an infant, abandoned on a alleyway, only to be picked up and brought to the orphanage by the caretaker.
"Let's go". Enya was the one who said that as she could tell they were running out of time, she was the first one to jump down the hole and she fell for only a minute before she was heard touching the ground, it seems this hole was not as deep as they thought, it's just extremely dark.
Astro took a final glance at the room they were in, Enya already took the chest with the map of the treasure, he then looked at the lady kneeling on the ground and made a vow before he jumped. "He will avenge you". He said looking at the boy in his arms, then he jumped in the hole.
Ayana stayed in the same position for a few seconds, her emerald eyes, staring blankly into space. She slowly got up, walked towards the weapons on the wall and grabbed a long spear, then walked towards the cabinet, opened a drawer a pick up a glass vial with a strange green liquid that was swirling within the vial.
She could barely see her reflection on the vial as her tears kept dropping on it, she could hear the footsteps get closer to her position.
She took the vial, threw it towards the door that was just destroyed by an attack from the intruders, as the glass shattered, a green mist spread from the spot, as the first person appeared at the door, she roared and charged forward, plunging her spear into his chest.