Lucius moved through the sparsely wooded, colorful forest in the opposite direction from where the apes were heading. A smirk crept onto his face as he thought about the arrogant creatures trying to defeat a being as powerful as Magar by throwing rocks. His eyes twitched a bit when he imagined Magar crunching their bones with his massive teeth. He shook his head to clear his mind and concentrated on the environment around him. He needed to be more careful—after all, he had just fought a group of monsters that were able to easily see through his Aspect. He couldn't just depend on his stealth to keep himself safe.
The area he was currently moving through was the wooded region between dozens of large farms. This place had been home to a small settler community of Puritans in some faraway lost time, but only local historians—likely dead themselves by now—would have known anything about that. As Lucius crossed over the ridge of the hill he had been climbing, he entered a large clearing in the center of the forest. He felt a slight chill on his face and arms as the warm air around him seemed to drop a few degrees the moment he entered the clearing. His gaze wandered forward as he noticed a row of flat, moss-covered stones popping out of the ground before him like whack-a-moles. In the distance past the row of stones at the center of the clearing stood a large white structure, it's roof was made of old black slate that had collapsed into the building in a few places. At the front of the structure was a long white steeple reaching up toward the heavens, Lucius squinted his eyes when he saw that the tall steeple was still standing up proudly in the middle of the forest, "That's... Unusual.", the cross at the top was tilted slightly to one side but nevertheless it still held on after all these years.
Lucius walked toward the closest stone and scraped the soft green moss off the front of it with his fingers. The words [HERE LYETH BURYED YE BODY OF HEZEKIAH BRAINER] were carved into the front of the gravestone. He let out a casual breath and noticed that the water vapor from his breath had suddenly become visible in the air, he looked down warily at his own arm that was touching the stone as row after row of goosebumps appeared from his forearm up to his neck. The next breath he took was accompanied by an intense activation of Sense Danger that felt like a wave of needles stabbing him on the inside of his body. The sudden pain caused Lucius to stumble away from the headstone, a grimace covered his face as he grabbed at his shirt above his chest, Matriarch's Fury wasting no time as it materialized in his free hand.
Ignoring the painful sensation Lucius' stabilized himself as he passed his focused gaze through every inch of his surroundings. Nothing seemed to have moved in the environment around him, try as he might he wasn't able to discern where the threat was coming from.
"Nope." With a single word, he turned on his heels and sprinted back toward the forest, away from the strange clearing. The moment he crossed the tree line, however, his vision blurred, and he found himself once again facing the dilapidated church.
"No way...", turning around again he headed back toward the safety of the forest. This time he leaped over the boundary, up toward the closest tree, reaching out his arms to grab a limb, but his arms closed around empty air as his body disappeared from the tree line and he found himself falling to the ground above the row of headstones.
"&^^%*," Lucius spat out a curse as he racked his mind for a solution to his current predicament. He pretended to walk casually toward the church, humming a tune with an awkward smile on his face, after a few more steps he jolted backward and flung himself toward the trees, only to fall to the ground among the gravestones again.
"F#$@ you, you %$#@#@#@###." he hissed.
Lucius took a few deep breaths, blowing the air out slowly from his mouth in an attempt to calm his racing heart and mind. Looking around at the dirt and moss-covered ground, he found a half-buried rock a bit larger than his hand and dug it out. He turned back and hurled the rock toward the tree line, watching incredulously as it passed through the invisible barrier without disturbance and rolled across the forest floor. He tossed a few more rocks into the forest before trying one last time to walk across. When he found himself back inside the row of stones again, he cast his glance toward the sky as he rubbed his chin.
"So it's just me that is being kept here. That means this isn't a natural phenomenon, something doesn't want me to leave..." Lucius glanced out of the corner of his eyes over toward the church at the center of the clearing, his brows furrowing at the thought of entering the creepy building. "I guess you're not giving me any choice..." he mumbled bitterly. Even in the light of day, with the soothing sounds of nature all around him, Lucius' heart kept thumping heavily against the inside of his chest in defiance against his decision to scout the building.
The headstones passed to the sides of his vision, before moving out of view completely, as he walked towards the center of the clearing. Something was odd about the entire situation other than his inability to leave the area. The building itself and the clearing around it were in much better condition than an ancient abandoned church in the center of a forest had any right to be. Why hadn't the plants overtaken this clearing a long time ago? How were all the glass windows on the church unbroken? Even the white siding was in relatively good condition. The building was clearly dilapidated, but nowhere close to what something this age should be. Lucius tried to come up with an explanation for the strange inconsistencies around him, but the nonstop warning from Sense Danger, combined with his own pounding chest, made it difficult to think.
He reached the periphery of the building without any issues and tried to peer into the windows as he walked in a circle around it, all he could see inside was darkness. As Lucius walked past another window, he felt the eerie sense that he was being watched and quickly returned his vision back to the window he had just passed. For a moment, it appeared as if the shadows behind the window were flowing along the inside of the glass like a river of darkness, but when he moved closer and looked carefully, it was gone. Lucius rubbed his eyes and looked again through the glass, but all he could see was a still image of inky blackness.
As he rounded the building for the first time, he came up to the large black wooden doors at the front entrance. The doors were unusually large and rounded at the top like archways. Large brass knockers rested slightly above the middle of the two double doors, with intricate handles at the center where the doors came together. The handles were decorated with flourishes of fancy lines pressed into the old metal. Lucius reached forward and grabbed the left handle. He tried to twist it open but the handle wouldn't budge, prompting the young man to tighten his grip and put his superhuman strength on display. "Really?" Lucius raised an eyebrow when he saw that the handle still refused to turn. Eyes narrowing and nostrils flaring, he put his full might into his grip. The incredibly force caused the metal door handle to groan and bend before it suddenly collapsed completely in his hand. Lucius looked down with furrowed brows as the shattered metal in his hand began to disappear in a wave of golden sparks.
"Magic..."