Part 1

We stood on top of a rock spur as wide as a house. On both it’s corners, near the gate, two sets of stairs and flat roads led down. In front of us, a massive cave opened up. Bigger than anything I had ever seen, the cave spanned kilometers in all four directions. Even the ceiling and the ground were separated by several kilometers. In its midst, many pillars of the same black stone as the walls of the cave rose from the ground and, like twisted snakes, reached the ceiling. There were no stalagmites like one expects from a cave, instead, a vast number of waterfalls descended from holes in the ceiling creating majestic reflections of light thanks to the bluish-neon water.

On the ground, a city expanded. Many times bigger than Alamara, the city filled most of the cave, even reaching upwards with the pillars. The only place that seemed less touched by the hands of men was the north side where a small lake and most light gathered. There, grey trees hundreds of meters high, completely devoid of any kind of leaves, formed the perfect example of “still-life”, suitable for the most renowned of artists to imprint on a canvas.

The city was big, chaotic in it’s buildings and architecture yet silent like a crypt. An eerie feeling pervaded me as I speechlessly ran my eyes around the countless buildings. The city wasn’t dark, rather it was as bright as a bustling city at night should be. The rivers, especially, born from the various waterfalls were the biggest source of light. The neon-blue light that they exuded was able to light up most of the streets, since, in the middle of each one, at least a small stream was present. From my higher position, seeing those columns of light and streams of faint blue reminded me of some kind of futuristic map.

The most breathtaking thing among all those majestic views stood at the very center of the city. There, the biggest waterfall fell down, raging with the wrath of nature, into the mouth of a statue atop a dome at least two hundred meters tall. The dome was made of black stone too in a sophisticated architectural style that seemed more suitable for a fancy temple rather than an underground city. It had columns in all ten stories made out of a lighter-colored type of stone with veins of blue and embellished in gold. The ceiling of the dome was one of the two most astonishing details. It was made out of blue-colored glass with adornments and drawings in gold. From the very center of the dome’s ceiling, the tail of the stone statue of an enormous snake generated. The statue made a whole circle around the ceiling before starting to rise it’s heavy body upwards. With a few more circles in the air, the opened mouth of the stone snake reached the waterfall and wallowed it whole. The neon liquid then flowed inside the body of the snake and exited from a hole in the tail only to then fall into a well-studied waterfall in the center of the dome.

“Amazing…” Said with awe marking every word Namisatto.

“Will you write a song about this?” Asked Lucas snapping the bard from his trance with a powerful slap on the shoulders.

“Most certainly!-” Shouted the bard with vigor “- It's a bard’s job to tell the world of things like this…I can’t let this opportunity pass by!”

“Then remember to sing about how gallantly I led you to this discovery!” Continued my brother.

[What is this idiot saying now?!]

“Oh sure, sure! Why wouldn’t I sing about tha-...wait, who said you led me!?”

“Oh well, I tried. HAHAHA!” Replied my brother with a shrug of his shoulders.

“It’s all fun and games but how about we actually descend from here?” I asked feeling both curious and impatient at the prospect of exploring that city.

“What?-” Asked Ros “- You plan to go down there? In the labyrinth!?”

“Well, what else can we do?-” Asked Lucas in return “- Do you wanna go back in that cave?”

“...Is it gonna be…safe?”

“Of course it won’t be safe-” Replied Lauter who had been cleaning his sword with a dirtied cloth, sweat claiming its place on his forehead “- but what choices do we have? If others are in the same situation and thought the same way we did, then they’ll probably be in that city down there. They might even know a way out or at least a hint of it…Those two kid’s families might even be there-”

The place felt silent as our three companions’ eyes laid upon us with sorrow and contempt. It was indeed a thought that was pushing me to explore the city even more. I was sure it was the same for Lucas.

“- We’ve come too far to chicken out now, Ros. Plus, we are not that bad in fights, are we?”

“...Yes…Yes, you might be right…*huff* Ok, I’m ready!” Replied Ros now puffing his chest with conviction.

“Then what are we waiting for?-” Cheerfully said Namisatto with sparkling eyes “- Let’s go explore a labyrinth!”

Part 2

It took us half an hour to descend the stairs leading inside the city, and when we did, we became overwhelmed by the sheer chaotic beauty of the ruined city. I enjoyed imagining how it would’ve looked in it’s heyday. Now, all that remained were abandoned buildings and broken-down streets. Shattered glass, crumbling ruins, dust and the overtaking nature were all that remained of that once ancient beauty.

“It’s such a shame…” Was a phrase that Namisatto kept repeating every time something ruined caught his eyes.

We walked through the streets with extreme caution, making sure no enemy or monster would jump on us while also scouting the place for possible survivors of that terrible earthquake. The only thing leading us through the desolated streets were the glowing rivers and some kind of street lamps, of the same blue light as the rivers, that looked as if time didn’t have an effect on them. I could feel faint traces of magic within them, so faint that if I didn’t have my full concentration on predicting where an enemy could appear, I would have missed it.

We walked for endless hours around the ruins, sometimes stopping to let Namisatto take notes of what we were seeing, an activity I too picked up after a few stops, or to eat and rest a little before carrying on. Like that, an entire day passed without us seeing a single hint of a living being.

The next day, after sleeping on the second floor of a three stories ruined house, we began exploring once again. Thanks to the map me and Namisatto built the previous day it was easier not to explore the already known places. With our exploring efficiency and our stocks of food still full, we ended up reaching the dome right before what we felt was dinner-time. Because the cave was both filled with light and darkness in the same measure at all times of the day, it was impossible for anyone to figure out what was the actual time. We could only trust our inner clocks.

The view up close to the dome was even more astonishing than I thought it could be. We were dwarves in comparison. Not even all of us hugging a pillar together would’ve been enough to surround it. Not to mention the stained glass of the tens of meters tall windows. It all looked unreal. As if it was a building coming straight out of a bedtime story.

We circled around it, trying to look for an entrance but, even though the dome was the best-conserved building and there was no sign of heavy damage, the entrance was never found. No gates, no doors and no holes whatsoever. The only possible accesses were the windows but none of them were broken hence no one actually went inside. I felt a strange uncomfortable feeling as if I was walking in a dark alley at night. That’s when I heightened my sensibility to natural mana changes, out of instinct. What I found out was that thousands of signals and interferences were swarming all around us. They were small, almost imperceptible at first, but began growing in size and number as they slowly entered my range. An impending sense of fear and the need to run overturned my will to explore.

“I don’t wanna sound alarming-” I said to my companions as I gathered them around with a gesture of my hand “- but something’s around us, a whole lot of those something. We should get out of here as fast as we can before we repeat the cave mantis all over again”

Their eyes turned blank in fear for a second, raggedy breath and jittery hands followed suit. It took them a moment to catch their breath and collect themselves, all except Lucas.

“How many of them are there?” He asked me in all seriousness, deciding whether to fight or flee depending on my answer.

“Dunno. They could be a hundred for what it's worth or even a thousand. They seem weak since their mana output is barely perceptible but still…it’s their numbers that scare me”

“Then let’s run!” Shouted Lucas, hearing a growling noise from a nearby ruined house.

We followed him, silently, in hopes to get away from that growling menacing our backs. It was useless. After two turns, another set of growlings that sounded more like laments of dying men made our blood freeze inside our veins. We ran, escaping from those sounds, wondering what kind of beings were making them yet unable to find the courage to stop and wait for them to show up. It was the fear of the unknown. We had already met with a monster no one knew about and had no desire to do so again.

Thus, our panicked running began. We ran without a clear goal nor direction, only with the desire to escape from those monsters. I didn’t count time but by the time they caught up to us, we had both our foreheads and necks beaded with sweat. Our meeting was dreadful. It happened at a crossroad where three roads met. There, we chose the wrong option. We took a turn to the left and found ourselves stuck at the end of a road with a wall in front of us and the sound of incoming monsters on our backs.

Like a wave, they crashed the corned and entered our view. I understood at first glance the nature of those growling and the reason why they sounded like laments rather than a vocalizing beast. A wave of undead was rapidly approaching us. Zombies with rotten flesh falling from their limbs and skeletons with red lights shining from the cavities of their eyes. It was my first meeting with an undead creature and I understood then why adventurers liked to attach the title “nightmare” to dungeons where undead resided. They truly looked like beings born from the worst nightmares of men.

With absurd rapidity, the wave approached our position by pushing each other without care whether they were stepping on other members of their species or not. Following that sight, Lauter and Ros unsheathed their swords and readied themselves to fight with trembling hands and legs. Lucas looked at me, questioning what to do without the slightest need for words.

“Idiots, they are too many!-” I shouted as I watched two of my companions beginning to run straight into the wave “- I’ll make an escape route so GET YOUR ASS MOVING!”

With the wand ready in my hand, I pointed it towards the wall behind us and cast “rock cannon” to completely shatter the wall, creating, in return, a cloud of dust that rose to the sky like a hungry snake before crashing down on the nearby ruins.

With shouts of encouragement and cries of war, Lucas, Lauter and Ros fended off the closest undead before retreating at full speed. I was waiting until they all passed, planning to bring down the closeby ruins and block the road as soon as I was also safe but as I prepared to do so I noticed from the corner of my eyes Namisatto. He was on his knees, paralyzed in front of the incoming wave, not even ten meters away from him. In my mind, I was sure he would’ve been already dead by the time I could reach him but nonetheless, my legs moved on their own. I sprinted at him, immensely straining my calves in an attempt to reach him as fast as possible, just before a hand made of bones could grab his neck. I tugged him from the collar of his shirt away from the grasp of that being of death and retaliated in response to that affront.

“Vulcan’s wrath!” I shouted as mana gathered heavily inside my wand only to explode the second after.

The ground erupted in flames as cracks formed in the black stones forming the road. Columns and rivers of fire began exploding everywhere, bringing down ruins and undead alike. The already awful smell of rotten flesh became even more unbearable as its scorched variant began filling the air around me.

“What are you waiting for, you idiot?!-” I shouted as I forcefully tugged his collar once again “- Jump on my back right now if you don’t wanna be roasted alive!”

Almost in a daze, without uttering a single word, Namisatto followed my commands and jumped on my back while I carried my own backpack in front of my chest. His arms were firmly, even more than necessary, around my neck and, without waiting for my enemies to recollect, I began running at full speed through the falling walls of the ruins. Mana was flowing in my legs in the form of a boost. The growling of the still-on-fire enemies was piercing my ears. The dust still clouding my eyes. The fear, tension and adrenaline of being so close to danger acted as painkillers for the pain boiling in my legs due to the effort of carrying more than double my weight.

I could feel the crushing tiredness symptom of a lack of mana. Without realizing it, I had modified Vulcan’s wrath so that it would cover the whole area at the price of my mana.

[Shit…I only have half of it at best!]

I kept sprinting, ignoring both the growlings from within the cloud of dust and the cries of pain coming from my legs’ muscles, and by the time I took a corner, I found the other three members of our group, slowing down to match my pace.

“What the hell was that explosion!?” Shouted Lauter with a face stained with worry and sweat.

“I-it was like columns of fire appeared from nowhere! Was that your magic?” Eagerly asked Ros, hoping that it was indeed me and not an unfathomable enemy.

“Vulcan’s wrath, right?-” Replied Lucas in my stead, seeing as my breath was staggering and my back arching with every step. My reply was a soundless nod “- It’s a fourth-tier spell but we don’t have time to enjoy it. They are still following us, Raph simply slowed them down, possibly killed some too, but he consumed way too much mana. We need to find someplace to rest, and quickly!... But…what the hell happened to Namisatto?!”

“He got too scared *huff*-” I answered “- He paralyzed in front of the undead *pant* it’s…normal I guess?”

“Whatever, let’s just find a place to rest quickly!” Shouted Lauter as he took the lead of the group and ran in front of us, basically dictating the pace.

We ran with Lauter in front, Lucas behind and me and Ros closing the line for about ten more minutes after that conversation. There could’ve been many places to rest but the looming sound of approaching undead kept us from picking any of them. Our pace was slowing down while our shirts started to be covered in sweat. Namisatto tried to run a couple of times but on both occasions, his knees gave out after not even ten steps. Hence, I was forced to carry him all the way. Although I was boosting my body with mana, the accumulating fatigue and the slowly drying mana put a decisively heavy strain on my lungs. By the time I felt them burning and my vision was blurring out, I heard an unfamiliar voice screaming from the distance. I could not understand his words nor clearly make out the gestures he was making but I’m sure he was calling out to us. One thing was clearer than everything else: we had found another human. With a mute agreement of our eyes, our entire group sprinted even harder until the man’s words could be heard.

“...Horde… could rest…Migur…”

Those were the words I could make out from the hundreds of meters of distance.

With a final sprout of energy after hearing the word Migur, I pushed my legs to their very extreme and reached the man, followed by three other people, blurry in my eyes, that held a gate open.