***

Me and Kamar both look at eachother at the curve that slowly heads upwards.

“There’s only one way…” I say, looking back in the direction we have come.

I can hear distantly the echoes of inhuman screeches, getting progressively closer.

Kamar nods, and starts climbing up the steep incline, his hands gripping the rough surface, which is unlike the rest of the tunnel.

We have to come up with some way to fight the umber hulk. At this rate, it is inevitable that it will catch up with us.

With a groan and a heave, Kamar pushes himself over the lip of the curve, and into a room. It is dank and covered in a layer of solidified sandstone, petrified. I can see what look to be the remnants of a large couch and a fireplace. A bookcase that spans the entirety of the left wall, stone obscuring the majority of the shelves. The dripping of water can be heard, condensation falling from stalagmites into small pools.

The shelves have the scrappy remnants of what was probably once books and a few other trinkets. A desk sits to the right of the room, petrified completely. A large, stained glass window behind the desk, large cracks running through what was probably once a beautiful image. Large pieces are missing, and all i can make out of it is some sort of green orb.

Kamar steps slowly into the room, scanning it much like me, for any threats.

“Nothing here,” Kamar rumbles, walking into the center of the petrified room.

I look up and can make out a large hole in the ceiling, a tiny stream of water coming through and flowing down stalagmites, landing in a puddle in the floor.

We need some way to block the tunnel to by us some more time.

My eyes settle on the centerpiece of this office, the desk.

I point at the desk, clutching Kamar’s neck. “We need to move that and block the hole.”

He grunts, moving over to the desk. I let go, sliding down his back and onto the floor. I keep my balance, stretching out my hands.

Just about healed. I have completely repaired all the damage done to my ribs and spine, along with my skull. Though I have yet to heal the massive amount of red welts that cover my skin. I can’t use anymore katra on healing, I need as much as I can get.

I look over to my asper companion, who has taken off the backpack and set it to the side. He moves over to the desk, walking behind it. Grabbing it with both of his massive hands, he snarls, pulling.

There is the sound of stone cracking, and I watch as the base of the top of the desk cracks. Kamar’s thick, corded muscle stands out against his skin and from under his fur, and I can see it shifting.

With a roar, Kamar rips the top of the desk off the base in a shower of sandstone. Gritting his teeth, he drags it over to the hole, half it scraping against the floor.

I step out of his way, letting him get to the tunnel mouth.

Shifting his grip on the top of the desk, now slab of stone, he leans it over the entrance of the tunnel. It settles with the scrape of stone and a thud.

That’s not going to be enough, is it?

I point at the petrified couch. “Now we need to reinforce it with that.”

I feel slightly useless, unable to help him, my strength no where close to Kamars.

An idle thought comes to my mind, remembering that great sword I say in ‘Palmz Premier Purchases.’ I bet he could use it with relative ease.

Though he would also have to be reasonably dexterous to use that sword as well.

Kamar grunts, “I don’t think this is going to slow it much.” He moves over to the couch.

I can’t help but agree with his observation. If the umber hulk can burrow through solid stone, I don’t doubt it will be able to claw its way through these. But it should buy us some more time.

“It’ll give us some extra time.” I say, watching as Kamar groans, ripping the petrified couch from the floor, dust puffing up from the broken rock.

He pulls it over to the tunnel and the desktop, the sound of stone scraping stone becoming unbearable. Shifting around the couch, he pushes up against the desktop.

Standing back, he huffs a little.

I glance at him. I can see that a good portion of his salt and pepper fur has been singed. He wasn’t as lucky as me and took off his shirt while we were hiking through the desert, and he got buried in the spores.

I let me rest for a bit, walking slowly over to the base of the desk. Walking around it, I peer into the two pillars that hold the drawers.

Most of the stuff inside is incredibly dusty and looks to have been preserved, protected against the ravages of time. In the left most one, in the drawer, is several rolls of paper. Scrolls of some sort.

I reach in with my right arm, gripping one of them. I lift it up, and watch as the paper crinkles, a portion of it turning to dust in my hand.

Oh… well I guess it’s a little too old.

I gently set the yellowed and aged scroll back down, and watch in dismay as the rest of it crumbles to dust and scraps of aged paper.

Moving over to the other side of the base of the desk, I peer into the exposed portion, and a the drawer inside. Dust from both age and the top of the desk having been ripped off covers the inside, but I can make out a rectangular shape inside.

A box?

I reach inside, picking up the box. A layer of dust and pebbles of petrified desk slide off the case. Lifting it out of the drawer, I wipe away at the dust covering it with my right hand.

Are these…?

I continue to wipe away the rest of the dust, exposing dark wood embossed with golden runes. The scripts run the entire length of the box.

The runes have been engraved into the wood, a gold filling inside them. I turn the box over and find a latch. The runes spiral around the silver latch, shining golden in the dim light form the hole in the ceiling.

I finger the latch, trying to open it.

No matter how much I try, I am unable to get it to unlatch, even though I can tell it is a simple mechanism. I look at the now faintly glowing runes that surround the latch. These must be keeping it closed.

I turn the box over. The edges on all sides are covered in a connected line of runes, shining a dim gold. I run my thumb over the runes. These are some kind of preservation runes.

Though, I have never seen runes that utilize physical materials to operate, much less gold. Usually when runes are written, they are carved onto the surface of whatever you want enchanted, filling it with katra.

These are strange. I could sort of recognize what these runes are, but the preservation ones are shaped suttily difrently from what I have seen. I’m not an expert of runes, but these look different from normal ones.

Kamar walks up behind me, peering over my shoulder. “What did you find?”

I glance back at him, and shrug. “I’m not sure. Some kind of scripted and locked box.”

“Hmm, those don’t look like normal runes.” He walks over to the wall, grabbing the bag, he opens it, motioning for me to put the box in, “Don’t know what is contians, but it looks valuable.”

I shove the box deep into the bag and Kamar closes it, slinging the pack over his back and cinching it up.

“I can’t see all that well, is there a door out of here?” Kamar asks, looking around the dark and dank room.

I nod, pointing to the wall opposite the hole, where a door that has been petrified stands, a slough of solidified sandstone over it.

The asper moves over to it, feeling around the edges. His Iron aspect constructs clink as they touch the stone. He shrugs, taking a step back. Rearing his arm back, he slings it forward.

The metal knuckles of his gauntlet connect solidly with the stone, and I watch as his fist goes right through the door, a cloud of dust puffing up and cracks forming through the door.

Now that I think about it, maybe I couldn’t have won against Kamar.

I watch as he pulls his fist out of the hole, pieces of petrified door crumbling. He punches the door again, and I watch as the petrified wood crumbles, leaving the entrance clear.

Angling his shoulders, Kamar steps through the door frame and onto the other side.

I follow behind him, looking over his shoulder.

Really wish I had a spear. I want to try and summon Vel, but I know that if the past is any indication, it will require quite a bit of Katra to keep her here for any extended period of time.

We are standing in a hallway, off to the right it ends in a shattered glass window, to the left it goes further into the house.

This must be some kind of mansion. Maybe a House mansion?

The image of the Ventos House comes to mind, and its many extravagant decorations.

I glance at a collapses and petrified table. Though it looks like most of those decorations here have vanished.

Kamar motions for me to go first. “You can see better than I can.”

I nod, walking in front of him. My hands rest awkwardly at my side and I feel the absence of any weapon heavily.

I do have the gauntlet though.

I haven’t been using the wrappings much and now I feel an aversion to doing it with the discovery that it has gone further up my arm. What if using it too much causes it to completely consume my arm, then my body?

While I could still feel things like the wrappings are my skin, I do not want it to completely replace my arm and worse comes to worst, my body.

I’ll use it I have no other choice.

The hallway has stalagmites growing on the ceiling, water dripping down from them and into puddle that have eroded portions of the floor. The musty smell of mold and moisture fills the air, and I can see that most of everything has been petrified.

It must have been centuries since this place has been visited. I look at one of the walls, which is encased in a layer of sandstone. If the fact that most everything has been petrified by sandstone, I might think that this was a simply abandoned house.

We come to the end of the hallway, and it opens up to a large foyer. A double staircase reaches up to the second floor, the banisters half rotted and half petrified.

In the center of the foyer, on the floor, is a large circle. It is that of the golden scripts, a ring surrounding a complex pattern in the center. At the edges of the ring, the sandstone seems to have built up, but unable to get past. A black, hardwood floor shines under the runes.

What is this?

I take a step into the foyer, looking at the golden runes in the floor. They twist and spiral around each other, forming complex concentric circles. They start glowing as soon as I approach.

I blink, as words form in front of me.

Scanning entity…

Moderator ID tag found! (Id: 303)

Restarting systems…

ERROR! Main power systems unresponsive. Activating backup power systems…

Estimating time till backup system online…

45:00 Mins

I read over the text, trying to understand its nonsense. I watch as the numbers start ticking down. So when it reaches zero, the ‘backup power systems’ are going to be active?

I’m not sure if we want to be around for when that happens. But this is clearly a system message, and I have only ever seen them in my Soul Space.

Waving my hand through it, I watch as it dissipates.

Kamar moves to my right, opening his mouth to say something. Before he can say anything, there is a loud, inhuman screech and the crunch of stone coming from the hallway we just exited.

The umber hulk!

I look at Kamar, and his mouth is set in a grim line of determination, his fists raising up.

Looking back at the hall, I can see a dark shape climbing out from the door, and it is at least as tall as Kamar at his full height.

I guess there is no choice now.

I shift my katra around, preparing to fight. I bring my hands up, readying myself.