Blessed Curse of Lust

Wonder what all these mean? Yelena pondered as she traced her fingers over the glowing runes carved into the dark grey stone wall.

“Stories, history- some are just ramblings of the people who once lived here. The Lirdonians used to carve their memories into their walls. To keep it safe, to allow the next generations to look at their words.” Lucia told. There was a profound sadness in her voice.

Yelena could understand. Lucia likely witnessed the fall of this ancient civilization. One that once stood proudly; now only a couple of ruins remain, allowing those who came after to learn they even existed.

Wish I could read them. I’m sure there is much to learn from these words. Yelen looked at the symbols on the wall.

She could recognize a few. Not a surprise; these were the same runes that they used to cast magic. It is believed that the Lirdonians invented the runes and used them to practice magic. Most spells used today can be traced back to this ancient civilization.

Still, Yelena’s knowledge was only enough to make out a couple of words. She looked over the wall; there was almost no repetition in the symbols shown. It was painfully hard to decipher this language. There are countless scholars who have dedicated their lives to it, but in the end, they have barely made a dent.

It was sad. So much knowledge, but all was lost. Even with decades of hard work, barely any progress in recovering all that.

“Wow! I can’t believe this was here all this time! Oh, the Flames will be soooo envious when I tell them this.” Lily was inspecting the wall; in her hand she held a small notebook and was writing down all the runes she could see.

Yelena looked at the smaller girl and raised an eyebrow, an amused smile on her face. Lily never struck her as the type who would be interested in such research or even know much about it. Then again, spending time with the Spectral Flames might have changed the way she looked at things.

“Oh, well. The Lirdonians are a big topic back in the group. There is a discussion about them almost every day. They are the reason we can cast magic the way we do. They knew so much, yet so little of it remained. It is a bit sad, but every new ruin discovered, like this one, allows us to further our knowledge as well.” She said once she noticed the look Yelena was giving her.

It seemed the Flames indeed left a mark on Lily. Not that she minded. The redhead fit well into the group. She was very smart and learned extremely fast. For some, it took months of learning and practice to reach the level Lily was at now. Even more so if one would consider her ability to sequence magic.

“Well, finding an ancient ruin was sure not on my list of things that could happen. It also explains the odd way those undead were moving. Honestly, I’m surprised it only awakened servant-rank ones.” Thea moved over to the two and shared her observation.

She was correct too. Ruins like these were filled with potent remnants of magical energies. Of all the possibilities, it was probably the strongest in places like these. The ancient civilization practiced magic at a far higher level of expertise. If nothing else, the glowing runes were a good indication. Even after thousands of years, they were still powered despite nobody being around anymore.

Due to this, the natural phenomenon that occurred here with the dead raised was not all that much of a surprise anymore. Even the fact that these creatures were stronger than usual made sense now.

Although it still was a bit weird that they didn’t run into any higher-rank undead. Since the magical energies that remained in this place should be strong, it would have been likely to create some stronger ones.

“Well, that is nice, and all, and this whole place is without a doubt a great discovery, but can we first focus on how we are going to get out of here?” Valerie interjected; she was still dusting herself off after the fall.

The others looked at the complaining princess, then up at the ceiling, where they could see the hole they had fallen through. They couldn’t deny that she was right. They needed to focus on finding a good way out.

Unfortunately, the ceiling was high enough that they would not have an easy time getting out that way. Not impossible, but it would take quite some effort. They looked down the hallway. It was hard to say where it led or if they would find an exit.

“So, how do we want to approach it? Climb or explore?” Eris asked and turned to Yelena.

Technically speaking, Yelena was the team leader, although Thea did most of the planning. Since this situation fell outside the original scope and there was no plan, it fell to Yelena to make a decision.

“Let’s see where the hallway leads. We can explore a little, figure out if there is an alternate exit. If there isn’t, we can return here and try to climb out. It is also a good experience. Don’t think we will have many chances to ever explore a ruin like this.” Yelena made up her mind.

The others seemed to agree; they all nodded along with her. They all felt the same way too. Finding an unexplored ruin was extremely rare. To be the first one to see what it looks like, what secrets it might hold, was something each and every one of them was deeply interested in.

Since a wall behind them blocked the way, there was only one way they could go. Once again, they assumed the previously used formation and moved ahead cautiously. While traps and such were extremely rare in these ruins, one still couldn’t fully know what they might find here. Especially since there were undead creatures above, it was not unthinkable that there might be more down here too.

They walked down the long hallway; it remained mostly unchanged. The light Valerie summoned earlier was no longer needed, since the runes on the walls gave plenty of illumination.

The only thing that sometimes changed up the scenery was doors, carved from the same stone as the walls. They spent a little time trying to figure out if they could open them, but it seemed hopeless. The door seemed to have some automatic mechanism that opened it, but they didn’t know how to operate it. There was no button or switch visible that could be used. They weren’t even sure if the thing worked at all, after all these years.

They continued going the only way that was open to them. Sometimes the hallway split, but in those cases doors blocked their path in one direction, so they had to take the still-open route.

They walked for about 5 minutes, although at a rather slow and careful pace, when they came across a large, circular room. The room had a high ceiling, supported by large pillars spaced around the room.

Like the hallway, this place looked cold too. Everything was made out of the same grey stone, the walls and pillars covered by countless runes. There was no furniture visible in the room, except for what looked like a stone altar in the middle of the room.

Unlike most other surfaces, the altar didn’t have anything carved into it, but it was still made out of the same grey stone as the rest of the interior. Slowly, the team moved inside; they looked around, inspecting the place for any danger.

Other than them, the place was completely empty. There were no signs of any undead or other dangers. They walked towards the middle of the room, inspecting the altar on the ground, surrounded by steps leading down to it.

Since there was nothing else interesting here, their eyes were all fixated on this singular piece of furniture.

“What do you think this place was?” Valerie was the one who first voiced the question that was on everyone’s mind.

“Maybe some place of worship? They were much closer to the gods than we are. Wouldn’t be hard to think they had things like churches and such like we do.” Thea tried to guess.

It was not out of the realm of possibility, but it didn’t really look like a place of worship either. There were no symbols, murals, or even statues of the gods themselves. Sure, this ancient civilization could have done worship differently than they did, but it was still hard to imagine.

Yelena tried to look for Lucia, but the goddess was not around. Even trying to speak to her in her mind didn’t yield any response. It was a bit weird; Lucia was always around. Yelena couldn’t really explain why; the only thing she could think of was that Lucia might not like this place. She seemed rather sad earlier when she talked about the people who once inhabited these walls.

The group approached the altar and inspected it more closely. There was nothing really that stood out. It was made of stone, cold to the touch. It had nothing on or under it. Just a particularly shaped slab of stone.

“Can we move on?” Eris asked while folding her arms.

Yelena already had a feeling that, unlike the rest of the team, the elven girl quickly lost interest in these ruins. Probably expected a little more. Still, she wasn’t wrong. It was unlikely they would learn anything new here. If they could read the runes, maybe that would help reveal something, but unfortunately, the only one who could was Lucia, who remained silent.

They all nodded and walked towards the only other path that led out of here. The doorway was fully open; as they approached, they could see a new hallway beyond it. Then they heard something. Fairly loud metallic clanking sounds echoed from down the hall.

They stopped to listen, but soon they spotted the source as it turned around the corner. It looked like a skeleton. It was hard to say, since most of its body was covered by black metal armor. In its hand was a similarly black longsword. Its blade was wider than usual, with runes carved into the metal that shone red.

The creature stopped as it noticed the group. It stood there in complete silence before it raised its sword.

“Get back!” Thea shouted.

The rest were aware of the danger as well, but they could not react fast enough. The undead being pushed itself forward and ran towards the group. It moved with incredible speed. Even unarmored, Yelena and the rest didn’t think they could move that fast.

Valerie was the first to react. She raised her hand, and several fireballs shot out of the summoned magic circle. The skeleton sliced with its blade, hitting all the incoming spells and successfully disrupting them, causing the fire to fizzle out.

“Shit!” Valerie cursed as she saw her spell was ineffective.

“This is a knight rank! We need to flee!” Thea said, this time urging the group even more.

“Flee where? The only other way leads to a dead end! Even if we can outrun this thing, I doubt it will wait for us to figure out how to climb out!” Eris shouted back.

As they spoke, the undead arrived at the first of the group, Yelena. It raised its sword and tried to strike her down. The girl was already in a defensive position; she blocked the incoming attack with her own sword.

The strike was far stronger than she expected. While she did manage to block the attack, it also made her stumble backward, causing her to lose her balance almost completely. She knew a knight type would be strong, but she sure wasn’t prepared for it.

Her opponent was raising its sword again, ready to attack. Yelena knew she wouldn’t be able to block another one. She had to get away. She glanced behind herself and activated her lightning infusion spell. A loud crack sound reverberated in the mostly empty room as Yelena disappeared for a moment and reappeared much further back.

The spell was nowhere near as elegant as when she used it against Eris. As soon as she was back at normal speed, she fell backward and stumbled on the floor before she came to a stop and could stand up again.

While the enemy was distracted, Eris went on the offensive. She stepped forward and launched a series of attacks against the skeleton knight. Her first thrust hit, but it didn’t go through the armor. By the next one, the undead had already turned its attention towards Eris.

It easily blocked the following stabs, making it look almost effortless despite the sheer speed at which Eris was striking. The skeleton moved its sword, pushing aside Eris’ rapier with ease. The girl felt her arm fling to the side, unable to stop it and leaving her wide open.

The enemy was ready to attack when several ice spikes struck its helmet. Just like with Eris’ rapier, the spells didn’t even make a dent in it. Still, it was enough to distract the undead while the elven girl quickly backed away using wind step.

Both Lily and Valerie had already moved further back; Thea came in front of them, and now Eris also stood next to her. Yelena also managed to rejoin the formation.

“We attack at the same time! Keep your eyes open; it is extremely strong.” Yelena said; the others nodded.

Thea stood in the front, in the middle; to her right was Eris, a little back, and to her left was Yelena. The two mages took position further back, getting ready to face the enemy that was slowly approaching.