章 863: Ruined ruins

Tyrael "Try the puzzle again, the explosion might draw attention towards our position." he says while gesturing at the rotating stone circles.

Quennie nods and quickly swaps around the sentences, finishing them with the Fated Elves accused Forest Elves of betrayal. With that done a *Click! Click! Click!* echoes throughout the area and grinding could be felt beneath their feet.

The circles start turning on their own, eventually vertically spinning out of the floor like a gyroscope. All the circles spun around very quickly until all you could see of them was a blur... A small white light appeared in the centre of it as the whizzing sound got louder and louder.

*SLAM!*

The gyroscope suddenly stops, the stone circles halting in their original position and the subsequent force of stopping completely shatters them. They're still intact, but long fractures travel up them, strangely, the fractured seem to separate some sentences written on them to create others that were legible.

Quennie had thought this just a coincidence as reliable fracturing stone like that is almost impossible, plus, the sentences aren't all that interesting either.

A moment after the stone was fractured, they began to slowly lower, followed by other parts of the floor that forced some of the group to step aside. Once the mechanism was complete a large staircase was left in the middle of the ruins, leading to a small door.

Mathias "If anything, the Elves were elaborate." he mutters. wondering why they'd go through so much work for this place.

*ROOOOOooooaaaarrrrrr!*

The group take a glance towards where the roar had come from before deciding to delve into the ruin, while the group had had a brief reprieve, they still weren't in an optimal state to fight, hiking up a mountain wasn't the best way to relief exhaustion...

Tyrael led them all into the ruin and cautiously opened the door after Quennie examined it fro traps. The door ground against the stone floor as Tyrael forced it open, kicking up some dust due to how old this place was.

Selina held up her hand and conjured some sort of light spell, illuminating the dusty mable hallway before making her way inside.

Barnock was the last to enter and he closed the door behind them, Mathias raising the floor to block any attempts at gaining access to the ruins in case the monsters were still after them.

Mathias "Shall we just rest within the hallway? Venturing further in will no doubt be dangerous, our goal isn't to find treasure either as much as I hate to admit it."

Selina "Oh, come on! This place looks like its never been explored before, who knows what we could find here?"

Tyrael "You need to think young one, what here could be valuable to you, the princess of the most powerful Empire in the world, an empire that is able to use resources from other worlds and has capabilities above anything else?"

...

Selina harrumphs, "I suppose you're right..." she mutters, using Aard to clear the dust before sitting down, not minding the coughing and spluttering of the group members caught in her dust storm.

Selina helps the group set up a proper camp sight, using a couple spells to illuminate a stone and cause it to warm up everything around it. Using fire within these ruins could possibly just suffocate them all, which wouldn't be very good...

Quennie uses the undead Werewolf as a guard as they all try to get some sleep, keeping undead alive wasn't difficult for her, but it caused mental strain depending on the strength, size, and intelligence of it. She only had to use Death magic to create the undead, afterwards it was just maintaining her connection with them, as such, she was only able to manage a single powerful undead like the Werewolf in her sleep.

Tyrael was restless most of the night, getting visions of Diablo using this worlds means of world travel to conquer this world, sanctuary, and many more, bringing only death and destruction in his wake. Eventually though, after imbibing a Calming Draught, he drifted off to sleep.

...

Quennie was awaken by something, her undead Werewolf had just been destroyed by something... Of course it pieced itself back together, but that didn't mean the threat wasn't there. "Attack!" she exclaims, letting everyone know something was here.

Everyone scrambled awake, Selina giving a drowsy glare at her sister for interrupting her beauty sleep, not caring if waking them was required to live Barnock and Tyrael had both slept in their armour for such an occasion as this, they quickly got up and Quennie illuminated the hallway with some Chaos Flames to see what was attacking them.

...

What they saw shocked them, thousands of see-through beings, slowly made their way towards the group... The walls, floor, and ceiling didn't impede their progress as they didn't seem corporeal. Their forms varied greatly, some were crying women with disfigured faces and hands adorned with huge claws, some were men that have been impaled by many swords, arrows, and other weapons... The resentment coming from the ghostly army was incredible, making the group all feel despair that was not their own.

Tyrael "What is this?" he says, taking a step forwards with his sword raised, prepared to sacrifice himself for his companions.

Quennie "Banshees, Wraiths, Poltergeists, Revenants... Almost every kind of ghost is present, I have no idea how this could've happened!" she exclaims, backing away due to the torrent of negative emotions hitting her.

Mathias "Well, let's see how they deal with this!" he shouts, slamming his staff on the floor and causing a wave of light to explode from the white gem atop it. The screams from the ghosts become louder, pained, and more frantic at this, when the light dims the group could see that some of the weaker ones had been destroyed.