Chapter 12: Labyrinth:
Starlight looked over the edge into the ravine. It wasn't as deep as when he was at the top, but now he could sometimes make out the shapes of dark objects.
Godric and Bram were standing beside him; Liriel was tied to the back of Lyra, who floated in the air with her white wings. Aster was deeper inside the cave, tying the rope to a sturdy object, what it was, Starlight did not know.
His body was still sore from the training he did yesterday, but he felt energized by the sleep. 'Could the Little Light Guardian Mouse have helped my sleep, or was I just that tired from not sleeping for a few days?'
"I'm done," Aster said as he walked out of the dark cave, holding a bundle of rope in both of his hands. It wasn't the entire rope that they were using, as it had to be long and strong enough for them to scale down the ravine. Most of the rope was scattered across the cave's floor.
'They must have used a storage Artifact to carry such a rope." Starlight thought to himself as he stared at the rope strung across the ground.
Suddenly, Aster dropped the rope in his hand. He walked over near the edge, beside Godric, and picked up the end of the rope. The end had a few weights attached to it, so that it would fall faster. Starlight estimated that he couldn't even pick it up if he tried his hardest.
With a strong toss, he threw it over into the ravine. Starlight watched as the end of the rope fell into the darkness, fading away from his view.
He looked back at the piles of rope, rather quickly, they were unwinding and slithering over the edge.
Only a few minutes later, they slowed down and eventually stopped. That meant that the end had reached the bottom. However, Aster walked back over to the remaining pile, picked it up, and threw it over too.
Aster gave a nod to Godric and Bram, then looked over to Starlight and did the same. That nod meant they would start to descend now, still in the same order as before. Godric, Aster, Starlight, and finally Bram.
Starlight checked his waist. He had tied his sword around it with a rope Godric had given him, since he didn't have a scabbard for it, or a belt; he would have to deal with that eventually. Later, when he hopefully beat the Trial, he could store the Artifact in his nexus, so carrying around Artifacts on his person would only be done if he wanted. The same goes for the Little Light Guardian Mouse.
Since he didn't have a Relic to attach it to and no essence to use it, it would be useless. But it was a wild Rune, and wild Runes can activate on their own. That being said, it costs them their energy, which is why the Little Light Guardian Mouse was so weak. Wild Runes help out their hosts if they're about to be harmed, or incapable of taking care of the Rune; that's why it had helped the Rat King, and why it could help him.
Either way, he had kept the little mouse in one of his many secret pockets within the Shroud of Ivory. The mouse looked like it enjoyed being in there. Starlight had guessed that it was because the Artifact was Legendary, so it had thought the shroud to be a rank five monster. If he didn't have it, the Rune would have stayed with Godric, a Traveler.
The Coin of the Stars was also in one of his secret pockets; he didn't need to carry it because the group already knew where they were going, and it would affect his ability to descend on the rope.
After checking on all his belongings, Starlight walked closer to the rope. Godric and Aster had already descended; Bram was just waiting on him now.
Taking in a deep breath, he sat down, legs over the edge, and grabbed onto the rope tightly with both hands. He slowly shuffled closer to the edge and fully jumped off. His hands slid on the rope, burning. He swung his legs against the ravine's wall and managed to catch on to a rock.
He lingered for a second, composing himself and adjusting his grip. When he was ready, he stepped off the small rock and planted his feet directly against the wall, slowly stepping down.
Starlight and the rest of the group continued descending. As the bottom approached, the walls of the ravine shadowed over the group, making it seem like night.
Despite the darkness, Starlight kept moving forward; he just had to be more mindful of his steps. 'Having night vision is a really useful ability.'
However, Godric, Aster, and Bram had to be more careful; they all summoned some type of luminous Artifact. It looked like a small lantern that hung around their waist. Starlight couldn't make out any more details, though; he was too far. Despite the newly summoned Artifacts, they still had to slow down.
The deeper they got, the colder it got, too. Eventually, they had to summon more artifacts; this time, they were black cloaks that hung around their bodies. There was some kind of symbol on the cape's back, but he couldn't yet make it out.
Aster was especially slow, with his big body; he had to make sure that everything that he stood on was suitable for his weight. Soon enough, Starlight had caught up to him. There was silence as he slowed his pace to match Aster's, who then called out.
"How are you doing so far?"
"I'm… doing better than on the first decent," Starlight replied while kicking and latching his legs into a small crevice. He then took out a metal flask and drank the water that was inside. After a few gulps, he put it away and started descending again.
"Hey… Aster, when you said that your pendant was given to you, it was to be used when you needed it. What does that mean?" Starlight asked curiously.
Aster stayed quiet for a moment, then replied, "One of the elders in our city gave me the pendant. He said that he felt the amulet longing to go on the journey. I'm not quite sure what that meant, but I think it has to do with the old magic."
He paused for a moment, then said somberly. "He said that it was supposed to save my life when I needed it the most… but… I don't want it."
Starlight stayed quiet, not wanting to interrupt him in such a moment.
"I'm planning on giving it away… but I feel it resonating as we get closer to the bottom of the ravine. But after I find its use, I'll give it to… never mind, I will try to go faster. And no more questions," Aster continued, his tone even more somber.
Following his request, Starlight didn't ask any more questions; he just focused on climbing down the ravine. Aster did the same; he slowly picked up his pace, descending faster.
As they got lower, the walls became more jagged, with more ledges hanging out from the wall. The descent became easier until all they had to do was land on a ledge and jump off to the next. If Starlight wanted, he could even abandon the rope and climb down on his own. But of course, he didn't; that would be too risky and take too long.
The total time for descent was four hours to reach the bottom. Lyra reached there first, she put down Liriel and rested her against the rocks. Godric reached it slowly after her. Aster and Starlight arrived at the same time, while Bram was only a few minutes behind them.
Together at the bottom of the ravine, the five of them sat around a pile of luminous lamps. The lamps were placed together like a campfire, with all of them huddling around. Despite the lanterns being placed together, it didn't really increase the output of light; it was simply used to heat the surroundings, if only slightly.
Lyra had gone back up to the rat cave to retrieve the rope. She was supposed to signal to the group when she was about to untie it and let gravity do its work to bring the rope down.
Starlight glanced around. Although they were at the bottom of the ravine, it was hard to see even ten meters around clearly. Because some stars still shone directly over the ravine, some light was still accessible, but it was only enough to make out vague shapes.
Just like how there were mini mountains around the ravine, there were mini ravines within the giant ravine. Most of them were only slightly small cracks, while some were a few meters long and wide. There was also the occasional shard of jagged rock that was scattered around the ravine, reminding the group how any part of the wall could fall at any moment. That was why they were huddled in the middle of the ravine.
"That's the signal, Watch out!" Godric screamed to the rest of the group as they all stood up. Far above where they were now, and in the direction of the rat cave, a bright light was shining. 'The signal!'
All five of them were on guard; the rope could fall at any moment. If one of them were under it as it hit the ground, they would instantly be crushed. Well, Starlight would at least, because of the stronger constitution of Travelers, they might survive the rope landing on them, but they still didn't want to take any chances.
Starlight gazed up, his eyes scanning around the cave's wall, searching for the falling figure of a leather rope. 'There… tha-"
Boom!
Starlight didn't even get the chance to think about the rope falling when he first saw it. It went down so fast. Instantly, the surrounding area was covered in a thick stone dust.
The dust lingered for a few moments before clearing up. After coughing a few times, Starlight gazed up as a person with angelic wings was descending down to the group. Lyra's face had slightly paled, and her body was shaking; this was the backlash of using her Relic ability so often.
As she landed, her wings disappeared into her armor and then to her back. She had seemed to summon a different armor Artifact; this one was also silver but more detailed and protective, and with this, she actually looked like a warrior angel from heaven. Her armor's shoulder guards spiked up with a blue cape hanging down from behind, her chest piece curved at the top into a spike that protruded outwards. She had a metal plate hanging around her waist that served as a skirt guard and had the same blue fabric from the cape as her skirt. The silver leggings rose behind her skirt and ended at silver boots.
Starlight looked in amazement. It was very rare to see armor this detailed and intricate, as well as strong. With his subpar judging skills, he had to guess that it was a Rare Artifact, and a high-tier one at that. It simply couldn't compare to what anyone else was wearing, well, in terms of defense, Starlight was sure his cloak could somewhat trump it, but he still probably couldn't last a single strike against her.
A flurry of silver sparks illuminated the area surrounding her as a spear appeared in her hand. It wasn't just her, either; the rest of the group was surrounded by sparks too, as they summoned their strongest Artifacts.
Even Liriel, who was still partly injured, summoned hers too; she was strong enough to walk now, but fight was out of the question. But still, one could never be sure if a fight was around the corner, and one needed to be ready, injured or not.
Although they weren't sure what was down here, if the ravine could do so much damage to the surrounding forest, then it was likely that whatever they found down here was not going to be weak. The Rat King was a prime example of that; they went from fighting hordes of Fiends to fighting a Monarch. The disparity between the forest and the ravine was simply too great.
Starlight also took his sword out of the makeshift belt around his waist. He also took out the Coin of the Stars and concentrated on it. Light poured out of his closed hand, and when he opened it, a trail of light shot out, leading into the darkness.
Godric walked over to the rope with a brown backpack in his hands. He brought the backpack to a section of the rope and opened it. Reaching out his hands to touch the rope, it instantly shrank; the once grand, long, thick rope now locked like a ball of leather yarn. Godric picked up the rope and placed it in the backpack.
'Was the rope an Artifact, or does the backpack have the ability to make things smaller?' Starlight wondered as he glanced back at the others.
After summoning their Artifacts and fully preparing to venture out, they each grabbed a lantern and walked into the dark.
About an hour had passed since they first started to follow the trail, and yet they hadn't reached the other ravine wall; instead, it was leading them deeper into the ravine. Members of the group shot glances at each other; they were all pondering whether they should continue following it. Even Starlight had such thoughts. But Godric was steadfast in his decision to follow the light.
Bram opened his mouth, about to speak, but instead his eyes opened with shock, and his mouth widened too. The rest of the group was also in shock. Right in front of them was a massive door.
The door was ten meters high and half as long; it wasn't wood but rather an ancient-looking stone. There were patterns etched all over, although they were too old to be made out. The door frame was also mesmerizing. It sat along the edges of the door, two massive square pillars stood on the ground, and on top was a triangular structure. In the center of the triangle were two symbols etched deep into the stone.
Starlight's eyes widened in shock even more than they had before. He recognized the symbols. But even though he recognized them, he couldn't read them; they were the same symbols as the ones that were on the massive rocks with paintings on them.
He looked back at the door, dead center in the door was a small spherical indent. His gaze shifted to Aster. He held his pendant in both hands, looking at it with a distressed look. The jade pendant looked like it was glowing on and off, like a heartbeat.
Aster looked over to Godric, who was also staring at the amulet. He nodded to Aster. Following the nod, Aster stepped forward, taking the pendant off the string that hung around his neck. He held the pendant in one hand. As he approached the massive door, he looked back at the group. They all had their weapons drawn, just in case something happened. Aster heaved a sigh of relief and placed the pendant into the spherical indent.
It was a perfect fit. Instantly, the patterns over the door glowed a jade green, and the door started to rumble. Then slowly, the door started to open, letting out ancient air. The door parted strangely, like two puzzle pieces breaking apart from one another.
Aster stepped back and stood beside the group. When the door finally opened, they peered into it. The walls all had torches emitting a faint golden light, like the ones in the rat cave. The walls were made of stone brick, and so was the floor. Only a few meters past the door was a staircase leading down; that was all they could see.
"A labyrinth!"