The gate to the dungeon was a swirling vortex of dark energy that didn't make any kind of sense to me.
Was it spatial magic created by a being so above us we couldn't even begin to fathom?
Was it a gift from the gods to give us strength before we could face a terrible fate?
Or was it a curse from our planet that was rebelling at human arrogance?
We could never know.
There were as many researchers on dungeon studies as the stars in the sky, yet the mysteries surrounding them were still too many.
I stood there hypnotised by the swirling energy while Yom explained the strategy we should follow and what kind of monsters we'd encounter once inside, did I care?
Not really, my focus at the moment was completely captured by the gate itself and I almost missed the entry call.
We were to make a human chain and enter one at the time, Cael was first followed by Rovan and the other with me closing the line.
What I didn't realise however, was that we needed to hold hands to be transported in the same place.
____________________
"YOU HAD ONE FUCKING JOB SERAPH! ONE! AND YOU MANAGED TO LET HIM GO?!"
"I… I didn't even notice! He was right behind me and I thought he'd just grab to my mantle…"
"HE WASN'T EVEN LISTENING! HAD YOU NOT NOTICED HOW HE WAS HYPNOTISED BY THE GATE? HE WAS PROBABLY THINKING ABOUT STUDYING IT!"
"How is that my fault…?"
I was furious. I told everyone that I should be the last to enter, to be a rearguard for the only mage we officially had, but no.
They said the starting point was the safest.
And here we were.
Twelve heirs and no Crow.
Yom put his hand on my shoulder to try and calm me down, but it was useless.
How nobody noticed that they had completely different mana was still a mystery to me.
"There are some standard starting points, he is sure to have dropped in one of those, let's start looking for him instead of despairing."
I didn't answer, but my body started moving before I even realised it.
"If something happens to him, Seraph, I'll be sure the Beyond would feel like heaven for you."
With those words echoing for everyone to hear I moved towards the closest drop point, not noticing that no monster was approaching us, nor the silence of the heirs following my lead like it was their promised job.
I swear to the gods Crow. You better be safe.
______________________
"Now this is interesting."
In front of me stood the statue of a humanoid figure with unclear features and right behind him three paths opened.
It was clear I was misplaced, I didn't know why, nor how, what I knew was that the statue had some engravings at his base, and those engravings were extremely familiar to me.
"This is the secret alphabet that weird priest taught me, now that I think about it… that priest did disappear the moment I learned how to write and read it, but still."
The inscription was almost runic, but always with alterations that completely broke the syntax of the phrase, it was also strange how quickly I learned it.
"What did the priest call this language again? Laithath?"
As soon as I pronounced that name, the glyphs engraved at the feet of the statue shone a little brighter and I started copying them as quickly as possible.
Even if I knew the alphabet and how to enunciate it, I never knew the entire language.
However, in the midst of my writing I heard the sound of steps echoing through the corridors of the labyrinth before me.
"I guess my luck isn't that great today."
I weaved myself into illusions and climbed up the statue to have a vantage point of some kind and right on clue, four legged beasts starter to pour into the opening I was standing before.
A red mane, long, sharp fangs and even sharper claws. Their wolvish features disfigured, yellow ooze spilling everywhere, eyes filled with madness and a growling that sent shivers directly through my spine.
The problem was only one.
Their numbers.
And the fact that I didn't know if I could really mask myself from these beasts, I could create the scent of blood with my [deceiver's] spell, but…
"Well, let's start by lessening their numbers."
I took out a dozen of poker cards and threw them at different angles of the room. Each of the card had a simple but useful rune inscribed in them: [mist].
In a few seconds the heavily humid mist enveloped all the wolves and I nodded satisfied.
"To think I'd be using normal magic in this completely normal way, it's almost ironic."
I lifted my hands mimicking a puppeteer and even chanted for dramatic effect.
"[chain lighting]"
With a snapping sound, ten lightning bolts launched into the mist from my fingers. The howling was ear shattering and even if I knew this was not enough to kill these beasts, it was a good start.
I even started throwing in a [decay] spells here and there whenever I got sight of some of them, but this couldn't go on for much longer.
There simply were too many wolves and my mana wasn't infinite.
I also couldn't simply exhaust my mana without a way out of this situation.
"Fuck, I guess it's time to start moving."
Still masked by my illusions, I descended with my jian in hand and threw myself in the middle of the fight.
My disguise lasted for exactly 3 kills, after that the scent of those beasts blood on me worked like fire to a moth and the bastards started flocking in my direction.
"Fuck. [Windcutter]."
Blades of wind run in all direction opening a path for me to reposition with my back towards a wall.
Was I trapping myself? Sure, but at least I didn't have to bother with worrying about being attacked from the back.
"Let's get down to business, you mutts."
The wolves howled all at once and the blood pooling all around started to stirr alive. Those fuckers were bloodmancers.
Fang shaped blood spikes hurled at me with a speed that spelled trouble to the naked eyes and I was barely able to avoid them.
A big mirror appeared beside me, a mirror that was shattered by my jian in a heartbeat and released glass everywhere.
Let's all play with our best game.
"[distorted refraction]."
The mirror shards flew on their own attaching themselves to whichever wolf wasn't able to avoid them and in the beasts' eyes those wolves looked an awful lot like me, completely like me to be exact.
At the same time, the distraction gave me time to produce [pretender] sounds from different places in the room.
I just hoped the spell held long enough for: someone to find and save me or for all the beasts to kill themselves.
Either way, let's start gathering mana.
Things however, rarely go as one wishes for. Beast and humans had genetically different brains and senses, what a man could never see, a beast perceived as clear as day and my illusory spells were catered towards humans.
Slowly but surely, the wolves started snapping back to reason, whatever reason might have meant for them, they began reorganising their ranks and I was forced to once again assume a defensive stance against spears of blood, fangs and claws coming my way.
Fuck, I can't last like this forever.
Cuts and injuries started to pile up. My suit now resembled stripes of cloth more than actual clothes and even if I healed myself once or twice, the mana required for [mirror's mercy] was a heavier toll than I expected.
"Fucker, I need to kill you all at the same time uh?"
A lot had died, but even considering that, there were still more than thirty wolves already dreaming about my flesh.
There were a few spells I could think about, but they all would have drained of mana and I didn't know if there was a bigger boss waiting in the rearguard of those monsters.
When talking about wolves it was a logical assumption. The alpha always waited behind its pack to claim victory.
"Should I just wing it and hope for the best? I can't really access the Hall of illusions, only god knows what would happen if these wolves broke the artefact with me inside…"