That night, on the same day Danitz had entrusted him with the mission, Lewis set out to begin his investigations. He wore the Waver Mask and the Mantle of the Underworld, as these allowed him to use his powers to their fullest potential. Moving between buildings, covered by shadows, he quickly made his way through Bayam until he reached a nearby forest, where it was rumored that the ruins of the Third Era had appeared.
During the day, Lewis had searched for the source of the rumors in bars, using his silver tongue and some money to piece together the whole story. It is said that a completely drunk pirate wandered into the forest, where he began to hear whispers that seemed to be calling him from deep within the darkness. Guided by the whispers, he finally arrived at a place where there were clear signs that the earth had been disturbed and stone stairs seemed to descend into the depths of darkness. The drunken pirate, regaining some of his lucidity, finally fled the scene in terror.
Given this story, Lewis made several assumptions.
The first thing he thought was that the story, like the ruins, was completely false, perhaps a tactic created by someone as a ritual of some kind or to arouse the curiosity of the church and divert its attention to another matter. The second theory was that the story was true and that the ruins did exist and that a powerful mystical object or a powerful evil spirit, or perhaps even both, was sealed within them, and he used the pirate to give clues as to their location so that he could break their seal using external forces. And the third assumption was that the drunken pirate had simply imagined everything as a result of alcohol, although he greatly doubted the possibility of the latter.
"That leaves us with the first and second, which are equally problematic."
As Lewis thought, he continued to move through the forest; he didn't believe that a place where a normal drunk person had managed to get to was too far away; he just had to search the surrounding area carefully.
Finally, after several hours, he managed to find the place where the ruins were located; the ground showed clear signs of having been excavated, and ancient stone stairs seemed to descend deep into the earth. After confirming the location, Lewis stayed several meters away, hiding in the dark shadows of the forest. Then, he used his shadow to descend the stairs.
"There's no way I'm going in there."
Due to his spirituality enhanced by the mask and the mantle, he didn't need to concentrate to change his senses to those of his shadow; as soon as he closed his eyes, he could see what she could see. He carefully descended the dark stairs until, after several minutes, he reached what appeared to be a large ancient hall. On the walls were all kinds of murals that, due to the wear and tear of time, had become unrecognizable. As soon as he entered the great hall, he began to hear whispers that seemed to want to guide him deeper, but either because he was separated by his shadow or because of the protection afforded by the mask, he was not affected at all; he only felt as if an annoying fly was buzzing near his ear.
"Let's dive deeper."
Following the source of the whispers, Lewis manipulated his shadow to venture deeper into the ruins, which seemed to have been some kind of mausoleum in the past, but many of the rooms were either completely empty or inaccessible due to a collapse. Finally, after some exploration, he reached the end of the mausoleum, where two enormous stone doors were carved with countless magical engravings that exuded a sinister energy. Lewis noticed that, due to the passage of time, some of these engravings had been destroyed, allowing whatever was sealed inside to seep out a little. If this continued, it wouldn't be long before the seal holding the door closed was broken.
"Luckily, I have the mask; if I didn't, I suspect I would be mesmerized by the whispers and break the seal, or worse, go mad."
Since there was nothing else to see in the mausoleum and he had no plans to see what was on the other side of the stone doors, Lewis decided to call it a night and pass the information on to Danitz the next day. However, his body outside the ruins was alerted by his senses, heightened by the Mantle of the Underworld. He immediately cut the connection to his shadow and looked around. In the distance, a man began to approach the area where the stairs were located. The man wore robes that completely covered his features; after observing them for a few seconds with an unperturbed expression, he finally began to descend.
"..."
Lewis, who watched this hidden in the shadows, decided not to act for now; he wanted to see what the man would do next. Without waiting any longer, he exchanged his senses with those of his shadow again and controlled it to hide in a dark corner of the mausoleum, where it had a panoramic view of the entire room. He saw the man in the robe enter; the first thing he noticed was that when the man entered, he paused for a few seconds, and then a crazed smile appeared on his face; it was as if he were experiencing deep ecstasy.
The man continued walking to the end of the mausoleum, where the two stone doors covered with all kinds of strange magical symbols were located. The man in the robe immediately knelt down as tears began to fall from his eyes; adopting a prayer pose, he began to pray like the most devout of believers. Due to the distance, Lewis was unable to hear what the man was saying, but when he tried to get closer to be able to hear, the man suddenly began to convulse. His skin began to tear, and from the open wounds, a thick, mud-black liquid began to flow.
The man opened his mouth in a way that a human would be incapable of and began to vomit his organs and blood, which were also completely stained by that sinister black liquid. It didn't take long before the man fell dead and his body turned into a disgusting black mass, which began to flow toward the door, being absorbed by the darkness.
Lewis watched all this from his shadow and couldn't help but feel nauseous at the shocking scene, but thanks to the effects of the mask, he managed to calm down and focus his thoughts on what had just happened.
"This reeks of the True Creator from every angle, and that confident man was definitely a member of the Aurora Order."
Lewis's thoughts were interrupted when the mausoleum suddenly began to shake; the feeling emanating from the stone doors had become extremely sinister, as if they were concentrating large amounts of corruption and decay. The whispers grew much louder, to the point that Lewis began to feel a slight headache; however, these anomalies only lasted a few seconds before everything returned to normal, as if everything that had happened had been nothing more than an illusion.
"It seems that the seal is still doing its job... albeit barely."
With all the information he needed gathered, Lewis did not hesitate to have his shadow leave the mausoleum. He wasn't particularly concerned that whatever was sealed inside those doors would manage to break free, since no incident like this had ever occurred or even been mentioned in Lord of the Mysteries, at least as far as he could remember, but he was also confident about it, since if this were important, his spiritual intuition would warn him, which had not happened so far.
"Surely the Church of the Lord of Storms took care of the problem before the situation escalated; Bayam is the location of its headquarters, after all; those of the Aurora Order will not have the freedom to carry out their actions."
Lewis moved quickly through the shadows at high speed as he left the area; whatever had been sealed behind those doors was none of his business, and above all, he wasn't foolish or curious enough to try to find out, so he quickly pushed the matter to the back of his mind and instead began to think about other matters he believed to be much more important.
"Let's see, how can I use this to form a connection with Edwina?"