"Papa always make things better," nodded Tia.

"And old man," continued Li. "You've got your chance to make things right now. With me, you'll be part of something bigger and better. I'm going to end this demonic invasion, this war, and all the chaos that made it possible in the first place."

"Aye, lad, I've no doubt you will," said Old Thane. He smiled. "Once ye set your mind to something, nothing seems to take you off it." He cracked his neck and sighed. "Enough of hearing this old man's ramblings about the past. The present is now, and the future is ours to take now that we have set upon the glorious path of adventure."

"That's the spirit," said Li. "Moping doesn't suit you, old man. Now let's get ourselves moving down."

================

Asala was the one to know how to make the platform move, navigating the lever and the various places it could be moved to in order to direct the direction and degree of movement from the elevator.

She knew all this because she had studied all cultures of the world, at the least, up until the third demonic invasion occurred and the Triforge dwarves went completely dark, their kingdom and people seemingly shattered overnight.

"You mentioned you did not believe a primal spirit ended the Triforge dwarves," said Li as he watched Asala dust off the lever, her slitted eyes narrowing as she figured out how to head down.

She nodded to herself, grasped the heavy, pillar-like iron lever, and pulled it with surprising strength. It groaned in protest, and a cloud of dust arose around it, but the platform shook and the chain holding it in place rattled above in success, moving everyone down.

"I am sensitive to magic," said Asala. "The presence of primal spirits, I too am familiar with, for a sand spirit doth grant us protection in our home. But here, I sense no such presence."

"I have to agree with you on that end," said Li. "I sense nothing. Too much of nothing, in fact."

He was uncharacteristically feeling the slightest bit uneasy. Aside from the undeath haze that permeated the entirety of the mountain's innards, there were no other magical signatures. Not a single living thing either. Just pure nothingness. Ruins. Stillness borne of death and decay.

If there truly had been a Primal Spirit here, he would have felt its power, for Primal Spirits by nature could not easily conceal their presences, constantly fluxing whatever element or concept they embodied.

"I'd heard tell that what brought ruin upon the dwarves was a mighty demon," commented Old Thane.

Li shook his head. If there had been a demon, Zagan would have known before anyone else, and the demon had not communicated anything to Li.

The platform shook precariously for a moment before beginning to move down, the huge, rune-studded chains supporting it loosing out a clattering rhythm. This sudden movement jarred awake Mason and Mercer, for both brothers had been out cold, recovering their consciousnesses from the previous fight with the undead.

They groaned in unison as they sat up, blinking their eyes as they got used to the strange blue light emanating from Li that provided the only source of illumination in the mountain.

"You two okay?" asked green-scaled Tia as she leaned forwards, looking at them with glowing eyes.

"Fine, fine," said Mason as he knitted his brows together. "And yet, perhaps not so. It would seem I am seeing double. Two heads?"

"Weaklings not okay," said black-scaled Tia.

Mercer jolted awake, and his brother followed suite as they looked at her, and this made Li realize that perhaps the sight of a two headed girl was a little bit jarring for normal people.

"What happened!?" said Mercer as he scooted backwards, his back hitting the guardrail. "Did the foul undead magics warp her?"

Tia cocked her heads at the brothers' reactions and then nodded to herself. She put her hands on her black-scaled head and then pushed down. In positively unnatural motion, her head retracted into her body, and it was as if it had never been there in the first place.

She bared a fanged smile at the brothers. "Better?"

"I-I suppose," said Mercer.

"No such thing," said Li with a sigh. "The undead were defeated, and you two have Asala to thank for your lives."

Instantly, Mercer brightened up, and he looked to Asala and bowed his head. "Ah, it is truly embarrassing for a fighter such as myself to need rescuing from a lady. I do apologize."

"Thou art weak, and thou thus need protection. It is natural. Do not mind it," said Asala as she returned to recording with fervor.

Li noticed this and he spoke to her. "This mountain seems to have attracted your attention far more so than anything we have happened on until now. Why is that?"

"When the Triforge dwarves fell, so too did any continuing records of them," explained Asala. She smiled, her forked tongue flitting out. "And now, I am first of all to continue their story. This is why I left the Sandrivers. For this novelty. For this thrill of the new."

"An adventurer at heart, aye," said Old Thane. 

Mercer stood up, his legs a little wobbly, but he managed to look somewhat okay. He flashed a smile to Asala. "Adventure, you say? Then how about coming with us when the time is right?"

Mason sighed and pulled his brother back. "Brother, sometimes, I do wonder how it is that you manage to scour up such needless courage. You are asking her to yoke herself down to the two fools who she burdened herself to save."

"Hm." Asala looked to the brothers, analyzing their potential rather coldly. "I am not opposed to the idea. Should thou survive til' the seer parts ways, then it may be that I may record thine tales. But for now, take thou energy to rest and survival."

"See, brother!" said Mercer to his older brother. "Confidence. That is key."

"Whatever." Mason put a hand to his face before dragging his brother back with him by the guardrail, looking down. "And this is the Triforge, I presume? Gods, to think that we are entering lands that have never before been seen in centuries."

"Cursed lands." Mercer shuddered, looking down at the seemingly infinite rocky abyss below.

"There is no such magic here," said Li.

Sheela sniffed the air and agreed. "I know curses. Like them. And can smell none." She sneezed, rubbing her nose with her hand as her cat ear twitched. "Only dust."

Vilga kept to herself for now, just meditating to restore her mana, and though she was listening to the conversation, she had nothing to add to it for she had no knowledge of magic nor anything of the south.

"Tell me, Asala," said Li as he could see far further down than everyone else, his eyes piercing through the dark to see that below, there were hundreds of bridges and pathways crisscrossing like cobwebs, many of them lined with rails and carts, with some of these carts still full of rocks and minerals of many kinds magical and non-magical.

Iron Golems sat hunched over and deactivated along these paths, some of them still carrying heavy blocks of rock for construction purposes. Dwarven skeletons were everywhere in just the same state as the ones lying along the surface tunnels, as if they had been alive one moment, then instantly dead the next.

"You seem to have the most knowledge of this world out of all of us. What was this dwarven kingdom like? This place seems to have been dedicated entirely for mining."

Asala took a few moments to collect her knowledge, remembering what she had learned. In those moments, Mercer blurted out, "A shadowy, cruel people, the dwarves were. I'd heard tell that all cursed weapons still used today are all made from them."

"Absolutely not," snapped back Asala, and Mercer blinked, taken aback. Asala collected herself and explained. "That is the fabrication of the current duchy of Soleil, and history that hath been twisted is high sacrilege to mine eyes and ears.

Nay, the Triforge dwarves were a mild peoples, descended from the dwarven king Andvar who fought in the First Darkening when the gods themselves battled upon this realm.

Andvar and his brother split ways and their peoples, some travelling north to what is now Montagne, some further beyond, to the far reaches of even the Northwastes. But the vast majority found land and rule within these southern mountains, using their innate connection with the world to fashion the insides of these towering crags into blooming civilization.

The southern dwarves of the Triforge are far less given to war than their counterparts in Montagne, and yet are far more attuned to the flow of the world, knowing well where to mine and how to shape the earth to their will. It is they who singlehandedly through friendly trade uplifted the metalwork of man over a hundred years in progress."

"But that is simply wrong," said Mercer. "None of the Arcanist scrolls nor scribes ever speak of such things."

"The Arcana?" Asala snickered. "The single greatest affront to the purity of history know to this world. How I would wish to personally wring all their heads from their necks."

The bloodlust that emanated from Asala was starkly noticeable, completely clashing with her usual calm and cool, and it immediately cowed Mercer, for it became very evident with how the very air felt like it became heavier, grainier, that Asala's bloodlust was not something many could survive in this world.

"Leave it, brother," said Mason as he put a hand to Mercer's shoulder. "We are narrow minded youths in a wide world, and Asala is learned of many lands and peoples."

Asala's temporary bloodlust faded. "Understand that I direct not my displeasure towards thee. Thou hath lived and learned only what though hath heard. I cannot fault thee. But listen to me, and I hope that thou shalt learn truth."

She continued to Li.

"The dwarves of Montagne too lost their kingdom and the vast majority of their peoples during that conflict, sacrificing everything to hold a line against a Herald at the Montagne mountains.

There yet are descendants of Montagne's dwarves, hence the shorter, stronger statures of the people of Montagne and their affinity for mining, war, and golemancy.

But the Triforge dwarves under King Tyr perished during the Third Darkening under entirely unknown circumstance. There art only speculation as to their demise, and I am here to record what hath truly befallen them."

"I see, so you are in the dark too," said Li. "Well, all I can say is that it seems like whatever wiped them out, took them out in an instant. Look-,"

The platform had lowered enough for everyone to be able to see what Li had seen beforehand. The countless paths of minecarts and deactivated golems and corpses.

"All of them seemingly killed while going about their daily lives. Zero signs of struggle. No collateral damage anywhere. A whole civilization just entirely ended at the snap of a finger."

Asala scribbled on her tablet. "Hm."

"Sad," said Tia. "Many, many people. Many hearts, I hear still. Feel hope. Strong hope. Lost hope."

"That, I can sense too," said Li. "Even from the undead outside. It makes sense. Undead rarely arise simply because of dead bodies, or else the number of undead would over run this world. Strong and unfulfilled emotions bring them back, and in this case, it is hope that has been grown and lost.

Yet, I struggle to piece together what exactly happened still."

"Patience, lad," said Old Thane. "I know ye do not like the feeling of the unknown, but this, too, is part of adventure. I am sure as we travel down, we will find our answers as adventurers do."

"Guess I'm not really cut out to be a typical adventurer," said Li with a shrug. In hindsight, it was true. He liked to minimize risk when he adventured in the game, never liking unknowns, always trying to make sure he knew what he was getting into. It made him a good player, but in a sense, not a great adventurer.

"No such thing," said Old Thane. "It matters not how ye think of the adventure, whether all is planned or all is known. Adventure is what you make of it, lad, nothing more, nothing less, and if the unknown be part of it, then so be it."

The old man raised a fist.

"And so, let us rally together to face the great unknown below!"