Meanwhile….

Chp 74

Lillian was the first one to awaken in the morning, as always. It was her habit since her days in the convent orphanage to rise and pray before doing more mundane tasks. Alone for a few moments, she studied Reiner as he slept, her hand momentarily hovering over his belt. The urge to steal his sword and throw it down a well passed quickly.

Reiner was the second one up. He made breakfast and checked his equipment, amiably smiling at Lillian in a way he never showed when the others were awake. Stoicism didn't exactly suit him. He was young and lacked the kind of gravitas needed for it to look more than stiff or even a little comical.

Andrea, being used to a nobles schedule, was the third one up and quickly shook Mina out of her blankets. As if somehow that would hide that she was clearly rising late herself. Mina whined in her native language for a few moments before properly waking up. Each shared a despondent look before they all flinched and forgot what they were thinking about.

"The plan for today is to press on and see how far we can get before nightfall," Reiner said cheerlessly. Of course, it wasn't actually a plan, or at least not one worthy of the name, but none of them commented.

They managed to make it down several floors where the stone was punched with holes that made it look like cheese or demented lace. Throughout the area, they could hear sharp clicks and strange cries echoing around them. The beasts and monsters present were mostly insects still with a scattering of moles and bats.

"Ugh, why don't they all just come at us?" Andrea moaned, her stamina depleting with every fight as they ran for the stairs to the next level. She was better in target-rich shorter fights. Hit and run affairs wore her out. Reiner setting a pace that made it impossible for her to rest did not help with the issue.

"Right?" Mina agreed in a rare moment of comradery. She was a medium defense fighter, and all the walking in her heavy gear was wearing her down. But, despite their complaints, Reiner didn't slow down.

On the next floor down, they came to a room with three archways. One on each wall with a metal plaque on a stone base in the center of the room.

"Lil, can you read it?" Reiner asked, eyeing it curiously. Lilian studied it for a few moments but shook her head.

"It's not a language I recognize," She said simply. She cast a look in Mina's direction, who came over with a sigh. Lilian could understand a variety of languages, but Mina could understand any language she heard. She also could read a fair number, though that ability was hit or miss, unlike translating the spoken.

"What is the greatest virtue of sapient beings?" Mina read aloud.

"Compassion, faith, logic," she continued, reading the words inscribed above the entryways.

"Faith, animals can't understand and worship," Lilian said without giving it more than a moment of thought.

"Compassion?" Andrea offered though she didn't give any backing argument.

"Isn't the question kind of weird, though?" Mina asked as she reread it. Something about how it was worded bothered her, but she couldn't think of why.

"If this really is a ruin, it should have been constructed by the gods," Lilian offered to back up her own assertion.

"Right, and those gods were the ones who made humans," Mina said as she mulled it over. The use of sapient beings just didn't sit right with her.

"Well, we should honor our patron. I choose faith," Reiner said without enthusiasm. Beside him, Lilian nodded, satisfied with his answer. Andrea didn't seem to care that she'd lost, but Mina frowned more intensely. The reason for his choice sounded cynical to her. A jab of pain, and she forgot her objection, walking through the faith archway along with the others.

Traversing the maze that lay beyond the faith archway was odd. More puzzles appeared, but the answers seemed almost mocking, and the choices didn't seem to matter. Mina was disturbed when she accidentally pressed the wrong switch at one juncture. She quickly flipped it back then picked the one she'd meant to, but the same door opened.

"Reiner, this isn't-" Mina started to voice a warning. A jag of pain stopped her, and when she found the party's eyes on her, she struggled to think of something to say.

"This isn't a romantic setting, but maybe we could take a break?" Mina asked. Lillian and Andrea looked at her with ill-concealed jealousy, but Reiner didn't really react.

"We'll take one when we get a bit further in," Reiner said. It was the same thing he'd said since they'd first entered the floor. Mina wanted to scream, but nothing came out as pain washed over her, and she nearly buckled to her knees.

"Mina? You look pale. Are you alright?" Reiner asked, rushing to her side. Genuine concern showed in his expression as his hand went to her forehead. He'd grown up in the same orphanage as Lillian. So he wasn't a stranger to people suddenly taking sick.

"Just a headache," Mina said, confused by why everyone looked worried.

"That's good, can't be too careful," Reiner said, his usual smile returning. Mina smiled back, and the party continued on. Traps and monsters attempted to waylay them, but they eventually made it out of the maze.

Instead of the plain room with a fountain they expected, they were greeted by a beautiful chamber reminiscent of a chapel. Candles lit it softly, and a sweet smoky incense filled the air. A life-size statue stood on an altar amidst the candles. Its form was vaguely human but like a half-melted form rather than a likeness.

The party was drawn to the altar. Each of them stared at the statue with a smile as their pupils began to blow wide. Reiner, Lillian, and Andrea all saw an amalgam of gods and people dear to them morphing endlessly. Mina saw Jesus and Buddha mingling with her mother. All four came forward to kneel without question before the altar.

Only Mina felt a pang of dread as she noticed she'd knelt down on a big red x. A metallic click rang out, and a moment later, the party was sliding quickly down a greased shoot, all of them screaming as religious visions assailed them.

Drugged and exhausted, the group was ill-prepared to deal with the monstrous bat boss room they found at the bottom. Some of the creatures they fought turned into true winged horrors before their eyes. Others spoke incomprehensible words of prophecy amid the shrieks that filled the air.

Somewhere in the melee Reiner had picked up a sword no one else was terribly interested in looking at it. Most of the prior fights had dropped the odd minor item or a bit of coin. This was definitely the first substantial reward they’d found. After the ordeal though, no one but Reiner cared and he clung to it desperately as they fled.

Luck allowed them to escape to the safe area mostly intact, though they were all tattered and bloodied by the ordeal. Covered in stinging wounds and breathless, they all collapsed in a heap. Like the prior safe areas, this one was just a room with a fountain, a few benches, and a teleport circle. Andrea and Mina eyed the teleport circle and cast hopeful glances at Reiner, which he ignored.

"Everyone rest before we try the next section," Reiner said, dashing the girls' hopes. Knowing arguing was useless, Mina used the fountain to clean herself off. The others were less fussy and slumped on benches to get off the floor.

The next floor wasn't easier, and the party began to struggle as they fought more brutal monsters. Tired and dull from the long trudge, it wasn't strange that their vigilance relaxed, forgetting traps were just as dangerous, if not as common as monsters.

A pressure plate groaned, and the party was assailed by a hail of darts. Lilian was hit by a stray one but most hit her shield harmlessly. Mina was at the edge of the trap and managed to get away quickly enough. Unfortunately, Andrea and Reiner were wrong-footed, ill-equipped, and unlucky enough to be in the middle when the trap went off.

Reiner ducked behind Andrea to use her as a shield. She was struck broadside and started to collapse. With the hail of darts done, Reiner picked her up and carried her out of the trap's range straight to Lilian for treatment. Mina stepped up to help, obviously worried despite her usual enmity.

Reiner’s build was more robust physically than Andrea's; he'd have been hurt, but she was in mortal peril. None of them commented on what Reiner had done. As if it hadn't happened.

"Reiner, we can't keep going like this. I can only heal so much," Lillian said despite wincing as she did.

"We'll take a proper rest at the next stairs room," Reiner agreed, flinching. The girls walked ahead of him, Mina and Lillian helping to support a still wobbly Andrea. Reiner reached for his sword belt, hands shaking as he tried to take it off. His eyes screwed tight, and his body tensed. Despite the struggle, he withdrew his hand in the end and walked quickly to catch up to the girls.

True to his word, when they came to the room with the fountain that led to the stairs, Reiner called for a full rest. He also set a more leisurely pace through the next set of levels. It wasn't until they encountered a room full of soil that things really got tricky again. The soft footing threatened to turn an ankle, and Andrea's heeled shoes were quickly discarded after they sank in.

After a few moments, moles came swimming up through the soil as gracefully as fish. The smallest of them was half of Andrea's height, who was the shortest in the party. The largest one towered over Reiner, who was the tallest. They were formidable, well-coordinated enemies.

Under pressure from the monsters’ attack, the party broke its former formation and assembled into something different. Andrea led, her quick footwork and light blows not enough to do serious injury, but enough to keep the moles off balance. Mina followed her up with Lillian, both wearing the most armor in the party.

Reiner stood paralyzed at the back for a few precious moments. Struggling to reach for his pack but finally winning out and drawing a crossbow. With him to keep the pressure up and help Andrea, they were able to win out. It was still a grueling battle given the mole's toughness, however.

When they made it to the next fountain room, they were leaning on each other and laughing. Not a mirthful sound but with the exuberance of simply being alive. They made camp and slept a whole night, the girls waking to the smell of breakfast. Reiner served but had already eaten, more interested in the spoils of the boss fight than chatting.

"The blade’s enchantable," Lillian said with reverence. She'd examined the dropped loot blade once she was done eating. Mina and Andrea were both eyeing the teleport pad, hopefully. Reiner didn't miss them looking and smiled.

"Yeah, that was too much," Reiner acknowledged. He stood up, walking toward the pad to everyone's relief, only to be assailed by vertigo as pain slammed down on him like an iron rod. The girls were similarly afflicted, and for several moments, they were frozen as if in a silent scream.

When they came out of it, they knew that they needed to continue on for the greater good.

"Yesterday was too much. I shouldn't have set such a fast pace in the first place, and we still didn't take enough rest breaks. I apologize for that," Reiner said gently with a weak, forced smile. The girls nodded along with his words.

"Today, we'll be more careful about it," Reiner said, and they all nodded together.

The descent into the lower levels didn't go smoothly. Still, between longer breaks and a slower pace, the party was able to keep going. Reiner fought to keep using his crossbow, but reverted back to his sword before long. The group's formation likewise changed back to the standard one centered on Reiner.

Going by the pattern from the prior sections, the party expected a boss fight at the end of the third level. Instead, they found another fountain room and a fourth level waiting for them.

"Hahaha…" Mina let out a groan. Everyone else laughed or sighed as the tension of facing another boss broke. They descended to the fourth floor and pushed through its defenses. A much more complicated endeavor as the traps increased in frequency and lethality. They'd never had a rogue in the group, Stromholt despising the class.

Instead of a clear boss area, they came to what looked like a cave-in. Beyond it lay what looked like an ancient structure. Proof positive in their minds they were in a ruin of some kind. Mina looked over the structure and felt an unsettling sense of familiarity. Like the riddle of the arches, it resonated oddly with her.

This ruin reminded her subtly of home. Nothing about it was precisely like any culture's architecture she'd seen but more like an artful combination of several of them. It felt like a cleverly done forgery rather than something actually different.

"Should we rest?" Reiner asked as he looked around. There wasn’t any apparent danger but it didn’t look like one of the rest area’s either. None of those rooms had looked much alike but they still had common elements and showed up after a hard fight. Seeing one had started to become something he associated with relative safety.

"Maybe this isn't the final section. There might be another puzzle," Lillian offered.

"Well, let's take a look around then. If you don't find anything, meet back up at that mirror," Reiner decided. After a fruitless search, they all ended up in front of the silver mirror. Unlike the murky ones they were accustomed to, this one was clear enough to see themselves in eerie detail. The only thing marring the mirror's perfect finish was a line of tarnished text.

"Life takes many paths, but in the end, there is only one fate. Memento Mori," Mina supplied, stumbling when she realized she hadn't translated the final words. The entire sentence had been in English, with the last words in Latin.

Mina turned pale, unnerved by the out-of-place line of text. Beside her, Andrea had been checking her make-up and applying lipstick instead of listening.

"What!?" Andrea shrieked, pointing at the mirror as the lipstick fell from her hand. The party looked and found their images were withering. As if the sands of time gushed instead of flowed in the mirror. They aged and rotted to nothing but bones and dust in mere moments.

The party stood frozen as they witnessed the horrid sight of their own death and decay. However, the skeletal remains of themselves were not so inclined to be still. They stepped from the mirror with weapons poised to attack.