The atmosphere of the ruin was awkward to say the very least. After Alex had finished his tirade, he was left with nothing more to say and Melodi only stood by and listened. Alvin scratched his beard nervously and stepped forward.

"Err... I understand that this is a little awkward for all of us, but I was hoping that perhaps we could all work through this little... umm, hiccup. We do, after all, have a ruin to explore."

Cypher looked to Alvin and sighed, "You're the one who created this situation, don't be surprised when it doesn't go exactly as planned. In any event, you are right, how do we proceed?"

Alex and Melodi seemed to agree with Cypher but they still kept quiet and silently waited for Alvin to continue. Alvin shifted in his robes uncomfortably, and cleared his throat before continuing, "Ah, yes well... Ahem, the door! As you can see here," Alvin pointed to the handprint, "this seems to be where one activates the mechanism that opens it."

"As I've stated before, I've tried everything I could think of to get it to activate, but nothing seems to work. More research led me to the conclusion that only one thing would suffice. Alex, Melodi, there is something I'd like to divulge to you but only with Cypher's permission of course," Alvin turned to Cypher who waved his hand and nodded.

"It would seem that the only thing that can open this door is someone with a Null elemental affinity. Cypher here is luckily just the Conductor we need for the job!" Alex went wide-eyed and looked at Cypher in a new light.

"Holy shit! Things are starting to make a LOT more sense now," began Alex, "Null is extremely rare, isn't it? I thought it was just a myth! No wonder you up and vanished for five years," Cypher nodded anxiously, and turned to the door, while Melodi only remained silent.

She had known all this time of his affinity but she had kept her word and remained silent about it. That made Cypher feel even worse about blowing her off and bailing on her. It seemed that his choice had been good for him, but not so for those he had left behind.

"Well then Cypher if you would be so kind as to open this door, we can get this exploration underway," Cypher placed his hand within the handprint and sent a jolt of his Zight through it. The door rumbled and the entire ruin seemed to follow suit.

Dust fell from the ceiling and a few of the torches were extinguished as they were covered in the falling debris. The four of them looked around nervously as things finally settled down, and the door rose into the ceiling. Cypher carefully stepped forward and shot through the newly created opening.

This place was ancient, and he wasn't going to risk having that thing slam down on top of him as he passed through. Alex and Melodi did the same and Alvin simply walked through normally and took the lead.

"Ah finally! After so much time I'll finally discover what lies beyond! As you three might have already guessed the wall carvings leading to this door depict the Arkwar. However," Alvin began excitedly, "that doesn't make much sense if you consider the following: The Arkwar ended a thousand years ago, but these ruins are much much older than that. I can't be absolutely certain, but these ruins seem to be about four thousand years old! Do you realize what that must mean?"

Melodi quickened her pace and walked next to Alvin as she answered, "It could mean a couple of things right? For one, it could mean that this place existed longer, but the carvings were only made after the war ended," Alvin nodded and motioned for her to continue.

Melodi's eyes widened as she considered the other possibility. "The other option is that the Arkwar was already over when this place was built, but you're right! That doesn't make any sense!"

Alvin nodded, "and now you know why I was so eager to get inside and investigate for myself. If my theory is correct, the Arkwar actually ended four thousand years ago instead of just the thousand that history records today."

"The carvings are just as old as the rest of this ruin, but how could they have possibly known about the return of the guardians? It just doesn't make much sense," finished Alvin.

Alex spoke up next and said, "But what does it matter if this place is a bit older? What difference does it make?"

Melodi sighed, "Dummy, it means that our understanding of the past is not just incorrect, but vastly so! We're missing several thousand years worth of history! Doesn't that strike you as odd?" she said, sighing again and Alex scratched the side of his head as he thought.

"It's a little odd, sure. But I still say what does it matter? It's over and done with, nothing we can do can really change that much. All we can do is find all the cool stuff they left behind," Melodi groaned in frustration.

"You really get on my nerves sometimes you know that?" she said, and Alex chuckled softly as the group continued down the corridor. Without warning, Cypher and Alvin turned with serious looks on their faces and tackled Alex and Melodi to the ground.

Just as the four collapsed against the hard stone floor, hundreds of needles collided in the air above them. As they impacted each other, they would explode in bright flashes of light leaving nothing behind.

Had those needles hit them their lives would have instantly ended. Those projectiles were small, and the explosions weren't very large, but their destructive power lingered in the upper tier of the fifth rank.

Alex and Melodi stared wide-eyed at that scene, and Cypher and Alvin released heavy exhales of relief. Alvin had taken notice first. Alex had stepped on a floor trap that had opened panels along the wall and Alvin had acted. As for Cypher, he had sensed Alvin's power suddenly spike as he channeled the energy to act in time and followed suit.

He hadn't been aware of what exactly was going on, but he knew Alvin well enough to know that he wouldn't act like that without reason. Cypher was about to stand up and Alex was already complaining when a small pillar rose from the ground behind them.

Alvin was ready this time however and jumped to his feet, carrying Melodi under his arm. Cypher helped Alex up and as they prepared to run, the pillar opened up and a corrosive acid poured out in a wave and rushed toward them.

With no other choice, the group ran down the corridor and the acid followed for about ninety meters. It was fast, and Alvin had no problem escaping with Melodi, but Cypher and Alex only barely avoided that rank-five substance.

If it hadn't stopped, the two of them would have perished. Silence filled the corridor then as they waited for another trap to go off. The group had foolishly not expected there to be any traps, and Alvin was cursing himself for forgetting such a crucial detail to ruin delving.

What surprised him more though was that both of these had been traps targeted at beings at or below the fifth rank. To say materials for such traps were common was idiotic. If the ancients who built this place had materials to spare on simple traps like this, what other horrors awaited them further in?

The group however couldn't simply turn back. After the acid had poured out, it had corroded everything in its path. Even now it still burned through the stone corridor and dug deeper into the earth. Alvin could make the jump with no problem and could even ferry the others one at a time across the gap.

However, behind the pillar, the tunnel had been filled with spikes that reached from wall to wall. They would retract and extend in less than a single second, slamming against the walls on either side and leaving small pinpricks in the stone. From the looks of it, they didn't seem like they would be stopping anytime soon.

They didn't have to guess to know that those spikes were also in the fifth rank. There would be no surviving if they got caught between them. Even Alvin had no answer for that deadly trap. Their only choice now was to press onwards and hope there was an exit ahead. That, or a mechanism to turn off these traps.

But, they also couldn't be sure there were no more traps up ahead. "We have no choice but to push on," began Alvin, "tread carefully, we have no idea what else lies in store for us." Alvin set a stunned Melodi down, and the group kept together in a tight formation as they continued on down the corridor.

With no end in sight, they carried on, a small orb of conjured light their only guide through the ancient ruin.

You'll notice a clear lack of messages in the author's notes. That's because I still need your help. I'm facing an emergency and if you can help it would mean the world to me. I won't go into details here but I will leave this link to my gofundme https://gofund.me/3eeb6afa If you can't help directly, sharing the link around is more than incredible. I absolutely hate doing this but the dire situation calls for dire action.

Given the circumstances, I only have access to my laptop and PC on and off. During this time I won't be able to upload chapters as regularly or possibly even at all. As such when I return I'll be dumping a lot of chapters to make up for the lost time, so I hope you guys don't mind the wait. I'm trying to line up a few chapters here and there and I'm hoping that by then things will be clearing up for me soon IRL but if not we'll go from there. I don't plan on dropping the story any time soon.