Somewhere, within the depths of a foreign land, the magical stones glowed with a soft orange glow.
Inside one of the chambers, the vacant gazes of the ossified skulls swirled with darkness. Their eyes, hollow and lifeless showed no sign of any motion as they clustered over each other in a cold embrace.
Suddenly, the darkness stirred, as though sensing something which had been slumbered in their depths for ages. the darkness shook and stirred vigorously as it became deeper and darker, dwarfing the warm walls.
Mound of craniums quivered as the air within the chamber turned colder.
The entirety of the hollow eyes scraped over each other's ivory cranium, filling the room with harsh, grinding chorus.
The skulls shifted, as they turned their lifeless gazes towards the receding darkness above.
The veil of darkness covering the ceiling thinned considerably and stirred, consumed by an unnatural force.
Then, it seeped into the hollowed orbits of the ivory remains
all of them moved, shaking the world along with them.
…
"what is happening!?!?"
As soon as Flame touched the bland door, encasing the scorching flames, his whole body burnt from inside. It was a very strange feeling.
Initially he had thought, he will be burning his hand from the flame encasing hot stone, but contrary to his expectation, he only felt the chilling coldness.
Then he felt the burning fire, then he felt the chilling coldness…
The cycle continued in an incessant motion that it was difficult for him to feel anything distinctly. The strange sensation of harmony spread across his body for a moment, before he quickly retracted his hand.
And as soon as his hand left the ancient stone, the flames behind the holes burned brighter. The bland looking stone door shuddered as crisps of ancient dust fell from its wake.
The grating voice of the magical stones scraping against each other echoed like a growl of a dreadful beast.
Before Flame could even think anything, he felt chills run down his spine.
His eyes turned to the side wall where the blanket of darkness swirled and spread like a mist. The thick darkness stirred and slowly receded, disappearing somewhere below.
Suddenly, a cold hand grasped his heart as he heard the thin hollow voice from the stairs.
Soon, he saw something emerging from beneath.
"what...the.. "
a piece of ivory crumb knocked against the stone stairs, its voice echoing in the entire empty hallway.
soon, the ivory crumb, revealed itself to be a whole as it climbed off the last stair. due to the imbalance in its physique, it tumbled and rolled down on the stone floor.
It spun a few times like a ball, before eventually settling down a few meters away from Flame.
Wisps of thin darkness oozed from the hollow eye sockets, as its entire form came into his view. .
Flame froze.
Then, he saw remaining of its brethren crawling out in a similar fashion.
Suddenly, a huge wave of ivory skulls flooded the entire chamber and rolled forward. The sound of the ancient bones scarping over each other, reverberated in a cacophonous melody as the tendrils of mistic darkness were left behind.
The reverberating cacophony quickly sobered Flame from his momentary slumber, only to make him realize of the incoming horror.
He had almost no time to think as the wave of the ivory skull crashed over by his side.
His body instinctively dashed away from their path and fell down.
Instantly, the view of the bland door came into his view which had finally opened, allowing the hollow gazes to vanish behind it.
as more and more skulls passed through the open door, the crackling of fire increased.
The young boy saw the whole scenery in horror as he felt his eyes deceiving.
The huge wave of ivory skulls continued to pass by the perforated wall for an unknown amount of time, until he saw all of the chamber fell silent again.
Turning eyes to his side, he saw the gluttonous flames through the perforations, consuming the ancient bones with no discrimination. As more and more skulls reached at the center and burned, the flames flared brighter and angrier.
Even until the end, Flame didn't move from his positions and watched all the horror along with the little snake.
And when the last skull disappeared, Flame felt his whole body weak and fell on the stone floor.
He wasn't sure what was he supposed to feel right now. his whole mind was a chaotic mess including with all his senses and perceptions of reality crumbling apart.
He was just hired by the academy students as a porter to carry their luggage and chat around them to lighten the mood. He wasn't hired to get his soul sucked or watch a swarm of lifeless skulls rolling down and nearly pounding his heart out!
'but then, I was also not hired to go around ancient palaces and check the Cursed Throne's authenticity'
Flame thought, briefly remembering the non sensical words spoken by him back in his time during the castle.
see this? I even saved everyone. Now, no one will die. I have given them all their required eternal rest deep within the depths of the world…
Was this what the Tyrant meant?
Burning the entirety of his people into these flames, giving them eternal rest? Then, why did he say that no one will die?
If he had burned all of them, then whom did those skulls belong to? And why were they left by the stairs, guarding them with their strange power?
And was this the reason why the Tyrant was called the 'Benevolent' Tyrant? Cause he burnt them in these flames?
Flame felt his head exploding from the sudden assault of epiphanies. He had never thought that the non sensical words spoken by him had a hidden meaning other than being ramblings.
Before today, Flame felt proud in his abilities. For the past four years, Flame had entered various different Rifts and most of them being Awakened Rifts none less.
He thought that this Rift will also be not much different than others. In fact, when he heard the people saying that the monsters here cannot see or sense anything, Flame involuntarily forced Javier to assign him a mission.
Afterall, when will he get such a golden chance of fighting some raving mindless monsters. Not that he was fond of fighting monsters, instead he was fond of money.
If he could have proven his worth as a Descendant inside an Awakened Rift, he would have had a very high chance to get hired in high noble families, and getting in contacts in noble families just literally means money!
"wow, how can I be so optimistic when I am literally standing one step away from dying…"
Hiss!Hiss!Hiss!
The little snake's body trembled vigorously as her vermillion eyes stared at the far corner of the stairs. Flame also shook his head and stood up.
The stairs were no longer in his view. Instead, he saw a huge vertical tear appeared in the air.
Chi…f….sa..ge
Chi…cri..e..
Flame swallowed.
"…also, not to mention that Rift"