Within the broken world that was Enaria, where every child born possessed a spark of Aethir, your position was determined by your strength. Your strength was a matter of life, but more than that, it was a matter of status.
That's why people like Rizen were overlooked. Being weak was his destiny, not his choice.
He was at the corner of the excavation area, scanning the area with a curiosity in his heart. As the sand accumulated, his boots and his brown coat were covered in sand. The complete ruin was like a desert; the longer one stood, the more he would be buried.
Cling!
This noise was of the adventurers getting their weapons ready by testing their durability, ready to face any challenges that may arise.
Rizen didn't need any of those. He was an Insight user, a low class Aethir which can only be used to analyze the place, artifacts and literary works. They were the ones that were betrayed or left behind in most dire circumstances.
As he walked, he saw a broken stone slab that had an unknown language inscribed on it. Enaria is a vast world, there were various languages spoken by the people depending on the places you find yourself, among others.
His knees buckled, and he placed the fingers slowly against the slab.
He spelled,
"INSIGHT"
His brown eyes shone golden with a high luminosity. His eyes opened, and he saw much more than a normal person's eyes would do.
"This is an ancient language, for sure, but why do some character feels familiar." He murmured.
He analyzed each character, it was a sentence made up of 29 characters. He could not decipher the language completely, but he found it was similar to one among many other languages that was spoken in the Eastern part of Enaria, known as Soilasi. Furthermore, he took a book and noted down the ancient text in hope of deciphering it once he returns home.
He then after close analysis also found out that the stone had a blood residue.
"Blood residue? Why is it on a stone slab?" . His mind wanted answers.
He searched the nearby broken slabs, all of it had the same sentence inscribed and blood present.
"It must have been a battlefield." he gasped.
A battlefield, a place where the emotions reached their climax, lives taken and blood splattered.
"Find anything?" someone asked behind him.
He looked up. A man around his 40s in expedition clothes stood nearby, the crest of the Archan Guild embroidered on his clothing. The Captain of the Archan guild's expedition team which Rizen belonged to, Sir Lavin Marci.
"Nothing valuable" he assured. "But the city doesn't seem it was abandoned peacefully."
The man looked at him for a moment before giving a faint smile,
"You always notice things others don't. Get back to the team, we need to go to the main gate, so we don't have much time to waste in useless findings."
That made Rizen uncomfortable.
Insight was considered a low-class ability. It was no match for staff or blades. It wouldn't save anyone from the horde of monsters spilling from the depths of the dungeons. Likewise, it might as well make him useful like a guide to warn, inform and explain.
It may never be more than that. But at least it made him aware of his weakness, danger and how small he was in a world where the strong were rewarded.
As the group gathered in front of the massive stone gate up ahead, he stood. The gate towered over them, the weight of time-whitened symbols pressing down on its surface. Clearly a palace gate. This implied that the ruin was not a stronghold.
It was a city buried in sand.
The adventurers pushed the gate with their combined effort, the gate creaked open. Dust stormed out as if exhaling a held breath after all those years.
As all of them stepped inside, Rizen's insight got alerted.
"Why is the aethir's flow here unusual, even its density is pretty high too."
He saw the dark purple smoke aethir flowing. He hesitated to move forward.
Lavin noticed. "Any problem?"
He gulped. "I don't know." he said, "This place has a weird aethir flow. It feels like we should stay away from it."
Lavin's smile did not falter. "I noticed it too. That's what makes this place more interesting, I am sure this place must have something hidden. All we have to do is proceed carefully"
"God damn. This geezer never changes"
Rizen wasn't scared, but he was cautious, he always thinks twice before he does something. That's why Archan guild chose him over other experienced Insight users.
Lavin saw that the palace columns were destroyed, a statue without a head in the courtyard, a busted fountain, and rusty broken swords scattered all over.
"So, Rizen was right. This was indeed a battlefield."
The palace was a dead body made of stone. Not the good kind of rot, where you can see the romance of it. This was the kind that makes the belly ache. The columns were broken like limbs. The dark pooled like a cold liquid. They were walking right into its open, silent mouth.
And for the first time, the three adventurers with Lavin and Rizen felt the chill in their spine.
One was a tall young man with a blue hair and pleasant smile who is a swordsman, the other one is a young woman with short hair with cold eyes, who is an assassin with twin blades. Assassins are contractual and do not belong to any guilds. They are usually called in on expeditions in caves and ruins, as they are stealthy and serve as support by striking the enemies in the back. Lastly, the healer. The healer was a beautiful, young woman with a staff, constantly praying for good luck.
Whether the luck is good or bad is questionable, the moment they entered the palace.
Rizen was the youngest of them all, he was just 13 years old, still in his teen, meanwhile the adventures aged around 19-25 range.
As they were looking around, the healer found a stone statue of a cat which seemed cute. She slowly patted the cat in curiosity.
RUMBLE!
The swordsman shouted, "What is happening?".
The healer cried, "I-I just touched this cat statue. I don't know anything else."
Rizen thought,
"She must have triggered a mechanism in this palace."
"INSIGHT"
Rizen scanned the cat's statue, it had a glow and the aethir surrounding it was different from other statues, that means it was indeed a trigger for some kind of mechanism.
Lavin alerted,
"Everyone, stay close and be ready with your weapons. The palace must have some hidden mechanism, but we currently don't know what it is."
Lavin drew his sword. A corona of blazing red-orange covered the blade, the visible signature of his renowned aethir: Infernal Edict. This displayed his level mid-Phase III - Tempered stage. Phase III aethir users are experienced. Their aethir is refined and controlled. Meanwhile, Rizen was in the early-Phase II- Kindled stage and the rest adventures were in mid-Phase II.
As Rizen was regrouping with them, the whole palace started to rumble and the floor beneath him collapsed,
"No way, the ground is collapsing." he rushed to reach them, but he couldn't make it in time, he fell. "
Lavin screamed, " RIZEN!!! " , Lavin couldn't do anything to help him, and his eyes were filled with guilt.
The healer cried, her eyes flowing out like an endless river,
"It's all because of me... It's all because of me, this happened to Rizen."
Lavin replied
"SHUT UP! We have to get out of here and do as much as possible to help Rizen as quickly as possible—in other words, there's still a chance."
The moved ahead as the exit was blocked, finally reaching the King's chamber, and there was a throne and a statue of 2 guards in the form of a knight on either side of the throne.
They looked around to spot an exit. It is during this time that they heard a noise.
SKREEE!
That's the sound of the sword dragging across the floor. And it came from the throne. They turned towards the throne. It was the guards, they were alive. And they are moving towards Lavin.