People had been known to disappear around the top of Mt. Ebbot. One such person was a woman who was named Ariel Serif. She was a young scientist that had just graduated from college as a Mythologist, with her concentration on monsters and a minor in engineering. Very few knew that she was a descendent of three of the seven sages that had sealed the monsters underground in the first place, or that she was descended from two of the three sages who were actually friends with the monsters. The only reason the purple souled sage, the light blue souled sage, and the red souled sage had helped to seal the monsters in was to protect them from the rest of the humans, and they did so with heavy hearts. The red soul had actually been a part of the royal guard before the war started, while the purple had been one of the leading scientists, always trying to better things for the world. The light Blue soul had been one of the royal sorcerers that had the patience to learn Monster Magic.

The stories of the truth behind the monsters' imprisonment had been passed down through the Serif family for generations, and Ariel Serif was determined to find out any truth behind it. She found the opening and brought out her soul. It was quivering with excitement, anticipation, and a perseverance to survive whatever may become of her down there. Perseverance was one of the greatest traits of the purple soul, and being the one to inherit the color only made Ariel more sure that she was meant to go and become one of the humans to disappear. Besides, from her research, she was able to deduce that the other people/ children who had disappeared had all been descendants from the other sages that sealed the barrier. She would be the sixth soul to disappear, and she knew it. She just didn't know if she could convince them to let her live a little first.

Ariel's mother was descended from the soul of integrity and was possessive, needy, and tried to force her into a multitude of things, one of which being marriage to another clan or to a wealthy person. Ariel was quite relieved when her father, the descendent of the souls of Patience and Perseverance, had won custody over her in the divorce.

Ariel was a tall young lady with chocolate brown hair, a dark black turtleneck, a white lab coat, blue jeans, and dark purple tennis shoes. She had cloudy glasses, and a dirty backpack that held many things in it. She also had dark blue eyes that brightened or turned purple whenever she attempted to use the ancient sage magic that ran through her.

As she made her way through the cavern at the top, she double checked her backpack to be sure that she had her books, her notebooks, her pencils, and some other necessities before she readjusted her cloudy glasses. She brought out her rope, tying it to a rock, and made her way down the hole, shivering as she felt herself pass the barrier that would bar her from seeing sunlight ever again. Somehow though, she had a feeling that she wouldn't mind it that much. After all, these monsters had been friends of her ancestor, and he had been horribly ashamed of his part in sealing them away, even though it was the only thing he could do to protect them. Ariel didn't think she could make up for it, but with her degree in engineering, and knowing about items falling through an underground river to somewhere for Monster kind to find, she was sure she could help them to at the least get things to seem better for them… at least she hoped she could.

She pulled the rope down as she landed in a pile of golden flowers that were similar to buttercups. The rest of the rope fell effortlessly. She frowned. It was as though it could have gone at any second! It was amazing that it had lasted long enough for her to get down there. She put the rope in her pack and started looking around. She knew monsters were kind from her grandfather's stories from his father and so on, but she also knew that some of them wouldn't be so nice simply because of what the humans had done to them.

"Howdy!" Ariel looked down at a big yellow flower in the middle of a stray grass patch not far from the bed of flowers where she had landed. The flower had a face on it, but something about it gave Ariel an uneasy feeling. "I'm Flowy the flower. You're new around here, right? You must be so confused."

"Only by your attitude. My name is Dr. Ariel Serif. It's nice to meet you, Flowy." She kept civil just in case she was wrong about what her senses were giving off.

"Well, Doc, I'll explain how things work around here." Immediately some white pellets show up around Ariel. Her purple soul came out of her without her command, indicating that she had been pulled into a monster type battle. "Around here, you need a lot of LV to survive. What's LV? Why LOVE of course! You want some love don't you?"

"Not your kind." She muttered as she got into a defensive stance.

The flower hadn't heard her yet, but he also hadn't heard the two other monsters that were watching her, waiting to see what she did. "LOVE is spread through these white friendliness pellets! Here, I'll share some with you! Be sure to collect them all with your soul!" Ariel frowned and jumped to the left as the pellets moved to her right, barely missing her soul. The flower's eye twitched. "You missed. Let's try this again."

More pellets came and once more, Ariel dodged them. "Sorry, but I'm not one for that kind of LOVE. I prefer the kind that doesn't have violence in the acronym."

The flower glared as his face turned more evil looking. "So you know about the acronyms?"

"My ancestors were some of the sages responsible for sealing everyone down here." The flower growled. "I came here to make up for that by helping to release everyone."

The flower stopped his attack and looked at the human with a laugh. "Why do you think you can make up for their actions?"

"I don't, but I also don't think you should all stay down here to die." She adjusted her backpack and glasses once more. "Besides, I'm dying anyway, why not choose my own death?"

"WHAT?" The flower was confused, as were the onlookers. The "Friendliness Pellets" fell right behind him in his shock.

"I'm dying from cancer. It'll kill me in about a year. I figure that's enough time for me to come up with an idea that can at the least help make it easier till the last souls comes down here. The red one, and the yellow one shall join us soon, but I don't think it'll be in the way we all think. Besides, if I can figure something out to help the monsters down here, at least I'll have been useful to someone." Flowy's attack disappeared as his glare at the young lady hardened. This lady was either crazy or suicidal.

"How do you figure that?"

"Because I did a background check on the other humans who disappeared before me. They were all the descendants of the sages that sealed everyone down here in the first place. I'm the descendent of the purple soul sage; Perseus the perseverant. Not that that means much." She shook her head and took a deep breath. She didn't need to say the other two souls that she was descended from, as they already had representatives sent down, and her soul was purple anyway. "Besides, I at least can give my soul up so that you all get closer to getting out of here." Flowy shook his own head. She was suicidal, but not homicidal.

"You really are an idiot, aren't you?"

"No… I'm just me." Ariel turned and started towards a door where the two watchers were hiding behind.

"Hey!" Ariel stopped and looked over her shoulder at Flowy. "In this world it's kill or be killed! You really think you can make it through here with that attitude?"

"No… but I do plan to PERSERVERE through all trials ahead of me." She smirked as she used a black hairband on her wrist to tie up her hair into a ponytail. "I'll see you around I guess, Flowy. Have a nice life." She smiled and laughed like a child as she walked through the door, only slightly aware of the two monsters that had been watching and were now just hiding in the shadows.

She made her way through the puzzles, often having trouble, but persevering until she reached the end. Any monsters she encountered were easily dodged, or spared. She didn't want to hurt them. She even managed to make friends with some of them. She found a sign for a Spider Bake sale and looked over the few gold coins she had scrounged up from the ground and had been given by the monsters she had spared for some reason. She bought a few donuts with a smile and then made her way further into the ruins. The puzzles all impressed her and amazed her. She loved puzzles and riddles, and even horrible jokes and puns to an extent.

Suddenly she stopped. She had noticed she had been followed for a while now and wanted to know what they were thinking. She turned just as one of them tried to hide behind a pillar. "Wait!" Her voice barely above a whisper. "I promise, I won't hurt you." She looked around to see if there were any others. "Please… I just want to know why you're following me."

A sigh could be heard as the creature came out from behind the pillar. "I am the keeper of the ruins, my name is Torial." A tall goat woman came out from behind the pillar, wearing a purple dress with a delta rune on it.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am. I'm Dr. Ariel Serif." Her kind blue eyes shined as she held out a hand to the goat monster. "I'm sorry for intruding, but… well I'll be blunt and say that I came here to see if I could help with anything."

Torial was surprised at the amount of PERSERVERANCE in this human's soul. It was almost equal to that of… "Excuse me for asking, but I heard you earlier talking to the flower monster… you said you're related to…"

"Percival the Perseverant? Yeah, lame title though, heh." She grimaced as she shook hands with the keeper of the ruins. She was fluffy and very motherly. Ariel grimaced as she remembered her own parents still on the surface. She had told them that she was going away and wouldn't be able to send news or anything for who knew how long. She wasn't willing to tell them that she had climbed the mountain to die. She had a feeling that her father knew though. He was always the most understanding and patient of the two. She also had a sneaking feeling that he was holding onto a hope that the monsters would be able to save her if he knew where she was. She didn't have such hope.

Torial smiled kindly. "He was one of our most valued friends. I know he didn't want to harm anyone and was forced into sealing all of us. There was no way for him to keep everyone safe though."

"Thank you for understanding, Torial."