Chapter 35: Barbed Beauty; Down the Rabbit Hole

Tableaux in the Snow Arc

Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.

Featured Music: "Ranked Amongst the World's Best"The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass OST. Chapter Briefing.

"Eastern Wind" - Fear & Hunger OST. Scene 1 (First Half).

"Minor Terror" - Fear & Hunger OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).

"Theme of Laura (Reprise)" - Silent Hill II OST. Scene 2 (First Half).

"Bury the Light (Full Instrumental)"; Raynard's Theme (B) - Devil May Cry V OST. Scene 2 (Second Half).

"God of the Depths" - Fear & Hunger OST. Scene 3 (First Half).

"Ma'habre Streets" - Fear & Hunger OST. Scene 3 (Second Half).


Having just recently finished their sign-up and participation at the 'Kaioh Bio' in Kaiohdrahl, Link and his companions once again find themselves beaten by a superior opponent; the bold and powerful Ragnar Romanov. Said to have been taught by the world's greatest martial arts mentor, and the teacher that trained the greatest soldier in the world to bargain, Ragnar easily breezed through the opening qualifying rounds before at last struggling with Link in the grand finals.

A first for anyone watching the Prima World Tour.

As Ragnar is crowned Kaiohdrahl national champion (and not without some serious risk to his life in duelling with the chaotic and demonic Kage Narumono), the group are invited to the Prima World Tour's after-party just as in Palashia to unwind and relax their aching muscles. When readying themselves to eventually leave however, and having been seen off by the generous king and queen of Kaiohdrahl themselves, the group plot their route in a similar fashion to their original approach to Kaiohdrahl.

In leaving the capital they hope to cover as much ground as possible by attending Merrybrook Station in Kaiohdrahl and catching the upcoming train to 'Kievskie Station'; a platform a few miles away from Stralanavia's main capital. While this is worrying for some members such as the Goron Barkner and the Zoran Alwyn, Impa allays their fears by shopping for more reliable travelling gear for the freezing and frigid conditions of their new destination.

These new clothes soon come in handy for the heroes when their train is surprisingly force-stopped by what seems to be a crash; seemingly caused by what appears to be nightmarish-like creatures spoken of only in books. Unable to come up with even a name for these odd and disquieting creatures, Link manages to cut through the largest and most disturbing one fairly easily with his trusted Gilded Sword and Mirror Shield; gems and treasures procured from his adventure through time in Termina.

While all the travelling passengers' lives on the train were successfully saved, the group can only speculate as to the cause of the appearance of such strange and disturbing creatures; something that Link's mind wanders on worriedly as they begin to make the final march toward Kievskie Station and Stralanavia's capital.

Concurrently the far-off travelling Raynard and Scaverin, having already gotten a head-start on the heroes by travelling in their own way through the continent of Aurelia, also north toward Stralanavia. However, unlike the group, their particular goal is different to that of the heroic band.

Their goal... is of an ancient and forgotten metropolitan...


Scene 1

A few hours before the train ride...

"Stop."

Raynard gasped out, taking great care not to fall in his advance up through the harsh blizzard that near broke through his face. He turned his wincing-eyed face 'round to his mentor on his left only to find him standing and glaring up at a huge cave up above them both, his extended right arm held sideways as if to block the boy's path any further, the fierce winds whipping his hood and robes violently.

"This is it...," the former Hylian bishop whispered out, his eyes narrowing deep into the darkness of the cave's maw. "Klimormansk Cave..." He uttered quietly, lowering his arm back to its side before stepping up the rest of the incline, presumably to enter the craggy depths before him. Raynard double-took, unable to quite understand the man's fascination, before hurriedly following him after, the sound of the fierce unrelenting winds causing an echo as he did.


When they stepped inside it didn't take long for an odd sensation of anxiety and foreboding to wash over the already freezing Raynard's spine; something that was unwelcome and yet somehow familiar within him.

"At last..."

Scaverin's gasping baritone made the frowning-faced Raynard raise up his spiky-haired head to face him, finding him lowering his hood as if he were grateful for the change in climate.

"Now... stay close...," the bald Hylian spoke over his shoulder in a hardened frown. "No-one has stepped through here in hundreds of years."

One of Raynard's abyss-black eyebrows propped up in curiosity. "How can you know?"

"Because if they had...," Scaverin began in reply, eyes narrowing through the darkness. "Then Stralanavia would be a walking wasteland."

A part of Raynard's spine tingled in growing fear and anxiety; an odd sensation he only felt once before, during the mines' crisis in Palashia.

I'd rather not be here for this, he thought worriedly.

But then I suppose I don't have much of a choice, do I.

"S-So um...," the unsure youth began, treading footsteps very carefully behind his mentor and leader. "W-Where are we anyway, Scaverin-sensei?"

"An ancient and forgotten civilisation was said to have slept somewhere deep within the bowels of this place...," the seemingly knowledgeable Hylian replied, his hazel coloured eyes darting around his surroundings as if to be ready for an ambush at any time. "One that belonged to our ancestors."

"A-Ancestors...?" Raynard murmured back, surprised, blinking as he did. He winced amidst his word when he felt the drip of water strike his caped shoulder, raising up his left arm to paw at it annoyed.

"Yes...," the former bishop began again, raising up his robed left arm, palm opening up and back-facing the ceiling. Like magic, he channelled his Aegir to bring birth to a bright light, immediately lighting the blackened area up. "They called them the 'Niylahns'... those that directly followed after the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide," he explained concisely, briefly hanging his bald head over his shoulder as if to face the black-haired boy behind him. "It's where we get our race's name from, after all."

Raynard furrowed his brow in genuine curiosity before his eyebrows lifted in abrupt realisation.

It's an anagram, he thought.

Niylahn and Hylian.

How the hell did that happen over hundreds of years?

"It was said that the Niylahns were responsible for some of the greatest feats we've seen over the years in the land of Aurelia...," Scaverin continued on, edging his opened palm of light around the pair's persons, illuminating the darkened area up as they passed through it. "And some of the most terrible feats..."

Raynard's brow furrowed in curiosity as he followed behind the older Hylian. "'Terrible'...?"

"Yes...," Scaverin answered again, his own frown deepening. "You are descended from that particular side of the Niylahns... young Raynard."

The listening youth, surprised, could only widen his eyes as he listened.

"The Van Garrick clan come from a lost line of worshippers of the forgotten ones...," he explained, turning his bald head 'round to eye the young Van Garrick briefly. "It's no coincidence that your parents were killed by the jealous Hylians of Hyrule Castletown..."

Raynard's frown slowly slipped in an angered scowl, twitching as he lowered his chestnut-brown eyes from his mentor's in silent-eyed agreement.

"While the Niylahn society was a great one... what we eventually became was not," Scaverin spat further out, eyes narrowing in self-hatred. "Sometimes we require more than just half-measures."

I know what he means, the listening Raynard thought to himself.

He means the tepid royal family.

"And that weak princess."

"Ah... here we are."

The scowl on Raynard's face flitted up into a surprised-faced frown, swinging it upward only to find the light that his mentor flashed on; a short incline of rocks leading up to what seemed to be a huge slab etched with an odd kind of writing.

It was something that Raynard found oddly familiar and yet sickening to look at.

This is a feeling I remember, he thought.

Within the Greymont Mines of Palashia.

It was an uneasy feeling that made the small hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, giving vent to an even further feeling of anxiety.

"It is... just as I expected," Scaverin breathed out, hazel eyes widened as he progressed up the incline to stand before the large slab of stone before them both. "The Stone of Xel'lotath..."

"Stone of... Xel'lotath...?" Raynard murmured back curiously and unsurely, eyebrow propping up to convey his inquisitiveness.

"Yes...," the older man frowned back, facing the large stone as he ran a robed hand over its surface, as if it were a dear and old pictograph. "Within is said to be the ancient secrets of the forgotten Niylahn society..."

Raynard blinked as he listened, turning his raven-eyed gaze over to the similarly unknown characters etched across its stone. He shook his spiky-haired head as he attempted, with great vain, to make sense of them.

"It's ancient Hylian...," Scaverin answered the youth's inward thoughts, as if somehow reading them. "Or... modern Niylahn... I suppose...," he chuckled this time, half-amused as he looked up at the ancient words, using his right index and forefinger together to run them over as he read them aloud. "Kami ni shinrai shi nasai...," the learned Hylian scholar began lowly, his hazel eyes narrowing deep into the hardened scratches upon the slab stone above. "Soshite karera wa anata no michi o michibikudeshou..."

Raynard's brow furrowed cluelessly as he listened, unable to translate even a single word of the complicated language; it was another factor of this journey that, admittedly, made him feel quite tense. Especially due to his memories of his epic and horrific duel with Kage Narumono in the Hylian Hyrax grand finals; the chaotic and demonic second side of his blonde rival Link, the shadowed manifestation of the holy Triforce that seemed to only speak in ancient Hylian.

"'Trust unto God'...," Scaverin at last translated into modern Hylian, his hazel eyes narrowing as he re-opened his mouth to finish his sentence. "'And they shall direct your path'."

Raynard blinked this time, unknowing and curious. "T-They...?" He murmured out perplexed.

"'They'...," Scaverin repeated again, turning his head lightly as he stared up at the slab stone above them both. "I don't believe the Niylahns are referencing the Sainted Three in this excerpt... or even the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide himself."

"So then... who...?"

Almost as if to answer his frustrated query, a bright-white light rung out high above the pair of Hylians, pulling their attention almost as immediately as it began to shine down on them. At first it was near blinding but, after a few near-unbearable seconds, the light at last dissipated into a fairly warm and oddly-pleasing illumination; a powerful herald to its inevitable descent down to meet the pair.

Perhaps unconsciously, Scaverin's eyebrows lifted up to convey his surprise as he opened up both robed arms in preparation to accept the light; when it finally dropped down to meet him on his level, the rest of the light surrounding the seemingly summoned item fell apart to reveal what seemed to be a strangely-formed spiked-like cube that floated in the air, almost as if with no other force guiding it.

"Incredible...," the wide-eyed Scaverin breathed out longingly. "A sight no-one has seen within a millennia..."

"'Millennia'...," Raynard murmured out, curious and quizzical as he furrowed his brow in response. "Two-thousand years...?!"

"That's correct...," Scaverin chuckled knowingly, his frown soon upturning into a victorious smirk as he lowered his eyes down to behold the beautiful sight in his fingers. "Well... somewhat...," he began again. "Two-thousand years have yet to pass... almost."

Still though, the listening Raynard thought to himself, his own raven-like eyes lowering to the small spiked cube in Scaverin's hands.

That's a long time for no-one to have encountered this.

And what's the big deal anyway?

It's just a cube with spikes.

"With this... my dear boy...," Scaverin began again, turning his conjoined hands 'round slowly and carefully, as if the cube he carried were a priceless treasure. "We can access the great and ancient city of Dragowald..."

"D-Dragowal-?"

RUMBLE-RUMBLE...

The pair of Hylians' spines both stiffened in a sudden scare and they darted their heads up from their shared stare only to find the huge slab of stone above them vibrating violently. The two exchanged an anxiety-filled look together humorously, wide-eyed and worried, before at last the stone revealed its hand; a four-armed figure, tall and imposing, began to ghost into reality high above the written-on rock.

Its form, oddly scaly and slim, reminded the watching Raynard and Scaverin of some alien-kind of Zoran; indeed, even at its lowest part its appendage at its bottom appeared to be some kind of tail-fin similar to a fish. Sparks of green, seemingly Aegir, floated around the alien-like creature's high-flying body and as it levitated over the pair of unsuspecting Hylians it narrowed the similarly emerald-like irises it carried deep down into their own.

Almost immediately they realised their mistake.

2

"Your fault..."

"It's your fault..."

Raynard held back an audibly-worried gasp, his widened eyes twitching in recognition. His vision was lost to him, seemingly stolen from him by that strange tall creature, replaced only by a big black void he was now a prisoner of, floating endlessly and aimlessly throughout.

"You can't blame the royal family all the time..."

"Everything you did... has been for nothing."

Father, he thought.

Mother...

He barely remembered their voices but there they were somehow, echoing out into the deep recesses of the endless expanse he floated in anyway.

Am I dreaming, he wondered silently.

Or is this my punishment for selling my soul to the highest bidder?

"You've forgotten your legacy..."

"And your duty with it."

The sensation of overwhelming despair, so powerful and so poignantly washing over his spine, was something that left too strong an impression on him; it left the frowning-faced Raynard shutting his eyes and leaning toward abandoning whatever hope he had left.

"Don't tell me you're givin' up that easily."

The listening Raynard widened his raven-black eyes in genuine surprise at the sound of the far more familiar tenor; while a mere inky-black abyss stared back at him, he listened further for the fairly recognisable voice he just heard.

"If you were that free I'd have been Hylian champion."

Just like magic, the voice of the identifiable tenor somehow restored his physical and emotional strength; his memory very quickly recalled the events leading up to his prison in this strange expanse and he soon realised what exactly was happening.

Raynard's eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed, partly in anger, before the same ancient Hylian characters and kanji began to shine across his torso and body. Like sparks to fire it eventually reacted and, as the light within his body rapidly grew, so too did the inky-black abyss surrounding him.


DROOM

SCREEEECH

The sound of the otherworldly creature's shriek filled the earthly air around them as Raynard's bearings at last came back to him, his consciousness similarly returned. The deep-tint of green light that filled the ancient chamber was soon washed apart and written over almost completely by another light; a powerful-abyss black and bright-white that engulfed the area completely, not only bringing himself out of the deep trance and illusion that the strange creature forced on him, but also the wide-eyed Scaverin on his left.

Raynard's small child-like form floated up further and further before, finally, its levitating figure came face-to-face level with the shocked creature hanging in the sky above the wide-eyed otherworldly figure. The wide-eyed Scaverin, unable to believe the very sight before him, could only watch on in uninterrupted glorious open-mouthed silence as the screaming Raynard managed to violently vibrate the very chamber itself; an incredibly-powerful reaction with thanks to the likewise sizeable aura of Aegir and magic-like strength surrounding his small form.

"Absurd... at such a young age...," the shocked Scaverin whispered out. "The legendary power of the Van Garrick clan...!"

Almost as if listening to the hushed words of his mentor and leader, Raynard's mouth at last closed to silence his angered screams before swiftly lowering his head to glare back at the aghast-faced creature; at last, however, it chose to react. As it circled its octopus-like arms in a mixed clockwise to counter-clockwise fashion, a dreamy-like quality washing over it, its tactics this time were fairly easily repelled. Like deep-rushing water against solid rock, the nameless nightmarish creature's attack was knocked back; a noticeable effect even by those with no connection to the unique techniques of the Van Garrick clan, as even the watching Scaverin was able to see a slight shock-wave shoot out between the pair, knocking the screeching monster back in the air.

It didn't take long for the narrow-eyed Raynard to finish the exchange and, indeed, the very encounter itself; he glared forward as he pulled back his right arm before widening both raven-like eyes as he shot it ahead, index and forefinger outstretched forward. A beam of magical Aegir energy fired forth forward from his fingers, deep-black and bright-white in colour; as it inevitably made contact with the wide-eyed creature, it screeched out one last time seemingly in great physical agony as it began to drop back down to earth, its form and figure similarly slowly dissipating and vanishing from sight.

SCREEEEEEECH

FWOHHHH...

The sound of the wavy dreamlike light-green Aegir that once filled the creature's chamber so powerfully now seemed so fallen and feeble in comparison; a fact reflected as it began to drop down slowly and deliberately, caking the chamber now within its familiar inky-black abyss. The still-levitating form of Raynard gasped out in effort as he watched on before, very suddenly and surprisingly, rolled his raven-black eyes to the back of his head and dropped his form backward, seemingly fainting perhaps from overuse of his powers.

CRASSSH

The watching Scaverin, similarly shocked by the sight, could barely move in time to catch the falling boy; he crashed noisily and agonisingly against the strong stone beneath him, leaving up craggy remains and wreckage in his fallen wake. The former Hylian bishop frowned out simply, his brow furrowing thoughtfully as he knelt down on the black-haired boy's level, overlooking him with a contemplative look flashing across his hazel-shaded eyes.

"Interesting...," he murmured out curiously, his inquisitive frown gradually upturning into a half-amused smirk. "Very... interesting..."

3

When his consciousness at last returned to him, Raynard's senses were already fairly fuzzy; he groaned in effort as he scrunched shut and opened up his eyes, pushing himself to a sat-up position. It was only when he saw the inky-black abyss that was the ancient cavern that he and his mentor had climbed through earlier that he realised where he was; his senses at last stiffened back to their normal position as he similarly rose to his feet with grunt of effort.

"Ah... you're awake."

Scaverin's baritone made the sharp young mercenary dart his black-haired head in his direction to his immediate left, eyebrows risen up in genuine surprise. The frowning-faced bishop himself sat upon a higher incline of rocks, casting his ever-serious sombre expression down on the boy below him.

"I wanted to wait before I unlocked this...," the summoner began again, turning his narrow-eyed gaze down on the spiked cube within his raised up left hand. "It seemed only right given it's all thanks to you... after all."

Raynard blinked in a mixture of authentic surprise and an emotion resembling elation.

That's the first time he's been so genuinely nice, he thought.

I must have really tore that monster a new one and saved us both if he's saying that.

"S-So what is it anyway Scaverin-sensei?" The youth pressed his mentor with, chancing a few steps forward as he furrowed his brow up at it.

"Its original name has been lost to us for centuries," Scaverin admitted, briefly turning his frowning-eyed gaze on the boy before soon re-facing the cube in his grip. "But the name we call it now... is the 'Cube of Insight'."

"Cube of... Insight?"

"Yes...," he replied, eyelids lowering as he spoke, almost as if from perfectly-held memory. "It was said that, when the Niylahns designed this marvellous piece of history that those who unlock its contents and peer inside, are gifted with immeasurable knowledge of Aegir... power... history... and even wisdom of the gods itself."

"But...?"

One of the corners of Scaverin's mouth shot up in a chuckling half-smirk as he re-opened his mouth to respond. "You catch on quick...," he chuckled lowly. "The reader is said to go blind from the exertion of all that knowledge in one fall," he claimed, eyes narrowing in a hardened scowl. "And insane."

"I-Insane...?" Raynard mouthed out, eyes blinking in shock. "W-Why the hell did we risk life and limb to get it then?!"

"This, my boy...," the former bishop began again, his eyes growing softer somehow as he slowly rose up the small spiked cube toward the blinking Van Garrick. "This is the next step in my scheme; 'Enlightenment'."

This again, the listening Raynard commented on silently, his brow furrowing in realisation.

Is he really going to sacrifice his eyesight and his sanity for this?

"Nothing less than the most firmest of resolves will do here my son," Scaverin explained briefly, pulling back the Cube of Insight as he narrowed his hazel-shaded eyes again. "To achieve enlightenment... one must be willing to give up even one's own sanity..."

"Maybe he's already insane..."

"However, this little marvel contains an even greater secret...," the excited summoner spoke, a slow grin gracing his older complexion as he gaped down at the cube. "The power to visit the ancient city itself...," he began one last time before his grin widened; a sign of things to come. "Dragowald...!"

"Drago... wald...?"

"Forgotten metropolis of the Niylahn society...," Scaverin explained succinctly, briefly eyeing the boy in his eager-faced grin before re-eyeing the cube in his grip. "Can you imagine the secrets such a place contains... abandoned and buried by time...?"

"B-But Scaverin-sensei..."

The man, surprised by the young mercenary's tone, could only turn his bald head 'round in silent-eyed curiosity.

"You'd have to sacrifice your eyesight and...," he began, wincing as he finished his next and final sentence. "Your sanity..."

"A small price to pay...," the confident summoner shot back, his smirk re-growing on his face as he turned back to eye the cube below. "Now... let... us..."

CHINK

WHIRRWHIRRWHIRR...

Raynard's chestnut-brown eyes widened as he watched and listened to the ancient device buzz to life; a horrifying sound for all the information he was just given on it.

"Begin...!" The summoner whispered out excitedly, hazel eyes widening eagerly as a dim flash of light began to emanate from it.

It didn't take long before it eventually encapsulated the entire area the two Hylians rested in.


CHATTER-CHATTER...

Raynard's senses, fuzzy once more, grew accustomed to their new surroundings again; the sound of countless people talking and walking 'round what seemed to be a mere dream itself. Indeed, even a thin layer of fog began to creep 'round his ankles, covering the ancient metropolis in a thick white sheet of illusion.

"Here we are..."

The sound of Scaverin's baritone made him rise up both his raven-shaded eyebrows in light surprise, soon remembering his presence from earlier only to find the robed summoner newly standing on his left. A wide grin grew on the older Hylian's face as he beheld the beautiful sights of the dreamlike wavy city of the extinct Niylahn society.

"Dragowald..."

Raynard traced his stare and scanned his own surroundings a second time, a kind of unsure sceptical look in his eye.

"How are we...," he began, a kind of doubtful tone to his low tenor. "How are even inside this city...? I thought it was-"

"As dead as the Lynel; that's right," Scaverin interrupted the Hylian youth politely enough, an excited grin plastered upon his face. "This isn't Dragowald itself we've transported to... it's a memory of the ancient city."

Raynard blinked back at his mentor's use of language, a look that the watching Scaverin double-took to, his grin soon falling in favour of a half-annoyed frown.

"Think of it as... a recollection... a dream that we've entered."

Raynard's eyebrow raised upward in curiosity. "Whose dream?"

"Why... the Cube's my boy." Scaverin smirked again, re-rising up the small spiked Cube of Insight still within the confines of his callous left fingers. The watching Raynard tilted his head in genuine curiosity before turning back to eye the wavy dreamlike figures passing them by; they all talked with one another and didn't seem to acknowledge their presences.

Almost as if they were ghosts.

"Or maybe it's us that's the ghosts..."

"Come."

The surprised young Hylian rose up his eyebrows out of his anxiety-driven ruminations, scrambling to follow the older Hylian through the throws of the illusory city and its fog-filled alleyways. It felt strange for the young boy to step through the very ghost-like forms of the similarly oddly-dressed people littering the city, watching their spectre-like figures for any similarities to himself.

Sure enough he spotted the small pointed ears some of them appeared to wear; a trademark of the Hylian people.

"Or I suppose that's 'Niylahn' here, isn't it...?"

He narrowed his tree-shaded eyes through his quietly-held ruminations as he passed by numerous city-walkers, beholding their chitons, chlamys and sandals.

I've never seen this kind of clothing, he thought.

It certainly looks like something I'd expect from a society of ancient people at least.

So why did they go extinct then?

And why are we here?

"S-Scaverin-sensei..." He began worriedly, wrenching his eyes away from a pair of Niylahn ghosts walking past them.

"Mm?"

"Will this affect time and space?" The inquisitive mercenary questioned the man, brow furrowing up at him as he followed behind. Surprised and genuinely curious at the boy's use of language, Scaverin turned his bald head 'round to briefly regard him with a raised eyebrow and a frown before re-facing the front.

"Yes...," he at last answered, re-fixing his gaze ahead. "Though in a more... subtle fashion than you'd expect..."

"What do you mean?"

The youth's comment, spoken so suddenly, made the pair of Hylians stop abruptly in their march as an even stranger sight came into view; lying on the ground not far from them and propped up against one of the many large houses appeared to be a corpse of some kind. Raynard's brow furrowed and one of his eyes narrowed as he struggled to comprehend what the creature actually once was; its limbs, all splayed out in every which way, numbered up to five of them all attached to a simple-looking torso, giving it a spider-like look to it.

What was even stranger was the human-like face sitting above its torso.

All in all it looked like something out of a strange fever dream or a nightmare.

"Now that Xel'lotath has been destroyed... its followers will escape this plane." Scaverin spoke up again, glaring over at the nameless creature. Raynard double-took in his mentor's direction, surprised.

"W-Wha-?"

"That huge creature you obliterated earlier...," he reminded him, briefly eyeing the youth before re-facing the fallen corpse. "It won't be long before Stralanavia's mountains are awash in... these..."

"And... what are those?" The listening Raynard asked, nodding his head in the corpse's area.

"The... 'Zatōmushi'," Scaverin responded with, brow furrowing lightly at the fallen cosmic creature before them. "Or, translated in modern Hylian, the 'Harvestman'."

"H-Harvestman...?" Raynard murmured out worriedly, tracing the older man's stare.

"Yes...," the robed summoner nodded, turning his head and his body to resume marching, presumably toward his destination. "Bizarre creatures said to have been born into existence by accident."

Raynard's eyes widened and he turned again to give the fallen Harvestman a second look, shocked at the words spoken by his knowledgeable mentor.

"While the Sainted Three were said to have given us Hylians and Aurelians with the great gift of life, these creatures were not of this world made."

"W-What does that mean?" Raynard pressed worriedly, anxiety filling his normally-confident tenor.

"It means that whatever spawned those abominations is of the same dimension as that Xel'lotath creature you slew," the summoner explained concisely, hazel eyes focused forward. "Creatures... like the ones waiting for us in this building."

The listening Van Garrick, surprised again by the man's words, could only swing his black-haired head in conjunction only to find what appeared to be a tall spire-like construction resting ahead. Spiralling upward on its sides was a circling staircase with a beautiful marble banister, seemingly leading up into the mouth of the soaring tower. Raynard found himself staring up at it, barely able to marvel at its otherworldly construction due to the dense fog filling the ancient and forgotten city streets.

"We won't have to fight again...," Raynard began one last time, pressing the summoner metaphorically next to him as he rose an eyebrow to convey his anxieties. "Will we...?"

A corner of Scaverin's mouth upturned into a half-amused smirk. "Well...," he started in reply, a chuckle lacing his lips and flavouring the spice of his baritone. "Let's find out... shall we?"