Ashi and Eve already gathered around the front counter using it as a makeshift table, so Kaden and Trella joined them there, with Sara taking the end. “There’s been a break-in in the mine. While the miners were out having drinks and celebrating, we believe one of the Adventurer Parties snuck in. And I suspect I know which one. There was a group of [Spearmen]. Their [Healer] had [Mining] as a dual class and probably saw something.”

  “Tell me they didn’t open the sealed tunnel,” Kaden said, his head hurting.

  Sara looked around the table. “Does anyone else want to ask me to lie? The good news is, we haven’t been overrun by a horde of monsters from the darkness. The bad news is, the miners won’t go back in.”

  “I’ll scout it,” Trella said. “If there is a horde, we’re going to need to pull back and collapse the entry, then do all this over again.”

  Ashi caught her hand. “I, too, will help. Though I must take care. Using [Geo Mana] spells in a mine can cause catastrophic collapse.”

  “Let’s avoid that.” Sara said.

  Kaden convulsed as a vision hit him. Bodies exploding into a spray of blood and chunks of meat. Everywhere. Every single body for what felt like miles, and a rumble of falling stone and shifting dust. “No! No one goes in the mine except me.”

  When his vision cleared, Trella kneeled over him. “[Prophecy?]”

  His head burned and the feeling of exploding over and over didn’t leave one in great shape. “Everyone, everywhere, exploding. I saw it. I felt it.”

  “In the mine?”

  That was where things got fuzzier. “No, it was dawn. Or dusk. The sky was purple, and there was so much stone falling. Don’t go in there. Seal the mine.”

  “Kaden.” Sara spoke calmly. “You saw the mine fall in, or you didn’t?”

  “I’m not sure what I saw.” Kaden sat up. “Everyone for miles dies in an explosion of blood and flesh.”

  “When?” Eve asked. “It may well be the mine. There could have been a collapse before, or there may be a collapse in the future. Prophecy is rarely completely wrong. You said it was outdoors?”

  The flash was already fading, leaving Kaden grappling with memories of memories. “I don’t know.”

  He’d made so many missteps. “I’m sure it’s bad. And I have this feeling it was you who triggered it, Sara.”

  “I triggered an explosion, outside, and it exploded bodies for miles? This is actually helpful,” Sara said. She grasped his hand. “We know the destruction happens outside. We know I trigger it. So therefore, the safest place for me to be is anywhere but outside. Perhaps this is a vision of what could occur, so let’s use it.”

  Kaden triggered [Relive the Moment] but it only showed him suffering the vision. But the light had been dawn, the sky red and purple and orange. “Get underground. Dawn or sunset. I wish I knew more.”

  “We’re better off than we were.” Trella handed him the solar dragon hatchling. “You have Trinity? I asked Eclipse, she’d help, but she doesn’t want to.”

  “That cat is more trouble than it’s worth.” Kaden wiped his chin and headed toward the mine. Stupid [Prophecy]. Two steps into the mine, he sensed the change. “Monsters.”

  Trella dashed away in the darkness, reminding him of their first times scouting dungeon entrances, when her Deception was little more than an illusion that took her place.

  She returned moments later. “It’s only the bottom floor, and you’ve got to see the system notification. Also, there’s one Tar Troll stuck in the fourth floor, I think it was in a separate cave the miners broke into.”

  Kaden sprinted to the shaft, following the twisting railway down further and further to the final floor. Sure enough, rubble from the sealed tunnel lay sprayed across the floor. And the sense that filled dungeons, that he’d entered a danger area, lay heavy. [Stealth Aura] engaged, and Kaden picked his way through the rubble. Twenty feet in, he stopped, as glowing blue fairy lights lit up. These were ancient, with actual glass spheres containing the lights, and they hung fom a stone ceiling fifteen feet up.The rough wall of the tunnel gave way to a square chiseled cave that sank lower and lower. In the distance, an abyss said a cliff awaited with a line of fairy lights marking it.

  You have entered a forgotten place.

  Seek out the forgotten places of the world!

  Party Limit reached, additional entities allowed first entry.

  The same thing the Trial of Yarrow had said. Even better, nothing about this matched the vision he’d had. Kaden was dead certain this wasn’t where his vision had occured because there wasn’t a sky. Trella pushed through with him. “You got the notice.”

  [Party Tactics] gave him his first prompt ever. “You’re got the optional [Huntress] class. Can you track whoever came through here?”

  “Yes. I usually use that to track people I’m already in combat with when they run, but yes.” Trella focused on the ground. “We thought it was a full party, it’s not. Five individuals. A [Shield] and a [Healer], healer’s out front. Don’t know the others yet.”

  With Garm guarding her, Ashi had found new confidence in dangerous situations, and hovered upward. “This is not formed by magic. The stone bears pick marks.”

  Eve hadn’t left the tunnel. “There’s something deeply wrong down here, but it isn’t me. Every [Priestess] is a link to the divinity of the god they serve and whatever is down here runs counter to Nurav. Which is most deities, primordial beings, void-dwellers, and creatures like Sara’s Horror. I’m sorry I can’t narrow it down further. Something opposed to a goddess of suffering, bleeding, and disease.”

  “I don’t like it. And places like this have a tendency to spread. You can’t just block it up and pretend it doesn’t exist. I’ve already sent messages to the Justari, Statari, and Mercari representatives.” Sara’s gaze was unfocused, meaning she was accessing the Party Interface.

  “One of them ignored the warning globes and fell off here. I think it was the [Shield],” Trella said. “There’s a platform that goes down there. Just stand on it, it lowers downward. That tells you a lot about what this place was.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Agreed,” Eve said, passing Kaden to approach the cliff edge. As she did, a stone slab silently rose to meet her, large enough for ten people, with smooth metal rails around the edge to keep people from falling off. “[Priests] dislike climbing for hours up or down rickety ladders in robes. I can’t say I’m partial to it myself. Platforms like this are the rule rather than exception in temples.”

  “Curious, it is not geo mana which moves this.” Ashi floated downward to inspect the underside of the platform. “It is very old. I was a child when this was formed. The mana driving it feels like my early memories.”

  Given how different time had been in Vichor, that spoke of ages and Cataclysms past.

  Sara had been busy listening to several birds and responding. “We should move forward with care. No one—and I mean no one—is willing to commit resources without understanding. If this is a Trial, it may move. If it’s an incursion, we would already be swarmed.

  New Quest Assigned: It Is What it Is (Whatever that Is) - Find out what you’ve found. Reward: 1x Faction Token, Faction Favor.

  The earth trembled and dust fell from the ceiling, giving Kaden flashbacks to his [Prophecy] vision, flashbacks that made his chest hurt and every breath difficult.

  BY ENTERING HIS TEMPLE, BART DENNING HAS INITIATED THE RETURN OF GHASTOS!

  GHASTOS WILL RETURN IN (30) DAYS.

  SACRIFICE MORE SOULS TO RETURN GHASTOS FASTER!

  GHASTOS REMAINED [GREATLY] RESTRAINED [SAD_FACE_ADDITION].

  You have completed a quest (It Is What It Is (Whatever That Is).

  Quest Master is Active.

  You have begrudingly gained 2x Faction Token for being in the right place at the right time and reading a system notice. (Stateri)

  You have gained faction favor!

  “That changes things,” Sara said. “Do not leave this area, but don’t go deeper. Forgotten places, by definition, are forgotten. If we leave we may not be able to re-enter. And there’s no guarantee we can gain help from outside.”

  While Sara sent dozens of birds, Kaden took a different approach, drawing an [Echo Beetle] from a tin and shoving one in his ear, while he stood near the edge and slid one down the slope.

  And another.

  And another.

  [Relive the Moment] let him replace what was with the memory of what had been. The sound at the end was always the same; the sound of a beetle hitting the floor in a tiny squish that as insignifcant to anyone but the beetle.

  The beetle probably felt different about the matter but much like bloody battles in Omnor, insects didn’t get a vote. “There’s voices at the bottom.” He drew another beetle and abused [Beast Command]. “Fly down.”

  It dutifully flew, hoving.

  “Down,” Kaden repeated.

  It folded its wings and bounced downward to its doom. Stupid insects.

  “We know there are Adventurers down there,” Trella said. “Don’t sweat it. Besides, with a name like ‘Ghastos’ you know as well as I do it’ll be some terrible god, can’t let him return, blah, blah, stabbing.”

  “Not to mention,” Eve added, “We’d love to help you but the sum of the letters of your name spelled in the dialect of [Echo Beetles] equals Ghastos’s favorite poem, so it’s up to you, best of luck.”

  “Fate cannot be always unkind, Evelyn.” Ashi glared at Eve. “Perhaps he is restrained because he does not see the need to be violent. And sacrifices are to gods what meals are to men. I do not question your dishes.”

  “My dishes don’t involve carving someone’s heart out. Usually,” Eve replied.

  Bird after bird came winging back, circling Sara until she stood in the center of a bird-storm. Her Horror continued to try and devour mana birds, despite failing every time. At long last, she waved them over. “Do you want the good news, the bad news, or the worse news.”

  “Worse,” Eve, Kaden, and Trella said together.

  “Good news, please,” Ashi objected.

  “The good news is, we do not have to go down into Ghastos’s temple-which is what is down there. The bad news is, if he returns, he’ll flatten everything for miles. The worse news is, if they send anyone higher tier in, it upsets the balance. Ghastos is restrained, remember?” Sara shared the status again. “If a team of Centurions wades in, he’s not. In way, we have been lucky. The Adventurers who breached this place were about as low level as they come.”

  “We aren’t,” Kaden approached the edge. “We’re definitely not. So Ghastos isn’t going to be as ‘restrained’ if we go in.”

  “We would be wise to understand what it is we face.” Ashi flared with solar mana, provoking the dragon on Kaden’s back, which leaped off his back to slink her way. In moments the dragon nestled down on her shoulders, giving off warm light and turning Ashi’s exposed skin yellow.

  [Advanced Leadership] continued to offer Kaden suggestions that didn’t apply, like how he could reassure the Party to keep them from flinging themselves off the ledge. Or how he could select the most nutritous part member to sacrifice if he were starving to death in a cavern.

  It was Eve.

  It also warned him that telling Eve she was the most nutritious party member would cause her to ask why he knew that.

  “Help me!” A voice called faintly from the darkness below. “Please, help!”

  Kaden drew Remembrance instinctively, closing on the point where the lift would arrive.

  “Get them off me!” The voice was growing both louder and weaker.

  Ashi dashed to Kaden’s side, her skin flaring red as she switch to fire mana, while Sara drew her bow and took the other flank, with Eve behind her.

  The lift arrived, crowded with monsters and a man. A single [Swordsman] floundered, wrestling with what looked like a man, a man with dark purple skin that glowed in the dark. The eyes weren’t human, and a heavy metal belt wrapped arround the middle of the abdomen held a blood red stone shaped like the full moon.

  “[Flame Arc]!” Ashi screamed. A gout of flame arced from her hand to strike the monsters further back on the lift. The blast swept them over the side.

  Kaden charged forward, using [Shield Bash] to stun the remaining monster and then ducking as Sara hit it with arrow and Eve applied [Moon Strike]. It staggered back—and the lift activated, descending.

  Behind Kaden, a terrified [Swordsman] scrambled further and further away, still whimpering.

  “Where are the rest of your party?” Sara asked, her tone stern.

  “They said there was loot. They said it was worth a thousand gold,” he sobbed. “Look at these! Are they worth a copper? Are they worth a life?”

  He held out a handful of stone rings.

  Kaden turned as the lift activated again.

  “Artifacts,” Ashi said behind him. “Do not ever judge them by appearance. What strange mana.”

  Any moment, the lift would arrive with the monster still on board, probably. Kaden would be waiting. It looked for victims, but all it would find was death.

  Trella’s Deception popped up beside him, speaking in an echo of her voice. “Ugly little rings, and [Identity] says every single one of them is different. Mine extends shadow spells. Ashi’s stores pure mana.”

  Something tickled in Kaden’s brain. The slightest warning.

  “It burned me!” Eve said as she pulled a stone ring off.

  [Split Second] activated, and Kaden bent backward to avoid something. A stone ring that grazed his nose as it passed, thrown by the swordsman at Kaden.

  “I’m sorry.” The [Swordsman] said.

  Bart Denning has activated [Ghastos’s Exchange].

  Eve was closest to Kaden, and in the heartbeat that followed, recognition dawned in her eyes. She whipped her hand forward, scoring a line down Kaden’s cheek with her fingernail. Before a drop of blood could well up, she disappeared.

  Where Kaden’s party had stood, a confused [Mage], a tiny man in [Healer]’s robes, a weeping [Thief] and a naked [Shield] man with gashes carved in his body.

  “What did you do?” Kaden roared.

  GHASTOS REMAINED [SOMEWHAT] RESTRAINED.

  The other adventureres looked shocked. Shell-shocked, like they’d seen horrors.

  GHASTOS HAS INVOKED [ETERNAL HOLD] AT GREAT COST.

  He charged the [Swordsman] picking the man up like a battering ram. “What did you do?”

  “I’m sorry,” Bart said, his voice a whisper, his belly glowing red, brilliant red, brighter with every moment. “I had to replace them all, that was the agreement. But I didn’t do it. He warned me there would be consequences. Explosive consequences.”

  Too late, Kaden grasped what Bart meant. A glowing belt strapped to Bart flashed faster and faster, ever brighter. The [Eldritch Shield] wouldn’t be enough. Out of options, he summoned Rocky, picking up the Rock Gobbler and ducking behind him as the world glowed red, and an explosion blasted outward. The Fairy lights went out, the roar of explosions became the rumble of falling rock, the sound he knew from his vision.

  Resilient Constitution has blocked 300,845 points of damage.

  Your skill with Resist Crushing has increased.

  Your skill with Resist Suffocation has increased.

  A mountain fell on him.