The next morning I got ready earlier than usual so that I could keep an eye on Aiya and ensure that no one else walked in without me being concealed. Stepping over Aiya, I exit my tent to stretch my legs. Despite being a living machine, I could feel my joints ache when I sat in my meditative state for too long. One would think that being functionally immortal and non-aging would fix that, but I guess it's just a universal part of the living experience.

"Oh," One of the mercenaries sees me exit my tent, "You're up early. Wake-up call isn't for another thirty minutes."

"Rough night last night," I chuckle nervously, "Didn't get much rest."

"I hear you," He nods in agreement, "Sleeping on this soil can get pretty uncomfortable even with a mat of some kind."

"Something like that haha," I manage to say between stretches. In my mind I didn't want to tell him I just don't sleep as it is, but the look on his face when I said it suggested he interpreted it as something else entirely... Oh well.

As another mercenary begins pacing the campgrounds banging on each tent for the wake up call, we all begin slowly filtering around the center of camp for breakfast. It wasn't until we began eating that I noticed someone was missing. I count my classmates, the mercenaries, and the professor and then it hits me like a carriage going full speed: Aiya was still in my tent. I rush over to my tent, flinging the flaps open and seeing Aiya sleeping peacefully still in her sleeping roll.

"Aiya!" I shake her awake, "Wake up call was a while ago, get up."

She begins to mumble some things before I leave to rejoin the group, their faces each displaying different emotions; the professor appeared confused, some of the mercenaries looked annoyed, and 'my nemesis' appeared... Angry? Eh, he's always angry at me. It wasn't until Aiya exited my tent that I had put the pieces together: she had spent the night in my tent, and that may not look the best to an outside observer. It's a good thing I wear a mask, else they'd see my embarrassment.

"Are we still eating, Ain?" Aiya asks groggily. Her hair was a mess, and she was still in her pajamas, "I'm starving."

"Yes, but not for long," I tear off a bite-sized portion of lembas for her, "Would you like some lembas-"

"Aiya, I made you some breakfast!" My nameless nemesis offered her a small bowl of oatmeal while staring daggers at me.

Aiya shakes her head and mumbles something unintelligible as she takes my lembas offering and eats it without opening her eyes. As he continues trying to push his bowl onto her, Aiya gets more and more irate, "Stop!" She finally blurts out, "I'm already full, so stop pushing it onto me."

My nemesis angrily takes his bowl back to his seat as he scowls at me. One of these days I'll learn why he's got a stick shoved so far up his ass that he has to be pissed at me every waking moment... Maybe I'll also learn his name by then, too!

As we wrap up our morning 'festivities' and begin heading back towards the dig site, the mercenaries inform us that now that we're familiar with the site, that they will be forming a perimeter around it instead of guarding us individually. They claimed it was 'safer' or 'more efficient' while allowing for 'more freedom to look around', but the sudden change felt odd to me for some reason. When we arrived back at the site and began to split off into our groups, Aiya and I began walking towards the large doors looming over the site like guardians of an ancient secret but were cut off by 'Pilgrim Porridge' as I've decided to name him.

"Let's go continue to investigate that mural, Aiya," He demands, grabbing her hand and attempting to pull her in the direction of the mural, "We can leave the bitch to the professor."

"Actually, Maeki, I was going to spend the day with Ain today," Aiya sassed, ripping her hand from Maeki's and stepping back from him, "Why don't you spend the day with the professor, instead?"

Huh, his name is 'Maeki'? It's certainly a name, I'll give him that; but at least now I have it. "Actually, Aiya, I was wanting to investigate the mural, too-"

"As was I," Professor Neidle's voice appearing from behind me made me jump, "I must ensure you two didn't damage it with your brash actions yesterday."

"Wonderful, then let's all head over there together and then we can split ways afterwards?" I suggest kindly with Neidle's nod of approval echoing my sentiment, "Does that work for you, Maeki?" Maeki scowls at me without a word as we begin our journey towards the creek where the mural was found.

As we approach the creek where Aiya and Maeki discovered the mural, we notice one of the mercenaries standing guard on the other side of the creek with the fragment of the mural the duo fished out on the bank we were on. The ceramic tiles glistened in the sun, their colours as vibrant as if they were just fired last week. The scene was as they described the night before: The massive doors at the center of the dig site shown as wide-open, revealing an individual with metallic skin carrying the body of someone with a similar physique and stature. I catch Aiya staring at me once she notices it, though I do not meet her gaze.

"Fascinating, just brilliant!" Professor Neidle exclaims, as he scribbles down as much detail as he can into his notebook, "Even despite your brutish excavation method, this is monumental! I can't wait to share this with- er, I mean, have you share this with the university when we get back!"

Something didn't seem right. Even if this was a 'massive discovery', we're missing a lot of information. Who's the metallic-skinned person? A noble, a ruler, a farmer, or some random person? And the person they're carrying? Is that their friend? Their child? Their lover? So many questions and possible answers but so little information to go off of.

"Where did you say you dredged this up from?" I ask, looking into the running water trying to discern between rock and potential treasure.

"It was up against the bank," Maeki groans in response to my question, "Barely under the water. We didn't even notice it until the water started going red, whatever that was..."

"The water turned red?" Neidle's inquiry was skeptical in nature, "What's upstream that could've caused such a phenomenon?" He walks a few paces upstream to see if he could find something; he was likely searching for some kind of carcass, if I had to guess.

"Yes!" Aiya exclaimed, "It didn't last long, so I'm not sure what could've caused it."

As the other three toss ideas around on what could've caused it, I think back to yesterday when I had to wash my hands in the creek; but there was no way that could've been what caused it as the timings couldn't have possibly lined up that perfectly. "We could always see if blood gives the same effect," I finally suggest over the others' chatter, "Blood's red, right? If it was blood that caused it to glow then it should be a pretty simple test."

The rest of the group falls silent as if I had just suggested something taboo or bat-shit insane. "Then why don't you try it then?" Maeki asks with a devilish grin. He really is just my biggest hater, how adorable.

"I don't have a knife," I shrug, trying to deflect the responsibility of this test onto somebody else.

"Oh, I have one!" His face distorts more into a vile smirk as he produces his knife, a small blade only measuring up to a maximum of six centimeters.

"Cool," I state blandly, "Then you can use it on yourself. It is your discovery, after all."

Maeki mutters something unintelligible as he trips over himself trying to find an excuse for against it. "Fine." He announces as he barely pricks his thumb and drips it onto the mural.

We all sit in silence for several moments waiting for something to happen, but nothing comes from the experiment.

"Maybe it needs more?" I suggest genuinely.

"Well then you can do it," Maeki shoves the knife's handle into my hand.

I hesitate for a moment. If it was activated by my blood, then this would reveal my secret to two more people, neither of which would I be able to stand. Maeki would likely attack me, and Neidle would likely not leave me alone for even a moment and likely have the mercenaries bring me back to the university for study. I glance at Aiya who looks as nervous as I probably did under my mask, she knew my secret and was likely on the same page about my situation regarding the others. "Po'oraat, guide me," I mutter to myself as I run the knife's blade across my palm, the fluid rapidly stains my bandages and begins dripping onto the ground. I hang my injured hand over the mural to allow the constant flow of fluid to cover the piece, expecting some kind of fanfare; but to my surprise, nothing happened! I thrust the knife's flat side into Maeki's chest with my uninjured hand, "I can't believe you needed me to do what you easily could have." I reach into my pouch and produce a small Vial of Contact Instant Health potion and pour it onto my open hand before cinching my bandages to quickly cover up my slightly-exposed hand.

"Say, what is that?" Neidle asks pointing in my direction.

"What's what?" I ask, hoping he isn't referring to my hand.

He steps towards me and snatches the vial from my hand, a few crimson droplets remain inside, "This," He holds the vial up towards the sun to see it in a better light.

I stare blankly for a moment, relieved that he didn't notice my hand, "Oh. That's just one of the potions I keep on me just in case. I figured it would be smart to pack some just in case... I also used one yesterda-" That's when it clicked in my head. It wasn't my blood that caused the mural to glow, but the potion I used. Some of it must've dripped into the creek and flowed downstream. I quickly produce my rune of water that I had gotten from the Etherial's guild back home as well as another potion. "I think I figured it out," I declare.

Scratching off one of the outside lines of the runes like I was instructed, water begins to quickly form around the rune and in a moment the mural is cleaned of the blood. I then pop the cork off of the vial and pour half of it over the mural. Immediately the mural begins to glow, its colours shifting between several different hues as the tiles react with the potion.

"Amazing!" Neidle proclaims, as he amends his notes on the mural, "How'd you think of that!?"

"Well yesterday I had to wash off my hands, remember?" I remind the professor, "Well whatever was on them wasn't washing off, so I tried one of my potions and that made it stop. And given I was probably somewhere upstream from here when it happened, I figured some of the potion dripped off my hands and into the stream; and when it finally got to where Maeki and Aiya were, they just so happened to be in the right place at the right time to see it affect the mural!" Holding up the remaining vial, I look towards the creek with intrigue.

"That would make sense, but the likelihood of those events happening at the right time is," Neidle pauses to calculate, "Well it seems impossible!"

"Apparently not," I rebut, pointing to the mural as its glow slowly begins to fade, "I'm going to see if I can find the rest of the mural..." I navigate a good ways upstream and pour the rest of the vial out into the creek, making sure to look for any signs of glowing as the red fluid mixes with and travels down the stream. "See anything?" I shout to the others.

"Nothing!" Aiya replies, "Maybe this piece got washed down here?"

"Or, more likely, the rest got washed further downstream," Maeki argued as I returned to the group.

"Why don't we split up then?" I suggest pointing to Aiya and I then to the professor and Maeki, "Aiya and I will go upstream, and you two can go downstream to see if we can find anything."

"Good idea," Neidle nods, "Come, boy. Discovery awaits!"

"But-" Maeki cries out as he's yanked away by the professor.

As Aiya and I begin navigating upstream, we eventually come across a small cave where the water presumably originates, "What now?" She asks, looking for anything nearby, "Maybe Maeki was right, maybe the rest was really downstream..."

"Absolutely not," I assure her, "It wasn't attached to anything, nor was anything large nearby for it to have been attached to. It was the thing that broke off, not the rest. Let's try our way into this cave."

Aiya's eye grow wide as she begins to look visibly anxious, "I-I don't think that's a good idea... What if we get stuck!? We'll drown! Or worse, we'd starve!"

I was going to say something sarcastic when I remembered that she needed to still breathe and eat; I would be fine, but she should probably not attempt it, "How about this: You wait here and I'll go in. If I'm not back in an hour, go get help."

"B-but what about you? You may drown-"

I pull off my mask momentarily and give her an unamused expression, "I'll be fine."

She nods, realizing what I meant, "Be safe then? You never know what could be in there..."

"Of course. I won't attempt anything I'm not confident that I could accomplish," I assure her, patting her head as I return my mask back to its normal resting place on my face. "Remember: One hour then get help."

Crouching down into the stream, I begin pushing my way into the cave, the water rushes around me as I'm engulfed in the cold embrace of the creek. The darkness quickly overwhelms me as my body blocks out what little light that was able to trickle through the cave's mouth; now would be an amazing time to have an Ever-Burning Torch, but I couldn't quite reach it with how cramped the space was getting. I could only move forward. Any attempt at moving backwards would be catastrophic, as despite not needing to eat or breathe, I do enjoy those things and most importantly I enjoy not being stuck for eternity, too... I bump my hands around in the cold darkness, slowly making progress, as I pull myself against the winding rocky channel. As I reach for my next hand-hold, the rock I was gripping gives away and I feel many smaller rocks get dislodged, their impacts on the bottom of the twisting cavern could be felt in all of my limbs. I attempt to push myself around the collapse, but get stuck at my hips.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I contort my right arm to get to the collapse and attempt to free myself only to have that arm get stuck in a strange position. Great... Okay, Ain... Timeout. Think this through... My left hand is free, my hips are stuck on the collapse, and my right hand is stuck in a weird position, how do I proceed? My right arm should be my priority; if I get that unstuck then I can get my hips free. I retrace my steps on how my arm got lodged in that position. It seems that it got stuck as I pulled myself forward as I was moving my arm back, so in theory all I'd have to do is just relax a little and allow the current to pull me back a tiny bit and then I should be able to undo my arm and get it free again. Loosening my grip with my left hand, I feel my body get dragged by the current just enough for my right arm to break free!

Now all I need are my hips free and I can keep moving. Keeping my body perfectly still, I maneuver my right arm again and manage to get it to where the collapse happened. I pull one rock away from my body at a time. Carefully picking which one to move so I don't make the situation worse. Eventually I get enough of the rocks free and feel a surge of water rushing around my hips and I can finally move again!

I twist my arm back in front of me and continue to pull myself forward, inching my way through this cave system. Before I realize it I'm in a chamber large enough to freely move around in the water. I quickly reach into my pouch and draw out my Ever-Burning Torch, its light vanquishes the shadows that had consumed me. Looking around, I notice the ripples of a steady downpour above me and swim towards it before bursting into a large room where a small waterfall leaks into the body of water I occupy. "Finally." I exhale, holding the torch above the water to get a better look at things.

The room I had entered was made of a white marble with various precisely cut stone tiles lining the floor and a series of pipes running along the length of the room into a corridor to my right. Swimming to solid ground, I pull myself out of the cold water, my bandages and mask falling apart as I inspect them. Nice... Well at least there's no one around to notice. I ensure that my other belongings survived, namely my pouch and my revolver. "Well, they're both here, but I'll need to dry off the revolver and replace the powder before I can properly use it. I should be fine without it, though, not like anything is crazy enough to get its way in here besides me," I chuckle to myself out loud.

Looking around the room, I find the other half of the mural that had been washed downstream! In your face, Maeki! Holding my torch up to it, its tiles begin to glow similarly to how the other half glowed when my potion dripped onto it, "I wonder if they just react to magic of any kind?" I whisper to myself, trying not to disrupt the ancient silence that I occupied. The mural depicted what I'm assuming is the first chunk of the 'story': A human-like figure is shown to be entering the large doors alone, and then besides that shows what appears to be an interior depiction, but a lot of smaller pieces appear to be missing... But what is visible is the figure from the first part laying down on some kind of altar with a sigil on the wall behind them.

"From what I can tell," I whisper to myself, as I poorly sketch the mural in my notebook, "The first figure entered the doors, lays down on an altar of some kind, and then, based off the half that Aiya and Maeki found, an automaton exits holding the first figure's body..." I jot down my theories and speculations on the page besides my crude drawing, "I wonder if this outpost is one where automatons were created? I'm sure there were plenty others, given how small of a site this is, but it does make me wonder."

I look around the room some more and find various trinkets. I can't log all of them, I'm not even sure how much time I've spent in here as it is, but I do my best. As I make a quick sketch of the room I'm in and its layout I decide to try to map the interior as I search for an alternate exit, as I'm not sure if I'd be able to return from whence I came, let alone get back in here through that cave again. Traveling through the corridor, I pass by several large cages I notice each of them is unlocked and opened. "I wonder what was kept in these," I mutter to myself, inspecting the empty enclosures, "Strange to have this many of them... I wonder if they kept livestock in here? No, the others found the remains of some the other day... Maybe hounds of some kind? I'll look for more clues..." The corridor that lead from the room I had first entered into had several branching paths so far, but most seemed to dead-end with these strange rooms filled with empty cages. At one point I find a staircase leading upwards, but decide against traversing it until I had explored all other paths; but luckily for me, each other room and corridor on this 'level' were these strange cage-rooms. I make sure to make a note on my map, as I got tired of doodling each and every cage in each room, so I just began short-handing it with 'CR' for 'Cage Room' and then a number besides it to denote how many cages I had counted in them.

As I backtrack towards the stairs I hear an unsettling sound. It was the whines and whispers of what sounded like multiple people. I stow my torch as I hear it getting closer and reach for my revolver before remembering it's still soaked and would need to be fully stripped and dried before I could use it again. Shit. I'll have to avoid this thing, or these things, whatever it is. Currently it sounds like it's in the direction of the room I had first entered into, so at least I currently have distance between myself and it; though I do wonder when it got there? Maybe it came down from the stairs as I was on the opposite side of the 'level'. Regardless, I need to make my way up the stairs as soon as possible.

As I make my way up the stairs, I count how many steps there were in case the 'levels' are not at equal intervals. This particular staircase had sixty steps that were about one-and-a-half the size of stairs I'm used to in modern times. I estimate the depth-difference of the previous 'level' and the new one at around sixteen meters, with a ceiling height of the previous 'level' being approximately four meters. At the top of the stairs I noticed a sharp hissing sound coming from one of the pipes overhead, but most shockingly was that there was light up here! I'm not sure why, but I'm going with the assumption that the pipes are carrying whatever is being used to make the light, and the leak at the top of these stairs is preventing the lights downstairs from shining...

As I search for a new exit, I keep bumping into these cage-rooms. One after another, again and again. I was beginning to grow concerned. Trying to keep my distance to the mystery beast, I quickly poke my head to count the cages and see if there's anything abnormal with them; but none of them have anything of interest. Room after room, each of them is the same. Just. Cages. At this point I'm beginning to worry about what was actually stored in them. Maybe they housed the mystery thing or things that's stalking me? Maybe this place was a prison of sorts? No clue, but I keep searching for a way out.

Exiting one of the many cage rooms, I peek around the corner towards the stairs I came up and finally see the entity that's been on my tail this entire time. No matter how I tried to perceive it, it appeared like its form was constantly shifting. The number of legs inconsistent with each blink or eye-twitch, its face appearing on each of its limbs half of the time, and the other half of the time it would appear on what I could only assume is its head. Its unearthly-whines and whispers tapping into my skull as if someone were trying to use a chisel on my head. At one point I could've sworn it stared directly at me, but luckily it did not notice me. I move around, trying to avoid the abomination's line of sight, but it thankfully does not pursue me. I wonder if it's attracted to sound instead of sights...

It wasn't long until I found another staircase and made my way up; this one was the same height as the previous set I had ascended. As I quietly made my way up the flight of stairs, I notice something at the top... Something I, nor anyone else at this dig site, hadn't seen before. Bones... Human bones. Reaching the top of the stairs, I'm met with the sight of an unholy army of skeletons all clumsily stacked over each other, as if they had all died at once. Was this why there were so many cages?

I struggle to find a place to step that wouldn't result in me stepping on a bone, but manage to tip-toe in a manner that wouldn't disturb the mass grave. In the center of the room was an altar of solid gold, exactly like the mural downstairs depicted. To my right, a massive spell circle that glowed a deep red. I'm no mage, but typically, from what I've seen, that means that either a ritual was disrupted... Or it failed. Given the creature lurking these halls, I'm going to go out on a limb that it was, in fact, a failure. Though that does mean that if that's the altar and that's the spell circle, then that means the doors should be...

I turn to my left and see the massive, looming, doors holding steadfast, though I do notice something particular about them... Engraved onto their metallic surface were massive scratch marks that glow with an otherworldly iridescence, presumably from the beast that continues to stalk these halls as a result of the failed ritual. I tip-toe towards them to get a better look, but it appears that the doors have withstood not just the efforts of the other archeologists, but of the beast trapped within. It wouldn't surprise me if the beast was sealed in here and the site abandoned as a result of the failed ritual. Curious as to how close the beast got to escaping, I touch the iridescent claw marks and am hurled into another vision.

"Is the princess ready?" A man behind me asks in a language that I vaguely recognize, as he approaches a podium with a large book made of gold.

"Yes, sire," Another man nods as he follows the first man, "We're just missing a handful of sacrifices and then we may begin the ritual."

"That won't be necessary. Let's start without them."

"B-but sire," the second man begs, "The ritual needs a specific number of sacrifices and we've already rounded up the last of the villagers to be used as sacrifices. We can't know what what will happen if we don't have the proper-"

"ENOUGH!" The first man commands, "We have already transformed the king. If we don't transform his daughter, too, it'll be our heads! Get the sacrifices ready, I'll get the girl."

The second man hesitantly heads down the staircase I just came up from as the first man opens the large doors with the command of 'Zeit'iier', which if I recall correctly is the Ancient-Kaimarian word for 'Open'. Just as the doors finish opening, a line of shackled people march up the staircase and are placed around the altar at semi-equal intervals. I counted one-hundred-seventy people. Some were children, others were elderly. They ranged from peasant to merchant to noble, small and large and everything in between. Looking out into the courtyard through the now-open doors, the town is desolate. They really did capture every one of the villagers for this!

As the first man returns with who I can only assume is 'the princess', he points towards the altar, "Please lay down here and we can get started, my dear."

The princess nervously lays down, "Will it hurt?"

The man shrugs, "I haven't heard of it being painful... Regardless, it's a pretty quick process, so it'll be over in no time, even if it is." He gives her a light, reassuring, smile before turning towards the second man, "Remember to keep outside of the circle." The second man obeys and stands next to the first man.

As the first man begins to chant and read directly from the book, the sacrifices begin to drop to the floor and shrivel one by one, their essence accumulating above the altar at the center of the room as the spell circle begins to pulse. As the final sacrifice drops, the mass of essence above the princess begins to pulse and lash out with strikes of lightning, as it searches for more sacrifices; sacrifices that are not present...

"Sire, we need to stop the ritual!" The second man shouts over the chaos of the ritual going awry.

"You can't stop it, idiot! It will finish without the normal amount of sacrifices," He shouts back.

The second man attempts to charge into the ritual to save the princess but is immediately struck down by a bolt of lightning from the mass of essence as he is added to the total. The princess, reasonably freaked out by what is clearly not a normal procedure, attempts to slip off the altar.

"Princess, stop!" The first man commands, "If you get off that altar, you'll just die like the rest of them!"

Before she could even touch the ground, the princess' spirit was gently lifted from her body and joined the mass of essence, her now-lifeless body flopping onto the floor and getting hit by a bolt of lightning to absorb any essence still remaining in it. A moment later, the mass of essence turned from a light blue to a deep purple-black and its form began to lash out as it began to take shape. The first man knew something was wrong, this wasn't what was supposed to happen. He quickly ran out of the room through the big doors, moving carefully to not step within the ritual's area, and shouted something that caused the doors to close. Locking the thrashing mass of essence inside.

As the mass slowly drifted towards the ground, lashing out at anything it felt it could reach, it eventually landed like a mass of ooze dripping out of a container before taking on the familiar form of the creature that still lurks these halls. The spell circle behind it glowing a deep-red, declaring the ritual a failure in the absence of the man performing the ritual. The being attempted to push the doors open, but couldn't get them to budge. Realizing the doors won't open, it begins to wander down the stairs. Following the creature, it roams the lower levels, looking for an exit, before returning to the altar room and lightly scratching at the door. Once it knows it's locked in, it approaches the altar and spreads itself out, as if attempting to undo the ritual.

Some time passes, as I notice that the skin on the sacrifices has since decayed and only bones and clothes remain. The state of the room was the exact same otherwise that I didn't even process a skip forward in time. The beast gets up off the altar and completes the same pattern of movements: search for an exit, scratch at the door, lay back down. This repeats several times, as the clothes on the sacrifices decay more and more until I'm finally thrust back into reality.

I hear the creature's footsteps sloppily making their way over to my position. I decide to take cover behind the podium and observe it. It approaches the door and claws at it as it did in my visions before turning back towards the altar and spreading itself out on it. Poor thing... I wonder if it's trapped in the same sequence of actions or if it's actually looking for a way out. I also wonder how much of the princess is still in there, or if she's as gone as her physical form is...

On top of the podium sits the book I saw that one man carry. Its pages were still in immaculate condition, as if the beast hadn't even tried to use it. I flip through its golden pages, the inscriptions barely legible to me, as my Kaimarian hasn't seen use since the empire's collapse several ages ago; but I'm able to make out a few things. This room's layout being a sort of standardized set up for the creation of the automatons, a fabricated immortal being who is nigh-godlike with the soul of the individual who is placed on the altar in the center. According to this book, one would need two-hundred-fifty human sacrifices of any age, stature, or status to have a successful ritual...

"Yeah, okay 'sire'... Not even seventy percent of the way there..." I whisper to myself as I read the book before realizing the beast is still within the room with me. I look up at the altar and still see the beast's mass in the same position it was earlier. Breaking Neidle's rule about disrupting the dig site, I pick up a bone and throw it across the room and down the staircase to see if that would get the creature's attention; but much to my surprise it remains dormant. "It must just be stuck in a loop," I whisper to myself, "Maybe checking all the places that the sacrifices and the princess knew about before laying back down?"

I decide to wait until the beast moves again to attempt opening the door. It probably shouldn't get out, heaven knows what may happen if it did... Waiting until I know the time it takes for it to move around will help a lot, as I'd like to open it when it's not here, just in case it does act outside of its normal behavior. Looking back at the book, it tells that failed rituals result in what it calls an 'Aberrant', which can act unpredictably, due to it getting the combined emotions, memories, and tendencies of the sacrifices and subject.

I decide at one point to meditate, even if just for a few hours to clear my mind and to really process what's happened so far today. During this time, I made sure to keep an ear out for the beast's movements, so I may be able to document its movements. During this time, the creature seemed to get up once every other hour; taking roughly thirty minutes to make its rounds inside the halls of this abysmal prison before returning to the altar for the next half an hour. I've watched it march down the eerie stairs a few times, and have even thrown a bone before and after it would have gotten down them; but nothing phases it. I decide that once it leaves next, I'll make my move.

I've been in the altar room for the past ten hours, if I've been tracking that correctly... If my mental calculations are accurate, it is roughly four in the morning, well before sunrise at this time of the year. I have, without a doubt, been reported as missing by Aiya at this point and I imagine the mercenaries are going to be miffed about my disappearance, considering they likely get paid based on the number of survivors; but they can kick rocks.

I managed to dry out my revolver and replace the powder inside while I watched and waited for my opportunity to escape; hoping and praying that I don't need to use it. In about three minutes, the beast will wake up and begin its normal routine, fifteen minutes after that I will make my move.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One...

The beast rises, just like clockwork, as it makes its way down the staircase. I rush to the door, doing my best to avoid disrupting the room any further, and start mentally counting down my escape.

Fourteen minutes and fifty-nine seconds.

I dig around in my pouch for my bandages, realizing I was completely exposed as my natural self, only to find none. "Shit," I mutter. I'll need to find something or sneak a message to Aiya to get me something.

Thirteen minutes and twelve seconds.

I pat myself down, ensuring I have everything. "Pouch? Check. Revolver? Check," I look back at the book on the podium and debate taking it. On one hand, Neidle would go ballistic, but the discovery would be revolutionary!... On the other hand, knowing what I know now, how we automatons are created with mass human-sacrifices; I'm not sure if the world is ready for such a revelation or if it needs to know. The last thing I'd want is to release this knowledge to the world and watch countless people die because of it... "Do I leave it then? Let someone else potentially discover it? Or do I bring it out and destroy it, myself; ensuring no one will be harmed from this demonic ritual again?"

Seven minutes and forty-five seconds.

How would I even carry it, if I were to take it with me? It's massive! Its pages are made of literal gold! It's far too big to fit in my pouch, my bag is back at camp, and I have no clothes to hide it under- not like it wouldn't be immediately noticed under clothes, anyways..."What if someone else discovers how to get in? What if they get a hold of the book!?" The thoughts race through my head, "At this exact moment, I'm likely the only person alive who knows about the ritual or how it functions. I could keep it that way... "Hmmmm," I continue debating the possibilities.

Two minutes.

I decide against all other judgement to go back for the book. It's right there, after all; and besides concealing it, it would be safer in my hands than anyone else's. As I attempt to lift the book, I realize just how much a textbook-sized chunk of solid gold truly weighs. "Damn, this thing's heavy..." I barely manage to get my fingers under it enough to pick it up. Its weight is immense and will absolutely slow me down; but it's best if it's not kept here, especially since that beast is the world's worst guard dog.

Thirty seconds.

I return to the door, and struggle to keep the the book steady in my arms. The aberrant is at the furthest point in its routine, it's now or never. I count down and say the words that the first man said all those years ago.

"Zeit'iier!" I command, the gargantuan doors shaking before slowly creaking open. The sound of tools piled up against the doors on the other side clattering to the ground in an unholy cacophony of noise. Once the doors are open enough for me to squeeze through, I do so; the cool, the fresh breeze of the early morning washing over me like the waves of the ocean.

I turn around and shout what I recall as the Kaimarian word for 'close', being, "Kaiyet'niir!" But the doors continue to swing open. "Kaiyet'niir! Kaiyet'niir!" I shout again and again, but the doors continue opening.

Suddenly, from deep within the halls I hear an unsettling sound. It was not a sound any mortal should ever hear, nor do I wish to describe it beyond an amalgamation of countless peoples' voices crying out all at once. I didn't hear much, I didn't want to hear more, I wish I could un-hear it, but I did make out the Kaimarian words of "H̵̹̮͐ȩ̷͂l̵͓̀l̶͕̄o̸̳̟͒̏?̶̢͉͊͊.̷̹̂̀.̸̝̫̔̽.̶̥̐̐ ̵̜͂͝H̵̦́ȩ̴̊l̸̲̔͐p̸̭̄͜ ̵̡̔̒u̷̮̩̇̀s̸̺͖̽̆!̷͕̈́?̵̠̑͠" In its twisted tone. The words were like nails on a chalk board with the undertones of a banshee; my ears would bleed if they could. Hell, I may choose to go deaf after hearing such sounds.

Once the doors finally settle in their open position, I try the command again, but with no feedback. I try again and again, but the only sounds I hear are the ungodly horror that continued moving up through the halls of this accursed place.

"P̴̮̮̿͘l̴͇̈́͝e̶̢͇̓̏a̷̠̙̽̂s̴͈̽ȇ̷̫̖̓?̷͎͂̂" The shrieking drops me to my knees, the book slamming on the stone ground. It was as if my ears were being bypassed entirely and my brain was having to perform a function it wasn't meant to. "Ș̸͊̉a̴̳̔̀v̶͊ͅę̴̥́̉ ̵͕͈̀ǔ̴̢̈́š̶̬͚!̶̨̯̌?̴̬̔̀͜" The creature whined again. Each word, if one could call them that, out of the aberrant moved through the air with such unease and disgust, it caused the plants in the courtyard to wither out of desperation. I might have joined them, had I known that this beast must not escape.

I flip through the pages of the book in an attempt to find something, anything, about the doors. "If the man was too impatient to gather the proper amount of sacrifices, what would he have done to this door?" A few possible answers flood my mind, each one interrupted and scrambled by the horror's malignant cries.

"S̶͈̘͗̚a̴͚̐͘v̵͕̾̍ĕ̶̢͎͘ ̴̬͌͒u̵̬͛s̸̳͍̈́!̴̯͉̅͌" It cries once more. It was at the top of the lower staircase already. I only had about a minute left before I would be face to face with the aberrant monstrosity.

I had an idea. It was, admittedly, stupid; but given the patience of the man who performed the ritual, I had to at least try it. "Zeit'iier!" I command to the doors again, in a dire attempt to get any reaction from the silent giants.

A moment passes before the doors begin to creak shut. The otherworldly cries from within the halls growing louder and more powerful as it draws near. "N̷̤͈͝ŏ̸̳̳,̶̜͈͊ ̷̱͈́p̷͙͇̔l̷̯͖̅͘é̵ͅḁ̸̈́̕s̴̯̈́͝e̶͉͋̏!̸̬̓̑" The thing shouts, as it summits the stairs closest to the door. Hearing its vile excuse of a voice this close was maddening. The sound bouncing around in my mind like a stray bullet in a cave, as I fought to maintain consciousness.

It lunges for the small opening in the door, but is too late to get any part of itself out. The beast bangs and scratches at the door, its unholy shrieks barely audible through the mighty doors. I almost felt bad for the creature; neither the princess nor the sacrifices asked for this to happen. They have been trapped for gods-know-how-long, and the first time they see the outside, it's snatched out from under them before they can escape. I vow right there and then to return to put it down; but as of right now, I am not equipped to handle such an endeavour.