For a while, Saria heard nothing but the echoes of her metal boots upon the uneven alien stone, the sound twisting as it passed through the air. The darkness surrounded her, enveloped her, but all she could do was walk forward. The cavern was slightly slanted down, implying that Saria was going deeper and deeper down into the city with every step she took.

Saria was suddenly overcome with a piercing headache, and she inadvertently smacked herself on the helmet as she reflexively tried to caress her aching skull. It took a while for her vision to adjust, and when it did, she was overcome with confusion. She stood inside a large, open room, exactly as tall as the doorway. Dim, greenish light filled the room, and a massive, non-euclidean structure dominated the center. 

Saria couldn’t define exactly what the structure was. It seemed to change and reform itself every time she blinked, and even when she didn’t, it was not beholden to a particular shape or color. In fact, she didn’t recognize the color at all. The closer she tried to examine the structure, the more intense her headache became. She closed her eyes, trying to push the image out of her head.

When she opened her eyes once again, she saw something she hadn’t seen earlier. Someone was kneeling down in front of the eldritch structure, praying loudly. Saria came closer, within earshot. Saria recognized the person to be the strange, pale, thin, purple-haired girl she had seen earlier at the college: Rose. She scoffed at the thought of fighting this seemingly frail thing at first, but then she realized that whoever she was, she seemed to be perfectly at home in this strange, alien city. Saria could hear the girl reciting a certain phrase, but its meaning and translation was lost to her.

“Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.” Her voice cut like a knife, and seemed to be both young and ancient at the same time. She slowly stood up, and turned towards Saria, her violet crown and clothes standing out against the room’s dullish olive-green. On her crown rested three gems, and on her chest rested one more.

Every instinct told Saria to draw her sword and attack, but she knew that the college would most likely intervene, and she would never reach her intended goal. Dieing here would not be a satisfactory end, at least for Saria, so she stayed her blade, and waited. She would have to be patient and wait for the college to cue the start of the battle.

Rose spoke first, a pretentious grin widening after every word.

“I see you have arrived. Tell me, how are you enjoying R’lyeh? It’s quite surprising, actually. A mere human such as yourself should have gone hopelessly insane after a short trek through the city.”

“I’m a bit more resilient than other people,” Saria said. Rose gave a little chuckle, like she was witness to a small child’s foolish endeavor.

“Only marginally, if at all. In the end, you humans are to me what a speck of stardust is to an entire galaxy. The only one above me is the great Cthulhu himself, you see.”

“Cth-- What? I would prefer if you spoke English, little girl.”

“And there is but one of almost infinite symptoms of an inferior species, a lack of knowledge. How many disparate means of communication do you employ? One? Two? Maybe three? I know all of them. Single-handedly, I have constructed entire empires, conceived species, and raised civilizations. And after I expunge the rest of the feeble rubbish within this epigram of a ‘competition’, I will wake Cthulhu, and will metamorphose into the harbinger of the Great Old Ones.” 

Saria listened to her banter on, barely understanding about a quarter of the words the strange girl had used anyway. She simply stood there, and waited for the drone. When she couldn’t stand the girl’s spiel anymore, she decided to shut her up. With words, of course.

“I don’t care where you came from, and what this… Cthulhu is. Whether you spawned from the depths of Hell, or the cold of the sky, you will die by blood and steel.” Saria put a hand of her sword.