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Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

Miwa listened to Arcan's words quietly and attentively. The moment she noted the disgust in his voice as he spoke about the supposed necromancer that was behind the twisted and dark feeling behind some of the doors, Miwa's expression of relief became quite evident. They still had no real idea of exactly how powerful Arcan was, but a conflict against such being was something she definitely wanted to avoid. In that same note, she did get a bit worried about Fia's curiosity as she asked to see the Djinn's true form. Miwa knew well that curiosity was a scholar's soul and that held true for both Fia and Vesemir, but the dangers of peering into the unknown were also something that should not be underestimated.

As Miwa continued hearing about the necromancer and the lives lost due to greed, she quickly understood exactly why the dark feeling of resentment was so strong in the blocked rooms... Especially when Arcan mentioned the necromancer was once again free, using the souls of the innocent he trapped and killed to empower himself. Which was definitely some very worrying news.

"Purifying curses and evil spirits is already rather dangerous, especially considering the type of curses that are being dealt with, but facing a necromancer is even more so. Between me and Fia, I am sure we have the necessary skills to deal with most, if not all dangers regarding curses, evil spirits and dark magic we could face. But dealing with a necromancer can definitely prove to be challenging." Miwa said after hearing Arcan as she looked to the group.

"As a Miko, dealing with such things is my duty. As it is offering the proper rites and a final rest to the spirits of those unjustly murdered, but I am aware that in the end, this is not the reason I was hired nor the reason we are here." Miwa said in a serious tone.

"Regardless of my personal feelings or my duty as a Miko, the final decision of what we will do regarding the necromancer lies with the leaders of this expedition." she completed as she looked towards Elc and Vesemir.

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

"Be careful, Verdant. I have no idea what lies behind these doors, but it is certainly something evil." Miwa said, interrupting her mantra for a brief moment as Verdant approached the door, throwing a small pebble at the door as she investigated it.

It didn't take long until her rhythmic chanting was interrupted by a rumbling, followed by Mr. Elc's shout as the door they had just went through closed shut, sealing them inside the vault. Fortunately or unfortunately, it seemed no one was left behind. In one hand, it was safer but on the other hand, there was no one to maybe ask for outside help. They would have to find a way out themselves.

As the rumbling noise died down, only Mr. Elc's shouting fruitlessly at Vesemir could be heard as the latter stood still, mesmerized by whatever he was seeing beyond the door he had open.

The reason for Vesemir's shock and fascination was soon understood the moment Miwa approached him in order to agree with Mr. Elc's chastising words.

Beyond the newly opened door, the scene that greeted them was definitely not something they expected. The newly opened corridor was completely illuminated by crystal lamps and even a chandelier in the center, illuminating a beautiful and surprisingly, still working fountain in the middle..

"I... Certainly wasn't expecting all this!" Miwa said, surprised as she looked around.

"Although, I do have to agree with Mr. Elc. We must be careful, Vesemir. We do not know exactly what dangers lie in these ruins... What worries me more are the signs of powers altering the minds of those who were here before us." she completed, with a serious tone.

Particularly the evil sensation she felt coming from some of the rooms and corners of the ruins still worried her quite a bit.

But the surprises didn't seem to be over yet. Just as Vesemir started going off on how they were probably the first people stepping on that place for a millennium, a strange voice corrected him, mentioning that the last visitors came a bit over ten years ago.

The owner of the voice, a semi-translucent man who stood near the western door, proceeded to introduce himself as Arcan, the only curator for the place they were... The 'Theriadoere's gallery' as he called it.

Other than his strange semi-translucence, the clothes Arcan was wearing made him look quite out of place among the ancient ruins. Despite that, it was hard to doubt that the strange man was lying. Not only due to the strange precision he mentioned the last visit the 'gallery' had received, but also due to the mention of ancient languages she had never even heard about before.

After congratulating their arrival, particular Vesemir, whom he called the 'bearer of the silver ticket', he proceeded to open another door, filled with artifacts of the most varied kinds. According to his instructions, the bearer of the ticket was allowed to take two of those as 'small' gifts.

Other than amazement and shock, the only thing Miwa could do was glancing at Vesemir with a rather suspicious look. While she didn't think he was dangerous in any way, she had a feeling he was hiding a lot of things.

Verdant's questions towards Arcan were very insightful, as it was his answer. Interestingly enough, Arcan seemed to be much more open about himself and his origins than Miwa thought. An Ancient Djinn in modern terms, The Warden for those who knew his true form. Despite his hospitable and amicable way of speaking, Miwa had a sneaking suspicion it was not a good idea to offend it.

"Mr. Arcan, we thank you for your hospitality. As the curator of this gallery, I assume you are well informed about the sinister powers that can be felt in some places... right?" Miwa asked, with a serious expression as she nodded her head back to the doors she and Verdant were investigating a moment ago.

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

The moment Miwa pulled back her hand, she noticed Verdant visibly withering, making Miwa let out an amused giggle. She only hesitated because she didn't know if Verdant would be offended or something. It was good to know she enjoyed pats. Next time Miwa would definitely make up for the headpats she didn't give now.

As soon as the matter of the treasure was dealt with, the group continued on their way, diving even deeper within the tortuous caves. Surprisingly not after too long since they resumed walking, the cave wall slowly began being replaced by ruins clearly made by an ancient civilization. To say they were sinister was quite the understatement. One didn't need to be spiritually sensitive or attuned to magical energies to realize there was something bad further inside the ruins, almost like a palpable feeling of apprehension. A feeling that there was something wrong.

What Miwa felt wasn't only the eerie, unnatural darkness. Beyond it she could definitely feel something undeniably evil and twisted.

"No... It's definitely not just foolish superstition... It's just as Verdant said. There is something wrong with these ruins... Something evil." Miwa said with very serious tone, agreeing with Verdant.

Fortunately, Jazdia seemed to also think it was a good idea to look for another entrance, unlike Vesemir, who seemed to be so excited about the possible discoveries they might make on those ruins that he failed to notice the danger in front of him.

Just as Jazdia said, they did indeed find another entrance to the vault, although it wasn't exactly more inviting than the previous one. Two skeletons guarded the entrance. Another armored knight and the other skeleton, hugging a strange scepter.

"There is definitely something evil in these ruins... These people did not have a peaceful death... far from it... If possible... and if we have the time, I would like to make a proper purification ritual and offer proper rites to those who died here." Miwa said, clearly affected by the state of the skeletons as she knelt down, examining them. The fact that there were signs that they died of both madness and desperation was especially disturbing.

"Such a horrible way to die..." Miwa said as she heard Verdant's words as she also investigated the long dead bodies.

"It's not that they couldn't leave... It's too much to be simple greed as well... This... madness might be caused by something in these ruins... Something that scepter is definitely linked to..." Miwa said as she heard Verdant.

While Miwa was definitely more drawn to the skeletons themselves, she did notice how she somehow ended up looking at the scepter at least twice without realizing, almost as if there was something attracting her eyes to it. Stepan though was the one that ended up alerting her that the feeling of being drawn to the scepter was more dangerous than she thought as his voice sounded from over her shoulder, asking if the scepter was made of gold, the tone of his voice almost making it look as if he was hypnotized by it.

Immediately upon perceiving that, Miwa stood up and gave a step away, raising her arm to stop Stepan from walking towards the scepter, should he try anything.

Fortunately, Jazdia quickly seemed to notice Stepan's state as well and proceeded to ask Fia to investigate it, who seemed to be strangely excited and unafraid of touching and examining a possibly cursed artifact.

"This scepter... It might be one of the reasons why these people died in such a way." Miwa said, nodding towards Fia in a reassuring way, knowing she was probably the most well qualified person in the group to deal with a dangerous magical artifact like that scepter.

"I have a feeling the devourers are the least of our worries..." Miwa muttered.

From the way those bodies died near the door and the scepter, Miwa was worried that whatever was inside that ruin was able to impair the judgment of those who failed to resist and slowly make them mad.

"Any kind of magical protection would be welcome. If my theory is correct... Whatever it is that is this sinister power, it is capable of messing with one's mind. Amplifying their greed, desires and fears until there is nothing but madness left. Think twice about every decision you are about to make and carefully consider if you are being affected by whatever is this power or not." Miwa said.

"It might just be me being a bit paranoid... But If I'm right... It's better to be safe than sorry." she completed, looking to Fia and especially to Mr. Elc. Although she did not say anything out loud, her stare made it more than clear that she was worried that if her hypothesis was true, Vesemir might prove to be particularly vulnerable seeing how excited he was about the ruins and the vault.

The moment Vesemir finally opened the strange door, Miwa felt a shiver run down her spine as she turned towards the corridor behind it. The feeling was the same from the dark room they met a while ago. A repulsive feeling of something dark, evil and twisted. The sensation only got stronger as they moved down the corridor, being at it's strongest when they reached the end, being met by two set of doors. A big, iron door in front of them and set of smaller doors in the western side. The iron door seemed to be properly locked and protected, bearing a socket similar to Vesemir's keycard. In the other hand, the smaller doors were simply kept closed by iron bars. Strangely enough, Miwa had a stronger reaction to the smaller doors than the big, iron one.

"The same feeling from the broken room is coming from the small doors... It's strong." Miwa said, before she began chanting in a low tone, grasping her spear, the Ama Matoi, with her left hand and gently tapping it into the ground, making the rings near the end chime as she kept her right hand raised at chest level, with her palm facing the left.

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

As soon as the curious Verdant heard Vesemir approving the small detour to check the treasure and Jazdia's directions, she immediately went ahead, not needing illumination thanks to her dark vision. Miwa couldn't help but let out a giggle for a brief moment as she saw the adorable Verdant scurrying ahead to find the treasure... Until she realized she was pretty much alone and immediately got a bit worried. Thankfully, Akari volunteered to send one of her clones as well... Whether she was worried about Verdant or also curious about the treasure was something Miwa didn't know... Although somehow she wasn't that comfortable with both Verdant and Akari's clone being alone in the dark in a rather dangerous place...

After Fia conjured a small ball of light to help Akari's clone, it set off, running. It didn't take long until one of her clones relayed the information that both she and Verdant had arrived on the treasure room. Regardless of the somewhat dubious first impressions Akari gave regarding how seriously she took her job, Miwa had to admit she was quite effective at her job.
With that said, the little joke Stepan let out and the following exchange with Akari didn't help make Miwa any more relaxed with the situation.

"You say your clones can be easily replaced... But that isn't true for little Verdant, is it?" Miwa said, a bit worried as she looked down the dark path Akari's clone set off running.

Fortunately, it didn't take long until an excited Verdant came back to the group, happily raising a chest above her head, making Miwa let out a relieved sigh, followed by a gentle smile.

"That's definitely good news. Especially because... you know... Chests in a dungeon... On most stories, things like these always come with either traps or ambushes. You should rely on us a bit more. Running head first towards a possibly dangerous situation is never a good idea." Miwa said, delicately lecturing Verdant.

"With that said, good job!" Miwa said, raising her hand as she instinctively went to pet Verdant, before quickly hesitating and pulling back, realizing what she was almost about to do.


"I must admit, these clones are very versatile. Almost scarily so. I assume spying and reconnaissance missions were one of the things you excel at, right?" Miwa said, praising Akari.

Rezello's words did raise an interesting point though.

"That is true... Considering what we know about these eyeless creatures, I don't think these creatures are intelligent enough to know the value of gold... Maybe they just went after something shiny? But if that was true, they would just be piled somewhere... Not neatly stored in a chest." Miwa said curiously.

The Envenomed: Military Science Fiction Deniable Operations

At that moment, Alice was grateful for the heavier caliber standard intransigence sidearms were issued with. While it was a bit harder to control, the impact was enough to quickly dispatch the puppeted corpses targeting Kleo in a explosion of foul smelling fluids, guts and flesh outwards, giving Kleo some space to recover herself.

"Focus on the big one, as much as possible!" Alice said, shooting once more at the center of the decapitated corpse that was still wildly swinging near Kleo, trying to hit her.

To say the smell was nauseating was quite the understatement. Fortunately, the adrenaline from the ambush made it barely noticeable as Alice continued shooting with all her might, focusing on the big creature once again as soon as she confirmed Kleo was out of immediate danger.

Thanks to King temporarily suppressing the puppeted corpses and Ilshar disrupting the signal of whatever was controlling those things, the group was able to continue focusing fire on the big creature, which proved to be incredibly resilient.

"How is this thing still standing??" Alice said, frustrated as she watched the creature still shambling, despite the heavy amount of concentrated fire it was taking, even from Echo's heavy weapons.

"We can't take the chance of another one of these creatures appear! As soon as we take it down, we need to trace the signal and eliminate the source as quickly as possible." Alice said in a serious tone, glancing towards Ilshar with a nod.

Her corrosive shot was indeed much more effective than the penetrating ones, immediately melting a sizeable chunk of flesh from the creature and gradually weakening the rest. That, coupled with the heavy fire it was taking from Echo, Salvator and Ilshar was finally enough to take it down.

Unfortunately for them, the assault seemed to be far from over. With the undead hulk down, the remaining corpses seemed to go on a frenzy, immediately going in a desperate sprint to take down their targets, even with King trying to suppress them. Three of the remaining corpse puppets jumped towards Kleo and Alice from behind them with frightening speed and ferocity.

With two of them, including the shielded one, targeting Kleo and the remaining one charging towards Alice herself, there was not enough time to take a shot at all three and even if she decided to shoot the one that was charging at her, it was likely it would still be able to wound her. Without much choice, Alice reflexively let out a powerful wave of ether towards the three puppets. Even if it wasn't lethal, the powerful blunt force behind the ether wave would hopefully be enough to send them flying away.

Normally just one ether wave would be far from enough to make Alice feel anything, especially due to her higher tolerance to qillatu.

Unfortunately, due to the place they were in being already very saturated with qillatu thanks to all the corpses and the hulk, the buildup definitely affected Alice, making her stumble and almost fall on the ground, dizzy as she felt her vision spinning in a disorientating manner.

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

Miwa heard the explanation the masked elf gave about the creatures in silence. While the news weren't all that good, it was still a bit comforting knowing their group had enough knowledge about the creatures to know how to at least avoid a bigger conflict with them. As he said, the best approach was to not find themselves in a position where they would need to use a bright flash of light to escape. Truly those were troublesome creatures. Acting in any way that would make them swarm would be a fatal mistake.

"Even if it was something that happened only once... I can't even imagine the despair these people must have felt in their last moments... I can only hope my brief but sincere prayers will be able to bring some peace to their spirits." Miwa said with a sad, solemn expression as she heard Elc's words.

"Even if these creatures aren't intelligent, something must have triggered them to act in such a way. Similar to how locusts to swarm and go into a feeding frenzy... Perhaps it was the same thing that caused the town's disappearance? The few who escaped were caught by a different type of disaster..." Miwa theorized.

"Regarding their senses, if Verdant's theory proves true, then having just enough light to illuminate our path seems to be the key to remaining 'invisible' to their eyes and avoiding bumping into them. Too much or too little and we're definitely getting caught." Miwa said, thinking.

Stopping in a bifurcation of the path they were walking, Jazdia mentioned once again the treasure she had detected earlier. While her priority was definitely keeping the group safe, especially after being hired, sending a bit of that treasure back to the temple would be quite nice as well...

"I see no problems in making a small detour, should you guys want to check the treasure." Miwa said, looking at the group, especially after hearing Fia's willingness to go.

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

As the creature stopped sniffing and continued on it's way along with the rest of the others, Miwa let out a sigh of relief as her grip on her weapon relaxed a bit. Glancing at the rest of the group, Miwa gave a reassuring nod towards Akari, having noticed her clones before they camouflaged themselves and her apparent worry about Miwa herself.

"Fighting against those creatures in the dark is definitely a bad idea." Miwa replied as she heard the exchange between Elc and Jazdia.

"Mr. Elc, would you happen to know if these creatures have a particularly keen sight or they use mostly hearing and smell to orientate themselves? Should we find ourselves in a... difficult situation where fighting shows itself to not be the best option... Exploiting their keen senses might be a very good idea. Be it a flash of bright light or a particularly loud noise with a high frequency..." Miwa said, thinking for a moment. Almost as if confirming her worries, the path they walked soon became littered with bones from many different sizes. In moments like these, Miwa could definitely appreciate the presence of someone like Elc and Jazdia in the group. Knowledge, both about the creatures and the terrain was definitely invaluable to the group in such situations.

"Gods... There are probably children among these bones... To die in such a place... Without even receiving a proper burial..." Miwa said with a saddened expression as she passed by a relatively small skull as she stopped for a moment, offering a small prayer for the deceased before she continued.

"What exactly happened here... Were they purposely corralled into these caves and cornered by the creatures? If they are smart enough to employ such tactics, we should be very careful..." Miwa suggested now even more alert, carefully watching her surroundings as they moved.

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

As Miwa followed Vesemir, Elc and the rest of the party inside the tunnels, she couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. The combination of a dark, sinuous and narrow tunnel wasn't one that Miwa particularly liked. Ambushes were also quite likely to occur in such places. Fortunately, despite Miwa's combat style, her weapon could still be used quite effectively in a more defensive stance despite the narrow tunnels. Of course her moves would be heavily restricted but simplicity and efficiency were paramount in a place like the tunnels they were and for situations like these, the tried and true shield and poke was the best option.

"This place makes my skin crawl... The idea of being ambushed in these dark and narrow tunnels isn't very appealing... We're not getting lost here, right?" Miwa said, a bit nervous as she continued walking with the group, keeping her weapon in hand.

Fortunately, Jazdia did seem quite confident as she lead them through the tunnels, which tranquilized Miwa a bit, especially knowing what Jazdia's powers were capable of.

The moment Jazdia rose her hand telling the group to hold, Miwa gave a few steps forward, standing in the front of the group near Jazdia as she looked around, tense. Soon the reason for Jazdia's warning became clear as a group of six devourers passed by through the tunnel just next to them. One of which, stopped just near the opening between both tunnels sniffing the air.

While Miwa wasn't expecting the tunnels to be empty, encountering not two, but six devourers was a good indication that there were probably much more creatures living inside than they might have anticipated.

Tightening her grip on her weapon and readying herself, Miwa held her breath, waiting. Should the creature show any signal of noticing them, she was ready to jump in with a violent thrust.

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

Despite the initial argument between Elc and Vesemir, there were no changes to the plan at all. Miwa just hoped there wasn't any kind of resentment or lingering animosity between both of them after that small discussion.

"Oh, no need to worry about me. I am ready whenever you all are." Miwa replied with a reassuring smile.

Exactly after an hour, they started making their way to the aforementioned library, led by Vesemir. Stopping as they arrived in a very rough, mountainous region. Fortunately, they would be spared the effort of having to climb and painstakingly go through the gorge as according to Vesemir, the entrance should be relatively close by... Marked by the armored remains of a long dead knight.

"Curious choice of landmark to inform the correct way... I mean... It's not like it can't be moved, right?" Miwa asked curiously.

Apparently, Jazdia too did found the dead man to be a weird landmark to serve as confirmation that they were in the correct path, but other than pure curiosity, she seemed to be a bit suspicious about it, proceeding to ask Vesemir about how he knew all that.

"True. Competent or not, every expedition, successful or not, brings back some information... As long as there are survivors to report back... Although it would be nice if they at least had the decency to not leave people behind..." Miwa said with a heavy sigh, clearly referring to her previous contractors. Thinking about it now, while her last group was undeniably incompetent and cowardly, there was still a point in coming back alive to report.

Both Vesemir and Stepan had valid points regarding the fallen knight. A rescue mission, especially in a place as unknown and dangerous as the Land of Twilight was just... a horrible idea... The chances of even more people dying wasn't low. At the same time, just leaving the knight there to rot and not even offering him a proper burial was still not right.

While Stepan and Vesemir continued to discuss if a rescue mission would be possible or not in that case, Miwa noticed as Jazdia began scanning the terrain with her magic. Most importantly, she noticed how taxing it was for her to use her power, needing Eblana's help to even stay up after she was done.

"Perhaps it would be wise not to use Jazdia's powers unless strictly necessary..." Miwa suggested, looking at Jazdia with a worried expression.

As Rezello kneeled besides the dead knight and began digging a hole to bury it, she silently approached, offering a brief prayer in a solemn tone as Rezello finished digging and burying the knight, giving a comforting nod to him before both of them went towards the cave that Jazdia found a few moments earlier.

Duplicitous Ruins in the Land of Twilight

Despite Jazdia's rather dark words, Miwa simply offered a kind, reassuring smile back to her as she thanked Miwa for her words and said she shouldn't risk herself for something Jazdia thought as being 'her own burden' to carry. Despite how different the Shirakwa temple was from other more common temples in the far east, it was still a temple and one of it's main reasons for existing was protecting innocent people and helping them whenever possible, something Miwa herself not only respected but also believed.

Turning her attention back at Akari, Miwa couldn't help but sigh as she heard her reasoning. Even though it might allow her to move freely, there was still the matter of decency.

"The same argument could be made for simply going in naked, couldn't it? And still it's clearly not a good idea. Not only regarding decency and decorum, but also the problems you would get yourself into by exposing yourself like that to other people! Especially other men! Besides, even if it's simply a thin layer of clothing, it still offers some protection. Do you know what might be into this water you're swimming? Parasites, leeches, who knows?!" Miwa continued, sighing as she explained her reasoning to Akira, despite her continuing to flaunt herself.

At that moment Rezello approached them, much to Miwa's surprise and simply praised Akira as he grabbed the bucket with the fishes she caught and took it back to the camp, immediately starting to clean and preparing them.

"Okay, Rezello and maybe Degel might be the exception, but still! Not every man is as composed and serious as they are! Poor Mr. Elc was incredibly flustered when he came to assist you! He didn't even know where to look at!" Miwa said, shaking her head in disappointment.

"Just... be mindful of your surroundings when doing something like this." she completed, sighing as she walked back towards the camp, just in time to catch the very end of a discussion Mr. Elc and Vesemir were having.

"Change of plans?" Miwa asked, approaching both of them, having only overheard the last phrase Vesemir said, something about another possible route they could follow.