//Damn it! Sorry guys, I've just been so swamped with schoolwork and stuff these past weeks, I haven't had time for DAL. However, I did manage to write one post. I'll be posting a lot more this weekend, you can count on that.\
“…Sir?”
Carmine had turned his attention to the howling of a wolf amongst the Glacia mountains, only to turn around and see de Sade absent.
“Hello? Sir? Where are you?”
No reply.
“He’s always doing this, I’m sure he’ll be back.”
Twenty minutes later, still no sign of the Lilithian.
“Oh dear,” Carmine sighed. “Seems he’s vanished into thin air! I must tell Damien Roth immediately!”
Through a fissure in the rock below, he saw the silhouettes of Alex and Midna.
“De Sade would want me to finish his work, but those two are just too powerful. I should return to Asgarnia and request reinforcements!”
Turning around on the heels of his feet, he began dashing back towards the thousand-foot tall Asgarnian Citadel that lay in the distance.
The two Twili found themselves probing deep into Glacia’s depths through the complex network of mining tunnels that honeycombed them.
“So why are we heading further into the mines?” Midna complained.
“We promised Barnes we could ensure that the tunnels up ahead haven’t collapsed.”
“Alex, we don’t have time for this! De Sade could already have beaten us to the next page, and here we are wasting time clearing rocks!”
“Relax. Like he knows where it is.”
“Do you?”
Finally defeated, Alex sighed. “Not really, but I have a good feeling.”
“Oh, really?” Midna turned towards him, hands on her hips. “Where?”
“I could swear I feel something within these tunnels…”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the page…it could be some other residual aura you might be picking up. How can you be sure it’s the page?”
“It’s the same feeling I’ve gotten picking up the last few pages. It’s down below, I can feel it.”
“If you say so,” Midna said, rolling her exposed eye. “I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
“If I didn’t know what I was doing, would we be this far?”
Midna had talked herself into a corner. “Well, I suppose not. You’ve proven yourself to be a pretty formidable fighter…”
A sound echoed within the cave.
“Did you hear that?” Alex asked.
“The dwarves are probably blasting again,” Midna replied.
“No, this is different. It didn’t sound like an explosion, but more like--”
Without warning, the rocks under Alex’s feet gave way, sending him plunging down into the mountain depths. With a sharp scream he fell and hit the cave floor some fifty feet below. Midna, floating this whole time, simply descended into the hole.
“Alex, are you okay?”
Alex picked himself up, rubbing his back. “Yeah,” he grunted. “I’m fine. What happened?”
“Seems the rocks collapsed under your weight. It’s not a total loss. You said the aura came from below anyway.”
“True…true…”
Finally turning his head up from the ground, he saw off in the distance something that caught his eye. For a minute he stared at it in awe. “What is that?” he asked, pointing in the direction he was looking.
Midna turned her eyes towards where he pointed, and also stared in awe.
What they saw was a geological impossibility. This deep below the mountains there was an enormous open cavern, spanning at least a mile wide, a thousand feet up, and a thousand down. A rocky bridge connected the outer rim of the cavern to the center, which housed a huge flat spire of rock protruding up from the floor a thousand feet below. On this spire sat a temple.
“Holy…” Alex gasped. “What is this place?”
“If I remember correctly, it’s the most holy, or in this case, unholy, temple of the Nightshade people. They were a reclusive race that shunned the daylight, never venturing above the surface, keeping to themselves.”
“Why unholy?”
“As a race that could not live with sunlight, their desires turned their prayers to the dark gods of the underworld. The Nightshade, thousands of years ago, waged a holy war on the dwarves, who had recently moved from above ground.”
“What happened to the Nightshade?”
“They died out, probably because of their defeat at the hands of the dwarves. That’s not to say that the dwarves also suffered heavy losses, though. Nightshade technology is some of the most advanced in the world, and few people have ever found any relics proving so.”
“I’m definitely feeling it now. The fourth page MUST be in there.”
“You want to go in there? No telling how dangerous it’ll be.”
“Why? You said they were extinct anyway. What’s the worry?”
“The Nightshade, in their twilight hours, were terrified of any outsiders getting hold of their technology who were intent on destruction. Nightshade beliefs hold that if the underworld gods are appeased, they will be resurrected to rule another day. The Nightshade did not want to take any risks that would prevent that from happening. The Nightshade people were masterminds of engineering, they could secure anything within or behind some deadly trap or puzzle. Chances are that temple is trapped from top to bottom. If you wanted that page, you would be in for some challenges. Still up to it?”
“I made a vow to your people, Midna,” Alex replied. “I’m not going back on it now because of a few traps. Plus, de Sade and his little soldier friend seem to be leaving us alone for now. We might as well take advantage of this window while we can.”
“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Trust me, I’ve faced worse.”
Without another word from either, they proceeded onward to the Nightshade temple.
