The staircase was long, and the tunnel was filled with torches on each wall. It felt very eerie; Azaworth and Alphiues stuck close together as they moved down the staircase. Azaworth opened the map UI in his mind again, and suddenly, the map design changed, but still showed the two dots in different areas of the map.
Alphiues kept following behind, but sometimes turned his back every once in a while, likely to make sure that nothing was following us.
"Hey, Azaworth. Do you have someone you're close to, from where you were back then?"
Azaworth heard what was said and thought about it for a bit while walking and checking the map.
"Well, I do have a younger sister, although she is crippled and being taken care of by a kind lady."
"A sister? Must be nice to have a sibling, isn't it?"
Azaworth smiled to himself.
"Yeah, it is."
Hearing this, Alphiues smiled, and they continued to wander down the staircase.
-------------------------------------
As they reached the bottom, there were many tunnels which led to different hallways. Checking the map once again, they headed for the left tunnel and wandered through. The hallways were a bit dark, and the cobblestone wall were not taken care of, and looked like it was about to crumble.
As they continued moving, Azaworth kept feeling a chill down his spine, including Alphiues. They both look around and yet, nothing. The walls were filled with webs and growing vines from the outside that was crippling in. Each minute passed by and frequently, they could hear the sound of the same roar from above, and at the same time as the roar, the ground trembled beneath.
Azaworth ponders for a bit on what type of creature this is that is still alive on the surface, but it is certain that he doesn't want to ever go fight against that creature.
Soon enough, they arrived at the final destination of the location. And what stood in front of them was a old wooden door that was large. Azaworth breathed in slowly, before slowly opening the door.
They walked in, the room was filled with torches in the whole room. Inside, it would look like the area was a large circle dome. Azaworth looked around and the drawing on the wall caught his eyes as he went closer and Alphiues followed behind.
Looking at the drawing from the walls, it looked very confusing to Azaworth as different drawing showed different thing.
"It's a scene that matches with one another."
Azaworth heard Alphiues word, and looked back again, and turns out it was true. Each scene depicted something on the walls and different action, as if it was a story of some kind.
Azaworth and Alphiues looked at each drawing scene, but it was difficult to decipher what it truly means all together, as some drawing show celebration while some depicted battles whether it be individual fight or a war. It made it even more confusing as they didn't know which one was the beginning nor which one is the end.
They kept exploring, but most importantly to Azaworth, was to find the location of whatever the thing was to help him escape this forsaken realm. As they walk in circle, Alphiues noticed something in the middle of the dome.
At the middle, lays a crystal ruby gem that is imbedded into the ground. Curious, Alphiues look at it for a while, and slowly put his hand on the ruby gem that is shaped like a sphere. It was hard and cold, yet soothing, and before long, Alphiues felt something and smiled gently.
After moving his hand away from the ruby gem, suddenly, rumbling started and was shaking the whole dome, which caused Azaworth and Alphiues to be confused. Soon, the shaking gotten intense that both fell to the ground and slowly crawled to each other.
Azaworth looked around, and in surprised started to see the dome walls started cracking. Soon enough, the ruby that was in the middle began to rise up slowly, as a pillar held it upwards, and it caught the attention of Alphiues and Azaworth.
The pillar that held the ruby sphere had multiple roots that was growing and stone carvings were covered by the roots which made it unable to see the full carving of the stone. Soon, the dome started shifting from left and right at the same time in randomness and it caused a bit more stone to fall out in a rapid pace.
Alphiues was quick to pick up something from the madness that was happening and see that each stones are fitting right to each other, as if it not random. Soon enough, the Ruby gem shined brightly, and suddenly, both Azaworth and Alphies could felt as if they were moving up. During the changes, the ground also changed, and a hole was made on the ground which caused both Azaworth and Alphiues to fall through.
'What the hell?!'
Azaworth screamed in his head as suddenly, they were falling from the sky, one minutes they were being lifted up, the next, suddenly falling. And azaworth thought to himself while falling.
'How the hell did we get up in the sky in 1 minute?!'
Alphiues grabbed Azaworth hand which caused him to stop thinking about the previous thoguhts, and Alphiues grab onto a root that was hanging from something. Slowly, Alphiues used his remaining strength left to threw Azaworth up onto the root. Azaworth flew up a bit before landing on his back on the root and yelp in pain. After a bit of getting up, he helped Alphiues up and they both pant heavily.
"Just...what the hell is going on now?"
Azaworth looked around and see they were very high up in the air, he wasn't sure how many distance, but it surely, they were very high. Soon, stomping noises were heard and both of them flew back into a wooden bark, Azaworth managed to catch Alphiues, but the impact knocked a bit of wind out of Azaworth, after a bit, he managed to recover.
"Ah! Sorry about that!"
Alphiues panic a bit before Azaworth waved his hand to signal an 'okay' sign and Alphiues sighed of relief. Soon, Azaworth felt something, a mystical force on whatever this thing was, and he thought to himself to what they were both riding on and how it was related to the key to escaping this realm.
Azaworth took a peek from the large bark behind them, and what he saw, caused him to stumbled back. Alphiues, curious and worried to what Azaworth had seen, wanted to check out too. He looked at the same thing that Azaworth saw, and he too was shocked. And something in the distance began to roar.
The roaring sound that was made earlier came from a huge beast that is likely the same height as the thing that Azaworth and Alphiues is riding on, and it had the head of that stretch from a long distance forward, and it had what it seem like dozen of mini sharp teeth and was blinded on on eye. It skin was filed with scale and had arms that that resembled fins and had claws that could likely rip out something big.
Azaworth quickly snapped out of his analyzing thinking and looked for the key to get out of this situation. But as he looked up, he saw a face on the thing they're riding on. It had a mask that was very ancient like, and it looked as if it was a guardian of some kind. That when everything suddenly clicked in his head.
'So this hunk of roots and stone is a guardian of this Oasis!'
Azaworth could see it from the many evidence as when things were getting bad in the city, it seems like this thing activated as a form of defense mechanism to now combat against the beast that faced against the Oasis. But that was the least of importance now as Azaworth needed to find whatever the thing is to get out of this realm quickly before this guardian and beast clashed with one another.