Spirit Taming

"And there are like five dead things..." Grace was looking back at the entrance and debating if she should just leave. She might rather stay with Isa and Reese guarding the entrance than have to meet more dried out dead bodies. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"I know it’s not good to see dead things, but can’t you be over that yet? There are always dead beasts where we battle." Brad looked over at Grace like he was looking at an adult who had decided to pretend they were a child. Naturally, Grace just huffed and ignored him.

"You two shouldn’t be getting like that. We haven’t even entered the temple yet." Ella reprimanded them before she held the torch higher. She effectively became the torch holder for the entire group. Mostly because she was the one that needed to keep her eyes open for new information. She had to know more!

"There are about seven of them. All of them look like they died right here trying to get to, no, they were the ones that collapsed the entrance." Maria was pointing at two of them that were clearly killed from behind and had landed in a position nearby the start of the collapsed stone.

"If they did it, then whatever beast they were locking in here must have been trapped and killed by doing so. But to think that they all died... Do you think anyone would know about all this other than us?" Jerold felt bad to be seeing such things.

When everyone thought about it, this was something that they all felt badly about. The ancient elves had literally pushed away their own people. Sent them to an unknown world with unknown beasts and dungeons. Then those people had been fighting for their lives to return and fight for themselves.

Yet, here their bodies were. Those ancient elves had been lost to time. Their names, their stories, and everything about them but their bodies had been lost. Regardless of their desires to return to their home, they had been living and breathing sentient beings. With emotions that pushed them to live no matter what.

The somber atmosphere made the group feel even worse seeing that most had perished beside their spirit beasts. Yet, Clark quickly focused on the walls that were illuminated. Some of the stone had clearly begun to melt a little. That meant that the heat from whatever light beast had caused the ancient elve’s deaths, was strong enough to potentially melt stone.

"It looks like there was a very large fight here. Hut you can see that there are claw marks. Like something carried a heavy weight away from this palace. Away from the entrance." Ella quickly pointed out the claw marks.

These were not cuts or scratches. They were from powerful force being put on something or a powerful weight that was being carried which caused a beast’s claws to sink down more in to the stone. Since the stone was still intact on the floor, it was proof of the weight or strength being very great.

"So whatever had made these was under a lot of stress. I would not mock whatever beast might still be here. If it survived, it has been many years. The blood stains here are part of the stone now." Ella’s evaluation was a warning. A powerful beast that survived this long would be a massive danger to all of them. Especially since they had no knowledge of what ancient beasts might be here.

The group pushed onward. The fallen pillars were not the same as they moved. Gradually, the broken stone was shown to be less and less damaged. Only small portions of the walls or pillars were broken. This showed them the strength of the beasts that fought in a battle here.

"Bless you, oh soldier of elves. May you find your way though the light and in to the true home waiting us in the greater forest. The green may be where we are born, but the light is what nourishes us."

"Is that what this central pillar says?" Ella perked up when Clark read this out loud. The others noticed many more phrases in the ancient elven language to have been carved here and there. The entire large pillar they had come to proved to be more than just that too.

"It also says that the staircase behind it will bring it up to the sleeping quarters. Then downward is where they meet with their king of light. I have a feeling that all these things come together." Clark had held a few things back. The large pillar said more than that.

What he read was a plan. The plan that these ancient elves had come up with when they wanted to get home no matter the cost.

When some people entered a dungeon, they experienced a flash of light. This was mostly because of what humans had believed to be the oddities of different energies affecting their bodies. Some thought it to be the unique space energy that influenced them.

However, it was thought of by the ancient elves as a key. Light was thought of as a purifying thing for many races. These rare light beasts were often thought of as close to some gods or powerful beings that created and destroyed the world. Regardless, that false and uneducated belief system led to many tales of killing dark type beasts with light type beasts or blessed healers becoming famous regardless of their personality or actions.

Therefore, when Clark read similar thoughts, he understood that the ancient elves were the same. But nowadays, they believed in nature and the balance between it and them. They were literally entangled with it at a racial level in their home forests. That was why this group of elves must have been exiled.

Yet, this belief in light and their light king with his light type beast must have been the issue here. A fanatic belief that allowed the ancient elves to grow. Their plan to use light as a portal or teleportation to return and fight the one that had defeated them. This insanity was what drove them for survival more than anything.

These things were all over the pillar and the walls. Even the floor had ravings about the blessed light that could cleanse even the negative feelings and pain others felt. It made Clark’s stomach feel unsettled to know that even in the worst of things, these ancient elves had been so driven by their ideals that they were willing to eradicate others with the power they thought of as the purest.

What he also saw was that some of these phrases and random carvings were about the plan to absorb a month’s worth of light energy from the jingle they had cut down around them by growing larger vines. It explained the drunken grapes and why they were everywhere.

This would also mean that this temple was out in the open, a perfect target for beasts to attack. Therefore, they had made the flat lower walls that only they knew how to climb to prevent the attacks or at least slow the beasts down.

Then they had the light bathing the temple all day. Enough for whatever light beast to absorb a massive amount of light. The only question that Clark was left with was what everyone would expect.

"What went wrong that caused them to realize that they had to trap their great light beast inside no matter what?" Clark said this out loud and quickly realized that the rest of the group had made their way up the staircase behind the large central pillar.

Naturally, they questioned the sleeping area of the ancient elves. Since they had yet to see a beast, they also figured they should take advantage of such luck and keep exploring more.

Feeling like he was being left behind, Clark looked down the stairs and wondered if he should take the chance to head down without the others. He might be able to see more things that would allow him to finish the quest faster. Unfortunately, the system had not said it would give him a reward of the others explored for him. Therefore, he had to stick with them and explore as well so that when they wished to head down, it would not be wasted time.

"Stop looking at the downstairs like that. We want to check the sleeping area you mentioned since that’s where they might have left tools, clothes, really anything that the ancient elves might have had." Maria saw Clark’s curiosity and snapped at him a little to make him move. She also felt that he might just run off on his own again without saying anything like the last time.

"I am coming. I just wanted to think about how much this temple has to explore. It’s almost like a pyramid but it’s not really one. The stone had to have been brought here from somewhere. I think that the lower floor is partially underground. Same place they got the ores to add metal in their construction." Maria bought that explanation but still grabbed his hand and dragged him upwards.