Jay stood in the back of the prison cell for his own safety; blue orb in one hand, deathwalker’s sentry in the other, as he peered from behind his skeletons into the darkness.
The marching sounds grew closer until finally it sounded as if they were just outside the cell.
*Throosh~* a spear suddenly pierced through the veil, sending a skeleton flying right into Jay and knocking him down for a moment.
“Ah~” Jay let out a gasp, pushing the skeleton off him as he got up.
Another spear followed shortly after, but didn’t connect with any targets.
“Back up to the wall.” he commanded his skeletons “If the spear can’t reach or hit us, maybe the statues will open the cage…” he squinted as more spears pierced into the cell.
Strangely, the veil wasn’t breaking as the spears passed through. It was like a liquid when the spears went through it, and after the spears left again, the veil reformed itself resulting in no holes.
Waiting for a moment as the spears harmlessly pierced the air in front of them, Jay was getting impatient.
“When is it going to open… or is it even going to open?”
“Maybe I will need to just leave the dungeon…” he said with a regretful half-smile.
After waiting a while, the fibre-curtain still didn’t open - though the sounds coming from the other side began to change.
Swings and thrusts of spears sounded from behind the veil, yet no spears thrusts came through.
A clang of a hammer rang every so often. Clearly, a fight was happening behind the veil.
“What the hell is happening out there…” To Jay, it sounded like a one-sided slaughter.
“Interesting…” he continued to squint as he listened, trying to understand what was going on from the sounds he was hearing.
In hardly any time at all, the spears stopped piercing the veil and there was almost complete silence coming from the other side - except for a distinct single pair of footsteps.
Similar to the stone statues, they sounded like they had weight behind each step - but the sound was more like a fine shoe or high heels as opposed to a heavy boot thudding noise.
“Hello?” Jay called out one more time, anticipating meeting a bigger threat, he was ready to leave the dungeon.
A voice sounded from behind the veil. It was the ghostly-sounding voice of an older woman.
“Hello young one. Fear not, the statues are gone. You may approach.”
Jay didn’t take a single step forward, and stared blankly at the veil as if to say “I’m not an idiot.”
Stepping forward would just make him a sitting duck.
“Cautious. Good.” the woman’s voice continued, “Young one, I see you are like us… at least some of us.”
Jay tilted his head to the side, still squinting from suspicion.
“I sense immortality in you; we still have our minds intact. Some of these men… the statues… they were hastily formed, a weak seal slowly leaking over time. This is as simple as I can describe it. For these ones, much of what they do is simply instinctual, having forgotten that they too were once human; relics of their former selves.”
“Most humans forget that they’re human too.” Jay retorted with a single shoulder shrug, a glimmer of wisdom in his eyes.
“Hmmh,” the voice seemed to chuckle in its own way. “This trap was not meant for you, let me open it.”
Jay patiently waited a moment as the tiny fibres of the veil all retracted into the wall with a paper-tearing noise.
Seeing what was on the other side, he subconsciously backed up for a moment - hitting the wall and raising his shield.
Before him stood the statue of a slender tall woman, it was a head higher than the statues he had been fighting and much more imposing.
The armour seemed like a light armour variant yet with detailed engravings, giving off a sense of royalty.
In its hand was a large spear whose blade was tipped with black material. “Probably the same invulnerable type of material as the dungeon.” thought Jay.
The spear had a hammer built into the blade further down from the spearhead, similar to a halberd.
It was a two handed spear, but this statue obviously could use it one-handed as well, as the other hand of the statue had a stone hand which ended in long black claws.
The face of the statue was covered with a black mask, though Jay could tell that it wasn’t moving it’s mouth when it spoke.
Jay stood in admiration of the magnificent creation before him - until it moved and he recomposed himself.
Gripping his hammer a little more tightly in case it would attack, the statue responded by speaking gently.
“Fear not, young one.” a blue orb resonated as the voice spoke, a light coming from the throat of the statue. “I won’t harm you; no. I need your help.”
Jay was still distrusting of the statue, but he decided to entertain its conversation; still ready to leave the dungeon at a moment’s notice. For some reason, the statue had a voice similar to margaret; gentle and caring.
“...” Jay was silent as he had his skeletons stand between him and the female statue, waiting till they got in position before he spoke.
“What kind of help? And what’s in it for me? And who was the trap for, if not for me?”
“Come to a safer place so we may discuss it.” The statue turned and began walking into the darkness.
Jay hesitated before walking out of the prison cell. Stepping out, he was shocked at how much stone soldier statue rubble was lying around.
Only three spears could pierce into the cell because the statues were large when they stood side by side, but outside, Jay counted approximately 6 swords and 5 spears as he walked after the slender female statue.
Of course as he walked, he covertly collected as many of the helvetian rings and empty soulstones as he could; 9 rings and 14 stones.
Unlike the pyramid above, this was more like a catacomb of sorts; there were many twists, turns, a bridge, rooms with pillars, and part of the trip was simply walking in darkness.
This confirmed to Jay that the pyramids were bigger on the inside. It was like a dungeon within a dungeon.
At one point, a stone soldier statue crossed their path - but the female statue effortlessly destroyed its head with a single swing of its hammer-spear.
Jay gripped his shield a little more firmly as he saw this, but didn’t let his fear show before the statue.
After some time of following, the statue spoke again as they came to a wall. It seemed like a completely flat, innocuous wall until it moved.
“We’re here, young one.” The wall slid down slowly with a grinding stone sound, and inside was what seemed like a banquet hall made purely from black obsidian.
At the end of a large black slab table was a small throne, which is where the statue went to sit down after it laid its weapon down directly onto the table.
Behind the throne was some diamond shaped blocks of obsidian of different shapes and sizes, though it wasn’t apparent what these were for.
Jay followed the statues example and took a seat at the table while his skeletons stood behind him.
“So… where do I start…” The statue seemed like it was deep in thought from its voice - of course, its expression hadn’t changed; its stone face was hidden behind a black mask.
