Jeze made it across the wide chamber to the opposite door. The stairwell was to her left, where she heard the Howlers coming from below. To her right were piles of rubble from an ancient collapse. Jeze stopped by the door and found the Rune trap. It was the same as the floor below, and she retrieved her stick and resin.
"Hurry up!" Ziplocke exclaimed.
"Don''t rush me," Jeze replied.
If she made a mistake, that would trigger the trap. She needed complete focus in order to insert her Will and disrupt the Rune pattern. It took her twenty minutes, but for the Goblin, it felt like hours. Ziplocke chewed his nails as he started nervously at the stairwell.
"Yes! Now to pick the lock," Jeze said.
The Goblin ducked behind her leg when he heard a loud shriek from the stairwell.
Were they coming up now? Jeze wondered and paused to listen. Clawed feet scraped the steps and grew louder. Ziplocke shivered from the impending doom. Jeze had to decide whether to continue with the lock or run back and hide. It was the danger that thrilled her.
"We are going to die," Ziplocke muttered.
Click! Jeze unlocked the door as they heard the Howlers clambering up the flight of stairs. The two hurried inside, closed the door, and slumped against the wall as their hearts raced. They heard no sounds and found themselves in another hallway with a slanted wall. One end was filled with rubble, and the other was a door.
"That''s easy," Jeze said and made her way toward the only visible exit.
"We can''t just take a moment to rest?" Ziplocke gasped.
Jeze studied the door for traps.
"We almost died," the Goblin added.
"You don''t know that," Jeze replied as she Summoned dirt.
"If they entered the chamber, we would have been outnumbered with no escape!" Ziplocke cried.
Jeze Shaped the dirt to stone and paused. "How did you manage the Spire?"
Ziplocke appeared too cowardly for one to have attempted a quest that required, at minimum, an Adventurer rank to enter. Her brother wrote that one should be at the Adept level to pass the fifth floor, and the only known person to have defeated the tower was Hero ranked. It was Jeze''s rookie estimation that the pyramid they explored was Initiate rank at best. Unless the monsters down the stairs were anything greater than Howlers. That should be fun! She thought.
Ziplocke slumped his tiny frame against the wall beside Jeze. "Why did I agree to this?" He muttered.
Jeze Shaped the stone into a thin steel pin and worked on the lock. She chewed her lip as she worked with focus.
"I suppose I have what human healers call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," Ziplocke finally answered.
"Then why accept the summons?" Jeze asked when she unlocked the door.
"On the Abyssal plane, us Goblins are constantly running and hiding to survive," the Goblin explained.
"So, this should be nothing for you," Jeze observed as she picked up the glowing globe from the floor.
"Not exactly," Ziplocke stated.
Jeze paused her hand from opening the door. "Huh?"
"Look, Jeze. I am typically summoned by an experienced Adventurer with a team."
"We will find one when we head to the Iron Fist Kingdom."
"I''m not so sure," Ziplocke said quietly.
"Then why did you agree to our contract?" Jeze asked.
Ziplocke scratched his bald green head. "I honestly thought I could run away and live free on this plane."
"You were telling the truth about that!" Jeze exclaimed, her eyes wide.
Ziplocke shrugged his small shoulders.
"That is too funny!" Jeze said with rich laughter.
"Not really," Ziplocke muttered.
The Goblin perked up when he was given a spoonful of paste. Jeze was confident that her skills would get her noticed and invited to an elite team. She opened the door, and excitement bubbled up in her chest. They found a workshop!
"Now we can get some answers! Hah! I bet Daverius missed this room. I bet that meathead just stormed down the stairs to fight whatever is down there," Jeze exclaimed.
The young teenager grabbed Ziplocke, who gave a yelp, and spun him around as if they were at a royal dance.
"Put me down, you knucklehead!" The Goblin snapped.
The workshop was a rectangular room about the size of the barracks they encountered earlier. Instead of weapon racks and cots, this room consisted of workbenches and bookshelves. The tables held tools and dismantled globes, and the whole room was covered in dust and cobwebs.
"I knew it!" Jeze exclaimed.
The teenage Initiate pointed to an iron cage in the corner with an iron helm suspended in the air inside. Jeze suspected that there was a connection between the two. The cage door was closed with a sconce in front. Jeze retrieved her globe.
"Hold up!" Ziplocke cautioned.
"What? We have a working cage now. Let''s see what it Summons," Jeze said as she walked over.
"Are you mad?!? There are so many things that could go wrong. One that is our only light source." Ziplocke pointed out.
"Oh," Jeze replied and tapped her chin.
She looked at the workbenches with dismantled spheres. She found one that was fully intact and used her Fire channeling tool to activate it.
"Now we have two light sources," she said.
"Okay, but whatever comes out of that cage may not be friendly to us," Ziplocke added.
"It is clearly a guardian of the pyramid. It could help us clear out the Howlers downstairs," Jeze observed.
"It could also view us as intruders and ''clear'' us," Ziplocke said and made air quotes with his fingers.
"I think it would help us since we will be activating it, and we can not clear the lower floor by ourselves."
"Why do we even need to clear the lower floor?"
"To find out what my brother discovered. He said he had it on ''good authority'' that the prize of immortality was a lie. A myth, and I think he found that downstairs," Jeze answered.
"Maybe you can find that here, where we do not need to fight a horde of demons," Ziplocke suggested.
The Goblin gestured toward the tables and shelves. Jeze glanced around the room and saw the piles of scrolls and tomes. Her eyes went wide. Ziplocke may be right. This was a massive treasure trove of information and knowledge. Whoever built this pyramid was advanced in magic and here could lie all the potential secrets they held. The scholar inside her was ecstatic, and she went to research like a redirected puppy.
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"I will never accept a contract with a teenager again," Ziplocke muttered.
The two leaned over a table and poured through the tomes and scrolls. To Jeze''s dismay, many of the parchments were rotted and illegible. Even the pages that she was able to read were written in an old language and were hard to understand. Some of the letters were familiar, but others were not.
"Do you understand this?" Jeze asked and slapped her hand on the table in frustration.
"A little. Some of the letters are used in Abyssal, but their meanings are different," Ziplocke said.
The Goblin''s eyes went wide as he realized something, and he hopped off the table and began to retch.
"What? What is it?" Jeze asked and rushed over to her tiny companion''s side.
"It''s Celestial!" Ziplocke explained.
"How do you know?"
"The two alphabets are similar but used differently! Oh, I can''t believe I touched the pages. Is it on me? Do I smell differently?" Ziplocke cried as he tried to scrub his hands clean.
Jeze''s face scrunched with confusion and then relaxed with realization. That explained the Holy aspect etched upon the globes. Also, why was the floor littered with the skeletal remains of demons and humans? Her guess was correct. This was a temple!
"Relax, you will be fine," Jeze stated.
"They are supposed to be my mortal enemies!" Ziplocke screeched.
"How? Excuse me, but didn''t you say you have to run and hide from the other demons for survival?"
"What does that have to do with the putrid Celestials!?" Ziplocke demanded.
"An enemy of an enemy is a friend?" Jeze suggested.
Ziplocke gagged.
Jeze sighed and searched her pack. She was down to three jars of paste, and she retrieved one to place on the table. Ziplocke stopped gagging, and his pointed ears perked up.
"Tell me what you can translate," she asked and held up a spoon.
Ziplocke''s lips smacked as he sucked on the spicy and sour paste. His previous disgust was forgotten as he read alongside Jeze.
"Does this say, Archon?" Jeze asked.
Ziplocke nodded and answered, "It does! Those are celestial beings made with one purpose, and that is to destroy. They are pure rage and made from the Fire and Holy aspects."
"Like the globes," Jeze pointed out.
Ziplocke nodded.
Jeze felt like she was putting the pieces of a large puzzle together. She tapped Ziplocke''s shoulder and read a passage.
"...the hot surge waiting at the Threshold with furious flame."
"What do you think that means?" Jeze asked.
Ziplocke tapped his chin and replied, "In the Abyssal plane, some of the demons refer to Thresholds as portals."
Jeze nodded and wondered, "Is that what you think is down the stairwell? A Threshold where the Howlers can enter?"
Ziplocke shrugged and suggested, "Let''s keep reading."
The Goblin accepted a spoonful of paste, and the two went back to researching.
Jeze found a manual that had images of the spheres and listed a long Rune pattern. This book interested her, even if it was hard to understand the writing. But she could transcribe and use the Runes. When she figured out what they did. If they will be fighting demons in the Spire, then having some Holy magic could be useful. She flipped a page, and her eyes went wide.
"Look!" Jeze exclaimed and pointed.
Ziplocke glanced over and saw on the page a picture of a hulking creature with a body of pure energy and an iron helm for a head. The word written underneath was "Archon."
"If I understand what this says, the Archon won''t attack us because we are not demons. They only fight demons and for self-defense. So as long as we don''t attack it, we will be fine," Jeze said.
The Goblin cleared his throat and said, "Are you forgetting something? I''m a demon."
"No, you are not. You are my Familiar."
Jeze packed the tome away into her backpack. She regretted not having unlimited storage space because she would take everything in the room. After careful consideration, the tome was the best bet for her. It had info that she could realistically use down the road. Jeze rose with the glowing globe in hand. Ziplocke hopped off the table to block her with zero success.
"Please think about this," he pleaded.
"We are running out of time, and as much as I enjoy research. I''m done with reading old tomes. Let''s summon this Archon, and maybe we can get some answers. Or get into a fight with Howlers!" Jeze exclaimed.
"Oh, by the Infernal fires," Ziplocke swore, and he wrapped himself in shadows and hid in the corner.
"You are breaking our contract! By doing something that can cause me harm," he screeched.
"I don''t believe that," she replied and placed the globe in the sconce on the cage.
Ziplocke closed his eyes. Jeze completed the glyphs for the Fire aspect with her wand. She Summoned, Shaped, and Controlled the fire toward the globe. The cage rattled and filled the room with an intense silver light that blinded Jeze. She heard the cage creak open, and when the light dimmed, a hulking humanoid-shaped creature emerged. Its feet thumped the ground as if it was made out of heavy iron, and it towered over Jeze by a good meter. Its body rippled and flickered as if it were made out of white flame that gave off a comforting warmth instead of the blistering heat one would expect. The eye slits in the helm glowed a bright blue like tiny stars. Jeze gulped and took a step back.
"Do not fear me, mortal," the Archon boomed.
It dragged each word out slowly, and its voice was so deep it reverberated in Jeze''s chest. The teenage Initiate imagined that this would be how a mountain would talk. Slow and deliberate.
"My name is Jeze. What should I call you?"
The Archon''s helm turned to scan the room, and then it looked down at Jeze.
"My name would be impossible for you to speak. You may call me Archon," it rumbled deeply.
"May I ask questions?"
"You already asked a question," the Archon observed. It turned its helm to sweep the room as if it was searching for something.
"Are you a protector of this temple?" Jeze asked.
"This is not a temple, though the Ones from Before worshiped us like gods. I do not care to protect. My purpose is to destroy fiends. I hate them with every fiber of my being."
"If this is not a temple, then what is this place?" Jeze asked.
The Archon continued to glance around, though the rest of its body stood in one place like a towering campfire.
"This is an outpost meant to seal the Threshold to keep the fiends from entering this realm. We care not for the mortals here, but we do not want the fiends to have this realm that is all we care about," the Archon intoned deeply.
"How old is this place?" Jeze wondered out loud.
The Archon heard her and answered, "I sense that I was asleep for thousands of years."
Jeze chuckled. Ziplocke was right.
"I also sense that the magic we used to seal away the fiends is fading. It will only be a matter of time before the fiends take this realm back. I feel I am the last of my kind here," it rumbled, and Jeze sensed a bit of sadness in the Archon''s grating voice.
The celestial being studied the walls and shook its giant helmed head.
"It appears that the Ones from Before are long forgotten as this outpost was neglected," the Archon observed.
"Who were the Ones from Before?" Jeze asked.
"Your ancestors, mortal. How quickly your kind forgets."
"What do you know of the Wandering Spire?" Jeze asked.
"I have heard of no such thing," the Archon replied as it continued to scan the room like a fiery sentinel.
Jeze wracked her brain. Maybe it knew of the Spire by a different name? It was Abyssal in origin, so the Archon had to know what it was.
"Are you sure? It is a large tower that appears randomly every five years. It is so tall that it passes the clouds," Jeze stated.
"You speak of the Stronghold," the Archon replied simply.
"Okay, what is the Stronghold''s purpose?"
"To invade. This realm was under the control of the fiends. The Ones from Before knew of the Endless Feud between our realms. They summoned us, and together, we weakened the Stronghold. This allowed a small group to infiltrate its defenses and challenge the Fiendish Lord at the top. I sense that our magic that held the fiends away is weakening, and they will return," the Archon said.
Whoa! Jeze thought to herself. This was deep! What the Empire, the kingdoms, and the Guild thought about the tower was wrong. Dangerously wrong! She needed to get the Archon out to share the news. They needed to know what the real purpose of the Spire was! Another question came to her mind.
"Is there a gift of immortality at the top of the Stronghold?" She asked.
"No. We sealed the Fiendish Lord at the top to prevent it from controlling this realm. The Seals are likely weakening, and soon it will be free to return this plane of existence back to despair and anguish."
"Why would we think there is a gift of immortality?" Jeze wondered out loud.
"Fiends lie," the Archon stated.
If this was true and the Emperor was not immortal, then who was ruling the Empire? Jeze wondered. Was this some manipulative conspiracy to keep the ruling family in power? That made sense since the Emperor''s clan had ruled with an iron fist for centuries. That was a major revelation but was dwarfed when compared to the real purpose of the Wandering Spire. Jeze felt an immense weight fall on her young shoulders. The fate of this realm was on the line. Was this what her brother discovered? No, it couldn''t be. He never found this room. Unless…
"What is on the lower level?" She asked.
"A Threshold."
She knew it!
The Archon''s head snapped to glare with fiery blue eyes at the corner.
"I sense you, fiend!" It roared.
The shadows around Ziplocke faded away.
On instinct and without thinking, Jeze placed herself in between the Archon and her familiar.
"He is helping me! Helping us!" She cried.
"Goblin! I despise you, but I do not hate you. You suffer more at the hands of the greater fiends. I pity you and will not waste my energy on your existence," the Archon growled.
"Hey!" Ziplocke said, with tiny fists at his hips.
"I told you that you would be safe," Jeze said and patted the Goblin on the head.
The Archon turned toward the door, and the room shook as it moved.
"Where are you going?" Jeze asked.
"To the Threshold. I sense that the Seals have weakened. I will slaughter the fiends that come through," the Archon intoned deeply.
"Oooh, this is going to be good!" Ziplocke exclaimed and rubbed his hands together in anticipation.