90 The Darkness (1/2)

Blakes words confused everyone even more. ”Blake, what do you mean?”

”I am sure you all have heard of the war between the devils and gods. Well, when the fallen god disappeared no one was able to find him and then he reappeared with an army of millions. Now seeing this statue I have a speculation that the fallen god did not create his army from scratch but did so by enslaving the Subterranean race. He must have caused some kind of change in the subterranean race to turn them into what we now call devils. This is only my speculation but since the Subterranean race lived underground they were rarely seen and there above ground entrances were all well hidden. For a fallen god it would have been the best place to hide.” Blake explained.

”And this is a statue of what the Subterranean race looked like?” Starla asked.

”No, the Subterranean race looked just like the devil you met back in Brown Village. This here might be some kind of religious statue.” Blake explained.

Alicia examined the statue and adjusted the eye that was detecting the thermal signature. ”I think there is something hidden underneath the statue...” Alicia continued to look around until she saw what looked to be old scratch marks on the rocky floor. ”Blake help me push from the side!”

Alicia and Blake went to the left side of the statue and started to push. It took a bit but after some hard pushing creaking sounds could be heard as what sounded like ancient gears started to turn. Soon the statue moved slowly centimeter by centimeter until finally, a hole opened up in the floor with a staircase leading down. Warm air could be felt coming up from the stairwell.

”Now I know why I was able to detect the statue.  This air is warm but not overly hot. But compared to the cold rock walls it would show up on my detection magic when I combine it with my eye.” Alicia tried to detect if there was anything in the stairwell that they would need to watch out for. But she did not detect anything that seemed out of place.

”Should we go?” Rose asked. You could tell she was overly excited about the situation.

”Since we found it we might as well check it out!” Alicia said as she drew her sword and cautiously stepped on to the first step.

Everyone else followed suit and pulled out their weapons as they slowly made their way down the stairs. Loeri held a flame in her hand to light the way.  As they made their way down the stairwell the scenery changed dramatically. It went from rocky cave walls to plated metal walls. Not only the walls but the stairs as well.

It took almost ten minutes to finally reach the bottom of the stairwell but what was in front of them was something they truly never expected.

”Is this a city!?” Starla cried out. The area they came out on seemed to be some kind of terrace that overlooked a massive city.  Tall buildings could be seen stretching out for kilometers.