Time-Smith: - Chapter 26: Damned Cathedral (Patreon)

The three had discovered artifacts within a new section of the dungeon, a section filled with more deathly beauty than the last. It was a cathedral of some sort, a twisted rendition and ode to forgotten figures.

Markus looked around, his eyes settling on the towering stone figures that flanked the entrance to the cathedral-like chamber. "Those stone things give me the creeps. The hells are they meant to be, demons?"

"Statues, Markus, they're just statues." Lucia corrected, as she stepped into the chamber illuminated by the ghostly white light of the torches embedded in the walls. She peered at the statues, soaking in their lifelike masterful details. “I think. They are pretty weird though. It’s like they were made by a master [Mana Sculptor] or something. I wouldn’t be surprised if they could move.”

Markus appeared to agree. “Ok second thought, I think I agree, they probably can move. Hey ugly demon!

Nothing. His words echoed through the cavernous hall, causing dust to fall from the ceiling.

The statues remained staring into the sky, their wings arched back as if ready for flight. Spiked tails coiled around their feet. Their stone eyes still and lifeless.

So much for that, Evan thought, as he entered the space proper, following the pair in heading toward the end of the room.

Curiosity overpowered them. They inspected the statues, their eyes tracing the intricately carved marble scales and stone feathers.

As they walked towards the large double doors, Lucia's eyes drifted up to a window high featuring a giant figure with blue flaming eyes. "The leader of the Flame Army, I presume? How could he be so big? Even giants don’t get that big. What do you think he was? A god?"

Evan nodded. "I'd bet on it.” He had come to that same conclusion some time ago.

Markus, now standing next to one of the stone gargoyles, felt its texture. "This is some fine craftsmanship. Even the spear looks real."

Before the words fully escaped his lips, the ground shuddered, the hall trembled, and dust shook free from their surroundings. Markus, already having extended his hand towards a statue, stiffened.

Reality fractured as a stone spear swung down towards them.

It cleaved Markus in two.

Evan gasped, feeling sickened by the sight of his massacred friend. Another Axe cleaved through him in his moment of distraction.

His ‘death’ caused the world to lurch, and his senses to be torn from his body as he was flung through time, a mosaic of watercolour whirls and blurs shooting past him at speeds so fast they almost turned white. In a few seconds he was back to the past, sitting on the dungeon floor in meditation as Markus and Lucia guarded his body.

Evan’s eyes shot open.

"They’re alive!" He almost yelled before realising where he was, before hissing with as much quiet noise as he could. “They’re alive!”

“What’s alive? The Armour? No shit, Hansel. We figured that out the first time.” Markus raised an eyebrow quizzically as Evan gesticulated the tale of his time travel.

He told them of how they had died, about the details of the cathedral, its artifacts, and the statues that guarded them. He told them everything.

Then he closed his eyes, triggered all three of the blazing sources of mana within his mind, heart, and shifting core, and shot through time again.

***

“So I just need to keep a thin layer of dense air around me at all times? That doesn’t sound too hard.” Markus shrugged at Lucia's suggestion as the three of them headed toward the dungeon's cathedral, fully informed of its contents and dangers. They had agreed to test out the gargoyles capabilities, and understood that theyre deaths would not be permanent, and that only Evan would remember, although Markus insisted on making them both promise to retreat if it seemed like one of them would die. Evan had told them some unbelievable things, but the time spent battling and defeating armour in the dungeon, aided by his not just his enhancements, but by his prophetic knowledge of ambushes and attacks had cemented a majority of his words in both of their minds.

But some doubts still lingered, unbidden within the depths of their subconscious minds.

Although they trusted Evan implicitly, a small part of the both of them wasn’t completely convinced at the prospect of easily obtained artifacts. He rarely lied, and the few times he had, it had been negligible, inconsequential things. But time travel was supposed to be a myth, one whispered in children’s tales of ancient figures and made-up folklore. There were skills out there that manipulated time to a small degree, sure. But to bend it to one’s will completely was to venture into territories unheard of, it was simply hard to believe.

But the journey into the dungeon had changed them in ways that could never be undone. They had both experienced first hand the nature of Evans skills, and the many impossibilities his skills held now flowed through their very flesh and blood. In knowing an impossibility, they had become impossibilities themselves. To doubt him now would be more foolish than believing him. So they decided to believe and searched for the dead gods cathedral, and the example of Evans foresight it would provide.

Soon they found it once more.

Grand walls and arches reached towards a ceiling lost in shadow, supported by pillars twisted into grotesque forms of warriors and beasts. A sense of weight and history permeated the air.

Evan realised it wasn’t weight, but an increase in mana. It wafted around them slightly thicker than before, carried by the dungeon's winds.

Lucia looked around, her eyes settling on the towering stone figures that flanked the entrance to the cathedral-like chamber.

“So those are the ugly things that ‘killed us’?” She asked, placing a palm over her eyes in a placebic attempt to enhance her view.

Evan nodded grimly and stared too. “Yeah. Well just me and Markus, but I'm guessing you put up even less of a fight than we did and died almost immediately after we did.” He turned to face her as Markus stifled a guffaw.

As Lucia prepared her rebuttal, Markus interjected with an apologetic look, “I’m going to go take a look.” Evan shook his head and dissuaded him as Markus continued “What? No, don’t worry they don’t look that tough.” Markus waved away Evans' protest as he studied the towering monuments from afar, the demonic figures with spears large enough to skewer groups of men, etched with master stonework and craftsmanship. Their faces were set forward in perpetual rage, as if daring any to enter the doors they eternally guarded. “Actually they too look pretty tough.” Markus conceded. “Imposing, even.” He began to walk toward the statues, turning his back to the living stone structure to speak once more, “I’m sure you exaggerated their prowess. It sounded like they caught us by surprise, and judging by how they moonlight as statues…” He walked closer to the stone monoliths and turned his back to the monstrous structures once more. “I’m sure the element of surprise is their entire purpose.”

Huh, Evan thought, considering his friend's words. That’s  a pretty good point. Evan began to walk towards Markus, purposefully keeping his gaze away from both the stone gargoyles, and Markus who stood before it with his back turned, both feigning the act of entering the inhuman. Creatures blind spots.

A spear the size of several men lashed out at speed, swinging towards Marcus’s exposed back with swiftness and strange magic that hardly moved the air.

Markus turned and leapt forward to meet it.

His density surged in that split second, as the gargoyle's strength impacted. In an instant, the air around him hardened, and his body densified, absorbing the impact. A sound resonated like a bell's toll, And Markus was flung across the chamber by the blow like a discarded doll.

"Let’s go!" Evan yelled at Lucia as he moved.

A teleport, then another, had Evan appearing above the second gargoyle, soaring downwards towards its twisted head. His fist descended in a shockwave of dust and stone. The creature grunted in pain but did not fall.

It swatted him out of the sky.

Lucia leapt forward, her enhanced musculature causing her to spring from the ground like a bolt from a crossbow. She unleashed a sonic boom from her grip, aiming to dismantle one gargoyle at the neck. The force rippled through the air, but the creature barely budged.

A shower of chipped dark metal and stone rained down from where her [Iron Grip] had gained purchase.

"Sturdy little guy, aren't you?" She clenched her teeth as she leapt off the creature, recalculating her strategy.

But the first gargoyle growled, its body vibrating. Metallic spikes erupted from its skin, harder than before.  They sprayed in all directions.

Markus hardened the air in a thick angled plane in front of him, deflecting a metallic spike that sped towards his sternum. The spike crashed into his shield of air before twisting, veering off in another direction. A muted sound like the dull thud of an anvil burst forth from the impact as the force caused him to stumble backwards.

Lucia snapped her arms forward on instinct, some subconscious section of her enhanced mind choosing to fight, and a metallic spike the length of a man found itself caught in her [Iron Grip], its impact caused a small burst of sound and air to erupt as she slid across the floor some distance before coming to a stop. Her face was a mask of disbelief at her own actions. Despite the danger, her eyes swivelled to Evan in further awe.

Evan focused, his synapses firing at speed, hundreds of connections caused the world to slow in his vision and the black blurs in his vision solidified. Sharp jagged metallic spikes the size of his arms rocketed toward him.

This time they wouldn’t die, he would make sure of it.

He [Teleported] through them, dodging one after the other, and In his mind's eye, time moved as children would, slow and trudging. He navigated through the metallic hail of spears in bursts of energy and speed.

He closed the distance.

The first gargoyle roared, its stone flesh rippling as it metamorphosed—The air howled, filling with a metallic scent as the creature’s stone skin transformed, hardening into a metallic, nearly indestructible hide.

Evan felt the air around him harden, and for a second, he couldn’t breathe.

A screeching echo filled the chamber. The second gargoyle opened its mouth, a thick jolt of electricity snapping towards himself and Lucia in a blink.

Evan stuttered in disbelieving exasperation, "Electricity? Seriously?"