Malice

They managed to check every hole, but inevitably, they ended up back at the spot, which they were nervous about. They had to make their way into this one, short-walled room, which was the only spot intact enough to work with.

This room's interiors still seemed like a bottomless pit, since the torches weren't of much help. Yet, they still had to take their chances!

There was no other way in, and after all, Erdeta's abilities were beyond athletic. She couldn't get hurt by any high falls, typically, thanks to her powers. She was the perfect explorer.

With effort, she squeezed through a hole in the room's walls, and then warned. "If I don't come back for you two, don't try to find me. This place is pretty evil, so don't be heroes. Go have sex in the woods or something."

Audera did not answer to that idea, but she was steaming in embarrassment regardless.

Bardeelus didn't notice such distress, as he was nervous about these ruins, therefore it was his main topic. "We're already heroes, dumb ones at least. Even your family wouldn't join you on stuff like this… my siblings chickened out hysterically, and I was just stuck in a well. Point is, we got your back here." 

"Thank you," Erdeta said, and then jumped in.

Her trip should be safe enough. The amount of gravitational manipulation she had inherited, was pretty helpful. Although she couldn't exactly fly, one of her spells managed to reduce her body-weight.

Her airborne abilities were equal to that of a baby duck's. She was partially immune from free-falling through any hole, or cliff but couldn't exactly fly. This particular spell was named similarly too, it was called the 'feather's will'.

Anyway, about half a minute later, her feet touched the ground; She was safe down there. No threat had revealed itself yet, and the drop was about twenty-meters, but it was very manageable.

Erdeta couldn't see far ahead all that much, but what they assumed to be a room with a bottomless pit before, seemed more like a tower now! It made sense!

Since this was the only entrance to the ruins, someone had equipped this buried tower with metal poles. This was the only entrance, and if it was crushed by the surrounding dirt's weight, then the ruins would be totally inaccessible. 

Such extra precaution pointed out the obvious, and Erdeta knew it well. "People are living down here, this is a sign. At least this wasn't a wild goose chase, I might really get cleansed… hopefully I can."

There was more to these ruins that they were yet to explore. She couldn't see far 

ahead, but that wasn't a major issue for now.

She couldn't explore this place alone, however, so she leaped up towards the tower's ceiling, to grab her friends. The 'cricket-leap' spell helped her get up there, and she held on to Audera's arm for balance's sake, so they could both fly down afterwards.

This was a slow procedure, since it was difficult to float in mid-air for too long. For the same matter, she couldn't pick both of them up at the same time, and had to go back for Bardeelus later on.

They all made it down eventually, and now they could explore this place. With three torches shining, they could initiate a better coverage of the area!

Before they even walked a few steps, Bardeelus complained. "This place smells like a grave. How can anyone live like this?"

"It's either this stench, or literal pinchy death. I'm sure they'd really hate getting put on a stick, or impaled by goat bones." Audera added, and she was absolutely right.

Practitioners of the dark arts were shunned, and often hunted across many countries, even within this overall crumbling society. These kinda mages always had to stay hidden, as survival itself depended on it; They couldn't fight against an entire country!

As the team of three explored further, they acknowledged that everything had sacrifices. These dark mages had unique powers, yes, but they'd have to live in such places where various odors were strong enough to drive one insane!

There was so much moss in this place, which gave the dirt an extra strong odor. The earthy scent blocked their noses worse than any cold could, but they had to ignore it or adapt to it.

What distracted them for the time being, was their efforts to avoid any missteps. They had three torches lit up, but apparently this place was bigger than they had imagined!

One would assume that structures which were buried below the ground, were supposed to be more snug! It was reasonable, as all of the pressure from above could close in on the structure, and destroy it over time!

That was not the case, however, and it was proven so after the team was put to a halt already, near the entrance of the structure. Apparently, these ruins had enough room for decorations. 

Erdeta felt frustrated, so she warned. "This looks like a balcony, but don't lean on it too much. Even stony stuff can fall apart."

"Okay, I don't see any stairs though… so lemme just squeeze between you two, and we'll jump." Bardeelus said.

He loved the idea of squeezing between two beautiful, blonde ladies. It felt even better now that they didn't see each other as enemies, and thankfully these two didn't mind the hugs either.

Erdeta grabbed them both, and then they jumped off of the balcony. This time around, it was easier for them to float down, even while all together, because this spot was pretty roomy.

"Wow, this is not what I expected. What's the point of building a place like this?" The lady of the hour, sighed. 

The drop after the balcony wasn't too high, but the infrastructure was still odd. After about seven meters of floating, they met with a ledge, which led further down!

They had to walk about five-meters to notice this ledge, and surely, if they hadn't been careful enough then either of them could have fallen off.

"Looks like some people weren't so lucky," Audera said, after they found a couple of skeletons nearby.

These skeletons looked like they've been here for ages, as portions of them had crumbled into dust. Surely, this was not the best way to die!

Audera didn't feel much remorse for them though, and had enough humor to taunt the other. "Are these bones making you feel ticklish? Come on, talk to them."

She was talking to Bardeelus, but he didn't feel as humorous. "Let's just go! Hopefully, I won't have to resurrect anything soon. Especially in this dusty pit."

After that point, they started floating down this ledge, and expected to meet with the ground soon. They haven't explored much of the ruins so far, so they were still nervous!

Out of a sudden, their heartbeats escalated for the worse, once they started floating down faster. Erdeta had lost control of her powers for once, as they were falling down now rather than floating!

"What the…" Bardeelus grunted, before they struck the hard, brick-stone ground.

Thankfully though, they only fell for three meters, so they just suffered a couple of bruises rather than anything great. Their knees and elbows absorbed most of the damage.

"She's out cold, someone's playing with her head." Audera said, and she was fairly alert.

Bardeelus was sluggish in comparison, but there was something else to his aid. He could both hear and sniff heartbeats!

So, he quickly alerted. "More like some people! We're surrounded."

Although he was clueless quite often, he could sense the overall malice that surrounded them. For that matter, he instinctively focused on one of the enemy hearts, and aimed to blow it up! Chit-chats were out of the question for now!