The Soul Keeper

"So… Why were we exploring old demonic ruins again?" Joshua asked, glancing at the overgrown ruins before us.

"Because I believe there may be some important information hidden in there." Rina replied with a cold voice. "Shall we?" She glanced at me.

"Let's go." I said as I summoned my scythe. "Erik, will you be taking point?"

"Yeah." He mumbled as he summoned his shield and unsheathed his longsword. "Let's." Our group, standing by the entrance all this time, finally got moving with Erik's words.

Erik and Alex walked in front, with Vincent and Rina following immediately after. I walked behind those two. A bit further behind me came Alina and Samantha, with Joshua guarding our rear.

The dark entrance to the ruined building looked like the open mouth of a dragon, waiting for us to walk inside before devouring us. The moist, rotten air filled our lungs as we stepped inside. Rina's spell illuminated our surroundings, revealing cobwebs and… bones. Everywhere.

"I don't like the look of this." Erik mumbled. I shot a worried glance at Alex. She was tightly grasping the hilt of her sword. I could see her hands shaking.

"Rina," I quietly warned. "This isn't very good."

She nodded but remained silent. We walked further inside as our footsteps echoed in the darkness as we came across a set of stairs leading down.

"I think this leads underground." Samantha whispered. Despite keeping her voice low, it travelled quite the distance. Noticing this, she immediately put her hand on her mouth. With widened eyes, she looked down the stairs.

"We shouldn't waste too much time here." Rina softly said. "Whatever we may come across surely knows we're here by now." She gestured Erik to head down. After only a short moment of hesitation, he stepped on the stairs and with an unsteady Alex right by his side, started descending them.

Our footsteps echoed as we periodically stopped to get rid of the ridiculous amounts of spiderwebs covering the place. Each time we got rid of one, Alex seemed to grow a little bit more uneasy. I wanted to suggest she stand guard outside, but I knew that would injure her pride more than anything.

And I also knew she didn't trust Erik, Joshua, and Alina, maybe even Vincent. She wouldn't leave Rina's side now.

After a short while, we reached the bottom of the stairwell. A long, narrow corridor stretched before us, with too many doors to count on both sides. The entire area was covered in webs, so much that I doubted we could even continue.

"Rina, it'll take ages to check all these places." Samantha said with a low voice. The mage nodded as her shoulders dropped. Just like the rest of us, she was disheartened.

"Let's begin." Erik's words surprised me. "The faster we start, the sooner it ends." He said with a confident expression. Before any of us could say anything, he stepped forward and approached the first door.

It was a small, wooden door that wasn't entirely closed. He carefully pushed the door with the tip of his sword. The door creaked open and Rina's light illuminated the interior. He glanced inside, then carefully stepped forward.

A thought gnawed at the back of my mind as the tiny bones crumbled beneath Erik's feet. "The hell!" He said as he stepped further inside. Alex gulped before following him. Nervous, I brushed past Rina and Vincent and followed Alex. Something felt off.

"Kai?" Alina's worried voice sounded. I ignored her and looked inside the room. On the floor were several small piles of bones. They clearly belonged to rodents as they were tiny. I could spy some animal skulls in the piles. Just like everything else, those piles were also covered in cobwebs. We left the room after seeing there was nothing else inside.

"At this point, I think we can say for sure that we'll be encountering spiders, or something else capable of weaving webs." Rina quietly said. "I think I'd feel a lot safer if two people guarded the entrance. I wouldn't want to be ambushed from there."

I nodded. "Alex, would you mind?" I asked. She shook her head. "Not at all. Joshua, care to come with?"

The young man nodded. "Sure. Then, we'll see you later. Don't die."

"You too." Erik said as they bumped their fists.

I watched them as they climbed the stairs. Joshua was a weird choice; he didn't seem bothered by the spiderwebs at all. Why had Alex asked him to go with her?

"Let's not waste any time." Rina's words pulled me away from my thoughts. "Vincent, can you guard our rear?" She asked. He nodded wordlessly and we once again moved forward. The next room we checked wasn't much different than before. And the next, and the one after that.

After about half an hour of checking every room, I finally sighed. "This is useless. Rina, we're not even in the ruins themselves. We're under them. Are you sure we'll find something here, or should we check the ruins above ground?"

She shook her head. "I didn't see an entrance that led to that part of the building. We don't really have much of a choice, do we?"

"I could fly up there." I suggested with a shrug.

"That's a last resort, I don't want to send you anywhere alone." She said, then glanced towards the unexplored side of the hall. "Let's finish searching this place first."

With deep sighs and not so careful steps, we continued until we reached a large double door at the very end of the hall.

"This looks like the entrance to a boss room." Erik said with a nervous laugh. Vincent nodded while I glanced at Rina, Samantha, and Alina. They all seemed on edge. "Should we go in?" He asked, looking at Rina. She took a deep breath, then nodded.

"Here goes nothing." With those words, Erik placed his hands on both wings of the door and pushed them open with a loud, painful creak, to reveal a large library.

"Oh!" Rina said with a shine in her eyes. "Finally." She motioned to rush inside, but Vincent immediately grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Erik, you go first." He said with a low voice. The young paladin nodded. The noise his armour made with every one of his steps sent chills down my spine. With the sound of metal hitting metal, Erik walked forward.

A few seconds passed as he nervously looked around. Finally, he glanced towards us and shrugged. "My turn, I guess." Vincent mumbled and stepped inside. He approached Erik with slightly faster steps. Once again, nothing happened.

"I guess it's safe." Alina mumbled. Still feeling nervous, I shook my head. "Let's not let our guards down." We also stepped inside, carefully.

I felt as if I was being watched. A chill ran down my spine as I watched the group carefully look around. I chose to stay near the entrance, both to make sure nothing would block our way out, and because I felt oddly cold. Like the souls within me were restless.

"Kai?" Alina asked with a worried expression. "Are you ok?"

I nodded. "I'm fine. Just don't let your guard down." After a moment's hesitation, she nodded.

"I don't think anything's in here." Erik said with a sigh as he sheathed his sword and motioned to place his shield into his inventory.

"Wait, no!" Samantha's shout echoed as something dripped onto Erik's hand. He flinched and dropped his shield. "Look up!" Samantha shouted.

I looked up to see eight glowing orbs – eight green eyes, connected to a massive shadow.

As soon as our eyes met, it dropped down on Erik.