The temple

The staircase, made out of glazed marble, lead deep into the ground. Aurelis looked down. Was that a dungeon?! He followed the stairs. It would have been dark, if it wasn’t for his spirit, but he saw light come through at the end of the staircase. He stepped through, arriving at another huge platform, which seemed to hover in the air, connecting the previous staircase to another one. He looked ahead of himself. A gigantic mountain range surrounded him, engraved with ornaments and held up by pillars. On one hand it looked so chiselled, it felt like it was manmade. On the other hand, the environment emitted an aura so ethereal, there was no way humanity lent its hand. As if nature was a deity, creating a temple for itself.

The atmosphere had a slight teal tint to it. Aurelis felt like he entered another world yet again. How was it possible that there was an entity this big under the earth? Could it have been a pocket dimension? He looked back up to the end of the staircase, where he just came from. Being able to see the light come from the overworld, he thought that it was a genuine staircase leading down, not a trans dimensional bridge.

Here everything felt different. As if nature has won. The air was dense and extremely humid. But it was not more difficult to breathe. Quite the opposite. Aurelis took a deep breath. His whole body was tingling as it filled up with pure life force. It seemed like even his skin absorbed the energy, not only his lungs. Small spherical light blue particles flew around, attaching to his skin. It felt refreshing, like drinking an ice cold glass of water on a burning hot summer day.

Aurelis almost forgot that he fought to death just a moment ago. He has felt that sensation once before. From the food that Segard has made. Could it have been that he got the ingredients from the dungeons? No wonder there were magical beings as strong as the phoenix, if it was a demon. Dungeons were perfect to cultivate them. That he was sure of. No matter what Aurelis would have expected from dungeons, this topped his imagination by far.

The staircase he was on trailed down to the pillars. The end of it was so far away that Aurelis sighed. He has already dreaded going down the stairs in his old apartment building. But that was more of a jump compared to these stairs. But not even that discouraged him. He was finally on the adventure that he looked forward to. To the sides of the staircase there were more of these gigantic trees that he has seen outside, just that they seemed to not tower hundreds of meters but thousands instead.

“Do you agree on taking the quick way down?” Aurelis looked at Lux, who just wobbled back and forth again on his shoulder. How come the spirit was on his shoulder permanently though? Didn’t it need to stay inside the sword? He didn’t want to lose Lux. On the other hand, based on what Amalia told him, spirits needed some survival instinct to even hide. So if Lux didn’t want to hide in the sword, there was no need for that.

Aurelis jumped onto a treetop. From there he made it to the next one but decided to descend a little bit more with every tree. After almost an hour, he stood beside the end of the staircase. “Wow!” he said. The mountain range seemed even bigger, seeing it from the ground. And the pillars really held up the mountains. But from where Aurelis stood, it looked more like they were part of a temple.

The staircase led directly to a lake, that separated him from the mountains. Aurelis put his hand into the water. Just that it wasn’t water. Its texture was similar, but gave him the same feeling as the energy in the air. On the ground of the lake, not too far away from him, Aurelis saw something shine. He walked over there, pulling it out. It was a small greyish but still translucent sphere, which had a teardrop shape imprinted into the middle of it. What was that? He transferred the sphere into his storage. “I guess we will find out later what that is.”

From the end of the staircase on, floating stones led the way from the land to the temple. He hesitated. If that really was a dungeon, then that meant demons would lurk somewhere. Aurelis looked around. He didn’t see a single demon and there has not been any hint of them on the whole way down. “It should be safe to go, what do you think, Lux?”

The spirit agreed.

Aurelis arrived on the other side. The temple looked like it was made out of glazed marble as well. Besides the pillars that held the temple up, there were enormous stone tables, some of which floated in the air, while others were attached to the ground. In the middle there was a particularly gigantic stone table, which reminded Aurelis of those stone walls chiselled with ornaments and hieroglyphs. But there was something in front of the wall, which Aurelis barely could identify the silhouette of. Whatever it was, it was alive.

“Step forward, lowly human,” a deep trembling voice echoed throughout the temple. The silhouette raised up, towering at least twenty times taller than Aurelis. He gulped. Previously he didn’t sense any aura, but now that being emitted an aura so strong, that the phoenix he fought compared more to a freshly hatched chicken. That surely had to be a higher demon.

“Be ready, Lux,” he whispered. The spirit charged up, coating Aurelis in a feint glow. Nonetheless, he did not grab his sword. If he could prevent it, he did not want to provoke a fight that wasn’t necessary. Especially against such an insanely strong foe. He made sure to control his breath and stepped closer. Slowly the silhouette gained colour. It was a dragon, which rested its head on its claws. Aurelis stood right in front of it, not bulging a muscle. While he appeared calm, it was difficult to hide his fright.

“Brave of you to come here, human. Did he send you here?” the dragon said, puffing out smoke through its nostrils.

He? Whoever that dragon meant, it seemed to be a human.

“No, nobody sent me. I was brought into this region by a phoenix, and stumbled upon the platform. It was not my intention to disturb you.”

“You accidently came down here? I saw each of your steps inside this place. Do you not fear stumbling upon a demon king?”

So there were not only demons in dungeons, but also demon kings?! If the phoenix was a demon, that could have meant that the dragon was a demon king then. “I’m really sorry,” Aurelis said, “I did not know there was one inside here.”

“And there isn’t. Don’t compare me to these lowly creatures.” The dragon huffed. It looked at the spirit on Aurelis shoulder. “That one seems to really like you. It is a rare sight to see spirits that like the human that they accompany.”

The spirit jumped up and down, poking out its little arms out and moving them vividly.

“There, there, Lux.” Aurelis said. So far, the dragon has not moved at all. It solely stared at Aurelis with its huge eyes. If it wanted to hurt him, it already would have. Aurelis finally took a relaxed breath. Which really opened his eyes to how majestic of a creature he faced.

“A mere human, casually standing in front of me. No tremble, no fear. What an odd sight to behold. You don’t seem to be an ordinary one.” The dragon leaned forward to Aurelis, towering above him. But he, once again, did not listen. Aurelis was too mesmerized. Were those scales made from crystals? Or some kind of stone? Maybe like obsidian. But they were too reflecting for that.

The dragon huffed. “Human! Are you listening?!”

Aurelis looked up to the dragon. “Sorry, I have never seen a real dragon before.”

The dragon leaned back again, resting its head on its claws.

“You are a naïve youngling. Don’t get carried away or you will get killed.”

Aurelis shook his head. “If you would have wanted to kill me, you would have done so the moment I entered.”

While the dragon could not smile, its eyes surely did. “What is your name, human?”

“Aurelis,” he answered. “And that spirit is Lux.”

“Call me Lilith,” the dragon said.

“Can is ask you something then, Lilith?”

“Go ahead.”

“Why did you not attack me?”

The dragon mustered him, hesitating first. “I am cursed. If we were to fight, it would have gravitating consequences.” Lilith stood up. Her whole body lit up and shrank, taking the silhouette of a human. She had curved pitch-black horns coming out of her skull and short hair, which was purple on top and faded to blue to its ends. Scales decorated her body, but the human-like skin was clearly visible. Aurelis was visibly perplexed. Dragons were able to transform to humans?

“Follow me,” she said.