Ruin's of Uniphon

The best way to describe it would be a hole.

That's what the ruins in the middle of the Noland woods were.

Pillars sprouted up in circular patterns across a hidden grotto. In the center of 70+ pillars of intricate design was a hole.

The hole seemed to extend into an abyss; the bottom was dark, seemingly as if there was something blocking light from reaching it despite being open to the sun.

After walking an hour through the woods, the group had arrived at a set of ruins.

“Make sure not to fall,” Locke said as the group inspected the whole.

“Obviously,” Eris said, looking over into the hole.

“So this is a dungeon?” Nerrisa asked.

“Yeah, I mean any place could become a dungeon… but this is the perfect place for one,” Neia responded.

“What makes this place a dungeon, though, is it just cause it's ruins?” Eris asks, still looking in the hole.

“Dungeons are a collection of monster nests,” Neia explains further.

“Each nest starts separately, but over time the nests merge and become one. Different species will combine. Once this process is complete, the monsters take over the area and choose a single monarch from the nests; these are the dungeon bosses. Only then is it a true dungeon,” Locke finishes, inspecting a pillar.

“Gotcha- AH!” Eris, who was leaning over the edge, tripped and began to fall into the hole. Luckily, Nerissa was able to grab her before she fell in.

“ Seriously, be more careful, you would've fallen all the way to the bottom.”
“I… Yeah, whatever.” Eris was clearly scared, but it seemed her pride didn't let her thank Nerissa.

“Have you found an entrance yet?”

“Actually, I have,” Locke said.

“Where is it?” Eris, who finished brushing off the recent fall, asked.

“Well, actually, it's exactly what you just did.”

"““Huh?”””

Suddenly, Locke grabbed all three girls and ran towards the hole. Ignoring the yelling from the girls, he jumped straight into the hole.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHH!” Two girls screamed the entire way down.

The four of them descended into darkness.

However, quickly the group realized that the darkness was stagnant, as if it were the ground itself.

The veil of darkness was just that, a thin veil made to make the hole look deeper than it actually was.

The group passed through this veil and saw the true bottom, a set of pillars leading to an entrance.

The hole was deep enough to kill any person who jumped in. However, with basic wind magic, one could slow their fall enough to land safely.

“The veil of darkness is probably to hide the entrance,” Locke said, repositioning his unlit cigarette in his mouth.

“Y-y-you JACKASS!” Eris screamed.

“W-w-warn us next time you fool!” Nerissa cried.

“Yeah, you scared me. Next time, just say what you're going to do.” The sanpaku girl said.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry…”

The two girls continued to struggle to regain their breath as the other two surveyed their surroundings. The walls are covered in different pillars as above. These were made with strange architecture. The designs twisted, bent, as if forcibly distorted. The pillars made arches that surrounded the hole on all sides.

Facing straight north was a door. Large and majestic, it stood at nearly 7 meters tall. The doors themselves held a carving, it spanned both doors, covered both in lines that seemed to depict something, though what that something was had faded away along with the people who had lived here.

“How old are these ruins?” Nerrisa pondered having finally regained her breath.

“Dunno, I’ve never even heard of them,” Locke responded, staring at the door.

Suddenly, the massive doors slowly began to open.

Standing defensively, the group waited.

Eventually, a massive monkey appeared behind the door.

“Good job finding the entrance. Now, please follow this monster into the dungeon,” an unfamiliar voice said from the monkey's mouth.

“Where is Ms. Helia?” Nerrisa asked, to which the monkey simply repeated itself.

“Don't bother, the monkey simply repeats the sentence it was told,” Locke said, staring at the monkey as if it were trash. “It's a Gugwe.”

“S-so, we follow it?” Eris asked, still trying to regain her balance.

“Guess so.”

The 4 headed into the dungeon, following the monkey.

After a few minutes of walking.

The passageway lit up, not by a torch or magic stones, but from flowers that bloomed from moss that grew on the strange, distorted architecture of the ruins. Fungi littered the ground. The passageway continued downward in a large spiral.

“I have not seen any monsters. Could this being a dungeon have been a bluff?” Nerrisa asked.

“No, these plants mean that this is almost definitely a dungeon,” Locke explained.

“Hm? How does that make this a dungeon?” Eris asked.

“What do you know about dungeons, Missy?” Locke asked back.

“Missy?! Well… I know it's monster central, that there's always a boss, and that they're always full of spirits. Oh, and what you said earlier.”

“Those are the important parts… But there's more to it.” Locke proceeded to explain, “ The monsters congregate in locations like these because of the high contents of mana. Monsters eat mana. Because of that, several species of monsters gather in the same areas. This would typically lead to a war, but…”

“For some reason, the monsters choose to become one large group,” Neia added.

“Exactly, and once these monsters come together, they choose the strongest among them to lead, which we call the bosses.” Locke continued. “The nest, what we call a core, is protected by the boss.”

“Nest? But the one we're looking at is a monkey, aren't nests more for egg layers?” Eris asked.

“It's not like they're exclusive… but I get what you're asking. Despite the monster appearing as a mammal, reptile, bird, fish, or insect, they all lay eggs.”

“They all do?!” Nerissa seemed surprised.

“Yup, they all gather and lay a nest where the mana is the most dense, in which they build a core.” Locke finished- “Once the boss is killed, and the core destroyed, we consider the dungeon cleared.”

“Okay, I get it… But how does that tie into the plants and stuff down here?” Eris asked, and Nerrisa seemed just as curious. Locke, however, seemed as though he was done talking.

“Well, the fungi and the moss may make sense to be down here, the flowers are a different story,” Neia said as she looked at the walls. “Somebody must be bringing them down here.”

“Then that's…”

“The monsters, yeah.”

“Are monsters really that smart?”

“If the dungeon boss is decently smart, then sure.”

As Nerrisa and Eris finally understood, the monkey had reached another set of doors. It stopped, knocked twice, then began to push open the doors.

These doors once again changed to a different architectural style. They had a gothic adorning them, adding a sense of melancholy to the already tense atmosphere.

Light flooded through as the door creaked open. If it hadn't been for the flowers, the group would have gone blind, but they hadn't and were able to see the sight that could only be described as

“A City?!”

A massive city was beyond the doors. A city around the size of a basic town, its buildings made in a Gothic style, spread out.

“Well, into the rabbit hole,” Neia said with a sarcastic smirk.

“Wouldn't monkey hole fit better?” Nerrisa contended.

“It's something I read in a book...”

The group stepped forward into the city.

The monkey reached what seemed to be a plaza. There, the monkey stood beside another, which was facing the group who had just come from the door.

The city was lit by a massive bonfire in its center. The flame burned consistently, lighting the city in a warm orange.

The new monkey facing the group began to speak-

“Welcome, this is the lost city of Uniphon. Hand over Nerissa Orion Orlaith or this will be the place of your death!” The unfamiliar voice screamed.

“Fine, here she is!” Locke said, looking toward Nerissa.

“I shall come, release the hostages!” Nerissa called out, stepping over to the two monkeys.

As Nerissa arrived next to the monkey, it immediately grabbed her by the wrist.

“Now give me my daughter!: Locke called out, looking amongst the many buildings.

The newer monkey opened its mouth-

“This will be the place of your death!”

Immediately, hordes of monsters appeared from behind the ruins of buildings, from beneath the plaza, even from the ceiling and the door behind the group.

“Turns out you were right,” Locke said jokingly.

“I'm not exactly happy about that, ya’know,” Neia said.

“T-this is pretty bad!” Eris readied herself.

“But… Why? Don't they want me?” Nerrisa was confused, still being held by the monkey.

“They want to silence us, so that the school doesn’t come looking for them.” Locke looked at the horde of monsters, the size of which dwarfed the one in Lycynal. “This was expected, though.”

The monster had finished encircling them. Boars, monkeys, ants, even chimera-esque combinations of any two.

“You're not looking good, Neia.” Locke looked back at the evil-eyed girl, whose confident look seemed to give way to an annoyed look.

“Yeah, well… I wasn't expecting bugs…” she responded, looking away from the massive ants. Guess Mana lied to me about helping with the bugs…

“You gonna be alright?”

“Yeah, I'm fine, I'll just leave the ants to you.”

“Gee, thanks.”

RAAAAAAAAAA

The monsters roared. The cries mixed to create a cacophony of terror, one so foul it would rot any music that came near it.

“You guys ready?” Locke asked.

“““Yeah!”””