Hart let out a low whistle while Vanya stood calmly near Nina, examining the reflective walls.
"This ruin gives bad vibes," Vanya said quietly.
Gor’thala stomped her staff lightly against the glassy floor. "Remain alert."
Jax rolled his shoulders and grinned. "Relax. We got this."
The first wave appeared only monts later.
A screech echoed through the reflective corridors as shadows moved beneath the translucent floor.
Cracks spread rapidly underneath them before enormous insectoid creatures burst upward through the glass ground itself. Their bodies resembled giant beetles covered in smooth obsidian plating, but their limbs were unnaturally long and segnted like spiders.
Multiple glowing blue eyes stared from beneath armored skulls while their mouths opened into spiraling mandibles.
"Ugly bastards," Jax said imdiately.
The creatures charged and a battle broke out.
Jax activated his Glacial Sovereign Bloodline instantly causing frost to erupt around his body while freezing mist spread from the ice katana in his grasp.
The smooth reflective terrain beca covered with frost as he dashed forward at incredible speed.
One of the insect creatures charged him head-on.
Jax ducked low beneath its claws and slashed upward.
CRAAACK.
Ice exploded across the creature’s underbelly while the blade tore through weaker sections of its armor. The insect screeched violently before Hart appeared from above in partial transformation.
His arms had transford into glowing red elongated beastly limbs covered in rough scales while flaming claws extended from his fingertips.
Hart ripped through the creature’s exposed joints brutally causing black fluid to spray everywhere.
anwhile, another insect attempted to leap toward Vanya.
Silver rings of vibrating energy erupted around her palms.
"Argent Pulse."
BOOOOM!
The shockwave smashed directly into the creature’s head, destabilizing its balance midair before Nina casually summoned a massive painted hamr construct and slamd it downward.
Glass shattered from the impact and the insect exploded into pieces.
"Ohhh that felt satisfying," Nina said proudly.
However, more erged only monts after. It was as though this ruin was overrun by countless creatures.
The newly arrived ones resembled giant dragonflies with transparent wings and glowing abdons that emitted concentrated beams of blue light. They sward from the maze ceiling in massive numbers.
Gor’thala glowing eyes flashed green as she raised her staff and chanted.
Massive roots burst upward from the reflective floor, twisting violently through the air like giant serpents. Several flying insects were snatched imdiately and crushed mid-flight while magical bolts fired from floating sigils behind Gor’thala obliterated others in explosions of erald light.
Jax handled aggressive front-line pressure, Hart shredded isolated targets with overwhelming speed while Vanya destabilized enemy formations.
Nina created constructs to assist everyone simultaneously and Gor’thala controlled entire battlefields, using both magic and brawl while her Verdant Pyre Behemoths also dealt massive damages.
Wave after wave fell as they pushed deeper into the ruin maze.
The enemies they t ahead seed to be more evolved.
So insects now stood upright in disturbing humanoid forms with elongated limbs and glowing crystalline growths protruding from their torsos. Others possessed mirrored exoskeletons capable of reflecting attacks unpredictably.
One particularly dangerous creature possessed six human-like arms attached to an insect abdon and wielded shards of living crystal as weapons.
The battle against it beca intense quickly.
The creature deflected Vanya’s pulse attacks while rapidly adapting to Hart’s speed.
Then it suddenly split its own reflection across nearby glass walls.
Multiple fake images charged simultaneously.
"Which one is real?!" Hart barked.
Jax smirked suddenly. "Easy."
Frost exploded outward from him in a massive freezing wave.
Every reflection froze differently while one cast actual vapor. "There."
Jax shot forward and his katana pierced directly through the real creature’s skull.
The others shattered instantly.
"Showoff," Hart muttered.
"You’re just jealous you don’t have a katana," Jax placed the katana on his shoulder with a smirk.
By the ti they cleared the fourth major wave, everyone was panting but at the very least, they were making progress.
•••
•••
anwhile...
West’s ruin was becoming increasingly disturbing.
The mont he and Seraphyra stepped through the distortion inside the desert ruins, the environnt beca sothing else.
Just like the surface, the environnt was incredibly sandy... however, unlike the surface, this sand was crimson.
The desert like environnt in this ruins was like dried blood stretching endlessly across a massive wasteland beneath a dark scarlet sky.
Strange black pillars protruded from the ground everywhere. So were hundreds of feet high while others leaned unnaturally like broken fingers clawing toward the heavens.
To make things even stranger, so of these pillars moved.
West discovered quickly that certain pillars weren’t rely structures... they were portals.
Creatures phased out from them randomly without warning.
Besides that, so pillars were traps.
One pillar emitted invisible slicing waves if approached too closely.
Another exploded into swarms of parasitic insects when touched.
And Seraphyra... being Seraphyra... touched one anyway.
"Master, this one is glowing."
West imdiately turned.
"Don’t—"
Too late... before his warning could be completed, the pillar activated instantly.
A violent wave erupted from its surface and launched Seraphyra nearly fifty feet backward through the air.
She crashed into the red sand with enough force to create a crater.
West stared blankly. "...You did that on purpose."
Seraphyra rose slowly from the crater while brushing sand off her human form.
"I was curious."
"You have the survival instincts of an intoxicated raccoon."
She grinned shalessly. "Yet I remain beautiful."
Shortly afterwards, tapping sounds rang out loudly.
At first one would think it was a round of applause... but on closer look, strange looking gigantic horrifying centipedes were approaching from up ahead.
However, they weren’t rely gigantic centipedes because their upper halves were humanoid.
Their bodies stretched over thirty feet long with segnted crimson exoskeletons while pale muscular human torsos protruded from the front portions. Their faces lacked eyes entirely, replaced by smooth flesh with vertical mouths that opened unnaturally wide.
Green mist leaked constantly from between their teeth and the creatures moved frighteningly fast.
One burst from beneath the sand directly toward West.
He swung the Guardian Sword instantly.
BOOOOM!
Dark force exploded outward as the blade cleaved straight through the creature’s upper torso.
Yet even while dying, green mist sprayed everywhere.
West imdiately jumped backward.
The mist hissed against the sand itself, lting portions of the terrain.
"Poisonous," he muttered.
Seraphyra shot forward while transforming into full serpentine form, coiling around another centipede creature before constricting violently.
CRACK.
Its exoskeleton shattered but more and more erged in entire waves.
So climbed across pillars unnaturally while others tunneled beneath the crimson sands before erupting upward without warning.
West fought aggressively using the guardian Sword to sweep through enemies while activating Radiant Acceleration whenever he was surrounded by nurous attacks.
Seraphyra petrified targets and smashed them apart. Sotis she expanded and swallowed up every single creature in their path, bitting them to pieces in her mouth.
Her and West were an unstoppable force as they advanced through the ruins.
Yet despite their advancent... sothing felt wrong...
The deeper they went, the stranger West felt.
At first it was like a slight irritation... then he began to turn restless...
And soon, dark thoughts... unhinged impulses began to creep into his mind seemingly from nowhere...
Violence suddenly felt more satisfying than usual and the sll of blood beca oddly stimulating...
His pulse accelerated unnaturally whenever enemies scread.
West frowned after cleaving another centipede creature in half. He realized that sothing was affecting him.
To make matters worse, it wasn’t just increasing his desire for violence... it was also increasing other types of desire...
West stared down and noticed a bulge in his pants.
’What could be causing this? The green mist? The ruin itself?’
West wasn’t sure but whatever it was, he decided that clearing the ruins as fast as possible and leaving was his best bet.
However, the deeper they progressed between the towering black pillars...
...the louder those thoughts beca.
West clenched the Guardian Sword tighter as Seraphyra glanced toward him suddenly.
Her green-golden eyes narrowed as she stepped closer slowly while licking blood from the corner of her lips after tearing apart one of the creatures monts earlier. "...Master?"
West blinked. "Hm?"
"You sll strange."
"What does that even an?"
She tilted her head slowly while another wave of centipede creatures phased from nearby pillars.
"You sll..."
Her lips curled slightly. "...delicious."
Before West could properly react, Seraphyra suddenly swept forward.
Her arms wrapped around him imdiately while her lips crashed against his in a fierce desperate kiss that nearly knocked him backward.
The force of it actually lifted him slightly off the ground.
West’s eyes widened briefly in shock but then sothing inside him broke loose and he kissed her back.
His hand wrapped around the side of her neck while the other gripped her waist tightly, pulling her even closer as the kiss deepened almost violently.
Their breaths mixed together while the ruin around them seed to darken with the dozens of creatures still approaching.
The centipede abominations screeched while crawling over pillars and bursting from beneath the crimson sands, drawn toward the disturbance.
West barely noticed while Seraphyra pushed against him harder. Her soft lustrous lips remained locked on his while her tail lashed wildly behind her, smashing chunks of stone apart from sheer agitation.
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