The stone benches were mostly turned to chunks and dust, littering the worn floor of marble. Not much was to be found, except for statues of an unknown figure.
He looked up at the monument at the back of the church, which presented the likeness of a knight with a wolf by his side.
"I'm guessing he's the hero of these people–the ones who used to live here," Jasper presumed.
Finn looked at the statue for a moment more before turning his focus away, glancing around, "Gurmo said we'd find a challenge here. It doesn't seem like there's much of anything."
"Maybe the old fart's memory is a bit skewed, mate," Jasper reasoned with a shrug.
"Maybe," Finn didn't deny, stepping out from the fractured church.
Onto the lifeless soil of the cratered ruins, he looked around for where the others had wandered off to. He picked up on the sounds of distant chatter a block down, at what looked to be a crumbled mansion.
"Hey, Charlotte, Nova, what'd you find–" He began to ask as he approached the front of the manor that was missing its walls, seeing the spellblade and bard touching what looked to be an old armor set.
It was beneath his right foot that he felt a chunk of the dried soil give in with a sense of weakness felt through the very foundation of the ground.
"Ah–"
He froze for a moment, but it was too late–the entirety of the ground gave out from beneath him, splitting and cracking. It rapidly extended from the spot he stood to the span of the crater. The entirety of the old city seemed to break apart as soil gave away, leading to the structures falling with them.
"Waaaaah!" Nova squealed.
"Finn!?" Charlotte shouted out, holding the bard close to herself while falling.
"What the hell is happening–!?" Jasper yelled. Read further on m_vl em,pyr
Finn could see the others amidst the descent, though they were all some distance separated from one another as they plummeted through the newly-formed crater that delved deeper under the surface.
"Hang on!--" Finn yelled out, watching as the fractured buildings crumbled away amidst their descent, falling alongside them.
Through the vast pit that had opened, it only became visible now beneath that they were quickly descending upon a body of water sat beneath the surface.
"I don't wanna dieeeeee–!" Nova shouted.
"You won't! Just hold your breath!" Finn yelled, allowing himself to freefall. "There's water below us!"
Sucking a lofty sum of oxygen into his lungs, he braced himself as the subterranean lake quickly approached before–SPLASH. It felt like he was hit in the face by a flyswatter as he crashed into the water. It was lukewarm, though felt unpleasant to be submerged into as he quickly moved his limbs to swim.
There wasn't a struggle for air, thanks to the assimilated ability from the fish-man: ["Minor Water Breathing"]. It was hard to see in the underground lake, leaving the constant rainfall of stone chunks from the collapsed structures that plopped into the water an unnerving experience.
'Please tell me none of them got hurt–please,' he urged while swimming, kicking his legs and pushing his arms to move himself.
He could make out the church submerged ahead of him, bringing him to swim through its entrance as he found himself in its lopsided interior.
Maybe it was following his own gut, or a passing miracle, but he discovered Charlotte trapped beneath the fallen statue, struggling to push it off and for air.
"Mmgh...!" Charlotte strained with puffed cheeks.
Jasper was seen swimming up to the shore with the timid bard on his back, who looked frightened at the water.
"What if there's sharks? I can't deal with sharks!" Nova protested, clutching his helmet.
"I'll send you to meet them!" Jasper threatened jokingly.
Finn rushed over to help pull the knight and board onto the platform of old stone, "—C'mon. I've got you."
"Thanks, mate," Jasper said, standing up as water exited the inside of his armor. "Looks like we fell right where we were looking for."
"Yeah, seems like it," Finn agreed.
The platform stretched to what looked like a temple of ancient stone built into the dirt below the surface; a place that Finn knew by common sense alone was unwelcoming to outsiders.
Nova huffed, looking up at the massive hole a hundred meters above the underground landscape, "How're we supposed to get out of here? My bird can carry me, but some of you might be too heavy." She remarked, giving a side-eye to the man in armor.
"Hey, I wouldn't trust your bird to carry me ten feet anyway," Jasper remarked.
Finn pointed to the temple infused into the deepground, "A good place to start would be through there, I'd wager. If it's connected to the city above–or what used to be a city now."
Even though it seemed like the obvious route, he could see the hesitance written on the faces of Charlotte and Nova, not that he didn't understand it himself. There were two, massive statues of lion-headed men positioned in front of the ominous temple, hardly making it welcoming.
"I mean, this is what we came here for, right?" Charlotte said, sounding as though she was trying to convince herself. "If we find the Prime Treasure, we'll have a real shot at the Storm King."
"If it gets to look too dangerous in there, we'll find another way," Finn assured them, looking at the spellblade. "Sounds good?"
"Mm," Charlotte nodded with partial acceptance.
The stone walkway led right up to the lion-faced statues, which looked heavily eroded by water and general age, as the stone was cracked and mossy. A vegetal, sulfurous smell lingered around the front of the eroded temple.
He ascended the set of steps leading to the entrance, though quickly hearing the sound of stone breaking off as he looked back.
Nearly falling backwards, Jasper caught himself after a chunk of the steps shattered beneath his boot, "--That was close."
"Careful. I don't know how old this place is," Finn warned, looking ahead at the cracked and mossy pillars that held up the front.
"Super-duper old, I can tell you that," Nova said with a tiny breath as she watched her steps.
There were no doors at the front of the temple, only a lightless hallway that eerily sat ahead.
Finn snapped his fingers to bring forth a light:
["Lesser Wisp"]
The orange flow pushed the shadows back, bringing him to enter the old temple. Each footstep of his companions that followed closely echoed through the interior. A gust of wind passed through the hall, pushed right past the group of outsiders like a brisk whisper.
"Feel that?" Charlotte quietly asked with a shudder.
"Y-yeah," Nova nervously answered, rubbing her own arms coldly.