Midas found it hard to sleep, not only because he slept on nothing but bare stone but mostly because the girl he made sure to keep a distance from somehow managed to slither closer, her nose right against his neck. Even after he scurried slowly to recreate the distance, he was seemingly unable to keep her away from him. Watching her for a long, silent moment over his shoulder, the youth decided that if she really did try something, she would've most likely done so quite a long time ago, reluctantly making Midas shut his eyes as he forced himself to fall asleep.
Once his eyes had shut and a window of vulnerability opened, Fudula wasted no time, slowly propping herself up on one elbow as she watched over the sleeping face of Midas. Finally able to finish what she got here for, she slowly pulled out a slim blade - the dagger reflected the orange shimmer of the torch as she carefully turned the sharp metal toward Midas, its edge making contact with the skin on his neck.
Surprised by her own reluctancy to actually pull through, she could feel her hand tremble slightly as the memory of their exchange the day before rushed back to her - despite her act, she couldn't help but feel something like pity towards him, the boy who took her role as a girl from the south seriously, who listened to her made-up story, and who wasted no time to help her from the scenario she set up to establish her role.
Just as her thoughts got the better of her, Raqisa inhaled in sheer confusion as a great amount of mana that belonged to him suddenly left his body; however, before she could fully turn, a golden arm reached from behind her to stab right into her throat. Awoken by a sharply cut-off scream, Midas stirred - his sleepy eyes widening instantly as he saw the girl he let guard his back hold a dagger in one hand while gripping Gilts wrist with her other - with an utterly confused frown, he watched as blood spurted from under her mask as she choked on her own blood.
"Why... what is..."
What's with that long face...? You wanted the third person hired by the commander's son - you got her.
Gilts' tone rasped from its opened jaws, pulling out its sharp, golden index finger as it pushed back the limp body of Raqisa towards him - making Midas look down at her with eyes of utter disbelief. His teeth clacked as his hands clutched her shoulders - sinking his head as he shook it slowly, finding himself unable to comprehend the sheer sight he woke up to the moment he felt she could be somewhat trusted.
"I should've known... nothing changed... Please, just give me a break..."
"What do you mean...? You got me now; at least someone has to watch over you when you decide to do something stupid, or am I wrong...? Just like all the other times you nearly died and had to depend on me. Cry all you want, but I want payment for my help... now."
Gilts' shrill laugh echoed through the ancient room, no ounce of understanding in its tone, as it didn't even try to hide its impatience to get its hands on the gold that seemed to be buried in the depth of the ruins. Midas's bloodied fingers dug into her scalp slightly as he gritted his teeth at the sheer helplessness - it seemed every action he made led up to Gilt winning another favor from him.
The youth blankly stared down at the limp body on his lap between his fingers; he couldn't tell for sure when the last time was he saw a corpse, but as long as the gold skeleton, which currently leaned close to his side to stare him down, was there, finding a clear moment to think seemed sheerly impossible. Rolling Raqisa's limp body off of him with a weak movement of his arm, Midas slowly got up, looking at the opening in the girl's throat left behind by Gilt with a blank stare, turning to the torch, and slowly grasping it - forcing himself to walk forward once more.
The walkways Midas slurred through were more decorated - the signs of civilization once having been here becoming more prominent, as coal scribblings and engraved names of most likely either adventurers or ancient folk that roamed the halls and lived in these circular rooms were dotted across the white-grey chalk walls of the tunnels.
Not that any of it mattered to Midas at the moment as he pushed forward - still half-asleep, his mind racing to somehow avoid Gilt having to save him; however, whatever solution he might find, Gilt knew about it anyway, as it was most likely observing his thoughts, its golden body already melted into his before he had set off.
"...why me? Can't you... find someone stronger to bother?"
"It doesn't matter. What difference does your body make if I have the possibility to fully control each and every one of your functions anyway if I want to... You wanted to stop the sandstorm; now you pay the price. And as long as that rune is on your hand - I will go nowhere."
"...and I can't even get rid of it..."
"Exactly. You know very well how rare it is to find someone who is compatible with something that was originally made only for me. Meaning, the sheer existence and arrival of you was also only meant for me. You were brought here to be in my control, to wield that rune on you and play the role originally enforced on me."
"I'm not here to play golden knight... don't forget why I was willing to help you in the first place. And if you don't give me back my memories - I will make it more than hard for you to get your gold... or whatever your end goal is."
"Sure... have your meaningless memories; what do I care? I never said you wouldn't get them, did I...? You should be mad at yourself for taking so long to get down there."
After Gilts' reply rang through his head, there was a moment of silence - nothing seemed to live in the halls that Midas wandered around, as only the occasional drip of water lulled through the mass of stone brick.
"...you think she did all of this because of that commander's son...?"
"Pretty sure... I recognized a symbol that was engraved in her dagger once she dropped it. Those clothes she wore didn't belong to her, I'm pretty sure. As you headed out, I checked her face - her irises were blue... meaning she was most likely from the north, the far north even."
"You mean where Uteli is from...?"
"That axe girl...? Yes, I'm pretty sure that symbol belonged to one of the clans that roam the icy plains beyond the great mountain wall. She either adopted the role of a southerner or completely overtook the identity of one - most likely doing all of that in obligation to the commander's son. Well, the water kingdom was always the most influential one in this part of the continent... or now continents."
Midas stared down at the dagger he forced himself to bring with him - the wooden handle, which soaked up some of Raqisa's blood, really had some kind of emblem crudely engraved into it - some kind of wrapped horn that seemed to be similar to that of a faun.
"How do I even explain all of this to Foulard... he seemed to be fond of her?"
"I don't care... continue walking before I make you."
Time began to feel like a hazy blur of never-ending columns of stone. Midas could feel the air get damper as he continued his descent - staring down into the darkness as the tunnel he walked through suddenly ended, a section of it broken off as he found himself in a giant cave system, dripstone beginning to grow on the scattered bricks that used to make up the walls of the corridor.
Guided by Gilt, Midas raised short pillars of stone out from the cavern's wall right beside where the tunnel broke off, using them as steps to make his way downward until his feet landed on the gravelly ground of the cave system the ancient settlement was most likely built around and inside of. Tiny streams of water flowed down the slightly sloped ground, slithering between the massive pillars of clay and brick that held up the tunnels. Knowing his purpose was to go deeper, Midas followed its stream, passing by stalagmites that had steadily grown from the ground over time.
His eyes were set on the rippling of water that glistened under the light of his torch, hopping over the warped shapes of multiple stalagmites while making sure his head didn't hit the tips of the stalagmites that hung from above. Eventually met with a stunning display of bioluminescent lights that riddled the ceiling of a massive cavern - a stream of water feeding into a lake that warped around a giant ruin of what seemed to be some kind of cathedral or what had been left behind of it. The blue-greenish lights above him reflected in the water, almost looking like the night sky - the lights pulsing and flickering occasionally as they mimicked the stars.
"I need you to go into that building right in front of you on the other side of the water. If I'm right, this was a ceremonial building to store the mummified bodies of important figures back in the times there used to be actual people wandering the halls of the underground. It was common that there were offerings placed beside the preserved bodies as gifts - among food and forged weapons was also gold..."
"Have you been here when you used to live...?"
"Yes, the overworld was in great distress after the arrival of the calamity that caused the great fracture - the underground tunnels made it easy for me to wander across borders without having to deal with mana beasts or sudden storms caused by the sheer presence of the calamity. As you know, the old world used to be one interconnected ring of landmasses; the only separated land lay in the middle of the central ocean - it was there that the calamity sought its refuge to charge up its actual attack... meaning, under the cooperation of the past kingdoms, a circle of pathways and halls was constructed that allowed travel to nearly every corner of the continent."
"I frequently took those pathways; I remember children asking their parents when they would be able to go outside again - and her concerns of growing too pale the longer they stayed underground. Buildings like this sprouted up more and more the longer the calamity reigned over the central land as food became more sparse and disease quickly made its way through the tunnel systems... as both raised the number of deaths underground. And with the surface still not being safe, there had to be these kinds of buildings where corpses could be stored and sanitized away from the living."
"Whole childhoods must have been spent down here in these caverns, maybe even generations..."
Midas awed at the ancient stone arches that were built into the walls of the building, reminding him of the remains he saw of the Sabahr'Kifar back in the south. The thought of the time he spent with Haya and Inaya made his stomach almost turn, as he felt worried about his friends, especially with the knowledge that the knighthood found out about their hideout and the fact that Haya often gave inside information, as he was a part of it since they went to Cascrender University.
Jumping over broken-off sections of the bridge that arched over the body of water that separated the building from the rest of the cavern, he stared right into the massive stone doors of the building; one of the door halves was slightly opened, as he was most likely not the first to find it.
"Hold on... what if there's still some kind of disease down there...?"
"Don't worry about it... the sooner you find the gold, the sooner we get out of here again."
Midas frowned, definitely not reassured by Gilt's rasp as he glanced down the set of stairs that led deep underground, sleek patterns chiseled into the stone that made up the walls of the building. Muttering under his breath as he pleaded not to be infected with something, he reluctantly took the stairs - the inside halls of the building were made of shelves, mimicking the Cascrender ruins where he found Graf stuck. Carefully lifting up one of the stone caskets' lids, his eyes were met with a dim cloud of dust, the smell of light rot, and a bitter note of herbs as well as the bandaged face of a body.
"Empty."
"Gilt... is there some way you can detect gold from afar...? Because I can't see anything inside of these."
Midas murmured as I squinted into the dark inside of the coffin, slowly closing it again as he knelt down on the lower shelf beneath it. Right as he wanted to search the next one, he was disturbed by the rattling of iron plates - someone was down there with him, hopefully an adventurer. Delighted to meet a human in the depths, the youth slowly approached the direction where the sound arrived from, stopping instantly as he realized that those adventurers were most likely also after the same gold he needed to resurface, making his weak grin disappear promptly.
Simply hoping he would find the gold first, he turned another corner, the walls riddled with shelves that stored stone coffins - the sound of steps and clinking metal becoming more noticeable, his eyes focusing on an orangey light flickering in a nearby room in front of him. Slowly slipping inside, Midas quietly watched the young man with short black hair squat down to an opened stone coffin. The room was small; however, this was the only stone coffin inside, meaning whoever was buried was most likely important.
Both of their eyes widened as their eyes landed on the shimmering gold of a few coins and a chain that sat around the preserved carcus. The adventurer in front of him laughed in sheer disbelief and relief, his hands clad in leather gloves carefully taking the chain into his palms to observe it under the light of his candlelight. Biting his lip hard, Midas slowly closed the door behind him - the heavy stone clinking into its frame, his shoulders trembling as he clutched onto his scythe, sternly glaring down at the ground as he tried to force himself to move.
"Hm, why did the door... oh...? Are you lost, kid...?"
The adventurer faced him slowly, sliding the gold chain into his pocket before slowly approaching him - his palm reassuringly placed on his shoulder, smiling at him with the intent of helping. Knowing very well that it was the best chance he could get to end this, Midas let out a short groan, pressing his eyes shut before activating his sunshard, piercing the side of the adventurer's torso - slicing his throat with his sickle.
"Damn it..."
Midas hissed to himself, hiding his face in his palm as he forced himself to regain his composure, hurrying to grasp the coins - watching as they dissolved into the skin of his palm with a look of sheer disbelief - and searching the body of the adventurer with a suppressed sob and gritted teeth as he tried his best to suppress his self-hatred to make sure he could flee the scene as fast as possible, dissolving the golden chain into his body as well.
"That's good enough... you're free to do whatever now; I will search for one of your memories while you do."
"Screw you..."
Midas hissed, turning away promptly, frantically making sure no one saw him, as he was sure that the adventurer was most likely not alone. Catching his breath as he scurried out of the room, he leaned against one of the pillars, his fingers clutching his knees as he stared into the ground. He had no time to mourn and, the longer he thought about it, no reason to do so as well - he didn't know the man, even though he had been nice to him. He needed an excuse that was good enough to keep going, as he had to find his way out of these halls.
Turning the corner, as he slowly began to walk again, Midas's eyes were directed straight forward - his gaze tired but stern, having to get to the surface no matter what. Something began to rattle from above, sounding like slabs of stone slowly beginning to shift against each other, a faint bit of rubble and sand crumbling down from the high ceiling of the corridor he walked. Before he knew it, a warping arm made from clay and stone clawed its three sharp claws into one of the pillars - the sound of cracking brick hurtled through the corridor as Midas realized something lingered right above him.
Frozen in place, he could hear the scraping of its inner workings as he finally saw what it really was: a bright, shimmering light of whitish blue blazing from the flat head of the stone creature - a golem, however, one that seemed to be able to cling to walls like a spider. Remembering what it took to beat it back in Cascrender, Midas's blood froze as he stared at the ancient creature of stone.
"Of course something like that has to show up now..."