Eccar gave a firm nod to the remaining eight adventurers. His gaze swept over them one last time, golden eyes meeting theirs with quiet understanding.
"I'll start now," he said simply, then spread his wings wide. With a powerful gust of wind and a rush of heat he launched into the sky.
The trees groaned under the force of his ascent and then he was gone like a dark shape rising fast toward the temple's perimeter.
Jan turned to the others then say with urgent voice, "Let's get closer. Stay low. We wait for his signal."
They all nodded in understanding.
They moved in a tight formation, sticking to the underbrush as they approached the temple's edge.
The golems were still there in their statuesque and motionless figures, the hulking giants of stone and Magic still silent in their watch. Fifty of them, exactly as Jan had counted earlier with height about ten meteres each.
They crouched behind a fallen log and held their breaths, hearts thudding. The sheer tension made time stretch.
Eccar came down from the sky like a thunderbolt. Magic power exploded across the forest as he crashed into the golems' ranks, his claws slashing through the first few before they could react.
Magic burst from his arms attacking a section of the guardians in powerful combination of earth and stone speards. The stone that made the golem cracked and splintered under his onslaught.
Ten of the golems turned. Their eyes lighting up with power and began to pursue Eccar as he took to the sky again, dragging them away from the temple's entrance. The ground trembled with their movements.
Jan didn't hesitate. "Now! Move!"
The group bolted from their hiding place, keeping their posture low but moving fast. They sprinted toward the space Eccar had opened which is a narrow corridor in the golems' formation. It wasn't much but it was all they had.
Their boots pounded the earth, breath sharp in their lungs. Every step felt like they were tempting fate. They all have premonition that suddenly any second a golem would swivel and crush them beneath its massive stone foot.
Selene stumbled on a root but Thorne caught her without a word. Kaela kept glancing up at the towering golems, her hand trembling on the hilt of her daggers.
Hund and Esther flanked Jan, ready to strike if any guardian moved. Annette muttered a soft prayer under her breath as she ran.
But none of the golems turned.
The path remained open. Eccar's distraction was working.
They passed through the entrance one after another, slipping into the temple's threshold like shadows. Only when the last of them stepped past the great archway did Jan allow himself to breathe.
They stood in the cold silence of the temple's interior. The air was heavy with Magic energy that feels ancient and the echoes of battle outside dimmed behind the thick stone walls.
A strange and almost sacred quiet settled around them.
Jan looked back with eyes narrowing. The golems had not followed them or noticed anything. They were safe, at least for now.
"We made it," he whispered.
But none of them celebrated. They all felt it. Whatever lay inside this temple was worse than anything they had seen so far.
Jan glanced around the chamber's looming walls and then back at the others. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a flask of glowing blue liquid.
"Everyone," he said quietly, "drink your Magic potions now. We need to be ready for anything."
Without question, the others followed suit. Each adventurer pulled their potion from their packs. Some drank quickly, others paused for just a moment to feel the cool Magic surge down their throats.
The liquid was filled with power and as it coursed through them they could feel their reserves rising again. The fatigue in their bones eased and their Magic energy stirred back to life.
A few nods of relief passed around. Jan gave them a brief moment more, then motioned toward the hallway ahead.
They walked in silence with their weapons drawn and eyes peeled.
The temple's interior sprawled ahead like a maze, each turn revealing more stone passageways that seemed too pristine and new for a place that supposed to be ancient.
As they entered one chamber after another, Jan's brows furrowed deeper.
Hund looked around warily. "This place wasn't before."
Esther nodded, touching one of the etched walls.
"I remember crumbled stones, vines, and dust. Now look at this." She pointed to the smooth obsidian-colored floor and the strange symbols along the edges of the walls. "It's like someone rebuilt it in a matter of weeks."
Selene stepped closer to one of the pillars. "I don't recognize these runes. They're not Elven or Dwarven or anything I've ever studied."
"It's not just rebuilt," Hund murmured. "This place doesn't feel like it belongs to this world."
"The stone is different," Jan agreed. "Too smooth and unnatural." His eyes tracked a gleaming vein of green and orange that ran through the wall. "This isn't from our world. It's like the temple was pulled through the place behind the rift and rebuilt with materials from there."
"Keep your voices down," Mark hissed suddenly, his voice sharp but quiet.
Mark stood still for a moment longer, head slightly tilted as if listening for something. Then he slowly lowered his sword but didn't sheath it.
No one argued. Their whispers died and the group pressed forward more cautiously. Their footstep careful not to echo too loudly.
The deeper they went, the more alien the temple became.
The geometry shifted. The hallways grew stranger, bending at angles that shouldn't exist, the shadows along the walls writhing ever so slightly as if reacting to their presence.
They passed doors made of metal this time and it shimmered with green hues. The floors seemed to pulse wih Magic beneath their boots.
But they still had no idea where to go.
Jan paused at another branching corridor, jaw tightening.
"We're just guessing," he said in a low voice. "We don't even know what we're looking for."
"You're right. There's no map or signs." Selene said.
Jan looked to the group. "We'll move one corridor at a time. If anyone sees or hears anything, immediately speak up."
They continued, swallowed deeper into the shifting halls of the unnatural temple.