Chapter 34: The Forgotten Lands, Part Twelve

"What is all this?" Xhez asked.

"... I wish I had an answer for you."

What the two of them had walked into was, simply put, incredibly strange. Illuminated by Xhez's [Candle] spell, they entered a dark corridor with strange tubes running through the top. At the sides were what looked like old posters, faded with age, though Rin could just barely tell they were drawings of people dancing while wearing flamboyant suits. She saw two broken machines perched up on the corners by the door, and the ground was littered with small cylindrical items the size of her fingers, with more of those rusted, open-barrel objects around them as well.

There were skeletons everywhere. Bodies dressed in strange uniforms, holding machinery in their hands that RIn hadn't seen before. Though, she could tell from the way they were all positioned, that these people died fighting each other.

[So... This is where everyone went crazy?] Rin asked herself.

"Keep an eye out," she told Xhez. "Don't let anything catch you off-guard."

"I understand," Xhez replied. "But... I..." Xhez was hugging herself. "This place feels so... wrong. The amount of grief centered in this one room is staggering."

"Don't focus on it too much," Rin told her, "we here with a goal in mind. We do that, we get out, and that's it."

"... I will try," Xhez replied.

Of course, that was far easier said than done, even for Rin herself. Due to how well-preserved most of this place was, there were a lot of little glimpses into what Jessen's home used to be. Rin noticed, for example, a large, square object, the size of her backpack, placed on a desk to the right. It had a glass screen, which was broken with shards laying around the item.

Or, how, Rin saw something she thought resembled a microphone, only smaller, and rounder.

[How old is all of this?] Rin asked herself as she then heard something up ahead.

The sound came in the form of a terrifying screech that echoed throughout the corridors ahead of them. It sounded inhuman and made Rin's heartbeat speed up a little.

"... Ahead," Xhez said. "The source of this place's corruption. We will find it, not too far from here."

"Then, let's hurry up. This is giving me the creeps."

With that, the two of them ventured deeper into the town of Derain. They came across a few metallic doors with strange, oversized knobs, but most were tightly shut, and Rin wasn't about to risk alerting every creature here by smashing anything open. However, as they rounded a few corners, they did find one door that wasn't sealed like the others.

And, when they walked through it, Rin actually gasped.

"... What is all this?" Xhez asked.

"Holy shit," Rin muttered.

It was one giant room with row, after row, after row of plain beds. The room stretched forward until it ended at a wall with two other doors at its sides. One had a big "1" drawn over it, while the other had a "2". There were more beds in front of her, right now, than Rin thought she'd ever seen in total. And some of them had dead bodies on them. Skeletons like the others, but these were naked, covered only by grey sheets.

"Is this where everyone slept?" Rin asked aloud as she placed a hand down on one of the beds, only for her palm to be covered in dust. "Or... Is this supposed to be a hospital?"

As for Xhez, she got a bit closer to Rin, remaining silent. Noticing that, Rin asked:

"Is the thing we're looking for in that direction?" She pointed ahead.

"N-No..." Xhez shook her head.

"... Then, yeah, let's get out of here."

"Is this not normal in your human cities?" Xhez asked as the two of them turned around to walk out.

"Nah... I think I get what this place was meant to be, but... It's pretty weird."

Turning away from this room then, the two of them walked back out. Continuing to head deeper into Derain, the next big shock came as they reached a particularly cramped hall with one large window on the right side.

It was as they looked through it that they found what they were looking for.

"W-Wait," Rin told Xhez, as she nearly pressed her forehead against the glass. "Is that it?"

Xhez did the same.

"Yes, I believe so."

What they were looking at was one, lone skeleton. Only, above it was a giant rose-colored sphere. All around the skeleton were dead bodies, and in the middle, only it remained upright. Seeing their goal in the open like this made Rin want to move a little faster.

"Let's keep going," she told Xhez.

"... I..." Xhez said, however, as she continued looking at it. "Its presence feels... I can feel its Spirit from here."

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"We have to fight it anyway, Xhez," Rin replied. "Try not to focus on that. It'll just make you nervous."

She was telling this to herself as well.

"Um, right," Xhez nodded, turning toward Rin, that bag still in her hands. "Let us continue."

Continuing through the halls, their surroundings grew so thin that Rin could reach up and touch the ceiling. Eventually, they arrived at another massive room that Rin quickly recognized.

[A cafeteria?] She asked herself as she saw many different tables with chairs around them, tipped over or outright broken. A few of them had occupants, however. Skeletons were sitting on a few, their torsos resting on the metallic tables.

Everything she'd seen so far had not failed to make her wonder just how similar these people were to her own. She looked around and, at a point, she even found something that resembled a coffee machine.

One of the skeletons nearby had a strange curved sword in its hands.

"Goodness," Xhez muttered. "I have to say... I look forward to leaving this place."

[Yeah... This has all been a bit too much to process,] Rin thought as she approached the skeleton with that sword, trying to get a better look at it.

But, as she got closer, the skeleton groaned and Rin gave a brief shriek as she was caught off-guard. The skeleton pushed its chair back and got up, holding its sword and groaning as it looked over at Rin.

[Crap, crap!]

She nearly tripped on her own feet as she stumbled back. The skeleton raised its sword up in the air, and Rin kicked it back, her foot connecting with the armor it was wearing. The white flame from her feet spread all over it and the skeleton screamed as Rin then closed the gap and punched it in the skull, breaking it and killing the creature.

[Oh, oh, by the Divine,] she took a deep breath.

And every other skeleton in the room got up.

"X-Xhez," RIn said, "help me out here."

"Right!"

To her right, Rin saw Xhez go for a [Fireball], beginning to draw the upward arrow with her right hand. However, her hands trembled and the spell creation backfired, causing a small explosion in front of her that sent Xhez back. Her bag fell to the side, spilling its water. 

"X-XHEZ!?" Rin yelled out as one skeleton got up and staggered toward her.

Putting her firsts in front of her, Rin resisted the urge to run over to the sprite, and instead, tried to focus on the incoming skeletons. There were six in total.

Taking an unconscious step back, Rin leaned to the right when a skeleton tried to stab her and then tried to punch it in the head, but the skeleton leaned out of the way. Rin saw that coming and followed up with three more punches in quick succession. The last one managed to hit, and the skeleton gave out a pained moan as it was covered in fire and Rin finished it off with a kick, sending it back, crashing into two other skeletons.

Another one ran up and Rin spun, dragging her right leg with her as she tried to kick the skeleton in the face. It leaned back, but its momentum made it come into contact with her anyway and managed to land the kick on its jaw.

One more raised its sword and Rin caught its sword hand with one of her own, before punching it with her other hand, twice.

Then, Xhez, who had recovered, cast a few quick [Fireballs] and eliminated the remaining skeletons, before Rin could even get to them.

She didn't mind that though, instead, she walked up to Xhez whose eyes were teary as she looked down at herself.

"Xhez? Are you okay?" Rin asked.

"That really hurt!" The sprite replied as she picked up the bag. "What happened to me?"

It took a second for Rin to remember, but then, she recalled Harriton's lessons. There was one thing he'd made clear to everyone, that Rin herself hadn't come into contact with until now because she wasn't a mage.

"Your hands," Rin said, as she remembered what he said. "You shook too much. If you're not steady, the spell backfires."

"I-Is that so?" Xhez asked, sniffling. "You did not tell me!"

"I forgot," Rin replied. "I'm not a mage. Sorry."

"... Ah... then, I suppose it is okay," she muttered, "it really did hurt though," she said with a pout.

At that Rin had to resist the urge to hug the girl, as her hands were still covered in fire, after all.

"Again, sorry. But, come on, Xhez," she said as she stood up straight. "We've got a source of hatred, or whatever, to fight."

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