Sealed Fantasista

The group made their way around the dome structure until they found the entrance. Opening it to a completely dark interior, a few of went to go collect a few branches in the forest to use as torches. With a torch for each group, they all entered the dark unknown.

Immediately the smell of things damp and rotten assailed their senses. Spreading out, the group found themselves in a corridor lined with strange carvings.

"These aren't like the carved lines outside." Kaguya noted as she brushed the dust off one of them, "This is almost like a mural."

"Look." Helena was a few steps ahead of the group and pointed her torch towards a series of stone coffins lying in alcoves lining the wall, "This looks like some sort of burial site."

"Dare we disturb the dead?" Roland asked.

"L-Let's head back." Corissa said, sticking close to Varis.

"No, it still doesn't make sense why there's a burial tomb in this forest." Kaguya said, "I suggest we delve a bit further."

"Fine by me." Helena shrugged, "Just don't start opening the coffins without telling anybody."

Moving further into the tomb, the group spread out to cover as much of the corridor as they could with light. The air only seemed to get heavier as they traversed, with only the steady sounds of water dripping from the ceiling to break the silence.

"Look at this." Roko leaned down and held his torch next to a small totem and flag on the ground.

"What's that?" Momo asked as she came over to pick up the flag, "Not any design I've seen."

"Looks pretty tribal." Kaguya said as she joined them, "Maybe this is some sort of native tribe that used to live in the Paramnesia Wildwoods?"

"I don't remember anything like that from the history books." Corissa frowned.

"Maybe they went extinct a long time ago?" Roland suggested.

"We'll know if we keep going." Helena said.

Further still in the tomb, the corridor opened up into a large inner dome.

"I think I see some torches on the wall here." Helena said, "Let's try lighting them."

Roko reached out to a brazier on the wall, lighting it before noticing a series of strange tendrils covering the walls.

"Guys?" Roko called out but no one answered. Turning back, he found the group was stunned by what laid before them. The innermost room in this burial chamber was taken over by a series of otherworldly tendrils that covered the floor and walls, gripping close the coffins that laid in the wall and on the floor.

"What...is this?" Momo grimaced as she stepped on the squishy thing covering the floor.

"They're like...tentacles?" Roland frowned as he poked at it with his sword.

"I lit all the torches I could find." Corissa said as she returned, "There's some weird thing in the center."

Everyone followed Corissa to the back of the room where a large pillar made out of the same tentacles stood ominously.

"Is...it pulsing?" Helena covered her mouth, "And is that smell coming from this?"

"Who wants to touch it?" Roland asked.

"Why not you?" Roko said.

"I'm not touching it unless it's with a sword." Roland snarled.

"Why not?" Kaguya said as she pinched her nose, "It's better than nothing."

"I think nothing might be better in this situation." Corissa yelped.

"I'm not sure about this either." Helena admitted, "But I do want to find out what's going on."

"Just stick together." Roko said, "And be prepared to fire any spells."

Everyone nodded. Roland and Mikado stepped up to the pillar of tentacles and drew their swords. Taking one last look at everyone, they swung at the disgusting aberrations. The swords cut into the tentacles but the cut was too shallow to be effective.

"This might take awhile." Roland frowned.

"Try prying them open?" Helena suggested.

The two knights took their swords and pushed them in between the tentacles, trying to push one out.

"I think there's something inside here." Mikado reported.

"It's...covered I think?" Roland added, "I'm going to try to cut it open.

Everyone else waited with baited breath as the two ran their sword up and down the interior of the pillar. Sickening yellow liquid spurted out every time they dug into the pillar but the knights continued their work until they removed their sword and grabbed onto the front most tentacles, trying to pry them open to the side with great effort. The onlookers were drawn forward as the knights kept pulling, eventually opening a small gap in the structure. From the dim lighting, they could see the outline of something human trapped in the tentacles. With one last pull, they opened the hole fully and the thing inside jumped out towards Corissa. Corissa yelled in terror as the thing knocked her down on her back.

"Corissa, stop flailing!"

Taking a few seconds to calm down, Corissa realized that whatever attacked her wasn't moving. She also noticed that it was a corpse. Crying out in horror again, she pushed the dead body off her and scrambled to her feet, clinging to Varis closely as she softly whimpered.

"Disgusting." Helena said as she poked the strange corpse with her foot, "It's completely covered in this weird yellow stuff."

"I think some of it got on me." Corissa yelped as she tried brushing the sticky liquid off her.

"Take a closer look." Kaguya said as she knelt down and held her torch up closer to the corpse, "These look like tribal garments it was buried with. So this is some sort of native burial ground."

"How does that explain the weird tentacle pillar?" Roland asked.

Kaguya just shook her head.

Suddenly the corpse began to warp and spasm, its mummified skin lurching off its frame in bubbles, as if something inside was trying to break out. Everyone immediately took a step back as the corpse exploded, sending its strange liquid everywhere as a pair of small creatures burst out of the corpse. It was unlike anything any of them had seen before except for maybe Roko who recognized the formless mass of tentacles as something he had read or seen before from a book or game all the way back in his original world. A large toothy maw emerged from the disgusting collection of tentacles and the things began to leap at the group, snapping its jaw at them as they stepped away from them.

Roland and Mikado immediately took up their swords and stabbed the two creatures in the back. The monsters continued to writhe on the tips of their swords, their tentacles now trying to creep down the length of the sword. Roland immediately cried out in terror and threw his sword away while Mikado made a strong flick with his sword, flinging the creature off and into the wall. The knights returned quickly to their princesses' side as the whole room began to rumble. One by one, the lids of the stone coffins burst open and an army of the eldritch monsters crawled out, surrounding the group. Most of the group began crying out in horror but Momo and Mikado quickly readied their swords, slicing away at any that tried to get close.

"We need to get out of here!" Momo cried.

Varis turned to the corridor behind them and unleashed a large blast of fire, incinerating the creatures blocking their way out. The non combatants quickly began to run towards the exit as the knights followed them, retreating backwards to fend off the army of tentacle creatures as they began to swarm them.

"Ice!" Helena cried, blasting randomly as the creatures continued to chase them, "I don't think I have many uses of this spell left!"

"Save it!" Momo yelled, "I haven't used any of my spells yet!"

Pointing at the monsters, Momo called upon her lightning to blast away large groups of the creatures. Varis and Mikado continued to slice down the creatures with Varis firing off a spell a few times at any enemies that began to bunch up around them. Roko joined them in the rear, trying to swat down any of the monsters that made their way through with his torch.

"Get out!" Kaguya called as she opened the door back out into the woods and everyone began to run out.

"Go on ahead." Roko said to the knights as the continued to try to help with the swarm.

With no time to argue, the knights followed the rest of the girls outside, leaving Roko to be the last one to escape.

"Come on!" Kaguya called from the other side of the door.

Roko made one last swipe at the mass of tentacles before turning to leave. But before he could escape, he hesitated, taking one last look behind him.

"Scan."

His second of hesitation was enough for one of the creatures to grab his foot with his tentacles, causing Roko to trip and fall on his back.

"Lightning!"

A bolt flew through the doorway and zapped the monster clinging to Roko's foot. Helena and Momo grabbed Roko by the shoulders and pulled him out of the tomb as Kaguya finally slammed the door shut behind them.

The group took a moment to catch themselves outside the tomb, trying to process exactly what happened. Roland was lying up on all fours, gasping heavily before Helena stood up, walked over to him and kicked him square in the stomach, sending him flying into the air.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU THROW AWAY YOUR SWORD?!" Helena yelled.

"I was scared!" Roland coughed.

"Scared my ass!" Helena cried as she began to stomp furiously on her own knight, "You're a knight! You're supposed to be brave and protect people! What the hell were you going to do without your sword?! Use that spell you don't know?! You were completely useless!"

"N-N-Now let's calm down!" Corissa cried as she tried to pull Helena away from Roland, "Everyone's safe, that's all that matters!"

"Are you okay?" Momo asked as she crawled over to Roko.

"I think." Roko tried to stand up before he felt a sharp pain from one of his legs, "I might have twisted my ankle back there."

"Can you stand?"

Roko pushed himself up and managed an unsteady stance before taking two steps forward and wincing. "I'll be fine." He grunted.

"Obviously not." Momo sighed as she let Roko lean on her shoulder, "Come on, let's get you back already."

"Thanks."

"Come on everyone!" Momo called, "Let's leave before anything else happens."

Everyone slowly got back up and began to trudge, exhausted, back into the forest.

"You can ride on my horse once the woods clear up." Kaguya said as she walked up next to Roko.

"Thank you."

"Also...what did you see? When you scanned the monster?"

Roko looked down.

Name: ???

Level: ???

Strength: ???

Dexterity: ???

Constitution: ???

Charisma: ???

Spells: ???

Weakness: ???

"Nothing." He replied.

The sun had set by the time the group returned to the castle. The class instructor noticed them and came over.

"I was wondering if there were any students left." He said, "Anyway, I'm here to take your reports."

"I killed a spider." Roko said as he limped up to the instructor.

"Whoa, you look like you took on more than a spider!" The instructor whistled, "Get yourself to the nurses' room asap."

"I killed a juvenile griffin." Momo presented her feather as proof, "I also might have seen a carbuncle."

"There aren't any carbuncles in this forest."

"Awww..."

"I-I got some herbs." Corissa offered the instructor a collection of green plants.

"That's great."

"Also Varis killed a wild boar, a pack of dire wolves, some skeletons, a pair of bears, a couple of slimes, a-"

"Just how many times were you attacked?" The instructor blinked.

"I got this." Helena held up her captured jackalope.

"Oh that's cute. Put it down there."

"Alright. Come on you useless sack of-" Helena muttered as Roland followed behind her.

"We...we killed some dire wolves sir." Kaguya reported.

"That works."

"Also...once I've recovered...I'd like to make a special report to the headmaster."

"A special report?" The instructor frowned, "Did something happen?"

"Yes. I'd like to tell him in person."

"A-Alright. I'll schedule an appointment, Princess Kaguya."

"Thank you."