Stone statues

Suddenly, the tomb doors fell to the ground, creating an echo that echoed through the room and then down the halls into the depths of darkness.

The wind generated by the impact shook the flames of the altars, then in unison, two beasts revealed themselves from within the tomb.

Then, a fireball shot towards the head of one of the beasts, causing it to focus on Hanert, who had fired.

Perhaps in a mad attempt to stay alive, Hanert fired, causing the beasts that were still awakening to fully awaken.

'Shit!'

The time they had had been drastically reduced, and upon realizing his mistake, Hanert paled.

Atlas had barely managed to keep the situation under control since they faced the second elite beast head on, but now everything seemed about to go out of control... and exactly that happened.

"I-I… I'm sorry!"

Hanert turned and looked at the portal, then Atlas, predicting what was going to happen next, shouted: "Wait, it's not ready yet!"

According to what he knew about the portals from common knowledge, two portals were connected to each other. But what would happen if a portal that was not completely open suddenly someone forced their way in?

Without his words being of any use, Hanert ran towards the portal and crossed it. Seeing that Hanert had disappeared, the others looked at the portal and without thinking, did the same as him.

Rort didn't even bother to give Atlas a second glance, he simply walked through the portal leaving him behind. Then Akrin followed Rort and only Danield, Benedetto and him were left behind.

Danield had his sword raised towards the elite beasts that were looking at them as if they wanted to eat them… which was possibly what they wanted.

"Me too…"

Not knowing what to do, Danield remained almost paralyzed. At that moment, Benedetto crossed the portal without caring if it was completely open or not.

But then, the beasts came down from the tombs and in the blink of an eye they were flexing their legs to jump.

"Fuck!"

Atlas cursed seeing that they had no more time, so without caring if the portal had opened completely or not, he grabbed Danield by the backpack and threw him into the portal.

At that precise moment, the beasts roared when they saw that their prey was gone, and without a moment's hesitation, they jumped towards Atlas.

Everything had happened in a single instant, and before the beast's bandaged hand could grab Atlas, he passed through the portal.

The beast's hand could not catch Atlas, but instead it grabbed the stone door... and destroyed it completely, breaking a portal that for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years had remained hidden in the ruins.

***

Atlas's vision blurred and he felt as if his entire body was in a void, but his head was spinning non-stop. It was the first time he went through a portal and he didn't know if this was common or because the portal was not yet fully open when he passed through it.

Then, after what felt like an eternity, Atlas felt his body fall to the cold ground.

Opening his eyes, all he could see was complete darkness. Then, he checked if he still had all of his limbs and if he still had his belongings.

Seeing that everything was in complete order, Atlas took a few seconds to sigh silently.

'...I made it'

He… he still had no idea where he was, but he had survived the elite beasts. Then, not wanting to remain in complete darkness, Atlas created a sphere of light and then, he screamed.

"AGHHHH!"

In front of him, there was a face with a longing expression, but at the same time it was screaming. Atlas took a few steps back and felt him collide with something.

He turned his head slowly and saw another face with the same expression as the previous one right next to his face.

This time Atlas resisted the urge to scream with fright, so he swallowed and looked around him.

Dozens of people were kneeling with longing expressions, but all of these people were turned into stone.

'Where I am?'

There was no sign of the other portal where he was supposed to appear, so Atlas was in a completely unknown place. Furthermore, there was no sign of any of the nobles, he was completely alone... although not completely.

In front of him, there were still dozens of statues with the same expression. Women, men, the elderly, children, there were statues of all ages.

Atlas stood looking at the hundreds of stone statues praying in eternal silence. He looked in the direction of where they were praying, only to see an altar the perfect size of an adult person, but it was completely empty.

'This place gives me chills... I have to get out'

Atlas backed away in silence, moving as far away from the empty altar as possible, turning his back to all the statues. He took a couple of steps and suddenly stopped dead.

A cold sensation passed through his bones. Atlas felt a chill run down his spine and swallowed, having a bad feeling.

Slowly, …very slowly, Atlas turned his head. Behind him, hundreds of stone statues stared at him, their faces completely expressionless and their eyes wide open.