Altar Room

[Unknown Time — Unknown Place Raphael's Pov]

Raphael started running towards the door as soon as he saw it. There was no time to be wasted at that moment. He had no idea what happened just then — It was almost as if he had lost control over his whole body but this wasn't his primary concern now. What mattered was getting out of that place alive.

I have a knack for getting zapped into random dark places huh? This is just great. I wonder if this is the academy's doing as well. Although the tests are already over it felt like it wasn't all there is to it. The sparring was mild, no one got injured and with the reputation that Xenovia has for being ruthless towards their students, it isn't a surprise if they decided to just throw us into places such as this. But still, they knew nothing of my origin so this much detail regarding dragons would be impossible for them to create even using the RiftPiercer directly since they don't know my background.

*Clack*

Raphael slid to the door, got in, and quickly closed it. It was an altar room with a few of the same types of statues that were chasing him moments before of his encounter with the three-headed wolf. The altar was set up in a way that the statues led to the main part of the room which was a small fountain almost identical to the one he had seen in the middle of the mansion lobby. This couldn't be a coincidence. On top of the statue was a crystal which was held by the statue's hand.

"You can't be more obvious than this huh…"

I let out an awkward sigh knowing that if I picked up the crystal on top of that fountain, something would surely happen. Like come on, that's what happens in most books I read — the curious protagonist goes treasure hunting, finds the treasure room, goes to pick up the shiny crystal, and gets chased by a mad monster protecting it. That's just logic.

Slowly dragging my feet towards the fountain almost regretfully, the torches which lit the room before and were dim now shone brighter. Each time I took a step forward another torch would spark up in flames. Now that the room was more visible to me I noticed that each statue had a symbol behind it. It was foreign to me and very indecipherable. It could be the dragon's language for all I know, it even looked runic.

Before I go up to that altar I should scout the room, I need to have an out in case something goes south which is pretty likely anyways. I somehow always end up in trouble without even meaning to. There were six statues along each side placed very symmetrically. The room was almost two times taller than the statues with walls made of mud bricks covered in moss. It looked completely different from the other parts of the mansion where the walls were pretty standard house walls covered in rose-patterned wallpaper. Almost giving it an ancient feel. I'm led to believe that this room is in an entirely different pocket dimension but I have no time to solve mind-numbing conspiracy theories right now. I need an out to this place.

I returned to the start of the room and the torches and flames died down to the previous level. Certainly, the flames had something to do with the statues in some way. I'm going to get that crystal now, even though it sounds like the worst choice possible I can't even decipher the runes behind the statues so it's the only option that is even viable at the moment.

*Stomp, Stomp*

My steps are so loud, I'm scaring myself like this. Finally, I'm in front of the statue. Dammit, this is nerve-wracking I don't really like performing under pressure but here goes.

*Clang*

*Screech*

A loud noise filled the room that came from behind Raphael, the statues had started rushing at him at an alarming speed.

"Come on man, I knew damn well where this was going but went with it anyways."

My legs acted on impulse and I jumped to the other side of the altar. Forgetting to enforce my legs with Xer I couldn't absorb the impact that spread across my legs. The pain was endurable even though it was like jumping from the second story of a building.

*Gulg, glug*

"Great, water is just what I needed right now."

The room started to fill with water from corner to corner. Raphael was trying to hold the statues off despite not being able to fight back. The statues were too strong — if you had to calculate one statue would be equal to a rank 2 RiftWalker meaning the only option for him was to run until he found a solution. To his advantage, the creatures didn't seem to have much intelligence seeing how they crowded each other to take a hit at him. This led him to notice that the torches had de-escalated to almost ground level and some holes in the runic circles across the altar had shown up. The shape of the holes was pretty close to the torches handle.

Seeing this as a total opportunity he ran to the other side of the room to grab the first two torches on each side. The statues quickly followed but were held back by his Shadow Garden. Quickly placing two torches in the holes he started running to the other torches. Behind him, the runic circles light up, both in different colors. Along with that, the water level stopped rising. It was getting hard for him to move since the water had wet his clothes. He quickly grabbed another three before the creatures were able to break free from the Shadow Garden. Another three of the runic circles lit up and as he was going for the 6th and final one the creatures broke free.