Chapter 2: Through The Unknown

"The portal that will lead to great knowledge." The king's voice echoed out into the small room, speaking with awe in his voice. He walked closer to it, wanting to look at it closer and study it, clearly deeply interested in the mysterious object.

Elevated from the ground with a small stone stairway that led up to it, the portal stood in the middle of the room, aged and heavily damaged but still standing. Writings and symbols were written all over the portal in an unfamiliar language. It was full of cracks and missing a few chunks.

The portal rested deep beneath the earth, deeper than the dungeon Colton managed. Needing to pass through a mix of recently created mineshafts from the miners and seemingly old and abandoned mine shafts they found on the way.

Books were scattered everywhere inside the room. Most sticking out of the ground and dust, with different cover colors and titles but all written in the same unknown language.

Scholars donning red royal cloaks were already standing around inside the room, studying the books and the portal itself. They wrote on pieces of paper while conducting their studies, ignoring the king and group.

Their work was lit up by many torches resting on different parts of the room, trying to give as much light as possible.

Calliope grabbed a book from the ground, hoping to pass the time before the king would speak again. She blew on it once, revealing a blank blue cover, no longer smothered in dust and rock. Unlike her mage colleagues, she was not there to help in translating.

"Interesting…" She muttered to herself after opening the book. She read its contents, silently gaining what information she could from inside.

Looking to also pass the time, Colton looked at the other members of the group. 2 women, and a man. Wanting to know his team further.

The two women wore drastically different clothing, one wearing a black aristocratic outfit normally worn by duelists for fencing practice with a dark purple tailcoat, all with small glints of gold adorning. Her hands were covered by silk white gloves, a noticeable red cloth was tucked into one of the coat sleeves.

Colton did not recognize the design of her outfit from any noble or royalty from the kingdom, seemingly someone from a distant kingdom.

The other wore a rugged green and brown cloak meant for camouflage and hunting, with tattered leather clothing below. A quiver hung on her back with a feather standing straight on the top of her black hair. A small knife was stuck to her waist, partially concealed by the tunic.

Colton though could not make out the outfit of the last man, standing in a spot not as illuminated by the torches, but he could see his silhouette staring straight at the king.

Once enough time had passed, the king turned back to the group. "From the translations, the portal will activate fully when all the selected individuals are near to it. Hence why it is not active yet." The king looked beyond them, to the stairs they used to descend to the portal room.

"They should arrive here shortly. It turns out the Twin clerics of the cathedral were also chosen."

"The twin clerics?" The woman in the aristocrat clothes asked in surprise, her voice sounded young. Everyone was startled by the sudden shout, the king as well. He turned to the woman.

"Indeed, the clerics. Know of them?" He responded to the woman, ignoring her different appearance compared to the rest.

"I heard of them, they traveled to my home and other nations with diplomats to heal people, they could even speak our language." She responded in a quieter tone.

The twin clerics were renowned mages that were rather quiet despite their constant travels and meeting hundreds just to get aid from them. They reside in the magic academy or the Cathedral of healing.

The twins also acted as escorts to the king when traveling to other kingdoms due to the wide range of languages they could speak. Even being one of the few that managed to read the manuscript Calliope spoke of.

A brief silence followed before Calliope slammed the book shut, finished with reading it. She placed the book back on the ground and turned to the group.

"It seems the portal was created with a defense mechanism in mind when people who are not bound with the blood are close by." She explained, only more questions came to Colton's mind from her words.

"The clerics should be here by now. Once they come, your task of seeking knowledge will begin. I'm entrusting the future of our kingdom to you. Especially after a bizarre turn of events with kingdoms around us." His face of confidence slowly changed to one of confusion after talking.

"Did our diplomats go against us? Did they hear of this portal? What caused this?" He questioned himself while the group still stayed silent.

Colton briefly remembered a piece of memory from one of the meetings he had on it. The kingdoms that surrounded them suddenly turned hostile, nobody could understand why. Not even the diplomats could understand why.

As if the kingdoms all had a change of heart.

After a few minutes, the echoing sound of shoes hitting stone flooring could be heard from the stairs.

The clerics finally arrived, a lone royal guard walking behind them. After the twins stepped off the stairs, the guard walked with haste towards the king.

Through his helmet, he began whispering something to the king. After the soldier finished whispering, the king's face turned to a face of fear.

He turned back to the group, quickly switching his face to one of confidence again. "Since all of you are here, it is time. When the portal activates, you will all enter through the portal and finish the task. Calliope shall act as your leader throughout." He spoke quicker and with a tone of determination.

Suddenly, the entire room shook with great force, knocking everyone over. Items were knocked down and all fell down hard. The muffled sound of something getting struck could be heard even from this depth. Dust began to fall from above as the shaking ended, leaving a cloud of gray for a short time.

"They arrived here quicker than expected." The king spoke again, looking up at the ceiling where the sounds came from.

After a few seconds, he turned to the stairs and began to head towards it with the soldier.

The soldier walked ahead of the king with his sword already unsheathed, even through the mask, Colton could feel his fear with what was to come.

Before they could leave. Their attention was quickly grabbed by another sound. A low buzzing hum. Everyone turned to where the sound was coming from.

The portal

A bright purple glow appeared from it, the light was far stronger than the torches, revealing the true contents of the room. On the once dark walls and ceiling were scriptures, texts, and even a few small paintings that hung with dust consuming them.

"Once this room seals, our civilization shall be safe from the outside destruction…" Calliope started to read what was etched on the walls.

"What?" Before the king could question further, another explosion from above rocked the room, but all managed to stay on their feet.

"My lord, we must face the enemy at once now!" The knight ordered, even after looking at a mysterious sight, his focus was on the threat above.

The king turned to the knight and nodded, rushing up the stairs, their footsteps slowly became more faint with each second.

Colton was only more confused by what was happening, the portal, the text, the light. He could not even open his mouth to speak. As he looked around trying to seek some answer, the light of the portal intensified, until it fully blinded him.

While his eyes were only filled with bright purple, shouts of pain erupted in the room, before falling dead silent in a single second, followed by the sound of thuds.

In a minute, his vision returned. The light returned to its normal glow. But everyone except the chosen were all dead. The scholars who were once standing were all dead, the group was frightened by the sight.

"What do we do now?" The woman with the bird feather asked frantically to Calliope, who was just as confused as they were.

Before she could respond, large chunks of the roof's ceiling began falling to the ground, burying the bodies beneath gray dust and rock.

"We have no time!" She yelled at Calliope.

Rocks from behind began filling up the entrance of the stairway, fully blocking their only way out.

"Fine." Calliope walked up to the portal.

"Move to the portal now!" Upon hearing their new leader shout, the 6 immediately started running towards the portal while the room continued to crumble. Colton was behind everyone, seeing rocks and large chunks of the earth fall behind him as the room became smaller and smaller.

Within arm's reach, he jumped straight into the portal, managing to escape the breaking room.

The same bright light from before enveloped his vision. But now he could not feel his legs standing on anything, or feel anything, like he was weightless. A feeling of relaxation and bliss filled him.

While he relished the moment of relaxation, he felt his body suddenly thrown down. His body crashed down on a hard ground and the purple light he saw was replaced by darkness.

His eyes began to open to an unfamiliar place, he felt the warhammer on his back press down on him. He managed to stand up straight, the feeling he had felt earlier was now gone, only feeling the pain in his chest from the impact. Now though, he was no longer in the portal room. But somewhere he did not recognize.

Bookshelves, rows of thick wooden bookshelves from left to right, with a path ahead that only led to more shelves, with seemingly no end. Above him, a massive chandelier hung from the ceiling, giving a calming orange glint to the entire place.

He turned around to see what else the place had. The other members of his team all lay on the ground, except Calliope and the twins, who were standing next to a librarian's desk. One typically seen near the entrance of libraries, but only a wooden wall was in the place of where a door should be. While Calliope read, the twins started checking on Colton and the others.

Long tables of light brown smooth wood stood on both sides of where Colton stood. A few books rested on each one, with chairs pushed into the tables, ready to be used.

"Where…Are…We?" He tried to speak further, but the pain only limited him to uttering a few words.

"Good question." She responded, calm as ever even though they were in an unknown place. Her eyes, still fixated on the book she was reading.

Soon, he could hear the groans of his teammates. One by one, they stood from the ground, aided by the twins as they looked around in confusion, and stuck in a daze.

"At this moment, I am unsure of how we can get out. A portal should be here to bring us back, but it seems it's gone." Colton felt a jolt of fear upon hearing those words, but tried to calm himself down.

"Where in the hell are we!?" A gruff voice yelled out in confusion. A man Colton had problems recognizing earlier stood up from the ground.

His clothing was the most rugged, a mix of thick leather and steel armor concealing his body, with a short sword stuck to his waist.

"Well, from what I see. This is a library. An endless one it seems."