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Eternal Sailor Athene & Mauvian Liryn

Whilst Athene had suggested that they check out the ruined building, the dark-haired senshi hadn't felt any especial pull towards it.

He had been curious though and was even more so the closer that they got to it.

Because the building seemed almost... Almost out of place somehow, even if it wasn't really anything that he could put his finger on.

There was more of the crystals that seemed to be pretty much everywhere growing out of the building and a winding path leading onwards.

He hadn't had much of a chance to really look around however because suddenly there was a long deep sound that sounded like a rumbling growl sounds coming from somewhere inside the building and it was followed shortly after by a feminine voice screaming for help.

He looked at Alcor who he had been keeping pace with "That sounds bad" his quiet voice was worried and as he spoke Athene increased his pace "We should check it out, although we'll need to watch our step." He glanced up ahead to where Liryn and Eleonora were and then repeated himself, making his voice slightly louder for the benefit of anyone around him "That path ahead seems unstable so please watch your step."

And then he had continued onwards.

Inside he had found more of the glowing crystals in the wall, along with fragments of dimmer crystals on the ground.

There was a staircase too, leading downwards and voices.

"I guess that's where we need to go" he said pausing only to gather a few bits of the fragments glowing crystal on the ground and tuck them into his sash before moving towards the staircase as quickly as he dared.

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Liryn had been eyeing the crystals curiously whilst wondering if they detached, but he nodded at the sound of Athene's voice because it was a fair warning - although he personally reckoned that his balance would be better than that of the humans - even if walking on feet was still new.

Like Athene he had noticed the shattered crystals fragments, but as the dark-haired eternal had already move to gather a few he didn't bother to take any and instead looked at Eleonora as he moved in the direction of the staircase that Athene had pointed out.

"Let's go down together 'kay?" He made it a question, even as his ears fIicked at the sound of hissing coming from below.

Andronicus Squire of Uranus - Giant Scorpion Battle

The squire almost tripped down the stairs as Arthur smacked into her. She chucked at the feline and nodded, continuing down the winding staircase. A chuckle was given to Themiscrya, simply waving her to follow her. It gave her a sense of foreboding, as well as an odd sense of deja vu. Clearly the Andronicus had been designed, at least in part, to model a portion of the Academy. Many paths branched off, though they were unacceptable to her or anyone else.

Why someone would mark fallen rubble with a line, when clearly the path was blocked to begin with, made no sense to her, though it did flare her gamer sense of "there's something to these that you can't do right now."

"Woah..." she murmured, looking at the room around. The crystals were gorgeous, the piles of skeletons less so.

Even less so was the giant scorpion that dropped from the ceiling. Oh lovely. A boss battle and she'd missed the save point! Behind the giant youma floated the Code. Oh damn it, it was telling the truth.

"A'right guys! Probably should avoid the stinger and the claws!" Andronicus called to those behind her, charging forward towards the Giant Scorpion Youma, brandishing her mace.

What she wouldn't give for battle music right now.

Sailor Altair

She stilled, she heard more mumbling, mumbling that seemed to answer the sobbing pleas she had sent up and it added a bit of brightness back to a flame of hope she carried that had taken a gust of wind to it in a manner of speaking. She strained to hear if it would go on but the silence that followed it stretched on with the absence of any more mumbling sounds.

As she kept part of her focus on gradually regaining more evenness to her breathing as well as movement in her form, she open her eyes after keeping them closed for a stretch of moments to now test them again. She shifted to increase the vertical length of her by kneeling more upright now and winced. She probably had gotten wounds from sliding along the ledge before the fall. Her fingers confirmed that the dark stains on both knees weren't just specks of dirt but blood.

"Hello? I-I um am s-so sorry for my messy behavior. P-please, would you please tell me how you are doing after the fall? A-are you conscious, c-can you hear me? If y-you can, please answer me," she addressed anyone who may be here with her, checking if she was delusional or something of the sort. "I-I don't remember if we've exchanged names. I-I'm Altair." She probably was delusional or something like that now, at least to some extent.

And this time, she attempted to stand, taking one of the glowing crystals with her in the process. She wobbled in place, but managed her first skim of the room around her with the help of the shine provided by the crystal in her hold. And still, she also kept tabs on herself to make sure she was continuing to listen for any other sounds that broke into the silence of this place and from where.

"Really? I thought I'd test my armor!" Kairatos called out, sarcastically to Andronicus.

Giant Scorpion. Well he couldn't fault the rifts sense of dramatics. Abandoned tomb like building. Skeletons. Giant a** youma...

And the signs of excavation. Something he'd have to think about when they weren't fighting for their lives. He wasn't sure he even trusted this place to be stable enough to call his summon, who he would much rather have go toe to toe with a Scorpion.

At least he had his net. Maybe they could make this rodeo show a little easier if he could try and net that deadly tail and hold it back. The claws would still be a problem, but it was worth trying.

"Someone try and get underneath! If it's like a real scorpion, you might find a weak spot!" Granted there was a risk of being stepped on, but maybe not as dramatic a risk as with another type of creature. "Or we could try and wishbone those front legs?" He suggested.

But damnit the CODE. It was here! And Chaos energy as well. Had he actually been right at Olympus, telling Babylon he knew those turns of phrase? They'd been digging. They'd found it. But was it possible to undo what the negaverse might have done to it?

Newgrange

Falling down some deep hole was not exactly on the top of Newgrange's top ten list, but being alive after that fall was probably a good thing. With a little groan he rolled away; he was disoriented and reached a hand up to rub at his head while things settled. The yelling wasn't exactly great for his ears, but it seemed like a reasonable response.

When he moved, a little more light erupted from beneath him—dim, but another one of the glowing purple crystals they'd hit on the way down.

"Newgrange," he introduced a few seconds later. He knew he hurt, but he could curl his fingers and move his legs and that was good enough for him.

He glanced over to Altair—to what he could make of her with only the faint glow of the crystal, at least.

The senshi was up, and walking, and that was reassuring. It meant she was okay. "You don't look so good," he said; he wasn't trying to push himself up just yet. "How badly are you hurt?"

The noises out there sounded dangerous, so on the plus side, whatever was creating havoc up there wasn't bothering them.

…The downside was, he didn't know how to get out of here, and they had less than an hour to do so.

There wasn't really any doubt in his mind that Paris had fallen down with them, but he wasn't talking. Or moving, from what Newgrange could see. He squinted in the dark room, trying to see where he had fallen.

In no time at all, they made it down the stairs, and that was when things got a lot more interesting.

Or annoying, in Palatine's opinion, but at this point she figured she should have expected it.

“Does anyone else feel like a giant scorpion is really out of place in here?” she asked.

Which was entirely unimportant, but being that they were in an old a** building that'd had a broken symbol of Earth outside, with the Code appearing from behind a crumbling wall, she would have expected a majestic stag or something. Or a dragon. Instead they got this thing, which was only half as interesting and ten times uglier. Then again, that seemed to be the way with youma.

Anyway, Palatine had no clue what she should do about it. Kairatos had some good ideas, but she seriously questioned her ability to execute them considering she only had a teapot for a weapon. And magic that would be no help at all unless someone got hurt.

Which was pretty likely, under the circumstances.

“Come see me for any injuries,” she announced. “I've got a magical healing teapot over here.”

Palatine glanced over at Varuna to see how her niece was holding up, not that Palatine thought she had to worry about her. Varuna seemed pretty capable of handling herself.

“You think you can catch it off guard with your snow?”

Falias, Squire of Earth

Falias had accepted Kairatos' offer with a nod, moving to rip off a piece of the offered cape before moving to wrap the material around one of the crystals growing out of the wall "Thanks."

He had tugged at it for a little bit for all the good it had done given that the crystal had stayed stubbornly in the wall.

There had been enough shards of crystal on the ground however for him to gather a couple into the torn part of Kairatos' cape and then slip them into the pocket on his top, although it had meant having to remove his wand and slip it awkwardly into his belt instead.

And then he had followed the rest of the group as they descended the single narrow staircase heading downwards. As he walked carefully down, his green eyes had noted the covered arches and equally noted that they appeared to be blocked by rubble and whilst they may have been worth exploring, trying to uncover one would probably take much more strength and time than they had.

And so he had continued downwards until the staircase had reached bottom and opened up into a huge room - well cavern really.

The crystals here were different too, casting a light that was pale blue instead of the earlier purple, its cold light glinting off bones and skeletons lying in piles.

Not that Falias had a chance to really do more than that single quick glance as a sudden hiss from above had him looking up in time to see a freaking Giant Scorpion dropping down on them...

Some of the group had moved immediately on the attack, however Falias knew that his wand was not going to do much good here.

For a moment he contemplated his magic and then disregarded it as he wasn't sure that it would be any more useful than his wand and so instead he touched his ring as Hvergelmir had taught him on that night where they had met on a basketball court and called on the sunlight that was his aspect.

Because whilst he had no real idea how his aspect worked. perhaps the sunlight would do something here.

Aokigahara Page of Saturn

Aokigahara had followed the strange pull in his chest, the one that drew him towards the ruined building. To the Academy, that place that was supposed to belong to Knights, to all of them. His heart was racing, but he made every effort to stay as calm as possible, at least outwardly.

He had caught sight of Scholomance, which was encouraging; at least there was someone here he could rely on with some certainty. He hoped, at least.

The scorpion youma was a vastly unpleasant surprise.

"Oh, ******** these things," he growled under his breath. He was eager to have a more useful weapon than a paper lantern, but for the moment it was his only option. So he unwound the strings from his hand, spun it over his head, and threw his lantern at the youma as hard as he could.