Welcome to Gaia! ::

He had already mentally committed the names to memory of the ones he didn't know, and now he was keeping an eye on them, Celsus's green eyed gaze moving from the matching redheaded Tortuga, to Lacerta, the clear youngest of them all - and perhaps the least experienced as well, though that just made Celsus hope this whole thing was not going to end in disaster even more. Still, he wasn't going to discount her opinion just because of this; Celsus had long since learned, after all, that age and experience meant very little sometimes.

Point of fact: Castor, though he was going to keep the majority of the rest of his opinions regarding the prince - not his prince, but a prince - to himself. Mostly. He looked over his shoulder at the other's commentary on nice views and resisted a strong urge to roll his eyes.

"Not to discount your lovely face, my lady, but I'm rather taken already," said Celsus, flashing Scylla a small smile. "Though I am impressed with your decision making skills. Shall we continue forward, then, and hope for the best? I'm quite sure we'll do well to remember we are but mortal, but that we are but mortal powered individuals, so I'm fairly sure we're not in any danger. Yet."

The oath mark around his neck glowed faintly along side the transcendence markings; Celsus kept the tone of his voice calm and collected and almost lighthearted. He kept his gaze forward, but lifted a hand and gave a thumbs up to Lacerta's comment.

"That is true, yes, we are all still together; and having company is always a nice preference to having to do things solo, after all."

The walk seemed to take forever, though it couldn't have been more than ten or fifteen minutes. Celsus' eyes roamed the crumbled walls, the deep gouges in the stone that ran down to desiccated flooring beneath their feet. Whatever had happened here, it had not been good.

At length, they reached the room at the end of the corridor, and Celsus slowed his steps, his brows drawing together in mute concentration behind his glasses as he stared at the chest on the pedestal. His cape made a gentle swishing sound across the floor as he drew closer, moving around to eye one of the guards, before his attention was drawn back to the chest.

One hand stretched out - the hand with the ring - but didn't touch. Celsus was frowning in thought.

"What is this, then..?" He murmured, half to himself, half to the others.

Castor's eyes lit of with recognition at the name Tortugae gave.
"Maia?" He smiled with an obvious fondness. "We were never close, but I'm glad to hear she's still around- and training others now no less." He did not to the suggestion but- Scylla understood. He was more able to take an attack and survive. His own nature afforded him a lot more... sustainability than the others.

"I may not look it now, but push comes to shove I would be able to take the burnt of damage more than you or Lacerta. Scylla has the right of it. I'm more than just for show after all." He winked. "And you're right cutie." He decided that if anything, he might lighten, (or annoy her and the others) with his usual tried and true antics. Flirting.
"Nothing has tried to keep us apart yet. Barring Scylla telling on me once we get back."

A nod of his head, the mirth vanished as quickly as it had come in a way, his eyes hardening as he took up stride behind the group, shoulders back and eyes flicking towards over his shoulder every few paces. It was not so much a paranoia- they were timed, measured moments he would turn his head just so- aiming to keep alert of anything unseen.

Thankfully, such an attack never came, and he gave a small breath of relief as they entered what he guessed was-
"An antechamber to... what exactly?" The marks in the walls along the path were slightly telling. A battle, a rather deeply and viciously fought one had taken place. And with the lack of repairs, it perhaps lent an idea to which side had proved victorious once they reached the hall's end.

Blue eyes went back to the archway they'd come from then to the broken statue followed then to the chipped one. The stone was tough to have withstood time as intact as it was. But- it was also deeply troubling. Those marks were clear in the notion that something inhuman had once fought tooth and nail to make it here. It, whatever it had been, had lost, leaving the prize as it would seem to be, intact.

Yet for it to remain intact, yet this place to be so void of anyone else...
"Call it cliche of me." He said, eyes flicking to Celsus and the chest, then to the remaining statue. "But I have a hunch that whatever took down the intruders before is still active much like the tiles and doorways. More so-" He went to where Lacerta stood, eyes moving up, staring into those of the woman.

"You find it suspect as well?" He asked her briefly.

"Whoever built this place left it. Intentionally or no. The worn age and damage un-repaired signals a perhaps unused sanctum or-" His eyes flickered once more to the chest.

"I'd wager whatever this is, it's from the silver millennium or before it. The murals were to off style to be direct white moon, and it reeks of magic rather than mauvian tech. Tech wears out, but so does most senshi magic too until it's revitalized by it's senshi so... Celsus? Tortuga? Either of you know of any wonder that might predate the knights?"

He kept going over the various angles yet nothing was adding up. A place without energy to signal its vitality. No clear symbols or crests. Locked but not from their wonders and wonders.... No signals... Not even Cosmos.

Castor hummed. Too many pieces missing from the puzzle.

As Castor drew alongside her to take in the appearance of the female ivory guard Lacerta had finished investigating the beyond repair guard. A few small touches of the stone proved that there was nothing that could be salvaged. Yet why was it only the one guard that seemed damaged beyond repair and the other one was more or less intact. At Castor's comment Lacerta turned thoughtful.

"I'm not sure about suspect but it is odd that only one of these guards is still in okay condition. It makes one wonder what might have occurred."

She was curious about what might be in the chest and why the rings had seemingly 'pulled' them into this apparent dead-end chamber. Was this the final resting place of someone important? Was it a elaborate trap? Lacerta certainly wanted to know but at the same time was feeling apprehensive about this room. Something was bound to happen that was for sure. The rings wouldn't have guided them here for no reason and it seemed as if going back the way they came was out of the question.

Going back to stand in front of the female ivory guard Lacerta looked into the dull, lifeless eyes and quietly voiced, more to the statue than anything, "what happened to you?"

A rumble shook the temple; it didn't seem like it had come from inside, but there was no way to tell where it did come from. The windows yielded no clues. A few pieces of loose rock wiggled loose from the tremor; one of them fell and hit the chest with a hollow, metallic thud that echoed strangely and seemed to reverberate through the room, through them.

The contact seemed to have sparked something and a flash of white light blinded everyone in the room. Another tremor ran below their feet and something loud shifted.

The broken statue just seemed to crumble more, but the standing one shifted positions. The standing one came alive.

Her eyes glistened with the same shimmering blackness as the rings on their finger, but she didn't seem to see them as allies. Instead, she raised her spear and slashed through the air with surprising speed and force.

Tortuga's question was a fair one but not one he had much an answer on. "I was. But no- I've been... an extended guest of the rift. This is nothing like that place. More, the upper ranks of the negaverse wouldn't allow me movement, not so freely." They'd kept him alive to corrupt after he broke. To this day, he understood how close he'd come to his own demise.

A message. A warning. A promise.

"My guess is defensive combat. Whatever launched the offensive was seeking entrance but clearly did not breach the threshold entirely." Lacerta wasn't wrong in way. Something had happened. And worse- they all got a warning to the age and structural integrity to their current location. The light was like a sound wave, passing into and out of him, reverberating until it was gone.

Castor really regret not acting on his hunch.

"Damn magic-" He cursed, resisting the instinct to change to his royal form. His wings could easily prove detrimental. They'd not touched the chest, nor, the figure itself. So-
"Son of a b***h." Lacerta was attempting her best to get it's attention, and she'd laid bare her skills-healing.
"SCYLLA!" He yelled toward the senshi of the Kracken. "Try to immobilize it. If it's chest it's defending, then destroying that might cause the magic to fail."

He ran towards the object in question. Hand skyward as he called out his attack to try and provide them all cover.

"Slashing Storm!"

Celsus had not yet touched the chest, though he was looking at it curiously, his head tilted to one side. He was listening out of one ear to the muted conversations around him as the others mulled about, trying to figure out what this place was - what these statues were - what they were even doing here.

The ring on his hand glinted for the briefest of moments, catching the reflection of one of Celsus's many golden coins. A second later, he saw the flicker of it disappear as the ground beneath him shook, and then shook once more as the statue beside them came to grinding, awful, very real life, the spear in her hands slashing through the air before Celsus could fully comprehend what was happening.

"Achilles!" he shouted, thrusting an arm out, and a white light shivered down the length of his wrist before the spectral owl burst into being beside him, flapping its great wings and soaring upwards. It careened through the room and came to a stop in front of Lacerta, its wide wings spread outwards in a protective circle.

Celsus had snatched up his whip from mid air as it materialized in front of him, but he couldn't use the magic while his summons was out, though it had its other uses. He was dimly aware of hearing Castor shouting, of a sudden cold wind that seemed to burst out around them, missing the allies and raining down on the marble face of the statue. Tortuga was diving for the legs, and Celsus didn't waste any time, darting forward, the trailing ends of the cat tail whip in one hand and the handle in the other.

His hands shot up, moving quickly; an attempt to wrap the whip around the statue's throat from behind, determined to at least forestall some of its movements.

Although Mel had once praised the fact that she was a healer and it was 'so cool' Lacerta was of a certain disagreement. Being a healer meant that she was useless in a fight unless someone got hurt. Was it always going to be her job to stand to the rear and let others engage in the battle? And engaging in battle her comrades at the moment were. It seemed as if Castor had called down hail to lash the guard and the chest. No one else seemed affected. Tortuga was rushing to take out the feet of the guard and after a moment Celsus followed; but not before he did something else. At his shout white light rippled out from his arm before materializing into some sort of spectral creature. It took off, careened around the room before appearing before her.

Lacerta gasped at the sight of the large bird that hovered in front of her. It was definitely a new experience and she wondered if this was meant for her own protection. Gamely she watched as Scylla unleashed an attack that caused tentacles to rise from the ground. Her mind still was focused on the movements of everyone else. She briefly reached out towards the spectral owl before drawing her hand back. Her other hand still held onto the second rock that she'd retrieved earlier. Shifting her position Lacerta drew back her arm and once more threw the rock that she held towards the center of the room and the place where the chest sat, still gleaming, if not dented. Could she get around everything else and try stopping the madness around her or was that a foolish thought? Shaking her head the teen grimaced at all the obstacles in her way, one thought running through her mind 'how can I help them?'