Nothing moved.
The wind went through the ruins of Varinthus. It was carrying ash around of dust. You could see blackened stone everywhere. They looked like they were stuck in the positions they were in when everything happened. There was melted steel over the streets. It looked like rivers that were not moving. In some places you could still see embers glowing a bit. It was, like the land of Varinthus was remembering what happened and it did not want to forget the ruins of Varinthus.
Lucifer stood where the central plaza used to be. He was right, in the middle of what was a big open space. The central plaza was gone now. Lucifer was still standing there.
"I have these bad nightmares and they do not just happen when I am asleep. Sometimes I am sitting there. I get these nightmares even while I am awake. The nightmares are really scary. They feel very real. I do not like it when I have nightmares even while I am awake because it is very frightening. Nightmares are bad enough when I am sleeping. Having nightmares even while I am awake is even worse."
Caelyra stood beside him with her bow, on the ground and her hands folded over it. Her clothes were all torn and dirty. The silver light was gone from her body.. Caelyra stood up straight. She was breathing slowly and evenly. Her face was very pale.. Though her eyes were clear. Caelyras eyes were really clear.
The dungeon gave an answer.
It is not like someone is talking to them with a voice.. They feel a kind of pressure. The land seems to be leaning in to them. It is like the land is whispering into their bones. The old ruins start to shake a bit. Ash rises up into the air. It swirls around. Makes shapes that are not really clear. These shapes disappear before they can really take form. The ruins of something are trembling faintly. Ash is lifted into the air. It swirls into vague shapes. These shapes do not last long and they dissolved before they are fully formed. The land itself is like it is leaning closer, to them and whispering directly into their bones.
"This is the first apocalypse."
Lucifer closed his eyes. Then he just stood there with his eyes closed. Lucifer was really trying to think. Lucifer was thinking about a lot of things and Lucifer did not like what he was thinking about.
The Rise of Elysium was made possible by a lot of sacrifices. There were so many sacrifices made for The Rise of Elysium. It is really about the sacrifices that made Elysium what it is today. The Rise of Elysium would not be here, without all those sacrifices.
"Victory was never the lesson."
"Only endurance."
"The price."
Lucifer finally got it.
This dungeon was never meant to reward strength. It is a place where being strong does not always help you. The dungeon is really about something. This dungeon was never meant to reward strength it is more, about being clever and figuring things out.
This was a test to see if a person could keep standing after they had lost everything that mattered to them. The question was whether someone could still keep going after everything they cared about everything that was important to them was taken away. It was, about finding out if a person could stay strong after losing the things that they loved the things that they wanted to protect, like their family and friends and the things that made their life worth living were all gone.
The ruins around them started to shine a bit. Some symbols appeared in the air and they were really old. Moved slowly like old wounds opening up again. The ruins were still shining and the symbols in the air were moving it was like the ruins were remembering something. The symbols looked like they were carved by people a long time ago and now they were coming back to life floating in the air, around the ruins.
The dungeon actually acknowledged the people who were standing there. The dungeon gave them attention.
The power flowed. It was like the power was really flowing. The power just kept on flowing.
Blessing of the Dragon Remnant.
The resistance to Abyssal corruption has gone up a lot. This means that Abyssal corruption is not as strong as it used to be. The Abyssal corruption resistance is now much better.
The mana capacity has been expanded to a level that would have been too much for him to handle before. This is a change for him and his magical energy capacity. The magical capacity is now, at a point where it would have crushed him if it had happened earlier.
And then,
A weight just showed up in his hand. This is really weird because he did not have a weight in his hand before. Now the weight is just sitting there in his hand. He looked at the weight in his hand.
Lucifer could not imagine what he saw.
The Key of Dragonis.
A promise.
There is a place in the Elysium Cluster where the city of dragons still exists. The city of dragons is really something and it is still around, in the Elysium Cluster.
Caelyra took a quick breath right next to him.
Silver fire started burning around her. It was not out of control or eating everything up. The silver fire was calm and clean. It went around the shape of her body and into her bow and arrows. It even went into Silver fire that was a part of her. The air around her felt fresh and clean. It felt sharp, like a knife. It was as if bad things did not want to be, near Silver fire because it was so pure.
Her eyes were really shining, like they had a light, inside them that you could not see. Her eyes glowed with a kind of light it was like the light was coming from somewhere else but it was not.
Blessing of the Silver Flame.
The Abyssal constructs would not fight back against her arrows anymore. The Abyssal constructs were not going to be a problem for her arrows.
Her divine aura just kept growing it was steady. It did not give in like a light, in a really dark place that goes on forever.
Varinthus was still dead. It did not come back to life. Varinthus remained dead.
The Rise was over.
Only the scars remained.