The aftermath of the ambush lingered in the minds of the Guardian Angels. The body of the lost hunter had been retrieved, his legacy forever tarnished by the horrors of the World Below. Yet questions gnawed at the council and the scouts alike — if the entrance was sealed, what would happen when the war between clockwork servitors and alien monsters reached its bloody conclusion? What if they sought new paths to the surface?
A week passed. The village simmered with unease. Rats swarmed through alleys and crept into homes, their beady eyes gleaming with strange intelligence. Whispered tales of shifting shadows in the Forbidden Forest spread like wildfire, and the scent of ozone clung to the air — the unmistakable mark of eldritch energy.
A scout who had narrowly escaped the labyrinth ambush, was haunted by strange dreams. Awoke one night drenched in sweat, the hunter’s voice echoing in her ears: *The Royal Tree bleeds sap of time… Find the way back, or all worlds will unravel.*
The village council dismissed visions as remnants of trauma, but the scouts knew better. Dreams were often prophetic, even if their meaning was cloaked in riddles.
Guided by intuition, the scouts slipped away under the cover of night. They headed toward the Forbidden Forest, where the Royal Tree loomed like a silent sentinel against the chaos beyond.
The tree’s bark shimmered with golden veins that pulsed faintly in the moonlight. At its base, they found a fresh fracture in the earth, glimmering with unnatural energy. The council’s seal had failed. The gate to the World Below had reopened.
“We can’t go back empty-handed. If we don’t stop this now, Gotham will burn.”
“Then we go in — not to fight monsters, but to find the key that locks this place forever.”
As they descended once more into the Labyrinth, faint metallic echoes greeted them. The servitors were still active, their gears grinding with malevolent purpose. But this time, something else moved within the shadows — a writhing mass of obsidian tendrils, pulsing with violet light.
“The alien monsters”
“We split them apart. Let their war continue while we find the core.”
. “And if we can’t?”
“Then Gotham won’t be the only place to fall.”
The shadows thickened around them, gears whirred, and violet light seared the darkness. The final descent had begun.
Ping
Dreamquest 