When she finally woke up, the gold in her eyes was shining brighter, and the space around her was darker as if she was standing between a blurry, dark, translucent curtain.
She turned to Riven. "That's a strong ability you have there."
Riven nodded. That was the closest to a thank you he was probably going to get. He stood up as well. "What's your Sigil?"
She smiled. "It's classified as Radiant, and it's called Void, but I've evolved it further, and as of now, it is known as Abyssal Ravager."
Riven digested that. No wonder her aura was like darkness and yet not. It was strange on the senses, something he couldn't accurately grasp.
She continued speaking. "When we enter, you should stay beside me as I am the stronger one. Since this is an undead Catacomb and lies in your domain, you might get tempted by something or be protected from what should affect others. So if you get any hints, let me know."
Riven nodded. He wasn't stupid enough to think he had a chance against her.
She gestured to the door. "Do the honors."
Riven finally stretched out his hand and placed his palm on the image of the raven and serpent locked in a fight. He heard a soft click, and the door swung open.
An aura of coldness slammed into their faces, followed by the smell of rot and damp air.
What appeared in front of them was a staircase leading downward. The stone steps were old and slick with black liquid that looked suspiciously like blood.
Kivara clapped her hands, and her dark aura spread, covering the two of them. "This will hide our presence from anything that's not at the mid crest and above. Let's go."
She stepped onto the stone and then began to descend swiftly. Riven didn't waste time and followed her. The stairs weren't as long as they thought, and they soon reached the bottom, where they walked down a narrow tunnel that led outside.
"What is this place?" Riven whispered as they took their first look at it.
It was a sprawling wasteland. The sands were dyed an off-white, and the smell was like that of long-dried bones.
The sun was a mixture of black, sickly green, and the dull yellow of old pus. Looking at it made his body break out in goosebumps and his skin itch. He suddenly felt as if he wanted to vomit, and his head throbbed with a headache.
"Don't look at the sun," Kivara warned, her own eyes fixed downward.
Riven obeyed immediately, and the sickness that had begun washed away as his body returned to normal. He shuddered. "Looking at the sun is enough to cause that?"
She grimaced. "It seems this place is more powerful than we thought. I don't like this. Let's go back for a while, see if we can find a clue in the tunnels."
They didn't get the chance to return to the tunnel.
The entrance to the tunnel they had just come through had disappeared, and they were now standing in the middle of a wasteland that stretched as far as the eye could see.
The two of them cursed at the same time. They hadn't even noticed when it disappeared!
Suddenly, the ground shook slightly, and to their side, something jutted out of the ground. It was an elevated platform, and atop it was something that resembled an altar, but it was made entirely of bones. Resting on the altar was a skull as big as Kivara.
They shared a glance and then walked toward it. They didn't climb the platform, but they could see it clearly and what was written on the skull.
"Can you read it? I can't," Kivara said, squinting.
Riven looked closer. At first, it resembled something he couldn't read, but then the words rearranged themselves in front of him, and now he could read what was written on it.
"Remember, you must die, but death itself is a beginning, a flow. Bring the crown to the head that deserves it."
Kivara groaned. "These are the types of Catacombs that I hate. You can't just explore and find things. There will be an objective, something that must be done."
"So... we are meant to find a crown?" Riven asked.
"Probably place it atop that skeleton's head. Come on. Let's not waste our precious energy here. Somehow, I don't think we can find anything edible or drinkable here."
They didn't know where to look, so they just began to walk around. So far, they had moved far away from the altar, but when they looked back, it wouldn't be far from them.
At first, they thought they were walking in a loop, but it was the altar moving. They searched, overturning stones to look for it, but nothing was found.
It didn't take long for Kivara to start cursing her master because he had taken her spatial ring before she was sent into the Shadowwood so she could learn about survival.
Riven was also feeling the effects of hunger and thirst. The abnormal sun above didn't help matters either, as it was hot and caused them to feel dizzy even without looking at it. It seemed that just being exposed to it was enough.
Then they saw it—the crown.
It was sitting on the head of a monster that was between a jagged fissure. The monster was sitting down, with its head peeking above the ground and its lower body below.
Its head was a mass of black flesh warped around its skull. Its eye sockets were holes, breeding maggots and flies that buzzed around it. Each fly was the size of a palm.
The rest of the monster's body was covered in a tattered black robe. A rusted sword was clasped in its hand, like some kind of warrior.
Riven swallowed. "I don't know... do you have some kind of method for taking that off its head?"
Kivara turned back to him with an absolutely deadpan expression. "How about we use you as bait?"