The silence of the ancient crypt was deafening and more haunting than any roar of a beast or clashing of blades. Rael's footsteps echoed across the cracked, dust-covered floor, each one awakening a whisper of memories buried long before his birth. Torchlight flickered against the walls that were carved with forgotten runes and their meanings lost to time - yet somehow, they felt familiar to him.
He wasn't alone there.
His eyes darted to search the shadows, his senses piqued. The air was heavy not just with the stench of decay but with someone's or something's presence. A thousand eyes might have been watching and he would have no way of knowing. The gate hadn't just transported him it had awakened something buried..... not so much beneath the ground but, within him.
Rael paused at the center of the chamber, a circular stone slab inscribed with the seven sigils. As if it's responding to his blood, the first one pulsed faintly in a dull crimson red glow and the moment he stepped closer, a seerie pain erupted through his chest not physical, but primal, as if something inside him was clawing or tearing to loosen itselfand is trying to make its way free.
He buckled on his knees.
He started to have visions - visions that assaulted him. A landmass on Fire, Screaming peoples, A Throne of Bones and Skull. A face -- his -- but not his.
The pain vanished just as suddenly as it came. He gasped for breath drenched in sweat. The sigil which was pulsing faintly now glowed constantly, and a low thrum filled the room. One of seven… seven seals. Seven awakenings.
A voice emerged from the darkness.
"You've opened the first. Now the hunt begins."
Rael rose to his feet slowly, his face icy, his hands firm. "Then let them come."
The air trembled.