Book One – Chapter 10

In the heart of the Albweiss Mountains, Midnight discovered a cavern bathed in a soft, silvery luminescence. The walls shimmered with reflective crystals, emanating a gentle radiance that created an eerie yet strangely harmonious balance between darkness and light. 

As Midnight ventured deeper into the cavern, the crystals stirred, responding to her presence with radiant pulses of prismatic light. This crystal heartbeat reverberated through the walls, where it animated once-lifeless forms of warrior figures seemingly fused into the crystals. With a violent release, they tore themselves from their crystalline confines, shards scattering left and right as they broke free through sheer force.

These were golems — beings of enchanted creation, their bodies composed of shards, their hands wielding an assortment of blunt and cutting weapons of crystal. Pulsating witch runes adorned their heads and chests, a clear manifestation of witchcraft, the first overt magical presence Midnight encountered in the Albweiss Mountains. On closer examination, she discerned that the golems were not entirely crystalline; rather, the crystals had encased humanoid beings now trapped within. In one, a wizard’s silhouette remained discernible; in another, the features of a ker adventurer — their contorted forms frozen in eternal agony behind the translucent veil of crystal fragments.

Even shrouded in darkness, Midnight had triggered their defense. Yet, none of the golems advanced towards her. Instead, they adhered to a predictable patrol, each following a designated route from one end of the cavern to the other. Their heavy steps echoed in the cavern, the distorted clash of shards resonating against the crystal ground. A significant number of golems clustered at the farthest end of the chamber, opposite to where Midnight had infiltrated. It was evident that their collective attention was fixed upon an unnatural chamber entrance hewn into the rock wall. This entrance stood as a crystalline door adorned with additional witch runes, leaving no doubt that it held the key to their vigilant guardianship.