"Any idea how much further?" complained the young adventurer, as he wandered through the woods with his adventuring companions. "We're gonna get lost at this rate..."
"We won't get lost," his partner assured him, as she continued following the footprints she had been tracking. "Trust me, I know how to navigate through places like— wait."
"What?" the first asked, but he was immediately shushed. Realizing what this meant, the adventurers fell silent, listening for any unusual sounds.
...whoooosh...
"There," the tracker spoke. "Did you hear that?"
"I think that was just the wind."
"No, I know what the wind sounds like, and that wasn't the wind." She turned to her partners with an encouraging smile. "I think that might be the creature we're looking for."
"But where did it come from?" asked another adventurer.
No response. Again, the adventurers fell silent, listening for the sound to happen again. Hopefully, if they heard it a second time, they would be able to pin down where it was coming from.
...whoooosh...
"This way," the tracker said, beckoning her male partners to follow her.
As they continued toward the source of the strange noise, the scenery around them slowly became more twisted and unnatural. Some things glowed with an ethereal light, some of the trees seemed to be shriveling at an alarming rate... they were signs that something had been using some very powerful magic. Though none of them said anything, the adventurers started to grow nervous. What exactly was it that they were dealing with here?
"Wait a minute, what's that?" someone whispered, gesturing to something in the distance.
Looking ahead, the adventurers saw what looked like an old stone building of some sort; probably erected many centuries ago, from the looks of it. Most notably, a very powerful aura seemed to be radiating from within it. There was no question about it—this was the place.
The adventurers silently moved closer to get a better look, hoping not to alert whatever creature was lurking within to their presence. As they drew closer, however, they realized that the sounds that they were hearing from within the building didn't belong to the primitive beast any of them were expecting.
Instead, what they heard were human voices.
"...Are you certain this is working, Your Majesty?"
"Of course it is. I can feel the energy flowing through."
"Forgive my intrusion, but we have been working on this magic stone for several days now with no success. I wonder if perhaps it is simply too old to function properly?"
"It is not too old. And it will work this time, I am certain of it. Now silence."
The now-familiar whoosh echoed from within the building, followed shortly by a loud crackling noise. An eerie purple glow radiated from within the building, and nearby trees were quivering at the tangible increase in magical presence. The adventurers could feel it, too—whatever this was, it must have been very, very powerful.
One of the adventurers finally mustered up his courage to peer into the building, while doing his best to stay out of sight. Inside, he saw three people, thankfully with their backs turned to him, all gathered around a large crystalline rock. Two of them were well-built men in imposing robes, but the third was a woman of impressive height, with long, unruly black hair, and a dark purple dress. She appeared to be channeling powerful, dark magic into the crystal.
The adventurer's throat tightened in realization. She was a witch.
"Yes... yes!" the witch cried. "It's working! I feel it!"
As if on cue, the crystal began to pulsate with magic, giving off a mystical humming noise. Suddenly, there was an explosion of energy, as a magic field expanded forcefully out of the crystal. The force was enough that it knocked the adventurers backward, giving out muffled yelps that were thankfully drowned out by the sound of the magic. The field expanded until it completely encompassed the building, and then kept going, possibly to cover the whole forest. It was impossible to tell, as the further away the field got, the harder it was to notice it.
Once the commotion settled down, the witch stepped forward, looking up at the now purple crystal. "After many centuries of lying dormant, this magic stone is now filled with the powers of Darkness. Now that we have access to its immense power, this continent will have no choice but to bow down to me."
The adventurers exchanged fearful glances. They had never encountered a witch before, but they had heard that they were very powerful, dangerous individuals. And whatever this witch was planning, it didn't sound good.
"We should get out of here," one mouthed to his companions. The others nodded in agreement, slowly getting up and trying to get out of t he area as quietly as possible.
"What should we do next, Your Highness?" asked the witch's companion.
"We must go to the... wait." The witch paused, glancing over her shoulder. "There is someone here."
The adventurers tensed at the sound of this, giving up on trying to escape quietly and instead making a break for it as fast as they could. But by that point, it was already too late.
"After them!" the witch shouted to her companions. "Bring them back here!"
The two men gave chase, as the adventurers did their best to keep ahead of them. However, the effort proved useless when the men used magic to put up a magical barrier to block their path. Turned out they were warlocks. Of course they were.
"Her Majesty Queen Moriella has requested your presence," one of the warlocks said. "It would be unwise of you to refuse her."
"Oh yeah? Well, we're not going anywhere without a fight!" one of the adventurers protested, pulling out her spear. "Bring it on, punk!"
The adventurers drew their respective weapons, fighting back against the warlocks as best as they could. Unfortunately, none of them were prepared for the immense magical power of the warlocks—the warlocks had better range, more experience, and all around just far more power than any of the adventurers had. Ultimately, they found themselves at the mercy of the two warlocks, whose magic attacks brought down the adventurers' strength until they could hardly move from sheer exhaustion.
This is it, one adventurer thought, as the warlocks dragged him and his partners over to see the woman who was apparently the witch queen. We're going to die.
"Adventurers. How typical," Queen Moriella scoffed, looking down at the three of them as they were dropped at her feet. "Did you think you could stop us? That you could be the 'heroes' and defeat the wicked witch queen?"
No one dared respond to that question. What were they supposed to say? However, it didn't matter, as Queen Moriella simply continued.
"Our kind has been shunned for far too long," she told them. "We have been treated as outcasts, the very scum of society. Well, that era is no longer. Soon, the whole world will know what we witches and warlocks are truly capable of. They will bow before our power, and I will be known throughout all of Curissya as queen!"
"You think you can force people to bow to you?" one adventurer spat.
"You can't do that!" shouted another. "We'll stop you!"
Queen Moriella could only laugh at the remark. "I would love to see you try and stop me. Really now, what do you expect to do? It matters not how many adventurers you send at us; you are helpless against my power."
The adventurers wanted to protest, but they realized that she was right. Magic had fallen out of common usage in Curissya for many centuries—no one was prepared to deal with magic, not at this level. What could they do?
"Go on, then," Queen Moriella said, dismissing the adventurers with an uninterested wave of her hand. "Go and tell your little adventurer friends about what you have witnessed today. Tell them to make way for my arrival."
"Your warlocks blocked the way, remember?" one adventurer sneered.
Queen Moriella scoffed, turning to her warlock underlings. "Zane! Ronnel! Take these vermin out of my sight."
"Yes, Your Majesty," the warlocks responded in unison.
The adventurers didn't even get the change to protest before the warlocks carried them off, away from the old stone building.
