[Jedi]

Guuntis
2,00 years in the past...

"We have to seal it in!" yelled the leader, Ylrech. "Otherwise it will spell certain doom for us and the world!" The beast they were holding back, a mighty demon-spawned monstrosity, was currently being fended off by a dozen or so Hunters. "Guuntis, get in there!"

The memento Hunter, Guuntis, walked forward before he froze. Was he ready to face off against this monster? "What should I do?" he asked his superior. "They're dying." Ylrech let out a roar of a command. "Stand strong, Guuntis! Your comrades are depending on you!"

Present day...

The Memento Hunter stand in slumber, coated in a sheet of stone that had formed over time. He waits, a silent statue in the depths, guarding against the demonic beast...

[Kitsumi]

Leopold

In the present

Venturing into a dark, vastly unexplored, potentially dangerous area was nothing new to Leopold. However, normally he would have an entire team of people with him, making the venture as safe as possible. Coming here alone was a frightening experience, and one that he may not live to regret.

But honestly, did he have any other option? The spirit that had taken up residence within his body was a terrible, angry being. It had already lashed out at those close to Leopold, making the man a danger to anyone allowed near. Isolating himself was the only way to protect others from the spirit, who called himself Akil. So even if it was much more dangerous, the archaeologist would do this on his own.

[Jedi]

In the past...

Guuntis stepped forward with a mix of caution and anxiety. He watched as with one strike after another, his brothers and sisters were struck down. After a matter of a dozen seconds, Guuntis was alone as the demon-beast glared down at him. "Foolish beasts!" it called down at them. "You thought you could stop me!? I will tear through your crystal bodies!" Guuntis looked up, fear filling within his eyes, when he saw Ylrech rush forward to defend Guuntis. The demon-beast bore his claws into Ylrech, sending him crashing against the cave wall.

"NOOO!!!" cried Guuntis, terror wracking him at losing his team.

[Kitsumi]

In the present

The man was incredibly cautious as he explored the tunnels. He had brought as much rope as he could carry, leaving a clear trail that would lead him back towards the entrance in case he got turned around. And now, hours into his search, he was glad that he had taken the precaution. All of the passages looked the same, and he was sure that he would have lost his way out if not for the rope.

Finally, just as he was beginning to grow too exhausted to continue, he found something. The carvings in the wall were clearly glyphs of some sort, guarded by a strange stone statue. Eagerly, Leopold shone his flashlight on the wall, trying to get a better look at the marks.

[Jedi]

In the past...

The demon let out a hot gust of breath on Guuntis, but the only thing he could focus on was his fallen comrades. "You will die! Lucky for you, I'll make it quick and painless!" It raised it's claw, about to strike, when Guuntis' eyes darted toward the fiend. His eyes glowed with a fiery white, and air circulated around the Hunter. "What is this strange magic!" questioned the demon. The ground cracked around it's feet, and the ceiling began to fall onto it. In a matter of moments, it was pulled below the ground and buried in it's concrete surface.

Guuntis stood there, a pride in his figure, as his crystaline body began to stiffen and coat with a stone surface. His eyes lost their flame just as the stone crept over, encapsulating him completely.

In the presence...

The statue stood, proud of it's sacrifice, as an outsider wandered around. The ancient inscriptions nearly as old as the statue, were laced with a magic ward, which if broken by it's utterance, would free both the Hunter and demon.

[Kitsumi]

In the present

The glyphs should have been unfamiliar to Leopold, unreadable. Yet somehow, he found that he was able to translate them as he looked over them. Normally something like this would have excited him... but he had a feeling that it had something to do with the spirit residing inside of him, which left him with a sick, uneasy feeling. It didn't feel right to use the evil entity to his own advantage, even if it was unintentional.

Reading aloud quietly, Leopold spoke:

"The hunter trapped in stone,
An honorable sacrifice,
Must remain in slumber,
Lest doom return."

As soon as the last syllable left his lips, a tremor went through the entire cavern. Leopold barely managed to remain standing, reaching for the stone wall beside him as his eyes grew wide with fear. The sound of stone cracking reverberated throughout the tunnel.

"What have I done?"

[Jedi]

Vision started to return slowly, as stone crumbled from his skin, little by little. Pieces of concrete crumbled and scattered as it hit against the smooth ground. When Guuntis was finally freed, he fell to the ground with a smack. Though conscious, he was sapped of all strength after thousands of years frozen in stone. "What?" he started to speak in a raspy, gravelly voice. "What happened to the monster? Where is the demon fiend?" He crawled in exhausted desperation, until he finally saw his guest. "Who are you? Where are my brothers and sisters?"

[Kitsumi]

If it weren't for his own brush with the supernatural recently, Leopold wouldn't have believed his eyes. The stone statue slowly began to disintegrate... and yet something remained. A living creature, made of crystal, slowly revealed itself.

When the creature spoke, Leopold jumped slightly. "I... I don't know about any of that," he stammered. "I was just trying to read the words." He gestured to the wall, and the ominous glyphs that he had read aloud moments before. He had a bad feeling about all of this, and he slowly began backing away, hoping to make a dash for the exit if necessary.

[Jedi]

He looked to the wall, which was written in the ancient language of his people. That was something that only a few of the Hunter scribes could write or decipher. "I don't understand. My brothers. My sisters. They were holding him back." He then remembered what had happened, and he let out a crying howl which rang out like a bell from his crystal throat.

Immediately, he felt the cave rumbling. The rumbling had never actually stopped, though it had died down for a few seconds. Guuntis looked about, struggling to come to his feet. "What is that?" He then realized what it must be. "The demon. We must stop it!"

The foul beast had been pulled into one of the lower chasms, which were farther down in the maze-like caves. It was awake now, and it was hungry for revenge and flesh.

[Kitsumi]

Although it wasn't exactly clear what the hunter was talking about, Leopold could piece together what had happened. Obviously there had been some sort of battle here, and this person's companions had perished in the fight. The man wanted to try to comfort him, but it felt awkward to do so to a stranger. And before he had the chance, the rumbling grew once more.

"Demon?" Leopold gasped. He held up his hands, backing further away. "No... no. I'm sorry, but I can't help you. I'm just an archaeologist, I don't know anything about fighting." He wasn't about to say that he already had his own supernatural presence to deal with.

[Jedi]

The halls looked the same as he remembered it, although they were now dark, desolate, and empty. It had been so long since he'd lived here that raiders and archaeologists had confiscated most of the contents. But he knew the layout by heart.

But when he saw the man backing away and wanting to flee, he began to panic. "Please," the Hunter begged. "If we don't stop it, the demon will devour us all. We must do something!" The rumbling was getting worse. "There must be something that my brethren left behind, should this circumstance arise." He thought for a few seconds. "Wait... You can read those inscriptions, right?"

[Kitsumi]

As much as Leopold wanted to just flee... something inside of him wouldn't let him. He understood what it was like to be plagued by a horrific entity. How could he simply leave, when the person in front of him was begging for help? Besides, while he couldn't fight, it seemed like there was something that he could do.

"I can't promise that I'll actually be able to help," he said. "But I can read this for you." As long as he was staying out of danger, he didn't mind doing this one thing. "Just tell me what I'm looking for, so I can skim the glyphs. It'll take too long to read all of them fully."

[Jedi]

"Thank you," he rushed to say. Although he was relieved that the man was willing to stay to help, Guuntis was still anxious. Somewhere deep within these ancient caverns, an ancient evil was awakened, fighting it's way to the surface. "We're looking for anything that talks about ancient weapons, prophecies, or demons. Surely that will point to some kind of answer to this danger."

He waited for the man to get to work in searching for the right inscriptions. Unfortunately, the glyphs contained no way to defeat the demon in battle. There was however, a prophecy about burying it deep in the caverns, should it escape.

[Kitsumi]

The rumbling continued, and with every fiber of his being, Leopold wanted to run. But he couldn't. He knew that somehow, this was his fault... at least partially. He had awoken something evil, and now he had a responsibility to help put it to rest.

He scanned the writing carved into the stone walls, allowing the entity that resided inside of him to translate. The severity of the situation gave him a willingness to accept the help, even if it came from an evil being. But so far, the translation was offering nothing of use. It was mostly historical records, interesting enough but nothing useful.

Then, he found it. "Ah, there's some sort of prophecy here, talking about a demon? It says that if it ever awakens from its slumber, the only way to defeat it is to bury it deep in the caverns." He summarized the information, not wanting to read the whole thing.

[Jedi]

Guuntis watched with a silent intensity as his new, and possibly temporary ally began reading. The looks on his face could be read like a book, from fascination and concentration, to frustration and confusion. But as soon as his face lit up, Guuntis could tell he'd found it.

The hunter lit up with confidence as he heard that there was some solution. "So they found a way to stop it?" he started to say when he realized what that meant. "Wait, bury it? How are we suppose to do that? Unless..." He trailed off in an incomplete sentence. "I know what we have to do. Follow me."

The trip down to the Hunter Halls was only a few minutes inward, so hopefully they'd be able to get there in time...