"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S BEEN KILLED?!"
Vladimir the Necro-King was furious.
When he heard of Baltazar's demise, he completely lost his temper.
An oppressive dark aura emanated from his body, pressing everyone in the room to the ground.
It was pressure so intense that even the most experienced mages couldn't fight against it.
Everyone was reduced to a gasping mess as they struggled to draw air. It felt like their lungs ceased to function.
"This is the second time you have failed me. Are you all absolutely incompetent? Do you not understand?
I am trying to resurrect the single most powerful force to ever exist on this planet. This so-called hero is trying to prevent that.
We cannot allow him to live!
I don't care what you have to do, who you have to send, I want him dead, do you hear me, DEAD!"
The heat was oppressive in the Forgotten Desert.
Heat waves distorted the air coming off the ocean of sand that stretched before Raymond and his friends.
Raymond, in his youth, heard of places on Earth so cold that water froze before it hit the ground.
This was the opposite of that.
Raymond spat, it sizzled and evaporated before it touched the sand.
He conjured a small cloud, it evaporated within seconds.
There was no moisture, no humidity, just an endless expanse of hot, dry, death.
Even the wind was hot.
As the five friends walked, they sipped, trying to conserve water.
Weapons were stashed away to reduce weight.
Clothes were shed, until everyone was wearing only enough to keep the sun off their most sensitive places.
There was no shade, no shadow, no cover, just sand, endless rolling hills of sand.
About an hour into the journey, Raymond stopped the group.
"Take a break, drink water, I'm gonna try something."
There was no argument. The ladies immediately produced canteen and started guzzling water, letting it spill on their faces and chests.
Ray smiled inwardly at the site, then turned back to his task.
He stretched his hand toward the ground and reached out with his magic.
He went deep, past the scorching top layer, past the hard baked layer underneath. He was looking for the deep moist earth that would normally nourish plants and trees.
He found it and surged his magic. He drew it up and formed it into a wall high and wide enough to provide some shade.
The ladies rushed to stand under it. They sighed in relief as it was much cooler in the shade of the wall, but they could still feel heat coming from it.
Raymond started drinking from his canteen. He looked over at Una.
"How did you and your brothers deal with this heat? I don't see how anything can live out here for long"
"At first we moved mostly at night, but there are terrible creatures that hunt at night. Then we started staging in one place while Trey used a scrying spell.
We'd only move when he found something interesting."
Raymond shook his head. "Well that wont help us. None of us can scry."
He looked at Samantha, do we even know what direction we need to go?
Samantha shook her head sadly.
Raymond furrowed his brow and thought for a moment.
After a moment he sat under the wall and meditated.
He stretched his magic and his awareness out as far as he could. He broke a sweat quickly as he concentrated.
He felt along that sand, not really knowing what he was looking for.
After a long while he found something strange southeast of their position.
Several large tall hollow shapes clustered together. Were those buildings? He centered his focus on the area.
Not just buildings, it was a small city, a village really, but there didn't seem to be people there.
Also it wasn't above ground. It was under the dunes with some kind of invisible dome supporting the sand.
"Interesting." he said out loud.
The girls regarded him curiously.
"Una, have you ever come across an underground city out here?"
Una recoiled. "No? We heard rumors, but we never saw anything."
Raymond turned to the direction of the city. It was as good a place to start as any.
"It's there," he said pointing. "Not far that way. Let's go"
They gathered themselves and headed out. Raymond checked the ground magically every few minutes until they found it.
Ray backed the group up a few feet and erected another shade wall.
He called on his air magic and created a small tornado in the spot where he found the dome.
He pointed his Double dragon and fed the tornado magic until it spun fast enough to suck the sands into it.
It took a while but finally he saw a space that glinted in the light. Raymond wiped his face and widened the tornado.
It pulled more and more sand into it until the rounded top of the dome, about the size of a minivan, could be seen.
The girls gasp at the sight. Everyone scrabbles up the sound to get a look and what had been unearthed.
They gathered around the dome and peered in.
They saw they were about twenty feet above a tall square tower situated at the center of the city. It was much taller than everything else in the city.
So many questions swirled around in their minds. No one said a word, knowing the only answers they would get were locked beneath the dome.
Alecia squats and knocks on the dome. The magic ripples back and forth. She tries to stick a claw through. It clinks against the dome like it's made of glass.
She looks up at the group. "So how do we get in?"
"I could get in with Shadow Step, but I can't bring people with me." Nikki shrugged.
"The city looks old, maybe we can smash through?" Una offered
Raymond shook his head. "If we break the barrier, the city will be crushed by all the sand it's holding back."
Samantha tilted her head studying the barrier. She squatted down and placed her hand on the top.
She closed her eyes and furrowed her brows, concentrating.
After a moment a hole, about three feet wide, opened up where her hand was and cold air rushed out the opening.
For a breath no one moved, staring at the hole. Slowly all eyes went to Samantha.
She shrugged. "So who's going first?"