The wind was howling, violently and relentlessly hitting them in the face. They had been walking for a few more days, and the further they went, the stronger the wind, and the harder it was to keep going.
"What's up with all that wind?!"
Karma yelled at the rest of the group in frustration as he almost tripped.
"What?!" Rita replied.
The wind got so loud that they couldn't hear each other anymore at this point, and they had to keep their eyes half closed at all times to prevent sand from getting in them.
Confused at the unnatural force and persistence of the wind, Ren and the rest started to worry and tried to get closer to each other.
They kept walking for a while longer until Rita fell after tripping on something.
"What the—"
She looked back at what she had tripped on and froze, her eyes no longer squinting.
"..."
"What?! What's going on?? Is there something there?!"
Karma yelled, trying to catch up with her. Ren and Eric quickly reached her level and saw what petrified her.
There was the rotting body of a man, but not just any man—this was one of the warriors Ren had tried to join when they all arrived in this desert for the first time. After contemplating his body for a while, Rita threw up as she saw maggots crawling out of the man's skin and flesh. They quickly tried to put distance between themselves and the rotting corpse, but quickly bumped against another from the same team as that last man.
After looking around them a while longer, they noticed a few more bodies—some rotting, some not—all in different states and with different injuries.
"W-what the hell is this..?"
Karma quietly let out with a trembling voice.
Just as he said that, as if to give an answer, each of their Stone Tablets appeared in front of them.
Ren quietly looked at his:
[After braving the harsh and dangerous desert of Philias, you have finally approached one of the last remaining safe Bases. Before you go further, you must pass one final test and prove your worth. Be careful, some dangerous abominations live down there!]
Just after reading this, the ground under their feet started pulling them deeper into the sand, as if hands were grabbing them.
Soon enough, despite their struggles, they were all buried within the sand.
Ren woke up, his mouth and clothes full of sand.
After spitting out the sand in his mouth and getting rid of most of the sand in his clothes, he looked around as the others also woke up.
"Where the hell are we..?"
They were in a room with no windows and inscriptions on the walls in a language Ren did not know but almost recognized:
The others finally stood up and rapidly looked at the words Ren was looking at.
Rita was still trembling and disturbed by what had just transpired but spoke first anyway:
"Do... do you know what this means..?"
"No idea," Ren replied.
"I do... This is Latin," revealed Karma.
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
"...what?" he said, confused at the sudden stares of everyone.
"Isn't that a dead language..?" asked Eric.
"So? I studied it in school, it sounded classy."
Rita looked at him, thought for a bit, and added:
"You know what? I can kind of see you do that.."
Karma looked at her with a frown.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Anyway, can you tell us what this says?" Ren asked, interrupting the incoming quarrel.
"...fine. It says something along the line of... «In the castle below you wake, your... consistency?.. will be tested; only the strong... in mind can pass... If you believe yourself to be enough...? Do not forget... to trust... to only trust, the feathered friend when time dies...?»
It's not perfect, but it's the best I can do.."
Karma then looked at the others, awaiting their thoughts on what it could mean.
"Well... that's rather cryptic..." Rita said, while repeating the message in her head.
Ren nodded in agreement.
"True... I can't make sense of it.. I guess it's supposed to be for later? Do we have anything to write with?"
Eric shook his head.
"No, we don't, but we could just memorize the important part?"
"Well, that's our only choice, I guess."
After making Karma study the tablet a bit longer, they finally decided to move. There was a corridor they could use to continue forward, and after taking it, they realized it quickly turned into a maze with countless dead ends.
They walked for a few hours, not finding anything, and Ren decided to rest.
"This is getting annoying... we walked for who knows how long only to find dead end after dead end!"
Rita complained, laying on the ground to rest.
"That's not even the worst part... we're running out of food. We need to find some more ASAP."
Added Karma, making the group start worrying; after all, he was right—while they had a decent amount of water, they were running low on food.
After resting a bit longer, they decided to keep moving. Rita started placing rocks in places they had already gone to so they wouldn't go in circles over and over again.
After walking for a bit longer, they reached some sort of crossroads.
The labyrinth had two exits, one on the right and one on the left; there were no indications or anything telling them where to go.
"...so what's the move now?"
Asked Ren, concerned at the lack of information they had to make that choice.
"I guess we split up..." answered Eric.
After a bit, they decided to play a game of rock paper scissors to decide who will go with who. It was simple, really: the first to lose two matches would go left, and the winners would go right.
After a few minutes of playing—and arguing for Rita and Karma—the scores were done.
Ren and Eric would go left, Karma and Rita would go right. Despite a visibly unhappy Karma and a slightly bothered Rita, no one objected, and they decided to meet back there after exploring whatever was on each side.
But just as each team walked their separate ways, the entrance behind them closed.
"Shit..!" Ren cursed as he ran towards the stone that now blocked the entrance.
"W-what's going on??" asked Eric, frightened.
"We're trapped.."
Ren frowned while touching the stone door that had just closed on them, until he heard Karma's voice from the other side of the wall:
"Can you hear us??!" he shouted.
"Yeah!" Ren and Eric answered back at the same time.
"We got locked inside! What do we do??" Rita asked, concerned.
Ren looked at Eric, who looked back, not knowing what to answer, forcing Ren to make a choice.
"I guess we'll have to keep going forward! Be careful and run if it gets too dangerous!"
"You want us to just go on despite what just happened?! In movies this is usually a bad omen, you know?!" Karma yelled back.
"Well, we don't have a choice!" Ren shouted once again, his voice getting tired.
A few seconds of silence took place; Karma and Rita were probably discussing between each other.
"Okay! We'll keep going, but you guys better not die!"
After all of this, Ren and Eric finally looked forward. The tunnel was dark and humid; it felt like danger itself was staring at them.
"I'm guessing we should start moving... huh?"
Ren asked Eric, clearly hesitant.
Eric swallowed his saliva loudly, then awkwardly and quietly said:
"I guess w-we should... huh..?"
Cautiously, the two of them took their first step forward into the darkness. As they walked forward, torches lit up, illuminating their path.