There had been no time, no time to react, no time to turn to see what fear had taken the young girl that had called out with such a panic laced tone. In the time it had taken to partially turn around and bring the young faun to the corner of their eye, the many eons of erosion finally took their toll in the most inopportune moment.

The wall did not merely just collapse, it exploded along hairline fractures that danced across its surface before any eye could naturally perceive it. Now freed from the confines of it’s stone prison a deluge of mud, water and stone bore into Umbra’s back, knocking the knight off balance though none the worse for wear.

Until the archway above them began to give way.

The mercenary’s mind went blank while staring with wide eyes as the broken pieces of dwarven architecture rained down upon them. Umbra tried desperately to defend as best they could given the circumstance, releasing their torch in favour of raising both arms in an attempt to catch the falling archway. The muscles along Umbra’s arms and legs strained under the herculean effort it took to just hold the archway in place for just a single second. Gritting their teeth and hissing as loud as they could, the Mercenary managed to hold out for three seconds more before the archway fell apart under its own weight.

Even as the world around Umbra crumbled in an attempt to swiftly ferry them into a dark, hefty tomb, the mercenary made one last ditch effort to leap out of the way.

Crags formed upon the walls beside the two soldiers that had accompanied them, their eyes widened in horror as they watched the mercenary almost be buried alive. Thinking quickly, one of the soldiers threw themselves to the side on the ground to avoid the wall from collapsing directly on top of them. The second soldier was not as quick witted or as fortunate and was pushed off the edge of the open platform into the dark ravine below.

His scream was deafening but thankfully short, a stroke of good fortune saw the man land heavily on his arm upon one of the stone bridges that extended to the other side of the ravine.

Vanimar was the next to react as his eyes tracked the cracks running along the walls and ceiling towards his and the fauns' location next. Swiftly he pulled Celandine to one side and sheltered her from the collapsing debris whilst taking a heavy blow to his shoulder. He hissed in pain but steeled himself with a burning resolve to ensure that Celandine remained safe and unharmed.

The earth continued to recoil from under the burden of one of the gargantuan dwarven statues succumbing to the rigors of time as it fell forwards and impacted the far wall before it fell into the void below. The walls rumbled and echoed with it’s passing before a numbing silence was left in the wake of the catastrophic ruin the dwarven settlement had endured.

Just dust and echoes were all that remained in the aftermath.

And one stubborn mercenary that was not about to relive the traumatic experience of being entombed alive. Consciousness had yet to abandon the partially buried mercenary, as the remnants of the archway disintegrated into dust. Umbra groggily reflected that trying to catch it had worked about as well as trying to catch the lumpy fist of an angry golem. ultimately, an exercise in futility.

‘Not again.’ Umbra silently bemoaned, appalled that fate had deigned to repeat itself was utterly abhorrent to the mercenary.

‘Never again!’ Umbra mentally snapped, refusing to allow something so banal as despair get the better of them for a second time. Among the multiple stone rocks and mounds of dirt that had formed a grisly prison around them, the entirety of the mountain had yet to bring it’s full weight to bear upon the mercenary.

Slowly, the mercenary began to stir from under their terrestrial coverings, shaking loose dirt and mud while overturning rocks as they pushed themselves free from their earthly prison. A quick check revealed that everything was still relatively in one piece and despite earning a few new bruises, their armour had taken the brunt of the damage.

Umbra sought out Celandine’s location and quickly found the girl unharmed as she fussed over the captain who held his shoulder tenderly.

Assessing the damage that the cave-in wrought along the pathway, Umbra found one of the soldiers also emerging from a pile of debris with a groan before she shuffled to look over the pathway's edge to find the last soldier lying on a floor below.

“Is everyone alive?” The captain wearily asked with a slight wince, though the dark elf was determined not to let his apparent injury slow him down any more than it already had. Umbra declined to give a direct answer and chose to wipe off parts of powdered gravel and caked mud that now cling to the outer layers of their iron armour like a second skin.

“I’m unharmed, But Marik he…” The female soldier said distractedly as she peered over the platform's edge at their fallen comrade. Her eyes were frantically searching for a way down to the lower level. Umbra slowly approached the soldier cautiously as there was no telling what damage had been done to their path.

“Umbra! You're … huh?” Celandine called out joyfully as the mysterious mercenary emerged from what she could have only assumed would be their grave. Though her joy was short lived as the twinkle of something glittering caught her distracted eye.

“There was a stairway leading down a level off to the right.” Umbra told the female soldier that had accompanied them with a gentle inclination back along the pathway. Though before she was gone to aid her fallen friend Umbra had already turned to the faun to watch her curiously lean over into the shadowed crevice where the wall had previously been.

“This, we need this.” Celandine said with a breathless whisper as her eyes sparkled at the treasure she currently beheld. Curious as to what had the girl so enraptured, Umbra dislodged more gravel hidden between the folds of their iron plate armour before peering into the gaping hole in the wall to find a silvery rocky surface shining brightly in the dim light.

‘An ore vein?’ Umbra identified only to ask curiously “Whatever for?”

Celandine just hugged her satchel tighter as her face lit up into an earnest smile “So that we can close the gate.” She said simply. Umbra could only conclude that it had to involve the book containing the detailed account of the sword of the first king. She had stated as such once before and the girl was often not one to err.