The group struggled to stay standing, but they couldn't hold out for long, and soon they all collapsed to the ground. Luckily, no sound was made, and their presence was still unknown to the masked men.

Ashlyn looked towards the orb and studied it with their eyes. Ever since they entered the cavern, there had been something familiar about the orb, but they couldn't quite place their finger on what it was.

Then something clicked and Ashlyn blurted out, "the Life Orb!"

The others looked towards Ashlyn and cast them questioning looks. Ashlyn, who like the rest still could not move, kept their voice low and explained, "since becoming an NPC with self-awareness I've travelled a lot throughout the game map, and always end up picking up information on magical items, the Life Orb included.

It was said to be an object that had long been banned from every town, city and village alike. It was found in a remote place and one person took it back to their place of residence. They thought the object was harmless and in the morning they could study it properly to discover its uses. However, as they slept..."

"What happened?" Eriladar asked and urged Ashlyn to continue. 

Ashlyn took in a breath and felt like their lungs were about to tear from how painful it was. They could feel the effects of being near the Life Orb already, and they hurried to say:

"Under the moon's light, the orb activated and began to absorb the life force of the owner of the house, and those that lived close by. Then, as if unsatisfied, it spread out its reaches to every corner of the city and before the break of dawn every single living person was left as dry husks, and were no different to corpses."

"It was like something had taken the life out of them and left them for dead."

"But if it needs moonlight to activate, how did they get it to take the life force of the villagers?" Nox wondered. He was the strongest person there so the orb didn't affect him much, and he was able to get into a sitting position, but couldn't do much more than that. 

"Look carefully at the ceiling," Eriladar instructed and raised his eyes to the aforementioned ceiling. 

The cavern was large and deep, and the ceiling was high-up so you had to crane your neck to look up at it. In the rocks above there was a naturally formed circle that showed the moon floating in the sky, and allowed its light to shine through the hole in the cavern. 

It fell upon the raised platform and bathed the Life Orb in its light, making it luminescent and a sight to behold.

"So that's how they did it..." Taegen said wistfully then added his own question, "but why hasn't it done anything to us? Shouldn't we have been like..."

It seemed that he had spoken too soon, because fleshbags.not long after he had asked his question their bodies became unbearably weak, and they all found themselves sprawled out on the ground. Their last remaining strength had been stripped away, and now they really couldn't move at all, let alone speak. 

And just like with the villagers lying haphazardly around the cave floor, streams of light flowed towards the orb, and each of them could feel their lives draining away. Not that there was much they could do about it; the only thing they could do was watch as their life force was taken away and face their deaths. 

Footsteps sounded as multiple feet shuffled towards them and the last thing they heard before everything went black was a low chuckle and someone saying, "looks like some rats have come crawling their way into the cave, and delivered themselves right to us."

☽

At some point, clouds had covered the moon and rain poured through the opening above, wetting the cave walls and the ground. The masked men acted like it didn't bother them and went about their business.

Droplets of water formed on the pointy edges of the stalactites and landed on the faces of the people chained on the walls. Their legs dangled over the ground with pallid faces.

A chilly breeze swept in from the hole above and burrowed beneath the skin of one of the hanging men, causing him to shiver and regain consciousness. He kept his eyes closed to not catch the attention of the masked men and he listened in as they discussed their next course of action.

"Will this affect our plans?"

"No." The leader answered. "The Life Orb is almost full. People finding this place will change nothing, and it's too late to stop it now.

The corpses are almost running out and we'd need to go out and find more subjects. So these people appearing now are what we needed. Once the Life Orb has absorbed everything, we can use its power to become human and won't need to rely on life force any longer to survive."

"We've been waiting for this moment for so long, so why should we let people who are this insignificant ruin what we have been working towards all this time?"

Excitement spread throughout the cavern, and no one noticed the people attached to the wall stirring and close to waking up. 

Nox thought of what Ashlyn had said of the Life Orb before they had all passed out. And he knew that if Ashlyn were awake, they might know how to break the orb and stop the masked men from causing any further damage.