He finds himself in a hot spot.

As soon as he finished pulling down the stone lever he heard a loud noise, followed by the sound of clinking chain.

An hot wind blew into the room raising the temperature very quickly, John could hear screams (relatively low in volume but numerous) coming from the tunnel that led here. A red glow was visible and approaching.

"Fuck, it's lava ! This was to trigger a trap. Help me put it back up or we'll all burn!" shouted John to the remaining elves. Their natural fear of fire made them obey without questioning his authority. Even with 5 people pushing up, the lever wouldn't move. John noticed the wheel on the wall, if the traps and doors worked using counterweight just pulling the lever up wouldn't reset it, they would have to rewind the chain and bring the weight back up...

"Turn the wheel!" he shouted. With only one hand he was of little help in such a situation... Sadly the elves faired little better, they had only managed to turn the wheel a quarter of a turn and were now unable to make it turn one more inch.

John did the only thing that made any sense to him and pulled the next lever. They wouldn't design something that triggered a trap in the room with the commands to activate it. The flow of Lava, slow but continuous was almost reaching the entrance of the guard room, the igneous rock was both beautiful and terrifying.

Another loud noise and suddenly a huge slab of rock fell down in front of the door leading to the tunnel, they were now trapped inside this part of the lair, with Lava filling the tunnel on the other side of the wall. John realized only now once the haze of the battle dissipated that he had taken a few hits during it, even before losing his hand. A few dodges had been close calls and the razor sharp thin edges of the obsidian swords had left a few scratches and light wounds on him.
Wounds that were bleeding?

"What the fuck! This isn't normal!" he said out loud. He quickly used Alter Body to close the wounds on him...

This made absolutely no sense, the bleeding slowed down, the two sides of the flesh got closer to each other, but the wound wouldn't close. Worse, John noticed that his hp wasn't ticking up anymore, it got up with each spell and slowly ticked down like if he had no hp regen anymore. He needed to reach Sylvia, the sooner the better. Only she could stop this. But how could....

John turned and looked on the ground where the Chosen had fallen dead, he took a closer look at the weapon he had been using.

Cursed blade of Akatesh: cursed item
This double sword is made of obsidian glass created during the opening of a Void portal inside a Volcano. As sharp as a glass shard, the blades are near indestructible and never dull.
Bloodletter: wounds made with this weapon won't heal by themselves. Targets wounded by these blades won't recover by themselves.
Outsider's call: while wielding this weapon one can hear the chatter of the Void.
Durability 999/999

John picked up the thing without touching it, it might be useful to find a way to heal him later. He noticed that the elves too had taken wounds from these weapons. Another one of them had just died from his wounds, leaving only 2 females (including Cali) and 3 males (2 of them wounded badly). Cali had a shallow cut on her belly, but the curse on the blade would prevent it from healing.

Out of other options John pulled on the third lever and finally the cell gate opened. They all entered the cell, carrying the wounded with them, the inside of the cell was a vision of horror.

The room was large and circular, with 24 alcoves on the wall, each containing a prisoner, or what was left of one. At the center of the room there was what looked like a brand, held just over a small pool of Lava. In each alcove was the body of a female, dead, burned until only charred flesh, blackened bones and ashes remained. In all, except two...

One was occupied by a very strange elf girl, with glowing golden hair, skin of a flashy red and a glowing symbol on her flesh, probably where the brand had been applied. The other one was occupied by Sylvia, three spots away from the first survivor.

John's heart clenched when he saw her. Someone had ripped away her bark armor, her raw flesh exposed and her body covered in cuts and scorch marks. Her long dark green hair was mostly gone, only a few inches were left after it had probably burned, she too had received the brand on her flesh, over her belly, but she hadn't transformed into anything special.

What had they done? John was crying as he held her into his arms. She was still alive, but only barely. He tried using a healing spell but it didn't bring her back to him. He removed the chains around her wrist with Unlock and got her staff out, putting it in her hands, hoping that the life energy would help her recover. The growing dizziness reminded him to cast a healing spell on himself too, or he would end up **** and soon dead.

Behind him he was hearing a great deal of noise, the elves were arguing with each other.

"This is Ferulia, she's my little sister. We played together, you know her. Elias, please..." begged Cali. Apparently the elven moon priestess was the other survivor and her change seemed to be an issue.

"She is fire touched, we have to kill her! If Tarkos mates with her the world will burn. She is doomed already, the fire is in her body, it is in her mind... There's nothing to do but to show mercy and give her a quick ****." announced Elias, a young hunter (youngish, hard to tell with elves, Talila hadn't looked a day older than her two daughters).

"Have you lost your mind? We went all this way to save them, lost comrades on the way and the first thing you want to do is to kill her!" said John.

"Mind your own business, Stranger! Many of us died today, but she cannot be allowed to live. Tarkos cannot be permitted to keep her. The stakes are too high." he explained.

John couldn't lose time with all of this, he needed to get back to his kingdom with Sylvia, maybe the life fountain would be enough. Still he doubted it, he would need help for this.

He took his phone out and dialed Moira's number, but all he received a message saying the phone couldn't be reached. He remembered that while his phone could call from a barrier, others couldn't receive calls in one.

A check to his Hearthstone showed him a familiar Not usable in combat message.

He got up and approached Ferulia, whom Cali was trying to free. He used Unlock on her chains.

"Your friend was very brave, she stood up while they were hurting her. And all along she always said you would come for her... She was nice... But Elias is right! I'm touched by the flame, the goddess has forsaken me. I can no longer hear her chant or sing it myself. I'm just so happy that I could see my sister one last time. " the fire touched elf was crying, her tears turning to steam soon after being shed.

"You are still you! A monster wouldn't cry. I will take you away from here. I will bring you to a place where Tarkos will never find you. No one else has to die. So now please put down those spears. " he said. Elias, the remaining female and one of the wounded males were standing behind him, spear in hand, ready to kill Ferulia and whoever would stand in their way while doing it (John and Cali in this instance).

John got up on his feet and tried to reason the elves.

"I will take her away, she won't be a threat to you, Tarkos will never find her. Do we really need to shed more blood? Didn't your tribe lose enough people?" he asked.

"She isn't one of us anymore, she isn't in the tribe!" replied Elias, giving the signal to the two others to attack.

"I wasn't talking about her..." said John with a smile. In an instant he had cast Restrain on Elias and threw a huge kick in his chest, sending him flying back. His head fell down on the small pool of magma left there to heat the brand, the room resonating with his screams of agony as the back of his brain boiled in his skull.

While the other two attackers watched the scene in horror, Cali had jumped on them, and began stabbing them with the long obsidian knife she had received from John at the start of the expedition. From the determination she showed to kill them, John understood just how strong their taboo on fire was. It would take a lot to make some elves kill each other inside of the same tribe...

"Was this true? Can you really take Ferulia so far away from here that Tarkos won't find her?" she asked, covered in blood from head to toe.

"I should be able to do it and I hope I won't only take her. I doubt that you would be able to escape this place or go back to your village after this." he said to her, pointing at the dead bodies and the last wounded male elf (he would probably pass away soon from the look of his wounds and John couldn't afford to heal him too).

Cali whispered something to her sister who replied to her.

"You saved me twice, saved my friends in the jungle, saved my little sister... If you can get us out of here we will gladly join your tribe and serve you to repay this debt... If you agree with this." she proposed.

"I will gladly accept it. Now please go look over Sylvia, put this on her wounds, it might help." he told her, throwing her a bottle of Sylvia's sap. Her flesh was dry and he hoped that this would help at least a little. He also took a water bottle out of his inventory and after drinking some of it, went to help Sylvia get hydrated.

He called Moira again, hoping that she wouldn't stay all night long in a barrier where he couldn't reach her.