You ascend some stairs off to the right and feel a breeze blow past. Once you step out on the top, you see this room had at some time fallen into disrepair. Some windows had been put in once upon a time, and broken since. Birds had obviously nested here, and plants grew in from the opening in the windows; sturdy vines, but also other sage brush and grasses, likely from the birds.
The largest feature is a stone archway near the middle of the room; the Guardian Gate. It is empty and silent, the portal that once led to something called the celestial plane. Nothing stirs within it now; it is but an archway and nothing more. You see at the top a large circular shape, a depression is in the center.
Nearby Balgor kneels, deep in thought. You hear him speak, almost to himself at first.
"They abandoned me."
"That day the magic weave finally unraveled, and my planar crystal shattered, I was stranded here in Terra... I thought Dolor would be my one chance to see my old friends in Celestia again.... But when I went back to Dolor, it was gone. Just a big gaping hole in the ground. Leveled, I thought. Destroyed. Like so much else."
"Screw this blasted crystal!"
He takes the large gleaming gem and flings it away from himself, but of course it slows in midair and hovers several feet away. No satisfying sound of shattering glass or clink against stone.
"I was certain the portal here still worked. We had set it up together... It would work. It HAD to work. I couldn't just be stuck on Terra for eternity. If only I could have made it to Dolor before it disappeared. But it is here... I"m here."
He stands, fuming, and starts to pace.
"This place--this stinking place--built by that pointy-horned, timey wimey DRAGON!"
He turns, fists clenched, and punches clear through a pillar. Dust and rock flies everywhere, pulverized to powder.
"That dragon somehow froze magic in time, here! HERE of all places.This dingy little city, with his gaudy temple in a box. ...I don't think he intended to... He just... He was THAT powerful! They were all that powerful..."
He sighs, putting his hand on what remains of the stonework.
"...I was that powerful."
He turns to look at you, his eyes sharp for how old he is.
"There was no doubt in my mind if I found Dolor again, I could return. I could help things return to they way they were. I could regain my power. I could regain my patrons. I could see my friends again. But I suppose it was a false dream... The planes broke apart after all. Even through Dragonicos' magic. What a waste."
"...I miss him. I miss all of them."
