//------------------------------// // The Darkness Within the Shrine // Story: The Eternal Sphere // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// Crossing the threshold that separated the Sealed Cavern and the Shrine of Kaddan, the group immediately noticed a change in architecture. Beyond the rotted cavern was an ornate room of mostly light gray stone walls. The floors were composed of large decorative tiles of light and dark gray while the tiles on the floor along the walls were elevated slightly and were mostly dark gray. There were working lanterns along the walls and a pair of basins filled with water at each of the doorways in the small room. “So this is the Shrine of Kaddan?” Cliff asked. “Yes,” Nel affirmed. “But this is strange, there are supposed to be guards posted here.” “If the Vendeeni are here, then they are probably elsewhere fighting them off,” Sophia figured. However, the more realistic part of her mind knew that the guards were likely dead by now. Nel nodded in agreement and the group moved on to the next room. The next room was also small, but the most noticeable feature in the room was a pile of transparent crystal shards in the center of the room. One shard looked like it took the shape of a sword. As they entered the room, the shards started moving and formed into the shape of a centaur carrying a sword and an eight-pointed shield. The crystal centaur scraped what appeared to be one of its hooves in preparation to attack. “Be careful, the guardians are activating,” Nel warned. “These were designed to protect the shrine from intruders.” “And it thinks we’re intruders,” Sophia concluded. “Looks like we have to smash our way to the Vendeeni.” Twilight’s quick analysis indicated that the statue was unaffected by fire, wind and earth attributes. The crystal centaur was fast. It raced around the area and was able to move from one side of the room to another in a split second. It felt no pain as the group attacked it so the statue continued to fight as if unhindered while repeatedly thrusting its sword in front of it. Cliff and Mirage could only get a few punches in at a time before the statue picked someone else to attack. Thanatas had enough of watching the statue run around and summoned a giant skeletal hand that grabbed the centaur. She thrust her sword at the statue who tried to block it with its shield. The force from the undead knight’s attack was too much for the crystal to withstand and the impact sent cracks racing all over the statue’s body. The crystal statue shattered into many more pieces. From its remains, Fayt discovered a stone in the middle of the rubble. He had a feeling that it was important so he grabbed it and placed it in one of his pockets. With the first obstacle overcome, the group moved on. A small hallway that soon turned to the right laid before them. However, they also noticed a large hole in the wall that appeared to have been caved in to prevent anyone else from using the passage. An injured guard was nearby clinging to life, but Thanatas knew that his time had come. The guard apologized for being unable to prevent the intruders from entering the shrine. Nel promised to deal with the intruders in his stead. The guard, relieved that Nel had come to stop the Vendeeni, let out one last breath, but no air entered his lungs ever again. “They’ll pay for this,” Nel growled. “You guys go ahead,” Thanatas said. “I’ll catch up once I finish sending this guy’s soul to the afterlife.” Nel solemnly nodded and the rest of the group moved on. She warned the others that the shrine was full of traps to deter looters. Cliff wished that the traps would take care of the Vendeeni but those who were proficient with technology knew that the Vendeeni would be able to detect and deal with or avoid the traps with their scanners. Moving down the corridor, the group headed into the next room. In addition to what was seen in the previous rooms, the next room also had some candelabras and banners. There was also, to everyone’s aggravation, another pile of crystals in the same configuration as the previous one. Everyone prepared themselves for another fight as they approached the crystal pile. Sure enough, the shards assembled themselves into another crystal centaur. This time, the group didn’t give it the chance to run around as Adray charged at it with his shining red aura in the form of his Chaos Tide attack. The attack knocked it down which gave Cliff the chance to unleash a barrage of punches with his Fists of Fury. Roger drilled into the crystal body with his drill arm. The crystal centaur threw everyone off of it but that gave Twilight enough time to cast a Deep Freeze symbol which kept its hooves in place with a patch of ice on the ground. Lyra’s energy blades melted through the crystal and caused it to fall apart. Fayt found another stone in the rubble. Thanatas soon returned after the battle was over and they continued deeper into the shrine. As they entered the next room, Sophia had a strange feeling that they shouldn’t head through the door on the east side of the room and check the south door instead. She warned everyone of her potential premonition and proceeded through the door on the southwestern side of the room. A few Vendeeni troops were patrolling around the next hallway. They quickly noticed the group. “It’s him, the Leingod boy!” one soldier said. The soldiers quickly aimed their rifles at the group but Sophia was faster. She instantly appeared behind them and sliced all but one of them in half. The screams of the dying soldiers drew the last one’s attention just in time for her to grab his face and drain him of his life force using void energy. Lyra frowned at the display, “I had hoped you wouldn’t learn that ability, it’s one of the more cruel techniques of the Tal’darim style of the Templar Arts.” “The enemy won’t play nice with us,” Sophia countered. “If this were a battle of honor, I wouldn’t have considered using that.” Lyra nodded in acceptance. Thanatas smiled at that. She was glad that there was someone other than herself who knew the difference between battles of honor and battles for life. Certain other family members could use a lesson in that. The only enemies left in the area was a single mage who wore yellow. Peppita pulled him in and blasted him in the face with an Instanto Blast. The room beyond the mage was empty. However, as they wondered about what they would do next, an earthquake rocked the entire shrine. Everyone braced themselves as they rode out the tremor. Debris began to fall in the middle of the room from the ceiling. The sound of thick stone cracking could be heard nearby. Once the tremors ceased, the group looked around to inspect the damage. A part of the wall in the room looked like it would fall apart with enough force so Roger drilled through it with his drill arm to reveal another room they hadn’t explored yet. The room appeared to be a workshop that was sealed for some reason. On a table in the center of the room, Fayt found another of the strange stones. He placed the other two stones next to the one on the table and pondered the importance of the stones. Roger looked at the stones until inspiration struck him. To Fayt’s surprise, he grabbed all three of the stones and began using the abandoned tools in the workshop to craft something with the stones. It took twenty minutes before he finished crafting an amulet out of the stones. It was surprisingly well made. Thanatas winced at the sight of it though. With nothing else for them, they backtracked to the room with the one door they hadn’t explored yet. Another of those floating sword knights awaited them but was quickly disposed of when Nel froze it with her Ice Daggers. The room beyond that had a troublesome opponent in it. It was another of the crystal centaurs except this one appeared to be made of onyx and amethyst. It also emitted a shadowy aura that Twilight could tell would protect it from their attacks. The new foe looked tougher than the other crystal centaurs before, but it recoiled when it felt the emanations of the amulet Roger made. The light from the stone dissipated the statue’s aura, leaving it vulnerable to attack. The black centaur fought the same way as the previous variations so its tactics were predictable. Since the group knew how to counter its speed, they held it in place before pummeling it to shards. “How did you know that amulet would work against that thing?” Sophia asked. Roger grinned and rubbed his nose. “It’s the rule of threes in adventuring. Important things come in threes, so when I saw three stones, I figured that they had to mean something. Since they were holy stones, I figured an amulet to ward off evil would be useful.” “You’re making stuff up again,” Cliff accused. Roger laughed awkwardly, “Well, some of it. I’ve been using what I learned from an adventuring guide my father gave me and it’s helped me whenever I went exploring.” Cliff shrugged before they turned their attention to the next door which led to another small room which turned right into a room with four pillars in the middle and occupied by a floating armor and a mage who were quickly destroyed. The eastern door in the room was sealed shut and appeared to be opened with a steam-powered device next to it. However, the device appeared to be damaged, either by the tremors or overzealous Vendeeni. Heading through a door on the northwest side of the room, they encounter another mage and armor. Once dealt with, they checked the door on the northern end of the room to find it locked so they headed through the door on the west side. The next room had another mage and a floating axe knight like the ones from the Sealed Cavern. More interesting though, were the three statues in the middle of the room. The closest one appeared to be an archer wearing a hood, the middle statue showed a warrior with a sword and shield, and the farthest statue showed a wizard with a staff. Twilight knew the significance of the three statues since they represented the three pieces of a game that was growing in popularity but was still in its early stages and may or may not be expanded upon one day. Further ahead, the group encountered another bronze monster which Lyra dealt with by slicing off the arms and blasting the head with psionic energy. The area behind the monster was a mess. It looked like the remains of some sort of mechanism, possibly one of the traps that was dismantled by the Vendeeni. There were bars sticking out of the sides of the mechanism and more bars lying on the floor. Moving on, the next room looked like some sort of room filled with empty treasure chests. They figured that the Vendeeni likely looted the room before they moved on. Another collapsed hole in the wall was in front of them. Another tremor shook the place. Once again, everyone held on to anything they could to keep stable. When it opened, they looked around and found another damaged wall that Roger drilled through. The next room featured a number of hanging rubble that was swinging dangerously. Another locked door was in the room which meant that they would have to backtrack again to find another damaged wall. Lyra, however, was having none of that and used her energy blades to slash open the locked door so they could proceed. Nel frowned at the destruction of the door. After crossing a small, narrow corridor and slashing through another door, they were back in the room where they encountered the previous locked door. In the least, Lyra’s efforts saved them some backtracking as they quickly found another damaged wall to drill into. The next room had more empty chests except for one and it was guarded by another Vendeeni soldier who Nel quickly assassinated. Sophia sensed danger within the closed chest and warned everyone to leave it alone. Once they headed north in the next room, the path was fairly straightforward. On the way, they had to fight some more armors, some Vendeeni troopers and had two encounters with crystal centaurs who were assembled already. The small space they were fought in heavily limited their mobility though. They soon come upon a room with a statue of a robed man holding a staff and posing heroically. An inscription on the statue read: ‘Hold thy head high and prove thyself’. Four doors opened behind the statue while a breach in the wall was to their right. The opening had not collapsed so it could be traversed instead of going through the doors. “Hmm, I have been here before, about twenty years ago,” Adray muttered. “This is a challenge where four of us would take a door and fight whoever is in the next room.” A smirk appeared on Thanatas’ face. “I can sense ominous dark energies in those rooms. Malevolent souls of the damned haunt the area.” She pointed to the door on the far left. “A soldier from that other kingdom who was executed when he used his position to conduct his serial killings.” She moved her finger to the second door from the left. “A mounted knight in blood-colored armor who questioned the orders of his superiors until he went berserk and murdered them in the streets. It took a cleverly laid trap to end him.” She pointed to the third door from the left. “A landbound spirit who stayed in the mortal plane for too long and became a scythe-wielding monster. I don’t know who managed to bind the spirit to this shrine, but I can guess that they wanted someone to come along and end it’s miserable existence.” She pointed to the last door. “The ghost of an old woman who witnessed her family get murdered before she murdered the murderer with an axe. The woman snapped from a combination of trauma and senility and spent the rest of her days looking for anyone who was alive to chop them up. She eventually died of a heart attack.” “Sounds like a bunch of crazy ghost stories,” Cliff commented. “And yet, they are very true. Their souls tell the story.” Nel nodded, “I can confirm her claims. I heard the stories about the Airyglyph Serial Killing Soldier and the Mad Storm Brigade Lieutenant who murdered his captain and a few of his subordinates. Her Majesty mentioned one of her ancestors binding an evil spirit in the shrine, but I always thought the old woman was a mere ghost story.” “So, who’s going in?” Cliff asked. “I’ll take out the serial killer,” Maria declared. “Then...I’ll take on the rider,” Fayt offered. “I’ll take the reaper on,” Sophia called out. “Hopefully it will prove to be a challenge.” “I need to perform my duty with the old woman, so the last door will be for me,” Thanatas said. The others’ responses ranged from acceptance to grumbles to vocal discontent. They soon calmed down as they were getting nowhere by doing that. The four chosen entered their rooms while the others traversed the hole in the wall. Maria faced down the lone Airyglyph soldier who was completely covered in armor while carrying a standard sword and shield. Disturbing chuckling could be heard. The soldier’s movements were slow, and while she was far from the fastest runner in the group, she was still well practiced in sidestepping and backstepping. Maria avoided the soldier’s sword swings with ease before deploying a magnetic device on the floor and back stepped away from the soldier. The magnetized floor held him in place which gave the organization leader room to blast him several times with her blaster. She managed to pelt him with several energy spheres before the magnetic device ran out of power. His shield blocked most of them before it shattered. As the soldier ran toward her, Maria swept the ground with her foot and unleashed a powerful shockwave in a crescent pattern which sent the soldier back a few feet. Using the laser targeting device on her gun, Maria made a precision shot that blasted through the soldier’s helmet. The soldier fell to the ground and vanished as the exit door opened. Fayt stared at the red knight riding his lum with crimson barding. The knight rushed forward at Fayt who sidestepped his charge and delivered a swift kick to the lum’s flank. The lum neighed in pain as it turned around. The rider thrust his lance at Fayt who had to backstep to avoid the attack. The lum charged again but Fayt was ready when he used his symbology to release a number of tiny explosions that startled the equine creature. As the lum reared up in surprise, Fayt kicked it in the barrel which threw the rider off. Before the knight could recover, Fayt was on him with a series of slashes which devastated his armor and left him open to one final slash that removed his head. The exit door opened. Sophia saw an evil-looking spirit that was missing its lower body while the rest looked like a skeleton wearing tattered purple robes and had a pair of long black horns that extended to its left and right in a straight, yet wavy pattern. It carried a scythe that was almost as large as the fiend was and a dark malevolent energy emanated from its ribcage. The terror started warping around the room in an attempt to confuse Sophia who had to keep her focus on its dark energy. She managed to block a swing of the terror’s scythe but it kept warping around and waited for another chance to strike. It then started to create an unholy vacuum in an attempt to steal life force from Sophia, but that required standing still which the hybrid girl capitalized on when she summoned a Dark Sphere, a symbol that created a sphere that drained life from enemies around it and sometimes killed lesser enemies instantly. While the spell was in effect, Sophia kicked the terror into the sphere. While the fiend was being torn apart by the dark maelstrom, Sophia dove in and slashed at the terror repeatedly, her body being durable enough to withstand the storm. By the time the maelstrom subsided, the unholy terror was barely above the ground and barely able to lift its scythe. It raised a free hand and began to channel a symbol against Sophia who quickly reacted with a Silence symbol to stop its attack before she unleased a pulse of psionic energy that obliterated the spirit. The exit door opened. “Who are you? Are you another who has come to claim my son’s life? I won’t let anyone near my precious boy!” the ghostly old woman shouted. Thanatas rolled her eyes. “Your days are over lady, it’s time to join your loved ones beyond the veil.” The old ghost wasn’t listening and moved to attack Thanatas with her hatchet. However, she stopped halfway and fell to the floor. “What is happening to me?” the old ghost cried. “I am a goddess of death. Those who straddle the border between the realms of life and death are part of my dominion. You have lingered in this plane for too long and while I would love to have another servant, I am not in the market for someone like you. It’s time for you to move on and have your sins weighed.” “The goddess of death? You’re here for my soul?” the hag ghost asked. “Where have you been? I’ve been waiting centuries for you to show up! You’re late! This old woman should have been up in heaven with my son and his kids a long time ago!” The old hag’s complaints continued. Thanatas didn’t have time to hear more of the woman’s bellyaching so she used her sword to sever the bindings that kept the ghost on the mortal plane, allowing her to move on. When the exit door opened, Thanatas felt emotionally drained from listening to the old hag’s complaints. The group members who didn’t enter a door watched four doors open and the challengers emerged from their respective rooms. Sophia noticed that Thanatas was looking a little grumpy. Before she asked what happened, the undead knight warned her and everyone else not to ask what happened. The group shrugged and moved on. From the center of the room they entered, a small pedestal rose from the floor and atop the pedestal was a book that was labeled ‘Book of Prophecies’. On the spine was a ‘one’. Twilight picked up the book and glanced through the pages, only to be disappointed when all but one of the pages were blank. On the page that had some writing on it, she only saw five words: ‘the warriors who must order’. Twilight couldn’t make heads or tails of the words, neither could the others. Still, Twilight summoned a piece of paper and a pen and wrote the words down in case they had any meaning later. The group moved on through the lone door on the north wall. Another linear hallway with a few sword-wielding armors was in the next room and an angel statue stood before the next door. More Vendeeni soldiers and wandering mages, that the Vendeeni appeared to ignore, were seen in the next room. Down a hallway that led east, they found a door with a pair of plaques that said the same thing: ‘Send in a fool to touch the red gem’. The group entered the room to find themselves in a maze with a number of massive stationary blocks with lum heads sculpted into them. No enemies were around so they navigated the maze and entered another room which was also a maze. They explored that maze as well until they found another door that led into a small room. The ornate door to the next room was thick and wouldn’t open. While Lyra considered opening the door with brute force, Nel refused to allow her to damage the shrine any more than she did. With no other options, they returned to the hallway with the plaques and moved further down the hall. Since Nel wouldn’t allow Lyra to bust the door, they had to find the red gem. After a little searching and fighting more Vendeeni, mages and armors, they found the room with a giant red gemstone that was as large as a person. Sophia shoved Fayt forward toward the gem, “Go ahead, Fayt.” Fayt sighed in exasperation, “Somehow, I feel like you’re making an implication about me.” “Just do it…” Thanatas snickered, “You can be quite the manipulative one, huh Sophia? I think I’m starting to like you.” Another sigh, “Alright, alright.” Fayt walked up to the red gem and touched it. The room immediately shook again. “More tremors?” Sophia wondered. “I hope this place holds up.” With nothing else to do, the group returned to the maze. They found that the blocks were now moving around on their own as if possessed. They were also glowing an evil shade of red. Thanatas could now sense the unholy energy that possessed the blocks. “You know, for a holy shrine, there are a lot of evil things in this place,” Thanatas commented. “This could have been avoided if you had let me bust the door earlier,” Lyra added. Nel opened her mouth , but closed it and sulked when she couldn’t come up with a rebuttal. The group had to navigate the maze again while avoiding the evil blocks that moved as if they were chasing them somewhat. After evading two rooms full of evil blocks, they returned to the room with the ornate door. The door was wide open and they entered another small room. They stood before what Nel told them was the door to the inner sanctum where the Sacred Orb was being kept. The chances that the Vendeeni were in the next room were high so they prepared themselves for one last fight to secure the orb. Everyone rushed into the room where there were four Vendeeni soldiers surrounding a pedestal that had an endless stream of water flowing down it with a silvery sphere floating above it. “Get away from the orb!” Fayt shouted. The Vendeeni turned to face the intruders. “Huh? Isn’t that the Leingod boy?” one soldier asked. “I think it is,” another soldier, likely the commander, said. “Our orders from Admiral Biwig were to recover this OPA and either capture or kill the boy. How fortunate that he came right to us.” “So Biwig is involved in this?” Twilight demanded. “Of course he is, I don’t know what he wants with the OPA, but he considers the boy a threat or a tool to be used, depending on whether he would cooperate. But since we failed to capture his father, I think Biwig would settle for killing him.” “You’re pretty loose lipped for a commander,” Maria commented. “It won’t matter, you are all dying here.” The four soldiers aimed their rifles at the group but Lyra drained the life force from the lower ranked soldiers using void energy. The victims fell to the floor as withered husks. Sophia imbued her blades with an edge of psionic energy and slashed the commander’s rifle in half. His eyes widened in horror as a wicked smile appeared on the girl’s face before she grabbed his face and drained him of his life energy. With the soldiers dead and the orb secured, Twilight then placed a number of powerful wards around the orb to prevent future intruders from sensing or stealing it. Everyone relaxed with their mission accomplished. Nel smiled in gratitude. “As a representative of Aquaria, allow me to thank you for your assistance in protecting the Sacred Orb.” “You’re welcome, but this wouldn’t have happened if the Vendeeni weren’t after me,” Fayt said. “That’s where you’re wrong, Fayt,” Twilight countered. “While Biwig was after you, it seems that he might have been looking for the orb the whole time as well, if that commander’s words were to be believed.” “Though I’m starting to think that I should just fire Azure on principle,” Twilight mentally added. With the orb secured, the time had come for them to return to Aquios. Twilight’s magic would have trouble teleporting eleven other people back to Aquios, however, Thanatas was able to summon a platform beneath the feet of herself and the group before a pair of bony hands enclosed everyone into what seemed to be a cage. The passengers shouted in fear and surprise as the cage lowered into the land. All was dark for a few moments.