It didn't take the misty air to know it was cold down here. Ancient ruins lined our paths, Aku and Davy Jones flanking either side of Amber as they progressed around the large pocket of air. Amber was insulated from the cold, but she shivered regardless. I didn't blame her, the cold atmosphere only added a layer of creepiness that could only be described as borderline thick. There were no corpses, that was true, but at the same time there wasn't any signs of life while we walked. The water was moving, that was true, but the source of the movement was an artificial waterfall that we discovered after an hour, one that ran on a lone dimly glowing jewel that could be seen behind its falling waves. Eventually we came to find the front of the building, and together we entered, using Aku's flaming eyebrows as well as any torch. I took a particular interest in my surroundings.
Along the walls were dozens if not hundreds of runes with matching pictures to go with them. In the light I could see that they were pictures of three... kelpies?Mermaids? surrounding a fourth one which had a crown on its head. Aside from that, many smaller ones were bowed to the image, heads lowered, I asked in Davy Jones voice, "Can anyone read this rubbish? Or is it just I who doesn't know?"
Aku commented, "I find the pictures verrry informative. It is clear that this emperor has subjected these creatures to his will, and made it so that his word was law." That was my haphazard guess, but it was close enough to Aku's character and with his body language symbolizing each word as if he was speaking to an captive audience that he gave them.
Amber sighed, "Traveled with an architect once, one of those kinds who just loved ancient ruins, looks like the story is true enough though, judging from the pictures," she gestured to one particularly gruesome one, where the three kelpie-pony-things were heading out somewhere at the king kelpie-things request, and terrorizing normal ponies in order to collect some werid green stuff. I drew on my knowledge of mlp lore, who had green magic that was used in a negative fashion? I drew up two conclusions, Chrysalis of the changelings and Sombra, Tyrant of the Crystal Empire. But it matched neither of their demonstrations of magic in the show. Chrysalis for one wasn't a fish. Nor did these merfolk have Sombra's signature evil-magic-glare. Instead the mist was depicted going into their...cleavage? What?
Mind out of the gutter.
Sorry, hearts, that better?
Thanks brain. Much better.
I sighed, pondering the wall murals while we continued onward. It told a story of how three of these flying kelpie-mermaids brought anger and wreaked havoc on the populace by making them fight each other, before eventually it ended with the three of them confronting a familiar bearded unicorn who cast a spell to send them somewhere right before he was about to be defeated by them. I snorted at that, remembering the Samurai Jack intro, 'but before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time,and flung him into the future.' Those words were some said by Aku himself during the introduction part of each Samurai Jack episode he had come from. To see that reflected here was hillarious in a child like way. While my puppets remained analytically inclined, I couldn't help but let out a soft snort of slight amusement at that back in the base.
The history from then on wasn't nearly as amusing, depicting a city of once proud merfolk descending into chaos, as the king was left to rule by himself, and new policies, bad ones at that, was enforced by the cities law enforcement. Eventually it lead to its near destruction at the hand of three nations combined warfare and descent into the mountains below through the combined effort of the king and his more magically inclined court of kelpies. It stopped there, a blank portion of wall stretching onward another good five yards before ending at a doorway.
That was when I first became aware of the stares. Though seemingly sourceless, as I couldn't spot any of them in the hallway with us, I felt my spine crawl from my puppets viewpoint, and I started to prepare myself just in case. Some slight motions, Davy Jones resting his hand on the hilt of his blade, and Aku's fiery eyebrows growing a tad bit more fiery.
"Anyone else feel like we're being watched?" Amber asked, and the other two didn't respond, neither wanted to talk at the moment, busy scanning their surroundings.
Then we saw the flash of a tail as something turned and fled. Aku went forward in pursuit, Davy Jones however, followed Amber, just so I wouldn't lose track of her as she pursued after my first puppet. Aku pursued forward, an amazing pace in comparison to the rest and that was when a spear shot out of a wall and impaled him. He didn't even slow as he merely phased through the spear, continuing onward to grab at the fleeing individual. Another trap, crossbow bolts firing out of several holes in the walls, and then a guillotine. A pitfall was flown over, and that was when the kelpie was grabbed. Much to the kelpies surprise and cussing.
"Let me go!" came the hoarse voice, of the anthropomorphic mermaid.
Brain, bad. Bad brain.
What? What did I do now?
Hoarse, really brain? That bad of a pun for anthropomorphic ponies?
Oh... Uh... Hehe... Sorry.
"We just want to talk." Aku stated calmly, not letting go, "Calm down."
There was a quick flash of movement from the creatures belt, which was wrapped around her waist where the fish half of her divided into the pony, and a dagger was suddenly inside Aku's face. Slowly it started to sink into him as the blue furred and scaled- okay, just what was she? "I do not recommend doing that again." Aku stated, "I am Aku, shape shifting master of darkness, and who, as well as what, are you?"
She didn't respond, squirming under Aku's grip, which only grew more encompassing as she resisted, eventually she gave up as Davy Jones finished dismantling the rest of the traps that Aku had activated in his pursuit of the... mer-kelp-pony-thing, "I'm Melody Belle, of the Sirens." she told me.
"Wait, aren't sirens supposed to be, like, magical bird-fish people with ugly faces but beautiful voices that drive others to fight one another?" That, surprisingly enough, was Amber rather than me, or my puppets. She had caught up and was panting lightly from a mixture of adrenaline and exhaustion. She had decided to sprint through the last few traps rather than wait for Davy to disarm them through use of a sword to their sensitive interior mechanisms. This present by the score of burnt feathers that now were singed upon the back of her head where a flamethrower had barely missed her.
"Myth and legend!" The Siren proclaimed, and she struggled to try and free herself, "Now let me go!"
"Calm down and stop trying to escape, and I might." Aku stated, circling himself around to prevent the last avenue of escape and standing Melody back up.
Aku didn't release her, as Amber started to interrogate the Siren. I sent Davy Jones forward further in to disable the remaining traps while they spoke. Quickly learning about how the Siren was not the only one here, but rather there was still a small village that was ruled by their all knowing God-King "God-King?" I asked through Akus voice.
"Kingslayer Sharp Opera, our one true god and king! If you don't let me go hes going to be mad! I'm late as it is already!" the nervous siren was eyeing Amber and my Aku puppet warily, and continued, "Nothing happens on Travestos that he doesn't know about."
From my office I started to write stuff down on a spare sheet of paper. Keeping the information jotted down while I organized my collection of growing tools. "Was that him with the three other sirens depicted on the wall?"
"Yeah, that was him a thousand years ago, hes changed quite a bit since then." She said.
"Any significance of the three other sirens back then?" I questioned some more.
she seemed to ponder if she should share, but a quick death glare from Aku fixed that problem, "They're were his daughters, A-Adagio Dazzle, Sonata Dusk, and Aria Blaze."
"Were?" Amber questioned, to which Melody looked somehow more intimidated.
"T-they were... um...sorta banished by a very nasty unicorn wizard about a thousand years ago, shortly before Travestos was buried underneath the world by the power of God-King Opera." Melody chimed.
"Buried underneath the mountain?" Amber asked, a slight look of disbelief on her face, "I can't doubt where it is, but how in the world did something like that happen?"
"He is the God-King." Melody said.
"I want a better explanation than that, the sheer magic or might he did this with or some-" Amber started but was interrupted as Melody repeated.
"He is the God-King."
"But-"
"God... King." Melody repeated again.
Amber snorted with annoyance, and opened her beak to reply, but Aku cut her off, "God-King." Getting a pair of glares from Amber and Jones, who had rejoined us at this point. Aku shrugged, "What?"
"In all honesty though, what makes him, quote unquote, god-king?" Amber pointed a crossbow at Melodys face as she started to say the G word again, and said, "Think wisely before you speak."
"Well... Uh..." Melody hesitated, but added onto what she was going to say quickly as Ambers trigger claw twitched, "He shouted the previous king to pieces history says, and could shake the world with his voice! I don't know much about the king other than what everyone else would know, he's our king and that's how things are when you can't look someone in the eye!"
"No one made a comment about looking him in the eye lass..." Davy Jones commented.
The Title of 'Kingslayer' was already a dead give away that something was up, but it wasn't uncommon theme in fantasy for a corrupt king to be killed. But there was also the same chances of the situation being reversed, where the killer was the corrupt one. The comment about the eyes however, was what raised the official red flag in my mind.
"What kind of ruler is your god-king?"
Another half dozen red flags went off as the siren went pale and swallowed visibly.