Chapter 6: The Toa's Bane
Langu wondered what had possessed him to volunteer for this mission. After coming through the portal Jakop and the Matoran had found themselves in the underground tunnels of Talla Nui.
After setting up a camp they formulated a plan. Jakop had reasoned that the Dark Hunter's Army was large because of cloning.
He said that if they could stop them from cloning then they would have an advantage. Langu had immediately stood up and volunteered to sabotage the Cloning Center. Now he wished that he hadn't.
Langu knew that they were supposed to be as quiet and stealthy as possible. However Langu had recently discovered that setting off an explosive in order to destroy the cloning vats was not very stealthy.
He and Kapura were running as fast as they could down the hallways and corridors of the Dark Hunter Base. The Rahkshi were right behind them and gaining with every step that they took.
"Quick, in here," shouted Kapura.
He and Langu ran through one of the doors towards the end of the hallway. It was strangely unlocked and the two Matoran soon found out why. Langu and Kapura stood inside of the Hall of Makuta. Right in front of them was the Shadowed One.
"Well, well," said the Shadowed One, "What have we here?"
The Shadowed One fired his eyebeams at the two Matoran but they dodged behind one of the vats containing Makuta. The explosion of the eyebeams caused cracks to appear on the vats and the Makuta could feel their cages weakening.
The Shadowed One fired again, this time hitting the vat containing the Makuta of Metru Nui. The vat exploded causing shards of proto-glass to fly across the room. Langu and Kapura ducked as proto-glass whizzed around them.
The Rahkshi that had been chasing the Matoran had entered the room just in time to see the other Makuta emerge from their vats.
Langu and Kapura hastily exited the room in order to avoid being killed by all the fighting going on. They made their way quietly through the base and returned to the underground tunnels.
Metru Nui, City of Legends. "More like City of Death," thought Kenar.
Metru Nui looked like another Great Cataclysm had happened. There were no buildings. Only piles of broken and shattered rock and protodermis.
Kenar, Tavok, Macura and Ehller had been surprised to find that apparently no Dark Hunters inhabited the city. Now they understood why. It was the stink. The stench of so many dieing and decaying bodies had made the Toa gag upon arrival. The whole place smelled of death.
"And we're supposed to find a Durna Stone in this," thought Kenar, "It could be anywhere."
After arriving the Toa had split up to try and find the Durna Stone. Now Kenar was returning to the designated meeting place. When he got there the other Toa had already arrived.
"I found something!" blurted Ehller before anyone else could talk. Since the other Toa had found nothing they all followed Ehller to see what she had found.
Ehller led them to a large trench in the ground several bios from the Coliseum.
The trench was filled with lava except a small shelf just above the boiling liquid. Macura used his powers to create a ladder of vines and Ehller led them down onto the shelf.
"I don't see anything," said Kenar after they had landed.
"Turn around," said Ehller.
Before them was an archway set into the stone walls of the trench. Inscribed on it written in Matoran were these words.
What is large and terrifying
Takes to lava and to flying
Holds the masks inside its name
And is called the Toa's bane
"What does it mean?" asked Tavok
"Well it's obviously a riddle." Macura said excitedly, "Oh, I do love a good puzzle."
"Well can you answer it?" asked Kenar.
"Give me time." Said Macura
Kenar didn't have time. So he started puzzling over the riddle himself.
"Well masks are Kanohi." He thought out loud. "So this is a Rahi that likes to fly and swim in lava and has the word Kanohi in its name."
"I know what that is." Tavok said smiling. "It's a Kanohi Dragon."
As soon as Tavok said those words the archway opened and revealed an extremely large Kanohi Dragon sitting on a nest of eggs. Ehller nudged Kenar's shoulder and pointed at the eggs. Nestled among them was a shiny stone made of protoglass that was certainly not an egg. The toa readied their weapons and prepared for what seemed like inevitable death.
