Author's Note: Um… Yeah, not much to say. We'll be seeing more spellcasting here, and some science content. Anyway, enjoy Chapter 12!
Chapter 12:
Hero's Grave
They all followed Shepard out to a large field about 2 miles away from the village. No trees, the village, a few sheep or anything else besides hills, were in sight.
"Why are ya taking us all the way out here?!" Eddy groaned.
"I do not wish for the village to be hurt in our battle." Shepard said, leading them down into a large dip in the hills. The dip, or what seemed to be a natural arena, was about half a mile wide and perfectly circular.
"How peculiar." Double D said, scratching his hat. "This depression seems quite unnatural. It's almost as if someone made it."
"Our ancestors made it." Shepard said, not even looking at them. "This is the Valley of Valor, where we prove whether or not we are worthy of entering the grave." He stopped and turned to them. "Now which four of you nine wish to partake in this bout? Double D, as you accepted the challenge, you are required and will serve as commander."
"Alright." Double D said, looking towards his friends. "Now, who would be the best qualified?" His first candidate was Griff, who shook his head at Double D's glance.
"No. I want to see how well you fight after all that training." He said.
"Rolf shall fight." Rolf said, joining Double D. "I know the combat style of my family and have spotted my father's weaknesses."
"Any more?" Double D asked. Ed and Eddy quickly joined him and Rolf.
"You ain't doing this without us." Eddy chuckled.
"Right!" Ed said. Griff moved the other four back as Double D, Ed, Eddy, and Rolf all brandished their weapons.
"Ready?" Shepard asked, moving his cane in a weapon-like like motion. He took a battle stance similar to Rolf's, although he leaned on his right leg. When they nodded, he raised his cane above him. "Quake!" Shepard slammed his cane down on to the ground, resulting in a small quake just big enough to daze them.
"What was that?!" Eddy groaned. Getting back up on his feet, he dodged a swipe from the cane. With a burst of speed, he got behind Shepard.
"A lance with Speed and Jump Booster Cards goes a long way!" Eddy chuckled, taking his own swipe at Shepard.
"Rock Shield!" A large slab of dirt and rock rose up between Shepard and Eddy, blocking the lance and sending Eddy back a few feet. It didn't take long for Eddy to get back up and attack again, but a blast of earth sent him away once more.
"Is that all the power you can muster?" Shepard questioned. "If so, you'll never win!"
"Flash!" Double D said, sending beams of light hurtling toward the man. Shepard dodged the beams in a motion similar to moves from an action series. Double D shot out another beam, knocking Shepard into the ground. Double D loomed over the man.
"Had enough?" Double D asked, pointing his knife downward.
"No, in fact, I wish to see more!" Shepard said in near glee, slamming his cane on the ground, creating another quake. "Come at me, if you dare!"
"Yah!!" Ed shouted. He charged at Shepard, aimlessly swinging his mace. Shepard stepped backward at each swing, chuckling at Ed.
"You are all brawn, no brain." Shepard joked, still dodging the strikes. "You're practically beating yourself!" His chuckling stopped when he noticed Ed's smirk.
"Nope." Ed said. "I have you beat!" Jumping and placing his feet on Shepard's chest, he propelled them both in opposite directions. Shepard turned his head, finding Rolf and Eddy coming down upon him.
"Gotcha now!" Eddy said. His laugh continued until Shepard grabbed him and Rolf and, with a swift mid-air turn, slammed them into the ground. He then performed another earth shaking spell, causing Double D and Ed to lose balance.
"Is this all you can muster?" Shepard asked again. "If so, then you won't survive the Heroes Grave." He looked at Eddy, who had fallen unconscious from the force of the blow. "Especially this one."
Double D rose cautiously, expecting another quake. "You don't have the needs to make an accurate theory. You've only seen one spell in my arsenal!" He placed a booster card on his knife. As it disappeared, the knife's blade glowed and nearly tripled in length, near to the length of a short sword. "Blade Extend!"
"Ah, a Spell Card!" Shepard said. "A good move."
Double D swung the sword forward. Its blade continued to extend and began to move in a whip-like fashion. Shepard ducked, his hat being sliced in half by the blade. The blade morphed back into the knife after the slice.
Double D ran at Shepard, exchanging swipes with him. He crouched down and slashed at Shepard's ankles. Shepard jumped and came downward with his cane. Double D focused and pointed his finger at Shepard. "Red: Laser!" A red triangle enveloped the point of his finger as thin red beam shot from his finger. It moved with a twist of his finger's angle and sliced the cane in two.
"Had enough?" Double D asked, holding his knife outward.
"You are proving yourselves excellently." Shepard answered, discarding the pieces of his cane. He lifted his foot and then stomped the ground. "Now you must unleash your full potential!" The stomp of his foot resulted in several fissures along the battlefields face. "TREMOR!"
"Tremor?!" Rolf mentally gasped. "But that is the strongest Earth spell our family knows! Everyone here will be hurt fatally!" Struggling, Rolf got up, grabbed Eddy, and moved before falling into the cracks of the fissures. After going a distance, he threw Eddy to Ed and charged at Shepard while shouting a battle cry.
"Take this!" He yelled. "Rolf does not know what this may do, but Rolf must try." He swung his hammer upward, sending a wave of rising pillars of stone at his father. "Earth Cracker!" The pillars collided with Sheppard, sending him flying until his drop by back to Earth. Rolf ran over to his father and helped him up. "Rolf apologizes father, but that move you did was insane!"
"And that move you just did won you the victory!" Shepard interrupted, showing a large bruise on his chest. "I have never felt a more powerful blow, not even from my own father, Nano! You have gained a grasp of your heritage." He managed to get up and silently made a stone cane for support. "And your friend's light show was enough to justify access to the grave. But it is dangerous, I will have to guide you there myself."
After about a half hour of Griff running back and forth from the boat and village, they had gotten their supplies onto a wooden wagon near the end of the village's single dirt road.
"Are we ready?" Shepard asked as he and Rolf climbed onto the wagon's driver bench. Griff loaded the last supplies onto the end of the wagon before climbing on himself.
"We are now." Double D answered. With a snap of the reins, Shepard got the oxen to work, slowly moving the wagon out of the village. As the passed under the northern gate, Rolf climbed in back as Ed sat up front.
"Are you ok?" Marie asked, noticing Rolf's slight pant.
"It is nothing. Just that my strength needs to return." Rolf answered.
"I felt the same way the first time I used magic." Double D reminisced.
"Which reminds me, why did you shout red before that laser spell?" Nazz asked.
"There are seven colors to a rainbow you know." Double D said.
"What do rainbows have to do with this?" Eddy groaned. "Is this going to be another science lecture?!"
"Well, you see, white light has a spectrum of six colors: red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and violet or purple." Double D explained. "Now, when light makes contact with a triangular prism, such as the countless water drops in the sky, it separates into those colors."
"I knew this." Griff stated. "So I trained him to basically make his powers 'prism,' or something like that, to expand his arsenal."
"So now you have access to eight spells?" Nazz said, sighing slightly.
"I suppose." Double D said, pondering his thoughts. "I only found a use for red, which reminds me of a focused battle." His friends watched the scenery go by, not taking interest in his scientific explanation. Not interested in joining their sight-seeing, he moved to the back of the wagon with Griff, Nazz, and Eddy.
"So…" Double D sighed. "How do you all feel?"
"About what?" Eddy asked.
"About this journey, about what has happened." He said. He himself didn't find this journey too dull, but he definitely would had preferred to be home by now.
"I don't mind." Eddy snickered. "Adventure, action, and of course the possibility of gold! And it sure beats life back at Peach Creek!"
"I think it's a strange, but sorta nice change." Nazz said.
"Don't care." Griff said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pack of cigarettes, but throwing it away and sighing upon the realization that he had run out. "If I get the book in the end though, it'll all be worth it. Which reminds me…" He took the book out of Double D's backpack, which promptly flew back into Double D's hands. "Has it revealed anything about the Philosopher's Stone?"
"No. But plenty of other information." Double D said, flipping through the book. "But the thing that I wonder most is its origins." It was true, even after they had came this far, they knew near nothing about it.
"Most details about the Mage War have been lost to conspiracies and crime." Griff said. "Few know what really happened."
It was at this moment that Eddy noticed a leathery square hanging out of one of Griff's outside pockets. Making sure that no one spotted him, Eddy slowly grabbed it and began sorting through its contents, smiling greedily all the while.
The wagon continued its journey through to sunset, by which time Ed spotted a tower in the distance. The stone tower ripped through the sky with its sheer height. Around it seemed to be a blackish barrier as high, if not higher, than the tower.
"What is it?" Lee asked.
"That is the Mage Tower, the only thing that remains of the Mage King's castle." Shepard explained. "That blackish barrier is the one I told you about. It also means that the Hero's Grave is nearby."
"Good." Griff said.
"I concur." Double D said. He looked toward the massive tower, looming over them all, in the distance.
By nighttime, the wagon had arrived at a massive temple-like structure. The building slightly reminded Double D of the various Roman or Greek temples he saw in books. The area around the temple was dark, save for the occasional candle light from windows, and ominously quiet.
"Glorious." Double D said
"Odd." Shepard said, looking around. "The monks usually congregate at this time after saying prayers for the dead. But I don't see them."
"It's too quiet." Griff said, leading them inside.
As they entered the grave, they were both in awe and appalled by the scene. People, all in robes, were littered around the room. They were on the stone coffins, up against walls, or on the floor. It seemed one of the coffins at the end of the room had been moved, showing a hidden stairway leading downward.
"What happened to them?" Nazz said. She touched the pale, cold face of one of the monks. "He's dead!"
"Not just any normal death either." Double D stated, also examining one the bodies. "This blackish skin indicates sever frostbite. These monks were literally frozen to death."
"B-but what could do that?!" Eddy whimpered. "I know everything gets colder and all during fall, but freezing? You're pulling our legs!"
"An Ice Mage was at work here." Griff said. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the monks stirring. "We've got live one!" He propped the monk up against a coffin, trying to stop the slash across the man's chest from releasing more blood.
"What happened?" Double D asked.
"Three people came in during pray." The monk coughed, splattering more blood. "They ordered us to show them where Ralph's coffin was. When we didn't, they used more forceful methods." He lifted his arm, unsteadily pointing towards the staircase. "Ralph's grave is that way. Beware, it's locked away and protected."
"Here." Griff said, pulling out a vial with a green liquid and pour it into the man's mouth. The man's wound healed a bit, allowing the man to breathe more easily. "Did you see what the men looked like?"
"Ye-." The monk then fell limp, falling into the current bliss of unconsciousness.
"He needs to keep taking the drink if he wants to live." Griff said. "We'll need two to stay behind. One to give him the drink, one to defend them."
"I'll do it." Nazz said, taking the vial.
"I shall defend her." Shepard said.
Double D walked to the staircase, feeling the disturbing sense of déjà vu. Last time he had went down an ominous staircase, the man beside him and a crazed mad hatter tried to kill him. "What could be down?" He asked himself. He unsheathed his knife and held it in front, ready for any attacker or trap.
"Double D?"
"Yes Griff?"
"Be careful. We may have three generals to deal with." Griff said.
Author's Notes: Well there's chapter 12. I'll be busy till next summer so update will slow down, or speed up since I'm writing again. Who knows? But I can promise you lots of action, adventure, and suspense ahead.
