Coreoth XXI:
Mourning and Trials
A/N: I must admit, killing Lok off was really evil. Very evil. But, it had to be done for the rest of my plot to be able to carry on. It had to happen. And Dewrder had to die for the same reason. Forgive me all.
Third Person POV, Dante's House...
It had been five days since Lok had died.
Dante's house, once lively and full of joy and laughter was now devoid of both, and full of sadness.
They had taken Lok's body, the crystal, and brought it back. They decided not to tell Sandra just yet, till they could figure out a way to bring him back, if it was possible. If not, they would finish the mission first, for Lok's sake.
They all dealt with it in a different way.
The hardest hit was Sophie. She had thought that Lok had died before, but this time, this time it was different. It was for real. She spent the days mostly crying, eating and drinking little. When she wasn't crying she was reading ancient texts, studying to get stronger. Trying to find a way to do the impossible.
Zhalia, in the time she had known Lok, had begun to think of him as a little brother. Yes, he was annoying, and yes he could be naive, but he was still Lok. She became distant and cold, not to mention very quick tempered. It was how she dealt with his death, with anyone's death. She cried rarely, one of the only times the day he died. But that was it.
Dante wore a mask of calm but underneath he was as sad as the others. But he knew they needed leadership to manage and he had to be the one. Underneath he was seething, waiting for the chance to finish off Lucas Speare, to avenge Lok and Dewrder.
Ian turned his sadness into anger, anger at his dad, anger at the Crystals for allowing Lok to die, anger at the world. He turned this anger to energy, to power. He practiced constantly, becoming stronger, waiting for the chance to strike back. Ian wanted revenge. And nothing would stop him.
Ian was currently in the training room, loosing his rage on a punching bag. He was hitting it with rapid strikes from the heel of his palms. Then he unleashed a kick that caused it to simply burst. He turned to another and was about to go all out on it when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Ian turned to meet the eyes of his mentor, Dante.
"Ian...' Dante sighed.
"What?" Ian asked defensively.
"What's wrong with you? Besides the obvious."
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
"Fine. Pack up, we're going to get that thing on the map."
"Sophie's ready?"
"Yeah, now you go get ready." Dante left the room, wondering if he was doing the right thing.
Áit Trialacha, a Few Hours later...
The map, the combined pieces of the map from each key, pointed to a place in a secluded area of Emerldas. The place was labeled on the map as Áit Trialacha. Translated from Clavax it means place of trials.
The actual place was a huge monolith, somehow hidden by the taller still trees. It was grey in color and was more than two hundred feet tall, and a hundred feet wide. A single door was there, locked.
Our heroes advanced on the door. There was a key hole along with a single character on the top. The Clavax symbol for the number one.
Ian pulled a key from his pocket, the first key. He put it in the hole and turned. The door rumbled and then, with the click of clockwork at work, begin to move till it was gone.
They walked in.
The inside was much bigger than the outside, probably due to magic. The whole area was made out of a black stone that had green glowing veins. This first room was big, with a huge gorge in the middle. There were five floating platforms crossing the gorge.
"So it looks we have to cross it. Seems simple." Dante said as he threw a stone up and to the gorge. It was vaporized. "Cherit stay with me on my shoulder so you won't be vaporized." The little gargoyle nodded and landed on Dante's shoulder. Then the trial began.
Dante went first, jumping onto the first platform. Then the next. Zhalia came next, then Sophie, and finally Ian. When Ian landed the platforms began to turn to dust, ever so slightly.
"Go, go!" Dante yelled, jumping off of the last platform. The others followed, except Ian wasn't fast enough as he fell due to the whole no platform thing. Luckily he had his whip which wrapped around a piece of stone protruding from the main landing. He pulled himself up and lay breathing heavily.
"Come on. We keep going." They got up and kept going. They soon reached another door. Sophie put her key, the second key, in the hole. Again it opened.
This chamber was smaller and the only things in it were two statues. When the team stepped in the stone on the statues simply turned to dust, revealing two monsters.
One was a hobgoblin, a creature with the body of a spider, a sanek head and a man body. Like a centaur, except the bottom was that of a spider, and they had a snake head. Instead of an arm it's right arm was a long green tentacle. It's other arm ended in a clawed hand.
The other one was a eight foot tall man. He wore a green mask with three spikes extending from it. He wore red armor and his right hand was huge, as big as his torso with claws. The left hand was a metal claw.
The two statues/monsters adavnced.
"Seperate!"Dante yelled as he jumped to the side to as a tentacle flattened the ground where he had been standing.
The group seperated into two teams, Ian and Sophie and Dante and Zhalia, Ian and Sophie took on the giant while Zhalia and Dante took care of the hobgoblin.
"Go, Metagolem!" Dante yelled. The golem rushed up to the hobgolbin and began to fight, throwing punches hard and fast. When the tentacle snaked around his arm, Metagolem ripped it off from the body, turning the appendage to dust.
"Fight for your lady, Kilthane!" Zhalia called out her black knight who rushed to help Metagolem. Together they finished off the goblin, Kilthane stabbing it through the chest while Metagolem punched it's face really hard. The thing turned to dust.
Meanwhile Ian had called out Queztacoatl who was annoying the giant. Sophie called out Feyone who also annoyed him. Then, together, the four of them attacked, Sophie with Raypulse, Feyone with a slash, Queztacoatl with a bite and Ian with Touchram. The statue burst into dust.
The dust slowly began to gather back into a solid shape, reforming the statues.
They moved to the next door, putting the third key in. The door opened, revealing a maze.
It was a large maze, a labyrinth. There were holes in the ceiling, perfect for crossbow bolts. Dante called out Solwing to test his theory. Bolts shot out of the ceiling, destroying Solwing and aiming at our heroes. They leapt back into the previous room and just avoid a storm of bolts.
"Just as I thought. Cherit, stay by me." Dante said. The little Titan nodded and landed on Dante's shoulder.
"How are we going to go through the labyrinth? We can't tell which way, and I doubt the Holotome will work." Ian asked. To be sure, he checked the Holotome. Nothing.
"Maybe the key will help?" Sophie suggested, one of the first times she had spoken since Lok's death.
Before the others could reply the third key buzzed, a string shooting out and around Sophie's wrist. It then flew off. The others had to run to follow it.
A few minutes later they heard the roar.
Dante checked the Holotome, which showed a minotaur, a stone one charging towards them. It read some quick facts, liek the fact that spells don't hurt it. As the thing charged, through walls a couple of times, the team picked up the pace.
One time the minotaur jumped up into the air, getting hit by bolts, our heroes having to use Overshield to survive. They hear a roar of pain and anger, very close, and continue on.
When they were almost through the labyrinth the minoatuar crashed through the wall behind them.
It looked like Megatuar, except it was made out of stone and slightly taller. It gave a roar that sounded like thuunder. The walls shook.
"Go on! I'll be right behind you!" Dante yelled to the others, turning to face th minotaur. "Just leave some string behind, so I'll be able to leave." Zhalia nodded and began to lay a trail of silver string behind, while she and the others ran off, Cherit following.
"Show that doppleganger a true minotaur, Megataur!" Dante summoned out the minotaurian Titan. He had two gold axes in his hands. The Titan charged the statue, swinging the axe into the statue's snout. Instead of slicing through, it got stuck. The statue roared and ripped the axe out and threw it into the wall.
The statue then attacked Megataur, pushing him on the ground. Dante brought out Breaker behind them to help. Breaker grabbed the statue by the arms and held it tightly. The statue had a trick up it's sleeves though, it's arms split in two, the new arms throwing Breaker back. Megataur buried his other axe into the statue's chest, the axe was then thrown at Dante who had to drop to the ground to avoid being beheaded.
Megataur buried his horns into the chest of the statue, only to be thrown. But Breaker was there and he began to pummel the statue with lightning fast blows. Megataur got behind then struck with an axe he recovered.
The combined efforts destroyed the statue, turning it to dust, but not before it released two more blows which sent the Titans back to their amulets. The dust began to reform, moving towards the center of the maze. Dante ran on, following the string till he reached the end.
There was another door, and with the fourth key it opened.
This room was simple, a long hallway with a short ceiling. Before they continued, Dante did something to ensure their safety.
"Gearfried!" He called. The Titan had thin legs that ended in a point. His body was a black metal with silver veins. Where a belly button would've been there was a three inch diameter crater with a ruby in the bottom. The arms were jointed black iron blades, shaped like diamonds from a playing card. The real arms were thin and underneath, with small hands. The head was like a helmet, with red eyes. Above it was a V-shape that was connected, like a visor. "Gearfried, cover our backs. If you are outnumbered, retreat. Do not use Invincible Shield till I tell you." The Titan nodded and ran back into the maze. "In case Lucas is close by."
"But what good is Gearfried?" Ian asked.
"Invicinnble Shield doubles his defense, but slices his attack in half. It also drains me of energy faster, so I use it less." Ian nodded and the group continued.
Dane stopped them as he looked at the walls and roof in front of him. He threw a rock up and towards the area he had studied. A huge wall of fire burst up, touching both walls and the roof, explaining the scorch marks. The rock was ash in seconds.
"Wow. Zhalia, can you freeze it over?" Sophie asked, but the Noric was already shaking her head at the beginning of the question.
"No jets, it's a mgically produced flame, but I can do something else." She began to work her magic, creating an armor of ice for them, including Cherit. First was a bubble, then several layers of ice, then another bubble, ice, bubble, and finally the thickest layer of ice yet. Ian went first.
The fire was hot, he could feel it through the ice. The first layer had already melted, the bubble evaporated. He knew it was a matter of seconds so he jumped through, landing outside just as the armor melted away. His hair was singed, along with his clothes. The others came through, all of them looking better than him. They continued down and opened up the door.
They stepped inside a large chamber, with a twenty foot high and long door on the opposite side. Gearfried rushed in and alerted them that the enemies were coming. The team ran to the door, which had five key holes. They inserted the keys into the correct holes and the door opened, in a different way then expected.
The stone dissolved in each portion. In the end a ten foot long and high four-pointed star shaped opening was there. It showed a five foot tall black key with silver and gold markings.
Then Gearfried blew up.
"Hullo friends. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to kill you all." Said Lucas Speare as he entered.