Tekken - Rebellion of Fury
Chapter 38 The Steps
Wind blew through the sandy dunes of the dessert, giving some reprieve from the glaring sun above. It was still early in the day, so the sun was not yet at its warmest, but the heat was still stifling.
Bryan breathed hard from the heat as his group stepped through the dessert. Lars and Raven seemed to struggle more with the heat than he did, but they still kept their mouths shut without complaint. Zafina herself surprised Bryan as she led them through the sands. She didnt seem in any way bothered by the sun. She was not even sweating, incredibly enough.
Ever since they left the village, they had walked for the rest of the night all throughout the morning.
They were all tired, especially Lars and Raven, but even Bryan was starting to feel the drain on his body. They hadnt rested in long over an entire day and it showed on all of their faces.
But they still had a mission to do.
Coming to the top of a dune, they gasped in wonder upon the sight that suddenly greeted them.
An enormous and ancient looking compled built out of sandstone resten alone in the middle of the dessert. Even the long distance away Bryan could still see that it was a massive structure, a monolith rising above the wavering sands.
"This is as far as i will take you.", Zafina told them, turning to regard the tired men that had followed her. "From this point on, you are on your own. What the Zaibatsu seek, is in that temple. It is just a matter of time before they find it."
Observing her for a moment, Bryan huffed tiredly before stepping past her, coming to a stop on the tip of the dune himself. Taking a short moment to measure the distance between them and the temple, Bryan frowned as he calculated them to spend at least another hour or two before they arrived at its edge.
Turning around to regard Zafina again, his eyes widened upon seeing the woman nowhere in sight.
Bryan shivered. She unsettled him to say the least.
"Come on.", Bryan grunted with a dark look in his eyes to Lars and Raven. "Lets go and finish this."
The silence seemed eerie within the limits of the temple. The bricks beneath their feet were inscribed with ancient markings that did not seem to have weathered from time in the slightest. The enormous pillars of stone around them stretched tall above the size of entire buildings.
In front of them were stairs upon stairs, leading up towards the main structure. The top of the main structure had the design of a pyramid, but as it came closer to its bottom, it evened out into a boxed formation. Enormous pillars held up its edges, but they were still too far away from the structure to see clearly.
Bryan and his group walked in silence as they stepped up the long stairs. Bryan himself felt unnerved just being here, the eerie winds putting his nerves on edge. Lars and Raven seemed just as nervous themselves, but their hard looks showed nothing but determination.
Bryan had a feeling they would need that before the day was through.
Minute after minute, they stepped up the tall stairs, until finally, they arrived at its zenith.
An enormous open plaza greeted them on the top before the main structure. A wide, flat stretch with pillars littering its edges. The main structure, the pyramid itself had another tall stairwell leading up into the tall doorway.
Even from the distance away, they could see its doors being open.
"...Do you think Jin is already here?", Bryan muttered silently after a moment of observation.
"No, we would have seen the soldiers if that had been the case.", Raven muttered, frowning behind his shades. "But in any case, we should hurry. They are probably not far behind us."
Bryan nodded and with a deep breath, began to step forward.
The gigantic doors of the temple had at a point been breached and Bryan idly wondered how the hell that had been done. The doorway and its massive plates of stone were the same size of the pillars around them. Whatever had opened them needed force beyond reckoning.
Bryan shivered, but moved along all the same. Backing away was not an option.
Eventually after a few more minutes, they stood beneath the shadow of the temple, in front of the enormous gate. Within the temple seemed an almost unnatural darkness. It unnerved Bryan as he could see some sort of deep, blue glow coming from within the temple.
Slowly, and with calculated steps, they moved within the gate and Bryan's jaw opened in amazement.
In the middle was a wide walkway, its edges framed by pillars like the ones outside, reaching all the way up to the tall ceiling, far, far above them. Beyond the walkway, at their sides were just pits, filled with nothing but darkness.
Bryan didn't want to know how deep those reached.
Furthermore, the walls all around them, even the ones above the pits, had big braziers, burning with some sort of substance that let of this deep, flickering blue glow which filled the entire room.
Bryan tried not thinking about who had lit them, if anyone even had.
Ancient markings were everywhere. He almost wished he knew what they meant, but he had a feeling that at the end of the day he would find that out himself.
At the end of the walkway, another opened enormous gate greeted them. Beyond its doors...
...They could see only darkness from beyond its edges. But as Bryan looked into the room, even from so far away, he could feel, FEEL that there was something very wrong with this place.
"...i have a bad feeling about this...", Lars shuddered, looking around the creepy temple as they stood and observed.
"...Yeah...", Bryan grimaced before rolling his neck. "Lets just get this over with."
Together they walked down the walkway towards the end, steeling themselves for what was to come.
As they were halfway on the path, a voice called out behind them.
"HALT!"
They snapped around in surprise, their guarded stances ready for anything.
"...You...!", Lars snarled furiously. "Kazuya!"
Standing there from where they had come from was none other than Kazuya Mishima in his combat uniform, arms crossed as he observed them with an angry expression.
Bryan smirked. He was obviously not happy with them having reached this destination before them.
Even so, they had little time for this.
Stepping forward, Bryan frowned as Lars threw out a hand to stop them.
"NO!", Lars growled, giving both Bryan and Raven a hard look. "This is personal. You two go ahead."
If there was one thing Bryan could understand, it was a personal vendetta. While he kinda wanted to fight against Kazuya himself, he had more important matters to take care of first.
Nodding, Bryan stepped back.
"Are you sure about this?", Raven muttered with worry, but Lars just nodded, not taking his eyes off Kazuya.
"Yeah." Lars tilted his head towards the inner chambers. "Go."
Leaving him to his own, Bryan and Raven began to run down towards the inner chambers.
As Bryan and Raven stepped within the confines of the innermost chamber, the darkness swallowed them up as they came inside.
They walked slowly down the narrow stairs which led them into a small open area, statues of various demons littering the edges of the open room.
Above, the darkness seemed to stretch forever and as far as Bryan could see, there was nowhere else to go.
Was it a dead end?
The same blue braziers lit this inner chamber as well, but the light from them seemed more dulled than outside, as if the darkness of the chambers around them choked the life out of any given light at all.
Coming down into the middle of the room, Bryan narrowed his eyes as he observed. The creepy statues around them unnerved him to say the least, and Raven seemed just as disturbed as he was.
"...Something is very wrong with this place...", Bryan growled, his nerves putting him on a hair trigger.
"Agreed.", Raven muttered, frowning as he glared at the statues around them, almost expecting them to attack them. "I don't like this. Be ready for anything."
Bryan grunted in confirmation.
After a minute of looking around, Bryan growled and turned to Raven.
"This is getting us nowhere. Lets split up and-"
Crack!
The sound of stone breaking froze them both.
Slowly turning to the side from where the sound had come from, they looked at one of the creepy demonic looking statues that littered the room.
Bryan's eyes widened in horror, as he saw the dust that had fallen on the ground beneath it.
Another crack suddenly called out from behind them, and as they turned...
...The statues were coming to life.
Their jaws dropping, one after one, they saw the statues coming to life, the stone they were made of protesting as they moved one after the other.
The gargoyle looking creatures began moving, lumbering towards them with humanoid movements.
They were depictions of horrifying creatures, demonic in their design with wings, claws and jaws with sharp teeth.
But they made no sound, apart from their stony feet touching the stony ground.
"...What the FUCK!?", Bryan snarled. "What the FUCK is going on Raven!?"
"I have no idea!", Raven shouted back, sounding as disturbed as Bryan felt.
Before he could retort, a demonic statue pounced towards Bryan with its claws outstretched.
Bryan sidestepped the creature and delivered a hard hammer punch to the back of its head. The hit struck its entire body with a slam into the ground, its head crumbling from the force of Bryan's strike.
Bryan looked in wonder upon the creature as the rest of its body crumbled to dust, sharing a quick look with Raven; they could actually be destroyed.
This knowledge put him somewhat at ease in spite of the unnaturalness of the situation. As the creatures surrounded them, Bryan and Raven found themselves standing with their backs to each other.
Like a single entity, driven by a single mind, the creatures pounced upon them.
Lars
As Kazuya's fist closed in on Lars's face, he barely managed to dodged to the side, the strike thundering in his ear as it passed him. Immediately going on the offensive, Lars countered with a knee strike to his chest.
Momentarily stunned, Kazuya failed to react as Lars delivered repeated lightning fast strikes to his gut and chest, before finishing off with a hard right cross that struck him on the side of his head.
As Kazuya was sent tumbling, Lars took a moment to regain his breath with a hard expression on his face.
Clenching his fists together, his blood raged in response to the cold anger inside him, the Mishima blood coursing through his veins allowing some electricity to burst forth from his fists.
Kazuya, from his crouched position a yard away, opened his eyes wide in surprise upon seeing it.
"What...Mishima blood...?", Kazuya muttered with a surprised snarl. "...That is impossible!"
"Believe whatever you will.", Lars muttered darkly. "One way or another, you are not leaving here alive!"