Chapter 10
Kento turned a corner and found himself in the
threshold of the fanciest throne room he had ever seen in his life. The gems set in the stonewalls depicted
great battles against mythical creatures in times long past. The left wall illustrated all nine armors
and above them was the Inferno with a picture of White Blaze next to it. Kento wandered vaguely how much more the
artist had known about them.
Ryo
stood in the middle of the throne room in his sub armor with his faithful white
tiger at his side. All of his attention
was focused on the figure sitting in the back atop the regal throne. Talpa sat there, staring at him darkly.
Fear
froze Kento. Cautiously, he stepped up
to Ryo's side whispering, "Dude, I thought we killed him?"
Ryo
shook his head, obviously as perplexed as Kento was.
"What
did you do with Cye?" Kento demanded, venom lacing his voice.
Talpa
didn't respond, he only rose and took two steps away from his throne toward the
Ronins.
Suddenly,
from the back of the room, came Talpa's new warlords.
Ryo
and Kento called their armors.
* * * * *
Sage was lost.
No
two ways about it, every corner he turned led him deeper into the castle until
he wasn't sure which we he had come from. All the tunnels looked the same, dark, depressing, and always full of
cobwebs. Every strange sound caused him
to jump, this place was just crawling with Dynasty soldiers and evil
traps.
The
familiar clinking of the Dynasty's hollow soldiers filled the hallway he found
himself in. Unable to tell from which
direction the sound came from he began to run. The footfalls echoed from in front of him, behind him, his left and
right sides as well. The sound became
gradually louder and Sage gradually ran faster, coming up quickly to an
intersection at which another hallway crossed this one.
He
was debating whether to go left or right when he noticed to figures coming
towards him from the right hallway. Sage panicked and was getting ready for a confrontation when he realized
whom it was.
Rowen
and Cye instantly spotted Sage in front of them, and they hurried to meet him,
Cye walking under his own power now.
"Hay,
Sage, good to see you. Where are Ryo
and Kento?"
"I
don't know, Rowen," He replied, grateful when he heard the footsteps fade off
into the distance.
It
was then that they heard the familiar sound of Ryo and Kento calling their
armors. The trio looked at each other
for a moment before running off and following the sound all the way up to the
great hall that housed Talpa's throne.
They
were greeted by the scene of a standoff between Ryo, Kento, and Talpa's new
warlords, each bearing one of the warlord armors.
White
Blaze noticed their entrance, and decided to take his leave now that his
abilities were no longer needed, he sprinted out the door, much to Ryo's
surprise.
"You
want we should take care of them, Master?" The warlord with the armor of
darkness asked.
"No,
I have everything I needed of you four. The armors were all I needed, you shall be disposed of."
At
the words, all the fighters lost their fighting stances and turned to
Talpa. It was never different, Ryo
thought, all he wanted and all he needed was and always will be the
armors. It doesn't matter how many
people die, if it suits his cause, it will happen. Anger and frustration boiled inside of him, governing his
thoughts and actions. Only his
reasoning kept him still.
"This
will end today. Soon," he glanced at
the assembled Ronins, "you will be no more than fading memories in children's
stories. I will do today what was deemed
impossible by so many before me. But
first-"
Talpa
took another menacing step forward.
Sage
and Rowen readied themselves to call their armors.
Ryo
and Kento tensed, prepared to fight for all they were worth.
Talpa
gave a hollow laugh, then, bizarrely, he began to change.
* * * * *