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The
Tower of Babil
Kain, Phantine, Dekan, Dawne and Naxos approached the
Tower that reached through the top of the underdark and through the ceiling
itself to climb as tall as the tallest mountain.
"Scholars still have no idea where this thing came
from. Or who could possibly have built
it." Phantine said.
"It was built even before the lunarians came here." Kain said silently
"It's huge, I never would have thought that there was
anything as large as this in the world." Dawne said, almost sounding hypnotized by the tower immensity.
"Well are we going in, or not." Said Naxos sounding like the stone that he is.
"Yes although who knows what the conditions are like
inside of the tower. Wait, Phantine has
anyone ever gone into there in the past, I don't know, five-hundred
years?" Kain asked.
"No, the tower was sealed off by the first patriarch for
reasons that are unknown."
"Yes, but has anyone even shown any interest in it."
"About as much interest as they show the other eight
wonders in the world. Most researchers
believe the Patriarch sealed off the tower because it was unstable
inside." Dekan answered.
"Trust me, it's not. The tower is constructed out of materials that do not even look anything
close to normal. They glow, and you can almost feel the energy as you stand
upon the tiles."
"So then we're going; so let's go." Naxos said.
The five traveled up and into the entrance to the Tower
of Babil. As they came from the
entrance, Kain looked before him as he saw the floor that had completely given
away. "Remnants of Golbez." Kain thought to himself, then he looked at
Dawne and said. "Can you send us to the
other side?"
"Of course." Within seconds Dawne was chanting out the mystic arcanic runes of
teleportation. A white flash and Kain
and his party were on the other side of the long walkway up to the tower's
first floor.
Inside the actual tower, it was exactly how Kain had
remembered it being. Right down to the
air having that same feeling of refinement to it. As they wandered further along Kain noticed more that remained
unchanged about the Tower, it was still inhabited. Kain looked at the Demons of flame that bore down and tried to
assault him and his party, Kain only laughed. He flied through the air and down onto the form of the beast just as it
was turned to ice before him. Kain
crashed down through it all the same though. To his right he could see Phantine luring the eyes of the second demon
while Dekan came from the demons right flank and buried his spear within it's
side. The demon cried out in pain but
soon it had nothing left to cry with, its throat was lying down by its
side. At that point Kain thought to himself,
"They have the skills, they can challenge most anything or anyone now. Though that may only be because no one but
them knows these lost arts." Kain
looked beyond the demon and saw Phantine with her pistol still focused on the
head of the demon. Then Kain heard
Dawne cry out, almost laughing. "Don't
worry, I think it's dead." With that
Dekan, Phantine and Dawne gave out a laugh. And Kain too breathed a silent one.
"Are we going, or are we going to continue to gloat over
two dead beasts; when several hundred more could be right behind the next
door." Naxos said in his voice that
screamed out authority.
"I am ready Naxos. And don't worry about the others, they will follow." Kain said to Dekan.
More floors of the tower past them, as more dead beasts
lay in their wake. The party was
getting tired though they could still continue. They passed the room were the Cannon of Babil was stored, Kain
told them that they could and would stop in their to rest for the night. Naxos growled, thinking to himself that they
could have covered the distance of the tower in only one day.
As they entered the room Kain looked out from the still
charred ruins of what had been controls, for the weapon. [The dark imp still stood there with his
finger on the control that would send the dwarves to their graves. Cecil ran over to the control and looked at
the monitor. "He put it on a locked
firing, the bastard. There is nothing
we can do!"
"There is always a way." Yang said. "Leave this to me and
everything shall be fine." Yang walked
over to the controls, he looked back at the rest of their party and said, "I
have need of solitude now, please leave." Everyone but Cecil left the room; he was still standing in the
doorway.
"What are you going to do Yang, tell me!" Cecil burst out.
"Yang silently walked over to Cecil and whispered into
his ear something that Kain could not hear. Then he took a step back and punched Cecil in the chest as hard as he
possible could. Cecil was propelled
back nearly ten yards, and before Cecil could recover and rush back into the
control room, the door was locked. Seconds later their was an explosion which rocked the foundation of the
tower. Anyone could tell now that the
door was as open able as the cover of a book. But, no one entered. No one
needed to see what was inside.]
* * *
The party stood before a gigantic cross pattern on the
floor of the room. The only oddity
about it was that the outside of the cross, was not there. Although Kain had remembered this place from
before, but the others (mainly Phantine who was afraid of heights) were fairly
startled by the fact that that the center of the cross appeared to have nothing
to support it but, the lines of the cross that came from it.
On the center of the cross was the teleportation
orb. Kain had himself, only seen it
being used before, by Rubicant. "What
is that, more importantly what will it do?" Asked Dekan.
"We called it a teleportation orb, stand on it and
activate those controls over there and whatever is on it will be sent to the
connecting orb, I believe the device is somewhat similar to the Serpent Road
back in Baron and Mysidia." Everyone
looked at Kain with confusion on all of their faces all except Phantine.
"Kain, the serpent road was destroyed by the Guardian,
after he took over. He proclaimed it to
be evil, sorceress's work. Not even the
original building that they were housed in stands." Phantine took a gulp fearing what she had to tell Kain next.
"Also, Mysidia is gone."
"The village of magi, the home of the crystal of water,
the temple of wishes, gone. Humph, I
should have expected nothing less. These Guardians that have taken over this world of yours will pay for
their sins, even if I have to reach into the graves of every one of them that
has passed on to do it." With that the
party fell silent
Dekan, who had walked over to the controls of the
teleportal orb, finally broke the silence. "We can use this. I pretty sure I know how, however we should
test it first I think." Kain looked at
Dekan and nodded. With that Dekan
walked over to the orb and placed a paper from his backpack on top of it. Dekan ran back to the controls and started
began to examine what he saw before him. Within a minute he started the procedure. The paper appeared to flash in and out of existence and then was
gone. Dekan then activated more
controls on the device and the paper faded back into and then back out of
existence on the pad, finally it completely reappeared. Dekan went to the orb to inspect the
paper. "Well, everything is exact. This device actually sends things to another
place. Either that or it can destroy
and then re-animate anything."
"It's just like my magic, only I feel no resonance from
this device here." Dawne said.
Naxos then walked over to the teleportal and stood on top
of it and said, "Through the switch." Kain nodded his agreement at Dekan, and within seconds Naxos began to
blink in and out of existence, and then finally he was gone. After that Kain went, then Dawne, then Phantine
and finally Dekan as soon as he was able to find a timer procedure.
At the other end of the teleportal orb the party was
relieved to find themselves not only still in the Tower of Babil, but also much
closer to their goal. Still they
continued up through the path that Kain had treaded before.
* * *
Finally after nearly three days of journeying up through
the tower they finally reached what they had been searching for. "As soon as we get inside of this room,
there is a pit trap somewhere, so teleport us to the middle of the room
Dawne." Kain said.
"Very well." Answered Dawne.
"Kain opened the doors, into the most haloed of all
places in the world. This was the one
true shrine of the crystals. Where all
were kept: the crystal of fire, the crystal of water, the crystal of earth, the
crystal of air, the crystal of shadows, the crystal of darkness, the crystal of
chaos, and the crystal of death; the four crystals of the light and the four
crystals of the darkness. Equal, just
as the Paladin was to the Dark Night, just as the day is to the night, like
summer and winter, equal.
Without giving any warning Dawne sent them to the middle
of the room. Once they had reached
their destination Kain looked more clearly at the room around them. Eight altars, each facing to the north, this
room was exactly like the one in the lunar palace. The eight crystals though were not on their respective altars
though. Instead, the were all inside of
one clear crystal box in the center of the room, only two steps from where Kain
was standing. Kain approached the glass
case, everyone else was behind him, waiting and wondering.
Suddenly something clicked in Kain's mind. Not all of the crystals were inside of the
case, two were missing; one light was gone and one dark was as well. Kain inspected the crystals from the outside
of the case, he made note of the symbols that proclaimed: earth, water, air,
death, darkness, and chaos. So the two
crystals that were missing are the crystal of fire and the crystal of
shadows.
Phantine approached Kain and asked. "What do we do with the crystals Kain, why
did you bring us here?"
Kain was still in shock from the realization but swung
around quickly to look each member of his party in the eye. "First you must understand that each crystal
has a unique ability. The crystal of
water for example can help control tides, and the crystal of chaos can cause
mental confusion with large groups of people, entire countries to be certain. However, two of the crystals are gone: the
Crystal of Fire, and the Crystal of Shadows. The crystal of fire can generate fire of course, and the crystal of
shadows can generate illusions. Though
they are still on earth, or else there would be no fire on earth, and there
would be no shadows. So I'm willing to
guess that our beloved Guardian has these two and is using them to cloud the
minds of the people somehow." Everyone
nodded in silent agreement. Who else
would have the crystals in there possession after all?
After almost a minute of silent thinking Naxos stepped
forward toward the container and said. "Why don't we just take this crystal of death here and vaporize
Baron? I mean Guardian has to be there,
doesn't he?"
"Fool, do you really think that that is what the crystal
of death is. If it was then Golbez
would have destroyed the world on Zemus's command and none of us would be
here." Kain paused to let what he had
said sink in. "The crystal of death is
used to bring forth the undead. How
else do you think they come to the earth?"
"Well then how about we raise an army of the undead
and..."
"No!" Kain
screamed out at Naxos. "Those who are
honorable and just, such as we, do not use those, those, those, creatures of
darkness."
"Sorry I asked." Naxos said silently.
"So what do we do?" Asked Phantine again, after a moment.
"First we place the crystals that we have back onto those
altars. Second, we go back up to the
top of the tower. At the 86th floor we
can get off and follow a cave to a resistance movement against the Guardian;
you know the one that Secilia was telling us about before. Once we have given them our plans we are
going to have to find and return the two crystals that should be here. Then once all of the crystals are gathered
we can proceed with the revolution." Kain explained to his party.
"What happens when all of the crystals are back
here?" Asked Dawne.
"At that point, we should be able to close off the
entrance to the underground. Thus, no
Guardian reinforcements will be able to come, and that is really the biggest
problem for the underdark right now. And after the dwarves are free to do what they want. After that we bring the big whale over here,
via autopilot and then. Find the
lunarians, engage in a bit of conversation, and tell them what's going on. Then watch as they kick some Guardian ass."
Everyone nodded their heads; not necessarily completely
understanding what Kain was talking about, but understanding enough so that
they knew how to proceed. Although
Dekan still was skeptical. "Why should
these 'lunarians' of yours help us?"
"They will because Cecil was half-lunarian, and I don't
think they would like seeing something that Cecil fought so hard to get, get
flushed down the toilet. Also, there is
the small reason that, they owe me."
* * *
After another day
of wandering through the maze that was the inside of the Tower of Babil, the
party finally came to the place on the 86th floor that Kain had told them
about. A tunnel had somehow been dug
through the wall and through it a cave. Inside the cave Kain could feel the slight remnants of evil still
dormant within the walls. And he was
right to feel this.
The party stumbled upon a group of the undead, though now
these 'terrors' fell before them with a quickness that Cecil would have been
proud to see. "All of your skills are
improving, everyone. And Dekan, you are
truly becoming Dragoon. After this is
all over I shall bring you up to the tallest mountain on this world, whatever
that is now. And I shall personally
raise you up to the winds and proclaim you worthy of their blessings." With that everyone looked proud at their
accomplishments, especially Dekan.
Within two hours they had reached the entrance to the
Elbanian resistance front, located exactly where Eblan itself was forced to
relocate to for a time. Inside everyone
was quite surprised to see them, especially sense they came from the
tower. Apparently no one had ever come
from there; at least sense there had been a resistance movement inside of the
caves. And the resistance had been
there for almost 150 years now. Though
the only reason that they had stayed around so long was because of the fact
that they had never really done anything, except live outside of the Guardians
control.
Within the caves they found the leader of the resistance
group, a women by the name of Bladea. Bladea was a tall woman, though that meant only two inches below
Kain. She looked at the party as they stood
before her, and she listened to them all as they all took turns telling the
story to her. When the story was
complete to where they had met her she looked at Kain straight in the eye and
said. "Well, he sure does look like
Kain, at least with the armor and the spear and everything. Although it really doesn't matter whether he
is or isn't, you see we can't really help you openly. That is the only way we stay alive down here is by not doing
anything."
"Can't you see though, that all we need now is
information, and maybe a little help getting through to where we need to
go?" Pleaded Phantine.
"Yes and I still think that it is dangerous. Normally once someone comes in here they
never come out, except on trips to the beach that we have occasionally, but
that's not important. What is important
is that you must never say you have been here, you must never say anything
about this place, never! Or else you know what will happen." Kain nodded back to Bladea, he did know what
would happen.
"Very well you have my word that no one here shall even
breathe a word about what we have seen here, if and when we leave." Kain said, then added. "Now can you tell us if you have any idea
about the crystals that we seek?"
"I personally don't but, you may want to ask Tal over in
the work shop. He used to do a lot of
the mechanical stuff in Baron and Damcyan and all over the place. Head master engineer or something like that,
said he was."
"All right we'll talk to him." Kain said.
"Though we are allowed to leave when we need to
right." Dawne asked Bladea.
"I can't see why you shouldn't, you all seem trustworthy
enough to me. Just promise me one more
thing."
"What's that?" Asked Phantine.
Bladea reached into her desk that she was standing behind
and pulled out a box. She opened it
towards the party in order to show them the contents. Inside were hundreds of small, clear, oblong pills. "Each of you takes one. If you get caught swallow them right
away. Don't worry they're not for
suicide, if that's what you're wondering." Bladea sighed and continued. "They block off your long term memory, in essence giving you
amnesia." Phantine and Dawne both
gasped at this. "Kind of cruel in a
way but, those are the risks." Kain
nodded in agreement with her and took a pill for himself and put it in his
pocket. The rest of his party followed
suit.
After that they exited Bladea's office and Kain sent
everyone but himself off to get some rest at what could almost have been called
an inn in this small town of cave-dwelling rebels.
Kain went to the workroom where Bladea had said Tal would
be. Inside he asked a young worker
where Tal was, and was pointed to the very back of the workroom. Once Kain had reached the back he saw the
small man with the long beard, "Almost a dwarf." Kain thought to himself.
Kain tapped Tal on the shoulder and quickly Tal turned
around and nearly screamed. Then he
said, "Don't scare me like that who ever you are, I'm working and I don't need
any interruptions hampering my progress."
"I'm sorry, Tal, but Bladea sent me to talk to you."
"Talk to me about what?" Tal said with quite a bit of annoyance.
"She said you might know where the two missing crystals might be." With that Tal's jaw nearly dropped to the floor along with the hammer that he had been carrying.
"Those who send
reviews shall be karmicly rewarded."
-Kain DeLuman