Delerium, Among the Ruins
(instrumental)





Luce ed Ombra
Chapter Fifteen

The Gateway
[By Ultema and Guo]


A second hand emerged from the sand, grasping Isabella's arm, and tighten down on her arms, they strained to pull down. The small, depressed area of the sand resembling that of an hour glass gave way to a nose, then a pair of cheek bones, and eventually the entire head of Dante busted through. His eyes and mouth were shut tight, no breathing whatsoever from the man, yet he was obviously pulling himself up. Finally removed from the sand, he rolled to the side, hacking up a lung.

Gasping in for air, he staggered to his feet. He glared towards the remains of the sand creature and spat in its general direction, "..Shit head...!"

Taking a minute to brush off his tush, Dante hobbled over to Isabella and smirked at her, leaning most of his weight on her shoulder to take a breather, "You alright, babe?" His eyes looked up to hers as his hand reached down to pet Moofie, who happened to be clinging to his pant leg, slowly sliding down and leaving a few scratch marks behind. His smirk transforming into a light smile, Dante then reached up to pet Isabella, ruffling the top of her hair slightly.

"Somehow I know things aren't going to get easier.. are they?"

"I'm fine. You're just lucky I noticed you weren't babbling in your sleep," Isabella offered in return as she patted down the top of her hair and then promptly moving to brush the extra sand off of the red trench coat she was wearing (which was a good deal too large for her, at that).

"Otherwise you would have been worm food. And honestly Moofie ..." She turned slightly to send a piercing glare towards the shadow feline, whose ears pulled back, slick against his skull as his mistress reprimanded him.

One tattooed shoulder slipped out of the coat, then the other, and it was soon handed over to Dante, along with the turtleneck he always wore with it (sometimes she wondered if he ever washed his clothing), and thesword he hadn't brought with him when he ventured out with the feline.

Pausing for a moment before pulling his shirt on over his head and slinging his coat over his own shoulders, he soon placed his sword onto his back where it held, staying in place there with the same power he had discovered in him when he was a child.

"Alright, what'dya say we get the hell out of here..."

Assuming the other two could easily get out on their own, but refusing to get a free ride from one of them, he ran over to the wall, leaping into the air with a hard press of his left foot into the ground, twisting his body in the air, he pressed his right foot into the wall, and sprung himself up to the upper level which he barely caught onto with his hands, but quickly pulling himself up. Looking towards the others, and then towards the other end of the room he reluctantly began to make his way over. This whole place stank.

Moofie was next to follow suit, leaping effortlessly upwards onto the overhang and padding off into the long corridor that stretched downwards, eventually passing Dante and disappearing into the darkness beyond. Isabella was soon enough nearly stepping on the Hunter's heels as she, too, proceeded with caution down the stench-filled hallway. There were paintings scrawled in what appeared to be a dripping red substance along the walls, too washed out and flaked to see clearly.

There were several suits of tarnished, scorched armor lining the hall, from one of which Isabella took a damp-looking bundle of wood wrapped in an oily white rag. As soon as her fingertips wound around it, a violet flame sprang forth from the bundle and danced just above it, illuminating the corridor in a deep amethyst glow.

Lifting his turtleneck over his mouth and nose, and jogging to catch up with Isabella, having stopped to look at the portraits with a careful eye, they could easily be some sort of scary, killing, death creature knowing this place. His eye fixated on the fire Isabella carried, as he continued down the hallway without looking exactly where he was stepping, obviously contemplating something in his mind, he wasn't exactly, well, with it. It wasn't long before he began hearing a crunching noise below his feet with each step. A room, or just a wall, was nearing up ahead, but of course, he trusted Isabella.. no.. Moofie, knew where he was going.

"It sounds like this ground is made out of fortune cookies.." His eyes remained fixated around Isabella, every once and a while glancing towards the features up ahead. He was definitely getting Indiana Jones flashbacks. God, that guy rocked.

"Some damn nasty fortune cookies if you ask me..." Isabella responded under her breath, lowering the torch to view a shining floor of insect corpses, husks, live beetles and serpents that scattered as the violet flame lapped at the stones below.

Against the far most wall, the glimmer of a gold-gilded statue, large rubies for eyes (five in all), and gleaming ivory for teeth, but the form was mostly obscured by a strange, exceptionally cold, misty shadow.

Dante may have been a lot more durable than an average guy on the outside, but on the inside... well, he almost puked his non-existent lunch onto Isabella's lovely hair, and of course this whole endeavor would have just ended in his immediate death. This wasn't turning out good, not to his surprise, though. When he finally reopened his eyes, he was at the foot of this incredibly large statue. A small sigh escaped his lips, as he looked to the other two. His sight clouded slightly, but he attempted to inspect what were the toes of this beast. As Isabella brought her torch nearer, it became clearer as to what this was.

"Who puts a statue of dog in here..? " Dante's voice trailed off as he slowly began to reconsider everything around him. Running up to the statue of the beast again, he began knocking on it's knees with his hands, slowly beginning to hit harder and harder. All at once, his hand reached behind to grab the hilt of his sword.

But before he could do anything in lieu of breaking things, Isabella had stepped in front of him and was inspecting the statue carefully, fingers grazing over the marble trimmed with precious substances.

" Look here…" She hissed, bending her knees and dropping into a crouch at the clawed feet of the mammoth statue, something faintly inscribed at the bottom. Drawing the violet torch closer, Isabella attempted to read what was scrawled into the surface of the stone. Squinting she pursed her lips together tightly in thought.

"Can you read this?"

Bringing himself to where Isabella was looking, his hand removed itself from his sword. An inspection of the symbols on the statue revealed to Dante the knowledge of... that there was yet another language he didn't know… Once again, his hand reached back to his sword hilt, standing up. His eyes widened as he swung his sword down hard, piercing the shell of an incredibly large beetle about to crawl onto his back.

Leaning on his sword, he glanced upwards noticing the statue had not one, but three heads, not thinking much of it, having not been all that brushed up on Greek mythology or anything. He merely continued looking around, noticing a small rusting panel on the wall nearest him, containing yet more writing.

"Hey, come look at this… It looks like a ... T falling down on here, or something.. y'know? But I can't read the thing." Dante hit his hand against he wall and leaned against it. "Well, either this is some sort of riddle, or an tribute to old fluffy... Either way, are you sure we're going the right way? …That worm thing before could have easily been guarding people from stealing this. It is.. gold.. after all.." Smirking, his eye ran over the height of the statue. Meanwhile his fingers ran along the wall out of boredom, and eventually pushed a bit of the crustiness inwards, revealing an ever so small, oddly shaped hole.

Isabella was too busy to respond to Dante for the moment, searching deep in her memory to read the words that were displayed. It took a while, considering the writing was both archaic and corroded, though while the hunter fondled the wall, she managed to recall the language and decipher the plaque in question.

"Three in name and one in form
At the Gates do stand;
Cold and hot both break the locks,
While warm provides the door.

Two in form and one in name
Together enter and turn the same;
Too late is forgotten, too soon is too late,
devour, and into the bowels lies the future. "

She paused rising upwards and resting a hand on the muzzle of the huge dog, and called over her shoulder towards Dante, her eyes not leaving the plaque.

"I got it, we need ..."

" …a KEY!"

Dante's eyes widened as they both called out at the same time; a Kodak moment, really. He glanced over to her area and began to walk over, leaving his hand on the hole, which soon pulled him back over to it to examine. Torn between what exactly he wanted to do, he pulled out his keys and began comparing them to the keyhole in the wall. Even though it was an attempt to see what kind of key they were looking for, it just looked like he was trying to open the trunk of his car or something. Finally returning over to where Isabella was, he opened his mouth to speak to her, before turning to the shadow cat. "Moofie wouldn't happen to know where this key was, would he?" He had obviously given up on Isabella actually knowing what was going on, but was quite intrigued with the story, just then mentioning it.

"Er.. did you say, devour?"

"Yes! Wait, no! I -- " Isabella cut herself short with that, looking about the dimly lit room for a key, a key.. where would they find a key. For a brief moment she let her attention fall on Moofie, sitting idly in the corner watching the two of them from a comfortable perch near the eel-like tail of the three headed dog when it finally came to her. Patting herself down, a key was procured from the belt that sat loosely around her waist, and she moved to the front of the statue, eyeing it intently as she moved around Dante and came to a stop before the middle head.

"Now where the hell..."

Thinking for a moment, Dante's head actually had a semi-intelligent thought, mumbling under his breath; "Hmm. Three heads.. turn same time.. two keys.. oh wait.." He strode over to Isabella without really giving much thought to what he was doing, and simply reached out placing his hand on her hip where she retrieved the other key, and searched around for another while looking around, eventually slipping a key out.

"Hey!" Isabella squawked as Dante moved away without a second's though. Both of her brows knit tightly down together in a scowl as she watched half in question half out of annoyance towards her partner.

Without really looking towards her, his mind a bit preoccupied with one thing, he placed the key into the hole, which was revealed earlier.

He turned the key, with doing so a small click sounded and the wall shot a fine needle possibly a good foot in length out towards him, with a swing in his hips, he eyed his jacket gain a new hole through each side, narrowly missing his waist. Isabella managed to whirl around just before a thin object flittered through the space between herself and Dante, and lodged in the wall on the other side with a twang.

"Uh, I think we might have to turn these. but.. maybe at the same time?" His body stuck in the position he was just in, his hips flared out slightly, hand now rubbing the back of his head.

A slender mahogany brow risen and full lips puckered into a thoughtful pout, she offered a nod in response to Dante's suggestion, cautiously crossing the space between him and the other head.

"You're right ... "

Two in form and one in name, together enter and turn the same.

"Aha.. " Oh yes, it was so obvious now. But the last part was a little disheartening, considering what just happened. Though without hesitation, Isabella searched around for what was more than likely the twin hole to her partner's, and sure enough it was there in the wide, gaping jaws of the rightmost head.

"Ready...?"

Too late is forgotten, too soon is too late...

Turning their keys at the same time, Dante flinched as another clicking sound occurred, his other hand reaching towards his gun. A soft rumbling could be felt in the ground, slowly getting more and more violent. The statue's middle head was cracking its outer golden shell, revealing an obsidian like rock underneath, which appeared to be opening up. In a few moments, the lower jaw had widened enough for a person to slip through, almost like a slide. Quite a scary thought considering inside was a sculpted tongue as well. Meanwhile the keys were drawn into their respective holes, and it was quite obvious where they were supposed to go. The ground shook more violently, and pieces of the walls and ceiling began to crumble. It didn't look like the way back was going to be a viable option. Moofie had already hopped in.

"Ladies first.." He grinned towards his partner, showing his hand to the mouth. Waiting for her to enter, he looked over the statue once again, poking at one of the eyes.. yep, it was a statue... "Ah hell, I like being swallowed anyways.."

Taking only a second cursory glance at Dante , nose wrinkled in response to his jest, Isabella stepped forward and onto the slick surface of the marble tongue. The sound of her boot was strangely muffled by something, though the interior of the dank, damp smelling cavernous mouth of the stone creature was completely empty. One hand gingerly touched the cold, wet wall at her side. It was slick, and ribbed. As her weight shifted forward, the sole of her boot slipped on the slick surface of the tongue, and with a loud squeak of the rubber as well as a squeak of her own, she was sent tumbling down the chute-like corridor.

A smirk climbed onto his face as he watched Isabella's slip... it seemed like everything she did amused him. That, however, wasn't exactly a good thing. It meant he was getting attached, something which, for him, would always prove to be a worthless endeavor. Now wasn't the time either. This place had been throwing life-threatening obstacles in their path since they arrived, and now that they were obviously moving right into the lion's mouth, he couldn't let petty feelings get in the way of surviving.

Dante soon followed the other two down the mouth of the beast, deciding to go on his behind from the get go as opposed to falling like his companion, he slid quite fast down what must have been the throat of the stone beast. Only one twist, then a near straight drop landed him quite hard on the ground below with a grunt and puff of air from his lungs, just behind Isabella. He rose a hand to the back of his head and peered quizzically about. Pure blackness to all sides... but a light illuminating them. It was almost as if there were no walls to this place. An endless, open, lit cave.







------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Author's NotesIt's a little short, but I'm just trying to stay a bit ahead of myself here. ^^More coming soon, notice the new frequency of updating? :D ;D