I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Thank you RAW20-1 for reviewing. I'm glad you're really enjoying it :) And your riddle is confusing. Lol. Is it human?
Sorry for the late update once again. My schedulewillbe busy for another week, due to the art show in my school for art majors, so the next update might just be in two weeks.
Chapter 26
A shadow glided down a long corridor, keeping close to the watery floor as it did so. It was nearly pitch black as Van-Gareth traveled in his free form since the torches lining the walls refused to light, not that he cared since it was darkness that made up his being.
The only light was coming from the water, though the phenomena could not be explained since there was no light source under its surfaces. It was as if it created light all on its own, but being that it was an ancient structure meant for a goddess it was hardly an inconceivable idea.
As he traveled down the corridors in an unknown direction doors could be seen occasionally on either side. Had he of felt curious he would have peeked into one of them to see what it held, but his curiosity only lay in what would happen once the shrine was destroyed.
Would the forest fall apart? Or would all the guardians descend upon him like a hawk to its prey? Either way he cared little. Before hand he had been too concerned with finding the shrine to bother with using too much energy on the dragons, but should they attack him once his task was complete he would not hold back.
vvvv
Yusuke look at the door curiously as they ran past by them briskly. Some of them held delicate carving, some held nothing but the rings showing that it had once belonged to a living tree.
"Any guess at what's behind these doors?"
"I don't think anyone in these modern times would know," Kurama pointed out, "And we don't have time to amend that."
"Right," Yusuke said with a frown. "And I doubt Touya knows where he's going either."
"In all honesty you are correct Yusuke," the ice master answered without looking over his shoulder as he continued to lead them down the corridors. "But I feel as if I'm being beckoned this way by something."
No one argued with the ice master, as they too felt something pulling gently at them as they traveled, but whether is was leading them towards the shrine or away from it could not be decided.
They would just have to wait and see.
vvv
The watery path stopped in front of two elegantly crafted doors. The water neither crashed into them, nor rippled backwards; instead it crept under the very stones underneath it in some tiny pathway.
It was here that Van-Gareth stopped momentarily and retained his natural form, red eyes gazing at the carvings with interest. The message was all to clear to him and he barged through the doors knowing know that the shrine was beyond the room he had just entered.
As he walked through the grand chamber his eyes roamed over it, taking in everything with little emotion. Even though he was here to destroy the place he found he could not help but look at everything that had been so sacred to the beings that now were long gone from the world.
It was truly odd to know that the demons he had once worked to destroy had such mastery in the arts. Too bad they did not know how to fight; Van-Gareth's words would have been in the modern tongue of the age while he gave a vile smirk.
He stopped short when his gaze traveled up to the middle of the ceiling where upon they took in the area that was left unadorned by paint. To one side was an image of him and Era, yet the final depiction of who had won had yet to appear and he knew all to well that the image would paint itself once its master had died, as it had been a trait masters of the arts had held back then. Yet it had not done so.
With an irritated growl Van-Gareth turned his gaze back to the other end of the room. There was no need to worry over such small things, even if he wanted the few minutes of glory, as the place would crumple as soon as the shrine gave way under his might.
He moved briskly across the room and up the few steps to where the throne sat half in shadow. In a few more steps he would be descending into the most sacred shrine to the water goddess. It was a place, he knew, where peaceful ceremonies had been held in the distant past. A place where most water demons had come to pray for a hero to defeat him so that they could return to their peaceful ways without fear or worry.
Van-Gareth smirked at the memory of the cries to their goddess the water demons had given as they were slain at his hands. Soon all they had prayed for would crumbled before their ghostly feet, for he knew all to well that there were those water demons that clung to their spiritual life to see his end. But with their beloved hero gone there was little hope left for them to cling to and when the sacred shrine was demolished every ounce of hope would be gone for good.
He felt himself begin to enter the shadow behind the throne. It was an extraordinary feeling to be wrapped within his natural element; the sun might not harm him, but that did not mean he cared to be within its unrelenting rays. The moment would have been perfect, in some essence, had the next event not occurred.
A fist came out of no where and connected with the center of his face, causing him to fly back across the room. Had the doors been closed he would have crashed into them, but they had been left open from when he had entered and instead he crashed into the watery floor of the corridor. The water was sent splashing backwards for a few feet before it stopped, but did not settle down as it should.
In a quick move Van-Gareth turned into his panther like beast form and hastened back into the room as the wave launched itself back at him even more ferociously than it had been initially released. The liquid traveled for some feet into the chamber before dying down into a mere puddle.
With a loud growl Van-Gareth returned back to his natural form and glared into the shadow, "Tusena vendaren turu gi dianed" (you're supposed to be dead).
"Danal falantro tusenaldre," (don't flatter yourself) was the reply as Era stepped out of the shadow with arms crossed and a look of defiance plastered on her place. Gone was the curious and somewhat childish look she had held among friends and gone was the peaceful attitude that was a key part of her race.
Van-Gareth was about to send a great deal of energy at Era when two other figure stepped out beside her, causing him to stop in slight surprise. Standing tall on her left was Firan, wings folded upon his back peacefully. To her right was the one person Van-Gareth had never thought he'd have the displeasure of meeting.
She was a young looking woman who was just taller than Era by an inch or two and seemed to radiate a light about her that could be hidden in shadow at will. Her skin was fair and eyes a wondrous azure that not even a flawless stone of its color could match. Her hair was golden in color, waving slights from mid back her waist, lush blue bangs hung by her forehead. A perfectly white dress that fell to the floor adorned her slender frame, but was neither tight nor overly loose, with long sleeves belled out and covered her delicate hands.
"Eralasea," Van-Gareth spat out as if the name itself held a retched taste to it.
In all logic a god or goddess should cease to exist when they have been forgotten, or rather, when the ones who once worshiped them cease to do so. The water demons had left the realm of the living over two millennia's ago and it had only taken approximately three centuries for the goddess to be forgotten to the world as the ice demons let her go for means of their own culture.
It did not make sense, even if Van-Gareth did not know that exact information, that the goddess should still be alive. She should have long faded away, much like the people who had once worshiped her. The idea of Era's survival would have come to lesser minds, but she had been locked away in a deep slumber where not even thought could have broken through, much like him had. It was because of that he knew there was no possible way the thoughts of the goddess could have flowed and kept her alive for so long. Something was no quite right and he would find out the reason soon enough.
"Here are the rest of the guests," Firan said calmly in the modern tongue of the age, yet both ancient beings understood it as if they had been in their native language.
The fire demon spoke truth, for at that moment the band of friends Era had made since her awakening but a month or so ago entered the chamber. They were stopped abruptly as the sight of the four ancient beings came clear to both their eyes and mind.
"E-Era," Touya stuttered in surprise. He had hoped she would be waiting here for them, like she had said she would, but some part of his mind had warned him about getting his hopes up. Now she stood in the same room, but even from the distance he could tell that something had changed about her.
Era looked past the shadow beast before her to the ice master and gave a curt nod, but did not smile like she normally would. She did not even utter a word of greeting in her choppy English.
The group, especially Touya, was at a loss for the sudden change. Not two days ago had she been as curious as a child in a grand new place, laughing and smiling as if the cares of her duty were not to bother her beyond a few thoughts that she rarely let out of her head. Now it was as if that child had been locked away, or worse, killed.
She was completely focused on the fight that was about to break out. A fight that would determine the very fate of three worlds.
Eralasea has been reviled! Dang, to think she's been the one planning a great many things through out this edition of the series… And Era has changed drastically it would seem… How is this all going to play off?
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