((Just for a little note, I didn't edit most of this chapter. Same goes for chaapter 3. All I really did was fix the end parts of them where they went back to Alex and Danielle. Hope you still like it though.))
Chapter 4: The Binding of the Corpse God
1150 A.D. Angkor Thom Region, Cambodia"I cannot say what was the true beginning, nor am I sure of its end, so perhaps here is the best place to start. I am reminded of ideas I first encountered in Sir James George Frazer's book, 'The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion'. We are overwhelmed by our very human need to weave a web of meaning where there may be none. Since time immemorial, ancient peoples have dressed up their lack of knowledge as gods and demons. I discovered that sometimes, the fates of gods and mortals intertwine, and legends are born…"
In a City Temple, deep within the forests of Cambodia, a young dancing girl sat on the ground, reading from the ancient book, the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Ellia, a dancer in the court of Suryavarman II, loved to read the book while in the temple. "Thy time is done, Great Ancient," Ellia read aloud. "Forever in shadow will you be, Master of Chaos, and to fade to nothing in obscurity will be thy fate. My master has planned many millennia for this day. It is the true chaos of all things that you now must be entombed amongst the beings of flesh and bone…"
Pious stood before a great mass of purple flesh, a staff of bone in his right hand. "…You have a great monument here, Mantorok. It is a pity that no one will ever recognize it as yours…" Nine glowing purple symbols appeared on the ground around him in a circle. "May the darkness claim thee, crawling chaos and wretched beast! No longer will thy reign be kept over the Ancients you have kept imprisoned. Thou hast seen the last of this world…" Pious hit the bottom of his staff on the ground, and purple lightning shot into the pillars hanging high above the room. They came crashing down into Mantorok's flesh. The Great Ancient roared in pain, body shuddering as the enchanted stakes struck it. Pious had accomplished his task and bound Mantorok, the Corpse God.
Ellia stood up, finished reading the book. "Not even these mythical fables can keep me amused. There has to be something to do around here. I only wish something that fantastic, and of higher purpose, could happen to me…" Suddenly, the stone door behind Ellia slammed shut. Her eyes widened, and she took her short sword in one hand. Walking towards the statue of the fertility deity the temple was made for; she spotted an interesting pattern on the floor in the middle of the room. There were four engravings filled with colored sand. The red, green, and blue symbols were arranged in a triangle, and the purple symbol was in the middle of the three.
Wondering what the pattern meant, Ellia walked over to the four-armed statue in front of her. There was an odd necklace around its neck, and it didn't seem to belong. When the dancer took it off, a stone door behind her and to the right slammed shut. Deciding to keep the necklace, which emanated a strange power, she walked through the only open door in the room.
Ellia looked around the dimly lit room. There was a small shine of candles against a corner of the room, and a mural of the setting sun on the floor. The four bodies that littered the room covered some of it. It seemed they had been there for a long time, which made the young dancer wonder how the temple guards missed them. She walked through the room quickly, careful not to step on any of the bodies. As she walked down a hallway beyond the room, Ellia stepped on a tile that sank a bit into the floor. There was a sound, and blades came out of the walls. Looking down, the dancer saw that the tile she stepped on was colored differently than the others. Further down the hallway were more of the trap tiles. Ellia dodged through the blades, wondering why the temple had traps in it. Proceeding down the rest of the hallway carefully, she arrived at the doorway unscathed.
In the next room, the door behind the young dancer slammed shut, locking her in. On the floor was a withered corpse with loose bandages hanging off of it. Before Ellia's very eyes, the corpse pushed itself to its feet. The beast stared at her for a bit, and she felt as if she was losing it. She slashed at the creature's arms, cutting them off. But ghostly versions of its arms replaced it, and it still tried to attack the girl. When she slashed at its head, the creature fell to the ground and flailed around. Ellia brought down her short sword, cutting into its back. The monster became still, and the door the dancer came through opened.
Ellia straightened up, looking around the room. There was a small shrine of candles near her, but it didn't seem to match the picture behind it. She put out the candle on the right, and the stone door in the room with the same pattern she had seen before lowered slightly, but not enough for her to get through. On a nearby stone urn was a bronze necklace, and Ellia knew what to do with it. She picked it up and started for the room with the statue.
When the young dancer entered the room with the mural of the setting sun on the floor, three of the bodies on the ground stood up and attacked her. She quickly dispatched them and entered the room where she started out. Ellia placed the bronze necklace around the statue's neck, opening the door that had closed earlier. Hoping that she could find a way out and soon, the young girl walked through the doorway.
The next room was empty, and she was able to get through the trap-filled corridor without stepping on the trap tiles. But when Ellia entered the room with a mural of the night sky on the floor, the door slammed shut behind her. A bluish colored corpse that resembled a drowned man got to its feet and started for the girl. Striking at its arms, the girl hoped it would go down easily. The monster leaned back, its face pointing towards the ceiling, and began to make a strange noise. A light built up within it, and its body began to shake. Ellia backed away as the creature exploded, releasing a shockwave of blue energy that knocked her back. Behind her, the door she came through opened. The other door in the room had the same triangular pattern she had seen on the other door, which made her wonder if it would open when she put out the candles. The girl walked over to the shrine of candles and put all of them out, and sure enough, the door with the pattern on it opened, allowing access into the corridor beyond.
More corpses littered the hallway, but none of them moved as Ellia navigated through the traps. About halfway down the hallway, she spotted an alcove in the wall. Sitting on a pedestal was a blowgun with poisonous darts. As she picked it up, a trap door under her opened up, and she fell down a long, dark shaft. She landed in a crouch when she came out of the shaft, and her sword hit the ground next to her, shattering into many pieces. Ellia gasped and got up from her crouch, looking around.
"A secret passage in the temple?" she whispered to herself. A temple guard to her right cried out in fear as two reddish corpses that looked like skinned men started for him. Ellia brought up the blowgun and fired two darts at each of the creatures, and they turned to her instead. While the poison slowly did its work, the dancer dodged the creatures' attacks easily. When the creatures fell to the ground, she fired one more dart at each of them to make sure they were dead. The temple guard she had saved thanked her, and asked her if she wanted him to fix her sword. Ellia retrieved the pieces of her sword and brought them to the guard. He said some words she didn't understand, and three purple symbols appeared on the ground. A purplish lighting arced from the symbols into her sword, repairing it. When asked if he knew a way out, the temple guard shook his head.
"No, I don't. But perhaps the others know a way out." Ellia thanked him and walked through the trapped filled hallway. In the next room, more walking corpses attacked her. She easily dispatched them with her sword and looked around. One wall was dominated by a large mural, which depicted a skeletal man befriending the ancient Khmer people. Ellia continued on, noticing that there was a slot in the statue in the middle of the room, as if a lever belonged there. Wondering if she could find the lever for it, she continued on.
After another trapped-filled hallway, the dancer entered a room with a large flaming pit in the middle, a large mural on the wall, and two green and one red creature. The red one was fighting the green ones, and the red one was winning. When it had defeated the others, Ellia took it out. She then looked at the large mural on the wall, and was surprised that it looked exactly like the last scene in her book. The skeletal man, holding a staff, was standing before a great monster. Pillars were dropping down into its flesh, and the beast's many mouths were open in roars of pain. Ellia turned away and walked towards the other doorway in the room, hoping against hope that she could find a way out, and soon.
Chaos Entombed
Ellia walked down the short corridor and came upon a great beast. It looked like the one from the mural and book, and when she saw the pillars in its flesh, she discovered that this was the very same creature. "Stop! Don't go near it!" warned a voice. She turned and spotted two temple guards to her left. Suddenly, two tentacles shot out of the darkness and dragged the guards to their deaths. Ellia gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.
"So, you are reduced to feeding on flesh and bone, Mantorok," a voice behind her said. She turned to face the skeletal man from the murals. "How the mighty have fallen. You will surely fester for millennia to come. A slow, and torturous fate, for thee…" The man turned to face Ellia, his skeletal face scaring her. "You had best leave, young fool, or you will find yourself as food for the Dead God!" He turned around and left the room. Ellia watched him go, unaware of the glowing eyes of the statue behind her. Purple light leapt from the statue and knocked her out. She came to after a while, and was vaguely aware of a man standing over her.
"You are one of the chosen many, flesh and blood." Ellia's vision faded, and when she woke up again, she found herself reclining on some steps. "It is now your destiny to fight the Eternal Darkness." The man held a glowing object in his hands as he spoke. "I give you a gift in return for an obligation. The gift is your life, sweet dancer. The obligation is this." He put the object in Ellia's hands. "You hold one of Mantorok's hearts. The Essence of the Corpse God. To some it is a source of great power. From those people you must defend it, lest they use it to destroy what little brightness your world has left in it. Guard it well…" The man walked off as the Heart of Mantorok was sucked into Ellia's body. She screamed in pain, eyes glowing with a purplish light. After awhile, the pain subsided, and she stood up again. The dancer looked at the statue behind her, and she spotted a metal rod in its hands. She took it and started back for the first room she found a mural in.
The resistance on her way back to where the lever belonged was very light; only about three walking corpses attacked. Ellia arrived at the room where the lever belonged, and she put it into its slot, pulling it down. She heard a door open in the direction of Mantorok's tomb. The young dancer backtracked to the large room and walked around the stone path built around Mantorok. The Ancient gasped for breath, slowly dying, but still clinging to this world nevertheless. There was a large doorway in front of the girl, and as she approached it, she felt as if her adventure had come to an end.
Death of a Dancing Girl
Ellia found herself at a dead end. There was a four-armed statue in front of her, but nothing else. She walked forward, wondering if there was a secret passage. There were the sounds of footsteps behind her. Turning to face them, Ellia gasped, eyes widening. The skeletal man from before walked towards her, being followed by two temple guards.
"Fool! You should have run! Instead you will die! Where is the Essence of Mantorok?" he shouted. The two temple guards hissed inhumanly as they flanked Ellia and grabbed her arms. But she remained silent. "Where is it? I will not ask again, child!" The dancer was still silent. "Very well, then. You will succumb to the horrors of oblivion." The guards released the girl, stepping back from her. Red light built up in the man's left hand, and red lightning shot into Ellia from the floor. She screamed in pain and fell to the floor in front of Pious. Dead.
The Absent Horror
Danielle blinked a few times, looking around. Along with being relieved that the vision was gone, she felt a sorrow deep within for the girl, Ellia. She had no idea how she knew Ellia's name, but right now she didn't care. She had to find Alex.
Danielle walked out into the library and into the back section where Alex had headed to earlier. She wasn't there, but there was some sort of passage near one of the bookcases. "Okay, so she somehow found this and didn't tell me about it. Guess we're even on secrets."
She walked through the passage, entering a small, cluttered study. Alex jumped up from examining a cabinet and spun around, holding a small leather tube in her hand. "Danielle! What're you doing in here?"
"I came looking for you, that's all. Find anything?"
Alex pointed to a large book on a dusty desk. "I think we may be able to learn something if we can get all of the pages of that book together. Other than finding that, nothing. And you?"
"Just a big telescope and notes on tonight's planetary alignment. What's in that tube?"
Alex opened the leather tube, pulling out an old paper. "Another page, it seems. I found it when I messed with these cand—Danielle, what's wrong?"
Danielle grabbed her head as a vision suddenly played itself out in her mind.
Standing before a strange stone structure was Pious Augustus. He motioned with his hand, and five red symbols appeared on the ground. A large image appeared in the structure; it was a combination of a mouth and several yellow eyes on a black background. "Your presence is long missed, my liege. I feel that my power is weakening from your absence."
"Yes…" Chattur'gha said in a deep, roaring, and guttural voice. "Your power flows from me. Without me, you are nothing…"
"My meditations reveal a flaw in our plan…" Pious reported to his Ancient.
"There is no flaw. Mantorok and the others move too slowly to counter our preparations. Once Mantorok is bound, its death will be prolonged for a thousand years. Its fate will assure that the balance of power over the opposing Ancients will remain in our favor. And with the Keeper nullified, my power grows stronger still!"
"And what of its Essence?" asked Pious.
"Mantorok has employed others to defend it. It is no matter, for the power I will wield upon my return will crush all that oppose me," Chattur'gha replied. "Enough of this. What of this Charlemagne the Frank? Is he still a concern?"
Pious grinned evilly. "His undoing has been planned in intricate detail. Those most loyal to him will be instrumental in his death. Nothing short of a miracle will keep him alive, and there hasn't been one of those in a long time."
Alex gently shook Danielle's shoulder until her eyes snapped back into focus. "What happened? You just blanked out for a moment."
"It's nothing," she replied quickly. "I just need to rest a bit. I'm going sit down in the library." Without another word, she walked out of the study. Alex looked down at the page in her hand, then up at the door. What was Danielle not telling her? With a small sigh, she sat back down and read the new page.