Hi everyone,
Before you start reading this chapter, I really wanted to apologize for this long break and for not posting sooner.
Actually, I decided to take the time to write the story until its very end before posting anything again.
I really needed this time to take the time to write, and to write correctly and logically, so that I would precisely get to what I had in mind. It made more sense to me to write everything so that after I could upload one chapter per week rather than uploading a chapter every now and then, on an irregular basis. I imagined it was easier for everyone to keep up with the story this way, especially as we are reaching the end of this fanfic ( :( )
And so I guess that's it :) I just wanted to thank all the people who have followed me until now, who have taken the time to read this fanfic, for all the very positive comments I received, with a special thought for my friend Elis Zelis: I just can't thank you enough for helping me, inspiring me and giving me lots of ideas :)
37 - When The Elements Unleash
The two adventurers remained still, staring at the two huge pillars that stood in the shadows of this monumental room. Behind them, Mark stayed silent, and Jean Yves was completely dazed in front of these two enormous columns, unable to accept they could have been right there, in the pyramid, without anyone having noticed until now. He was also fascinated by their strange shape, definitely foreign to those the Egyptians usually erected. Their dark colour and their patterns gave them a threatening, unreassuring look. He gave his English colleague a look, mute with admiration and excitement at what lay ahead though.
Lara walked slowly forward, one foot after the other, her back slightly bent. She tried to analyse every detail, more concentrated than ever. At first sight, there were no hidden traps, no ferocious animals waiting in ambush. There were just these two huge pillars. She noted for herself they had not arrived at the Temple of Horus yet, and there was no sign of Set either. For the moment, at least.
"Do you think this is the source?", Roman asked, a little bewildered.
"Looks like it," Kurtis replied, his eyes darting in all directions.
He carefully observed the nearest pillar. At first glance, it didn't look like what he had imagined either. He and Lara naturally focused on the shapes that were engraved in the upper part of each column : two triangles. One was in the normal direction so to speak, pointing upwards, while the other, on the second pillar, was inverted with its point downwards.
"It looks like it needs to be activated somehow," said Jean Yves.
Lara finally got out a torch to see a little more clearly. The room looked completely abandoned, as if left to the passage of time. A lot of sand had accumulated in places, covering part of the floor and piling up in several corners of the room. A few blocks of stone lay in places also. But the columns were almost perfectly clear and intact.
One hand on her 9mm, she walked slowly around the large room, followed closely by Kurtis' chirugai. She stepped without hesitation in the piles of sand, examining the stone from every angle. There wasn't much, if anything, on the walls. Apart from the triangles on the pillars themselves, there were no inscriptions to give them any clue as to where they were now.
When she finally stopped and turned around, Kurtis had walked towards the centre of the monumental room, obviously concentrating on something.
At his feet, right in the centre, there was a half-faded pattern. Or rather, something was hidden under the sand. He crouched down and swept the ground with his hand. His fingers followed several lines that appear from under the dust, and soon two more triangles similar to those on the pillars were revealed. They were exactly in the centre of the room, engraved on a kind of thick, raised medal.
"Doesn't that remind you of anything?"
Lara's brown eyes met the young man's azure gaze. Her serious expression betrayed her concentration.
"It looks vaguely like the pentacle that sealed the entrance to the Lost Dominion," she replied.
Kurtis straightened up, and nodded to show that he had been thinking the same thing. Hands on his hips, he spun around, looking for more clues. He noted that Jean Yves and Mark - to his great relief - had stayed behind, waiting for the adventurers' instructions. At the very same moment, he saw Roman's foot stumble on something as he stepped forward to join him. The Russian took a step backwards, surprised, and took a look at the ground.
There was some kind of track in the sand, like a small dark stain. At first glance, he thought it was a simple small rock. But on closer inspection, the rock in question was quite large, and had a strange iridescent colour. He crouched down. With his fingertips he stroked the irregular and rough shape he could make out under the grains of sand, and then, when he realised there was indeed something underneath, he began to scrape it out. To the young man's surprise, a round and quite big object was revealed. He looked up with even more surprised eyes at his mercenary friend who was striding towards him.
"Do you know what it is?", Roman asked.
Kurtis pouted. He bent down, and touched carefully the stone Roman had just discovered. It had a slightly irregular appearance and a particularly dark colour. The torch light gave it a purple sheen, but it was so dark it looked like black. He pursed his lips more tightly and shook his head gently. Lara, Jean Yves and Mark joined the two men.
"It looks like some kind of amethyst," the Frenchman suddenly said, frowning exaggeratedly. "But it's strange, it's a very rare stone in Egypt, extremely difficult to find..."
"Where could it have come from?", Lara asked him.
"I have no idea, but certainly not from the African continent. This is not usual for an Egyptian shrine..."
"Except that we're not quite at an Egyptian shrine," Kurtis corrected him gently as he straightened up.
A bright gleam lit up in his eyes, as if he had suddenly understood something. Without explanation, the demon-hunter took several steps back and looked at the ground as a whole. Despite the thick layer of sand and dust, it was easy to see that the floor had been carved into a circular shape, like some kind of altar that sat in the middle of the room. On closer inspection, a whole system seemed to be organised around the central point formed by the two triangles. Following his instincts, and a certain logic in what he seemed to guess about the overall structure, Kurtis began to move away the dust and sand around him with his foot. After only some seconds, his foot stumbled on something again. The American hurriedly bent down and finished clearing away with his bare hands. Another but pale and almost translucent stone finally appeared.
He looked up at Lara.
"There must be several of these," she said in a breath.
The five companions thus all spread around the room, and set about removing the sand using both hands and feet. Little by little, a whole set of stones, but also symbols engraved in the ground appeared all around them. The stones themselves were all cut in the same format, solidly anchored in the rock and the ground, but there were all sorts of colours, from the darkest to the clearest. They were interwoven with an impressive number of symbols. Everything seemed to be mixed together, without any logic, in several lines and rows. The whole thing formed a sort of giant dial, organised around the two central triangles.
They were sweaty, and their clothes and faces were covered with dust when they all finally stood up.
"It looks like some kind of giant jigsaw puzzle," Mark muttered, somewhat impressed.
"Yes, a puzzle that you have to figure out the combination of," echoed Jean Yves, who wiped the sweat from his face with an equally dirty cloth handkerchief.
The two adventurers glanced at the lines made of stones, then at the one made of stones, then looked at each other.
"It's exactly like the ones we found in Cappadocia," Lara observed.
She saw Kurtis' eyebrows furrow slightly.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't believe it's that simple," he replied, shaking his head.
He walked towards the centre of the circle, taking care not to step on the gems. There were indeed exactly the same symbols, perhaps in a slightly simplified style - he imagined that this shrine undoubtedly predated the Lost Dominion. But they were there, and recognisable. He pointed to several pictograms in different places.
"Sun, Fire, Moon...", he said, pointing to the words one by one.
Lara took a step forward, her arms crossed against her chest. She recognised the symbol for Earth a little further behind the mercenary and pointed to it.
"... Water and Air," the young man replied, literally stepping on the last two symbols in question.
"Well, that's it, isn't it? These are the elements that form the pentacle of alchemy? That proves we're on the right track, right?", Roman told him.
"If it's the same code, I don't suppose you'll have any trouble reconstructing it?", Mark asked, full of hope.
Lara shook her head.
"It's not a foregone conclusion, it could be a completely different protection system than the one we saw in Turkey," she interrupted him.
"In any case, we'll probably have to put the symbols back in order, or at least in their right place, right?", Mark retorted.
Lara and Kurtis exchanged another look, then the American observed the location of each symbol in this puzzle. The pictograms, the stones, everything was obviously mixed up.
"Chances are, yes," he replied in a whisper.
Roman pointed to the ground full of symbols.
"Stop me if I'm wrong, but we're back to the basic principle of alchemy: two stars, the Sun and the Moon. And four elements: Air, Fire, Water and Earth."
With a look, the Russian sought confirmation from his friend. Understanding that they were both following the same logic, the two men nodded in unison.
"They form sets. Air and Fire are connected to the Sun. Earth, Water, are connected to the Moon...", Kurtis confirmed.
The two men moved at the same time, not taking their eyes off the inscriptions under their feet for a second. Kurtis realised they did indeed have the opportunity to reconstruct the pentacle of alchemy - if that was what it was, but again, he found it far too simplistic.
"Maybe we can try to start by grouping the symbols that go together, and reforming the groups of elements that go together, like at the Lost Dominion," the mercenary stated.
"Yes, but how do we know where and how to position them exactly? What is our starting point?", Roman exclaimed.
Lara took a step forward and stepped between the two men, one hand raised in reflection. There were three lines of symbols, and two of stones. And some of the symbols they needed were on the same line. If they had to be moved -if they had to be moved at all- it could only be done line by line. She frowned, then looked up at the two pillars opposite them. As she watched them carefully, she realised they were perfectly aligned with the central triangles carved into the floor if she considered them as a starting point.
She turned to Kurtis. The two adventurers looked at each other with a certain insistence.
Are you thinking the same I am?
"Solomon's Pillars. The ones that hold up the World and the vault of Heaven," the American replied aloud, in a voice tinged with irony and not without suppressing a grimace at this umpteenth coincidence. "The bridge between the Nephili's world..."
The adventuress pointed to the first pillar, the one with the triangle with the point down.
The Sky
"... and the humans' world..."
Then she pointed to the second one, the one where the triangle was in the normal direction.
And the Earth
"... the passage where the elements attract and oppose each other to form the balance of our universe, in all its forms," the demon hunter finished explaining.
He fell silent. The adrenaline suddenly surge through his veins and his heart beat faster. The puzzle was finally beginning to unravel.
"It all comes back to the balance of power. The Good and the Evil, the Dark and the Light..."
"... the Angel and the Demon," Lara murmured as she finished his sentence.
They turned to each other again and held each other's gaze for a moment.
"This is our starting point," Lara finally said.
"And so, if I understand correctly, we just have to replace the symbols... on the side of the pillar that corresponds to them, then?", asked Jean Yves, who felt a flush of excitement run through him from head to toe.
Kurtis took a few more seconds to think. But he was coming to the same conclusion.
"And I'd bet my life that everything has to line up perfectly with the triangles here, in the structure's centre," Lara said as she traced with her hands the currently imaginary lines of possible alignments between the symbols and the pillars.
The pattern was now taking shape in her head: she could clearly see the lines she imagined converging from the two pillars towards the centre of the dial. Just like a map.
"The Sun, Air, and Fire symbols should logically be associated with the Heaven pillar, with the triangle pointing down," said Kurtis, who now seemed convinced as well. "And by the same logic, the Moon, Water, and Earth align with the upward-pointing triangle."
The five of them turned to the ground full of symbols and stones.
"Even if I did not understand everything, it seems quite logical to me too," Mark said softly, shrugging a shoulder.
But the general enthusiasm died down quickly, when they saw that Lara got suddenly worried. Her eyes scanned the room from every angle once again, right up to the ceiling.
"There must be a hidden mechanism somewhere to rotate the lines and replace the symbols and stones," she muttered, more to herself.
Jean Yves and Mark both looked up, sincerely hoping to find a lever or a simple mechanism that the young woman would not have seen - which in itself was almost impossible.
Feeling the annoyance of such a futile impasse, Lara abruptly turned away from her companions, and then began to walk nervously in circles in the room. She spent several minutes thinking, searching in every nook and cranny, looking up at the ceiling and the walls, turning in every direction. She was so focused that she didn't even notice that Kurtis, Roman and the other two archaeologists were doing the same on their side, looking closely at the dial and its lines or pacing the room as well.
The young woman stopped for a moment behind one of the pillars. She thought she could make out something the dark stone's shadows, maybe some kind of relief, but her hopes fell just as quickly when she realised it was only the chirugai's reflection. She sighed loudly as she seriously began to lose her patience.
"There's got to be something...", she grumbled in annoyance.
"Maybe we just need to move them manually," Jean Yves suggested, moving his hand in a vague gesture.
"Given the state of the stone, and taking into account the wear and tear of time, it would be surprising if they could be moved just like that," Mark cut him off, his eyebrows furrowed skeptically.
Preferring to ignore this umpteenth reflection, Roman bent down and placed his hands randomly on one of the symbols' lines, under the dismayed gazes of the two archaeologists, who, even without admitting it aloud, were somewhat dubious as to how such an old and rudimentary mechanism could move without any more effort. Then, leaning on his feet, his back bent, he began to push. But after a few moments of effort, he realised that it was useless. The stone had not moved a millimetre.
The Russian stood up, almost vexed by this failure. His disillusioned gaze met that of his American friend, then the adventuress'. Kurtis thus came to give him a hand. And as they started to push together, the stone finally began to move, this time almost without any difficulty, despite some loud creaking noises.
They stopped abruptly in their tracks, and straightened up to look at each other in amazement. Comforted in his idea, the Russian bent down again. But to his surprise, the stone did not move when he pushed.
"What the...?!"
He got to his feet, cursing the damn stone with a few Russian words his other companions did not understand, but whose meaning they could easily guess. Kurtis then moved him back a step, and bent down to get into position in turn. But as he pushed, the line of pictograms moved again quite easily. Surprised, the mercenary stopped his movement, and straightened up.
"How is this possible?", murmured Jean.
Kurtis turned to Lara. The young woman stepped forward onto the dial, and went to take her place at random on one of the lines. She put her hands flat on the stone ground and pushed. Again, the line moved.
"It's always up to us to do the dirty work anyway," she told her companions with quite some irony.
Kurtis went to position himself next to her, and at the young man's indication, they began to push again.
And it's probably not by chance we're the only ones who can move the pieces of this puzzle, she heard him think.
The two adventurers made the first line slide and turn until the first symbol, Sun, lined up with the first pillar. There was a resounding click, like a cog fitting into another. They all stopped moving. For a few seconds, only silence could be heard in the room. None of them moved. They all listened, but only heard the steady hiss of each other's breaths. Then, seeing that nothing was happening - no rock falling from the ceiling to crush them, no poison darts or spear to impale them - the American and the Englishwoman straightened up and caught their breath.
"Okay," Kurtis simply said, putting his hands on his hips.
Behind them, Jean Yves pointed at something.
"Look, the Moon symbol has fallen into place too..."
As Lara and Kurtis turned to the direction the archaeologist was pointing, they noticed that the Moon, which was positioned on the same line as the Sun, had aligned with the other pillar. If they moved one symbol, then the other one would automatically get into its own place as well. Thus, if they got the symbols right with the first pilar, then they would get the others right for the second one. The young woman and the young man exchanged a satisfied look.
Okay, let's try it this way
We'll see how it goes
They both nodded their heads in a single movement to encourage each other, and resumed their manoeuvre, to Roman's sulky pout, frustrated at not being able to help.
"Okay, I get the idea for the symbols, but what about the stones? What do they have to do with it?", Mark rightly pointed out, while Lara and Kurtis positioned the Air and Earth symbols in line with their pillar and the previous symbols.
At first, all he got in reply was the grunts of the two adventurers who were too busy positioning the symbols. There were more clacking sounds as the remaining symbols, Water and Fire, then got into their places. When Lara and Kurtis finally stood up to take a look at the result, the pictograms were perfectly aligned with the pillars, but with the stones still scattered all over the place in no particular order, the whole thing still looked like a gigantic text with blank spaces.
Kurtis was about to answer Mark in the best way he knew about when Lara spoke up.
"I guess some of the stones will logically come in between the symbols."
"Two on each side," Roman stated.
"So four stones," added Jean Yves. "Four elements, four stones. Makes sense, doesn't it?"
"That makes sense, yes," the Russian answered.
Mark took a step ahead. With one finger, he pushed the glasses back on his nose, wincing at the pain in his ankle.
"Maybe it's a colour code or something, like in the Mastermind game, you know?"
Jean Yves shrugged a shoulder.
"But how do we know which ones to choose? Blue for water, green for earth, red for fire...?"
Lara considered Jean's idea and silence fell again in the huge room. She took a look at Kurtis beside her, who didn't look really convinced either. There was a whole range of gems, more or less the same size, but all different colours. Not one was the same.
"But it won't work anyway," Kurtis suddenly said.
Lara frowned, not understanding his point here. But as she took the time to observe what the demon hunter was trying to show her, she realised he was referring to the stones' position in the puzzle. She understood that if they managed to place one stone correctly, the others would not be. So if they got the water stone right, then the earth stone on the same line would end at the other side of the dial. And this would be true for every stone, it was technically impossible to place them all correctly whatever they did.
Lara sighed in despair, her thoughts were racing at high speed in her head again. She started to walk around the room, tracing the locations of each stone one by one, which were literally scattered all over the dial.
"And what if we just move the stones, not the whole lines?", Jean Yves asked.
Lara turned to him. Until now they had thought in lines, which were organized around a central point. But simply moving the stones from one place to another had not even occurred to her. Before they could even discuss it, Kurtis had already grabbed his pocket knife and moved around the puzzle again. There was a turquoise stone, a kind of blue and grey colored one, and a Lapis-lazuli one. He crouched down near this one, as it seemed like the closest one to the colour of water. With a precise movement, he inserted the tip of the blade between the rock and the stone, and slid it sideways, looking for a grip. It took him several long minutes before he managed to push the knife completely under the stone, which suddenly dislodged from its place. All the others watched him grabbed the imposing precious object carefully.
He straightened up, and headed for the Earth symbol. In the same way, he used his knife to remove the transparent stone that was already there and place the blue one he was holding instead. After a short discussion, his four companions and himself agreed on the other stones to be used, namely, a red-orange one, a Jade one, and the transparent one he had just removed.
After a few minutes of effort, the four stones were logically placed in the puzzle, each associated with an element. They formed lines with the symbols. The five companions admired the result, but very soon doubt returned, because nothing happened. Nothing had moved on the puzzle or in the room.
"And, what now?", Roman asked.
"It doesn't look like it...", Kurtis grumbled.
"There must be something missing," said Lara. "We must have missed something..."
"Or maybe we need to activate the stones?", Mark said. "Like for example, create a physical reaction by associating each stone with its element? Maybe the earth stone is activated with earth, water with water..."
Kurtis looked at him quizzically, spreading his arms helplessly, as if he would rather give in to such outlandish ideas.
"C'me on, d'you seriously think we're in the Fifth Element movie?"
"Um, actually, it's something we could try," Roman then said. "From a logical point of view, it's not impossible that the early nephilim sealed the passage/source with the means available to them at the time, and what's more, by mixing their powers with the basic elements they used."
"I quite agree with that fact. They probably weren't very advanced in terms of technology, although they were extremely intelligent," added Jean, who, surprisingly enough, didn't find the idea all that ridiculous.
Kurtis paused for a moment, and watched the three men one after the other. Then, seeing that Lara remained unmoved - no doubt she was also rather sceptical about the idea - he bent down to pick up a handful of sand and walked towards the earth symbol. He stood above it, and dropped what he had in his hand on it. The pictogram was buried in the sand, but nothing seemed to move.
The mercenary stood up and moved this time to the water symbol. He grabbed the canteen Lara had just taken out of her bag and thrown to him. He unscrewed it, and in the same way, spilled a few drops on the corresponding symbol. They all waited a few seconds, but nothing happened either.
"Great, so we didn't wake Leeloo up obviously," the young man announced sarcastically.
"At least we tried," Mark replied in a low voice.
Lara suddenly turned around and started pacing nervously again, trying to keep her cool. She scanned the huge dial from every angle, thinking fast once more. Her eye was drawn to a huge dark grey stone with a metallic sheen. But it was not so much its colour that intrigued her, but rather its position in the puzzle.
"Look, there's something on this side too," the young woman said, turning to her companions.
Kurtis walked over and took a look at what the young woman was pointing at. Like her, he noticed that this part of the puzzle had a different configuration. Two other symbols caught his attention : one on the topmost line, that of the Moon and the Sun, and one other at the very bottom, closest to the heart of the dial, on the line of Water and Fire.
"Do you know what they mean?", Lara asked, addressing Kurtis.
She saw him thinking. Then, without a word, the American walked over to the nearest pictogram, on which he placed his foot.
"Light..."
He then turned to the second one, some feet away.
"... Darkness."
He glanced at Lara, who remained silent and thoughtful. Her eyes followed the imaginary lines the two lines of symbols and stones aligned with each pillar formed, and which literally seemed to meet in the centre of the dial, to merge into one final line, the one under her feet.
"They seem to form another line...", the mercenary muttered, echoing her thoughts.
"And so, if we are right about the position of those symbols, that would mean there are five stones in total," the adventuress replied thoughtfully.
"So it's probably not about the colours," Roman stated.
Lara nodded.
"What do we know that works in fives?"
Everyone took a moment to think. Jean Yves seemed to be counting something on his fingers, before shaking his head sharply.
"Fingers?", was the first thought that came to Mark's mind.
Kurtis rolled his eyes, unable to contain himself. He bit his lip to keep from snapping at the archeologist, even though deep down he was coming to the conclusion he was clearly doing it on purpose, just to piss him off.
"I know there is a theory that works with five elements in China: Wood, Metal, Water, Fire and Earth, which form the balance of the world," Jean quickly said as if he had sensed the mercenary's irritation. "But I don't really see what that would do here, in this sanctuary?"
"And that would be a lot of elements with the ones we already have here, wouldn't it?" said Roman.
"What about the five pillars of Islam?", tried Mark, a little more seriously this time.
"I don't really see the connection with the Nephilim source either...", Kurtis retorted.
"It's only anecdotal, but according to Mayan mythology and their astronomical system, we live in what they called the fifth world," Lara told them, interrupting before Kurtis got out of his mind.
"The Mayan beliefs were widely spread around the world during a certain period. Could each stone correspond to a world then?", said Jean.
"I'm not sure either," Kurtis answered dryly once more.
"Five is also the number of oceans according to the most common classification," Mark told them.
"Or the number of senses a human being has," Roman added.
Kurtis suddenly began to shake his head sharply, and held up his hands in protest to invite everyone to calm down.
"Okay, stop."
He took a deep breath to refocus.
"We're getting off topic," he said. "We need to refocus, we're getting way too far away from the basic environment, and the very idea of this sanctuary."
"Right. I presume we have to focus on what we know about the Nephili world, based on the knowledge they had at the time when they first arrived on earth," Lara thus said.
"We have to reason especially from an alchemical and dark magic point of view, don't we?", Jean Yves stated.
Lara and Kurtis nodded in agreement.
"Something that includes the number 5, like a mathematical or chemical formula?", the Russian tried.
Kurtis ran a hand through his brown hair, his gaze now directed at the ground.
"I don't think so, not that I know of...", he replied in a whisper. "But unfortunately, I'm not an expert in this field..."
He huffed loudly, and began pacing nervously, massaging the back of his neck with one hand.
"The members of the Cabal numbered five when it was founded," Kurtis said finally. "Five of the greatest alchemists of the time, whom Eckhardt savagely murdered in order to seize their knowledge..."
He paused.
"Do you think these stones could symbolically represent the alchemists in question?", Jean Yves asked.
"Or perhaps their discipline, or if I may say so, their speciality?", Mark said.
"There were also five of them when Eckhardt reconstituted the Cabal after his escape from Kriegler Castle: he, Karel, Rouzic, Boaz, Muller... all with a speciality of their own, too," Roman added.
Kurtis' eyes fell on one of the nearest stones, the one with the darkest green colour. But out of the corner of his eye, he saw the adventuress getting agitated all of a sudden.
"Chronologically speaking, it doesn't work," Lara said, however. "The Cabal was founded long after the source, and Eckhardt may not have known about it at the time..."
"But that's consistent with everything we've discovered so far," the American defended himself.
"But that's not logical," Lara said abruptly.
"Sorry for not having the same logic as you and not seeing the obvious then," Kurtis retorted dryly.
"I'm just saying we should look for something else."
"And so tell me, where exactly should we look since you know the Nephili and Eckhardt's history so well?", the mercenary snapped.
He saw anger in the young woman's eyes as she glared at him.
"We're not looking in the right place," she answered just as curtly. "We're wasting time for something-"
"Stupid? Is that the word you're looking for?"
"Your reaction is actually stupid," Lara spat back.
"Okay you two, that's enough," said Roman who took a step forward, both hands raised in appeasement.
Unable to control their respective egos, the two adventurers just stopped speaking and glared at one another, both standing firmly on their two feet like two proud and lonesome cowboys about to duel. The young woman felt the slight pressure of her friend's hand on her arm.
"I agree with Kurtis, Lara, we need to explore all the possibilities," Jean Yves told her.
The adventuress didn't answer anything and just channeled her anger by pressing her lips together tightly.
"Okay, so the idea is to find something that works in fives, something to do with alchemy and these Nephilim, right?", said Mark, trying to change the subject.
All eyes turned to him, and calm finally returned. The demon hunter and the tomb raider exchanged a discreet but steady glance. A certain tension was still palpable.
"What about the five paintings of Obscura?", Roman then said.
Kurtis finally looked away from Lara to his friend.
"One painting, one stone," he said, shaking his head in approval. "Could make sense."
The Lux Veritatis then took out his small travel notebook from one of his back pockets, and flipped through it to find the pages where the reproductions of the Obscura engravings were. Lara approached him, and after a quick glance to silently ask for his permission, she came closer to have a look too. A corner of the young man's mind took note of this newfound closeness, which was in a way the young woman's way of apologizing for her stubbornness a few moments before. But they would postpone these moments of intimacy until later. Concentrating on the mercenary's drawings, they pointed to the same details, looking for any element that might have matched their research.
"Except for what we found in Greece, there is no reference to stones in the engravings...", Kurtis muttered.
They both went through the demon hunter's sketches, turning the pages several times, then returning to the previous ones for fear of having missed something. But they had to face the facts: it seemed unlikely that the paintings hid more than they had already revealed. And what's more, the mercenary's reproductions were all in black and white. So there was no way of knowing whether the stones could have any connection with the colours used on the original paintings.
"The paintings represented key moments of the Lost Prophecy, am I right?", Roman asked as his two friends finally got back to their senses.
Lara confirmed with a shake of the head, and looked up at the Russian.
"But as far as I can remember, there's nothing in the Prophecy that would be of any use to us..."
"Nothing that would match these five stones," Kurtis confirmed.
"As for the original paintings, Eckhardt knew nothing about the source. So he couldn't have put a clue in there. And that would have been silly of him anyway," said Lara.
"Right. Just like Brother Obscura. He didn't know anything about the Zenoath either. But he knew about the Guardians and the Lost Prophecy, hence why he chose scenes from it to hide the five parts of the Sanglyph...", Kurtis pointed out.
He suddenly fell silent, and straightened up. Lara did the same, and they looked at each other.
"Eckhardt dissolved his own weapon and scattered it around the world so that the Lux Veritatis could not find it. Each piece contained a Nephilim element, which corresponded to a chemical element with which Eckhardt created this weapon..."
The mercenary suddenly walked away and went back to the purple stone. He then turned to Jean Yves.
"You did say it was an amethyst, right?"
The archaeologist confirmed with a nod.
"I think so," the man stammered, a little surprised. "But I'm not an expert on gems, so..."
"What are you thinking?", Lara asked, feeling the ideas flying around in the demon hunter's head.
"I'm no expert either, but it's something we studied at the Lux Veritatis. It was part of our training. To get to know our enemies better, my father always told me we had to learn the basics of alchemy, but more importantly, the elements they used in terms of black magic. In other words, we were trained in chemistry, and we learnt the periodic table of elements."
He fell silent, and turned around.
"And it turns out that phosphorus is purple in its solid form."
His four companions looked at him with amazement. He paid no attention, however, to Mark's slightly bewildered expression, who was obviously having trouble following the reasoning.
And phosphorus is one of the chemical elements that make up the Sanglyph, Lara suddenly thought.
Her large brown eyes widened slightly in excitement. The demon hunter looked up, their eyes met.
"Again, everything is a balance," the young man explained. "A balance between the world's natural elements, and the chemical and occult ones. And despite appearances, this dial is a rather archaic, even basic, protection system."
"If we think of it as the original Nephili used to," Roman said, "I imagine they didn't know chemical elements in the way we know them. Alchemy and its elements was all, so to speak, unknown to them. They must have used the stones' powers without knowing what they were exactly..."
"... by referring to their colours," Kurtis concluded.
Five paintings, five hidden elements…, Lara thought inwardly.
... five stones, five colours, the young man beside her finished.
The two adventurers exchanged a triumphant, hopeful smile. They both held their breath. Not far away, Mark mutter something under his breath, and although Kurtis couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, he could clearly make out something like "I was almost right in the end".
Roman could hardly contain his excitement either.
"The Sanglyph was forged from phosphorus, potassium, iron, copper...", he said, but suddenly doubted.
"... and sulphur," Kurtis finished for him.
"Do you remember the colours of each element?", asked Lara, who was already walking up to the dial, her gaze down at the stones.
Kurtis pointed to the one at her feet.
"Purple is for phosphorus. Potassium is more bluish."
Jean Yves stepped forward, and naturally pointed to the blue stone situated on the other side of the dial to mark its location.
"The iron must be metallic grey, no doubt?", asked Roman.
Kurtis barely had time to confirm this when Mark was already walking towards a third stone, one with a pale yellow colour.
"This one is for the sulphur, isn't it?"
"And copper is supposed to be dark red," the mercenary said in a low voice.
He turned to one side, then the other, searching for the corresponding stone. But Lara had already rushed to find the stone in question among the others. Jean Yves signalled her, and she went to position herself not far from him, in the same line.
"And now we have to figure out where to put them," she announced. "We have to put them back with the corresponding symbols, with the right pillar."
"Again, it's all related to the basic elements," Kurtis replied. "Each chemical element is normally linked to a basic element."
He went back to find the brightly glowing purple stone and bent down to take it.
"Phosphorus, for example, is an air stone." he said as he straightened up and walked over to the earth symbol. "So logically enough, it would fit here."
He thus put the rock he was holding into the empty space left by the previous stone. It went into the ground with a loud scraping sound, but it fitted perfectly between the Sun and Air symbols.
"Potassium, on the other hand, is a fire stone, if I remember well," Roman then said, taking hold of the iridescent blue stone.
"Actually I think it's a water stone. Sulphur would be for fire," Kurtis corrected him.
"You've always paid more attention than me in alchemy class anyway," the Russian retorted with amusement.
Kurtis smiled sacarstically at his Russian friend. The two men then placed the other two stones in their respective places, but soon the demon hunter's eyebrows furrowed again. He hesitated for a moment.
"Is something wrong?", asked Lara, who did not fail to notice his worried look.
"We still have to place the two metals, iron and copper. But I must confess that I'm not sure of their correspondence anymore..."
Lara looked down at the metallic grey stone.
"My knowledge is rather limited on the subject, but they are both transition metals, aren't they?", said Mark, suddenly breaking his silence.
"Iron is the metal that serves as the base for a whole bunch of alloys and formulas, even in alchemy," said Roman.
"It's also the most abundant metal in meteorites. It can be found as well in the cores of planets, including the Earth," Mark explained.
"Copper was one of the first metals used by man," Jean Yves then told them, thinking fast too.
"But it was also highly prized by the alchemists of the Middle Ages for its conductivity and all the combinations and derivatives it offered," interrupted Kurtis.
"But it doesn't really tell us which one is supposed to be connected to Earth," Lara observed.
The four men shook their heads slowly. Kurtis crouched down again to observe the last two stones closely, a finger to his temple.
"Both are more or less equivalent, yes," they heard him murmur.
"But copper is much rarer, and much more precious, isn't it?", Jean Yves questioned.
"It can be found in the earth's crust also. And from what I understand, without it, life on earth would not be possible," Mark said softly, thinking aloud.
"How do you know that?", Lara then asked out of curiosity.
"From Joanne."
A strange expression crossed the archaeologist's face. But it was clearly not fatigue, nor pain the adventuress saw on it. There was clearly a sense of concern in his friend's eyes at the mention of his former girlfriend.
"It is essential to the development of all life forms," he hurriedly added before the Englishwoman asked him questions. "More than iron, technically speaking."
The five companions fell silent, and pondered these words. Lara pointed to the empty space between the Light and Darkness symbols behind them.
"A transition metal essential to all life?"
As if to confirm what she had just said, Kurtis took the dark red stone, and went to place it between the two symbols.
"At worst, we'll see how it looks," he said, not wanting to get carried away with his enthusiasm.
The red stone scraped against the rock and stopped moving as Kurtis placed it. The puzzle was now complete. The five companions held their breath, almost excited to see what would happen. But after a minute or so, during which none of them dared to move, they realised that nothing had happened. Lara and Kurtis looked at each other briefly.
"Is it-", asked Jean Yves in a weak voice.
But he was immediately interrupted by the sound of two stones scraping against each other. Everyone was startled, alert, and suddenly looked in all directions. The chirugai whistled above them, and circled the room. Lara and Kurtis grabbed their weapons reflexively, preparing for the worst. But soon they understood the noise was actually coming from the centre of the dial, where the two triangles were on the floor.
They then saw the two geometric shapes rotate on themselves, before slowly sliding into each other. There was another loud "crack" sound as the two symbols came together. They now formed the pentacle of alchemy. The five of them felt a small vibration under their feet, and one by one, the symbols lit up on the floor, thus forming three distinct lines on the puzzle, as if two of them were coming down from the two pillars to merge into one, the one Lara and Kurtis were standing on.
Roman had grabbed his weapon too, looking nervously around the room. Mark and Jean Yves remained away, their mouth slightly ajar and their eyes rounded with surprise. All stood in suspense, waiting for something to happen, for the other lines around to move, for the two pillars to come to life, for the walls to move or for a portal to suddenly open in front of them. But silence fell again in the monumental room.
"And so, that's it?", Roman said after a moment.
Lara moved cautiously between the lines of symbols and stones. They were shining in the same glow as the one in the Labyrinth.
"The combination is obviously good, but something is missing again..."
"Do you think there might be another mechanism somewhere? Another missing element?", Jean Yves asked as he scanned the dial from every angle once more.
"I don't know," the adventuress replied softly.
"Azarias' medallion?", Kurtis tried.
The Englishwoman looked around for a place where they could put the medallion in question, which might have activated something. But there was nothing. And come to think of it, the red medallion of the Agio Oros' patriarch had probably been forged after the death of the first guardians, and thus after the erection of this place anyway.
"I guess the periapt shards won't be of any use here either," Kurtis said as the aventuress shook her head gently.
"Wait, we're in a nephilim sanctuary, right?", Roman suddenly said.
Lara, Kurtis, Jean Yves and Mark all turned to him in unison.
"Maybe the missing element in the equation is simply a nephilim element?", the Russian kept explaining. "Since it's all related to that."
"The Prima Materia," Lara said in a breath.
She crouched down. With her hand she stroked the warm, rough stone of the floor, the stone of those millennia-old symbols. Although she saw no physical reaction, she could clearly feel a kind of vibration resonating in her palm and spreading throughout her body as she placed her palm against one of the glowing symbol. A strange sensation came over her.
Of course. This sanctuary and this dial were reacting to their presence and touch. Just like the ones in Greece.
She turned her hand over and glanced at her palm. The memories of Mount Athos suddenly surfaced. She saw again the symbols that lit up the floor and walls all around them, activated by her and Kurtis' blood.
She stood up slowly. The mercenary came to stand beside her, his hand open and outstretched towards her, as if he too had understood. In his other hand, he was already holding his knife.
"The last element," the young woman murmured as her gaze met that of the American.
She felt a strong wave of electricity run through her from head to toe as he gently grasped her hand. She did not let go of his piercing gaze as he slid the blade across her skin and cut her. She felt a slight burn, then the sensation of warm liquid sliding through her fingers. She took the small knife in turn, and caught Kurtis's hand between her blood-dripping fingers. He didn't take his eyes off her either as she gripped the weapon's handle tightly and slashed the palm of his hand. When she had finished, he tightened his hand around hers. Despite this strange situation, despite the uncertainty, even if they didn't know what was ahead of them, they knew in that very moment they would face together whatever would come in their way.
"What now?", Roman asked in a shy voice.
With one movement, Lara and Kurtis turned their heads and gazed at the two huge pillars at the other end of the room. Outside, they heard another thunderclap, much closer this time. Then they looked down at the two triangles in the centre of the structure, and then at the symbols under their feet. Following their position and alignment, they seemed to point to the opposite wall, as if the line of light they formed indicated a place where something should have been.
We just have to follow the path
The two adventurers turned around and headed for the direction the symbols were indicating. At first sight, there was absolutely nothing on this side of the room. And yet, they both moved forward without hesitation, stepped out of the dial and stopped in front of the smooth stone that stood before them. For a moment, there was only the slight whistling of the wind through the few openings that gave onto the outside; they could make out a thick sky, filled with heavy and threatening clouds. The ground vibrated slightly under their feet as the familiar rumble of thunder sounded in the distance.
They both took a moment to concentrate. Then they turned their heads towards each other.
"Ready?"
Lara nodded firmly. In one motion they both raised their wounded and bloody hands. They hung a few millimetres from the stone, before finally landing on it. For a very brief second nothing happened, and their other companions behind them held their breath. Then suddenly the stone began to vibrate dangerously under their hands. Something rumbled behind them. A bright, blinding light flashed across the room, and before they could react, everything went white.
—
He felt the cold stone and sand scratch his back. It took him several seconds to realise that he was actually lying on the floor. His head was buzzing strangely, as if he had been hit. The back of his head hurt like hell, and he had a metallic taste in his mouth. He winced, then finally lowered the hand he had placed in front of his eyes to protect himself. He blinked a few times, shaking off the cloud of dust that hung in the air with a wave of his hand. When he saw one of the pillars above him, he gradually came back to his senses.
He swung round and leaned on his hands to sit up, he felt his muscles protest. The light had disappeared, but now the room seemed to have been blown away by a gigantic tornado. A few feet away, Jean Yves let out a cry of pain, before sitting up again. He turned his head to one side, then the other, visibly disorientated. His gaze then turned to Roman. He tried to say something to him but the words didn't get out.
The Russian turned his head in all directions, suddenly overwhelmed by stress.
"They've gone to the other side," he muttered.