Persona: Militant's Valor

by faver1987

Seth White and Sam Reed are two veterans finally returning home after years in the field. Yet, even after they return home, they are greeted with even more fighting, this time against the evil known only as the Shadows. Together, they shall try to overcome a force that threatens to overwhelm their city, and the people they care for within it. (Co-written and edited by Sethfavor.)

5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Why hello there, guys (and maybe females)! It's been a while, hasn't it. So this is how my life pretty much went up until this point.

*Uploads chapter

*Sees Sraosha reviewed

"OMGEEEEEEEE Sempai noticed me!"

*Coma for six months

Family: "What's wrong with him, doctor?"

Doctor: "I'm sorry, but there isn't much we can do. He is in a coma from Sempai noticing him.

Family: *Shocked gasp

Yep. That's exactly how it went.

Anywho, I'm gonna take some time to respond to the two new reviews I've gotten thus far.

Sraosha: I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far. I think you'll like it when I reveal who Sam really is, and as for the error in explanation, that's been fixed. That was sort of an error in translation on my part. Sorry about that!

Atlus: Scrw u frg u cudnt rite if u tryd com ovr hur nd fite me u trogolodyte

Gotta counter grammatically illiterate with grammatically illiterate. Anywho, ON WITH THE CHAPTER!

August 2, 2013 11:22 PM

Outside the Copan Ruins

Drake's POV

The odd scratching noise sounded once again.

I shuddered a little bit at the thought of something hiding in the ruins. An unpleasant feeling shot through me for a brief period, and I thought of the stories that surrounded this place. That didn't help my nerves any.

Seth and Sam unholstered their guns.

"Come on, Drake. We need to go investigate." Seth said.

"Why?"

"Well, there's no one else to do it, now is there? And besides, we are probably the three people in town that are the most fit to be handling something like this."

"Or, to put it in a different light, if we don't go find what made that sound, I get the feeling that what made that sound will come find us." Sam added.

I sighed and grabbed a lantern. "Alright, let's go."

We slowly crept out of the tent, me in front waving the lantern around and the others behind me with their guns at the ready. I turned around and made my way towards the door embedded into the stone pillar next to us. We stared at it for a while, unsure of what we should do. The scratching sound came again, nearly making us yell in surprise.

"I don't know. How would we even get in there?" I said.

"Well, lets try the most obvious way first, shall we?" Sam said.

He stepped in front of me and slowly raised his hand and put it against the stone door. He then seemed to push it slightly, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"I-it gave!" he said.

"No way!" Seth and I said in unison.

"Those things have been sealed up so that not even the most advanced equipment could unearth them, yet they are suddenly open now? Yeah, right!" I said, with a little more confidence than I actually had.

"Alright, I'll have to show you then." Sam said. He then drew his hand away, holstered his gun, and proceeded to push hard on the door with both hands. To my surprise, the door flung open, and we were left staring at a darkened stone staircase.

"Well shit." I said. "How did you do that?"

He shrugged. "I just pushed."

Seth butted into the conversation. "Alright, well let's go and see what's down there."

"Shouldn't you guys go and get the other lanterns or something first? " I said.

"Nah, we'll have our hands full if we had to use our guns anyway. You just take the lead and we'll be fine." Seth said.

I sighed again. The headache was starting to cut away my patience with these two. It just wouldn't go away. I shook my head and began the slow trek down each stair, as carefully as possible.

We continued to climb down those stairs for what seemed like forever. I turned and looked back, only to see a tiny speck of odd coloration above us to show where we came from. And yet the stairs went on and on and on. I was so wrapped up in these thoughts that I accidentally tripped over a root of some sort that had grown along the stairway and dropped our lantern. As soon as it hit the floor, it broke with a loud crash and the room went dark.

"Good one, Drake!" Sam said sarcastically.

"Ah, go bugger yourself in the snatch," I snapped back. I grinned internally at the phrase that came out of my mouth.

"What are you, British?"

"Guys, quit that and look!"

I looked up, trying to locate what he wanted to point out to me. Eventually, my eyes fixated on some kind of odd green light spilling out from the area below us.

"There's some light up ahead. Everyone, go towards it and lets regroup once we can see each other. Sound good?"

"Yeah." was the response I got from the two of them.

I made my way slowly but surely toward that light. I was so focused on it that I didn't even bother to notice if Sam and Seth were following me or not, but I was sure they were. There was only one place to go, right?

I kept heading towards the light for what felt like hours, at a snail's pace, but I finally managed to reach it. I stepped into the odd, green light of a room and turned around.

I nearly jumped in surprise. Despite just coming from the stairs that led me down here, I couldn't find any trace of them. I was just walled in, with no trace of a door ever being present.

I mentally slapped myself as a small degree of panic started to set in. 'This won't help either of the others. I need to keep hold of the situation and find them.'

I turned to look at the room I was in. All of the walls were covered in this rubbery, grey substance that I knew wasn't rubber. There were spots all over the place where the green light seeped through. The ceiling was about 8 feet high, and the room was strangely empty. The only things in the room were three doorways, one for each wall that didn't previously contain stairs.

"Ah well. I'm not gonna find the others unless I look, now am I?" I said aloud.

I picked the left hallway, and took off. The hallway was completely dark, except for the light at the end, which I guessed marked the next room. I stepped into the next room and was greeted with an...interesting sight. There was a metal lance sitting with the tip stuck straight into the ground. I ran up to it, and examined it further. It was made from solid steel, but was surprisingly light when I pulled it up. The entire thing was covered in small scratches, and there was a huge, jagged scratch going from the tip all the way to the handle. I decided to take it with me.

'If this thing got a scratch like this from something in here, I'm gonna need some protection. Now, at least, I have a weapon.'

I looked up, and saw that there was only one hallway that I could go down this time. So I grabbed my new lance, and headed through. In the next room, there was nothing of interest, so I picked a direction at random and started off. The next room was more of the same, so I repeated this process.

I ran down the last dark hallway that I took, and furiously searched about when I could finally see again. Still, there was no sign of Seth or Sam. I turned to run down yet another hallway when, all of a sudden, I heard a noise behind me. It was a strange, alien noise that I had never heard before.

I turned, and nearly jumped back in shock. The two creatures behind me were large, black blobs of...something, with expressionless masquerade-style masks on what looked to be their heads and thin arms that ended in terrifyingly sharp-looking claws. They advanced closer and closer to me, making horrible noises and grunts.

"Get back!" I yelled, in some attempt to stop them. It didn't work.

They drew closer and closer, and, in desperation, I struck out with my lance at one. It actually hit its mark, despite my shaky grip. The unfortunate thing was, it went through the shadowy being like it was made of water. The being immediately made a horrible screeching noise and lashed out with its claws. I jumped back, but they still nicked one of my arms. I looked down at it, and saw it bleeding. These things meant business.

My head slowly began hurting worse and worse as the beings came closer and closer. I backed up further and further. My head got to the point where it felt like it was splitting open, and I dropped to my knees.

I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Sorry Seth, Sam. Looks like you're gonna have to leave here without me." I shut my eyes, and waited for the impending claw slash that would kill me. I heard the being come closer, and closer, and closer. It stopped.

All of a sudden, a clear mental image of the blue butterfly from earlier came careening into my mind. Then, I was struck with a realization. 'These things are terrorizing my city, my people, my friends, and I'm just sitting here waiting for death. These things could destroy everything I know. I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN!'

Practically screaming at myself, I pushed myself up and opened my eyes. As I looked around some sort of blue aura engulfed my body. For some reason, I wasn't surprised. Instead, I smiled. A single word jumped into the forefront of my mind, begging to be said. Who was I to deny it?

"Per-so-na!"

I shut my eyes, and heard the beings screech again, this time in pain. Somehow, I could tell. I opened my eyes and beheld a figure unlike any I had ever seen before. It was a huge man with red skin, wearing a set of clothing fashioned entirely out of what looked to be the skin of a leopard. He had a huge blow dart gun in one hand, and a weapon I recognized as a bola in the other. He turned to me with odd, glowing green eyes and said in a voice unlike any I had ever heard before:

Thou art I, and I am thou,

From the sea of thine soul I come forth,

I am Xbalanque, and together, we shall vanquish the night that so consumes this world.

The shadowy beings seemed to recover, and roared at us. Another word showed up at the forefront of my mind.

"Xbalanque, Bash!"

Xbalanque smacked one of the beings hard with his bola, causing it to erupt into a nexus of black smoke.

"One more! Xbalanque, do it again!"

Xbalanque flipped his bola up into the air, and with a flourish, slammed it into the remaining blob. And with that, the beings were gone, at least for now. Xbalanque disappeared, and I couldn't help but cheer. The things were gone, and so was my headache, replaced with a sense of mental clarity that I had never felt before.

"So this is my Persona, huh." I mused. A strange voice, that I recognized as belonging to Xbalanque, echoed within my head.

Yes. I am the personification of your soul. Should you ever need my help, I will do everything in my power to assist you.

"Uhh, thanks. So..."

Before you say anything else, are you certain that you are not forgetting something?

"Oh, shit!"

I had just remembered about the others. If those things got to them first, we would all be in trouble. I ran out the next hallway, with a new determination to find the others.

Sam's POV

"Another empty room! What the hell!" I turned around and picked another route at random to walk down. I had followed Drake's directions, and headed down towards the light. I eventually made it to some kind of room with green light seeping from the walls and some kind of rubbery shit on everywhere that wasn't glowing. I couldn't even find anything of interest when I wandered about the many hallways, leading to the situation that I found myself in.

After an uncomfortably long time wandering in random directions, I entered a room with something in the shadows near the corner. I went to investigate, and found a strange weapon. I picked it up, and was met with some kind of resistance. I pulled hard, and managed to pull it up, along with a singular, white, bone.

"Scary." I said, completely stone faced. I took a moment to examine the thing that I had pulled up. It was some kind of battleaxe, as far as I could tell. It had two axeheads on either side of a pole, about ¾ of the way up. At the top was a spearhead of some sort, which was extremely sharp. I bled after poking it too hard.

"This is a halberd. I recognize it from that movie that Jackson made me watch." I smiled.

Something inside of me told me to keep it, probably greed. It looked to be worth something. I kept along, dragging the thing along beside me.

I went around to the next couple of rooms, and was surprised to find a few interesting things. In one room, there was a set of medical supplies, most of which looked usable, and in another, I found a little bit of money. $40, to be exact. Most of the rooms I visited, however, had very little in them, if anything. I made my way around, feeling like I was going in circles, when all of a sudden I heard a weird set of groans and shrieks. I turned around, and saw three huge, black, shadowy bird-like creatures, with sharp claws and a purple mask on their face with the letters XIX engraved on them. They wasted no time, and dive bombed me all at once. One scratched my shoulder, another pecked me in the arm, and the third went for my chest. In desperation I swung my halberd at it.

The battleaxe end made contact, but still didn't seem to faze it at all. In fact, it just went through like I had tried to cut through water. I quickly jumped out of the way, and pulled out my gun. I shot my entire magazine into them, and still it did nothing. One of the birds dived into my leg, and made contact, driving me to the ground.

My mind was abuzz with a mixture of pain and resignation. 'Well, I guess there are worse ways to die. None come to mind, but...'

Another of the birds readied itself for another attack.

'Am I seriously going to die here? Drake, Seth, I'm sorry.'

All of a sudden, a picture of the blue butterfly lodged itself into my mind. For some reason, it gave me a huge burst of energy and anger. 'I'm not going to die to some stupid birds!'

I forced myself to stand back up.

"I AIN'T DEAD YET!" I yelled as loud as I could.

With that, my entire body was covered in some odd, blue...thing. Whatever it was, it caused the birds to back off. They made a horrifying screeching sound, and began to charge me again. As they neared me, a single word appeared in my mind, and something told me that I had to say it. So I did.

"Per-so-na!"

Suddenly, the blue stuff was gone. In its place was a man that was even taller and more muscular than me. He had on bright brown armor, and had grey skin and hair. In his left hand was a scepter of some sort, and in his right, an ax. He turned to me, and I noticed he had shining, golden eyes.

Thou art I, and I am thou,

From the depths of thine soul I come forth,

I am Baal-Hammon, and together we shall defend that which we hold dear.

The birds charged, and a command popped into my head.

"Baal-Hammon, use Terra!"

He raised his scepter, and a torrent of rocks hit one of the birds, causing it to fall on the floor and not get back up. The other two kept coming forward.

"Do it again!"

Another torrent of rocks hit one of the birds, leaving only one of the bird shadow things left. He flew straight towards me, faster than I could react to give a command. In desperation, I swung the ax side of the halberd at the bird's mask, and was surprised when I heard a loud crack and saw the bird erupt into black smoke. Unfortunately, the other two birds had gotten up by that point, and shrieked loudly. Suddenly, I was hit with a shard of ice, knocking the wind out of me. Luckily, it wasn't too sharp, and didn't cut me too bad.

"Baal-Hammon, Terra again!"

Baal-Hammon raised his staff one last time, wiping out both birds with one well-placed shot. I just sat completely still for a while, and mulled over what had just happened. Then a realization struck me, and I jumped up in panic. That was a bad idea. I gingerly sat down and looked at Baal-Hammon.

"Don't suppose you have some sort of magic healing spell, do ya?"

He smirked as he looked at me.

I dunno, do I?

"Just do it then."

He raised his staff and some sort of energy covered me, stitching my wounds up and alleviating some of the pain, until it was just a dull throbbing.

The ability I just used is known as Dia. I can use it on anyone you wish, but be careful. If you get too tired, I will be of no use to anyone.

I nodded in understanding.

"Listen, I need to find the others, can you help me?"

I can, but there are certain...rituals that one must follow. To initiate it, you must approach me and ask me to 'teach you of what the world whispers'. When I nod, then focus on who or what you wish to find. However, to get it to work, you cannot concentrate on anything else at all, understand?

"Yes. Baal-Hammon, teach me of what the world whispers."

He nodded, and I focused everything I had into finding Seth and Drake. A strange mental map popped into my head, showing the layout and points of interest of the entire place.

It had four major floors, with stairs in the corners of the floors. All of the areas were sectioned off like some kind of prison, and it took me a second to get oriented again when I decided to follow a path with my mind's eye. Refocusing, I felt that I was three floors down, and the other two were above me. Then, there was a floor below me that had some sort of giant pathway that led up at an angle all the way to the surface.

"Alright, so I need to direct the other two down here." I muttered to no one in particular. "Alright, Seth seems to be the highest up. I'll get him first."

Seth's POV

"Aww sweet, more stuff!" I ran over to whatever stuff was concealed in the shadows of this room. A couple of random denominations of bills, and a small dagger with smaller gems on the hilt. I smiled and pocketed them.

I had followed Drake's instructions and headed towards the light. It seemed to take forever, but eventually I had made it all the way down to the place where it was coming from and went inside. The walls were coated in a grey, rubbery substance for the most part, and where they weren't, unnatural green light leaked out. I had quickly learned that the room I had originally found myself in had no way back to the stairs, and instead just a blank wall. I had turned and followed one of the hallways that branched off of the room I was in, and to my everlasting surprise, found all kinds of things. I had found money, bottles, and even some small weapons. I didn't keep the last ones and the bottles were usually left as well. I couldn't carry all of that.

I picked myself up and made for the exit, eager to see what else was in this place. I was worried that I hadn't been able to find any trace of Sam or Drake, but there was nothing for it. I guessed that I would just have to look harder.

I ran through what must have been the twentieth empty room in a row. This place was starting to annoy me. I had long since stopped picking up loot, and I still couldn't find hide nor hair of either of them. I went through another dark hallway, and managed to end up in yet another empty room.

"Dammit!" I muttered in frustration. I ran down another hallway, entering a huge chamber. I looked around, taking stock of the room. Suddenly, I jumped as a loud, piercing noise erupted from behind me. I turned, and nearly yelled in shock. Behind me were three black masses, with grotesquely thin arms ending in bestial claws. On a part that stuck out from the rest of the mass, there was an masquerade-style red mask with a huge II engraved on them.

I jumped back as quick as I could and pulled out my gun. Whatever these things were, I hoped bullets would take care of them. I unloaded my one clip that I had thought to bring into this god-forsaken place in one of the shadowy things. The thing, however, just kept coming towards me, unfazed. It didn't even look like I had made contact!

I made a quick decision and ran into the hallway behind me, desperately looking for anything that could help me get away from the things that were right behind me.

I went through room after room, and eventually found a godsend; a one handed sword that had a single sharp edge and a cross hilt. This was a weapon I recognized as a falchion, a type of sword that Drake would never shut up about when we were younger. 'Ha ha. Very funny.' I thought.

I picked up my new weapon and turned to face my attackers. They had covered the entrance I had used into this room, and there wasn't another hallway connected to it. I was stuck.

The shadowy thing raised it's arms and made a screeching sound, and all of a sudden a huge blast of wind, stronger than anything I had ever seen before, slammed me into a wall. I collapsed to my knees. I struggled to force myself back up, just to be slammed into another wall by another gust. I fell down on my stomach, accepting that I was about to die. 'Hold up! I don't want to die to these bastards, I can't! I have to kill them! I have to win!'

Suddenly, a bright image of the blue butterfly fixated itself into my mind. Seeing it again gave me some kind of strength I didn't know I had, and I forced myself up to face my attackers again. I smiled, and I felt a strange energy welling up inside of me. A blue light began to glow around me, causing the shadowy things to back of and screech in agony.

"I HAVEN'T LOST YET!" I yelled, as I felt the raw power begin to condense into one area. A word burned in the forefront of my mind, to the point where I had to say it.

"Per-so-na!" I said.

The blue light stopped, and in front of me stood a huge man. At least, I thought it was a man. It had a large metal helmet that prevented me from seeing it's face. It had grey skin and muscles that showed through under its bloodstained, battered leather armor. It stood about eight feet tall, towering above me. In its left hand it held a giant cleaver that touched the floor. Surprisingly, it spoke to me.

Thou art I, and I am thou,

From the depths of your soul I come forth,

I am Aeron, and we shall destroy all of our enemies, like lambs to the slaughter.

I stared at the shadowy things, and they seemed to back off for a second.

'What do I do now?' I thought to myself. The instinct telling me what to do wasn't helping anymore.

I command the force of ice against thine enemies. Say the command Bufu to allow me to release it.

'Okay. Thanks, Aeron,was it?'

"Aeron, Bufu!"

Aeron raised his cleaver-free hand and a chunk of ice hit the being, causing it to quit moving for a second. Another one charged me, and I instinctively swung hard with my falchion. This time, it was met with resistance when I hit the being, and it screeched one last time and burst into black smoke. The other being raised it's arms, and began to screech another of those wind attacks.

"Aeron, Bufu again!"

Aeron raised his hand again and the creature was struck with ice, killing it. I charged forward and stabbed the last being, causing it to erupt into black smoke.

Time seemed to stand still as I basked in the newfound power of my Persona. But that brought to my mind a question.

"What IS a Persona?" I muttered to myself.

Before even Aeron could respond, I heard a sound unlike anything I heard before. It sounded like some sort of mangled static inside of my head. I looked everywhere, but couldn't find its source. Just when I thought I was going insane, I heard Sam's voice inside of my own head.

"Guys, can you hear me?!" he said.

"What the hell?" I heard Drake's voice too.

"Sam, Drake, is that you?" I said.

"Finally, I've gotten hold of you!" Sam exclaimed happily, "This is one of my Persona's abilities. Unfortunately, its built for actual fighting, so I don't know how well I'll be able to keep this up."

"Alright, have you found a way out of here?" Drake said.

"Yes, listen close. Drake, you need to go down that hallway to your left, turn right, and then go straight until you hit a wall. Got it?"

"On it." Drake said.

"Seth, you have a bit more walking to do. You need to go two rooms straight ahead, then turn right. That'll lead you to the first set of stairs."

I turned and began walking down the path that he highlighted for me.

"So, I'm guessing that both of you have Personas?" Sam said.

"Yeah." Drake and I both replied.

"I'm curious to see what they're like. Baal-Hammon, can you check and see?" He asked that question to, most likely, his Persona.

"Drake's Persona is named Xbalanque. Right now it knows the skills Bash and Rakunda. It's biggest asset is it's physical might, but it has a moderately high endurance as well. It resists all forms of physical damage, but is weak to fire." Sam was running through this information about as fast as he possibly could. "Seth's is named Aeron. It has the skills Agi, Bufu, and Cleave. It's forte is a mixture between its physical and magical skills, which are about even. It has no resistances, but also no weaknesses."

"Now for mine." Sam said. "My Persona is Baal-Hammon. It currently has the skills of Terra, Dia, and Rakukaja. Its best assets are its magical power and its endurance. It has a weakness to wind, but resists electricity and earth abilities."

"Alright. So now we can plan a strategy as to how to fight those things." Drake said.

I found the staircase and followed it down. With Sam's guidance, both Drake and I made our way down to the third floor down without mishap. I was about to walk into a particularly dark room when Sam stopped me.

"Guys," he sounded dead serious. "There is a huge amount of those creatures in there, and I'm sensing that they are pretty strong. In other words, if you try to fight, you'll be royally screwed. Both of you would have to run as fast as you can if you want to not be caught. On my mark."

I waited, with my muscles tensed and ready to go at a moment's notice. I couldn't afford to be caught, by the way he made it sound.

"Now!"

I ran as fast as my legs could possibly carry me through the room, hoping not to fight. I briefly saw another thing flash by right in front of me, before I felt myself hit something hard, and I fell to the ground with a loud thump. Surprisingly, what I had ran into spoke.

"Owwww."

"Drake? What are you doing here? Where are those things that are supposed to be in here?"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Sam came around the corner, laughing like some kind of lunatic. "Oh, you should've seen that look on your face when you hit each other! Hahahahaha!"

"There are none of those things here?" Drake asked.

"Nope!" Sam smiled.

I looked at Drake and nodded. We both got up and walked over to where Sam was. Before he could react, I punched him square in the chest while Drake punched him hard in the stomach. Sam bent over in pain.

"I probably deserved that." He sputtered out.

"You did. So where is the exit?" I asked.

He drew himself up and started walking, motioning for us to follow. In the next room over we found a set of stairs, and we headed down. The final floor looked much smaller than the others, as it didn't have the winding, mazelike structure of the floors above. Instead, there was just a single hallway leading to another room.

"I sensed that the exit was that way." Sam pointed to the one hallway. "But the problem is that I also sensed a powerful one of those things guarding this next room."

"Is there any other way out?" Drake asked.

"Not that I can sense."

"Great." I said sarcastically. "Let's get this over with."

We stepped forward into the next room, which seemed to be lacking the rubbery substance on the walls. Instead, this room was bright, and we could plainly see what we were up against.

"What the actual fuck is that!" I said.

The being in here was some sort of giant, disembodied hand. It had on a pink glove with a mask sewn onto it, and at the top, some sort of grotesque head grew out and looked at us. I noticed that the mask had the letter I engraved into it.

The hand roared at us, and we all readied ourselves for battle. It quickly snapped its fingers at Sam, and some strange red mist appeared in front of him. He accidentally breathed it in, and began coughing hard.

"Sam, are you alright?" Drake asked.

The coughing fit stopped.

"That little bitch! I'll kill him right here!" Sam yelled. Before either of us could stop him, he ran towards the hand and hit it with as much force as he could possibly generate with his halberd. Surprisingly, it worked pretty well, and the hand bent over in pain. Then, it snapped it's fingers again, and a huge blast of wind struck Sam, knocking him to the floor. The hand took advantage of the situation, and sent another blast of wind at me.

"Ow! Aeron, Agi!"

Aeron appeared in front of me and raised his hand. A blast of fire hit the hand, causing it to fall over in agony. I ran over to Sam and helped him up.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, but that hurt way more than it should've. Don't let yourself get hit by that."

I nodded.

"Xbalanque, Bash!" Drake commanded.

The red skinned warrior appeared in front of us and hit the hand hard with his bola, knocking it back on balance. It retaliated by slapping Xbalanque hard, causing him to back off in pain.

"My turn! Baal-Hammon, use Terra!"

Sam's Persona appeared and a storm of rocks hit the hand. It stumbled before it could mount a counterattack, giving Sam a bit more time to make his move.

"Dia!"

The Persona raised his staff, and a white light surrounded Drake, causing him to stand up a bit straighter.

"I feel great! Thanks, Sam!" He smiled.

The hand was still struggling to get up.

"Guys, let's finish this! Pile on!" I said.

We all charged into the shadow, slashing at it with our weapons, and having our Personas help too. It wasn't too long until the dust we kicked up obscured my field of view. We eventually headed outside the plume of dust, and when it settled, the hand was gone.

I felt a sense of accomplishment that we had defeated such a powerful foe together. To add to my happiness, Aeron turned to me and said, "I have learned a new ability, Aqua. May it serve you well in the battles to come."

I turned and saw the others get new skills as well. Drake apparently got a new skill called 'Single Shot' and Sam got one called 'Dekaja'. The looks of joy were evident on their faces as well.

We walked into the final room of this god-forsaken place, and inside was some sort of case, along with a huge set of stone stairs, this time well-lit. I walked over to examine the case. It was made with some sort of reinforced steel, and had some sort of lock I had never seen before. I shrugged and picked it up. It seemed harmless enough, and something useful could've been inside.

We turned to the stairs, and began the long climb all the way up to the surface again.

August 3, 2013 3:24 AM

Outside of the Central Pillar

After what seemed like hours of walking, we finally made it back to the surface. Not a single word was said between us as we firmly shut the stone door behind us that somehow was linked to two different staircases at once. At that point, I was too tired to even care. We all went to the tent, and crawled into our sleeping bags. I drifted off to sleep in seconds, with the others following suit soon after.