Atlas: Holder of the Heavens

Backtracking her way up the jumbled tower of walkways and platforms, Lara's strength was starting to diminish the farther up she climbed. After reaching the second level once again, she checked to see if anything happened with the Damocles doorway. To her dismay, the door was still locked tight. Lara sighed and took a deep breath, waiting for her strength to return.

"Looks like I'm going to have to go higher. I can't imagine what else that switch is capable of, but if it turns out that it does nothing then I won't know what else to do to get that bigger door on the ground level open. Let's hope that door leads me to where I need to go!"

Lara was about to make her way to the third level when she suddenly heard the sound of footsteps echoing across the large hall. They seemed to be coming from both above and below her, but she could not tell for sure. Looking down, Lara was not able to make out anything that could be causing the noise until she saw Pierre emerging from the dark hole in the wall located in the corner of the room on the ground. The sight of him made Lara's heart sink and it almost made her sick to her stomach. What the hell is he doing here? Lara thought as she slowly and quietly made her way up the tall room without getting his attention. Does he even know that I'm here?

Her suspicions were validated as she suddenly heard the loud echoing of Pierre's magnums booming throughout the hall. The bullets barely missed Lara as she pulled herself onto the third level landing after she jumped from the top of the small staircase on the second floor and grabbed the edge. Her heart was racing, knowing that she had barely escaped certain death.

"Why so jumpy, mademoiselle?" Pierre asked sarcastically, then chuckling at his own comment moments later. Lara was now hidden in the Hephaestus doorway to avoid Pierre's potential onslaught of bullets, but that did not stop her from responding with a snappy remark.

"I don't see you jumping around looking for any of the keys to that door!" Lara replied, her voice echoing through the room. "Why don't you save your bullets for later? I'm sure they'll come in handy once I have the second part of the Scion in my possession!"

"Might I remind you that you've already wasted some of your ammunition back in the main entryway, mademoiselle. Besides, you never established any rules as to how we'll be competing for the second piece."

"I didn't realize that it was my job to make the rules." Lara replied. "But if there aren't any rules, then I could blow your brains out with this shotgun if I really wanted to! I'm not afraid to use it!"

There was a moment of silence, then Pierre made another remark in return.

"That isn't Larson's shotgun you have with you by any chance, is it?" he asked.

"Why do you care?" Lara replied. "It's mine now, just like the first piece of the Scion."

"Natla did mention that you were a very dangerous and ruthless individual. I don't have a hard time believing it, considering what happened between us in Rome."

"I don't have time for this!" Lara said as she pointed one of her pistols down at Pierre. "Get out of my sight!"

Lara shot her pistol at Pierre, but missed. Pierre returned the favour by firing his magnums up at Lara. Luckily she was able to dodge behind a nearby wall and avoid the onslaught of lead pellets. When Lara peeked down, she was baffled to find that Pierre had disappeared and was nowhere to be seen. She figured that he had run back into the dark tunnel from which he came, but Lara remained sceptical.

"Where the hell did that bloody bastard run to?" she asked herself. "I can't let him stall my efforts in getting that door open. At least he's gone for now."

After a couple of moments, Lara slowly emerged from the Hephaestus doorway and started her upward climb towards the top of the room, making sure Pierre was not waiting for the perfect moment to shoot her.

It was not very long before Lara was walking up the staircase leading up to the fourth floor, where the Atlas doorway was located. Looking over to the doorway, a smile crept across Lara's face when she saw that the door had been opened. It was a sure sign that she was on the right track.

"Let's see what I can find in this area." she said to herself as she walked carefully over the walkway and into the new area. Looking into the room, there was not very much to look at; or at least that was what it seemed. The walls were made of plain brown-tinted brick and Lara could see a huge opening in the far wall leading into a taller room just beyond a section of the floor where it was raised higher. However, the opening was blocked off by vertical metal bars and the only way Lara could gain access into that area was if she somehow opened a tall metal gate, which was seen hiding behind a column of brick stone in the far corner of the room to her left. There was something that did catch Lara's attention as she walked closer to the metal gate. Laying in plain sight just in front of the gate was another large pressure pad that had the Greek letter omega carved into it, similar to the ones she had seen earlier. Upon stepping on the pad, Lara was amazed to see the gate raise itself from the floor and provide an opening for her to reach the mysterious room that lay ahead. She slowly walked into the next room and was suddenly startled by a large THUD! Lara turned around and saw that the gate had closed and trapped her inside this new room. She tried pulling the gate back up but it would not budge, for it was much too heavy for her to lift. The room suddenly became extremely quiet.

"Damn it! How am I going to get out here?"

Lara was standing in what appeared to be a tall and somewhat narrow hall. Looking to the left side of the room, she saw a large hole in the ground that was not very deep, yet it was still large enough to be considered a potential hazard. Looking to the right, Lara was surprised to see the floor curve its way up a little ways before levelling off. At the top of the "hill", resting atop a raised platform guarded by large spears and glistening in the orange light of torches on the wall was a gigantic and beautifully carved statue of Atlas himself, carrying on his back a larger scale bronze globe similar to the one Lara saw earlier which represented the heavens and the many celestial objects that make it up. Behind the deadly traps lining the bottom of the statue was a small metal gateway that seemed to be hiding something of importance within. Looking up and to the left of the statue, Lara saw a high ledge that ran almost the whole length of the room, stopping right where she first entered the room. In that same location, she saw what looked like a large turning mechanical device attached to a rusted chain that appeared to be the agent responsible for raising and lowering the metal gate from which Lara first entered. Somehow, she knew she would have to find a way to reach it in order to exit the room, but something else was telling her to explore the room first to see what other secrets she could find. Lara started by walking up towards the statue and the concealed area behind the deadly spears. Another silence filled the room and Lara started getting suspicious.

"I have a bad feeling about this." she said. The large heavenly globe on top of Atlas looked very unstable and was ready to come crashing down towards Lara, but Lara continued walking up the sloped floor and approached the spears that were poking out from the floor. Among the spears was the skeleton of an unlucky explorer that managed to find his or herself in the trap long ago. Lara studied the body and saw that its right arm looked as though it was reaching for whatever was inside the small space inside the base of the statue. She looked through the traps and was barely able to make out a pedestal that had something resting on top of it. It almost seemed to glow. Whatever it was, it was more than likely something metallic, as well as something important. Suddenly, Lara heard a gut-wrenching cracking sound coming from the top of the slope.

"Oh no…" she said in an exasperated tone. "It's going to fall!"

Lara panicked as she tried to figure a way out of the situation, but the task seemed almost impossible. There was no way for her to run back to doorway to escape the coming danger, for there was no place for her to wait it out. The gap at the end of the hallway was only large enough to accommodate the boulder and hiding there would only result in Lara's instant demise. By now, the arms of Atlas were beginning to crumble under the shifting weight of the large bronze globe and she was running out of precious time. Then, Lara looked up to the high ledge that housed the opening mechanism for the entry gate. At that moment, Lara's heart was racing uncontrollably as the large statue finally began to crumble and the bronze globe went crashing down to the ground below, completely obliterating the activated spear traps effortlessly like a knife through warm butter and causing the ground beneath her to shake.

"Sh*t." Lara cursed. Then, all of a sudden, a difficult yet simple solution came to her mind. Without wasting any more time, Lara brought her gymnastic skills to the maximum level as she ran towards the wall and forced herself higher by jumping off the wall and onto the opposite wall where she did the same again and grabbed the edge of the platform. Looking below her, the giant bronze globe rolled it way down the slope and landed almost perfectly in the large gap with a loud metallic THUD! She then pulled herself onto the high ledge and breathed a sigh of relief as she started recovering from the sudden excitement. The sky had literally fallen and almost killed Lara in the process!

"Thank goodness for my athletic abilities!" she said.

Looking back down towards the floor, Lara surveyed the damage that was caused by the large boulder. The arms of Atlas, as well as the parts of the shoulders, had been completely obliterated. Surprising, the head of the large statue was still remaining and in pristine shape. Looking below the statue, Lara saw that the boulder had cleared a path through the giant spear traps and revealed the item that was hidden in the tiny space. The rest of the hallway below remained very much the same, though some sections of the floor had been destroyed.

"Damn…" Lara said. "The Greeks sure had their fair share of fun making this trap! But, like the Incas, they failed to get by me! When will they ever learn?"

Chuckling at her own remark, Lara walked over towards the gate mechanism and started opening the gate. She struggled at first, since the weight of the gate was almost too strong for her to lift in the first place. However, through trial and error, Lara felt her strength slowly increase as the "wheel mechanism" started to budge and the metal gate started to raise itself from the ground. Once the gate was high enough, she discovered another problem. How was the gate supposed to stay? Luckily, Lara was able to easily solve it by wrapping the ancient chains around the mechanism itself until it could no longer budge. Her exit was now guaranteed.

"Those Greeks sure no how to make a woman work out!" Lara complained. "All I need to do now is get back down and see what's on that small pedestal."

Lara carefully grabbed the edge of the high ledge and dropped down to the ground with a slightly hard landing. She then walked up the sloped hallway and reached the small Ionic pedestal where a beautifully crafted silver key rested. In the centre of the head of the key was a large glistening emerald that which Lara assumed had been cut with precision by ancient Greek blacksmith. She knew right away that she had found of the four keys that was needed to open the large door at the bottom of the towering main room. After a moment of gazing at the green gemstone on the key, Lara put the key in her backpack and smiled. One down, three to go!

Hey, everyone! I apologize for the rather long wait between chapters. Once again, I am finding my college life very demanding :) After a brief surprise encounter with Pierre, Lara entered the Atlas room and found the first key after almost getting crushed by the heavens that were resting on the shoulders of Atlas himself. Lara has three more keys to locate, but which one will she pursue next? Will Pierre prove to be a real annoyance for Lara? The answers will appear in the near future, so stay tuned:)

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