Damocles: Watch Out for Flying Swords!
Lara exited the Atlas doorway and emerged onto the central platform once again. She was quick to remember that there was another switch behind one of the columns not too far away from the stairway on the same level. Lara rushed to the nearby column and found the switch, pulling it as soon as she spotted it. When the torches lit themselves, the sound of a door opening was heard from below. Looking down, Lara could see that the Damocles doorway had been opened. She now had to retrace her steps back down towards the bottom of the tall room.
"First I go down, then I go up, and now I have to go down again!" Lara complained. "Why must it be so difficult? Why couldn't the Greeks make this simple for me? Oh well, I guess I better press onward."
Lara made her way back down to the second level and almost forgot that Pierre was still down at the bottom of the room waiting for her to make an appearance. Upon reaching the second level, Lara was greeted with a surprise gunshot from Pierre's magnum. Luckily, Lara missed the attack and jumped over towards the Damocles doorway.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" Lara asked as Pierre hid behind one of the columns at the bottom of the room?"
"There aren't any rules in this competition, remember?" Pierre said. "That means I could wait for you to collect all of the keys and then kill you so I can open the door myself! It would also increase my chances of finding the Scion by a hundred percent! I'm sure that's what you'd want too!"
"Yeah, very clever! Make the lady do all of the work!" Lara replied in a sarcastic tone. "There is, however, one problem with your statement. If your strategy failed back in Rome, what makes you so sure that it will work here?"
"I am not sure if it will work," Pierre replied, "because you never gave me a fair chance to carry out my strategy. Besides, mademoiselle, I was able to find another route to the Philosopher's Stone without your help!"
"So you're saying that you needed my help to locate the three remaining planetary stone symbols? If you needed help, why didn't you just ask? Oh yeah, that's right, you were the first to point the gun at my head back in that opera house when Larson was there too. At least he had the decency to make a fair offer for the possession of the Mercury Stone. And you call yourself a professional...Give me a break!"
Angered by Lara's insulting, yet truthful, remarks, Pierre tried shooting Lara again with one of his magnums, but was soon dismayed that his aim had failed him once again. Lara had already disappeared into the Damocles doorway.
Upon entering the next area, Lara was very surprised at what she saw. She found herself in a large cream-coloured room with many large Corinthian columns forming rows that seemed to form a complicated maze to the doorway on the other side. Three of the large columns that once stood proud in this room have since collapsed due to the elements, making the walk to the other side even more difficult to traverse. Glancing up at the darker brown-hued ceiling, Lara saw something that made her look twice. Jutting down all over the ceiling were large, as well as intimidating, sword blades that clearly illustrated the theme of Damocles. As far as she could tell, the swords were there for that very purpose. Even then, there was something strange and almost scary about this room. Walking amongst the large columns, the room seemed to have some kind of negative energy that Lara could not explain that intensified the farther she ventured. Suddenly, the room became quiet and Lara began to shiver over the possibility that there was a trick hidden up the sleeves of the builders of this place.
"I'm not sure if I like this place." Lara said. Indeed the gloomy cast of the room seemed to reflect her suspicions. Still, it did not stop Lara from trying to figure out what was hiding beyond the open doorway at the end of the room. When she entered, there was a pleasant surprise waiting for her atop a large pedestal in the centre of the small room. Resting under the little bit of sunlight shining down through the centre of square-shaped platform supported by four Doric pillars from a hole in the ceiling was the Key of Damocles. Upon closer examination, the key was seen to have a large precision-cut red ruby in the centre of it. Without hesitation, Lara grabbed the key from the pedestal and put it inside her bag, not thinking of any possible consequences that may arise from taking it. She just wanted to get out of the dark and creepy room and find the two other keys.
"That was easy…" she said. "Too easy…"
It was then that the negative energy in the area became much greater and Lara immediately started making her way towards the door. But suddenly, Lara jumped back and screamed at the sight of a large sword that not only fell down in front of her, but also glided in her general direction as if to try and stab her to death. With her heart pounding, Lara was brave enough to look to the ceiling and see that the countless other swords that jutted down were spinning. What was causing the swords to move? Was it a ghost? Was it magic? Lara could not find any logical explanation, but whatever was causing the sharp blades to spin, she knew she was being confronted by an unknown supernatural force that was out to get her and possibly end her search for the Scion. Her previous suspicions had been confirmed.
"Oh dear…" she said in a trembling voice. "What have I gotten myself into this time?"
Lara starred at the large sword that almost killed her and wondered how she was going to survive the trip back across the room. One wrong move could end up being her downfall, and she was certainly not in the mood for becoming a prop used to warn future explorers of the dangers that lurk in the room. Without tripping over any toppled debris, Lara decided to take it slowly and walk towards the exit. Just then, two more swords came down at her and Lara was forced to avoid them by performing a backflip. Her heart was racing once again, and she found it very hard to maintain a normal breathing pattern. But Lara was able to recover from the sudden excitement and focus on trying to get out of the room.
"I guess no matter what I do, the swords are going to get me if I wander too close." she said. "Should I just run for it?! Even then, it's uncertain if I'll survive…Damn…This is much harder than I thought it would be…I wish Pierre was going through this right now and not me!"
Not only were the swords making it difficult for her, but the large columns that lined the dark room also made it extremely hard to navigate through the room, which added on to the already dangerous situation. It was not long before another sword glided down towards her and she was forced to jump out of the way to avoid it. Then, one after another, the swords just started flying towards Lara and she had no choice but to run and jump to avoid their sharp ends. By now, the swords were coming from every direction and Lara dodged her way past rows of columns to avoid the onslaught. As she squeezed her way between two of the columns near the entrance of the room, Lara encountered three more swords that fell and glided toward her at the same time. After Lara managed to side-jump away from her death, the activity in the room seemed to die down. And then, just when she thought all of the swords had been grounded, the last sword flew towards Lara and landed on the ground before it had the chance to stab her. When she looked back into the room from the entrance, it looked more chaotic than it did to begin with, with the swords now jutting out of the floor instead of the ceiling. But Lara did not care. She was just glad to be out of that room. Pulling out the two keys she now had in her possession, Lara saw that they looked very much the same. The only obvious difference was the colour of the gemstones.
"Only two more to find." she said. "I need to open that door as soon as possible. Pierre's probably waiting for me down there. I can't let that bloody bastard get his filthy hands on any of my artefacts!"
Hey everyone! It is my pleasure to bring you the next chapter of Tomb Raider after what seemed to be the longest week in my entire college education. After a second conflict with Pierre, Lara explores the sword-themed area dedicated to Damocles and comes into contact with the classic deadly falling sword traps after grabbing the Key of Damocles. As expected, Lara manages to escape with the key in one piece. Of the two remaining keys that need to be found, which one will Lara pursue next? Is Pierre waiting for another chance to attack Lara? Stay tuned as the adventure continues in the next chapter. I'm thinking that there's going to be only two more chapters for St. Francis' Folly, so it won't be long before Lara ventures into new unexplored territory! See you in the next update and have a Happy Halloween :)
saturn95