CHAPTER SEVEN

The morning fog had now surrounded the body of water the Dragon Boat was treading on. Li and Meiling looked up and noticed they were surrounded by a maze of towering trees and overgrown shrubberies. The air was warm but the fog added a slight temperature drop in their surroundings.

"Are we here?" Meiling asked.

"Yeah." Li nodded. "We're here."

As the boat came to a stop, Li immediately jumped out of his seat and onto the wet grass of the island. He helped Meiling out as well then looked around the area, wondering where to go next.

"Well? Where is it?" The girl asked.

"Hold on." Li put his finger on his head, trying to remember where the temple was.

Meiling grew impatient. "Are you sure this is the place?"

"I'm sure."

They then heard a snapping noise coming from the distance. Startled, the two cousins glanced over to a nearby bush but saw nothing unusual. Another snap. They turned to another bush but again saw nothing. They directed their eyes all around the area, trying to spot something in the leaves that hung above them or the bushes that laid about.

"Meiling?" Li started. "Have you ever seen that movie 'Deliverance'?"

The girl cringed with fear. "Oh, I remember a certain pig-squealing scene that made me throw up."

A faint musical chord could then be heard coming from the distance. Li shuddered as he grabbed hold of Meiling's hand.

"Okay." He said. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

As Li ran, pulling Meiling behind, several more snapping twigs could be heard which indicated a chase. Li could now see the various shadows running alongside the bushes, trying to keep up with him and the young girl.

"Li! I'm scared!" She cried.

"Me too! I don't want anybody going near my ass!" He called back.

The chase through the mysterious island got fiercer when several of the shadowy figures began to shoot down darts on the two. Spears and nets followed, barely missing them by a few inches.

"I don't see any temple, Li!" Meiling shouted.

The boy frantically looked around while running. "It has to be here!"

"Do you hear banjos!?"

"No and neither do you so shut up!"

The chase ended immediately when Li tripped a wire, causing a net to pull the two up a tree. They swung to the side for a while before eventually slowing down to a dangle. Afterwards, a group of primitive looking men smeared with a black and red substance approached them. They all looked up at the net and poked the two with their spears.

"Hey, watch it!" Li warned.

One of the natives said something to one of his own, prompting the net to be cut down. Upon falling to the floor, Meiling and Li were taken away forcibly into another part of the wilderness.

"Where are you taking us!?" Meiling demanded to know. There was no reply.

"Meiling, just calm down." Li told her. "Maybe there's an explanation for all this."

¬¬¬¬¬ BACK IN TOMOEDA ¬¬¬¬¬

Inside the enormous library of Eriol's new home, everyone looked up at the top shelf as the blue-eyed boy rolled along the ladder. He took out a book then descended back to the floor with the others.

"This book can help shed some light on the Demon Knights." He said to them.

Sakura opened the book and flipped through the pages until Kero stopped her in place. He pointed at some sketches of five skeletal warriors wielding a different gem.

"That's them!" Kero said. "The Demon Knights."

Eriol nodded. "Yes. It appears they all carry with them a different weapon to match their fighting skill. The Blue Knight and his sword, the Red Knight and his scythe, The Green Knight and his axe…" Eriol then noticed some of the pages were smeared. "Oh, damn."

"What is it?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. But you get the point."

The girl nodded. "I do. But how was the Blue Knight revived?"

"Sealing them away basically shut them down. The only way to revive them is by reading aloud the scripture on their weapons."

Kaho then came into the room. "I just got off the phone with your father, Sakura."

Sakura then panicked. "Oh no! Is he okay!? Is he hurt!? Who did this!? I'll kill them! I'll rip their--"

"No, no! He's fine!" The woman interrupted. "He just informed me that an archaeological team from his college was found murdered."

"Where at?"

"A few meters away from Faust's old tomb."

Tomoyo stood up and grabbed Eriol by the arm. "You were right, Eriol! And now they're wreaking havoc on our city! What do we do now?"

Eriol blushed for a minute then returned his focus on the matter. "Well, we have to… stop the Blue Knight from retrieving the other gems and seal them away like Clow Reed did."

"Wait a minute." Nakuru butted in. "Why don't we use that Sangria Gauntlet to control them?"

"I'm afraid the Gauntlet was lost all those years ago. Nobody knows what Faust did with it after he gave back the gems. I suppose it could be anywhere."

"Then why don't we destroy the gems?" Yuki suggested. "If they're the source of their power, then why don't we--"

"In order to do that, Yukito, we would require a highly intense form of positive magic energy concentrated into a single attack." Eriol interrupted. "Clow Reed was powerful. But I'm afraid he wasn't that powerful."

"What if we were to combine our magic like we did on Alcatraz?" Spinel suggested.

Eriol shook his head. "No. It has to be from one source otherwise the other magical entities could disrupt the frequency."

Kero scratched his head for a moment. "Do you think Sakura's powerful enough to do it?"

They all gave Sakura a questionable look. The green-eyed girl chuckled nervously and turned away from them. "Oh, God. They're looking at me again…" She said to herself.

"So what do we do now?" Touya asked.

"It's your call, Sakura." Eriol said.

"Mine!?" She shrieked. "But… I don't know if… We can't go anywhere without Li!"

"Time's running out, Sakura." Tomoyo said to her friend. "I think this is one mission we're going to have to do without him."

Sakura tried to come up with another excuse. "But we still have school! And I don't know if--"

"I've got you covered, Sakura." Kaho interrupted. "Besides, it's not like Terada and the others don't know where your other responsibilities lie."

Sakura sighed and thought for a moment. Could she really do this without Li? Would her magic be enough to destroy the gems and cast away the evil for good? She knew in her heart that she couldn't walk away from the call of duty. It was time to act. With or without her beloved. She stepped forward and nodded at her friends.

"Okay." She said. "Let's go get that gem."

Tomoyo got that starry-eyed look in her face again, causing Eriol to blush some more. She put her hands together and leaned up against the boy.

"Oh, it'll be like old times again!" She dreamily said. "So do we call the army and get them in on this?"

Sakura shook her head. "No. There's too many of them to track down and so little time. We'll have to do this on our own. Where did you say that gem was?"

"The Temple of Xiang Zhou. It's on a hidden island that can only be entered by something with a magical connection strong enough to withstand the dimensional tear."

"Dimensional tear?" Sakura asked.

"It's like I said. A hidden island. You won't find it on any map and there will be no recorded evidence of its existence."

Sakura nodded. "Well, that's great and everything. But how are we going to get there?"

Eriol sighed. "That's a good question."

"Oh, don't worry." Touya said. "We'll take care of that part."

Yuki giggled. "You think they know what we're up to?"

"Not a chance in hell."