===== Part V: Vroengard =====

The two dragons glided down in between two peaks, and Eragon saw the full extent of the battle's damage to Vroengard. Percy let out a low whistle. "What happened, did they set off a nuke or something?"

Chunks of enormous buildings were strewn about the ground, and weeds and plants grew wild. Bones littered the ground, in a variety from the size of Saphira to the most massive being larger than Glaedr, even when he still had a body. It allowed Eragon to appreciate the variety and multitude of dragons there had been, and feel sorrow for the amount slain. All the destruction was seemed to radiate from a single point at the south edge of the city here. 'Eragon,' Glaedr called out.

'Yes?'

'There is a spell you must cast, to protect us all from the poison that is in the air.'

'Poison?' Eragon asked.

'Those who stayed after the battle soon developed lesions upon their skin and lost their hair, and many died thereafter. The wording of the spell is as such-'

Glaedr told Eragon the words, and Eragon, concerned, cast the spell. "What?" Percy asked, who had heard Eragon's spell.

"Nothing, just a spell to protect us from the invisible poison in the air."

"Invisible poison? So they did nuke the place!"

Finding a large, grassy, clearing with chunks of broken monastery, the dragons landed, but Saphira's leg gave out in exhaustion. Frank did a faceplant, and didn't bother morphing out of dragon form before going to sleep. Saphira, getting up, allowed Eragon to get off and take off the saddle and saddlebags before plopping down and going to sleep. Her 'plop,' however, shook the ground beneath them, and sent several leaves spiraling down from the surrounding trees. Leo, who had started grabbing wood for a fire, stopped and inspected a leaf. "Huh," He said.

"What is it?" Eragon asked, walking over.

Eragon could feel Glaedr looking at the leaf through his eyes. The leaf was unlike any apple leaf that Eragon had seen before. The serration was too large, and the veins were crossed and random, instead of uniform, as they should be.

'Ever since the battle, things here have not been as they once were,' said Glaedr.

"You can say that again," replied Leo. He pulled out a small device from his toolbelt. It immediately started crackling. Placing it back in his toolbelt, he started grabbing wood. "This place has gotten a huge dosage of radiation poisoning, not sure if it's safe to stay."

"Radiation what?" Eragon asked confused.

"Oh, right!" Leo said. "Your tech is behind ours. Radiation poisoning, it's stray energy that is extremely dangerous. It's like... an invisible poison."

"Oh, I see. I already cast a spell to protect us from that."

Leo finished up grabbing sticks, and headed back to the campsite. Eragon followed him.

As soon as the fire was done, Leo, with the help of Eragon, constructed a large tent, big enough to fit both dragons, and their little group. Eragon watched in amazement as ADHD Leo flew around the campsite, pulling hammers, screws, nails, and canvas out of his toolbelt to construct a pavilion from a few logs that Leo had Eragon cut down. Eventually, Leo's building rampage came to an end. "Done," he said. The demigods went inside calmly, as if they had seen this all before. Eragon and Glaedr (through Eragon's eyes) stared at the tent in amazement.

'They will indeed be a valuable asset to the Varden,' Glaedr told Eragon.

Taking a moment to cast some wards around the camp, Eragon headed into the tent.

"We should get moving when Saphira and Frank wake up again," said Eragon.

"Agreed, let's sleep while we can though," said Percy.

With that, he unrolled a bedroll-courtesy of the Varden- and collapsed.

'I shall keep watch,' Glaedr told them.

Giving a thankful nod—even though Glaedr couldn't see him—Eragon also fell asleep.

'Eragon! Saphira! Wake up! Percy!'

Everyone was jolted awake by Glaedr's urgent cry. There was a hissing sound outside. The group rushed outside, their weapons drawn. However, once Percy saw what it was, he lowered his sword. "Snails?" Six foot high snails, waving their eyes around and sliding their way, somewhat slowly, to surround the tent. One snail shot forward at a speed that surprised them all, but Eragon stuck out his sword and stabbed the snail. Suddenly, the tent flaps burst open, and Saphira's head shot over the heads of the group, snapping up a snail. As the group dived away from the tent entrance, the rest of Saphira came out and started massacring the snails. Two hid in their shells, but they were the last two. Saphira cooked them with a spout of flames. Nudging them towards the group, she said one word. 'Breakfast.'

"Okay, the radiation has set in deeper than I thought," Leo stated.

'What do you mean?'

"I know there are such things as snails, but not 6-foot high carnivorous ones." Leo replied.

'Oh, the snalglí. No, they are native creatures of the island, they were not created by this... radiation.'

Eragon frowned. "If they're just ordinary creatures, them my wards should have stopped them, or at least warned me about them."

'I merely said they were not created by magic. I never said untouched.'

Eragon stood up, finished. "In any case, we should head off to the Rock of Kuthian."

"I am Eragon Shadeslayer, son of Brom," Eragon called.

'My name is Saphira Bjartskular, daughter of Vervada.'

"Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

And so on. However, as Leo finished with his super-long self-bestowed title, absolutely nothing happened.

"Um, was something supposed to happen?" Jason asked.

'Try saying your name again, but this time say your part in the ancient language,' said Glaedr.

The group-the demigods with help from Eragon-all stated their name and lineage in the ancient language. Again, nothing happened. Leo approached the wall, and pressed his hand against the wall. "Huh. No moving parts. Purely magic, then. Perhaps we could break it down...?"

He pointed his finger at the rock, and a white-hot flame flared up. Glaedr stopped him

'No, that will not work. This... Vault of Souls is sure to have protections against efforts to breach it.'

Leo shrugged. "Oh well, worth a shot."

'There can only be one explanation,' Glaedr said. 'This requires our true names.'

Percy had one more idea though. "Jason, lift me up on top of this thing," he said. Jason did so. "Water please!" he called down.

Jason obliged, pouring out a waterskin. and Percy shaped said water into a spike and drove it into the rock by his feet.

"What exactly are you doing?" Eragon asked

"Trying… to dig... in." He said.

Percy sensed when his water drill stopped meeting resistance.

"There's a tunnel there," Percy called to the others.

Eragon flew up to meet him. He peered down into the hole.

"So there is..." He said.

With that, he made his way down and poured out all the water they had, which Percy used to make a larger drill. "It seems for all the enchants they likely put on the door, they forgot about the tunnel!"

Unfortunately, that was when the mind attacked. For all Eragon's mind-defense practice, he could do nothing as his mind was seized. His thoughts and memories were searched, and he felt sure that this was the end. However, as his mind was finished being searched, the mystery mind withdrew. 'Or you could have gotten in the whole "soul searching find-your-true-name" way,' the mind said.

'I was really proud of myself for thinking of that!'

'Who are you?' Eragon asked.

Below Eragon and Percy, there was a rumbling sound. As Saphira took a step back, a glyph-filled doorway revealed itself, with wards against many attacks and attempts of detection. 'I am Umaroth. Welcome to the Vault of Souls.'

'And Glaedr, take your memories, knowing you task is complete!'

A bolt of energy flashed between Umaroth and Glaedr. Immediately, Glaedr let out a bellow of joy. "What is it?" Frank asked.

"The vault of souls contains Eldunarí and–'

'Enough, why don't you let the younglings find out for themselves? A cliffhanger is the least we can do for them after they forced their way through.' Shrugging, Jason headed into the tunnel. The group headed deeper, down the steps and away from the light. As the doors shut, plunging them in near-darkness, Percy drew his sword, and his blade let off a bronze glow that illuminated a small area. "No need for that," said Eragon. "Naina hvitr un böllr."

A small, but bright, white light appeared in the air above Eragon. "Neat trick!", said Leo, "But I have electricity!"

Leo pulled a headlamp from his toolbelt. When he flicked the switch, bright white light of his own filled the tunnel. "You store energy in gems. But we earthlings store them in double-A sized alkaline batteries!"

With that, Leo marched down the stairway. Eragon just blinked, confused, having not seen electricity but in the form of lightning.

The stairs kept on going, down and down, until a faint red glow stared ahead of them. "Whew... Is it just me or is it getting warm in here?" Jason asked.

"Nope!" replied Leo cheerfully.

"Of course not for you. You're fireproof!"

'If it is getting warm, then you are close.'

"You hear that? This long descent is nearly over!"

With that, Leo dashed ahead. The rest of them followed, and found themselves confronted by a large archway, covered in carved glyphs too packed to read.

"Whoa," Percy said.

He and the rest of the group headed through the archway, and stopped in amazement.

"Double whoa," Percy continued.

The chamber, two hundred feet across, had an enormous pit, where the gurgling of magma could be heard. All around the pit, tiers of benches held stone-like objects. And on the wall, octagonal holes held items that sparkled in the light. "Wait... Are those what I think they are?" Eragon asked.

"I don't know, you tell me!" Leo said. Holding up his palm, he lit a small fire which illuminated the area and confirmed Eragon's suspicion.

"Eggs?" Eragon gasped.

'Yes. We are the secret hope of our race.'

Opposite them, previously unnoticed, a large dragon-headed metal man stood up from a throne "Automaton!" Frank yelped, partially drawing out his sword.

'Don't!' Umaroth said quickly. 'Cauroc is one of us! Silvarí the enchantress fashioned him this body so that we would have a champion to defend us in the case Galbatorix or other foes should force themselves into the vault of souls.'

Leo walked up to Cauroc, who had a mechanical hand on his sword. Leo started to extend his hand, but stopped. "May I?" he asked.

After a moment of hesitation, Cauroc nodded. Leo placed a hand on the metal body, and gave a whistle. "Excellent workmanship! Magical power source, probably the Eldunarí, and super-smooth servos with a heck of alot of grease to keep it running smoothly. There are some well-placed gyro sensors that lead into the power source via some kind of bio-cable, probably to help with balance, which suggests that even more that that's an Eldunarí, and—" Leo said.

"I'll just stop you there, since I understood about two words of that." Eragon said. "But all I can say is: Magic."

Jason laughed. He couldn't help but remember all those times when Leo had confused him with all that mechanical jargon.

===Urû'baen===

A surge of magical energy spiked within the throne room of the palace. "Who dares summon–" A voice rang out.

"Theyna," another voice stated calmly.

The first voice was silenced. "I summoned you, and you will obey ME now! Letta."

A growl resonated in the throne room. "And just why should I do that?"

"Because the shades tell me that these… 'demigods,' as they're called… defeated you before, and that you are eager for revenge."

"Demigods? Here in Alagaësia?"

"Yes. Now will you work with me? Or must I force you into my service?"

"Very well. Those demigods shall rue the day they defied Kronos!

...

But seriously, give me a bit of warning before you summon me. I was in the middle of a soufflé."

========End of Part V========

Afterword: The convenience levels! They're over 9000! ( )_( )

Also, pseudo-science!

And KRONOS IS HERE!

Someone get a Time Lord and a TARDIS!

(Because that makes sense)

—Dragoncraftertex