spiritfire: This the end of the endless update week and now its back to my usual sked damn... and again all their sayings in their heads are all in italics…(sips chinese tea) and I don't owe Yu-gi-oh
XIV. Abyss
Dark and his group left Alexandria to their next destination: Mt. Cross. It is rumored that the source of the monster activity in Lunar resided there, maybe. According to Zidane, the mountain is filled with mazes like a labyrinth. Rare items are also located there and some say that if you beat the master of the mountain, the whole continent will be free. But to those who tried this task had never heard from them again. And now, they're going on a steep path to reach the entrance.
"How long are we gonna walk this blasted steep?" Dark asked, complaining. He was already panting heavily and his legs nearly lost its energy to walk
"It shouldn't be that long" Zidane replied, whistling as he trekked along. It was nothing unusual. He already done very long walks during his adventure
"Is it your first time hiking this mountain?" Mahad asked as he continued to walked along
"Yeah, I never left my home before and the only time I went out to that fucking place is when I decided to skip class" Dark growled coldly. "It's always like this: 'no day off', 'practice your magic', 'don't go out because you're the 'survivor and we can't risk you going out'"
"And I thought being royalty was bad" Yami said, rollinh his eyes in annoymenet. Dark suddenly fell on his knees and panting heavily. He was not used to walk like this. The prince noticed this and kneeled sown, hands on the back
"I'll carry you on my back" Yami smiled and Dark was reluctant at first. It took all of Mahad persuasion for the spiky haired boy to do as the prince says so Dark hopped on and Yami stood up then they continued walking. He smelled something good as they went
"My god...is this colonge I smell?" Dark asked himself. "Hmph, hate to admit it but he smells good"
"I think you're enjoying this, eh?" Zidane smirked and Dark went red but Yami didn't mind
"Shut the hell up!" Dark yelled and the three of them laughed leaving him even redder
- - -
At the heart of Mt. Cross, a pair of glowing yellow eyes appeared in the darkness. It sensed visitors at its wake then the glowing eyes disappeared.
Back at the entrance, Yami and Dark began to have a headache as they arrived the mountain
"Are you guys alright?" Zidane asked as he sat down to rest
"We're fine" the two of them said but from their faces they weren't that alright. While Zidane and Mahad took a break, Yami and Dark began to huddle together.
"Did you sensed what I just sensed?" Yami asked in a whisper so that no one can hear them
"Yes but it seems kinda odd, I don't like this place" Dark repliede as he glance at the entrance
"I don't want to raise alarm so we better be on guard" Yami said and Mahad called them to get ready. The group stood up and entered the mountain
- - -
Inside the mountain was full of stalagmite and stalacite. With Zidane leading them, it was easy except for the fact that vicious monster activity was medium high. As they went further, the light inside was getting darker and darker. Soon they found themselves in the labyrinth and of course it wasn't THAT easy
"So the labyrinth part is true, eh?" Mahad chuckled as they continued to walk the path of the maze
"I sensed eerie in this place" Dark said and accidentally Zidane step on some knid of switch on the floor. They began to hear sounds and it was getting closer and closer. All of a sudden, a big boulder came rolling down the maze and headed towards them.
"RUN!" Dark yelled and everyone ran with their lives
"Zidane, why didn't you tell us that they're traps in this caaaaave?" Yami yelled frantically as continued to ran faster
"I-I-I didn't know. When I first came here, I never encountered these traps" Zidane replied ,paniking
"This is stupid!" Dark said and stopped running. He took the Valkyria Key, change it to Apprentice Rod and used Fire Slash to slice the boulder in half. Everyone sighed in relief.
"Next time, watch your step" Mahad frowned and everyone was panting heavily. Suddenly, another boulder came rolling down the maze and everyone has to run for their lives again.
"What is this? Some kind of a bad joke!" Dark said angrily as he used Fire Slash to slice the boulders again in half but this time they continued rolling down.
"What now?" Yami asked. "I'm open for any ideas and suggestions here"
Zidane began to look left and right to see if there's any path for them to hide with. The boulder is still rolling so with his quick agility skills, he told them that they should hide at the leftmost corner so they followed him and began to slipped away from the boulders. Everyone was panting really heavily as the boulder passed away from the distance
"Thank goodness" Mahad said as he sat down to rest for a bit
"That wasn't bad now wasn't it" Zidane grinned but everyone stared angrily at him in disbelief
"Not really" Dark said, frowning
"I even lost my respect on him" Yami added
"Mine also" Mahad agreed and Zidane hung his head shamefully
"At least we're okay" Zidane said and he poked his face out then he look from both sides. It seems that the boulders are gone so the four of them continued their exploring
- - -
No one knows how long or how far Mt. Cross is but suffice to say and judgement of everyone, it was a tad bit long. No one knoiws for sure what would await them. Yami kept looking around until he saw a particular item that catches his eye.
"What's this?" Yami asked as he examined some kind of small bottle. It was filled with some kind of red liquid
"Let me see" Zidane said and the prince handed it to him.
"...Lucky you...this item is a Fire Bottle" he said and everyone's mond was filled with questions especially Dark
"Fire Bottle? What's that?"Dark asked curiously
"It contains Fire essence in it and when you throw it, fire comes out. It's really handy if you throw it at the enemy" Zidane replied. "You better keep this" and with that he gave the bottle to Yami for safekeeping
"Is this one of the rare items we heard so much about?" Mahad asked and Zidane nodded
"...That's perculiar" Dark shrugged and as they continued on, they came across some kind of bridge
"Zidane, did you went here from this point?" Mahad asked and Zidane began to look then he nods
"Hmmm...looks like the bridge is steady enough for all of us to cross but..." Dark said and saw that there was a bottomless chasm below them
"Then we go one at a time" Yami said and everyone followed. Fortunately for them, they walked across safely from the other side and it seems that they noticed one thing: the place is getting a bit colder by the second
"So where do we go from here?" Dark asked
"...From this point on, we really have to be careful here" Zidane said, his mouth was on a grim line
"Why?" Yami asked and suddenly leeches appeared out of nowhere. They were not normal leeches and it was a bit large and also they had sharp teeth
"Oh no, leeches!" Dark panicked. "This is bad"
"Tell me about it" Zidane said as he sliced them with his Swallow weapon
"Would you mind tell me what they are?" Mahad asked, shouting as he used his magic to blast them
"Normal leeches are usually small and used for medicine but these leeches are bloodsuckers so whatever you do, don't let them go near any of your body parts" Yami replied, blasting one of the leeches away from him
"How do we escape from them?" Zidane asked as he continued the attack
"...Let me think..." Dark said as he killed another one then an idea popped his head
"Fire!" Dark chanted and suddenly the leeches flee with fright
"Fire? Why?" Mahad asked as he killed another one
"Simple, we blast them with fire but one problem: I don't know how many they are" Dark said as he continued to use his Fire Magic
"Wait...the Flare Bomb and the Fire Bottle"Mahad exclaimed and he took out his item that Dark gave him in Moon Village via Cresent Forest and Yami took out the bottle he recently got
"Throw it now" Zidane yelled and the two of them did so sending all the leeches flying. Some of them died while the rest of them flee.
"This is our chance run!" Dark said and everyone ran as fast as they could while the leeches are still distracted. Lucky for them, they were able to escape.
"First the boulders then the leeches, what's next... spikes appeared out of nowhere...I can't believe this place had booby traps" Zidane complained then suddenly spikes from above them did began to fall
"You really have to open your big mouth" the three of them said in annoyment as they ran again to avoid any hits from the falling spikes. Little did they know that somethinhg was watching them with a pair of glowing yellow eyes.
- - -
"Next time, shut your mouth, you might cause this mountain to have booby traps again" Dark said as all of them were tired from running. They were now at the darker part of the mountain and Zidane wonders when did he get there.
"This is odd...I never went that far before" Zidane said, crossing his hands with a serious look in his face
"Um...really?" Yami asked and he nods
"What do you mean by that?" Mahad asked
"The last time I went there was when the leeches nearly sucked my blood and I had to flee from here" Zidane said, frowning
"If what you said was true then where aren we?" Dark asked
"If my calculations are correct, we should be near at the heart of this mountain" Zidane replied as he took a glance on a straight path ahead of him
"The heart of Mt.Cross?" Yami wondered. "What was it like?"
"To tell you the truth I don't know but what I know is that there was a monster or guardian in there with a pair of glowing yellow eyes" Zidane said truthfully
"So you're saying is until now no one has ever reached this far?" Mahad asked
"Exactly" Zidane said with approval and with that everyone is ready to move on
"I should probably warn you guys, now: That thing is damn powerful, I can sense ever since we past the leeches" he added
"We're aware of that already" Yami and Dark said
"Since when?" Mahad asked and Zidane stared in disbelief
"Since we were at the entrance of this mountain that time before we came in" Dark replied coolly
"Oh...Never mind, shall we" Zidane said and the group continued their exploration
- - -
The group finally arrived at the heart of Mt.Cross. Like our body, it supports the life force of every living thing only that it seems that mountain is living thing sort of. So far, there were no traps, no monsters not even unexpected objects coming down.
"Wow, I never seen those before" Dark stared as the entire cavern was decorated with colors. Unlike the entrance, it was not filled with the same rocks.
"Hmmmm...something's fishy here" Zidane mused himself as he looked around some more
"...Odd, I didn't sense anything from here..." Yami said and suddenly a cold air was chilling from their necks. All of a sudden something or someone came from above. It was too fast that everyone can't see it
"What's going on?" Dark asked as he tried to focus whatever was going on
"I don't know" Zidane grunted, trying to slash whatever it is. The object took form and it was some kind of a half-lion and half-tiger. It had the strong body of a lion, the speed of a tiger, a strong long tail and the face of a mixed breed. It has yellow glowing eyes previously at the entrance and now its attacking them one by one.
"What the hell is that?" Yami asked, staring at the creature
"I don't know but I strongly felt that this is the monster or guardian of this mountain" Zidane replied and the creature began to pounced at him.
"...There's something familiar about that creature..." Dark said as he tried to remember what it is then suddenly the monster caught him by surprised and lunged him at the ground
"Dark!" Yami panicked and the boy tried to struggle
"Let me go" Dark growled but the creature continued to tighten his grip on him
"Now what? We can't afford to harm him" Zidane said, ready to slash him but suddenly the creature used its tail to disarm him.
"...Eres trande so ka (What do you want?) " Dark hissed and to everyone's amazement the creature let go of Dark. He stood up and to everyone's amazement his eye color turned to silver.
"Okay, what gives?" Zidane questioned
"Yami, is this the unknown language you were talking about back in Moon Village?" Mahad asked
"Yes, but it would be better if we let Dark handle this. Something tells me that he can do something with this creature" Yami replied as he observed them
"That's for you to know and for me to find out" the creature said in Dark's head growling
"Wa fure da ore casa da mone acti ni sthi conde? (Were you the one causing the monster activity in this continent?)" Dark hissed again and this time the creature roared in fury
"So you knew?" the creature asked smirking
"...Eide shinaikura(Die imbecile)" Dark hissed coldly and the Apprentice Rod appeared from his hand pointing at the creature's face. He began to cast offensive magic at it
"Gravity!" he chanted and to Mahad and Zidane's amazement the force of the dark magic grought the creature to its kness but unfortunately it wasn't powerful enough.
"Uh, I don't know what's going on but I think we better kick this little guy goodbye" Zidane said as he quickly picked his dropped weapon on the floor
"Thievery!" Zidane chanted and white aura began to surround him then out of nowhere a treasure box suddenly dropped. The creature got curious and opened it
"I wouldn't opened it if I were you" Zidane smirked and all of a sudden the treasure began to explode and hit the creature a lot
"That's a good start" Mahad chuckled as he began to charge his staff
- - -
spiritfire: Mwahahaha I like cliffhangers and by the way if you guys want to review you have no choice but to sign up because I receive my first FLAME in my first fanfic and it made to the 100th review I WON'T CONGRATS THAT REVIEWER I'LL STRANGLE THAT PERSON UNTIL HE FUCKIN DEAD TO KINGDOM COME! (breathes heavily) so R and R