Happy new year! Here is the next chapter for the story. Enjoy :)

Chapter 3

Zylus walked in front as he, Rynoh and Bash made their way along a downward-slanting tunnel of worked stone. He held his x-reader out before him, though its meager glow was of little use against the brooding darkness that hung thick about them. They rounded a bend in the tunnel, and without warning they suddenly stepped out under the high ceiling of the immense cavern they had seen from the ledge.

''Hey, look at that,'' Zylus exclaimed, pointing his x-reader down to illuminate the ground at their feet, revealing a paved street of white cobblestones. He moved over to the side then, to what he had initially thought to be a rocky outcropping of stone, but recognized now, as the glow of the x-reader came upon the stone, that it was the white wall of a house. ''This must be another town.''

They walked on for a few minutes, until they came to what appeared to be the town-square: a paved circle of white cobblestones, ringed by several large houses, and with a dried up fountain in the center. There was more light in this place – enough so that the Battacor could see each other – for spaced evenly amid the cobblestones were strange crystals that gave off light.

The buildings ringing the town-square were impressive to say the least, some with many stories, and others seemingly with just one, though it was possible that those buildings went down into deeper caves, rather than up towards the cavernous ceiling.

One building in particular caught the Battacor's attention, a huge, four story one, with chiseled stairs leading up to the house's main door. It was a gigantic affair, that door, flanked on either side by statues of robed men, scrolls tucked under the arm furthest from the door, the other hand out to the side, as if in invitation.

''Maybe the relic is in there,'' Rynoh suggested.

Zylus, on recognizing that it was as good a guess as they had – his x-reader only pointed out the area in which the relic could be found, after all, and not its exact location – just shrugged and motioned for his companions to follow him. Up the stairs they went, and between the statues, the trio noting that their eyes were made of the same type of crystal that had illuminated the town-square.

Zylus kicked open the door and stormed in, Rynoh and Bash on his heels.

The building's interior was equally well lit as the town-square, if not better, with beautiful chandeliers – made of silver and trimmed in gold, and lit by the glowing crystals – hanging from the ceiling. The paved floor was of black and white stone-tiles, so that it somewhat resembled an enormous chess-board, and that resemblance was only heightened by the place's many statues, some white and others black, all placed on a tile of the opposite color.

''Alright boys,'' Zylus exclaimed, ''let's find that kairu.''

The search began in earnest then, with the Battacor moving from one beautifully decorated room to the other, all but ignoring the architectural splendor all around them, and they even went so far as to push over furniture, damaging it in the process, though they felt not the slightest remorse at their blatant vandalizing.

Some time later, the Battacor came into a slightly darker room – a private study judging from the rows of bookcases lining the walls and from the huge desk in the room's center – and they decided to rest for a few minutes. ''Which one of you had the bright idea to go this way?'' Zylus snapped at his two companions, in his whiny, nasal voice, ''we should have gone the other way.''

''It was your idea, Zylus,'' Rynoh retorted.

''Actually, the idea was yours, genius,'' Bash snapped at Rynoh.

''Guys,'' Zylus cut in, his bluster gone.

''Well, at least I have ideas,'' Rynoh snapped back at Bash.

''Yeah, dumb ones,'' Bash retorted.

''Guys,'' Zylus said again, this time louder and more forcefully.

''What?'' Rynoh and Bash snapped back in unison.

Zylus did not reply, just pointed – with a shaky finger, the other two noted – to the room's only door, or more particularly, to the diminutive figure that now stood in the door frame.

xxxxx

''Ida,'' Maya said to her two companions, breaking the almost tangible silence, as the three of them made their way down the stairway of chiseled stone.

''What?'' Boomer, who brought up the rear of the line, with Maya walking in the front and Ky in the middle, asked in a harsh tone. He had not intended for the words to come out so harshly, but he was a bit on edge, for he had always been frightened of tight spaces, always fearing that he, with his great bulk, would get stuck. That is why he chose to walk in the rear, so that in case his his claustrophobia got the better of him and and he would charge for the exit, he would not trample Ky and Maya into the ground in the process.

Maya, understanding the stocky youth's distress, took no offense. ''This mountain,'' she explained, trying to divert Boomer's attention from his own claustrophobia, ''it's called Ida. I read about it in my history studies tablet. It was supposedly home to great craftspeople and stonemasons, no doubt the ones who built the city outside, who called themselves the dactyls; named after the mythological creatures of the same name, who were associated with this mountain.''

The trio reached level ground again a short while later, and then they were faced with a dilemma; a fork in the tunnel, one path going level and straight ahead, while the other sloped down gently.

''I say we go straight ahead,'' Boomer suggested, obviously hoping that they would all choose to stick to level ground, and thus not descend any deeper into the bowls of the mountain, ''so who's with me?''

Maya closed her eyes and concentrated, and a few seconds later she opened her eyes again. ''I'm sorry, Boom, but that tunnel does not lead to the relic'' she said apologetically, then she pointed to the other path. ''I can sense it somewhere at the end of that tunnel, though.''

''Well, at least I tried,'' Boomer mumbled to himself, then he followed his friends into the tunnel.

xxxxx

''What do you want?'' Bash demanded – with a noticeable quiver in his voice – of the figure standing in the door frame. They could not discern its features, for though the room was lit by a chandelier, the glow of the peculiar crystals did not reach the figure.

Its height and basic shape were discernible, though; it stood at about three feet tall, and would perhaps have stood taller, had it not been for its stooped posture. Its arms were long, and, with the aid of its stooped back, almost reached its knees. Its eyes, however, were perfectly visible, for they seemed to possess their own inner glow, shining yellow-green through the gloom.

With a guttural howl that sent shivers down the spines of the three e-teens, the creature leaped at them, and as it came into the light of the chandelier, they could see its ugly features clearly. Its nose and chin were thin, narrowing into two points, and protruded several inches from its ugly face, and its slavering mouth, now open wide, was lined by jagged and pointed, yellow-stained teeth. Its skin was pasty-white, and seemed to gleam in the pale light of the chandelier.

The creature's trajectory would have crashed into Bash, but the burly e-teen met it with a heavy punch that smote it heavily across the jaw and sent it flying backwards to crash hard to the ground, sprawling on the tiled floor.

Zylus and Rynoh, after getting over their initial horror at the creature's abrupt appearance, assumed battle-stances, but realized then that the thing wasn't getting up anytime soon. It managed to rise up on its elbows, but that was the extent to which it could rise, for its sensibilities spun from the hit, its ugly little head lolling awkwardly about on its shoulders.

''Well, that's the end of that,'' Zylus said, then he chuckled, trying to hide the fact that he had been stricken dumb with terror.

''That runt thought he could take us down,'' Bash laughed, then he spat on the floor, ''yeah right.''

''Bros,'' Rynoh said in a tiny voice, pointing to the door, ''I think he has friends.''

Into the room they poured, the hideous little creatures, one after the other, until the room was packet full. Bash was the first to explode into motion, launching powerful punches and kicks, dropping one creature after the other to the floor, and Zylus and Rynoh were quick to follow suit. Fortunately the room was not very large, so only a few of the things could get at them at any given time.

Before long, the creatures began to realize that to get close to the trio was to get knocked to the ground, and so they began to fall back toward the door. The Battacor fought on all the more furiously, until they were out of the room and out into the hallway. While there were many creatures on both sides of the corridor, there were much fewer on their right, and so they ploughed on in that direction, sweeping aside any creature unfortunate enough to try to stand against them.

The Battacor did not realize it but the creatures, who had probably never stepped out under the open sky and seen the sun, squinted in the light, and were thus less formidable opponents by far than if they were fighting in complete blackness.

A few minutes later, the Battacor could see the door that led out into the town-square, and upon realizing that, they broke off from combat and sprinted for the exit, their longer legs putting more distance between themselves and the little beasts. As soon as they were outside, Zylus pivoted and launched a pair of bone crusher attacks at the two statues flanking the great door. The statues fell to the side, and broke apart into rubble, thus blocking the way through the door, leaving the creatures stuck inside the building, on the opposite side of the barrier.

''I say we ditch this dump,'' Rynoh suggested, panting heavily.

''We can't,'' Zylus lamented, ''we have to get that kairu-relic, or master Lokar will have our hides.'' He pointed at another building, a low to the ground structure, with a wide set of double doors. ''I say we continue searching in that building.''

''Oh man,'' Rynoh lamented, before following Zylus and Bash into the building.

xxxxx

''What was that?'' Ky asked his two companions, as the sound of stone being shattered tore through the air, and a slight shudder coursed through the ground of the slanting tunnel they were moving along.

''Probably the Battacor,'' Maya surmised, ''those vandals are probably busy laying waste to whatever is down there. Just wait until I get my hands on them.'' Ky and Boomer smiled and nodded.

xxxxx

This building was not quite as regal as the previous the Battacor had searched through; as a matter of fact, it would be hard to label it as regal at all, for while the other one had had a tiled floor of white and black stone, the floor of this building was just dull, gray stone, though it had been polished to a smooth finish.

The furniture in this building was all wood, bookcases and bookshelves of various makes, shapes and sizes, all rotted and covered in cobwebs. And in those shelves and bookcases were score upon score of old and dusty scrolls, most of which seemed so ancient and rotted that they would just fall into dust at the slightest touch. What little light was available in this building came from crystals embedded in the stone-walls, which had also been polished to porcelain smoothness.

Zylus and his two cohorts began their search, moving from room to unremarkable room, but found nothing save for dust and cobwebs, which were abundant, and seemed as ancient as the place itself. Eventually, they came into a room which contained a stairway that led down to a lower floor.

Reluctantly the three e-teens made their way down the stairway, until they came into a large room, dark and containing rows of rotted wooden shelves, laden with many, many scrolls and scroll-tubes. A miriad of scrolls and scroll-tubes were strewn across the floor. In the center of the room there stood a statue of an old man, wearing a voluminous robe and sandals, with his long beard hanging over his chest, and with scrolls tucked under one arm.

Zylus took up his x-reader, and the small device began to ''beep'' eagerly.

''We found it boys,'' Zylus exclaimed, his hands planted on his hips, a stupidly proud look on his face, ''master Lokar's gonna be so stoked.'' He took a step toward the statue, but so did Bash, the burly e-teen tripping over Zylus' foot, and falling headlong to crash heavily against the statue, which fell over, shattering into pieces.

Zylus was about to give Bash a substantial piece of his mind and knock him silly, but before he even got the chance, the kairu-energy from the relic rose ominously from the pile of rocks like a tidal-wave. The faces of the e-teens crinkled up with confusion, for this energy was not the bluish-white color of pure kairu, nor was it the purplish-black color of black kairu, but a light shade of gray; a color of the energy hitherto unknown to the brutish members of Team Battacor.

''What in the,'' Zylus began, but he could say no more, for the mysterious energy lashed out at them, enveloping the screaming e-teens in a dizzying swirl of gray, merging with their very being, and turning their eyes a shade of gray.

To be continued...