Author notes: This is inspired by the fanfic, Huntik: Treasure of the Gods. Yes, I know that I made Lok a bit OP in this fanfic.
Sorry for the wait I've been preoccupied with more hours at work, and also getting used to working overnights
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE FRANCHISE: HUNTIK SECRETS AND SEEKERS
"Someone Talking"
'Someone Thinking'
Walking down the stairs of the hidden trance that Lok had found they began heading deeper in, scaring a few rats as they were walking. Dante obviously took the lead as they were walking, with Sophie right behind him. When they reached the bottom of the stairs the stone was soon replaced by wood, while on the opposite side from where the group had come from lay a door.
Dante decided to shed some light to allow them to see better. "Boltflare!"
As Lok and Zhalia was walking he noticed a couple cobwebs showing that not a lot of people have been in here, at least not for a while. With that he kept walking and saw Dante kneeling down on the floor looking at something, while Sophie and Peter looking curiously from behind him. Zhalia was still standing next to Lok keeping an eye out for any possible traps, or ambushes.
Sophie began asking Dante a question, "you said you thought there was more to this place, Dante?"
"Quiet. This hallway is some kind of trap." Dante said as his still active Boltflare kept moving forward, deeper into the passageway. While Dante seemed to recognize what the trap was, Lok was unfortunately unable to recognize it due to lack of experience. With that Dante kept moving the others following behind. However Peter noticed writing on the walls and went to get a closer look.
"This is ancient French!" He said, while fishing out a flashlight from his bag. "I can decipher it!"
Dante upon hearing what Peter had just said immediately spun around and gave a warning, "Peter, don't!"
Unfortunately the warning came to late as upon the flashlight turning it hit a crystal located just above the French inscription that Peter was trying to translate. Soon the light bounced off the crystal and splitting while hitting other crystals, and soon the group was being bombarded by a light show, while at the same time the room that they were in had begun to make a rumbling sound as if something was moving underneath them.
Dante immediately grabbed Peter's wrist and gave a warning to the group as he began booking it, "Move!"
Dante and Peter had easily made it to the safety of the doorway, while after Dante had given the others the warning, the wooden floor underneath slanted into an empty deep pit. Fortunately Zhalia, Sophie, and Lok had been able to escape the room with ease. Albeit Lok had to use Hyperstride to jump from the slanting walkway into the open doorway.
"Thank goodness that everyone had been able to escape the trap with no injuries caused!" Cherit said from where he had been flying over the group.
Dante walked up to the three with Peter nervous, due to the trouble he had just caused the group.
"I'm sorry Mr. Vale, i.I didn't know."
"Relax. I know you're not a Seeker. You had no idea what you were getting yourself into." Dante replied to Peter trying to ease his mind, due to his inexperience with seeker powers, no one could blame him.
It was at that moment that Sophie came over and asked. "Dante. Why did Peter's light set off the trap when your spell didn't?"
"Boltflare is a magical light. It passed by because only Seekers are permitted here."
Lok couldn't help but ask as Dante began moving to an unopened door, "why is that?"
"Well, my guess is that this is a secret base for Seekers of centuries past." Upon finishing his sentence Dante opened the door and revealed to the group medieval themed room mostly of stone work like its columns, and statues. However it also had paintings depicting different battles of the era. Lok noticed that one of the paintings had immediately caught Sophie's attention due to her walking to stand next to it.
"Is that…Joan of Arc?" Sophie seemed to ask everyone in the room that question. With Dante answering from where he was making his way over to look at the notes on the desk of the room.
"She must have been the last seeker to use this hideaway."
This seemed to shock Lok, "So Joan of Arc was a Seeker?"
Peter added from where he was walking near Zhalia, "well if she was a Seeker, with a special titan or power, it would explain the visions she had that supposedly told her the future."
"One of the most powerful women in history. She died just a few miles from here! You know it's widely believed that she was descended from French royalty." Sophie explained while studying one of the statues.
Zhalia who had been leaning on a nearby column, looked at Sophie and said. "It must have been her regal blood. Great power comes from a noble family name- even a name like yours!"
Lok having no idea why Sophie and Zhalia could never see eye to eye asked Cherit why they acted like this constantly with one another. "What's with those two anyway."
Cherit sighed, and let his chin rest on his palm, before saying. "I've been about since before human history, but women still remain a mystery." He muttered to Lok.
Dante picked up the top-most notes on the desk, "These are Joan's notes, and the key to our next move." He said drawing everyone's attention as he put the note in one of his trench cost's pockets. With that the group exited the room and made their way to a Huntik run hotel in Rouen.
Whilst in their hotel room the group was doing their own things with Cherit getting creamed by Lok in chess. Sophie was going through the bookshelves, Zhalia was staring out a nearby window her back to everyone, Peter was getting everyone refreshments, and Dante was going over the notes left by Joan of Arc.
Suddenly Dante looked up from the notes he had been studying, and said, "okay team. It looks like Joan of Arc left us a map that will hopefully lead us to an artefact she buried somewhere in Paris."
Dante had set the map down so his holotome could scan it, while at the same time the group had convened at Dante's location. "A mystical ring which I believe has something to do with her legendary abilities. Our mission: The Mystery of the Paris Catacombs. We need to find where the secret entrance is located, explore the underground tombs, and come back with Joan of Arc's ring."
After Dante had finished the holotome produced a mission card which Dante immediately grabbed. Lok couldn't help but think something was off so asked, "it sounds a bit too easy Dante?"
Dante immediately grinned happy that Lok had caught on, before saying, yes Lok you would be correct because unfortunately the map that we have in our possession only shows the underground route. We have to find the entrance ourselves."
Sophie asked, "any clues?"
"Yeah, it can be see through the eyes of the most beloved lady," Dante replied.
Loki went over it in his head and asked, "So who is the most beloved woman in France?"
Sophie shook her head. "Not is, was."
Zhalia leaning on the book shelve couldn't help but ask. "Alright, but how are you meant to measure love?"
With that Sophie had begun pacing around the room, and answered Zhalia's question. "By the number of people who loved her. It's a riddle! Who was the lady loved by all? Our lady…"
Sophie stopped pacing realization on her face, "Notre Dame means our lady. It's the cathedral of Notre Dame."
Dante said, "Get ready. We're on the next train to Paris."
With that Peter said he was staying in Rouen so this was good bye for now, and with that the group were taking a train ride to Paris, and after a while the group now stood in front of Notre Dame. Soon after they heard a beeping coming from Dante's Holotome, and once Dante opened it Guggenheim's face was shown.
The holographic face soon began talking. "Dante, I see you've made it. Goodo."
"Guggenheim. Have they uncovered anything in the cathedral?" Dante said in greeting while also asking the question.
The man merely shook his holographic head as a negative. "Notre Dame has been a base of operations for the Foundation for decades, but they haven't got a scrap of information on the Ring of Arc."
Dante looked at the cathedral in front of him seriously. "And that just makes me more suspicious."
"Be careful, Dante, the Organization is on the move in Paris." Guggenheim finished, with Dante thanking his friend for the tip that he had given them, and with that Dante closed the Holotome.
Sophie walked up to Dante while looking at Notre Dame, "if Our Lady refers to this place. What does Notre Dame see? Where are the eyes on a cathedral?"
"On the statues, they are eyes on the statues." It was Lok who answered, and the statement by Lok immediately made everyone gain a nod in understanding.
"Well done, Lok!" Cherit complimented. But Lok wasn't finished yet.
"Also seeing as how the one on the east corner of the cathedral looks almost like the one from the cave," Lok said while pointing at the one he was talking about so the group could look.
"Nice job Lok, now let's go see what exactly the gargoyle is looking at. Seeing as how you were the one that ended up finding it, why don't you join me going up there."
"Sure."
With that they began climbing up the cathedral trying to reach the gargoyle that Lok had pointed out, as they were climbing they were getting buffeted by the strong winds. They were pretty soon able to reach a narrow ledge on the cathedral.
"Excellent work Lok, now follow my lead. Hyperstride!" With that Dante jumped off the ledge onto the opposite tower's wall and used that to jump onto the ledge that the gargoyle that they were after was on. Once Dante had reached there he turned to look down at Lok and said "your turn!"
Lok took a breath to calm himself, before running to the edge and shouted, "Hyperstride!". He was able to mimic what Dante had done. After which Lok took a moment to catch his breath given all the exercise that the group had been doing.
"Good job on being able to pull of the same maneuver, now let's see what the Gargoyle sees." Dante said pulling out a set of binoculars and handing them to Lok who took them and began looking around.
"I don't see anything special just a bunch of buildings." Lok told Dante, who answered with.
"To understand a riddle, you have to think like the person who wrote it."
'Well Joan of arc was very religious even I know that.' Lok thought before coming to a realization, and pointing out to Dante.
"Wait that old Church."
"Then we start there."
With that the duo started making their way down from the cathedral, being careful so as to not draw any unwanted attention to themselves. Once they reached the safety of the solid ground, they quickly pulled out a map of the nearby area and figured out which church the gargoyle had shown them. When they finally narrowed it down, they began making their way over to it.
Immediately upon arriving at the church they found that the doors of the place were chained together with a padlock.
"Huh this place looks like its been closed down for a while." Dante murmured, inspecting the padlock. Before pulling out lock picking set, that seemed to greatly surprise Sophie.
"We're breaking in?"
"Of course not. I'm merely picking the lock, not breaking it."
Zhalia who seemed to love to piss off Sophie said from where she was leaning against the wall. "It's something any real Seeker should already know how to do."
"What? How to break into churches?" Sophie angrily said while turning to face Zhalia.
"How to get the job done, no matter what's in the way."
"I am a real Seeker, Zhalia. I am the heiress to the Casterwill family, and you will not speak to me like that!" Lok tried to break up the cat fight that was about to happen, so as to not draw any attention to themselves hike Dante was working on getting themselves into the church.
"Hey! Sorry to interrupt but Dante's kind of picking a lock in broad daylight here! So, could you not draw so much attention to us?" This seemed to get the two to stop their petty argument, and not soon after Dante finished picking the lock to be able to get in.
"Alright! We're in!" Dante said, while opening the doors.
The group walked in, with Cherit exiting Loki's bag, now that they were inside with no innocents inside to end up seeing the Titan. Cherit cleared some of the dust from one of the windows while saying, "these stain glass windows are a sight!"
"Are you sure this is the right church? I don't see any clues." Sophie asked from where she was standing by an altar.
"My instincts tell me we'll know it when he see it." Dante told Sophie, while at the same time the man had begun studying a painting of Joan of Arc.
"Cool," Lok said while looking at the same painting.
"Hey, guys. Where exactly was the gargoyle of Our Lady looking?" Zhalia called out, as she was trying to shield her face from the beam of sunlight coming down from the top of the building.
Lok answered from where he was standing next to Dante, "the cross, at the top of the steeple."
"Well take a look." Zhalia said pointing above her, with the others in the group moving to see what Zhalia was pointing at, "the cross is at the top of this bell tower."
"Hey," Sophie said in wondering, "there's sunlight coming straight down here! How?"
Dante explained how, "reflection, there's a mirror up there reflecting light down."
Lok couldn't help but add, "and the gargoyle's gaze."
"That actually makes sense. The crystal trap from before worked off reflection too." Sophie said as the group was close to solving the mystery. Suddenly they heard an explosion from the way they entered the building.
"Stay here!" Dante ordered as he began running off to see what had caused the explosion. He peered around the edge of the room that they were in, and whispered back to the others, "find out how to open it- I'll buy you some time!"
With that their leader stealthily exited the room to give the others time to figure out a way to popes the secret entrance. Zhalia decided to stand near the exit to defend the others as they tried to open the slab.
"How can we open this? It's a huge marble slab!" Sophie asked while looking at the slab.
"There must be a device or mechanism somewhere." Lok said moving a nearby painting to hopefully reveal something, but sadly it was not the case.
"What are we going to do? He's badly outnumbered." Sophie said, beginning to lose her patience.
"Dante needs me." Sophie immediately rejected Zhalia's idea.
"No, Zhalia, he told us to figure this out so we can find the Ring of Arc."
Suddenly as Lok was looking around the room he noticed something that gave him an idea. So turning to look at Sophie he asked "Remember how Joan of Arc's first trap worked? Only a Seeker's light would let us pass. Let's try lighting up those mirrors up there!"
"But they'll know we're here!"
"Well we got to do something and quick! How long can Dante keep fighting out there?" Lok said.
"We only get one shot. As soon as I use the power, those suits will be all over us." Sophie warned Lok.
"We're out of time- just try it, Sophie!"
"Fine, just remember that this was your idea! Raypulse!" From Sophie's hand a beam of orange shot out, with it shooting off two mirrors before coming back down to hit the marble slab tipping it to allow entry into an underground tunnel system.
"It worked!" Sophie said in absolute amazement, while looking at the now revealed secret entrance to the catacombs. Soon after Zhalia ran over, and they all jumped down into the catacombs below.
"Men! It's over here!" The heard the man known as Grier shout, while hearing footsteps from above them.
"Hyperstride!" Dante yelled after as he was quickly able to get in before the organization, allowing Dante to reunite with his team.
"Are we going to make a stand here?" Zhalia called to Dante as he was making his way to their location, with the man merely shaking his head as a no.
"No. The Ring of Arc is our priority. If it has as much power as I think, we'll need it to fight the Organization."
The team began hearing the loud footsteps of several suits coming this way but luckily Dante halted their progress with a Touchram aimed at the ceiling to cause a rockslide to block the suit's progress
After escaping the organization for a time they had begun making their way through the cave system which had gems in the walls. Dante was no s
"I have a hunch that this is no dead end," Dante said as he proceeded to pull out Joan of Arcs notes from his trench coat, "these notes say to touch the stone of light and the pure of heart will pass."
Suddenly as Dante finished talking one of the germs begin glowing yellow. After which Dante with the group to touch it and then the cave walls opened to reveal the room that they could go through. All things were going well until Zhalia touched it and the ceiling brought rocks down on top of her as she made her way over to the group.
"Zhalia!" Surprisingly Sophie was the first to react and ran towards the currently trapped Zhalia was. With all three of them working together they were quickly able to free Zhalia, who reluctantly thanked them for the help.
With that the group exited the cave system and found themselves in a man made tunnel system.
"The ring chamber should be just ahead," Dante said pointing in front of where they currently stood. However something out of the corner of Lok's eye immediately caught his attention as he turned to find a puzzle box standing on a pedestal in a room off to the left of the group.
"I know that I've seen something like this before," Lok said moving to inspect the puzzle box, Sophie tried to get his attention.
"Wait Lok, we're supposed to follow the map." Sophie called out to Lok as he entered the room.
"I know I just want to take this with us so I can…" he didn't get to finish because as soon as Lok had picked up the puzzle the doorway was shut by a metal gate, sealing Lok and Cherit inside. To make matters worse the sides of the room gained spikes and started to close in on the pair.
"A trap!" Lok shouted as the pedestal the puzzle had been sitting on went back into the floor.
'Well' Lok thought 'the room must be connected to the puzzle, if i can solve it I may be let out before getting crushed.'
Lok could hear the others trying to get both him and Cherit out of the room that he was currently trapped in, but he was to busy trying to solve the puzzle to be let out of the room.
After finishing the puzzle moments before the spiked walls crushed both him and Cherit, the completed puzzle shattered to reveal a Meso-Titan amulet now resting in Lok's hands. The Titan inside instantly bonded with Lok, and revealed itself to be a small, gray, muscular, raccoon looking like Titan with two tails, before returning to its amulet. With that the previously closed dooor behind him opened to let him reunite with the group. Lok was quick to show the others his new Titan with Dante even borrowing it to check out his stats.
"The puzzle hid a Titan, he bonded with me," Lok said excited about the prospect of finally getting a no Gaia Titan in his collection.
"Well done, let's take a look at your new friend with the holo tome."
Springer - Attack 1 - Defense 1 - Meso-Titan Scout - Size - Small - Special Abilities - Skilled at solving complex puzzles and intricate traps
Dante hummed while nodding at the new Titan before saying, "you found springer, you two have a lot in common, then"
Suddenly a explosion opened the path to let some organization grunts enter.
"Let's move the organization is catching up with us," Dante urged them to keep moving, so they did. Pretty soon they had been able to escape the organization and made it to a wooden door.
"The ring of Arc," Dante said pushing open the door to reveal a floating ring that glowed with an orange light. Guarding the ring was a hallway of armor that didn't do anything as the group walked to get closer to the ring.
Suddenly the weapons that the armors had been holding came to life and circled the group.
Sophie asked, "is it the organization! How could they get here before us?"
I have a feeling that it's much worse then that, it's the knights of Arc's inner circle. Hand to hand titans only, Caliban!"
"Gawain!"
"Sabriel!"
"Killthane!"
With that each member of the group had summoned their respective close quarters Titan to defend them from the trap. Gawain was blocking a morning star from nailing Lok in the head, but sadly he was the first one that was sent back to his amulet.
"This is bad."
"Maybe there's a easier way, Breakspell." Sophie said as she attempted to takeout the floating weapons with little success.
Suddenly Lok and Cherit were pinned by one of the floating swords. But luckily Lok had a plan he just needed to wait a moment for the time to enact it. As the sword was about to stab him he used hyperstride to dodge to the left accidentally knocking one of the armor sets over. This also showed the group where to aim for to take down the trap, which couldn't have come at a better time as the floating weapons were cutting through the remaining titans.
"Group up!" Dante hollered, with the team doing as they were told.
"Target the knights not the weapons." As he used one of the swords to knock the helmet off one of the knights.
Sophie came to a realization, "the source of the enchantment is the armor, so breakspell!"
Sophie and Dante proceeded to blast the knights sending them toppling over disabling the trap.
As Sophie was currently exhausted with Dante helping her. Zhalia and Lok rain up to the ring with Zhalia smashing open the glass so that Lok could grab it.distantly he heard Dante yell at them to wait, but by then Lok had already grabbed the ring. Which showed him a mysterious man, fire heralding the arrival of several redcaps, the defeat of Dante, and an image of his dad, then the scene changed to the mysterious man ordering a army of suits. Then the scene ended with Lok falling to the ground.
Dante began talking still holding Sophie, "We have to find a way to contain the ring, it's under a curse, and we must prevent it from falling in to the hands of the organization."
"How are we going to escape carrying her." Zhalia said as Sophie was still drained from disabling the previous trap.
"And when we try to grab the ring it goes crazy, so what do we do." Lok said bring up another problem that they were currently faced with.
"Lok there's no time we've got to do something right now!" Cherit said urgently as the ring began glowing green.
To be continued
Author's Notes- Hello Everyone I really hope that you enjoyed the chapter. See you all next time when the next chapter is posted.
Answering review:
God of wind: thank you for the review, and as for you suggestion on a Titan to give Sophie it's definitely a possible idea, I'll just need to figure out a location that Defoe can find an object containing it similar to canon on how Defoe found the sword containing Lindorm.