"That… was a very fast bond," Dante breathed, staring at Snakes new Titan.
The Mara looked something like a large snake with iridescent scales of a myriad of colours. As it opened its mouth, a tongue of flame licked out to taste the air.
"I'm surprised you're taking this so well," Eagle commented. "Given what the murals back there indicate about the Mara. Or its last Seeker, anyway."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, they seem to show the Buddha and the Mara in conflict. Or possibly an early Buddhist Seeker. And with the Buddhas whole deal being enlightenment…"
"Who was the Seeker opposing him," Dante finished the thought.
For Snake to bond with the Mara so quickly, he had to be very similar to the Titans last Seeker. Which didn't exactly say anything promising about his character.
On the other hand, Snake didn't come across like that.
Rather than any kind of hostility, he had chosen diplomacy to deal with him and Metz. So how was Snake like this ancient Seeker, one who was shown as an enemy of the Buddha?
Unless…
"What if we're making the wrong conclusions," Dante suggested.
"How do you mean?"
"This place was built by the winners of the encounter shown in the murals, but it has lethal traps. Buddhists are pacifists, they avoid conflict or killing if possible, so while it comes off as being built by Buddhists, what if they weren't? If they simply thought of themselves as following the teachings of Buddhism without understanding them? So while we thought the Mara had an evil Seeker and the Buddhist Seeker was good…"
Eagle nodded slowly in understanding.
"I get your point, but good and evil are a societal construct. They aren't some cosmic truth set in stone. The 'heroes' of one era are the 'villains' of another. And after all, does anyone see themself as the bad guy?"
"I see your point," Dante accepted.
Towards the center of the room, Snake was finishing his initial examination of his new Titan and starting to move towards them.
"So, any idea what Mara can do?"
"Only really one way to find out," Dante answered Snake, reaching into his kit to bring out his holotome.
"That looks like a technomicon," Eagle stated, taking a step away.
"It's a holotome," Dante responded. "An attempt to recreate the Casterwill families Cypherdex so Seekers outside the family could benefit from its abilities, such as scanning amulets. Let me show you," he requested, opening the tome.
He drew out one of his lesser amulets, placing it above the holotomes scanner.
It took a moment for the scan to complete, an image of Solwing appearing next to the amulet.
"Solwing," the holotome stated in a female voice. "Krono Titan scout. Attack, 1. Defence, 1. Size: small. Special abilities: flight."
"Do all holotomes use female voices, or was that something you asked for?"
"It's part of the design," Dante told Eagle coldly.
"What does it mean by attack and defence? You can't just boil such things down to numbers."
Dante shrugged, retrieving Solwings amulet.
"It is something of an approximation, but generally speaking a Titan with a lower attack rating will be unable to harm a Titan with a higher defence rating without help."
"If you're going to be so kind as to let me scan my amulets, I have another I'd like to check first."
"Sure," Dante permitted.
"Well of course you're going to agree, this way you learn about Snakes Titans just as much as he does," Eagle pointed out as Snake placed his amulet on the holotome.
"Heirospecter," the holotome stated, displaying the Titan. "Hecto Titan explorer. Attack, 2. Defence, 2. Size: medium. Special abilities: stealth, Everlive."
"What does it mean, Everlive?"
The holotome answered.
"The Sand Snakes can restore Heirospecter by chanting a spell in an ancient language. Likewise Heirospecter can allow its allies to recover from battle."
"Huh, the tome responds to voice commands?"
"I was expecting you to be more impressed by the holograms," Dante commented dryly.
"The Organisations technonomicon does the same thing," Eagle shrugged.
"Our holographic tech is smaller," Snake contributed.
"Non Seekers have the technology now? We weren't expecting that so soon. I'll have to pass that on to someone. But I doubt you have the same scanning abilities of the holotome."
"That is true," Snake acknowledged.
"Well, I'm sure you'll be able to negotiate with the Foundation about getting access to what you need to upgrade what you're using the technology in. Every Seeker group seems to have their own holotome variant anyway, so I don't see anyone protesting."
"It does sound a bit late to worry about," Snake agreed, before placing Maras amulet on the holotome, the Titan recalling itself at some point during the discussion.
"Mara," the holotome identified. "Yama Titan enchanter. Attack, 2. Defence, 4. Size: medium. Special abilities: project illusion, fire breathing."
"Interesting. Do the attack and defence values include the Titans abilities? And how are Titans classified?"
"Honestly, I think it varies from Titan to Titan whether the abilities are counted. And the classification obviously comes in two parts. The first mostly identifies where the Titan came from, while also giving an idea of how hard they can be to control. The second part is all about what role the Titan is best suited to. Scouts and explorers for, well, scouting, sentinels and warriors for direct combat, blasters and sharpshooters for ranged attacks, enchanters and sorcerers for magic."
"Warriors and sentinels offensive and defensive, obviously, but what about the others?"
"I wasn't the one who came up with the classifications, so I couldn't say for sure. I think the main difference between scouts and explorers is that explorers are humanoid, from experience I think blasters have more powerful attacks than sharpshooters, and sorcerers are more direct in what they do."
Dante shrugged.
"To be honest, I don't even know where the holotome gets its information from. I've never found any indications of an internal database, so it could be recorded on the amulets somehow. In all honesty, there is a lot we don't know about everything. Like how Casterwill first crafted amulets to summon Titans to protect the world from the Nullifiers."
"Right, Nullifiers. I knew 'Null' was part of it. But you guys really have his name down as 'Casterwill'?"
"His descendants have been Seekers as far back as our history goes, and were founding members of the Foundation. Their records leave no doubt about his name."
"Unless they edited the history to make themselves sound better. I mean, it's what I'd do if my legendary ancestor was, what, the ancient word for village idiot? I don't do well coming up with names."
"From what I've heard of the Casterwill family, that isn't something they'd do," Dante protested. He took one last look around the chamber. "If this was a Foundation mission, we'd do one last search for any other Seeker relics, then head back out, but I guess we're only actually after any amulets right now. Time to head back out, make sure the traps aren't working."
]
The trip back through the complex was a lot less exciting than on the way in.
Not just because of them having overcome the trials, and therefore knowing what to expect, but also due to all the illusions having disappeared.
As a result, they simply saw the rooms and passages they passed through as they really were.
The room of seductresses had a few provocatively posed statues that had the same body shape as the illusions they had encountered, but there was no other sign of the seductresses themselves and only the last remnants of the beds they had seen on the way in.
Likewise the food room had only scraps from the tables and murals showing the food they had seen when they passed through.
"Focal points to strengthen the illusions," Eagle had explained. "If you can't find a way past the illusions, break them and you can destroy the illusions too."
On the other hand, the only difference in the hall of gemstones was that the entrance and exit were now visible, along with odd slabs in the other archways.
"Looks like they charge the traps off the Seeker who triggers the trap," was Dantes conclusion. "One way go keep it active for as long as the place needs the traps."
"They didn't just power it off the Titan?"
"I'm hardly an expert, but it could be they could either use the Titan for the traps or the illusions, and chose to do the traps themselves."
One thing that did become apparent was that every room and passage had gemstones embedded in the walls, ceiling or even floor.
Consensus was that all of the gemstones were the emitters for the traps, just like the ones in the gem passage.
The only difference was that, now, all the gems had lost a certain amount of luster, looking much more dull now.
"I'd say that this means the traps are deactivated," Eagle put forward. "Whether permanently or they need to recharge, I couldn't say."
"So either the place is safe for good now, or just safe for a while. Do you think it would be fine for the doctor to explore now?"
Dante hesitated before answering.
"I'm not used to handing over Seeker sites to non Seeker archaeologists, so I couldn't really say."
The first passage looked the same over the length they'd walked, but from the freelancers body onwards there were differences.
The walls that fired off when someone set foot on the floor between were gone, walls of gemstones appearing inches behind.
Most of them looked the same as those deeper in the complex, but those nearest the floor were blackened, as though burnt, or shattered.
"So there shouldn't have been any safe space in the passage," as Snake concluded.
Another difference was the way that the passage ended suddenly after the trap, a blank wall barring the way further.
As such, any attempts to pass by the trap was pointless in the end, and the only actual way forward was the previously hidden path they had taken.
AN: So, fun fact. I hadn't researched the appearance of the Mara in mythology until after committing to there being a Mara amulet in the reliquary (I hadn't seen any signs of Titans relating to Buddhism in Huntik canon, but research had found Buddhist ruins in Afghanistan), so the way I chose something that has a recorded appearance of a snake for Snakes Titan was something of a coincidence