chapter 26
previous chapter
Hours after the crash, a black stagecoach roared out of the Porpoise mansion, headed straight for the Spire.
Inside, Mr Porpoise drummed his fingers impatiently. If Evangelion knows everything, then he would be heading for the Vault... and Mr Porpoise will meet him there. Inside his jacket was a small, specially made crossbow, loaded with a single crossbow bolt. The bolt was smeared with an extremely strong contact poison: one shot and you'll be begging for death.
Mr Porpoise glanced out the window, watching the world roll past. History would be made today, and he intended to be the one to do it. The fabled Gifts.. if the legends were true, they would make him a true god among men... free to reshape the world as he wished. Mr Porpoise sighed. The bounty hunter's body had not been found at the airship's crash site, so he was most probably alive and moving. But there was no way any bounter hunter on foot could reach the Spire faster than a stagecoach travelling at full speed.
Plenty of time to prepare a nice little surprise for him when he got there, thought Mr Porpoise.
* * * * *
A second stagecoach thundered to a stop inside the Spire, and the doors opened. Five hooded figures piled out, and hurried across the busy platform. Nobody gave them any notice, of course: people come and go all the time on the airship platforms, and hooded figures were not uncommon.
* * * * *
Mr Porpoise's coach rolled to a stop. This was... not a busy platform. They were about halfway up the Spire, inside the specially built stagecoach path, and there was no one in sight. Mr Porpoise climbed out of the stagecoach, whispered instructions to the driver, and then, glancing around suspiciously, hurried off into the darkness.
The stagecoach rolled onwards. As it turned the next corner, Evangelion released his grip, and fell from his hiding place underneath the belly of the coach. He hit the path hard, rolled, and quickly recovered into a crouching position. And then he was gone, too.
* * * * *
Deep inside the tunnels was the Vault door. Thirty feet high and thirty feet across, it was nothing more than one big flat slab of stone carved into the cave walls. There were no visible levers or buttons on nearby walls, and the only interesting feature in the entire door (besides the fact that it was excessively big) was a small hexagonal depression cut into the center of the door, about seven feet off the ground.
The five Ancients stood in front of it, gazing at the hexagonal hole. All they needed now was the Key, and the Ancients would rise again as a new power in the world, taking their rightful place as the ruler of men. Fortunately for them, that the Key was moving closer every second, and soon the Vault will open, and Arathea's Gifts will be revealed.
Nobody actually knows much about them, other than the fact that they had been sealed from existence by Septaphim's betrayal, but the Ancients knew that Arathea had been close to completing the runes, and even in their current state the runes were exceedingly powerful.
And then Mr Porpoise arrived.
* * * * *
Mr Porpoise had expected the tunnel containing the Vault to be empty.
He had discovered it many years ago, during an expedition to identify possible expansion sites for future airship platforms. It had been an astounding discovery, and he had initially envisioned mountains of gold lying behind that huge door. After extensive research, he had been dumbfounded when all clues pointed to the door as Arathea's Vault, mentioned only in legends and old fables. The Gifts in the legend were said to grant great powers to whoever claimed them, powers far beyond the comprehension of mere mortals.
Unfortunately, the tunnel was not empty when he arrived. The five Ancients turned as one, surprised by his sudden appearance, and Mr Porpoise pulled out his crossbow.
* * * * *
Ancient One gave a shout of warning, and the Ancients scattered with inhuman speed. The intruder looked nothing like a bounty hunter: he was wearing an expensive looking jacket, from which he had pulled out a small crossbow. The bolts from such a weapon would merely bounce off their skins, of course, but they couldn't risk having an intruder here when the bounty hunter arrives.
Ancient Two slammed into the body of the intruder, sending him flying. It was over within seconds: Mr Porpoise stood no chance against the full strength of five Ancients, and soon he was lying motionless on the floor, his crossbow broken into pieces.
Evangelion watched from the shadows, and shuddered. In his injured state, there was no way he could take on all of them by himself. The door was just up ahead now... so close, and yet so far. There had to be a way... Perhaps a distraction of some sort, all he needed was time, time to push the Key into the Vault door, time to...
He never finished that thought, because all around him, the shadows came alive.
* * * * *
Ancient One turned at the sound of the scream. It sounded like the howl of a thousand dead voices, and sent a shudder down his spine. The scream echoed across the tunnel, and then there were flashes of bright light, just around the corner.
Evangelion had fired off both his remaining flares in his panic. The shadows writhed, but maintained their firm grip on his body. He felt a rib bone crack.
"Fool! I will not fall for the same trick twice!" snarled Septaphim. He looked weaker now, and the bright explosion of the flares scorched his shadowy skin, but he disregarded the pain. Evangelion had stolen the Key, and his soul burned for vengeance.
Evangelion grunted as the shadows tightened their grip. This was it, then: if the flares couldn't hurt this monster, then he was completely screwed. But even if he was to die here... well, if you're going to die anyway, you might as well die fighting. He smiled at Septaphim's enraged face, and with all his remaining strength, he reached deep into his great coat, and ignited a tinderbox.
The oiled great coat caught fire at once, and the shadows squirmed as the flames engulfed Evangelion's body. Septaphim howled in anger, as the light from the flames seared through the shadows. Evangelion shook off their weakening grip, and pulled the Key from the burning coat. Gritting his teeth as his skin burned, Evangelion hurled the Key aside, and leapt at Septaphim like a human fireball.
There was a scream as their bodies collided, and the shadows writhed wildly in pain. Septaphim, screaming, desperately tried to push away Evangelion's burning flesh, but the bounty hunter held on tightly.
The darkness burned.
* * * * *
By the time the Ancients arrived, there was nothing much left. A charred body, singed and smoking, lay on the floor. All around, shadows had been permanently burned into the walls, like a huge, disturbing painting.
Ancient One could have sworn that he noticed a single shadowy figure fleeing from the tunnel, hissing, but before he could react, Ancient Four shouted excitedly. The Key had been found, lying in the ashes... the Key to Arathea's Gifts, the Key to their destiny.
* * * * *
Trembling in anticipation, the Ancients pressed the Key into the hexagonal depression on the door.Deep inside the earth came the deep rumbling of ancient gears, as the walls shook and it rained dust. A hairline crack appeared and began to split the door right down the middle, and then the door groaned as it creaked open, swinging very slowly inwards, until it stopped with a great resounding thud.
The Ancients peered inside nervously.
It was... a strange room. The entire floor was roughly hexagonal in shape, with each of the six walls stretching upwards into the darkness as far as the eye could see. Lanterns blazed in here, but the flames were pure white. Each of the walls were inscribed with a single, gigantic rune word, except for the one with the door. All five runes blazed brightly, casting their strange light across the empty chamber.
The Ancients stepped inside.
Each rune was a single word, written in the tongues of the Ancients. A thin layer of ash and dust lay on the floor, undisturbed until now. As the Ancients walked in, the dust and ashes swirled in little clouds, catching the rays of the light to form fantastic patterns.
* * * * *
The old man stopped his tale, and gazed into nothing.
"And then?" asked Seraph excitedly. "What happened after that? Did they claim the runes?" Seraph glanced around the chamber, and noticed that two of the runes were still glowing. "If you're telling the truth, old man, then we're standing in the very same chamber that they opened, all those years ago. But the Ancients did not come to conquer the City, so did they chose not to take the runes?"
The old man shook his head sadly. "No... they did claim the runes, and then they understood why Septaphim had chosen to seal the chamber with the seal of regret. But I am getting ahead of the story. As the Ancients stood here, in this very chamber, they chose one rune each. It was unfortunate that Arathea was killed before he could complete the runes: instead of a single, powerful rune, the Gifts lay in five fragments, each one granting a single Gift."
"The first rune gave Knowledge, and it promised to grant sight beyond sight to whoever claimed it. The ability to know everything and anything, future and past, and utter clarity of memory. It was claimed by Ancient One, for he was the wisest and the oldest."
"The second rune gave Immortality, and it promised to grant a boon of eternal youth, never dying or growing old. It was created to ensure the survival of the Ancients against the relentless passage of time, protecting them from the shadow of extinction. It was claimed by Ancient Two."
"The third rune was Invincibility, and it gave full protection against the sharp weapons of the human armies waiting below. Arathea intended to use it as the ultimate defence: the skins of the Ancient were already strong, but the strongest steel forged by the humans would still be capable of seriously injuring them. The third rune was created to render all human weapons utterly useless. It was claimed by Ancient Three."
"The fourth rune was Wealth, and it was created to ensure the Ancients would be capable of rebuilding the full glory of the empire they had lost in the Demon wars. It was claimed by Ancient Four."
"The fifth rune was Power, and it contained the full, terrible power of the old magic of the Ancients. Arathea had extracted the explosive essence of the old battle magic, and crafted it into a single rune that greatly increased the destructive magical power of anyone who wielded it. It was claimed by Ancient Five. Thus distributed, the Ancients laid their hands on their respective Gifts and claimed it for their own."
The old man paused, and sighed sadly. "And then the nightmare began."
next chapter
Hours after the crash, a black stagecoach roared out of the Porpoise mansion, headed straight for the Spire.
Inside, Mr Porpoise drummed his fingers impatiently. If Evangelion knows everything, then he would be heading for the Vault... and Mr Porpoise will meet him there. Inside his jacket was a small, specially made crossbow, loaded with a single crossbow bolt. The bolt was smeared with an extremely strong contact poison: one shot and you'll be begging for death.
Mr Porpoise glanced out the window, watching the world roll past. History would be made today, and he intended to be the one to do it. The fabled Gifts.. if the legends were true, they would make him a true god among men... free to reshape the world as he wished. Mr Porpoise sighed. The bounty hunter's body had not been found at the airship's crash site, so he was most probably alive and moving. But there was no way any bounter hunter on foot could reach the Spire faster than a stagecoach travelling at full speed.
Plenty of time to prepare a nice little surprise for him when he got there, thought Mr Porpoise.
* * * * *
A second stagecoach thundered to a stop inside the Spire, and the doors opened. Five hooded figures piled out, and hurried across the busy platform. Nobody gave them any notice, of course: people come and go all the time on the airship platforms, and hooded figures were not uncommon.
* * * * *
Mr Porpoise's coach rolled to a stop. This was... not a busy platform. They were about halfway up the Spire, inside the specially built stagecoach path, and there was no one in sight. Mr Porpoise climbed out of the stagecoach, whispered instructions to the driver, and then, glancing around suspiciously, hurried off into the darkness.
The stagecoach rolled onwards. As it turned the next corner, Evangelion released his grip, and fell from his hiding place underneath the belly of the coach. He hit the path hard, rolled, and quickly recovered into a crouching position. And then he was gone, too.
* * * * *
Deep inside the tunnels was the Vault door. Thirty feet high and thirty feet across, it was nothing more than one big flat slab of stone carved into the cave walls. There were no visible levers or buttons on nearby walls, and the only interesting feature in the entire door (besides the fact that it was excessively big) was a small hexagonal depression cut into the center of the door, about seven feet off the ground.
The five Ancients stood in front of it, gazing at the hexagonal hole. All they needed now was the Key, and the Ancients would rise again as a new power in the world, taking their rightful place as the ruler of men. Fortunately for them, that the Key was moving closer every second, and soon the Vault will open, and Arathea's Gifts will be revealed.
Nobody actually knows much about them, other than the fact that they had been sealed from existence by Septaphim's betrayal, but the Ancients knew that Arathea had been close to completing the runes, and even in their current state the runes were exceedingly powerful.
And then Mr Porpoise arrived.
* * * * *
Mr Porpoise had expected the tunnel containing the Vault to be empty.
He had discovered it many years ago, during an expedition to identify possible expansion sites for future airship platforms. It had been an astounding discovery, and he had initially envisioned mountains of gold lying behind that huge door. After extensive research, he had been dumbfounded when all clues pointed to the door as Arathea's Vault, mentioned only in legends and old fables. The Gifts in the legend were said to grant great powers to whoever claimed them, powers far beyond the comprehension of mere mortals.
Unfortunately, the tunnel was not empty when he arrived. The five Ancients turned as one, surprised by his sudden appearance, and Mr Porpoise pulled out his crossbow.
* * * * *
Ancient One gave a shout of warning, and the Ancients scattered with inhuman speed. The intruder looked nothing like a bounty hunter: he was wearing an expensive looking jacket, from which he had pulled out a small crossbow. The bolts from such a weapon would merely bounce off their skins, of course, but they couldn't risk having an intruder here when the bounty hunter arrives.
Ancient Two slammed into the body of the intruder, sending him flying. It was over within seconds: Mr Porpoise stood no chance against the full strength of five Ancients, and soon he was lying motionless on the floor, his crossbow broken into pieces.
Evangelion watched from the shadows, and shuddered. In his injured state, there was no way he could take on all of them by himself. The door was just up ahead now... so close, and yet so far. There had to be a way... Perhaps a distraction of some sort, all he needed was time, time to push the Key into the Vault door, time to...
He never finished that thought, because all around him, the shadows came alive.
* * * * *
Ancient One turned at the sound of the scream. It sounded like the howl of a thousand dead voices, and sent a shudder down his spine. The scream echoed across the tunnel, and then there were flashes of bright light, just around the corner.
Evangelion had fired off both his remaining flares in his panic. The shadows writhed, but maintained their firm grip on his body. He felt a rib bone crack.
"Fool! I will not fall for the same trick twice!" snarled Septaphim. He looked weaker now, and the bright explosion of the flares scorched his shadowy skin, but he disregarded the pain. Evangelion had stolen the Key, and his soul burned for vengeance.
Evangelion grunted as the shadows tightened their grip. This was it, then: if the flares couldn't hurt this monster, then he was completely screwed. But even if he was to die here... well, if you're going to die anyway, you might as well die fighting. He smiled at Septaphim's enraged face, and with all his remaining strength, he reached deep into his great coat, and ignited a tinderbox.
The oiled great coat caught fire at once, and the shadows squirmed as the flames engulfed Evangelion's body. Septaphim howled in anger, as the light from the flames seared through the shadows. Evangelion shook off their weakening grip, and pulled the Key from the burning coat. Gritting his teeth as his skin burned, Evangelion hurled the Key aside, and leapt at Septaphim like a human fireball.
There was a scream as their bodies collided, and the shadows writhed wildly in pain. Septaphim, screaming, desperately tried to push away Evangelion's burning flesh, but the bounty hunter held on tightly.
The darkness burned.
* * * * *
By the time the Ancients arrived, there was nothing much left. A charred body, singed and smoking, lay on the floor. All around, shadows had been permanently burned into the walls, like a huge, disturbing painting.
Ancient One could have sworn that he noticed a single shadowy figure fleeing from the tunnel, hissing, but before he could react, Ancient Four shouted excitedly. The Key had been found, lying in the ashes... the Key to Arathea's Gifts, the Key to their destiny.
* * * * *
Trembling in anticipation, the Ancients pressed the Key into the hexagonal depression on the door.Deep inside the earth came the deep rumbling of ancient gears, as the walls shook and it rained dust. A hairline crack appeared and began to split the door right down the middle, and then the door groaned as it creaked open, swinging very slowly inwards, until it stopped with a great resounding thud.
The Ancients peered inside nervously.
It was... a strange room. The entire floor was roughly hexagonal in shape, with each of the six walls stretching upwards into the darkness as far as the eye could see. Lanterns blazed in here, but the flames were pure white. Each of the walls were inscribed with a single, gigantic rune word, except for the one with the door. All five runes blazed brightly, casting their strange light across the empty chamber.
The Ancients stepped inside.
Each rune was a single word, written in the tongues of the Ancients. A thin layer of ash and dust lay on the floor, undisturbed until now. As the Ancients walked in, the dust and ashes swirled in little clouds, catching the rays of the light to form fantastic patterns.
* * * * *
The old man stopped his tale, and gazed into nothing.
"And then?" asked Seraph excitedly. "What happened after that? Did they claim the runes?" Seraph glanced around the chamber, and noticed that two of the runes were still glowing. "If you're telling the truth, old man, then we're standing in the very same chamber that they opened, all those years ago. But the Ancients did not come to conquer the City, so did they chose not to take the runes?"
The old man shook his head sadly. "No... they did claim the runes, and then they understood why Septaphim had chosen to seal the chamber with the seal of regret. But I am getting ahead of the story. As the Ancients stood here, in this very chamber, they chose one rune each. It was unfortunate that Arathea was killed before he could complete the runes: instead of a single, powerful rune, the Gifts lay in five fragments, each one granting a single Gift."
"The first rune gave Knowledge, and it promised to grant sight beyond sight to whoever claimed it. The ability to know everything and anything, future and past, and utter clarity of memory. It was claimed by Ancient One, for he was the wisest and the oldest."
"The second rune gave Immortality, and it promised to grant a boon of eternal youth, never dying or growing old. It was created to ensure the survival of the Ancients against the relentless passage of time, protecting them from the shadow of extinction. It was claimed by Ancient Two."
"The third rune was Invincibility, and it gave full protection against the sharp weapons of the human armies waiting below. Arathea intended to use it as the ultimate defence: the skins of the Ancient were already strong, but the strongest steel forged by the humans would still be capable of seriously injuring them. The third rune was created to render all human weapons utterly useless. It was claimed by Ancient Three."
"The fourth rune was Wealth, and it was created to ensure the Ancients would be capable of rebuilding the full glory of the empire they had lost in the Demon wars. It was claimed by Ancient Four."
"The fifth rune was Power, and it contained the full, terrible power of the old magic of the Ancients. Arathea had extracted the explosive essence of the old battle magic, and crafted it into a single rune that greatly increased the destructive magical power of anyone who wielded it. It was claimed by Ancient Five. Thus distributed, the Ancients laid their hands on their respective Gifts and claimed it for their own."
The old man paused, and sighed sadly. "And then the nightmare began."
next chapter
posted by nerdook at 2:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home