The
interior of the cave is dead dark. After the first bend into the passages of
the cave, no source of light from the outside is able to get into the cave. The
man quickly cast a holy spell that shone dimly, and Cloud lit up his sword
using his energy to make it dim red, while Aeris followed from behind, cautious
with every step ahead. The party walked at a quick pace but constantly
observing the passage ahead using all senses, preparing for whatever danger
that lies ahead.
The
passageway is very long and winding, showing no sign of life or trace of
anything that lived here. In this freezing place on the planet, not many living
creatures would want to live here. The air seemed to be stagnant, as if no
fresh air ever entered for centuries. This place had been kept a secret by the
ancients, for a long, long time…
The party
winded ahead for around an hour before they came to a larger area, like a huge
cave but there is no telling how big it is because of the darkness. There is a
dim light emitting a the end of the cave, which seems like a hint of their goal
but it seemed very far away. The man came to a stop, causing Cloud and Aeris to
halt suddenly and bumped against him. There seemed to be worry from the way he
looked at the darkness ahead. As if something ahead scares him.
“I felt…the
presence of something…something Ancient in here…”
The man
said and then he became dead silent. The other two just stood here, waiting for
whatever that is coming, trying to listen or see anything through the dim light
of theirs. Not a sound, not a footstep. It seemed too quiet. Fear started to
seep into their hearts. They may be prepared for battle, but they might not be
prepared for whatever that was coming…
“Duck!”
The man
said and pushed the other a few yards away, and sprinted away from the place he
is standing. Instantly, the ground beneath burst opened and a huge figure filled
with rage was seen crawling out of the ground, giving a loud roar as if it was
furious for being awakened. Cloud and Aeris pushed themselves up immediately
and prepared themselves for combat from in front of the figure while the man
stood behind the figure and wait the right moment to strike at the figure. The
figure towered over the party of three and stared at them with it’s glowing
eyes from high above.
From
beneath, the three can roughly make out how this figure looks like. Huge in
size, it seemed like a monster made out of ice and it seemed to have a head, enormous
hands connected to a skinny body as of a skeleton’s, half buried in the ground
making it immobile. It had a face but there is no mouth or ears or nose, only the
eyes were seen, eyes filled with rage and burned like flame. The breathing of
the figure is also heavy, and filled with rhythm, as if it was talking…
“Jen Hova
rakum shika…”
Cloud heard
those words said by the figure. He knew no Ancient language. Even Aeris had no
idea what it was talking about. It sounded like Ancient but spoken differently,
like in a dialect. Cloud shouted out to the man what those words mean, and the
man replied with a soft voice.
“Jenovians no
enter.”
Immediately
after the man said that phrase, the figure gave a loud cry and with it’s strong
and enormous hands, it smashed right down at Cloud and Aeris. Cloud and Aeris
dodged at time and Cloud countered instantly but charging his sword with a fire
spell and sliced the hand off the figure. The figure gave a loud cry and another
one followed when the man blasted the figure with a very big fire spell.
Cloud was
about to give another killing blow to the figure but the figure suddenly opened
a gap on it’s face like a mouth and out came freezing strong wind and blew
Cloud off his feet. Cloud hopped backwards skilfully and Aeris started casting
defensive spells on Cloud, while Cloud prepared for another attack. Before Cloud
could launch another attack, he noticed the arm with the missing hand suddenly
had a new hand growing out from it, one that seemed even stronger and more
powerful than the first.
Cloud
lunged at the figure, charging it like a ball of fire, went right through the
figure like a hot knife through butter, coming out from the opposite direction.
The man, not waiting for Cloud’s attack to finished, jumped into the air and
grabbed a hold onto the figure’s head, and stabbed his two short blades into
the figure’s two eyes, and the figure cried out in pain and shook him off. The
man jumped off skilfully and landed next to Aeris. The party was expecting the
figure to fall at anytime but it didn’t. The hole that Cloud made through it
sealed up like water and the eyes that were stabbed seemed to burn even
brighter. Now the figure was recovered again. It lunged for the man and Aeris
but the man dodged in time, with Aeris in his arms.
“This…this
thing is invulnerable! How are we suppose to defeat it?!”
Cloud shout
from the opposite end and the man get ready for the figure’s next attack. Aeris
cast a few defensive spells on the man, but it seemed rather useless looking
from this situation.
“Aeris,
there isn’t much time till the arrival of those meteors. You have to activate
the Ancient’s defensive mechanism no matter what.”
The man
said while Cloud starts to battle with the figure to buy some time. Aeris
looked at the man with a surprised look, as if she didn’t know what to do.
“But...how?”
Aeris asked the man.
“You are an
Ancient, you have the ability to do that. Now GO!!!”
The man
shouted and pushed Aeris towards the direction of the dim light far away ahead.
A little mean, but Aeris knew the seriousness of the situation. With a large
fireball launched from the man’s palm towards the figure’s head, the figure’s
head was knocked back for a moment, buying Aeris time to get away from the
battle and towards her objective. The figure seemed to know the plan and it
attempted to crawl out from the ground, but was attack contiguously by Cloud
and the man and was kept busy. The figure started to being more and more
furious, and grew larger from time to time. This will not be an easy battle.