“There’s only one way forward,” I said. “Let’s just see where it takes us.”
And so we followed the path, heading down the dark tunnel. The rumbling behind us soon stopped, leaving us alone with the sounds of our own breathing. A part of me wondered why I’d even decided to use a fire spell in a place that was made entirely out of ice, but there was no point questioning that now. It was true, however, that using the fire spell had taken out those creatures a lot faster than anything else would have.
It wasn’t the safest way, but—well, I had to use what I had for the moment.
“Where do you think this leads?” Freya asked as we walked.
“I have no clue,” I said. “I can sense from the angle that we’re heading down, at least, so probably moving closer to level ground. But other than that, I have no bearing of where exactly we’re going.”
A light draft blew past my ear, tickling my skin. It grew stronger as I walked forward, turning into a raging gust a hundred yards down.
“What the heck is this?” Freya yelled, but I could barely make out what she was saying.
“Not sure!” I yelled back, hoping I hadn’t heard her wrong. “We need to push forward!”
She nodded and we kept going, struggling a bit as the gusts turned stronger. Soon after, a flash of white shone far in front of us, and I could tell immediately it was the sight of open land. We were close to the other end of the tunnel. The two of us pushed forward with new vigor, but the wind pushed back equally hard.
A few steps in, however, we hit the turning point for the gusts. The winds quickly slowed down, turning into but a gentle draft once again as we neared the end of the tunnel.
“That’s weird,” Nyx said. “Why would it be strongest in the middle of the tunnel?”
“It wouldn’t be the oddest thing that’s happened to us,” I said.
“True,” he chuckled.
I turned my sights away from the tunnel I’d just exited and instead looked ahead of me. Bright light shone all around us, filtering through the walls of ice standing on all sides. It appeared as though this was direct sunlight filtering through multiple sheets of ice.
I could affirm from the shape of the tall chamber that we were definitely in some kind of mountain. So what I’d expected before had proven to be right. I still found it a little stunning that a chamber like this existed within a mountain, though.
“We will see what to do,” a voice echoed through the emptiness.
I immediately crouched, and Freya did the same. I perked my ears up, trying to figure out where exactly the sound was coming from. I heard another voice mumble something, and I could tell immediately that they were actually below us.
I quickly realized, after looking ahead, that we were actually on a large ledge. I walked over to the edge, careful not to slip on the ice on the ground, and leaned over. A large floor lay beneath us, pillars of ice and stone standing around the rim. The first thing that struck me about the place was the massive door embedded in one of the icy walls. It was a rocky structure of golden-brown and had a rustic look to it.
The next thing I noticed was the group of men standing right next to it. I leaned over a bit more and took a better look at them. I could tell they were Knights of the Dark Alliance, but along with them were a small group of people I couldn’t place.
And then I did.
They were dressed in black as well, but they all wore cloaks over their armor, and on the breast of their robes was a hint of shiny silver, glistening in the light within the chamber.
“The Black Guardians,” Nyx said in sync with my thoughts.
“What the hell are they doing here?” Freya whispered from my side.
“I have no clue,” I said. “But if these two groups are working together, that just complicates everything else by a lot.”
“Why on earth would they even work together?” she mumbled. “It feels like there’s something big going on here, and we don’t have the faintest clue about what it is.”
I nodded, having nothing to say in response to that. Was this why both Lazarus and Jelal implied something big was going to happen soon? I wondered.
“What do you want to do?” she asked. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to attack them directly right now.”
“Agreed,” I said. “I tried to listen in on their conversation, but I can’t pick much up unless the wind blows words my way. Either ways, attacking them is not an option. Now that we know the Dark Alliance is here, at least we can be assured they’re the ones who took Nazu from us.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I still don’t get why they’d take him. It makes no sense to me.”
“Well, it’s likely we’re going to find out why very soon.”
I turned my attention to the Knights ahead of me, hoping the gentle winds would help me listen in. I couldn’t catch much, but my vision was good enough to see that they were all ecstatic about something.
And that’s something you don’t want to see.
If the two groups that really want you dead are both happy at the same time, that probably means something is terribly wrong.
“Well, at least the Alliance of Light is not a part of this as well,” Nyx said.
That’s true, I chuckled.
A few minutes later, parts of both groups left, heading to the side and disappearing, presumably through an entrance in the walls. About twenty men were left in front of the door, armed with swords and spears. A few of them stood alone, dressed only in long dark cloaks, no armor, and I could tell instantly that they were mages.
I wasn’t sure who was from the Dark Alliance and who was from the Black Guardians, but I doubted whether it actually mattered at this point.
“What do you think is behind that door?” Freya nudged me.
“Not sure,” I said. “But the fact that both groups want to guard it is indication enough that it’s definitely something important.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,” she said. “What’s the plan, then? We’ve got a much smaller group to work against right now.”
“Well, we can risk taking those men out, but that’ll alert the enemy to our presence,” I said.
“But if we don’t, then we’re just going to have to sit here and wait for them to make an error before we make our move.”
“True,” I said, glancing at the group of men guarding the door. They seemed very capable, but I wondered if it’d be possible for just the two of us to take them all out.
“It won’t be too hard,” Nyx said. “You just need use your more exotic skills.”
Ugh, I sighed. I’m reaaally not looking forward to that.
For the most part, my higher-tiered skills were extremely powerful, and I didn’t really know how to use most of them. Moreover, it was possible I could lose control while using such a skill, and I’d really prefer that didn’t happen. Honestly, I was worried using those skills would turn me into…him.
For the longest time, I’d been at odds with who I was now and who I was supposed to be. The Phantom Lord was supposedly this Evil Overlord who showed no mercy and killed anyone who crossed him without batting an eye. I, on the other hand, was not.
It was understandable that I was so different now that I’d gone through a bout of amnesia and thus forgotten what I used to be like. However, I couldn’t help but worry whether using my higher-tiered skills might trigger something in me and cause my personality to revert to what it used to be.
“Zoran?” Freya’s hand appeared in front of me, and I realized I’d zoned out. “Are you okay?” She looked at me, worry in her moonsilver eyes.
“I’m fine,” I sighed. “Let’s focus on taking those guys out. We can probably do it if we’re careful enough.”
“I have long-range Light Arts spells I can cast,” she said. “They’re like arrows, with pretty good accuracy.”
“That works,” I said. “Let’s focus our powers so we’re laying a barrage of attacks on them at once. We don’t want any of them escapi
ng alive. It’d be bad if the Dark Alliance or the Black Guardians found out we were here.”
“Fine,” she said. “What do we do once we take them out, though?”
“If we’re going to be involved with this, it’s inevitable the two groups will find out about our presence here. That means it’s no longer a matter of if they do it but when. So we can risk taking down these men here, since it’ll buy us enough time to see what’s behind that door they’re guarding so closely.”
“Do you think Nazu is in there?” she asked.
“It’s possible,” I said.
“Fine, then. Ready to attack when you are.”
I nodded and looked down at the men, following their movements. I closed my eyes, focusing my thoughts.
I will not change, I thought. Everything will stay the same. I am not him. I will never be him.
I slowly opened my eyes and focused my attention on the group below. “I’ll land the first strike.” I looked at Freya. “That should give us enough of an initial distraction. Attack as soon as the first one gets taken down.”
She nodded silently.
“Good.” I put my hand out, directing it at the men on the ground. “Osulier!” I said. One of the men’s shadows rose from the ground, wrapping around him and pulling him down in a flash. He let out a scream as he was dragged down, but not even half a second passed before he sank into the darkness and was lost forever.
The men around him panicked and Freya immediately launched her assault. Spears of light formed all around her and sank down, shooting into the men rapidly. The strikes didn’t cause any one-hit KOs, but there were enough of them to take down a significant amount of men.
“Uher!” I yelled, and my dark phoenix rose from the ground, sinking into the remaining men and sending them all to their deaths. About ten seconds had passed since my first attack, and all the Knights and soldiers were on the floor, dead.
“Come on,” I said, jumping down to the floor beneath, and Freya followed me down, using her Wind Arts to soften her fall. I rushed to the rustic door and used my momentum to land my hardest punch, hoping a part of it would shatter.
But it stood there, intact and sturdy, not even shaking a bit from my strike.
“Well, that’s inconvenient,” Freya said.
I touched the grooves on the door, a little stunned that it hadn’t budged one bit from my strike. “What are you?” I asked. I felt a sharp pain on my finger when I touched the groove, as though electricity had hit my nerves. I blinked for a second and then realized what was going on.
“Nyx,” I said.
“On it,” he replied promptly.
I closed my eyes and placed my hand on the door. I focused hard on the rock structure against my palm, and my mental clarity increased tremendously as well, a sign that Nyx was playing his part. With my increased mental strength, an image began to form in my mind. I saw a large purple door in front of me, gaps of darkness scattered within it.
So that’s what this was, I realized.
I focused on my inner energy, sending it coursing through my body. It flowed through my hand and into the door, filling the gaps within it. The darkness in my mind’s image quickly turned to purple, and in about a minute, all the gaps in the door had been completely fixed.
I heard a loud click, and the door swung out, creaking loudly as it did.
“There’s no way no one heard that,” I muttered.
“You’re right,” Nyx chuckled.
Behind the doors was a large staircase of ice that swirled down below. I wasn’t sure where it went, but at this point, I was certain I had to check it out.
“Heading down?” Freya asked, standing beside me.
“Yup,” I said and skipped down the icy steps, slipping over a few but making my way down fast. It took us about a minute of climbing down before I could see the end of the staircase. I ran forward, noticing that the path opened up into a smaller chamber, this one made of ice as well.
That seemed to be a recurring theme in here.
I will say, however, this chamber was multiple steps above the rest, aesthetically speaking. A pool of crystal-clear water lay at the center, and fresh creepers of emerald green ran along the walls, climbing up pillars and running across parts of the ceiling.
I looked into the water and noticed an odd reflection on its surface. I glanced up and saw there was something on the ceiling right above it. I focused closer and made out a symbol drawn into the ice with a black liquid—a circle inscribed with a downward-pointing triangle and three lines running from the center, meeting each vertex of the triangle.
“Oh gods,” Nyx said immediately, his voice shaking. “That symbol. This isn’t good.”
“What?”
“That symbol belongs to one of the most powerful races ever to have existed,” he said. “The Dragon Clan.”
***
CHAPTER TWELVE
“The Dragon Clan,” I whispered softly.
“A race whose strength was second only to that of the Eternals,” Nyx said.
I froze up, my thoughts pausing in light of the words that had just been uttered. There was far too much for me to process at once. Unknown clans, Dragons, and a race nearly as strong as the Eternals.
Wow, I thought, the only word I could think of.
“Indeed,” Nyx said. “I haven’t heard anything of the Dragon Clan since we…well, since we were put under the seal. I did not expect to see this symbol here of all places.”
“Zoran?” Freya touched my shoulder gently. “Is everything okay?”
I turned to her, my face pale, which told her more than enough about how I felt right now.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, worried.
“That seal,” I said. “Nyx says it’s from an ancient race. The Dragon Clan.”
Her eyes immediately widened. “The Dragon Clan?”
“Wait, do you know about these people?”
She shook her head. “All I know is they were nearly as strong as you Eternals were,” she said. “I found their name mentioned once or twice while I read through documents regarding the Eternals.”
“I am not surprised that their names are scarce in the records,” Nyx said.
“Why?” I asked.
“The warriors of the Dragon Clan were merciless,” he said. “They were a vicious group of beasts that murdered without pause. They were said to kill anyone who crossed their path, whether friend or foe. It follows that it was hard to get any accounts of them. The only ones who saw them and left alive were ones strong enough to escape.”
A shiver ran down my spine. “Wow, that’s scary,” I said.
“Tell me about it,” Nyx said. “I definitely don’t want to know what it’d be like to face off against these clansmen in this day and age.”
“I agree,” I said. “I definitely don’t want to find out what someone could do with proper control of their powers.”
“I hate to agree, but you definitely don’t.”
“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence.” I chuckled.
“What does this mean?” Freya asked. “This symbol being present here?”
“I don’t know, and neither does Nyx,” I said. “We should probably focus on finding Nazu first. Mysteries like this symbol tend to take a while to solve.”
“I don’t think there are any indicators of Nazu ever having been in here, though,” she said, scoping the place out.
I looked around, shielding my eyes from the light that shone through the ceiling. “You’re right,” I sighed. “It doesn’t look like he’s been in here.”
“This trail is just a dead end,” she said. “Other than the Dragon stuff.”
“Mmm,” I said. “That’s going to take us a while to figure out.”
“We could ask Ijyela,” she said. “Of all the people I know, she’s the one most well versed in the ancient documents. Plus, she’s been around long enough to know more about the Dragon Clan than even the documents tell us.”
“That
’s true,” I said. “We should try asking her. I’ll send her a Ga’em message.”
She nodded.
“I can do it for you if you want me to,” Nyx said.
“Are you just integrated with all of my Ga’em menu stuff now?” I grinned.
“Well, that’s not far off the truth,” he chuckled. “Actually, that’s probably exactly the truth at this point.”
“That’s good to hear.” I smiled and looked up at the sign. “Snap a picture of that and send it to Ijyela,” I said. “Ask her if she knows anything about this, and if she can look something up. Tell her you figured out it was from the Dragon Clan. She can work stuff up from there.”
“Aaaand done,” Nyx said. “She’s received the message. You should get a notification when you receive a response from her.”
“Got it. Thanks,” I said.
I turned to Freya. “I sent Ijyela a message with the image of the sign,” I said. “If she gets us info about what that thing is, we can start figuring out what exactly is going on here.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m very intrigued by why the Dark Alliance and the Black Guardians were both guarding this door. Did they know of this chamber inside? Or was it just chance?”
“There are a lot of possibilities,” I said, thinking through them all at once. “I can’t really decide which one would be most likely. I don’t know what the Dark Alliance would want with an empty chamber containing the sign of the Dragon Clan.”
“That’s true,” Freya said. “But you never know. They might have some big plan that completely depends on that sign for some reason.”
“It did seem like the door had to be opened a very specific way, so I’m not sure they’ve even been down here in the first place,” I said. “And now that we’re the ones right beneath the sign, we should have the upper hand.”
“Speaking of upper hand,” she said, “how long do you think until they figure out all the Knights were taken out?”
“I’m actually surprised we’ve lasted so long,” I chuckled. “I’d expected to see men running down these stairs about five minutes after we walked in.”
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