A large room opened beyond them. The same crescent logo appeared sprawled across the floor, with a control console on the far end. Toriko approached it with Seigie close behind. Beyond the tribal markings, three colored crystal spheres decorated the top.
“ Tertrn crystals,” Seigie added. “Just like on my crystal, and so many other places now.”
Seigie walked over and reached toward the red crystal on the left. As her hand neared, it illuminated slightly.
“Is that safe?” Toriko said.
“The others like this were,” Seigie replied as her finger touched the top of the crystal. “Cool and smooth …”
A dull hum filled the air. Gentle beams of light fountained upward from the tribal markings. Ancient holographic technology gradually extruded images from the light.
A man in a white robe decorated with a blue crescent took shape. His goatee was darkened with ash, his eyes swollen; a tear streak matted the dirt on his face. He leaned on his vine-wrapped staff, as though exhausted in the struggle to wall away overpowering despair. Stunned by the display, they watched in silence.
“They’re all gone.” He wiped his eyes, smearing the dirt. As his body shook, the small leaves that ran up his twisted wooden staff rustled. “All of them.”
He looked around, then attempted to focus a wavering gaze on the crystal sphere atop his staff.
“How did it come to this?” he moaned. “Is this to be our legacy? The mighty Lords that destroyed themselves!”
His head shook madly, as though unwilling to accept such a tragedy, but then he raised his face to the ceiling and screamed.
Toriko whispered, “Oh Eudora!”
The man panted hard. After a few moments, he wiped his face and bit by bit, regained his composure. Bitterness resonated in his newfound voice. “I … I am Qina Satri of the Lord’s Council—or was, in the Lord’s Year 20-871. I have charged myself with leaving behind a record of what has happened to our world. How the Chaos Lords earned their title. Who would have thought that it would become so fitting of us?”
The man’s eyes glazed over. “We were a noble race, with noble intentions. Somewhere along the line, we went wrong—allowed ourselves to be pulled into thinking we were something we were never meant to be. We wanted to help the worlds around us—to help them thrive as we did. For us all to be protégés of the D’mar—who made us who we are.”
Mencari whispered to Seigie, “D’mar?”
The image continued. “How ashamed the D’mar would be of us now. Had I known … if perhaps I was more aware. The Dark Lords were such a threat to us all. We were all Lords.… Who would have thought? How could they have done this?”
Seigie said, “This isn’t making much sense. Some type of internal struggle?”
It didn’t seem possible, but Qina Satri’s voice turned sadder still. “What is done is done. The great Lords have fallen. The millennia of nurturing the worlds around us have ended. They will all be on their own now. I can only hope they don’t follow our example to this end. I know the governing tactics of the Dark Lords embittered some. Enforcement of laws is never looked on with appreciation or understanding. The Amber Lords did all they could to bring knowledge, peace, and understanding to them all. And we, the ambassadors, and others from the Lord’s Council, tried to listen to the needs of the worlds … our worlds.”
He lowered his eyes, then forced them back up to face them.
“They were our children. We were so misunderstood. We were not oppressors. Perhaps we were wrong, perhaps we should have given them more freedom to grow. But it no longer matters, I suppose. I’m glad this end came swiftly. To you, my fallen brothers and sisters, I am glad you will never know these dark days. I will miss you all. Rest in peace, for our work is done.”
He saluted as the image faded. The crystal became dark.
“Something went very wrong here,” Seigie said. “And their reference to the D’mar—were they a colony?”
Mencari nodded, recalling how the ancient star-exploring D’mar colonized many worlds. “What about the other crystals?”
Toriko saw the glow fade from the first crystal. Seigie touched the second, which illuminated with a beautiful lavender glow. Qina Satri appeared; a large structure towered in the distance.
Toriko pointed to the structure. “That’s the temple.”
“He still has that streak on his face,” Seigie said. “This must be just after the other crystal …”
A great dome of energy swirled around the temple. Arcs of raw power sparked as men in black robes decorated with a bright yellow crescent sliced at the dome with sickle-shaped weapons.
Over the ambient ring of battle Qina Satri said, “We have not been able to penetrate the barrier around the Cosmic Temple, nor get to the surface of our world. We have reports that this—this barrier originated from the temple itself. I’ve never seen such power before.”
Swirls of energy collected along the barrier where the men struck it with their weapons. Satri’s eyes grew wide, his mouth opening to shout a warning. Before he could, a ripple of power lashed out from the swirls, instantly killing them.
He closed his eyes and breathed heavily. Desperation rang in his voice. “Our brothers trapped inside the dome have been unable to breach it. I fear for them. So many have died, we can’t lose more! What could be powering this? Could it last forever?”
Out of their view someone yelled, “Qina, the Dark Lords are going to try a Silra from within the temple … to try to break the barrier.”
Toriko noticed an angry glow surround three men trapped beyond the energy wall. The hellish light ignited, creating streams of radiant fire. The streams converged, and a star-like mass grew rapidly before them, then streaked toward the barrier.
A loud boom shattered the air as a fireball reflected off the inside of the shield, incinerating the black-garbed men who performed the attack. And there, the projection ended.
“Oh my gosh,” Toriko breathed.
“That attack, looks like something we could do,” Seigie said. “There’s no doubt there’s a tie to D’mar now.”
Toriko’s analytical mind took over, and she said, “You know, there was no energy dome around the temple when we came in.”
“Maybe the power finally failed,” Seigie suggested.
“Qina said the place was called the Cosmic Temple,” Toriko said. “So the Cosmic Link must be inside. The crystal from Nicia said it was something powerful. Maybe it powered that shield?”
Seigie reached forward and touched the third crystal. It glowed with a gentle green aura. A dirtier and haggard Qina Satri appeared. His words were slurred with exhaustion.
“We have erected this monument for all Lords. We have been unable to rescue those trapped in the temple. We cannot even reach the people on our world. We fear the worst for them as well. The clouds are burning. We … there’s nothing left for us to do here. If we stay, we share the same doomed fate. We are leaving.”
He took off his robe and looked at it.
“This will only bring hatred upon us now. If someone finds this recording, and is able to get through the field … free our people. I don’t know what the Dark Lords will do—trapped inside that field—in the temple. But be careful. I should have known not to trust them. Do not make the same mistake as I … as we all did.”
“Don’t trust them?” Mencari repeated. “I wonder what we’ll find inside the temple?”
“Desperate people do desperate things,” Seigie said. “We should be extra careful in there.”
Mencari nodded. Leaving the console, they backtracked to the entrance.
Naijen couldn’t be found. They floated up above the structure and looked toward the temple. They noticed the hills around the temple formed an actual ring all the way around it.
“He’s over there somewhere,” Seigie said.
Continuing on, they floated high above the path. The terrain soon looked familiar. Below them were blast craters, but odder yet, a deep groove carved
into the ground that ran in a ring along the hills. Mencari motioned, and the others followed him down.
“Look at this,” he said.
“Maybe where that Silra was or whatever it was called,” Seigie said.
“If it is, then is this ring from the energy dome we saw?” He knelt and looked at it. “It’s several feet down.”
Toriko pulled up a display. “Well, there’s no radiation or energy readings around it now.”
A short distance down the path, a golden comet streaked by and stopped before the massive gates of the temple.
“Before he goes in himself, let’s go,” Mencari said.
* * * * *
“It’s heavy.” Mencari strained harder, to no avail. The doors to the temple were as weighty as they were big. Tribal patterns and the interlocked crescent emblem adorned it, along with a smattering of fist-sized colored gems.
“Wanna see what’s inside!” Naijen leaped up and rotated horizontally in space, to stand on the temple’s wall. Grabbing the thick vertical bar intended to give leverage to open the door, he planted his feet on the opposite door. He looked to Mencari with an impatient expression. “You just going to stare, or pull?”
Mencari gripped the bar, dug in his feet, and pulled with everything he had. Even Naijen grunted, trying to make the door move. The door moved a bit. A sudden blue light emitted, followed by a rush of water along the ground. A layer of dirt and dust washed away before the doors, noticeably reducing the resistance.
“Did that help?” Seigie asked.
“Yeah, a bit,” Mencari said.
Naijen’s grunt turned into a roar as his golden aura radiated violently. The ancient door began to move.
Toriko cheered. “You’re doing it!”
Mencari could feel the tension of the hinges release as the temple opened up to them. There was no rush of air, no acrid stench, no fanfare. Naijen kicked off and tumbled, and landed on his feet, huffing.
What disturbed Mencari was that the nebula’s strange orange-and-green light, bright as it was, did nothing to counter the darkness inside.
“Should’a just blasted our way in,” Naijen said.
“Look how thick these doors are.” Seigie gave a nod toward them. “I’m not sure how much easier that would have been.”
“We need to be careful in there,” Mencari said, serious. “We found recordings that told what happened here, and there could be traps inside.”
“Scared?” Naijen chided.
“It’s not about being scared, it’s about being smart.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the warrior said, bared his Skar and floated forward into the temple.
Naijen was only a foot inside when the temple itself rumbled. A strange sensation came over Mencari. The space around them felt heavier, a strange pressure that exerted itself on every inch of his body. A ghostly shriek bellowed from deep within the temple. Naijen stood firm, yet peered around them.
A display appeared before Toriko with warnings. “Where’s that energy coming from—”
A jolt of power thundered down from the asteroid shell floating in the distance, and struck the top of the temple. Static filled the air moments before a green energy washed from the point struck.
“No!” Toriko looked up in horror then back down the path they’d followed to the temple. “That’s going to keep coming down—it’s the dome!”
She burst with light and streaked back down the path. Mencari summoned his energies and yelled, “Fly!”
But it was no use. Despite their speed, the dome of energy was washing down. By the time they reached the outer perimeter it had sealed them in.
“What is that?” Naijen asked.
“What does it look like, meathead?” Seigie said.
His hands glowed, then brighter still, and a sneer crossed his face. “So we blast through.”
“NO!” Toriko screamed.
Boosting his speed, Mencari used his power to dash over to Naijen, grab him from behind and pull him back, sending the warrior’s blast straight up. The powerful attack rebounded on an angle, exploding the ground twenty feet away from them.
“Is that your solution for everything!” Seigie yelled.
“You can’t attack the shield,” Toriko said. “We saw recordings of that too.”
Naijen growled out, “Then what’s your idea?”
Mencari looked back at the temple. His eyes traced the flowing power from the highest tower into the dome. “Toriko. The energy reading you had before the dome appeared, what does it say now?”
She called up her display. “Still coming from within the temple.”
Confused, Seigie said, “I saw the energy come from the asteroids.”
“A bolt yes, but the original source was from within the temple,” Toriko said.
Mencari huffed. “Then that’s what we do next—find it inside the temple.”
“You mean like the Chaos Lords tried?” Seigie asked. “And failed?”
“You have another idea?”
She hesitated, flakes of crystal fluttering off her forehead as wrinkles of frustration attempted to flex.
CHAPTER 13:
Warrior Down
Mencari powered up his hand-phaser. “Be ready.”
Naijen brandished the Skar, and they headed into the unnaturally dark interior. Toriko and Spark activated lights, which cut through the foggy darkness. Seigie charged a golf-ball-sized diamond and held it out.
Despite the sturdy appearance of the outside, the walls and floors were pocketed with blast craters. Debris of rock and fragments of furnishings littered the ground.
Patches of color revealed a decor long faded into muted grays and blacks. Mencari could see hints of murals once splashed across the walls. Only the tribal patterns etched deep into the walls and floors remained intact.
He recalled the recordings from the other structure. A great weight overcame him thinking of all the people that must have died where he stood. They continued to edge through the space until an enormous chamber opened before them.
“These look like … claw marks.” Toriko pointed to a marred section of wall.
“Yeah?” Naijen’s eyes lit up as he inspected the area. He grunted, then shook something off his leg.
Toriko noticed. “You okay?”
Naijen growled in disgust. “Somethin’ on me.”
Mencari inspected the marks and noticed an ankle-high pile of dust around Naijen’s leg. In fact, there were many piles just like that all around.
“Dust,” Toriko said. “Maybe it’s sediment from the ceiling structures? It happens in the old version of the Murai Dome all the time.”
Mencari looked over the marks. They were deep and wider than he expected. Something here had powerful claws. “Let’s keep moving.”
With lights shining around, Mencari made out the remnants of ancient pews, and an altar marked with a fractured, interlocked crescent emblem. Though destroyed now, it must have been some type of massive gathering space.
“Anyone feel that?” Toriko said, unnerved, scanning the area.
Seigie said, “Feel what?”
Mencari looked at Toriko, and reflected on the odd sensation he’d been feeling. He thought it was just his own tension or discomfort with what happened. But the feeling was unusual. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“A tension, like pressure on my chest—something warm.”
Dismissing it, Seigie said, “I don’t feel anything.”
“Well. I don’t know,” Toriko said. “It just doesn’t feel right. Like how sunlight feels on your skin, just heavier. Like—”
“Rage,” Naijen said with pleasure that disturbed Mencari.
Mencari looked to Naijen, and nodded. “Yeah. Like when you’re getting angry.”
With a look back into the darkness, Mencari said, “Let’s not hang around here any longer than we need to. Toriko, any energy readings?”
“The readings are strange.” Her face scrunched. Additional holographic displays flashed u
p before her, the displays changing as her fingers flailed in the air. “There’s an ambient energy all around us, with pockets of concentration. It’s like someone turned on a tesla tower in here…”
Something on a display drew her attention and caused her to look up. Her jaw gaped.
“What?” Mencari said.
“You can’t see that?” Her eyes remained transfixed on the ceiling.
“See what?” Seigie said.
“That light—up there on the ceiling. Look, the sensors can see it right here.” She pointed. “Like an aurora from a solar wind off a magnetic field.”
Mencari shook his head. “I don’t see anything.”
“Well it’s there,” she said, frustrated. “And growing.”
The strange pressure felt before also seemed to be growing.
“Maybe they’re related?” she said.
“We need to find the main source of energy,” he reminded her.
She walked over to a section of ornate tiles on the wall. “Maybe I can trace concentrations to the main source?”
A scan of the wall created a projected panel that displayed results. She scanned it with her eyes, then reached out to touch it. Mencari saw a wisp of red energy waft from the tile at her touch.
“Hey, the floor,” Naijen called out. “It’s glowin’.”
Mencari saw her look down and freeze in horror as electric tendrils began to sprout from beneath her. In a flash, a glowing Naijen ran at her shouting, “Move!”
With his shoulder lowered, he clipped Toriko and sent her flying backward as a red bolt of energy arced from the floor to ceiling. The energy bolt caught Naijen in the middle. His golden shield shattered, engulfing his defenseless body in the hellish light. He howled like a beast being torn apart, every muscle contracting.
Mencari watched in horror, helpless. As the intense light faded, the warrior collapsed into a silent heap.
Toriko shrieked and ran to him. “Naijen! Oh Eudora, no! No!”
Mencari followed, and checked his vital signs.
D'mok Revival: The Nukari Invasion Anthology Page 54
