Part D: Scroll of Inifuss Part D: Scroll of Inifuss
"So let me get this straight," Duo said for the fifth time. "We go past the Stony Field, through the Underground Passage, through the Dark Wood to find this Tree of Infucius, then back through the Underground Passage to the Stony Field again. And then we have to touch the stones in a certain order, go through a portal to this city that's crawling with demons, fight our way through them to find a man who may or may not still be alive after several months, and then pray like crazy that the portal stays open long enough for us to get home through it?" He shook his head in disbelief. "I'm sorry but that's the stupidest..."
"Not quite, Duo," Quatre chimed in.
"Oh. Good."
"None of us here can read the runes of the scroll. After we get the scroll from the Tree of Inifuss, we have to go back to the encampment and hope that Akara can read them."
"Oh." Duo groaned. "Right, I forgot."
"Akara is very wise," Wufei intoned. "I do not doubt that she will know the language of the runes."
"Just one thing that's bothering me," Trowa frowned, joining in the discussion for the first time. "Isn't Akara blind? How can she read, much less translate, anything?"
Duo groaned again, and dropped his head on his hands. "I don't believe this," he moaned.
Accompanied by three skeletons, two ravens, a wolf, a poison creeper, and Relena, the five warriors were soon trekking again through the wilderness. They passed through the Blood Moor and the Cold Plains without many problems; they had killed most of the inhabiting monsters in the area already. That changed once they reached the Stony Field, a wide expanse of rocky wasteland. They found the Cairn Stones of which Akara had spoken without too much trouble, as they jutted tall above anything else in the field.
Reaching the Stones was more trouble, however, as the area was crawling with demons. Blue ones intermingled with the red ones they had already met, but despite the color difference they were just as annoying. There were fireball-slinging shamans everywhere, and there was an extremely frustrating period where no matter how many of the demons they killed, there was always at least one shaman they missed who would start raising the buggers again. Wufei discovered one of the small demons who was a slightly different color from the others, and soon discovered it by far to be the nastiest of the lot. But once it was dealt with, the others were small fry, and the remainder of the demons scattered away from the Cairn Stones with a terrified chittering sound.
While Duo's skeletons (and, not to be outdone, Heero) were chasing down the last of the monsters, the others turned their attention to the circle of standing stones.
"There are stones like these in my homeland," Trowa said softly, reaching up to touch one. Quatre shot him a quick, wide-eyed glance at his wistful tone.
"These must be the stones of which Akara spoke," Wufei said decisively. "There can be no others that match this description."
They studied the tall slabs, each one decorated with a rune. "We can open the portal by touching these in a certain order..." Trowa spoke up. Duo sighed.
"Yeah, but we don't know what order. We have to find the Scroll of Infocus."
"Inifuss," Quatre corrected him wearily.
"Whatever..."
"Warriors!" They looked up at the female voice calling them, and saw Relena gesturing to them from a short way away, standing on top of a stone outcrop. "Over here!"
Though Relena was not as powerful or as deadly as the warriors of the party, she was a good shot with a bow and had kept up with them without comment, despite Wufei's somewhat cold disdain for female warriors. "What is it?" Quatre wondered, already heading towards her.
The outcrop of stone turned out to be part of a crumbling stone wall; two of them remained to form the corner of a decayed tower. Nestled in the corner was an elegant pedestal on which rested a large tome, moldy and worn away by exposure. Duo stepped up to it, and leafed gingerly through the pages, turning them almost reverently. He stopped when he came to a readable section.
"...And so it came to pass that the Countess, who once bathed in the rejuvenating blood of a hundred virgins, was buried alive... And her castle in which so many cruel deeds were done fell rapidly into ruin. Rising over the buried dungeons in the Godforsaken Black Marsh, a solitary tower, like some grant monument to evil, remains."
Quatre had gone an interesting shade of green at the 'rejuvenating blood of virgins' part, and even Trowa looked disturbed. He paused, leafing through the book, and came to another legible passage. "The Countess' fortune was believed to be divided among the clergy, although some say uncounted wealth still remains unfound, buries among the mute skulls that bear witness to the inhumanity of the human creature..." He trailed off there. "That's all that's readable," he said apologetically, glancing up.
"The important question is, is she still there?" Wufei questioned.
Trowa nodded. "Her powers would have grown, not diminished, with the Darkness spreading over the land. No doubt she is still there."
"Then we must find her and kill her." Heero's cold voice came from directly behind Duo; he jumped, and clutched the book to his chest, where it dissolved into powder.
"Are you sure?" Quatre said dubiously. "It's rather out of our way..."
Heero stared pointedly at Duo as he said, "It is my duty to eliminate all practitioners of the Dark Arts."
Duo stiffened, then brightened up and responded in a chirpy tone. "That's a great idea, Heero!"
Heero blinked, looking unsettled. "Oh...?" he asked neutrally.
"Yeah!" Duo flung the powdery remains of the tome at Heero's feet. "Sooner or later, one of those practitioners of the Dark Arts is gonna eliminate you!"
The implied threat hung in the air for a long moment, until Quatre broke the silence. "If we're not going to face the Countess --" he began, confused.
Duo turned to him, a dangerous glitter in his eyes. "Oh, we'll face her all right," he replied. "After all, didn't you hear what the book said? Uncounted wealth!"
Even Relena perked up visibly at that reminder.
To Be Continued... *insert demonic laughter here*