Part G: Arcane Sanctuary
"Incredible," was the first word out of Duo's mouth. The Arcane Sanctuary was on some distant plane of existence. It was an immense structure made of steel and consisted of dozens and dozens of paths. There were four directions to choose from, dubbed by Duo facing the portal: upper left, lower left, upper right and lower right. They decided to take upper left first.
They started to walk, encountering small groups of Hell Fiends, which did not resemble the creatures in the basement, nor did the Ghoul Lords which threw fireballs. They also encountered lightning spires, which while they weren't alive, were very deadly as they emitted bolts of lightning.
At some point they had to stop walking. There was no more path to walk. Trowa stared at the moving stars for a moment. His ravens simply refused to leave his shoulders.
"We'll have to go back," Trowa said simply. The others exchanged weary looks and headed back along the paths.
Duo grabbed a stray acorn from his pocket and threw it at the path they could see but would have to walk quite a bit to reach.
"Damnit, by the time we find the journal, we'll be too tired to read it," Duo complained.
"Oh!" Quatre said, raising his arms. Suddenly, they were on the other path, looking back.
"I think I just lost ten minutes of my life..." Duo muttered. Quatre smiled and shook his head.
"Not at all! I used teleport, but it only works if I know where I'm going and I can see it," Quatre said brightly.
Duo brightened considerably. "Quat, I could kiss you!"
"You'd better not..." muttered Heero and Trowa at the same time. Wufei burst out laughing. Duo and Quatre stared at him.
"Nothing..." Wufei said. "Let's just keep going." When they returned to the portal, they chose lower left, which consisted of short, dead end paths with red portals on them that transported them short distances, though Quatre normally ignored them in favour of using teleport.
Quatre and Duo were truly in their element as they cast bone spear and hydra to attack hapless Hell Clan warriors. Heero and Trowa generally stayed out of their way. Wufei helped them by throwing firetraps at the monsters.
It took some time, but they ran out of places to teleport to, and had to go back. Thanks to Quatre's teleport, they weren't tired from walking, but Quatre had to wait and catch his breath from all the successive spell casting.
Reaching the portal again, they had a choice between upper and lower right. A quick consensus determined they would take the lower right first. This pathway was an array of stairways and smallish platforms filled with more creatures. Along with Hell Clan warriors and Ghoul lords, there were Specters, birdlike undead that were blue but quickly turned yellow when hit. They reached the end of this section of path and groaned.
"I wish we'd just taken the upper right path in the first place. Then we wouldn't have had to go to the other three paths. And who would take paths after they'd found the right way to go?" Duo griped as they returned to the portal. The author coughed lightly into her hand.
The fourth path, now the only path left was oddly straight, and had far fewer stairways. It consisted of two parallel paths, with two paths connecting to them at regular intervals. While at first they found nothing but fiercely fighting Ghoul Lords, Hell Clan warriors and Specters. However, when they reached one of the platforms, they saw strange engravings on the platform. There were four forms, the circle, the triangle, the shape of three squiggled lines radiating outward and a square.
"What do you think these mean?" Quatre asked. Trowa blinked at the symbols and thought back.
"We have seen them before. They were on the last platform of the first path," Trowa said slowly.
"That doesn't answer the question of what they mean," Duo pointed out. "But I didn't notice them before."
"Perhaps we will find our answers in the journal," Heero pointed out. Everyone nodded and continued on, to where two paths became one.
"Anyone taking bets as to whether or not the summoner is after this path?" Wufei muttered. Heero snorted.
"No one would take a bet they would lose," Heero said. Wufei shot Heero a grin and they continued on. The single path forced them to walk in a single line. Heero was first, followed by Wufei, Trowa, Quatre and Duo, who was trailed by his rather slow train of undead.
There was a set of stairs that led up a platform, then went down again. There was a short path and a double set of stairs, that curved out and led to a single platform that was teeming with ghoul lords and hell clan warriors. Suddenly, they parted and a single humanoid in blue robes stepped into the centre, smiling gruesomely at them.
"Welcome to my parlour," he said. Heero absurdly found himself glad he was far away from the Summoner, so he wouldn't be forced to smell his hideous breath.
"That's not... Horazon, is it?" Quatre whispered. The Summoner heard him, his face stretching into another hideous smile.
"Me? Horazon, that weakling! Oh no, dear boy, I slew Horazon... it was not hard, though he seems to have trapped me here on this platform, with only a blank, mouldy book to stare at. No matter, I am more than powerful enough to deal with the likes of you. Minions, forward!"
The summoner retreated behind his minions as they boiled forward. It- he?- raised their arms and summoned a spike of ice and launched it directly at Quatre, knocking the blond sorcerer back. He clutched his bleeding shoulder and fought to come up with a spell to launch back.
The blackness around Quatre's eyes flared as on the other platform a small volcano sprouted under the Summoner. A pair of ravens pecked furiously at his eyes. The Summoner let out a fairly high-pitched scream.
Wufei had a slight smile on his face. Someone really should have told him not to mess with Quatre... Wufei threw traps called Web Lightning at the minions while Duo launched bone spear and the occasional corpse explosion, which made handy bombs out of the bodies of their fallen opponents.
Heero generally kept back and cast helpful auras. Trowa had only eyes for the Summoner. The volcanoes offered the Summoner no respite. Trowa's ravens flew back towards him as the Summoner collapsed in a crisped pile of blue, silk cloth.
Trowa turned away and knelt beside Quatre, who had just finished patching himself up. Heero, Duo and Wufei walked up the steps to the main platform. Duo kicked the Summoner's body as he stepped over it.
"Hey guys, look..." Duo said, pointing to the six floating symbols in the centre of the six arches, three on each side. One appeared to be a tiny sun with large rays, one was a square, one was a curved line, one was a circle, one was a pair of chevrons (( > > only upright)), and one circle with a curved line drawn underneath. Near them was a pedestal with a book on it.
"That must be the journal," Heero said, picking up the book. Trowa helped Quatre up, and they all gathered around the journal. Heero began reading silently. What had been blank for the Summoner was perfectly visible to the eyes of Good.
"It says that these symbols are the markers of the fake tombs of Tal Rasha," Heero said, gesturing to the symbols floating around him. "Tal Rasha was the greatest of the Horadrim, an order that was formed to track down and trap the three Lords of Hell. It also says that after Mephisto, Diablo and Baal were sealed away, the alliance of Mages fell apart and began to squabble pettily among themselves. Something must have happened in the tomb of Tal Rasha, and that's why there are so many creatures roaming around Lut Gohlein."
"But how do we get to Tal Rasha's tomb?" Duo demanded impatiently, peering over his shoulder. Heero chuckled and patted Duo on the head. Duo scowled at him and batted his hand away.
Wufei examined the floating symbols, he then looked at the floor, then back. "Look, they are the same as the symbols on the floor, only one is missing. The triangle. That must be the real tomb."
"Great, but that still doesn't answer my question. How do we get to the tomb?" Duo placed his hand on a page of the open book, the book emitted a small amount of light. "Ah!" Duo yelled and yanked his hand back. He then replaced it and the book emitted a small amount of light again.
"Hey look at this. The book glows when I touch it," Duo said, fascinated. He made a quick game of poking it and drawing away.
Heero, looking intrigued, touched his hand to the book also. The book's glow brightened. Then as one, Quatre and Trowa both touched the book. The book's glow doubled in intensity.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Wufei confessed as he touched the book too. The book emitted a hum, a crackle of magical electricity, then when dark.
"Sooo.... what did we just do?" Trowa asked nervously. As if to answer him, a red portal opened with a swoosh behind Duo.
"Aaaahhhh!" Duo screamed, "Don't do that!" ((Duo joins the ranks of a lot of spazzy people... ))
Wufei looked at Duo impatiently and shoved him through, then walked through himself, followed by Heero, and closely after by Quatre and Trowa.
To Be Continued... *insert demonic laughter here*