• Tales of Xalthia

    Chapter 11: Ancient Secret


    Tsuki and Lynette had entered the mines that ran underneath Briswater in search for General Maxwell and his second-in-command, Frey who had gone missing days before. They were also tasked with finding a way to permanently disable any and all explosives that were at risk of detonating. The further down they traveled into the mines, the more dangerous the terrain became. With all of the aftershocks, some of the support pillars have become unstable or have already collapsed, leaving the structure of the main completely unstable. One strong aftershock and the entire mine could come down, trapping them underground. The depths of the mines were a dangerous place to be.

    Throughout their travels deep into the mines, they've had an abnormally high encounter rate of monsters. Normally, the monster activity in the mines were about average. However, that's not the case this time. Something was different about the mines. As they traveled, they both got a vibe that something was very different. The air became heavier and sometimes, it was hard to breath and the atmosphere was slowly changing. They blew it off, thinking that it was normal for the air to become heavy because they were miles underground.

    As they pushed deeper into the mines, they came up to a large chamber. The chamber walls had ancient murals and script etched into the walls. No one knew who or when the murals or scripts were made. All they know is that the murals depict some sort of catastrophic event and the script writing either explains what's going to happen in the future or something that's already happened. They couldn't tell because the script was written in a long forgotten language. Throughout all of Briswater's history, scientists and archaeologists have only been able to decipher a small portion of the script.

    Tsuki walked into the large chamber and looked around the massive space. It was as if he walked into some old museum. "Wow, what is all this?" Some kind of prophecy?" he asked. The chamber was so large that even the faintest noise would reverberate around the chamber.

    Lynette walked up behind Tsuki and looked around as well. She then walked up to the chamber walls and ran her hand across the murals and script. She could tell that the murals were hundreds, if not, thousands of years old. "They look really old. I wonder who made them" she said.

    Tsuki continued to examine the walls until they came up to the large mural with what appeared to be a giant fireball crashing down from the skies. It almost looks like a meteor but something about it was different. Then, it hit him. The mural reminded him of the stories he was told when he was still a Royal Eight apprentice. "You know, this reminds me of the War of Mana" he said, pointing to the fireball mural.

    Lynette turned around and approached the mural Tsuki was looking at. She then examined it herself. She made the connection as well. "You're right. Look, you can see Efreet, Undine, Gnome and Sylph gathering their energy!" she said. She then pointed to the blue, red, green and brown figures above the fireball.

    Tsuki walked closer to the mural to take a closer look and ran his hand over the ancient script under the mural. As he did so, he had a strange flash go off in his mind. He was getting flashes of images from the past before his time. Just then, he could make out part of the script that wasn't deciphered yet. "Divine...Retribution" he asked himself. Just then, the script mysteriously lit up. Seconds later, they felt the ground shake again.

    Lynette lost her balance from the sudden violent shaking and fell onto the the ground. The shaking felt like another explosion going off. "Another explosion!?" she shouted. It couldn't be an explosion, however, It it was, the sound of it would travel through the entire mine plus they would of felt sudden explosion before they felt the aftershock.

    Tsuki looked like he was in some sort of trance. His body was there but his mind wasn't. He continued to receive flashbacks of the past. The flashbacks were centered around a male around his age from over a hundred years ago. More specifically, around the time period of which the War of Mana took place. He could make this out because there were flashbacks from the war occasionally. "What's going on? What are these images?" he thought. It felt like his consciousness was pulled into some strange space filled with flashbacks.

    Out of nowhere, a strange and unfamiliar voice started to speak. It was the voice of a young male. "So, you've finally arrived. It's been over a hundred years. I was beginning to wonder if you would show or not" the voice said.

    Tsuki opened eyes and found that he was in an empty space. He was no longer in the mines. "What is this place? Who are you?" he asked the voice. He didn't understand what was going on. How did he get into this strange space?

    Just then, a projected image of the voice formed in the space. It was the boy from his flashbacks. "So, you're my descendent. Yes...this could work" the boy said. The boy had brown hair while wearing knight's armor with a gold Phoenix in the center of the chest piece.

    Tsuki took a stance, thinking that the murals were some sort of elaborate trap. He didn't know what else to think. "I'll ask again...who are you? What is this place?" he demanded. He didn't like where this was going. He couldn't fight something he doesn't understand because it would be a losing battle.

    The boy shook his head. "Don't be so alarmed. You are in a divine space that links the past to the present. This place is called Spiritual Bridge. As for my name, you'll learn soon enough" he said. He was quite mysterious.

    Tsuki kept his stance open, not believing a word the boy said. "Spiritual Bridge? What are you talking about about!?" he shouted. He wanted answers. There was just no way he could explain it to himself even if he did have some understanding about what's going on.

    The boy started to float around the space. "Here, you can view the mistakes of the past from their perspective point of views. All will be explained to you down the road" he said. He was almost speaking in riddles. He wasn't making hardly any sense to Tsuki.

    Tsuki had a confused expression on his face then he dropped his stance but kept his guard up. "You're not making any sense. Mistakes of the past? What do you mean?" he asked.

    Just then, an image of a strange door started to form. The door looked very old just by design alone. It wasn't like anything Tsuki has ever seen before. The boy then hovered over to the image. "Find this door. All that you need to know will be answered then" the boy said.

    Tsuki examined the image closely. "This door? What's so special about it? I'm not about to go on a global search for some ancient door" he said. He didn't have time to search for some door nor did he want to. It had nothing to do with him.

    The boy hovered over to Tsuki and placed his hand on his shoulder. "You don't need to go far to find the door. You'll know when you find the door. You have no idea what your lineage is" he said. The boy then tapped Tsuki's chest then soon disappeared in a burst of light.

    Tsuki was blinded for a bit and when he opened his eyes again, he was back in the mines. The shaking had slowly dissipated and Lynette was still on the ground. For some reason, no time has passed for some reason while Tsuki was in the Spiritual Bridge. He had no understanding or explanation of what just happened. He was in disbelief. "What...was that?" he asked himself.

    Lynette shook her head and slowly stood up. "There was no explosion...an earthquake, maybe?" she said, trying to explain the ground shaking. She has no idea what Tsuki just went through. In her eyes, nothing abnormal happened besides the violent shaking.

    Tsuki was in his trance for several minutes. He didn't even acknowledge the quake. Whatever just happened to him was unexplainable. He had too much on his mind to think about so he didn't think about it too much. He looked around the chamber once things settled down. Besides a few falling rocks from the ceiling, there was no damage to the chamber. Not wanting to make Lynette worry, he pretended that he felt the sudden quake as well.

    As Tsuki observed the damages to the chamber, he noticed that the mural of the giant fireball was glowing faintly. "What's going on? That wasn't glowing before" he said. Was that strange vision linked to the mural?

    Lynette looked up at the mural and examined it. Was there some sort of mechanism behind the mural? There were no drafts or cracks in the wall so there was no way to check. "Is this connected to the quake?" she asked. Just then, she heard the sound of someone moaning in pain. "Tsuki, listen! I hear someone!" she said.

    They both went silent for several moments to try and figure out where the moaning sounds were coming from. Soon, they heard the sounds coming from a tunnel that wasn't there before. The walls didn't look like they collapsed so it was almost like there was a hidden doorway of stone.

    Tsuki approached the tunnel cautiously. "Hello!? Is someone there!?" he shouted. He waited several moments before he heard a very weak cry for help. Someone was severely injured in the tunnel. He then looked back at Lynette. "This way! Someone's hurt!" he said. He then took off running down the tunnel.

    Lynette followed closely behind him as she followed him down the tunnel. It didn't take them long enough to reach a familiar face who was on the ground up against the cave wall. It was a wounded Frey. They found him about two minutes into the tunnel. He had wounds that weren't from some mine accident. Rather, he had wounds that you would receive from a losing fight.

    Tsuki ran up to Frey and got down onto his knees next to him. He then nudged him gently. "Frey! Are you okay!?" he asked. He was now on full alert. Knowing Frey's history on the battlefield, he is a man that doesn't go down easy. He had several slash wounds and one deep slash wound that went down his back. No normal fighter or common terrorist could inflict such serious wounds to a war hero.

    Lynette caught up to Tsuki and saw the condition Frey was in. "Oh my god! Frey!?" she shouted. She quickly ran up to them and immediately started to heal his wounds. His wounds were serious but not life-threatening, thankfully. She shouldn't have a problem healing him.

    It took Lynette several minutes to fully heal his wounds. They waited in silence and anticipation for Frey to regain consciousness. This wasn't just a normal terrorist attack or mine accident anymore. If this was a team effort, there would be bodies of fallen terrorists or monsters all over the mines but they haven't ran into any bodies yet. They had to wait to get their questions answered. Eventually, Frey started to regain consciousness.

    Frey groaned weakly as his vision was slowly returning. When his vision fully came back to him, , he saw Tsuki and Lynette standing over him. "Ugh...Tsuki? Lynette? What are you doing here...? I thought I told you not to come..." he said. He was trying to regain his composure and tried to figure out what happened to him.

    Tsuki saw Frey wake up and ask a question. He still seemed out of it as he was still trying to connect the dots. "We came to help. We heard you went missing in the mines when you went to look for Maxwell" he said. He was more curious to know how he got his injuries.

    Frey thought back and remembered a few things. "Ah...that's right. I came to the mural chamber in search for Maxwell when I saw an unmapped tunnel. I started to follow it when..." he said before stopping himself. Suddenly, the rest of his memories came back to him. "That's right! I was attacked out of the blue!" he said. Just then, a jagged rock broke off the ceiling above them and came crashing down.

    Tsuki heard the cracking as he looked up and saw the rock coming down above them. He quickly drew his broken sword and sliced the rock in half then knocked the separate pieces away. He landed back on the ground and looked at his sword. Shards of the broken blade were broken off. He put his sword back on his waist then looked at Lynette. "We need to get him to the chamber. That's the most stable place in here" he said.

    Lynette looked up at Tsuki as she was finishing patching Frey up in bandages. "He's stable to move but let's be careful. We don't want his wounds opening up" she said. She then slowly helped up him on his feet, throwing his arm around her. "I'll help walk him out. You watch our backs" she said.

    Tsuki nodded and then they slowly made their way back to the chamber of murals. Thankfully, they weren't far from the chamber so it wasn't a long walk back. They made it back into the chamber after a few minutes of backtracking. The mural of the fireball was still giving off a faint glow. Lynette then set Frey on the floor against the wall slowly.

    Frey slowly sat down in the chamber and leaned up against the wall, looking up at Lynette and Tsuki. "Ah...thank you, Lynette" he said. He then noticed that the mural of the fireball was glowing. "That mural...why is it glowing? That's never happened before" he said.

    Tsuki shook his head. He was hoping Frey would know the answer to that. "I don't know. It started to glow after the last quake" he said. He then rubbed his forehead and took a deep breath. "More importantly, who attacked you? It was no common fighter. That much is obvious, given your history on the battlefield" he said.

    Frey shook his head and thought back. "That's right...a man with excellent skills with a blade in black armor with a red lining attacked me from behind. It was like nothing I've ever seen. He felt...inhumane. I don't think he even was a human" he said, hinting a bit of fear in his voice.

    When Tsuki picked up on Frey's slight fear, it dawned on him. This was coming from someone who single-handedly fought off an entire army. Frey does not scare easily. "Someone who wasn't human, huh?" he said. There was more added danger to the mines now. Tsuki wasn't as skilled as Frey was so he knew that if they encounter this person, they would not survive.

    Frey grabbed Tsuki's arm and held it tightly. "Please...you need to save Maxwell. He told me that there was a similar chamber directly below us. That's where he went when I lost contact with him" he said, pleading for his help. He was far too weak to go any further into the mine on his own.

    Tsuki put his hand over his and nodded. "Leave it to us. We'll find him" he assured him. So, there was another large chamber. He wonders what's in the other chamber. Was it another chamber of murals? The person who attacked Frey still lingered in his mind. He was more concerned now for Maxwell's safety. If Frey was defeated in battle, then Maxwell could be the next to fall.

    Frey released his arm and nodded. "Thank you. Please be careful. That man appeared to be heading there too. Stay away from him at all times. If you value your life, do not engage him in battle" he warned them. He didn't want them to encounter the man who defeated him in battle. He shouldn't even be alive.

    Tsuki nodded at Frey then looked at Lynette. "Let's get going" he said. He was worried about bumping into the person who defeated Frey but he couldn't allow that to stop him and make him retreat, leaving the job undone. He was having trouble fighting monsters with a broken sword. Fighting someone with that much strength would be suicide.

    Lynette looked at Tsuki, not wanting to leave him by himself. "What about Frey? We can't just leave him here!" she said. Frey was in no condition to defend himself if monsters came and attacked nor was in any shape to flee. She didn't want to leave Frey by himself.

    Frey shook his head. "Don't worry about me. I'm in radio range from the command center. I'll call in some help. Now go before it's too late" he said, pointing down the tunnel that they just came from. Maxwell and the mystery fighter had a decent head start from Tsuki and Lynette so they had a lot of catching up to do. Stalling would just make it worse.

    They took a moment to think about their options then nodded after a few moments. Soon after, they took off running down the unmapped tunnel. Since the map didn't have this tunnel marked, they were running blind. However, they didn't care. Both Maxwell and the mystery fighter took the same path so it had to lead somewhere. They needed to press on before anything else happens. They saved Frey so now they have to save Maxwell. They still haven't found where the explosives were as well so that's still a problem. They can only hope that their problems are on the last sub-level of the mines.

    To be continued...