“Seriously Silas, seriously! Why did you fudge it up so bad!”
“I told you Mifune, I ran into trouble getting back to my body!”
“Uh huh, a likely story you lazy friggen-”
“Enough!”
Silas and Mifune turned their heads, looking to Enzo who stood with a scrunched face. Christa stood near, her back leaning against a book shelf with two books in hand. Rows and rows of books and shelving stood around the group, tables present as well. Many books sat upon the table, many in the hands of those who stood, some in the hands of those who had begun to peer around the corner. All looked to Enzo whose face was now red.495Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqOsIuNICqt
495Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJd23o18rJt
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It had been the morning hours as they moved, Silas carried upon the back of Mifune, Christa behind, and Enzo at the lead.
“-well Enzo that curse sure as heck seemed real, how the living hell are we to fight that?” came the bark of Mifune.
“How should I know? If you two hadn’t charged in recklessly-”
“And so what if I did, what did you do other than try to distract us!”
“It’s not my fault that it went that way.”
“Really this is Silas’s fault for passing out before the fight, we should-”
“We should get back to town and go over to their library. We can research what comes next there,” Christa growled, “And if you disagree, go fight them yourself Mifune. We can’t baby you you muscle headed jerk.”
“Hmph!”
“Christa’s right. If we want to beat the mummies and their curse, we need to study it. We need to know what happened. I have a feeling that there is something we’re not being told also. When we get back, we need to find out or we’ll never accomplish the mission.”495Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4AP7VNDgmF
495Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgs6EiPFFdA
495Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYh8xxn2tJd
Enzo’s foot slammed down, his eyes drifting, “This isn’t Silas’s fault nor is it anyone else’s fault in truth. If anything we were uncoordinated in the event of an ambush and fell apart. Now if we don’t stop this, we’ll never find anything.”
Christa let out a sigh, twin thuds heard followed by footsteps. Her hands, empty now, swayed at her side as her eyes moved along the shelves, “If you guys are quite done, we have a job to do. Not sure why we’re searching a library if they’re hiding the truth though.”
“Why would they be if they’re trying to decipher old texts to aid us?”
“A likely story isn’t it Silas?” Christa murmured.
“Conspiracy theory much?”
“Come on. What sort of society knows only a piece of the information about something that threatens them? They’re hiding something they’re too scared to admit to. I’ve seen it many a time before in my history texts about the mortal worlds.”
“Give me a a moment,” Silas murmured taking a seat in a chair, his eyes slowly shutting.
The other three gathered around, watching him momentarily. Silence filled the small area, the three standing in wait looking around the room to notice a few glancing eyes. Mifune place his hand to his face with head shaking after, “This is going to be another several hour thing isn’t it?”
“Be quiet Mifune,” Christa growled.
“Pull that book shelf over Mifune, I think we’ll find something of interest there,” Silas murmured, his eyes slowly opening.
Mifune’s head turned, “Which one?”
“The one with the blue books on the top shelf.”
“Oh ho? Gotcha,” he chuckled stepping across the room.
The few civilians gathered in the library watched with eyes growing big just as Mifune stopped in front of the shelf. The sound of metal on wood chopping through filled the room, the crackle of boards and the collapse of a pile of books. Creaking wood and a final bang. The book shelf fell, split in two with books washing the floor. Behind, an opening lit by a single torch; inside the room, a massive figure.
A stone wall stood surrounded by wood walls and the opening, a stone wall that looked carved from something with many an inscription present on it. Mifune chuckled, “Well, guess destroying that hunk of junk was justified.”
“As I thought,” Christa muttered, “Though really? A hidden room in a library. How cliché.”
Silas glanced around as all at once the people began to leave, quietly. His attention turned at once, “Enzo.”
“On it. These don’t look too hard to decipher,” he murmured holding up a book approaching the room now.
His head moved, his eyes taking in the sum of the wall before him.
“Ahem. The story of Toyen is one of monarchy and despair. Dating back tens of thousands of years it is known that we the free were the enslaved. Subject to the Kings and Queens of the Sands, we became known for war with other tribes and enslaving them just as we were. Though the ages many a harsh lord had been born to supersede the previous lord through the assassination of their former, though none were ever the harsher as King Tatsumaki. Tatsumaki the Wicked Tongue was noted as the cruelest in the history of Toyen 11 for having fed not only his father but his entire ancestory to the reptiles, banishing their friends and families of friends to walk the sands in endless banishment.”
“What a devious little-” Christa growled.
“Tatsumaki worked his own to the death, sacrificing their lives for the sake of a fruitless empire. His experiments on the masses turned into mass slaughters in the name of Black Magic, on his quest to gain the eternal elixir to rule forever. After sacrificing more than a hundred thousand of his own, his time came when his own child took the throne and his life. Tatsumaki died to the alligators after being knocked into the pit of death following the sacrifice of more and more civilians for his games. The next king’s name, Onaka.”
“Onaka? Why does that sound familiar?” Silas murmured.
“Oh my… this is why, we studied him at the academy. Prince Onaka, later King Onaka, was a fairer ruler. In the shadow of his father he had often attempted to fix many of the wrongdoings of his ancestors. In time it became known that King Tatsumaki had intended to sacrifice Onaka to further his evolution, which is when Onaka plotted the downfall of Tatsumaki. As king, Onaka returned many of the riches and wealth of the land to the people. Tragedy- oh my.”
“What is it?”
“Er… tragedy struck when former followers of King Tatsumaki instilled an insurrection of the people using their fear of the next ruler. Onaka’s pregnant lover was fed alive to the game alligators who he had fed upon his father… while he was- while he was mummified alive.”
“Whoa, mummified alive? You mean-”
“They took out his organs and shoved a hot poker into his brain, yes.”
“Dude that’s messed up!!”
“At the brink of death, Onaka vowed vengeance. He spoke that in a thousand years he would return to walk the sands, to do to the descendants of the traitors what they did to him. He would unleash a plague like no other that would raise the dead, and turn the living into the undead.”
“So, suffice to say,” Christa began, “What we’re facing could be Onaka’s revenge.”
“It might just be that, yes. It also mentions that Onaka will not rest until he claims the lives of ten thousand souls.”
“So that’s why they never told us. Hey, they were planning to offer US up weren’t they?!”
“That might be the case. It’s said that Onaka, his army, his family, and his riches were buried at the Blue Moon Oasis a half day’s journey from here. That same oasis where we were attacked.”
“Then we have to get back there and destroy his soul once and for all,” Mifune chuckled.
“Hold on, something about this bothers me,” Christa began again.
“What’s that?” Enzo replied.
“One thing I don’t get. If Onaka knew a spell to make himself rise up, then why hasn’t his father returned?”
“What?”
“The light hearted son of a Black Magic practicing psycho path manages to rise up, manages to know a spell that his father did not?”
“Maybe he studied some of his father’s texts, who knows.”
“Eh, you might be right. It just sounds strange. So, what do we do now Enzo?”
“Ask Silas.”
“Me?”
“You’re the one with superficial powers. You can probably recite something to banish Onaka’s soul, right?”
“I suppose, yeah?”
“Then it’s settled. We need to go to the oasis and put an end to this once and for all.”
“Agreed.”
“Oh heck yeah!” Mifune barked.
The squad turned, quick to run out; just as they did however, slowly a shadow cast at the nearby window. A humanoid outline, ragged with visible red eyes that now narrowed, a disjointed visible jaw. A slight bit of drool dripped, a low groan audible coming from the figure as its blue tunic flapped.495Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhg5t0VgS1z
