Elune had a face like she ate something really sour while she cursed Rahz underneath her breath. Even Riddick had his hands across his chest and was shaking his head at a loss for words.
Rahz looked around at the angry faces of all his companions and all he could say was... Oops!!.
The Old Warrior looked at the atmosphere and cough a couple of times to get everyone's attention and then said. "Don't worry guys, the cursed will only last until Lord Darick is defeated or you died in which case you'll be just like me… not too bad right, is a win win in my book...Huhuhu"
Crickets...
Seeing the none laughing faces around him made the Old warrior a little embarrassed.
"Tough crowd..Tough Crowd indeed"
The Old warrior shook it off and continue the tale "Anyways, Lord Darick was our fearless leader and a very powerful warrior appointed by the queen herself as the protector of the Fifth Gate. They were dark times, dark times I tell you!! The Dragonkin forces were gaining ground and had manage to reach the door steps of our precious city. Our city's name was Newport...".
"No way!!! The Great Dark Elf City" Said Elune flabbergasted. There was not a Dark Elf tribe in all of Elysian that didn't know of the great city of Newport which represented the height of their achievements as race.
"Good for you little girl!! You do know about your ancestors!! "The specter puff up his chest and continued, "Our city was protected by a six point magic formation that nobody could penetrated, it had amazing defensive capabilities as well as a very powerful Arcane beam that could devastate thousands of those overgrown lizards. The formation was call the six point formation for a reason, it need it the energy of 6 God crystal to operate and if one was to be destroyed, it would created a domino effect that would prevent the entire thing from working. Each of the powerful God crystals needed to be protected by very powerful Lords and they were kept in the basement of very large structures known as gates. As you probably know by now Lord Darick was the protector of one of the structures 'The Fifth Gate' ".
"I was working as a Royal Guard when it happened... Tens of thousands of Dragonkin warriors and a few of their generals opened a Teleportation gate and appeared out of nowhere right in front of our city and attacked us with full force. The First gate was caught unprepared and the pressure was mounting at an extremely fast pace. The queen knew that we had to slow the Dragonkin down and prevent them from doing damage to the gates while we waited until the allied forces arrived and turned the situation around. As long as the gates held, the formation would keep the city and its citizens safe"
"I knew that I was going to be leading a troop of my fellow Dark Elves to one of the gates, I just didn't know which one. When the Orders came I opened the enveloped the wrong way and... (mumble) rahh thh numbbrr wrngg"
"Sorry I beg your pardon"
"rahh thh numbbrr wrngg (mumbling still)"
"Sorry I still didn't catch that..."
"Damn it!!! I SAID!! I READ THE NUMBER WRONG"
Four people gasp and a snake Hiss in surprise at what the Guard in front of them had said.
With his head down in shame the specter guard continued, "I went to reinforce the Second Gate instead of the Fifth and by the time I corrected my mistake it was too late. With the Fifth Gate in imminent danger and to keep the Dragonkin from destroying the God Crystal, Lord Darick authorized his Counselor and practitioner of the necromantic arts to use a death cursed with a terrible price to pay, not only did it consume the levels of everyone in the Fifth Gate, it also cursed them to be reborn as Undead until their souls are release from the Grimhold Doll".
"Where is this Grimhold you are talking about?"
"Is in the hands of Lord Darick, he believes that an eternity is not enough to repent for causing the fall of the city he was supposed to protect. Since their souls are all in that Grimhold, each and everyone of them revives after 3 days and continues their duty to protect the Fifth Gate".
"How did Lord Darick get a hold of the doll if he was one of the people being sacrifice to the curse and died in the invasion?"
"The Counselor never died, as soon as he used the curse to kill 20,000 of the dragonkin he disappeared before the Fifth Gate fell. When Lord Darick woke up as an undead on the third day, the doll was waiting for him in the place the God crystal used to be"
"We want to help...we really do, but we don't even know where this Gate is, it had been 5000 years" Said Elune trying to look for a loophole that could let them avoid the mission.
The guard sneered and said "Thank you!! The location is not a problem, you are standing on it"
The team look underneath their feet and gulp, It was for real now, they had to go and try to defeat this Lord guy that judging by the level of the guard (Level 35) who knows what Level Lord Darick was.
'It is all over' Thought Rahz after he realize that he would not be able to level pass Level 19 no matter what he did without going to the temple. He was going to be and undead and roam the Fifth Gate forever.
Elune saw Rahz's face paled like somebody about to puke and thought 'This is all your fault dumbass and now you are all scare, serves you right.'
"Mr. Guard, we can't wait to get started but as you can tell our Levels are not exactly up to your level so how can we defeat such powerful Undead".
"Have you been listening to anything I said little Girl. The Curse used their Life force and decreased their levels so they are only level 15-19"
Rahz and Riddick did the wave and cheered "Where is the entrance?"
The Royal Guard pointed at the lake and said "It is at the bottom of the lake. As long as you are actively trying to release the Fifth Gate from their eternity of penance the curse won't trigger but if you decide to quit…." The guard put his finger close to his bony neck and ran it across.
Rahz and Riddick didn't even paid attention as they were already jumping into the lake to start their new adventure.
Elune sighted, and along with Midori followed the team. The trip to the bottom was pretty relax as there was literally no fish or any other aquatic species in sight.
The gate was a pretty long distance from the surface of the lake and even after ten minutes of swimming there was still no indication of the structure they were looking for. The only good news was that the curse mark on their foreheads allowed them to breathe underwater without any problems.
The team continue their descend for another 15 minutes before they started to see the silhouette of a massive dome, it had the shape of an igloo made out of a transparent material that gave off a blinding light. The entrance was not in the shape of nice arc but it look like the vertical cross section of Football standing up. The material looked like crystal but was stronger than Mythril ( third tier weapon material) and a great conductor of mana.
The Witch Doctor was extremely excited and said "Truly the apex of the Dark Elf empire, ostentatious yet functional, if we can get even a kilogram of this material we wouldn't have to worry about money for the rest of our lives, of course that is if a mage doesn't kill us first".
"Is it that valuable?" Asked Elune
"Of course, It has the highest mana conductivity of any material known to the realm and it can withstand the attacks of a level 50 general of the dragonkin for at least 60 minutes. It is called Elementium. During the age of The Shattering it was use to make the staffs of the most powerful mages in the Army. I can see why it was chosen as the material for the gates since they were part of a magic formation they needed to allow mana to flow in an out freely to supply the massive runes that made up the shield".
The team arrived at the entranced and stared in awe at the enormous door that was at least 10 times taller than they were, without thinking about it Rahz try to push it open with all his might and even with the help of riddick it was impossible.
"What are you doing?" Said the specter that had just appeared beside them with a dumbfounded expression on his face.
"Trying to get in what else?"
"You can't do it through there, the door was shut during the war and unless you have a God Crystal to supply it with energy there is no way to do it".
"Then how do we get in?"
"Through the hole made by the Dragonkin on the side"
The team move to the Right side of the dome and saw a huge crack on the wall about 20 ft tall and 12 ft wide. Beyond the thickness of the wall, a film made out of mana flicker as it was hit by the water and bounce in an out.
"Go ahead cover yourself with energy and go through"
Rahz touch the screen with his hands without activating his energy and discovered that the magic screen was like a film that gently bounced his hand back. The moment he put some runic energy into it, the hand magically disappear into the screen and to his surprise the environment inside the screen felt like the air on the surface of the lake. Rahz kept repeating the process while saying out loud "With energy... no Energy… with energy… no energy"
It was so annoying the guard screamed "JUST GO IN ALREADY"
Rahz jumped in fright and quickly cover his body with energy before going through.