Rose and Alana continued further down the staircase, before they came to a room that was lit up with torches. It seemed like someone else had already been in the room, so Alana and Rose became watchful for any signs of danger. They came across a statue of a woman next to a doorway. There was a sign on it that read, "Only a person of royal descent may pass through." Alana was able to read the sign because members of the royal family are required to learn the old languages of the empire, so they can read old documents.
"What do we do now Alana?" asked Rose who was really scared of the tomb.
Alana replied, "I think you have to stay out here; I'll go in and check out what's inside."
"But what if something happens while you're in there, what should I do?" Rose started to panic a little but Alana managed to calm her down. She grabbed her by the shoulders and looks her in the eye.
"If I don't come out or If I scream, I want you to go get the others." Rose agreed and then Alana gets ready to put up a barrier to protect Rose while she was waiting.
"Spirits please provide me the power to protect others. Spirit Shield!" A sphere of light and air appeared around Rose protecting her from any harm that might come to her while she waited. After Alana casted her spell, she entered into the room. When she entered, she looked around and it seemed to be a regular room then the door shut behind her. The room was pitch black and completely silent. Alana slowly walked toward the center of the room, when a bright fire appeared in a pit right in front of her, lighting the walls of the room. When she looked around, she saw ancient paintings of people wearing crowns lined along the wall. They all had shiny silver hair similar to Aeron, king Emeric, and herself. The biggest picture was in the middle on the far wall of the room. It was a young man with a cold look in his eye staring out of the painting. Under the painting it said, "King Eirian, the humble first leader of the Venied Empire."
While she was looking around the room, she heard a voice. It sounded like the voice was right next to her, but it was quiet like a whisper. It called out to her, "Girl of royal blood, obtain the magic book hidden in the room. You and you alone may use its power."
Alana searched around the room for the book, looking in every corner of the room. She had no idea where the book was hidden so she felt like giving up. Then when she pulled a book from a bookshelf against the wall, a secret passageway opened to a smaller room behind the wall. There was a podium in the middle with a book on it. The voice returned and said, "you must open the book to claim it as your own." Alana was cautious about following the directions of the strange voice, so she took the book and put it in a little sack. The doorway to the room opened back up revealing an exit way. Alana took one last look at the young man's face before leaving. She felt like she had seen those same eye's before. The look of apathy in the man's eyes could be felt as a numbing sensation that started in the neck, slowly creeping down your back, and spreading throughout your entire body, making the slightest movement seem impossible. She thought to herself, "Aeron has the same look, in his eyes."
As she was heading out of the room, the voice returned once more and said, "You will eventually open the book, when you do you will be much more powerful than you are now."
Pierre and Elise walked down the cold hallway closely together trying to stay warm. They were shaking from the freezing temperature.
"It's much colder than it was outside," said Elise while rubbing her hands together.
"I think there's old ice magic cast here. We have to be careful," responded Pierre, trying to fight the cold with will power.
They reached an area that look to be the size of a colosseum in height and length. The light in the room made them think they were somehow outside, but there was a lot of glowing magical crystals on the rock covered ceiling. The floor was covered in a thin layer of snow with a few ice patches along the way. As they walk further in the cold arena, the gate behind them slammed shut, blocking them from escaping the room. The ground beneath them started rumbling and the sound of large footsteps could be heard coming from a tunnel on the other side of them. With each step the ground grew louder and louder.
"Stay behind me Elise, looks like we might have trouble," says Pierre, as he readies his sword. A giant creature made of ice came out of the tunnel. It made the air in the room feel numbly cold as it spewed its icy breath throughout the room. Pierre charged at the creatures striking it in its legs to see if he could damage it. His attacks barely left a scratch on the beast and seemed to have no physical effects on the creature. The icy elemental swung its arm at Pierre, missing him, but the force of its arm hitting the ground pushed Pierre back. In the area the blow landed became frozen and huge spikes of ice grew from the ground.
"Be careful Pierre don't let it touch you," yelled Elise.
Pierre tried thinking of a new plan, but every time he stood still the creature would try to attack him. Pierre tried again but this time he used reinforcement magic. This allowed him to temporarily increase his speed and strength, but it takes time to use it again. Pierre casted "Divine Protector, grant me your strength, Power Surge," his muscles grew showing the increase in strength. Pierre charges at the creature speeding with precision. He then jumps up and thrust his blade straight through the ice creature. His blade smashed the core that was giving the creature life. The shell of the creature fell and hit the ground blowing snow around the Arena.
"Wow Pierre you're like crazy strong," said Elise, as she rushed over.
"I was just doing my job and protecting you," replied Pierre, while smiling. His body returned to normal, but he looked drained of energy. "I may need time to rest, leave me here and comeback for me later," asked Pierre.
Elise said, "I'll just help you walk, who knows what will come if I leave you." She helped him up and walked with him to the next room. The next room wasn't as big as the last, but it was still large. The walls were lined in a mossy stone brick with slight frost on it, probably from the defeated creature in the previous room. At the center of the room there was a chest surrounded by a light purple dome, using magic to keep all the contents of the chest protected.
Elise's eyes were filled with excitement as she stared at the unknown treasure. "There might be treasure inside the chest. We got to find a way to dispel the barrier," said Elsie walking closer to the barrier. When she got close enough to the barrier, she tried to put her hand on it.
Pierre tried to warn her and yelled "don't touch it yet, we have to –," but before he could finish, she was flung back by a hard gust of air knocking her into a wall. Pierre, still exhausted, did his best to rush over to Elise to make sure she wasn't severely hurt.
Pierre asked, "Elise are you okay? Can you still move?"
Elise was in a slight daze when she stood up. "I'm alright, just a little dizzy, nothing too serious," she responded.
"Good, let's figure this barrier thing out and see what's inside that chest," said Pierre, then the two of them start searching the room.
They checked every wall for the magical source of the barrier, but they could find anything. They looked at every crack, design, and writing on the walls, thinking that they could find the answer to their problems. The barrier sat there in the center pulsing with power like it was taunting them and knew that they would never find what they needed.
"We're wasting our time Pierre. I don't think I can keep searching," said Elise who was tired and frustrated.
Pierre was determined to find the power source and replied, "don't give up so soon Elise. I know we will find it, if we keep looking hard." Just as Elise was about to give up and stop searching, she looked up at the ceiling and saw some engraved letters in a circle glowing in the same color as the barrier.
Elise shouted with joy "Pierre I found it, look up!"
Pierre looked up and immediately knew what he had to do. "Elise, I need your help to dispel this barrier" said Pierre.
"Okay, tell me what I need to do, and I'll do it" responded Elise, determine to show her worth to Pierre.
Pierre had a smile of determination on his face before he responded, "I need you to help boost me up to the ceiling. I'll use my reinforcement magic on my legs and jump to the ceiling and then I'll slice the magic writing."
"Right, let's do this" responded Elise. She got into position ready for Pierre to jump.
Pierre used another spell, but this one was only on his legs, "Divine lord, bless me with your strength and grant me the power to reach the heavens." Pierre's legs became cloaked in a yellow light. He then ran towards Elise at a high speed. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't flinch when he got really close. When she felt Pierre's foot in her hands, she threw him up allowing him to jump to the ceiling. Pierre pulled out his sword and he slowed his breathing and his sword started glowing the same color as his leg. He swung the sword straight through the glowing letters slicing them in half and the light disappeared, and so did the barrier. Pierre landed down on the ground in a kneeling position then he sheathed his sword.
Elise ran over to Pierre "We did it, the barriers down," she exclaimed.
"I knew we could do it," he responded. Pierre was extremely exhausted since he used his reinforcement magic twice in such a short time.
"It looks like you over did it, take it easy" said Elise as she helped him up. They both walk over to the chest in the middle of the room. It was made of pure silver. The metal had no imperfections on its surface as if it had never been touched before. The chest had an opening for a key in the middle that was engraved in the ancient language found in the tomb.
Elise said, "It looks like we need a key or something."
When Pierre defeated the ice creature in the other room, he picked up a key that dropped from the core of the beast. "Let's try this key," he said. Pierre, then put the key inside the chest and opened it. They found three big bags filled with solid gold coins.
Elise's eyes were full of excitement as she looked at the amount of coins in the chest "I've never seen coins like this before. They might be worth a lot," said Elise.
Pierre grabbed two of the bags and said "we should take it back with us, grab the other bag Elise."
When Elise went to pick up the bag, she noticed a small box that was tucked underneath. She picked it up and examined it. The box was made out of silver just like the chest it was found in. It was covered in a spiral carving design and it looked to be very fancy. Elise open the box and found a ring with a shiny blue gem in the holder. Inscribed on the ring band were letters in the ancient language, but Elise couldn't decipher their meanings. She examined the ring further, when she felt a sudden urge to place the ring on her finger. She tried to resist, but the power of the ring was too much for her. She put her index finger through the ring sliding it all the way up to her knuckle. Nothing out of the ordinary happened to Elise after putting the ring on. She continued and picked up the bag of gold, following behind Pierre. A soft tremor in the ground could be felt throughout the tomb and it quickly grew into a violent shaking. Large stones and rocks started falling from the ceiling as the tremors increased in strength.
Pierre was still exhausted from using his reinforcement magic, but he started pushing past his limit after the violent tremors appeared.
"Elise you have to hurry, I think the tomb is going to collapse" yelled Pierre while running to the exit.
Elise ran as fast as she could while dodging the falling rocks.
Pierre cheered "Your almost there, come on." It seemed that Pierre's words inspired Elise because her speed increased with each step making the comfort of safety closer than ever. She was exactly a few steps away from the doorway, when she tripped over a small rock causing her to fall on her side. When she tried to stand back up, she felt a sharp pain in her ankle and she couldn't get up. That's when a boulder from the ceiling was on its way down to crush her. Her adrenaline kicked in making her movements look strange and irregular. Pierre, out of stamina, dropped the bags and used all his will power to help Elise. He picked her up just in time before the boulder came down. Then he rushes to the cold hallway at the entrance.
Elise's Eyes were fixed on Pierre, as he carried her back through freezing hallway with nothing but bravery on his face.
Rose started panicking when she felt the tremors, but then Alana rushed back out.
After rushing out of the room, Alana yells "come on let's get out of here."
Rose was too frightened to respond so she followed closely behind Alana as they run all the way back up the stair way making their way back to the outside in front of the tomb. They were the first ones to get outside and a little while later, Pierre and Elise appear from out the tomb. Pierre sat Elise down on the bottom steps of the tomb and called over Alana.
"Alana quick, come here she's injured," shouted Pierre, out of concern for Elise. Elise took off her boot revealing a big swelling bruise on her ankle. Alana held her hands over the bruise and a glow of light appeared. The pain of her bruise went down, but when she moved it, she would still feel a small amount pain.
Pierre said "Your amazing Alana," while staring at her and smiling.
Alana smiled back. Then started talking to Elise "The pain will go down in a few days don't worry," she said while giving a lighthearted smile.
Rose asked in concern, "Guy's umm…. Where is Aeron?" They all looked around to see if he was outside but that's when they realized that he had not left the tomb yet. Alana's face began to fill up with worry and anguish, as she hoped for her brother to be safe. The rumbling from the ground could still be felt outside the tomb, but it was considerably less powerful than it was inside of it.
With a voice of distraught Alana said, "I'm going back in to get my brother." Pierre then grabs her wrist as she tries to walk back toward the Ruins.
"It's too dangerous for us to go back inside. We have to wait out here," said Pierre. "I'm sure he'll come out. Don't give up on him yet Alana." She broke her hand free from Pierre and stood still not sure of what to do. Her eyes started to fill up with tears while she thought of the danger Aeron was in. Rose rushed over and hugged her. Then she said "Aeron will be fine Alana. Watch, you'll see."
Alana said, "Your right, I need to have more faith in him." They all sat closely together near the bottom of the tomb trying to stay warm while they waited for Aeron to appear out of the tomb. The sun descended behind the mountains and the temperature dropped. Snow started falling from the sky quickly turning into a blizzard. The group set up a camp near the tomb to wait out the blizzard and wait for Aeron. While they waited, they felt a strong magic force coming from the tomb.