Chapter 12: Ruin
The eagle sharply landed a few meters away from the obelisk.
Walking towards a gate like passage, the three young men gradually stood before a stone slab with some vague writings on it.
"Can you read this? Try and see if you can memorize it." Zayn looked at the writings strangely.
I seem to recognize a bit of this language. He reasoned.
After about 1 minute, Zayn handed a piece of paper to Kai, who fiercely scribbled on it. The paper was soon covered in the exact same writings engraved on the tablet.
Scanning the writings and cross referencing them with his database, Zayn quickly made quick work of it.
"You still use paper? So old fashioned." Kai smirked.
Zayn paid him no heed and directly spoke, "Got it. I remember where I'd seen this before! Let's move."
"But what about those guys? They already went in! Aren't we looking for the same thing?" Lynn pried.
"Even if we are, they're probably going the wrong way." Zayn assured.
Taking out a triangular stone carving with a strange engraving on its surface, Zayn walked towards an inconspicuous part of the obelisk, where there was a triangular hole on the wall. He wasted no time and directly putting the stone carving into the space. A rumbling sound echoed, and a small gate opened.
The three of them walked in, with Zayn in the lead.
The gate closed shut.
"Where is this place?" Kai looked around in the somewhat dark area.
Snap!
A bright glow radiated from Zayn's hand, which illuminated the entire place.
"Whoa! This is unreal!" Kai exclaimed as he looked at a large hall like structure with different statues lined up at different sides of the walls.
"Aren't pyramids supposed to be an Egyptian thing? Why do these statues look Mayan?" Kai pointed at a statue of a huge feathered serpent staring into the distance.
"First, we're in an obelisk. And second, Mayans did use pyramids. Egyptians used pyramids to bury dead pharaohs. I never really did know what Mayans used pyramids for anyways. Maybe it was to hide treasures or something." Zayn corrected.
"Yeah. Really smart." Kai smiled sarcastically. Zayn scoffed. Dummy, he thought.
"That's Kulkulkan, the god of wind. That's Ixtab, the god of suicide...damn, is this a pantheon? Why are there so many statues of ancient gods here? And how did Electrode's heart come to be here? Was he a Mayan before the Invasion?" Zayn was puzzled.
The three of them gradually came to a statue of a humanoid figure holding a huge axe. The statue's eyes seemed to be looking directly at the three, giving them a slight chill.
"Who's this dude?" Kai popped a question.
"That's Chaac, the god of rain and lightning. And given that Electrode's power was lightning, it's a pretty obvious choice that this is our next stop. Maybe we could find something." Zayn answered.
Under the statue, there was an ancient looking scroll and a bottle of ink hidden inconspicuously at a corner.
The three of them picked up the scroll and the bottle of ink and looked at them confusedly.
"What are these for?" Lynn inquired.
"More importantly, who the hell uses scrolls? And ink? So ancient." Kai scoffed.
"Hmm. There are some writings on the scroll. These are the same as the one on the outside! No. It seems like it's a second part of the writing." Zayn exclaimed.
"Really? What does it say?" Kai leaned over.
"Hmm...let's see..."
"To awaken, ignite the darkest fires within the depths of your soul, and discover the true sense of self." Zayn read.
"What? I don't get it." Kai mumbled.
"Pretty sure no one asked you if you did." Zayn jabbed at him.
"Shut up, prick!" Kai growled.
"Ooh. Scary." Zayn laughed, waving his hands slightly.
Lynn rubbed the scroll faintly, taking it from Zayn. As he traced his fingers around the scroll, faint dust covering away a bit of the edges slowly fell off the paper, revealing a set of numbers.
"What are those? Some sort of coordinates or something?" Kai looked at the numbers of the scroll in confusion.
"Hmm. The numbers are 3, 1 and 3. What do they mean? Are they some kind of secret code?" Zayn mumbled as he stared closely at the statue, looking to see if there was anything out of the ordinary.
"I can't find anything out of the ordinary. Kai, use your ability. Try to see if there's anything we've missed." Zayn ordered.
"Hey. Don't go ordering me around! Sigh. Why do I always indulge you?" Kai grudgingly activated his Esper ability as his genetic energy surged.
Esper Ability, [Bio-Physical Augmentation]!
'With Kai's eyes, I'm sure we're going get to the bottom of this. Let's get this over with. I keep having a bad feeling about this. Come to think of it, where did those guys go? I'm sure they must be in another part of this ruin, but where? Are they after Electrode's heart too?' Zayn contemplated.
Kai's eyes scanned the statue from top to bottom.
"Guys! I see something! Come take a look at this!" Kai shouted. His voice echoed around the ruin, giving the place a kind of spooky feeling.
Kai's hand punched an opening in one part of the statue, revealing a small rectangular object with five smaller orb like implements with a number 0 on each of them.
"I'm guessing the three numbers we saw earlier must be part of this five numbered code, but what are the other two?" Lynn said calmly.
"The numbers we saw were 3,1 and 3 right?" Kai asked.
"Yeah." Zayn mumbled.
"Okay. If we directly correspond these numbers with the letters of the alphabet, we get..." Kai emphasized.
"C, A, and C!" Zayn's eyes widened slowly.
"And what god's statue is this? I don't think I need to tell you anymore, smart guy!" Kai smiled.
"Good job, smart guy! I didn't know you had it in you! Who knew you'd be so friggin smart!" Zayn laughed.
"You're being sarcastic again. Aren't you?" Kai thinned his lips.
"Yes. Yes, I am." Zayn didn't even try to hide it.
"Still doesn't change the fact that I found out something you couldn't! Chew on that!" Kai blew a raspberry.
"Meh. Stop behaving like a kid. It doesn't suit ya." Zayn joked.
"What are you two doing? Did you forget we have something to do here?" Lynn burst their bubble.
"Right." Both of them answered.
Zayn drew closer to the rectangular object, flipping the numbers until they spun to indicate the numbers 3, 8, 1, 1, 3.
A second later, a loud rumbling sound echoed, and a tunnel like passage revealed itself to the three.
"Let's go." Zayn announced.
"Hey. Are you sure that bird is gonna be okay?" Kai abruptly asked, causing the two of them to stare at him.
"Why do you care? Forget it, you see this?—" Zayn showed them a bracelet of his right hand. "Lets me monitor the bird's vitals and condition. It also let's me send a signal to it, with coordinates of our location. If anything goes south, we go up. On the bird's back, I mean." Zayn explained.
"You're aren't afraid of the dark, are you?" He added.
"No!" Kai shouted, turning into a human shaped blur and running into the tunnel.
"Yep. He's afraid of the dark. So funny." Zayn chuckled.
His body released faint sparks of electricity as he rushed after Kai.
Lynn's silhouette disappeared shortly after.