"A scroll…...?"
Owen blinked his eyes for several seconds and narrowed them with lowed brows, slight disappointment expressing on his face.
He honestly anticipated for a couple of gold coins, glittering gems or anything that could be considered highly valuable, so he sighed softly and looked at the scroll.
Shaking his head lightly, a clear expression of annoyance appeared on his face and then gazed the stone knight.
"Why would they build a statue for…. this?"
He asked, with a small hint of mockery and crossed his arms. However, after reflecting about the matter respectively for some moments, his expression started to slowly change.
"Wait a minute…..."
He had forgotten an important de facto of this reality.
Therein this particular phantasy world, is celestial body merged with mystical mysteries that govern it from within, a terraqueous globe, where anything is possible.
Sure, realistically speaking, a random antique scroll could not be any value to most earthlings, unless it had undiscovered historical information from the past, which is almost non-existence but here, its value might be priceless.
"Don't tell me this is…...is a magical scroll!"
He smiled widely and unconsciously yelled in unparalleled excitement. Magic scrolls from fantasy novels are priceless treasures that could help the user to learn magic or even cast it effortlessly, truly the possibilities with such an item were endless.
Owen couldn't help but cover his mouth, smiling widely underneath, his eyes blinking repeatedly, seeking to unravel the illusion within his vision.
Momentarily knowledgeable about the possible value of the antique scroll in the black chest, he sighed warmly which calmed down his heart. After moments of silence, he looked at the scroll with a serious expression.
"Right, I don't have much time for wasteful excitement…...so for now, taking the scroll now and examining it later comes first…."
He took a step forward and slowly reached out for the scroll, gently gripping it around his hand. A red glow appeared on its surface and slowly vanished as quickly as it appeared.
"Too awesome…."
*Crumple!
Suddenly, a crumbling sound was heard. Owen swiftly turned his vision at the origin of the unforeseen sound and his eyes expeditiously landed on the knight statue. He narrowed his eyes and saw slowly forming cracks on its surface.
Straightway, the black chest fell on the powdered statue and provided a muffled sound. He raised his eyes questioningly and took a step back.
"What was that about….?"
He said individually and looked at the antique scroll.
"Is it because of…...ah I see."
The knight statue seemingly crumbled due to him taking out the antique scroll from the black chest, meaning, the scroll was somewhat its life support, which he mercilessly robbed.
"Damn, now I feel bad…."
Owen sighed and shrugged his shoulders. Afterward, he placed the scroll in his pocket and turned his back from the powdered statue.
"Weird, those light threads are still bright."
He looked at the transcendental blue threads, floating around the interior of the stone temple.
"Well, at any case, it helps me greatly."
Owen smiled thinly and steadily strolled to the entrance. He was satisfied with what he had and nothing stopped him from getting his treasure.
For a moment, he forgot that this world was the one that brought him into this existence….
Unknowingly to Owen, the transcendental blue threads were slowly floating to a certain direction. The threads moderately drifted in a singular circumference motion around the powdered knight statue and provided an increasing bright light.
Soon, the interior of the stone temple was illuminated by the bright light and the darkness vanished. Nonplused, Owen slowly turned his head and his eyes were at a loss.
Shifting violently, the transcendental threads rotated in circles, creating three beautiful rings that hovered around the powdered statue.
Furthermore, in that instant, a bright light flashed from the transcendental threads, illuminating everything in all directions, forcing Owen to cover his eyes.
'
Subsequently, he tardily opened his eyes and a new visional scenery came into sight. The entire chamber was now dully supplied with light and feebly merged with darkness of shadows, moreover, the powdered stone knight was nowhere to be seen, only a single circle of mysterious faint blue light superseded it.
Suddenly, a white apparitional entity, resembling the stone knight, slowly ascended upward from the mystical circle.
"What in the world...?"
Owen observed ascendance of the knight with frozen steps, fearful of an unconscious mistake. The knight ultimately stood stationary over the circle and it's eyes flicked an unadulterated white light, glimpsing Owen indifferently.
The knight`s entire body counterfeited an exceedingly carven statue of burnished white stone, radiating a reflexional illumination from its armor.
Soon afterwards, it gently pressed the tip of its sword on the circle in an upright positioned and placed both of its hands on the end hilt, relaxed. In the midst of all this, Owen was secretly backing away with slowed steps.
'I may not know what's going on but I don't want to find out….!'
However, the knight queerly didn't care of his presence and only lowed its gaze on the mystical circle. Furthermore, the circle was shrinking, foreboding a tinkling clock.
The entire chamber was slowly becoming darker and darker, forcing Owen to quicken his steps. Inadvertently, sweat ran uncontrolledly and his breathing became rapid.
Shortly, darkness covered the entire chamber but Owen still moved because he could see the light from the entrance.
*Thud….
A light footstep was heard behind Owen.
*Thud….
Again, another.
'Nope, nope!'
Owen shouted mentally to his rapid beating heart. He knew if he looked behind, it was an invitation to death`s embrace.
Fortuitous, he already reached the entrance and smiled contemptuously. However, because of that belief moment of relief, he unconsciously turned his head. In the darkness that resembled a void, his eyes met two rays of white light that flicked ominously. In that instant, he felt unprecedented trepidation in his soul.
*Thud!
*Thud!
The steps quicken in the darkness, heading straight for Owen. Detecting his forthcoming death, the tattered scarf shapeshifted into a cloak, blinding Owen for a split second, however, because of that action, Owen regained composure and his indifferent eyes dimed.
He turned his body and ran quickly out of the stone temple, jumping over the fallen metal door and the descending stairs. The cloak flapped and hardened its surface, making Owen glide swiftly to the ground and rolled upon impact with the ground.
He smiled thinly and continued running, expertly jumping over small pieces of stone ruins along the way.
Owen looked at the corner of eye and saw the stone knight emerging from the stone temple. However, the knight stopped abruptly and looked upward, towards the early sky.
He widened his eyes for a second but shook his head and continued his rushed sprint. He decided to take a different route than before, into the dense forest, hopefully trying to blend into the shadows.
"Let's see if that thing could move quickly in the midst of the dense forest!"
However, disturbing his calm mind, light footsteps were heard far behind him.
*Thud…
*Thud…
It was apparently clear the white knight was now pursing Owen with unparalleled focus. Occasionally, he could see a white illumination in the shadows far behind him. He gritted his teeth and ran with fainted footsteps, not turning his back.
This ominous figure was Owen`s first enemy….
*******
Fifteen minutes of continuous running, Owen was resting in a brush, deep in the mystical forest of mysteries. The breath of his lungs was quick and shallow, sweat running down his body.
His eyes narrowing with a cold glint with watchfulness in all directions. He choked and gently gripped the scroll in his hand.
"Where are you bastard…"
He smiled with disdain while resting his head on a tree trunk.
*Thud…
*Thud…
"Heh…."
Owen thinly smiled despondency and took a deep breath with closed eyes. After a short while, his face became indifferent, no hint of joyous emotions.
He stood up slowly and walked out of the brushes. Suddenly, he stopped in place and stood motionlessly.
Shortly after, the shadows behind him became illuminated by white light and ominous figure emerged from it.
He slowly turned his head indifferently and saw the knight holding its stone sword in one hand, roughly seven meters away from him.
The knight suddenly stopped when it noticed Owen`s indifference stare and titled its head, slightly puzzled. Both of them didn't make a sound until Owen suddenly spoke out.
"I know…I know what you want...here, have it back."
Apparently exhausted, he threw the scroll wearily to the stone knight but unexpectedly, it didn't even try to catch it, so the antique scroll brushed off on knight`s armor and fell to the ground.
Owen narrowed his eyes in bewilderment, still covering his face with indifference. The stone knight looked the red tied scroll vacuously with its ferocious white eyes and stared at him peculiarity.
"Now, there's no reason to chase me, right? So, I hope this stops our little pursuit…."
Owen said heedlessly while shrugging his shoulders. The stone knight stared at him once more, like it was witnessing a madman mumbling strange words.
Succinctly without care, the knight raised the stone sword and pointed it at his chest. Possibly, prompting him wordlessly for a duel.
Owen blinked his eyes in confusedness but opened them in realization, however, his expression became slightly panicked.
"No, no, I have no reason to fight! Don't you see the scroll on the ground?"
Owen waved his shaking arms to the stone knight, his indifference demeanor slowly starting to change.
The stone knight ignored his alien words and mayhap mistaken it as some kind of war cry. Subsequently, the knight slowly took a knightage battle stance, positioning its body like a proficient warrior and ready to duel.
"Damn, it doesn't understand what I am saying….!"
He took several steps backward and positioned his body circumspectly, his eyes losing hope for any chance for survival.
"I am sorry for taking your scroll! I didn't know it was important to you!"
Conscious to his own attention, he knew fully, that the stone knight could not comprehend his alien words but tried, doing anything out of desperation to live.
Originally, he anticipated the stone knight would, at least, notice his body movements and consider the idea of letting him go but it seemingly failed miserably.
Abruptly disturbing his thoughts, the knight quickly dashed towards him with the stone sword in arms, preparing for a horizontal slash.
"Wait!"
He shouted desperately, trying to stop the incoming assault but the stone knight still moved carelessly. Moments after, the knight was close to Owen`s position and raised its sword for preparation to kill.
'No…. please'
Owen weakly mumbled mentally and time became slow. However, just as the stone knight was going to slash his head off, Owen saw accustomed white text appearing in his vision.
The letters flashed a pure white and centered in his sight, still showing an unfamiliar language or error. However, due to upcoming moments of dead, he did something unimaginable….
"Od woln mylnga zaxaxakaga gashruhy wafuvsod!"
He shouted unconsciously, reading out perfectly the white text before vanishing from his vision and hearing his words, the knight gazed him strangely and retreated backwards.
Owen who was prepared for death, stumbled his steps after feeling no pain and fell on the soil. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the stone knight, which was quiescent and looking at him with a complicated expression.
"Huh…...What just happen?"
He raised his body from the ground and stared at the knight with a confounded expression.
Afterward, silence came sluggishly in the area between the Owen and the stone knight, creating an awkward atmosphere. Some time passed and the knight was the first to move.
It picked up the antique scroll from ground from and gazed at Owen expectedly. The antique scroll then radiated a green light upon the knight`s hand and slowly began to shatter into glowing pieces, vanishing into the air.
Suddenly, the knight dimed his white eyes and stood silently by its lonesome. Anew, Owen tried to back away slowly but something caught his eyes.
It was instant; however, he saw runic letters forming around the knight`s arm. Furthermore, the runic letters were different from the ones at the ruins. At least, that's what he felt.
Soon afterwards, it did something that was unexpected. The stone knight raised its hand and wrote down a single runic letter of white light, moreover, the knight continued to write more smaller runic letters under the first one.
Suddenly, runic letters vanished out of the air and reappeared as a small circle rotating around the knight`s arm, also illuminating white light.
Abruptly, a circle full of light formed near the stone knight and a shadowy creature emerged from it. Red crisp eyes flicked and intensely gazed at Owen`s position.
The stone knight also gazed him and gestured with its sword to the shadowy creature and slowly nodded at it.
'This knight wants me to fight that thing?!'
This intimidating creature then moved to his direction at a slow and constant speed, inspecting its prey.
Shortly after, yellow and purple fauvist flames slightly illuminated the area. It was then that Owen was able to catch its appearance.
Moving out of the illuminated shadows, a black jaguar steadily moved. Two faint red hues appeared from its eyes as its claws dug into the ground.
"You got to be kidding me…..."
Owen slowly moved back even more, clearly intimidated by the creature.
*Click….
A cracking sound, faintly sounded in the area and alarmed the black jaguar. Purple and yellow flames violently erupted from its back to its tail, suddenly, combusting towards Owen, aiming to burn him to a crisp.
However, the cloak flapped and protected him from the flames, providing smoke in the aftermath. Witnessing this, the aesthetic flames slowly started to settle.
Wanting to inspect him more, the black jaguar begun to circle him with curious eyes. Owen didn`t move or take his eyes off the majestic creature either.
*Bump!
*Bump!
The stone knight hit the ground repeatedly with its sword, holding it vertically. Furthermore, the black jaguar dashed, synchronizing with bump sounds and arriving near Owen with astounding speeds. It then jumped at him and sharped its claws for the kill.
However, Owen who anticipated this, also dashed and rolled underneath it. The jaguar landed on the ground in confusion, of why its prey wasn't in its claws.
It looked at Owen with questioning red eyes. Regardless, Owen was not any good shape because how much energy he used today, meaning, most of his stamina was drained.
Seeing the opportunity to end it all, the black jaguar took a step forward and stood in place, almost like a battle stance. Owen recognizing this movement, he attended to run but he was too late.
The purple and yellow flames erupted all over the body of the black jaguar and to burned violently on its surface.
Moreover, the aesthetic flames did not actually burn its fur at all because it stood proudly at its new form.
Its fur turned into fauvist flames and warped its entire body like blazing armor. Its eyes flashed brightly in red hue, making it look like heavenly spirit of fire.
The grass burned instantly under its feet and only coal black soil appeared. Owen looked in marvel and fear at its majestic form.
Afterward, the black jaguar dashed in unmatched speeds, too speedy for even Owen to dodge. Instantly, the flames covered his entire body, making Owen roll in pain.
The last thing he could see was the stone knight, raising its sword at him and his vision became dark.