As Leo entered the huge room, the gold engravings slowly died down. The golden light slowly moved out of the doors like a snake. Some of the golden light entered the room through the floor, following him, while the rest converged outside the room on top of the doors. The light settled on some engravings, forming a phrase.
________
Here Lies The Arcane Emperor.
________
He had already entered the room and didn't see this phrase. The gold light behind him split up and covered the walls. The entire room lit up, as the floor and walls were filled with engravings shining in the gold light.
He was too mesmerized to consider running away. His young mind gave into curiosity and awe. He followed the flowing gold light to the center of the room, his eyes glued onto the lights. His legs kept walking forward, out of his control, until he bumped into something.
In front of him was a beautiful pedestal that was the height of his chest. On top of the pedestal was a huge book. The book was opened up, showcasing its golden pages.
Naturally, he tried to lift the book. However, it was too heavy for him, and stayed unmoved. He closed the book to see its cover.
A green emerald adorned the center of the cover, and obsidian patterns surrounded it. The rest of the book was made of hard gold. The entire tome seemed so much more solid than paper- like it was made of silk yet as hard as a diamond. It was very lavishly decorated, indicating what its use was.
"It's a tome. A bloody tome." He muttered to himself.
A tome contained the magic spells and it contained the entire magic knowledge of a magician. They were considered legendary because only powerful mages could make them. Tomes had a little magic power in them to make inheriting the spells easier. They were considered the legacy of ancient families. And only the highest nobles - the royals, even had the chance of having one.
As he was admiring the book, blood started creeping out of the scratch he had. The blood had gathered at his elbow and eventually dripped onto the book. By the time he had realized it was too late. The blood fell onto the cover, just on top of the emerald.
"Damn it!" He cursed.
He took his hands off the tome and lifted his shirt to try to clean the blood off. By the time he lifted his shirt, the blood had tricked onto the emerald. He watched the blood seep into the emerald.
He let go of his shirt and touched the book to make sure the blood was gone. The emerald shined brightly, partially blinding him. Suddenly, a flash of light brightened up the entire room. He felt a vibration across his chest along with a wrenching pain in his heart. The pain only lasted a split second. However, when it ended he got onto his knees and started panting.
After taking a second to recover, he stood up. He looked at the pedestal to see what happened to the book but he couldn't find it. The pedestal was empty. A searing pain in his hand shifted his gaze.
He felt like his hand was burning and looked at his wrist to see the cause. The part of his wrist that was below his palm had a glowing tattoo burned onto it. It was a book. This was a book he recognized: it was the same book that was on the pedestal. It was now on his wrist.
He looked around. It was a lot darker than before because the golden light had completely disappeared. The only light he saw was in front of the tome. A throne had appeared out of nowhere. He hadn't seen it when he first came into the room. On top of the throne was a skeleton.
In front of the throne was a plaque. He stepped forward to look at the plaque.
__________
Here lies the Arcane Emperor. Pay your respects to your master.
Only use your knowledge for good.
Pass down your knowledge to a deserving successor.
__________
He looked at the tome on his wrist. Then he turned to look at the skeleton. The skeleton was resting like a king. The gears in his mind turned as he started to piece together the little information available to him.
The only explanation for all this was that the owner of the tome had chosen him to be his successor. He knew that if this was true, it could be the greatest thing that happened to him.
Leo bowed down to the skeleton.
"Thank you for this opportunity, sir. I will cherish this opportunity and uphold your values."
He looked back up to find that the throne was nowhere to be found. Nothing in the room was how it was when he got there. The engravings were now completely gone. The throne and the pedestal had disappeared.
He turned around and saw the waterfall he had come into right in front of him. The tome was still etched onto his skin, so the encounter was real. But now, the tome was no longer glowing and had faded down to a black tattoo.
He realized that his arm was no longer bleeding. When he took a step forward, he felt lighter than before. He was full of energy unlike before. After stretching his body and jumping a few times to warm his body up, he got ready to leave.
A body dove out of the water and splashed into the lake. It was Leo, who had finally started to leave the forest.
He started swimming towards the shore that he had come out of. Since he didn't want to tire himself out, he was trying to swim slowly. The run outside was longer than the swim so he would have to be faster then.
However, his plans shattered immediately. He felt a weird tremor near his legs and looked back. A similar shadow was on his trail. It was the same crocodile that chased him into the cave in the first place. This time it was slightly closer than the previous time.
"Why? Why is it still on to me?"