Even with Kai's Energy Vision, they could feel a wicked energy emitting from the open area they just stepped in before they even laid eyes on anything.
But when the dim light of the fleeting sun welcomed them back outside...there was nothing there.
The pair looked around and found themselves in a big enclosed space where there were stone walls bordering every side. It was a hard, sand-like surface they stepped onto. Scattered throughout were several abandoned weapons that looked long past useful at this point, coupled with various bits of singed clothing.
This was a graveyard.
Zero stepped over something tiny jutting out of the ground as he slowly navigated away from the wall. "What's your vision showing you?"
Kai was glancing from one end of the space to the other.
"It's...weird. The closer I get to the source, usually the clearer the trail gets. But it's like it doesn't know where the source is all of a sudden."
"Then let's just find what we came to get. Which is what exactly?" Zero asked as he pulled out the map again. Except the only thing notated was the area - not what they were suppose to find.
"Just look for anything of worth I suppose. It has to be around here somewhere." Kai replied.
The two each picked a side of the open area and began searching for anything that stuck out to them. However, aside from trashed weapons and damaged clothing, there was nothing there. Meanwhile, Kai was still picking up some form of energy source that was around them but nothing ever actually showed up.
That is, until Zero almost tripped over the edge of something wooden poking out of the ground.
"Huh?" He bent down dusted off the top layer of sand covering it up. It appeared to be some kind of small chest. "Think I might've found something." He called to Kai. Zero began shoveling handfuls of sand away from the chest in order to pull it out the ground.
You would do best to leave this place....
Zero's head shot up as a voice whispered in his ears. He looked on either side of him, but there was no one there.
"Did you hear that?" He asked Kai who just arrived by his side.
"Hear what? It's dead silent out here."
"Hm, okay." Zero went back to shoveling the sand from around it and Kai pulled on the chest as he did so.
Leave or join those beneath the sand.
"We need to hurry." Zero quickly said as he shoveled sand double time now. He had no clue what the voice was, but he was now sure it had something to do with the energy source that Kai couldn't locate.
Kai tugged on the chest that was beginning to loosen from its hole. "Hold on, what's going on? Did you see something??" With one final tug, the chest popped right out of place and rested in Kai's grip.
"Your fate has been decided!"
Their eyes both widened as they could obviously both hear the booming disembodied voice reverberating throughout the area. Visible energy began to trickle upwards from the ground. It looked like pulling the chest had triggered something to go off!
"I think I know why I couldn't pinpoint the source of that energy." Kai said. "This whole place...IS the source."
Suddenly all of the energy that had come up from the ground began to collide together to form what appeared to be the spirit of a dragon. It reached almost as high as the stone walls in height.
Is this...the boss enemy that use to be here? Zero thought.
What was different about this dragon was that it had bits of armor around where one would strike at its vitals as well as thick spine protrusions a long its tail.
"Why have you returned here? Does your greed know no bounds, players?" The dragon's voice grumbled.
Zero wanted to speak, but being face to face with a dragon for the first time was quite an intimidating experience. Not so much for Kai it seemed.
"Are you a ghost?" Kai asked of the dragon.
"I am an Echo." The dragon stated. "I was once a boss enemy for players. But...when your kind would come to pillage my eggs for their rarity or rip the scales from my flesh, I made sure to hold no mercy under any circumstance. No player could defeat me. So your King made sure that I was a threat no longer."
An echo? Zero thought, unfamiliar with the term.
Kai clutched the chest by his side. "So are you here to stop us from taking whatever is in that chest?"
The dragon huffed a puff of spectral steam from its nostrils. "You two are the first players to venture here in a long time. What is in that chest is the last of who I am. I'll use what's left of my power to ensure it stays out of your hands."
As if in response to the dragon's words, blue spectral flames raced up the side of the stone walls and their exit, ensuring that there was no escape from this fight.