The sound of rocks falling brought Ojero back to the waking world.
'Gods above, how many times have I lost consciousness now? I better have a cleric test me for brain damage soon.'
His back was sore from resting on the hard stone. A dull ache rested in his head, but Ojero couldn't pinpoint where it came from.
More rocks fell behind him, and he sat up. Twisting to look in the proper direction, he saw a light in the distance.
A voice called out from one of the cavern tunnels.
"Roger? Ojero? Is anyone down here?"
Although his ears were ringing, he could recognize that voice anywhere.
"Orpham! I'm in here!"
The light began approaching faster, and soon the sound of footfalls on stone reached the open space.
'Thank the gods he is alive!'
Pure joy filled Ojero's heart. He didn't know what had happened to his twin, but at least he was still alive!
The scars the past few hours had left on his mind were still there and would be for a long time, but he still had his brother.
He was not alone.
Ojero reached up and grabbed the top of the pedestal. Using it as a handhold, he pulled himself to his feet and leaned against it.
The bonding process left his body drained of energy.
Groaning from the exertion, he pushed himself off of the engraved stone and stood straight when Orpham entered.
He was flanked by two armed guards, their eyes looking around in the dark, hoping to notice any potential threats.
Behind the trio were Anastasia and Jason. The large giant seemed to be staying very close to the noble teenager, seemingly using his own body as a shield should anything strike.
His brother was staring straight at him, his glowing eyes illuminating the area around them.
Worry slowly gave way to relief when he realized Ojero was okay. He raced towards his twin and embraced him.
"Praise the Merciful One! You're alive! We all assumed the worst!"
Ojero returned the gesture, equally relieved.
"You were worried? I was the worried one! After we were separated I had no idea where you were and fell into these caves! I thought those murderers might have found you!"
Orpham pulled out of the hug but kept his hands on his twin's shoulders.
"You think I wasn't considering the same thing? Jason and Anastasia made their way to me quickly, but you and Roger were nowhere to be found! The wind mage tried to catch us, but the Magos from the journey arrived and got rid of him. We have been looking for you two every since!"
That was very lucky. The odds of the Magos arriving to save them at the right time was nothing short of a miracle, especially as the three of them were still together.
Roger still being missing, however, was very bad news.
Ojero assumed he would have done the best alone, being agile enough to avoid capture.
The most likely situation is the rogue was still hiding or had fallen down a hole too.
He doubted it was this cave system, though, as the Ravager would have mentioned him.
'I don't know that for certain. He could have simply not cared, leaving Roger to his fate.'
"I haven't seen Roger either, we have to find him! He couldn't have wandered too far away, and without the wind mage giving chase, few people could catch up with him."
Orpham nodded his agreement.
"That was my guess as well. One of the guards is from Riverlane and mentioned these cave systems spread all around the outskirts of the city. There used to be attempts to map them for some kind of project, but it was abandoned years ago. They thought you two might have entered them to hide, and got lost."
That made sense to Ojero. Given the number of entrances to this room, there had to be half a dozen other openings somewhere on the surface.
"I haven't explored anything except this room. I don't remember which tunnel I came from, but there wasn't anything else down there. We should probably search the other ones first."
The guards were going along the sides of the cavern, checking to see if there were any other pathways they had missed.
Jason and Anastasia both gave Ojero a smile when they caught up to him. He returned it, glad to see they were both okay.
Finally taking a moment to inspect his surroundings, Orpham walked up to the pedestal
"What is this?"
Noticing his gaze, Ojero froze for a moment before responding.
"I found it when I first entered the room."
He couldn't help but smile from ear to ear.
"There was a gem held in it."
Orpham whipped around to look at him.
"You don't mean…?"
Ojero nodded slowly.
Anastasia gasped and Jason's eyes widened.
His brother began chuckling, slowly increasing in volume until he was holding his gut and laughing with his entire body.
He spoke whenever he had enough breath to do so.
"Just leave it to you to find a gem in a situation like this! The rest of us were running for our lives while you happened to stumble upon magical powers!"
That comment, while meaning well, slightly hurt Ojero's pride.
He knew it was selfish, but he didn't like his brother thinking he had been having it easy.
He had met a Ravager after all!
Any of those creatures could destroy their entire kingdom, and Ojero had come face to face with one!
Which raised a question: What was Asmodeus doing down here in the first place?
As much as Ojero tried to think of one, he couldn't come to a sound explanation. He was almost positive that it was the Ravager that had begun carving out the tunnel he had come from, but for what purpose? And why was he so willing to close it up and die, just for Ojero to gain a gem?
He was missing details, lots of details. The only clue he had going forward was that he had to find the other Archons and figure out what they knew.
That presented its own issues, however, as he didn't know the first thing about any of them.
He also remembered Asmodeus had mentioned that he would be behind the other chosen, which meant he had to grow stronger if he hoped to be taken seriously.
It was all starting to give him a headache.
"Hello? Are you okay Ojero?"
He blinked and noticed Orpham was giving him a worried look.
Ojero scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Yeah sorry, just got lost in thought. What were you saying?"
Orphams jaw dropped.
"Lost in thought? You just told your brother you bonded to a gem and you aren't going to tell him what kind of abilities you received? What the rarity of the gem was?"
Ojero opened his mouth to respond before shutting it with an audible clack.
'Even I don't know what kind of abilities I received!'
Without wasting another minute, he steadied his mind and sent a small pulse of mana throughout his entire body, focusing on the word "system".
After a second, the screen appeared in front of him.
{Elemental Gems}
{Ojero Guestino}
Element: Forgotten Echoes
Tier: Mythic
Class: {Unchosen}
Rank: Initiate
Abilities: [Echo of Abilities] [Echo of Chaos]
Aspects: [Chaos] [Echoes] [Reflection] [Adaptation]
Familiar: {Incubating}
Familiar Element(s):{Unbound}
Familiar Tier:{Unbound}
Familiar Rank:{Unbound}
Familiar Aspects:{Unbound}
Boon:{Unbound}
______________________________
'Two abilities?'
That didn't make any sense! Everyone knew you only unlocked one ability as an Initiate! You would unlock more as you ranked up, and with your class, but it was impossible to start with two.
A sudden thought occurred to Ojero and he began to pat down his pockets and realized that the gift Mr. Dan had given him was gone!
'It must have been absorbed when I was bonding to the gem! I'll have to remember to repay the old man when I return to Guestinore!''
The other strange part of his status was the status of his familiar.
After bonding to a gem it should have said {Unbound} like everything else, but his said {Incubating} instead!
'I wonder if it has to do with the blank spot in my memories?'
He knew something had to have happened during that gap, the Ravager seemed very exhausted after it. Whatever did happen seemed to have begun the process of granting him a familiar, but even then this was a strange process.
Familiars were granted as gifts from the system, usually after killing a very powerful creature.
For him to be growing one himself was unheard of! If the process was replicable, thousands of mages would demand him to make the information public!
Ojero didn't know how long the incubation would take, but he would be lying if he didn't admit to being very curious about what kind of familiar it would lead to.
Remembering how Asmodeus was, he knew it had to be something unusual and powerful.
His eyes lingered on the mythic rank for a minute.
It was so strange to see it on his own status. As far as he was aware, the only mages in history to wield mythic elements were the Everentile Emperors, and the small subgroup of heroes from the ancient time most referred to as Mythical Heroes.
They were supposedly the ones that first beat back the Ravagers and allowed humanity to rebuild itself after centuries of nearing extinction.
Their deeds were written in records across every continent and culture.
Although their exact number wasn't known, it was assumed to be between twenty and thirty.
And now Ojero had become a modern equivalent.