A few hours later, the quartet gathered in Garfiel's hut.
"Isabel will be gone for a few more hours, but she'll be back early morning, and I don't know how the hell we're going to explain you guys to her," Garfiel warned.
"Who's Isabel?" Subaru asked as he rummaged through the satchel and confirmed that the precious Book and all of their money were still safe inside.
"Isabel is… a Witch Cultist," Garfiel said awkwardly.
Everyone stared at him.
"Alright," Garfiel sighed. "So, when I was lost in the jungle, I encountered a group of Witch Cultists. They were going to kill me, but Isabel searched your satchel, and she found this," Garfiel pulled out the silvery medallion, "And then she lied to cover my ass, and she convinced them that I was a cultist too."
"…Why would she do all that?" Subaru asked.
"Because she thought that I was one of her people!" Garfiel explained. "Err, her side of the Cult… They're cultists, but they're cultists who…" Garfiel struggled to put it into words. "Look, Captain, Isabel represents some kind of splinter group in the Witch Cult. Like the guy who gave you that medallion."
Subaru frowned. "He did tell me… that not all of them approved of what the Archbishops have been doing," He remembered.
"Right. And apparently Isabel falls into the same category. She's not here to help the Cultists' plan. She wants to stop them."
"What is their plan?" Felt asked.
Garfiel 's face was grim. "According to Isabel, there's a witch sealed in that pyramid."
"A witch?!" Subaru gasped. He looked at Brador accusingly. "I thought that the weapon was there!"
Brador looked shocked. If it was a poise it was quite a convincing one. "The weapon… most certainly is in there. It long predates the time when the witches were sealed away. I … didn't know that someone used the pyramid to seal one of the Witches away."
"Really?" Subaru asked skeptically.
"Hey. Hold on. I think we're all still on the same side here," Garfiel interrupted. "Listen, Sphinx is using power she's stealing from the Witch to resurrect her army! If we seal the tomb again, her powers will be cut off!"
"Are you sure?" Subaru asked.
"Pretty sure," Garfiel admitted. "Isabel thinks so, and I watched Sphinx pulling… some kind of magic out of the tomb to resurrect her monsters. I think that it will work."
Subaru frowned. "First, we need to get the weapon," He mused. " Then we can worry about sealing the tomb. "
"Well, before we do either of those things, Captain, we need to think of some way to get past all the draugr," Garfiel reminded him.
"I… might have an idea for that," Subaru reflected. "It's risky, but it might work." He glanced at Brador. "Do you know where in the tomb the weapon is?"
"How could I?" Brador asked helplessly. "It didn't even occur to me to ask if the Archivists knew where it was! I thought that we were just going to open up a grave! I wasn't expecting anything this big."
Subaru frowned. "That's a problem. My idea will only keep the draugr distracted for a minute or two at best. We'll need much longer than that to find the weapon. For all I know, we'll need to search the entire tomb."
"We might be OK, Captain," Garfiel said, "Isabel says that there's a switch inside the tomb that can reseal it. If we reach it, we can seal the tomb, and the draugr and Sphinx will be locked out!"
"Can't they just open it from the outside?" Felt asked.
"According to Isabel, they can, but it'll take a long time. Days, maybe weeks," Garfiel said. "There are apparently rituals required to open the tomb from the outside, but not many people know them. Even if Sphinx does know the necessary rituals, she'll be busy for a good long time before she gets inside."
"But then we're trapped inside the tomb," Subaru pointed out.
"Only till you find the weapon, Captain! Then you can open the tomb again and blast them with it!"
Subaru considered that. "Brador, would this weapon work against the draugr?"
"I don't know much about the weapon, to be perfectly honest," Brador admitted. "The Emperor was really the only one who knew all the details. But I'd certainly assume so. If the witches were afraid of it, it should crush the draugr easily."
Subaru made a face. "It's a big risk, but I don't see any other way," He admitted.
Subaru looked at the others, and they all nodded.
"Should we bring Isabel in on this?" Felt asked.
Garfiel hesitated. "I… don't know…" He murmured. "She seems nice enough, and it sounds like we 'd be on the same side, but…"
"But what?" Subaru asked.
Garfiel sighed. "I… don't know enough about her goals beyond sealing the tomb and thwarting the other Cultists. She might be against us taking the weapon, for example. We might be doing something that would make her decide to expose us to the others."
Subaru thought it over. "Alright. We'll leave Isabel out of this for now. The fewer risks that we need to take, the better."
"So you have a plan for getting us past the draugr?" Brador asked.
"Not a great plan," Subaru admitted, "But I think it will work. Right now, we need to move quickly. We want to take action before the compound wakes up and people start to fill the courtyard."
"Care to share this not-great plan with the rest of us?" Felt asked archly.
Subaru sighed. "Alright. Here's my plan. I'll rush the stairs and then wait. I'll gather as many draugr around me as possible and then knock them all off the stairs. The draugr may be indestructible, but after you smash them, they take time to pull themselves back together. Once I pulverize them, we'll have a few seconds to reach the top and shut the door behind us. Then we'll search for the weapon."
"That's it? That's the plan?" Felt asked incredulously.
Subaru shrugged. "It's all that I've got."
Subaru and company darted through the shadows. They had reached the edge of the ghetto where all the shacks were located and where the open courtyard separated it from the pyramid.
A dozen draugr stood on the stairs as motionless as statues.
Subaru glanced toward the gate and saw three guards standing outside, chatting and keeping half an eye on the surrounding jungle but paying no attention to what happened in the compound behind them.
They 're not paying any attention to the tomb , Subaru thought, But as soon as the draugr start moving, they 'll come and see what the commotion is all about, and then they'll rouse the whole base.
Subaru jerked his head. "Come on," He whispered.
The group bolted to the tomb.
Subaru stopped the others. "Let me take the lead. You all stay back until the draugr lock onto me," He reminded them.
They nodded, and Subaru started to sprint up the stairs.
The others climbed slowly after him.
Subaru had reached the halfway point when the first three draugr turned in unison toward Subaru. Their bodies sounded like grinding rocks as they moved. These actions caught the attention of the others, and the draugr started to move toward him.
They 're too far apart! I need to group them up before I use Indomitable, or it will time out before I can deal with the last few.
Subaru took a deep breath and jogged right toward the draugr. They seemed to study him carefully as he approached. They ponderously raised their massive fists and then swung at Subaru.
At the last second, Subaru put on a burst of speed and broke into a sprint. He darted between the draugr, which were too sluggish to react and catch him.
Subaru raced up the steps until he thought he was equidistant between all of the draugr, and then he waited.
Subaru heard shouts from the compound gate. The guards heard something. They 're coming to investigate. We're running out of time.
Subaru looked down the tomb steps. The others were slowly inching up the tomb. They 'd reached the halfway point, and so far, the draugr didn't seem to have noticed them.
Subaru took a few steps back as the stony monsters closed in. They gathered all around him like football players in a huddle.
Subaru triggered Indomitable and spun around like a ballerina. He turned his hands into slicing weapons and broke all the draugr in half at the waist. Their bodies fell apart on the stairs as Subaru 's friends hurried past, the draugr too fixated on pulling themselves back together to worry about them now.
The sound of whistles blowing echoed throughout the compound as the guards desperately tried to rouse the base.
Subaru raced after the others, but something made him pause.
For the first time, he got a good look at what was under the dragur 's mud and stone hide. When he'd fought the draugr that attacked his escort, he'd thought that there was a skeleton inside the husk, and indeed there was: a skeleton made out of steel.
The draugr were machines, but machines unlike anything Subaru had ever seen or imagined. He saw gears and shafts and pulleys but the edges of the metal appeared to be liquefying and rebuilding itself.
Subaru watched in disbelief as the metal bits melted together, fused, and then re-solidified. The draugr started to rise to its feet, good as new.
"Subaru!" Felt screamed.
Subaru suddenly remembered himself, and he sprinted up the stairs. He put on a huge burst of speed and raced toward the gate with the draugr finally reassembling themselves and coming up fast from behind.
The trio waited for him just inside the entrance. Brador stood next to a large lever jutting out of the floor.
Subaru 's lungs ached, but he put on a final effort, throwing himself forward and sliding through the entrance on his belly as Brador pulled the lever, and the door sealed itself behind him.
Subaru panted for breath as Garfiel helped him up. Only a moment later, they heard hollow thudding as the draugr fought to break through the thick stone barrier.
"Do you think that they can break in?" Felt whispered.
"I doubt it," Garfiel remarked. "If it took the Witch Cult weeks to open the barrier, I don't think that Sphinx or the draugr will manage it quickly."
"Alright. Then I guess… We explore this place for the weapon," Subaru said, peering into the dark. "Anyone got a torch or something?"
Garfiel looked thoughtful. "I think there's still a Fire Stone or two in the satchel. Maybe we could make a torch from the Fire Stones and some-"
Subaru took a step deeper into the tomb, and they were all blinded by a bright flash. When Subaru could see again, he saw that they were standing in a long hallway, and hundreds of torches burned in a line along the walls, lighting their way into the tomb.
"Huh," Garfiel muttered. "Well, that was helpful."
"Magic?" Subaru muttered.
"Did you even need to ask?" Felt sighed.
Subaru gave her an annoyed look. "Alright. It looks like this old tomb still has a few tricks up its sleeves. Let's be careful. Stay together. There's no telling what we might find."
The hallway led out to a grand atrium that was brightly lit by burning torches. They found themselves on a walkway overlooking an enormous chamber hundreds of feet across and just as deep.
Subaru looked over the railing and peered down. An army of statues knelt on the floor, facing what looked like an open grave.
"What's that?" Felt asked.
"I think it's like the Terracotta army," Subaru muttered.
"The what?"
"It's… See, a long time ago, an Emperor where I come from was buried in a hidden tomb, and they made an army out of clay to stand guard over his grave. That way, he would still have soldiers to command in the afterlife."
"That's… weird," Garfiel said.
Subaru made a face. "Come on. Let's just find some stairs and get down there."
The group found a spiraling stairwell at the side of the atrium and followed it down to the base of the tomb. They silently crept through the army of statues. The statues were much bigger than ordinary men, cast of metal, and were all exactly alike; right down to their intricate facial features and metal beards. Legions of metal soldiers knelt in endless devotion to their king.
"This is freaking creepy!" Garfiel complained.
"No argument here," Subaru muttered as he reached the pedestal in the center of the tomb. He quickly climbed up on the platform and inspected the open sarcophagus. A beautiful purple silk shroud was lying in the grave, but nothing else.
Subaru triggered Reason and Judgment, but he saw nothing: no bones, no scraps of clothing, not even any dust.
"Did Sphinx take the guy's body?" Felt asked.
"I don't think so," Subaru said slowly. "As far as I can tell, nobody was ever laid in this grave. There's not even any dust or ashes to suggest a body was here thousands of years ago. It looks like somebody spent an enormous amount of effort building this tomb and then, for some reason, never wound up using it."
Subaru stepped around the sarcophagus to peer at a polished stone pillar that thrust up out of the pedestal. On the towering pillar, there were no names, no dates, no writing of any kind. There was only the insignia of a stylized sun as if the architect had assumed this would be more than enough to memorialize the occupant.
"Hey!" Garfiel said. "There's another hall over there!" He pointed toward the atrium wall, where a portal leading into a passage was clearly visible.
Subaru shrugged. "Alright. Let's see what's behind door number two then."
Subaru and his friends walked down the long passage.
"How can the tomb possibly be this big?" Felt murmured.
"We've got to be underground by now," Garfiel agreed.
"What's down here?" Subaru murmured, seeing a dozen doors along the walls of the passage.
The doors were all made of golden metal, and there was a large seam down the middle as if the doors were intended to separate and recede into the wall.
Subaru walked toward one of the doors but was forced to stop when it didn 't move.
"What are you doing?" Garfiel asked.
Subaru shrugged. "I don't know. The lights turn on for us when we enter an area. It didn't seem like too big a stretch to think that the doors would open too."
"Looks like it was too big a stretch," Felt snickered.
Subaru sighed and gave Felt a pained look. "Hey Garf, you want to give me a hand with this?" Subaru said, trying to open the door.
"Sure thing, Captain," Garfiel said, fighting to get his large fingers into the small gap in the center of the door.
"On three, alright?" Subaru asked. Garfiel nodded.
"One, two," They counted together, "Three!" They shouted as they slowly pulled the doors apart.
Subaru peered into the room. "Holy shit," He whispered.
"What is it?" Felt asked, coming closer. She stepped around Garfiel and froze. "Holy shit," She echoed.
The room was full of long stone pedestals rising up out of the floor. And on each pedestal lay a human body. They were all wearing white hooded robes, and their hands were clasped on their chest as if they had been arranged for a funeral.
"All of these bodies," Felt whispered. "Who were they?"
"No idea, shrimp," Garfiel whispered back.
Subaru got close enough to look more closely at one of the bodies. "There's not even any decay!" He exclaimed. "These people could have died yesterday."
Garfiel stiffened. "They're not dead," He whispered in shock.
Subaru and Felt turned to look at him.
"What do you mean they're not dead?" Subaru asked in confusion. "This tomb has been sealed for centuries!"
"I just saw that one take a breath!" Garfiel insisted.
Subaru frowned and walked over to the body of a young woman. She lay completely still
Subaru swallowed hard and then placed his ear against her chest, listening carefully.
He listened for almost a full minute, and just when he was ready to give up, he heard a single thump that made him jump back.
"Garf's right!" Subaru said in disbelief. "They are alive! But they're stuck in some kind of suspended animation."
Garfiel took a slow step back. "Um. What do you say we get out of here before we wake them?" He whispered.
Subaru nodded. "Honestly, I'm not sure that we could wake them by putting bombs in their nostrils. But I have to admit, we probably don't want them to wake up while we're still trapped in here. They might be slightly cranky that we interrupted their nap."
Subaru and Garfiel pulled the doors together again, sealing off the room.
"Alright," Subaru sighed. "So, let's recap. The big, important tomb upstairs is empty, and it looks like nobody was ever laid there at all. Down here, these tombs are full, but the people inside aren't actually dead. On top of that, we've still found no sign of the weapon. Any theories on how this all adds up?"
"Why the hell are you asking us?" Felt objected. "You're the one who usually figures stuff like this out!"
"I just thought that you might like a turn, Felt," Subaru said pleasantly.
Felt sighed and rubbed her temples. "Alright," She groaned. "Let's just see what's down at the end of this hall."
Felt and Garfiel followed Subaru down the long stone hallway until Subaru spotted something that brought him to a halt.
Felt followed his gaze, and saw a large, detailed world map carved into the wall.
Garfiel let out a low whistle as he approached. "Wow, would you look at that," He whispered.
Garfiel had actually studied geography, and he knew the world 's layout pretty well, but this map was wholly unfamiliar. The land mass depicted was the same, but the four nations were nowhere to be found. Instead, the map was a massive jigsaw of tiny countries or provinces all across the continent.
"Felt," Subaru whispered. "Are you seeing this?"
"I see it, boss," Felt said in confusion.
"It's wild how many countries that there used to be before the Great Cataclysm," Garfiel said wistfully. "I wonder if each one had a whole different culture. A different mythology, a whole different way of life. It's terrible how much information has been lost over the years."
Garfiel realized that Subaru and Felt were staring incredulously at him.
Garfiel flushed. "What?"
"Garf," Felt said incredulously. "Doesn't something about this map look funny to you?"
"Well, yeah. I just said all the countries-"
"Where's the rest of it, Garf?" Felt snapped.
"The rest of it?" Garfiel scratched his head.
Felt sighed as if struggling for patience. "Garf. This tomb was sealed centuries ago. And from what we've heard about it, it was built long before that. This map must be thousands of years old. "
"Yeah, so?" Garfiel murmured as Subaru walked away, his face creased with deep thought.
Felt looked up at Garfiel with a pained expression. "Garf. What is the Witch of Envy so hated for?"
"Well, she destroyed…" Garfiel trailed off, and he studied the map with new fascination.
"Bingo!" Felt snorted. "She destroyed half of the world! So where's the other half? The half that she destroyed?"
Garfiel shook his head in confusion. "I don't know… The stories all say that after the Witch was sealed, the world went into a crisis. There were too many people, and because of all the landmasses that the witch destroyed or drove underwater, there wasn't enough land for them to live on or to grow food to eat…"
"Right! But the shape of the continue here looks exactly like what we see today! So, where are all the lands that the witch obliterated?"
Garfiel pondered that. "Maybe the map is newer than the tomb. Maybe… the map was carved when the tomb was sealed for the final time?"
"Then where are the four nations?" Felt argued. "We should see them somewhere, even if there were a lot of factions splitting off at the time. Farsale Lagunica, Hoshin of the Wilderness, Marius the Unifier, these people all came from one of the four nations, but none of those countries are here. This map must be seriously old, but there's no sign of all of the lands that the witch destroyed."
"What are you saying?" Garfiel asked.
Felt stared at the map for a long time. "I don't know," She finally admitted. "But something seems very wrong here."
Garfiel peered down the hallway where Subaru had gone ahead. "Come on, shrimp. We'd better catch up with the Captain."
"Hang on a sec," Felt whispered.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for the Elior Forest," Felt replied.
Garfiel immediately pointed to it on the map.
"Thanks," Felt muttered.
"Why were you looking for that weird place?"
Felt made a face. "I… was just curious. Apparently, Emilia is from there."
"The Elior Forest?" Garfiel said in surprise. "I didn't think that anything could actually live in there. The whole forest is cursed, you know. It's always winter there."
Felt snorted. "Yeah, I know. And get this, Emilia confessed to me that it was all her fault."
"What was her fault?"
"The curse! Apparently, Emilia lost control of her powers as a girl, and she turned the forest and all of the people inside of it into solid ice! I… guess I wasn't the first one to get brutalized by Emilia's magic, huh?" She finished awkwardly.
Garfiel stared at her.
"What?"
"Shrimp, I'm pretty sure that Frosty was just kidding," Garfiel said.
"She wasn't, Garf. She was pretty damn serious about it."
"There is no way that Frosty was responsible for cursing the forest, shrimp."
"How the hell could you know that?"
"Because the Elior Forest has been frozen since the time of the Great Cataclysm."
Felt stared at Garfiel. "Are you sure?" She asked skeptically.
"You can look it up. It's not exactly common knowledge because nobody spends much time thinking or talking about a weird uninhabited forest along the northern border, but it's hardly a secret."
"Well, Emilia thinks differently," Felt said. "She's determined to break the curse."
Garfiel shrugged. "Hey, more power to her then."
Felt shook it off. "Look, we'll figure all this out later after we've rescued Emilia. Let's catch up with Subaru."
As they approached the end of the hall, they began to hear noise: a faint crackling sound like a gigantic electric bug zapper.
They stepped into an enormous room at the end of the hall and found its walls to be covered with enormous murals.
In the center of the room was a vast shaft. As the group gathered around the shaft and peered over the railing, they saw that the pit was so deep that they couldn 't see the bottom. The shaft was filled with turbulent, dark clouds that flowed in an endless pattern and were illuminated with constant flashes of lightning.
"What the hell is this?" Garfiel gasped.
"Could… this be a portal to the Od Laguna?" Subaru whispered.
Felt looked at him incredulously. "Why would you even think of that? "
"I don't know!" Subaru said defensively. "It's got to be something that we've never seen before. Maybe it's a path to the World Soul."
"It's not," Garfiel said flatly.
Subaru glanced at him. "How do you know?"
"How do you not?" Garfiel said, his voice sick. "This thing, it's… unnatural. Can't you feel it?"
Subaru studied the churning vortex. He had to admit that Garfiel had a point. Just being in the same room with the thing was unsettling.
Garfiel swallowed hard. "Uh, guys? I think… maybe we've found our witch…"
They all stared down into the churning chaos.
"This is a witch?" Subaru asked skeptically.
"According to Isabel," Garfiel explained. "There was a seal inside the tomb that kept the witch chained up and helpless. I'm betting that this is the seal."
"Alright," Felt said in an uneasy voice. "Now that we've found it, what do we do about it?"
Subaru made a face. "I'm not sure that we can do anything with it, " He replied.
"If Isabel was right, then the seal is weakening," Felt argued. "We need to find some way to strengthen it!"
"Maybe not," Garfiel offered. "Maybe keeping the Cult away is enough to ensure that the witch stays put."
"Horns!" Subaru whispered.
The pair turned to look at Subaru, who was studying the mural closest to the door.
Felt and Garfiel walked over to him and looked up at the massive drawing that extended from floor to ceiling and was at least six feet across.
The mural depicted two groups of people; one group was red on the left side and blue on the right side, while the other group was blue on the left side and red on the right side. All of these people bore two slender horns erupting out of their foreheads. The mural showed another group of horned individuals in the background. They wore black robes, and they were holding aloft a swaddled baby in white wrappings with great streams of light emanating from it. The people of both colors stared up at the infant in awe.
"Are those… Oni?" Felt asked.
"I think so," Subaru muttered. "'The Horned Witch…'" He whispered in dawning understanding.
"What do the Oni have to do with witches?" Garfiel asked.
Subaru touched the mural. "Ram told me a story once in my dreams…"
"Wait. What?!" Felt exclaimed.
Subaru shook his head. "During the test for the Book, Ram told me a story. She said that long ago, a witch was born to the Oni people, and they celebrated. But the witch ultimately destroyed them. When the Oni went to war and were hard-pressed by their enemies, she refused to help them fight. So, the Oni kept getting beaten back with heavy losses. Their race dwindled until they became all but extinct…"
"Sounds like a lovely lady," Felt said sarcastically. "You think that's… this witch?"
"It sort of looks like it, doesn't it?" Subaru murmured, moving on to the next mural.
In this mural, the central figure was a young girl dressed in white with long dark hair who now sported an impressive set of horns of her own. She stood alone in the background. In the foreground, the colored Oni attacked one another: the two kinds of Oni fighting savagely while the girl looked on, her arms spread wide, open palms extended at both groups.
Felt studied the mural. "It looks like there was a war, and she wouldn't help," Felt muttered. "Just like Ram's story."
Subaru squinted up at the mural. "Maybe… Maybe not… Maybe there's more to this…"
"What do you mean?" Felt asked.
Subaru scratched his chin. "Well, this mural shows the Oni fighting the Oni. And they have that red and blue pattern."
"Red and blue are common colors to show different factions," Garfiel offered.
"Yeah but look, each side is colored both red and blue. Just with the sides switched."
"So what?" Felt asked.
"Well… I'm not an expert on art, but to me, it looks like the artist wanted to make the difference between the two sides as small and unimportant as possible," Subaru murmured. "Maybe… Maybe the Oni were fighting each other, but it was for stupid or pointless reasons. The witch didn't want to pick sides, so she just stayed out of it."
"Hang on. She did more than just stay out of it, Captain," Garfiel whispered in surprise. "Look at her. She's standing between them with her hands outstretched. She's not just watching. She's trying to stop them!"
Subaru stared at the mural. "You know, I think that you might be right," He murmured.
They stepped over to the next mural.
In this picture, the same crowd of Oni were fighting in the foreground, but this time, they 'd been joined by people depicted in other colors. They all seemed drawn to be just as menacing toward the girl in white as they were toward each other.
The witch still stood in the background, but she was no longer alone. A group of Oni, also colored in white, had gathered at her feet. Spread around the witch was a great forest of strange shadowy arms like tentacles. They emerged from her body and were raised protectively over the white Oni.
"Looks like a big fight now," Felt said. "Lots of new enemies, and they look like they're planning to attack the witch. Are they nuts? How big an army would the Oni need to stand a chance against an honest-to-god witch?"
"And it looks like now the witch has managed to make a few friends herself," Garfiel added, pointing to the white figures.
Subaru frowned. "The witch… tried to stop the fighting without success," He muttered to himself. "She failed, but some of the other Oni agreed with her. They joined her … 'faction' or whatever you call it."
"And the other Oni were angry!" Garfiel said excitedly. "They saw a splinter group developing in their race, and they tried to shut it down!"
"But attacking the witch would still have been suicide!" Felt pointed out.
"Unless it's a witch that doesn't want to fight," Subaru realized. "Maybe that was the whole problem: she didn't want to fight. Not against the other Oni, not against the other races. Ram made it sound like the witch was just being lazy, but maybe… maybe there was more to it than that."
"In this mural, she certainly looks a lot more threatening," Garfiel observed.
"Yeah, but this time, she has someone to protect," Felt said.
Subaru looked at the next mural. It was split into four panels. Each one showed the white witch and the white Oni walking through different terrain: forests, frozen mountains, deserts, and seashores. In the background were the other Oni and other armed figures giving chase.
"This one is weird," Garfiel muttered. "What do you think this one means?"
"They ran away," Subaru said at once. "They tried to find a place where they would be safe from their enemies, but the world wouldn't leave them alone."
The next mural showed dozens of Oni drawn in all colors who were lying wounded or dead on the ground. The witch was on her knees, her hands pressed tightly against her face.
"She had to fight," Subaru interpreted. "She had to fight to protect her own people, but a lot of folks on both sides got hurt or killed, and she was devastated."
"What the hell is all this?" Felt demanded. "The witch is crying because she had to hurt folks who were literally trying to kill her? The witches are supposed to be pure evil, right? This one just seems like a wuss."
Subaru thought back to all the visions he 'd seen of the witches. "I'm starting to think that maybe the witches' stories are a little more nuanced than we originally thought," He murmured.
The next mural showed the witch standing beside a radiant pale figure with long hair that hid their face. The figure was handing the witch a scroll, and out of its mouth came a long pink line that opened into a 'Y' shape at the end.
"OK," Felt folded her arms across her chest. "I've got nothing for this one."
"It's a messenger from the heavens," Garfiel said. "I've seen this kind of symbolism before. An angel or something like that, they gave something to the witch. But what's that thing coming out of its mouth? A trumpet?"
"It's a tongue," Subaru said flatly.
"Why's it split like that?"
"A forked tongue," Subaru explained. "It's an old symbol of someone who's lying or deceitful."
Garfiel digested that and then nodded. "OK, I think I get it. The witch was being hunted. Her people were in danger. The witch was desperate. Then someone came to her and gave her something. Knowledge of some sort, I 'm guessing. But it was all a trick."
"Yeah," Subaru agreed, looking at the next few murals. "It looks like the witch gathered her Oni and led them on another long journey."
"She led them here, I guess," Felt said, pointing at a mural that showed the witch standing on top of the pyramid. A cutaway shot showed the other Oni deep inside, lying down on stone slabs.
"Wait a second!" Garfiel's eyes widened. "Does that mean that all those people we found in the tomb are Oni?! And they're still alive?!"
Subaru nodded. "It certainly looks that way. The twins will probably be thrilled."
"Not that we have any idea how to wake them up," Felt pointed out.
Garfiel sighed. "Jeez, shrimp. Do you really have to pour cold water on everything? "
"It's part of my charm," Felt snickered.
"Look at this," Subaru said, pointing at a mural that showed the witch standing on top of the pyramid, the sky alive with flying creatures. The huge, shadowy arms once again surrounded the witch as she stared up at the flying creatures.
"Are those birds?" Felt asked.
"Dragons," Garfiel said at once.
"The witch summoned dragons?" Felt said in surprise.
"I don't think so," Subaru disagreed. "They sure don't look friendly to her. On a hunch, I think it looks like the dragons came here to stop whatever the witch was doing, but the witch refused."
The next mural showed the witch slumped on the pyramid, exhausted. The surrounding area was covered in dragon corpses.
"Wait a second," Garfiel whispered. "Is that what happened to all the dragons?! The Oni witch killed them all?!"
"Maybe not all of them, but she sure killed a lot," Subaru remarked. He looked at the next mural. "Oh… Look at this."
They gathered around the next mural, which showed a group of what had to be Vollachian soldiers tying up the exhausted witch. The radiant figure from earlier watched the proceedings.
"And there's the double cross," Felt muttered with a shake of her head.
"But she's a witch!" Garfiel protested. "How the hell could a bunch of soldiers-"
"She's a witch who was exhausted by fighting a horde of dragons," Subaru interrupted. "Not to mention that she was also facing that… glowing thing. I have no idea what it is or what it can do, but maybe it was a match for her."
They kept following the murals to the end of the room.
"Holy shit!" Garfiel shouted, jumping back. He stared in shock at the floor.
Subaru looked where Garfiel was staring. Lying back against the central shaft was a skeleton wearing the scraps of an ornate purple robe. Slender horns emerged from his forehead, and a rusty dagger lay at his side.
Subaru looked up at the last murals. In the first one, a figure in a purple robe hid while the soldiers bound the witch in chains under the watchful supervision of the glowing figure. In the very last mural, the figure in the purple robe was all alone, crying on the ground in front of the chained witch.
"What the hell happened to this guy?" Garfiel muttered.
"It looks like we've found our painter," Felt said. "And he's a Witch Cultist, too."
"Huh?" Garfiel asked.
"This guy must be the one who hid while the witch was bound," Felt deduced, "He finished painting the murals and recording the history of this place, but he was trapped inside the tomb, and he either couldn't or wouldn't leave. So, rather than starve to death, he took his knife and…" She trailed off.
"Damn," Garfiel whispered. "That's a seriously messed up ending."
"Hang on," Subaru said. He noticed a tattered old scroll lying next to the body.
Subaru gingerly picked it up. The parchment threatened to crumble in his hands, and the ink was faded almost to the point of invisibility. Subaru needed to use Reason and Judgment to read it.
"'I, Durn, Deacon to our most Wonderful Goddess, Sekhmet, the Peaceful Witch, declare this to be my last testament,'" Subaru read aloud. "'I have served the goddess since she was a child, and words can not express my pride in how she has grown into a beautiful woman of conviction and conscience.
"We came to this place at our Goddess's direction. For many years, we have wandered, always seeking sanctuary, but the humans and the other Oni attacked us without rest. The Goddess was forced to kill many of them in order to protect us, and each time, the fighting and bloodshed wounded the gentle witch deeply. In the depths of our desperation, a stranger appeared and made her an offer.
"It was the Deceitful Witch.
"I warned our Goddess not to trust her, for the Order has long known that the Deceitful Witch's purpose is always other than it seems and her power greater than she reveals. But in desperation, our goddess did not listen to me. I do not begrudge her this. She only wished to protect her people from the cruelty of outsiders. It was this desperate hope that the Betrayer used against her, and so she sowed the seeds of her own undoing.
"The Betrayer offered our mistress an ancient spell that would allow our peoples' spirits to merge with the World Soul and to spend eternity exploring its endless corridors and experiencing its immense dreams of what is and what was and what could be. The Betrayer assured the Goddess that in this, their purposes were aligned as the Betrayer wished only for our mistress and her people to go away, and by using this spell, they would indeed be gone and trouble the Betrayer's schemes no more.
"For a moment, I dared to hope that the Deceiver would play us fair.
"We came to the southern lands and met with a soldier named Marius who offered to guide us to God's Grave. We reached the tomb, and our mistress used her vast power to open the sealed door. She had decided that this was the best place for our eternal rest as the powerful barriers upon the grave would ensure our protection from all but the mightiest interlopers. She further placed a potent spell on the entire jungle itself, ensuring that those who entered would become lost and wander aimlessly through the jungle unless protected by great power.
"Each of our people lay down on hard stone, and the Goddess wove the spell that would bind them forever in peaceful dreams, bound to her own spirit that would now wander the infinite pathways of the Od Laguna for eternity.
"Nearly all of us were already in an enchanted slumber when the dragons descended upon us. Ankalagon, the Dragon King, had brought his entire flight to attack our mistress while she was exhausted and vulnerable from the draining spellcraft that she had been performing. He had been warned that our mistress sought to meddle with the Od Laguna, and fearing the possible cataclysmic outcomes that might result, he brought dozens of his dragons to end her.
"I have no proof of who whispered this warning in the Dragon King's ear, but I do not doubt who the culprit was.
"The dragons descended on the tomb in fire and fury with no warning nor offer of parley. Our glorious goddess fought the dragons with all her strength, and she slew nearly the entire flight, leaving only a few to limp away, badly injured. But our mistress was seriously wounded as well and now in a state far beyond mere exhaustion. That was when the enemy struck.
"Marius revealed that he had been in league with the Betrayer all along. And together, they bound the mistress in mystical chains.
"I confess, I could do nothing but hide. Alone, I was no match for so many soldiers, much less the Betrayer herself. All I could do was hide and hope that a chance to aid my mistress would later reveal itself.
"Once the Goddess was bound and helpless, the Betrayer approached to mock our goddess, and she preceded to search her for the Seed. But our Goddess, who is courage personified, only laughed and told the Dark One that she no longer had it. She had turned it over to Master Flugel for safekeeping before undertaking this journey.
"At this revelation, the Betrayer's rage was terrible to behold. Her indescribably beautiful form flickered, revealing the darkness that truly lay underneath her fair seeming. I confess that I could do nothing but tremble in the night that was her shadow, and I felt as if the very rocks flinched back from her fury.
"The Betrayer ordered our mistress brought deep into the temple, and there she was bound in terrible magic to secure against her awakening. Then they all left, sealing the temple and leaving me alone with my trapped goddess and the sleeping husks of my friends and family.
"The Seal that lays upon Lady Sekhmet is far beyond my abilities to lift. I dare not even open the gate of the tomb for fear of attracting the Betrayer's gaze and raising in her the suspicion that there is more hidden in the temple than she already realizes, lest she return and slay my kinsmen out of sheer spite. And I do not dare try to awaken any of my kindred for fear of killing them now that their souls are so tightly bound to the mistress. My only saving grace is that the spellwork suggests that none of them are even aware of the passage of time. Perhaps one day, long after I am gone, the Goddess will break free of her chains, and my kinsman will awaken with her.
"It is but a faint hope.
"I have spent my past few days finishing the murals in the tomb to honor our goddess's courage. But my meager supplies are exhausted, and I fear the cruel death that is starvation. I will embrace my dagger and escape this tomb.
"Deacon Durn Shotendoji'"
Subaru slowly lowered the scroll.
"Well, that's a hell of a story," Garfiel whispered.
"Yeah. It is, isn't it," Subaru murmured.
"Fascinating," Felt said flatly. "But it still begs the question of what do we do about the weakening seal?"
"As long as we keep everyone away from here, it should be good, right?" Garfiel asked.
"How do you know that?" Felt challenged, "I don't know that! What if this seal breaks like the one in…" Felt quickly cut herself off awkwardly.
"External forces were weakening that seal," Subaru reminded her, ignoring Garfiel's curious look. "Maybe, left alone, this seal is still stable."
Felt looked at him skeptically. "Are you sure about that? "
"No," Subaru admitted. "But what else can we do? I have no idea how to strengthen this seal. Maybe the Ryuzus or Beatrice would know how, but frankly, I doubt it."
Felt looked uncertain. "So, we're just going to leave it here?" She asked incredulously.
"Yeah, unless you have a better idea," Subaru shrugged. "It's all that we can do until we learn more about these seals. We need to stay focused on finding the weapon. Or maybe we can talk to this 'Isabel' character. She might have an idea."
"Captain," Garfiel said sharply. "Where's Brador?"