Chrono X Angel, Book 8: The Sands of Time

Chapter 12

Kuroko was mightily miffed. After the long flight to Egypt, and their collective tour of the Great Pyramid's secrets, the first thing they did upon leaving was to start heading BACK to Fumizaki!! She had wanted to explore the Sphinx, walk down the Nile, shop in the open air markets, but noooooo. Miss Blondy Big-Boobs Mummy Princess said they needed to go back at once to find some doohicky of power or something. Though not a history nerd of any sort, Kuroko could still appreciate the storied past of the city of Cairo and its surrounding environs. Well... she did suppose that doing all of that without her big sister around would not have been nearly as memorable. Fine, she would just add it to her list of places to return to once all this craziness was over. Speaking of the craziness, she had forgotten exactly what object she and Misato were supposed to be looking for.

"Hey remind me again what we're doing back here so soon?" She asked as the pair were walking down the main thoroughfare through Fumizaki. Kuroko had an inkling that she knew where they were heading, but kept it to herself for the moment.

"The Princess said there was something deep below the city we would need for the battle to come," responded Misato nonchalantly, holding the odd device she was carrying up for Kuroko to better investigate. It was around the size and shape of a CD, but thicker and made of an odd silver/blue metal. It had a small display in the "top" portion that was indecipherable to Kuroko, but apparently was not to Misato.
"This energy meter thing will allow us to hone in on the Igniter Stone... whatever that is. And right now it's pointing us towards..."

The pair looked up and beheld Tsukiyomi Academy in all its glory. The device seemed to be pointing specifically to the library, which cinched Kuroko's theory. They were heading back to those weird metal caves she had explored once before several weeks back. For some reason though, Misato's face had paled which concerned Kuroko, but before she could ask what was wrong the girl seemed to shake it off and keep walking.
The duo had no issue entering the library, as it was during school hours and Kuroko was already in her uniform so her presence would arouse zero suspicion. As for Misato, given how closely she was sticking to Kuroko, anyone who saw the two would assume they were simply where they were supposed to be. Once inside and away from prying eyes, the pair looked again at the device which had begun to glow faintly in Misato's hands.

"We're more or less over it now..." whispered Misato, a bit reverently too Kuroko noted, "We need to find an access point to the lower levels. Au- Kuroko, do you know a way down there? This place is different than I remember in my time."

Kuroko nodded, motioning for Misato to follow her over to an otherwise unassuming door towards the back of the ground level.

"A few weeks back, sis and I snuck in after school because it felt like something down there was calling out to me," she said, indicating the door as she continued, "behind that is a weird open space, it goes on for like... ever, or seems to. Down the stairs is this weird metal... cave system? That's the best way I can describe it. I found this weird mask in there, and my Spiritus sword, but was also chased by these weird metal snake men."

"Rahkshasas..." whispered Misato once more, only with a bit more trepidation in her voice, "Servants of the Dark One... agents of his will. They were how he undid Traulerk in ancient times..."

Not wanting to question Misato's ramblings, and knowing they needed to keep going, Kuroko began slowly opening the door. The motion seemed to snap Misato out of her trance, and she quickly slipped through the door with Kuroko. Inside the cave was just as Kuroko remembered it, the vast open nothingness leading down and down into the depths of darkness. Awaiting them at the end was a massive wall of metal a similar color to the disk Misato held. Said disk was glowing brightly now, and acted as a better torch than any light spell Kuroko could conjure. Inside the metal caves once more, Kuroko almost instantly lost track of the direction they had come from. With the brighter light this time though, she could see much more around her, though a part of her wished she had not. Splayed across the floors and halls of the caves were eons-old corpses, or what seemed to be corpses, of a race of metal beings. These beings seemed to have the desiccated remains of organic components attached at various joints. There were two distinct sizes, or perhaps races of this type of build. One shorter and stockier, around three or four feet tall though it varied between individuals. The other were about twice as tall as their shorter brethren, with far more variety in their body types. Aged had dulled any color these beings might have once had, with all the bodies being uniformly silver. Scattered around were also the bodies of more snake men, though these ones were in pieces with seemingly no organic components to keep them together. It took Kuroko a moment to realize she was looking at the remains of a battle so ancient it might have predated modern human society altogether. Misato seemed to be affected by the sight as well, but was continuing to keep her mouth closed for now, intent on keeping her eyes on the device. Kuroko was done though, and once they were far enough from any of the bodies she stopped and grabbed Misato by the arm, forcing her to halt as well.