Aetherian(Part 1): A War Begins

Julien

After Julien drove his golden lightsword through one more bonewalker that was armed with a teal battleax, he began to wonder what the blade of the weapon was made of. He had never seen a teal blade before, and there was no mention of it in any of the books from the small library at the beginning of the ruins.

"What are these blades?" he asked aloud, to Blake.

"Glass," she answered.

"Glass?" said Julien. He raised the battleax of the bonewalker, then dropped it on its blade, and it didn't break. It didn't even lose its edge.

"You won't find that stuff in windows," corrected Blake, chuckling. "It's glass malakyte."

"The dragonslayers' metal?" asked Julien.

"It's more of a rock, to be honest."

"They used rocks to fight against dragons?"

"It's a very strong rock, apparently."

"We should probably keep going," Julien suggested. "It'll be dark soon, and I don't want to be down here when the sun sets."

"We wouldn't want to be out there, either." They continued to descend into the tomb, cutting down bonewalkers practically every time they turned a corner and opened a door, and when they opened one more, they were met with a long, wide corridor that had carvings in the walls. The first one resembled a battle between dragons and men.

"The Dragon War," said Julien. "That was a bad one."

"I know," agreed Blake. "Zenartha was nearly ripped apart. What is all of this, anyway?"

"Stories," answered Julien. "All of them tell of battles or heroes of the Dragon War."

"And what about that?" asked Blake, pointing to a round door at the end of the hallway that seemed to have three separate rings, and in the center was a lock with four keyholes in the shape of a dragon's claw.

"Oh, I've seen these," Julien observed, then he rubbed his hands on the dragon claw keyhole and said "See this? It's a lock."

"So, we need a key to open it?" asked Blake.

"Yeah, in the shape of a claw."

"Like this?" said Blake, handing him a golden artifact that resembled a foot with three, shining claws on the ends of the toes.

"Where did you get this?" asked Julien.

"I found it on one of those big bonewalkers."

"Let's see," said Julien, examining the dragon claw. On the bottom were three silver glyphs. A dragon, a bear, and a tiger, the same glyphs on each of the rings on the door. The rings were arranged in the order of the dragon, the tiger, and then the bear, from top to bottom. Julien began to turn the rings until the glyphs matched the order they were on the golden claw, then he inserted the artifact into the keyhole, matching the claw shape on the lock. Suddenly, the door lowered into the ground, into a huge, dark space.

"On your guard," said Blake, and they both ignited their lightswords. The source of the strange aura of darkness they sensed came from whatever stood before them, but they couldn't see what was in front of them. They began to step forward, with their lightswords lighting their way.

"I don't like this," complained Julien. "This looks like a trap."

"Of course it's a trap," Blake agreed. "We can't really see, can we?" Suddenly, hanging braziers on the ceiling ignited, revealing a huge, stone chamber, with six pillars around the floor, and an iron coffin fit for someone twice the size of a person in the center. As the two Guardian Knights stepped closer to the coffin, the aura of darkness they felt grew even more immense with every step they took.