Rise of Erebos: Search of the Hidden

Chapter 16: Exploring A Freezing Cold Ice Tomb

Thankfully, Boreas was a man of his word. As the plane continued traveling towards the direction of the mask, the venti were gone and we were able to continue our quest.
"So, what happened with Boreas?" Kai asked curiously.
"Well, we were able to clear the venti, but now Amethyst has to talk to Zeus about promoting Aeolus," I summarized. "And apparently, Amethyst is really good at French."
Kai chuckled. "That's what happens when you read about fifty million language books."
"Farts de langue de fromage rouge," Alexander said, snickering.
Amethyst glared at him. "Red cheese tongue farts? Really? That's so juvenile."
I began laughing, clutching my stomach until it hurt to breathe. "R..red cheese t..tongue farts," I chuckled between breaths.
"Anyways," Arthur said. "Do we know where the compass is leading us yet?"
Amethyst shook her head. "No, we won't know until it stops in a certain area."
"It's a pretty picky compass," Kai said. "But, do we even know what the mask is supposed to be?"
Amethyst shook her head. "No, we don't. We just have to hope that we can find all the masks for. The only thing I know is that they're probably going to be in closed-off places."
"Gods, we're never going to figure out this prophecy," I groaned. "Like, why is it so vague?"
"Hey, we're going to figure out this prophecy. But you are right, we really do need to figure out what it means," Amethyst comforted.
"Here, why don't we get some rest?" Geneva suggested. "A lot has happened today and we're not going to get anywhere by worrying."
With that, I headed to my room and collapsed onto my eye-killing pink bed. I instantly fell asleep, and when I woke up, Oman turned on a comm speaker.
"Hey y'all! The compass has spoken! We will be landin' in the great state of Alaska," Oman announced. I got out of my bed groggily and headed to the main area, where everyone was sitting.
"Yippee," Kai said sarcastically. "I've always wanted to travel to Alaska."
"Don't be such a downer," Amethyst scolded. "Did you know that out of the twenty highest peaks in the United States that seventeen of those are in Alaska? It's quite interesting." Kai groaned and smashed a pillow in his face.
After a couple of minutes, Oman landed the plane on a nearby grass field.
"Hold up," Kai said. "We have to travel through a cave in two degree weather?"
Oman got out of the pilot's seat and walked toward us. "Look pal, I don't like caves anymore then you do, but if these masks are located in closed-off places, then it has to be in the cave!"
"It's fine," Arthur said. "We'll just have to trek through the cave and find the tomb."
According to Amethyst, it was about 22 degrees outside, so we quickly suited up. We each put on large, furry coats, long pants, mittens, and beanies to shield our body from the cold.
We then got out of the plane and began walking towards the cave. From the outside, the cave was a large, dome-shaped structure and was covered in crystals and snow. There was a nearby frozen lake that glittered in the afternoon sun and a couple boulders that surrounded the cave.
Kai recklessly dashed right into the cave and was met with quite a surprise. Turns out, the entrance of the cave was an ice slope, so Kai immediately slipped down and fell on his behind.
We immediately ran after Kai, carefully making sure we didn't fall down the icy slope. When we reached the bottom, Kai was splayed on the floor, rubbing his butt.
This amused Alexander of course, who started pointing at Kai. "Haha, loser!"
Kai got up and dusted chunks of ice and dust off his body. "Funny. Thanks to my sacrifice, you guys knew there was a slope, so you're welcome."
We started examining our surroundings, wondering where the cave led to. Right at the spot where Kai fell at, the cave split into three different hallways, each just as dark and damp as the cave itself. From above, the cave was showered with stalactites, stalagmites, and crystals.
"Great," I groaned. "We should probably split up. That way we'll cover more ground."
Amethyst nodded. "That's a good idea. Just be careful. We don't know what might be waiting for us."
Arthur and Geneva immediately headed down towards the left tunnel, holding each other's hands. I stared at them dumbfounded as they disappeared into the tunnel.
"Well, that was quick," I said. "Okay, who should go with who?"
Amethyst twirled her hair. "Me and Kai should be on different teams. We can keep you and Alexander warm with our fire magic."
Kai nodded. "Good idea. Here, I'll take Rose and you take Alexander. Me and Alexander are both good fighters, so we should also split up."
I decided to ignore Kai's insult. "Sounds like a plan. Here, let's go down the right tunnel."
Amethyst and Alexander nodded and went down the middle as me and Kai started towards the right. Kai lit his right hand up, lighting up the cave with a dim glow.
The tunnel was extremely hollowed out, with the walls far apart from one another. Crystals sparkled like diamonds on the roof and icicles hung from the top, making me extremely anxious.
"Are we sure those icicles aren't going to impale us to death or something?" I asked shakily. I didn't like the idea of walking under sharp, pointy icicles.
"Nope," Kai answered. "But at this point, I can't be sure about anything."
We continued going through the tunnel, and after a couple of minutes, we began hearing low monster growls.
"What is that?" I asked warily, scanning my surroundings.
Before Kai could answer however, a group of about four arctic wolves came dashing at us, their teeth bared. They had snowy white pelts with thick fur. Their eyes were as dark as midnight and their claws were deadly sharp.
Kai and I drew our weapons, ready to fight. Kai blasted a wave of flames at them, turning some of them to dust. I shot a couple of fire spells myself, finishing off the rest of them.
"That was easy eno-" I began saying before turning around to see another wolf dashing at me, its jaw wide open. Thankfully, Kai swung his sword at it, slashing it in half before it bit my face off.
"Thanks," I said.
"No problem," Kai responded. "We should keep moving forward though. I have a feeling those aren't the only monsters we're going to see in here."
We continued moving forward, being even more careful, hoping not to trigger another monster attack. When we finally reached the end of the tunnel, a half-lion, half-human monster awaited us. The creature had the head of a woman and the body of a lion, its golden pelt shining in the dark. It bared its canine teeth and whipped its tail, probably eager to eat us.
In addition, half-lion, half-eagle creatures flew over the creature, their talons out. They had the head and feet of an eagle, though some had talons and some had paws. They had beady red eyes and long beaks with big, white wings that allowed them to fly.
"Gods," Kai groaned. "That's the Sphinx."
"Who now?" I asked.
The Sphinx growled. "The most powerful lion monster in the world! For disrespecting me, I will eat both of you!"
"Hold up," Kai said, holding his hands up. "Aren't you going to ask us trivia questions or something?"
"I don't do that anymore, human!" The Sphinx snarled. "After that satyr kid caught me in his vines, I vowed to kill my prey instead of quizzing them. Now DIE!"
The Sphinx bared its fangs and began charging at us. Kai drew his sword out, but I had a better idea.
"Oh, that's disappointing," I said. "We wanted to talk to the greatest creature we've ever heard of."
The Sphinx stopped in its tracks. "That's right, human. I am the GREATEST CREATURE OF ALL TIME!"
Kai seemed to get the idea. "And we would be honored to be quizzed by such a legendary creature!"
The Sphinx smiled. "All right then. I'll quiz you. If you get the answers right, I'll let you go. If you get them wrong, I'll send the gryphons to kill you."
Kai nodded. "We agree to those terms. Let's start the quiz!"
"The first question: What is the capital of Uganda?" The Sphinx asked.
  I looked at Kai with panic. Who the heck even knows that?
Kai laughed. "It's Kampala."
I looked at him with shock. How did he know such a fact?
He read my expression. "After hearing Amethyst ramble on about countries for so long, some of the info gets stuck in your head."
The Sphinx continued. "Next question: What does the cow say?"
I looked at her dumbfounded. How can you go from asking what the capital is of a random country to asking what sound a cow makes? And what sort of question even was that?
"Cows say moo," I answered.
"Next up: what is the square root of sixty-four?" The Sphinx asked.
"Eight," Kai answered.
Over the course of the next three minutes, the Sphinx asked us extremely easy questions, from what the eight planets are in the solar system to what two plus two was. We were now on the twentieth question, ready to bolt out of the tunnel.
"The final question is: Do you want to get eaten?" Sphinx asked.
Kai's eyes widened in horror. The Sphinx bared its teeth at us, ready to eat us. I drew my two knives as Kai brought out Scorcher.
"Go, birds!" Sphinx commanded. "IT'S EATING TIME!"
Suddenly, the entire horde of gryphons flew at us, swooping towards us with immense speed. Kai lit his sword on fire and started jabbing at the gryphons, having to parry their relentless attacks. I shot spells at each one of them and slashed at the air with my knives, desperately trying to not get eaten.
Kai blasted waves of flames at them while I shot Mist clouds and time spells to slow them down. Thanks to these time spells, me and Kai were able to slice down all the gryphons. We then turned to The Sphinx, whose face was scrunched up.
"How dare you kill my gryphons! I will eat you for lunch!" Sphinx snarled. It's eyes glittered dangerously.
Me and Kai moved forward into the large cave area. At the end of the big cave area was a big boulder blocking the exit. Small bits of sunlight came out from behind the boulder, revealing how close we were to the exit.
The cavern was a large room with rocky walls and stones. Similar to tunnels, there were crystals shimmering from the ceiling and rocks covering the floors. The cavern was mostly empty other than a couple boulders and a river was almost black in the dull light of the cave.
    The Sphinx pounced as we entered the room. Kai and I rolled to the side of The Sphinx's attack, making it hit the back wall of the cave. We turned around, our weapons unsheathed.
    Kai then jumped in and went for a jab with Scorcher, but The Sphinx was able to get up and parry the slash with its claws. Before it could hit Kai with its other paw, I came in with my knives and stabbed The Sphinx in its arm.
    The Sphinx roared in pain, blood trickling down its arm. It got up and looked at Kai and me angrily.
    "YOU DARE ATTACK THE LEGENDARY SPHINX? YOU SHALL BE PUNISHED FOR YOUR CRIMES!" It sped at Kai with incredible speed and began slashing with its claws. Kai was able to block most of the hits with his lit-up sword, spreading fire across the sphinx's body. However, the power of The Sphinx's blows overcame Kai, as it disarmed him, clawed his arm, and kicked him back into the hard stone wall.
    As it jumped upward to finish Kai, I lifted my hands up and telekinetically picked it up. It took all my strength to carry it up. Kai seemed to get my idea as he rose up, ignited Scorcher, and slashed The Sphinx's head off, it's body falling to the ground and landing into the river, creating a large splash.
However, Kai fainted afterwards, blood flowing down his arm. Not knowing what to do, I dragged him up to the boulder blocking the exit. After using my powers to carry the Sphinx up, I was extremely tired. A few minutes ago, I could have lifted up the boulder no problem. However, after the encounter with The Sphinx, my power was drained. With no options left, I resorted to hoping my friends had made it out.
    "Help! We're stuck in here!" I wailed. I called out multiple times, but no one answered. I was completely alone. I was going to die here, stuck in this stupid cave.
    After another round of screaming and shouting for help, the boulder started cracking. One of my friends had heard me! I quickly dragged Kai's body out of the way as the boulder split apart.
    Standing on the other side was Alexander, Amethyst, Arthur, and Geneva. Outside of the cave, there was a small grove of trees that were covered in snow. In the very middle of the grove was an ice tomb, with crystalized stairs leading up to wide ice doors. The walls were made up of crystals and ice, which shimmered brightly in the sunlight.
    Amethyst ran up to Kai, putting her hands on his arm wound and healing it.
"What happened?" She cried worriedly.
"Don't worry. Kai is completely fine," Kai said, slowly staggering up.  His wound had healed, but his face was a ghostly-pale color and he looked to be in bad condition.
Arthur shook his head. "We can't have you entering the tomb injured and deprived of rest. You'll only be a liability."
Kai ate some ambrosia that Amethyst gave him, the color returning to his face. "Don't worry. Papa Kai's gonna be alright. Anyways, I get injured all the time. This is nothing new." Arthur gave a small hint of a smile in response.
Geneva picked at her nails. "Whenever everybody's ready, we should head to the ice tomb. I have a feeling whatever's guarding it is going to be quite powerful."
Amethyst nodded, helping Kai up. "Based on all the ice on the walls, we're going to have to face the Ice Queen."
"Who?" I asked.
"Khione," Amethyst answered. "Goddess of the snow and winter."