False Gods

Book I: The Nation of Alrest

Chapter III

     As I walked down into the narrow rock tunnel, I felt the cool air hit me in the face. I wasn't sure where the wind was coming from, but as I walked further down, I came into a large clearing. As I came into the clearing I found a few patches of leafless bushes and short, bluish grass. But there was a clear paving to a long rope bridge in front of me. Upon approaching I discovered a large chasm, deeper than I could see and stretching farther then I'd care to know. Some large, stingray looking monsters came flying out of and back into it, I decided it was best to move quickly.

     I noticed it was becoming hard to breathe, as the air was filled with weird shiny particles. Was I really this determined to kill the aligo? I didn't think so, but yet, I felt like I needed to keep going anyway.

     I felt my stomach lurch as I scurried across the bridge and went into the narrow passageway on the other side. I crept through tunnel and soon found myself walking on what looked like a large spinal column embedded in the floor. Did giant monster's once live here, or was this place literally a giant monster? I assumed the former as a living continent seemed unthinkable.

     The cave continuously went deeper and I noticed a large amount of water on the floor, it was purple. A short wade through it and I realized that the water was highly toxic and I immediately got out of it. I grabbed a transport block and loaded up a wind element bullet into Granny's pistol before setting it to low power and shooting the block.

     Wind and water elements produced auras for healing and poison relief, the only problem with that was having to leave the aura in a set place and not being able to move it. With a transport block you could shoot the block and it would catch and hold the bullet in a small forcefield, allowing you to carry the aura with you.

     The wind bullet began releasing its poison-relieving aura and I, once again, waded through the poison muck. Before long I was faced with climbing down a large spiraled path, which coiled along the walls of this cave. In the center of the spiral was a large hole that I couldn't see the bottom of. Before I could get all the way down, a swarm of vangs attacked me. They were similar to bats except larger and could cause intense bleeding. I loaded electric rounds into the gun and shot off a few bullets into the swarm. The electricity traveled to most of them and the few remaining took off. Before I could catch my breath I was surrounded by scorpoxes. These Great Dane-sized scorpions weren't pushovers, and I immediately pulled my sword and slashed at them.

     I took a swing at one, cutting off its head before another one tried to get me with its stinger. I dodged and slashed its stinger off before planting my sword into its head. Another tried to grab my leg with its claw and I shot it point-blank with an earth bullet. Earth bullets were high impact and could cause small earthquakes that could break apart small boulders, this was more than enough to make this one shatter. I unloaded four more bullets into the remaining ones before pulling my sword out of the scorpox I had stabbed and sheathing my sword and holstering my gun.

     I was about to exit when I finally saw it. The aligo with the sword sticking out of its head. It was too far away to shoot so I began approaching it. I found that, as I went deeper into the cave, the particles that made it hard to breath and see only got thicker, making it seem more like a fog now. I finally was in shooting range of the aligo. I grabbed the gun and loaded an earth bullet into it, set it to high power, and then aimed carefully. I focused everything I had into this shot before placing my finger on the trigger. Once I was sure that I wasn't going to miss, I squeezed it, hitting the aligo square in the face, killing it where it stood.

     "Got you!" I exclaimed before realizing that the aligo wasn't alone.

      Immediately about twenty much bigger aligos jumped down aggressively and charged me.

      For as large as these beasts were, they were extremely agile. I ran back to the large spiral area and soon realized that there was nowhere for me to go without getting caught. As they closed in, snarling and growling, I leapt off the side and down the center of the spiral. The aligos looked down the hole and all turned back, not daring to jump after me, and then I plummeted down into the abyss.

...................................

     "Waylon!" I heard a girl's voice call out.

     "My name is Silas, you have me confused," I responded.

     "Oh, my apologies. Hello Silas!" she said cheerfully.

      I looked over to see the little girl with black hair and eyes that I had seen in my dream.

     "A-Am I dead?" I asked, not sure as to what was happening.

     "Of course not, I wouldn't let you die that easily!" she giggled. "You're just sleeping. It's time to wake up though."

     "Who are you?"

     "That not important yet. For now, wake up and go find the emerald core crystal."

     "The emerald... what?" I questioned.

     "You'll know it when you see it, it's nearby, now go! Quickly! They are coming."

     "Who're they?" I interrogated, but before I could receive an answer, I woke up.

...................................

     I got off of the floor, it was no longer a cave floor, it was a type of concrete... or tile? I looked around and realized that I was still in the cave, but much deeper. This whole area was an amazing feat of architecture. Where was I? I looked up in front of me to see one giant emblem carved into the structure. It looked like, a small flame, carved into the center of a giant circle. I remembered this to be the ancient emblem of Leftheria.

     There were stairs leading up towards this emblem, so I climbed. It led to a pedestal with a white-and-golden sword stuck into it. Before I could take a closer look, I heard a sound behind me.

     I turned quickly to see the aligo had tailed me here.

     "Damn monsters don't know when to quit!" I said, drawing my sword.

     Before I could truly fight back, all of them were cut to pieces in front of me. Then, all that was left were three figures, all black and all cloaked.

     The far right one was short, holding a red, flaming sword. The one to the left was much taller, holding the same golden-white sword that rested behind me, only it's flame was pure white. The third was slightly taller than the one to his left, and his sword was double-edged and a bright teal, but curiously no flame.

      I shot a few hollow points into them, which they sliced out of the air.

     "Stay back!" I threatened before I heard the girl's voice again.

     "The emerald core crystal."

      I turned around to see that there was an emerald-colored rock laying in front of the sword behind me. It was a long-ways rectangle with two small points sticking out of the wide ends, resembling some sort of cross.

      The beings began rushing towards me and I wasted no time in touching the crystal.

Readability Level: 9th-10th Grade
Time Taken: 2.5 Hours

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