The Cranidos was starting to loosen the grip Sicily and Totodile had on it, Eevee was dazed and there was little Eros could do about it.
Cranidos was starting to swing faster and faster, meaning the two vices' grips would eventually fade. Even now, Totodile could be seen slipping off, meaning that Sicily was not far behind. Eevee was doing a bit better, though, and Eros was getting away from the wall, should he need to escape another ram.
Eros was next to Eevee, asking "What should we do?"
"I don't know, what-" Eevee was interrupted by some blurry red object that was Sicily knocking her over, followed by Totodile just barely making it over Eros' head. Eros turned to see the Cranidos readying to rear an attack, yet stumbling a little backwards as sand slipped from under its feet. He then noticed that for however powerful this Cranidos was, the party was taking quite a beating. Eevee, Totodile and Sicily couldn't easily make it back to their feet. Even Eros couldn't concentrate and pull out his sparkles with the bleeding hole in his chest. What could he do now?
What could he do? What could he do? Maybe Cerci would magically appear and save the day? Or maybe he could exert all of his magical energy and home for the best? Could he even focus on that? Or maybe let himself faint? But what would happen if everyone knew he was human? What could he do? Would they accept that? Would he have to kill them? Could he kill them? Would he kill them? Maybe he could get away with it if he did it while they didn't stand a chance, like right now- No, Eros knew that he was losing it. He could keep his calm when killing someone he didn't even know, this was no worse. He knew that no matter what, he couldn't stop fighting.
Eros stared at the Cranidos as they faced each other down. There was no way anyone could take him head on, even if they all attacked together. As sand swirled around the Cranidos' feet, inspiration struck. Eros spoke, "Sicily. Run away from it."
Sicily looked depressed. "Why? I can't leave you- Ooohhhhhhhh, arena trap, right?" Sicily made a slow jog away from the Cranidos. As she did, the opponent found its feet dragged forwards and became off balance. The Cranidos would have happily started another charge, but it tried to rear itself when Eros quickly walked towards it, expecting an attack. Totodile joined in on ganging up on the the creature, causing it to lose even more poise for just a moment. As the creature was at its weakest, Eros commanded, "Eevee, use quick-" and, flashing over the heads of the two males, Eevee flew at the Cranidos, knocking it onto its back after it bounced once, then being dragged closer by the sand. Eros then proceeded to jump over the legs of the Cranidos, who would have kicked Eros off before he landed if Totodile hadn't bit one of the legs and held it down.
As Eros landed, he brought a tiny claw with nails outstretched with him, which quickly sank into the exposed chest of the Cranidos. The sheer rush of the fight made Eros forget the damage to his arms. The monster tried pathetically to use its arms to pull Eros off, but its arms were much weaker than even Eros', not helped by the fact Eros' claws helped him grip into the creature. Eros withdrew his claws, the monster below him still in shock from the pain. He then proceeded to slash again, then once more. Without the weight of the fall, however, the scratches barely even penetrated the skin.
That last two attacks were unimportant, however, as the cumulative effects of the attacks before had already knocked the thing out. Eros dismounted from the fallen Cranidos and slowly walked his way back over to the party, where everyone congratulated each other and celebrated a little at their accomplishments.
Another hour of walking made for a boring trip, which was mainly uneventful for all but Eros, who was fiddling around with his own magical abilities. Right after the fight, Eevee gave Eros an oran berry, which would be useless everywhere except a mystery dungeon, and found it caused his wound to stop bleeding and scar a little. It still hurt and was exposed, however, not leaving Eros without injury. He also found that his arms and legs were less sore from their injuries. He decided that he would try focusing his magic on the wound to heal it. He took the smallest fraction of energy and focused it on his cut, hoping that it would heal himself; Rather, he felt a small burning sensation and started to bleed a little. 'Why couldn't he use this on others?' , he thought, until he realized that all he could do outside his body was create sparkles. Why? He tried focusing his magic inwardly on his wound, this time commanding it in rage to heal the spot, forcing it to mend to his ideals in a rough sense. This time, the little bit of bleeding he caused himself stopped. He was satisfied at this, despite his minimal understanding of how this process actually worked. He continued to mend his wounds, yet with barely noticeable results.
About another hour later meant the party was at the end of the dungeon. By simply entering the last room, the dungeon could be cleared and... Well, something. Everyone knew they were just hoping to find something and had no reasonable expectations, but they ignored this and went along with it anyways. Near the end, the Totodile and Eevee brought out a few apples they had been carrying, offering some to Eros and Sicily since the dungeon had been abnormally quiet and unpopulated, leaving them with extra supplies. The break was quiet but peaceful, leaving nobody disappointed. Eros showed off his ability to create sparkles to everybody, but when Totodile asked how he did it, Eros remained quiet and stopped performing.
The final room had been similar to the rest of the dungeon, surrounded with grey stone, only different in that the room had items of interest in it. The first was a large statue depicting a swordsman in plate armor kneeling with a greatsword as if praying to some powerful deity. However, where the face should be stands an orb the size of a human fist that appears black and porous. Between the statue and the party was a Honchkrow, which appeared to be resting. The only sound in the room was a heavy humming, similar to that of a bass, which almost shook the ground as it radiated from the Honchkrow. Eros was the only one to feel some sort of extrasensory pressure.
As the party made its way in deeper to the room, the humming stopped and the Honchkrow turned around and started speaking to the party in a creaking voice, "Who are you?"
No one dared to speak up for a moment; at this, the Honchkrow resumed its position and, as if he were generating the humming, the slow vibration came over the room again. Totodile finally decided to break the silence and asked the Honchkrow, "Who are you?"
The humming stopped once more. "I believe I asked you first. After all, you did just walk in on me. I mean you no harm." The animal's long face was turned somewhat to the crowd, although its body was facing the statue.
Totodile answered the Honchkrow in an uneasy tone, "We are team Super Angel from the Adventurer's guild. We are here because of the sandstorms."
"Is that so? Then I have no business with you. Just ring the bell up the stairs. As long as you are good of heart, the storms will stop. The stairs are over there," and the Honchkrow motioned its wing to an opening in the side of the room that could've easily been overlooked.
"Uh... Thank you." The party proceeded towards the exit slowly, everyone keeping an eye on the Honchkrow. All went well until Eros felt some sort of force from the statue, since the path to the exit led the party closer to it. Whatever the statue was doing, whatever force was in the room, something was wrong.
Eros whispered to Sicily, "Uh, Sicily, I have a bad feeling about the statue."
Sicily looked annoyed towards Eros what he said this. "Well, what do you want to do about it?"
"I think that statue is magical."
"Eros, people have come and gone trying to unleash the power in that statue. I've lived in this area for at least 15 years now, I'd know if anything was off."
"But we can't just leave the Honchkrow with that... I can feel it! Just let me look at the statue. Just a little."
"... Fine, but don't piss off the Honchkrow." Sicily elevated her voice to say to the other two, "Hey, can we wait for a second? Eros wants to look around a bit."
Eevee and Totodile didn't seem to mind this small pause. The three (not Eros) sat around the stairwell while Eros proceeded to the statue. The closer he got to it, the heavier he felt, but deep inside, somehow, he was also lighter... The Honchkrow now looked worryingly at Eros, stuttering, "W-what do y-you think you're doing?"
Sicily looked at Eros with fear in her eyes. Eros said to the Honchkrow, "What is the stone in the statue?"
"W-why is that important?"
"I just think it looks weird on the statue."
Sicily spoke up, "Actually, Eros, there was always a hole in the face of that statue. Pokemon have tried putting almost every kind of object in there, magic and not, and nothing has ever happened."
The Honchkrow smiled at this and continued from Sicily, "Ah, but you see, the only orbs they've ever tried to fit were things like weather stones. However, I have studied this construct for years. It is an object not meant for Pokemon use; Rather, it is an ancient human device. Care to listen more?" Eros nodded. "Then sit down for this.
"You need to know there are two gods: Arceus, God of Pokemon, and Godus, the long forgotten God of humans. Long ago, humans and Pokemon have lived in peace. That is the way Arceus and Godos made them, and that was the natural way of things. There were many kinds of Pokemon and a great many kinds of humans, just as it is today. None of the legends we know such as Uxie and Dialga never existed at the time, only the common species. However, the world was perilous at this time; Storms and weather would kill hundreds every day. There existed even greater threats than we know today, such as great firestorms and mystic winds. The two true deities, Godos and Arceus, felt sympathy for their creations and gave them gifts in order to survive this world. Arceus gave the Pokemon magic, letting them harness the power of the elements and resist even the harshest weather with ease. The paragons of the power are what we consider the legends of Pokemon today. On the other hands, Godos gave humans construction and civilization. There are plenty examples of amazing human constructions that formed from this gift; Take Lumiose Tower, for example. But I bet you're wondering about the Humanity Stones; I'll get to those next.
"While the Pokemon and humans got along well and happily shared their gifts, the peace between the two could not last eternally. Soon the Pokemon feared the power of technology humans had, and humans feared the mystical powers of Pokemon, a reason that the Witch Trials completely annihilated the presence of mages in the world. Soon the Pokemon and humans entered a bloody war. Everyone thought that the bitter savagery of humans would put them above the Pokemon, but as it turned out, the humans' technology couldn't stand to the godlike powers of the Pokemon; That is, until the humans created the Humanity Stones.
"To help bring an end to endless war, the Gods shared the powers of magic and civilization between the two, the humanity stones the product of magic for humans. The Humanity stones were by no means weapons on their own; They are merely the main component for activating larger constructions. Some say the stones are formed from the lives of Pokemon who sympathized with humans, while others say they are formed from the sorrow of innocent human souls taken by the Pokemon. Either way, these stones could be used to create and power the greatest human constructs in the world, such as whatever device sunk the land you may know as Utopia. Of course, that took many more stones than just one. These constructs were the only thing capable of stopping the war between humans and Pokemon- and the last thing I want to do is start another war.
"You see, a great many of the human constructs were not weapons of war- in fact, almost none were. I don't expect this statue to be any different. So, why am I doing this? I am curious. I want to see what secrets this device will unveil. Care to watch? The ritual is almost finished."
Eros looked towards the party, who just stared back. Eros nodded to the Honchkrow, who smiled and proceeded to make the deep sound.
A minute or two later, a loud transient sounded and a massive flash consumed the room, startling everyone. The statue, about 7 feet tall, started to move only in the slightest bit, as would someone normally breathing or maintaining a pose. The Honchkrow smiled and spread out its wings, shouting to the statue, "Hello, friend! What's your purpose?"
The statue slowly stood up, keeping its greatsword in hand. It looked with its 'face' towards Honchkrow, remaining as silent as a statue.
"Hello? Do you speak? I summoned you, I'd like to-"
At this moment, the statue brought its greatsword up into the air, barely reaching the abnormally high ceiling, leaving only a small mark in the fine stone, then down upon the middle section of the Honchkrow, bisecting it and causing fragments of stone to rise from the impact, nearly causing the party to lose their minds.