Eventually, Leonidas led Mon’Ter right to the base of the temple stairs, at which of course were stationed multiple knights of the holy order that stood guard.
“Halt!” the holy knight placed a hand before Leonidas. “State your name and reason for going towards the Temple of Goddess Elene.”
The old knight sighed at the youthful man, in truth he found it a tad amusing, considering he could see one of the other holy knights cringe back at the sight of his junior. That one obviously knew it was Leonidas, but he remained silent, and so the elderly hero of the kingdom played along normally. “Leonidas, Le’Crysta, Benulis,” he said slowly, trying to emphasize his name to the lad.
“Wha-” the young knight gulped upon hearing the name.
“Reason for coming is to seek aid in Princess Elyenora’s recovery,” Leonidas said, then shoved past the soldier with his shoulder. “Now move aside you
The pope, George, led the two through the inner workings of the temple. He took them further into the main building and then down a long tunnel of spiral stairs heading to the deep beneath. It was almost eerie, in the dark. He held a small lantern which lit their way, but that light was far too dim even for Mon’Ter and his night vision.‘This is weird, I’m having a hard time seeing a thing past where the light touches…’ Mon’Ter pursed his lips, he squinted his eye but still could not perceive through.They kept walking, and walking. Down and down, the further they went the further did the stairwell sway from being an exquisite work of art, becoming more of a dreary mash up of mossy stone and dirty quartz. From but a glance it was obvious just how old and unused this all was.“Are we sure we’re going the right way?” Mon’Ter thought to ask, feeling like they were being taken not to a room of a goddess&rs
An aurora of golden lights flowed above the four people laying down. Elyenora slowly squinted her eyes open, looking up at the luminescence absentmindedly while Samuel still held the same dead stare as before. They were awake, yet their consciousness simply wasn’t there. Mon’Ter and Leonidas resolved themselves to waken them once more, it may be difficult or even perilous, but as the tides of destiny would have it, their chance to do so is now. With irises flickering in sync with the lights, and the serene environment calming their senses into a drift, the liking of a humble river. Along that slow tug, they began to doze off into a soothing slumber.………Mon’Ter woke.He opened his eyes to see himself standing upright, in a world unlike the beauty from earlier. Those blue iridescent skies had vanished, and he instead viewed a stone structured keep before him. It was a hallway, long and wide with a bright red
The next memory took place nearby to where the previous one had. It was the courtyard outside of the castle halls, a pretty little place, with a garden and a few trees whose fruit had just freshly sprouted. Mon’Ter and Leonidas stood in the middle of this memory, and by that definition, they were in the middle of the courtyard. A good vantage point to take in every bit of information, if you would. Though truthfully Leonidas found it unnecessary, but simply, he couldn’t have them advance without first seeing these memories. Those were the rules of the pope’s spell. Now, as for the memory at hand. Elyenora seemed to have grown a tad older in this scene, she was no longer a tiny child, but a child she remained. Perhaps now she was closer to her teenage years, but still a couple of winter cycles away from them. Maybe she’d passed her first decade in the recent weeks? In this memory, they could see her climbing up the lower branches of the biggest tree here, it went high
“Than you ever would have been?” Mon’Ter tilted his head, questioning Leonidas’ choice of wording.“Mm,” the man simply nodded, and Mon’Ter didn’t pry any further. It seemed like he didn’t wish to talk about that after all.‘Sounds like there’s something a bit more complicated there, but oh well,’ he thought to himself. ‘I doubt he’d tell me about it just from me bringing it up.’At the same time, King Elduin was still frantically looking over his daughter when the little Samuel scampered over to look at her, his eyes glimmered with worry evident from his sweating brows. “I-Is Ely okay…?”“She’s not in any mortal threat… At the very least,” Elduin sighed, “what a foolish child, worrying me so...”“Aydian and her were racing to the treetops…” Sammy tried to explain to the king, “I
Within no time of walking at all, Mon’Ter and Leonidas entered the nearest next memory. One taking place in a large, circular arena whose walls elevate and lead to thousands of seats for the populace to spectate from. It was no mere normal colosseum, no, in fact, it was so much more extravagant than a plain construction of marble and quartz as first meets the eye. Mon’Ter gazed up at the skies and found numerous floating structures of stone and steel, each having rods protruding on their sides, and from the looks of the furthest ones away, they also had rods atop of them too. They looked to be quite large, at least ten meters in width and fifteen in length, however as to their purpose, Mon’Ter could only guess.“What are those things up there?” he asked the elder beside him.“Hm? The sky monoliths?” Leonidas inquired with a raised brow. “They fly above the colosseum in order to ensure nothing contaminates the inside area,
“Hahahaha!” Leonidas’ laughter persisted into the void and its path. “Oh, the look on Ely’s face as she held her laughter back! Priceless! Priceless, I tell you! Hahaha!”“I wouldn’t say I found it all that funny…” Mon’Ter sank back a little as he mumbled.“Oh, come on lad, kids are there to poke fun at many’a times, they do funny stuff,” Leonidas cheered on.“Perhaps,” Mon’Ter said in monotone. “However, they are still my friends, and I don’t intend to make fun of them, nor do I like you laughing at them,” he spoke seriously, kind of glaring at the elderly knight.That sight piqued Leonidas’ curiosity. “My, ain’t that a strong glare you got there,” he said with a smile, “I’m glad to know a companion of my dear kids thinks fondly enough of them to be this defensive! That’s great,” his smil
“Uhm…” Mon’Ter scratched his cheek. “No, not really, no.”“Your gloves and coat,” Leonidas distanced himself, “off.”“Are we really doing this?” Mon’Ter sighed. “Look, I know how it looks but I’m-”“Drop it,” Leonidas’ voice bellowed, “I will be the judge of what or who you are.”“Alright then…” Mon’Ter narrowed his eyes in annoyance. “Just don’t do anything rash, okay?”Leonidas watched him carefully, unmoving, his palms holding the handles of his blades. With narrow eyes, he scrutinized Mon’Ter for all he was worth, without mercy, he judged and waited to judge further. But as he watched the man remove his gloves, those hands he saw, those claws and scales, they were all he needed to see.“Dragon…” Leonidas mumbled beneath his brows, which rose in a
Mon’Ter slowly pieced himself back together, slightly glaring at the old man, who still looked at him in an apologetic manner. He waited until the elder swiped the edge of his blades across the wounds he’d inflicted, annihilating the small creatures that tore away at the chimera’s skin and reducing them to none but dust particles.“Well, at least you can remove them as quick as you can place them on me,” Mon’Ter huffed in annoyance, this ability was sure to rank amongst the ones he would be hating most. After all, it completely negated his regeneration! Could he even survive if Leonidas were to cut him up like some of his other foes had in the past?“Yes... Well,” Leonidas scratched his cheek. “Sorry about your hand, might have to wait till we’re outside before we can heal that one... I’m sure it shocked George to see it fall off though! Hahaha!”“I really don’t find that funny..