The Tower King

Sora furrowed his brows. "We've already searched the temple from top to bottom, Nerris and I. There is nothing here, apart from decrepit walls, chipped statues and a smell of moldy foam."

Nerris nodded, arms crossed. "We checked everything. Every alcove, every slab, even the cracks in the floor. Nothing."

Jarek tilted his head, falsely surprised. "Really? Nothing at all?"

" Nothing at all, " Sora insisted while grimacing, a dull pain going up his ribs. " Not even an old half-melted trinket. "

Jarek smiles more beautifully. He left his support against the wall and slowly approached, hands behind him like an old teacher too sure of himself. "It's because you searched like tourists."

Sora raised an eyebrow. "Sorry?"

"The temple was built by an ancient tribe that used a system of concealment based on echoes," Jarek explained, tapping a stone from the wall with his fingertips. "A piece like this is like an instrument. The kind of thing you don't notice if you don't know what to listen to."

Nerris approached in turn, intrigued. "You mean there is... a secret room?"

" Better than that, " replied Jarek with a satisfied air. He walked away from them, bypassing a column, and stopped in front of a half-decapitated statue, worn by time. He was a warrior, his broad torso carved from dark granite, his face erased for centuries.

"It is here that the sound changes."

He leaned slightly, pressed his ear against the base of the statue and tapped a stone located just behind, on the ground. Nothing. He advanced with a step and gently hit another slab of the foot. A thud, muffled.

Then, one meter further on, he hit a last slab.

Thunk.

The sound was different. Hollow. Fragile. Almost... expected.

Jarek sat up slowly, a faint gleam of triumph in his eyes. "There."

Sora had stood up, limping all the way to him. " Is it a mechanism? "

Jarek nodded. "A resonator. A simple hollow slab, connected to a counterweight. But it only activates if the right pressure is exerted... at the right pace." He extended his hand to Sora. "And you will take care of it."

Sora knelt down with effort, placed his hand on the slab and pressed. Nothing happened. He furrowed his brows, started again, a little louder. Still nothing.

"Uh..." he muttered, confused. "Are you sure it's here?"

A brief laugh escaped Jarek. "Do you think I would have come all this way if it wasn't the right place?" He crouches down next to him, then gently tapped the slab with a finger. "It's not a matter of strength. It's a question of angle and rhythm. Listen carefully."

He took her hand and guided his finger towards a small discreet hollow on the surface of the stone.

"You need to apply pressure here, then slowly slide towards the joint there. And then... wait. You'll feel a click."

Sora followed the instructions to the letter. A pressure. A slow slide. A breath.

CLICK.

Then a rumbling, muffled at first, was heard.

The ground vibrates. Slowly, in a dull rumble, a slab against the west wall slid to the side, revealing a spiral staircase plunging towards the bowels of the temple. A breath of ancient air, heavy with dust and forgotten things, escaped from the opening.

Nerris took a step back, suspicious. "And in there, what are we supposed to find?"

Jarek smiled, but this time his gaze was more serious. Heavier. "Something that should never have been forgotten."

Sora exchanged a silent look with Nerris, then slowly descended the first steps, his hand resting against the wet wall to keep balance.

Behind him, Jarek added in a lower tone:

"And above all... something that you must not reveal to anyone."

The silence fell again, this time heavier.

And all three disappeared into darkness, engulfed by the secrets of the temple.

After a few moments, once stuck in total darkness, Jarek used his Ushi to light the stairs that descended continuously.

Then Sora finally asked the question that burned on his lips: "And what exactly are we looking for?"

Leading the small group in first position, Jarek stopped and turned towards Sora who was just behind him. "A fragment of history." He paused, his gaze shining with a strange glow in the half-light. "And a vestige of power that no one should have ever left behind."

They continued to descend, the steps seeming to extend indefinitely. The air became heavier at each level, saturated with moisture and an ancient, almost metallic scent. The walls, carved from the rock itself, were covered with spiral symbols, some eroded by time, others still surprisingly sharp.

Finally, they reached a vast circular room, buried under the ground, barely lit by the reddish reflections of the Ushi of Jarek. In the center was a simple stone altar, without ornament... except for what lay at the top.

A box.

Small, matte black, like charred. No latch. No visible lock. Only tiny, indecipherable engravings that seemed to undulate under the light.

Jarek approached it slowly. "She's here..."

Nerris furrowed his brows. "What is it?"

He did not reply at once. He reached out his hand, brushed the box. A shiver immediately crossed him, almost imperceptible. Then, with a rare precaution at home, he placed both hands on either side of the box.

A slight click echoed.

The box opened.

Inside, a simple velvet case housed what looked like... a lock of hair. Long, blued silver with almost ethereal highlights. It seemed to float slightly, as animated by an invisible breeze. The silence was total, weighing.

Sora blinked. "It's... just that?"

But Jarek remained frozen, his eyes fixed on the case, as if hypnotized.

Nerris approached in turn. "What is this thing?"

" You made us come here for a simple lock of hair?" Retorted Sora.

Jarek's voice was low, almost a whisper. "It's not just a lock of hair. It's... her."

Sora furrowed his brows. "She?"

"Nymeus." Jarek looked up at them, and this time there was no trace of irony left in his expression. Just a serious respect, almost religious. "This temple is a forgotten sanctuary. And what you see there... it's an artifact. A vestige of its essence."

Sora opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He didn't really understand. He knew from Nerris that Nymeus was the name of this temple, but how a lock of hair could be something that Jarek wanted to have in his possession.

Jarek slowly closed the box, with a gentleness unknown to him.

"This fragment contains some of his power. A crystallized memory. Perhaps even... an echo of his will."

Nerris slowly straightened up, uncomfortable. "And what do you intend to do with it?"

Jarek had a smirk, but this time, he was tinged with a strange melancholy. "You'll see it when the time comes, kid."

He slipped the box into the inner pocket of his jacket, as if he had just closed a chapter of the past.

At the same moment, metallic noises, like heavy clicks, emerged from the silent room.

A smile on his face, Jarek looked at Sora before addressing him. "Kid, I hope you're ready, because your trial begins now."

A cold draft rushed into the room, lifting dust from the floor. The clicks became grinding. A mechanism slowly started somewhere in the walls. Then, in a deafening noise, a portion of the opposite wall slid inward.

A massive silhouette appeared in the embrasure.

Almost two meters fifty high, she moved with a heavy and slow pace, each of her movements echoing like a funeral bell. His skin was not really flesh, rather a dark and cracked shell, like living black stone. Her eyes were two glowing embers, deeply embedded in a helmet adorned with spiral patterns similar to those of the walls.

In his right hand, he held a halberd with blades as wide as Sora's chest.

Jarek stepped back, but not out of fear, rather like a man who recognized a worthy opponent. He breathed, almost with respect: "Well... it looks like old Kael'Zir is still in working condition."

Sora blinked. "Kael... what?"

"The Temple Guard." Jarek replied, taking a further step back. " He was protecting the sanctuary of Nymeus. According to some rumors, it is said that it was forged from the lava of a dragon's heart and the soul of a fallen king. Me, I just think he hates being awake."

Nerris whistled between his teeth, hand on his gun. "And are we supposed to beat him now?"

" No, " retorted Jarek pointing to Sora from the chin. " He is supposed to beat him. "

Sora froze. "Sorry?!"

"This is your test, kid." Jarek crossed his arms. "If you want to earn the fragment, you have to go through it."

Kael'Zir advanced with one step, then another. His incandescent gaze focused on Sora like a predator finally recognizing its prey. He slowly raised his halbert. The weapon seemed to murmur, vibrate in the thick air of the room.

Sora swallowed his saliva, then advanced in turn, a bit trembling, but with clenched fists.

" Don't you have a strategy to give me? " he said over his shoulder to Jarek.

"Yes." replied the person concerned without flinching. "Don't die."

"Great. Thank you for the advice."

The ground vibrated under the step of the Cinder Guard. Then, all of a sudden, he charged.

Sora rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the gigantic blade that crashed to the ground, shattering the stone in a shower of shards. He straightened up, panting, unsheathed his weapon and sped.

He struck, once, twice; the blade bounced against the armor as if it had hit a wall. The Guard did not flinch. He raised his halbert again in a brutal bow.

Sora tried as best as he could, but the impact sent him waltzing against a column. He crashed to the ground in a moan, his ribs on fire and his wound reopened.

" It's not possible..." he growled, his teeth clenched.

As he struggled to stand, the stone colossus threw himself back at him, bringing down his imposing weapon on Sora who could only dodge him by rolling to the side.

Thanks to his roll, Sora manages to get back up without too much effort and was able to face his opponent who had just jumped into the air to try to crush him.

Having no time to step aside, Sora raises his sword to try to counter the stone guard's assault.

The shock was titanic.

Sora's sword took the hit, or at least tried to. Kael'Zir's halberd fell with the force of an avalanche, shattering the guard of Sora's weapon in a shower of sparks. The violence of the shock threw him back like a rag doll. He hit the ground with a dull noise, his breath torn from his chest.

He remained there, half conscious, sounded, his left shoulder disarticulated, his sword half broken. The copper taste of blood filled his mouth. His arms numb. His vision blurred.

Kael'Zir approached, slowly, like an executioner advancing towards his sentence. His steps made the ground tremble at each impact. The shadow of his immense silhouette covered Sora.

Using his last strength, Sora stretched his sword straight in front of him and accumulated the Ushi of his weapon in his arm. The pleasant heat became very quickly burning and began once again to burn his arm. He stopped when he felt a burning smell filling his nostrils and released all the energy into his sword.

A large, greyish-white flash illuminated the room and hit the stone guard just in front of it.

When the light disappeared, the guard was still standing without the slightest apparent injury, but that, Sora could not see it, since he fainted just as he threw his skill.

Kael'Zir continued his funeral march towards Sora, ready to finish what he had started. He raised his halbert in the air, but just before lowering it, stopped suddenly.

A huge wave of Ushi spread throughout the room. The guard felt it and turned in his direction. Even Nerris, standing a few meters back at the bottom of the stairs, stepped back instinctively.

Jarek, for his part, had just taken out his curved sword, a bright red glow coming out of it, as if it had just emerged from the lava.

He advanced slowly but surely, with a decided and full of mastery; he pointed at the colossus with the tip of his sword. "Now it's between you and me, dear guard."

As if to accept this proposal, Kael'Zir detached his attention from Sora and focused on Jarek by spinning his halbert in the air above his head.

For a few moments, neither of them moved, then, in an instant, Jarek cracked on the guard and faced the powerful weapon that rose in his direction. The sound of weapons colliding echoed throughout the room, like a song of metal.

The two opponents dealt blows for blows without either of them being able to separate.

Jarek alternated between attack, dodge, leaping to the side without ever tiring; Kael'Zir, meanwhile, never dodged, either he attacked, or he countered, or he took the blows.

Having noticed this, Jarek launched a new offensive and began to target the interstices of his stone armor as well as the most friable places of his massive body.

Each shot delivered by Jarek now seemed more precise, more incisive. He was no longer simply trying to repel or neutralize the colossus' attack, he aimed to wear it down, to skin it piece by piece.

The glowing metal of his sword whistled through the air, hitting with relentless regularity the joints between the mineral plates that covered Kael'Zir's body. Stone shards began to fall at each impact, spreading across the ground like a shower of dying stars.

Kael'Zir growled. For the first time since the beginning of the fight, his step was less assured. His halberd hit the ground with a crash, digging a crater under the brute power, but Jarek had already anticipated the movement. He slid to the side, passed behind the giant and briefly stuck the tip of his blade in it. A shower of sparks burst out while a crack zebra the surface of Kael'Zir's armor.

" You're starting to get tired, aren't you? " Jarek murmured with a smirk, his breath short but his eye shining.