Of course, that Queen had placed the seal there. She probably had not noticed until much later. Perhaps not until after she attacked my people, Tara thought as she surveyed the seal. It was covering the gates, behind which lead the path to where one of the items for the spell was hidden. It had taken years to locate. She had not expected it to be hidden in some of the multiverse’s oldest ruins. People hardly ever visited this place. It was considered forgotten.

There was no doubt it was filled with traps.

Tara crossed her arms, thinking. Depending on the number of traps within the ruins, actually getting to the item could take days. Weeks even. Worst case scenario would be an entire year. That Queen could be difficult to deal with. She let out a frustrated cry. She had not come this far to, well, only come this far. She jumped in annoyance, beginning to punch the seal. A surge of power blew her back. She landed on her spine with a loud thump.

The Terpolite woman turned out the sound of muffled laughter. She singled out the man who had done it. She crooked a finger. He came towards her. She commanded him to use his power to open the seal. The laughing stopped, but the man did as he was asked. As soon as his power touched the seal, he screamed. His skin was alight in a matter of seconds. The first trap. No one made any move to put out the flames. Their leader had not requested it, so they had ignored the man’s pleas for helps. Once the screaming stop, the man fell dead. Tara only wrinkled her nose in disgust at the man’s remains.

She turned back to the seal, a small sense of delight appearing at the small crack. She called for more of her soldiers to use their power against it. None came willingly. She commanded Kek and Liam to bring more forward. So, they did. Each time one used their power on the seal, they would suffer the same fate as the first man. Tara did not care as more cracks appeared. After at least twenty of her followers lay burnt on the ground – gods, that stench is horrid – there were enough cracks for the seal to break after Tara landed a single non-magic punch on it. She whooped in joy, pushing the gates open.

She went to take a step into the narrow hallway that followed but stopped at the last second. It was probably also filled with traps and she was not keen to test that theory herself. She hummed in thought before snapping her fingers. A man came to her side. She stepped back, allowing for him to go first with a mock bow. He wandered cautiously down the hallway, making it five metres before a blade came out of the wall. The man must have heard the mechanical whirring that came from the rusted blade. He ducked, the blade missing his head by only a few inches.

Seeing it was safe until that point, Tara followed. She went up to the blade and snapped it off its hinges, clicking her tongue at the sound of a second blade and a wet thump. She broke the next blade and bent down to the man’s head which was now laying away from its body. “How unlucky for you.” She was almost laughing at his misfortune as she called forth another from the crowd. The pattern was repeated.

As they continued down the hallway, carvings began to appear on the walls. The were of how the spell was to be performed. It was in that moment that Tara realised that Queen had not been the one to create the spell. The carvings here were very old. She could only guess that they were from the time of the first Photon Queen and Dark King, though those records had been shaky at best. Only so much remained from the time millions of years ago, though there were a few accounts of the spell used to seal one in Negative Space being performed. It was possible, however, that the spell was even older than that.

Tara was filled with wonder at the idea. Wonder was quickly replaced by fear. If that woman is doing spells this old and this powerful by accident, how hasn’t she destroyed the multiverse? She cringed at the thought. If that Queen could do a spell like this out of anger, she could only hope her King was as powerful as records claimed. Maybe more powerful. No one really knew the true extent of power the Silent Core had. The last five thousand years and the loss of its wielder had not made research easy. Tara shook her head, the though fading. There was no time for doubts now. Not when they were so close.

No more traps met the large group. From the few blades sticking out of the walls and the mix of rust and dust, Tara assumed they had been disabled a long time ago. A very long time ago. The hallway in front of them opened up into two separate paths, both of them identical. Even the carvings she could make out looked to be exactly the same. It was a clever way to stop intruders. The false passage probably led to a bottomless pit. She cursed, not knowing which way to go next. Kek pasted her, beginning down the passage on the left. Her confidence restored itself. If anyone knew the way, it was him.

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The group followed.

More carvings appeared as they made their way through the hallway. Tara stopped at one of them. She was unable to hide her awe at the obvious effort to detail. It was a life-size carving of the ten items surrounding a woman with bronzed skin, auburn-purple hair, and amethyst eyes. She had a blue glow painted around her form and her arms were slayed wide. It looked like she was praising the gods. A beam of the blue glow trailed above her. Tara’s eyes followed it.

At the end of the beam was a single item. A red crystal, to be exact. It was the eleventh item that would be revealed should the ten items be obtained by any party and, while rumours suggested the Queen had hidden the items, she still had control of them. Tara had attained the four remaining items. Though the items had been found by two separate parties, they had still been recovered. This allowed for the eleventh item’s location to be revealed. Venvore. The oldest known ruins in the multiverse. One of the very first civilisations.

Kek had stopped not too far ahead. The pathway was no longer the narrow hallway she was still standing in. It had expanded into a square-shaped from. Tara frowned. Was there supposed to be something there? She had to know. Not sensing any danger, the Terpolite woman shrugged and stepped forward. The trap sprung to life.

Tara jumped back as four animatronic giants appeared out of the walls. The Four Guardians. She had read about them before coming to this world Supposedly there were four giants who guarded the crystal. One had to either defeat them or win them over to go through the final passage. Tara felt herself smile. This meant they were very close. The traps had become easier the deeper into the ruins they had gone. It was almost as though the dark gods themselves were helping her; urging her onwards. If this was all that stood between her and her King, she would take all four of them down on her own.

She charged up her power, reading herself for the single word that would bring her victory. The word that would bring these giants down to nothing but rubble and stone. Her body glowed with an indigo light. The room became dark. It looked like someone had sprayed ink all over it, much like a pen breaking over a drawing. It was enough to confuse the Guardians. Tara raised her arms above her head. “Calas!”

A resounding boom filled the room as the Guardians crumbled to stones. Tara laughed at her success as Kek finished the work, turning the remaining stone to dust. It was quite possible the Guardians could reform, and they did not have time to constantly hold them off. This was a way to neutralise the threat once and for all.

Tara skipped through the room and down the final hallway. She broke the blades frozen in her path. Yes, the dark gods were definitely on her side if it was this easy to reach the crystal. They wanted her to win the War. She sent a silent prayer to her preferred goddess, Kauket. She had a lot to thank the dark goddess for. Being the current ruler and finding the items to release the man who would be king were only two things.

The final hallway opened into a large circular chamber. Similar to the hallways, it was filled with carvings. Unlike the hallways, this room had an end where an alter rested. Tara squealed and rushed towards it. She was lucky there were no traps in this room. She was so excited that she would not have noticed any. She reached the altar and froze. Kek and Liam came to her side, both men having their own reactions. The former roared with laughter. The latter gasped.

There was no crystal on the altar, only dust. Tara brushed a finger over it, rubbing the substance between her fingers. It was clear that nothing had been there for a very long time. It was no wonder some of the traps had been activated. The crystal was taken a long time again. That was when Tara noticed two notes. They could not have been more than a hundred or so years old.

The first read:

To the concerned person, party, or parties.

I have taken the crystal for safety purposes. It was of the upmost importance that it be removed from this location until such time which it is safe enough to return. I apologise for any confusion that may have been caused in its absence.

Kind regards,

Anmerankh-Karareia.

The Photon Queen.

The second read:

Dear Tara,

You snooze, you lose, bitch.

Amneris xx

Tara shred the second letter as she marched down the stairs and ran down the hallway. She dashed out of the ruins, pushing her soldiers out of the way as she did. She reached the ruin’s entrance and roared. Indigo lighting struck everything surrounding her, not distinguishing between living and ruin. The ruins were left unprotected against the wrath of her power.