Finally, looking around, they were standing in a narrow green area, and their trail led off to the left and around the corner of a large shelf. They followed it, tensing up at every sound and expecting the ground to swallow them... Nothing jumped out, and soon they were moving quickly along the path Achilles had marked.
Myriad items sat on the shelves. From the normal to the seemingly impossible. Rows of simple glazed terra-cotta pottery that Josh had seen Miranda use in their backyard in Florida. Other shelves bore shining pottery of every color, highly detailed with intricate inlaid mosaics that shifted as he and Sen passed. The scenes changed from green pastoral vistas to raging seas with sailors struggling to overcome a tempest in their single-masted, oar-driven vessels. Some others had mundane but elegantly painted scenes that reminded Josh of ones he had seen on display in museums.
There were tools of all types, made from every conceivable metal and a few inconceivable ones, and for all purposes. There were topless boxes filled with heavy bronze needles for sewing, a stone bench littered with worn iron adz, and off to one side, a solid gold mining pick stood on a stand, giving off a ringing crystal sound that seemed to be warning them away. The pitch and timbre rose as they neared it, lessened as they backed away.
There were entire sections of sculptures. From tiny soapstone figurines to what might have been a bronze foot from the Colossus of Rhodes.
At one point, they had to go under a gap that appeared between the shelves. The space gave the impression that a massive beast had crawled out of its resting place at ground level and taken to the sky. Coincidentally, they were also at the closest point they would come to a red area. It became quickly apparent that it would be no secret what the beast was. Sitting on a shelf, reserved only for it alone, thirty yards off the ground, upon a pedestal, was a vague face carved from simple volcanic stone. It radiated menace in a visible black hue from its crudely carved eye sockets. Even in a zone considered green by Achilles, and at a distance, it made their ears and eyes bleed. Cycling Essence to repair the damage, they fled at double time. Once they were 100 yards away, their sense of doom faded as they hurried past a pantheon of greater-than-life-sized gods and heroes carved to fine detail in the purest white Carrara marble. The statues’ faces and eyes seemed to follow and track Josh and Sen as they sped past.
Ducking under the rowing oars of a Viking longboat whose ghostly occupants heroically rowed their tattered vessel through raging and invisible seas, they came to the blinking dot Achilles had placed on their map. Still, it was an astronomically vast space, and they weren’t even sure what the box looked like. Hopefully, it was on the bottom level... or they would have to climb, and the clock was ticking down. 14:58 as Josh checked his interface.
They spread out and hectically looked at everything in their eyesight...
Sen spotted it first. A high-quality closed wooden box the size of a footlocker sat alone on a bottom shelf to their right, below a rack of paintings from what must have been Renaissance masters and a hutch containing tableware. The plates looked like they had been shattered and glued back together with iridescent gold.
Wasn’t that a Japanese thing? Kintsugi, his strange inner Encyclopedia confirmed. He shoved the full history of the practice back down inside of himself. They were on the clock.
Even in full light, the tableware glowed along its repaired cracks. The set's forks and knives rose from the trays they lay in and assumed defensive positions as Josh and Sen walked up.
Backing away from the sapient utensils, the men squatted down and focused on the box instead.
A single line was written on its top in English, plain as day.
CHILDREN’S THINGS
Josh asked about the words being in English. Sen said it was written in Polar Neutral cuneiform for him, settling the question of whether their interface was translating for them. Or maybe there’s something with the writing itself. Josh wouldn’t put anything past the literal Mother Earth.
Sen lifted the lid on the large rectangular box. Inside was what one would expect in any parents’ attic whose children had grown and moved on. Old clothing, some thick for warmth, some thinner for summer use. There were pastel-chalk pictures of the sky and the earth and twelve children running through fields of waving grain. There were several wooden toys, models of boats, and carved animals. In a separate, smaller box, were twelve throwing spearheads, each nested in felted indentations. They were much narrower than the head of the dory Achilles and Gaia’s torturer had used. Their bright bronze tips with serrated bottom teeth gleamed from the overhead sunlight. Josh and Sen felt a strong sense of destruction and unmatched sharpness from the weapons.
Urged beyond temptation by the strength of the weapons, Josh picked one up...
“Yaoooowwww!” He immediately regretted it.
The lance tip had siphoned all of Josh’s free Essence in his meridians into himself and also pulled a feral roar of pain from him. In the fraction of a second it took him to let go of the weapon, he had also lost 2 percent of his already dedicated core Essence. The central figure now read 47 percent, down from 49 percent.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
One side benefit of this debacle was the confirmation of his thoughts about the possibility of withdrawing Essence from his core in an emergency. The draining also raised his free Essence from 54 percent to 89 percent through its forced transfer. But the loss of the dedicated Essence still stung. On top of that, his hand had suffered third-degree burns, and he started circulating his free Essence to the charred and throbbing appendage.
Sen, who had also been reaching for another spear tip, saw what happened to Josh and pulled his hand back like it was on fire.
It almost had been, Josh thought darkly as he laughed through the pain.
A fearful look of realization came over Sen. “These are enhanced weapons of power for warriors who have advanced their physical and spiritual unity much farther than we have. Perhaps the Titans’ second weapons as teenagers? Regardless, these weapons require a constant stream of Essence to function and are beyond our ability to use now... and perhaps for quite a while.”
Josh agreed as he related to Sen what he had discovered about being able to withdraw from his consolidated core. Sen nodded in appreciation, confirming what he had been expecting such a thing as well.
They quickly checked the timer. They still had 13:21 to return to the portal, so they kept looking through the box.
Carefully wrapped in individual linen squares at the bottom, they found the weapons they sought. Twelve swords and twelve spearheads. Largely blunted and dulled with age, their color faded from bright bronze to a blotchy dross. These were nothing compared to the throwing spears. But, compared to the draugr weapons, they were a definite improvement. Neither the swords nor the spearheads radiated any sense of damage, death, or unearthly sharpness.
Sen picked up one of the swords and executed a mixture of quick foot forms and blade maneuvers. “These are perfectly balanced. Furthermore, the upgrade on my interface...” Sen smirked in satisfaction. “Is telling.”
Weapon:
Titan Short Sword
Quality: Mundane masterwork. Increasing the quality of weapon will increase damage.
Bladed Weapons Skill Level: Advanced
Allows interface guidance for optimal usage.
Damage:
Superior mundane
100% probability of 1500% increased damage vs. hand-to-hand damage. Increasing skill level will increase damage capabilities.
Josh related his upgrade, too.
Weapon:
Titan Short Sword
Quality: Mundane masterwork. Increasing the quality of weapon will increase damage.
Bladed Weapon Skill Level: None
-
Damage:
Low mundane
100% probability of 480% percent increased damage vs. hand-to-hand damage.
Increasing skill level will increase damage capabilities.
There was also a bag with a single shoulder strap made of faded- black leather, but still serviceable. Not wanting to leave a possibly needed weapon behind, Josh also put two spearheads inside the bag. He then placed it over his head and under his left shoulder. There were no shafts to affix them or tools to do it with. But it just seemed stupid to leave them behind as Gaia had said they were welcome to them.
Finishing with the chest, Josh picked up his sword with a slight sense of awe. A Titan had used this–
A tiny and hollow voice came from the bronze clasp holding their cloaks in place. “J & S. Repeat J & S. This is Achilles–” The sound of huge crashes, shattering, and men yelling interrupted the voice before it came back louder and more urgent. “Repeat, this is Achilles. You need to run! Get back through the service portal now–” More crashing sounds came through the clasp and a reverberating roar that even George Lucas couldn’t have replicated in Sound and Light Studios made Josh and Sen wince as the same crashes that were coming through the clasp could be heard in the not-too-distant distance. In a second, the air around them pulsed as if a massive wind had picked up, and suddenly, three isles over to the right from them, a collective gasp followed by shouts of terror and fear moved like fans doing the wave in a world series game from thousands of voices along all the shelves. Instantly, the air and ground were filled with the treasures that had lined the shelves as they ran, flew, waddled, spun, and rolled to get away from what was coming.
Achilles yelled through the clasp again. The Kraken has taken a turn for your area–” More screeching that Josh thought could have been duplicated by dropping the John F Kennedy Aircraft Carrier from a thousand feet onto Times Square. At the same time, a grey-green clawed tentacle roughly the width of the Channel Tunnel that connects Kent, England, and Calais, France, whipped out to block the sun and slammed down where Josh and Sen were standing as well as an area roughly the same size as some smaller city bus routes.
Josh, who had been staring incredulously at Sen, didn’t even have the time to adopt the useless duck and cover technique he had been taught as a kid during tornado drills when the thick sound of electrostatic filled the space. Towering, partially transparent, orange force shields popped into place above them.
Instinctively, Josh and Sen enhanced their legs and joined the teaming herds of relics and artifacts running for their lives down the isles back to the portal. In a quick glance, Josh saw marble statues of gods, table settings under silverware escorts, and even framed masterpieces that were somehow rolling on their corners or spinning through the air. The Viking Long boat’s rowers had also heaved-to and were making good time to get away.
Cascades of orange and yellow sparks showered from above, casting everything in a strange illumination. The energy runoff from above let all who ran for safety under the shields know that their current protection was an extremely temporary situation. The bulging weight of the tentacle, larger than a Saturn V rocket, was going to be up close and personal very soon.
A mixed herd of Savanna animals joined the sprint at the corner, and Josh and Sen were keeping up with a mother giraffe and her galloping calf as Achilles' voice came through again. “That shield won’t last, but I’m coming to draw it away from you two.” Then, much quieter as if he was talking to someone with his mouth away from the transceiver, “... But who am I kidding… they’re gone already.”
Jos grew even more determined at Achilles having written them off and from somewhere found a fifth gear as he focused on getting every last bit of Essence to his legs. Sen, using his native agility, was keeping up by dodging around, ducking under, and leaping over everything in his path.
They rounded the last bend and saw the twinkling service portal as a supersonic roar split the air, and the heavy sound of thick-lake ice cracking came from above.
What happened next, Josh and Sen were never certain. Josh passed through the tunnel first in a flying Pete Rose dive for home plate and crashed into the marble wall in the small waiting area where they had first seen Achilles. Sen was through a second later and slapped his leading foot down with a sharp thwack to halt his stop himself before he crashed into Josh.
They both looked out at the massive storage space they had just escaped death from. But what they could see of it from here spoke nothing about what they had just gone through. A gentle breeze lightly stirred the leaves of a garden section to the right, and flocks of birds coasted gently through the air in the center of the vista view. Only the sounds of summer insects chirping greeted their ears, still ringing from the roar of a monster that could beat Godzilla in a screeching contest.
Saucer-eyed and shell-shocked, Josh looked at his internal timer. There was 8:45 left on their countdown. “... Well… we made it with time to spare.” He said breathlessly, the only thought that came to his mind.
Sen numbly agreed and pointed to a small sign on the countertop in Achilles’ empty post reading:
Back in 15... Dealing with Kraken. Please wait here.
Silently wishing him luck... they exited through the portal they had first entered and returned to the landing where they had faced the draugrs.