Tomb of Kings

It was a night of terror. Grey-ridge woods was dark and gloomy. Every shadow seemed to take on a life of its own. Every noise sounded twice as loud and scary. 

Justin had no time to take in the scenery. He was on the run. Something was chasing. Ever since he left the village it had been following him. He couldn’t tell what it was or what it looked like. It was after him and every fibre of his being told him to run.

It had been more than an hour since he strayed off the woodland trail. The bright moon lit the gloomy woods and would occasionally hide behind some clouds. 

Justin suddenly tripped and rolled down a hill, hit his head on something hard and lost consciousness.

It came…a dark silhouette…with burning bright yellow menacing eyes. It was formless floating across the ground like a deadly serpent. It called out to him with a silent voice as it came…closer. 

Justin couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. He felt helpless and trapped.

Suddenly, he woke up. It was only a dream. The moon was shining once more. Its light caressing him and everything else it could reach. 

Justin felt pain resonate all over his body as he got up. His getup was covered with leaves, small dead tree branches and dirt. 

His mother would been mad at him, if he ever had a mother. His father would have searched for him if he ever had a one. 

While his thoughts were filled with memories of his dead parents, something broke the peace. 

It came from high ground from where he fell. He looked up and to his horror, he saw it, that dark formless shadow with no name.

In all his 17 years, Justin had never been so this terrified. Unstoppable tears ran down his cold cheeks. A continues string of chills ran back and forth across his spine and his both his feet were rooted to the ground. 

It begun its slow descent.

Justin shrieked in a hoarse voice he couldn’t recognise as his own. He wouldn’t stop shaking.

“…AHHHHHH! NO! PLEASE, NOT LIKE THIS…SOMEBODY HELP…ME…” he shouted desperately in his thoughts.

In what felt like an eternity, he felt his weak legs move. He turned and made a run for his life. 

The entity followed him. It was neither in a rush nor relenting. 

Justin felt as though he was a marked prize with nowhere to escape. His hunter would catch-up to him. It had all the time in the world. 

The worst part of this was he was far from civilization so no one who could help him. He was in an unknown territory of the Grey-Ridge woods. The trees were ancient. The bushes were bare. River beds were desolate. There was no sign of life anywhere. 

His body was exhausted. He could feel his lungs about to burst. His legs that were steady, not too long ago, begun to buckle from fatigue. 

“I can’t die like this. I just can’t!” he screamed in silence.

Justin paused in the middle of his run to catch his breath and take in his surroundings. He was lost and if he continued running like this, he would definitely cross paths with that creature. Right now he needed to find his bearings and fast.

As if to aid him, the moon revealed something that was hidden in the shadows of night. Past the nearby groves and beyond a river bank was an entrance to a grotto wide enough for a full grown man to enter. Dried and shrivelled roots hung loosely. The stark darkness stared blankly back at him.

Justin made his choice and dashed for what he’d hope would be salvation.

Upon entering, his hands became his eyes and the smell of still dead air filled his nostrils. He crawled carefully unbeknownst to what’s ahead of him.

A few minutes later, the ground suddenly gave way and Justin fell through on to a hard cold floor. His pain threshold tested again. When he opened his eyes and the pain subsided, he noticed that he was a large man made space. Foot long sized crystals, illuminated the corridor he was in.

“Wait a floor? ... Is this real?” he asked himself. 

Before he could investigate any further, Justin felt a piercing gaze above his head. He turned slowly and his eyes met those bright, familiar, burning, yellow eyes. 

In a split second, the boy jumped away from the spectre and ran into an ancient corridor. How did it catch up to him? Is this how he was going to die? 

The corridor split into an intersection. He quickly made a left and continued running. Where was he headed? He dared not to think about it.

It wasn’t long before he reached the end of the corridor. There before him was a flight of stairs descending into darkness. He looked behind him. The dark formless shadow was not too far behind. 

Justin made his way down the stairs that appeared to be made of ancient marble, attached to the either side of the wall. Because it was dark, he had no choice but to trust his hands. For a good ten or fifteen minutes he felt walls on both his sides. Out of the blue, the wall on his left disappeared. There was nothing. Just empty space. His mind begun to panic. 

“…All I have to do is to just lean to my left and it would be over”, he thought to himself. 

He was cornered like a wounded animal, about to die from fear. In his current position the thought of suicide seemed like a less torture-some way to go. 

“…NO!” boomed a voice in his head. It wasn’t his. It couldn’t be the thing that was following him.

“… Madness finally…” Justin thought. 

“…Be strong young one…Do not give into fear.”

There was that voice again. It was much softer but firm. It was a man’s voice. There was light and something comforting in it. The thoughts of death that had possessed the boy’s mind were suddenly far away. 

His body was tired and heavy. But with those words, Justin felt something that he hadn’t felt in the last couple of hours of his rugged life, hope.

As he continued his descent, Justin made a decision not to look behind him. Half an hour later, he saw light coming from below. He could make out a flower pattern of glowing crystals on the floor. The closer he got the brighter they became.

At last he finally reached the bottom. The open space he found himself in, was wide and the designs on the walls and floors were ancient and exquisite. Who or what could have built this underground architectural marvel, the boy did not know. 

Also for some unknown reason, he couldn’t feel any traces of the dark presence which was pursuing him.

There were five identical tunnels. The one behind him called out to him. The boy went. There was something tugging at him, a feeling he could not explain. As he entered the tunnel, he noticed the incredible detailed paintings, highlighted by the crystals’ light, depicting warriors in full amour fighting goblins, trolls and giant mechanical creatures. 

He remembered being told about it as a child, the Great War, a war which took place over three millenniums ago. According to ancient lore, the battle was so fierce that human race was nearly wiped out by the monsters.

“…How old is this place?” Justin wondered. “Why was this place built?”

The ahead of the boy were two massive wooden doors that only ten men healthy men could open. They were held shut by an iron bar.  

Justin felt disheartened. Was that tug in his heart a lie?

Just as he was thinking that all was lost, Justin heard the voice again.

“Stand before the doors and command them to open.”

“…What? But How?” responded the boy.

“You know their names. The memories are inside your soul.”

At that moment, Justin shut his eyes and saw a two words in an unknown language take form in the void of his mind. 

In a calm but sure voice he spoke those words. The bar that held the doors shut was removed by an invisible force. The silence was broken by the sound of the heavy doors slowly swinging open. 

Inside was the largest room the boy had ever seen. It was breath taking. The ceiling was hidden in darkness but the rest of the room was lighted by gigantic pillars made of slabs of stone and crystals. There before him lay an ancient path. Tomb stones of various sizes watched him pass by as he made his way to the other side of the room. He felt a strong sense of nostalgia, as though he was returning…home.

When he reached the end, there before him was the largest tombstone in the room.

A spectre appeared. It was a ghost of a man dressed in a royal attire. He had a long white beard and shoulder length white hair. His face was kind but regal all at the same time. 

“Welcome Justin. Welcome to the Tomb of Kings”, the ghost greeted.

Justin realized the voice he was hearing in his head and the voice he was hearing now were one and the same.

He quickly bent on one knee and bowed his head.

“Your majesty”, he responded.

“Arise, our son. We have waited long for this day to arrive. I am King Jash of the royal bloodline of Oreculhorn.”

“As in the last king of this kingdom?” asked Justin hesitantly. 

King Jash nodded.

“But what would you want with me? I just came here because something bad is after my life. It’s just coincidence I ended up here”, explained the boy.

King Jash smile faded slightly. 

“It’s no coincidence. It’s fate. The creature chasing you is one of darkness. Its origin is ancient and it’s aware of the light you carry within.”

Justin frowned upon hearing this. One moment he was running for his life, the next he is conversing with the last king of the kingdom who died thousands of years ago. All of this was confusing.

“I can sense your confusion and there will be time for answering your questions”, explained the king. “But right now you must begin your first trial, the test of courage. There’ll be ten tests conducted by each Monarch.”

“The test of courage?” asked a bewildered Justin. “What are these tests for?”

Suddenly, there was a crowd of ghostly forms behind the two, the other nine kings stood with their royal guards watching Justin intently.

Justin felt a lump in his throat. He was nervous. What was going to happen to him?

A few hours later, after having his body healed and having the quickest sword lesson in the history in his life, Justin stood with a sword in hand in the room with the stairs.

The dark spectre stood at the foot of the stairs and eyed the boy carefully. Its shape became more defined. A tall humanoid with glowing yellow eyes. 

 Justin stood in a fighting position. He held Estella, a magnificent sword forged by magic, time and space, above his shoulders. Despite his brave face, he was still afraid. 

“…Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to stand your ground in the midst of fear and uncertainty…” 

Those were words King Jash gave Justin as he mastered Estella. 

The creature narrowed its eyes, raised its arms and summoned every shadow present in the room including the darkness from the ceiling.

“…Stand your ground Justin. You can do this”, the boy said to himself. 

The spectre had grown in size and lunged at him, consuming the lad in a cloud of darkness. It was overwhelming but somehow Justin swung the sword and cut through the darkness. An arc of light followed. For the first time, the spectre recoiled with pain. Its eyes were brighter than ever.

Justin felt a strength he had never felt before effervescing from within. It was old but it felt good. 

Before the creature could attack him, he leaped into action and attacked. 

It wasn’t long before he made quick work of his foe. It melted into nothingness screeching angrily. Justin collapsed to his knees. It was over. The nightmare that chased him is gone.

Justin did not realize that Fate had chosen him to be the new blood line of the kingdom, the new heir to the throne. 

His journey would obviously not be easy but his destiny would be grand.

END