Chapter 55: Writing On The Wall

"Mako. If you’re alive.... you won’t be in a minute."

"Shut up. You’ve got thrown off larger cliffs than that. At least you’re still breathing. I think I punctured a lung."

"You seem to be talking perfectly fine. You’ll live."

Jak slowly sat up, pebbles from above trickling down as he fully righted himself. Though having taken almost no damage from the fall itself, it was still a tad disorientating, especially since the redhead couldn’t see more than an inch in front of him. It was unclear just how far the two rookies had fallen, but for some odd reason, at least to Jak, it had felt much longer than the outside of the pyramid had suggested.

Rising to his feet, Jak dusted himself off and assured that he still had Masamune on his hip and his cape on his back. After that, he checked the rest of his body for any potential damage or missing appendages.

Then, just as before, the youth held up the palm of his hand and summoned a controlled flame, bathing the area in a red and orange glow.

They were in a room, a rough looking rectangular space with no doors or windows, no means of entering or exiting. Save for the hole that had been made when Jak and Mako had crashed through the ceiling. It was also very near completely barren, possessing only a grand looking coffin fixed to the middle of the room and a slew of rubble scattered around it. On the walls, eight torches were lined up, two on each wall. Apart from the coffin being open and some poorly made markings scrawled over the walls, it was quite possibly the most uninteresting place that Jak had visited within the last few days.

"Where are we?" Mako wondered aloud, picking himself up off the floor. "Is this part of the Pyramid Dungeon?"

The fiery redhead didn’t immediately answer as he cautiously made his way over to the open coffin.

The structure was easily the highlight of the room. Athrafstos, Rubendal, gold, diamond, and every sort of valuable stone one could think of was used in its construction. To summarize the entire piece, it was something that could EASILY set a good number of people up for life if sold to a decent buyer. Had Jak been interested in monetary gain, such a find would’ve been akin to hitting the big win in a billion gold lottery.

Once done examining the coffins exterior, the young redhead took one more step forward, peering into the contraptions internals.

It was empty.

No mummified corpse. No treasure to add unto the value of the coffin itself. Not so much as a speck of dust to wipe from the devices smooth floor. The only thing within it were a few lines of words written with some text Jak couldn’t read and a couple of stones that had no doubt fallen into it when the Elemental Rookies had fallen through the Pyramids moss ridden floor.

"Hey. Floor breaker." Jak moved his flame closer to the lines of text.

"Is that what we’re going with?" Mako let out a frustrated sigh as he walked over. "It was an accident. No need to drag it out."

"Cool story." Jak brushed aside his friends complaint before gesturing to the scribbles on the coffin. "Can you read this?"

The blue-haired adventurer stepped into the vicinity, leaning towards where the fiery redhead was pointing. Frowning ever so slightly as his azure hues landed on the writing, Mako reached out and touched the lines of words directly. After a full minute had passed and Jak was just about to move on, the Rookie spoke up, index finger tracing its way along the scribbles.

"Light the torch and show the path. Descendant of a Hero you must have. To unlock the secret of the divine seal. The flames of old must be revealed." Mako paused in between each line, clearly struggling a bit during the translation. "That’s pretty much all there is. Obviously, it’s not a perfect one for one since it’s written in Delyuoi, the language of the mermaids, but it’s close enough."

"And you know Delyuoi....why?" Jak raised an eyebrow as Mako rose back onto his feet.

"Mermaids are gorgeous, have you seen one?" Mako shrugged his shoulders.

"Have YOU seen one?" Jak rebuttalled.

"Gotta be prepared. Anyways. The real question is, why is Delyuoi being used on a desert world, and at the bottom rung of a dungeon no less? It isn’t exactly a common language. Whats the purpose of it?"

"Maybe they thought mermaids would be around."

"You’re so funny. A real knee slapper."

"Light the torch and show the path." Jak repeated the first line Mako had said, switching back to the topic at hand. "Descendant of a Hero you must have."

Stepping away from the coffin, the redhead moved over to the nearest wall mounted torch, palm still ablaze with a carefully controlled flame. Sticking his bare hand onto the top of the weirdly shaped hunk of wood, Jak lit it.

Fwoo!

The fire turned a shade of blue as it latched itself onto the torch. In turn, the weird looking hieroglyphics on the wall disappeared slightly, replaced by a portion of new drawings and writing. However, only the portion of the wall touched by the blue light, of which was surprisingly small, was covered in the pictures. The rest of the wall remained largely untouched, despite being illuminated by Jaks own vibrant magic.

"That....is actually so freaking cool!!" Mako grinned slightly as he slid closer to the blue flame. "How’d you know that would work?"

"I didnt."

"....Fair enough. Can you do the rest?"

The fiery redhead gave a small nod before shifting over to the very next torch, hand swiping over its top.

Fwoo!

This time, the fire turned a bright shade of crimson instead of blue. Similar to the first one though, a section of the wall was illuminated, showcasing a set of images and writing that hadn’t been there previously. The newly revealed pictures perfectly continued where the first torch left off, joining together perfectly like a weird and disjointed puzzle.

Fwoo!

The next flame was a brilliant green, sparking more pictures into existence.

Fwoo!

Brown.

Fwoo!

White.

Fwoo!

Purple.

Jak continued lighting them up until every one of the eight torches within the rectangular room was crackling, each one possessing a unique colored flame. The dungeon walls as well as parts of the ceiling, which had been rather plain and horrid looking when the two had intially arrived, was coated with unknown imagery and weird symbolic text. Jak couldn’t make out so much as a single word, despite knowing a good number of languages that existed throughout Ornera.

"Light the torch and show the path." Mako turned around a few times, taking everything in quickly, as if it could fade away at any moment. "The Descendant of a Hero, you must have."

"The descendant of the Water Hero, Nereus Mapel." Jak gave his friend a side eye. "That would be you. The condition must’ve been fulfilled. Probably an advanced ritual spell using Runes. Or an Artifact."

"Meaning this is the secret to unlocking a divine seal." Mako gave up looking at all of it and began focusing on one frame at a time. "The question then becomes, what seal? And why go to such troubles to hide it from the public?"

"Yeah. It’s a mystery."

To unlock the secrets of the Divine Seal

The flames of old must be revealed.

Jak shook his head, getting back on track as he pulled out an orb from his satchel, both of which he had obtained from the residents of NorthClaw. This particular orb was known as a Capture Orb, recognizable by its baby blue surface. As it’s name suggested, it’s sole purpose was to analyze and record information regarding sounds, images and videos. As the most widely known and used orb amongst the myriad of spheres created, it was an essential tool that almost every world possessed, whether they were backed by the WGC or not.

Taking out a second Capture Orb, Jak tossed the first one over to Mako. "Here. Make yourself useful."

Taken by surprise, the blue haired rookie nearly fumbled the object, just barely snagging it from the air with two of his fingers.

"We’re gonna take note of this for later."

"How unusual of you to actually be prepared for once."

"Just take the pictures." Jak tapped the top of the sphere, summoning a small pop-up. "I should be cutting you right now. Floor Breaker."

After scrolling through a number of screens and pressing a few buttons, another pop-up appeared, one depicting a section of the wall. Everywhere that Jak turned the orb, a section of the wall was captured in the small rectangle.

"So. What do you think these markings mean?" Mako asked, holding up his own Capture Orb over a sizeable piece of the left wall.

On that particular part of the tapestry surrounding the youths, a large circular diagram with eight distinct spots took up a good chunk of the available space. On each of the ink blotches was the head of an animal as well as a corresponding element. An earthen Vox Bull. An aquatic Vox Wolf. A fiery Vox Lion. A blackened Vox Ram. Above and below each of the animals were bits and pieces of writing indescernable from any language Jak was aware of.

Just like the rest of the imagery, it was all gibberish as far as the redhead was concerned.

"I don’t know, but let’s take note of it. It could be important."

"Copy that."

For the next hour or so, the dual Rookies worked in complete silence as they trekked around the room. Every inch of the room was carefully logged within the Capture Orbs, be it through video or various images. Jak even took the time to catalog the insides and outsides of the expensive coffin lying in the middle of the room.

When it was all said and done, they turned off their Orbs and stashed them back into Jaks satchel.

"Okay. That should be enough." Mako let out a sigh, looking on in complete stasifaction. "I think we got what we came for. Should we leave these flames up for the next person?"

The redhead immediately walked to the nearest torch and swiped out the colored flame.

"Figured as much."

BRRRROOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!

The room shook with enough force to knock the Adventurers clean off their feet, and enough force to completely snuff out the seven flames that remained within the room. It didn’t stop there though. It felt as if the vibrations were rocking through the entirety of the Pyramid Dungeon as well, and even through a portion of ’Ard Araml. It was a miracle that the Dungeon was even still standing, the reverberations preventing Jak and Mako from picking themselves up for what felt like an eternity.

"Okay. What the actual Acrasom was that??!!"

Jak wobbled a little as he rose to his feet, a deep frown on his face. "Nothing good."

"Let’s get topside." Mako moved to the middle of the room, where they had initially fell through the ceiling. "It’ll be better to see everything from the pyramids peak."

The fiery redhead simply nodded, following behind as his friend leapt through the opening. Knox, having been inside Jaks shadow since the fall, immediately vacated the moment they were on the move once again.

Tak Tak Tak Tak.

It didn’t take more than a few steps outside of the pyramids uppermost wall to see what had caused the immense disturbance felt in the coffin room. Heck, it didn’t even take all that much looking. From the very moment one stepped outside, one could see the problem at a mere glance.

The problem being one BIG tree.

The vines from before, the same ones that had been deep inside the sand with only its ends showing, had fully emerged. Travelling from the same direction Jak and the others had came from, they eventually lead all the way back to NorthClaw.

This was evident by the indescribably enormous tree visible from the Pyramid Dungeons pinnacle. A tree so big that even with the several hundred or so kilometers put betwixt NorthClaw and the Dungeon, it was easily the most noticeable thing for miles around.

"Okay...that might be a problem." Mako let out a sigh of frustration. "I left all my stuff there."

"Mako."

"What? I’m just being honest."