Avi handed the crystal to Keo and then quickly put her hands onto the grass and rubbed them vigorously. “So we only need one more, shouldn’t be too bad.” Rei said. Keo put the new crystals into the Locatia and waited for it to bind itself. Surprisingly, it didn’t. “Hmm, it should be pointing to the next grotto… I guess we’ll just have to search for it…” Keo said. The three kept walking, and slowly but surely became sluggish. After a while, they fell asleep. Rei woke up the next morning in confusion. “Wha… What happened.”

  Rei tried to wake Avi up, but she was sleeping like a rock and wouldn’t budge. He tried Keo instead. “Wake up Keo. We passed out last night, we can’t stay here.” Rei said. Keo sat up and looked at Rei. “Did we seriously pass out?” He said, standing up onto his feet. “Yeah, we did.” Rei answered. “What are you two guys whining about...? Ugh, where are we? This isn’t a bed!” Avi looked frustrated as she was rudely awakened. “Snap out of it, Avi. We must get going.” Keo said. Avi stood up and looked around. The golden expanse seemed to still last forever. “Are we lost?” She asked. “I sure hope not.” Rei answered. “We are, the Locatia is broken.” Keo said. “WHAT!?” Avi and Rei responded.

  “Just calm down, we’ll find our way around.” Keo said, trying to calm down Rei and Avi. “Find our way around? Were in the middle of nowhere!” Rei said. The two noticed Avi on the floor whimpering and ignored her. “You think we should look around for a settlement?” Rei asked. “It would be a waste, there aren’t any nearby, I would kno-“ Before Keo could finish his sentence, Avi ran up to him, grabbed the Locatia, and threw it onto the ground. “Avi! What are you doing! Keo yelled. Avi didn’t answer him. She proceeded to forcefully stomp on the Locatia and shattered it to pieces.

  “Wait a minute… The Locatia shouldn’t be able to break, did someone take the real one and leave the crystals behind?” Keo was confused. Avi looked at the shattered compass on the ground, and picked up the crystals. “Four, four… FOUR!! WE NEED FIVE!!!” Avi seemed very aggravated. Suddenly the shards of the broken compass gravitated towards each other and merged. It rebuilt itself and grew a fifth crystal inside of it. “Did I do that?” Avi asked. “I… didn’t know it could do that… So it is the real one, how did you manage to break that Avi?” Keo asked, as he took the Locatia from her. “I-I don’t know, but it seems to be pointing towards our final destination.” She said. “Indeed it is." Keo replied. Rei looked in the direction of where the compass was pointing. A barely visible path could be seen indented into the ground. “Let’s get going, guys, I have a feeling this wont be easy.” Rei said. Keo and Avi followed Rei as they walked towards the final grotto…

  “Well, here we are!” Avi said excitedly. She looked into the entrance to the grotto. “Gosh… that looks pretty deep…” She said. “Well what did you expect? If were looking for a legendary treasure, of course it would be deep underground, at least, that’s how it was usually in all that media…” Rei said. Keo grabbed a vine and began to enter the grotto. “Well, no time to waste, let’s get moving.” He said. Avi and Rei followed nervously.

  The group made it to the bottom of the tunnel. A vast expanse of golden grass foliage could be seen around them. The cave walls were sparkling with tiny brown crystals while a purple light could be seen from across a path. “This place looks like it goes on for a while.” Rei said. “Guess we should get moving, no time to waste.” Keo said, speeding up again. “W-wait up!” Avi said, following behind. Rei followed nervously.

  …

  “Is it just me… or.. is this place getting on your nerves. We've been walking down this path for a while now and nothings jumped out at us… Wait… what’s that!?” Avi said, slowing down, looking at a floating crystal on a pedestal up ahead. “Whoa! Look at that sword too!” Rei said. A rugged sword could be seen in a stone up ahead near the artifact. He slowly walked towards it, while Avi and Keo caught up behind him.

  Rei got distracted by the sword and went to grab it. He successfully lifted the sword. “Not Excalibur, huh?” He said to himself. Rei went on with… “Now all we need to do is snatch the crystal and… huh!?” A shadowy hand with sharp nails took the crystal from the pedestal as Rei tried to grab it. “Uhhh… guys? He’s not invited… is he?” Rei continued. Keo stepped forward carefully. “No, he’s not, be on guard.” Avi drew her blade and stood beside Rei. (“Too Close!!”) Rei thought to himself. The shadowy figure appeared once again from the darkness of the cavern. Four smaller creatures could be seen behind it. Keo quickly looked at his scrolls. “Ah! These are Shades! Manifestations of Ardonous’ hatred for all life. Their main goal is to stop the heroes (us) in finding the artifacts. They also may assist him in his other “missions”. He said.

  The main, larger shade began to speak in a sinister voice. “GREETINGS. IT IS NICE TO MEET YOU THREE. I WAS INSTRUCTED BY LORD ARDONOUS TO CONSUME THIS ARTIFACT, AND USE IT TO DESTROY THE HEROES OF PROPHECY. DO NOT WORRY. I WILL MAKE THIS QUICK.” The shade finished its speech. It put the artifact inside its body as its light faded. The four shades behind it lined up beside the main shade. Keo readied his bow “Get ready, this will be tough.” Avi unsheathed her sword and Rei fumbled with the sword he just pulled from the stone, getting it in the right position in his hands.

  The shade shrieked as Avi ran towards it to try to attack it. Rei and Keo jumped out of the way as the four smaller shades tried to attack them. Keo fired his arrows as the shades and noticed them going right through. “Huh…?” He looked over to Rei was was running frantically. He tripped and dropped his sword onto one of the shades. It cut through the shade as it imploded into a purple light. Its excess energy was absorbed by the main shade. “Wow! This thing is pretty cool!” Rei said. Keo noticed something. “It seems that your sword may be able to hit these shades with much strength, while my bow …cant.” He said. Avi was fending off two smaller shades as the larger, main shade watched them fight. “Hey! Mine works, too! Not as much as yours but- It works!” Avi said, swinging her sword repeatedly, out of breath.

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  Rei jumped in a made quick work of the the two shades she was fighting. “Gee, thanks…” Avi said frustrated. “You know I was handling them, heh… fine!” She said, out of breath. The remaining shade was distracted by Keo’s arrows, and Rei killed it. All four shades energy were absorbed by the main shade. It grew in size and manifested a few tentacles. A sinister purple lightning could be seen inside of it. “Its corrupting the artifact!” Rei yelled. Keo quickly looked at one of his scrolls. “Indeed it is… this must be Shardonaur, Treasures Bane. I read about this one. It is indeed one of Ardonous Shades, and it seems it has been waiting for us for quite a while. We cant let it have that artifact for too long, or it will be lost for good… and you know what that means…” Keo read. Avi looked frightened “The world would end, and there would be nothing we can do about it.” Rei became frustrated “Guys! Instead of stalling, lets kill this thing!”.

  The three had somehow managed to fight in sync without any coordination. Keo fired his arrows, distracting Shardonaur, and then Rei and Avi attacked it. “I HAVE MEMORIZED YOUR PATTERNS. QUIT IT.” Shardonaur said. It grabbed Keo with one of its tentacles, and Avi quickly cut it. The tentacle quickly receded into the shades body. It screeched in pain.

  “Looks like we need to destroy those tentacles, and then we can attack the main body!” Rei said, attacking the shade. “It seems that way! Alright… TAKE THIS!!!” Avi said, as she attacked the shade. Flurries of attacks were release from both sides, with Rei’s group dodging most attacks, and landing some of their hits. The successfully managed to destroy the other tentacles. “It weak! Now’s our chance!” Rei yelled. Rei and Avi ran forward and attacked until they were knocked back by a shockwave. “Ugh, as expected…” Rei said, frustratedly. “How did you kno-“ Avi responded but was cut off. “Three times, we did it once, so two more times.” Rei said. The creature grew back its tentacles. “Smart thinking, and hey! My arrows work now! Now we can really work as a team! The group fought off the tentacles once again and attacked the main body. They repeated this once more. “SO CLOSE!!” Rei yelled. The three sprinted towards the shaded beast. Avi and Rei jumped forward and pinned to creature with their swords, while Keo fired several arrows.

  “EX-EXCELLENT. YOU HAVE W-WON, HEROES. THE ARTIFACT HAS SHOWN ME LIGHT. ARDONOUS CANNOT SUCCED IN HIS PLAN. S A V E T H I S W O R L D .” Shardonaur imploded into a large purple and yellow puff of light and smoke. Electricity noises could be heard as the shades body disintegrated. The artifact fell to the ground and make a clink sound upon hitting the ground. “Phew… we did it…” Avi said. The artifact was lifted into the air and started floating.

  A faint light appeared and a golden figure manifested into the grotto. “Greetings. I am Avnoirna, one of the sages of light. I have waited long for your arrival. two trillion, five-hundred forty six billion, ninety million, two hundred seven thousand, one hundred eleven years.” The sage said. “That’s a long time.” Rei said. Avi was sitting on the floor in a relaxed posture, while Keo was taking notes on an empty scroll. Rei simply listened. “We were told by the goddess that an unknown being would threaten this world, and attempt to purge it with darkness. Alas… if the Goddess could sustain her power for eons, then she could easily destroy this dark figure without lifting a wing… but, like everything else… The goddess aged. While having an infinite lifetime, her power would slowly weaken, until she fell into a dormant state. Instead of waiting for the world to be destroyed, she created seven hollow crystals and imbued her power of Ancient Light into them. She hid them across Avindor in seven secret locations. She knew that she couldn’t sustain her own power, but if she kept them in the hollow crystals… it would last. She signaled to us that four a hero of prophecy would collect all seven hollow crystals, and use the Goddesses stored power to banish the blight. These crystals came to be known as the Artifacts of Time-Space by us sages. My power is fading, I must return to her… as her dormancy precedes greater dangers… please, take this artifact, and save this world…” The sage disappeared, and the artifact levitated in the air.

  Rei went up to grab the artifact, with Avi and Keo standing next to him. Rei held his hands out and the artifact gravitated to him. Rei held the artifact in the air in excitement. Avi held up her arm in excitement as Keo fumbled through his pouch of scrolls.

  “WE GOT AN ARTIFACT OF TIME-SPACE!!”

  “Wow! What a day that’s a lot of information to take in… Lets go home and take a rest, I’m all sleepy now!” Avi said gleefully. “Yes. Rest would be well appreciated right now.” Keo responded. Rei followed behind them as they returned to Avindors Wake.

  So, our heroes had collected the first artifact! There were still six to go, and the traps of the vile Ardonous awaited around every corner. This is just the beginning of their journey, and the group must stay vigilant. They do not have all the time in the world…

  “WHAT!?” Spat Ardonous. “Yes, one of our generals was defeated by the heroes. Most importantly that one in blue.” A powerful looking shade said. It was cloaked in dark smoke and dust. “So… they are the hero of the prophecy after all… We are going to need a plan for this one…” Ardonous said. “I will dispose of them.” The powerful looking shade said. “No, Avshordus, your time has not come yet to fight the hero… instead… I will send, something new…” I have manifested a new shade that is able to turn any creature into a vicious beast. This power will make any thing that stands up to it, be destroyed in an instant.” Ardonous described his plan. “Go! Get out of here! Keep watching this “Hero” and his group!” Ardonous commanded. “Yes, my lord.” Avshordus said, teleporting away. “So you dare defy the prophecy…? Well, you best not let up, as your worlds time runs out… Ahahahahaha AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

  “I remember that day well. The breeze was cool, the sun was shining directly on us, yet not an ounce of heat could be felt.” “You fell from the cliffside, are you hurt?” “Why are you asking me? You are of the Kingdom of Darkness, correct? I can tell by your attire.” “Yes, and you must be of the Tribe of Light.” “I am.” “Why are you following me?” You saved my life, and you just left? Anyone that sees and injured soul and helps them must be kind!” “Hm” Tell me more about yourself then, Amani.”

  “That day… that was the day our tragedy was set in motion…”