Artifacts of Luik

"He's not your child? Then...then why do you care for him?! Just leave him, he's not even yours! And why are you just telling me this now, what is going on?"

"He IS my child! It doesn't matter that he isn't mine! I hate my mother and she's blood-related! I love him because I'm his mother. I raised him. Blood doesn't matter to me, time does! The letter told me to raise him as my own and to tell you whatever story I wanted. It came up with a bunch for me and I chose the one where I cheated to get you to see where you were wrong!"

"You lied to me about this the whole time? Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

"You're a constantly drunk alcoholic and you never take care of us, you never make it a good time to tell you anything!"

"I at least acted like a loving father in front of him, you didn't even try to hide your discontent."

"Yeah, right!" she screamed, slightly hysterically, "I acted like a mother, I did what I needed to teach him! you never do that, you get out of the house and it's right back out to hang out with your stupid friends and your stupid drinks! That little safe spot beneath the bed was for a secret night club you never finished, and beneath our bed? What is wrong with you?"

"It doesn't matter now, does it. Men, kill her too. I don't need a wife like this. I can't believe I offered an opportunity for you to live. I hope you suffer in hell."

"Fine, you can kill me but just leave Zeeth! He's just a boy, he hasn't done anything wrong."

"I would, but the whole plan was to kill him. It fits our story and we get more money, so that's not gonna happen."

He waved his hand and said to the masked men, "get them. Make sure not to leave any evidence."

They ran in, holding knives and reaching their hands out to kill them. His mom fought against them and tried to reach for Zeeth one last time, the man who had been holding Zeeth sent a knife coming at his throat as his mother yelled, her red, tear covered face screaming. His short life flashed across his face, her scream was a silent, slow-motion movement like when he had first run away from the killers. He saw his mother picking him up, a school full of children his age, friends he had so much fun with.

Just as the knife was about to slit his throat as well as his mom's, a woman came crashing through their window. The glass dug into the back of the man holding Zeeth, forcing him away as a taser came out of her knee and struck him. She landed, lifting a small gun and firing it at the masked men. Every time it hit, someone fell with their eyes rolled back, foaming from their mouth.

He was suddenly shot out of his memory and he was walking with Loren. Zeeth paused for a bit and Loren looked back at him curiously, "what? Why did you stop?"

"Oh, uh. Nothing. Let's go." the memory had shaken up everything he knew. He thought most people were trustworthy, only those with who he had a clear vendetta would try to hurt him, but these betrayals from his uncle and even his father had turned his world over. There was no one he could trust, no one he could get too friendly with. Now that he thought about it, what if Loren was leading him to a trap? He couldn't walk into this all calm and open. All these mistakes he made in the past shocked him, what if all those people he met had tried to kill him? He knew nothing about them, they could've easily betrayed him as his own father did.

He had to walk in there prepared to fight. He pulled up Mag and Gul on his fists and tightened the defenses on his body. Al crept up to his neck and was ready to jump on his head to protect him. At least he knew his slimes were safe.

He wanted to call Page as well, but he thought about being more cautious. He thought back to all the talks they had and considered him secure enough to have around, just be slightly wary. After having thought to this point he asked Loren, "Hey, what about Page?"

"He's already there."

"Really? I thought he would've told me."

"We told him we would get you as well."

He was led to the judgment stick. Loren tapped the floor near the rock three times with small marble and the rocks parted ways to reveal a widening path that curved down.

"Where's the treasure?"

"We keep it further down to keep it safe from anyone who might accidentally see this, don't stop there." He stopped Zeeth from stepping on a purple tile, "that's a trap. Every five purple tiles are traps, every second green tile is a trap and every orange tile is a trap. We keep a variety of fakes and real ones to throw people off." Zeeth decided to stay behind Loren and take the steps he took instead of remembering that.

They walked down the sloped path until finally, he saw a small golden ray coming from ahead. A small doorway led to a brightly lit room and they had to hop over a small ledge to get in. his eyes were instantly drawn to the golden walls where numerous arrows and bows covered the walls. Several swords and parchments were also here and there. A massive arrow with the girth of a large tree stood in the middle of the long room reaching all the way up to the ceiling and many arrows were swinging around the larger arrow as if attached to it by a string.

Tatio came from around the massive arrow and nodded to them.

"Welcome to our Hidden Passage. I'm sorry to tell you, but you will not be taking any of these. In fact, you will stay here forever, feeding Luik's arrow." Several more people jumped out from behind the arrow, bows, and arrows at him. "Any last words?"

"What? What's going on?" he felt a strange rush of anger and confusion, "You want to kill me? After all that we've done? After we risked our lives?"

"And we thank you. But after the destruction of the judgment stick and the devastation to our village, along with the death of several of my men, we needed to replenish our recourses. If you and your friend die here, we can off your blood to Luik and be granted another artifact to help rebuild our village."

"What? You can get artifacts with human sacrifices?"

"Any animal, really. Humans have just been found to be the most effective."

"Is that how you got all these?"

"Yes. when we kill things here, they become one of these arrows floating around this massive arrow and when we get enough kills here the arrow summons an artifact with amazing properties. My staff actually came from here, so did much of our knowledge on magic."

"You killed so many things, you must have hundreds of artifacts!"

"Yes, we have summoned 112 artifacts and only 100 remain here. These are like trophies that we have won from killing. This is why we have stayed here, for this secret chamber and I didn't want the judgment stick to be destroyed because I thought that was its source of power. We will test out if that is really true, but the arrows hovering around it is promising. Man, it feels good to let go of such a heavy secret to an outsider. Besides, you're going to die anyway."

"What happened to Page?"

Tatio fell silent and looked at one of the arrows floating around. Zeeth clenched his fists and yelled, "WHERE IS PAGE?!!"

"I think you know the answer."

"Bastard!" Zeeth ran at him to punch his face but Loren fired his own arrow at Zeeths head, who ducked away, "Why!!?"

"I've always hated you, humans, thinking you're greater than everyone else! you know, your people killed my brother! I simply kept you alive to learn more about your human civilizations and then conquer you all, who knew you would help save my village from the meteors too! besides, you think you can beat all of these guys? And then me?! HAH, you will lay your life down for us."

Zeeth turned to Loren, swinging a fist. Loren jumped away just in time, a little part of his fist still grazing his cheek and leaving a long bruise mark, to join Tatio and the others and had them attack Zeeth instead. The ones at the front were easily knocked out, but those in the back that shot at him from afar were harder to get. He had to use Gul to create a protective layer between them. Mag heated up the gems which cracked on the outside, but the greystone reinforced inside stayed strong and the arrows stuck to the gems.

The arrows kept on coming at him, they were all on target and aiming precisely for his weak parts, head, heart, and several more were to restrict his movements. He had to use the bodies of those in front as meat shields to block the barrage and came in to shoot heated up gems at them. A glowing purple gem hit one of them in the eye and caused him to yell out in pain as his face was burned, a purple scorch mark replacing his eye. He threw the body at another person, who jumped out of the way, but was met with a boiling stream of water coming from Zeeths mouth.