28) A city within a city (I)

As he descended the stairs, he found himself leaning on the walls of the passage because of how dark it was. He didn't know how long it had been but after what felt like an eternity, there was finally some light at the end of the tunnel. He walked out of a hole in the stone walls that were looking down on what seemed like a pyramid. An ancient pyramid covered with moss. It was not only that, there was an entire town made out of stones. The was also a huge earth dome over the city preventing the city above to collapse.

Ryker immediately recognized it. It was a Mayan pyramid, somewhere in Mexico. He had visited some when his team won the championship. As the bitter-sweet memories flashed across his eyes, the reverberating sound of drums shook him out of his stupor.

A crowd was starting to surround the main pyramid. He then slowly made his way down more stairs carved on the sides of the dome. The opening he had come out of was about 20 to 30 meters above the ground. He started following the flow of the crowd and found himself looking up at an elderly man at the top of the pyramid.

The crowd then parted away as if the man was Moses before the sea and a few people in long robes made their way through and up the pyramid. When the five figures were at the top, the drums stopped sounding and the elderly man spoke.

"Welcome my brothers and sisters, we are here again to test these five young people against the capabilities of the Ancients. As you know, after hundreds of years, we have not been able to move a single pebble of this place. It goes to show how advanced the ancients were, they were capable of building magic-resistant structures. Today, these five were selected by the Academies. They are the best of their generation. If they fail to move the sacred stones, they will have to be sent back to the gods and enter the rebirth cycle, in hopes that their powers will increase once they are reborn."

'Wait what? Reborn? Sent back to the gods? Are they going to kill them? WHAT THE HELL? IS THIS A F*CKING SACRIFICE?????'

As crazy as it sounded for Ryker, it was indeed a sacrifice. Every year, the five best talents would come here to the sacred ruins to try and prove they deserved the title of the best. Some considered it an honor while others a death sentence. These people were extremists. They believed the Ancients were these incredibly powerful races that lived before the world's rebirth or apocalypse. They also believed that one was born with certain talent and the only way to increase that talent was through the rebirth cycle, commonly known as death. They found all of these paintings in these ruins about sacrifices and gods that when they found out their magic did not work on these structures, they took them as a type of holy paintings.

"Please, reveal yourselves before the gods."

As he said that, the robes of the five people came off. They were wearing nothing more than a few ropes of different colors over their private parts. They essentially covered everything when it came to the two women but they covered nothing of the men. They were… too gifted for a few simple ropes.

Ryker was not embarrassed by this. He had seen a few naked bodies so this was not that exciting. But it could not be said for everyone around him. Some kept looking with lust behind their eyes while others averted their gaze as a form of embarrassment. These five people stood proud at the top of the pyramid while showing off their assets.

"We come out of the rebirth cycle with nothing more than a cord because that is the will of the gods. We will begin with the shadow lord."

When he said that was when Ryker connected the dots. The ropes they were wearing were white, brown, blue, black and the last one was rainbow. White for light, brown for beast, blue for technology, black for shadows but what was the rainbow one for?

The young man he called shadow lord came forward and stood there with his eyes closed. You could see his shadow at his feet trying to move and he would sink a little into his shadow but at the end of the day, nothing happened. A look of disappointment could be seen on his face as he went back in line next to the man with the white ropes.

The elderly man shook his head and then spoke again.

"He is not ready, but do not worry my brothers and sisters, after he comes out of the rebirth cycle, his power will increase. Now, the archangel will go next."

The man with the white ropes walked up next. He had a smug look on his face but if one paid enough attention, they would be able to see the hint of fear behind his eyes. He was confident but he did not want to die. He was not that cray.

He then clasped his hands together and a faint light could be seen from inside. He opened his palms but as soon as he did, the light disappeared. He was so scared he stood there, frozen, for a while.

"That was a great performance, I do not think a rebirth cycle will help him anymore so he will have to work harder on this life."

As soon as the young man heard that he sighed in relief. He was the only one tho. A couple a few feet away from Ryker turned around and left. The young man could do nothing but to see his parents walk away from him as his gift has reached a limit. He was both happy to be alive but had no reason to anymore.