Ancient Runes

"I am just curious about something; what is your name so that we can address you appropriately?" Trent asked the scientist who was walking in front of him.

"My name is Saul," he said as he turned a sharp right and injured into a deep cave.

As soon as he moved everyone that was on the Strike Team quickly followed him into the dark cave.

When I entered this cave, I could hear the water dripping from the ceiling and along the right wall I saw a dark blue mineral substance which must have been the Paradisus that this war was over in its natural state.

Then I saw that three human corpses were pinned up against the left wall. They were all wearing torn scientific robes. I noticed that the robes were torn and their organs were hanging out of their bodies where the Cyborgs had tortured them for information.

"These cyborgs are brutal in their methods of torture," Sid said as he walked past the dead human bodies.

"They tried to torture them as a method of cracking me to reveal what it was that I had discovered here". Saul said as he lowered his head at what he passed by.

"Well, their sacrifices were not in vain. We have secured this cave of Paradisus. Through their sacrifice, they have proven that they will do anything to ensure our victory in this five-way war." Trent said as I saw him walk over to where the scientists were lying and close their eyes.

"See I was mining the Paradisus along this wall when the cyborgs came and captured me". Saul said when everyone made it past a mining cart they hand a bunch of small pieces of Paradisus in it.

"I honestly thought they would have taken some of it for themselves by now if you have been away from the original mining site as long as I think that you have," Trent said as he picked up a small piece of raw Paradisus from the cart.

"I did not hear their Captain talk about it at all and it also seems to have been untouched I wonder why?" Saul asked with a look of curiosity behind his eyes.

A few minutes past while everyone looked around to see if there was anything else that the cyborgs could have been interested in both inside and around the cave.

"I am glad to say that they did not find the true treasure of this world. If you want to see what it is come follow me". Saul said to me while I was searching outside of the cave.

He walked me to the back wall of the cave. I saw an archway that had symbols on it and it led to a set of stairs that went deeper down.

When I gathered in front of this archway that led into a stairwell that continued to go down into the depths of darkness and the unknown inside of this massive mountain a set of yellow runes began to glow all around it.

"One of the candidates has arrived. your destiny awaits you just do not make the same mistakes that we have so long ago." I heard a voice say to me in my head.

"Where did these ruins come from! they were not here when I was mining last time by myself". Saul said to me as he ran his fingers along the top of the archway where the yellow runes were located. He looked at me and had a mysterious and somewhat untrustworthy look rush across his face he looked me in the eyes.

"Why are you looking at me like that Saul? did I do something wrong?" I asked while I've backed away from him

"The only thing different between this visit and the last one is that you were here with me so you must have something to do with these ruins. Would you say that I am being accurate or crazy with my assessment".

"I think that you have got too much into your work and that you are now seeing things". I told him even though I did not believe what I said. That was what I thought he needed to hear since I did not know if he was going to be the individual who was supposed to help me on my path to my destiny if what this goddess told me was truth rather than just propaganda.

"Yeah, maybe you are right. I have probably been around the raw Paradisus for too long. wait for me right here while I gather the rest of your teammates." Saul told me before he walked deeper into the cave and out of my field of vision.

After he left me alone, I entered the new section of the cave without his help or guidance because I had to have answers to these visions that I was having while sleeping and if these ruins possibly held some answers, then I would rather find them out alone.

I then began to walk down the spiral of stairs making sure that I leaned against the wall on the outside to ensure that I would not fall since I did not feel a wall on the inside part while I was walking downstairs.

When I made it to the bottom of the long spiral of stairs there was a massive double door that had runes engraved in it. The door lit up with the same color runes that I had seen on the archway as I approached it. The doorway was about four times as wide as I was and about triple my height.

"See I told you that the rooms were glowing because Danny was by them". Saul said to everyone.

"Danny, why did you go down here alone without ensuring that you were with at least one other person?" Trent asked as he placed his left arm on my right shoulder.

"He probably wanted to get the rare artifacts in the ruins for himself. I knew that we could not trust him; I have been right about him all along". William said to Trent as I saw him march towards me very furiously.

"I did come down here to explore these rooms on my own. I do apologize for that; I probably should have waited for the rest of you; but my curiosity got the best of me". I said to everyone as I began to look at the glowing yellow runes that were engraved in the door.

While I was looking at them, I noticed that the symbols began to rearrange themselves and translate into my common language which caught me off guard.

"Secondly Danny do you have any kind of knowledge about these runes or a reason why they would first show up and then they would glow while you were here?" Trent asked in a very serious tone as he took his right hand off my shoulder.

I begin to pace around trying to decide if I should tell them the truth or not. On the one hand, they will ensure my survival as my teammates. On the other hand, they could also possibly use this information to gain some political power or possibly some kind of influence over me.

After a bit of thinking, I finally decided to tell them the truth; whether they would believe me or not I could not foresee. I will just deal with the consequences when they come.

"The main reason why these runes revealed themselves and have lit up is because I have been chosen as the next deity of our race to ensure our survival". I said to them as I pointed at the runes that were around the massive double doors.

"I do not believe you. Trent this is a bunch of BS...." William said to me out of anger.

"Wait William there may be some truth behind what he says". Trent said as he interrupted William's rant towards me.

"William might be right. I mean I have more faith in Danny than he does but you must admit that the fact that he has been chosen as the human who will be the next deity of our race is almost impossible. those odds are about 5.6 million to one." Raven said.

"Raven you must remember though that Danny has two healing powers and according to our research only specialists can possess two talents at the same time. Even if you were to ignore that the fact that he has two of the same types of talents proves that he is something different from the rest of us, to say the least" Sid said in response to what she said.

"This definitely will require more time to confirm if what you're saying is the truth Danny; but for the time being we should focus on our mission objective of exploring these ruins," Trent said as he tried to push the door open with his arms to no success.

"Maybe these ruins have a password that you have to say to unlock the massive doors". Saul said as he looked at me.

"How will I know how to open this door". I told him like I did understand why he was staring at me.

"Come on Danny if anyone can open the door; it will be you since these runes around the doorway only started to glow when you were near it," William said to me angrily.

"I do not know any word that would open a door this ancient," I said as I sat down on the ground and began to scratch my head while trying to think of the correct word to say.

"Come on Danny! you know the right word; so just say it!" William yelled at me again.

"William stop putting so much pressure on him about coming up with the right word on the spot. Yelling at him will not solve anything. Give him a few minutes and he will probably think of the appropriate phrase or word to get us past this door". Raven said as she came in between the two of us.

When I finally had a few moments of silence I had a feeling surrounding me very similar to the kind of presence that I felt while I was dreaming and talking to the female who swore to be the goddess of my race. After the presence ran through my entire body I knew exactly what wording I had to say to get to the other side of the door.

"Apertum Ostium!" I yelled as I felt the phrase come from inside like it was a natural second tongue to me.

When I said that phrase the runes began to vanish and instead of opening sideways like I thought they were going to the door slid down and the only thing that I could see after it opened completely up was a dark green light.

I was drawn to the light and walked into it without waiting on the others. Even though I knew that Trent was going to most likely give me a speech about how we are a team and I am not supposed to do anything on my own I wanted to learn the truth about my destiny too strongly to allow him to influence my decision.

Then I noticed on the other side of the beam of light there was an ancient city that looked fully intact as if time had stood completely still and had not corroded any of the structures.

"Did you think that I was going to let you go through this alone? after all, we are all part of one team so if one of us fails, we all fail together." Trent said.

"Yeah, what he said" Sid responded as I saw him walk right behind Trent.

"Whatever; if we had lost you, I knew it was not going to be any skin off of my nose". William told me.

"I cannot believe that this place is fully intact. This is like the wet dream of any ancient architect master, historian, or scientist. maybe this set of ruins will tell us what happened to The Ancient Osdronian Dynasty five hundred years ago." Saul said before he rushed ahead of everyone else and looked around at everything.

When I looked around at the architecture, I noticed that everything was made out of pure metal and was colored a dark green and black color scheme for design.

The main thing that caught my attention was a pedestal that was located near the center of the town. It had a small handheld statue of a human on display. Around this statue, I saw massive statues that were about five times my height of different individuals.

"Hey Sid! Is that just me or does that massive statue look human?" Raven asked as she pointed at a statue that was across the way from where we were all standing near the center of town.

"You are right Raven that does look human, and look that one to its left looks cyborg while the one to its right looks like a vampire. The final look Vordonian." Sid said in response to Raven's question.

"If that is the case then that odd-shaped statue would be of a Demetra; but what about this last one that looks like a fish person?". William asked as he pointed at both statues that they hadn't mentioned yet.

"That is a statue of an Osdronian". A mysterious AI voice said.

I turned around in a hurry and a panic so I could quickly find where that voice was coming from.

"Where are you?" Saul began to ask.

"I was only activated because one of the chosen candidates has arrived. He has the right to know exactly what it was that destroyed The Ancient Osdronian Dynasty over five hundred years ago so that he does not make similar mistakes with his race". The AI voice said as it began to take form in front of the cyborg statue.

I had a lot of questions that I had to ask this AI and I was going to do whatever it took to get the answers that I needed so that I could ensure a good future for myself and Nova.

The only thing that I did not know at this time was that after my team got done talking to this AI projection we would end up hating our people more than ever before.