Crossroads of Power: The Dancing Gods

Amon sprinted further as he arrived at his destination. In front of him was a giant stone.

The stone was cut into a rectangular shape up to the top, where the corners came together in the shape of a spike.

The stone radiated a yellow glow around it; this was it—the destination where Amon wanted to get. It felt as if the rock sent a heartbeat all over the tunnels, waiting to be found. The stone was written to its last centimeter with QiScript.

The signs and symbols were too many for Amon to read all of them in such a short time.

"This power, this Qi, how megnificent."

The yellow glow that descended from the rock appeared nothing but menacing in Amon's eyes. The feeling of strength he felt coming from it made him want to know everything about it.

However, as he stepped further into it, he noticed something: a red stain on the wall behind the stone.

In a dark color written on the wall stood a few sentences written in QiScript: 'A power meant for a god, in my mortal hands.'

The writings became bigger, the symbols greater, and the writings uglier. With each symbol, the text became more and more unsightly.

To the point where Amon could read only one sentence, "I am a god."

As he gazed to the floor, he noticed something: an elves grave, two stone daggers formed in the shape of an elves ears, stuck in the ground. This was how every elf got buried after death.

"You seem to have found him."

Behind him, Amon heard Krampus voice, and as he turned around, he saw Leona and Krampus. In his rush, he did not even notice that the two of them followed him. But that was no longer important for Amon.

"Who is this man?"

Krampus took a short look at the grave and answered, "Thomas from the Silver Bloodline. He was a strange person."

"In which way is it strange?" Amon asked. Trying to hide his interest in the man, which did not work, Krampus was sure that, for some reason, Amon wanted to know everything about the man who lied two meters under his feet.

"Since birth, he never showed any of his powers or his body traits, but for that, he was smart; he was one of the people who installed the portal in these tunnels. But someday, he changed."

Krampus closed his eyes and took another glance at the grave before answering.

"According to what I know, he became interested in strage things a few days after his 25th birthday. He began to meditate, and he wrote down strange symbols nobody understood. At first we thought that he invented a form of code, but he didn't want to teach it to anybody, and then five years later, he became crazy, entered these tunnels, and never came out of them alive."

"Whatever he wrote on these walls, he wrote it with his blood, but strangely, this blood never even dried, and it is here even now. I wonder what it is."

Amon felt why, in the blood, the Qi of this man was flowing. Even if he died, the Qi was still moving, which prevented the blood from even drying.

Amon crouched down. He held his hand over the two stone daggers as he felt the Qi of the man still in them. As he gazed at them, he noticed something: the Qi in them had the same properties as the Qi that was saved in the stone.

"And he never mentioned anything about this stone or the writings, meaning you say."

"Yes, now you know why I said that he was a strange guy; he was the last member of his bloodline, and instead of letting it get on, he devouted himself to something nobody can even understand. He was truly a strange man. I don't know what you wanted here, but come when you are ready."

Amon found it strange. Krampus had every right to be suspicious about every single word and action Amon took. However, he questioned nothing and walked away.

Amon knew that it was stupid; he wanted to get moving and come up with some sort of excuse, but the heartbeat of the stone he heard, the Qi it radiated, and the daggers that radiated the same type of Qi His inquisitiveness engulfed him; he wanted to know what the stone was all about and turned to it directly again. He decided to hand over the whole situation to Leon and immerse himself again in the mysteries of Qi.

He began and read first the writings on the stone; there were many details, and again, as before, he simply chiseled into the stone. What was written here was the valuable knowledge of a Qi tamer who still lived before him.

On the stone were the slightest details written about how to form and band the Qi after passing each and every Qi point. In this stone was written about a power called the path of the dancing gods.

But something on this path was strange; it was as if the path connected to many different paths. The path of flames, water, air, earth, light, and darkness. What was written on the stone was far different from a path; it was as if he discovered a crossroad that connected these paths.

'Wait, what if the paths were never separated from each other from the start?'

Amon considered the possibility that some paths were never meant to be separated but brought together, or maybe nothing sparked, or maybe everything was connected.

Amon could not wait anymore and took the risk. He touched the stone and slowly let the Qi flow into his body.

"Uarkh, cough!"

In the moment where the Qi entered his body, Amon felt a pain; it was as if his body had been burned, frozen, and stabbed at once.

'Why must it always fucking hurt?' Amon expected that this would happen, but every time he wanted to awaken new powers, he had to pay for them. But why was it that he had to pay? It was because he was trying once again to awaken new powers, not by working for them but by cheating. As he got his tattoos, everything was the same; he tried to achieve what he would normally have to work for, and because of that, he has to suffer.

"Now I know why he died." The power Amon consumed was enormous and not even comparable to everything he has achieved up until now.

Thankfully, it was written on the stone how he had to bed the Qi, where to let it flow, and for how long.

___

Three hours later, "Should we go and take a look at him? He has been away for three hours." Krampus suggested.

"You don't have to worry; I am already here."

That was the last thing they heard from Amon before he fell to the ground, fast asleep.