Tunlop's Secret

The path back to the underground bunker was cleared out momentarily by Renji's wind dragon's roar. Emerging out of the water, the two took deep breaths after staying submerged in the water for a few moments.

"Wind magic huh? Highly impressive if I must say." Reo said complementing Renji's magical prowess.

"It is alright." Hinata spoke softly, she has never seen Renji's magic up close and now that she finally did she could only describe it in one word, terrifying. Yes, terrifying. Imagining a dragon made out of the wind launched at her was a thought she refused to savor.

"Here." He threw the box containing the diamond at Hinata who almost dropped it. "What!? There's noooo way I'm letting those creepy things chase me Ren!" She exclaimed at the top of her voice, she learnt the hard way how terrifyingly fast the Drakons are.

"The Drakons have already spotted me with the box, thanks to the box they won't be able to easily detect the diamond now. So get the hell outta here before they come back." He put bluntly, executing a Russian front flip as he leaped towards the roof of a nearby building.

"Ren!" Hinata called out to him.

"What is it?" He replied.

"Promise me you'll be back safely." She said realizing the implications of what he was about to do.

He smiled radiantly, raising his right thumb at her as he said. "I will."

The air was once again filled with the howls and roars of the Drakons. Following this signal, Reo and Hinata rushed back towards the underground bunker.

"Alright, now then." Turning to his left, Renji stared down at the multiple Drakons that rushed back towards the Reaper's Pit. "Hey! Over here!" He called out to them before he began traveling fast through the rooftops.

Recognizing the face of the man who was in possession of the box, the Drakons hunted him down swiftly. With one leap, they scaled multiple rooftops at once leaving the ninja shocked.

"What?" After a few leaps, they almost caught up to him which would be very risky given all their attention was focused on the box and the box alone. Devouring his flesh was a secondary priority right after they retrieve what they came for.

"In that case, I guess I'll take all of you seriously." Before the poisonous claws of one of the Drakons could penetrate his skin, he increased his speed and evaded their claws running forward. Each rooftop he leaped off eventually got destroyed as his enhanced strength was just too much for it.

[Underground Bunker]

They had finally made it back into the underground bunker, it got ghastly on the way back as one of the Drakons had spotted them and chased them down. Even with info of the Drakon's weakness provided by Hinata, Reo was unable to kill it so they had to resort to a misdirection to lose it in the fog.

They rushed down the hallway and into the huge gates that shielded the small underground city. The villagers all murmured softly as they glanced at the strange box the grandson of their chief and the mage brought back.

"Reo, Hinata, you're back. How was the-" As they both walked into Tunlop's temporary residence , the village chief welcomed back warmly but was immediately alarmed as his eyes met with the box.

"Why do you have that!?" He exclaimed, standing up to his feet swiftly. "You need to return that box right now before it's to late!" He began sweating profusely, his current state changed from shocked to fear. It became clear that he indeed had knowledge about the temple beneath the pit.

"Grandpa, what's wrong?" Reo asked with heavy concerns, his grandfather's expression had changed drastically almost as if he knew something about the box.

"It's over Tunlop, you can't lie your way out of this anymore." Hinata said with a stern voice.

"Lie? What are you talking about?" He found her words disturbing, the fact that she called his grandfather a liar was disheartening and also a reason to be curious.

"You know those footprints Renji found down there? It belongs to him. And the fact that he knew what this box is the moment he saw it says it all. Your father knows the Drakons aren't really humans and yet he lied to us." She said revealing the truth about Tunlop.

Reo couldn't believe his ears, all this time Tunlop knew what the Drakons were after and yet he endangered both him, Raymond and the entire village this whole time.

"Why?" That was all Reo could say, he needed to know why he concealed a secret that could have changed the fate of his village years before he was born.

The old man sighed softly as he sat down back on his seat, he realized he indeed owed them all an apology and also an explanation.

"If I told you, you wouldn't understand. Years ago before you were born, I was hunted down by the Drakons after going up to the surface to retrieve some supplies. However they were unbelievably fast and in a last ditch effort to save myself, I did the unthinkable and jumped into the river." The old man closed his eyes as he tried recalling all the details of the event that led him to discover the temple.

"However I was not harmed in anyway, I first assumed only a few could withstand the healing capabilities of the Reaper's Pit. But that changed after I discovered another river beneath the pit, after I curiously dived into it I discovered the temple of Phantasos." He added.

"The temple of Phantasos!? But that's just a myth!" It was natural to act this way to something that seemed impossible but true.

"The temple of Phantasos?" Unlike Reo, Hinata was unfamiliar with the name.

"The temple of Phantasos is one of the folktales passed down from generations to generations, like Reo said earlier it's just a myth. Upon discovering the stone, I sensed a magic so powerful it couldn't be something a human can or should ever possess and I realized instantly what they were after." Tunlop concluded with his story as he stood up.

"That stone was the only thing keeping the Drakons from gaining access to the temple to take what they are truly after." He added collecting the box from Hinata's hands.

"W-What do you mean what they are truly after? Isn't it the stone they desire?" She stammered, if he implied what she thinks he was implying. They all screwed up big time.

"This stone is what you'll call protective magic, it was what made the Drakon's body disintegrate on contact. But now that it's gone..."

"They can get what they came for." Hinata grunted, feeling quite stupid for their actions but who could blame them? They acted based on the facts they had.

"We need to get it back to the temple before it's too late." She said, trying to make amends for her mistake.

"Isn't it too late?" Tunlop said with a hopeless voice.

"Maybe not, currently the Drakons are hunting down Reo. Now that I know the stone isn't what they are after, my best guess is because they are pissed he blew them away like ragdolls." Hinata replied, proposing a theory of her own.

Tunlop's face brightened on hearing this, this was undoubtedly a chance to put the protective stone back. But a huge problem remained.

"But Grandfather, given the large numbers of Drakons there are and the fact we don't know where they came from. If we put the stone back now, how are we ever going to save our village from them?" Yet again they had to sacrifice something.