104 PastXFuture

"So Lara, what have you found?" Asked Grylls.

"So... More than 4,000 years ago Tiamat arrived on these land and fought the locals. After months of continuous fighting the locals finally gave in and surrendered. She then continued to reign as the Dragon empress for 500 years, waging war after war with the other continents. Then, they came into these lands where her empire was hit by a massive resistance. A group of powerful individuals face the full might of her empire and stood equal. Unable to stomach the defeat, she travelled here and faced them. That is when she got defeated and buried here never to see the light again." Lara finished her story.

"That must have been the freaks she keeps talking about." Silver added.

"What about these pillars then?" Asked Grylls.

"Since Tiamat is virtually unkillable they created this place. They put her in the shrine where it draws her aura out from her control effectively drawing her life away. You can think of it as them forcibly aging her unkillable body. Then these pillars are to hold those auras to keep the place from running and collapsing." Lara explained.

"What about the dagger being sent to me? If Tiamat's goal was to be revived, why did he send it to me and not Marco in the first place?" Bradford hurriedly asked.

"And those monsters? Why create monsters that will kill those who have the chance to revive her?" Added Grylls.

"I guess it was not up to Tiamat who get to have the dagger. Maybe, it was the runes who selected the least likely person to use it for his or her own gain. Think about it, we were all fighting for possession of the dagger while Bradford is the only one who had no ulterior motive." Lara paused as everyone nodded their head in understanding.

She then continued. "As for those monsters, I reckon they were created by these Pillars to stop anyone aiming for the Dagger."

"But why go through all the trouble? If she is unkillable, why not just bury her 1 killometer underground." Silver shared his opinion.

"If you think about it, we are already kilometers under the mountain. But to answer your question once you grow old or past your prime, your Aura capacity goes down as well. By forcibly aging her, they are decreasing her maximum Aura capacity. Eventually she will be too old that no matter if she revives again or be an immortal she will no longer be a threat to the humans in this world. She will literally be, just an immortal, normal grandma. That is why she can't recover Nen herself and have to depend on reaquiring her lost Aura stored among these pillars. She is well past her prime." Lara felt sorry for her.

"Come on, we should finish what we started and place all these back to where it belongs. Then, we can put all these things behind us." Lara finished.

Silver and Lara unsummoned their Nen beasts as they worked together to place the lid back the shrine covering the mummified empress. Lara took the Seraph key and placed it back at the center as the group watched it work its magic.

Dazzling light spread out of the shrine as ambient Nen took over the broken pillar debris and repaired them to their original state. Once all pillars were repaired, aura started leaking out of the shrine and is again being absorbed by the pillars similar to the first time they arrived here. Then with the last blinding light, everyone closed their eyes. When they opened them again, all the pillars are gone as well as the engravings in the shrine.

"Guess it's over." Bradford finally sighed.

Silver noticed a sound from southeast and hurriedly looked for any signs of intruders.

"What is it?" Asked Lara.

Silver observed for a while before answering. "Nothing. Must be my imagination."

"Come on, let's get out of this place. It's giving me the heebie-jeebies." Urged Grylls.

"Alright, let's get out of here and return to civilization." Lara agreed and no one voiced a second opinion.

"Wait! Why don't we hunt for treasures first?" Silver suggested as his eyes turned to Jenny signs.

"We have totally forgotten about that part. We should separate." Seconded Grylls.

"No! We are not risking anyone lives again. Silver have Aragog do the searching. The rest of us stay here and wait." Denied Lara as they waited for the results. Silver also spread his mini-Aragog all over the place to find any treasure.

Two hours later, Silver shook his head. "There are no treasures. Only blocked paths and some exit. I think I also found another way back to the cave we entered from." Silver sadly announced.

"It doesn't matter, 2 Billion is enough for me to live a luxurious life for a while." Bradford said to Silver.

"Alrighty then, we should head back."

With the two Aquila abilities, the group of four was able to easily venture out of the cave. They thought it made sense to not honor the grave of a tyrant with gold if the previous civilization don't want future generations to revive her.

They also found out that a new group of Nagas took over the cave opening, but with Silver's and Grylls' Survivor ability they blazed through it without a fight.

They flew just above the cave's entrance and observed their surroundings only to see airship parts here and there. "It looks like Nellie did do a damage on the airship Jack was on."

"Doesn't anyone find anything strange?" Grylls asked the group.

"What do you mean?" Silver asked.

Grylls explained. "If you look closer on the debris it doesn't look like the crash just happened yesterday. Vines and bushes are covering some of the parts. Trees are taller from the way I remembered yesterday. There are even new trees that was not there yesterday. It is either this forest is magical or-"

"We travelled forward in time." Finished Lara.