• Marie and I had continued onward north in order to Rotan Deto. At one point along the way, we had left behind the camels with a trader for money. "We need to stop somewhere for supplies." Marie said. "Where is the closest place?" I asked. "There's a place just east of here that looks beautiful. It's called Ho Liang, meaning very beautiful." She said. "Wow. Sounds like a great place to visit. Let's go." I said. We ran up to the hill near us. We looked out and the two of us could only stare in awe. Something had been happening around this place. "What's happened to this place? It looks totally different than when I saw it as a little girl." Marie said. "This place was known for it's flowers as far as the eye could see, but now, everything has been frozen." "Well, let's go down there and see what's going on." I said. There were a few houses still left uncrystallized. A couple of people still lived here. We soon found the elder of this village. He came out to meet us. "Welcome to Ho Liang. I'm sorry you had to see it like this." The elder said. "What happened here? Why does it look like this?" She asked. "According to what I know, we think we have been placed under a curse that will keep this place cold and icy for the next hundred years." He said. "A...curse?" I asked. Marie explained it to me. "A curse is something that people believe will happen if someone has done something bad in order to invoke the wrath of a God." She said. "So someone has done something bad?" I asked. "I would think so." She said. "Has anyone else been here in the last couple of days?" "There has been. A man came here saying he was looking into technological advances in medicine." The elder said. "What did he look like?" I asked. "He was a short fellow, had glasses, and had a crazy hairdo." The elder said. "Do you think that could be..." I whispered to Marie. "What did he say his name was?" She asked. "He said has name was Egek." The elder replied. We nodded to each other. "I think Egek is the one who caused to happen." I said. "We had a run-in with him with our neighboring village. He was going to destroy the people of that village in order to get what he wanted." She said. "Well then, this man did appear a little bit before the ice began covering this place." The Elder said. "Where did he go?" I asked. "He went off just east of here." He said. We quickly ran that way in order to find him. We soon found a laboratory also covered in ice. We tried to enter, but a forcefield was protecting the outside. We couldn't get inside. "Well, what do we do now?" She asked. "I wish I knew." I said. The forcefield seemed to be protecting it pretty well. "I have an idea. Ice is just a solid form of water, watch this." She said. As she breathed, the ice around her turned into water, it slipped through the forcefield and into the house and she put it right on the machine that was generating the forcefield. The forcefield vanished after the machine short-circuited. "It looks like that did the trick. Now, let's see what's going on in there." I said. As soon as we entered, we only saw what was generating the forcefield. We noticed a door on the floor. We opened it and went through. We found that he been building underground. There were tunnels as far as the eye could see. "Egek has been hard at work since we last saw him." Marie said. "What do you think he's up to this time?" I asked. "I don't know. There must be some reason that Egek put his laboratory here, he wouldn't just come here without a reason." Marie said. "This place must be very important for Egek to build like this." I said. "With all these levels, he must be up to something big." She replied. "Yes, I am." A voice said from behind them. We looked behind us to see Egek standing there. "I don't have the time to deal with you two right now. Get them!" He shouted. Men shaped out of crystals began to come at us. "Are these real men?" I asked. "No, these are men that were shaped out of crystal that I brought to life." He replied. The two of us tried to fight them off, but there were too many. They eventually wore us down and caught us. They bent our hands behind our back so we couldn't get free. "Why is this place so important to you?" I asked. "This place is important to the Eternal Evil One. I am not here to reveal his plan to you. Lock them up in jail cell D2 Alpha." He said. They took us to the fourth basement floor. In the second hallway, was a chamber labelled Alpha. They threw us in there and locked the cell, the key was set somewhere, I couldn't see where. "Well, whatever it is, it's something big." I said. "For him to be a pawn of the Eternal Evil One, this must have some great significance to Hatera Deto." Marie said. She began to think really hard. "Well, whatever it is, he sure made a point that he was really busy." I said. This seemed to spark a thought in Marie. "Wait a minute, that's it!" She shouted. "What's it?" I asked. "The Point. Hatera Deto had seven deadly warriors known for their amazing abilities and skills. The seven warriors were known as the pillars of death. Except for your ancestor, they defeated everyone who ever dared to fight them. Hatera Deto must want to revive them. If that happens, we'd have to be either mentally and physically prepared, or really lucky. We have to get out of here and stop them from raising the pillar. If they raise the pillar, it can't go back down until all seven are defeated at the same time again." She said. "How do they know how to raise the pillar?" I asked. "Hatera Deto must have given him a device that allows him to raise the pillar. We have to stop him before he raises the pillar." She said. "One question though, how do we get out of here?" I asked. "That's a great question. This is crystal, what is crystal weak against?" She asked herself. "Could you just wrap some water around it and break it apart?" I asked. "One problem, there is no water." She replied. "And even then, I don't know if it'd work." "Why not give it a try?" I asked as I pointed above. There was some water leaking from the ceiling of the cell. She smiled a bit, and took out as much water as she could. She wrapped it around the crystal bars and tried her hardest to break it, but to no avail. The crystal was harder than any substance she had ever encountered. "Well, I tried." She said. "Prepare the pillar to be raised!" Egek's voice shouted. They had finally found the pillar. "Great, that's all we need. Egek has found the pillar, as soon as the process begins, it can't be ended. We're in trouble now." She said. "Well, what do we do then?" I asked. I noticed the key sitting off on the desk. "Can you use the water to grab the key over there?" I asked. "I can try." She replied. She used the water remaining to grab the key that was on the desk and return it to us. We were able to escape from the cell but we were too late. "Raise the pillar!" Egek shouted as he pressed the button. The pillar began to raise to ground level. "No! We're too late!" Marie shouted. "Sorry heroes! This time, I win!" Egek shouted. The crystal men began to come at us again. We fended them off best we could. We needed a way to get rid of them or at least escape. By this time, the pillar had already come up to where we were on the fourth floor of this underground cavern. "Kyle, we have to get out of here." Marie said. "How do we do that?" I asked. "We're outnumbered, but I think I have a plan." She replied. "Okay, what's the plan?" I asked. "Run!" She shouted. The two of us made for the exit. It was going to be an uphill battle from the fourth floor to ground level. The crystal men were everywhere to be seen, we needed a way to shut them down and fast. I noticed something as we passed a hallway. "Hey Marie! Wait!" I shouted. "What's wrong?" She asked. "I have an idea, follow me." I replied. We ran down a different hallway, the crystal men still following us. At the end of the hallway we found a room, but not just any room, the control room. "Bingo, this is exactly what we need. The pillar will be already up, but we can shut this place down." She said. "Same way as the forcefield?" I asked. "Same way as the forcefield." She said. She pulled the water leaking from the caves surrounding us, as Egek was apparently unaware of the leaking water that the cave had. She brought down the water on all the electrical equipment in the room. Effectively shutting down the whole thing. Unfortunately, that left us with one problem, when everything short-circuited, the Auto Self-Destruct mechanism was engaged. "We have to get out of here and fast!" I shouted. We ran back to the hallway where we were being chased from and found all the crystal men out. Nothing was functional. Egek appeared out of nowhere using a jetpack. "You may destroy my base here, but the pillar will remain until all seven are raised. This time I was aware of your powers girl, so I activated the Self-Destruct mechanism before you destroyed everything, and it can't be stopped! Now you can perish here!" He shouted. He began to laugh maniacally and took off for the exit. He was gone before we even made it there. We continued to run up each flight of stairs and just barely made it out before the big boom. Whatever it did, the ice that had been encasing this place began to vanish and reveal the beautiful fields of flowers that this place inhabited. "At least we succeeded in one way, even though the pillar was raised." I said. "Egek managed to get by again. I'm going to have to train some more to hone my skills. One thing is for sure, he isn't going to be using crystal again. He'll keep using something stronger." She said. "He's getting smarter and wiser. Unfortunately, that means we have more to contend with once we find the next pillar." I replied. "We have to stop all seven being raised." She said. "If we can, we might have a chance to stop it. The only way all seven warriors can be raised is if all seven pillars are raised, if one is destroyed before it makes it to the surface, then we succeed in our mission." She replied. "That brings up another question, how do we destroy something like that?" I asked. "I wish I knew the answer to that, but even I don't know. Only those who sealed them away to begin with could answer that." She replied. "So the only thing we can do is try and stop them from being raised." I replied. "We're going to have to train really hard now, knowing a big threat awaits if we can't get this done." She said. "Agreed." I said. Meanwhile, Egek was just arriving back at the hideout. "I have returned master." He said. "Ah, Egek, your plan worked I see. You managed to raise the first pillar. You even destroyed all the evidence under it. Very well done." Hatera said. "Thank you master." He said. "Now that the first pillar is up the plan can proceed." He said. "Yes Master." Egek replied. "With the first pillar in place, the point of the second pillar is revealed. Travel due west of the first pillar to a place called Dat Foor. No one there should interfere with your plans. It's a place that has barren when I first took control and has stayed such. Now get there immediately and began work on finding and bringing up the second pillar tomorrow." Hatera said. "I'll leave first thing in the morning Master." Egek replied. With that, he left the room. "With the first pillar in place, it's only a matter of time before this place will bow before me just like it did 10,000 years ago. With the seven warriors of death brought back to my life, they can assist me in the ways they did back in the days when I ruled. Each one ruled a continent. There was no way for anyone to get them together in order to defeat them. I thought it to be my best thought out plan, but even then it failed. The ancestor of the person who defeated me is still alive. He continues to grow stronger by the day. Even Egek will surely fail against them once more, and when he does, he will meet his end. Then my real scientist will take over, isn't that right Mr. Dor?" He asked. "Yes Master." He said. Meanwhile, back at Ho Liang... "Thank you so much for bringing our land back to what it once looked like." The elder praised us. "Your welcome, but with the first pillar up, no one is safe." Marie said. "Don't worry my child!" The elder said. "How can you be so carefree?" She asked calmly. "My great ancestor was there the day Hatera Deto was sealed away." He said. "What?!" The two of us shouted in unison. "His story has passed down in generations to us. He explained to us the prophecy." He said. "Prophecy?" I asked. "A prophecy is something that is handed down to a prophet here on our planet from the Gods." Marie explained. "The three Gods that exists today are still watching over us and are aware of our predicament. The God of Air, The God of Earth, and The God of Water are all keeping track of Hatera Deto. They are simply known as Air, Earth, and Water, after their elements for us who all on them. The prophecy goes like this, when the pillars are raised again, and the seven warriors of death revived, The Gods will come down in a created form, to the God of Air, A four-winged woman who controls the winds, to the God of Earth, a man with four arms to move the planet any way he wishes, to the God of water, a man with four legs to move the waters anywhere he desires. They shall come down and heal the planet of all ailments caused by the fighting. The Gods will restore the world to it's once peaceful state, but Hatera Deto can only be defeated by the hands of an ancestor who defeated him this day. For when his ancestor goes into battle, he must emerge victorious, otherwise the planet shall fall into deep despair and darkness." He finished. "That's really putting a lot of pressure on my shoulders." I replied. "We just have to keep fighting Kyle, and we have to keep getting stronger and who knows how many more people could accompany us." She said. "I guess you're right, we just have to keep our heads up high and know that no matter what, that Hatera Deto must be defeated." I replied. "Our blessings are upon you chosen one." The elder said. "Please, let us stock you for your journey." We decided to stay as they gave us food and water for the trip to our next location, Rotan Dero.