บท 26: Chapter 26

In a cave room, Lara removed a bag from her head that was blocking her vision and looked around before saying, "It's pretty cozy here." She glanced at red banners with golden writing on them and the fire in the center.

"Who are you and why are you here?" asked Unuratu, who was wearing a blue tunic with gold accents. She had long dark hair and brown eyes.

Lara answered, "Lara Croft, your new friend."

Unuratu moved closer to the fire, using it to warm her hands. "How are you our friend? Are you with the cult?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Amaru is my enemy, and he is also your enemy, so we're friends. And if Amaru is my enemy, normally I am not with the cult," said Lara, making it sound like the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why is Amaru your enemy? And how did you get here if you are not with the cult?" asked Unuratu suspiciously.

"Amaru killed my father, and that's also why I am here. My father was close to discovering Paititi, and Amaru, being afraid that my father would tell the world, killed him. Right now, I am here to stop him from his plans and also to get some revenge on the side," said Lara, while thinking, 'And make Trinity easier to fully absorb without him and most of his loyal forces.'

Unuratu nodded and remained quiet for a few seconds before addressing her aide, Etzli. "Get our new friend some clothes to fit in."

Etzli did not really look like he wanted to do it, but he said, "Yes, Mother."

Lara changed into Paititi clothes: a blue heron tunic with a blue and gold scheme. She also put on a bracelet and necklace made of gold. Even her sandals, with straps wrapping around the ankles and lower legs, had gold.

Lara was currently walking around the city of Paititi after finishing her conversation with Unuratu. She had explained to Unuratu that the Silver Box of Ix Chel wasn't in Paititi but rather at the nearest missionary, the Mission of San Juan. However, at the moment, she was wanted to find the silver coiled serpent key to enter the temple, meet with Crimson Fire, and examine the murals inside that detailed their origins. In this Marvel world, Lara felt that the origins of everything were more complex, like in Siberia with Jacob and the Divine Source. Before retrieving the Silver Box, she wanted to see if those origins had changed—and if so, she intended to learn all about them.

Upon arriving at the sacrificial chambers, Lara surveyed the area to check for any cult forces before squeezing through a gap.

Before moving deeper into the chamber, her radio crackled to life with Jonah's voice: "Lara, I just arrived in the city, but the locals are pointing bows at me."

"Do they look like they're part of a cult?" Lara asked.

"No," he replied.

"Then don't shoot them. Let them take you hostage and bring you to Unuratu. She's the leader of the rebels here and an ally of ours. Tell her you're my friend, and you should be fine," Lara instructed.

Working her way through several rooms, Lara arrived in a brightly illuminated cave. She noticed logs placed between the cave's left and right walls. 'Tarzan mode again,' she thought.

After traversing the logs using one of her ice picks tied to a rope, Lara climbed some stairs to the left and entered another chamber. There, she saw a large hole in the floor, with skulls carved into the surrounding walls. 'This place reeks of death and rotting flesh,' she thought, stepping carefully onto an unstable log.

Just as the log began to collapse, Lara leapt onto a nearby wall, clinging to it with her climbing gear. Halfway up, she noticed a corpse. "Oh, hey buddy," she quipped, continuing her climb to escape the foul stench.

Upon reaching a platform, she suddenly heard the grinding of stone doors opening. She pressed herself against the wall and watched as a single cult member entered, dragging two bodies. After he came through, the stone door slid shut behind him. He tossed one corpse in the hole, then the other. When he turned, he realized he wasn't alone.

"This is Sparta," Lara said, low enough not to attract attention. She kicked the cult member square in the chest, shattering his ribs and sternum. He flew backward falling in the hole of bodies.

Lara leaned over to peer at his body, a quiet laugh echoing in her mind. 'Hehe.'

Entering the room, Lara could only mutter, "Fuck," realizing the stone door was sealed shut and she could not break through it, being really thick. Her only option was to crawl through a cramped passage crammed with severed limbs and heads.

Emerging from the passage, she found herself in a chamber littered with corpses, some even hanging from the ceiling. In the middle of the room stood a cult priest, dissecting another body on a stone table.

Stealthily approaching from behind, Lara grabbed the back of his head and slammed it onto the edge of the table, decapitating him at the jaw. "Eat some border sandwich, you cunt," she snarled.

'I should check the walls for a weak point,' Lara thought, recalling from her memories that this room had a hidden passage—accessible by destroying a vulnerable spot in the stone—to reach the silver coiled serpent key.

'Found it,' she thought, then delivered a powerful kick to the center of a specific stone, causing the wall to crumble and reveal a hidden opening.

Securing her rope to an ice pick and throwing between some cracks in the cave roof, she rappelled down to another platform. There she encountered a puzzle involving oil and fire meant to burn away wooden debris. Instead of solving it properly, she simply used her adamantium ice pick and strenght to break through part of the obstruction, forcing her way onward.

In the next chamber, she did the same and finally arrived at the silver serpent key. Snatching it up, Lara said, "You're mine, little silver snake," before leaping into an irrigation channel. She slided through the rushing water until she ended up on the outskirts of Paititi.

On her way back to Unuratu, Lara passed through the city and unexpectedly stumbled upon Amaru and his cult in the midst of a sacrifice. From a vantage point, she observed Amaru and several priests on a raised platform. He cut his own hand with the Dagger of Chak Chel, then used it to stab a poor bastard.

Lara watched briefly before slipping away, unaware that Amaru's hand had already begun to heal itself—skin and tissue regenerating in only half a minute.