บท 31: Ancient Secrets of Atlanteans

The steps were long and unending with the abyss being littered with the light from pearls hung around.

They have been traveling for almost 30 minutes now, descending deeper underground. Zeras looked behind him, it was dark, and looking into the distance was even darker as he couldn't help but feel his heart rate slowly spiking but he kept quiet and just followed after the old man's figure.

Zeras's ears suddenly perked up, as he felt he could hear the sound of rushing water.

'Rushing water underground?"

They slowly came to the end of the steps and right in front of him was a wall, which placed on it was a staff.

The Old Man slowly walked forward as he picked up the staff and slammed it on the wall twice at different points.

With a deep rumbling, the wall slowly opened up revealing extremely bright light that made Zeras squint his eyes a bit.

"We're here..." The old man said as he moved forward with the staff in hand.

Right in front of them was a wooden canoe, tied beside the stump of a tree.

The area was an extremely large cave, which had huge statues extending deeper into the cave.

The ground contained no land but water making Zeras finally realize why there was a canoe here in this place.

Wherever the man was taking him, it was definitely to the end of this water.

The old man walked forward as he untied the rope holding the boat while nudging Zeras forward as they both sat on the boat.

As there were four paddlings, Zeras took two as he sat behind the man cross-legged.

The old man also took the remaining two and gently inserted it into the water, the boat moved forward slowly.

Zeras also wanted to dip his paddle in the water but was cut off as a voice echoed out to him:

"Watch and learn, young one..."

A strange expression appeared on Zeras's face as he looked at the way the man was paddling. There wasn't much difference to him.

"Tch... You're underestimating me too much, old foggy..."

Zeras ignored the man as he dipped his paddle into the water, but his face changed when he wanted to move his arm back.

He couldn't!

It was like keeping a paddle in the raw earth and expecting it to move back.

"WHAT!!!??"

Zeras stood there dazed a little as he slowly stretched out his neck to check if it was really water they were on and heaved a sign of relief. Maybe it was an illusion.

He removed the paddle from the water as he dipped it into the water once again but he was once again shocked.

The paddle wouldn't bulge an inch, it was as if the water weighed a thousand pounds.

Yet the man was slowly paddling forward making Zeras look at him with a stupified expression.

Wait this doesn't make sense, is the water only heavy for him? Or is...

"This is the Ancient path..." The man began, as he looked up at the statues beside them.

Zeras noticed the statues were in the form of Atlanteans who all had a trident in hand and covering their head was an element.

Their figure was muscular and huge, reaching up to the ceiling above.

Their backs were straight and they looked forward with a serious expression on their face. Zeras couldn't help but shudder in respect, just from their aura alone, these were true warriors.

"The ancient path to what..." Zeras asked confused.

"The ancient path to the Atlantean soldier's ground." The man said as he looked at the statues breathing out a sad sign.

"There was a war that happened in the past in Atlantis. A war that forever changed its essence.

It was a war with another powerful race who were known as Skulls." The man said as he looked like he was looking at the past, as for how far, Zeras couldn't determine.

"The Skulls fought for something that belonged to us Atlanteans, they are a race with a deep hunger for powerful things. Therefore they had the largest collections of powerful artifacts.

And as for us Atlanteans, the most powerful thing we had was our Golden Trident. The Skulls wanted it.

But how could we give up the most precious artifacts passed on for more than a thousand generations?

We couldn't give it up, so we fought back. The results were disastrous."The old man said as he looked at the statues.

Realization dawned on Zeras as he finally knew who the statues represented. It must be the Atlantean soldiers of the past.

"Even though we Atlanteans won and we killed every single skull except one, the war was still disastrous, so much only three people survived among those who fought in the war.

It was King Atlas, ruler of Atlantis, possessor of the Golden Trident, His most trusted advisor, and a young child.

That child is Sammodra Zean.