Legends of Amacia Attack on Tartarus
Chapter 7: The Great Hall of Ezra’s Tower

In a matter of seconds, they had entered the main hall where Ezra Karac was sitting at the head of the table. Once everyone was in, Hannibal announced, “Behold the great general Ezra Karac. There, Ana is what is left of your ancestor. Apparently, when the Emperor overran this place before the Kragonar, Ezra there was the last man standing. He has been sitting there for over twelve thousand cycles.” Ana stayed close to Hannibal and Selina as they approached Ezra. Hannibal sighed as they reached him. He bowed his head and saluted the great general by putting his fist over his heart. “Thank you for the sword, my friend. It saved many lives, including my own. Forgive me for losing it,” he said nobly. Ezra’s bony gaze looked on into eternity. “And look, my friend, the last of your line is here. Your blade made possible her rescue,” Hannibal said with a wink at Ana.

“Gods, he was a big man!” Amelia breathed.

“That he was,” Nathanael stated.

“So what are we looking for?” Morpheus asked as they looked on Ezra Karac’s skeleton.

Hannibal suddenly sobered from the nostalgia that he was feeling and said, “Spread out. I don’t know what it is we are supposed to replace. I’m betting that we’ll know it when we replace it.” So everyone fanned out, searching the great hall as Ana stood there staring at the ancient general sitting in the giant chair. Hannibal and Selina went to the left wall and searched.

Ana was fearful of the skeleton that sat there. Slowly, courage filled her heart and she reached out, touching the armor. She felt the armor and looked into the eye sockets of the skull as everyone searched for a clue of something they didn’t even know what was. Ana brushed the dust and cobwebs off the armored breastplate decorated with an engraving of the Roc. She tried to remember what happened to her in this place so long ago and was getting aggravated because the more she tried to remember, the more like a dream it seemed. Suddenly, Ana felt like she was in a dream as she saw a ring on his hand. Everything seemed to suspend for her as she moved toward the ring.

Selina felt Ana’s sudden anxiousness, as did Hannibal. They both turned from their search to see Ana reaching for Ezra’s ring. They quickly moved over to her. “Are you all right?” Selina asked while Ana reached for the ring.

Ana ignored the question, seemingly oblivious that anyone was around her. Hannibal suddenly felt that same feeling of dread come over him as he saw Ana touch the ring. He began to look around urgently, saying softly, “Something isn’t right here.” Ana removed the ring from Ezra’s bony finger and looked at it in utter fascination. Selina shadowed her while Hannibal continued to look around with some urgency.

Ana showed it to Selina, saying, “It’s his ring. It called to me.” They looked at the ring carefully. It was unlike anything that Selina had ever seen before.

“Hannibal, you’d better take a look at this,” Selina called out.

Hannibal moved in and the moment he did, the ring began to glow, as did the scepter. Ana was rapt with the ring, but Selina noticed the scepter and said softly, “The ring and scepter know each other, Hannibal.”

Hannibal then noticed the scepter glowing along with the ring. This intrigued him. “Curious,” he commented. “Selina, check Thoth’s sword and see if it’s glowing too. I suspect it is.”

“Right,” Selina replied, unsheathing just enough of the Caverias sword on Hannibal’s back to see the blade glowing softly too. “It’s glowing too, Hannibal. It’s strange. How would the sword and scepter know this ring?” She pushed the blade back down into its sheath to secure it.

Hannibal fished out the Caverias and Griffin Seal from beneath his armored shirt, seeing both of them glowing softly. “Mmmm hmmm, just as I thought; we may have another ancient device in this ring. It’s making the seals glow too,” he stated, putting the seals back beneath his armored shirt. “Ana, may I see it for just a moment? I’ll give it right back, I promise.”

Ana hesitated, asking, “You promise? It called to me.”

Hannibal’s eyebrow rose slightly at the words and he replied, “I promise. It will not leave your sight. I just want a closer look.” He gently picked it up out of Ana’s hand. He then handed the scepter to Selina, who took it in her gloved hand. Gently, he blew on it and brushed the dirt from the ring. It was exquisite. By now, everyone had abandoned the search and had gathered around. The ring appeared to be made of the same material that the Caverias sword was. It was also encrusted with crystal that was very similar to the scepter’s crystal. Furthermore, it was big enough that he could easily put it on his thumb with the glove still on. He rubbed it gently and blew on it, removing the centuries of buildup on it. Abruptly, he saw writing on the inside of the band. He raised it up to his eye as Ana watched anxiously. The writing was small and completely alien to him. It was then that he realized that the writing was the same as that on the Relic and all the other oddities he’d found, including the Scepter.

“Well, well, well. You have a real replace on your hands Ana. Look at this,” Hannibal said as he held the ring between his thumb and fore finger, moving it toward the scepter. The closer it came to the scepter, the brighter both shined with the writing on the ring blazing. He moved it away from the scepter and the glow of both items softened. Laying it in the palm of his hand, he said, “They definitely know each other: the ring and the scepter. Moreover, inside the band is an engraving that I recognize as the same writing that is on the Relic, Scepter, and the Caverias Sword. This ring may have been forged by the same power that created those ancient weapons. It’s a real replace indeed.” He held it over Ana’s open hand with a serious smile, saying, “Guard it carefully. Who knows what it does.”

Suddenly, Hannibal closed his hand around it and Ana began protest. However, before she could speak, he reached out and took her organic reptilian arm, holding it by the wrist. He then took the ring and placed it on her index finger. This surprised her, and the greatest shock was yet to come. The ring was bigger than her finger by twice when he put it on. The moment he put it on her finger, the ring seemingly adjusted its size to fit her finger. Everyone saw it happen and Hannibal said, “Well now. What do you make of that?”

Ana saw it fit to her finger as well, and then she shrieked in agonizing pain, crying, “Get it off! My arm is on fire! Get it off! Get it off!” Hannibal latched on to the ring and started to pull when he noticed something that he couldn’t fathom. He let go of the ring and her arm like a hot potato. She cried and tried to remove the ring with her cybernetic fingers. But they couldn’t get a grip on it so she clenched her arm in pain.

Then Ana saw it. The team was shocked as her reptilian arm slowly began to change before their eyes. It started at the finger the ring was on, and then it spread to her hand and up her arm.

“My God!” Nathanael cried in stupefaction. “Look at her arm! It’s changing!”

Ana bawled and cried, clinging to the arm as it blazed in fiery pain with the ring undoing what the Cadre did to it. The altered genetic structure of her arm that made it reptilian was being reversed before their eyes. Her arm was reverting to its original status: one that was more in line with her regular genetic structure. The ring was repairing the genetic mutation the Cadre did to her. The scaly skin of the arm began to peel and flake off like a snake shedding its skin.

Amelia went to grab her when Hannibal cried out, “Don’t touch her, Amelia! There’s nothing you can do! Whatever is happening must run its course. We cannot interfere.” Elle did however hold on to Ana as she bawled.

They watched the arm change all the way up to her shoulder, and then Ana shrieked, “I’m on fire! I’m burning up! My whole body is burning!” The changing of the genetic structure moved into the main part of her body and she fell to the floor amongst the bones of the ancient dead and shrieked as if she was dying. Rolling around, she clenched her belly, pulling into a fetal position. Amelia was heart-broken at her torment and chose to ignore Hannibal’s warning. She rubbed her hands together, meaning to help Ana. Hannibal saw it and rushed forward, physically restraining her. All of this happened under the skull gave of Ezra Karac. “You can’t help her!” Hannibal insisted. “Her genetic structure is being altered by the ring! Don’t touch her!” Amelia fought against his grip.

Suddenly, Ana’s cries were stifled as she choked vomiting out a terrible green liquid that stank of decaying death. It sprayed out of her mouth with such force that everyone had to move back to keep from being hit by the terrible putrid liquid. For a couple of minutes, she vomited nearly continuously with only gasps of air between them. Finally, the vomiting ceased and she lay like the dead around her.

Hannibal rushed forward and dragged her out of the pool of foul green puke that was almost two feet across. He pulled her into his lap as he knelt down and wondered. Her whole appearance had changed dramatically. She was no longer a misshapen mutant. Ana was beautiful as Selina. Her face was glowing and fair. The reptilian arm was absolutely gone with a normal arm for someone that was genetically ninety-eight percent Lynxian with no trace of reptilian features. She, however, didn’t appear to be breathing. Hannibal procured a handkerchief and wiped her face and chest off. Tossing the handkerchief away, he checked her pulse. There was none and she wasn’t breathing. “Oh, no; not again,” Hannibal moaned. “Quickly, Selina; the Scepter!” he ordered as he laid Ana down on the floor amidst the bones. Hannibal snatched the scepter from Selina and laid it on Ana the same way he did when the EMP from the core in Acheron killed her in Acheron’s core control room. The scepter began to glow as he knelt beside her. “Please don’t let her die, Lord. Not now!” he prayed as he took her cybernetic hand and placed it on the scepter. He then took the other organic hand with the ring on it and placed it on the scepter as well. The moment he did that, both the scepter and ring blazed in a beautiful blue light so bright that it hurt the eyes of anyone who looked at it. Energy crackled out of the scepter and gently covered her in a cocoon of blue light that crackled like static electricity. Ripples of energy flowed over and into her, restarting her heart and lungs. Hannibal had to shield his eyes from the brilliance of the scepter. Slowly the light faded away and she suddenly gasped deeply, and then moaned.

Hannibal picked up the scepter off her and laid it aside, taking her by the hand. He could feel the strange energy of the ring as he grabbed her hand. “Ana. Ana,” he called to her. “Anastasia Karac. Wake up.” She moaned again, and then opened her eyes, blinking a couple of times, before looking Hannibal in the eyes. He promptly noticed how stunningly beautiful they were. She had bright green eyes that could cause even the most hardened of men to pause. The eyes were also very Lynxian in nature. It immediately reminded him of Anastasia’s avatar after he freed her mind, only that she still had the cybernetic enhancements.

“What happened?” Ana asked as Hannibal held her hand, “You put that ring on my finger and I was suddenly on fire. Then everything went dark.”

Hannibal held up her hand so she could look at it. He didn’t say a word, but smiled a smile of relief and awe at what he’d witnessed.

Ana’s mouth fell open in wonder at what she saw. “Wha...what is this? My arm isn’t reptilian anymore!” she cried in astonishment as she looked at the arm.

Hannibal sat her up, saying, “There is way more to the ring than we thought. No wonder it called to you. Seems that through some feat of magic or technology, this ring has undone the genetic alterations the Cadre performed on you. Look there on the floor. You puked that out and I suspect that if we test it, we’ll replace that it is reptilian in nature. It’s incredible. I’ve never seen anything like this. You literally changed in front of our eyes. We watched your reptilian arm turn into this beautiful arm. The skin of the arm sloughed off like a snakeskin. When the change reached your shoulder, you cried and puked for nearly two minutes. But now look at you. You’re literally glowing.”

“Why is my chest tingling?” Ana asked.

“When you stopped puking, so did your heart and lungs,” Hannibal reported. “Do you remember the core of Acheron?”

Ana thought for a moment, and then said, “Yes, I remember the pain and how you used the scepter to bring me back. The pain I just endured was a hundred times worse than that.”

Hannibal closed his other hand around hers saying, “I used the scepter again to revive you. But this time, the scepter and that ring interacted. It generated some kind of energy cocoon around you that I’ve never seen before. The Almighty had it bring you back. I’m sure of it. Can you stand?”

“I think so,” Ana replied. “But my chest is very sore.”

Hannibal motioned to Amelia and Selina. They came forward and gently picked Ana up, setting her on her feet. She had strength in her feet. For a moment, she wobbled but quickly found her legs.

“It’s a miracle!” Andrew breathed.

Ana looked at the ring, and then at Ezra Karac, and was surprised because the skull seemed to be smiling at her. She didn’t let anyone know, however. She walked over to him, still dazed by the incident and laid a hand on his shoulder, looking him in the eye sockets. Then to everyone’s surprise, she kissed the skull on the cheekbone, saying, “Thank you.” She then turned to everyone to see them gawking. “What?” she asked in a puzzled manner.

Hannibal shot a condescending glance at the team and they closed their mouths, which had been hanging open as they gawked. “Nothing, Ana. It’s nothing. Just out of curiosity, can you take the ring off?” he said.

Ana tried with her metal hand and was unable to get a grip. She offered her hand to Hannibal, saying, “I can’t get it off with this metal hand. You try.” Hannibal gently grasped her hand with one of his and with the other gently pulled on the ring and it slid right off her finger. He watched carefully to see if what had just occurred would reverse when the ring was removed. It didn’t.

“I don’t know how it did that, but I’m glad it did,” Hannibal told her as he held the ring between his thumb and index finger. “You told me that you hoped we would be able to replace a way to undo what the Cadre did to you. Looks like we did, at least for part of it; the genetic alterations seemed to have been undone through this ring. But as for these cybernetics, I’m not sure that we can do anything. You said they were hooked into your vital organs. Trying to remove them could possibly kill you.”

Ana looked at her arm with a warm smile, saying, “It’s all right. I understand. Besides, I apparently need them.” She looked at her cybernetic arm and its rough mechanical look, adding, “In its own way, these things aren’t that ugly. Maybe if we could come up with a covering for it that looks a little more like a normal arm.”

Hannibal put a hand on her shoulder, saying, “I’m sure we could do that. Tal has come up with a special skin he used on Rachel’s prosthesis arm and legs that looks real. He is actually very talented.”

Ana smiled at him knowingly, saying, “Thank you for saving me again and thank you for bringing me.”

Hannibal took her hand and smiled, putting the ring back on her finger, saying, “You are so welcome, sis. How could I do anything else? Besides, this ring is yours. It belongs to your line and so it belongs on your finger. I hope someday really soon we’ll replace out what these crazy relics are for, including that ring. That ring is another bread crumb in my search for answers.”

Ana touched him with her newly restored hand on the side of the face, saying, “Don’t worry, my king. You will replace your answers sooner than you think.”

“So, do you have any ideas?” Hannibal asked her as he retrieved the scepter.

“What do you mean?” Ana asked.

“The ring was a happenstance,” Hannibal answered. “I’m sure of it. It isn’t the primary reason we are here. There’s something else here having to do with Leila. I can feel it. The feeling of dread that I had just before you took the ring hasn’t left. We still have a job to do here. Somewhere inside this fortress is Leila’s resting place. We need to replace it so I can put her restless spirit to rest.”

Ana thought for a moment on it...putting her incredible mind and experience into the question. “You had a vision of it, right?” she asked. Hannibal nodded. “You said Ezra was pointing to something, right?” she asked again. Again, he nodded and she asked, “Which direction was he pointing?”

Hannibal searched his memory and Selina blurted out, “He was pointing to the left, over there.” Selina pointed to the left wall where they had been searching before the incident with the ring.

Ana first looked, and then began to walk in that direction. She floated across the floor like a queen, very poised and fluid in her motion, elegant and graceful. As she approached the wall with Hannibal, Selina and the rest of the team behind her, she abruptly stopped as her keen ears heard the sound of water. She looked around intensely. Suddenly, she said, “Find where the water is the loudest. The water is the clue.” They immediately spread out along that wall.

A few moments later, Nathanael called out, “The water is loudest over here!”

They all congregated on his position and Ana looked around as if she was looking for something. Hannibal began to smirk as he realized that she remembered something. She was kicking the bones away, looking intensely at the floor and walls. “You remember now, don’t you Ana,” he crowed softly.

With a telltale smirk, Ana glanced at him without saying a word. “It’s got to be here,” she stated with growing irritation.

“What is it? Is there a passage behind the wall there?” Hannibal asked pointedly.

Ana glanced at him, saying, “Yes, it is. I remember what happened here clearly now. This is where I was caught seven hundred thirty-five cycles ago. My family and I were fleeing the Rakshasar when we came here. We found the secret passage here in this wall and took refuge deep in the mountain. Little did we know that this mountain was the home to a hideous monster known only as Nidhoggr. We unwittingly ran right into its lair while trying to escape the Rakshasar. It killed my entire family and I alone escaped it only to be captured by the Rakshasar.” She shuddered at the memory, declaring, “Nidhoggr is an ageless evil that never sleeps, a monster unlike anything you can imagine. You mustn’t go in there. It will kill you!”

Hannibal smiled, asking, “What does this Nidhoggr look like?”

“I don’t exactly remember it. It was too horrible. I was just coming of age when it occurred,” Ana replied softly and fearfully. “But I can tell you this. I’d know it if I saw it.”

Hannibal looked her in the eye, saying, “Did you remember seeing anything else down there?”

Ana thought hard for a moment, and then replied, “No. It was so long ago. The only thing I clearly remember was us fleeing the Dark Riders and running into the monster deep below us near the water.”

Hannibal rubbed his chin as he looked at the wall. “Hmm,” he mused. “But you’re sure there’s a passage behind this wall and a monster somewhere beyond that.”

Ana nodded; having given up on replaceing the trigger to open the door. It somewhat irritated her. “The last time I was here, the passage was open. Now there is no sign of it having ever existed,” she hissed with irritation. “I just don’t understand how the door could have vanished so completely.”

Andrew suddenly spoke up, saying, “I don’t mean to be a kill joy here. But if there is a monster beyond the wall there, why are we trying to get in?”

Hannibal looked at him and replied, “Because there may be something else here we do not want the Emperor to replace. Besides, Leila’s in there somewhere. I have to finish this thing with Leila now before it’s too late. It was no happenstance that Seras, Selina, and I had the same vision at the same time. Yes, there is great danger here. I can sense it. But there is something here that I feel we must replace. It would be far more dangerous not to.”

Andrew shrugged slightly, saying, “Oh; all right uncle, if you say so. I just thought I’d mention it.”

Hannibal smiled as he looked at the floor where Ana had been looking, saying, “It’s perfectly all right, nephew. Sometimes it is good to have a voice of restraint.” Hannibal continued to search the floor.

“Don’t worry, Ana. Hannibal has this knack for replaceing secret passages,” Elle stated, confident that Hannibal would replace the way in. “He found the secret room in Antillia where the crystal scroll cylinders were hid and retrieved them.”

Ana looked at Hannibal with surprise, asking, “You found the legendary scrolls of Eli Singh?”

Hannibal smiled wryly as he stopped searching, realizing that he was going about it all wrong. “May be; I haven’t had time to really study them like I should. But first, let’s get this thing open. Stand back,” he said as he took his hand and pulled Ana away from the wall where she was searching. “Move back to the table, if you will.”

“What’s he going to do, grandpa?” Andrew asked Nathanael as they moved back.

Nathanael grinned, saying, “Just watch. Hannibal always full of surprises.”

Hannibal sighed and held the scepter in both hands horizontally calming himself for the task before him. He glanced over his shoulder and addressed the skeleton of Ezra Karac, saying, “I hope you are right about this, Ezra. If Leila isn’t here, I’m going to be royally pissed.” He turned back to the wall and looked at it intensely. He moved the scepter toward the wall and found that it began to glow brighter the closer it came to the wall. Waving the crystal head of the scepter back and forth like a strange Geiger counter, he noticed one spot where the scepter glowed brightest as if reacting to something. “Definitely something here,” he commented, looking down at the floor after backing away a couple of steps. He squatted down and brushed the debris away from the floor in front of him. Something under the dirt perked his attention. “Mmmm hmmm, thought so; it’s sealed with a device,” he called out replaceing a strange indentation beneath the shallow layer of dirt after brushing it away. “This must be what the scepter is reacting to.”

Standing up, Hannibal closed his eyes and began to concentrate. The scepter began to glow brightly and he slammed it pummel end down into the indentation in the floor saying, “Charibdis serias felvo undar eloi set tope moi undar.” He spoke the words clearly and without hesitation as if he knew exactly what to say and do. The scepter blazed and the echo of it striking the floor mixed his words made a strange symphony echoing through the great hall. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the whole place rumbled; dust and small pieces of debris falling from the ceiling.