Justice by R.T. Adams (reading list .TXT) 📖

step echoing softly through the halls of the structure. Soon, we reached a large area in which columns had been, some partially destroyed, as well as some of the building, itself. In the center was a stone tomb, or so it looked. When I looked at it, it seemed somewhat Greek. We continued forward, into a hallway which had many columns, each somewhat destroyed. Soon, we found ourself in a large circular room with columns, as well as a flight of steps upwards to a ruined throne. There sat what was meant to resemble a crown, but was now split in several pieces. Suddenly, a sense of deja-vu hit me. My dream. The lady who warned me.

“So you have come,” a voice, one which strongly reverberated throughout the place, spoke out. It was most definitely a woman’s voice. Soon, someone appeared from behind the throne, walking up her own flight of steps. She was beautiful, along with being dressed in a peplos, the same Greek outfit that the woman in my dream was dressed in. She was identical to the woman.

“Who are you?” Alicia immediately responded, mostly by pulling out her blade.

“Hold on,” I said, grabbing her wrist, “I’ve seen her in a dream before.”

“A dream or a vision?” Randolph said.

“I’m not sure, but she warned me about a great struggle we will come across,” I said, “She spoke in a language I didn’t know when we first saw each other.”

“The language of the royals,” she said.

“Latin?” Randolph said.

“Much before it had been switched, ages before,” she spoke, “The true language of the royals.” A language in which no longer exists in our planet, a dead language unable to be translated anymore.

“How come the language on the blade was Latin?” I asked.

“The language switches accordingly to the royal’s new language,” she said, “The true language became too easy to comprehend by commoners, and so they soon found out every plan of the royals. So it was once more switched. It is likely to be switched again very soon.”

“So, what is this struggle we will come upon?” I asked, almost now completely uninterested in the royal language.

“I am afraid I do not have the ability to tell you that,” she said.

“Why not?” I asked.

“I must take my leave now,” she said, walking away, down the steps behind her.

“Hey, wait!” I ran over, but she’d suddenly vanished. A door soon opened, one huge and likely heavy. I walked through the doors, but before the others could enter, it shut. I turned and ran over to the door.

“Kimbo?” Randolph shouted from the other side.

“What the hell is this?” I yelled.

“Make haste to the blade, then you and your friends shall depart from this structure,” a voice that i didn’t know echoed through the long hallway in front of me. I looked back at the door, then back forward again. I began running in hope that the voice hadn’t lied to me. Suddenly, behind me, the bricks began to collapse. If I stopped now, I would most certainly die, along with me friends being trapped here forever until they die of either hunger or dehydration. Soon, the bricks stopped falling, but in front of me, a demon appeared. It as fairly large, but I was ready to fight it. I pulled out my sword and waited for it to attack. With its four legs, it charged forward. It then swung its two arms around, each with its own sharpened edges. I swung my blade at one of its fairly thin arms, watching it as it simply flung off and stabbed into the wall nearby. It wailed in pain, but didn’t stop. Instead, it turned and swung its other arm at me. I swung back at it, cutting off the sharp edge, which flung behind me and fell in between two bricks. It the jumped up on two of its legs and forcefully kicked its front two legs at me. I lifted my blade to block. When its feet slammed into my blade, it shoved me back fairly far. I lifted my blade and sliced directly down, cutting open its chest, then diagonally at its throat as it lowered for a slight moment. By now, it’s head was hanging on by a thin amount of skin, the blood pouring out from both its detached head and neck. It soon fell over and dissipated into the air.

As I was about to walk forward, two men stepped out from behind two columns, each holding a spear. Both of them ran forward at once.I dodged one of them and swung my blade down on the other’s pole, slicing it in two. I then brought my elbow back into one of their jaws and extended my blade as I was still pulling back, cutting a portion of their hair, just barely missing their head. The other one pulled their spear back and jabbed again. Just barely, I managed to dodge it and grab the pole, halting him from jabbing again. I pulled my own blade back and plunged it into his chest, twisting and pulling it back out. He simply fell to the ground with a thud. The other one quickly reacted and threw a punch at my side, successfully hitting me. I flinched only a bit, but to my surprise, he was faster than I thought. He managed to get another punch off right into my left cheek. I lifted my blade quickly and slashed downwards, slicing his right arm off, then horizontally, cutting his torso off from his legs. His knees buckled and his torso fell off backwards, onto his now immobile feet. I cleaned my sword and slid it into its sheath. I kept running, soon noticing a large wooden door. However, just before I could get to it, I felt something wrap around my body, pulling me backwards with an immense amount of strength, releasing me, causing me to crash into one of the columns. I got up in pain, pulling out my sword. I looked at my opponent. It was an indecipherable thing. It had tons of tentacle-like objects, all with sharp objects on the tips. However, the tips did not look natural. Rather, it seemed like they were melded together with the demon. It was hardly much else than a slop of tentacles wriggling around in a big pile. It quickly darted one of its tentacles towards me. I lifted my blade and sliced the tip off, but not the tentacle, itself. It slowly moved towards me, one-by-one shooting its tentacles at me. However, I continued to cut the tips off, eventually until there were no more blades. It didn’t shriek or anything, it just continued to move forward. By now, it was attacking with its bare tentacles, trying to swipe my feet or to grab me. Eventually, it grabbed my left arm, so I swung my blade at its tentacle, but before I could, it sent a mass of its tentacles right into my blade, slowing down my cut. It used its own limbs to protect itself. With my arm still captive, it yanked on me, causing me to stumble forward a bit. I kept trying to slice its one tentacle on my arm, but it kept jerking me around and blocking it. However, by the time I got close to it, almost all of its tentacles were gone. I decided to, instead, plunge my blade into where I thought its heart was. Coincidentally, its tentacle on my arm loosened and began rotting away. I put my blade away and walked over to the door, pushing with what I could. It creaked, but nonetheless opened. In front of me, a large circular pedestal with a single blade stuck into it. The blade was red, as well as looking heavily decorated. There seemed to be practically no guard on it. Rather, just one large circle with a hole through it, then the hilt. I walked up to it, grabbed the hilt, and pulled. To my surprise, the blade smoothly slid out. Suddenly, a light started to emit from it and I went unconscious.

By the time I woke up, I was lying in front of the sword statue, or where it was. Resembling what was similar to the sword statue was now in my hand, but it was the same colour and figure as that in the structure. I slowly got up and looked around, noticing the people all standing and staring, gossiping about “that man with the sword.” At my feet, Randolph, Arcanum, and Alicia lie there, unconscious. I went over to Randolph and shook him, but he still didn’t wake up. I went over to the other two and shook them, as well, but they didn’t wake up either. When I looked in the location where the sword statue was, there was nothing. Not even a hole where it had been stabbed into. Soon, I heard one of them, or just all of them, groaning. When I turned around, surely, it was all of them. Each and every one of them ended up groaning in unison, as well as rising up at the same time. They all looked around for a moment.

“I’m not very fond of a lot of attention,” Arcanum said.

“Didn’t intend for this to happen,” I said, “Come on, let’s hurry outta here.” Without being able to sheath my blade, it was beginning to get annoying. As I passed through people, they split into a clear path, noticing my sword. Soon, we reached my car. I tossed my new sword along with my old one in the back on the floorboard. However, just before I could get in, someone ran up to me.

“You!” they shouted, carrying something large by their side.

“Yeah?” I said.

“You obtained the sword, correct?” he asked.

“Yeah, I did,” I said blatantly.

“Take this,” he handed me a sheath, one that fitted the sword I now had. I didn’t need to ask how he managed to make it, considering there was a statue of it on display right outside the cave. The question would be more like why did he make it. However, I decided to keep my mouth shut and just accept it, considering it’s the only sheath I have for it. I leaned into my car, picked it up, and slid it into the sheath. Surely enough, it was a fine fit. I laid it down on the floorboard and got into my car with the others. Driving off, the man waved at us. Surely, he was a strange figure, but I let it be. Come the time we left the city in the mountain, we were now on a bridge, a long and wide one in which lead to a whole different area. Ahead, I could see a small island, one with some few large buildings.

“Isn’t that one of their strongholds?” Randolph said.

“It is,” Alicia said, “No one hardly gets to it because it’s so far out in the water.” The bridge was most certainly long, considering we haven’t even covered half of it yet and we’d been driving for about five minutes on the bridge.

“It doesn’t just look like a stronghold from here,” I said.

“That’s because a lot of higher-up Justice members also live there, along with some normal citizens,” Alicia said.

“Isn’t it a bit strange that they’d let normal citizens stay at a Justice stronghold?” Randolph asked.

“Most certainly,” she replied, “Not even I am sure why they did such a thing.” By now, we’ve covered a few more minutes of the bridge. It was becoming tiring to see just ocean and bridge the entire way. Every so often, I’d notice a ship or a boat pass by under the bridge, usually a Justice ship. The water was most certainly different than most water I’ve seen. Rather than just being a greenish-blue, there had also been a slight black shade.

“So they pour their waste into the ocean?” I said.

“They do,” Alicia said.

“How long has this stronghold been here?” I asked.

“Before I joined Justice, so for