Two Years Ago…

Hard, metallic boots impacted on the floor of one of the temple's many levels. The cloaked investigator looked around. Thus far, it had been fairly easy to penetrate the temple.

You see, our explorer had heard of the temple on the foreign planet from a reliable source. The tough part was getting there. It seemed all the elements culminated and combined in an alliance to keep intruders out. The temple lay on a sandy desert, surrounded by a deep lake, which in turn was surrounded by snow covered mountains, which faded into a tundra before ending in the ocean. Needless to say, nearly anything would be easy compared to forging these climates.

However, this was not the case with the explorer. He was right at home on the tundra and mountains, crossing them in a day and a fortnight. The lake had provided a problem, as, skining to the bottom by the weight of his shoes, the pressure was painfully great. Drowning would have been a concern, save his lack of a need for oxygen to his lungs, so eventually, he made it.

From there, it was the desert, and that was surprisingly the easiest yet. He sprinted across it in a number of hours, and entered the massive temple that lay partially buried in its sands.

There had been several hallways, and holes leading to the level below, much like the one he had just fallen through. Looking around, he judged he was somewhere near the seventh or eighth floor.

There were numerous hieroglyphics on the wall, but he ignored them as trivial wastes of his time, sprinting past.

He leapt a fall-away floor or two, muttering at what shoddy traps they were and continued on. Finally, his journey ended in a massive, dusty, torch lit room. It had numerous aged bookcases, packed to the brim with musty old tomes.

He reached for the nearest one, drawing it out. It almost instantly disentegrated in his hands. He shook his head and drew forth another book, this time handling it very carefully as not to cause it to fall to dust. He succeeded and opened it. It had no title in a recognizable language, but flipping to near the back, he found some that weren't in the strange dialect, but in Rhenzin; the Eastern desert variety no less.

The words were written as follows:

Upon the discovery of the prize,
the new demon god shall once more arise.
To take from all what he feels rightfully his
to recreate in the image of his own design.

The god can perish, though unlikely it be
when sealed for the fourth finally is he.
Though in this time and dimension,
it shall never come to be.

But it might in a time after it all;
the rise of a few, evil's great fall.
The time and place not yet concieved
a level of new creation, a plane to be sought.

With the deaths of a few,
the souls of many are bought
from the grip of terror,
destruction, and pain.

And in the end, it will only be two.
-D.M.T. Veranzi-


The explorer recognized the name immediately. "D.M.T. Veranzi...hmm…been some time since I heard that name," he thought, nodding slowly. "He's a popular philosopher, historian, and philanthrophist back on Caelum. The 'Philosophising Prophet' himself. Might do me well to hang onto some of these…"

The explorer shrugged and drew several books off the shelves that were in the same section (thus, most likely having more articles by Veranzi) and put them into a bag on his shoulder. Zipping it shut, he turned and proceeded back the way he had gone.

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CR braced himself slightly as he foretold the Spectrum's sudden and rapid increase in speed as the Andromeda detached
from it. He considered if it would have been wise to tell the others ahead of time, as it rather caught them off guard and they were bowled over. Except Kenzo who collapsed on Kyanosa, who had joined them, but gotten back upright, and Ian, but CR knew a bit behind that one..

Mazzic wandered over to him, as it wasn't pre-meditated, as wandering tends to entail, so it was just a good coincidence really. CR looked over as the assassin looked to want to say something.
"Yes?," he asked.

Mazzic scratched his chin. "Well, sir, I was wondering again, why are we trying to keep this 'Havering' fellow down, and IF he can even be destroyed, if reports of his persistance reviving are true."

CR nodded and closed his eyes in thought. "Yes, it's possible," he began, "but it'll be insanely hard if nothing else.
Afterall, he must be sealed four times to be stuck in the mid dimesion he's bound to." He paused, thinking. "For why we're trying to keep him dead..well...imagine EXTREME UNLIMITED power, only it's in the hands of a genius madman who wants nothing but unlimited control of the Multiverse. You'd be close."

Mazzic whistled. "Wow, that bad, hunh?"

CR nodded. "Yeah, that bad. But like I said, he can be defeated- if we seal him four times, then someone kills him in the mid dimension. But odds are, once he's eternally sealed, we won't NEED to!"

Mazzic nodded, then asked something that had been puzzling him. "But, how come we have to do it four times??"

"Very estute question, space pirate, well, four times leads to his ETERNALLY being bound to the place. As once was said- 'The god can perish, though unlikely it be when sealed for the fourth finally is he.'."

Mazzic nodded understandingly. "Hmm, yes, I see...but..where did that quote come from?"

CR grinned. "Well, I got around as a young man, and visited a rather..'exclusive' library and borrowed a few books containing this stuff. Proved handy." "As I guessed it would.." he mentally added.

The clone accepted this and excused himself. CR received a shout from Omega, confirming the fact that they were VERY near Nimbus now (at full speed, a distance that could take 24 years at high double digits took mere seconds). He smiled slightly and sat back. He looked out the window idly, watching the stars pass by.

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Nsvem crossed the darkened hall of the old, decrepit, abandoned HQ the Eternalists originally held. He studied a fallen stack of folders, looking for a specific one. Vaurix poked his head in.

"Yo!" he announced, getting the professor's attention. Nsvem joined him out in the hall.

Vaurix held up a computer hard disk with the Eternalist symbol and a smuged blue word and nodded. "Just like you said, found it near yer office. It was in the hall, buried under a lot of fallen plaster and stuff, but it seems to be in tact, so should still work."

Nsvem snickered, nodding as he returned to the room, and rummaged through the stack of folders on the floor. He laughed triumphantly as he found what he was looking for and drew it up.

Vaurix didn't clearly see what was written, or drawn on it, as the motion was quite quick, so he didn't get a chance.

"Alright, let's get this folder and that disk to a computersomewhere.," Nsvem said, grinning. "Privacy prefered, of course.."