clouds flew fast, carrying a voracious load of dark grey rain. Dropping onto the ground while several hundred meters away, they quickly spread out in all directions. The ground quickly filled with water, a muddy pool softening the crust-like ground. Several of the travelers stared at the sky, hypnotized by its relentless pace. Their faces were unusually stiff, as if they had seen a ghost of the past. After a few minutes, the rain stopped, but the ground remained flooded.
Several of them wished they had brought umbrellas before replying to their leader when she prompted them to respond. It sounded ridiculous to even say such an absurdity at this point. There was no point of even asking the question. Over the past years the atmosphere stabilizers had slowly become disabled, the smell of the chemicals used to stabilize the atmosphere slowly grew weaker. This process overwhelmed their systems and eventually lead to self-extinguishing.
Trying to respond, Darin, the leader, said, "The workshops are situated in the center of the colony, and our best guess is that they are close to a five kilometer tunnel. We can probably still smell the chlorine, which gives us an indicator. If we continue to close in to the tunnel, we will know more.
"We should travel in a triangle formation, bringing us to the center of the colony. We will then decide on how to proceed from there."
Darwin arrived in front of the group, motioning for them to head in one direction leaving him behind. After seven minutes of walking, they found a large pool of water and also a large cave entrance. They entered the cave, but no matter how much they walked towards the center, they could not proceed any further.
"I'm sorry, but you can see we have reached our physical limit. We will have to return."
"Wait a minute, there is something here," said a person called Tomas.
"You're right. The walls have weird symbols on them, but they are not Marduk. I think they are in the Elder's Alphabet."
Tomas started shining light on the wall trying to read the different symbols and translating them in his mind.
"It is the story of the Eternals. Their own version of the Elders."
"How do you know that?" said Darin.
Tomas didn't reply and kept reading the rest of the wall.
"It's an ocean, this is a description of an ancient ocean filled with sea creatures."
"What are these weird big symbols?"
"They are symbols for demons. I would guess it's from some old tale where different races lived together."
"Can you describe the Demon's names? Maybe we can find them." asked Darin.
"Fine, I'll try, but it's not my language. This tells us there were people called the, 'Engur.' Then these crosses and hooks, going through word. That's the name of some of their dog-like monsters, of all the wrong things."
"Can you tell more of the story?"
"I'm sorry, love, but I don't speak this language. I'll have to translate the pyramid diagram."
A few minutes later, the group stared at the large, complex diagram.
"If I am understanding this correctly, it's a prophecy, predicting what would happen in the future."
"What does it say?"
"Alright, I'll try. The first creature of the ground would be the, 'Vetraul.' Then the second one would be the, 'Or."'
"What are they?" asked the young girl standing in the back.
"They are Gods. The first one is the God of Destruction in the Marduk religion."
"You don't know what the other one means?"
"No, love. I'm sorry."
"Okay, continue. The third one?"
"Oh dear, this is a hard one. It says, 'Litraul.' The forth one," Tomas paused for a moment. Sweat rushing along his forehead, he quickly tried to translate more.
"The forth one will be a demon. It says, 'Gainus.'"
He continued, "Fifth one, 'Orna,' sixth one, 'Serafarou,' seventh one is 'Gaura.' Eighth will be another demon, 'Vetraul,' ninth will be 'Milsoara,' and the rest are symbols for an ocean."
The group was reluctant to depart, but they knew they had taken enough of the paths resources. Kneeling down to take a closer look, they noticed some strange wall patterns.
"Hello, are you up there?"
"Yes, yes. How are you doing down there?"
Tomas stood up, dropping the translation tools on the ground.
"Who is that talking?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know who you are talking to, but we are up here … Wait, you are in fact talking to us!"
"Oh, my, what a fine group of people. If there is anything you need just ask. I am an Eternal named Kal, one of a people called the, 'Engur.' I thought I would show myself around. So who are you, if I may ask?"
"My name is Darin and this is the group of travelers I lead. We were looking for some materials in the cave and climbed up here. Please, ask your people to get the ladder, we'll have to descend these cliffs."
"Oh, you don't have to, my boy. We can come and meet you halfway."
"That would be a much easier solution."
A few hours later, the small group of Enlightened arrived at the friendly Eternal Workshops. It was a Monday, the day where all the meetings were scheduled. The members of the Enlightened, who were all very welcome, sat down at the long table in the spacious rooms.
"No offense, guys, but this place is magnificent. How big are these rooms?"
"They are big enough, yet not large enough." Kal stood up and said, "We have been working here for more than a hundred years. Most of us have been here since the colonization. We have a hundred people here at the moment, but we can have one hundred more if needed."
"Well, gents, I appreciate it, but we can only come back to this place once every two weeks, we are going to be busy with the excavation work. It also would be nice if we could have one of your Eternal Sphere's."
"You mean the instruments that manifest things in reality?"
"Yes."
"They have to have a reason. You can not just ask for something that you deem useful." Kal looked over to his wife and nodded. "Fine, you have been here for a few months now, and your progress has been slow. We will give you one of the Eternal Spheres. However, there are a few things you must do."
"And what would they be?"
"You don't use it for harmful subjects, you never use it when you're angry, and you don't use it for selfish reasons. If you have problems, you come to us and we will try to help."
"I'm sure you will, Kal. If we don't need it, we will return it someday."
The package arrived right on time the next day. Max, lead the group to their dig site where the site of the remains of the small village were. He matched the engravings on the small sphere to the Elders' book and was able to recreate the Omni-portal leading to the underwater ruins.
The ruins were only recently opened up, allowing the them access to the area. When they reached the ruins, Max was excited. He'd never been in a place like this.