The supreme priest Iflhet got up from his sofa and many others did the same. It was evident that something important was about to happen: the whole room had fallen silent, the servants had stopped and even the musicians had stopped playing. Even if the smiling faces hadn't vanished, they were now surrounded by an aura of seriousness and determination that fully demonstrated the importance of what was to happen shortly thereafter. Haku clearly felt the tension in the air, and every muscle contracted, especially those of the claws, tail and jaws, ready to spring at any moment; but he didn't let this event manifest itself outside his body and indeed he kept a stoic and calm expression, as if he weren't touched in the least by what was happening. He simply kept looking at Iflhet for explanations, almost as if he didn't consider everything else important, thus not showing even a hint of weakness. In the eyes of the arachnes his calm must have seemed extraordinary, for they looked at him with a certain admiration in their eyes (or at least, more admiration than usual). Then Ifhlet spoke again: "Please follow me, my king, and you too, lords of the world. It is time for you to receive the inheritance that the great Akenothustar has left for you, and which we arachnes have kept in his name all this time awaiting yours coming"
Haku just let out a puff, to release a little of the tension that was building up in his heart, and then stood up; Rhaegal, Tikka, and Teramon hurried to follow suit, and their companions did the same. Iflhet led them down a long corridor, at the end of which was evidently a stairway pointing upwards. The corridor was at least twenty feet high and on each of its walls were frescoes of extraordinary workmanship, so beautiful and colorful that not even a royal palace could have imitated them, and each of them showed strange images: dragons flying in the sky, entire peoples kneeling to adore a dragon, the same dragon who generously taught the aforementioned peoples to build entire cities made of alabaster and obelisks that soared towards the sky, with architectural techniques practically unknown until then... or perhaps simply forgotten. That dragon was enormous, and always occupied at least seventy per cent of the painting, and had an incomparable majesty; his scales were iridescent and each of them looked almost like a rainbow, demonstrating that he must have an immense amount of domains. For a moment Haku believed it was Balagaberan, but then he realized that the dragon in the paintings was undoubtedly male, since the shape of his horns left no doubt. "Is that Akenothustar?"
"Exactly" Iflhet answered. "The great Akenothustar, Creator of Civilization, Giver of Knowledge, High Commander of the Nine Armies. The noblest and most talented son of Balagaberan, who was to sit on the throne of the world and lead it to a future radiant beyond all limits"
"He looks like an important person" Haku murmured. The titles which the arachnes bestowed on this Akenothustar were no doubt high-sounding, proving that he must be the object of great admiration on their part. This thesis was supported by the fact that the supreme priest had spoken of him even when Haku had asked him to speak to him about the prophecy. "Can you tell me something about him?"
But Iflhet shook his head in utter demoralization. "I can't, unfortunately. The mouths and tongues of us arachnes were sealed long ago; only among ourselves can we speak of these things, until the ancient scriptures have a new master who will declare us free from our silence. Only when that will happen we will finally be able to tell to other peoples the stories that we have handed down from generation to generation. I wish it were otherwise, but this was the will of the great Akenothustar thousands of years ago. But don't be worry, my king: when we show you the ancient scriptures, you won't need me to tell you anything, for the legends say that the ancient scriptures themselves will speak when the lords of the world have returned to us, and now is the time"
Haku narrowed his eyes slightly. So he had been right: there was a spell that prevented arachnes from speaking what they knew to anyone who wasn't an arachne. That's why Arethar hadn't been able to tell him all about her, and that's why Iflhet was now leading him somewhere instead of giving him answers. And apparently, or at least from what he had understood from the words of the supreme priest, this spell had been cast on the arachnes by Akenothustar himself. What power must that dragon have possessed to be able to create a curse (if it was a curse and not something completely different and unknown) so powerful as to control an entire people and remain active after thousands of years? And why had he done it? Well, the answer to that last question was easy to understand: Akenothustar wanted to make sure that no one found out the truth unless it was another dragon. But why? What had he feared? And what was this truth so important to keep secret?
As they continued he began to notice that something in the frescoes was changing. While those at the beginning of the corridor were coloured, candid, and expressed joy and progress, the further they went, the more they became gloomy, dark, and showed ever more bloody scenes. Soon the frescoes showing dragons helping and teaching entire peoples turned into violent battle scenes, where legions of rampaging dragons battled strange shapeless entities, and below them armies composed of all races clashed as if from annihilation. their very lives depended on their adversary. The strange entities had variable shapes: some were similar to newcomers, others had a monstrous shape, others looked like horrendous hybrids, still others appeared in the form of simply beams of energy that condensed into powerful weapons. The sky and the earth turned red because of all the blood spilled, hundreds of dragons fell shaking the earth with unprecedented violence, and thousands of those mysterious entities were slaughtered, but strangely in the following fresco they returned as if they had never been death; Haku initially thought it was an artist's mistake, but then realized that none of the dead dragons reappeared in any of the other frescoes, and the same was true of the newcomers who were killed. Only the mysterious entities always returned, and soon they were surrounded by other entities, which had oddly strange shapes, similar to spirits, angels, demons, or ghosts...
A doubt made its way into Haku's mind. "Are these... gods?" he murmured pointing to the mysterious entities.
The arachnes let out a strange cry, a kind of disgusted cry, but it contained much more disgust than Haku had ever heard in his life. He didn't think there was anyone in the world capable of feeling such hatred for… well, for something painted on a fresco. "That's right" Iflhet murmured in a voice that sounded like poison, and his grip on his staff tightened almost to breaking bones. "The usurpers who came to destroy the world that the great Akenothustar was trying to create. The false kings who now rule this world as their own, and who have forced the true lords of the world to hide and flee, reducing them to mere animals, denigrating them and depriving them of all dignity, accursed blasphemous entities that force the peoples who venerate them into continuous warfare among themselves, and that care nothing for the well-being of this world, however much they pretend to be good and considerate towards their faithful But it doesn't matter... the moment of revenge will come very soon"
Haku didn't quite know what to think. So in the past dragons and gods had fought? But when exactly in the past? And why? What exactly had happened? And what were the gods really? Iflhet called them usurpers... did he mean that the gods had forced the dragons down from the top of the food chain and gone wild? Or something like that? And why did they seem to reappear in every fresco, even after they were blatantly killed in the previous fresco? That situation was becoming more and more mysterious with each passing second...
And then they came to the end of the corridor, and there Haku could see the last fresco. It was located right in the middle of the corridor, suspended above what should have been the door to the stairs, although there was no door, just a hole in the wall. The fresco was painted in a strange way: it was gloomy and conveyed a feeling of sadness, but at the same time in many parts the colors were bright and conveyed hope. The subject of the painting was Akenothustar, bent hideously with his belly towards the sky and with a spear piercing his body, and above him was a cyclopean being wrapped in white robes and thrusting his weapon into the dragon's chest. The being, clearly a god, had a humanoid shape, but the head seemed to be cut in half, with only the mouth visible, which was contracted in a grimace that seemed more in pain than in victory; the missing part of the head was instead made up of a strange mass of dark energy studded with bright dots similar to stars, in the center of which there was a golden eye wrapped in a perennial flame, which seemed to emit its own light. Akenothustar's blood was wetting the god's face and hitting his eye as well, but some of the red drops didn't seem to come from the stream of blood, but from the eye itself, as if that was its way of shedding tears.
Haku was intrigued by that fresco. Up until this point the others had always shown an all out war between dragons and gods, where neither side showed the slightest weakness or regret, so why was this time different? And why was that god in particular, unlike all the others who had been portrayed in a very dark way as to highlight their evil nature, had instead been painted as if he were a good and important subject as much as Akenothustar himself? He wanted to ask the supreme priest about it, but he knew he would get no answer, so he followed him up the stairs. They were a spiral staircase leading upwards, and it appeared to be very long; although it was designed for arachnes, dragons were still able to walk on it. When they finally reached the top, the ceiling disappeared completely, allowing them all to see the huge dragon bones above them; apparently they were in the highest tower of the palace. And there before them, arranged in a semi-circular shape, were several tablets composed of a mineral that appeared to be adamantium, on which were engraved words. Each tablet was at least two meters high and four meters wide, and there were five in total. "The ancient scriptures" Iflhet said pointing to them.
Haku walked over and looked at the tablets. He couldn't understand what language they were written in: that system of lines and dots was completely foreign to him. He was about to ask Iflhet for an explanation, when suddenly Isaac exclaimed: "This... is ancient Draconian!"
Haku looked at him confused. "Draconian?"
"It's the language in which the few artifacts that can be found in dungeons are written. Basically, it was the language used by dragons before the Great Death" Isaac explained. "I have never seen such a complete exhibit... many of these words, indeed almost all of them, are foreign to me. Can you translate it?"
Iflhet nodded. "We arachnes have remembered the writing of the lords of the world, and we know what the ancient scriptures say, but as I have already told you we cannot talk about it" he answered, then he looked at Haku: "My king, if you wish to know the truth, take command of the ancient scriptures. Mark the middle one with your blood, and according to legend, the ancient scriptures will speak to you"
Haku looked at the central tablet; on it there was a hollow, which seemed perfect to insert a few drops of blood. Although hesitant, he lightly bit a finger on his right paw, and dropped some blood into that hollow. Even though he knew it could be a mistake, now he wanted to know the truth at all costs, and he wasn't willing to wait any longer.
The instant his blood touched the tablet, the words engraved on them lit up with a greenish light, which soon spread over all the other tablets; each of them began to tremble slightly, then a stream of white light exploded from them. Haku had to close his eyes for a moment, but he could clearly hear a voice, deep as a ravine and powerful as thunder: "Finally you've arrived"