Snippet #2785757

Though he had woken, the next hour made Syros feel like he was dreaming. Everything was so unusual, so strange, and his memory of events were scattered and distant as though seen through a mist. Moments were coming back to him of course, but he was so preoccupied with coming to terms with the here and now that he struggled to separate echoes of the past from the visions of infinite dreams. Those around him seemed both unnerved and amazed by his presence, yet simultaneously they endeavoured to explain to him his current situation in a language he had never heard, but somehow understood.

He had asked them where he was, and they explained. In a place they had called the Temple of Veneration, which was hidden in the Sentinel Mountains close to the Titan's Gate and a great desert. Syros had rubbed his head, not knowing what to believe. There had been no mountains there, nor a Titan's Gate. Nearly everything they tried to tell him was so foreign, so difficult for him to comprehend... But the reason was clear to him. He had been sleeping for aeons, and everything he had ever known had been reduced to whispered legends, ancient history, or ruins that lay beneath the remains of a hundred younger civilisations. They also told him of Eras, of the Colossi and giants rising, of threats from void of space, of an ancient prophecy he was now proof of, and of the sky turning crimson with the light of the dead star.

He took his Titan Spear and followed as they led him out of the 'tomb'. The Grandmaster of this ancient order, the High-Priestess, and four warriors walked with him up to the unbreakable door that had only just been opened, then through the inside of the temple that had been built to intern him.

"How close is Gaia to devastation?" He asked, in a tongue he didn't remember learning.

There was a period of silence before someone finally answered him. "We don't know," the High-Priestess replied. "But battles rage as we speak, and Eras makes his plays."

Eventually they came to where crimson light flooded in through open doors, illuminating part of the main entrance hall. Syros looked out from within, seeing mountains in the distance. The Grandmaster clapped him on the shoulder, then together he and the High-Priestess led Syros outside to the staircase with a staff raised into the air.

"After all this time," the Grandmaster spoke in a voice of magic that seemed to echo from the far mountains themselves, "our duty - our purpose - has been revealed to us."

Syros suddenly saw what the Grandmaster addressed. An entire army stood facing the temple, with a line of individuals who appeared to be priests standing in front of it, and an impossibly wide chasm and bridge behind. He touched the end of his spear to the ground, and his eyes fell upon the thousands of assorted warriors who wore armour that he had never seen.

"I reveal to you," the Grandmaster continued, "the slayer Syros, vanquisher of the Colossi, who has lain entombed and sleeping under our temple since the time of its founding. Our duty? To keep it hidden, and protect this resting place until such a time Syros was called to return to us in our hour of need. That hour is now, and thus our duties have been completed. But now is not the end of our order, it is merely the first step of the next road we must now follow. As you are all no doubt aware, Eras seeks dominion over our world, and he will use the Colossi and all else at his disposal to destroy or control all life upon it. In addition, threats from distant stars poise themselves on our horizons, and an age of war and struggle for our very survival is starting. Thus as Grandmaster Aldarnus of the Order of Veneration, I declare now that we have a new purpose: to aid, to protect, and to serve Syros in his efforts to preserve Gaia."

The Grandmaster finished speaking, then turned towards Syros and bowed. Next the High-Priestess bowed, and then the other priests followed her. A moment later, the thousands of gathered warriors bowed as well, and Syros looked upon all of them with an inescapable feeling of being overwhelmed by both his environment and his situation. Once again, the hopes and fears of an entire people fell heavy upon his shoulders, and once again he knew he would have to battle on their behalf. He looked up at the sky, his eyes narrowed at the distant Eras, and he wondered if the dead star was looking back at him.

Then he heard it, a request for assistance on the wind. A call to Gaia's Champions, which Syros answered. "I am here," he called out to the sky.