Stolen Treasure

The twenty-ninth chapter of the Crusaders of the Constellations Novel, it is about what the students find in the Devourer's fortress.

## Story

In the forest surrounding the Devourer of World's fortress, there are dangerous monsters that the students had to contend with. First, are Void Hornets, insects with stings that drain the lifespan of their victims before eating them up. The insects with carapaces as strong as jade though cannot withstand many of the student's powers. Azar got her phoenix friend, which she called Kagutsuchi, to burn the swarms of Void Hornets away. Ranald protected the students from the stings with his schoolbag. Yet he received some injuries from the monster's stings. Initially, Ranald refused treatment from Asclepius, but after some persuasion from Phrixus, he allowed the doctor to apply medicine to the world. "After you heal my buddy, can you kindly remove the Void Wasp from Chrys's wool?" Phrixus asked Asclepius. Chrysomallos was flying and leaping about, frantically trying to shake off the Void Wasps stuck in his wool.

"I thought he was happy at first..." Phrixus sighed. He may have experience as a shepherd, but even he can't tell exactly what his sheep are thinking. Either way, Asclepius and his robot snake set out to calm the winged ram down before plucking out and killing the Void Wasps.

There are also Malebranche, monsters resembling bat-winged panthers spewing dark flames. They were strong and fearsome but were defeated by some of the students. Orion and Aleaqarab have taken down many of the creatures. "You must have forged this whip-sword yourself, huh? No wonder you can slice them up so easily!" Orion said. Aleaqarab said nothing, nodded, and put down his whip-sword. "Ranald taught me how to design and make this thing in Design and Technology Class a few months back. It has been my signature weapon ever since I gave my kusarigama to him," he spoke. "I guess that it fits you..." Orion said, and then ran to a perplexed Hercules. "Well...he's right," Hercules said.

As they walked closer to the fortress, more dangers pursued them. Vilesnakes, small brown poisonous reptiles, attacked the crew only to be crushed by Arctophylax's sword. Blight Hounds, twisted dog-like monsters with glowing green eyes and toxic gases seeping from their mouths also burst from the pits in the dead forest and attacked the crew, but Husdent managed to chase them away by his fire breath. "That should show them!" he said, wagging his tail. "Right!" Ranald agreed as he used the sabre to cut some of the Blight Hounds in half.

Now there is a bridge leading to the dark fortress's entrance, and it was guarded by two evil giants armed with greatswords. As soon as the students and staff arrived, the giants shouted threats at them. Onuava went to fight them with her ring blades, while the smaller students helped distract the giants. The giant's swords are infused with the energies of the void, but the Ringblades of Earth's plant powers overcame them after a long struggle. After the Bridge Guardians fell, Onuava then broke open the gates of the fortress. King Athos used the size-shifting powders he carried with him to shrink her to human size. The students walked into the fortress's dark foreboding corridors. "Whatever you do, please stay together. Don't leave anyone behind!" he cautioned his students.

The corridors are lit by torches bearing flames that whisper tales of doom. The walls portrayed the worlds devoured by the Void Serpent and the birth of the creature. King Athos scanned the inscriptions on the walls. "It was born from the dark side of the universe itself, and it ate most of the planets in it. After that, he slept until the Star Crusaders discovered it and the monsters of this desolate place. From there, its hunger started to grow, thus he was called Devourer of Worlds," he read. "Worse...it's ultimate goal is to devour all worlds and dimensions, returning all to chaos." "So how do we get to the monster, your highness?" Ranald asked. "Just keep going," the king answered.

Armorhusks, suits of armour animated by the Devourer of World's magic, attacked the students. Ranald, having mastered all twelve martial arts, helped the students who are knights and warriors fend them off. Now, there was a snake statue in one of the chambers of the fortress. Everyone went there to rest and eat. Now, out of curiosity, Arye touched the snake statue, only for it to turn and spit venom at the wall behind it. "They say that curiosity killed the cat, Lyncus, but..." Anbesa was about to finish his sentence when Lyncus alerted him to a passage where the snake statue used to be. "Arye?! No way...what happened!" Anbesa cried. " The statue must be the key to opening the passage," Ranald said as he examined it. There was the statue with its head turned to the beginning of the passage. After a while, the snake statue's head rotated back to its original position. Everyone went through it into a most wondrous sight.

"Perhaps too wonderful to be a trap..." Bai Tu muttered. Gold and silver are in the treasure room, as well as weapons, books, and other artefacts from dimensions long eaten by the Devourer of Worlds. "He probably had his armies steal the treasures before he devours a world, and after he had his meal, the Void Serpent would go in there to admire his spoils brought to this room by his monsters, though not as much anymore," Roka said. Everyone went to search for some loot. King Athos took out the teleportation machine from a portal formed by his watch and transferred some old books to it. Ranald and Mayari went to find some treasure. One was a box with 28 silver badges, and on each badge was a symbol of an animal. "It must be related to the Realm of the Moon, I guess," Mayari said. She took the box and went to look for King Athos. Ranald went to look around some more, while Baby Little cautioned him not to linger for too long. Ranald found something interesting: 108 orbs with Chinese characters engraved on them. He wondered what they meant and who they are meant for. He remembered that time when he touched the stele in the Realm of the Sun's Zenith Castle, only to have a vision of armed warriors with the characters on their armour. They must be connected somehow...

"Anythin' interestin', bud?" Samson asked Ranald. "Uh...well, these orbs I found there look like they belong to Zenith Castle or something. Or used to," the golden-haired boy replied. "I see. Will let the king know about this discovery," the man said, flashing his smile, and calling Athos with his stone tablet. King Athos soon arrived and decided to examine the glowing orbs. He noticed that their essence is mixed with both from the Realm of the Sun and Dreamland. He placed each of the 108 orbs in the teleportation machine. Then, he took the box with the 28 badges in it and placed it in the teleportation machine after the last orb disappeared. "These orbs are Star Orbs. I think that when we defeat the Devourer of Worlds, we can figure out where to send then next, and to do some research on them."

Bai Tu and the rest came with some weapons, books and stuff. But they did not touch the gold and silver. They placed the loot in the teleportation machine, and after all of the artefacts were sent to Aether World Cosmic University, King Athos sent the machine back with the portal formed by his watch. "Now let's get out of here," Ranald said. The students looked for an exit from the treasure room. After a while, Bai Tu found a mountain of gold. "We need to level these," he suggested. Students with super strength moved the piles away to find and possible doors. Eventually, Arye emerged from a pile of gold coins, attracting his older brother's attention. "Little brother! I'm so worried about you!" Anbesa yelled as he ran to embrace Arye. "Not too tight, please..."Arye groaned. Hercules and Ranald moved the pile of gold where Arye was found and found a trapdoor. Ranald opened it, and lead everyone down a tunnel lined with snake statues. There was a flight of steps at the end, so they climbed up the steps and ended up at the main corridor of the Devourer's fortress.

"That treasure room's a detour from the main course, but we at least found the stuff the Devourer of Worlds stole and sent then back to university for safekeeping," Ranald said. "Yes. At least Husdent activated the AWCU defences before we left for this place. Now, we keep moving forward," Phrixus said, as he did a headcount of the students. King Athos led them to the end of the main corridor, which is a double door made of iron. Ranald tried to use his zodiac tools to break down the door, but there was no scratch, dent, or cut made in the doors. "They must be made of reinforced iron. All of us need to break it down together," Mayari said, as Delmare nodded.

Ranald urged his classmates to use all their powers to help him break the door. At first, they were hesitant, but Mayari urged them to use their inborn abilities to do so. "If we can't break the door, who will?" Delmare asked their classmates. "Yeah, we need to give our all for removing this obstacle in our way!" Anbesa said. The rest of the students hearing this finally agreed to use their powers. Roka turned into his true dragon form and breathed black fire, Kibahime fired fox-fireballs from her palms, Bai Tu launched super-fast kicks at the doors, and the rest of the students used their powers, from shooting lightning bolts, gusts of wind, lasers, and so forth to destroy the iron doors.

After a while, the doors began to crumble under the might of the student's powers. Ranald used the hammer to knock the doors while Mayari shot arrows at it. Soon, the doors swayed and collapsed, falling down in front of Ranald, revealing a large room. The students entered it. The room is quite large, with intricate patterns on the walls and floor. There were also some crates lying around. "This must be their training hall or something," Aguila said. "Right, but we must be alert. Maybe we might encounter some of the Devourer's servants," Ranald said. Everyone readied their weapons. A few minutes later, footsteps were heard running toward the room.

Ranald and some students heard something behind them. They turned around, and Bai Tu roundhouse-kicked a familiar face to the ground. "Malvor!" "Long time no see, brat," the sorcerer spoke as more villains filled the room. "You have done well. But you will never make it out alive!"

"Or maybe we will," Ranald and his classmates said, as they drew their weapons. "We're not even locked in here with you. You're locked in here with us!" King Athos said as he drew his sword and his fellows readied themselves. Cerynitis told Mayari to do her best. A showdown is looming between the heroes and villains...