Storm and Leyocan stared at the statue in shock.
"Storm!! That is..." started Leyocan.
"Not exactly the same... But they certainly share an uncanny resemblance!" Answered Storm.
"This statue is ancient. Which means that being we fought beside is older than we realized. " started Leyocan.
"Let's check inside." Stated Storm.
They climbed the steps and entered the temple.
The temple consisted of one enormous room with a large brazier in the center of the room.
Another statue of the entity was standing in front of the brazier.
An enormous flame was still raging inside the brazier despite the temple being long abandoned. All along the walls were murals depicting the history of the entity worshipped here.
Plaques with writing on it was located below each mural and had a brief description of the events portrayed on the mural above.
Leyocan walked over to the first mural and began to read through the description.
Storm meanwhile studied the the Mural above.
It showed a meteor falling in the middle of a forest.
"This shows the creation of the entity. His coming was heralded by a meteor that fell from the sky. The family found a small child in the crater and decided to raise him as their own.
They named him 'Shen-Ra' of the Zahyeng family.
He was a difficult child to raise according to this.
Prone to chaotic moods and a rebellious streak.
Combined with an almost instinctual grasp over fire. Despite the hardships, the couple perserved and managed to teach the child their ideals." Explained Leyocan.
They skipped the next few murals that depicted how he was raised and trained. They stopped at a scene showing a vast army of fiery beings sieging a settlement. Shen-Ra stood alone against the army, flaming spear and fiery disk in hand.
The scene ended with the boy dying while his parents held him in their arms.
The entire army of invading creatures was destroyed.
Leyocan read the description underneath.
"On his 16th birthday, an army of fiery spirits decended on his home village.
Shen-Ra took up his weapons and battled alone. He defeated the army, but his energy was expended and he died in his parents arms.
This marked his first death." Explained Leyocan.
" 'First' death?" Asked Storm.
Leyocan nodded his head.
"Seems he's died many times over the years.
Every time this happens, he is reborn as a child again. Apparently this brazier has burned since his arrival and has never gone out.
They believe that the day the fire dies completely will mark the permanent death of Shen-Ra.
The rest of the mural depicted the many battles Shen-Ra has taken part of.
One in particular stood out for him.
It showed an unknown fort filled with black armored warriors.
Shen-Ra was fighting them in the center, a nine tailed black fox was fighting beside him while a azure blue dragon was flying overhead.
Both observers stared in wonder.
Leyocan quickly read the description.
"Shen-Ra, fighting alongside a young Raijin, and.... Lupinos Reborn... against an invading army." Exclaimed Leyocan.
"...."
"Storm? What is it?" Asked Leyocan.
"I...I never told you my birth name...It's Raijn...
Only my immediate family still calls me that!!
How could the priests of this temple know that?!" Asked Storm with concern.
"These murals are ancient, Storm. Whoever made this obviously saw the future." Explained Leyocan.
He continued reading the inscription, it gave a brief summary of the two combatants fighting alongside Shen-Ra.
Raijin: Dragon demigod of lightning, fire, shadows, upheaval, change and the sun, Father of the 8 elemental dragons.
Lupinos: High lord of the Nogitsune, Masters of shadows.
The next scene showed Raijin fighting in a unknown stone walled settlement alongside Shen-Ra against the same black armored warriors. Unlike the previous one however, the picture depicted Raijin with 2 heads. One blasted the enemies below with bolts of lightning, the other breathed columns of fire on the warriors below him.
"These seems to show battles that are yet to come." Said Leyocan.
The last mural took their breath away.
It showed a blackened hellscape, a large black oak with a shadowy heart connected to it was standing in the center.
Two opposing armies were facing each other.
One was lead by a two headed Raijin, Shen-Ra, a unknown plantlike female spirit, a water based unknown spirit, and an unknown air spirit and Lupinos reborn.
Their army consisted of a wide variety of different spirits and creatures.
The other army was led by a unnaturally thin black fairy of some kind with 4 thin, spider like arms and shadowy wings.
2 featureless black eyes were set in her bald head and a mouth filled with sharp teeth was twisted into a permanent sadist grin with no lips to cover them.
Her army consisted of a wide variety of shadow beings, undead, and twisted treemen.
Tentacles of pure darkness was reaching out for the dragon's army.
In the center of the sky floated a graceful silver scaled, serpentine dragon that was just as large as her 2 headed counterpart.
She had no wings, but glided through the air effortlessly, and a mane of silver hair.
Two tendrils grew from the side of her snout, and a single crescent shaped horn grew from the tip of her nose.
Her body was thin compared to the depiction of Raijin, and she was glowing like a lantern in the darkness.
The two horns growing from the back of her head shined like diamonds and 2 pointed ears grew from the side of her head.
Beside her was golden scaled dragon as bright as the sun. His feathered wings were spread wide and beams of light
Any shadow creature that reached her light or came in contact with the golden dragon's beams were instantly snuffed out.
Storm felt a strange yearning for the female dragon in the mural.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts, fearing some kind of spell was influencing his mind.
He avoided looking at the silver dragoness again.
"W-what does the description say?"Stammered Storm.
"Says here it depicts the 'battle of the gods'.
Raijin, Aurora, Orian, Shen-Ra, Terra, Aquarius, Aros, And Lupinos reborn leading the charge against Omen's army of darkness and the Dark Heart.
"That is Aurora?" Asked Storm.
He remembered his vision he had back when he struggled to absorb the elemental lightning core. It showed a female dragon that closely resembled this one.
"What could have caused her to change so drastically!!" Thought Storm.
He looked at his own image.
"Two heads?" Thought Storm.
Two headed dragons never occurred naturally.
They were usually the byproduct of dark magic gone wrong, or some kind of curse.
As a result dragons feared any two headed dragon as an omen of destruction and madness.
"Is this really what I will become!!?" Thought Storm.
"What else does it say?" Asked Storm.
"Just a description of Aurora and Orian. Says here she's the Dragon Demigod of Magic, Nurturing, and the moon.
Mother of the 8 elemental dragons and High queen of the spirit folk." Added Leyocan.
Orian it says it the Elemental dragon of Light. Representing Light, Rebirth, Justice, Time, and the Sun.
"Nothing else!?Nothing about how the battle ends!? Or who these other elemental dragons are?!" Asked Storm desperately.
Leyocan shook his head.
"Prophecy is never that detailed. " Explained Leyocan.
"Then what good are they!!? Do our choices even matter if everything is set in stone!!?" Exclaimed Storm.
"I've never put stock in 'fate' and 'destiny '.
I make my own destiny !
As for premonitions...
I wouldn't let it trouble you.
It will either happen and there's nothing you can do to change it, Or it will not.
Premonitions are notoriously unreliable, too much could change between the point predicted, and the time the premonition is first recorded."
Leyocan looked up at the black furred fox again.
His thoughts unreadable.
"Let us leave this damn place!" Said Leyocan as he turned away from the murals.