Archaeological Excavation

job info:

 
Picking up jobs lately at the guild hadn’t been so bad for the Celestial Spirit Wizard, she wasn’t quite expecting what they had to offer… she was fully expecting them to be lame, pansy jobs like simple straight forward assassination requests or desperate please for someone to find their lost puppy. Ridiculous. She had absolutely refused to take on any such demeaning jobs.
 
She couldn’t complain too much though, on one of her previous jobs she did find a very rare Celestial Spirit Key… the Key of Leo the lion, leader of the Zodiac.
 
As she sat atop Pegasus’ back on their way to her next job, she retrieved the dark key from her key set and looked over the insignia of the lion, tracing her hand gently over it as she admired her handy work. To say corrupting Leo was easy would have been a flat out lie… the Lion had fought her tooth and nail until the very end, however in the end, her magic had triumphed and Leo was now fully under the influence of the darkness. He remembered everything from his past, however he no longer cared. All he wanted was to bring his family into the darkness with him, which Nakiya would willingly grant any other Zodiac key sanctuary at her side.

A crooked laugh escaped her lips as she held fast to Leo’s key. Things were finally going her way!
 
As Pegasus descended and landed within the forgotten desert, Nakiya disembarked and returned the spirit to the Celestial world before looking around her at the spot where she had landed. Well, there was what looked to be a sort of mine shaft leading deep underground along with a huge dig site only miles away from her. The only reason she had accepted this job was in the hopes of finding another key… So far though, she couldn’t sense a thing.
 
“I summon the from the darkness of the Celestial World, Vulpeca!”
She chanted as a funnel of fire shot up from the ground, soon disappearing to make way for a small white and red fox, the animal form of Vulpeca.


“Let’s get into the tunnel, I need your tail to light the way.”
Vulpeca nodded before running ahead of his Celestial Wizard, running into the tunnel where he suddenly stopped, sniffing at the air and shaking his head as something bothered his nose. He didn’t stop however, moving forward once Nakiya was following at his side.

They went deeper and deeper into the tunnel, and still, Nakiya couldn’t  sense the magic energy from a key, or anything relating her her magic at all.  Well, they hadn’t gone down that deep yet, so perhaps there was still a ways to go… even if she didn’t manage to find a Celestial Spirit Key, she was here to look for the remains of an ancient creature of some sort… it was said that the creature was buried here somewhere.
 
After about only 20 minutes of wlaking into this dark tunnel, Nakiya grimaced as she dismissed Vulpeca. This was such a pain in the ass, there was definitely a much faster way to find this creatures remains. If it was burred anywhere where shadows could touch it, then there was clearly only one spirit to use. Wrath.

She withrew the dark key and began her chant. Soon, the whole tunnel went pitch black as Wrath’s shadows took over everything. From those shadows, Nakiya would make out the eyes and the teeth of the terrifying creature plastered all over the walls in a terrifying display. Well, terrifying to most.

“Wrath. I need you to sense the location of Any Celestial Spiit keys in the area, o to find the remains of some ancient creature.”

“Shut up…”
The Spirit retorted angrily although she did exactly as she was told. She spread her arms to either side of her as her shadows visibly began moving about, reaching and searching in the tunnel for anything matching what Nakiya had described.
 

Nothing, no celestial key, no remains.  Nakiya was quickly getting fed up with this mission when Wrath moved towards the wall, her shadowy wings darting forward, slamming into the wall again and again, making the entire tunnel shake as the Spirit began to carve her way through.
It didn’t take long before the two of them found themselves near the surface again through this new opening. In fact, they weren’t that far away from the adjacent dig site at all, they were standing in a much smaller dig site.
 
As soon as the light shone down on Wrath, the spirit faded and returned to the Celestial world,  leaving Nakiya alone once more in the desert. She sighed as she puled yet another key from her belt.

“I summon thee from the darkness of the Celestial World, Leo!”

A circle of Shadows was created at Nakiya’s feet as a human form seemed to casually appear before her. His hands buried into his pockets, his eyes closed and a relaxed demeanor about him. He only opened hi eyes once the shadows faded, leaving behind the Celestial Spirit known as Leo the Lion. However, this spirit didn’t look like his usual self, his hair was an ashen gray, his eyes crimson red. His very skin seemed darker than it had been when he was a light spirit. He was still however dressed in a fine black suit, a light brown shirt and a red tie around his neck. This would be the first time she called on the fully corrupt Leo the Lion.

“Leo. I want you to find the remains of this supposed ancient beast, and any keys you find come back to me, understood.”

“Of course I understand, and might I say my dear Naki you look absolutely ravishing today! Maybe after this you and I can go out for some dinner and discuss how-“

Nakiya brought her hand up, rolling her eyes to silent the spirit, before pointing out to the dig site they were adjacent too.

“Find me a key, and I’ll consider it my little lion.”
Leo gave her a smirk before stepping out into the large digging area. Something had buried it over, but he could sense something below him…. Something ancient… Wrath hadn’t been wrong in leading Nakiya here , there was a strong magical presence, well, a strong celestial one anyways…
 
With the help of his magic, Leo began digging into the sand, blowing away large chunks of it to make a clear path down to the main source of the magical energy.  He was surprised Nakiya couldn’t sense it… maybe something was blocking her from feeling it’s presence? Or maybe the remains had been untouched for so long that the enery didn’t radiate into this plane anymore. It was very strange.
 
None the less, the lion kept digging, minute after minute, hour after house he dug until finally, he found himself close enough to the object he was after. He took off his suit jacket an threw it into the sand next to him before crouching down and now gently brushing dirt aside to reveal what looked to be a horn.

“My lady, whatever it is you were looking for. I’m sure this is it.”

“Finally”
The redhead groaned, having sought shelter from the sun in the tunnel created by Wrath, cooling down slightly in the shadows. Only now did she re-emerge , missing half of her clothing as she carefully slid her way down to where Leo was crouching down. She was careful not to step on anything as she looked down at the skull he was unearthing. It definitely wasn’t a human skull… in fact, by what they had managed to uncover so far… it belonged to a dragon.
 
It wasn’t a key, but a dragon’s skull would fetch her a huge price. She could easily up the reward price for something like this…
 

“Make sure everything stays intact Leo… I don’t think the requestor expected us to come across this…”
She stated excitedly as they both continued to dig their way around the massive skull. It would have been here for a very long time, and yet, the skull had no signs of damage on it… it was as if the bone itself was resisting the sand. She had never dreamed of coming across something like this… the only thing better, would have been to meet…

No…
 
Inside the dragons skull, once the pair uncovered the dragon’s eye, lay a key… the keys handle and end were black as night, two small golden pieces connected to the crimson shaft of the spirits key. The emblem on the handle was cacked with sand, but as soon as Aayla removed it, her jaw dropped. There, on the key was a dragon’s head.
 
She looked from the key, to the skull, wondering if maybe… somehow? No it wasn’t possible. It couldn’t happen… She reached into the skull and closed her hand around the key, gasping as dark shadowy hands began to ride from the key, grabbing onto her hand and holding her there.

Leo was quick to jump to his feet, running over to the caster’s side and placing his own hand on hers, pulling along with her until both of them managed to pull the key from the ground.
 
The hands turned into shadows that shot high up into the air, blotting out the sun and casting darkness of the wizard and her spirit.  A strange kind of magic shot forth from the key into the shadows, slowly taking form into a large creature. It’s legs crashed down onto the sand, causing  the very ground to shake beneath them, two large wings snapped open as a loud, frightening roar echoed into the desert. The darkness that had been used to summon this dragon receded, though it didn’t fade, it clung to the form of the dragon as if it was a part of it’s very being.

Nakiya stood to her feet, and with a quick apology, Leo disappeared, unable to keep himself in this plane with Nakiya’s magic while this dragon was summoned. For a moment, Nakiya looked awe struck as she stared onto the form of this creature before her mouth turned into a wide grin and she laughed.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! “
She cried out in psychotic excitement. The dragon looked down to the girl, lowering his head so that he towered threateningly over her. She couldn’t help but freeze up at the sight of such a terrifying creature. She was completely at it’s mercy now, there was no way for her to get away from it… but who wanted to get away from such a magnificent creature.

“Zargan…”
The word sprang to her lips long before she could catch them. She didn’t know where the name came from, or why she said it, but there was no doubt now that this was the dragon’s name. The large beast didn’t say a word, it’s spiritual form only stared intently into her eyes, and Nakiya back into the dragon’s eyes. It seemed they stood there, simply staring for a very long time...

A giant claw soon came towards the young spirit wizard, non threateningly at first, but soon, the dragon swiped it’s claw up across Nakiya’s face, creating a large, deep gash across her cheek. Nakiya bit down hard, taking in a deep breath as she tried not to cry out with the pain of the action, trying to show strength in the face of the dragon who let out another roar before it’s entire large form faded into shadows.
 
The key  in her hand gave a warm glow before finally going silent, and only then did Nakiya let loose a cry of pain as she brought her hands up to to her bleeding face to cover the wound.

“Son of a bitch that hurt! Damn dragon… could of done without marking me!”
She growled as she went back to the cavern where she had stripped off some of her clothing to stay cool and pressed it hard against her face before reaching for Pegasus’ key and summoning the Spirit once more. She wasted no time in leaping up onto the back of the spirit of the flying horse as they rode off towards the man who had originally posted the job.
 
Nakiya explained what she had found, excluding the key from her story, and was soon guiding the troop back to where she had found the dragon’s skull. It was still there, but there was now a large gash running up the left cheekbone. Aayla gave it a glare before looking back at the man who was nearly squealing with excitement.  She extended her hand for her payment, roughly took it and pocketed it before Pegasus flew her off out of the desert.
 

The only reason she didn’t kill them and take the skull for her own was the fact that she now held the key of the king of dark dragons! A key even more powerful than the seven sins themselves… a new leader to her army…