Hunt the Executioner (Imino)

Your finger slides through the course stone opening in the door until you feel the hole stop. The tip of your finger gently brushes the backside of the stone door as you patiently wait for what is to come. An eerie silence befalls the area, your breath quickens, a bead of sweat drops from your forehead, and finally, something happens. The eyes of the skull begin to glow a deep red, as if by magic. The door shakes for a brief second as a demonic voice billows forth from the door.

"The Demon has found you worthy"

Then in an instant, without warning, a cold piece of steel slides across the opening of the hole, the very hole your finger is currently in. It happens so fast, you barely have time to react before the pain sets in, warm red blood pooling around the opening of the hole. The steel slides back, releasing your finger, only to reveal that it is no longer there. Blood begins to pour from the cleanly cut wound as the stone door shakes even more violently this time, sliding sideways into the earth revealing a dark hole boring its way into the earth.

A warm, dry and musty smell meets your nose as you slowly make your way into the tunnel. Its dark, all around you a stone corridor descends deeper and deeper into the earth, but you push forward. After a few moments the tunnel levels out, only to open up into a small stone room. It is incredibly dark, however a few beams of light can be seen from the ceiling, tiny cracks in the stone and ground allow for slivers of sun light to enter, giving you just enough light to help you see. The room is made of stone for the most part, and is a perfect square, twenty meters by twenty meters. You look around the room taking notice of the fact that it seems to be barren. Until your eyes see it, and stop.

Directly across the room from where you entered, against the wall is a massive stone statue. It depicts an evil looking man, his face covered and his eyes staring intently at you. In his hands, a stone depiction of the very blade you came here to find, The Executioner blade. On either side of this statue is a door, one on the right side and one on the left, shrouded in darkness. As you take in the awe of the statue, you notice a stone plaque at its base, with words etched into it. You close in on the statue to get a closer look, seeing that these words appear to be scratched into the stone.

"Here, the final resting place of a man with no name. Feared through out history, only to meet his demise by an emotion no one knew he possessed. Thousands of men slaughtered, cities cleaved, and nations shaken, only to be conquered by love. This is not the story of the Executioner, but the story of the woman who finally tamed him. For this tomb belongs to three souls, The Executioner, his wife, Vivian Stern, and the sword that coated this land in blood. Those who stumble upon this grave, take this as your warning, turn back, leave this cursed place alone. For the man who holds the blade is not the demon you must fear."

The words linger on your mind, unsure of what to make of what you just read. You take a moment to gather yourself, you now have one of three choices to make. Do you take head of the stones warning, turn back and leave the tomb? Or do you venture deeper, taking either the left or right tunnel, both that without a doubt take you on a surprising and unexpected journey.

You turn to the right, eyeing the right tunnel, that is the path you choose to take. As you make your way down the right tunnel, it gets harder and harder to see, as the light from the previous room slowly starts to fade away. Eventually you are engulfed in pure darkness, unable to see a single thing around you. You place your good hand against the tunnel wall, using it to guide you along, until the wall is no longer there.

Even though you can not see, you can feel the room open up, the air circulating around you. It is warm, dank and dry, however you can feel a light breeze coming from the other side of this darkened room, signaling an exit of some kind. You stand at the end of this tunnel, staring blankly into a pitch black room. You do not know its size, or what lies beyond, only that to venture further you must cross this room.

The sheath continue to tap against the floor, the woman slowly making her way through the dark room, trying her best to feel for anything that may have been in there. Both the blade and its case would not come into contact with anything, until about five meters in, the consistency of the floor would change. As the wooden sheath tapped against the floor, it would soon give off a clanking sound, as if it was touching metal. This would reveal some sort of metal plate or surface on the floor beneath her, and she was only inches from stepping on it. The woman would instantly stop, deciding what to do next as the metal clanking sound echoed out.

She would tap the floor a couple of times, listening for any echoes below the surface of the object. If there was none she would continue to walk past it. If it was hollow she try and find with her sheathe if the surface of the metal floor could be circumvented. However, if it was too big, she'd tie a piece of long cloth to her kunai and throw it in front of her. To judge how far the next room was. She'd drag the Kunai to listen to how long the metal floor was.

The sheath would tap on the metal surface of the floor, giving off a metallic ringing sound that echoed throughout the room. Even though the tapping would echo out, it would not indicate the floor beneath the metal being hollow in anyway. Because of this, Imino would walk forward, attempting to cross the metal surface. As the woman stepped onto the metal surface, it would slightly depress, the weight of the foot steps causing the plate to sink into the ground slightly. A quiet hissing noise could then be heard coming from all sides of the room. The darkness would hide the fact that a deep red mist had now poured into the room. It only took seconds for the mist to take effect, as Imino's vision would begin to blur, her consciousness fading. After only seconds of being in contact with the mist, the woman would fall unconscious, flopping to the floor asleep.

(this does not harm you, and only slows you down. It will take longer for me to make my next reply, but you are still in the event)

Imino would slowly awaken, realizing that whatever she had come into contact with had put her to sleep. Even if it had only been for a few moments, it was enough to cost her valuable time. Standing, the woman then crossed the rest of the room, making her way towards the other side where another tunnel had opened up. Taking a few steps forward, the woman would see nothing once again, as this room was just as a dark, if not darker than the room before. Yet again, the woman was faced with a dark room, not knowing its contents or its size.

Imino's kunai would sail across the room, then clatter against a stone wall ten meters in front of her. This was another pitch black, ten meter room. She would scoot herself to the left side of the room, making sure not to venture any deeper into the chamber before she had a better understanding of what she was up against. As the steel weapon hit the floor, it rattle for a second before going silent, the woman left alone in the quiet once more. Nothing appeared to have gone off or have been triggered by the weapon.

Imino would scale the wall, using chakra on her feet to navigate the ceiling and avoid the floor at all cost. Even though she could not see because of the darkness, she was able to use her hands and feet to make her way towards the backside of the room. Eventually she would arrive, feeling the cold stone wall. As she dropped to the floor, using her hands to navigate the smooth wall, Imino would find that instead of one door, there were three, three wooden doors attached to the surface of the wall. There was the left door, the center door and the right door.

Throwing open the door, Imino would peer into the darkness, seeing a dim red light coming from a hole in the ground. She did not know it, but this was the correct door, as the other two doors were blocked off by a stone wall. Looking down into the hole the woman would quickly drop into the hatch.

She would drop into a smaller, more dry room, sand at her feet this time. As she stood, Imino would notice that she could suddenly see, a deep red glow filling the room around her. The room was a small five meter by five meter room, with no doors to be seen on any surface. What she did see however was another statue, almost identical to the one she saw in the first room. It was a large stone statue that depicted the executioner holding a stone version of his famed sword, another plaque at its base. As she approached the statue she would notice that the red glow was coming from the statues eyes, two red crystals implanted into the eye sockets. On the plaque read:

"Through the eyes of a demon, ambition was sought. Through the blade of a man, battles were fought, but by the heart of a woman, it was all for naught. To conquer the demon, you must destroy what conquered the man. "

The woman would draw her sword once more, contemplating her plan. She ultimately had decided to strike the eyes, trying to destroy the red gems that sat within the eyes sockets of the statue. However, as the blade met its mark, instead of destroying the stones, both red gems would instead fall from the stone head, hitting the sand below. Both gems would continue to glow red, even though they were no longer connected to the statue. Even though she managed to dislodge the stones, nothing else happened.

Imino would peer through the stones, looking over the entire room, trying to see if she could gleam anything from the room. As she would glance over the statue, everything would look normal, smooth gray stone, until she would glance over the chest, where the heart would rest. As her eyes looked through the stone, the chest of the statue would glow a soft red, pulsating where the hearth should have been.

So her first guess had been right. She lowered the stones and bowed before the statue. Regardless of his crazy antics he was still an accomplished swordsman. Her senior in some regards. Though she wished to wield her blade much like the maiden would, to quell the land of bloodshed. She gathered her energy, feeling her spirit enter her katana as it turned into the ghost release ghost blade. She struck where the heart was stabbing it deep and slow, the cutting made easier from her jutsu.

As the steel weapon was jabbed into the stone chest of the statue, it actually gave way, a chunk of stone being pushed inward as if it was a loose pressure plate. A hidden button built into the statue where the heart would have been, now sliding inwards, only to click, releasing a contraption of sort. The statue would shake and rumble, sliding side ways in the sand until it finally stopped, revealing a hole in the wall. Imino would step through, only to be met with an oh so familiar sight, complete darkness. From the feel of it, this room was massive, and had the familiar cool breeze blowing through it. It was hard to tell the shape and size of this room, but it was the largest one so far that Imino had entered.

She would push forward with the stones in her hands, entering the hole in the wall to reveal the next room. It opened up into a large hallway with smaller hallways branching off from both sides. The main hallway extended straight down towards a solid stone wall. The wall had a slit in it, implying it was a door and could somehow be opened. On the surface of the stone door were four circular indents, where something like a coin or medallion could be placed. On either side of this main hallway, were two more hallways, making four extra passage ways in this area. The passage ways were not very long, but ended at dead ends as well. From the dim red glow Imino could make out what appeared to be tables at the end of each hallway. A number marking each path on the stone walls.

Imino would make her way down the hallway marked with the number four, still using the red stones to light her way. The tunnel was creepy, made of dark stone, with etchings of history across its surface. The walls appeared to tell a story, with various different depictions of war and battle. She eventually would make it to the end of the hall way to see a wooden table built into the wall. On this table rested four round tokens, like giant coins, and looked like they could have slotted into the holes on the wall back in the main chamber.

On the table would be an inscription that read:

"We all bow before the king, a shining inevitable end"

Beneath the writing would rest four tokens, each one being made out of a different material and would bear a different picture. There was:

-A wooden token bearing the picture of a hawk
-A golden token bearing the picture of a skull
-A copper token bearing the picture of a rat
-A silver token bearing the picture of a snake

Imino picked up the four tokens, not knowing yet what they were for or what they meant. She needs context from other places. So she would go down the third and see what was there.

Various material types could be the order. Wood, copper, silver, gold. the animals could be representing a sort of predatory cycle... Rat, Snake, Hawk, Skull. That however broke the rarity of materials circle.

So save time Imino would expel the ghost from her blade, letting it instead seek it's way to the first door to see if anything was there.

Imino would make her way down the hallway marked with the number three, still using the red stones to light her way. The tunnel was creepy, made of dark stone, with etchings of history across its surface. The walls appeared to tell a story, with various different depictions of war and battle. She eventually would make it to the end of the hall way to see a wooden table built into the wall. On this table rested four round tokens, like giant coins, and looked like they could have slotted into the holes on the wall back in the main chamber.

On the table would be an inscription that read:

"The second brother of wealth, but still the king of the sky, a weaker foe to be preyed on"

Beneath the writing would rest four tokens, each one being made out of a different material and would bear a different picture. There was:

-A wooden token bearing the picture of a snake
-A golden token bearing the picture of a rat
-A copper token bearing the picture of a skull
-A silver token bearing the picture of a hawk