This is unfinished so far and will probably be updated soon with the complete one. I just want to get this fucker out so I have something to show. I'm just currently really tired and need to sleep. I'm trying to decide if to use Feed My Eyes or this story (Clouds In The Sky) for a contest. Any comments on how to improve either or which to use will be appreciated.

There once was a city called Ys in ancient times. It was believed Ys (also known as Is, Ker-Is and Ker-ys), a place that was on the coast of Brittany, was a holy city that collapsed into a city of sin. Ys was one of the last pagan areas which led to Christian theories that Ys was punished by the Christian god and Ys went underwater which has created geographic reasons that the sea level rose. These are two of many reasons for the collapse of Ys. On September the 21st 2009, something was spotted in the water off the coast of Brittany by a fisherman. Upon inspection, it appeared to be a doorway to a corridor which extended down to the depths to, theoretically, Ys; where it leads to exactly, is unknown.

I looked up from the folder, letting out a sigh, to see the rest of people in helicopter which were meant to be part of a squad. I never asked for this. All I was, was a simple archaeologist, always curious about why civilizations were created and why they fell. On normal circumstances, I would of turned down the offer to help some government fraction raid ruins but I was running low on money. It was terrible. Me and Sandra were living off beans on toast. It always broke my heart to look into the eyes of my son, Richard, and remember that if I couldn't get a lot of money fast, we'd be on the street. This was no way to bring up a son...No way...Although for some reason, a reason I could never put my finger upon, it brought déjà vu. Why...

I moved the fringe out of the way of my eyes. There were three others in the helicopter. There was a woman, no older than mid thirties, with a tank top on and a baseball cap pressed down as though to shield her eyes from the sun outside or my gaze. She had a black or dark navy (I could not tell due to the morning sun shooting it's rays into my eyes) head piece that ducked from out of her dark brown hair (that was tied back into a pony tail with what looked like a black elastic band to me) and extended to near her mouth. The rest of the people on the helicopter had a very similar, if not exact copy, head piece including me. I remember me fiddling with it a lot earlier because I couldn't quite get it to stay on my ear until the leader of the group told me in an irritated tone "fix your headset before I fix your hands". Paulson introduced me to her and told me her name was Nichols. Currently she was typing away on a small black labelless laptop which she had been busy on for the past three hours, even while we refuelled at Dover.

Next to me was Jeffries (or sometimes called by Paulson, just Jeff) who was now holding onto his gun while staring into space and chewing gum. He had aviators on which hid his eyes and a helmet that hid his hair. He had a very similar clothes set as Paulson, long sleeved shirt and cargo trousers with boots running up his leg under the trousers. He had three pouches on a belt going around him, a handgun holster down one leg and a backpack on. Unlike Paulson, he seemed to have another pouch on the other leg as the handgun holster.

Suddenly, my concentration was broken by Paulson asking Nichols "so what is the significance of this city anyway?". Nichols kept her head down, still facing the computer and replied in an unrecognisable accent and monotone voice "ask Carter, it's why you bought him right?". Paulson then turned to me, a cigar in his mouth and repeated the question. Paulson looked similar to Jeffries in terms of the clothes he wore (which, like Jeffries and Nichols, was all black) and the gun he held but differed from Jeffries in his face. He didn't have any glasses and instead had a cigar hanging out of his mouth. He had a darker skin colour and a rounder face. He also had a cleaner shave and appeared to be probably bald (while Jeffries probably still had hair on his head).

I told him "Ys was a city a long time ago that, according to myths, went underwater after the princess gave the key to the devil. He unlocked the gates during a storm thus plunging it underwater. It was believed to be a complete myth until a corridor rose to the surface roughly where the city used to be. It's significant because it's a mythical city and the only reason listed for its downfall is religious reasons."

Paulson opened his mouth to say something but the pilot said something in an unknown language which sounded French. Nichols then looked up from her laptop, as the helicopter lowered upon the water and said "okay everyone, we're here. Jefferies, you rig the door to open. Don't use too much explosives or you'll destroy the corridor and sink the city again". We landed right next to the small platform and Jefferies got out while saying in a harsh voice "alright then". After a minute of waiting as he removed things from his backpack and applied it onto the door, Jefferies got back on the helicopter and muttered "done" as he sat down. The helicopter rose and he pulled a switch on a hand-held black control device sparking an explosion loud, sharp and sudden enough for me to jump.

The helicopter then lowered it's self to the water a second time. Jefferies stepped off the helicopter first to the small platform around a dark hole followed by Paulson. "Come on Carter" he told me "we don't have all year". I got up with my rucksack and climbed off the helicopter. The helicopter quickly raised its self back to height and started flying back to the nearest land. Nichols then spoke through the headset "okay, we'll return in roughly six hours, if you need to be picked up before then or later then feel free to say. If you need additional information, then contact me, otherwise; you're on your own".

I looked down the hole and suddenly felt a sensation of vertigo. God...How deep was it...I was then distracted by watching a rope fall down the hole. Paulson then said "okay, we can go down the hole as far as the rope will reach but after that, we'll have to climb. Jeff, you do have the climbing gear right?". Jefferies banged his backpack with his left hand as though to indicate as yes. Once Paulson attached Jefferies to the abseil rope, he attached me to it and told me "just do what we taught you and you'll live". I recounted the lessons in my head as I backed towards the hole with my eyes shut. Okay, heels over the hole...Lean over it, feet against the wall...Walk down...Let the rope slide through one hand as I go down...Easy enough, right? Paulson then followed above me as we declined into the darkness. As though to help quell my anxiety, Jefferies turned his torch on his jacket on while muttering under his breath "a little night light for the civilian".

Using the light, I managed to observe the corridor we were abseiling down. The stone appeared to be blocks of large stones piled up on each other. As we went deeper and deeper down the vertical corridor, the greenness of the moss gave way to a hard dark grey rock. I paused at one point, sure I could see something in it's surface but was interrupted by Paulson giving me a hard nudge with the bottom of his boot and an annoyed voice telling me "god damn it kid, if Jeff wasn't below you I would of kicked you hard enough for you to fall off the rope. Don't tempt me to do it anyway. Keep fucking moving".

We carried on down and we realised that the rope wasn't long enough. Jefferies then set up additional rope to go down on. Once we reached about half way down that rope, we arrived in the city of Ys. The corridor gave away to a large room which we just let the rope pass through our fingers as we hung in the air. Jefferies arrived first and grabbed his submachine gun which was on a strap. I followed shortly to the floor and then Paulson came. I opened my bag and removed the handgun Paulson gave me while we were back at the base. It was a worn 92F which Paulson had chuckled a bit when giving it to me. Something about a bad luck streak and how I'd hopefully be the last of the run of bad luck.

I also removed from my bag a handheld flash light I bought along myself. I turned on the switch and then began examining the ruins. The stone seemed to be the materials of early 5th century but the design of the wall and the art work carved into the pillars and walls...This was late 5th century, maybe 6th century. What also puzzled me was how the materials lasted so long underwater and why there was variations of culture. Paulson then broke me from my day-dreaming with "Carter, what do you see". I spoke my mind "the materials used and the design don't match up in time nor culture. The designs are late 5th century or early 6th century with carvings of European and Asian decent but the materials used are early 5th century". "So what would that mean?" he asked with an edge of confusion. "Beats me".

We exited to the only corridor which wasn't blocked by a fallen pillar and slowly walked down it, paying caution to our surroundings. We moved through-out the rooms one by one in a linear fashion, our path paved by blockages. As we moved, more and more inconsistencies occurred to the point that by the fifth room I became almost convinced something was very wrong. There were statues of before the 5th centuries and furniture approaching the 15th century. The last kicker was when I found someone's gun which looked roughly World War One or Two era in a glass cabinet in decoration.

We then entered a large room that reminded me of a large hall; almost somewhere you'd hold banquets minus all furniture. As we entered, the door behind us closed hard and fast, creating a soft echo in the hall. I turned to face the wall. These were...Markings in an obscure language; Something that seemed like Latin, but almost older. I touched it lightly and suddenly, a large crash bounced off the walls through-out the room as though Jefferies had planted some more explosives. "Go check it out" Paulson commented behind me as I carried on trying to understand the markings. I could hear the sounds of foot steps and suddenly shouting quickly followed by shooting. I quickly turned 180 degrees, my handgun held in both hands but the sight I saw made me hesitant to fire.

Jefferies was trying to force what looked like a...Red worm out of his torso which had impaled it's self through him. It was about three inches thick and had three thick bone-like things coming from it spanning across his chest in a triangle shape. After a few seconds of trying to get it off, it retreated back into its hole with Jeffries. After the echo of his screams had ended which then was followed by a rumble...Things began clawing their ways out the hole. They were like unwrapped mummies or dried up nude zombies. What little flesh they had turned into a dark muddy brown and seemed to be the only thing holding the dark yellow bones together. The creatures shuffled towards me and Paulson slowly but with a scary sense of determination.

I stood there watching this, as more and more zombies dragged themselves from their hole. Paulson then suddenly open fired, spraying the mob in little bursts of bullets, only pausing from firing in bursts to reload his gun. I looked around, panicky, trying to find any way out of here. If we stayed, we'd be dead and Paulson's bullets didn't seem to have any affect on them. If anything, they seemed to be gaining speed and increasing in anger towards us. For no apparent reason, a door way opened nearby on the left wall. Me and Paulson ran to it but as soon as I got through the door, it slammed down shut, nearly crushing Paulson, with him on the other side. I banged the light brown door in anger yelling "OPEN UP", making small grains of rock or sand fall off. I searched desperately around the small corridor for anything to open the door while Paulson kept shouting at me variations of "open this fucking door". After a minute of desperate searching, Paulson ceased shouting and the gunshots ended. I looked down just in time to see the first few red drops leak through the door.

"What the fuck is going on?!" I screamed in anger while kicking the door several times. Soon after shouting this, I realised that the chances of me getting out were slim. The best thing I could do was keep moving and hope I don't come across any more zombies. I pointed my torch down the corridor and began to move again, my handgun still in my left hand but dangling loose. Maybe I had broken the unlucky streak by staying alive the longest; then again maybe I was the most unlucky? They died sooner and I have to suffer further torment, unsure if the next corner will lurk another being that would probably be better explained as a hallucination or a dream. Which hurt more? Physical pain or mental torment of you knowing you were going to die any second?

I slowly walked down the corridor, the only noise being the slight crunch of sand under my shoes and the occasional accidental kick of a small rock. The corridor went on and on, turning left and turning right with no end. The walls began to change in material, colour and design from the stone and sandy ruins of a 4th or 5th century palace to something that looked more ancient yet newer at the same time. There were metal bars circling the corridor with a strange damp rubbery material between the gaps. The longer I walked on, the more I was convinced I was hearing something. It started out as a small constant sound like someone rubbing their finger on wood and increased slowly to the point of hearing what I thought was screaming and pain but not from something that was human, but more animalistic. The corridor finally ended as the noises of screaming in pain reached their peak. I had also begun to feel vertigo despite me still going down one narrow corridor that remained flat. The room at the end was a small square room, slightly wider than the corridor I had walked down. The walls and design...I couldn't comprehend it. I felt like I knew what they were built from and the designs felt familiar but...No...

The room was bare except for three wooden solid pillars which reached about chest height; each one with a different item on them. One was an amulet, which was all purple around a small worn disc that had a hole in the centre and was completely plain. It had a copper chain attached to two small loops on the edges. Another table had dagger on it, the handle appeared to be carved out of stone as though a prison shank but instead of a normal stone blade, the blade was made of, what appeared to be, aquamarine or sapphire however it seemed to have a watery look to it. As though the surface flowed like a river slowly around the blade. The third table a small sceptre the size of a large mace. The handle was made of a dark wood which had what looked like three wooden "vines" wrapped around it from the round orb base to the end of the handle. Attached to the end of the handle was a larger orb with countless spikes protruding from it in an almost random fashion. The orb appeared to be made of a gemstone but the name of it I couldn't remember. It was a white-ish colour in contrast to the handle with small black splotches like someone spilt drops of black coffee onto paper.

Suddenly, the voices of people in pain ceased and instead were replaced by three voices. One was a female which seemed to try to seduce me, complimenting me, telling me how intelligent and witty I am and how I wouldn't look complete without such a sexy necklace like the amulet. Another one, an old man told me how I was deserving of royalty; how I deserved to rule the world, have whatever I desired and how I was so much better than everyone. All I would have to do was pick up the sceptre and him and me would rule the world together like butler and master. The third voice sounded like a black muscular guy who insulted everything about me and told me how if I didn't meet his demands of clasping my hands around the dagger's hilt, he would personally destroy me in a fashion to create as much pain for me as possible. He reassured me over and over again that pain also goes beyond the world of skin and muscle. That he could twist my soul in ways that no mortal man could even contemplate.

As I stood there with these voices in my head, each of them at the same time yet each of them I understood what they were telling me over the voice of the other one and the grinding of metal upon stone. I clutched my head as a strong feeling of vertigo took over again and lost my balance. I stumbled with my eyes closed and suddenly heard two voices scream in a way that I could not even comprehend let alone describe. The closest thing I could think of was a tiger or lion roaring in fury yet even then, it sounded more humanistic and more demonic. Everything was suddenly quiet as I was on my hands and knees, an item in my hands.

A chuckling then started to rise in volume for about ten seconds and then stopped, to be replaced by an old voice reassuring me "nice pick, you and I will rule the world, with you as my butler. Give me a few seconds to apply my strings onto you my puppet". Out of nowhere, I felt a rush of energy; energy that I could not handle. At first I began screaming and having what could be described as an epileptic fit. My skin began to harden and lose it's colour from under my clothes. I suddenly then started ripping out my hair and clawing my scalp until I was bald. I then used both of my hands to break open my eye sockets and remove my eyeballs and began eating them out of madness, first losing my vision in my right eye and then my left. My body carried on mutating in others ways, I began losing weight fast until I was much too thin for my clothes.

I began throwing up blood and other fleshy things as I felt my body alter more, bringing more and more pain. I could feel my body alter but I couldn't figure out in what ways due to my lack of vision and feeling pain all over. Suddenly, I saw a white flash followed by a collection of memories rushing into me; the people before me. The old occupants of the city of Ys was built upon ground which was weak enough spiritually for the old gods to communicate with it. They had bestowed three ancient artefacts indicating the three ways of life and the three roles: The amulet of Ashalla, the god of entertainment, seduction, agility and speed, the dagger of Rashthoral, the god of war, manual work, endurance and strength and the sceptre of Qashali, the god of nobility, servitude, intelligence and patience. However, the gods ended up going to war with each other which ended with Ys being sunk by the mother god Trishforra who prevented the war in Ys to escalating to world wide destruction. Every so often, when Trishforra became weak, the three gods combined their power together to create a corridor to the surface so one may take over the world and destroy the other gods. I was the first one to reach the chamber of the artefacts since the city of Ys collapsed due to Trishforra finding ways to destroy previous invaders. I saw the previous invaders; always in a group, always with one of my ancestors and always laid to waste.

My eyesight suddenly returned and I found myself lying on the beach of an island, barely recognisable from what I used to be. I was a frail creature, dark brown and rubbery like a shrunken head with my clothes barely hanging onto me in a ragged state and my hands now claws. "My servant, you must gather power. You are frail now and I sense you realise this but in time your power will increase. Using your current powers of manipulation and changing your body shape, you must lure more souls into my chamber by destroying them in my name and returning with precisely 113 hearts to this island. Once you have the hearts, I will be closer to being able to entering this world. I promise you, you will be king and I will be god, of the world".
"Yessss my mashtar, I vill comensh tis ach vonch" I spoke, hollowly, in my head. I rose up to do my master's bidding, still clutching onto the mace he gave onto me as a gift. Yes, my god, I will do as you command and spread your name at once.

Edit: edited it a bit and tried to improve the ending a bit.
Edit: Gave the character a face.
Edit: This is it in it's completed version.

Word count: 3714.