A dusty temple, deep in the Himalayan mountains, abandoned and left to wither in time, saw it's first visitors in a century.
Two sets of rugged boots stepped over its entrance, disturbing the dust that collected over the many millenia.
"Finally! It's almost finished," one of the strangers whispered to himself, a man in his forties. Taking a few more steps past the entrance, pausing briefly to take in the sight. There wasn't much to look at, a small stone courtyard devoid of any semblance of life, a gray stone building in the center, and a sitting Buddha statue right in front of it.
The strangers walked towards the stone building when the younger one heard a voice coming from the Buddha. "Calamity is past that door. Heed my warning and leave." The word were not of a language he spoke but somehow he understood them. The man glanced at the older man.
"You heard that?" he asked.
"Heard what?"
"The voice just now from the Buddha. It said to leave."
"It's so quite I can hear my own blood pumping. I think the low oxygen is getting to you. A talking statue? You definitely losing it."
The middle aged man turned and approached the statue. It sat there with no sign of activity nor evidence that it spoke at all, covered in a thick layer of dust. He struck it lightly with his knuckles, causing a dull sound that echoed of the mountains sides.
"See just a stone statue. Let's finish up quickly so we can descend down the mountain before you die from lack of oxygen."
They walked away from the statue, and approached the door to the stone building. There wasn't anything keeping it locked and with minimal effort it swung open when they gave it a light push.
Stepping inside they found a pristine view that did not match the exterior. There was an open space with eight columns in a circle, decorated in strange symbols made of gold. The floor also had strange symbols and patterns made of gold etched into polished, black marble. In contrast with the outside there wasn't a spec of dust anywhere to be seen. But there towards the walls of the temple there were piles of bones, countless of them.
"Wow!" the younger man exclaimed as he took a look at his reflection in the marble floor. The craftsmanship of the interior took his breath away. He was enamored the gold.
"See the book didn't lie. A priceless secret lies here and it will change your destiny."
"I was expecting a treasure chest or something, how will we get the gold out? You promised me treasure but we didn't bring any tools to get the gold out," the young man who heard the voice of Buddha said. He took off his backpack, kneeled down and started to look for anything sharp he could use to pry out the gold.
"Here! Use this," the older man held a knife out. Holding the handle out towards his partner.
"That should do the trick," the man gave a light laugh as he reached to grab the handle.
Just as he was about to grab the handle, the older man spun it around and with a quick motion sliced the outstretched wrist.
"Ahhhh!! What are you doing!" the young man screamed. A thin line of blood formed, quickly staring to bleed uncontrollably. He grasped his wrist tightly, trying to stop the bleeding. He looked up to get an explanation but all he saw was cold, calculating eyes eyes with no remorse staring back at him. He knew it wasn't an accident, those eyes wanted him dead. A cold sweat formed as he remembered the voice of the Buddha. He didn't have time to think, with adrenaline and anger he leaped off the ground and tried to run out the door. Away from those eyes, away from the calamity.
Unfortunately for him he did not get far. He found a foot in his path, tripping him, causing him to land hard, face first, onto the ground. His head bouncing off the hard marble.
Darkness started to spread on the edges of his vision as a numbness took hold of him.
"Why?" the young man whispered, barely getting his words out before drawing his last breath.
"Because your blood is the key to this prison. Don't take it personally," the older man said as he watched his partner bleed out.
Slowly the blood started to make its way across the room and creeping up the columns unnaturally, covering the gold symbols and patterns.
When all of the gold was covered in blood the man walked out of the monastery. His eyes pausing on the statue of the Buddha whose cheeks had tears running down them.
"You tried to warn him. You tried to warn all of them. It's not your fault they didn't listen," he spoke to the statue as if he was familiar to it. "This was the last one. You've kept humanity safe for many millenia but a chick must leave the nest sometime to grow. Let them spread their wings and see if they fly or fall. It will be a start of a new era."
He watched the last bit of sun set over the mountains and sighed, "My work is finally finished."
He closed his eyes and opened his arms out. He started to rapidly age going from a man in his forties, to an old man with grey hair, then turning into dust which settled on the ground adding to the think layer already there.
Everyone across the planet felt an unease, hair rising on the back of their necks, like something major had changed but no one could quite put a finger on it.