The artifact was gone.
Just right after the magical scene that left six men on their knees and a mess in the enclosed room.
The whole treasure room seemed to be dim and dull.
Glass shards of various sizes and shapes littered the whole green coloured tiled floor, that was once clean and magnificent.
Some artifacts, after experiencing the undeniable powerful pressure from the two stone tablets acting up, were now left out open and unprotected.
Also, the two stone tablets that was once whole and fine is now just a shattered pieces of rubbles.
The words on the two stone tablets weren't there any longer, only leaving pieces of rubbles.
The dark shadow with a pair of horns had finally done what it had came for.
But it's absence after transforming the two stone tablets into the two souls of the Angel of war, had left the once beautiful and professional treasure room, in a mess.
---
Then speaking about the security personnels who just witnessed the dark shadow's doings, they, also seemed not to be in a good condition.
Despite the fact that the undeniable powerful pressure has been lifted, Derick, Slick and Victor are still very well paralyzed by the earlier scene they have just witnessed.
The three security personnels that were once guarding the Eastern side, are still on their knees, quietly trembling in fear, confusion, disbelief and shock.
They weren't able to comprehend anything that had just happened.
Infact, everything was a mystery and disbelief even though they saw it with their own eyes.
The same goes for Frank, Philip and Andrew, who are still very much on their knees farther away from where Derick, Slick and Victor are kneeling.
They are quiet, still trying to comprehend everything they saw and made to witness.
Still even trembling in utmost fear.
That maybe, the two glowing orbs would suddenly just appear out of nowhere and create another scary scene.
But seconds turned into minutes and nothing else happened, even after the two glowing orbs were sucked into that black swirling thing.
It took about fifteen minutes before they all could comprehend everything that happened before them.
Even though they were farther away from each other, Slick, Derick and Victor plus, Philip, Frank and Andrew, still found way to get over their shock and disbelief.
___
"What the hell just happened?"
Frank was the first to speak after a painstaking fifteen minutes of silence that clouded the entire treasure room, even after the earlier scene.
Frank is surprisingly on his feet, dusting his clothes with both his hands.
He turned to Philip who is beside him. He bent down and gently helped Philip to stand up on his feet, immediately knocking Philip out of his confusion.
"Easy, don't rush".
Frank said as he steadied Philip up on his (Philip's) feet.
Philip gasped repeatedly as he steadied himself on his feet. His ankles and legs seemed weak after withstanding the undeniable pressure that forced him to his knees.
"Thanks!"
Philip breathed out as he stretched out his ankles and legs.
Frank quickly left Philip's side and lastly helped Andrew up, who also seemed to be struggling to get up on his feet, as a result of being numb from the gravity type kind of pressure.
In no time, the three southern side guarding security personnels were up on their feet and also approached by the other three security personnels that had witnessed the magical scene along with them.
The three security personnels from the Eastern side were also up on their feet, after seemingly recovering from the trauma of witnessing such disbelieving scene.
Derick, Slick and Victor approached the other three. They had to carefully pass through an entire floor filled with glass shards from the shattered transparent glass boxes. The process was kinda hard but was successful as none of the three stepped on glass shards.
Approaching Philip, Frank and Andrew, Philip was the first to speak.
"Hey guys! Hope you all are okay?"
Philip asked, his voice, kinda hoarse.
Slick cleared his throat before answering in the stead of the two behind him.
"We're fine. Just a little disoriented".
Slick's answer was short and still filled with confusion.
Philip nodded in response.
"What the hell was that? Cause I can't even comprehend anything that happened".
Frank spoke just before Philip could. His average height coming beside Philip as he stared face to face with Slick and those with him.
"Frank's right. What happened earlier in front of us, wasn't right and I have a bad feeling about it".
Andrew said with a snort, his presence finally showing beside Philip.
"I think that's the same feeling I had when I entered the treasure room, right before any of it happened".
Frank once again declared, in actual sync with Andrew's words.
Slick breathed a sigh, his hand finding it's way to his forehead and massaging it softly.
"So what are we going to do about the situation, cause, at this point I'm confused".
Slick declared.
"We could figure out something quite clever together".
Derick said with a weak grin.
"That can only happen if actually we understand the situation".
Frank intercepted.
"So, what actually is the situation? I don't get any of these things you all are saying".
Slick spat out, his temper slowly rising, mostly from being totally confused and also from experiencing and witnessing the earlier scene.
"Calm down, Slick. You don't have to raise your voice. What just happened, didn't only affect you but also all of us".
Philip spoke with a firm voice.
Derick spoke right after. "Then what is the next step?"
Philip shrugged his shoulders. "At this point, even I don't know".
"Wait, you mean to say you have no idea what the next step is?!!" Slick shouted, the frustration and confusion, slowly clouding his senses. "Now I know that I made the wrong decision entering into the treasure room when Frank had screamed loudly".
"Calm down Slick, it's not my fault or any one's fault we got to witness all that".
Derick spoke up, his hand shooting up to Slick's shoulder.
Slick shrugged off Derick's hand as he frowned.
"I think it's Frank's fault that we are in this mess. Only if he had stayed put and not request to enter into the treasure room then all this wouldn't have happened. We wouldn't have witnessed the scene at all".
"But it's not my fault. I was just doing my job and I wasn't the one who started the whatever glowing thing that happened".
Frank said, trying to prove his innocence.
"Whatever, I still think it's your fault. Cause if not for you, we wouldn't be here in the first place. And now, we have no idea of what to do now and we all know that the others from our team would be bursting in here any second. You all know what's gonna happen if they find out we are here and also the mess that's in here".
Slick's voice clearly dripping with confusion and worry.
"Why wait for them to get here when we can just report ourselves to the museum manager. We will tell him everything that happened here".
Philip spoke making them all to turn to him.
"That's a crazy idea Philip and I'm not gonna be part of that".
Andrew said in disagreement.
"Yeah Philip, that's crazy. We all can confirm what happened earlier was magic but you all know that not everyone believes in magic".
Derick calmly pronounced.
"And the worst part of it all, is that our jobs and maybe even lives are on the line here. If we are found here with the treasure room in a mess, no matter what we say or do no one is going to believe us and for sure the government is not going to let us go after all this".
Slick pronounced the inevitable.
"Then that clearly means our lives would be doomed if we don't find a solution to this situation. First, how to make everyone believe what we saw and then going with Philip's idea of reporting ourselves to the museum manager, instead of them getting to us in the crime scene".
Andrew proposed cleverly.
"Then that's the problem. How are we going to make the museum manager and our superiors, including the government believe our words?" Slick asked, clearly afraid of whatever that might happen. "For sure, they'll think we are lying in order to get away with our crime".
"Don't worry Slick. We all will think of something that could help vindicate us from this situation".
Derick spoke, his hand finding it's way to Slick's shoulder, once again.
"But we got no time. I'm sure other six might have already noticed the disturbances and now making their way here".
Andrew said the inevitable.
"I just hope we are not gonna loose our jobs and go to jail if we get caught in here".
Frank said with a hoping voice.
The others seemed to agree with him.
Actually, the truth was unavoidable. They would loose their jobs and there was no way to escape it. They would for sure be charged to court and be locked up in jail for destroying government property especially valued artifacts, for example, the two stone tablets that are now in a mess.
No one would actually believe them if they told some kind of hooby dooby story about a magic glowing thing.
"Guys! I have an idea".