While Senwald is under siege, Shokei and her party are continuing their journey to the temple. Right now, the party has reached a detour, leading to two paths. The party had no idea on which path they should take.

  "I wonder which way we should go off to?" Marie asked.

  Shokei can see that the medallion is giving off a soft glow and she eyes on it carefully. The medallion apparently is the key that will not only guide her way to the temple, but to lead her in finding the first of the eight gems. The medallion shined and Shokei tried it out on the detour. She tries the left side and the medallion was losing its power, dimming the light. She tries it for the right path and then the medallion shines once again. She now gets an idea to where she needs to go to.

  "This way everyone." Shokei said to her party.

  The party went to the next cave entrance. The cave that Shokei is walking on appears to be a straight path and it is leading them downward to the depths beneath the mountain. The party made it to the other side until they reach to the center of the mountain.

  The va is moving slowly in motion as the party stands there. All they can see is just the center of the molten va and nothing else.

  "Just a dead end." Ferron said, looking around.

  "What do we do now?" Marie asked. "That medallion led us here, so where's the temple?"

  "Are you sure that medallion is the way to the temple?" Rei asked Shokei. "I see that there's no sign of this pce. Hell, we didn't fight that dragon, unless that vile thing was responsible for harming Senwald."

  "I doubt it." Ferron said. "That dragon wasn't even big, but at least we escaped without death in our faces."

  "Speaking of that..." Marie notices and feels her skin. "We're in the deepest area of the mountain and...were not sweating much."

  "Is this a sign?" Sadako asked. "I don't find myself feeling hot here, but...what could it be?"

  "Hmm..." Shokei thinks for a minute and said, "There could be more than just a sea of va..."

  The medallion shines brightly as it indicates the first gem is found here. However, all she could see is a surrounding sea of va, flowing around the area. Down below the stairs, the party looks to see that there is a circur ptform and in the center of the circle looks like a small pilr. The party walks down the stairs and reached to the center ptform, examining the pilr.

  "A pilr?" Sadako asked. "What's a small pilr doing down here?"

  "Looks strange..." Marie said, looking at the pilr.

  The pilr is encrypted in a form of a symbol. Shokei looks at the pilr that is dispyed on top. The star shaped symbol matches what she sees on her medallion. However, Shokei does not know what to do next.

  "This symbol matches just like the one on this medallion." Shokei said.

  "Try pcing your medallion thing on top of the pilr and see what happens." Rei said to her.

  Shokei did and taking the medallion off her neck, she pced the sacred item on top of the pilr. The star symbol matched perfectly. Without warning, the effects from the medallion caused the pce to shake, making it erupt like an earthquake. The party jumped and then they hurried back to the entrance that they came from.

  "What's happening now?!" Marie asked, now feeling scared.

  "I dunno! But is it a trap?!" Sadako asked and she held onto Marie's arms.

  "This volcano is going to...huh?"

  Shokei looks back at the va. From there, the party can see what is bound to happen next. Just then, Shokei can see that there is something emerging from the va. It looked like a ptform, but it wasn't. The ptform appears to be in a form of a building. This process continued for a few minutes as the hidden area was revealed slowly until the shaking stopped. The party looks to see what rose from the va and there they found it. The party has found the hidden temple that lies in the mountains. The medallion that shines on top of the pilr stopped glowing as it remained in pce.

  The party heads back downstairs to get a closer look at the temple. Shokei takes her medallion out from the pilr and puts it back around her neck.

  "What is this pce?" Shokei asked, viewing the front entrance of the temple.

  "If I can recall it, this is the Temple of the Eversting Fmes." Ferron said.

  "It's...very big." Marie said, staring up at the structure.

  "I'm certain that our objective is right inside there." Rei said and looked at Shokei. "But we came to do what we have to do, right?"

  "Exactly." Shokei nodded. She sees the temple in front of her. "We made it this far so no turning back now. Let's go."

  The party went up the stairs to get to the entrance of the temple.

  Shokei and her party are inside the Temple. The party walks further until they are at the lobby of the temple. There are three doors, one on each side. In front of them, the door in the middle is sealed off by a visible barrier. The other two doors are avaible for entry. Sadako takes notice that there's a sign that is near the side of the barrier.

  "I wonder what the message entails." Sadako points out to the sign.

  The party walks over to where the sign is and reads the message.

  "He who seeks what lies inside this entrance shall not pass with the power of spheres protecting it."

  "Hmm...perhaps we need to find these spheres if we are to bypass this barrier." said Ferron.

  "Good idea." Marie said and asked. "But where do we start?"

  "I think we should head to the left side of this room first." Shokei said.

  "Then we should break those spheres if we're going to proceed." Rei said. "Now, onward!"

  The party decided to head for the door on the left. Inside, the one thing that they can see is a portal in the center of the room.

  "A portal..." Sadako said. "What's a portal doing in this temple?"

  "I'm curious what lies ahead if we go through that portal?" Marie asked.

  "We can't tell unless we find out right?" Ferron said. "Either way, it will probably lead us further in the temple."

  "Right, we're going in." Shokei said.

  The party goes into the portal to see what connects from here.

  From entering the portal and making their way to the other side, the party is now in a different area. Once they have went through the portal, it disappears right behind them. Inside, the party are at a viewable maze, surrounded by the kes of va. The ground looks rocky and hard. There are no walls around the paths as the area appears to be very dangerous.

  "Woah." Marie said in surprise as she looks around. "This looks crazy!"

  "It sure is a temple all right." Sadako said, seeing the va down below. "A drop off surely means death if we fall from here."

  "Hmm..." Rei noticed a shiny object straight ahead. "Isn't that the sphere right there?"

  The sphere shines brightly in the center of the maze.

  "Seems like it." Shokei said and asked. "But...how do we get there?"

  Taking a good view of the pce, Sadako notices the other portals around the maze.

  "If we are going to get to that sphere, we need to go through the other portals around this area." Sadako said to everyone. "It won't be easy for us, but we will need to use those portals."

  "Right," Shokei agreed. "Be on a lookout for anything that would attack us. Ok guys?"

  "Don't worry. We got this." Rei said with confidence.

  "Great." Shokei said.

  The party begins their journey by walking on the first path to where the portal is. Suddenly, life forms are rising out of the molten va and then the va quickly turned into monsters. The party steps back a few inches to see a group of fming hound dogs charging at them.

  "I have a sinking feeling going through this will not be easy!" Marie said, gripping her staff.

  "Then we'll have to fight our way through!" Shokei said, already gripping her sword.

  The party is combat ready and are geared to push onward, fighting for their lives. The hound dogs rushed at the party and one of them made a move by charging fast at Marie. Marie saw the hound dog rushing towards her, and Rei managed to take care of the beast by ramming the monster with a fierce knee. Shokei and Ferron worked together to take care of the hound dogs. With a bit of support, Sadako made Shokei's sword be fused with ice, giving her an enhanced boost. Ferron sliced away the beasts that are coming at him and Shokei managed to kill off the fming beasts by herself. Sadako cast out her freeze spells, killing off the enemies in one-shot.

  "Ahhhh!!" Marie cried out as she is overwhelmed by more hound dogs.

  "What the?!" Ferron said, seeing one of his allies is in danger.

  Just then, one of the hound dogs attacked Marie from behind. Marie fell on the ground and Ferron saw the beast that tackled her. Ferron charges and killed off the beast to save Marie. Marie gets up and stands beside Ferron in case of anything.

  Rei took care of the monsters that have her in her corner. She did a swift kick on one of the hound dogs and then charged a punch at another, killing one of the foul beasts fatally. The other dog charged at her from behind and as Rei saw the enemy coming, she backflip to dodge the attack. Shokei came by and sy the monster that tried to attack her comrade, thrusting and killing the monster with a pierce blow to the body. Shokei takes out her sword as soon as the hound dog has been sin.

  "There!" Shokei said. "That should take care of them."

  "We need to keep moving while we can." Sadako said.

  "Don't be too sure." Ferron said.

  "What?" Sadako and Shokei said.

  Just then, more fming hound dogs emerged from the va. The hound dogs howled as the ferocious beasts are coming towards the party.

  "We need to duke it out if we're going after that sphere!" Shokei said and then see her enemies coming. "Come on!"

  The party continues to move onward to reach to the portal. As soon as they all made it to the other side, Shokei can see another portal is just around the corner. During their trek, the party encountered more enemies ahead of them. Most of the enemies they fought are all fire affinity types. Aside from fming hound dogs, the party fought fire bats, to imps, and kobolds. The party fought for their lives, risking the boundaries within the temple. While running on the ground, a sweep of fire bzes on the horizontal line, preventing Shokei and the party from proceeding. They got through the fire by diving through the line to continue for the next portal. From going through different portals, the party finally made it to the sphere.

  "Man, that was tough!" Marie said, all tired from the fighting and running from the monsters.

  "We made it this far." Ferron said to the party. "We need to destroy this sphere to break one of the barriers."

  The party approaches the sphere. Suddenly, a sweep of fire blocked them from going further, causing them to come to a complete halt.

  "Seriously?!" Rei shouted, nearly touched the wall of fire.

  "It must be a trap..." Shokei said.

  The party hears a growling noise and then a monster emerged from the va. A flying dragon soars in the air as it flies above the party. The party can see that it was the same dragon that they encountered from going across the bridge.

  "Hey wait a minute! Didn't we see that dragon before?" Marie asked, feeling a bit scared of the flying monster.

  "Looks like it." Rei said as she cracks her knuckles.

  "We're going to make an effort to destroy that sphere and defeat that dragon!" Shokei said, gripping her sword once again. "Let's do this!"

  The party fought against the flying dragon. The dragon swoops down at them as Shokei and the others duck for cover. The dragon flies upward and turns to strike again. Ferron got his sword out and he was ready to take on the monster. Sadako and Marie prepare themselves with their magic abilities. Shokei and Rei get in their fighting positions and are facing the dragon. The whole party was geared for battle.

  The red dragon charges at the party for another swoop attack. This time, the dragon breathes fire at the party. Shokei saw the attack coming and she dodged out of the way, unable to make a strike. Rei makes a leap, and she nds above the dragon's head.

  "Take this!!" Rei shouted at the dragon and raised her fist.

  Rei builds up chi energy and used an Assault Punching Bolt on the dragon's head. The dragon felt the lighting energy punch on the noggin and became distracted in sight. Sadako saw the damage being dealt thanks to Rei and then she made her move.

  "Icicle Sorcery!!" Sadako chanted.

  Sadako's ice spell did enough damage on the dragon. The dragon felt the chilling effects of her spell and fell hard on the ground. Ferron rushes at the monster and fought viciously by sshing the monster with his gss sword. The dragon cried out in pain as its skin felt the touch of the sharpness of his weapon. The dragon counterattacks against Ferron with a swipe of its sharp cws. Ferron braced himself as the cws struck him and he was sent back a few feet away from the bzing fire that nearly touched his head. Shokei sees Ferron on the ground and goes over to get him back on his feet.

  "Ghhh! This is nothing!" Ferron said as he felt the scars on his arm and the side of his torso being injured.

  Shokei turns to face the dragon and charged against the monster with both hands on her sword. The dragon sees her coming this way and then the monster whips her with its tail. Shokei saw the attack coming and quickly dodges out of the way. The red dragon surprises her with a bst of its fire. Shokei's eyes widened as soon as she saw the attack coming.

  "OH SNAP!!" Shokei cried out, defending herself.

  "Charming Protection!"

  Unfortunately, the dragon's fire did not go through her as Shokei sees that she is protected by a shield, made from magic. She can see Marie's support spell is in use as her Charming Protection saved her from being burnt.

  "Thanks!" Shokei nodded to Marie for the support.

  "No problem." Marie said, putting energy to her magic.

  Landing safely on the ground, Shokei can see that the dragon is about to attack her once again. However, the dragon cried out in pain as Ferron pulled off a special attack, striking the body with sharp painful blows with his gss sword. At that moment, Sadako used her ice spell to critically injure the dragon once more, only that it was mortal thanks to the open cuts exposing the flesh. The dragon feels its body being washed up and feels its body weakened. It was weak to not fly anymore. Shokei sees the opportunity to finish off the dragon. She runs up to get to the dragon's head and then she was ready to kill off the monster.

  "Style...execution!!" Shokei cried out.

  The energy of her sword gave off again and she immediately thrusts downward to the dragon's skull. The dragon died instantly as the sword goes through to its chin and then its body goes down motionless. Once the dragon has been taken care of, Shokei removes the sword off the dragon's body and then climbs down to meet her party.

  "YAY!! You did it!!" Marie cheered.

  "Actually, you mean we." Shokei corrected her.

  "Oh! Right." Marie nodded.

  "That takes care of this hideous thing." Rei said, seeing the dragon dead in its own blood.

  "Now then..." Shokei said, looking back at the sphere. "We need to take care of business."

  The party went back to the sphere that is protected by a wall of fire. The fire disappears as the sphere is now unguarded. With the protection gone, the party looks at each other, knowing what they must do. Shokei makes the first move by smashing the sphere. The sphere appears to be tough but fragile enough to be broken.

  "Huh?" Shokei said, viewing the damage. "This is a tough sphere to break."

  "Striking it won't be simple." Ferron said. "We need to work in numbers if we are going to shatter this sphere."

  "Hmm..." Rei tries to touch the sphere. The sphere gave off a jolt of shock as Rei jerked away from touching it. "Ouch!"

  "Shockproof..." Ferron said, seeing this. "It cannot be touched by human hands."

  "Really?" Rei said and asked. "Who the hell built this pce?"

  "Maybe...it was made to not allow anyone from going to that room that's blocked." Sadako said.

  "You think?" Rei asked. "And I thought I would lift this and throw it to the va."

  "That would be simple..." Shokei said. "But I think we need to pull some muscle into shattering this sphere."

  "Welp...my staff won't be able to break things, so..." Marie said, staring at her weapon.

  "Then, we will have to break this with your help Ferron." Shokei said and turns to Sadako. "Can your magic do the job in breaking this sphere?"

  "I will...but I can handle pain if I'm exhausted." Sadako said.

  "Fair enough." Shokei said, gripping her sword. "Let's destroy this thing!"

  The party works together as Shokei, Sadako, and Ferron hammers away on the sphere. The sphere reacts as it is being shattered. The shards of gss fell to the ground while being hack and sshed away. While they work on shattering the sphere, Marie overhears a noise and looks around.

  "Ehh? What's that?" Marie asked, looking at her surroundings.

  "Did you hear something?" Rei asked her.

  The party paused to hear noises surrounding them. Then the party can hear noises coming from the va. Bursting out of the va appeared more fming hound dogs.

  "You're kidding me!" Marie shouted. "There's more of them?!"

  "Great!" Rei said. "This temple is challenging us, right?"

  "Rei, Marie," Shokei calls out to them. "You'll need to fend them off while we hack away this sphere."

  "Got it." Rei said, getting to her fighting stance.

  "I'll help out with them." Sadako said to Shokei.

  "Sure. We're halfway breaking this sphere." Shokei said.

  "Heh!" Rei cracks her knuckles and says proudly. "I love a good fight."

  The party worked together in groups. Shokei and Ferron are chipping away the sphere as they are trying to shatter it apart. Rei, Marie, and Sadako team up to fight against the hound dogs. While both sides are doing their part, the fight against the monstrous fming creatures are making matters worse as more of them appeared right out of the va.

  "G'damn! I can't hold these fiery bastards much longer!" Rei said as she felt the heat on her hands and arms from ramming her fists into the enemies. "There's too many of them!"

  "Don't know...how much I can use my magic..." Sadako said, feeling a bit of migraine from her head, exhaust from using magic.

  "Just hang in there!" Shokei calls out to them. "You guys need to hold them off until this sphere is destroyed."

  As Rei and the others are fighting off the hound dogs, Shokei and Ferron are making some progress in destroying the sphere. The sphere's barrier was nearly fading out and looks ready to be destroyed. Rei can see that her party is trying to break off the sphere as best as they can, but their strength alone was not enough. Rei makes her move and she then rushes at the sphere. Building up chi, her fist raged into lightning, and she makes a leap in the air and directed her fist straight at the sphere. Shokei and Ferron hear Rei's war cry and they quickly moved out of the way to allow Rei to punch the sphere with her Assault Punching Bolt. The impact of the fist caused the sphere to lose its protection as it cracks and breaks up in parts. The sphere was destroyed and suddenly the hound dogs died out as the fming creatures vanished.

  The fight against the hound dogs is finally over as the party felt tired. After going through the trouble of reaching the sphere and defeating the dragon, they all felt relieved that the hard part is over for now.

  "Whew!" Marie said, feeling beat. "That was tough..."

  "Tough for you, but yeah..." Sadako said, taking a breath. "Those fiendish dogs...they weren't kidding around."

  "Nice work." Shokei said to Rei.

  "No sweat." Rei nodded. "Just figures that the sphere was losing its defense."

  "Even with your help, the sphere has been destroyed, so it should weaken the barrier at some point." Shokei said.

  The party looks to see that a portal has appeared on the floor.

  "Looks like we can leave this area." Rei said.

  "Yes." Shokei said. "Let's get out of here."

  Everyone walks up and leaves the area through the portal.

  The party have made their way back at the entrance where they have started. As soon as they returned from one section of the temple, the party looks at the barrier in the central door. The barrier is halfway losing its energy.

  "By destroying that sphere, the barrier is nearly fading." Sadako said.

  "Which means we need to destroy the other sphere that's on the opposite side." Shokei added. "We need to head over there now."

  The party went over to the next room on the right and entered the portal to get to the next area. Once they have reached the next area, Shokei looks at her surroundings. Where they are now is simir to the area that was on the left side. This time, however, the ptforms are higher and are separated apart and it has bancing lines connected to the ptforms. Down below is the sea of va.

  "Woah!" Shokei said, feeling nervous. "Never did I expect all of us to find ourselves in an area this high..."

  "I'm afraid of heights." Marie said. "We should not look down while we're at it."

  "Hmm?" Rei looks ahead and she can see that the sphere is up ahead. "We need to go across these bance beams here if we are to destroy that sphere."

  "You mean...I have to get across these beams?" Shokei asked, breathing heavily.

  "We don't have a choice." Rei said. "We cannot be afraid of heights in this situation. Besides, I don't like heights either."

  "Me too." Sadako said.

  "Sorry guys...I'm not used to heights at all." Shokei said.

  "We did not come this far to give up." Ferron said. "We can do this together without thinking what's down below."

  Shokei hears the words of Ferron and turned to him.

  "Ok."Shokei nodded.

  With encouragement, Rei assists Shokei into going across the lines as the other party members are proceeding on through the connections with the beams and the ptforms. The party takes caution as they carefully walk on the beams and keep a lookout for any sign of monsters in case of anything. Luckily, there are no monsters that appeared in their way. The party continue to navigate through the ptforms while walking on the lines. The further they go, the thinner the bancing lines are.

  The maze of ptforms took the party a while to go across while they continue to reach for the sphere. As soon as they walk over to the next ptform, the party looks ahead to see the sphere is right in the center. However, there was one problem. The line that they need to get across is a long one and the distance is about one hundred feet.

  "That's really a long path." Marie said, examining the distance.

  "This line is...quite thin..." Rei said, staring at the line below her. "More like a rope, but thin enough for our feet to go across."

  "This is going to be tough..." Marie said, worried and asked. "What if we fall?"

  "Consider this the st time you ever lived on this pnet." Rei replied at her.

  Marie gulped.

  "There really is no other way to get over there..." Sadako said. "Is this temple challenging our wits?"

  "Seems so." Rei said to her. "But...we will need to go across."

  "Umm..."

  The party turns their attention to Shokei. The looks on her face shows her coward side as she is not willing to go through this.

  "...I'll go st." Shokei suggested.

  "Are you sure?" Sadako asked. "You're the leader. We want you to go first."

  "No, no..." Shokei said, waving her hands as she was insisting her party the go ahead. "I prefer you all go first...until it's my turn."

  "Hmmph, since you put it that way..." Rei said and looks at Marie. "You go first."

  "Who me?!" Marie asked, pointing at herself.

  "Of course!" Rei said to her. "Because of your short self, you should go across first."

  "Umm..." Marie did not know what else to say, but she takes a sigh of breath and said, "...ok."

  Marie makes her start as being the first in the party to walk across the thin line. She quietly takes her time as she bances herself to get to where the next sphere is. It took her minutes to reach to the next side and soon, she has successfully made it across to the sphere.

  "Yes!" Marie finally said as she kissed the ground. "Thank you Almighty!"

  "Good going Marie!" Rei said. "Sadako, you're up."

  Sadako went across next on the line. Using the same strategy as Marie, she takes her time to get across with patience while she focuses on the thin line and not the va down below. Within minutes, Sadako makes it across safely. Ferron makes his move to get across the line. For him, it was no trouble as he got across the line without any trouble at all. Then it was Rei's turn to go across. Before going across, she looks back at Shokei.

  "You sure you want to go through this by yourself?" Rei asked her.

  "I'll...I'll be all right." Shokei replied.

  "I've been helping you out with the other connections in this area," Rei tells her. "Once I go across, you're on your own."

  "Understood." Shokei nodded.

  "Ok..." Rei said, and she faces her direction. "Not a fan of heights, but here goes..."

  Rei proceeds to go across the thin line. She takes bance as she tries not to lose focus. Having patience, Rei took a while to reach over to where the rest of the party are. By sidestepping carefully, Rei was able to make it across safely to the other side.

  Finally, it is Shokei's turn to go across to the other side of the ptform. Refusing to look down at the va below, she remains calm over her fear of heights. Shokei's nerves are getting to her head.

  "Come on Shokei!" Rei called out to her. "You can't let fear consume you!"

  "You can make it Shokei!" Marie cheered to her.

  Shokei knew what she had to do. It's either going after the first gem or her life. Both are her objectives and she needed to be focus on going across. Seeing that there was no other option, Shokei knew it was time for her to make it across the line.

  Good luck..., Shokei thought to herself.

  Shokei starts to go across the ptform by looking directly at her party. She bances herself with caution and does her best to not look focus. A few minutes in, Shokei is handling herself well enough to keep her bance intact and continues moving forward. She pays attention to her direction as she carefully switches feet to maintain her bance.

  Easy now..., Shokei thought. Just keep yourself steady.

  Halfway there, Shokei is making progress as she is inching closer to her party. Her eyes are focus on the thin line and she carefully walks up to the other ptform.

  Do you ever get the feeling of loneliness?

  "Huh?!" Shokei gasped.

  Everything you do is for your own sake.

  Suddenly, Shokei panicked. Her thoughts caught the attention of voices disrupting her concentration. Then, she mistakenly loses her bance, and she hits her body on the thin ptform. Shokei grips the ptform tightly as quick as possible. Her party watched in horror as Shokei is trying to hold on for dear life. Her progress stands as she was halfway there to the other side.

  "By the gods, Shokei...DON'T FALL!!" Rei yells out at her.

  Shokei is already nervous and finds that she could not go further. While her life is at risk, giving up was not an option. She refused to die in the va, and she looks up at her party.

  "I'M COMING!!" Shokei yells out to her party.

  Shokei tries to overcome her fear of heights as she figures out a way to get her feet back on the line. Instead, she uses her body to pull herself up. She keeps her eyes locked as she pulls her way to get to her party.

  "That does it Shokei!" Rei said to her. "Keep doing that until you reach here."

  Shokei continues her way up to the ptform. Like climbing a tree, she worms her way upward and then she finally approaches up to the other side.

  "Give me your hand and I'll pull you in safely." Rei tells her.

  Shokei can see Rei is close and she reaches out her hand to grab it. Then, Rei extends out her arm to grab her ally's other hand and she pulls Shokei in to have her touch the other ptform. Shokei is now safe at st after being saved from a fatal disaster.

  "Yay! You made it!" Marie said happily with a hug.

  "Crossing that line must've been tough, wasn't it?" Ferron asked.

  "I rather not talk about it..." Shokei replied to him, not feeling moody now. "All that matters is that I made it across. Nothing else."

  "I think it's best for you to chill out first before we destroy that sphere." Rei said to her.

  "That's ok." Shokei said, taking out her sword and has her eyes on the sphere.

  "Shokei..." Rei said to her.

  "Just get this over with." Shokei interrupted.

  Bypassing her fear, Shokei heads up for the sphere. The sphere is located around a huge ptform and stands alone unguarded. Shokei gets close to the sphere and paused for a moment. Her party members came up to her.

  "So, there's the sphere." Marie said, getting a closer look.

  "Do you think another wild creature is going to appear and strike at us?" Sadako asked.

  "I'm certain of it." Rei said. "We did not encounter any type of monster in this area."

  "We just need to be cautious..." Shokei said. She grips her sword and says, "Let's destroy this while we can..."

  "Wait! What's that?!" Marie interrupted.

  Suddenly, a great mystical cloud of smoke appeared in front of them. The party gets back, and the sphere is now guarded with a trap. The smoke clears up and from there, the party encounters a dark-type monster with three heads.

  "The hell is that?!" Marie shouted in surprise.

  "A Cerebus!" Ferron said.

  "Geez! Just when we thought there was no company to disrupt us..." Rei said.

  "Then we'll have to fight this one out." Shokei said. "Come on!"

  Shokei and her party acts and they all fought against the Cerebus. The Cerebus makes its first move by charging at the party. Everyone moved out of the way as the monster tries to tackle them. Ferron goes in for the attack on the Cerebus by cshing the foul beast with his gss sword. However, his attack backfired as the Cerebus counters against him by using one of its heads to headbutt him. Ferron felt the attack and he was sent flying back but recovers immediately by nding on his feet.

  Shokei waits for the monster to attack her. While waiting, Sadako prepares her magic.

  "Chilling Icicle!!" Sadako chanted.

  The ice attack did some damage on the Cerebus. The effects of the attack did not do much. One of the heads spews out fire and Sadako ran just in time before the fiery bze can hit her. Ferron goes at it again but tries to strike in the back at the Cerebus. The damage does rip right through the monster's flesh. The Cerebus felt the damage being done and the left head counters back by trying to bite him. Ferron rolls out of the way, but he was not able to defend himself as the Cerebus charged at him with a headbutt.

  "Ahh!!" Ferron cried out in pain as he tumbles and fell to the floor.

  "Oh no!" Marie said and called out to him. "Let me help you out!"

  Ferron felt the pain on his shoulder, but when he saw Marie coming to him, he rises on his feet and shakes his head to refuse treatment.

  "The rage of my pain is rising." Ferron said. "I must fight it out while my strength builds within me."

  Shokei did not make a move yet as she waits for the Cerebus to pull off another move next.

  This one's tough..., Shokei thought. She then turns her focus on the sphere which was not in the way.

  Deciding what to do, Shokei changed her mind from fighting the Cerebus and focuses on her primary target, which is the sphere. The sphere was still shining with electricity and dark energy. Shokei rushes toward her objective, and she starts working her way in smashing the sphere. The Cerebus notices her doing this and the center of the head fires a big bst fireball at her.

  "Oh no you don't!" Marie said as she saw the attack being aimed directly at Shokei. Quickly, she ran fast to get to Shokei and chanted, "Charming Protecting!!"

  Marie spell did its work, and her protective barrier covers her and Shokei from the monster's fire attack. Ferron can see Shokei bashing the sphere and he goes over to help her out rather than facing the Cerebus. The monster prepares to strike at Shokei again, but Rei and Sadako stand in the monster's way, preventing the beast from doing that.

  "I'm about to have fun with this thing!" Rei said, looking for a shot against the Cerebus.

  Rei charged up at the monster and she pulled up strong hits against the Cerebus using her monk techniques towards the body. Sadako used her ice spell onto the beast, doing her best to weaken the monster, slowing the Cerebus down. While Rei and Sadako work together to fend off the monster, Shokei and Ferron are working together to shatter the sphere. So far, the sphere is about to break at any point. The Cerebus tries to fight it out and swings its tail against its enemies.

  "Ahhhhh!!"

  "What the?!" Shokei turns and hears Sadako screaming.

  Shokei can see one of her allies took a hit and there she can see Sadako has taken some serious damage.

  "Grrrr!! Ugh, I got poisoned!" Sadako cried out as she felt her arm stung. "The beast struck me with its tail!"

  "Oh god! Hold on Sadako!" Marie shouted.

  Marie hurries to Sadako's aid as Sadako feels wounded with an illness affecting her body. Rei, on the other hand, fought the Cerebus on her own as she was lucky enough to dodge the tail whip that the Cerebus swung against her. Rei continues to deliver her moves against the monster's body, and she is doing her best to defend Shokei and Ferron. The sphere is losing its defenses as it was about to break.

  "Time to give this the st blow." Ferron said.

  Ferron gives his sword a heavy swing and then the sphere finally broke into pieces. The result caused the Cerebus to stop moving. Then, the monster cried out and colpsed on the ground, indicating that the monster died off instantly.

  "Yes! We did it!" Ferron said with success.

  "Gd that's over." Shokei said and then she turned to see Sadako. "Then again, we need to check on her first."

  Shokei and the rest of her party went over to check on Sadako.

  "Guhhh!!" Sadako felt the infection of the poison. "It hurts!! Ugh!!"

  "Rex." Marie said to her. "I have the spell that can cure you right away."

  Marie hovers her hand on the site of the poisonous infection.

  "Healing Sugar Cure." Marie chanted.

  The spell went into effect and Sadako felt the poison being lifted out of her body. The poison effect was gone as it disappears.

  "Thanks Marie." Sadako said, getting up. "I feel a lot better."

  "It's no problem." Marie said with a smile.

  "Good thing she came with us Shokei." Rei said to Shokei. "Or we would never leave here alive."

  "Tee hee." Marie smiled with her teeth. "That's why I'm a big help!"

  The party looks back to see that the second sphere has been broken. Up ahead, they can see that the portal is shining around northwest on top of the ptform.

  "That barrier should be gone by now." Shokei said. She looks back at her party. "We should get a move on while we can."

  The party agreed and then everyone goes through the portal to return to the lobby. As soon as they made it back, the party looks to see the barrier is disappearing. The barrier protecting the entrance then vanished.

  "Hey! The barrier's gone!" Marie said.

  "Looks like we can advance further to what lies in the next area." Shokei said.