home

search

Chapter 20

  By walking through the entrance, the party sees that there are stairs leading downward to the bottom area of the temple.

  "Do you think that monster lives down there?" Sadako asked.

  "Maybe...but it seems that we are close to our target." Ferron replied.

  "It feels warmer here..." Shokei said. "But we came this far, so let's find out."

  The party proceeds downstairs and are heading deeper into the temple. The stairs are a downward spiral and neither Shokei's party members have any idea what lies down below. From going downstairs, the party can see an opening that leads them to the next room. Walking inside, the party can see a door that's right ahead of them. This door looks different, and it has an evocation symbol on the door.

  "What kind of door is that?" Marie asked.

  "This door..." Ferron said, examining it. "It's sealed."

  "Hmm..."

  Shokei walks up to inspect the door for a second. Then, she looks down to see her medallion giving off a shining glow once again. Taking a gnce at it, the medallion makes the connection to the sealed door and the door rises to the ceiling. The party proceeds inside and once they all walked in; the iron door slides down to trap all of them inside.

  "Uh uo!!" Marie gasped in panic. "We're trapped!!"

  "What now?" Sadako asked, looking worried. "We won't be able to escape now!"

  "It looks like this temple is inviting us in." Ferron said, looking around.

  "No turning back now." Shokei said. "We made it this far and we have to see where we at now."

  The party looks around to see where they are at from this point. This area appears to be a square arena surrounded by va on four corners. There is a big hole that is at the center that led to the va pit below. The party looks around to see the arena. Suddenly, a strange swirl emerged from the hole at the center of the arena.

  "Eh? The hell is this?!" Shokei said, taking out her sword.

  "As I said before, this temple is inviting us to stay inside." Ferron said, also taking his weapon out.

  "To our deaths?!" Marie asked.

  "Yeah, you think?" Rei asked her.

  The party steps back to see what danger will occur at them. The swirl turned into a bzing fire and then it transformed into a huge monster. The party sees what was happening as the fmes turned into a form of an Insect. The monster has two eyes and six legs appearing. It even has two big wings, resembling a fly's wings. The type of insect resembles a beetle.

  "That creature..." Ferron said, getting a good look at the monster. "It looks familiar to me."

  "You did?" Shokei asked him.

  "How do you know about this?" Rei asked him.

  "This monster..." Ferron replied. "I recognized this monster before. That creature is responsible for the deaths of the people at Senwald and those that fought it to their own graves."

  "Seriously?" Marie asked. "Did you witness all of this?"

  "Why yes." Ferron replied. "I remember seeing fmes that were behind the stronghold of Senwald and there I saw this flying creature in the air as it breathed fire."

  "Aha." Shokei said, recalling that story from what King Faramond told her. "No wonder..."

  "This foul creature has a name..." Ferron said to the party. "It's Fighero..."

  Ferron stares directly at the flying fming monster.

  "Fighero the Cremator!" Ferron said.

  Before Shokei and her party can fight the huge Insect, Shokei looks back at her medallion. The medallion indicates a source, and she sees that its coming directly at Fighero.

  "Why are you looking back at that medallion of yours?" Ferron asked.

  "This is telling me something." Shokei replied, staring at the shining object in her hand.

  "What's that?" Ferron asked.

  "This monster holds an ancient item inside." Shokei replied, seeing the monster.

  "What would that be?" Rei asked.

  "A gem..." Shokei said to everyone. "This monster holds a gem that I must obtain. We will have to defeat this foul being that holds that gem."

  "Are you serious?!" Marie asked her. "You're making this up, are you?"

  "Shut up Marie!" Rei tells her and looks at Shokei. "So, this medallion of yours is indicating some sort of a treasure. Is that what you're trying to tell me?"

  "Maybe..." Shokei replied to her. "But..."

  Shokei takes her sword out and gets herself face to face at the Insect monster.

  "We can't waste time discussing about this!" Shokei shouted. "Let's kill this hideous thing while we can!"

  Everyone looks at each other and agreed. Shokei already found out that Fighero holds possession of the fire gem. Seeing that this is one of the guardians, Shokei knew that this fight will be her greatest challenge. The party gets into gear that they need and then everyone was ready to take on the fming Insect. Just before the party made their first move, Fighero cast a fire spell against them. Marie looks down to see a penta symbol before the party's feet.

  "Look out!" Marie yelled.

  "Eh?!" Shokei looks down to see a magic spell was taking effect and yells out loud, "Take cover!!"

  The party quickly rolls out of the way as a bzing fire has been cast against them. The fire spell nearly touched them. After getting out of harm's way, the party takes their chance to strike at Fighero. Shokei takes the lead by making her first attack against the monster, clinging onto her sword for a ssh. The monster sees the attack coming and dodged the attack by flying in mid-air. Fighero makes a leap and sets its target at Sadako. Sadako was about to use her ice spell against the monster, but she dodged out of harm's way to avoid the monster's attack. She skids on the floor by a few inches. Taking the fall, Sadako gets up and felt the monster struck her with its legs. She felt the pain in her back as she winced.

  Ferron went behind the monster and moves in to ssh the Insect. Fighero felt the sharpness of the bde in the back and quickly counters its enemy by the long legs. Ferron sees the attack coming and jumps out of the way in time. He sees an open opportunity to clip off the monster's wings. Suddenly, Fighero used its whole body in a barrel roll to fend off his attack. Ferron fell over to the side of the arena on his feet. He gritted his teeth in a sign of disappointment.

  The beetle-type insect takes caution against Shokei and her party. Rei is prepared to attack the monster by targeting the body. Fighero takes a swing against Rei by using its long legs. Rei dodges the attack, and she rolls under the monster. Rei targets the abdomen of the beetle-type Insect and attacks the creature with hard kicks and punches. The Insect felt the pain of the fists as Rei damaged the abdomen easily.

  "Time for the best part!" Rei said and held back to charge her fist with a special attack. "Todlich Uppercut!"

  Rei unleashes a powerful uppercut on the monster's abdomen by fracturing the bones inside Fighero. The monster suffered a critical hit as it felt its body unbanced and takes a few steps back.

  "Gcier Barrage!"

  Sadako enchanted her powerful ice spell in order to weaken the monster. The heavy gcier came crashing down on Fighero, causing a major damage against its skin and even affecting its wings. The monster cried out in pain as it is pinned on the ground and not being able to fly.

  "The enemy's weak!" Shokei said to everyone. "Let's kill this vile thing while we can!"

  Suddenly, Fighero has more tricks up its sleeve. The monster made a quick move by diving into the hole in the center of the arena and into the va.

  "What the?!" Shokei said in surprise.

  The party ran up to the hole that the monster went into and sees the monster absorbing energy from the heat.

  "It seems that monster is recovering from the attack I used against it." Sadako said.

  "That's no good." Ferron said shaking his head.

  Once Fighero has regained enough energy, the monster swooped up from the va and flies above the party. With its newfound strength, the monster cries out as it became more powerful to defeat its opponents.

  "Shit! We're screwed!" Shokei angrily said.

  "What it is going to do now?" Marie asked.

  The party can see Fighero is forming a spell against the party. The Insect-type monster puts its spell in action and then spews fmes out of its antenna up in the air.

  "Huh?!" Shokei looks up. The party looks up in the air.

  The spell turns out to be a barrage of fireballs raining down.

  "A rain of fire!" Ferron said. "I knew it!"

  "That son of a bitch!" Rei said. "Dodge this while you can!"

  The rain of fire is about to nd down on Shokei and her party and everyone makes a run for it to avoid this unexpected attack. Marie used her Charming Protection to shield herself from the fming attack. She keeps her shield in pce as best as she can while the rain of fire touches her shield to break her defense.

  Marie used her spell effectively for the other party members as she could shield Sadako, Shokei, and Rei from the raining fmes. Ferron protects himself against the rain of fire by using his sword for protection. Spinning his sword in a pinwheel fashion, he fends off the fmes as best as he can.

  The fmes raining down died after a few minutes and then Fighero nds on the ground to be close to where Shokei and her allies stand. The Insect-type beetle pulled off a physical move and charged at Shokei. Shokei sees the monster coming and not being able to defend herself in time, she was hit with full force by the monster's head. Shokei felt the damaging impact struck her body and was sent flying back on the floor, screaming in pain.

  "Shokei!!" Rei called out to her in shock.

  Shokei was sent flying from Fighero's bash attack. Her body tumbles until it stopped at the edge to where the va is down below. Shokei lies there, unable to get up as the pain inflicted in her body thanks to the monster.

  Ferron saw Shokei in her condition and he is shocked to see that the monster had done a big impact towards Shokei. Then, he sees Shokei's allies are coming up to where he stands, and they all face towards the monster that is about to finish Shokei off.

  "I will never let a vile creature kill off a woman in peril!" Ferron shouted and charged at the monster.

  With a rage of attitude, Ferron dashes straight at Fighero and grips his gss sword tightly. Rei joins him for assistance as Sadako gets herself ready to use her ice magic on the monster. Marie waits for the Insect-type monster to move away from Shokei so she can heal her.

  Ferron unleashed a powerful attack as he charged directly into the monster. Wielding his sword, he nds consecutive hits on the monster's body by cutting Fighero's skin. The monster felt the sharpness of the bde as it moved away from Shokei to deal with the distraction.

  "Hang in there Shokei!" Rei calls out to her. "I'm coming for you!"

  Rei jumps to where Shokei is and she takes her by the arms. She quickly brings her back to where Marie is waiting where she can restore her wounds. Shokei looks badly hurt from the blow as Rei gently y her on the floor.

  "Hold on," Marie said, using her healing magic at work. "This is going to take a few minutes."

  "Uhhh..." Shokei breathes heavily by taking a breath but jerks her body as the pain swells in her back.

  "Stay calm Shokei." Marie tells her.

  Ferron is taking care of the monster as Fighero fights back by using its legs and fire attacks against him. Using sword skills, Ferron caused some great damage against the monster, striking it with sharp, painful blows, aiming at the legs. Giving his all, Ferron is putting himself the work as the Insect-type monster is unable to move by the legs. Then, Ferron turns to Sadako and there he can see her building momentum as she is ready to unleash her powerful spell against the enemy.

  "Chilling Omni Fusion!" Sadako cast out.

  Sadako's ice spell was put in effect. This time, her spell is much powerful than her previous spell and Fighero is hit with another freezing ice attack. The spell made the connection from the pit in the center and then the va was fused with the ice as it travels out of the pit and aimed at Fighero, through Sadako's guidance. The monster is engulfed by the ice and thus makes the condition worse. The monster's body temperature quickly drops as it became unable to take time for recovery.

  "That should do it." Marie said, finishing up the process on curing Shokei.

  Shokei can feel her strength and energy back in full health. She finally gets up and stretches out her body to feel life has come back in her. She takes her sword and turns back at Fighero.

  "Thanks Marie," Shokei thanked her ally. "You gave me life to fight again."

  "Hehe. No problem!" Marie smiled and nodded.

  Shokei can see that Fighero is unable to fight. From the looks of things, the beetle-type monster has suffered a lot that it is nearly facing its end. Shokei grips hard on the sword and prepares to finish off the monster. Then, Shokei felt an unusual strength and feels the power coming through her sword. Gritting her teeth, the energy builds up more inside as Rei notices her sword is giving off a white glow. Shokei makes her move and she rushes after the monster. The force that's giving her strength cause her to jump in the air and hold the sword back as she is ready to defeat the monster.

  "Style Execution!!"

  With a warcry, Shokei unleashes her most powerful sword attack as a wave beam sshes downward at Fighero. The sharpness of the attack cross through the monster and cuts in half. The party can see that the final strike was effective as it killed Fighero in half. The creature died instantly, and the big fight was finally over. Shokei nds on her feet and does not feel the overwhelming power in her anymore. She looks straight ahead to see that the monster has been defeated.

  "YAY, YAY!!!" Marie shouted with joy. "WE DID IT!! WE DID IT!!"

  "All right!!" Sadako said in excitement.

  "Finally!" Rei said with relief.

  The long and intense fight against Fighero the Cremator has been conquered. The body of the monster lies there as it has been split in half. Suddenly, the monster's body starts to disintegrate, as the body turned into particles of dark energy fading out. The party sees the lifeless body of Fighero going away in pieces and from there, they can see a shine of light from the outcome. Once the monster's body disappears, the party can see that there's something that was shining the whole time.

  Shokei walks over to the shining source that is glowing with pure energy. She looks down and see that there is a gem that has a source of fire, illuminating with a soft light. Taking a closer look, she knew what the spirit was telling her to seek out for. Holding the object in her hand, Shokei has successfully obtained her first gem.

  "Ahhh..." Shokei said, amazed by the shining light.

  After Shokei has the gem in her hand, Rei and the others went up to where Shokei is standing there, looking at the shining gem. Everyone looks at the gem for a minute, watching the gem shine softly as there is life energy inside.

  "Wow..." Marie said, amused and excited on the gem that Shokei is holding.

  "It's pretty." Sadako added.

  "Impressive." Ferron said, staring at the gem. "But...what was it doing in that monster's body?"

  "Do you think this treasure is what the king seeks?" Rei asked.

  Shokei remained quiet as her eyes are focused on the first gem that she holds.

  "Shokei..." a voice calls out to her.

  "Huh?" Shokei blinked and looks up.

  "What now?" Rei asked.

  "Shokei...everyone..." the voice calls out again.

  Just then, the party hears a voice in the arena. Shokei looks ahead and there she can see a familiar figure that she has met before. It was Beltine, the wandering spirit.

  "The Emissary of light." Beltine calls out to her. "We meet again."

  Shokei nodded.

  "I congratute you and your party on a job well done for obtaining one of the eight gems." Beltine said.

  "Wait a minute." Rei looks at Shokei and asked. "What's going on here?"

  "Yeah Shokei, what's this title of you being the Emissary of Light?" Marie asked in curiosity.

  "Please, fellow travelers of the Emissary..." Beltine gets their attention. "I know that you are not aware of what is going on in your world, but you must listen to me to get a full understanding."

  The party looks at each other, except Shokei. Then, they look back at the spirit.

  "Ok..." Rei said to the spirit. "Do tell us what we need to know."

  "My young travelers," Beltine begin. "I will tell you what you need to know. Years ago, a great and powerful force once spread evil on your home pnet during the era of the Dark age. An evil that goes by the name of a dark cn, the Necromutants of Chaos. This cn is known for overruling the Gaxy Forest and succumb your home pnet and another that is far from your distance. Their goal is to put you and the lives of others out of their misery and rid of humanity and the environment."

  "You see," Beltine continued. "Legend has it, that there are eight Mystical Gems, in which four are scattered on this pnet, sealed with an element inside. The gems are protected by guardians that are within their possession. The gem that Shokei holds is one of the eight gems that she now obtains."

  The party looks back to see Shokei holding the fire gem. Shokei eyes the gem carefully in her hands.

  "Now," Beltine goes on. "With the gem that you successfully retrieved; you must not let that gem fall into the hands of the Necromutants. Your enemies are seeking out the gems for their evil purposes. Once you have obtained all eight gems, the Emissary will use the power of the gems to seal the forces of evil away, like the "hero" did five hundred years ago."

  The party finally understands the objective as they come to an agreement. All of them are getting a full picture of what the situation is about.

  "Now I see why those freaks are attacking us during our travels." Rei said.

  "Exactly," Beltine said and nodded. "There are more members of the cn that you will need to be aware of. Be careful, as the Necromutants can prove to be powerful enemies that will be a threat to all of you. Especially for you, Shokei."

  Shokei nodded.

  "Now that the Fire Gem is yours, I need you all to find the next gem that is found somewhere in the desert." Beltine said.

  "In a desert...but how?" Rei asked.

  "Not sure where you need to go?" Beltine points at Shokei and requested. "Emissary, the map."

  Shokei did so and takes out the map in her hand. Beltine held her hand in the air and makes a light effect that shines above. A speed of light comes from the palm of her hand, and it touches the map, leaving a mark for the next location to where the gem can be found. Once that was done, Shokei looks at the map. The party sees the map and shows that the next gem is found on another continent. The location appears to be south in an ancient city, which is a Necropolis.

  "Your next gem is found in a desert." Beltine said. "There lies a sanctuary that will bring you to a hidden dungeon where the gem can be found from there."

  Shokei gnces at the map and then she rolls and put it away.

  "You all had a rough journey." Beltine said to everyone. "I will help you all return back to where you have started."

  With that said, Beltine generated a portal for the party to leave the temple.

  "Thanks!" Marie said to the spirit. "At least we won't have to travel all the way back on foot."

  "We should inform the others about this as soon as we return back to Senwald." Shokei tells the party. "Let's get going."

  "Right." Rei agreed.

  The party heads for the portal to leave the temple. While heading out, Shokei looks up to see Beltine floating in mid-air.

  "I wish you luck in your quest for the next gem, Emissary." Beltine said. Then, she disappears.

  Shokei nodded and she makes her way to the portal to leave the temple.

  From going through the portal, Shokei and her party look around to see that they are back in Forest Valley, in which their journey had started.

  "We're back." Marie said. "Back in the forest. At st."

  "Finally, some cool breeze for a change." Sadako said, feeling the air around her.

  "No time to rex guys," Shokei reminded them. "We need to return to Senwald while we can."

  The party did as they all headed back to the Kingdom of Senwald.

Recommended Popular Novels