Chapter 7: The Temple of Honesty
Finn had arrived to the Fire Kingdom, where he could see the bright blazing landscape before him. Everything was bright red. He hesitantly entered. The flame shield that Flambo had used on him was thankfully keeping him safe. He entered the Fire Kingdom, giving small waves and greetings to the citizens who lived up to the kingdom's name. They were living beings of fire. He was mainly ignoring most of the kingdom and heading straight for the west side of the Fire Kingdom like Flambo had informed him. He didn't know what to look out for though, but he knew there was to be a guard stationed outside of the temple. It was important if the Fire King couldn't open it, and Finn was somewhat worried about it at one point, but it was most likely a long time ago.
Finn arrived to the west side of the Fire Kingdom, where it was mainly empty at most, but new housing was being made here. He just glanced around before noticing a fiery guard with a chest plate for armor and a spear walking by. Finn gave a smirk. "Okay… now how do I use this eye?" he muttered to himself, wondering how he could look through other people's vision. He just concentrated and thought of the fiery guard, and suddenly his orange eye gave a brief glimmer before Finn could finally see through the guard's right eye.
"Alright," Finn quietly cheered for himself, believing that following the guard was the best option for him. He secretly began to stalk the flaming guard, keeping his distance from him because even if he got out of the teenage boy's view, he knew where it went. It was jarring though to be looking through someone else's eye, but he didn't complain. He enjoyed having a power of his own. He always felt weak and somewhat worthless when compared to anyone like his older brother.
After a while of following, the flaming guard's every move had lead Finn to the outskirts of the Flame Kingdom, where a river of lava rested, with the hot magma bubbling away. Finn noticed the guard standing on a set of steps that lead downwards to a stone door that was resting on top of the lava. Random symbols were carved on the door, and they were unreadable, just like on the stone door of the Temple of Sacrifice. It was exactly the temple that Finn was looking for.
Finn just switched his vision back to normal before approaching the guard that immediately aimed his spear at him. "Halt! Who goes there?" he sternly asked. "I am Finn. The Flame king sent me to round up his guards around town! Everyone is wanted to return now!" Finn lied that the many fire people had been gathering at the castle. The guard stood there, somewhat doubting it. "I don't know. This is an important job for me. …fine, but will you cover my post?" he asked. Finn nodded, accepting to do the guard's job while he was away. The guard didn't hesitate to run off out of fear of the Flame King's anger if he disobeyed.
Finn just walked down the steps to the stone door. He began to wipe his hand across it. The random words carved on it were confusing, yet Finn could feel his eyes scanning the writing on the slab. He could read one word, but he didn't know whether he was going insane or not. Otherwise, Finn could only make out one word. "Honesty" Finn scratched his chin, wondering how he could get the door open. He remembered last time when he got the Temple of Sacrifice's door to open where he had made his hand bleed on it. He pulled his sword off his back and cut the palm of his hand, causing a small amount of blood to pour out of it. He smeared his blood on the door, but no reaction was made. Finn regretted even considering it a second time.
"Well that was stupid…" Finn mumbled. He sat there, trying to think of other ways to get the door open. He was leaning his back on the stone gate while sitting there, lost in his thoughts, having flashbacks of the fight with the Ice King and how both could have been killed that day. "Ever since I started adventuring, everyone's worried about me getting hurt. I could never tell anyone, but I'm always afraid of dying," Finn told himself. He was just trying to get his fears out of his mind by talking about them, aloud and alone. Suddenly he felt the ground shake. He saw a vibrant blue light illuminate around him. The door to the temple was opening. He stood up in awe. The shimmering blue light was nearly blinding him, but he couldn't help but stare at it.
The door to the Temple of Honesty was now open, and Finn made no hesitation to head inside. Upon entering, the stone slab slammed shut behind him. Finn looked around. The entrance was a staircase descending downwards. Finn was somewhat hesitant to traverse the steps, mainly because on both sides of the stairwell were walls of lava being held back by glass. It was somehow beautiful, yet it was terrifying seeing the flaming river through that view.
Finn began to arrive at the bottom of the steps. The next room he came to had two branching paths, which made him somewhat confused, but between the two paths a statue of a knife, with a huge sword being held in front of it. Finn just went right after a random guess, wondering where he will wind up at, but it just led him through a bright red tunnel and he entered the same room again. "What the…?" he muttered, just shrugging it off. This time he went down the left path that led him down a longer corridor into another room. In that room were two stone statues sitting on tall platforms with bows at their sides, in between three branching paths.
Finn noticed something in the center of a room, a pedestal that had a gauntlet resting on the center. It was a bright blue color with a gem resting in the palm of it. "Hehehe… found the item. Now to just find the mantra," Finn said with glee, picking up the gauntlet and sliding it on, wondering what it did and how to use it.
Finn suddenly heard a loud noise, and saw the two stone archers begin to move. They were now on fire, blazing brightly as they pulled arrows off their back and began shooting at him. Finn screamed as he ripped his sword off his back, smashing one of the arrows away while another dug into his leg. He fell over in pain, ripping the arrow out of his leg. He forced himself up and tried to run past the two archers, but one grabbed him and hoisted him up into the air with its stone cold grip, trying to choke him. Finn just punched it in the face, smashing its head into rubble. It fell over, letting him go. Finn stabbed his sword into the chest of the other archer, sending its body to the floor and having the stone enemy shatter to pieces upon impact. Finn panted after the brief fight.
"Worthless gauntlet…! What do you even do?!" he asked, taking out his frustration at the inanimate object. He tried to continue down the middle path, but it was blocked by a strange stone boulder. "Darn it. This place is so old, it's practically falling apart," he exclaimed, trying to push the boulder. Suddenly, it felt super easy, like he was stronger. The gauntlet glowed slightly brighter. Finn began shoving it down the corridor until he finally exited into a room with three stone statues of warriors, wielding large swords.
Finn was afraid to move one step, but they seemed motionless. Finn spotted a blank wall behind the three stone swordsmen, though he noticed one of the statues sticking out in the center while the other two were in the corners of the room. Finn then had an idea. He leaned on the middle statue and began pushing. He pushed it to the center of the wall and heard a click sound, watching part of the wall lower slowly.
When the wall finished lowering, it revealed a set of large glass windows, but they were placed in such a way that it made up a word. "Ahm…?" Finn muttered. Lava was pouring into the back of the windows, vibrantly lighting up the room in a spectacular way. "So the mantra… is Ahm?" he asked, and just like that, the stone swordsman instantaneously came to life, lighting itself ablaze. It twisted its sword and hit the glass that suppressed the lava, breaking it to pieces. Finn let out a shriek of fear as the lava started pouring into the temple, filling it like a bathtub. The stone statues melted upon being effected by the lava. He immediately ran away, the sea of lava chasing him after. The flame shield spell could only protect him from so much, but it wasn't strong enough to protect him from large pools of lava.
Finn ran for the entrance, where not only the tall set of steps he entered through waited for him, but also an animate stone swordsman at the top of the steps. "Outta my way, stonehead!" Finn just gripped his bright red sword before charging up the steps to battle it. The stone swordsman swung its huge blade down at him, but Finn blocked it with his gauntlet, seeing some stone chunks and dust fly off as a result, the ancient sword being so weak. As the battle was about to rage on, the wave of lava was quickly rising up the steps. Finn stabbed his sword into the knee of the stone warrior and watched its leg shatter into pieces as it fell down the steps, breaking into pieces before landing in the lava, every one of its broken remains sinking into it.
Finn limped his way out with his injured leg, panting over where the arrow had hit. He got to the entrance of the temple, hoping that the way to open the door was the same way he opened the entrance of the Temple of Sacrifice. "Ahm!" he shouted, as the door glowed bright blue and began to open up. Once it was wide enough, Finn squeezed himself through, and the stone slab closed shut, right before the lava could touch him.
Finn sat there, panting. "I did it… whooo…" he cheered in a weak tone before passing out, groaning. "It's… so hot…" he mumbled. The arrow that had pierced his leg had partially broken his flame shield, and his temperature had only been rising since then. He passed out from being overheated. The last thing he saw was the vague image of two fire people approaching him.
End of Chapter 7