Chapter the to 9th power

Chapter the to 9th power

Into the Cave

IOE: Yay! I got reviews! And I'm actually continuing to write this! Izzykins and Feizhi, thank you so much! I'm blushing!

Feizhi: Get on with it.

IOE: Please keep reading, everyone!

Flotsam: Disclaimer time! Disclaimer: Ignira of Esperon does not own Golden Sun. And she really wishes that there was a third one that she could waste her time on.

After the longest time, during which there was much running, slipping, and panting in the dark without catching up to Jenna, Piers called to her:

"Jenna, wait up!" The Flame Master was too far ahead to be seen by torchlight; she was swallowed by the dark. He heard nothing, figuring she was too far ahead to hear.

"Alright," muttered Piers, but as he took a step forward, his torch was extinguished.

"Damn, I think Felix has the tinderbox," said Garet from behind him. Piers squinted in the dark. He didn't even see any smoke from the top of his torch. Hesitantly, he poked the top of his torch. A shiver crawled up his spine.

"It-It's cold as ice," shuddered the Lemurian. Garet asked for the torch and tried to light it with a small Flare Psynergy. The torch flickered, and then the flame went out. Garet attempted several more times, but the torch refused to remain lit. Garet cursed. Piers detected a hint of fear in his voice.

"I think something's keeping us from having light. Can't you just conjure a flame and hold it?" he asked.

"I-I'm not fireproof. N-no…. I can't see a damned thing…." whispered the Mars Adept. Piers thought he heard Garet mutter something about Altmiller Cave.

Piers' heart sank as he realized….

"We left our Djinn on the ship, didn't we?" he asked.

"Yeah," said Garet with misery.

"Should we go back and get them? The Mars Djinn could provide more light at least," said Piers.

"We can't leave Felix and Jenna in this place. Let's press onward; come on," Garet urged. He gave Piers a little push, and they advanced further into the cave. The cave became darker and darker as Piers and Garet got deeper. The rancid smell enwrapped the two Adepts like the darkness, and became stronger and stronger with the dark. It was also difficult to keep one's footing; Piers had to feel along the walls of the cave to keep his balance. The fear of running straight into something terrifying or falling down a hole he could not see ahead of him gripped the Lemurian. To make things even more unsettling, there was a peculiar…pull from deeper in the cave that seemed to draw Piers in. As things got darker and smellier, the pull became stronger. He called to Jenna, asking her to tell him when he was near, so as not to run into her. Jenna didn't reply, but Piers didn't acknowledge it aloud; he didn't want things to feel eerier than they already were.

He kept running, listening for Jenna to call, but she didn't. This made no sense to Piers; he was certain that she hadn't been too far ahead. Had he unknowingly made a wrong turn down a different tunnel, or was something preventing Jenna from calling?

"Jenna?" called Garet uncertainly, probably sharing Piers' fears. A muffled scream followed. Both men ran towards the scream at once, but immediately, Piers felt something cold meet his body. He grunted and felt something warm trickle down his face. It took him a minute to realize that he'd fallen over and cut his face. Piers blindly felt around for a wall to help himself up. A groan came from next to him.

"I think I tripped on your foot or something," he heard Garet say.

Piers began to assess the situation. He couldn't see, it seemed that something was preventing light in the cave, he was far away from his comrades, an unnatural force was pulling them further into the cave, and the area was very dangerous. He became paralyzed with fear, realizing how bad the situation seemed. He felt that he had little power against something unknown, something that had more power, more control over whatever might happen than he, Piers.

Garet managed to get up after slipping a few times. The Mars Adept was very quiet; Piers wondered if he was sharing the Mars Adept's thoughts.

"Don't…think about it…." Garet whispered to himself. It made sense to Piers; it only made one even less strong if one allowed himself to be overwhelmed by an already disadvantageous situation. As Piers tried to free himself from his own paralysis, he realized that it was easier said than done. Fear and the dark now held him tight with imaginary ropes. And like a friend's hand when it's most needed, courage gently warmed his spirit. Piers rose.

"Garet?" he asked.

"Yeah," the Mars Adept replied.

"Jenna and Felix are in danger," he said. He heard Garet take a deep breath. Garet slowly began to walk deeper into the dark. Piers followed, his hand tracing the many cracks in the wall.

After a few moments, Garet spoke:

"You know what I realized?"

"What?" asked Piers.

"We haven't run into anything. With a creepy place like this, don't you think we'd at least run into one monster?" Garet asked.

Piers agreed. It was strange. He wasn't sure whether to be relieved or not: it could mean that Felix had taken them all down on his way into the tunnel (if he had, they would have no idea; they wouldn't be able to see the corpses), or that whatever was causing this strange things to happen in the desert and the cave either frightened off all other enemies or saved them all for one great strike against intruders…intruders such as Adepts, whose Psynergy would protect them from being subdued or enchanted. What kind of moistos did the miners find in here?

"I guess Felix is pretty…capable," said Garet. Piers was silent, not really listening to Garet but instead straining his ears for any ambient noise. It was dead silent.

"I mean, then again, he managed to travel all over the world, coming across hundreds of trials and persevering through it…" They were walking together. Piers could feel that they were descending. Had they been descending deeper into the earth this whole time, or was this a sudden change in the direction of the cave?

"…all while trying to hold his group together and constantly feel the pain of betraying his friends, his family," continued Garet. Piers was beginning to wonder why Garet was determined to break silence.

"…You know."

Piers raised an eyebrow at Garet. His hands began to trace odder shapes in the wall. Were these crystals?

"It's usually hot in caves once you get real deep. Why is it so cold?"

Piers shrugged, even though he knew that Garet couldn't see him shrug.

"I'm-I'm talking a lot so that I'm distracted…" Suddenly, Garet stumbled and fell. He quickly rose.

"D-dammit, what the hell's going on with Jenna? Wh-why aren't we running? She screamed!" Garet was beginning to panic. Piers tried to collect himself. Panic now gripped him, too. Felix and Jenna were worse off than they, he assumed.

"Hey! Garet?" It was almost a whisper, but it was near.

"Jenna?" Piers and Garet replied in unison.

"Shh!" Jenna hissed. It was quiet again. Finally, Garet gave a muffled cry.

"Try not to make noise!" Jenna's hiss came from almost next to Piers. He jumped.

"Well, all of a sudden, in the dark, y-you—" Garet stammered, but Jenna interrupted:

"I put my hand on your mouth so you wouldn't holler! We have to be quiet!"

There was a pause. Something pulled Piers' arm further into the cave.

"Come on," whispered Jenna, "and be as quiet as you can."

"Why?" asked Garet from behind Piers, "are there enemies?"

"…Why isn't your torch lit?" inquired Jenna. Garet quietly explained things to her as they moved on. Jenna explained that after running into a few monsters in the dark, she quietly began to head back to meet with Piers and Garet.

"I didn't want to run into more without some help. Plus, you guys must have been wondering where I was," she finished.

There was little more talk as the three headed further into the cave. Piers told the others that he heard what sounded like…birds, or maybe bats further in the cave. Jenna and Garet agreed that they heard it, too. Piers prepared to Cast. Suddenly, Jenna cried out, and Piers heard something in the dark, attacking Jenna. There was a burst of light, briefly illuminating the room, and the smoldering remains of what had once been a bat slowly fluttered to the ground. Garet was about to say something, but scarcely got a word out as more bats flew at them.

"Glacier!" Piers roared, not certain if he was aiming properly.

The cave seemed evencooler. Piers wondered if he'd succeeded in temporarily freezing the undead bats. Suddenly, there was a small series of explosions. Piers ducked to avoid the flying shards of ice and flesh. There was a flash as many fireballs flew into the same spot at once. Terrible shrieks filled the air.

Piers stood.

"We're fine," said Jenna, "Let's keep going."

It seemed to be an eternity of walking blindly through the cave, occasionally fighting off rotting bats and snakes. The occasional light from Mars Psynergy revealed the partially buried remains of things assumed previously defeated by Felix. So that was why they hadn't run into as many monsters as expected.

After a while, the three began to hear strange noises from deeper into the cave. They wondered if Felix was near, fighting his way into the cave. Jenna fumed that she was going to drag him out of the cave before the four of them were killed.

It seemed as though they had been descending into darkness forever, the noises from far off growing stronger, until finally, they were extremely close. Howls, screams, and roars echoed.

"We must be entering a chamber!" exclaimed Garet. The pulling was even stronger now. Piers felt as though he was being magnetically pulled towards something…something at the other end of this chamber. It was at the other end of the great noise in the chamber.

Jenna ran forward. Piers thought she was fully submitting to the pull at first, but then he thought hen heard Jenna stop.

"FELIX!" she cried.

Garet and Piers ran to her at once. There was an unfriendly noise from nearby. Piers aimed an Ice Missile at whatever it was. Piers listened to the roars and clashing noises coming generally from the center of the room.

"We must be in the middle of a fight!" Piers exclaimed.

"What are we going to do?" asked Garet.

Jenna sent up a Dragon Fume.

"FELIX! WE'RE OVER HERE!"

"No," hissed Piers, "You'll-"

Suddenly, several things slammed into Piers. He felt sharp objects penetrate his flesh. He heard Jenna and Garet cry out.

"Diamond Dust!" he cried, and several of his attackers were flung away.

Whatever was still on Piers was still doing all in its power to harm him. It squirmed into him, grinding his flesh. Desperately, he reached for his sword and blindly stabbed at it. He felt the blade make contact, but then hit himself. Did he stab through it? Where was the flesh?

Suddenly, there was light.

"Piers!"

He quickly looked over, his sword still stupidly cutting his side. Fire Djinn had stormed into the chamber; each glowed a warm orange like the setting sun. Mercury Djinn followed and leapt to Piers' aid. Piers took advantage of the illumination and looked down at his attacker, pinned by the blade, to see the skeletal form of a fish. Surprised, he released his sword and sent the skeleton flying. One of his Djinn chased after it.

"Need healing, Piers?" asked one of them. Piers shook his head.

"What brought you all here?" he asked.

"Lady Sheba and Masters Ivan and Nathaniel!" replied a Jupiter Djinni.

"Look at Felix go!" another Djinni shouted.

Piers drew his sword and charged into the crowd of skeletons, lunging and slashing his way through. He smelled bones being burnt; the Mars Adepts and Djinn must have been making quick work of disabling them. The light from the Mars Djinn made moving around much easier; Piers wasn't worried about tripping on something. His only concern now was working through the crowd of re-animated fish skeletons.

Finally, he reached a clearing, of sorts. Venus Djinn had made a sort of circle and fought off everything outside of their ring. In the center of their circle, Piers saw Felix fighting five skeletons at once. He looked battered, but ferocious. His brown eyes glittered with a bold killer instinct. His mouth was curled into a snarl. He moved with great agility and used great strength, his arms and impeccable footwork moving with great precision and force. Piers was in awe; he'd forgotten how much of a master the Venus Adept was with a sword. The difficulty was that the skeletons refused to stop moving, no matter how broken they were.

Felix was panting heavily now. By the light of the Mars Djinn, Piers saw that Felix's face was drenched with sweat and his own blood. The Slayer let out an almost inhuman grunt and charged forward. With a single swipe of his sword, the skeletons were in pieces on the ground. The shards of bone were still twitching. Piers frowned. They needed to be burned.

He was about to turn around to ask for assistance when several bones slammed into him, knocking him backwards. He lost grip of his sword. Piers felt the wind get knocked out of him; countless bones were throwing themselves at him, pounding into him. It was too much force; he couldn't rise. Piers felt sharp pains from his left ankle and right wrist; he wondered if they were broken. Blood spattered from his nose.
There was a bright flash from above him and there were several explosions. He felt the stomping cease, but before he could fully stand, several more skeletons began to attack him. Piers heard Sheba over the noise, but he couldn't understand what she was saying. There was a flash followed by some explosions again.

Piers rose quickly this time, but fell over again; his ankle was really hurt. He quickly gripped his ankle and cast Ply, which mostly healed it, and rose again. He cast Ply on his wrist; it also sped up the healing process.

"Where's your sword?" called Sheba. Piers looked around, casting some Psynergy to fend off some more attacks.

Sheba ran through the crowd to his side.

"I-" Piers began, and then he saw a glint reflecting the Mars Djinn's light. Sheba saw it, too. While Piers fended off some attacks with his Psynergy again, she pulled out a small black book, flipped through the pages, and began to read aloud. Each word sounded like the thudding of an axe on a foe. It was the queer language of the Kibombo. Sheba's blue aura swirled, and Piers watched her cast Dire Inferno into the crowd, freeing some room to grab Piers' sword. Once the explosions ceased, Piers dove for the sword. Then, he remembered Felix.

"Go help Felix!" he cried to Sheba, who nodded. Piers pointed to the circle of Venus Djinn and Sheba raced to it.

Piers whirled around to see several skeletons of Calamar crawling towards him. He made a single right slash with his blade, causing the monsters to topple over.

"Hey, Hey Piers! Let me help you!"

A Mars Djinni ran to his side and incinerated them. There was a loud boom and Piers looked over to his right to see several towers of burning magma. He watched in admiration of Garet's Pyroclasm and almost got burned by a Searing Beam Jenna was directing through the battlefield. Countless skeletons fell over. Piers could now look over to see the Mars Adepts side-by-side, burning as many skeletons as possible with assistance from some Djinn. Nathaniel was using a borrowed wooden staff to whack leftover skeletons. He incinerated them with Oil Drops.

Ivan was the farthest from everyone, hacking away at the edge of the crowd trying to get to Felix and Sheba. On occasion the Jupiter Adept drew the Mystery Card and cast Fiery Juggle. Piers couldn't see Felix and Sheba; they were surrounded by too many skeletons.

"Come on, let's go make some space for Sheba and Felix to breathe," said the Mars Djinni beside Piers, charging into the skeletons.

"Right, Cannon." Piers was beginning to feel fatigued. The pull coming from Piers' left, across the chamber was beginning to feel very seductive.
"Fugue," corrected the Djiini. Fugue gleefully blasted several fire attacks into the crowd. Piers watched him, feeling out of it. The Lemurian looked across the chamber to see if he could detect the source of the pulling. He squinted. By the light of the Mars Djinn and Adepts' attacks, he saw a strange structure. Ornate steps with crumbled railings led to a flat level with a great gap where doors had once been. Pillars held up the roof. Piers suddenly realized that it looked a lot like the temple in Dahlia. He then realized how large this chamber of the cave was. It was quite wide, and rather tall for a cavern deep underground.

"Most peculiar…" he said to himself.

It wasn't long before the Adepts and the Djinn had finally burned every last bone of the scourge in the cavern. Everyone was fatigued, so Piers invited them to sit on the steps on the structure.

As a Mercury Djinn Casted healing Psynergies on Jenna, she looked up, her sweaty, scraped, and dirty face illuminated by the orange glow of her Djinn. Sheba and Ivan, some of their hair singed and still smoldering, looked up, too. Piers knew that they were gazing at the structure.

"It looks like the sanctum in Dahlia, doesn't it?" asked Sheba, wiping some sweat from her pale brow. Jenna nodded.

"That force…it must be coming from in here," said Felix from beside Piers, his voice husky. There was silence. The Adepts looked at each other. The pull wasn't a wind, yet now it was beginning to feel like they were sitting in the middle of a sort of wind tunnel, similar to when one walks in between two high cliffs on a sort of windy day.

"The smell's really bad, too," said Nathaniel quietly. Garet and Jenna chuckled.

"That's almost an understatement," said Ivan, who quickly Casted a few Whirlwinds to freshen the air a bit. It helped a little.

"Colder, too," said Sheba, hugging a nice, warm Mars Djinni to her chest. It made a noise almost like a purr and nuzzled her a little. Piers was almost certain he heard a Mars Djinni cough and make a rude remark. Piers and Sheba laughed.

"Should we head back?" asked Garet.

"Are you sure whatever's in this temple thing will let you?" asked Sheba.

"We've already come so far," said Ivan, "Right, Felix?"

Piers looked to Felix to see that the Slayer was in a deep sleep. A strand of his jet black hair slowly lifted itself and fell in time with Felix's slow, deep breaths. Mercury Djinn were still working to completely heal him. Piers frowned.

"We should let him be for a while. He's really exerted himself," he said.

"We're getting kind of tired, aren't we?" asked Jenna, attempting to stifle a yawn.

"We should take this opportunity to sleep," agreed Piers, "Because I've a feeling that we're in for a lot of unpleasantness once we go inside. We'll need a lot of energy."

"I'll keep watch," said Nathaniel quietly, "In case anything happens."

The others agreed, and laid down carefully on the hard stone. Pier's yellow eyes met Nathaniel's. He thought about how the boy was slowly becoming more mature. He gave him an approving nod. Nathaniel looked like he was trying very hard not to seem thrilled with himself. Piers looked over the others, thinking about how very young they were, at least to his own people, and yet how they had grown above their years in many ways. Piers smiled to himself, appreciative of each of his allies and friends. He carefully set his head down on the stone, his long, blue hair kissing the cold stone and rolling over the stair like a soft waterfall, and embraced sleep.

Nathaniel sat, hunched over on the stair, head head between his legs. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, trying to clear his mind. His soul felt around the area for water, but didn't find any. Did he really need any sea water? Piers and his friends didn't need their element to be near when they Casted. Why should he?

Well, I'm not like them. I'm different, he thought. It was something he'd almost known for a while. He was a Mercury Adept, but the wrong kind. He couldn't Cast with any sort of water other than sea water. This was unheard of. Piers had always told him during their training that it was a block on his Psynergy invented by the mind, and needed to unlocked in order for Nathaniel to reach his full potential. Nathaniel had always wondered if perhaps Piers was wrong. He was with the sea, he knew it. Yet, Poseidon was with the sea, and Lemurian legends told of Poseidon using his powers on land, away from the sea. Though, he is a god, and I'm just an Adept.

Nathaniel let himself be lost and continued to breathe deeply and concentrate. He concentrated harder and harder. His brow furrowed and sweat began to drip from his face. This went on forever until he whispered:

"Foam."

He out stretched his hand and continued to concentrate. He squinted by the light of the Mars Djinn. In the orange glow, he saw froths of sea foam beginning to develop. He breathed more, and concentrated so hard that his eyes were streaming with tears. The foam grew and grew. When it was big enough for a proper attack, he readied himself to complete the Cast. His mind was only focused on his task.

The reflected lights glimmered through the water. A rushing sound poured through his ears. All around him was a swirling, purple glow. He looked around him to see submerged buildings. A light was coming from a ways off. If he could just keep Casting, propelling himself through the water, he could reach it….

Everything was shaking. He broke his focus and slammed into the coral. He was losing consciousness…

"No…" said Nathaniel weakly to himself. He broke his intense concentration and the sea foam disappeared, the Psynergy not fully Cast. He stomped his foot in frustration.

"Moistos!" he cursed in Lemurian.

"Awww…" said a chorus of squeaky voices. Wiping sweat from his face, Nathaniel looked to his left to see that all of the Djinn had been intently watching him.

"Good try!" squealed one. Nathaniel turned the other way, a little embarrassed. He rubbed his head; it was hurting from all of the effort he had put in. Suddenly, he felt immensely proud—he'd managed to Cast by conjuring his element! He'd broken the block, at least for a moment. He set his head back on the stair carefully, looking up. He'd somehow managed to dig up what must have been a memory. What was it?

IOE: Sorry! Wanted to do more, but I really just wanted to get a chapter out there without it being SUPER long. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please keep reading and I LOVE the reviews, even if they aren't ego-strokers. Also…we might not see Isaac and Kiri in the next chapter. I want to get this chunk of the Weyard adventure out of the way.

Feizhi: Nathaniel's…kinda hot.

Flotsam: You should make him a ring, too!

IOE: Thank you very much, everyone! Till next time!