The Truth is Painful
Unearthed and exploited by the black market! But…written by Leoshi!
!Disclaimer! Camelot owns Golden Sun. Not me. .em toN .nuS nedloG snwo tolemaC !remialcsiD!
Welcome one, welcome all, welcome back to the story of Felix and Sheba! I present to you this: the continuation of the tale, after the two friends, now lovers ((finally)), teleported away from the long-lost Sea of Time Sanctum. Thanks to the wisdom of a certain Lemurian, their true path is revealed, and they know where to go.
In this segment, they arrive at the place they need to be. Contigo. Some realizations are made, and the two Adepts become the first two in centuries to enter a certain Sanctum we all dread.
Chapter 11: Contigo, the Second Visit
Two people materialized in the night air of the Atteka continent. One, a boy of nearly nineteen years, an obvious master of swords and tactics. The other, a fifteen year old girl, a queen of winds and storms. As the last of their bodies solidified and rested on the plain's grasses, Felix and Sheba opened their eyes to the cloudless night. The wind welcomed them back once more, and the pleasant cool feeling that came with it relaxed their nerves. They didn't move for a moment, embracing each other, enjoying the situation.
The older of the two breathed in deeply, finally pulling back from their embrace, and turning toward the entrance of the historical town – Contigo. The two Adepts wordlessly gripped each other's hand, and silently, as though not to disturb the tranquility of the night, made for the town. After a minute's walk, Felix rapped on the door of the town's inn. It opened after a moment of scuffling within.
"Good evening. Would you happen to have a couple of rooms available for tonight?"
The innkeeper looked at the two travelers with prying eyes. This was a good man, and made an honest living – but he couldn't help himself from searching their belt lines for a certain coin pouch he thought the two Adepts could have. He spotted it, and quickly made for a kind-hearted man.
"Absolutely, young sir. You said…two? Yes, I've got enough room to accommodate you two. Come in, please."
The Adepts were led inside the cozy inn, which had recently begun nightly fires on one side – in a fireplace, of course – to prepare for the cooler months that were soon to come. It was an odd sound to hear for Sheba, who had grown up near a desert for her young life, the constant crackle of the wood as pockets of air and water were ruptured and consumed. The lobby itself was cast in a warm, welcoming glow from the flame, and several lanterns and candles spread the light to every corner of the room.
"Separate rooms, yes?" the man asked.
Felix found some humor in the reactions of both him and the girl next to him – both had squeezed each other's hand in objection to the notion of separate bedrooms. Despite this, Felix affirmed the question, and the innkeeper held out two keys.
"Here you go, numbers seventeen and nineteen, right next to each other," he said, handing one key to each of the two friends before him.
Felix was slightly confused. "Hmm…you haven't told me the charge, yet…" he told the man, loosely holding his key with the tag that read "nineteen."
"Yes, I know. There isn't a charge for you two," he began, earning perplexed looks from both travelers. "Haven't been here recently, have you? There's a holiday this week, one that's called Lunarium in this town. Heard of it? No? Well…it's a rare and special day for us here. The Moon, on one day every few years, stays right above Contigo – all day. We can see it, even in the sunlight. Since it's such a rare occurrence, not many tourists know about it, so I don't see the point in charging extra, if at all."
Sheba was impressed. "The Moon? It stays above Contigo, all day?" she asked, wanting to confirm it. The man nodded. The girl smiled at Felix, obviously a request to stay in town for that day. The Venus Adept whispered a "We'll see" to her, gently squeezing her hand.
"Well…thank you, sir-"
"You really should get to rest, you know. You…heh, look like you went through Hell and back."
Felix was slightly surprised at the comment, running a hand through his long hair in self-conscience. 'Hm, it does feel like it needs to be cleaned out,' he thought, grinning. "I'll get to it, then," he told the man, making for a small staircase that led down to the rooms. As Felix reached the stairway, he had managed to pick out a splinter from Sheba's lost ship. He chuckled, showing it to Sheba.
As the two teenagers disappeared from his view, he shook his head to himself, and smiled lightly. He turned and walked to a small table nearby, retrieving the glass he had left when the two had knocked. He sat down in his personal chair behind the counter, sipped at his cold drink, and chuckled thrice. He looked to two empty hooks where two keys and tags had rested earlier, which read seventeen and nineteen. Again, he chuckled, thinking why he had to come up with a horrid name like Lunarium. No such holiday existed.
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Sheba awoke several hours later, enjoying the obligatory feeling of contentment that comes with the waking seconds every morning. However, she didn't immediately rise and prepare for a day of journeying, as she had done in her venturing days with Felix, Jenna, Piers, and Kraden. Rather, she remained in bed, curling like a cat within the warm folds of the thick blankets. Sheba compared the warmth to that of Felix's embrace. She laughed into her pillow. Felix won.
With a happy sigh, she finally willed her limbs to move, and she rose out of her bed. It had been a fulfilling sleep. Maybe it was the amount of time she had spent before actually falling asleep the previous night, reflecting on her travels with her beloved. She found it humorous, realizing all the awkward times she had had with the Venus Adept, the fewer, cuter times with him, and the rare and treasured times when he had laughed.
Sheba closed her door behind her, walking the three paces down the hall to room nineteen. She gently tapped on the side of the door with one knuckle, using her other free hand to turn the knob and discreetly press against the wood. The door creaked open, and the Jupiter Adept peered in. With the sunlight pouring through the high window, Sheba could make out a lack of weaponry, a made bed, and a kind tip of several coins lying on a small table. No Felix, to her surprise.
With a perplexed look, Sheba drew her head from the door's opening, pulling it shut. A clinking, muffled by distance and a floor above her, sounded from the stairway leading into the inn lobby. Curiosity took hold, and Sheba made her way to the steps. She ascended quietly, still in her cloth socks, and found Felix already having breakfast – nearly finished, at that – and speaking with the innkeeper they had met the night prior. Next to the Earth warrior, a small table had been pulled up, and on it sat a plate filled with hot food.
"Well, nice to see that I can eat."
Felix ceased his chat with the innkeeper, tilting his head back to look at Sheba. From his position, she seemed upside-down. He grinned, soon switching it into a forced frown so it could look like a grin for his betrothed.
"You're a lucky one, all right," he responded.
Sheba did her best to hold in her giggling.
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More surprise fell on Sheba when she found herself looking at a stone circle crafted into the ground, very intricate and very large. She could see characters written in and about the stone grooves, but the language meant nothing to her. Scowling slightly, she looked up at Felix, who was examining the circle on the other side, a thoughtful frown playing on his lips.
"Felix?" she began, earning his attention. "Sorry, I missed something. What are we doing, and why are we doing it here?"
Confusion flashed behind Felix's eyes before he realized that he hadn't yet told her about the topics he had discussed with the Innkeeper. He chuckled at his ignorance, reprimanding himself mentally in the process.
"The gentleman inside there," he began, standing, "told me all the theories he had heard from the scholars about this recess. Based on what he heard, the scholars had deciphered enough of the old text here to discern the words 'Lapis-stone' and 'combined evils.'" He brushed off his sleeve and walked to the center of the large circle, motioning Sheba to do the same. "If I'm thinking this over correctly, then the Lapis-stone is…well, obviously, the Lapis we have. As to the evils bit…I believe it has something to do with the Elements, since there are so many ancient things that believe Alchemy to be an evil."
Sheba nodded as she stood by her friend. He continued as he wrestled the Teleport Lapis from his satchel. "I don't know how it ties in, but I'm willing to act on trying the stone. How about you?"
The younger Adept nodded again, squinting as sunlight was redirected from the Lapis and shone into her eyes with a bright, enhanced radiance. Felix lowered the stone, apologized, and after a moment of allowing Sheba to blink away the patch of white in her retinas, he began to channel his Psynergy through the stone. Sheba gripped his free hand, closing her eyes and adding her power, as well.
Felix poured all his power into the Lapis, placing everything he had on where it would take him. The stone glowed brightly, shafts of light shining through any opening in Felix's hand. Below the Adept's feet, the grooves and cracks in the stone circle began to flicker with an eerie, inexplicable light. Tiny white spheres of the stone's light detached themselves, and each individual one clung onto a small segment of Felix or Sheba's skin and clothing, armor and weapons. They stuck, changed color to blue, red, black, or silver, and all began revolving at once. They encircled the two friends for a moment, soon scattering in all directions, and all soon redirected to the northeast. Each sphere carried a specific piece of an Adept with it, and when it arrived wherever it would arrive, the teenagers would have successfully Teleported.
Before Sheba was whisked away, however, and uncomfortable – and unsettlingly familiar – feeling of foreboding washed over her. She began to cry out, but two spheres of energy relieved her of her throat and voice before she could. She quickly settled with shutting her eyes against the combined shines of the Lapis, the spheres, the sunlight, and her own Psynergenic pulses.
When she opened them again, a worried moan escaped her lips and echoed about dark, stone walls. She stood on an exact replica of the stone circle of seconds ago, except that there was no sunlight or cooling breeze. The nagging sense of danger still clung to her like wet leaves in winter, and she tried her best to mentally shake it off as Felix looked about the large room.
"What…is this…" he murmured.
They had arrived in a room much larger than any lobby of any inn they had seen, all of it made out of red and black stone. Where they stood, there were four paths in any direction. The two friends saw that two of them led to another one each, branching off to what appeared to be altars and smaller stone circles. There was a wall panel before them, which looked like it served as a door, except that it lacked knobs and hinges. What it had were four arcing indentations above it, which looked like they served as torches. All of this greatly befuddled Felix.
A curios scowl ran across his forehead, and he began walking toward the left of the side paths, soon turning upward. He knelt down and examined the small stone circle placed there, wondering aloud what the tree symbol could mean here. As Sheba arrived at his side, he ran his hands along the various branches of the tree carved into the ground.
A crack sounded below Felix's hand, and immediately vines shot out of the stone, vicing his hand where it was, holding it flat against the symbol. His shout of surprise was quickly replaced by his grunts with his failing efforts to remove his hand from the vines. On his fifth pull, the stone began to glow a golden brown, as did Felix. Something spiked in his mind, and he felt his inner strength diminish quickly. A phantom image of a Venus Djinni materialized before his kneeling form. Felix felt nauseated.
Miles and continents away, so did Isaac.
Felix and Sheba were shocked. From that image, nine golden brown spheres of light emerged. Seconds later, nine more shot through walls at blinding speed. All joined above the center of the Djinni's head, danced for a second, then curved around into eighteen holes that had emerged as the vines had. Each sphere landed perfectly with each hole, soon glowing brightly and consistently. Felix felt his strength return just as quickly as it had left, and the vines retracted into the stone. As the green plants disappeared under their feet, no cracks were left in the stone symbol. It was as though nothing had happened.
Felix stood in a hurry, stepping back. Both he and Sheba examined his hand, not finding any indication that it was bound. They looked at each other, then to the glowing symbol at their feet.
A flickering caught Felix's eye, and he turned to look at the wall panel. One of the indentations above was glowing brightly, and it looked like several cracks had appeared across the panel itself. It took only seconds for the Venus Adept to come to a conclusion.
"Are there other symbols like this one?" he asked Sheba without turning. She looked at him in bewilderment, soon turning to gaze at the stone circle behind them. Even with it seemingly upside-down, she could make out the likeness of a furious fire within the ring. She confirmed Felix question, stepping toward the second stone symbol.
Felix followed closely, moving to Sheba's side as she halted at the circle's edge. The boy looked from the first symbol to this next one, thinking through all that made sense. His eyes widened considerably as realization came to him.
"Of course…"
"What is it?" the Jupiter Adept next to him asked, eyeing the stone fire with suspicion.
"Remember how the innkeeper had told me about the 'combined evils' part of the text there?" he began, pointing to the larger, intricate symbol they had arrived at. "I was right when I speculated it being related to the elements…that tree resembled Venus, and a ghost-like Venus Djinni came out…plus, that glow above the panel is earth-colored. The eighteen spheres that came here…must be the Djinn that Isaac and I have befriended over our ventures. It must be…we need to have all the Djinn of Weyard to progress further."
Sheba blinked, absorbing all the speculation Felix had just told her. She believed him, and turned her attention back to the fiery grooves before her. Tentatively, she reached out to the symbol and ran her fingers up and down the peaks and valleys of the flames. Nothing happened.
"Did you do anything different, Felix?" she asked, placing her weight onto the symbol, earning no reaction of any kind.
"…no…I was barely touching the tree…"
Sheba thought for a moment, staring fiercely at the fires under her palm. 'What could I do to activate this? Fire…Mars…Jenna isn't here, so what can we…wait!'
"Felix, you have to touch this one, also," she blurted, snapping her head to look up at him. He gave her a questioning look, and she elaborated further. "Remember back on the Venus Lighthouse, before Saturos and Menardi fused together to battle Isaac? They had said that Mars and Venus complement each other. Remember, also, that the light of Venus had restored their energy? It must be you to activate this symbol – Jupiter is nothing to Mars."
The Venus Adept nodded after a moment, kneeling down next to Sheba. With a brief hesitation, Felix reached out and placed his hand against the stone blaze. Two seconds passed before the fires seemed to move, changing color as they seemed to come alive under Felix's palm. A small plume of fire shot out of the center of the circle, arcing for his hand quickly. The fire enveloped his hand, but there was no searing pain. In fact, it felt cooler than the air around them.
Miles and continents away, Jenna dropped to her knees, clutching her stomach as her senses were overloaded. In the house of Vault's mayor, Garet awoke from his studies in a sick trance, falling out from his seat painfully.
As before, a large ghost-like Mars Djinni appeared before their eyes, After a second, spheres came through the stone walls, three at a time, it seemed. They merged above the Djinni's head, soon spiraling down and through the image. Once they reached the bottom of its feet, each orb speed toward one of eighteen holes nearby, that had – as before – emerged as the image had.
The Djinni vanished, the plume of fire died away, and behind the two Adepts, a red line of heat began to seep through the cracks in the panel as the second indentation was lit. Felix stood, rubbing his hand to return the warmth that seemed stolen away.
"Good idea," he said, grinning lightly at Sheba. She nodded modestly, following him as he made his way across the room, to the second set of stone circles. "I'd guess this means that only you can get these two started, then. Mercury and Jupiter remain, and I can do nothing with Mercury."
The young Jupiter Adept nodded once more, turning to the symbol that depicted a torrential wave. She knelt down, cautiously placing her fingers on the stone water. Seconds passed before ice crystals formed around Sheba's hand, soon floating toward it. Within heartbeats, a block on ice held her palm down against the symbol, and the wave began to glow blue.
Miles and continents away, Mia faltered with healing an injured squirrel, sending a mass of snow spiraling through the treetops of Imil's surrounding forests. Even more miles and continents away, Piers shouted in sudden pain, brought to his knees as his strength left him. Siara and Poseidon immediately rushed to his aid.
The Mercury Djinni formed in a crash of ghostly water, turning its head as though it were considering something. Eighteen orbs of blue light spiraled through the walls, crashing into one larger mass in the air. The sphere convulsed like a ball of water, its' surface rippling from top to bottom and back again. The ball disintegrated into a set of eighteen drops, each one turning to fill its' own hole near the wave symbol.
The creature of Mercury vanished like snow on the breeze, and the block of ice melted away, leaving Sheba's hand intact and the wave symbol glowing blue. She gazed at the wall panel, noticing the third hole had a blue or above it. Also, there seemed to be water flowing down the front of the panel, with parts of it freezing to the cracks caused by the first symbol of Venus.
"How do you feel?" Felix asked, touching Sheba's shoulder.
"I'm alright, thanks. Jupiter remains, right?" She didn't wait for an answer, instead simply standing and turning, making her way to the final stone circle. She gazed at the image of gales of wind, soon dropping to her knees and placing both her palms against the stone.
Felix, having faith in his loved one, chose to walk back to the center of the room, wanting to get a closer look at the panel as the final indentation was lit. The glowing of the symbol shone in the corner of his eye, and he turned to gaze as Sheba allowed herself to be drained. The expected image of the Jupiter Djinni appeared, and nine spheres emerged from Sheba's body, soon joining with the other nine that came through the stone. The eighteen orbs of purple light formed a speedy single line, circling above the heads of Sheba and the Djinni. They made several revolutions before breaking at the front end, each one filling the holes in the floor.
However, this last one was different. Worse.
Miles and continents away, Ivan froze in place. His bones were locked, and his mind went blank. His head dropped low, and his eyes closed as he drew his staff, mobility restored. His body moved if its' own accord, and he began summoning a strong wind above Vale's reconstruction site – strong enough to cause several roofers to lose balance. Shouts were thrown at him, begging him to stop, but the only sense that dominated him now was the sense of danger, and a will to cause it.
Sheba was even worse than that. She began screaming at the symbol as the Jupiter Djinni vanished, thrashing about as the electric stands that bound her hands didn't. She struggled against their vice-like grip, and a funnel of swirling air formed around her, kicking up the dust of ages. Felix tried to aid her, jumping over a gap in the paths – however, the funnel blocked his hand from reaching her. He shouted her name, vainly trying to punch through the spinning air.
Without warning, everything stopped for a second – the air, the screaming, the shouting. Sheba's hands were released from their electric bonds, but the first thing she moved was her head. She opened her eyes, entranced, lifting her hands. Sparks and volts connected between her palms and the stone under them, and soon the air around her rushed to be confined within her cupped hands. She willed, against her own, plasma energy into the swirling sphere of air, soon giving the Psynergenic orb a menacing look of a small, confined storm. This is exactly what it was.
Felix rushed forward, but a twitch of Sheba's eyebrow sent another burst of air at him, blowing his feet out from under him, bringing him to the stone ground. He looked up in time to see her throw her arms forward, shooting the small storm toward the wall panel. It connected with the stone, creating a blinding flash, which only Felix shielded his eyes against. Several blasts were heard, and the air around the two Adepts heated slightly. Soon, the blasting ceased, and Felix opened his eyes to gaze first at the Jupiter Adept standing above him, then back to the wall panel.
The panel, the indentations, and several feet surrounding the area, had all been evaporated. A hallway was revealed, and Felix could make out the base of an odd statue.
The Venus Adept rose to his feet, paused for a moment, and then finally reached Sheba's side. He gently lifted her head, gazing into her eyes. After a moment of severe concentration, he thought he saw the fire of her Psynergy, which was blazing fiercely unlike any other time in Sheba's life. He called out to her, but only echoes responded. For a moment, Felix thought she was lost.
Again without warning, Sheba stiffened for a brief moment. Suddenly, her body went limp, and she fell into Felix's arms. He shook her gently, calling her name once and again, until her eyes opened with an obvious effort. The Earth warrior half-laughed with relief when she said his name, and he hugged her tightly, explaining his worry at the possibility of having lost her. Sheba, scared, held on to his hand as she stood, warily looking around the room, pausing to gaze at the now-destroyed wall panel.
The sense of foreboding had increased considerably. Sheba hid it from Felix, hoping to gain as much progress in here as she could.
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In an attempt to lighten the mood after the Jupiter symbol incident, Felix had said three times how he had hoped his dungeon-exploring days were behind him. They two had explored through several stone tunnels, each one winding and bleak. Sheba remained almost completely silent through their walking, but Felix was becoming more and more interested in the oddities of this area.
After a while of turning and trekking, Felix stepped through a doorway that led into a room with several stones and holes littering the floor. As soon as he was clear of the entryway, a flash occurred. To his right, an odd rocky contraption glowed and shot several white tendrils of energy, striking Felix in his arm. He felt a tingling as each line accessed some part of him, and soon the strings shot out of his left side, now colored a shining silver. He followed the tendrils' path with his eyes, watching them float over a line of stones that spit the room into two halves. They stopped at one point, curling and twisting around each other, gaining speed every second. Soon, not a single line could be followed. They continued to spin as they descended to the ground, and they all vanished as they reached the stone underneath Felix's boots. Behind the tendrils stood a darkened figure – an exact mirror-replica of Felix.
"What the-"
Felix didn't finish his sentence, because the darkened one near him had said the exact same thing, at the exact same time, in exact unison. Their echoes died away, and Felix tried to walk to the stone wall, attempting to examine this devilry closer. The replica matched his movements, closing the distance between the two young men. Felix stopped, allowing himself to think through what this room had. He looked all around the corners and walls, soon spotting a small switch on the replica's side of the room.
"You see the switch?" Sheba asked, eyeing the replica with suspicion. "I think…we need to get…that you to stand on it. It behaves like a mirror, so you'll need to guide it around the stones and holes there."
Felix nodded, as did the mysterious image across from him. He eyed the room halves carefully, planning each step. He made progress with the replica, despite the oddities of the floor. Unfortunately, he made a mistake. He realized in time that he was leading the replica in between two holes, and he reacted, stepping back. However, there was a stone under his heel that he didn't know about. Balance was lost, and he fell onto the hard stones with a dull thump.
The mirror of him fell into a hole, vanishing from sight. Sheba gasped, stepping in to help Felix up. However, she stopped when a loud click sounded from the hole that the image had fallen in to. Following that click was a rumble, and the room changed.
All the stones were retracted into each of the holes, leaving the floor even and level. A shaking began, and the door the Adepts had entered through began to shrink to the floor. Sheba thought they were in a trap before she realized that this room had changed into a lift. They were beginning to rise – and gaining speed, based on the feeling of her stomach.
They were going at a ridiculously fast speed now, and Sheba was forced to crawl her way over to Felix. The air grew cold – thin, as well. The Jupiter Adept gripped his hand as they were shot upward, further and further, until they finally slowed to a halt. The room had ended with a new set of walls, filled with high windows, all with iron bars covering them, as though they were cages. Felix, slightly disoriented, sat up and looked around.
"I…wasn't expecting that…"
"You think?" Sheba snapped, her eyes darting from one window to the next. Felix turned his head and gazed at her.
"Are you okay?" he asked, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Sheba lowered her head, unable to meet his gaze.
Felix's worry increased with Sheba's shuddering. "…I'm sorry…" she began. "I'm just…tense…this a new place that we've discovered, with so many things nobody's ever seen, and now we're trapped in this stone place…it's…much."
Venus and Jupiter met with a kiss, and Felix held her in a comforting embrace. "I understand, Sheba. Don't worry about it."
They remained in their half-sitting embrace for a moment, trying to find comfort in each other's presence. Sheba shuddered slightly in a mix of embarrassment and anxiety. She took several breaths to calm her nerves, tightly gripping Felix's hand. He spoke once more.
"You go ahead and gather yourself – I'll take a moment to investigate this room, okay?" He felt her hesitant nod through his armor, and he stood, gripping her hand once more before releasing it. He proceeded to the nearest corner, running his fingers along the grooves and curves. He jumped and wrapped his fingers around the edges of the high windows, pulling his eyes over the openings in order to see into the darkness contained. Nothing stirred.
'Why can't I…be stronger than this…' Sheba thought, gazing at her lover as he took control of the situation. She lowered her eyes. 'No matter where I am…I seem to be in no control of anything, no position to do anything useful… Damn it all!' She clenched her hand into a tight fist, watching the blood rush away, leaving a pale skin over a veiled knuckle. 'All the time…every time…'
'No!' Another part of her mind had heard her mental berating, and had stepped in. 'You're not thinking straight.'
'Prove it to me, then!'
'You spoke of the times. You obviously mean the times with Felix and your friends. Have you forgotten already?'
Sheba closed her eyes, both wishing for and against any memory – lately, any memory has been hard to look back on.
'You helped them through to get the Lash Pebble, remember? The vines – you cleared them away. You were important. Also, Air's Rock? How could you have forgotten that? Without you, Felix, Jenna, and Kraden could have been blown off the rock face. And let's not leave out Reveal. Izumo, Air's Rock, Tundaria Tower, Champa, Jupiter Lighthouse, Mars Lighthouse, Garoh – you've used it every time it was needed, and every time…it was needed for all.'
Sheba glanced toward her beloved once more as he grunted, having come down from another sealed window. She saw him inspect a stone brick that was out of place, running his fingers along the textures. Finding nothing significant, he moved on, skipping the next window.
'Besides, you're forgetting your own phrase. Remember? "It's better to look ahead and prepare, than to look back and regret." Even Felix remembered that a couple of days ago. Why are you allowing anguish upon yourself for your adventurous past? It seems like it was good, despite everything bad that happened.'
Sheba, to her inner horror, felt hot tears well up behind her eyes as a heavy truth was placed on her. It was meant to relax her, but she did not do so. She strained further, even, to force back her tears.
'Hmm…in fact, it might be a good idea to see the immediate future now. Look on that wall…'
The Jupiter Adept lifted her gaze to the wall Felix had just reached. In the center, six stones stood out from the rest. They jutted out at an angle, creating a circle. In fact, Sheba realized, it was the symbol for Reveal.
Despair put aside, Sheba tapped into her reserves of Psynergy. Her green eyes were veiled into a world of black and white, a world of truths. As she had thought, the wall melted away behind the symbol of stones, leading to a darkened passage. What was more, the metal bars for the windows disappeared, as well, leaving a wide opening. She grinned for a split second, until she saw what was coming – speeding, even – toward them from the passage.
She cut off her Psynergy, rushing to Felix's side. He was surprised, firstly, at how quickly she had pushed him away from the middle of the wall – secondly, how two giant lizard creatures came crashing through the panel, hissing and lashing their heavily armored tails and legs. These creatures were absolutely covered in blue scales, and both had a mace-like weapon attached on the ends of their tails. Felix and Sheba could see, after the dust had cleared from the now-demolished wall, madness in their eyes. They circled around, cornering the two friends. Without warning, one leapt forward, howling and whipping its lethal tail behind it.
Felix and Sheba pushed off each other, creating distance between themselves, the wall, and the mad lizard rushing them. The beast landed, pushed off his front legs, and jumped again at Felix. The Venus warrior whipped out his sword, jumping away as the lizard landed mere inches from him. He struck with his blade, but the monster's heavily scaled body deflected the weapon. The lizard didn't even notice.
The second beast had turned its attention to Sheba, who had lost her balance upon her landing, and fell on her back. She saw that she was about to be attacked, and willed a gust of wind to distract the blue lizard. It had the desired effect, giving her time to jump up and pull out her staff. She ran toward the beast, whacking it across the head with all of her might. The monster's head jerked to its side, and it slowly recovered, glaring at the Jupiter Adept with a murderous glint in its eyes. The beast bared its fangs, letting a chilling growl escape its throat. She saw, to her horror, a field of energy beginning to gather within the lizard's teeth. She had seconds to get out the way.
Felix was struggling to cope with the lizard's surprising strength and speed. Twice, already, he was forced to his knees by an unforeseen head-butt to his stomach – had it not been for Felix's Curative Psynergy, massive bruises would have begun to develop. The Venus Adept looked around him, having lost sight of his enemy. A sudden movement above him caused his gaze to look up, and he saw – further surprising – the lizard about to land on him with bone-crushing force. He pushed himself away from the ground, landing just in time to feel the ground give a mighty tremor as the beast landed. In fact, it seemed to Felix, it had seemed even stronger for a creature such as this.
Sheba jumped backwards, landing at Felix side. They cast each other a glance, then returned their gaze to the eyes of the enemy. Felix, curious about Sheba's well being, spared a moment to look at her attacker. His eyes widened as he saw the gathered energy within his teeth. Acting quickly, he shot out his hand, a light brown aura encircling it. He whispered a name.
As the lizard's powerful energy breath was released upon the two Adepts, a light-brown field materialized before Sheba's eyes. It shimmered slightly, completely covering her from the attack. As the beast's energy failed, the Jupiter Adept could make out a telltale Venus Djinni confined in the center of the brown aura. It looked at her, seemingly grinning, and disappeared from the visible spectrum in a shimmer of diamonds.
Safe from her own attacker, Sheba turned her head to look upon Felix's enemy. She brought her hand down her side swiftly, manifesting a powerful bolt of plasma from her palm. The lizard, which had begun rushing Felix's distracted side, was hit in its eyes. It let out a pained yowl, falling to the stone ground. The beast's momentum carried it along the floor until it rested among the wreckage of the former wall. Felix had turned to look upon his attacker, and – seizing the opportunity – willed a shaped segment of the wall to break away, forming a Stone Spire. He indicated to the writhing creature with his eyes, and the spire sped toward it, point first.
Another tremor rushed through the stone around the two friends, and a large hand emerged from the hole with alarming speed, taking the full force of the Earthen Spire. Dust and pebbles rained to the ground, and both Felix and Sheba gazed in horrific awe as two massive orc-like abominations stepped through the demolished wall. These new beasts had tiny wings jutting out from their backs, which seemed to serve no other purpose than to add speed. They snorted, their narrow eyes glaring at the two Adepts.
Sheba cried out in pain. The two new beast's appearance had distracted her, giving the other lizard-like creature a chance to strike. It rammed Sheba's side fiercely, carrying her through the air. Felix watched, horrified, as she landed roughly on her back. She moved, struggling to stand.
Felix reacted to a movement from the abominations. He leaped up, rushing to Sheba's side, willing a flow of Curative Psynergy to mend her bruised skin. As he reached her side, she gave out a small cry. She jerked her head to the orcish monstrosities, and Felix turned to see what they were doing.
Turning was all Felix had time to do. The first of the two abominations had somehow managed to summon a speeding attack, hitting Felix with the force of a meteorite. The force on the impact sent Felix flying through the thin air, right into the range of the second orc-like beast. This second one almost playfully knocked Felix to the stone floor in midair, forcing him to the ground. A crack appeared on one stone tile while two emerged in Felix's secondary arm.
The Venus Adept couldn't move for a moment. The air in his lungs had been forced out when he had struck the ground, and he was having trouble gaining more. He opened his eyes after several agonizing seconds to see what could only be bad. The first large creature, seizing the opportunity, walked over to Felix's form and slammed its foot onto his chest.
Words couldn't describe the type of pain Felix was in. He tried his best to maintain his awareness, but darkness tugged at the sides of his vision. The monster's foot slammed again, and Felix could barely hear his own ribs crack under the impact. Blood began to spurt out from his mouth, and he coughed, unable to breathe. He tried to concentrate on his Potent Cure ability, but only a small sphere of golden light emerged from his hand. It did what it could before Felix saw the foot rise again for a killing blow to his neck.
"ENOUGH."
A shout rang out, the source unseen. Immediately after hearing the call, all four of the hellish beasts ceased movement – the abomination's foot was mere inches from taking Felix's life. They stood still, as though stunned. Sheba, looking up from her waning pain, managed to see the caller. Her eyes widened in shock.
The person who had called out was a male, seemingly younger than her. He had the same color hair as she, the same color eyes as she, and – for what it was worth – appeared to be kinship with her. The way he looked at her, she was able to discern that he, too, was a Jupiter Adept – but with an understanding of it the likes she hadn't seen in any other Adept she had met before. Their eyes locked, and his widened after a moment's consideration. She made an attempt to stand.
The boy scowled, pointing a lone finger at her. Suddenly, the air around Sheba felt heavier, and she saw darkness creep into her vision. Her eyes attempted to stay open, but they were fighting a losing battle. She made one more movement, managing to see Felix be lifted – almost gingerly – by the same hell-forged beast that had almost killed him moments prior. She hit the ground, unaware of everything.
As the dust settled around her, the boy wondered how she could have possibly come back. 'This isn't good,' he thought, mentally ordering the second abomination to take her within the newly opened tunnels. 'He…will not be pleased.'
End Chapter 11
Author's notes: Hmm…finally, we arrive at the climax of it all. Something is astir, something ominous and formidable. As the wish of two people is granted, the wishes of hundreds others are shattered. Here lies the Truth, however painful it may be.
Next chapter: …shall be the longest one of this entire story, with the highest attempt of detail I'll have ever tried. Nothing shall be left out, for here comes...the Truth.
