Yo! It's me, SirGecko, back with the 4th chapter for you readers!
Okay. Originally I intended to save the update for Friday Morning, but I think I'll update now, thanks to the reviewers who like my story. And about that . . . I want to thank you once again. Get used to it, because I'm gonna do that every chapter. Count yourselves lucky, because that's what convinced me to update now! . . . On a kinder note, I really appreciate it. Thanks again.
This chapter is going to be similar in length to the 1st chapter. About 7.25 pages. So, that should be worth the very lengthy day-and-a-half wait I set up for all of you (sarcasm detected).
So, for that damn disclaimer. I DO NOT OWN GOLDEN SUN. There, that should do it. Oh yes. My geckos have told me to be evil and wait 'till Friday morning to update, but I'm not listening to them now (they don't know this, so don't snitch on me).
Now, read and enjoy chapter 4!
Chapter 4: Mysteries of the Jupiter Lighthouse
Isaac's yell awoke Ivan, Mia, Solaris, and Lunora. They all got up, stretched their legs and put on their boots. They stamped up the stairs leading on deck, groggy-eyed, with their weapons drawn.
"Good thinking, guys," said Isaac. "Sea monsters are probably thick around the lighthouse."
He was right. They fought off sea dragons, man-o-wars, seagulls, and many other fierce creatures on the way to the lighthouse.
"Dammit!" cursed Isaac, as a man-o-war stung him on the arm. He gained revenge on the man-o-war by slicing its tentacles off. The then picked it up and chucked it against a rock. It splattered into a hundred pieces.
"Are you okay?" asked Mia, coming over to heal his sting after fighting off a sea dragon.
"Yeah, I'm fine," said Isaac, feeling the arm heal perfectly. She clasped his hand for a second, then went off to check the others for battle wounds.
All of the monsters they had been fighting made them forget when they were going to land. They all found out when the boat crashed against the sandy beach west of the lighthouse. Everyone fell to the floor. They got up, shaken, but alright. They dusted themselves off, and lowered the ladder to get off the ship. After everyone was down, they set off towards the Jupiter Lighthouse.
"Monsters are ahead," said Lunora. "I can use the power of the moon to shine light on darkened areas, and it lets me see where monsters lay hidden."
"Good," said Isaac. "That'll reduce the number of surprise attacks we'll encounter."
Monsters ambushed them soon afterward. Six of them, gargoyles with wings that were very quick and could dodge many regular attacks. After much fighting and little progress, Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia were growing exhausted.
"I'm out of energy," panted Isaac.
"Me too," gasped Garet, gasping for breath.
"So am I," wheezed Ivan, clutching a stitch in his side.
"Count me in," sighed Mia, leaning on her Crystal Rod for support.
"I'll fix this," said Lunora. She put her hands together, facing Isaac and company (in the background, Solaris was slicing Gargoyle heads off left and right, but they just kept coming). Black stars began to float out of Lunora's hands. They encircled Isaac and company, and they felt their energy restore completely.
"There," said Lunora happily. "That should help."
"What Psynergy is that?" asked Ivan with interest.
"That can wait," said Isaac. "We must help Solaris."
"No," said Solaris, finally showing signs of fatigue. "Let me handle this."
"AAAARRRRGHH!" he roared. Or so it looked. The voice was not his, but it was the Sol Blade's. What came next was truly spectacular.
Solaris held the sword above his head as though he were going to Death Plunge somebody. The tip of the sword glowed a yellow, red, and orange mix. The light was so bright, it made the surroundings around them as though they were lit up by the light of day. A beam shot out of the tip of the sword, enveloping the gargoyles, paralyzing them. Then, yellow beads of energy started to spiral around the beam. The Beads struck the gargoyles. Those beads must have been full of magical energy, because they incinerated all the gargoyles in less than a minute. The unleash ended. Solaris leaned on his sword, panting.
"Damn, man, I gotta get me one of those!" yelled Garet. "When can we get to Mars Lighthouse?"
Solaris laughed. "The Mars lighthouse is after the Luna Lighthouse, which is next on the list," he said. "But I have some news that may disappoint you. The Sol Blade found in the Mars Lighthouse doesn't unleash what I just did: Sol's Fury."
"What?" said Garet, sounding disappointed.
"Well, so I've heard, when the swords were made, the craftsman made one tiny flaw in the other sword. Or maybe it was my sword . . . anyway, it still unleashes an extremely powerful summon, but not quite the same, as the craftsman intended. I haven't seen the unleash, I only know has it has something to do with a rock."
"A rock?" whined Garet. "That's a ripoff. But I still want it!"
Solaris snickered, and then sheathed his sword. "Well, shall we proceed? We still have the river to cross. Good thing too. No monsters inhabit the rivers. So any resting should be done in the river."
And with that, the team proceeded. The wind ruffled their hair as they got closer and closer to the lighthouse. Isaac and the others could see the trees next to the lighthouse bended over nearly horizontal as the branches shook violently.
They reached the river not long afterward, small waves moving along it as the wind pushed it downstream. At the shore, Lunora healed everyone, to Mia's slight displeasure.
"She's starting to make me look bad," she said to Isaac.
"I don't care how good she is, you've healed far more wounds of mine than she has," said Isaac flatly. Mia smiled.
"Hey Lunora, what Psynergy is that you used again?" asked Ivan.
"Oh that's right, I forgot to tell you," said Lunora quickly. "It's called Lunar Aura. It brings out the ancient healing waters and dust of the moon and uses it to calm the nerves and restore lost strength." "You've got some pretty impressive Psynergy there," said Ivan. Lunora smiled at him, her long, silver hair billowing out behind her in the sudden wind that aroused. "Thank you."
After checking to make sure that everyone was ready to go, they proceeded. At the other side of the river, they expected to meet heavy resistance. But, apparently, Solaris's unleash had scared the remaining monsters away. Indeed, Isaac could have sworn that he saw the quivering wing of a gargoyle that was hiding behind a large tree. They proceeded with little difficulty to the entrance of the Jupiter Lighthouse.
They looked up. It was by far the most beautiful lighthouse they had seen yet. The stones were granite, but they had a purplish tint in them. The lighthouse was as tall as the rest, and it had a lot of branches on its sides. And on closer inspection, they saw, with relief, that the beacon had not been lit yet.
"Why isn't the beacon lit, if they got a day's start on us?" said Garet.
"Use your brains," said Ivan sarcastically. "If they hadn't lit the beacon yet, than obviously the tides were against them. If the tides were not with us, the beacon would've been lit by now. Probably while you were slacking off when we were organizing Solaris's and Lunora's cabin."
Lunora giggled. Garet scowled. "I get your point, Ivan," he said through gritted teeth.
Now, everyone collected their breath, and put their nerves aside. "Okay, Ivan, you go in front," said Isaac.
Ivan walked forward, and stopped in front of the magnificent granite doors. The doors made a whooshing sound, and then opened. The whole group was hit with a sharp blast of freezing cold air. Ivan stepped back, slightly reeled from the cold air. He retreated beside Isaac and Mia, and they entered the Jupiter Lighthouse.
Right away, they all could see that this lighthouse climb was not going to be easy. Magical energy beams and purple pads were everywhere. It was extremely cold, and wind gusted throughout the place, blowing everybody's hair in all directions. This was especially a problem for the girls, as their hair lashing against their face was like being whipped with a wire.
They all looked around in more detail. Sure, Jupiter reigned high and mighty here, and everybody could see Ivan more energetic than when watching Isaac at Colosso. They saw a stone tablet lying in front of them.
"Hey, this tablet had words written on them, in the ancient language of the Jupiter clan!" said Ivan. "I believe I can translate the words."
Ye who seek to climb the Jupiter Lighthouse, must peer into it's mysteries using the mind, body and soul. Without faith in yourself, ye shall not succeed. Below is the Jade enabling the hover ability, and the Chip of the Advanced Cyclone, which none but a Jupiter Adept can master. Now go forth, Adepts of renown, and conquer the puzzles ahead!
"Well, it sounds like we have our work cut out for us," said Isaac heavily. "Do you see the Chip of the Advanced Cyclone and the Hover Jade there, Ivan?"
"Yeah," said Ivan. "I wonder why Alex, Karst, and Agatio didn't steal them."
"Probably because they had Sheba with them, and she already knew that Psynergy," said Isaac.
Ivan equipped both items, and he quickly got used to them. And so they climbed. And they climbed. Hours later, they had run into many dead ends, and they were exhausted. They had taken so many paths at forks that they didn't even know which floor they were on for a while.
Monsters were everywhere, big, tough, evil monsters that were a good challenge to the team. The Gargoyles here were not friendly, and when fueled by their element, it made them all the more difficult to slay.
By the time they fought off what felt to be their thousandth monster, and tripped what felt to be their millionth switch, they all collapsed on the floor, defeated, frustrated, and exhausted.
"Dammit, I hate not knowing where we're supposed to go!" cursed Garet.
"We all do, not just you," said Mia. "Ivan, do you have any idea where we are?"
"Well, I know we're on the second floor . . . other than that, I only know one thing," he said.
"What's that?" asked Solaris.
"We're lost," said Ivan simply. Lunora laughed while the rest of the group scowled at him.
"Great, just great," said Solaris irritably. "We're lost. Like we already didn't know that."
"I have an idea," said Isaac. "Why don't I Retreat us back to the entrance and we can start over?" "Good idea," said Mia. And so Isaac did. A second later, they all found themselves at the bottom of the lighthouse.
"Well, we know the path we took does not work," said Ivan, trying to break down the situation. This means that we have two paths to choose from that are left." He looked down the right one. "I can actually sense that this is not the correct path, so it must be the other one," he finished.
And they proceeded down the left path. It was actually fairly straight-forward; Ivan had to use Cyclone and Hover here and there. Apparently, their trip down the other path had not been wasted; the doors and other enchantments that would've blocked their way had disappeared. The monsters were the tough part.
"Aack!" said Ivan, as one of the gargoyle's talons cut into his arm.
Blood flowed freely from the wound, and dripped onto the stone floor of the lighthouse. Ivan gained revenge, however, by chopping the gargoyle's head in half with an unleashed Asura from his Kikuichimonji.
"Oh, God," said Ivan. "I think that talon did more than just cut into me," said Ivan, doubling over in pain.
"He's right," said Mia, bending down to look at the wound. "Poison has now flown though his bloodstream. But it's not too late yet. I can correct it with Cure Poison."
She focused her healing powers on Ivan's arm. Ivan felt the poison leave his body, but he felt drained. Fortunately, he was at the Jupiter Lighthouse, and the power here would recharge him enough to bring him back to where he was before he got wounded.
"You're lucky Mia's such a good healer," said Solaris to Ivan. "None but a strong Mercury Adept could remove that much bane from your bloodstream."
"Thanks, Mia," said Ivan.
"No problem," said Mia, now healing the cut itself.
They proceeded, encountering more resistance. Ivan led them, slaughtering evil gargoyles left and right, fully fueled not only by the powers of the lighthouse, but also by the lust for revenge. Lunora helped him, staying by his side.
"You're pretty feisty when it comes to revenge," she teased, smiling at him.
"Yeah," growled Ivan, as he slashed off a gargoyle wing. "For some reason, having them slash me and poison me at the same time kinda gets on my nerves." He said this with a mix of sarcasm and amusement. Lunora obviously caught the amusement part of his statement, for she giggled.
All of a sudden, they heard a noise behind a small hidden wall. Ivan went over and approached the wall. When he got near it, out jumped a Jupiter Djinni! Ivan, startled, jumped back, as the Djinni began to speak.
"My name is Whorl," said the Djinni. "You all look mighty powerful, but show me in a battle!"
They all charged forward to engage the Djinni. This Djinni was tough, and it used moves like Destruct Ray and Spark Plasma often. But, it did go down fairly quickly with the combined might of Isaac, Garet, Ivan, Mia, Solaris, and Lunora. But, that didn't mean that they weren't fazed by the Djinni. As Garet said, "That little guy put up one helluva fight!"
"You are indeed powerful! Wind Adept, what is your name?" said Whorl.
"It's Ivan, and my companions are Isaac, Garet, Mia, Solaris, and Lunora," he said, pointing to each one as he said their name.
"Good. Well, Ivan, I am now yours to use!" said Whorl, and he joined with Ivan.
The other Djinn soon got to know Whorl, and he was indeed respectable among the Djinn. Ivan didn't think he'd have any problem fitting in.
Continuing on, they encountered more monster resistance, but nothing Ivan and Lunora couldn't handle. After a few more gargoyles were slain by Ivan and Lunora (they hadn't still seen Lunora's staff unleash anything, but they were all still hoping), They finally reached the fifth floor of the lighthouse. Ahead, there lie another stone tablet, written in the same ancient language. Ivan stepped forward to translate:
"I congratulate ye for reaching the final floor of the Jupiter Lighthouse. However, your challenge is not over yet. In thy room ahead, you will face a room containing puzzling mirages. Lethal traps litter the room ahead. Pitfalls of lethal cunning. One you fall in, you don't come back up. Unless ye wish to spend the rest of your life in the Core of Jupiter Lighthouse, proceed with caution!"
And underneath the words was another message, extremely short. Ivan looked at it and read:
The Solar Lighthouse
The message stopped unfinished.
"What about the Solar Lighthouse?" said Garet. He pounded the stone in frustration, resulting in immense pain in his right hand.
"Idiot," muttered Ivan. "Before we were distracted by Garet's brain going on vacation, the stone had mentioned the room ahead being littered with pitfalls."
"Well, this sounds rather dangerous," said Isaac, failing to keep a steady voice.
"Perhaps Ivan and I should lead," whispered Lunora. "We have the ability to see what others can't."
"Fine with me, just keep us alive," said Garet.
"She will, trust me," said Solaris. "She's saved my butt many times."
The group proceeded, and entered the last room, and they saw the staircase on the other side. The room was completely void of any monsters. There were only statues that lined the room. The room was also divided into 36 little squares identified by alternating colors of stone: blue, purple, and white. They all had hoverpads on them. They appeared faulty, however, because they kept flickering on and off. They noticed that the pads stayed off a lot longer than they stayed on. Everything else seemed normal, but the group knew otherwise. Lunora and Ivan stepped in front, walking very slowly, searching with the power of True Sight for any pitfalls.
"Okay, this is what I'm reading," said Ivan. All of the white squares contain pitfalls except for the one in front of the stairs." All of the blue squares on our side of the room have pitfalls, and all of the purple squares on the opposite side have pitfalls. Is that what you read, Lunora?"
"You truly read with your heart, didn't you?" said Lunora, smiling at Ivan. "Yes, I copied exactly that. This means that these squares have pitfalls."
She drew a piece of thin animal skin from her pocket on which she could write on, and a quill. She rote down all of the squares in the room, identifying them by the first letter of their color. The ones in bold had pitfalls. After she had finished, she showed the drawing to everybody.
"Okay. The best thing to do would be to take the second P in the closest row to us and continue diagonally left two more squares," she began, pointing to the indicated spots with the tip of her quill. "Then, we're going to have to cross diagonally up one square right. From here, continue diagonally up one square left. Next, continue diagonally one square right. Just to our north should be the stairs. Does everyone have that?"
"Got it, loud and clear," said Isaac. Everybody else nodded as well show that they understood.
"Okay, good. Ivan and I will take the lead." said Lunora. Everyone nodded. "Remember this is a matter of Life or Death. Let's go!"
It was tense work. Ivan took the lead and used Hover. Everyone followed in order of: Ivan, Lunora, Solaris, Garet, Isaac, and Mia. Everyone was careful. After a tense 20 minutes, Ivan, Lunora, Garet, and Solaris had made it to the stairs. Isaac was just about to reach them when he heard a scream behind him. He knew what it was instantly. Dreading what he saw, he turned around.
Mia had accidentally gone one square too far left, only about four inches above the edge of the purple square, to the left of the only safe white one. A faulty hoverpad was to blame. She had apparently floated over a square that turned off just as she hovered over it. The momentum of her fall carried her over the purple block.
Isaac saw with some relief that her hands still clutched the side of the hole. Isaac instantly let himself onto the stairway so that he couldn't hover anymore. He looked over again for a split second. One of her hands had slipped off the edge. To his surprise, she wasn't screaming anymore. She wasn't even making noise. She just hung there, slipping away . . . Isaac then threw himself forward onto his stomach, skidding to a stop just short of Mia. He hurried and grabbed Mia's hands. With all his strength he managed to pull her back up.
Mia just stood there, still in shock. Isaac grabbed her waist and, cracking a small smile said, "Don't ever scare me like that again. You almost gave me a heart attack."
Mia smiled slightly, and then she leaned forward planted a juicy kiss right on Isaac's lips. Isaac was ecstatic. She had finally kissed him. He stood there, enjoying it, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. Her arms rested on his shoulders, and clasped themselves together behind his neck. Isaac chose to pull apart first after he saw Garet, looking disgusted, and tapping his foot. He was looking up the stairway every now and then.
Isaac blushed slightly but said, "I would never give up hope on you Mia. Never."
"As lovely as this is," said Garet sarcastically, "we need to stop the others before we kinda sorta get killed by something else that may be lurking in here . . . ALEX, for example?!" Solaris chuckled. Lunora however, scowled.
"Mia has nearly been killed, and all you can say is that?" she said angrily. "You're one of the most insensitive people I've met."
"Ouch," muttered Ivan, grinning as Garet turned away looking ashamed.
"I don't think he meant to put it that way, Lunora," said Solaris. "I think what he meant to say is that time is running short, and we must get to the beacon now." Mia nodded, along with Isaac.
"Let's go!" said Isaac, taking the lead and heading up the stairs, Ivan close behind. Soon after, they emerged on the Jupiter Lighthouse aerie.
"Ha . . ." said Ivan. It was a breathtaking sight. The landscape and sea spanning out in all directions, and the beacon, to their relief, still void of any light. The stone was more magnificent than any they'd seen so far in the lighthouse. It gleamed as the dying sun painted a brilliant, flowing red all over the stone, which made it sparkle magnificently.
"Ah . . . here they are," said a gleeful voice all of a sudden. "You guys are late!"
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Now that's what I call a cliffhanger. Not the best, but better than any of my other ones so far. And if it makes you feel any better (ha ha), there's more to come.
Oh, and I apologize for my ancient language text. I'm not good at old-fashioned writing, so please forgive me.
Now review! My geckos say that they will throw ice anyone who doesn't . . . OW! Damn, that hurt! . . . They tell me that that was just to prove the point. So I'd review if you know what's good for you.