Chapter 8: The Ruins under the Ocean

Somewhere in the middle of the Ocean: (4:00PM)

The sun was about to set and they have finally reached there destination. The party decided to head to the location of the fragment straight away in fear that the enemy has already reached it and gathered it.

Judging by the lack of movements within the water, Yuri assumed that the sheer amount of water repelled the instigator from actually entering and getting the fragment for fear of being crushed by water pressure. But if that was the case, the enemy should be nearby…

As they looked down to the huge ocean, one question escaped the mind of the young guild master.

"HOW THE HECK ARE WE GOING TO GET DOWN THERE!" Karol yelled at the top of his voice.

"Any ideas?" Raven asked the group.

As everyone thought for an answer, Rita already opened her mouth to give out her idea.

"Well, we could use the spirit of Undine that's with Estelle to temporarily part the water." Rita suggested.

"But… wouldn't that mean Estelle would have to stay here and maintain the water from entering the ruins?" Karol asked.

"Not only that, Estelle would be in high strain the more time that we spend down there." Judith pointed out. "So not only do we leave our healer here, but we also have a limited time of getting the fragment."

"That means we have to set our party on who's the most mobile to get the fragment fast." Yuri said with a smile. His voice didn't have an ounce of fear within them, but he actually sounded excited at this prospect.

"Alright then, we'll have four people head down." Karol announced after grasping the situation. "Yuri, Flynn, Judith and Repede are the ones that are heading down there."

"What!" Rita was enraged that she won't have the chance to inspect the ruins. "Why can't I come? I'm certainly mobile!"

"I think the reason that Captain Karol didn't put you in the party was because you'd just inspect the ruins." Raven pointed out with a sly smile. "That in effect would drag down the party don't ya think?"

Rita closed her mouth and looked down. He certainly got her there. She always hated it if someone was right about something.

Karol then continued of from where he got interrupted. "The rest of us will stay here and protect Estelle and hopefully try to fend of the enemy if the Remnants get here."

"Aye, aye captain." Raven said with a mock salute.

Estelle then allowed Undine out to part the water, as she did this, Baul landed close to the ruins to drop of Yuri, Flynn, Repede and Judith.

Judith instructed Baul to remain in the air while they're inside for safety precautions. Before the party entered the ruins, Rita threw a red crystal to Flynn.

"That's a makeshift bodhi blastia that I created!" Rita said to Flynn. "It only works under medium to high concentration of aer, so use it wisely. Oh and another thing, this place is supposedly an aer krene. It's odd since I don't see aer seeping out of the ruins."

"Thank you for the blastia. We'll be careful" Flynn then heads of to enter with Yuri, Repede and Judith.

As Baul took Estelle, Raven, Karol and Rita high to the sky, Rita then supported Estelle's effort to part the water. Hopefully with their effort, they'll be able to grab the fragment before the Remnants get here and they lose the power to part the water.

Underwater Ruins: (4:20PM)

Yuri, Judith, Flynn and Repede ran quietly towards the center of the ruins. The only sound that could be heard was the soft trickling of water and their footsteps, but aside from that it was totally quiet. This silence was unnerving as in every other ruins that they've been in there were monsters.

Since Yuri has lost the two weapons that he started out with, he was given a plain long sword by Flynn as a way for him to fight.

Something's odd with Yuri's current movements. Flynn was thinking to himself as they ran. He noticed the current look of resolve and seriousness in Yuri's face. As the past few days, they have not only found Yuri, but found that there's a greater threat once again posed to Tecra Lumeries. There last confrontation with The Remnants has confirmed his thoughts that Yuri is indeed hiding something.

They continued to walk in relative silence with only the slow but constant dripping of water from the ceiling to the floor. They passed a crossroad, but seeing as there's no point on exploring blindly, they decided to go straight and backtrack if they reach a dead end. Once they reached the end of the hallway, they came face to face with a huge door. The door, though ancient, stands strong and it seemed to be unbreakable.

"By the looks of it…" Judith said as she analyzed the writings on the side of the door, "we have to find a total of 2 switches."

"So we have to backtrack and look for the two switches huh…" Yuri said as he then took in charge. "We'll be splitting to two groups; we have to reach the switches as fast as we can before Estelle loses power. I'll go with Repede."

"And I'll go with Judith." Flynn said quietly without objection.

Judith merely smiled and nodded knowingly.

"Alright then lets go back to the crossroads and split-up."

Meanwhile: On Baul (4:35PM)

Rita and Estelle were busy on controlling and channeling power to Undine from keeping the water on crashing down to the ruins. As minutes passed, the strain got higher and higher.

"I hope Yuri would get the fragment fast without any problems." Karol quietly said to Raven as he stood look out with the old man.

"Yeah, but I also hope that they haven't met up with those Remnants." Raven replied. "But if that was the case, then we'll be the one meeting them."

"That means we'll have to hold them off without Rita, Estelle and Yuri…" Karol silently contemplated. "I just hope that they'll be able to do it before the Remnants get here."

"Speaking of which," Raven said as he took out his bow and arrow. "I can't really be of that much help with my weapon. By arrows just seems to bounce off… Don't even get me started with going melee."

"Yeah…" Karol nodded in agreement. "Even with my axes, I can only graze the red aer but I can't cleave into it."

Rita, having heard the conversation spoke up, "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I was working with weapons that can possibly pierce the red aer. They're over at the chest under my books… Oh and if you touch anything else, you'll wish that you were never born."

Karol and Raven sweatdropped as they approached the chest that Rita was talking about. Once they opened it, they found what looked like a glowing set of weapons. One was an axe but was notably glowing blue another was the detachable bow and arrow that was glowing green.

"What's with the glowing weapons?" Karol asked as he picked up the axe.

"Your axe is an aer repelling weapon, while Raven's bow and arrow is an aer absorbing weapon." Rita answered. "Your axe repels any aer that comes near it, while the old man's bow and arrow can absorb the aer from the opponent effectively draining them."

"Nice." Was all Karol could say at what Rita created.

"Problem is, it's not quite ready yet."

"What do you mean?" Raven asked.

"They're only prototypes, in terms of damage; it's much weaker than your current weapons when dealing with normal monsters." Rita answered. "Ok… enough questions I need to focus here!"

Suddenly, Baul howled alerting everyone on board.

"Wha-What was that?" Karol asked as he prepared his weapon.

"It seemed that Baul sensed something." Raven said as he squint his eyes over the horizon.

Raven then spotted what they feared the most. Two Remnants and their master were heading their way.

Underwater Ruins: (4:40PM)

Once the two parties split on the crossroads, Flynn and Judith were silently running down the hall to find the switch.

"Tell me Flynn, why is it that you agreed to my partner? I was pretty sure that you'd want to come with Yuri to interrogate him." Judith said as they continued on down the hallway. "So I assume your going to ask me what I think of the current actions of Yuri huh?"

"Yeah." Flynn replied without looking at Judith. "What are your thoughts on it?"

"Personally, I think Yuri knows more than he's letting on." Judith said in a calm tone.

"But why is he hiding things about these Remnants? Is it something that we're really better of not knowing?" Flynn asked.

"I'm not sure, but hopefully he'll drop his guard soon, otherwise we'll only find out once we confront the master of these remnants." Judith replied.

Flynn and Judith then stopped in front of a control mechanism. Judging by how it's connected to the ruins, it seems to indicate that it's a switch. The mechanism had a circular glowing platform; it seemed to indicate that something should be placed there.

"What do you think?" Flynn asked Judith.

"I've seen one of these mechanisms in my trips a few years back…" Judith then went closer and inspected the mechanism. "I think all you have to do is place your hand over it with a minimal amount of aer concentrated at your hand."

"Ok." Flynn then made use of the bodhi blastia that was given to him and conjured a small amount of aer at his right hand. The surroundings of Flynn's right hand started to show green aer. He then placed his hand over the mechanism. The mechanism then sucked the aer from around Flynn's right hand; this in effect made the walls of the ruins glow and shake. The light was still pretty dim, but it was significant enough to signify that it was indeed glowing.

"Hmm… I wonder how Yuri is doing…" Judith asked out loud.

As if to answer her questions, the walls started to glow brighter and a loud unlocking sound ringed throughout the halls of the ruins.

"I guess he did it." Judith said with a smile as she started running with Flynn following her.

Once Yuri and Repede met up with Judith and Flynn, they found that the door that was previously locked, open. They then proceeded to walk in to the main hall.

"It's too silent…" Yuri whispered as even the dripping of water could not be heard. "There's definitely something in here…"

"Yeah…" Flynn agreed in a low whisper. "This part of the ruins is completely devoid of water, as if it was completely airtight before we opened the door."

The floor then began to shake around them and the sound of giant footsteps could be heard. The floor beneath them started to seep red aer, and the rocks started gathering at one point.

"Is it me or is this Déjà vu?" Yuri said as he took out his sword.

"Yeah… this is just like the time in Shizontania…" Flynn said as he took out his shield and sword.

"Would you care to talk about your experiences after we beat this thing?" Judith said as she took out her spear.

*Woof!* Repede barked in agreement as he himself prepared for battle.

A golem started to form from the rocks that gathered, and faced the party.

"Well this is going to be interesting." Yuri said with a smile.

Author's Notes:

First up, let me apologize for the lack of updates the past few weeks. I've been incredibly busy these past weeks regarding school work, and now I have another World Lit to work on… So unless I get more free time (I also have extracurricular activities) the next update would be coming after two or three weeks.

I'm not sure of what to make with the interlude chapter as no-one gave a review (which somewhat killed my motivation). I guess since it was more of a recap than an informative chapter, it didn't really give any new information.

If you're all wondering how my writing is going and my current status as to why I haven't updated, please check my profile. As mentioned before, it has my current status and chapter status as to how complete it is or if it's ready for submission.

Corrections, constructive criticism and reviews would be helpful and motivate me to write despite my currently busy schedule!