Chapter Thirteen: Trial of Fire
What seemed like six more months had passed since I had gotten through the mountains, but I had finally crossed the sea and reached Japan. I reached Tokyo a few days after that, and it certainly was a sight to behold. Almost everywhere I looked I saw bright colorful lights, and there were people all over the place. It seemed like Tokyo had even more people than there were in Jump city.
I made several attempts to find out where I could find the light spirit, or more specifically, the spirit's spring, but everything was written in a foreign language. And when I tried asking people about it, I couldn't understand them. I guess everyone here spoke a different language, which I later found out to be Japanese. This was going to make my search a lot harder.
I was almost about to give up trying to find info on the spirit's whereabouts and just go look for myself, but before I did, I noticed a library nearby. I decided that it wouldn't do any harm to go in and see if I could find anything, so I went in. The inside was full of shelves with thousands of books on them. However, they were all written in Japanese.
"Does anyone here speak English?!" I shouted without thinking.
Instead of being shushed however, I was answered by a short old man who turned out to be the one in charge of the place.
"Can I help you, m'boy?" he asked me.
He spoke English! Now maybe I could get somewhere. I asked him if he had any books about ancient spirits.
"Oh yes, we have many books on that subject." He said. "Is there a particular spirit that you are wishing to know more of?"
"Yes. I need information on the light spirit that is said to live around here." I told him.
The old man looked rather surprised to hear me say that, and led me over to the front desk.
"Hmm… I'm afraid that you will not find any info on such a spirit among these shelves." He told me.
He then pulled out a very large and very old looking book from the desk and began flipping through it. He eventually stopped on a page that depicted a golden eagle.
"Ah, here it is. According to legend, a great spirit of light known as Eldin is said to live in this region." He said. "It is said that he only reveals himself to those he deems worthy, so very few believe he exists."
"Does it say where I can find him?" I asked.
"Well, it says here that the few sightings of Eldin were in an area somewhere around Mt. Fuji." He answered.
The old man then pointed out the nearby window to the large mountain that was visible in the distance. He told me that was Mt. Fuji. Fortunately, it did not look like it was too far away. I thanked the old man for his help and left the library. I began heading towards the mountain, hoping that I would find Eldin somewhere in the area.
After about a two hour trek through the forested areas around the mountain, I eventually reached the mountain base. I searched around the area a little longer and soon found a freshwater spring, just like the ones from before. I walked up to the edge of the spring and the water and rocks within it began to glow. A golden sphere rose up from the spring, just like before, and a magnificent golden eagle, like the one that was in that book from before, appeared along with it and perched on top of the sphere.
"My name is Eldin." It said. "I am the light spirit that protects these lands. Chosen Hero, you have done well to make it this far."
"It's an honor to be in your presence great spirit. I assume that you know why I'm here?" I asked him.
"You have come seeking the ruby spirit shard, correct? The trial you must pass to obtain it lies within a temple embedded within the heart of the volcano before you." He told me.
A temple inside the volcano? That sounded really dangerous, but I wasn't about to back down.
"The temple is sealed with an impenetrable doorway that will only open before one with the spirit's power. It can be found in a cavern further up the mountain." Eldin told me while pointing one of his wings in the direction that I should go.
I thanked the spirit and went down up the mountain path that Eldin had pointed to. The pathway led me to a large cavern entrance, just as Eldin had said. Once inside, I eventually came upon a gigantic door that had Eldin's symbol upon it. I remembered that the Great Pyramid had a similar door. I assumed that like the last time, I simply had to touch the door while in spirit mode, and it would open, so I did just that. Eldin's symbol glowed with a crimson light, and the door slowly opened. Once it was open, I felt an immense heat wave came blowing out of the temple. It felt like it was really hot in there, but a little heat wasn't going to stop me. I took a deep breath, and entered Eldin's Temple.
The first room in the temple had a gigantic eagle statue in the center, surrounded by a pool of lava. It must've represented Eldin. I guess this temple was built back when more people knew about the spirit. There was a door on the other side of the room, but it was blocked by large iron bars and I couldn't open it. There must've been something in the room that would lower them. After I looked around the room for a bit, I noticed that one of the statue's eyes was a different color. Maybe something would happen if I hit it, but wasn't any way across the lava pool. Then I remembered the bow that I had with me. I still had about twenty arrows left, so I set one onto my and fired it at the statue's eye.
Unfortunately, the intense heat was making my vision a bit blurry, so my first shot missed. It took me three more shots before I finally hit the target. The statue's eye turned the same color as the rest of the statue, and the bars blocking the door lowered. I put my bow away and went through the door. The next room I entered had circular arena surrounded by lava. The only thing that I could see in this room was a pile of bones in the middle of the arena. When I got near the center of the room, the door behind me suddenly locked, and the pile of bones in the center of the room sprang to life and reformed into a skeletal warrior holding two immense swords.
I prepared myself for battle, quickly dodging the skeleton's first two attacks. While its attacks appeared to hit with a lot of force, they were really slow. I took advantage of the opening it gave me and hacked off its legs. The skeleton fell down at first, but strangely, its legs just reattached themselves. My foe got up and continued attacking as if nothing had happened. I then cut its spine in half, but it just reattached itself again. It tried attacking again, a bit quicker this time. I blocked it with my shield, but the force of the blow still caused me to skid backwards.
This gave me an idea. Maybe I could force it back and have it fall into the lava. I activated spirit mode and unleashed a flurry of attacks at the skeleton. It kept blocking them with its swords, but that's exactly what I wanted it to do. The force of my attacks caused it to skid backwards more and more, until I drove it to the edge of the arena. With one final shove with my sword, the skeletal warrior fell off the arena and sank into the lava pit. I knew it couldn't reform itself if it was melted. Apparently the temple knew it too because both of the doors in the room unlocked and a large treasure chest appeared in the middle of the room.
When I opened the chest, I found a strange device that was like a handgun with a sharp tip at the end of a chain. I wasn't exactly sure what it was but I took it with me anyway. I then noticed a problem. Both of the doors had opened, but the way forward was on the other side of the lava pit, and there was no solid ground to cross it.
I was at a loss for what to do at first, but then I noticed that mounted above the door there was a plaque with a circular pattern on it. It was at that moment that I realized what the item I had just obtained was for. I pulled it back out and aimed it at the plaque. I pressed a small button on the handle and the chain fired out at the target, with the sharp tip hooking onto the plaque. I pressed the button again and the device reeled me across the lava pit, landing me right in front of the door.
As I continued onward, I went through several other rooms where I had to utilize my new device, which I decided to call the hookshot, to get through. I eventually came across a narrow room that rose high up vertically. The door must've been at the top. Fortunately there were lots of targets for my hookshot adorning the walls. I used them to get up to the top.
When I went through the door, I was in an area with a very large lava pit in the center that was open to the sky. I assumed that this was the crater of Mt. Fuji, but what caught most of my attention was the door on the other side of the crater. It had Eldin's symbol carved into it. The final shard had to be behind that door! I was about to circle around the crater to get to the door, but before I could the entire mountain began to shake, and a pile of rocks fell in front of the door I had just came through. I saw the lava in the crater begin to ripple fiercely, and a gigantic worm-like creature with three yellow eyes on its head rose from crater. The hideous creature opened its gaping maw, flicking out an equally hideous worm-like tongue, and loudly roared at me. I braced myself for what I knew would be an intense battle.
The monster fixed its gaze upon me with its three gruesome eyes. It made an undulating movement with its body and spat a large wad of magma at me. I was able to dodge it, but I was still able to feel the heat of the attack. The beast kept spitting magma wads at me as I ran circling around the crater trying to avoid them. After it fired a fourth shot, it let out a blood curdling roar and curled its body downwards. Then it began to inhale a tremendous amount of air, its tongue flicking around as it did so. Then without much warning, it let loose a devastating stream of fire from its mouth, which it spread across the arena trying to incinerate me. I did manage to avoid most of it, but the last few flames managed to singe parts of my tunic.
While it had been preparing its attack, I had noticed that its tongue had a peculiar design on its tip. Maybe I could use my hookshot to latch onto it. But then I realized if I did that, I'd be pulling myself over to the monster, and that would probably just end up with me falling into the lava. I had to find a way to pull the monster over to me, but how?
Then I had an idea. Maybe I could have the strength to that if I was in spirit mode. I had to try something. After the monster fired several more magma wads at me it began to inhale for its fire breath again. I quickly pulled out my hookshot and aimed for its tongue. When I saw the weird pattern, I went into spirit mode and fired my hookshot into the hideous creature's tongue. It struggled for a bit, trying to get it off, but with a forceful yank I managed to pull the monster over to the edge of the crater.
The fall that it took had stunned the beast, so I took the opportunity and attacked one of its eyes until it burst. Afterwards the monster sprang back up and dived underneath the lava. It was trying to ambush me now, so I kept a watchful eye on the lava. Suddenly I saw ripples in the lava right in front of me. I quickly jumped out of the way before the monster sprang from the lava to try and bite me. After it missed, it slid back into the pit and reemerged in the center like before and fired magma wads at me again. I repeated the same strategy, waiting for its tongue to show and using my hookshot to pull it over to me. After this second attack, it only had one eye left.
However, the monster was beginning to catch on and would sometimes feint using its fire breath and instead try attacking me with its teeth. It was hard to predict what it would do next, but eventually I hooked its tongue again and pulled it over. I thrust my sword into its last remaining eye. The monster lurched backwards and flailed around in agony. Then it let out one final deafening roar, along with a surge of fire towards the sky, and then exploded in a tremendous flash of fire. With the monster defeated, the door bearing Eldin's symbol started glowing. I ran over to it, eager to go inside.
Once again, the inside of the room was the same as the previous shard chambers. A crimson pedestal was placed in the center. I went into spirit mode and thrust my sword into it. The blue light from my sword surged throughout the patterns throughout the room and gathered into a section of the floor in front of me, and from it rose a stone tablet bearing Eldin's symbol. And embedded within the tablet was the ruby spirit shard, the last one that was needed to reassemble the spirit key.
I pulled the shard out of the tablet and it began to glow. This time however, it glowed even brighter than any of the shards had done before. Then I felt something vibrating within my pocket. It was the other three spirit shards. I took them out and held all three in my hands. Then strangely, the four shards began to levitate above me, all the while glowing even brighter. They gathered into a circular formation, and a sphere of brilliant white light formed in the center of them. The shards started orbiting closer and closer to the sphere, until all four were enveloped within it. The sphere then shined even brighter. When the light faded the shards were gone, and in their place was an object that resembled a golden arrowhead with wings on top. This was the spirit key, it had to be!
The spirit key descended into my hands, and I could feel sacred power emanating from it. Finally, I had fulfilled the purpose of my journey. Now that I had the spirit key, I could finally return home to my friends. I couldn't wait to see all of them again, especially Starfire. I just hoped that she would forgive me… for breaking my promise.
