Saving Alchemy
Author says,
Chapter 3, not an easy task doing such physically and mentally draining work, but, for my friend, I have to go on. She puts a great smile on my face when she acts like a kid, and certainly I do the same with what I do. Maybe it's the great feeling of having friends and its 'side effects' that makes me go on with this story without complaints. Anyway………
Chapter III: Mercury Lighthouse
"Venus? Mars? Jupiter? Mercury? If you say that you need our help, it must be something very big."
"Indeed Isaac, two beings from outside of Weyard are here and draining the energy from alchemy here, you have seen what it can do, and how the energy is being channeled to them, unfortunately, we do not know where they are, or how to get to them. You could start checking the Mercury Lighthouse, it might hold some clues. We need to go now, we have spent much energy making ourselves visible to your light, and we need to return. We may not be able to fight them, but our powers will be with you, take these orbs to boost your powers."
Each of them received an orb, Isaac and Felix Venus orbs, Garet and Jenna Mars orbs, Ivan and Sheba Jupiter orbs, Mia and Piers Mercury orbs. The elemental gods disappeared soon after. The party headed for the Mercury Lighthouse, the water energy there had not been drained, because water energy was being channeled through the lighthouse. Nothing had changed since the last time Isaac, Garet, Ivan and Mia went there. The statue that Mia used Ply on then was still there, and the platforms were still enchanted, allowing whoever stepped on it to walk over water. The monsters that inhabited the area were still there. They proved more of a nuisance than a danger to the party, mainly because they had become so powerful over their journeys from two years ago. A Lizard Man tried its luck against them, and wound up beheaded for its trouble. The party had a bit of trouble going around, first because they had not been there for over two years, second because when the lighthouse was lit up, it split into four pieces then fusing into one again, parts of pillars and walls would have collapsed, leaving debris everywhere. If they were going to advance to the top of the lighthouse, they would have to clear the debris. Isaac focused and used 'Move' to move the rubble, as did Felix and Garet. The party moved on, not long later, they arrived at a room with seven waterfalls, one of which had a door behind it. They searched for the right one, didn't take too long. They approached the door, then,
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAHH!" came a cry. Two Mimics popped out of the door, they were much larger than a regular Mimic, meaning that it was tougher and more experienced where fighting was concerned, and it certainly was more powerful and harder to beat.
"These Mimics look odd," Isaac said, "One is purple and one is blue, instead of the usual red, I think these are Mimics with only one element within them, wind within the purple and water within the blue, now that we know that, HYAH!" Isaac cast Odyssey, two intangible swords made of earthen energy pierced the lock on the Mimic, a third, boosted by the swing of Isaac's Tisiphone Edge, pierced the Mimic's heart, with the Tisiphone Edge slicing the Mimic in half horizontally, the purple Mimic was killed instantly and it disintegrated into a pile of dust. Ivan and Sheba worked on the blue Mimic, both of them cast Spark Plasma, and plasma bolts rained down on the Mimic, each striking the target with great intensity, the Mimic was completely fried when the bolts ended, and it too disintegrated into dust. The party walked into the waterfall, through the door and found themselves in a small room with a waterfall. Mia went to a statue and cast Ply, as worship to Mercury, to allow anyone who stood on the waterfall in the room to ascend to the roof of the lighthouse. They went up, one by one. At the roof, they walked to the beacon of the lighthouse.
"Look! There's a beam of light! It seems to be connected to somewhere." There was indeed a beam of light, rising from the spot where the Mercury star shone, stretching across to somewhere far away.
"Do you think we could enter this light? Maybe it could bring us to whoever is doing this." Sheba said to the others.
"We could try, just hope that it works."
Isaac tried putting his hand into the light, hoping that it could pull him in, but no luck.
"Let me try." Mia said, and as she put her hand in,
"WHOOOOOAAA….." Mia was immediately pulled into the light, Piers went in after her.
"Piers! Why did he do that?" Jenna shouted.
"When he saw Mia being pulled into the light, he figured out right away that the light could only pull Mercury Adepts that were in contact with the light, I guess that's how they're going to wherever they need to go, at least that's how I think. If we are going to where we need to go, we have to go to the elemental lighthouses that we are aligned with." The remaining six of them took the hovering platform down to the ground level of the lighthouse.
Meanwhile, back at Vale, Dora and Kyle were two worried parents, they weren't the only ones, Jenna's and Garet's families were worried sick too. Kraden was working on something, not long later, he addressed the families.
"When I overheard Mia's screaming and saying something about Imil, I had the feeling something was wrong, coupled with the letters from other towns and villages, I worked out something and figured out why they aren't back yet. Four beams of light have been sighted, each connecting a lighthouse to a certain location which is not on Weyard, it is, by my calculation, on the east of Weyard. I believe that Isaac and the others have gone to investigate. In the letters sent to me, I learnt that energy balance on Weyard is being thrown out of balance, but somehow, the energy levels of all four elements are being lowered as we speak, meaning that they must be being drained at different rates, my guess is, the further these towns are from a lighthouse, the less rapidly the corresponding elemental energy is being drained, so, based on my travels with them, it would mean, Imil has completely dried up, and the people in it as well, the ground at Lalivero is crumbling at every step a person makes, non-adepts at Contigo would have suffocated, and Prox is frozen beyond the state they were even before the lighthouse there was lit. The people from three villages have been killed, we can only pray that the Laliverans can swim." Kraden closed his eyes as he finished what he said.
"What will happen to Weyard if this does not stop?" Kyle asked.
"Weyard will be completely gone, along with the lighthouses, at which time, energy will be drained directly from Sol itself, without a medium, it would take tremendous power, but looking at what is going on, I wouldn't put doing something like this beyond whoever is doing it."
Well, two of our heroes are headed for their destination, the remaining six will have to pick up the pace. The others back home have also learnt of the catastrophe that awaits them, hopefully they can help out in one way or another. That's it for Chapter 3. Thank you very much.