Here is the 4th Chapter in Uncertainty. Sorry for the long wait, but I had problems with this chapter, and then in the heat of my graduation, I forgot about it. It is a longer Chapter, but the next one will be short and sweet. Also this Chapter does not have much in the development of Mia and Jenna, but I don't think there would be while they are doing something like Magma Rock. I know that unless you are playing the game Magma Rock can seem boring, but I tried to make it as interesting as possible. Anyway, I hope you enjoy Chapter 4, and as always, Please Review!
Uncertainty
Chapter 4: Magma Rock
Mia quickly realized that the mountaineer in Loho had been right about Magma Rock. This evil mountain could not have been scaled by any normal person. Luckily for this group of eight, they were far from normal. It was a challenge with the endless swarms of monsters, the puzzles that could only be solved with psyenergy, the steep cliffs, and the oppressive heat, but the group continued to climb higher and higher on this monolith of a mountain. The air surrounding Magma Rock just grew hotter as they climbed. This heat was a great strain on all of these eight young adepts. Jenna exhausted her psyenergy the quickest of the group, because she possessed the power of Blast. There were statues in the shape of large heads lining the crags and cliff-sides of the mountain. These statues, once activated by Jenna's Blast psyenergy, would send bombing fireballs at obstacles or sometimes provide a quick lift up a particularly large cliff. Mia and Piers also exhausted themselves pretty quickly from tending to the wounds of their friends.
The day wore on as they climbed. Although the sun had started to set, the group did not notice because of the fiery orange glow that the mountain gave off. The mountain also emitted a putrid smell, which was later identified as the smell of sulfur. The group finally neared the large, plateau-type summit of this mountain. All Mia could smell was the burning sulfur from inside the rock. Mia did not know what exactly they were supposed to retrieve from the summit of this mountain, but she prayed that the climb back down would be easier.
Once Mia climbed upon the plateau, she looked around and was disappointed to find nothing of interest. All there was on the mountain's large summit was a large crystal that glowed a fiery red in the sunset, a large statue that resembled some of the smaller blasting statues facing this crystal, and one of the normal sized blasting statues off to the side facing its monolith of a brother. Jenna walked up to the smaller statue and used her Blast psyenergy on it. Its mouth exploded a fireball of psyenergy, just like the rest. This fireball hit the large statue and set it off in an uncharacteristically large explosion. The large statue opened its mouth, and then emitted a huge fireball of psyenergy that collided with the large crystal. The crystal seemed to absorb the psyenergy for a moment, until it exploded into millions of shards, none big enough to harm anyone. After the dust had subsided, the group saw a demolished mountain summit and large hole where the crystal used to be. It suddenly became clear to Mia. Climbing this mountain was just a pretest to see if the adept was worthy enough to attempt the real test of the mountain and obtain the power within. It was a more brutal version of the doorway in the Venus Lighthouse that would only open for adepts. Mia casually picked up one of the larger shards of crystal and found that it invigorated her with psyenergy.
"Guys, they're psyenergy stones! The crystals are psyenergy stones!" Mia called out to her friends.
The rest of the group quickly found a shard big enough and revitalized themselves with the strength that was held within the crystals. The group then noticed a breeze. With the large crystal gone and the monolith of a statue knocked over from the recoil of its own blast, I breeze was allowed to flow over the rock. The group rested in this breeze before deciding to continue their exhausting journey into the mountain.
Mia thought that inside the mountain might be a little cooler since it was not subject to the hot sun all day, but when she looked around the first room they encountered, she quickly realized that the heat would be even more extreme. The first room was as large as the top of the plateau, but was mostly a lake of fiery magma. Mia saw that this lake fed an entire river system through the mountain, heating it and giving the exterior of the mountain that fiery red glow. Mia also realized that the heat outside the mountain came not from the sun, but from the elemental monolith itself. As they looked through the caves of the mountain, the group found the statues they found outside. There were statues that blasted fireballs of psyenergy, and statues that created a lift by using the blast of psyenergy. There was also a new statue, that when charged would redirect magma and sometimes fill new channels with magma. Filling new channels seemed counterproductive until the group noticed giant floating pads that would float through the magma and carry them across the rivers all at once. The group slowly wound their way down the mountain, crossing the great rivers and lakes of molten stone. The group tired quickly, because the monsters attacked them relentlessly and the heat was oppressive. The group continued on though, deeper into the heart of the mountain.
The group drove on through their exhaustion with one thought in mind: saving Prox. They knew that Saturos and Mernardi were dead at the bottom of the sea near the Venus Lighthouse. They also knew that Alex's new puppets, Karst and Agatio, were already attempting to climb the Mars Lighthouse without being able to succeed. That would be okay, except that Karst and Agatio had the Mars Star that the group so desperately needed to light the final Lighthouse. The group knew that they must get to Prox before Karst and Agatio died so that they could get the Mars Star and light the Lighthouse.
At one point the group reached a long hall that was just a river of magma. They were about to turn around and count the room as a dead end, until Flint, Isaac's first elemental Djinn, popped out of the crystal he was kept in on Isaac's belt to speak. "Master, there is a Djinn at the end of this hall. I know that it would add time to your quest, but we should rescue my brother. There will be a platform arriving shortly."
A platform did in fact turn the corner of the hall shortly after Flint returned to his crystal in the belt. The group stepped on this platform and rested for a moment in the sweltering heat as the platform carried them down the hall, around the corner, and to a small isle in the river of magma. In the middle of this tiny isle stood a Mars Djinn, who was wary of these new arrivals. When the group stepped off onto the isle, the platform stopped. The group approached the Mars Djinn, getting ready for its attack. When they got close enough, the Djinn attacked. The battle was surprisingly short. The Djinn joined Jenna, and the group took the platform back up the river, out of this dead end.
The group continued further down through the mountain. As they continued, the monsters got stronger and the heat became more oppressive. The whole group was exhausted beyond belief. They were running out of medicinal herbs and nuts and the healers, Mia and Piers, were running out of psyenergy in their reserves. Just when Mia thought she was about to collapse from the heat and her exhaustion, they entered a room that was cooler than the rest. This room was darker, and contained no magma. Mia was relieved to see a giant psyenergy stone in the center of the room.
"Finally we are at the psyenergetic core of the mountain. This means that we are close to our goal," Felix explained.
"What do you mean the core of the mountain?" Isaac inquired of Felix.
"Well, in all the other elemental mountains, near the tablet we are searching for, there is a room just like this one, with a giant psyenergy stone that we believe powers the entire mountain. I also believe the room is made out of psyenergy stone, which is why we felt stronger when we stepped into the room. We can use the stone to replenish our reserves of psyenergy, then heal our wounds and continue onward through the last few rooms of Magma Rock."
The group did just that. They all placed their hands on the giant crystal, and after feeling the rush of psyenergy flowing through their bodies, Mia and Piers used psyenergy to heal the group's wounds then replenished their psyenergy again. The group of eight then continued out of the other side of this room, back into the heat.
When they entered the next room, Felix indicated how it was the final puzzle because of the double doors at the end of the lake of lava they faced. This final puzzle was a maze of large stones they could jump on to get across the lake. There was also one of the large statues that resembled a head that Mia knew would blast the fireball of psyenergy. This particular statue could be moved along a space to be aimed at obstacles along the way of the puzzle. Some of the obstacles were the pillars of sandstone that could be blasted away by the statue, and other obstacles were shorter pillars that were on fire. Mia knew from experience that she could use her Douse psyenergy to put out this fire, and then Isaac's Move psyenergy could be used to push the small pillar out of the way. The group worked their way across this lake of lava, sometimes having return to the start to blast away a pillar, sometimes having to use the Douse psyenergy to put out a fire. After blasting one pillar, a fireball exploded out of the magma and landed on the other side of the lake, near the double doors. After this final pillar was gone, the way was clear for the group. They made their way across the lake onto the "shore" of the other side of the lake. Mia used her douse on this still burning fireball to put it out, and they found a ball underneath that looked like a fiery red cannonball. This ball had an inscription on the side that read "Magma Ball".
"We should take this. It will probably help us with the citizens of Loho, so we can blast their wall away and claim their prize of the cannon," Isaac suggested.
The group collected the cannonball and continued through the large double doors. This room was similar to the core of the mountain, cool and slightly darker. They were standing on a small isle of sorts next to the doors and past the isle there was a hole that seemed to go on forever. Across the large hole, there was another "isle" that had pillars and some sort of tablet on a pedestal. To get across the gaping hole, there were floating squares of rock, just large enough for the entire group to jump on. The group jumped across these, and after the last person had jumped off a square, it vanished. Once the group got to the other patch of land, all of the pads vanished completely. Mia was worried at first but then she saw another trail of pads off to her left, which soothed her worry. In the middle of this patch of land stood a tablet on a pedestal with weird writing and hand prints on it.
"Well, I guess it's my turn now, isn't it?" Jenna asked to no one in particular.
Jenna placed her hands in the prints on the tablet. The tablet started to glow, and both the tablet and Jenna lifted into the air, glowing with psyenergy. Mia gazed in admiration at how beautiful Jenna was at this point. Both Jenna and the tablet slowly started to land, and the glowing ceased.
"What just happened?" Ivan asked.
"Jenna was just bestowed with an ancient psyenergy that was guarded by this mountain. There were similar tablets in each of the other elemental mountains. Sheba learned Reveal from Air's Rock, Piers learned Parch from Aqua Rock, and I learned Sand from Gaia Rock. Each of these psyenergies have assisted us on our quest, and I assume this psyenergy will too," Felix explained. "So what is this one called Jenna?"
"The gods, they spoke to me. They told me they were giving me the psyenergy called Blaze. They told me it will make existing fire travel across short distances," Jenna told them.
The group decided that since there was nothing else to accomplish in this mountain, they should get going. They jumped over the floating squares on the left side of the tablet's patch of land, and onto another patch of land. As expected, these pads disappeared too. This new patch of land held a different way out of the room. However, the door was locked. Beside the door were two tall torches, one lit and the other not. Jenna stood behind the lit torch and faced the unlit torch, and then unleashed her new Blaze psyenergy. The fire of the lit torch grew bright and shot out a trail of fire directly at the unlit torch. This trail of fire lit the other torch, and the door opened on its own. Through the door was a narrow corridor that led out into the open air. When the group got out of the mountain, they realized it was night and saw that they had exited on the western side of the mountain, even though they had started climbing on the south side of the mountain.
The group of young adepts, now armored with a cannonball for the Loho cannon and a new psyenergy, left the mountain's heat and set up camp. After dinner, they all climbed into their tents and slept hard, exhausted from their accomplishment.
Well, that's the story. It may or may not be entirely accurate according to the game, but it's how I told it. I will say that I did not enjoy writing this chapter because of where they were and how to incorporate all the problems one might encounter in Magma Rock without making it a walkthough of the game. That is why some parts are probably incorrect, and the parts I remember (AKA the important parts) are well described. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter though. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! Did I mention PLEASE?