Training and Chaos
Aster walked through the Temple of Time that Dekrosna, who he found out was his cousin, watched over. He walked into the massive council chamber and found that everyone was there, and one person whom he did not recognize. The man saw and approached Aster while everyone else was in the midst of discussing what they should do.
"Hello, my name is Johnny Lkon." He said. Aster nodded and got a good look at him. He was fairly muscled with golden hair and eyes to match. He wore a red and yellow outfit and had deep red phoenix wings sprouting from his back. Aster could feel from the air around him that he was a fire elemental.
"I'm Aster. You aren't like the others, they introduced themselves along with their titles and who they're a descendant of, but you didn't. Why is that?" Johnny looked at Aster as if he were the strangest thing he had ever seen, and then said, "That is mostly because they are all older than I am. I'm merely 2,152 years old. The youngest of them, Fringe, is at least 5 millennia. And your cousin, Dekrosna, he's the oldest, with Ultima as a close second. Dekrosna's race was around even before humans appeared on the planet."
Aster looked at his cousin and mentor with surprise, "Exactly how old are they?"
Johnny looked up thoughtfully, "Dekrosna's pushing 11 millennia, I think. And Ultima's not too much younger." He looked at Aster to see a boy in total disbelief.
"What kind of race are you guys?" He said bewilderedly.
"We aren't looked at as gods for nothing. We can be immortal, if we're careful." Johnny looked at the group of elemental masters, "By the way, Scrierea's my teacher, and I'm her apprentice."
"That explains that energy that I felt from you." He looked at Johnny, "I don't really know how to explain it, but it just felt like fire."
"Aster, come here please." Ultima called. Aster complied and gave him a questioning look. "We've just decided on your training. First, you'll start with earth, Ridge will teach you everything he knows, then Leda will teach you water, followed by Scry and fire, then Sora and wind, then Fringe and ice, then Artemis and space, then Voltic and electricity, then myself and light, and finally your cousin Dekrosna and time. Ridge, you may take it from here."
"Thanks, Ultima. C'mon kid, we've got some work to do." Aster followed Ridge to an open area inside the temple. It was a beautiful meadow that was miraculously growing right inside the temple. "Okay Aster, first lesson. You need to learn how to meditate."
After several weeks of training with the masters, Aster learned how to wield earth, water, fire, and wind. It was then that Aster discovered a new power. Ultima identified it immediately as the ability to bend reality to one's will, so Ultima broke off Aster's elemental training for the time being and began teaching him how to use this new ability.
In the middle of one of these classes, Dekrosna came running in and said, "Ultima, the Dark Elementals are on the move, they're attacking the Force Points!"
"Well, I didn't expect Rogue to make the first move, but it appears that she did. We must go to the council chamber, and see the extent of what they're doing." Ultima turned on his heel and went directly to the chamber with Dekrosna and Aster trailing behind him.
Everyone was once again in the council chamber, except this time, everyone was in their seats, except for Johnny who didn't have one. Behind each elemental was a statue of an animal, each made of a respective gemstone. Behind Dekrosna, there was a white dragon made of quartz. Behind Fringe, there was a wolf made of sapphire. Behind Leda was an aquamarine serpent. Behind Ridge was a garnet lion. Behind Artemis was an amethyst panther. Behind Sora, Ultima, Scrierea, Voltic, and Aster were each of their respective statues made of each of their respective gemstones. In the middle of the room, there was a silver pool, Dekrosna began chanting a short spell, and the pool flashed to life. Scrierea looked, and then added her own power to bring the image into focus, for she was an expert at scrying the outside world.
In the pool, they saw several images one after the other. The first was of Sasha and Fulgora at the continental divide wreaking havoc, the next was of Megumi and Rift in Antarctica, then Adamant at Mount Everest, Praxis at the Great Plains, then finally Zereth at Mount Fuji. The elementals started whispering among themselves, and Ultima silenced them.
"Okay, we know what's going on, now we have to stop it. We must divide up and go to each of the Force Points, Johnny, Aster, and Scry will go and deal with Zereth. Artemis, Leda, and I will deal with Fulgora and Sasha. Voltic, you should be more than a match for Megumi and Rift, so you'll go to Antarctica. I want Fringe and Sora to deal with Praxis. And Ridge, you'll deal with Adamant. Dekrosna will stay and guard this Force Point. Now go!"
Everyone got up and left. Aster had since learned how to fly and even turn into a silver dragon. Once they got outside, Scrierea and Johnny both turned into crimson phoenixes, and Aster turned into a silver dragon. They each took off and headed for Mount Fuji, where Zereth was creating chaos.
They all arrived at the foot of Mount Fuji and saw that Zereth had created an army of lava golems, each one mindless and only responsive to his will. Then Zereth appeared at the peak.
"Scrierea, it's nice to see you again." He chuckled.
"Wish I could say the same, but I'm afraid I can't. Now what the hell do you think you're doing?" She took a step forward, "Answer quickly before I'm forced to beat your sorry ass!"
"Why I'm merely carrying out orders. We were to smoke you all out." He grinned evilly, "Now I must do what I can to eliminate that boy over there." He pointed to Aster.
"I don't think so!" in a burst of flame, a ruby-red spear appeared in her hands, "Boys, take care of the golems will you?" she then leaped up and landed at the peak in a single bound. Zereth drew a sword and began to breathe dark fire at Scry, but she was too quick to be hit.
Aster then thought of a weapon for him to use right as Johnny drew a sword of his own. He then put his hands in front of him and the air began to distort. In a flash, a pair of twin swords made of diamond appeared in his hands. Aster and Johnny began to attack the golems without another moment's hesitation.
After a good fifteen minutes, the golems were still coming, Scry was still fighting, and the boys were getting tired. Aster then thought of something, he looked to Johnny and said, "Keep them busy, I've got a plan." Johnny nodded and transformed into a phoenix, rejuvenating his energy at the same time.
Aster stood back and began to concentrate. He knew they needed help because they were beginning to become overwhelmed. He concentrated on the help they needed, a warrior that was smart and knew a lot of magic. The air began to distort again but then a blinding flash, stopping all the golems and Johnny in their tracks, lit the whole area. As the light died down a man stood at the ready with Aster at his side. "Ready Rayde?" Aster asked the man. "Of course I am." Rayde replied and they charged at the golems and entered the fray.
It turned out that Rayde was exactly the kind of help that they needed. He and his fang sword, which was really a sword with two blades on one side, cut down as many as five golems in one swipe. Aster took care of five in two swipes of his twin swords and Johnny took out three.
Eventually, they defeated all of the golems and made their way up to the peak where Scrierea and Zereth were still fighting.
Scrierea was still somewhat toying with Zereth, she danced around him as if he were the easiest person to fight. Zereth was trying to keep up, but Scry was extremely agile and eventually tired him out enough for him to say, "Enough! I've had enough, you haven't seen the last of me, be sure of that!" and he disappeared in an explosion of fire and ash.
Scrierea walked up with a weird look on her face and asked, "So, Aster, Johnny, who's the new guy?"
Surprise! Another new character and another new power. Rayde belongs to Arrowsight, and for those of you who haven't read his stories, I strongly recommend that you do. They are some of the best that I've read. Oh yeah! I forgot about Johnny Lkon. He belongs to Krown, who also has really good stories in his arsenal.
Tell me whatcha think, you affect the storyline very much so let me know if I'm doing okay or if you'd like to see something else. The only way you can do this is to REVIEW!!!
-Ultima