Chapter 4: The Other Half
"Something is amiss," Efreet said, gazing around the altar. The only time he could be brought into the mortal realm against his will was when he is called by a summoner. After quickly surveying the air, he knew something was wrong with the mana flow.
"Hello Efreet," an all too familiar voice said. The fire spirit turned and saw his longtime foe standing there, incased in his midnight blue armor. "It's been a while."
"Xylek," Efreet growled, trying to keep calm, "Indeed it has." He harnessed his power of fire to from a large axe of flames in his hand. Knowing he couldn't waste anytime, the spirit changed at the swordsman, a trail of fire following him.
Xylek was unfazed and raised his own blade to block. The sword of ice and axe of fire clashed, with a massive explosion blasting both warriors back. "You've grown weaker," the fire spirit stated.
"Perhaps I have," Xylek responded by holding his palm out and firing many ferocious ice needles at his target.
Efreet wasn't impressed though. His mastery of fire magic allowed him to instantly send a spiral flame out, incinerating the incoming attack. Xylek barley leapt out of the way of the flames that ripped through the walls behind him.
Xylek realized his powers had weakened since their last battle with the summon spirit, but that didn't mean he'd give up. No, that just made that battle more fun. The swordsman ran at Efreet, his sword glowing blue from the power of ice infused within. With ice and fire being opposites, they knew the clash of the powers could cause massive destruction. This would push their skills to the limits.
The magic swordsman leapt into the air, swinging his blade down, but Efreet easily parried the many slashes. Xylek jumped back with a smirk on his face.
"Do you think you've won?" Efreet scoffed noticing this.
"I see you are still the hot headed spirit that can only see right in front of him." Efreet looked down, shocked to see the bottom half of his body incased in ice, slowly draining his power.
"You seem to have found a hole in my defenses," he conceded, "But you are no match for my raw power."
Massive flames came out from the spirit's, body, disintegrating the ice and then flying at the swordsman.
The runes on Xylek's armor began to glow a bright blue, and an ice tornado attack emerged from the ground, shielding him from the incoming flames. After the steam cleared, Xylek could be seen smirking at his enemy's useless attack.
"You think a weak ice spell will be enough to save yourself?"
"If your attacks are all that pitiful, then I won't need much more," Xylek arrogantly replied, hoping to create an opening through his foe's anger.
"Well, try this on for size!" Efreet yelled, as spears of fire formed all around him. "Taste the might of 100 flame lances!"
With the many flaming spears after him, Xylek knew he couldn't stop so many at once. He tried running from them, dodging as many as he could, while parrying those that got too close. After one struck him, blasting him into the nearest wall, he knew he had to do something to stop Efreet's rampaging power.
Hiding behind the wall for a brief second to charge his spell he figured out a way to dissipate Efreet's mighty flames. Xylek burst forth, powerful shards of ice surrounding him. "Roar over the frosted heavens!" he called, his shards of ice bursting forth at the spirit.
"Explode!" The massive ball of fire came down, evaporating the attack, and blasting Xylek through the nearest wall.
_
The heroes had set out for the Triet ruins, heeding Shadows cryptic plea to help Efreet.
"This is so fascinating," Raine said as they neared the seal of fire.
"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked.
"We can learn so much about the summons spirits. Not only were they involved in a battle against an ancient evil, but it also seems that their powers could also be transferred to others. I wonder…" the professor said as a million different theories ran through her mind. There was only one way to test them, so she turned to the summoner.
"No way! You aren't dissecting the other spirits," she responded before even hearing Raine's idea.
"It's not like they will cause any permanent harm."
"Well, you could start with that evil dark spirit," Zelos suggested, "My finger still hurts."
At this, Shadow emerged on Sheena shoulder, jumped onto Zelos' reheaird, and chomped down on a finger on his thus unharmed other hand. The spirit then disappeared as quickly as he came.
"Sheena, control your summon spirits!"
"Who said I didn't tell him to do that," she said through a slight laugh.
"Isn't that the ruins," Lloyd commented as they continued to fly through the desert, trying to break up his friends' bickering.
The four landed, and made their way near the entrance. Raine could detect the concentration of mana within the ruins, signaling a ferocious battle was taking place.
"So, you guys felt it too," another half-elf said, walking up to the group.
"Genis, what are you doing here?" Raine said turning to his younger brother.
"Well, I was in Triet and felt some kind mana instability and thought I should check it out." An earthquake rocked the area during the mage's explanation, knocking over several of the pillars
"I see," Raine said as she analyzed the information while also dodging several rocks falling at her, "If Xylek's power is strong enough to disrupt the mana over that large of an area and cause these earthquakes, we could be in trouble."
"Uh, guys, that could mean Efreet is in danger so we better hurry," Zelos said.
"I have to agree with Zelos, we should get in there," the ninja said.
Lloyd quickly charged into the ruins with the other heroes right behind him. "Wait," Genis said, causing the rest of the group to stop in their tracks.
"What is it?" Sheena asked.
The mage pointed to a body leaning against the wall. "Is he alive?" Lloyd asked as Genis ran up to it, checking for a pulse. Blood had seeped out from a chest wound and coated the ground.
"He's not breathing and there isn't a pulse," Genis soberly said.
"It's Kenny," Zelos said, recognizing his old friend from Meltokio.
"You knew him?" Sheena asked.
"Yea, I went to school with him. When the worlds were united, he said he wanted to explore as much of Sylvarant as he could."
"Xylek is going to pay!" Lloyd exclaimed pounding his fist into an open palm. "Let's get him!" he declared running off again.
After taking several turns through the ruins, the swordsman lost all sense of direction, but in his anger and haste, he didn't notice. He finally stopped through once they hit a dead end. "Um, anyone remember how we get to the altar?"
"I thought you knew where you were going!" Genis protested.
"Well, I thought I did," Lloyd said sheepishly.
"Well, we can get there from the last fork we passed," Raine said as she looked down at her map she made during the journey of world regeneration, "Just go down that path, take a left at the next fork, and then go right and we'll be at the altar."
A powerful explosion rocked the walls of the temple, throwing the heroes off balance, and knocking Genis into an ancient vase.
"Genis, what did you do?!" Raine yelled.
"It's not like that was anything important," Lloyd commented.
"What did you say!?"
"I think we have bigger things to worry about than that," Sheena said trying to bring Raine out of ruin mode.
The sound of walls collapsing resounded through the building, before the one in front of them shattered and a magic swordsman fell through it colliding into the professor.
_
Xylek couldn't believe how strong Effect's fire attacks were. He knew the spirit was powerful, but the fact that the last one sent him through half a dozen walls was more than he was expecting; he'd have to go all out if he wanted to survive this.
"Thanks for breaking my fall," he said to the professor before charging back into battle.
"I see you aren't dead yet," the fire spirit said forming to flame lances in his hand, "That won't last long."
The swords of fire clashed against Xylek's blade of ice. Vicious flames burst form the blades, barley deflected by the swordsman's armor. The heat caused Xylek to lose focus temporarily, giving Efreet the opening he needed slice across the swordsman's chest several times, before blasting him away in a burst of fire.
"I won't be beaten that easily," Xylek said, infusing his sword with as much power as possible. He once again charged at the spirit who tried blocking the attack, just as the swordsman planned.
Xylek cleaved through the swords and slice his blade across the spirit's chest before turning back to face him. "It's been nice knowing you," he said mockingly before unleashing a point blank bloody howling spell. Infused with the power of Shadow, the dark magic brought the spirit to his knees.
The heroes finally made it into the alter room, seeing Xylek breathing heavily after delivering his last blow.
"We have to do something!" Genis said.
"Yea, he killed Kenny," Zelos replied drawing his sword.
"No, I'm not beat yet," Efreet said, rising to his feet once more. "I have one last attack to finish him off, but the rest of you have to run!"
"We can't let him die," Lloyd said, protesting leaving a comrade behind.
"He doesn't plan on losing," Sheena exclaimed, "Efreet's raw power is the strongest of the summon spirits, but if he unleashes all his might, we might be in as much danger as his target."
Lloyd saw the logic behind that plan, and didn't want to be at the wrong end of Efreet's attacks. He and the rest of the heroes ran as fast as they could to escape the ruins.
Red runes appeared all around Efreet as he called upon the most powerful fire spell ever seen. "Roar, o conflagration, and command all impure souls to their ashen ends… Ancient Nova!"
With the spell completed, Efreet held out his hands and unleashed an enormous fireball that rocketed across the room, completely incinerating anything within its path. Xylek's eyes widened at the display of power. He knew there was no way to dodge this one, and even his most powerful ice attacks couldn't keep him safe.
The heroes fled as fast as they could, but pieces of the temple were collapsing all around them. "We're not going to make it," Zelos said as they could feel the heat building behind them. The raging inferno pursued them no matter how fast they ran.
"Ice wall!"
A shield of ice appeared around them, cushioning the blow of the fire, but the impact of the explosion still send them flying out of what was left of the ruins, into the sand of the desert.
After Zelos pulled his head out from the sand, he just stared at the crater that existed where the ruins once were. He could not form words at the destructive power of that attack, only point at it and stare.
"My precious ruins!" Raine yelled, horrified that such a marvelous picture of the past was reduced to ash.
"Is everyone okay?" Lloyd asked.
"I think so," Genis said trying to get sand out of his shoe.
"Who saved us with that ice though?" the summoner asked.
"It appeared that you couldn't handle it by yourself," a blue skinned summon spirit said who landed beside them.
"Celsius?" they all asked surprised.
"It looks like the fight isn't over yet though," she declared gazing at the bottom of the crater. Efreet was breathing hard, not used to expending that much energy in one attack. Standing opposite him was Xylek, who appeared to have survived that attack with minimal damage. However, beside Xylek, stood another swordsman with similar armor. This new warrior had pitch-black armor with red trim. In his right hand, he carried a blood red sword.
"Thank you for giving me my power back," the stranger said.
"Make sure you thank that half elf who brought your helmet with her. Because of that, I was able to channel the power of Efreet's last attack to you."
"Things just got a whole lot worse," Celsius declared.
"Alright, I got you your power back, now it's time to return the favor," Xylek said to his friend.
"That shouldn't be too hard; she never was that strong."
"Oh, one more thing."
"What?"
"I told you I'd be back first."
_
Tiger: Epic battle of fire and ice, a mysterious cliffhanger, Kenny dieing and Zelos in pain, what more could you want?
Xylek: You could want bacon.
Tiger: Fair enough, and if you review, you might just get bacon!