Fantasia
Arc3: The Heir of Ardneria
Chapter9: Correcting the mistake of his life
Despite the fact that Juan -theoretically- doomed his clan by summoning the ancient harbinger temple from under the ground, he insisted on saving his people from being "purified" by the dawn of the next day, so he along with Tsuki and Zolu headed out of his stubborn brother's bath who refused coldly to help him, and headed to the southern coast hoping that his plan would work.
Earlier to this, and opposing to the careless image he built around himself, Demetri already moved out heading to his village with mysterious motives, he was held back surprisingly by Nimmy who stood between him and the village:
"Hey stupid girl move it, I got no time to your stupidity!" he scolded.
"Nimmy wants to help! Nimmy knows that smoke boy wants to save the village! Nimmy sees that smoke boy had big heart like orange boy have!" she replied naïvely.
"If that's the case, can Nimmy take me inside the village quickly?" he asked after groaning and thinking deeply.
"Nimmy can but only once and smoke boy has to promise not to open eyes!" she answered nodding.
"Hmm…to think about it, can you make me invisible too?" he asked.
"Nimmy sure can! Nimmy thinks that smoke boy is having a plan like orange boy!"
"Well then teleport me" he ordered closing his eyes.
…
Meanwhile, Juan and Zolu reached the underwater cavern, as they started discussing the plan:
"So how exactly this purification is going to be?" Zolu asked out of curiosity.
"According to the book, the purification starts by a violent quake that'll break the land, then a merciless lightning that hits from the heavens, to be finished by a huge destruction wave released from the temple."
"Wow that's probably the worst way to die…" the ragon commented.
"Okay guys, here's the deal, since the temple moved up, it means that there's a space formed under it where the dirt is so fragile, hopefully it's not buried under the rubble by now, when we reach it Tsuki will use her explosion spells and open an entrance to the ground of Ardneria" the shepherd explained.
"Seems simple, we open a hole we evacuate the citizens, and we did it!" Zolu said.
"Not we, her, Tsuki will take care of evacuating the citizens, me and you will have another task" he interrupted.
"Um, why?" both of them asked.
"Yeah, we are not sure how long would it take to save all the villagers and if the time left wasn't sufficient for that, we'll need to back up our plan up by figuring out a way to disable the purification from with the temple, and Zolu will be there for my protection" Juan answered.
"Hey, why him and not me?" Tsuki asked.
"Simply if we faced off some guards by the temple, Zolu's water magic can be a great help, beside the beastmen are still my comrades, and I cannot guarantee that Tsuki will control herself and she may end up…killing somebody, sorry Tsuki it's the truth" he apologized.
"Ha ha! Burn!" Zolu commented but he was slapped by her.
"Shut up! I respect Juan's thoughts; it's safe for all of us to stay out of fights"
And so they arrived at the previous location of the temple which was turned into a huge crater full of rubble, Tsuki mounted the stones to reach the spot noted by Juan and drew a large spell on the ceiling, then she and the other men backed off, and with a simple hand sign it exploded, leaving a passage for the pale moonlight to be seen.
"Um one last note dude, when we are evacuating old people, won't be dangerous for them to land on these stones? I mean we could've brought mattresses and cushions, a whole load of'em!" the ragon asked.
"It's okay Linda will take care of that!" Juan answered, screaming to summon the siren toad.
The large beast approached from the water and gave Juan a lick on the hair, shortly before the three of them mounted to the surface.
They went out to see that the whole clan was gathered around the temple, but the moment they've noticed him they unsheathed their weapons pointing it to him and his friends:
"You bastard! Have you seen what you have done?!" a beastman insulted.
"Because of you we'll be doomed by the dawn!" another boasted.
"Get the hell off my boy!" Rocux' voice echoed among the crowd.
His family went in pushing other beastmen away from him, the three of them stood in front of Juan:
"The bastard who'd lay a hand on my boy shall get his head crushed!" the father shouted.
"Yeah! Touch him and the last thing you'll see is my fist!" the brother added.
"Are you okay Juan?" the caring mother asked helping her son to get out of the hole.
"Step away Rocux! Your child here is a criminal just like his older brother!" an elder claimed.
"But he wants to correct his mistake and save you, if you don't get out of the village by this tunnel you'll all be purified!" Zolu said.
"Listen to the voice of reason at least once you brutes! He raised the temple to save your sage, his intentions were innocent! If he was a criminal then he'd let you all die and escape with his skin!" Tsuki added.
"But Klaive said that he'll find a solution to this!" a beastman boasted.
"You idiots, Klaive is probably the one caused this! The temple doesn't start purification unless someone steals something from it! If we were the ones who stole from the temple, then the purification would be engaged immediately and not seven hours after that!" Zolu explained.
"How dare you accuse our sage?" an elder shouted.
And before both sides enter in a fight, Juan halted everyone suggesting a desperate solution:
"Everyone, please, listen to me, I beg you to escape from this village by now, and when I'm finished with my work here you can kill me if you want, I'm not afraid to die, I want my soul to be relieved, at least if it wasn't for yourselves, save the kids! Your time is running out, please…think about it!" Juan begged.
Everyone thought for seconds, they had nothing to lose; the man prepared an escape for the clan, and he's going to sacrifice himself both ways either he survives and get killed by his clan, or fails and gets purified.
And so everyone followed Juan's instruction, but an elder gave him a glare of disrespect countered by his father grabbing the old man from the collar cursing him.
Even though they were accusing her father, Yera went quickly to the clinic to return carrying the sage on her back, and started instructing the villagers with Tsuki; first the elders, then the women and kids, followed by men, while Juan rushed to the temple followed by Zolu and Roné who insisted on joining them.
…
They've entered the creepy building, which had its walls lit with runes that didn't appear before, Juan instantly concluded that this was a sign of activation, so he wasted no time and headed down to the giant magite room.
Unexpectedly nothing was changed in the room, except that the giant crystal was shimmering intensely, he approached the pedestal under it and started pushing some stones and turning cogs:
"So we break this thing and we'll be fine!" Roné stupidly suggested igniting his fist in flames.
"Are you an idiot? Are you trying to get us killed?" Zolu scolded.
"Huh? Who asked for your opinion anyway? It's simple, the big crystal runs this thing, we break it, no power, problem solved!" he replied.
"No, Zolu's right, if we break the crystal, a huge reaction will be released, and who knows how destructive the offspring would be" Juan interrupted the two.
"This is what smoke boy thought…" a girlish voice echoed.
"Nimmy where are you?" Juan asked.
"Nimmy cannot show yet, smoke boy told Nimmy to stay invisible until the signal" she answered.
"Demetri is here?! Where's he?" Juan asked.
"Smoke boy went up to solve unsettled things, or so smoke boy said" she answered.
At this moment it hit him! Juan brought a conclusion to everything! The elder's comment: "Your child here is a criminal just like his older brother", the idol's notice: "And their gluttonous hands shall suffer for the rest of time", and his brother weird habit of hiding his hands, and more importantly his brother's last comment: "some perfect family business".
Demetri stole the tyrant flame! This is the truth! His brother stole the sealed spell years ago and by that act his hands got cursed, but since the tower was inactive, there was no response, and now Juan activated the shrine, the temple restored all its functionalities, and now his brother wants to correct his mistakes and return the spell!
…
Meanwhile Demetri ascended to the sealing room, where he found the idol, he approached it slowly, as he gulped relieving himself from this ten years old burden, calmly he pulled his hands from his pockets ignoring the scorching pain that he felt, his poorly bandaged withered hands were monstrously burnt, skinned totally leaving the red flesh bare drawing the ugliest picture of torment.
He shoved them inside the holes of the idol, waiting for the spell to be sealed, but an evil laughter interrupted the rituals:
"Don't tell me you've regretted that?! Who'd thought that you'll end up a good boy Demetri? Anyway it pains me to tell you that this won't work anymore, because once a spell is unsealed the only way to rid yourself from it, is to pass it to another person…" the voice declared.
"Klaive, you bastard! Show yourself!" Demetri shouted.
"No I'd rather you to come up to me" Klaive said while a new set of stairs descended.
The angered Demetri rushed up to enter the empty dome-shaped room that topped the temple and face his foe, who was standing by the edge of the room wearing a white fur cape that sage's usually wear:
"So this all was a trick from you, you fooled my little brother, and turned every beastman against him, and lured me to come" Demetri said.
"Exactly, it's nothing but a little scenario I've prepared the moment I've seen your careless brother's notes that he forgot in one of my daughter's borrowed books, I've filled his naïve head with the idea that my father needs the sealing idol, and by a simple talk with the elders I knew the real thief, and all I have to do is to wait" Klaive explained his trick.
"Bastard! For fooling Juan like this, I'm not forgiving you! We'll both die here!" the smoking man said.
"Die? Both? Here? You are missing the point pal, I (he raised his right arm that glowed in golden light) have the complete control over this temple, I'll simply deactivate the purification later, and people will hail for their savior, and by a short time I'll become the sage…"
"This all was because you wanted to take your father's position! (He concluded and idea) don't tell me you poisoned the sage!?" Demetri asked.
"No, I wouldn't do such thing, it was a natural reaction, I didn't lie when I told Juan that my old man is sick due to his age, and being a megalish who carries a powerful spell in his body, I told you all I have to do is wait!" the new sage answered with a laughter.
"You sick bastard! I never liked you, though I never imagined that you'll be such a malicious crazy scum!" Demetri shouted while using his smoke to pull a slightly large two-headed black colored smoking pipe from his jacket.
"Oh is that the lord of smoke! It had been years since I've seen it" Klaive commented while unbuttoning his cape.
But Demetri closed his eyes like he's saying that there will be no more talking, took a deep breath, his foe seemed comfortable knowing that this spell takes too much time to prepare; he remembered that to cast such magic you'll need a large amount of prepared smoke, and there's nothing around yet.
"Nimmy!" Demetri shouted, giving a signal to the nymph to disable her invisibility, revealing that the whole temple was covered in Demetri's thick gray smoke, which broke through the window surrounding the two combatants.
Klaive smirked as his fists twitched in excitement to the upcoming battle; he ignited his fists after removing his cape, and rushed toward Demetri who stood there in confidence.
To be continued