Chapter 27

A Rocky road

Early Morning

Feita Camp

Elsword's PoV

We have been catching up on our training for a few days now to habe some better experience. I was paired with Raven for swordsmanship and Aisha for magic understanding. For ranged knowledge i was training with Rena.

Fighting Raven was, much challenging before. I dont know when but he has gotten much stronger last time fought back in Altera. It seems like he's getting used to that new arm now since he sometimes uses both hands on his blade. He was like in a league of his own now.

Aisha also sprang a few surprises on me. Seems all that daily reading has been doing wonders for her as she has a few new supportive spells. Her magic power is also more powerful as her spells upgraded and have faster reaction timing.

Rena was hard to touch or even get five feet to. Her marksmanship was accurate and troublesome to get pass. She also sprang a few attacks of her own if i did get closer than expected.

Eve helped me with fighting strategies and how to deal with certain enemies. She also did test on my body and turns out, my body was slowly changing into something.

As for me i have been mediating and training my body like i did before. Also Regulus, the spirt that dwells inside me also helped me develop my powers further. He now materializes his full body which was a enormous armored lion.

Due to that, we had to put off the mission to the shrine for extra caution and decided to train. Seems it was a good idea since i feel we all improved and it was now time to go.

We were ready to go and we all stood at the entrance. The moment we got there glitters scattered around like rats on the floor. "Seems like they are planing for an ambush so late." Raven said and he was right, the element of surprise was gone for both sides.

We walked though the halls and heard the sounds of Glitters scurrying around us. Our mission was to secure the Shrine to advance to the Spiraling Corridor. "Is place is already a bit cleared out when Lento came through, why do have to come back." Rena says.

When she finished saying that, several glitters came charging at us with spears drawn. "I got em." Rena fires three arrows that split into several more spreading more range and killing all the glitters.

"Impressive." I say to her and she scratches her head shyly. "It was nothing."

We finally made it to the end of the shrine and it was just a large shrine totem in the middle of a large space. "This not i would have expected." Eve says and i could even hear the disappointment evident in her voice. I could actually say the same.

"Spread out." I say and we all went searching for clues. Searching was coming up fruitless since all areas came up dry. We found secret passages and rooms but all came with dead ends and weird sacrificial artifacts.

"The totem." I heard Regulus say through my head. He's doing that alot lately but i check the large totem. Hmm, what if i try moving it. I try to move and i feel it loosen a bit. "Hey guys, somethings here." I yell out and they all gathered back at the totem.

Raven came to help and we pushed the totem away to reveal a small passage way. It was very dark to the point it was like looking through out a moonless night in a forest. "Eve, got any lights?" I asked her and she nodded. Moby and Remy came and shone lights from their bodies.

Before we could continue, i felt...squished. I looked and saw everyone huddled to me. "How are all of you scared if the dark..." Seriously there might be glitters but there are 5 of us with more than average power.

"I am not scared but it would be much more efficient to stay close in place with little vison." Eve says holding Rena. Everyone nodded their heads and Raven stayed quiet staying in the back.

Dark Passage

Aisha's PoV

Elsword and Eve was up front while Rena and Raven was with me. Rena could sense things in the dark but still kinda scared of the dark. I dont know what Els means, we can't see a thing? not all of us train at night ya know.

We were going down stairs for some time until we had to start going up some. The walls were getting narrower and we had to start going in a line. Elsword held to his chest Remy, while Moby was on his head which looked so adorable.

"Ugh how long is this." I say and hear Raven chuckle. "Your always the first to complain."Hey! "He's right." I hear Eve say followed by 'mhms' Such traitors, i thought we were all friends here!

"I feel wind." Rena says and we made ut back out.

Spiraling Corridor

A tunnel that lead to the Underground Chapel, a holy ground for worshipers of the El shard. The corridors are meant to serve as a maze to those who wish to desecrate their presence in the Chapel.

Raven's PoV

Finally out that damn place, felt like we would be going on forever. The place really straight hall down but then broke into two paths. What was down that hall was none other than glitters.

I drew my sword along with everyone else. I looked to Elsword, who still has no sword. He's strong, he can fight without a blade. Eve was the first to strike as she summoned her wings to fire energy needles at the glitters.

The energy needles were too linear as the glitters had giant shields to block them out. Now my turn. I charged at them catching them off guard and thrust my sword into their shield. My new blade had much better piercing than my old larger ones.

My sword went through like butter and killed the glitter. I jumped away in time as i saw arrows fly by me. Elsword then came and punched a glitter away, crushing its shield with ine blow. He then jumped up and fired several fire blast at the archers.

"Clear." Eve said and we put away our weapons. "Its almost like we weren't needed.." Aisha says with a huff. Well react quicker and you will be needed.

We continued to split paths and looked own them. On instinct, everyone looked to Elsword. "We stay together, this place is a maze and we dont know what could happen." He begins to go through the left path. "Why not split and one goes back to report. And the left path." i suggest. It would make more sense no?

"We dont know the place and there could easily be more more crossroads, this place is a maze after all. Also taking left will throw off the glitters since they expect us to split and or take right." He explains and continued down. Reasonable i guess.

3rd PoV

Eva and Elsword was up front with Raven and Aisha being middle and Rena behind. They heard movement and then from the ceiling, came rock golems.

They came down in full form and went to attack immediately. Elsword and Eve jumped away from a jab from the golem and Eve summoned her wings. She fired energy blast from her wings, destroying some parts of the golem's body.

Elsword jumped from wall to wall and came down on the golem's head. He held its head in his arms until he crushed it.

It fell down motionless and he came down but blocked in time of another golem's attack. The attack sent him flying but Rena used wind arts to catch him.

"Rising Breach." Rena breathed out a concentrated wind storm blast from her mouth. The golem broke apart instantly from the point blank blast of her attack. "Lion's lariat." Elsword swung his arms creating fire chains with small lion heads at the front and end.

It latched to the golem and Aisha streamed lightning through the chain, shattering the golem.

The golems began retrieving when they saw they could not over take them. The broken golems also began to move away along with the other golems. The crew began to chase them down.

The golems knew their way around the maze and made it much easier for the crew to go through, but they were strangely fast.

The made it to a large hall with a entrance in the middle it leading down somewhere. Along the walls were more rock golems with strange minerals that gave a red and blue glow.

The golems stopped before turning to the crew. A jewel that was on the wall in the center of the room glowed purple and all the golems began glow and come together. "You shall not enter. I am the guardian!" A voice rang through out the room.

They began morph onto each other and began increasing in size. When they were to the roof they stopped glowing and revealed a golem much larger with nlue and red mineral armor form head to toe.

It slammed its arms together and created a red mineral blade from its hand. "Well then..." Rena said with a sweat drop. "Should have destroyed them before." Elsword finished scratching his head.

Velder

Residential Area 3

A large area were citizens of Velder lived. The area was similar to a city but filled to the brim with house. After the demons attacked however, it became a ruined arena of constant battle ground between humans.

Speka's PoV

Today the glitters were being quite troublesome. They really seem to want this area now for some reason, i guess since this is the last place we have.

I was with Valak who was really taking all of the glitters himself. His armor was very unique. It was black plated with blue rims along it. It also had marking designs on the shoulders and chest area. His sword was serrated and dyed black.

I was floating in the air not providing air support no. I was really just making sure no one died. I didnt feel like fighting really since Ele wasn't here. She seemed so serious since the other day.

It mist be because of- oh that soldier lost. I shot a dark blast from my palm to save the soldier from being impaled. "Get him to the medics." I say and they got him. Now where was i?

Ah right, Ele's weird mood. Ever since that giant demon was reported, she has been much more serious and focused. Was this demon making her on edge? nah, i doubt it, Ele was one of the few soldiers who feared anything.

Maybe some research would help. I summoned Angkor, my contracted demon. He was black bat with purple eyes and purple markings on his body. "Angkor, search Berthe." I asked him and he nodded and disappeared.

Even through have the power to find information on anything its not something i use all the time. Angkor came back with a book in his claws and put it in front of me.

Hmm lets see. A wolf demon blah blah blah, one of the commanders of the demons blah blah blah blah. Hmmm oh? whats this?

He was responsible for the attack at Ruben, and the Elven village there two years ago. Ah and if i remember correctly, Ele is from Ruben. Its fallen into place now. I jump up straight and looked up from my floating carpet.

I summoned my staff, which was black with a fan like shape at the top with purple gems and markings and aimed it down. "Rain, rain and strike around my feet." I chanted my spell.

A gaint black void rift came from high above me. It then began to combust and fire off streaks of purple energy at the ground creating a large beautiful explosion of purple.

The smoke cleared and the whole area was cleared of glitters leaving everything untouched. The soldiers began cheering at me. Meh whatever it was really nothing. I floated down and saw Valak coming toward me.

"Come to personally greet me? aw you shouldnt have." He closes his eyes and bonk my head. "Why..." He didn't do it too hard but it still hurt. "I know you only did that because you need to go do something right? go now." He turns and walks off.

He knows me so well, we have been friends since kids. Well time to go do some business. I fly up and teleported away.

I teleported into a large victorian castle with a red moon in the distance and dark clouds overhead. It had a haunting arora with black, dead plants as its garden. I walked up to it and opened the doors.

Inside was a large staircase that lead to the second floor with a lavish red carpet with golden handles. candle stands decorated the place that illuminated the place dimly.

"This place never gets old." I say and a black bat flies in from the shadow area of the room. "Well, it has been a while since you have come to this place." It says.

"Ah well i dont wanna abuse you too much you know." I say smiling and he huffs. "Use as you see fit." Aww i ran up to him and hug him. "Ah! get off! get off!" He tries to squirm out my chest but i wont just let him. Oh wait i forgot.

I let him out and he flies over to the staircase handle. "I came for a favor." I said and i could tell he confused. "What favor would you request of me." He says.

"I want to go to the time and space continuum."

3rd PoV

Trent, the Iron golem was proving to be able to live up to its reputation. It was not mindless like the other golem and had knew battle well.

The Trent served as the protector of the Spiral Corridor since its creation. It guarded the entrance to underground Chapel of any intruders.

Raven engulfed his sword in flames and and swung his flame sword at Trent but Trent's mineral armor provided it ineffective.

"Ok...ok... this thing is pretty tough. Not even Elsword's fire could burn it." Aisha says panting. "It wants to tire us out and then kill us before we can escape." Raven deduced.

"If i remember correctly." Elsword began and stood up. "In the sage writings, it stated lighting and wind could defeat earth." Eve came to him and lend him her shoulder to lean on.

"Ai, got enough sage energy to do lighting based attack. you too Rena." He asked and the thought for awhile. It will take some time but to charge, we can think up of something." Rena said raising her hand. A green glow emitted and she began to gather as well as Aisha.

"So we have to defend for an unspecified time limit." Eve said flatly. Elsword chuckled. "Yea it seems so, are you ready Raven?" Raven got up from leaning on his blade and nodded.

Eve flew up and Elsword charged Trent. Trent prepared his blade for a foward thrust. Raven came by his side and grabbed his blade with both hands and coated it in fire.

He swung his flame blade with all his force and fired a flaming shockwave at Trent. Trent sliced the flame shockwave in half creating a small explosion. Elsword jumped up and punched Trent in its face making stagger a bit.

He tried to regain balanced but Eve fired dual beams at Trent's body making him fall over. "Lion's Lariat" Elsword used chains to hold down Trent to the ground and Raven jumped up and stuck his nasod arm at Trent and fired a fire blast at him.

Trent struggle abit and broke through the chains and grabbed Eve and threw her away. Eve recovered but was about to be smashed by Trent's hand. Elsword came in time and held Trent's arm above him. "Eve!" Elsword said and flew away and fired several blast at Trent.

Trent swung his blade keeping Eve and Raven at bay while apply more force on Elsword. The ground beneath Elsword began to break as he still held up Trent's hand. He went down on one knee and began to struggle more.

He then felt his body getting more, solid? like his body was becoming a mountain with magma in it. Ir was making him feel much stronger.

"Els! were done!" Aisha said. "Rrrrrr" Elsword began to slowly get back up, bending his legs. "Raven!!" Elsword yelled and Raven jumped onto a wall and then jumped to straight at Trent with his nasod arm out.

"Power assault" Raven's charged knocked Trent off Elsword and Elsword jumped away. Trent began to get back up and grabbed his sword. "Now!" Everyone dispersed from Trent leaving him wide open.

"Pressuring Maelstrom!" Rena shot out an enormous amount of wind at Trent and trapping him in an vortex of wind. The wind began cutting away at him and Aisha was up next. "Lightning Stream!" She slammed her staff to the ground and lightning traveled in 5 streams fired to Trent.

The lightning combined with the wind storm created a magnetic storm with a loud screech noise. The storm then combust into a large explosion of lightning and wind destroying the rooms walls.

When it cleared, Trent was nothing but a pile of torn up rocks with little to nothing remaining. "Woah." Elsword said with amazement.

"So what now." Raven said as they all stood at the entrance to Chapel. "Lets...Lets call it a day." Elsword said and they agreed.

Feita Camp

Evening

After reporting their progress to Lento and Allegro, everyone was sent to rest in tents after a long day. They were also giving a day off for their good work of clearing the Shrine along with finding and clearing the corridors.

Rena was the last shower and decided she would mediate for a while. She felt like she hasn't been communicating with the forest spirits as she be as an elf. She was in her white nightgown with her hair still wet.

She got in a separate tent and made sure it was nice and quiet. She crossed her legs and closed her eyes and began to gather.

After five minutes she heard someone come in. She opened her eyes and saw Elsword and Aisha waving at her and sitting down on both sides from her.

The three of them began meditating and started to glow. Aisha was purple, Elsword was red and Rena green.

With Rena

Rena started to see smoke around her. She was no longer in her nightgown and was now in a silk white dress with small green vines on her arms. She walked around and saw she was in a grass field.

The mist came together and formed an humanoid body. Rena deduced it was a woman due to the curves. "Young one." It spoke in heavenly voice like no other. Its voice had a sound that demanded respect and authority but had kindness to it.

"You must not forget who you are child. Do not astray from your ancestral powers." The mist said and held up her hand. "Who are you?" Rena asked and the smoke shakes its head. "In time i will tell you. Forgive me." Wisp began to gather near them.

With Aisha

(An: Shes in the Hall of El from the in game dungeon.)

Aisha found herself inside a strange place with floating tiles everywhere. The whole blue and white.

She looked over white hooded figure standing on one of the titles. It had a black hood with golden trims on it. It wore a large black coat with symbols that circled around the neck and it flowed by itself.

"This is new..." Aisha says looking around. She then looked to the hooded figure who still seemed to have been frozen in position. She flew to it and waved her hand in front of it. It still made no movement.

"Well i guess ill got his way." She say and the tiles come together to form her a path. "Might as explore this place."

She walked along the place observing everything until she came to a large book. The book was white with blue markings on it. The words glowed blue when she got close to it.

"What is this?" She said as she saw the book's language was something she never saw before. She felt something behind her and turned only to see the hooded figure. It raised its cloaked arm revealing he masters book that was given to her.

"Hey!" She ran over but then the book burned into blue flames. "You dont need that. you need that." He pointed over to the large book in front of her. She looked to it and back but the hooded person was gone.

With Elsword

Elsword found himself in all too familiar field. The smoke cascaded the ground beneath him partly and the sky was shine to have a sunset now. He looked around and saw Regulus, laying down on his stomach with his paws crossed acting as his pillow and looking into space with eyes of boredom.

Elsword walked over to him. "Your here. good i wanted to teach ya new trick." Regulus said swaying his tail side to side slowly. "And what is that?" Elsword asked and Regulus summoned a simple long sword to in front of him.

"Hit this sword." He said simple and Elsword shrugged. He punched the long sword, shattering it to pieces in one blow. "Good, your strength is coming along nicely." Regulus says.

Elsword looked at his arm. "Why is that. Im way stronger then i used to be. It feels natural." Elsword says and Regulus laughs. "That is because here, your real strength is revealed. Now.." Regulus materialized another sword in front of him.

The long sword then glowed red lines on it. "Now strike it again." He said and Elsword struck the blade but the result was different. Elsword instead felt his arm sting with pain and the sword remained unaffected.

"What did you do?" He asked and Regulus smirked showing his sharp teeth. "Reinforcement energy." He said.

"This is the result of gathering sage energy and instead of releasing, you release it inside your body." The same sword from before is summoned but unlike the other had no red markings.

"It enchant your body, making it much more durable and increased strength. Think of it as a spell." The swords then dispersed. "this is something i came up with while watching you fight with that golem."

"It will take practice but if its you. You can do it." The landscape began to crumble and darkness filled his vison.

Elsword opened his eyes and saw he was laying down in the tent with Aisha and Rena on top of him. "I have the worst headache right now." Elsword says and gets up.

He leaves them in the tent and put on a green coat he found laying around. and walked out. It was night so he decided a evening stroll even with his head killing him.

"I need to train, not not today." He says straying way from the camp a bit. He then found himself feeling like something was calling him. "South of here huh." He says.

He wanted to go and see what it was but he couldn't just leave camp for his own personal reason. He say down and closed his eyes.

"Ah so this is how we first meet." A voice came from behind him. He widened his eyes in surprise that someone manager to get behind him. He turned his head and saw a tall man with white hair and yellow eyes.

For a split second, Elsword felt, nostalgic looking at this person. As if he had known him for years and had many memories with. The feeling came as fast as it went it away.

"Who are you". Elsword said simply and the Luto sat down next to Elsword playing with some cubes. "A friend who wants to see you grow." He said honestly.

Luto also had the same feeling Elsword had. He felt as if he known Elsword for so long but he also felt something else. Sadness, he felt sad for the boy in front of him almost enough to even make him shed a tear for him but he would not let himself.

Luto shakes it off and Elsword spoke. "Why would want that." Luto chuckled "It is both our interest, you may need it soon." He got up and walked in the air. He tapped his finger in the air and a rift opened revealing the space time continuum.

He threw a card at Elsword who caught it. "If you need my services, use that card." He walked into the rift and closed right after.

Elsword stared at the card before putting it away but it instead dissipated into his chest.

"Its time to sleep. Too much is happening." He says and walk back to camp.