Chapter 51: The Crystal Palace
While the boys were faced with a difficult challenge the Winx girls were also dealing with a problem of their own still fending off the falling crystals with their shields. "Ugh! We can't keep this up much longer!" Musa cried out as she retained her shield. "Yeah! Besides, the boys might need us! Who knows how many more traps are hidden in this place!" Layla exclaimed as sweat beat down her face as another crystal smashed up against her shield. "But there seems to be no end to these crystals! They just keep appearing one after the other!" Flora pointed out. "And pretty soon...we're going to run out...of power..." Roxy huffed.
"I have an idea girls!" Bloom told the others as they turned their attention towards her. "Well then let's hear it!" Musa told the redhead. "On the count of three, we're going to let down our defense shields and use our speedix wings to fly as fast as we can out of here! "But what about Roxy!? She doesn't have Belivix powers!" Layla questioned. "I'll take Roxy with me!" Bloom cried. "Alright, Bloom we're right behind you!" Flora exclaimed. "Yeah let's do this!" Roxy agreed. "Get ready!" Musa called out. "1,2,3..." Bloom counted down.
"NOW!" the redhead told the girls before they all dropped their shields. "WINX SPEEDIX!" everyone called out and quickly transformed their wings. Bloom grabbed Roxy by her wrist before the girls flew with all their might dodging crystals as they fell. Once they reached the others side everyone fell to the ground to catch their breath. "WELL! That was fun!" Musa exclaimed. "I hope the guys are having better luck than we are..." Layla followed. "I'm so tired...I had no idea the trials would be this difficult..." Flora admitted as she felt her heart pounding in her chest. "Me neither." Bloom murmured before Roxy slowly got to her feet and made her way around the next corner. The faerie of animals froze as she noticed the floor had caved in.
"Uh, guys...I don't think we can relax just yet..." Roxy spoke up before the other girls made their way over to her. One by one each peered down below into the sea of blue flames and the cage set a flame with the boys trapped within its fiery abyss. "IT'S THE GUYS!" Musa exclaimed. "JOEY!" Flora cried as she flew downwards without any hesitation. "Come on girls let's go after her!" Bloom urged before they all hurried and entered the inferno. Joey felt it getting harder to breathe from the heat his breathing laboring. It reminded him of when Marik trapped him in that lava monster's cage. The blonde looked up as he heard his name. His eyes widened as he saw Flora right next to the burning cage.
"FLORA!" Joey exclaimed with a smile before the guys looked up as well seeing the girls. Bloom gasped as she saw the scene laid out before them. "GIRLS! WE NEED TO GET THEM OUT OF THERE!" the redhead cried alarmed. "It's not THAT easy Bloom," Kaiba spoke up. "If the cage falls so do we..." Duke added. "Bloom you're the farie of the Dragon Fire can't you do something about all these flames!?" Layla questioned. "My morphix won't work!" the faerie of water exclaimed she tried to smother the flames on the cage.
"I'll give it my best shot!" Bloom told Layla before she illuminated. "FIRE CATCHER!" the redhead called upon her spell but no matter how she attempted the flames wouldn't heed her call. "...It didn't work..." Atem bit his lip. "How is dat even possible!?" Joey questioned. "Perhaps it is because these are no ordinary flames..." Marik muttered. {...What does he mean by that?} Yugi questioned. Raeger frowned as he found himself in deepened thought. "Girls let's try our convergence magic!" Roxy suggested. "Good thinking! Maybe Bloom can't do it by herself but with all of us!" Musa began. "We might be able to put out the flames!" Flora smiled. The girls all formed in a circle glowing as the boys watched.
"BELIVIX CONVERGENCE!" the girls called out. But their attempt bore no fruit. "It's no good..." Bloom shook her head. "Is it possible nothing will work then?" Kaiba pondered. "Well, i'm NOT about to give up!" Layla cried. "Wait..." Atem began. "Marik you mentioned that these flames may not be what one would refer to as normal flames...and there is a key hole within them down below...in which we must place the Owl Statue...if you examine the color of the fire it is blue rather than red...in ancient times Blue Flames represented a connection to the spiritual realm...it's only a theory but perhaps the Owl Statue is a beacon to cross between this world and the spirit realm..." Atem concluded.
"Which means in order to pass this specific test we have to get close enough to insert the beacon into the key hole down below us..." Kaiba muttered. "IMPOSSIBLE!" Joey cried. "Even with da girls and dare wings they'd be burnt ta a crisp before day could even get close!" the blonde exclaimed. "I hate to say it but Joey's right." Duke agreed. {...Hmm...} Yugi murmured. "What is it Yugi?" Atem questioned. {Well...I don't think that's exactly true...} "How's so?" the Pharoah mused before Marik spoke up. "I take it little Yugi has figured it out too." the tomb keeper muttered. "Well don't keep us in the dark!" Layla cried as the girls all exchanged confused glances as did Joey and Duke. They were COMPLETLY lost!
"I see..." Kaiba muttered. Marik only smirked. "Impressive..." he complimented before Atem grinned. "So that's how it is..." "Bloom come over here!" Kaiba called afterward before the redhead flew over towards the cage. "Wheeler give Bloom the owl you found earlier." the CEO ordered. "And just wat good is dat gonna do?" Joey raised his brow. "Just shut up and do as I say!" Kaiba spat. "FINE! GEESH!" the blonde made a face as removed the owl statue from his jacket. He tried to pass it to Bloom through the bars but he couldn't it fit through. "I got this! Stand back! MORPHIX WAVE!" Layla cried as she used her morphix powers to bend the bars just enough. Trying one more time Joey reached through before he burned his hand. As a result, he dropped the statue.
"OH NO!" Bloom cried before Flora used her magic. "AUTUMN WIND!" the faerie of nature called out. A whirl wind of leaves caught the statue and returned it to Bloom. "YEAH! THAT'S OUR GIRL!" Musa cheered. "That was awesome!" Roxy grinned. "No doubt! Nice save Flora!" Layla complimented. Joey whistled. "NICE MOVES FLO!" he grinned. "Now we need to place the owl in the key hole!" Raeger instructed. "Right but there's so much fire I can't see anything clearly!" Bloom exclaimed. "Leave it to me!" Roxy told the redhead. "ANIMAL TRACKER!" the pink haired faerie called out before a trail of foot prints appeared on top of the flames leading Bloom towards the flames inner sanctum.
Bloom flew downward ready to plunge into the icy blue fire. Though upon getting close the Faerie realized that even though there was intense heat the flames themselves were not hot to the touch. "I get it now!" Bloom smiled before she dived right inside the heart of the blue inferno placing the owl into the key hole on a small platform right in the center of the fire. Upon doing so the flames began to extinguish not only around the bars but down below as well leaving Bloom standing upon a crystal platform smiling and waving at the others.
"Heh..." Kaiba grinned broadly as he crossed his arms. "YEAH!" Joey cheered. "Look! The flames around the bars are disappearing too!" Duke pointed out. "It would seem so," Marik observed. {...Phew...i'm glad I was right...} Yugi sighed relief inwardly. "The magic of this place truly is incredible..." Atem confessed. "But I still don't understand how Bloom entered the flames without getting hurt..." Musa admitted. "The flames were conjured of a spiritual nature...while they felt like regular fire ...when you actually come in contact with it, it is really harmless to anyone except those with a dark nature..." Raeger began. "So when you think about it makes perfect sense that they would use the blue fire to guard a portal rune...to make sure even if one passed the first test that they wouldn't be able to leave this place without being purified...though the fire on our cage was real...as it came from those dragons...thus why Joey got burned..." the Guild Master explained.
"And now that the flames are out we can break this thing open...stand back..." Kaiba muttered before he revealed his hidden blades and sliced right through the bars. "DRAGON WING!" Bloom cast her spell on the guys lifting them out the cage and bringing them to the platform where the rest of the girls gathered. "This can't be ANYMORE humiliating..." Kaiba muttered. The guy was supposed to rescue the girl not the other way around. "Hey, at least we ain't crispy critters!" Joey looked on the bright side. {Yeah thanks to the girls!} Yugi agreed. "You have my thanks." Atem offered a smile. "And mine as well. For a moment I wasn't entirely certain what was going to happen..." Raeger admitted. "I'd consider ourselves lucky that we escaped that at all..." Marik muttered.
"Yeah, but it wasn't JUST the girls," Duke spoke up. "Marik figured out how to use the Owl Statue Joey found in that chest and Raeger and the Pharoah deduced that below us was actually a portal. It was pretty sick!" the dice master grinned. "Sounds like you boys had a lot of fun spending all that time alone together." Musa teased. "Oh yeah, tons." Duke joked back. "Not TOO much fun without us I hope!" Layla followed up as she landed next to Marik. "Yes, the crystals took us a lot longer to ward off than we first thought." Flora frowned as she flew over towards Joey. "Yeah but Bloom knew exactly what to do! It's thanks to her that we made it out of there!" Roxy added.
"Hey, it was a TEAM effort girls. I couldn't have done it without you. I'm just glad that everyone's safe." Bloom hugged Kaiba before the blue eyed male held her back. "Was there ever any doubt?" Kaiba teased. "UH yeah! We were REALLY worried about you guys!" Roxy cried before she noticed a burn on Raeger's hand. "...If only we'd gotten here sooner..." the faerie of animals frowned. "Maybe you guys wouldn't have been hurt..." the girls could see the burn marks on each of the guys from the fire. "...That couldn't be helped..." Raeger murmured softly.
"I know...no one said the trials would be easy..." Bloom told them before they all paused as the pillar rose up high into the air. Before them, a door made up of crystal manifested appearing in front of the party. "Woah..." Joey exclaimed in awe as his mouth nearly hung open. Slowly the door pried itself open. "Then let us proceed..." Atem spoke up. One by one they all entered the door it closing behind them. The party gaze in wonder surrounded by a world made up all kinds of crystals. "Just look at this place..." Musa murmured. "Yeah too bad Stella's not here she would love this...look at the bridge just ahead!" Layla exclaimed. "It's beautiful..." Flora smiled as she looked under them. The bridge was made up completely of pearls and aquamarines. Shimmering with ruby colored birds flying past them.
"Check it out, you guys!" Bloom cried as the girls hurried towards where Bloom was to gaze at a large water fall mixed with blue and purple colored water. "This is absolutely incredible!" Roxy giggled as she caught one of the ruby swallows on her finger. "The girls certainly seem to be enjoying themselves..." Atem pointed out. "Do you want to frolic with the birds and look at the pretty rock too?" Kaiba teased. "As vain as Mai is she'd probably bury herself under all of these jewels..." Joey sweatdropped laughing to himself at that picture. {Still I have to admit this is amazing...I never thought a place like this COULD exist...I wonder just what's waiting for us up ahead...} Yugi murmured before they entered the waterfall leading to a hidden cavern.
Everywhere you looked quartz was embedded in the walls and the ceiling. Musa swayed back and forth as the water droplets harmonized. "That's pretty catchy," Duke admitted as he took out dice out of his pocket and shook them in his hand. Musa smiled as she hummed to the beat the girls dancing to it. "Water dropping...it's just like a melody as it hits the crystals...giving off this amazing sound!" the faerie of music smiled brightly. Kaiba only scoffed. "I don't know what you find so great about water dripping everywhere...it's rather annoying actually..." the CEO muttered.
"After nearly bein impaled by crystals...I gotta admit dat I'm not dat stoked about being in dis tiny space full of dem!" Joey cringed. "For once the feeling is mutual..." Marik agreed. "As long as we stay where we are I'm ok with it," Roxy spoke up. "Yeah. It really is gorgeous...the glistening water and the quartz...together it's so...so..." Layla found herself lacking the words to describe it. "Unique?" Bloom questioned. "Yes, they certainly are..." Atem agreed. "I can feel the magical essence of this place...just by being surrounded by these crystals..." the Pharoah murmured.
"It's almost as if that the stones themselves are filled with the breath of magic..." Flora pointed out as she watched ruby and golden lady bugs rest of emerald leaves before diamond butterflies swirled all around them. Joey grinned and unable to resist tried to catch one of them only to be grabbed by the swarm and carried him away. "WHY DOES DIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TA ME!?" the blonde cried. "JOEY!" Flora squeaked. "Come on guys!" Bloom called before the party chased after him. Once they reached the end of the cavern they came upon a room filled with precious stones though most quartz. Before them was another large door crafted of a magical ore. Joey was placed in front of it by the diamond butterflies him letting out a sigh of relief one still sitting upon his head.
Most everyone let out a burst of laughter. "They must've liked him so much they decided to take off with Joey." Flora giggled as the blonde's cheeks reddened. "And led us right to the place we've been looking for." Bloom smiled. "What a pain in the ass..." Kaiba sighed. {Well Joey sure has a way of making things interesting} Yugi smiled to himself. "He certainly does." Atem chuckled softly. "Aw man...my ribs hurt from laughing...so hard..." Duke snickered. "I know..." Layla giggled. Marik, however, was not laughing as he stared at the door with a hardened gaze.
"Someone's coming..." Raeger spoke up as he narrowed his eyes. "What!? Who!?" Roxy questioned before a young woman wearing crystal armor with blue and purple hair with green eyes manifested before the party. She drew her sword and directed it at them as her eyes narrowed. "STAND BACK!"Kaiba warned before he too revealed his hidden blades going on the defensive. "I'm thinking this is going to get messy..." Duke muttered. "HALT! Who dares intrude upon this sacred sanctuary!?" the female knight spat as she stared down the strangers. Suddenly a voice broke through the tension.
"Now Now." a familiar voice echoed. "It's not very polite to treat guests in such a manner now, isn't it? Especially ones that our mistress is most expecting..." Joey paused. {Dat voice...} the blonde froze as he looked around. "STAY OUT OF THIS GHOUL! the knight fired back angrily as she looked above her before a male wearing purple amethyst and black onyx with purple hair manifested in the air sitting in a rather casual manner. "I'm afraid I can't exactly do that my dear Cherrie..." the ghoul shook his index finger at the female knight.
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