Chapter 6: Progress
The four adventurers had made their way inside the temple without any further distractions. "Well... now that I think about it, if there are 26 letters of the alphabet, does that mean there are 26 temple guards?" Miu asked, looking at the new surroundings. Amy shook her head.
"I don't think so. There's roughly ten of them, I think. But with Z gone, that makes nine." She answered. "But how strong is the temple guardian?" Revl and Sen asked. "Very strong. There is a rumor that it is one of the seven warlords who fought with Justice with the many times he turned evil." Amy explained. Revl went into his encyclopedia mode again.
"The Seven Warlords... if I'm correct, only a couple of them actually know each other. There was the four who traveled together. Blade, the semi-immortal with the transforming sword. Burst, the girl with fists and feet of energy. Aym, the brother of Burst with the power to use columns of energy. And Vex, the half-vampire half-werewolf girl with the powers from both races." He started Sen looked interested.
"But wasn't Burst classified as dead?" He asked, curious.
"That remained unknown. The other three warlords did not know about their comrades. One was Veli, a human-looking death god with a weak version of the touch of death, as well as a special scythe. Zero was also one. The last one of the seven has been rumored as stronger than Zero. His name was Nova, thought to be one of the "bad guys" at one point." Revl finished.
"Well what could Nova do?" Amy asked. Revl shrugged. "It's been forgotten." He answered. "I hope it's not him, whoever he is..." Sen said, sighing.
Oblivious to the distance they had covered, the four were surprised when they turned around and couldn't see the entrance. The inside of the temple was well lighted, though, and they had no trouble seeing where they were. They had stumbled into a large chamber which was open and round. Another hooded figure jumped into the front of him and halted their progress.
"Are you our next opponent?" Revl challenged, ready to fight again. The man shook his head and jumped away to be replaced by another one.
"I'm the opponent..." He said coldly, taking off his hood. He had red hair which was cut above his ears. He had blue eyes and a battle-seared face. "I saw how easily you defeated Z so easily. It's a shame. But the weak don't survive, do they?" He asked, his right pupil turning into a shining M. Revl, Miu, and Amy were caught off guard and frozen in place. Sen looked angry and pulled out Ico and Aetas, turning back into his mutated angel form. This took a bit longer than before and his hair changed to purple from red and his clear white shirt and black pants turned into a white vest and white pants. He grew wings out of his back.
"What kind of technique did you use on them?" Sen said, demanding an answer. M looked calm as he replied, "A temporary paralysis effect. I'm surprised it didn't work on you, though." He replied.
Sen looked at Aetas. "I wonder if it was my blade?" He thought to himself. M took the opportunity to attack with a regular sword, running at an average rate. Sen parried. "So without his power he's useless..." Sen thought, smiling to himself.
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Simon had been on the search for the brown hooded figure that had come to his town, his city of The Third. The figure had done feats similar to the man in Uni's city, though not at the same time as the man in Orez had made himself known. The figure of S City made himself known by defeating several strong machina with his bare hands. The search had brought Simon outside of the city and into one of the many empty fields in Z3R0. Simon lost the trail and stood in the field, sensing two familiar energies. Jewel and Uni came into view, accompanied by one of their subordinates. They all immediately took guard. Miyun had come with Uni. And with Jewel, a boy with a gigantic sword, golden eyes, and black hair had been traveling. Val ran up to Simon's side, almost out of breath.
"I've been trying to f---" She said, looking around and stopping abruptly. "Oh..." She said shyly. "What are you two doing here?" Simon asked, ignoring the sidekicks of sorts. Uni growled.
"What business is that of yours?" He asked. Jewel had a calm but somehow twisted expression on her face. "Oh dear... well Blade and I were just looking for a brown hooded man." She said. Uni looked a tiny bit surprised as he looked at the boy near Jewel.
"Blade? One of the Seven Warlords?" He asked. Simon ignored this and focused on the other thing Jewel had said. "A brown hooded figure showed up in your city? One showed up in mine as well..." He said, thinking.
"Yes... he defeated Blade, which is highly unusual." Jewel explained. Uni had regained his composure and began to speak again. "One showed up in mine too." He said, sighing.
"So we lost all of them... I say we just leave and act like this never happened." He added, walking away with Miyun, who at this point was clinging onto him. But Blade had other plans. He attacked Uni. Simon reacted quickly, making a machina, and the battle began.
Cri and Near were sitting another part of the field, looking out upon the horizon. "So you put them in place to further complicate things..." Cri said, sighing.
"Sure did. But I wonder how the factors that I can't control will intervene?" Near replied, his hands supporting him. "Like what? The legends?" Cri asked. Near nodded.
"Yes, and Axel... he hasn't shown up for quite some time." He explained. He turned to Cri. "Why do you hang out with me so often now? Shouldn't you be spying or something?" He asked. Cri shrugged.
"I'm getting plenty of information and entertainment out of you." He retorted. Near laughed. "Yes, well it seems Sen has gotten to the temple..." Near pointed out. Cri looked a bit surprised. "Oh really? So fast? Wait, how do you know all of this?" He inquired. Near smirked.
"Miu... is mine. My creation, that is." He said. Cri had an emotionless expression on his face as he replied, "What is your will for her?"
"Whatever the temple throws at her. I'm not even one hundred percent sure what kinds of tricks and traps that place has in store for them all." Near admitted.
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Sen had just been toying with M by this point. "It's hopeless..." He muttered, swinging Loki down upon M's head. M gasped in pain as the blade passed through him.
"I wonder if this will work?" Sen asked Aetas, stabbing it through M's skull. Because of the temporary paralysis, M's brain froze and he fell to the ground, motionless. The effect on Amy, Miu, and Revl was broken before M could get back up.
"You'll... pay..." He said as Revl shot an arrow of energy through his heart. Miu and Amy looked away as M died on the floor. The four left him in the arena and kept walking. They arrived in another chamber, similar to the one they had just left.
"Huh? Do we have to fight someone else?" Miu asked. But there was no response. She looked around and couldn't see or sense the others. "Where are they?" She gasped, a tiny bit frightened. Another temple guardian fell down from the ceiling. He landed with a thud and stoop up, looking Miu directly in the eye. She got the impression that something was wrong with this one as he pulled down his hood. He had rain-blue hair and light blue eyes with an indescribable face.
"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to kill you." He said, twin blades popping out of the arms of his robes. Miu suddenly got serious. "No you won't!" She said, gathering a large amount of energy in her palms. She shot it out in a shock wave and the man was kicked off of his feet. He flew towards the wall and flipped, his feet glowing with the letter S. He landed on the wall and just stuck there. "Nice try." He said.
The other three had come to the same predicament. They had been separated from each other as well. Revl had made short work of the temple guardian that had encountered him and had started to look for the others. Of course, this was difficult for him because the temple was very large and he had a hard time sensing others' energy. So he decided to head toward whatever energy he could find.
Amy and Sen had, fortunately, stayed together. Amy, remembering the trap at the last second, had grabbed onto Sen, transporting to the chamber of a demon. Sen pulled out both of his blades and Amy stood behind him as a large, demonic looking creature stepped out of the shadows. It had wings and horns with blood-red eyes. It was basically the stereotypical demon. It let out a loud roar before shooting a large fireball at Sen from the palm of his hand. Sen dodged, grabbing Amy out of harm's way as well.
"Go hide!" He told her, dodging another fireball. Amy ran to a rather large rock, ducking down and avoiding the heat of the battle. Sen ran at the demon in his normal human form, his two blades ready to strike. He was knocked aside like a measly pebble with one gigantic swipe of the demon's claw. Amy gasped as Sen landed on the ground and slid back, his shirt tearing, some spots red with blood.
He got up and turned into his angel form yet again. He flew at the demon as fast as he could, narrowly dodging a large fireball, slashing at the demon with Aetas. The demon froze as Sen flew past it, regaining movement within seconds. Sen grunted in frustration, turning in the air and making a beeline for the demon. He was stopped by a wall of flames. He tried to fly around it, but a claw shot through the fire and flames and carried him on through it, crushing his ribs and chest. Sen gasped in pain and felt another of his ribs crack. But from the rock that Amy was hiding behind, a large ball of ice was fired, slamming into the demon's arm. It dropped Sen and howled in pain as Sen took up his blades again, ignoring the pain.
S was messing with Miu, avoiding all of her attacks by sticking onto the walls and ceiling. Miu had a look of mixed frustration and fright on her face as she put her hands on the ground, bending down in anger. S jumped from the ceiling and landed on the ground.
"Aw... does this little one want to give up?" He asked in an almost mocking tone. His attitude had been changing randomly throughout the battle. Miu let a tear fall to the ground. When it hit, the ground began to shake violently. S looked in surprise as he tried to hold himself on the ground, but to no avail. He tripped and fell while Miu stood back up, unaffected by the earthquake.
She gathered what looked to be a small amount of electricity in her right palm and a translucent purple light in her left palm. The electricity flew from it, creating a weak shock wave. It froze S in place on the ground long enough for Miu to send out psychic waves from her left hand, each one pulsing with a large amount of power. She had a determined and excited look on her face as the waves hit S, who gripped his head in pain and confusion on his face when the waves reached him, one after the other, until Miu ran out of energy. She stood still, breathing heavily, as S went insane, running into walls and smashing his head on the ground until he lied motionless in a small puddle of blood. Miu looked a bit scared.
"Did I... just kill a man?" She asked herself, sniffling a bit. She soon realized that it had been for the best. "Come to think of it, he was really easy to manipulate..." She thought to herself as she walked out the doorway.
The demon had taken the upper hand in the battle with Sen and Amy, ripping and slashing whenever Sen got too close and shooting fireballs and flames when the two were far away. Sen was hiding behind the rock with Amy, who was clinging to him in fear.
"Dammit..." if only I could get close to it, I could mess up its energy..." Sen muttered, clutching both of his blades. "And I could get close to him if only time would friggin' freeze again..." He added, mumbling. Amy looked at him in confusion with some definitive fear still on her face.
"Uh..." She muttered weakly. Sen broke out of her grasp as the demon neared them. It had been on the offensive, attacking the rock. Sen jumped out from behind the rock and tried to fly at the demon, yet again, but was knocked back onto the ground, yet again. He grunted and flipped back onto his feet, dodging a fireball that had been shot. He thought of a plan quickly, aiming Aetas at the demon's belly. He threw the wooden blade straight at the demon. It passed through a raised claw and the demon's stomach, freezing it momentarily. Sen took the opportunity to run as quickly as he could at the demon, grabbing its arm when he got close enough. He began to switch the functions of the demon's body, losing energy very quickly in the process. The demon regained control of its movement, but quickly stumbled over himself, its body confused. Sen turned to Amy, who was still hiding.
"Amy, crush it." He told her. She shook her head.
"I can't kill something!" She whined.
"You have to or it's going to kill the both of us!" Sen pointed out. The demon was slowly getting control of its body back. Sen turned to face it while still commanding Amy. "Please! Use a lightning ball or something!" He pleaded. His two blades were held out in front of him but he didn't have any energy left. The demon stood back up, almost in full control of itself again. Sen turned back around to face Amy while the demon prepared one gigantic fireball.
"Please..."
