Arcane Tales

*Because Kentaro took to long to make a decision, Lucien was dropped off and he ended up having to go with Creed to the Ice Shrine. Let the graverobbing Aeldi hunt begin.*

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~Earth Shrine~

*Olympe is doing her thing. Nobody needs to know the details.*

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~Fire Shrine~

*He's dropped off near a very tall, very active red volcano in the middle of a deserted plain among forests because it was too hot for the airship to get any closer to it. A very old staircase carved out of the mountain itself leads to the top.*

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~Ice Shrine~

*Creed and Kentaro, who is probably feeling grumpy 'cause he though he'd get some private groping time with Kari, are dropped off in Alda, in some remote location on a plain in the middle of a range of icy mountains. One of the mountains has a cavern entrance at its base, a very cold breeze, even for that snowy climate, blowing from inside.*

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~Wind Shrine~

*They're dropped off at a large Sephiran mesa, surrounded by forests all around down below. A mountain at its center seems to tremble every couple seconds and, as the airship flies away, the rocks start detaching from the structure and floating about, revealing it to be a tall green Taj Mahal-style tower.*

Allina: <This is great! Isn't this great!?>

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~Water Shrine~

*Kelphy walks into the water till its by her shoulders and takes off her dress with a sigh that screams "finally", revealing her plain light blue bikini with a small ribbon on the right side of the bottom part. She is overall thin, but slim, and gifted where it matters because fuck yeah. Also white skin. She throws the dress on land with great effort and smiles to Derek before diving.*

Lucien whistles and begins walking up the staircase.

---

"Don't feel bad. I'll embellish any feats of heroism on our trek so it makes you look good in front of Kari" he nods and starts walking.

"I... gues."

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"It's more of wandering some cave with a total stranger than heroic antics or anything else for that matter."

~Earth Shrine~

*You will never know.*

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~Fire Shrine~

*As he gets closer to the top, he starts sweating a lot, feeling extremely hot. The volcano starts spitting flaming volcanic rocks up in the air, which rain upon the surroundings. A few of them fall right towards Lucien.*

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~Ice Shrine~

*Inside the cave it's a lot colder than it was outside. A very bright light emanates from the depths of the cavern, as well as a freezing breeze every now and then. The ground is covered in thick snow and the walls and ceiling are covered in beautiful ice crystals that seem to absorb the light. Besides the sound of water dripping and the wind blowing, they hear what seems to be an harp playing a relaxing and somewhat nostalgic melody that echoes across the cave. The cavern goes on downward, forming something like a large and snowy natural staircase.*

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~Wind Shrine~

*Allina tries to push the large door and it is immediately slammed opened by a strong wind. Walking inside, the door closes again. This first floor is a large room of big green tiles and floating lanterns with a green glow. Across it is a stairway leading to the floor above. Allina starts walking towards it.*

Allina: <So Kari, tell me more about yourself!>

*Derek dives in after Kelphy and shivers a bit as the water touches his skin. He shakes it off quickly, though, and begins swimming deeper into the shrine.*

Lucien extends his shadow hands and uses them to crush and bat away any incoming chunks of molten rock that may ruin his day. "By the Origin its hot!" he tugs at his collar as he keeps walking.

---

"Lets keep moving Creed says" and does so.

~Fire Shrine~

*Reaching the top of the volcano, he sees the pool of lava far down below, as well as yet another stairway going down to a cave near the lava's surface in a spiral around the inside of the crater.*

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~Water Shrine~

*They reach the door of the stone temple in ruins, which is kind of just falls apart as Kelphy tries to push it opened. Undine appears at the center of the large room as they swim inside, emanating a light blue glow. Behind her is a hallway blocked by a wall that is also falling apart and has several arms wiith tridents and drawings carved out of it, probably what remains of the shrine's former guardian.*

Undine: <Usually, one would have to withstand the trials before reaching the chamber of the Aeldi, but I owe you two my gratitude, and I'm happy to save you that effort.>

*She waves her hands and the two instinctively start breathing, their breath glowing blue somewhat.*

Kelphy: <We can breathe...Thank you.>

Undine: <...Is it true?>

Kelphy: <What is?>

Undine: <Was that really Crone, after all this time?>

Kelphy: <Yes... well, I think so. He's... he kidnapped me, and has been playing around with the kingdoms. Who knows what else he's done since we got to that island.>

Undine: <...That child was a mistake... And they should have known that. I only wish they had learned their lesson in time.>

Kelphy: <So it's true, Crone was--he really belonged to the people from that sunken city?>

Undine: <What you saw on that small island, and that laboratory... that was but a thousandth of Yurion.>

Lucien whistles, "They really knew how to build these places. Gotta watch my step" he takes a few light steps before calmly walking downwards towards the cave.

"Like what? I live alone in Sephira and the only person from there I know is Kentaro."

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"Yeah, what else would we do?"

*Kentaro goes down the stairs.*

~Earth Shrine~

*She's still busy bringing the cave down.*

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~Fire Shrine~

*The cave isn't very deep. From the entrance he can see a wall blocking the narrow path that emanates a dim red glow.*

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~Ice Shrine~

*Soon the path becomes straighter and narrows a bit. They arrive at a dead end: A large stone wall is blocking the path, emanating a dim white glow. It has an armored person with four arms carved out of it, with two orbs of blue light glowing within two holes on its helmet. The hands start moving and the arms detach from the wall as the torso and head lean forward and it screeches.*

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~Wind Shrine~

Allina: <Yeah, I never did see you around the city. So what's up between you and Kenta?>

*The floor above is much like the previous one, but with a large hole on the ceiling that seems to lead to the top floor of the tower through a wide cylindrical tunnel. Allina chuckles and puts her hands on Kari's shoulders, noddling firmly with a smile. Suddendly, two light wings start growing out of Kari's back. Allina steps back and casts the spell on herself, growing wings as well.*

Allina: <There. This is going to be even easier than I expected.>

"We're... we're frie-"

*Kari shrieks as the wings protrude from her back and holds the rabbit like it's supposed to do something about it.*

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*Kentaro draws his gun and fires three armor piercing shots into the monsters chest.*

"Always shooting first instead of thinking about the situation" Creed slips on the pact ring just in case this is one of those trials where the objective is not to attack.

---

Lucien moves towards the wall.

~Fire Shrine~

*As he steps closer, the whole wall transforms into fire and it moves up the cave towards him. He hears a loud roar.*

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~Ice Shrine~

*The two upper arms cross in front of the chest and are quickly covered in ice. The shots shatter the ice but barely crack up the arms before disappearing. It holds its two lower arms out, and a thick ice spike bursts from each of the palms, the right one growing out towards Kentaro's chest and the left one towards Creed's.*

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~Wind Shrine~

Allina: <Don't freak out!>

Jade Rabbit: <What are you doing?>

*Allina floats upward a little bit.*

Allina: <This won't last too long. C'mon, just think about flying and you'll fly. It's ordering your legs to walk.>

"Okay..."

*Kari thinks about flying.*

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*Kentaro side-steps the attack.*

"Yeah, have fun being a kabob then."

Derek: <Then where's the other 999 thousandths of that place?>

Creed dodges backwards and brings his sword to bear on the Shiva. "Well... for all you know it could be a test!"

---

"Oh shit!" Lucien quickly forms a shield out of his shadow hands to take the blow of the flames.

~Fire Shrine~

*After sliding past him, the wall stops and returns to its original form. Now behind him, it has the other side of it facing him, which isn't as plain as the other. A minotaur with wing-shaped flames coming out of its back and twin sabers is carved out of it. It detaches from the wall a bit and leans forward, roaring.*

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~Ice Shrine~

*The spikes shatter and it stops the sword with its upper left hand, the palm cracking up. It holds a free hand out, sending ice shards flying towards them before the wall starts sliding back, away from them, revealing a large gap on the path. At the bottom of the cliff are sharp ice needles. Also certain death. It stares at them from the other side of the gap.*

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~Wind Shrine~

*Kari starts floating upwards into the tunnel, and Allina flies after her.*

Allina: <What were you saying just now?>

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~Water Shrine~

Undine: <Under the sea.>

Kelphy: <So what happened to it?>

Undine: <I'm not ... sure... anymore. But it was terrible... I'm sorry, but there isn't much more I can tell you. Do you still have the pact ring?>

*Kelphy nods and holds her right hand out.*

Undine: <I must thank you two again. ...I will aid you in your battle against Crone.>

*She disappears in a flash of light that blinds them momentarily. Regaining their sight, they see a stream of blue light flying into the ring's gem.*

~Kelphy can now summon: Undine, the Water Aeldi!~

"We're friends."

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*Kentaro drops to the ground and fires at the monsters legs.*

Derek: <Let's get out of here. It's cold.>

Creed swings his hand down causing the ice spikes flying at them still to bend and crack. He then sends his own wave of ice shards at it.

---

Lucien makes an "oh crap" face and runs like hell for a way to get out.

~Fire Shrine~

*The wall starts sliding back after him as he runs deeper into the cave until he reaches a dead end: a wide pool of lava. The minotaur spits a meteor at him.*

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~Ice Shrine~

*It screeches upon being shot at and releases a strong blizzard towards them that drags along the incoming shards.*

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~Wind Shrine~

*The wall of the tunnel is covered in angel-like winged figures carved out of the rock. One of them partially detachs itself from it and bitchslaps at Kari's face. Allina shrieks and the Jade Rabbit sort of just yelps, holding onto his "Guardian" tightly.*

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*Back on the airship, Kelphy's wrapped herself in a bed sheet from one of th airship's bedrooms she was meanwhile explored. She's sitting against the control panel, humming.*

Kelphy: <...W-What now?>

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!" Lucien casts an illusion around himself and a shadow barrier.

---

Creed raises an ice barrier to take the brunt of the blow.

*Kari shrieks and falls backwards or floats. I have no idea if she's still flying or not.*

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*Kentaro covers his head with his arms.*

*Derek shakes off some water from his hair and sits down in front of the controls.*

Derek: <We find the others.>

~Fire Shrine~

*The meteorite's stopped by the barrier but dispels the illusion. The minotaur statue stretches its torso out towards Lucien, double slashing across his chest.*

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~Ice Shrine~

*The statue adopts its original position in the wall and its eyes stop glowing. An ice replica of the statue from the waist up emerges from the ground behind them, punching at Kentaro.*

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~Wind Shrine~

*Allin flies further up the tunnel to catch up with Hitomi and slashes at the angel statue's arm with a light blade, cutting it off. At this point, a few of the other angels up and down the tunnel have detached their torso and arms from the wall and are waving their arms around, ready to attack the girls if they come close. Allina holds her hands out and a light barrier bursts out of her, shattering some of the arms. One of the angels opens its mouth and chants a somewhat angelical "ooh" as a white cord flies out of its mouth and whips at Kari.*

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Kelphy: <...Lucien.>

*She stands up and puts her hands on the control sphere. Feeling pretty tired after using her magic to steer the ship for a while and forming a pact with an Aeldi, she does her best to focus on Lucien, and his weak magic signal is detected in Toros. An image of him appears next to the map once again.*

Kelphy: <...S-Shall we go?>