Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25: Solar Saga: The Temple

The group, now reduced to seven, continue to head on climbing the mountain while reinforcements continue to fight and sitract enemies so the companions and head on. Tennin, however, is a person of extremely proud status, and so leaving the rest of the companions to continue their journey, Tennin jumps into the battle and pulls out his Buster Katana. Immediately he uses his special ability.

"Special Ability! ThunderStrike!" Tennin yells as he smashes a column of the enemy dead instantly.

The six head on, with Merlin and Zenon occasionally firing a spell or too and any aggressive beings. Reinhard is at the back of the group, occasionally stabbing at an enemy that saw them. Uriah led the front of the group, closely followed by William, Joan, and then Merlin and Zenon.

Five hours later, the Doom forces having been defeated, the tired companions rest, almost at the summit. The sun glows red in the sky signalling it would be giving way to the moon soon. Tennin apparently set up camp and the army was now immobile. Reinhard suddenly noticed a large structure on the summit of the mountain.

"What's that, guys?" asked Reinhard, referring to the structure.

"I don't know, but we should check it out." replied Uriah.

The six took up camp and began climbing again. Merlin, being old and frail, had to drop out, and Uriah escorted him back down the mountain to where Tennin was camping. The structure turned out to be a large temple, in which a man was completely clothed except for his eyes, which were closed, apparently in meditation.

"Hey! Hello? Who are you?!" yelled William to the stranger.

"Me? Would you know anyone named Hi-En?" replied a calm voice belonging to the stranger.

"Aren't you a ninja, one of the east?" asked Reinhard.

"Of course. Where else do ninja live?" replied Hi-En, now opening his eyes. "Look out!" shouted Hi-En, and it didn;t take much to realize why. A large oozing black and purple blob was heading their way, firing streams of acid melting through the floor of the temple. Hi-En through a shuriken, and Zenon amplified it's power to pierce. The shuriken went straight through the ooze and exploded it. It reformed and attacked again. Joan healed her allies while striking the beast, using her ability, Healing Strike. The beast, unable to stand all the holy power in the attack, was subdued and morphed into a patch of odd-looking dust. The heroes were safe, for now...

Somewhere else,  the emperor Maximillian was worrying about one of his best fighters, William. The entire army had failed, and apparently no heroes had reported back yet. Maximillian decided to journey to Jaem Tuung, to find it in ruins. Nicolai and Sarah were both unconscious  just outside the city gates, and many others were badly hurt. Jaem Tuung itself was still burning, although very soon there would be nothing left. A cursed fire of some type had burned everything, and Maximillian swore to avenge this act as he found the same brand Zenon did on the island...