The place was indeed amazing but I felt an evil coming from it. "Let's be careful," I warned. Some other girl called Rebecca joined us as we entered the pagoda.
The first floor was swarming with red wisps, not like we needed them. We then found a sheep monk called Kishiro on the second floor. He told us a sad tale of how the leader of his clan, a samoorai called Yoshinobu, suddenly went evil and summoned monsters into the pagoda.
"That's just offensive," said Christina. "That must be the source of the evil. Let's kick his @$$."
The trip up the pagoda was trying - many monsters of unholy origin barred our path and we had to fight our way through them. Rebecca disappeared halfway through, which was sad as we fought a tough ninja pig called Hoshikage on the fourth floor. Still, nothing a Myth Prismed Frog couldn't handle. On the next floor we fought an elephant demon, which would be a foreshadowing for what I would face to restore the Emperor. I was grateful for the new spell Ambrose gave me, as Blinding Light kept the enemies from launching their attacks while Christina set me up.
There was no enemies on the next floor, but a goat monk standing besides some grave markers.
"Proper respects?" I said. "What does he mean by praying to the oldest grave marker first? If Grace was here, she could figure this out, she's so smart..."
"No prob," said Christina. "You don't need smarts to solve this puzzle. See this marker? It's falling apart because of passing time and wear..."
It hit me then. "I get it! We pray to the most weathered marker first, then go back from there. You're a genius, big sister!"
She giggled. "Stop calling me that, carrot fairy! It's just observation." We prayed to the markers in the order that she pointed out.
The markers vanished and much desired wisps appeared. We smiled and replenished our mana and health for the battles ahead. (This shouldn't be too hard to figure out. If you screw up, you end up in another battle which can be fatal when you fight the final two battles ahead.)
The next floor we found four samoorai. One of them in fancy armor had glowing eyes. This must be the one Kishiro told us about. We realized we had to defeat them...
But it was hard. One of the others cast Legion Shield every round and the others had various attacks, but in the end they all fell to frog puke and Judgement. ^_^ (This boss battle isn't hard but it is long due to the constant spamming of Legion Shield. Also, if you don't kill Yoshinobu first, the others will do cheat attacks, I think. I dunno, it's been a long time since I fought this battle.)
"I feel as though a great evil has been ripped from my chest," moaned Yoshinobu as his eyes stopped glowing. "Only to leave a gaping hole."
"Were you brainwashed?" asked Christina.
"It was the pig demon Kaizoku!" moaned Yoshinobu. "He corrupted my soul with dark magic. I fear I am too weak in body to fight him..."
"If he's still here, we'll defeat him," I said bravely, gripping my staff.
"Let's go, Chrissie," I said. "Into the storm!"
We reached the top of the pagoda and found it soiled by pigs(and a dragon). I sneered. "You won't get away with what you did, you jerkwad! BRING IT ON!"
The battle was very difficult - Kaizoku threw up a shield that made it impossible to hurt him until we defeated his gang, and every time he got to attack, he made it rain fire that seared our skin. I was screaming inside as I saw Christina taking all the damage. She was going to fall in one hit, so I summoned all my power and called upon the Ninja Pigs to take him out; once his gang was defeated, Kaizoku's shield crumbled and he was destroyed.
(About Kaizoku - he will start the battle by proccing with a Tower Shield that reduces an attack by 75% and will keep refreshing it every turn until you destroy his minions. Also, every three turns he will proc with a Star-element attack that hits everyone for 50 damage per tier of the Pagoda - if you enter at Tier 3, it'll do 150 damage; at max tier[Tier 10] it does a whopping 500 damage! This also shatters all your shields so watch out! If you attack him with a wand hit before the end of the turn, he won't do that gimmick attack.)
"We did it!" I cried in joy as we did a victory dance. I know I was looking like a fool and so did Christina, but we deserved to be silly-looking after that battle. Somehow, that was a taste of what we were going to be facing in the far future...
"You know, I owe you an apology," I said after we stopped dancing.
"Really?" asked Christina, cocking a brow.
"Yeah," I said, smiling. "I was losing hope because Malistaire had gotten what he wanted - Dragonspyre and the Krokonomicon - but that doesn't mean he's won yet. I'm sure that me and Grace can finish this investigation, find out what Malistaire's up to, and stop him before he completes what he intends to do. This little sojourn has given me a sense of purpose... the first thing I need to do is help Mooshu's Emperor recover and undo the damage Malistaire did."
"That's the spirit, carrot fairy!" laughed Christina. She hugged me. "I'll go back to Dragonspyre and do more reconnaisance to see what he's up to. You just heal the Emperor."
I hugged her back. "Sure thing, big sis!"
"Don't call me that," she giggled.
"Only if you DON'T call me carrot fairy," I giggled back. I then noticed a strange book on the pedestal nearby. I touched it and it flew into my hands. I didn't notice Christina teleporting away as I read the first page. It was in ancient runes but I could understand them:
History of the Spiral
Thousands of years ago, the Spiral was once a single world created by the songs of the Great Tree and Grandmother Raven. The Great Tree sang and brought into existence the people of the Spiral, which had no name, and those he thought would rule over them - the great Dragons who were made of the Earth, the mighty Giants of the Sky and the wise Tritons of the Sea.
However, the three despises each other due to dark spirits and they created the great magics of Fire, Ice and Storm. Using these powers they sundered the world. Grandmother Raven and the Great Tree used their songs to put them into eternal slumber and bind the shattered worlds with magical skyways that kept them together. They formed a spiral of worlds and thus the universe we know of is thusly named The Spiral.
Never awaken Tiamas, the Dragon Titan, Ymir, the Giant Titan, or Exoboros, the Triton Titan... to do so will make them begin the war again and the world will be consumed in fire, ice and storm once more and all will be destroyed.
I shivered as I read the book and the runes faded away. The book was then blank, but the words chilled my spine. What could this mean? Could it be possible to awaken the ones who turned the Spiral into what it was today? I wasn't even born back then, but surely...
I swatted away the doubts and left the Pagoda. I had to go find a way to heal the Emperor.
(And that's the second gauntlet. I finally got the Spiral Cup bundle so I'll do that gauntlet when Sierra has finished Mooshu.)
[To be continued...]
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