The Tale of the Elemental Stones - Book 2

The Elements Shift

The Prophecy

“Three Elements Converge,

Three Elements Aligned,

The World will see peace one more time

Three Elements Opposed

Three Elements Unaligned,

The World will descend into chaos one more time

Prologue

“Is this what you consider progress?” a skeletal figure who seemed to be perpetually hidden in shadow beneath his jet black hood asked, looking down at hundreds of workers. They seemed to be working on a palace. It was huge, with walls in every direction and a pristine marble floor. A few guards stood watch on the sides.

“General Spyro, sir, it’ll take maybe two to three weeks more to complete- it is a very large project, sir.” A skinny man whimpered, frightened. 

General Spyro put his sword to the skinny man’s neck. General Spyro’s sword was radiating with a dark aura, striking fear into everything around it. The skinny man almost passed out from the fear. “Disappointing. I expected more from you all. Remember, for the success of the Elemental Alliance.” General Spyro replied. 

“For the success of the Elemental Alliance!” the skinny man repeated, as General Spyro withdrew his sword and paced away.

Not far from where General Spyro had just left, there was a janky old prison cell. Rin slowly stood up, her body beaten and tired. Heavy sounding footsteps accompanied by the jingle of armor made their way towards her. As she looked up, she noticed a familiar face. “Get up, and follow us.” Bronx said, and started walking away, a troop of guards following him. Rin eyed them, and noticed that they looked tired and war-torn, but still wore a smile on their faces, What is going on here?, she thought.

“What is this? What happened?” Rin asked, nervous. She looked around, and saw that she was in some kind of dark and rocky area. Even with her eyes open, she could barely make out Bronx and the rest of the guards, and saw a few wooden planks lining the walls, and some kind of door. There seemed to be some kind of light seeping through the gaps of the wooden planks, suggesting that she was near the surface. 

Rin was still in disbelief about what had just happened with the weird stone and mysterious people, and still didn’t know how long it had been since Tempest was destroyed. She knew two things - she had to figure out what was behind the ice stone she had found, and second, escape. She quickly rescanned her memories. So, I escaped from Tempest, and wandered around until I rested in a weird cave and woke up in a mountainous icy area, and some kind of ice dragon attacked me? Everything there was a blur, then I woke up next to the ice stone, and now this?

Rin followed Bronx and the soldiers outside, and realized her theory was right- it was a jail cell, with wooden walls and a hard stone floor. She walked out onto a dirt pathway- she knew this was even farther north than Tempest, because there was snow on the pathway- most likely just under the Frostbite Icelands.

Rin’s eyes widened as she saw what was in front of her- a huge castle, with azure, perhaps gemstone spires and a grand marble floor. She was shocked she had never seen or heard of this before. Even the most famous mainland architecture was no match for this. “What on earth? What is this? How?” She exclaimed, still shocked, barely able to catch her words. 

“You will soon understand, or well, you won’t need to.” Bronx replied, as they got to the castle gates. Rin saw there were many guards stationed around the palace. Maybe these guys were the cause of those ice creatures? They were looking for that stone I found, which is definitely related to those ice creatures, Rin thought, her suspicion growing as she came to her senses. 

She cast discrete glances for exits and ways to escape, but they were all guarded by mysterious guards in armour, wielding elemental swords. Can’t exactly run, I'll have to figure out a sneakier way to get out of here, she thought, as Bronx and the guards entered some sort of laboratory. They told Rin to sit down, and some kind of scientist appeared. “The elemental wielder is here, do what you need to do.” Bronx said, and they left. Everything suddenly went black.

Chapter 1: The Start of the Expedition

After a long few weeks of training, Kuzo was now much more confident in his skills and he and the rest of Reserve Division 9 were ready to set off on the expedition to scope out the lands. 

“Today’s finally the day that we get some action.” Zack said, almost seeming excited, despite how dangerous this was going to be. 

“Logistics, logistics… Damn logistics! As if I didn’t have enough to do! Learning about defense against the ice creatures, supplies and gear for weeks out there, setting up camp and mental preparations as well! I don’t have time to be pushing paper.” Leonidas said, pacing around the tent. “There’s a chance some of us won't come back from this, and you all should understand that.” Leonidas continued. 

“Yes, sir.” Crow replied smartly, and the rest of them nodded in unison. 

“We’ll set off in a few hours, Gem, I trust you’ve taken care of our provisions?” Leonidas asked, walking towards Gem. 

“Yeah, I've managed to scavenge together enough food for at least 2 weeks for all of us, as long as we ration ourselves properly.” Gem replied, hauling out 2 big bags of rations. 

“We can’t carry this all, it’s way too heavy,” Calem remarked, sizing up the food Gem had brought. 

“Yeah, we can only shoulder about 3 days worth of food each, which means we’ll have to make a base camp somewhere near where the concentration of some ice creatures are detected.” Leonidas agreed. 

“We still don’t know the ice creature’s weakness or how to fight them yet,” Zack said worriedly, as he tested the edge of his Iron Sword, which was his only weapon, and some cheap armour to protect him, which probably wouldn’t work very well.. 

“That’s what the expedition is for. Not to end them, but learn what makes them tick. Anyways, we should get going.” Leonidas said, and they advanced their final preparations.

An hour later, RD9, composed of Leonidas, Kuzo, Crow, Gem, Calem, Zack, and Red had left the mainland and were now riding on horseback. 

“Are we close to the first confirmed sightings?” Gem asked Red. Red was the navigator of the expedition, and took a look at his map.

 “About a quarter of a day’s ride north, there’s a ruined village that ice creatures were spotted at,” Red replied. 

“It’s too close to the mainland to set up camp there, so let’s hope to scout the area before sunset and find a place to set up camp.” Leonidas instructed.

Soon, the group arrived at the abandoned village. Ice covered the walls of the buildings, with debris everywhere. The temperature was not only cold, but hard. Hard enough to break a man's spirit like so many shards of ice.

 “Shh… Calem, Crow, go scout out the area and where the ice creatures are. Our goal here is to find out how to defeat them and their weaknesses.” Leonidas explained, and Calem and Crow quickly scooted away from their hiding places and creeped into the abandoned village. 

“Look there! It’s a few ice creatures!” Calem whispered, and Crow nodded. They spotted a small gathering of ice creatures, including humans, and farm animals like pigs, cows, and even chickens were roaming around the village aimlessly. 

“There’s a straggler, let’s try to take it down.” Crow whispered to Calem, and the two moved forward towards the ice chicken who was pecking through some hay in a corner of the village. Calem jumped forward and attacked the ice chicken with his sword. However, the sword just bounced off the ice chicken, who pounced on Calem. No! I heard if they attack you, you become one of them! Calem thought, deftly jumping back and dodging the attack. 

Calem tried to attack again, but it was no use. The chicken was agile, dodging most of his attacks, and his sword only delivered a glancing blow, not affecting the chicken’s cold hard skin at all. When Calem noticed that the chicken clucked and had alerted the remainder of the horde, he made a run for it. He peeked behind him, and the entire pack of ice creatures were pursuing him.

“Over here!” Crow called out, and Calem jumped into the bush, successfully losing the ice creatures for the time being. “Keep quick on your feet, the rest of them are close,” Crow said, and Calem followed him. Calem nervously took a sip of water from his water , praying the creatures would not hear the crunch of snow underfoot.  After what seemed like hours, they finally cleared the dense forest, where the rest of RD9 was waiting.

“How did it go?” Leonidas asked, worried. 

“Terrible. The ice creatures were completely unfazed by my attacks, and they were pretty strong too. Only minutes into the fight, the ice chicken alerted the packs and I had to run.”, Calem said, still shivering.

“Now imagine an ice polar bear. something that strong would be impossible to take out,” Gem said, scared.

“We need a sample of the ice creature’s DNA for the scientists to examine and maybe develop a way to defeat them. The scouts reported that there’s a concentration of ice creatures about a day away from there, so we’ll head there tomorrow.” Leonidas instructed. 

“Okay,” Kuzo replied. This is bad. The ice creatures are immune to our attacks, and we’re going to look for more of them?, he thought. At that moment, he almost regretted his choice to join the army. Sure, he was avenging his home, but the thought of him dying or getting corrupted by the ice creatures left shivers running down his spine.

A short time later, the group left the area, entering a more mountainous area. “Never been here before,” Crow mentioned, looking at the tall mountains ahead. 

“These are pretty dangerous parts, so you probably wouldn’t have been here before. The mountain passes are treacherous and slippery, and who knows what are in the caves down there.” Leonidas said, looking at Crow.

“Well, we definitely can’t climb the mountain,” Gem said, looking up at the steep mountain towering above them. 

“We’ll have to pass through Rustiron Mine. It used to be a large mining site for all sorts of materials, especially iron- legends say there’s even a special type of mineral named Skyiron that can only be found here, However, nobody’s used this mine for decades, so it’s very abandoned. Oh, by the way, this mountain, Skyflame Mountain, used to be a volcano, but it’s now extinct” he finished, putting away his map. 

“Alright, does everyone have their things ready, we’ll head inside the mine now.” Leonidas announced, and the lead element of the group started making their way inside the mine. While he was saying this, the team was already getting ready. Red and Gem were talking about plans, and Kuzo was munching through a piece of bread. Zack took a moment to step back and admire  the tall and majestic mountains, noticing the sound of falling rocks and even a waterfall high up on the mountain. Birds screeched from the skies, and there were no signs of humans or manmade artefacts anywhere.

The Rustiron Mine was old, with cobwebs on the granite ceilings and wooden arches around the walls. Within were minecarts and old rusty rails on the floor, making the whole space just feel claustrophobic. “I’m not liking this place compared to how nice it looked outside,” Zack said, shivering. 

“It’s getting darker,” Crow mentioned, as they were getting further away from the entrance, and any lighting inside was long gone. The smell of the iron was getting stronger, and the group felt decay in the air- like uncovering a decade old time capsule.

“We’ll be nearing a big cave entrance soon," Red said, lighting a torch. Soon, the group entered the huge cavern. 

“Wow, this is mesmerizing,” Kuzo said, looking at the huge gemstones, and different rocks and minerals littered all over the cavern. The light from Red’s torch flickered against the wall, shadows dancing along the walls of the cavern, making the gemstones seem shiny at a glance.

“There’s three pathways at the end of this cavern,” Gem noticed, stumped and visibly worried about their change in fortune, sweat dripping down her long black hair. 

“Look, there’s signs here, but they’re kind of hard to make out.” Crow looked at a sign in front of one of the pathways, it read “Iro- M-n-”. “I presume it means iron mine, so not this one. Gem read the one in front of her. “Ex-t”. “The exit! It’s this one, guys!” Gem exclaimed excitedly, waving those nearby over with her hands while looking at the sign. 

Meanwhile, Kuzo was in front of the third sign. “What, I can’t read this,” he said, scrutinizing the sign. “Bl----- o-- Se----- D--g--” “It’s kind of been rubbed off, and it’s also really long.” Kuzo pointed out, and started to head towards Gem.

“These kids are in our way,” Bronx said, looking down at Kuzo and the rest of the team. Zenith and Bronx had been scouting out the upper levels of the mine, and they stood perched above a large stone platform above the cavern.

“Who knows, they might have already taken some of the Skyiron. We can’t let them escape after having been here.” Zenith said, drawing his sword and running down the path back to the main cavern, Bronx and his other soldiers following.

Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity as Zenith, Bronx, and a few of the pursuing soldiers dressed in full black jumped out behind Kuzo. “Who are you?” Leonidas asked, pacing backwards. 

“It’s quite simple, really, we’re here to take you out,” Zenith said, charging forward, attacking Leonidas with his Damascus steel sword. Leonidas struggled to parry, then tried launching a counterattack. Meanwhile, Bronx and the other soldiers were attacking Kuzo and the rest of them. Kuzo locked swords with one of the soldiers, and managed to jump back. Zack jumped to help Kuzo, his iron sword striking one of the soldier’s black armour. Red, only armed with a small iron dagger, was unable to attack, but taking hold of the shield, he had an easy time defending his attacker. Calem and Gem were left to face Bronx and a second soldier. 

“He’s strong!” Calem said, struggling to fight against Bronx. Seeing Calem and Gem’s struggle, Kuzo pivoted from his fight, and launched a sneak attack on Bronx, which scored a direct hit on his left hand.

 “Ow!” Bronx grunted, as he continued to defend. Elsewhere in the scrum, Leonidas was not faring well against Zenith. Not only was Zenith slightly better than Leonidas at swordfighting, his gear was much better. His Damascus steel sword was of the highest quality, and outclassed Leonidas’s iron sword. Only after a minute, Zenith had disarmed Leonidas, only leaving Leonidas with his shield. Red saw this, but he had to focus on his own fight, as his defense was faltering.

Back over on the other side of the cave, Zack and the soldier were still exchanging blows. These enemies are rich, they all have steel swords or better, but  I can take this one, he thought, as he launched a counterattack, successfully getting under his opponent's sword. The soldier stumbled back, unleashing a last ditch attack, which snapped Zack’s sword clean in half. No! Zack thought, as the soldier got up and launched a counterattack, which Zack struggled to parry with a shortened sword. Just as the soldier was about to make the final blow, thoughts flashed through Zack’s mind. I gave up everything for this. My home, my friends, my family, I can’t die now! He sidestepped, then jumped and lunged, somehow finding a chink in the soldier's armour and piercing through to deliver a mortal wound. The soldier fell backwards heavily, as Zack stumbled, celebrating his victory even as he collapsed on the ground from exhaustion. 

Kuzo parried Bronx’s powerful attacks, pacing back and forth. “Don’t resist, you’ll fail anyways!” Bronx exclaimed, laughing. His huge body made even Leonidas look tiny in comparison. His large steel Claymore flashed and sang as it cut through the air, his strength not faltering even for a moment. Kuzo couldn’t find an opening for an attack, and just hoped that someone was going to help him. As if on cue, Gem and Calem struck down the opponent and Calem dashed to help Red, while Gem ran over and helped Kuzo. Their combined efforts were enough to take down Bronx, they mobbed him, surrounding him from both sides, and Bronx fell over with wounds all over his body. 

“He’s not dead,” Gem said, kicking his body. “I know, we shouldn’t kill while he can’t fight, that would make us as bad as him- but don’t mind if I do take his Claymore. Zack will probably love it, and his sword broke anyways.”, Kuzo said, taking the large steel sword from Bronx’s body, then rushed to help the rest of them. Red and Calem had taken down the last soldier, which only left Zenith and Leonidas. Leonidas’s shield was shredded, and Zenith was preparing for his final blow, but Kuzo, Gem, Calem, and Red came just in time, jumping in front of Leonidas and pushing away Zenith. As Zenith regained his footing, he quickly looked around, and seeing that all of his soldiers had fallen, he made a break for it. 

“Phew, that was close. How’s Leonidas looking? And Zack, too.” Kuzo asked, as Gem was tending to Leonidas’s wounds.

 “He’s looking pretty bad. He’s got wounds all over him, we need to get him to a medic soon.” Gem reported,

“Wayward Town is just ahead, we can stop there to rest,” Red said, looking at his map again.

“Zack’s doing fine, his body’s beaten pretty badly though,” Calem said, carrying Zack. 

In the corner of Kuzo’s eye, he saw a shiny piece of metal, and he walked towards it. Some kind of mineral, maybe the Skyiron Red was talking about? I better take some, it might be useful later, Kuzo thought, picking up the piece of metal and walking towards the group.

We should probably tie up that big guy, and figure out why they attacked us. They seemed weird anyways, Gem thought, but when she looked back, Bronx was gone.

Later, when the group had reached the exit of Rustiron Mine, Red took note of the ore in Kuzo’s hand. “Yup, that seems like Skyiron, I heard Wayward Town has a blacksmith, we’ll take it there and see if we can make that into a weapon of sorts.” Red said. 

The group, now steeled by the weight of the enemy weaponry now in their hands, seemed much more ready, as the concentration of elemental creatures and Wayward Town loomed in the distance.

Chapter 2: Wayward Town

After a short bit of travel, the group reached Wayward Town right as the night fell. Leonidas and Zack were still unconscious, so the group rushed straight to an infirmary to get them treated.

Wayward Infirmary was the only infirmary in Wayward Town. Wayward Town was quite small- the only people who really lived there were merchants. Wayward Town was an intersection between the mainland and lots of other nearby settlements. Most of those pathways were blocked by ice creatures, so business wasn’t as booming now. Stalls on the streets were mostly empty, but normally it was bustling with people, with merchants selling armour, weapons, food, and more. 

While Calem and Red took Zack and Leonidas to the infirmary, Kuzo, Gem, and Crow went to the Wayward Inn, (also the only inn in the town), and secured small rooms for each member of RD9. 

In the middle of the night, Kuzo woke up, scared. He grabbed his sword and went outside. Out of his small window, Kuzo caught Crow practicing his sword strikes on a wooden post outside. It’s really late out, why’s Crow training now? Kuzo left his room and went to chat with Crow. 

“What are you doing out here at this hour?” Kuzo asked, interested. 

“I’m just training. I need to be as strong as possible for this adventure- I might not make it out alive.” Crow replied seriously. 

Kuzo chuckled, drawing his training sword. “Up for a friendly duel?” he asked.

“Definitely.” Crow replied, drawing a training sword of his own. The two friends dueled throughout the night, sounds of blunted steel clanging out into the darkness beyond the inn. 

The next day, Calem and Crow went to check on Zack and Leonidas, while Gem went to buy supplies and food. Meanwhile, Kuzo and Red went to look for the rumored blacksmith who could use the Skyiron they found to forge a weapon.

“Here it is, Skystone Forge, the only blacksmith here in Wayward Town,” Red said, knocking on the door. 

“Visitors? Who is it?” a gruff old voice asked.

 “We’re here to ask for some help with forging Skyiron.” Kuzo replied. 

“Skyiron? Pah. That doesn’t exist. Kids these days.” the gruff old replied from behind the massive wooden door. Kuzo then took out the piece of Skyiron he found and showed it the wizened face peeking through the window of the forge.

“Blimey! It is Skyiron. I didn't know it existed!” the gruff old voice exclaimed, shocked. He immediately swung open the door. 

Hephaestus was the owner of Skystone Forgery. “Name’s Hephaestus. I’m named after the Greek blacksmith god, and I’m trying to live up to my namesake.” Hephaestus explained. He was old and short, with a tuft of grey hair on his head, and a huge orange beard, with shots of grey in it showing his age. He examined the piece of Skyiron, and got even more interested. “How’d you get this? How’d you even get to Wayward Town, with all the ice creatures near here. No- it couldn’t be,” Hephaestus wondered.

“Yeah, we did pass through Rustiron Mine, and I found this piece of Skyiron inside it.” Red explained, handing the Skyiron to Hephaestus.

“That explains it- Skyiron was always fabled to be there- I used to want to go there, but my folks never allowed me to- now I'm too old.” Hephaestus sighed. “I suppose you want me to forge this into a sword? I heard Skyiron has magical properties.” Hepheastus asked.

“Yeah, definitely. How much gold would you want for the job?” Kuzo asked. 

“Don’t need any. Just working with Skyiron is an honour already. I’ll be sure to make the hilt and cross-guard as nice as possible as well.” Hephaestus said, chuckling. 

“You’re too kind- thank you so much!” Kuzo and Red said, exiting the forgery. “What do we do in the meantime?” Kuzo asked.

“We should probably check on Zack and Leonidas.” Red said, and the two started heading to the infirmary.

“How are they doing?” Kuzo asked Calem, who was outside the infirmary.

“Leonidas is still unconscious. Medics said he’s gonna need at least two more days. Zack’s awake and recovering.” Calem reported. 

“Any updates on the ice critters?” Red asked. 

“Well, I've heard that a different expedition has been completely massacred, and the ice creatures are getting closer and closer to the mainland. In fact, the mainland, Wayward Town, Lizalin City, and Rockfollow Village are the only populated places in the north that aren’t overrun by ice creatures.” Calem said.

“That’s really bad news, I better head off to train then.” Kuzo said, and walked off. 

Meanwhile, Gem was walking around Wayward Town, trying to buy supplies for the group. We’re almost out of food- where are all the merchants? I always used to come here shopping with my parents- there were merchants everywhere- better ask someone. Gem thought, looking confused. She saw a local walking around and walked over to him. “Hey, where are all the merchants? I’m looking to buy some supplies.” Gem asked. 

“Merchants? Have you not heard of what happened? Most of them immediately fled hearing about the ice creatures, which are now surrounding the town- I’m not sure how long it’ll be till the ice creatures get here- and anyways, there’s not many paths coming here that aren’t blocked by ice creatures anyways, so there’s pretty much no one here- how’d you get here, anyways?” the local said, confused. 

“We passed through Rustiron Mine,” Gem replied.

“That place? I thought it was dangerous- well anyways, there are still a few merchants here- that house over there someone sells food, I think, gear and armor over there, and other useful items over there.” the local said, pointing to a few different buildings.

“Alright, thanks!” Gem replied and walked off. I think we’ll need as much food as we can get- we could get some extra gear, but money is quite short- and I’ll check out the useful items as well. Gem thought, knocking on the door that the local said the food merchant was in. 

“What do you want?” A voice said from inside the house. 

“I need supplies, I have money,” Gem said, as the door to the house opened.

“Don’t got much meat right now, but I have thirty loaves of bread and a couple of apples and other foods too.” The merchant said. He was carrying a big backpack, and wore a purple hat. 

“I’ll take twenty loaves of bread, seven apples, five oranges, and six grape clusters.” Gem said, looking at the merchant’s inventory.

“That’s quite a lot, that will be twenty-two gold.” the merchant said. Gem handed him most of the gold she had and stored the food in her rucksack. Only eighteen gold left, not much I can buy. Gem thought. While she was walking toward the house that sold weapons and armor, the door of that house opened and the merchant stumbled outside. Seeing Gem looking at him, the merchant walks toward you.

“I’m leaving the town right now- I suppose you want to buy some gear?” the merchant said. 

“Yeah, I'm a bit short on gold, but what do you have?” Gem asked, looking at the merchant’s inventory.

“Iron swords are five gold each, but steel’s gonna run ya fifteen. We have shields, a wooden one for two, iron for four, and steel for twelve. Armor’s a bit on the expensive side, though.” the merchant said. 

“I’ll take an iron sword and two iron shields,” Gem said, handing the merchant the thirteen gold.

“Pleasure doing business with you! I’ll be off now.” the merchant said, walking off. 

Five gold left, Gem thought, and walked towards the last house. The door came clean open. “Hello?” Gem asked, confused. There was a piece of paper on the table. Gem picked it up and began reading. 

Hey, to anyone who finds this.

You don’t need to know who I am

Please deliver the letter next to this piece of paper 

to a man named Lucas in Sullen Island in the south

I know it’s a far way, but please do it if you can- the world hangs in the balance

Don’t open or read it, just know that it’s important

Also, take these two things as a thank-you gift

The first is medicine- it’ll quickly heal most wounds

The second is a book that has some secret swordfighting techniques that’ll help you on your journey

Thank you!

Your friend

Gem put the piece of paper and the letter along with the medicine and book in her backpack. That’s weird, I'll make sure to deliver this letter to Lucas soon- it seems pretty important, Gem thought, and headed to the infirmary to meet up with the group. 

After a quick meal at the Wayward Tavern, Kuzo, Calem, Crow, and Gem arrived at the training grounds, while Red went to check on Hephaestus. 

While walking to the forge to check on Hephaestus’s progress, Red was thinking about the team’s fight styles and how they might defeat ice creatures. Kuzo prefers fighting in a quick and agile style, Calem likes an aggressive style, Crow prefers dodging and launching counterattacks, and Gem has a straightforward but strong style. A tanky style wouldn’t work, because the ice creatures could turn you from just one hit, so Kuzo and Crow’s styles would probably be best, if we actually knew how to defeat them, anyways, Red thought.

Kuzo jumped forward, dodging a couple of Calem’s powerful attacks then launched a sneaky counterattack which scored a direct hit. “You’ve certainly gotten more wily than when we first met- but my attacks are like the wind!” Calem exclaimed, launching a flurry of attacks. 

Kuzo just managed to dodge, and launched a counterattack, which bounced harmlessly off Calem’s shield. “Ugh! Your defense is good, too!” Kuzo exclaimed, jumping back.

“You’ll have to do better than that to pierce through my defense!” Calem exclaimed. Just as they were about to clash again, Red ran into the training grounds. 

“Kuzo! Hephaestus is almost done making the weapon- it’s really cool! Come check it out!” Red hollered, and ran in the direction of the forgery, with Kuzo close behind. 

Hephaestus held up the Skyiron sword in his hand. The blade was pure white, and almost glowing- it had a light blue hilt, with a small gem inside the crossguard. “Wow! This sword is so cool!” Kuzo exclaimed, admiring the blade. 

“Probably my best work yet,” Hephaestus said. “You know, there used to be lots of legends that spoke of Skyiron and its creation- they said a goddess once descended from the heavens while the world was at war- the goddess summoned three dragons to help her seek peace and stop the war- and once the world was at peace, the spirits of the dragons turned into the three sacred flames and their scales and body turned into Skyiron. They say if you temper a Skyiron sword at each of these sacred flames- which are in Din Mountain, Rockfollow Village, and Sullen Island, the sword will be imbued with special capabilities of that  flame. Of course, I don’t know how true this is, but since Skyiron really does exist, who knows what can be true these days.” Hephaestus explained.

“Wow, that’s a cool story, I think I'll name this sword Goddess, after the goddess who created the dragons and Skyiron in the first place. Thanks a lot!” Kuzo said.

“It’s my pleasure!” Hephaestus replied as Kuzo and Red walked off.

“Man, that sword is cool.” Red said, marveling at the sword Kuzo was now swinging around.

“It is kind of magical- I can feel a slight breeze kicking up around me just when I hold it- but it’ll need some practice to bring out the true capability of the blade.” Kuzo replied.

(P.S. This lore and the sword itself, and the sacred flames which will appear later are loosely based of LOZ Skyward Sword but of course things are pretty different)

Back at the training grounds, Kuzo was testing out his new sword. “How’d you get that?! That’s made out of something I've never seen before, and also seems VERY expensive!” Calem exclaimed. 

“It’s made out of Skyiron, the weird glowing ore I found back at Rustiron Mine. Hephaestus, the blacksmith here generously forged it into this sword for me.” Kuzo said. 

“It is certainly a marvelous blade,” Crow said, still practicing his skills.

“It apparently has some magical properties, so I'll probably test them out here.” Kuzo explained, preparing to attack a wooden post.

“Anything can happen these days,” Red remarked, rolling his eyes, thinking back to the ice creatures.

Kuzo jumped forward, however everything around him seemed to be moving slowly. The sword made him blindingly quick, dashing from side to side, however he couldn’t control the speed and crashed into the wall. “Ow! This is tough to control- gotta go slower.” Kuzo said, already visibly tired. He started with a different approach- he focused all his energy into a single strike- a visible white aura encircled the blade, and Kuzo charged forward, and cut the wooden post clean in half. “So this sword can both add speed and strength! Awesome!” Kuzo exclaimed excitedly, sheathed his sword back in the light blue scabbard that Hephaestus had also given him.

The next few days, while Leonidas and Zack finished recovering, the group continued to train up and was ready to head to the concentration of elemental creatures.

Chapter 3: The Elemental Den

Sealstone Cave was right ahead, just a bit more than a day’s worth of travel from Wayward Town. It used to be in a royal forest, back when the continent was controlled by King Leon, so it had many deer and boar, which explained the large concentration of elemental creatures there. The group took a short break in the woods.

“Why did the creatures all go into Sealstone Cave instead of staying out here in the woods? The scenery is nice, the temperature is great,” Zack rambled, munching through an apple. 

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Leonidas replied, getting up and signaling for the group to head inside the cave.

Sealstone Cave felt very different from Rustiron Mine. It didn’t smell dusty or old, and the walls were lined with flat ancient runic glyphs. The air felt cold, and a blue glow shone from within the cavern. Suddenly, Crow heard a noise from the right- an ice boar jumped out at him, and Crow swiftly parried. “We need to get some samples of their fur for the lab!” Leonidas called out, helping Crow with defending against its attacks. Kuzo remembered one of the skills his sword gave him, which he called Wind Burst- although it didn’t hurt enemies it pushed them back. He thought it would be very useful to push back the ice creatures. He used the technique, and the ice boar was sent flying away, running back in fear.

The group pushed on, entering the main cave area. Dozens of boars, deers, and other critters resided in the center. “Alright, I'll use this pouch and tool to get some fur from the critters,” Leonidas whispered, “You guys need to distract and defend from the critters while I extract the fur,” he continued, as they jumped into the main cave. The critters reacted instantly. The boar’s ears perked up, the deer started charging, and bats dropped in from the ceiling. The group held up their shields, while Leonidas sneaked around looking for the perfect opportunity to get some fur from a nearby boar and deer. 

“Hold the defense!” Red yelled, his large shield slowly being chipped away by the boars, while Kuzo stood next to him, repeatedly pushing back the ice creatures, buying time for Leonidas. Leonidas saw an opening, jumping in and snipping away at the bristly mane running along the spine of a nearby ice boar, and jumped back. The ice boar alerted its hodgepodge of allies, but luckily, Leonidas jumped back. 

Suddenly, a loud bang rang across the cavern. Kuzo noticed that a large part of the towering wall had been destroyed. The entire cavern became misty- he could only see the icy blue eyes of the ice creatures piercing through the fog. Suddenly, the tinkling sounds of what seemed like thousands of shards of glass moving against each other rang out. A shadowy outline of what seemed to be some sort of gigantic dragon that seemed to float just beyond the opening. Are my eyes deceiving me? A dragon? I must be going crazy, maybe it’s a bird or something. Leonidas was just in the middle of collecting some of an ice deer's fur as he laid his eyes on the ice dragon in front of him. Just the mere sight of it made him freeze. Its eyes were a lifeless ice blue, with cold, grey scales, with ice spikes lining its back. The ice dragon growled, sounding like boulders crashing together, a cold, icy, breath coming out of its mouth, sending chills down everyone’s spine. Its wings kicked up, blowing back Leonidas, and in a split second, the ice dragon leapt forward, sinking its claws into Leonidas’s back. Kuzo rushed forward to help, but it was too late, and the ice began to creep up behind Leonidas’s back. 

“Please, deliver this to the scientists in the mainland…” Leonidas groaned as with a last-ditch effort was able to toss the pouch to Kuzo, as the ice completely consumed him and he rose up, with the same lifeless eyes as the ice creatures, stumbling towards Kuzo. 

Kuzo, stricken with fear, sprinted towards the exit, not looking back. “Kuzo!! RUN!! We’ll hold them off!” Calem yelled, struggling to parry with his shield. Kuzo activated his sword’s ability, and in a flash, exited the cave. Failing to process everything that just happened, Kuzo stumbled around the forest, collapsing.

Interlude“I will not accept another failure like this again! Understood?” a voice echoed throughout the Elemental Alliance’s castle that had just been completed. 

“We are very sorry about this failure, and it will not happen again.” Zenith said, Bronx by his side. 

“However, the Skyiron is gone, and it will be forever. It was only created thanks to the Elemental Awakening, and there will not be more of it. So the only way to obtain it now is to kill that boy, Kuzo.” the voice echoed, 

“It will be done. About the prophecy, we have obtained reasonable evidence that Lucas and his father have been researching the second half of the prophecy. We’ve captured the father, but he’s not telling us anything. Lucas’s location is unknown as well.” Zenith said.

“Remember, that prophecy is vital for the success of the Elemental Alliance. I expect Lucas here, and soon.” the voice echoed, and faded away.

Epilogue

“The transformation of the first elemental wielder is complete.”, Augustus, a scientist of the Elemental Alliance reported. 

“Amazing progress, now that Subject R1 is complete, we have full control of the ice creatures and Subject R1’s abilities. Training will begin soon.”, General Spyro explained, and excited the laboratory, Subject R1 following. It had seemed that Rin had lost all consciousness. She was wearing a mysterious metallic suit, with a metallic grey mask, with shiny blue eyes. “Attack!” General Spyro commanded, and Subject R1 sent a perfectly timed ice beam, which decimated the training post. General Spyro laughed. Even though the enemy had managed to get the Skyiron, with full control of the ice element, he thought that the mainland wouldn’t stand a chance.

Meanwhile, far south on the continent, fires started burning. The trees lit ablaze, and from it.. Fires scorched the lands, with fire creatures rising from the ashes. The next Elemental Awakening was afoot. 

On Sullen Island, Lucas was pacing about. “Where’s Dad? He should’ve brought the second half by now,” he thought aloud, as he looked on the horizon, seeing the fires coming. “The Second Awakening! I need to go- now.” he said, and mounted his horse, running off. Far underground, a shrine with an empty pedestal lit up with orange flames, as a fire stone was forming. The second elemental wielder was soon to be revealed. 

To Be Continued in Book 3