The Battle of the Temple of the Abyss

Aiko was awakened in the dead of the night by a few Yureikin carting in an injured member of the Seishin no Senshi, also known as the Spirit Guardians. This was a group of warriors tasked with the responsibility of keeping Yureinochi safe from intruders as well as safe from unruly spirits within.

Yureinochi’s main line of defense against the outside was a series of mystical spirit veils. This ensured that any outsider trying to access Yureinochi through the bamboo forests in the south border or over the mountain crossings would become hopelessly lost until they decided to turn back. The veil was nearly impenetrable to those who had malicious intent in their hearts. It was one of the benefits the spirits of Yureinochi bestowed upon the fey there.

But it seems that outsiders had managed to get through. The injured man was Chase, also known as the Mercenary of Shadows. He was an outsider, but he had come to Yureinochi seeking redemption and proved himself trustworthy enough to be given a place among the Seishin no Senshi. Now, he was badly burned and bruised.

Aiko brought Mega quickly and she ate away his burned and lacerated flesh, leaving her sweet nectar in its place. Aiko told Chase to rest, but he warned her that there was no time to waste.

A group of intruders had indeed penetrated the spirit veils and were headed for Mt. Kageyama, which meant their likely target was the Temple of the Abyss. Whatever their intentions were, they could not be good. Even more troubling, they were a group of formidable warriors led by a powerful wizard. Chase’s patrol had been no match for them, he was the only survivor.

Aiko told Oscar to stay put and out of danger, but while she was readying her gear he secretly climbed inside her rucksack. He loved Aiko, and wouldn’t let her out of sight. He also knew that his presence helped her focus her spellcasting.

Mega wound her vines around Aiko like a harness and began latching onto the bamboo stalks with as many vines as she could muster, aided by Aiko’s magic. They began rapidly catapulting themselves through the canopy speed en route to the summit of Mt. Kageyama.

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When Aiko arrived at the temple she found that the outer defenses had already been breached. Dead monks and Yureikin warriors littered the grounds. It was the most brutal sight that Aiko had ever seen in Yureinochi. This was a land of peace. But now, someone had brought war to its most holy temple.

The eternal flame guarding the door to the subterranean Abyss was on the highest peak of the mountain. Aiko could see and hear the crashing of spells, flames, explosions, and battle cries. There were defenders who yet still lived. There was still hope to stop this.

Aiko heard a figure approaching at superhuman speed behind her. She slid to a stop. It was Warrior #13641, Captain of the Seishin no Senshi, and a warrior of omega-level might and skill.

“Aiko! Thank the spirits you’re here. We’ve reinforcements coming, but I’m the only one who could get here fast enough to stop them before it’s too late,” Atsuko was panting, but not too hard, “I’ve only seen Mega’s healing abilities, but can she fight?”

Aiko nodded, “She doesn’t like to, but she can fight. It looks like we don’t have a choice. Who could be doing this?”

Atsuko grimaced. “There’s only one type of wizard who could have got through the veils so quickly… who seems to know our lands so well. A Yureikin wizard. And there’s only one Yureikin who would do this. It has to be Nori… the Spirit Eater,” Atsuko practically spat the name in disgust, “But it doesn’t make sense, I thought we were safe from her. I ensured it.”

Aiko gasped. Yureikin were sworn by a sacred oath never to harm the spirits. If they grew violent they had to be banished to the Abyss, but never harmed. A Yureikin Ghost Eater was sacrilege. She couldn’t even conceive of such a thing.

Atsuko shook her head, “It doesn’t matter, we can’t waste any more time! No matter what, we can’t let them reach the Abyss or put out the sacred flame. To battle!”

Aiko and Atsuko raced through the temple grounds. Not all of the defenders were dead. Some were only wounded. It pained Mega and Aiko, but they didn’t have time to stop and help them. They couldn’t waste a minute.

They raced up a staircase and when they reached the top found themselves in a wide landing with the intruders. On the other side of the intruders stood two weary but resolute defenders about to make a last stand in front of the altar that contained the sacred flame.

These two warriors were Hades Death and Warrior #1559, both members of the Temple Tigers, the most elite group of warriors of the Senshin no Senshi. Hades was a tall muscular man with a huge shock of bleach blonde hair that made him appear nearly seven feet tall, an absolute chad.

Chihiro was an Oni woman who relied on speed, agility, and skill with her sword. They both had a fierce look on their face and appeared ready to fight to the death. A small robodog also stood with them while a disabled one could be seen in the foreground.

“Captain! They’re after the flame!” shouted Hades. “These demons showed us no mercy. I’ll kill them all!” he was frantic with bloodlust.

It was then that the wizard at the head of the group turned to face Aiko and Atsuko.

Atsuko’s jaw nearly dropped in astonishment. It was not Nori. It was her daughter, Ghost Eater Setsuko of the Citadel.

Atsuko had known Setsuko only as a child, many years ago, and not for very long. But it was Setsuko who had helped Atsuko weave a spell to protect Yureinochi from Nori forever. She hadn’t sensed any evil in the child, only fear. This didn’t make any sense.

“Setsuko!” shouted Atsuko, “What are you doing? You’ve killed so many. Why?”

Setsuko, her eyes gleaming with a dark, unfathomable energy, replied, "Revenge."

Atsuko's heart sank. The girl she once knew seemed lost to time and shadows. “Don’t do this! You can still stop and leave under the condition you never return.”

Setsuko's response was a maniacal laugh that echoed across the battlefield, “This place will be no more!”

With a swift motion, she raised an arm to the sky. A ring upon her finger scintillated with the magical power of all colors and then sent a wall of burning steam gushing at Aiko and Atsuko. Aiko felt an immense amount of power present in that ring. Mega hardened her vines to shield Aiko while Atsuko took cover behind her shield. Then, out of the dark mist came Setsuko cutting through the air with ghastly speed, her large scythe ready to reap blood.

The final chapter of the battle of the Temple of the Abyss had now begun.

Setsuko had brought five brutal warriors with her to this battle. They split into to groups to take on the foes on both sides of the clearing. Warrior #9380 supported Setsuko. She wielded a rare and wild weapon, the flamethrower, deadly in skilled hands and particularly effective against plant targets such as Mega.

Ryiza kept steady streams of flame pouring upon Mega’s vines, incinerating them before they could do any damage. She was shielded by a snarling hyena who jumped upon the growths and spore balls that Mega and Aiko tried to send her way.

Meanwhile, Setsuko launched strong, swift, and fierce attacks against Atsuko and Mega. She fought mainly with her scythe, fueled by dark strength and power by the spirits she had consumed over her lifetime. Her physical attacks were punctuated by blasts of wild magic and she also showed a strong affinity with the element of water, using steam to blind her enemies and vanish and ice to trap them and block their attacks. Finally, her familiar seemed to be a ghost itself, in the visage of a white cat. It would disappear and reappear creating distracting flashes and mirror images of itself.

Atsuko had faced Ghost Eaters before, they often sought to sneak into Yureinochi to catch powerful spirits with their guard down. They were formidable, but not this formidable.

Atsuko didn’t understand where Setsuko was drawing all this power from. She’d spotted a shimmering iridescent ring upon Setsuko’s finger as their blades clashed. But even that couldn’t explain how Setsuko was managing to simultaneously fend off both one of the most powerful wizards and most powerful warriors in the land. Atsuko had never seen anything like it.

On the other side of the battlefield. The remainder of Setsuko’s warriors were now meeting the charge of Hades and Chihiro.

This group consisted of two-toned women with striking silver hair and red horns who appeared to be twins or at least sisters. These were Warrior #7825 and Warrior #11919. Pippa tossed bombs and grenades into the fray while being protected by a vicious looking black honey badger. Sandra was more of a straight forward warrior, armed with battleaxe and shield.

Sandra met Hades and Chihiro face on with another member of their party, Warrior #12959, who was at the moment appeared literally possessed by a demon. She had grown nearly twice in side and no weapons, but rather her hands, forearms, and head had sprouted sharp bony claws and spikes. She fought like a wild woman with her boar Diablo alongside her.

The final member of the raiding party was Warrior #10838 who alternated sending arrows towards both sides of the battlefield. One of these arrows found a hole in Hades’ armor, but it seemed only to make him fight harder.

“They didn’t name me Hades Death for no reason you demon bitches!” he shouted as he heel slammed Diablo and then ducked under Incitata’s claws and cut her across the chest with his sword.

Hades and Chihiro had spent countless hours training together and were in an uncanny state of battle-sync. She locked up Sandra’s axe and her robodog was able to deliver a stunning shock. Then she knocked Sandra away and ran her blade straight through Incitata’s stomach. Hades followed suit.

Demonic energy began to swirl around the possessed woman and she began to shudder wildly. The blades were expelled violently backwards and Incitata returned to her original form, bloody and unconscious. Diablo sensed his master in danger and began dragging her from the battlefield.

Hades felt the sharp edge of a blade cut into the back of his shoulder and lodge itself there. He whipped around and caught Sandra across the face with the armored side of his gauntlet. Blood dripped from her mouth. Hades reached under his armpit with his good arm, snapped the shaft off the axe stuck in his armor and walloped Sandra across the head with extraordinary might. She collapsed to the ground.

“Now’s our chance, let’s take the center!” shouted Chihiro to Hades as she gestured to the relatively vulnerable archer and bomb thrower. They both grabbed their swords and charged down the hill towards Pippa and Tera.

Aiko and Atsuko were back on their heels, but two of Setsuko’s warriors were down. The tide seemed to be turning. Pippa sensed it too. She removed a massive red bomb from her belt and shouted to Ryiza on the other side of the battlefield, “Hail Mary! Light it up!”

Pippa tossed the bomb up in the air as the Temple Tigers were almost upon them. Ryiza shot out a stream of flame and held it on the airborne bomb until it exploded with a tremendous blast that sent Chihiro, Hades, Pippa, and Tera all flying.

Seeing an opening, Mega was able to finally wrap her vines around Ryiza and fling her clear out of the temple. Her hyena chased after her yelping in concern.

Atsuko was already growing exhausted fending off Setsuko’s relentless attacks. She could fight for hours, but she realized that with every strike Setsuko was also draining her lifeforce and energy. The blast from the bomb caused her guard to falter just enough that Setsuko was able to cut a nasty gash in Atsuko with her scythe. Atsuko stumbled and Setsuko saw the perfect angle to send forth a blast of water with the force of 1000 waterfalls which snapped the bones in Atsuko’s shin.

She fell to the ground defenseless. Setsuko could have ended her right there, but for a brief moment the visage of rage and cruelty on her face slipped, and Setsuko looked horrified. She turned and went for the sacred flame instead.

The battlefield was now clear of combatants save for Aiko and Setsuko, who looked strangely similar and even wore the same colors of clothing, a combination popular among the Yureikin. But that didn’t matter, they could not let Setsuko reach the flame.

Setsuko was within arms reach of the flame when she felt Mega’s viney tendrils constrict around her ankle and slam her into the ground. Mega wasted no time following up on the attack, she wrapped her vines around Setsuko in a vice, preventing her from casting any spells. Her head loomed close, a thousand sharp flesh eating teeth ready to deliver the final blow and end Setsuko’s night of terror.

Aiko, with tears streaming down her face, pleaded, "Setsuko, stop! We don’t want to kill you. Please, just stop!"

Setsuko could barely speak she was being squeezed so hard, “I’m sorry, but I can’t. I’m sorry. It’s bigger than me.”

Setsuko’s face was red and full of tears too. Whether they were tears of sadness or pain didn’t matter.

“I feel intense evil within her,” Mega communicated to Setsuko,* “I’m afraid to eat her, but I think I have to.”*

“Do it Mega, it’s not your fault. We just have to end it!”

Suddenly, Setsuko's eyes darkened, and a sinister laugh escaped her lips. Shadows began to pour from her mouth, coalescing into a creature—a dark, formless entity that revealed itself as the source of her unexplainable power.

The shadow creature laughed and snarled, then began to merge its tendrils with Mega’s vines. Then it dissipated into a smoky cloud, some of it’s smoky tentrils continued moving inside Mega’s vines while the rest entered her mouth. Mega writhed in agony as the darkness seeped into her. She felt her sadness and hesitancy to commit violence transform into hatred and anger. But, the transformation was going deeper than the present moment. The shadow that had been corrupting Setsuko was now corrupting Mega.

“Aiko! What’s happening to me?” cried Mega. “I’m scared.”

Aiko could feel the corruption too, for she and Mega were one. What happened to one of them happened to both of them. She felt feelings and emotions enter her heart that had never been there before. Dark feelings.

They were both too exhauted and drained from the battle to resist this creature. It had been waiting there like a trap, ready to pounce if Setsuko couldn’t complete her task.

Oscar poked his head out of Aiko’s sack, “Aiko! Fight it!”

But Aiko couldn’t fight it, and neither could Mega. It was in them and it was only a matter of moments before it would take them over.

Aiko looked into the sacred flame as shadows flickered across her mind. All she could see was the flame.

“Don’t let it take me Aiko, please!”

“I won’t Mega. I’ll protect you to the end. And we’ll be together.”

Aiko managed to shrug off her rucksack and it fell to the ground behind her.

“I love you both,” Aiko said to Mega and Oscar, tears still streaming down her face.

She grabbed Aiko’s trunk in her arms and held it like she did that first night in the cave. She felt safe and she knew that no matter what things were going to be ok, because they were going to be together, forever. She would never like Mega become a monster.

So, she did the only thing she could do to stop the shadow from taking Mega from her. With a heart full of a lifetime of love and memories, she ran into the flame.

Entered by: 0x9A86…1586