On the day where the sun turned black, and night fell across the lush plains of the Errant Wilderness, three silhouettes flitted towards an almost unnoticeable cave. Looking more like a small hole in the ground, the entrance forebodingly awaited the new arrivals, spewing a sickening stench of evil qi. Their eyes gleam a fiery red in the dark, and their black clothing blended them into the night. One of the cloaked shadows approached the one in front and said, "Lord Ru, are you sure you want to continue on this path? It is more dangerous than I thought...something or someone is blocking my scrying of this place."
Lord Ru narrowed his eyes and looked wistfully into the cave, "The evil qi coming from this location has his scent. What sort of lord would I be if I let him go a second time?! No Tian, I knew what would await us here, and I am prepared to give my life if necessary."
"I'm sorry my lord, but I can't let you sacrifice yourself. The kingdom needs your protection!! If I were you I'd ——"
"Enough Tian!! Nothing you can say or do will stop me from killing the black-marked. My last request to you both is for you to stay here in case he tries to escape. I don't want to hear anymore on the matter."
The third shadow, who was usually incredibly quiet said in a breathy voice, "Be careful in there my lord. Please...don't die....I need you." Hati peered at Lord Ru with her glistening orange eyes. Looking carefully, one could see a small rainbow spiral in the center of her pupil, slowly rotating.
"I don't plan on it Hati" Lord Ru have her a cheeky grin looking back, and then jumped straight down into the unknown.
Hati and Tian slowly backed away from the cave, eyes jumping from shadow to shadow. "We'll each take opposite sides of the hole. We mustn't let Rotu escape this time. Don't hold anything back you understand?"
Hati glanced back at Tian wet watering eyes, "My Lord is my life. If he dies, then so will I accompany him into death. "
"Lord Ru was truly wise to have someone like you close to his side." Tian replied, and let the silence reign. Nothing else had to be said, for they knew they might not even see the sun tomorrow.
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Ru's landing made a resounding thud throughout the dusky cavern, the sound reverberating through the dark. His eyes gleamed especially bright as he slowly raised his right hand. A strong burst of crimson flame burst from his open palm and illuminated his surroundings. "Much better" he said, as he walked towards the only passage that led out of the chamber. Dragging his left hand along the wall of the passage, sparks jumped and left a glowing trail on the floor. Trained from a young age, his bones and tendons have been tempered to the point where his body is as hard as steel.
Walking on a noticeable decline, he walked for a couple minutes before noticing any change. slowly but surely, the walls opened up into a large cavern with stalagmites looming overhead. A large portion of the open space was empty except for the very center, in which a black-hooded person was standing over a bubbling pool of lava.
A green mist periodically emitted from the figure, coiling around his arms like a sickly snake. He suddenly stopped fiddling with the object in his hands and said, " Well well if it isn't my Lordship, how terribly impolite of me for not giving you a warm welcome..". Grinning mischievously, he spun around in a blink of an eye and raised both his arms, palms outward. A bright green blast shot right towards Ru without him having anytime to react. All of a sudden, the sparks he accumulated from walking flew upwards and formed a solid shield of pure fire. Burning the green blast completely, the shield dimmed by half and returned back towards the ground.
"Typical Rotu, always making the first move. When will you learn that your rashness will cost you? Oh wait, silly me I forgot that it already has!" Channeling his power into a swirling mass of reds and oranges, Ru tossed it up in the air and illuminated the entire cavern in a fiery light. With the ability to see better, Rotu's half burned face underneath his black hood could be seen.
"I've always hated your cheery attitude. After ruining my face you could have at least acted remorseful!"
"Now why would I feel remorseful for an exile like you? Because we used to be friends I'll give you the opportunity to die gracefully. You can thank me in your next life!". His piercing orange eyes glowed even brighter, creating faint wisps of fire qi to hover over his eyes.
Rotu cackled and coiled his poisonous qi around his forearms. With lightning quick hand seals, the cavern started to rumble ominously. Cracks suddenly appeared on the rocky floor, and dust fell from the ceiling. Huge amounts of sickly green energy flowed out the ground and seeped towards Ru.
"What have you done?!? You could never harness this much power before!", Ru shouted with a hint of uncertainty. He quickly leapt back from the bubbling green qi lunging for his feet. Smoke started to rise from the stone that the green energy touched.
"Do you really think I would challenge you if I wasn't prepared? HA! The years have surely made you more stupid! I knew you would come and find me, who else in this entire kingdom has poison qi such as myself? It was obviously a trap! With you out of the way nothing will be able to stop me." The green qi kept inching towards Ru, creeping along the cavern floor. Releasing flame burst after flame burst at the qi, Ru's attacks were futile as whatever qi he burned, more would simply take his place.
"You bastard! This is impossible!! Your cultivation is clearly that of half-step Commander! I'm 3 stars ahead of you! You must have found some treasure to increase your strength." Realization suddenly dawned on Ru. There was no way he could possibly beat Rotu as is. However, if he could separate Rotu from the treasure, perhaps he could kill him quickly.
Chuckling sinisterly, he said "You always were the clever one Ru. Yes I found something so miraculous it would allow you to fight Half-Step Daoists! I have searched for it for twenty long years in order to fulfill my revenge, and now all the pieces have fallen into place. You and the entire kingdom will be exterminated!! And there's simply nothing you can do about it! You're too weak HAHAHAHA!"
Narrowing his eyes, Lord Ru slowly raised his arms and growled "Our elements might be of the same rarity, but there's one thing I forgot to mention... My element mutated!!" A blinding light of orange and white burst from his eyes and leapt from his palms. It greedily tore straight through the viscous green qi and started to break through Rotu's defenses.
"WHAT!!! How dare you conceal this from everyone! You could have become eligible to rule an empire with this sort of qi!" He slowly started to be pushed back to the pool of lava in the center of the cavern.
"I knew it would come in handy at a time like this! Say hi to the devil for me...ARGH! " Ru looked down and saw that the bubbling poison qi snuck up behind him and started to corrode his legs.
"Hehehehe! Are you really willing for both of us to die?!?! Stop your attack now or else you will perish too!"
Gritting his teeth, Lord Ru shouted, "NEVER!! I would die for this kingdom!", pushing even harder, his beam attack became even more powerful, forcing Rotu back to the edge of the pool. Slowly while holding up his elemental shield, Rotu reached into his pocket with his other hand and pulled out a mysterious figurine. Glowing with a dark red power, it appeared to look like a stone baby in the fetal position. Shining brighter, the red energy flowed into the cracks of his shield, reinforcing his defense.
"You can't touch me! You fool do you know what I hold in my hands?? An artifact that boosts my cultivation by 3 stars! Years worth of cultivation all from this tiny statue! With your current strength you can't possibly defeat me."
Ru looked absolutely shocked. Remembering from long ago, he read from a catalog of powerful natural obscurities, that artifacts that could boost cultivation to this level were very rare. And perhaps the most rare, was what Rotu held in his hands - the son of magma! Entire continents would rise and fall over this tiny object, and somehow he had found it! Feeling his power fading, he said, "No wonder you were so confident in your ability. The son of magma is not to be trifled with. However you always had one fatal flaw Rotu."
"Oh? And what would that be Ru? As we speak, soon your entire leg will be covered in poison qi. If I were you I would hurry." he smirked devilishly.
"You always focused too much on raw power....but not enough on STRATEGY!!!!" Ru quickly aimed downward towards the stone floor, shearing stone away with the strong beam. Before Rotu had time to react, the floor he stood on slid backwards to the pool of lava and collapsed. Trying to regain his balance, he fell backwards and dropped the son of magma into the lava. Hanging on to an unstable piece of rock, he shouted, "NO! That was a dirty move especially for a noble like yourself! Let me go free and I'll -"
Cutting him off Ru calmly said, "Not this time old friend. You well know that I wasn't always a noble, but a street urchin. My only regret in life, is that you walked down the wrong path. If only fate had different plans for you. Goodbye Rotu.... may you rot in hell." Gathering up the remains of his power, Ru poured his heart into his laser-like beam, blasting Rotu straight into the lava. With tears sliding down the lord's face, he watched as his pseudo brother burned from the lava and from his sun fire qi. All of a sudden however, the cavern started to shake terribly as rocks started to detach from the ceiling. Unbeknownst to him, his mutated qi hit the son of magma in the lava, and something weird began to occur. The figurine started to absorb the white-orange energy, and glowed with a blinding light. So blinding in fact, that when Ru didn't stop pouring his qi into the dead body of Rotu, he was suddenly blinded by the brightness outside the lava pool.
At an amazing rate, the artifact began to show signs of cracking, as if it was being recasted into a different form. Stone flakes started to fall from the figure, and fade away into nothingness, as the heat of the lava burned it to ash instantaneously. The gray pigment of the stone became lighter as if it was being purified by the heat of the sun qi, and expanded in size. The energy in the small pool of lava became so vigorous, that the lava started to bubble like water in a cauldron. Steam filled the shaking cave, as the energy from the lava was sucked into the son of magma, leaving nothing but an empty pool.
Not being able to see, Ru shouted "What the hell is happening?", right before a piece of stone fell down and hit him on the temple. Dropping like a sack of bricks, Ru fell unconscious in the steamy cavern, not noticing the odd phenomena happening 10 meters away from him. The blinding light did not cease for quite some time, as the raw power encased in the figure grew to a scary amount. Then suddenly, the light stopped and a large crack formed down the center of the statue. The dangerous aura disappeared, and the two halves of stone fell apart, revealing what appeared to be a human baby inside.
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Outside the cavern, all of a sudden the ground started to rumble and shake, surprising Tian and Hati. A portion of the grassy plain started to sink downwards, creating a large scraping sound. "Tian! The cave is collapsing! What do we do??"
"The lord said not to interfere or follow him! We will have to trust in destiny that he will come out victorious." Tain said with a shaky voice.
"No! I can't accept that! I'm going in!" Hati dashed into the opening leaving Tian alone in the chilly night.
"HATI NOOOO! Come back don't be an idiot! You're not strong enough to fight the lord's battle." But the only thing that responded to him was the rustling wind flowing whistling through the grass. "Damn it!"
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Hati rolled as she landed into the cavern, immediately noticing the floating steam. Rushing blindly into the passageway, she started to lose her direction. That is, until she saw the tiny trail of remaining sparks leading into the big cave. Dashing in that direction, she eventually saw Lord Ru lying on the floor of the cave, with a bloody gash on his forehead and his legs missing some flesh. With tears in her eyes she rushed towards him and hugged his torso. "Please get up my Lord you can't die here." sniffling as she said it, she saw that he was unresponsive. She then picked him up and was about to leave when the passageway into the cave collapsed. Cursing to herself, she looked for any other way out of the cave. Running to the center of the room, she noticed a small pit with something at the bottom.
Getting closer, she noticed that there was a baby in the center of the pit! Gently laying down Lord Ru, she tentatively approached the pit. Not sensing anything evil from her spiritual qi, she descended into the pit and picked up the baby. "Now why the hell would there be a live baby in the middle of this cave? What actually happened down here?" she thought to herself. Holding the baby in one arm, she walked backed to Ru and picked him up with the other arm. Breathing in to settle her nerves, Hati resolved to do something she swore to never do again and closed her eyes. But due to the circumstances, and in order to save all three of them, she had to do it.
Suddenly opening her eyes, one could notice a swirling vortex of rainbow in her pupil that slowly started to grow. Slowly, rainbow runes circled the trio, until it formed a full circle. As the cave shook even more, and huge slabs of rock fell from the ceiling, she did not break her focus. Even when the air began to grow thin from a lack of oxygen, the runes glowed brighter and brighter until a blinding flash occurred. Not even one minute after, the entirety of the cavern collapsed, burying everything in rock and dust.