Fire crackled as the Elemental stared into Zao's eyes. "~Help me,~" Its voice was grinding and distant.
"Help you what? Do you mean me?" Wu Hai pointed to his face, it wasn't every day that an elemental was willing to speak or interact with outsiders. In that opportunity, he was forced to settle down and play along.
The Fire Elemental nodded and let out a breath that filled the hallway during its sigh of relief.
Vector was forced to back off again and chose to stand outside of the Temple, the Heat was simply too much.
As the Flare died down, Wu Hai noticed his own fires had gotten hotter. It was the same for the others and then there was a frown on the Elemental's typically expressionless face. He flared again and Wu Hai understood, Wu Hai let his fire gather into his body, he breathed deeply and exhaled. Fire spread throughout the Hall.
"~Fire. Green. Black. White. Red. Blue. Orange. Yellow Fire.~" The Elemental seemed puzzled. It was astounding to him, his body shook and a small crystal appeared that carried its fire. "~Red, Purple.~"
The crystal flowed toward Wu Hai. He clasped his hands around it. 'What do I do? I don't have this ability..' Wu Hai made some essence and passed it along, it carried lightning and many other traits with it.
The Essence was quickly consumed by the Elemental, its face grew more human shaped and its jaw realigned. '~~~ Grr~Grr' There were some unusual crunching noises like paper snapping apart. The Elemental Flared again, the flames were hotter and shared a single flicker of Wu Hai's fire.
"I think its trying to Cultivate." Vira said it before anyone else could.
"He could have just asked." Mursayade flared her fire and stared the Elemental down. The temperature rose to an incredible degree. Her fire was matched with Vira's soon after and then Kuzunoha joined in and the three of them surrounded the Elemental.
Wu Hai wanted to laugh, their combined heat tore at its exterior and burned at its essence, reducing, condensing, and purifying it.
Noyuki threw out a formation plate into the air, it hung for a second and began to spin. "Zao, lets just see where this goes. It seems to really need our help."
"I'm okay with that but if things go badly, we should just leave." Wu Hai knew that it would be a drain and after a month of being back, they only had a few hundred spirit stones to replenish the group.
The formation oscillated, it landed between them all and the fire's temperature began to rise. It was like they were refining a treasure, all five of them poured their energies into the formation. The heat stressed at the seals and the inner spellwork that made up the runes, fire that constituted the elemental began to take on a change. It coagulated and began to reconstitute like a liquid.
"I think its trying to form a Core." Kuzunoha had a good view of the left side, there was a collecting point for all the energy, it converged and condensed, thickening until it formed a near perfect sphere.
"~~~!AAAAAH!~~~" The Elemental stood up and flexed its arms, It roared and the stonework of the temple began to glow under the heat.
"I think its breaking through now." Vira called out the obvious.
The Stone walls that were covered in carvings had their auras rise, some of them seemed lifelike and even blinked or moved slightly with each pulsation. They ticked like clocks in a rather robotic manner, the recorded auras roared to life and the Temple sounded with a collective roar.
Roars from the many species had a minor effect on the Temple, the vibrations made the altar in the center of the Hall burst into flames, the stone glowed like a brazier and the Fire Elemental stepped out of the formation. "~Great Fire, Burning Flames.~" He flared with every step and walked to the Altar.
"~I OFFER...MYSELF!~" Jumping into the brazier, there was a near instant end to the Elemental, its fire was swallowed whole and only the glow of the brazier remained.
"What the fuck just happened?" Mursayade couldn't make heads or tails of the situation, she looked around the room and then peered into the brazier while looking for answers. "There's no trace of him, he's gone."
"Yeah, sort of got that by his sudden disappearance and sacrifice. Look, there are lines forming on the Altar." Noyuki pointed them out but dared not touch the brazier itself. If it was able to consume a Fire Elemental that quickly, even she could be taken.
"Stand back. The Elemental is trying to break through, I think this is how it happens, MOVE!." Wu Hai motioned everyone to take a step back and the altar lost its momentum, the heat was no longer rising. A bright light descended down and collected on the Altar, a small crystal of fire appeared. It was only the size of thimble but slowly, fire gathered, collected from the brazier's bright light and coalescing into a concentrated energy. The Crystal grew to the size of an Egg and stopped.
"What are we suppose to do? Take the Egg?" Mursayade didn't know what to do, neither did anyone else.
Wu Hai came closer to the Altar and probed the Egg with his senses. "Its alive, I can feel an energy pulse."
"Its a Fire Elemental, why is it now an Egg?" Noyuki stood next to Wu Hai and asked.
"I've never heard of regression like this. Maybe its being reborn." Vira had seen a lot of things in her lifetime, but she had never seen a fully grown creature become an Egg.
"I still have my fire crystal bed." Mursayade offered up her old bed. "Its not suitable for me anymore, we could keep it with us until it hatches."
"I'm not so sure that's a good idea, the Elemental seemed to be this Temple's attendant. Before we take it away, we should explore the depths of this Temple." Wu Hai wanted to collect the Egg as well, there was a fire dimension key card. However, it was unfortunate that Honey had run off with most of them. It had even been a number of years since she left. Wu Hai was sure that Honey had a reason for her absence but leaving had caused the group to wonder.
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, if the first floor is like this, the second floor might just be interesting." Kuzunoha fondled Noyuki's bottom and made her jump.
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Vector was busy outside, there were some herbs in the area that were twinkling and teeming with energy. He was irresistibly drawn toward several and found himself laying in a bed of grasses that left him speechless. The aroma was unfamiliar but it brought peace around him. He had no desire to leave.
The sky on the second levels of Ultinia had clouds, there was even a Sun. Though, what Vector was calling a Sun was merely a fragment from the flare in the middle of Ultinia.
The Sun only exposed itself and orbited until it was nightfall, retreating into the collective and bringing a sort of half day dusk to the area. Most of the second level was shaded from light, without the sun, there would be no light at all.
Unique environments usually yielded unique life, like the grasses and vines that were surrounding Vector. All of them carried a warm and pleasant feeling but his Ice wasn't freezing them. The soft ground was lush and he was appreciating the view.
A Group of flying wildlife, Vector was calling them Flips because they were like ribbons that flowed in the air, flipping as they traveled. According to Legends, the ribbon creatures on Shiyan were quite dangerous, some of them could not be stopped, not by flesh, not by mountain. Only eight were rumored to exist, but this was all based upon rumors and speculation from thousands of years past.
The flips were casual creatures, they sometimes knotted eachother while playing but no matter how they twisted and flipped around, none of them ever became tangled and fell. No matter how hard Vector stared as they passed, he couldn't find a set of eyes or ears but he could tell that they were definitely alive.
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Vira followed Wu Hai, Noyuki was at the rear when they started down the staircase of fire. The hallways were lit and the way was easy to see but the air was thing and breathing would have been difficult for anyone else to have continued.
"Stow your gear or it will burn up." Wu Hai stripped down to nearly nothing, when he started to undress, the others took him seriously and soon four bare beauties walked behind Zao as they continued into the furnace-like depths. The second level had an opening at the end, when they passed through, a searing wind swept past.
Mursayade was the one who felt it the most, her understandings of fire were far inferior to the rest of the group and she was surprised when she actually began to sweat. 'Its very hot down here.'
Wu Hai seemed to understand what she was thinking, he spread his wings and caught the wind to draft upward in the cavern. Molten rock poured through, it was moving at a very fast pace despite having an open pit of it below the surface. "Come down and check this place out, there's so much.."
Wu Hai spoke loudly and an echo sounded in the cavern. The area inside was like a European country from Earth, travel across it would several hours. "We should find a nice place and make Camp. Vector can always return to Misozi if we take too long."
"Fine, but we shouldn't stay in here for too long without letting him know." Mursayade found some mud and smeared it across her body. It burned slightly when it first came into contact but it covered her bits, she felt less tense and asked, "What do you think we'll find down here?"
"Honestly, I couldn't begin to tell you but that elemental protected this place or was wanting to come in, so there's obviously something important down here. It would be easier if we all spread out and look." Vira looked to Kuzunoha and spanked her bare bottom. "Buddy system, I'll go with Kuznoha, Mursayade should go with Noyuki."
"What about me?" Wu Hai laughed as he got an eye full of bare bottoms.
'Pak' Mud flew at his face. Wu Hai wiped it clean and laughed. "Okay, Okay. I'll go on my own, but keep an ear out for the others. We don't want to be caught by anything that's been living down here."
Several large statues were carved into the side of the cavern, they stood hundreds of feet tall and spanned miles. One was a Dragon, the other was a group of soldiers riding a wave of fire toward the Dragon.
The space between the two statues had a gap, in which flowed a river of molten rock, as it moved, small things could be seen moving underneath. Shadows followed their movement and while Kuzunoha was peering into one of the lava pools, a burst of fire broke her concentration behind her.
Vira moved quickly but the blast of fire was already touching Kuzunoha's bare skin. Kuzunoha put up a barrier, it was thin enough to stop the blast but she was pushed toward the lava. While she was falling over, she caught herself in the air and flowed above the lava, startling the creature that was breathing down her neck.
A long rock worm appeared, it spread its mouth and lunged toward Vira. When it missed, it dove into the Lava and disappeared.
"Creatures like those are unpredictable, we should take a look." Kuzunoha was flush, the heat from over the lava pool was intense, even for her.