The streets of VI City were alive with a cacophony of voices, each tone carrying a thread of anxiety and uncertainty. Aedan navigated through the crowd, his keen senses tuned to any information that might shed light on the unfolding chaos. Whispers of an attack on the Ironwood Forest reached his ears, the news spreading like wildfire among the citizens. Wooden carriages, carrying the ominous weight of an invading force, rumbled through the city streets.
As the murmurs grew louder, Aedan honed in on the snippets of conversation. The Sacred Soul Empire had launched an assault on the Ironwood Forest, citing the extermination of VI City's city lord's family as a pretext. All fingers pointed accusingly at the Ironwood Forest, a violation of the non-aggression treaty signed between the nine great forces.
Climbing to the rooftop of a nearby building, Aedan sought a vantage point to observe the unfolding events. From this elevated position, he saw the diverse assembly of tribes gathered at the city border, the Green Wood tribe, the black tribe, and others. Among them, his eyes caught sight of familiar faces. There was Kayla, his aunt from the Yellow Wood Tribe, and a young girl who stirred distant memories, Alina, his aunt's adoptive daughter.
A pang of guilt gripped him as he recalled the times they spent together by the lake, the carefree days of childhood. Alina had once been a constant companion, but destiny had pulled them apart. Now, she was confined behind bars, a victim of the chaos that gripped the Ironwood Forest.
As his gaze moved over the imprisoned tribespeople, Aedan discerned a troubling pattern. Those who had sided with his grandfather were the ones behind bars, but his grandfather was nowhere to be seen. A realization struck him like a bolt of lightning, the clan had been usurped by internal betrayal.
His anger simmered beneath the surface as he observed the hostility and contempt in the eyes of the captors. Dark red crystals hovered over their heads, accompanied by black and blue ones, embodying the depth of their malice and hatred. Aedan, sensing an opportunity to bolster his own power, absorbed these negative emotions into his heartsparks.
A call to the leviathan, his trusted space beast, yielded visions of the ongoing tragedy in the Yellow Wood Tribe's mountainous stronghold. Elders fought amongst themselves, and loyal members of the clan were ruthlessly purged. At the forefront stood an old man, a familiar face, his grandfather's rival, the village chief. The ruthless betrayal and conspiracy against his grandfather fueled Aedan's fury.
Even as he seethed with anger, Aedan knew that now was not the time to act impulsively. The situation was complex, and a deeper understanding of the unfolding events was required before he could make his move.
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Alina huddled against the cold stone walls of the prison cell, her wrists bound by the oppressive chains that sapped the essence of her Astra abilities. The clinking sounds of chains echoed in the dimly lit cell, each link a reminder of her captivity. As she gazed out of the iron bars, the flickering torchlight revealed the faces of the captured, her people from the Yellow Wood Tribe, and others from tribes she only knew of in passing.
Her thoughts wandered to Aedan, the boy who had been like a brother to her, but had vanished from her life. News of his disappearance and the turmoil that had befallen her once-thriving village struck her like a blow. She questioned herself on why she had returned to the clan, only to find chaos and despair.
Her adoptive mother, Kayla, sat beside her, their eyes exchanging unspoken words. Alina's gaze bore the weight of her inner turmoil, and Kayla, feeling the heaviness of the moment, began, "Alina, my child, I know you must be wondering why I brought you back here."
Alina sighed, her eyes filled with a mixture of sadness and understanding. "Aedan is gone, isn't he? I heard whispers about what happened to the village. Why did you bring me back to this chaos, Mother?"
Kayla's aged eyes conveyed a profound sadness. "I wanted to be with family. I thought returning to the tribe would bring us closer, reunite us. But the elders and the chief had different plans. Power struggles, conspiracies. It all went awry."
Alina's gaze shifted to the others in the cell, faces of relatives and friends reflecting the shared anguish. "Aedan was like a brother to me. I wanted to see him again. Now..." she trailed off, the weight of unspoken farewells hanging in the air.
Kayla, brushing a strand of Alina's hair, whispered, "We'll find a way out of this. The wheel of fate turns, my dear, and who knows what it may bring."
As they spoke, the prison held the echoes of countless untold stories, each captive bearing the scars of their shattered lives. In the midst of despair, a resilient flame flickered within Alina's eyes, a spark that refused to be extinguished by the shadows surrounding them.
Alina found herself imprisoned in the suffocating darkness of the cells, the cold stone walls closing in around her. Iron bars separated her from freedom, and the clinking of chains resonated like a haunting melody in the dimly lit space. The faces of fellow tribespeople and strangers flickered in the torchlight, each one bearing the weight of their own despair.
Beside her, Kayla, her adoptive mother, offered a semblance of comfort in these dire circumstances. Alina couldn't shake the feeling that the tumult she'd found upon her return was, in part, a consequence of the chaos surrounding Aedan.
"Brother is gone, isn't he?" Alina's voice held a mix of sorrow and resignation. "I heard whispers about what happened to the village. Do you have idea where he is, Mother?"
Kayla's eyes, aged and filled with sadness, reflected the shared burden. "No, he simply vanished after leaving letters for us but I noticed a few months before he had changed. For the first six months since he came back his internal organs were a mess and his cultivation was broken. Then he changed..."
Before she continued, Kayla stopped. As mother and daughter exchanged glances, the prison walls here had ears so it was better for some things to be left unsaid. In the midst of this bleakness, a spark of resilience flickered within Alina, a refusal to surrender to the shadows.
Then her attention turned to Sanya, confined in a cell opposite hers. Anger flared in Alina's eyes as she growled, "Are you happy now, free from my brother? I'm just happy he won't have to look at your face ever again." The resentment stemmed from the village's treatment of Aedan upon his return and the humiliation he endured after the broken engagement.
Soon, armed figures bearing the insignia of the Sacred Soul Sect appeared, ushering the captives into a passage leading underground. The upper echelons of the sect had decided to present the prisoners to the Great One after a week had passed with no trace of Aedan.
Approaching a foreboding abyss, Alina sensed a malevolent presence in the air. From the depths rose a towering shadow, a single red eye glaring at her, its gaze piercing her soul. "Demon!" Alina recoiled, memories from the Sanctuary of the Zeaphin flooding her mind. Demons, once among the eight supreme races, had devolved into perfect killing machines in the abyssal caves beneath the continent, representing the apex of the Urdor path. They were very smart, could devour souls as well refining these souls into potent drugs that can make cultivation a lot easier. But to think the Sacred Soul Sect had been growing their own demon.
In the precipice of darkness, just as the guards were poised to push Alina and the others into the abyss with the looming demon, a brilliant flash of light blinded them. Red beams streaked through the darkness, and from the shadows emerged a figure clad in a jet-black armor. This was the Grief Combo Heartspark Armor.
The armor, forged from black crystals, had a barely visible white inner vest. It seemed as though the figure had materialized from the very essence of shadows. Bright crystals, resembling flying spears, shot toward the guards. The guards, disoriented and unable to fully perceive the swift assault, fell as the red crystals emitted dark beams that pierced through their protective vests, reaching their hearts.
The armored figure, aware that reinforcements would soon arrive, leaped into the abyss. As he descended, the armor underwent a transformation, merging into a combination of red, blue, and yellow hues. Meanwhile, the flying crystals, now allies, swooped in to rescue the prisoners. Guided by Aedan's knowledge of the passage, they whisked the captives away toward an exit.
Aedan, embracing the abyss, had four heartsparks orbit around him. Clutching each spark, he closed his right hand, from which burst forth a crimson light bow. Simultaneously, the three heartsparks in his left hand, colored red, blue, and yellow, emitted strings of light that intertwined, forming a tricolored arrow.
As Aedan neared the formidable demon at the abyss's bottom, he faced its attempts to thwart him. Yet, the demon's actions were futile, as blue crystals surrounding Aedan deflected every move. The voices of victims and fallen friends echoed in Aedan's mind, lending strength to his resolve.
"Fight, Aedan!" urged the stern voice of his old martial arts instructor, Master Liang, resonating with echoes of striking staffs and disciplined breaths.
"You're not alone," whispered the gentle voice of Mei, a gentle girl that owned a rice bum shop. Her words accompanied by the smell of freshly cooked rice.
"Kid, you are doing the right thing," chimed in the wise words of Zhen Kai, an elderly figure and civilian scholar that was captured when he went to the sect asking for justice for his daughter that was played by a disciple of the sect and killed.
"You can't let the demon alive." Urged the spectral voice of a female disciple, Shuyi, who once shared both laughter and pain with him, her words resonating with the delicate cadence of a flute.
"Begone!" declared Aedan with a determined voice, releasing the string. The trinity breaker arrow soared through the abyss, a radiant force of resolve, and in its ephemeral glow, the colossal demon's monstrous figure was revealed. An abyssal roar echoed as the arrow, shining like a tri-colored star, pierced straight through the demon's head.
As the Arrow, shining in hues of red, blue, and yellow, pierced through the colossal demon's head, the three lights encased its monstrous form. The demon convulsed in a futile attempt to regenerate, dark energies swirling around it. Yet, the tri-colored lights held it in a radiant grip, exposing its grotesque features.
The demon stood immense, its form reminiscent of the ancient depictions of malevolence, a towering creature with six limbs, each ending in wickedly sharp claws. Its scaled skin, a grotesque mosaic of crimson and obsidian, seemed to writhe with a life of its own. Its single red eye, now dimmed, stared vacantly into the void.
The tri-colored lights emanated an otherworldly energy, their brilliance dominating the demon's malevolent aura. The very essence of the demon, the embodiment of darkness and chaos, seemed stretched to its utmost limits. It writhed against the advancing lights, its roars of defiance resounding through the abyss.
Even as the demon fought desperately for survival, Aedan pressed on. Forming two crimson beaming swords, he relentlessly assailed the monster with all his might. Each slash left behind bright red fissures, the skin melting like magma, inflicting ever greater pain upon the demon. Throughout the onslaught, the creature attempted to draw in Aedan's soul with its power, only to discover that it was immovably fixed, resisting all its efforts.
As the brilliance of the lights intensified, the demon's form began to fragment. Dark energies dissipated like dust in the wind, and with a final, thunderous burst, the demon erupted into a tri-colored cloud. The shockwave from its demise reverberated through the abyss, a force reaching the very foundations of the mountain range.
The echoes of the demon's roar and the tumultuous shock-wave resonated through the abyss, gradually dissipating into the darkness. The tri-colored cloud of dust dispersed, leaving only the lingering energies of the triumphant annihilation caused by his heartspark arts.
Silence settled back into the abyss, broken only by the distant sounds of imprisoned souls and the faint rustle of the crystals around Aedan. As the echoes subsided, Aedan found himself in a moment of respite, his heartsparks orbiting around him as he had full knowledge that the sect must have noticed the commotion and would be coming for him shortly.