ICE AND FIRE VERSUS THE EARTH
Upon the realization that the orb is not theirs to begin with, both teams felt cheated, confused, and more worried about what's to come. Both teams quickly devised a plan, they have no clear idea of who they are up against as they were picked randomly by Themis. This gave all of the teams a sort of equal footing until the final moment that the teams encounter each other. Some of the teams has already gained information about the other teams, but that is about it. They still have no idea which triad they will fight, but at the same time not everyone knows the abilities of the other teams; except for the other ones each teams became friends with.
"We need to go after them" Enola quickly told to her sisters.
"We don't even know who they are"
"It can be the German siblings right?" Istas thought, they are on a advantage against them as fire and water does not affect them as much.
"It can be anyone Istas"
"we are at a bit of advantage against them"
"What if it is Harry and his team?"
"Then, we are on a bit of a deadlock, plus it does not really matter they are witnessing us above lo-"
Enola pointed up to the sky but the birds are gone, its been gone since both teams got to the forests and fought the creatures on their path, this is as to not reveal their abilities to the other kids. Themis has anticipated that they will encounter the creature sometime and they have to use their abilities. The spectators just sat there with nothing to see and just rest.
"Logan?" Ava called on Logan who seems to be completely out of it, he was staring down the ground with a dead stare. He is grinding his teeth together and Ava felt uncomfortable for him.
"Something wrong?" Harry asked him.
"Yeah" He paused, like he changed what he was supposed to say "I have no idea why they want use to now know the other's ability. I mean its not like we will face them"
"Maybe for the last trial?"
"Oh okay" Logan said and they got back to just doing what they were doing, the conversation ended in an awkward pause; it felt uncomfortable. The Archangels having a better ability of clairvoyance they are clearly witnessing the arena the whole time. "Interesting" One of the Archangels said as they can hear their conversation.
"I'm guessing they are on the other side of the river"
"Let's go sisters" Enola lead the way. The excruciating heat they felt earlier suddenly disappeared but they never noticed, they start to climb the rock hills with ease. They got up to the top and then they noticed that something has changed, the sandstorm and scorching heat earlier has disappeared. They looked to the other side of the river and the blizzard has also disappeared, Enola who reached the top first pointed all of those things out to them.
"We should go now right?"
"Right"
Istas being the strongest out of the sisters cling on to the side of the hill, she lifted her war-hammer and struck the rock in between her legs and then lifted it up. Her strength is enough to send them and the part of the pillar flying. Parts of the rock starts to crumble off and the rock slows down and they landed on the river safely. As soon as they landed they started running to the middle of the snow-covered forest and their sights are clearer as the blizzard vanished.
Wanting to find their opponents immediately and their impatient attitudes they uprooted the trees that they ran pass. They continued going to destroy the forest entirely, their presence is surely noticed by the German siblings.
"They're already here?" Hans said as he just started getting his head back in the moment. "Obviously" Mila replied. Hans looked upwards and focuses spotting 3 hearts walking and running around in circle and one of them is falling down towards them. They fell on the first level and then finally to the level that they are in. Halona lands and she is greeted by a wall of mist, she looks around trying to find the triad and she smiles knowing who they are up against.
"Its th-" Something clearly sharp passed by her face and gave her a small cut on her nose bridge. She looked towards the direction from where the object came but another one came through and it scratches her blade. She starts to feel cold because of the decreasing temperature of the whole cavern, she starts to tremble but it was not enough to thwart her attention. Enola and Istas up top of the cavern is waiting for Halona to reply, to which she did. "Its not them!" They hear it and Istas immediately came down first.
"Too quiet" Enola thought. She continued to look down in the dark abyss and she hears Istas and scream "Its safe". Enola jumped off then suddenly a tendril of water grabs her and threw her into the air.
"SOFIA!" Mila called out.
"Got it!"
A strong mist blew right to Enola and she gets extremely wet freezing her in place. The siblings did not engaged her but looked for something. The orb will always react to at least one of them and so does the other. Hans called it out and they go after her, Enola manages to break free of the ice and she ran away abandoning her sisters they chase her down. Istas is frozen in the air and the mist is still there, but the mist slowly disappears and Halona appears to be wounded by several more scratches. The 2 sisters sees each other and argues.
"What are you doing here!?"
"You told us its not them"
"Oh its them all ri- LOOK OUT!"
A tendril of water almost grabbed Istas' leg, more tendrils came from the dried up lake as it starts to get filled up again. The sisters decided to collapse the whole cavern and so they did, but Sofia was quick enough to create ice pillars as a support. The mist disappears and accumulated into a snowflakes, and it explodes and Istas and Halona are disoriented.
"Damn, where are they?" The snowflakes continued to explode as it keeps forming every time it breaks.
"I have no idea"
As Enola tries to dodge every thing that is being thrown at her by Hans and Mila. She suddenly stops in mid air and something is holding her in place. She tried to escape but as she looked closer she is stuck in a web of sorts, she tries to pull herself away but she cannot do it. Mila appears from the water and grabs the orb from her, but Enola seems to act cocky.
"Hello sweetie"
As soon as Mila grab the bag with the orb in it and she immediately fell down and is pinned down to the ground by the polished rock. 'what!' She looks up and sees Enola falling down and almost hitting Mila. Mila tries to escape in her water form but Enola locks her up in a metallic dome, she tries to get into the tiniest gap but she cannot. Its dark and she has no idea what to do, she suddenly gets hit by something hard Enola throws a perfect punch to Mila's head and feels her fall down. She gets rid of the metallic dome but it was just a puddle of water not the real body.
"So did she had it?" Hans asked as he was miles away from her.
"No, it was just a rock"
"Its with the other 2 for sure, or not they could have the same rock things"
"They cannot hide it"
The whole ground bursts up into the air and the German siblings are reunited. A strong earthquake separated the 3 of them and suddenly a huge gorge breaks in between them and a wall appears adjacent to one of the siblings. They tried to run away but are pulled back by the triplets.
"Oh oh" Istas mocked them.
"Don't go running now" Enola said.
"Oh yeah, this will be good" Halona said.
Mila used all the snow around her and creates a massive creature out of it and her in the middle acting as the power. She easily controls the giantess and it gave Istas somewhat of a hard time, throwing small rocks but Mila catches all of it and throws it back at her. Istas breaks all of the rocks but misses some and results on hitting her.
Mila goes for the attack trying to separate Istas and her war-hammer, but Istas held firmly and never let go of. Istas erected a wall and pins Mila by pressing her in between it, trying to increase the expense of Imperium to tire her out, but she did not dwindle. Mila suddenly turns into water and the wall closed on her. The walls reopened and Istas enters it, the only thing left of Mila is a water stain. She reaches for it and a water tendril flows from her right arm to left arm grabbing her war-hammer and throwing it to the other side of one of the walls. Istas and Mila remained there, stuck trying to keep the other one in place.
"Fists?"
"And elements?"
"Sure, let's see if you a tough one, what's your name?"
"Mila"
"Istas. Mila, this is gonna hurt!"
The war-hammer landed directly behind Hans who is fighting Enola, they noticed it and reached towards it but Hans managed to grab it first. Hans kicks Enola off into one of the trees and she slowly gets up. Hans carries the war-hammer but it was heavy for him, he puts it on his back just to carry it. Enola knew who's weapon Hans is holding and starts running towards him, Hans dodges all the boulders she hurled at him as he tries to pull the weapon off the ground.
"AAAAHH!!!"
Hans screamed with all his might and carries the war-hammer, he hits Enola right in the stomach and sends her into the air. He fused his Imperium to it and fuses the hammer with the element of fire, just then the weapon starts to feel light. He effortlessly swing the hammer around while firing a jet of flame with every swing to help him maneuver it. It is enough to tick Enola off and she starts to attack recklessly and Hans breaks all of the boulder thrown at him.
"Who has the orb?" Hans demanded as he starts to panic.
"....." Enola continued with the attack.
"I'm letting you go if I tell you"
"....." It made her angry thinking he has the upper hand.
"Come on just gi-"
Enola tries to attack him but he manages to knock her out.
"I'm sorry, oh no, uhm"
He checks her for the orb but did not find it, Hans gets a clear look at Enola's pretty face and realized how distinct the triplets are when you get close up to them. They have a much more distinct features.
"Wow, you're pretty, I'm sorry about this" He whispered to her ear.
Something he just thought of. "to the other side" Hans said. He dropped the hammer behind him and prepares to launch himself using his fire, as he prepares himself he was "ejected" by Enola herself, blushing upon what Hans said. "That guy!" She said with clear frustration.
"SOFIAAAA LOOK OUT!!"
"I got you" Hans lands on a ball of snow. "Thanks" Hans said. Hans looked onto Halona and he noticed that she has the orb dangling on her hip.
"Hey, give up, please" Hans said with a nervous tone.
"No" Halona firmly replied.
"Sure, sorry"
The 2 starts to attack Halona, with his radiating heat and the continuous attack from Sofia makes Halona on the defensive and dodging. She stumbles and trips on something, "She's getting tired" Hans said.
Halona made a sudden turn and destroys the wall around her and her sisters are already running towards her, helping her. As they jumped towards her siblings Mila manages to grab them in her giantess form. The 2 can only look at their little sister, Mila asked if they are okay to which they replied with a nod. Hans added another defensive layer around them. They looked at the triplets and they are also forming an earth giant. Even the 14 Archangels are amazed at what they are seeing.
"Really interesting this kids"
"Indeed, no wonder elder sister is fascinated with that one"
Both giants used the orb as their core and it became a catalyst for both. The triplets' earth giant starts to have some parts of it in ice. Hans starts to incorporate fire rotating around the giant. The 2 giants duke it out as if having a mind of its own, both giants are aiming for the cores but both triads are protecting it. The explosive and disastrous battles were enough to excite the 17 spectators who can see it. The students just sit there in confusion as they have no idea what is happening but they can hear huge explosions and the ground quacking.
"This is terrifying"
"What is happening?"
"THE CORE MILA!!!!"
Mila creates water tendrils behind their giant and grabs the limbs of the other giant freezing it on place. Hans stands in their giants' mouth and aims at it, he fires the hottest jet that he will ever release. Blue flame burst through his palm, singing himself at the same time. As he looks their giant has already disappeared and both triads are already reaching for both expose cores. Mila and Sofia are reaching for the core along as the jet of flame destroys the obstacles in front of them, Istas and Halona is reaching for the core behind them. Both triads lay their hands on the orbs and they transported to a different place, just like the first trial they are in a completely empty place.
In front of the 6 of them, their selves, now charging towards them with the intent to kill.
"All students ready, the next triads will be sent without warning" Themis announced, all students got even more ready upon the announcement. All emotions related to nervousness starts to fill them up once more.
The 6 fights their own "dark" versions using their own powers, the triplets with their earth element, the twins with their water, and Hans with his water and fire. The other versions of themselves easily overpower them and it is incredibly hard to fight them, instead of feeling pain they feel hatred and in huge amounts. They start to get angry but they soon realized that it was them making it stronger. They then stopped attacking and so did their "other-halves", "You did it" they said. Their "other-halves" held their foreheads and transports into another place.
"Welcome to the garden" A voice that they cannot fathom greeted them.
"This is the place where all 9 worlds will align, the origin of Imperium"
"Long time ago when the world was 1, there lived 3 eternal beings. One controls Life, the other controls Death, and the other who takes care of their creations"
"During their existence Life would create more beings that would grow this garden, they made it their home"
"Wanting to impress her Death creates his own, made from decaying or dead things as its vessels, he creates creatures that would be hated, except for Life, she embraced it as her own"
"Years come by and Death created more, this time from the souls of the creatures that Life created that has passed away. The "Caretaker" would offer this souls to him and he would create them as he remembered, he talked to the souls. 'To be reborn or reincarnated or to be one of my own' He whispered in their ears and opens his arms, those to be reborn walked into his right arm and are given their old forms back, reincarnated walked into his left arm and are given new souls and to be his own turns into a cloaked being"
"Those who are reborn shall carry their face and emotions but their memories, those who are to be reincarnated shall carry their soul but their body and memories, and those who shall be my own shall carry their body but their emotions and memories"
"More of them are created until one of them fell ill into darkness"
"Life created 28 Omnipotent beings that shall take care of them and teach them how to live, 4 of them embodied War, Famine, Conquest, and a Plague, they are the evil that will be carried if they will fall to the darkness of evil. 7 sins that shall condemn those who are Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Glutton, and Lust, all of them are good beings that wished to teach them their meanings. A Millenia of peace fell upon them none of those 11 evils appeared embodied their sin and was good, the other 17 lived and spread the message to them"
"Until one has decided that he has enough, the embodiment of all Deadly sin and 4 Grave Consequence, Lucifer the first being, the Morning Star"
"He corrupted as much people as they can and when their mother heard it she punished them, not to talk to any of HER creations. Feeling hopeless he falls upon one of Death's creatures and corrupts it Himself"
"A war happened between good and evil, the other 17 fought them defending their mother's creation, and their "Caretaker" died. The first death in the garden angered the 2 Beings. Life got rid of the evil and condemned them to the deepest and darkest world where they shall never escape"
"She rewarded those who fought against the evil. The one who lead them Seraph "The Honorable", the 4 Archangels who are granted the 4 elements of fire, water, air, and earth, and 10 commandments that shows the goodness instead of evil and 1 was punished"
"Mephistopheles who chose to be in between good and evil, "The Unwanted" the creation that Death made in order to watch over evil. Life was angered at Death, who is the only one allowed to create powerful beings. Death does not want to lose Life and so they made the "Reapers Oath", to do what he does, to capture souls. For their first 100 years they are granted Imperium to fight, and judge souls"
"The "Reaper's Oath" is a curse more than an agreement, if they are to break it by remembering the face of their lover or loved one in their past life, they will not be be reincarnated and die, to not love anymore. Life sees Death's affection for her as a curse. She then uses her power to create 2 Earths, one for her creation and the other for those who are corrupted. Death is nor his children are forbidden to step into the 'Underworld' for fear that they will be like Mephistopheles"
They feel a burst of Imperium right through their body and once more they are in front of them, their 'Other-Halves'. The 6 of them appear in a new area, they have passed the trial but they do not remember what happened after touching the orb.
They were there standing there, the orbs are gone as well.
"So who won?" Hans asked everyone in the room with them, "Its a draw" Enola replied to him.
"We should not worry as much now, we passed"
"Right, we did"
Hans held his chest as he feels a strong emotion within him. His heart is currently beating quickly and it throws off his breathing.