"Well what do you know!" An overjoyous Micheal exclaimed. "It's a miracle we managed to reach this far." He added.
"Don't get your hopes high, from my experience this is where it becomes difficult on a whole new level." Rai responded as he stared at the ancient structure.
"And what experience are you referring to Rai Voltia?" Abigail asked with curiosity.
She assumed that with the experience he went through, the source of his strength and speed might be revealed. After all as a wise man once said, experience is the greatest teacher.
"Well that's a story for another day, right now we just have to focus on what's in front of us." Rai responded clearly avoiding the question. It was already obvious to him from the start that the reason the princess gained interest in him was because of his skills.
Abigail wore a look of disappointment, but at this point he was right.
"Well then let's go." Micheal said as he approached the temple.
As he walked forward, his right leg tripped on a well hidden wire which gave rise to a series of sounds similar to that of clicks in a mechanical contraption.
"Wait!" Rai yelled out as he swiftly held Michael's right shoulder and drew him backwards.
The entire floor surrounding the temple's entrance crumbled to pieces and what was left was a pit of lava with the entrance of the temple in its center. The distance between the entrance of the temple and where the trio stood was five to seven meters, so jumping over was no longer an option automatically as there was no foothold whatsoever to allow them open the sealed doors.
"A booby trap? Great thanks a lot." Abigail scoffed, there were times when the inability of commoners to analyze the situation before rushing into it annoyed the very core of her being. And now that same situation had gotten them stranded.
"So what are we going to do now?" Rai asked, his abilities weren't sufficient enough to get them through this. Abigail's as well wasn't sufficient enough as it was the light part of the Royal essence she possessed.
Given the situation they were all in, it seemed they hit a roadblock in completing their quest. Even with the obstacles they faced, Micheal crafted a smile on his face.
"You know what they say." As he spoke, steam escaped his hands and face. His body began going through some changes, his eyes took the same shape as that of a lions which is characterized by the golden color, framed by black pupils which often exude a sense of intensity and focus, reflecting the predatory nature of a lion.
"The greater the obstacle, the more glory one receives in overcoming it...Beast's Essence: Lion's Pride.." He uttered softly as he grew sharp and long fangs, his fingernails grew longer and sharper matching the density of the king of the jungle.
With a loud roar, Micheal used his beast strength and leaped over the lava pit. As he approached the sealed doors of the temple, he swung his right hand at it and forcefully shattered the doors to pieces. He rolled on the ground several times as he flew into the entrance unable to gain his balance.
"W-w-what the hell was that!?" Rai stammered in shock.
"Beast essence...I see, Micheal is a user of the Hunter's Essence type. The Hunter's essence allows its users to manipulate and take on the several abilities of the beasts they've chosen. However there are certain limits to this, to gain the beast's abilities you must have either come in contact physically with it or slayed it." Abigail responded to his question.
"The Hunter's Essence huh." Now that he thought about it, Selena did explain the different type of essence types that existed to him. But back then he was too invested in his and her type that he almost neglected the other types.
"Let's go." Abigail said.
Thanks to the abilities of Micheal, a path into the temple was now open making it easier them to jump through without needing a foothold.
"After you." Rai replied, trying to be a gentleman.
Abigail shook her head in resentment, she leaped over the lava pit and into the entrance of the Temple where unlike Michael she landed safely. Thereafter, Rai followed from behind.
"Good job Michael, I guess you're not totally useless." Abigail commented on his efforts.
"Than- wait what!?" Micheal exclaimed on the realization of what she actually meant, his body returned to normal as he deactivated his Lions Pride ability.
"The Hunter's essence huh, that's amazing." Rai said in amazement to his abilities.
"Amazing? Nah don't even give me that. It's nothing compared to that huge ball of electricity you used to beat Alexander in the exams." Micheal said.
"What huge ball of electricity?" Out of confusion, he asked.
Rai was beaten into an unconscious state so he couldn't remember what happened throughout the rest of the exams, he had no idea the power the system used him to display during the rest of the fight.
"You don't remember?" Abigail asked, she found it odd that he didn't remember the great power he displayed in his fight against the Dragon King Emperor Alexander. Even being able to take on and terminate his absolute zero.
"Last thing I remembered was passing out in the hands of Alexander, when I woke up I found him laying at my feet. Well enough of that." He replied.
As they proceeded further into the temple, Abigail could only stare at Rai in amazement. She had never seen an individual who was this less corrupted by his own mighty power until she met Rai.
"Ah man." Micheal said as they came to a halt, in front of them were three ancient doors all with strange and weird carvings drawn on them.
"So which is it? Which door are we going to follow?" Abigail asked, it was obvious that sticking together was the most reasonable option here as nobody knew what the temple had in store for them. But Rai thought otherwise.
"We split up, I know it's risky but it gets even more risky knowing that the paradoxes might show up sooner or later. So we need to cover more ground if we are going to find the Celestial Prism." He said.
Abigail and Micheal nodded in affirmation, Michael went down the path at the left, Abigail went down the path at the middle. All that was left was the path at the right, with one deep breath Rai walked cautiously through it's doors.