Several metallic hands bursted out of the ground, different shades and colors of armored knight arose from the ground and circled Rai and his accomplices. The armored parts of the dark knight Abigail blew to pieces came back together into a whole being. The same applied for the merged silver and white knight.
"They are all over the place.." Sylvia pointed out. Each passing second, more knights arose from within the ground till there was no longer space within the room. The five individuals circled the Celestial Prism/Ethereal orb given the main goal of the knights is to protect the temple and everything within it, and their main aim was to destroy it.
"What do you mean we've been tricked!?" Michael burdening the feeling of betrayal questioned.
"Think about it, how did they end up receiving the same quest that we did? The only difference was the names given." Rai said as the multitude of knights slowly approached them.
"So he is desperate for the Prism that he went as far as creating fake quests, how does that imply that he tricked us?" Michael asked with a loud voice.
"Do you not see the swarm of knights that are about to attack us?" Abigail spoke to the two who engaged in a conversation in the middle of a battle.
"We need to get the prism and leave, fighting those things head on is pointless. They would just reconfigure and come back for us." Sylvia said calmly.
"Yeah, we need to clear the pathway. Rai grab the Prism, Li and Sylvia clear a pathway through these knights, Micheal use your Hunter's Essence and create an opening through those walls for us to escape." Abigail ordered, assembling a plan of action swiftly through the known facts they had.
Everyone stared at her with a bit of amusement.
"What?" She asked unable to bear the way everyone stared at her.
Li chuckled as he bent his right knee forward along with his upper body. "You got it princess." He said as he leaped to a favourable height into the air.
Rai swiftly grabbed the prism off the altar as he could tell what was coming next. "Brace for impact!" Michael announced.
Li began rotating his body forward, executing front flips several times with a great speed. Soon after his body became a miniature spinning vortex which approached the middle of the knights from above.
"Storm Bringer!" He exclaimed as he used his right leg and smashed the body of one of the knights into the ground, using the force of the vortex he became momentarily to increase the speed and power of his attack.
The ground bursted open with a deafening roar, sending shockwaves rippling through the air. The once-stable ground becomes a chasm of chaos, swallowing majority of the knights that stood upon it.
"H-h-he's a monster!" Rai exclaimed as he witnessed the raw power of Li firsthand.
"Water Essence: Dragons Bullet!" Sylvia exclaimed stretching her right hand forward, a blue and large portal manifested above her head and from it a huge dragon made out of concentrated water emerged.
The water dragon swallowed up all the knights in their path and the armored bodies were crushed inside the pressurized water. "Are all the member's of the Raging Phoenix this strong?" Rai contemplated within his thoughts.
"Alright! The path is cleared! Michael now!" Abigail exclaimed.
The walls which both Michael and Abigail smashed through previously were reconfigured by a mysterious force. It was as if the temple itself was controlled or manipulated by unknown force.
"Okay Beast Essence: Lion's Pride.." He uttered softly as his body took on the several features of a lion including it's eyes, fangs and claws.
"RAHH!" He roared out loud as he sent his right fist into the wall, it cracked little by little before shattering completely into nothing but particles of dust. "Alright let's get out of here before those knights and these walls reconfigure!" He said as the knights Li had destroyed began reconfiguring.
The five individuals ran out of the room through the hole in the wall and approached the exit to the temple. However the path they came across was not the same as when they first came in. "I-it changed!?" Rai stuttered in disbelief.
"No matter!" Micheal yelled with confidence and smashed through every wall that blocked their path. Eventually they smashed through the exterior of the temple and found themselves surrounded by countless knights and earth based creatures created out of rocks.
"W-what the hell is going..."Sylvia muttered as everything that was happening was unrealistic in a sense.
"Isn't this overkill? Huh Lucious?" Michael said trying to communicate with the deceased.
"Everyone take cover.." Abigail said softly as she stepped forward.
"What are you going to do?" Rai questioned.
"I don't know what's going on, but that temple is the source of all this. I don't know how but I can tell, I'm going to destroy it." She replied.
"What!?" All of them proclaimed.
"Rai, on my signal throw the Prism at the temple." She ordered.
"Wait princess, think about this! There's no need to destroy the temple!" Li pleaded.
"I'm sorry, but there's no other option..."
Abigail faced the temple and raised her right hand towards it. "Light Essence: Light Nova.." She uttered softly.
A huge magic circle manifested above the temple's roof, this prompted everyone to fall back as a bright blinding light befell the temple. "Now Rai!" Abigail exclaimed.
Rai threw the prism into the temple as fast as he could. The moment the light down, all that was left was a massive crater in the place of the temple.
All the knights and earth creatures that surrounded them dismantled almost immediately, turning to crumbles of rocks.
Michael sighed in relief and fell to his buttocks. "Looks like its over, thanks to you princess." He said as his body reversed back to normal.
"Thanks, now let's get out of here before Deskus sends more-" A massive vibration from beneath the ground stopped Abigail from speaking.
"An earthquake!?" Sylvia yelled as they all tried to gain their balance. From the crater Abigail created, a giant mammoth whose body seemed to be made out of leaves and the earth arose from it. It was up to fifty feet in height and extremely large, it possessed huge trunks and tusks.
The mammoth blew his trunk and created a deep, resonant trumpet sound or rumble. A powerful, low-frequency noise that traveled over long distances, echoing through the air like a reverberating thunderclap. Given it's size, the low frequency noise created an undescribable wind pressure which uprooted countless trees and the earth itself. It blew the five individuals as well and they all crashed into the already uprooted trees and broke it.
"A-argh." Rai groaned slightly as he struggled to get to his feet while the other's stared from the ground in terror of what emerged in front of them.
"W-what the hell is that thing?" Rai asked with a wavering voice as he set his sights on the beast that stood in front of them.