Mystical Journey

Flamingo frowned for a bit.

"Hmm, alright. What about the Blood of Secrets."

Duskdune Shura turned the Sword of the Sprites around, and softly popped open the tip of the hilt. Turns out the tip of the hilt hid a small little container, and within it poured out a miniscule amount of dark red blood.

Duskdune Shura skillfully poured the blood into a glass bottle he had in his other hand.

"Here it is. Let’s go, I don’t think this is enough for us to make one portion."

"That will depend on how pure the blood is." Flamingo shrugged, and suddenly swung his sword around his back, hitting the now recovered giant sprite, sending her flying once more, and half fainting again.

"Have the sword!" Duskdune Shura threw the Sword of the Sprites to Flamingo.

Catching the Sword of the Sprites, Flamingo threw away his original weapon and stroked its length with his hand.

"Worlds Will Moan, Sprites Begone!"

HUUMMMMM

The runes on the Sword of the Sprites started glowing along the path his hand stroked. One by one they glowed a bright red until the entire sword was glowing and shaking, making the sound of a low hum and transforming into a bright red longsword.

The red glow from the sword was so bright it illuminated the surroundings of Flamingo until even Flamingo himself was a bright red.

"This is….!!" Garen took a few steps back, his face now filled with rare fear. He had seen great warriors like Duskdune Shura, and he has also met skilled swordsmen like the Eight-Arm Dragon King. Heck, he’s even met powerful werewolves that were only known to legends; yet now, for once, he was afraid.

Flamingo brandished the sword in his hand like a magical light show, it was of such magnificence that Garen couldn’t help but skip a breath now and then. The sight, was truly one to behold, almost like magic!

Flamingo grimaced, and raised the sword high up.

"End!"

The red light suddenly reached a scorching brightness, Flamingo lightly swung it.

SLASH!!!

A bright red curve formed from that swing, and it started to fly towards the giant sprite. The sprite seemed like she was trying to escape, but she simply wouldn’t move, and could only watch in despair as the red curve came close and slashed through her waist.

Without a sound, the sprite started falling into two pieces separated between the waistline, and fell onto the ground. The parts where her waist used to be was now two clean cuts, smooth like polished metal.

The red curve also dimmed out and disappeared after the slash.

The Sword of the Sprites in Flamingo’s hand also dimmed out. His face looked like he was incredibly tired, it seems that the sword consumes a great amount of energy to wield.

Celine was now completely stunned, she could only stare at the Sword of the Sprites with silent alert.

"Should we still try to pick a fight?" She whispered to Garen

He hesitated, and observed the duo before responding in doubt.

"This is not right."

He walked up and blocked the exit of the duo.

"What? Do you want to fight us?" Flamingo looked at Garen doubtfully. Flamingo didn’t look as chill as he was before, his fight with Beo’s Slash Brigade trio earlier definitely injured him internally. He’s not a user of hard Qi, and had obviously been injured by a good amount of heavy firepower. Not to mention he had just used his remaining energy to use the Sword of the Sprites to rid the giant sprite, he must be heavily injured now.

Garen took a look at the Sword of the Sprites in Flamingo’s hand, he was definitely still heavy hearted.

"Well, you seem to have sustained some pretty heavy injuries, so I will not fight you. Duskdune Shura, my request is simple, tell me what’s the use of the blood and give me the Golden Sword Throne, it is the relic key for this area."

Duskdune Shura’s old face made no expression, "Nice observation skills, I’m surprised you could tell we’re heavily injured."

"Just give it to me, I would rather not take advantage of your situation now, but consider this time as a bad miscalculation in your strategy. I’m not sure why you wanted to bait us in here, but this does not affect my need to achieve my final objective." Garen stepped up, his eyes slightly drooping, his body emitted a surge of intimidating energy. He was adjusting his stance and summoning his hardening Qi, he wasn’t sure if the Sword of the Sprites in the hands of Flamingo could cut him, but he was willing to try.

Should a fight break out, for sure both sides would end up heavily injured. Garen might be unscathed for now, but he was still outnumbered, so even though the both of them are heavily injured, he still doesn’t stand a healthy chance.

Duskdune Shura started laughing.

"I’ll let you win this time." He straight took out the palm sized Golden Sword Throne and threw it at Garen, "What a pity, if it wasn’t for those rascals messing up my setup outside, perhaps we could have…...Ah screw it, let’s not talk about it. We will meet again, goodbye."

"Goodbye." Garen caught the Golden Sword Throne, and smiled for abit. He gave way and watched as the two of them left in a single file.

"Let’s follow them out," Garen turned around and told Celine.

Celine nodded in agreement.

The two of them turned around to look at everyone around the room, after a short moment of hesitation, Garen lifted a member of the Slash Brigade in each of his hands, and took quick steps to follow up with Duskdune Shura and Flamingo.

"Be careful, if I’m not wrong, coming in may have been easy, going out is most likely going to be tougher." Celine reminded Garen.

Garen nodded, and at this moment Beo and the bearded man in his arms started to come to.

"That rascal Duskdune Shura, I WILL KILL HIM ONE DAY!" The bearded man moaned softly as he slowly awoke.

"You better take care of yourself first," Garen said, "So many of you versus the two of them, not to mention you even had a giant sprite on your side, yet they still managed to leave in one piece."

"Let go of me!" the bearded man yelled, "Who do you think you are? Do you even know how powerful Duskdune Shura and Flamingo are?!"

"What’s wrong with you? Garen saved you, and yet you don’t even thank him!" Celine glared at him sternly.

"I could’ve easily made it out with or without his help!" the bearded man groaned. He struggled out of Garen’s grasp and took a few clumsy steps away before finally standing straight. Despite his face looking a little pale, he seemed to have regained his mobility.

Garen looked at him with slight, but he couldn’t give a damn, and continued walking until they reached the needle barriers where they encountered the sprites earlier.

Now they could only see the corpses of the two sprites, their bodies nicely sliced through the waist like the giant sprite earlier.

Garen knelt down beside the corpses and gently picked up one half of a sprite’s corpse.

As he touched it, the corpse instantly disintegrated into black dust all over the floor, leaving only its wings. Each sprite had two pairs of locust like wings, Garen thought for a moment, and decided to take two pairs for himself, pocketing it, he quickly stood up and left.

By this time, the bearded man was nowhere to be found.

"This ancient ruin doesn’t look dangerous at all!" Garen said to himself as he rushed out.

Celine jumped and hung onto his shoulders.

"The biggest problem with the sprites’ ruins is the giant sprite, but since Duskdun Shura and Flamingo took care of that for us, we should be set. If you tried coming alone it might’ve been a different story."

"So why did you come here? Don’t tell me it’s because of pure curiousity."

"Nothing much really, it’s just that I’ve read about the ancient ruins for the longest time, and I really didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see one for myself. If I didn’t come, I would’ve never seen things like the sprites, and not to mention that weird magic work of Flamingo’s new sword."

"You’re right, if you hadn’t seen it for yourself, who would’ve believed that Flamingo would gain abilities like that?" Garen felt a little grateful as well.

The two of them continued to rush ahead, the corridor seemed to pass behind them, as their talking didn’t slow them down at all.

"But why aren’t the others anyhow interested in the sprites?" Garen was baffled, "And why did they leave so quickly?"

Suddenly his eyes opened wider than before, as if he just had an epiphany, and Celine too did the same, they both looked at each other.

"THE RUINS MUST BE A TRAP!" Celine yelled.

Without another thought or word, the duo sped up and sprinted even faster towards the exit.

With Beo in one hand, and the Golden Sword Throne in the other, Garen felt a cold breeze coming from the Golden Sword Throne, it made him feel incredibly uneasy. The process of which he obtained the relic key was way too easy, from Duskdune Shura fighting with the Slash Brigade, to all the traps and obstacles being removed by them, plus ending up with being able to pick up the Golden Sword Throne without the slightest effort. It was all too fishy. The members of the Immortal Alliance are never this friendly, it seemed like they were intentionally giving the relic key to Garen.

"I hope nothing bad happens."

Very soon, Celine and Garen made it to the very first ghost faced living room.

WHOOSH

Just as they entered, they saw Duskdune Shura and Flamingo leaping to evade a massive blade’s slash.

Flamingo held onto the glowing Sword of the Sprites firmly as it glowed a bright red, and he stared sternly at the other side of the living room. It wasn’t just him, but there was Duskdune Shura, the bearded man, and some strangers of unknown origins.

Everyone was spread apart, staring at a shadow in the middle of the living room.

"Five more minutes until the ancient ruins collapses! We do not have time, Garen! Quickly come help! Or else we might all not make it out!" Duskdune Shura was the first to notice Garen’s trio arrive.

"What’s going on?!" Garen turned his gaze to the shadowed figure in the middle, then he was stunned.

That being was about the height of a human, with green scales all over and the looks of a sprite. Except that this one didn’t have any wings, and was wielding a green equivalent of the Sword of the Sprites.

By the looks of everyone, it seems like this was a truly intimidating fellow.

As if he could make out the puzzled look on Garen’s face, Duskdune Shura explained, "Originally I was confident I would be able to fight these damned sprites, except we got injured by those rascals earlier, now we can only face this ourselves..."

CLANG!!!

Duskdune Shura took a backstep, evading the slash from the sprite, the sword landed on the ground, leaving marks where it meets the ground.

BANG BANG!

After two loud gunshots, the sprite got shot in the head, and its body disintegrated into many little sprites, flying about, and attacking whoever they find in their path.

Garen tried to keep his calm, these little sprites’ sharp teeth can easily bite through his hardened skin, if he doesn’t pay attention he might lose it.

"Now I’ve achieved my objective, I’ve acquired the Golden Sword Throne, there’s no need for me to be involved in this; I should find a way out as soon as possible"

He turned his gaze to where the exit stairs would’ve been. What was weird, was that there was no door now, it was as if the exit never existed in the first place.

During this short time, Duskdune Shura swept his palm and hit two sprites in front of him, Flamingo followed in sync and slashed them into four clean pieces. Their actions drew the attention of most sprites.

The bearded man on the other hand swung his dagger around blocking the attacks of the sprites. His face was a pale white, his arms were also numb from the continuous attacks, but suddenly he had an epiphany, and pulled out a black grenade.

"Fuck this! If I’m dying, we’re all dying together!" He pulled out the safety ring and threw the grenade to the middle of the room.

Duskdune Shura and Flamingo rapidly retreated to the corner of the room, Flamingo’s Sword of the Sprites kept drawing new red curves in the air, slicing every sprite around him, and making some sort of a half circle defense line between the two of them.

The two of them noticed the bearded man’s action, but they stood unfazed, and only smirked.

Instead it was the trio that just got in that were shocked, one of them quickly took out his gun and aimed it at the bearded man, but it was too late.

"You’re insane!" Celine was the first to notice this, and quickly ducked to hide behind Garen.

Using a grenade in a crowded and tight room like this, even the shockwave alone will be able to cause serious damage to everyone. The bearded man intends to bring everyone down with him!

"Stay safe now! Duck!" Garen too saw the grenade, he took a deep breath and expanded his entire body, before he reached his maximum expansion, he pulled Beo and Celine behind him.