⁂~(Updated 2022-07-07-)~⁂

*Ready for professional edits*

(This is the free version.)

Word Count: 4135

Crimson sunrays befell and dawned a captivating horizon over the Blood Dune Desert.

Dark red bullfrogs with repugnant yellow warts burrowed their plump bodies into the sun-kissed sand, swatting at buzzing insects with their long sticky tongues. Dragon-headed reptiles adopted the shadowed havens within giant needled cacti and sizzling clay ores to avoid the afternoon rays. Ratted and scarred, flocks of predatory birds plunged onto decaying remains.

Kazuki watched as they separated the unknown meat with their serrated teeth and gulped it down their long gullets until Angelo nudged him. "Over there," he said as he pointed to a black-glass crevice slit into a broiling hot dune in the distance.

Lilith trailed behind and hugged her golden chakrams. As she squinted through the swirling mixtures of sand, snow and blood, she reached out with her abilities and searched for the source of magic residue. "I can feel it," she said. "It must be the lava cavern that connects to the Mountain of Kagutsuchi. Or something inside its Heart of Embers."

Kazuki commanded the winds, swiping his palms to the left and right in a struggle to repel the sand gusts from his face. "How much further? I can't see or breathe in this sandstorm!" he shouted.

"It's usually not this bad," said Lilith, doing the same.

"We must get out of this raging storm before it buries us. Into that arched crevice, little ones!" ordered Angelo as he kicked up sand piles and dashed onward with powerful leaps. Kazuki and Lilith followed.

⁂

A white-brown cloak and pointy hat thrashed against the twisting sand and fluttered across a figure's dark green reptilian features. An uncanny presence. He examined the gushing Blood Dunes on the summit of a towering sand gulch. The reptilian flipped the pin switch of his metallic breathing tool with a scaly finger, letting an automated zooming-monocle slide from his breathing tubes and snap upward to his yellow eyes. Zooming in with the equipment, the cloaked snake man focused his mechanism on the three champions' silhouettes within the desert sunset.

As he spoke, the machinery muffled his speech into an odd amalgam of slithering beeps. "Found you, Anjelico," he said as he huffed and discharged steam from his breathing apparatus.

A shadowed black mass arose from the umbrae of the blood ore canyon beside the reptilian. The gloom glided across the sands and materialized into a shadowy figure filled with crimson starlights.

"Not quite yet, Katsumi. Patience," said the dark, masked figure.

The snake man turned his attention back to observe his fleeing prey upon the Blood Dune's burning skyline. His dirty pointy hat sagged over his scaled face as he zoomed in with his tracking equipment, watching Angelo, Kazuki, and Lilith vault across the sandy knolls. Puffs of smoke blasted from the breath respirator plugged into his mouth, airing his frustration.

"I can taste Anjelico from here," he slithered and beeped.

"There shall be no eating today, Koda. Disable its abilities. Nothing more. That released yokai wields one of the Three Legendary Honjo Swords—the Masamune. Return this blade to me at the Emerald Tower within the Southern Continent. And the purple-haired anomaly... is not to be touched."

"Anything more?" asked Koda, swallowing his snake-like lisp in excitement.

"If Kassius fails in his mission, I am selecting Yukimitsu and her husband to capture the anomaly. Do not get in their way. Is that clear?"

Koda snorted and expelled his fumes. "That blind shinobi is not to be trusted," he said.

"I asked. Is that clear?"

Koda winced and nodded, bending down his orbicular pointy hat with a single scaly finger. "Yez' Az' you wish it, maszter," he said as he transformed into a skinny silver python and slinked down the irregular clay gulch.

Another speckled starlight gateway manifested behind the dark, starlit man, moulding into a purple-cloaked woman shrouded in black-violet smoke.

"Mao has distracted the Faye and engaged the fortress of the white tigers. As planned," said the wicked, smoke-shrouded old woman. "The fortress will be in ruins by morning."

"Excellent," said the dark man. "Send the Black Lotus Shinobi to wipe them out. The anomaly will not follow. He will be forced to journey further to find Izanami. Zohinhime, however? Ah, Takahashi, thou are clever."

"Thou have finally felt it. Then I shall not worry," said the old black-eyed witch hovering within the curled purple haze.

"I miscalculated. Osamu means nothing. What a waste of time," said the dark man as he squeezed his starlit-spectred gauntlets. "He has told Takahashi of the first child, Izanami. It savours my soul for reaping the emblem of his mother. Miyasato... I thought he might be his reincarnation. The anomaly will be led to the golden gate to arrange an agreement."

"And if he succeeds in the trials, as you did? The Iron Rose wishes to imbue the anomaly with dark-mana powers to end thou," said the witch.

"Osamu—always ahead of the foe. I should hast killed him when I had the chance. Hmph! I shall show that sage slave that this is the archive where the heroes die."

"What if they discover your true identity?"

"It won't matter once Osamu takes them to the Southern Continent," said the masked man, beginning to dissolve in black stars.

"What aren't you telling me? Who are these boys to you?"

The masked man paused before disappearing. "Soon, Izuki. Soon everyone will know."

⁂

Running towards the glowing black stone crevice from the sandy mountainside, Kazuki felt a tug on his inner mind and soul.

"This cavern will transpose your apathy, All-Bearer," said Hi-no-Tori, yokai for the core Celestite of Fire. "One of my first-born children dwells beneath the core of the Blistering Grotto. A victory hither will conjure tales of glory."

"A powerful opponent is just what I need to test myself, so I can be ready to meet Izanami," said Kazuki as he intersected his fingers, clumsily forming the sign of the ox.

Directing his magic power to enhance his movement, Kazuki remembered Agatha's teachings and slightly empowered himself with the Celestite of Motion. Sporting a confident smile, he ran past Angelo into the spew of the smoking cave entrance. Running around the corner, he suddenly plunged into a monstrous hairy beast.

"Woah!" he shouted as he smacked into the muscular creature's dark brown pelt. Kazuki tumbled over with his butt thudding against the powdery hot red sand.

Waddling and turning around, an enormous upright bear dressed in a cut-up red and grey poncho blinked in confusion. "Hmm?!"

Angelo sprung into the cave entrance; his yellow wolf-like eyes widened.

"Angelo, watch out. It's a big monster!" yelled Kazuki.

Lilith hurried into the passage, preparing for another ambush. What now?

Lilith froze and stood puzzled momentarily as she quickly examined the monster. "That's not a monster. That's Uncle Onikuma!"

The colossal bear yokai lifted Angelo into a big hug, hoisting his wolf heels from the powdery red dirt. "Anjelico! Lilith! Is it truly you?" boomed the bear yokai.

Angelo pushed and struggled his way out of Onikuma's grip. "Set me down this second, Onikuma!"

While grinning his fangs wide, the gigantic upright bear chuckled with his deep tone. "Oh, right, sorry. Haha! I got so excited when I saw ye'!" said Onikuma as he gently placed Angelo down.

"I am relieved to see you, Onikuma, and you have not changed," said Angelo, rubbing his shoulders.

"Are you kidding? I am stronger now! I did that human push-up thing for fifty cycles—all while having a nice belly full of fish!" said Onikuma, flexing his massive hairy muscles and rubbing his big furry belly.

Angelo slouched his eyebrows as he observed Onikuma's bigger bulky biceps. "Hmph. I wish I lived in a realm full of fish and flowers..."

Kazuki roamed closer, dusting the sand from his tight black-gold kimono and dirty violet hair. "Must be a friend," he mumbled.

Approaching Onikuma, Kazuki saw that the clothed bear had doubled in size over Angelo. He swallowed the nervous lump and held his hand to greet the mighty bear yokai. "I'm Kazuki. It's nice to meet a friend of Angelo's," he said.

Onikuma's sharp black claws receded as he grabbed Kazuki's shoulders and lifted him from the ground.

"Hey, what the—!" wheezed Kazuki.

"Allies of the great Anjelico are allies of mine!" said Onikuma, compressing Kazuki with a hug until his eyes felt like popping from their sockets.

"Put him down, Onikuma! Your magical strength will pulverize him. He is important," shouted Angelo as he crossed his thick grey eyebrows and arms.

"Important ye' say?" said the giant red-clothed bear, holding Kazuki like a puppet.

"Hi, Uncle Onikuma," said Lilith.

Onikuma let Kazuki go. "Thanks... I think," said Kazuki as he smiled and rubbed his arms.

"Is that Princess Lilith? My, have ye' grown! Ye' look like Jasmine! It's good to see you again, darlin'," he said as he stomped over and bent down to embrace Lilith.

Lilith hugged back and clenched Onikuma's thick, woolly black-brown fur.

"It's good to see you again, too, Uncle Onikuma. I'm glad you found a new bearer in this year's tournament," she said.

"Me too! Cooped up for five mortal decades was very unpleasant, let me tell ya'!" grumbled Onikuma.

"What are you doing out here, you old bear, reminiscing about the ancient times? How old are you now, eight hundred? Nine? You should have retired long ago," asked Angelo as he crisscrossed his muscular forearms and leaned onto the tunnel of smooth smoking obsidian.

"The Elder Frog has entrusted my new bearer, Kaemon and myself with finding a small lad'," said Onikuma as he pointed into the growing red darkness of the lava cavern nearby. "He ran away from Golden Cloud Village last night. His aunt is worried, and I have exhausted much of my power tracking the little scamp! His foot trail and scent ended here. He's gone into this hellish hole. The scholars call it The Blistering Grotto."

'The Blistering Grotto?' thought Kazuki. 'This must be the place where Hinotori said I could prove myself. A true hero's task.'

'It will be transcendent upon leaving the grotto... alive if you can', said Hi-no-Tori.

Kazuki chuckled to himself. 'Do I have a choice?'

'You do not have many options regarding reliability. We must help save this missing boy', stated Hi-no-Tori.

"Kaemon went into the cavern while I waited here. Ye' know, in case the little scamp ran off on us again," said Onikuma. "Kaemon hasn't come out in over a day, and neither has the kid. But I am still here! So he must be alive! I was about to go into The Blistering Grotto to save em'. It is a dangerous place, I'm told."

Lilith accumulated her fire magic and produced a protective bubbling orange aura over everyone's bodies—a shield against the haze of sulphur, charcoal and poisonous mineral gases within the Blistering Grotto. "This should help," she said.

Absorbed in self-thought, Kazuki observed the obsidian tunnel flow with lava as they travelled inside. 'This stone is almost indestructible. Woah!' thought Kazuki as quickly dodged a puddle of liquid black glass oozing from a glowing molten rock.

"The masked man's slaves had mined these unique stones to produce magic armour during the war," said Hi-no-Tori.

'Magic armour?'

"Armour that is resistant to the magic power of a yokai. My hottest fires can not penetrate it when layered into plating," said Hinotori.

Lilith looked at Kazuki. He held his chin in self-thought as he talked to his yokai and avoided the bubble squirts of magma trailing down the crevices of the obsidian walls.

Kazuki can speak with his yokai, thought Lilith. I wish I could do that... When will you talk to me, huh?

"Why is it that you fear the worst, Onikuma?" asked Angelo, trailing further into the smoking cavern beside Onikuma.

"Because Kaemon has not come out all day!" roared the giant bear yokai.

"And that odour? Hot metal deep within," said Angelo. "You detect it, no doubt. Your muzzle is better than mine."

Onikuma pointed a long black claw down the darkly lit obsidian grotto.

"That fragrance is the grotto's Heart of Embers," he said. "It is connected to the Mountain of Kagutsuchi. A lava cavern, I guess ye' could say. Folks in Zohinhime believe the reawakening of an almighty fire yokai will begin soon. Kaemon thinks that is why this kid came ere'.

"The little scamp wanted to fight it! Can you believe that, Angelo? Mortals are growing more ambitious every day. But this yokai is the first released by the Evensong Rite. He has been around here a long time. I think he even may be older than you and I, Angelo."

"I have heard the tales," said Angelo, narrowing his eyebrows through the putrid fumes of the cave.

Onikuma stomped. "I was told to wait, but I ain't waitin' any longer! I like Kaemon. He is a native of these harsh lands. A fascinating fellow and companion," said Onikuma as he ducked his big fluffy head underneath a stalagmite of solid obsidian.

Kazuki poked Lilith. "You called him uncle. Why?" he asked as he walked behind Onikuma and Angelo deeper into the steaming grotto.

Lilith giggled while adjusting her battle tiara and the black topaz necklace Mao had gifted her when they were young.

"I just do," she said. "Uncle Onikuma and Angelo have been friends since I was a little girl."

"Is it because of the war?" asked Kazuki.

"Ashinburn was attacked," said Lilith. "They both fought side-by-side in what would be called the Battle for Faith. The masked man had sent hundreds of his shinobi warriors to Ashinburn. We won an impossible victory that day. So, they like to brag about it."

Kazuki followed Lilith's pale finger until his face slumped. Angelo and Onikuma began flexing their muscles as they marched in unison. Kazuki laughed and turned back to Lilith. "Now I see where he gets it from," he said.

Glory under venture—the fortune of societies' pride awaits...

Once I save this little kid and return him to Golden Cloud Village, I can earn some respect, and then with Mr.Takahashi's note, they'll have to let me inside the Archives of Cloud, thought Kazuki.

A solid approach. Although, thou should start by avoiding the disintegration of limbs. Princess Lilith's abilities will shield you, but only partially. I have already forced my mana to the surface for you earlier. So I cannot help you for a while, said Hinotori, reminding Kazuki not to step into the pools of spitting magma.

Right. Thanks, Hinotori.

The silicon, magnesium, and iron collections all pressured together within small intricate pockets, formulating the black-glass cavern. Magma barrelled through tight holes in the wall and spilled sizzling black puddles of liquidized ore. Numerous lava lines flowed and branched off the walls to the crunchy black-pebbled ground. The glowing lines trickled and converged into one solid bright beam of molten lava, forming a boiling river.

Kazuki heard the tunnels and lava rivers hiss as the fumes swirled to the jagged ceiling and cooked the volcanic paragon. It's good that Lilith and Angelo are shielding us with their magic. There is no way I could get through here alone. So, how did that little boy? thought Kazuki.

The intense heat and scattering of metallic gases slowly seeped into the fire shields. Lilith worked hard to protect everyone from the high temperatures and poisonous fumes with her mana. She created thin flaming spheres that embraced everyone's bodies. As the violet toxins bounced off, the auras fizzled with a yellow-orange shimmer of sparks.

As everyone accompanied Onikuma and his nose down another narrow obsidian tunnel, a roaring immersion abruptly thundered and rattled the lava cavern.

"What the heck was that?" asked Kazuki, maintaining his balance from the quake.

Onikuma tried smelling the mana residue left behind by his bearer. "Maybe it's Kaemon? He could be in trouble. Let's hurry!" Onikuma placed his gigantic paw on Kazuki's back and pointed toward the glowing red lights in the darkness. "But, I hope you're ready to be a hero, kid. I can smell somethin' nasty, and it ain't Anjelico."

:: Master Kenji :: Kazuki Memory Quote: "The hourglass of life travels quicker than today..."

Kazuki shadowed the movements of the others and angled his footsteps around the liquid rocks trickling with luminous lava. "It's so dark in here," he said.

"There isn't much oxygen either," replied Lilith, forming the sign of the horse.

Lilith's forearms burst into ocherous flames—irradiating heavier bonfires.

"I can't absorb it all, or we will suffocate. Nevertheless, I will do what I can. It's so hot in here. We would burn alive without our celestites. I don't know how those other two got through these passages."

The heroes pursued Onikuma's sharp sense of smell to locate Kaemon and the runaway boy. They hiked alongside the gloomy rivers of lava and pushed through the red-violet toxic gas deposits. Kazuki observed slithering, slimy grey creatures trudging the thick magma currents as they slinked toward their sanctuaries filled with sticky eggs.

Crimson-gold scarabs the size of elephants burrowed deep into the raw obsidian on the other side of the lava river.

Kazuki watched as they cut apart the glass ore with their two-pronged pincers and hurled chunks ten times their size into the oozing lava streams. They barricaded an overflow from a split crevice within a marching line, one by one—preserving their mounded shelters from incinerating.

Lilith escorted and protected everyone through the final glowing obsidian veins. "It's a dead-end," she said, fumbling into a closed-off wall.

"Through here," said Kazuki as he moved a stone blockage with his magic powers and squeezed through a small hole. Climbing down into the soot, he viewed through the tiny space. "I see something," he said as he coughed and scattered black-iron dust.

"These metal chains are hanging down from the ceiling."

"What else?" asked Lilith as she bent down and pressed against Kazuki, attempting to observe inside the tiny gap.

Kazuki saw a massive, black-metal cable spiral downward. "A bigger chain leads to a giant birdcage or something," he said. "It's swinging over a blue fire. Wait... I see a man! He is lying in the cage, and a kid is with him. I think the tattooed man is hurt..."

"What?" Onikuma tugged on Kazuki and pulled him out of the hole.

"Ouf!"

Leaning down, Onikuma peered through the hole with one big brown eye.

Squinting momentarily, he caught sight of the oversized hanging birdcage and the two people bound within.

"It's Kaemon!"

⁂

Wrapped within a charred green cloak, the dark-skinned tattooed man, Kaemon, slumped on the burned floorboards of the giant hanging jail cage. He gripped his bleeding abdomen with a trembling hand and stared into the bubbling blue magma pool through the cage bars. Behind a dingy hood, his golden bear-like eyes reflected the floating blue ember's lights.

The missing little boy, covered in smut, spun and whirled off the cage's bars, uplifting smokey residue from his workouts.

"Do you not fear death?" asked Kaemon, pointing to the moat of white-blue magma below them.

The small boy finished his pull-ups and twirled back onto his charcoal-stained feet, rattling the oversized birdcage.

"I'm not scared," said the brown-haired little boy, approaching Kaemon.

Kaemon squinted and studied the boy through his fading blurry vision. He noticed a dark purple celestite crystal etched into the middle of the boy's chest. White luminaries glittered across his black eyes and broad smile as the unusual crystal flashed with black-violet light.

"You are a celestite bearer?" asked Kaemon as he grunted into a more comfortable position.

"You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you, mister," said the boy.

"I came here—to help you. Your Aunt Sarah sent me," grunted Kaemon.

"It looks like you could use some yourself, mister. You know, you look familiar," said the boy, wiping the build-up of sweat from his forehead and swooshing his wet spiky brown hair.

"My name is—Kaemon," groaned the wounded man. "Are you—Adrian?"

"Oh! You are our village's new tracker. I guess Aunt Sarah is really worried about me if she sent you. I'm sorry..."

The celestite etched within the little boy's bare chest glistened with numerous dark violet sheens. A black iris unfolded from the crystal's diamond centre and moulded into an ellipsoidal eyeball. Shifting and jittering from side to side, the veiny eyeball scanned and winked around the cage from the boy's chest.

Kaemon winced. "What is that... thing?"

"This is Daisuke!" said the brown-haired little boy, Adrian, smiling at the cloaked dark-skinned man. "The Elder  says my Grandpa Reiki gave him to me before he died in the great war."

Kaemon went limp as his eyes slowly sealed.

"Hey! Are you okay, mister? Don't fall asleep!"

⁂

Lilith grazed her fingers across the corroded blockage of black stone. "Powerful magic is keeping this sealed. There's no way in," she said, lighting up the gloom with her flaming forearms. "And we have to hurry; I can only absorb so much of this heat and toxic vapour. I used too much magic to defeat Kaji Flame."

"I can assist and heighten the power of your protection, little one," said Angelo as he formed the triangular sign of the tiger.

"Thanks, Angelo. Your mana should help lessen the burden," said Lilith, concentrating further on her hand signs.

Onikuma grumbled and stepped away from the sooty gap. "I swear if Kaemon is harmed, I will be ripping heads off and using them in a stew!"

Angelo clutched Onikuma's thick furry arm doubled in weight and size as he became angrier. "Peace, Onikuma," said Angelo. "We will find them and have survived more violent events than this."

Onikuma approved and squeezed his massive biceps next to Angelo.

"You're right, Anjelico! Boo-ya'!"

Lilith aimed her finger into the scorching hot air. Light the way, she whispered, hoping her yokai would somehow respond for once.

Within a ruby-fire flicker, her whole arm burst into crimson flames, illuminating like a beacon. "With Angelo's help, I can see what it says," said Lilith as she reflected her burning forearms to flare up the darkness.

Kazuki touched the puzzling hieroglyphics etched into the chipped obsidian and released a cloud of silicon dust. He waved away the sulphuric stench and continued to graze his fingers across the smooth edges of the swirling symbols. As he felt the perfect black glass, his red trapezoid-shaped celestite illuminated.

Clunking ricocheted off the stone blockage and vibrated the seal within. A stone column pivoted and unfolded a long staff from the wall's inlet. As the gnarled white staff dragged outward, it displayed a black keystone within its husk.

Place your hand onto the crystal of the stave, All-Bearer, said Hi-no-Tori.

Kazuki blinked. "Whose staff is this?"

Lilith inspected the staves' unusual glowing red etchings.

"Look at these markings," she said. "It's the semantics of the ancients. You can read this stuff, can't you, Uncle Onikuma?"

"Baha! How old do you think I am?" he asked.

"Old enough to read it, you old bear," said Angelo.

Onikuma grumbled and stomped over to the old staff glowing with blue symbols. He felt the twisting phosphorescent engravings with his paw. His confused furry face brightened momentarily, and his snout wiggled as he recognized the dialect.

"The staves information is being hidden. But! This is a magical door, and it is very ancient indeed. Baha! This goes back even before the First Age!" he squinted.

"Before the First Age? That's impossible," said Lilith as she squinted at the text. "That would mean this staff has been here for over a thousand years."

"What does the staff say exactly, Onikuma?" asked Kazuki.

Onikuma cleared his deep raspy voice.

"It says a lot about the Realm of Styx, and there's a name carved near the bottom within an old yokai dialect... Ashura."

Angelo leaned in and squinted, trying to read it as well. "Ashura? I have not heard of the name," he huffed.

"I don't recognize it either, Anjelico. The stave is even older than I am, baha!" said Onikuma. "Kaemon must have gotten inside this chamber somehow. It looks like these boulders were moved recently," said Onikuma as he sniffed the sealed stone door.

Lilith held her thinly narrowed chin and hummed.

"I have heard of magical doors made by non-elves before, but I have never seen one in person," she said. "I remember Master Takahashi saying that very strong celestite bearers produce magical doors. To think this door pre-dates the celestite crystals themselves... Angelo, how is that possible?"

Angelo stepped back, thinking with slow strokes of his fluffy white beard.

"Ashura. I am unfamiliar with this name, and I know many names," he said.

"Maybe the name will be within the archives," said Lilith. "Uncle Onikuma, are you sure this door pre-dates the First Age? Is there any way around it?"

Onikuma grinned. "Yup, without a doubt," he said. "Only Hinotori or her children can open this sucker using this staff."

Kazuki stepped in front of the others and slowly flattened his palm onto the top black crystal inlet of the marble staff. White-orange embers suddenly bounced and circled Kazuki, igniting the magical stave and sealed door.

Onikuma, dumbfounded, turned to Angelo. "What have ye' gotten me into now?" he asked. "That is the core of fire. Hinotori herself! This kid is a sage?"

"I will explain later," said Angelo as he scratched his white beard in thought. "It seems the Celestite of Fire is reacting to this magic door."

"I am Sage Kazuki, the third bearer for the Celestite of Fire. I want this door to dispel!"

The mysterious magical wall glowed brighter in response and then faded.

"Well, it was worth a try," he said.

"Wait, it's opening!" shouted Lilith.