Chapter Forty
Jackson made sure Melanie and Lazarus were ready to proceed before he took a deep breath and gave his answer to the Judge. The air between the arch rippled and warped, swirling and changing to reflect not the path forward that they had seen originally but a dark stone chamber within an equally dark cave. Swirling silver runes in a language Jackson couldn’t understand adorned the walls. In the center of the stone room was an ornate altar, divided into four sections. One section was seemingly made of rich, dark earth, covered in moss and vines. Another seemed to be made of dark, stormy clouds. It was as if someone had taken a wind storm and made a plate out of it. The third section of the altar was nothing but a golden flame, hot and blazing, yet contained in a single square. Next to it, the final section was flowing water, a clear green and blue, gentle as a stream, all within a plate of its own.
Jackson was certainly not expecting this, and he reached out a hesitant hand to touch the image. His hand sank into it, and he could smell the cave from this close. The scents of a blazing fire, a cool stream, a forest floor, and wind and rain were all intermingling, filling his senses. Shrugging, he looked at Melanie and Lazarus. The spirit gestured at him to move forward, and so he did, stepping into the rippling image and onto the other side, finding himself standing in the stone room. Melanie and Lazarus followed soon after.
“This is clearly a puzzle. Anyone have any ideas?”
Jackson's tone was exasperated. He hated puzzles. Melanie stepped closer to study the altar, while Lazarus went and examined the runes on the walls. He nodded to himself.
“I haven’t seen this language used in a long time. Fascinating.”
Melanie looked up from where she was studying the stone part of the altar. “What language is it?”
Lazarus answered her, “I believe it is Edaenari. It is considered the language of Eden’s angels. Primarily used to speak with nature and to anything on a more primordial level.”
Melanie let out a thoughtful “Hmm” before asking, “Well, can you speak it? It must have something to do with this,” she indicated the altar with a flick of a finger.
“Oh, because I’m old, you expect me to be able to speak an ancient language considered by most to be lost to time and only spoken by literal warriors of a divine tree considered the source of all life, magic, realms, and all realities?”
Melanie held up her hands. “Hey, if you don’t know it, then you don’t know it.”
Lazarus grinned, “Of course I know it. Let’s see here. This part here,” he allowed his hand to trail over the runes before clearing his throat.
“Strength of stone, still and cold, first you honor, brave and bold.”
Jackson rubbed his jaw, “I’m betting it has something to do with that earth plate there.”
“Yeah, but what do we do exactly? Press on it?” Melanie asked.
“It’s probably a little more than that, Laz. Any ideas?”
The spirit crossed his arms as Jackson looked at him. He had that look again, and Jackson groaned.
“Oh, come on. Haven’t you trained us enough?” Jackson glared at him.
The spirit merely laughed. “I can’t wait to see how you solve this, fledgling. Without my help.”
Jackson scowled at him, and Melanie just laughed a tired little laugh.
“That’s how he is, Jackson; come on, you must have some idea,” she urged.
“I hate puzzles,” Jackson grumbled under his breath. Melanie’s gaze became pointed, and he sighed.
“Fine. The language says we have to honor it. Maybe we have to give it a gift by setting something on it.”
Melanie tapped her cheek. “Maybe a potion?”
Jackson held up his hands and shrugged. “Worth a try.”
She took out a potion and placed it on the stone plate of the altar, and almost instantly the room began to rumble. From the floor, a green energy, the color of fresh grass, and rich browns started to swirl and coalesce into a massive figure with giant fists of stones and two glowing green eyes set into a round head made of solid rock. Bits of glimmering green crystals, quarts, and other rocks and stones were growing outward from its massive body.
It had no mouth that Jackson could see, and it smelled like a deep, dank cave.
“I’m guessing it isn’t here to help us,” Jackson said dryly.
Melanie pulled her bow, giving Jackson a “really?” glance. Then she proceeded to shoot the monster with glowing emerald arrows, exploding against it like small bombs. Jackson took a second to analyze it.
Nature Golem, Level 58
There was a time when seeing something of a higher level would have alarmed Jackson, but he was beginning to see that it was less about the levels and more about where his skills, weaves, and Domain were at in advancement. This golem did not scare him, not really.
Melanie’s arrows had already taken a massive chunk out of it, a portion of its stony torso exploding outward as if someone had taken a hammer to a rock. In this case, that wasn’t far off the mark. Hollow booms echoed throughout the stone cave as Melanie’s arrows did damage.
Jackson almost allowed himself to sit back and let his beautiful druidic ranger companion deal with it, but his confidence was shaken a bit when the golem produced a massive black, brown, and green rock out of seemingly nothing and lobbed it at Melanie with all the strength of its massive arms. Melanie was not fast enough to get out of the way. Jackson, however, was fast enough to get in the way.
He wove an ebon eruption, the weaves and mana responding to his will and intent near instantaneously, the abyssal cloak erupting around him as he kicked off with blurring speed and shoved Melanie out of the way. She tumbled, but with a cat’s grace, she rolled and came up on her feet. Jackson looked at the rock and allowed it to smash into him.
Maybe without his journeyman constitution, Jackson would have been crushed to a bloody paste, but he wasn’t without it, and it put in the work here. Instead of ending up as a bloody blob of gore on the stone ground, he merely ended up as a bloody mass of broken bones. He was sure his neck was broken, given how he could feel it twisted at an unnatural angle. Various bones jutted out of his skin, bleeding and letting him know through a truly unimaginable amount of pain that they did not want to be out of his skin.
A normal human would have probably passed out, their minds unable and incapable of handling the torment their bodies would be feeling at this moment. In fact, a normal human would have simply died right there and then. But Jackson was not normal, nor was he human. The notification that flashed across his vision,
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
You have sustained massive damage. Health is critically low.
Jackson did not stay there for long as his phoenix regeneration skill went to work. The pain he felt was a mere spark, there and then gone as his bones returned beneath his flesh and knitted themselves back together. His blood, tainting the air with its metallic scent, though to him it smelled much more divine, flowed back into him. His flesh smoothed over, and his clothes, his Blood Wanderer’s set, repaired themselves.
Within seconds, it was as if the golem had not hit him at all. By this time, Melanie had not ceased peppering the golem with arrows. Though when she saw Jackson was standing and perfectly fine, she decided to empower some of her shots, her aura flaring for the briefest instant, and in that instant, the fierce howl of a wolf on the hunt split the air. Jackson grinned at the golem and blurred forward, striking it with a veilstrike.
To say hitting rock like that, especially rock with other rocks and stones growing out of it, was a bad idea, was probably an understatement. Jackson did not care. He knew he would heal from it, and indeed, his broken knuckles were already doing so, and it was necessary to bind the golem in place with weaves of blood and destruction. The massive monster strained against his weaves, which was more than most could do. Jackson would give it that, but in its concentration on attempting to free itself, Melanie was able to get off her wolven devastation weave.
The massive emerald wolf’s head that appeared in the sky howled a triumphant howl as it came down on the massive nature golem and bit its head off with a crunch of stone breaking from stone. Its massive body crumbled, an isolated avalanche of rock, the sound of its crunching and booming echoing throughout the chamber with such force that Jackson covered his ears.
You have defeated a Nature Golem at level 58.
Well, Jackson hadn’t really defeated it; Melanie had, but he was making a good guess that the Judge felt he had helped. They hadn’t earned any levels from the encounter or any skills or weaves either, which told Jackson that the golem hadn’t been much of a challenge. He looked at Melanie with a wry smile.
“That ability isn’t OP, huh?”
She threw a small rock from the now-large pile at Jackson. He figured he deserved it.
“Well, it appears that the item we place does actually matter.”
“Yeah, and if we get it wrong, we are attacked by elemental monsters,” Melanie added.
Jackson rubbed his jaw, “Maybe that’s it right there, then. We just have to place an item related to the element on each plate here.”
He felt a growing excitement as he said this, feeling he had finally solved this stupid, horrible puzzle. Melanie looked thoughtful and shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Jackson threw up his hands. “Oh, come on, the worst that happens is we fight another elemental. Can’t be that bad, can it?”
She glared at him. “Well, now you’ve gone and done it.”
Jackson raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve taunted the universe. Whenever you say things like ‘it can’t be that bad, can it?’ you invite the universe to do its worst.”
Jackson scowled, “Well, we have to try something.”
Melanie looked like she was going to say something else, but she let it go and turned her attention to the stone plate. Something dawned in her hazel eyes a moment later—an understanding kind of light. She picked up a heavy stone and placed it on the plate. A rumbling sound echoed throughout the chamber, and nothing else happened.
Jackson chuckled, “It looks like you figured it out.”
“Don’t act so surprised,” Melanie said, deadpan.
“Who? Me?” Jackson said, putting a hand on his chest. He earned another rock thrown his way; this time he ducked, and Melanie stuck her tongue out at him.
“Come on, let’s get back to this,” Jackson said with a gesture towards the altar.
He looked over at Lazarus. “Can you translate the next bit, or do we have to do that on our own as well?”
Lazarus arched an eyebrow, “Do I sense some frustration there, fledgling?”
Jackson rubbed his face. Lazarus was simply trying to help in his own way. He was right that Jackson might not always be able to count on him. Jackson waved an apology, “Came out harsher than I intended, my bad. Can you please translate the next set of runes here?”
Lazarus grunted, looking at Jackson for a few seconds before nodding, seemingly mollified.
“Alright, it says, ‘Winds that whisper, light as air, second follows, if you dare.’ Good luck, children.”
“It would follow that we have to put something on the plate that relates to air. Do you have anything like that?”
Melanie shook her head, her expression troubled. “No, no, I don’t.”
Jackson thought for a moment. “Maybe something light and airy. Do we have any feathers?”
Melanie rummaged through her bag and produced a small, white feather. “Will this work?”
“It’s worth a try,” Jackson replied.
Melanie placed the feather on the plate, and the room began to hum with energy. The air around them swirled, and a figure made of stormy clouds began to materialize. Its eyes were crackling bolts of lightning, and it floated above the ground, radiating power.
“Looks like we triggered another elemental,” Jackson said, preparing himself.
The storm elemental didn’t waste any time. It shot bolts of lightning at them, forcing Jackson and Melanie to dive for cover. Melanie retaliated with her bow, firing arrows that seemed to pass through the elemental’s cloudy form without much effect.
Jackson decided to try a different approach. He wove a blood lightning surge, aiming directly at the elemental. The surge crackled and sizzled as it collided with the stormy figure, causing it to shudder and flicker.
“Keep at it!” Melanie shouted, her arrows now infused with a green glow, managing to disrupt the elemental’s form.
Jackson intensified his attack, pouring more mana into his weave. The storm elemental writhed and twisted, its form becoming increasingly unstable. Finally, with a burst of energy, it dissipated into nothingness.
You have defeated a Storm Elemental at level 60.
Jackson panted, feeling the drain on his mana. “Okay, that was a bit tougher.”
Melanie nodded, wiping sweat from her brow. “Yeah, but we did it. Let’s keep going.”
Jackson looked at Lazarus. “What’s the next part?”
Lazarus examined the runes again. “Flames that dance, bright and hot, third you honor, never forgot.”
Jackson nodded. “We need something related to fire.”
Melanie pulled out a small vial of oil from her bag. “Maybe this will work?”
“Worth a shot,” Jackson replied.
She poured the oil onto the fiery plate. Instantly, a wall of flame erupted, and from within it emerged a figure made entirely of fire. Its eyes burned with intense heat, and it roared, causing the temperature in the room to spike dramatically.
“Here we go again,” Jackson muttered.
The fire elemental was relentless, sending waves of flame towards them. Jackson and Melanie were forced to keep moving to avoid being burned. Melanie shot arrows that seemed to do little more than irritate the fiery creature.
Jackson decided to try his blood lightning surge again. He aimed at the elemental, and the surge collided with the flames, causing the creature to flicker and roar in anger. Melanie followed up with a series of powerful arrows, each one bursting with emerald energy upon impact.
The combined attacks seemed to weaken the fire elemental. It roared one last time before exploding into a shower of sparks and embers.
You have defeated a Fire Elemental at level 62.
Jackson and Melanie both took a moment to catch their breath. “One more to go,” Jackson said, looking at Lazarus.
Lazarus translated the final set of runes. “Waters that flow, calm and clear, last you honor, do not fear.”
Jackson nodded. “We need something related to water.”
Melanie produced a small flask of water. “This should do it.”
She poured the water onto the watery plate. A gentle ripple spread out, and from it rose a figure made of flowing water. Its eyes were deep blue pools, and it moved with a fluid grace.
Jackson and Melanie prepared for the final challenge. The water elemental moved swiftly, its form shifting and changing as it attacked with tendrils of water. Melanie’s arrows splashed harmlessly against it, and Jackson’s blood lightning surge seemed to have little effect.
“We need a different approach,” Jackson said, thinking quickly. “Maybe we can freeze it.”
Melanie nodded, concentrating her mana. She wove a new spell, calling upon the cold power of nature. An icy wind swept through the chamber, and the water elemental began to slow as frost formed on its surface.
Jackson took advantage of the moment and struck with a veilstrike, shattering the now brittle elemental into pieces.
You have defeated a Water Elemental at level 64.
The room fell silent, the trials complete. Jackson and Melanie stood in the center of the chamber, breathing heavily but victorious.
“We did it,” Melanie said, a triumphant smile on her face.
Jackson nodded, feeling a sense of accomplishment. “Yeah, we did. Let’s see what’s next.”
They approached the altar, which began to glow with a soft light. The four elements merged into a single, radiant beam that shot upwards, illuminating the chamber. The runes on the walls glowed brightly, and the air around them shimmered with magic.
The ground beneath them shifted, and they were transported back to the stone archway. The path ahead was clear, leading them towards the summit of the mountain.
“Ready for the next challenge?” Jackson asked, looking at Melanie and Lazarus.
Melanie nodded, determination in her eyes. “Let’s do this.”
With renewed resolve, they began their ascent towards the summit, ready to face whatever lay ahead.