Sharjasanian Chronicles: Premium

XIV: Trial Three

"So, Lord Shacc, do you have a plan?", Shuno asked. "I don't think that following the trials as we are told will result in anything good".
"I'm thinking of using any form of energy to break one of the walls. Roxy stated that many other citizens are also taken and trapped within the trials, therefore, if I can reach the intercom room, I can tell everyone to break down the walls. I speculate that we are not actually in a room, but rather on a strange floating ship. If we all destroy, we may be able to crash the ship and break free from the chaos", I said. 
"So we need to reflect the energy from the third trial's enemy, break down a wall and find a way to that intercom room, where Roxy may be. Then we need to aspire the people to break free and together we will be able to escape?", Lemo asked.
"Correct", I answered. 
"I do want to ask one thing, Lord Shacc, How come that your blessings are ineffective within this room?", Shuno asked. "You've only been using martial arts to fight".
"Such is because the energy from the blessings can only be channelled via my guandao. If I do not have my weapon with me, I will be unable to use most of my powers. The only technique that remains available is Soimetshu Jukazaiy, however, this will be ineffective in combat here. However, my skills in martial arts together with that of Lemo are usable in combat", I said. 

"Hey, you folks! Your break is over! If you don't pass this third trial, you can wave goodbye to your wealthy planet and all the wealth of this cosmos will be mine!", Roxy said through the intercom.
"Prepare yourself", I said.
"Finally! Let the third trial begin!", Roxy shouted.
A large door opened and a ton of smoke came out.
A tall, masculine and muscular figure came out. He wore a strange helmet with a red glowing circle on it.
"Wait a minute.. this posture", Lemo stuttered.
"Revenge will be sweet", the man said.
"If we can get past this guy and break that door, we can get access to the other rooms on this ship", Shuno said.
I nodded.
"Oh right, of course! Your last enemy doesn't talk a lot. Meet one of Roxcorp's fourteen Augury Mortae, Kage, the steel fisted!", Roxy said excitedly.
"K-K-Kage?!", Lemo stuttered.
It must be hard for him to see that an old friend of him joined the opposing side.

Kage groaned and was breathing heavily.
"Rahhh!"
He dashed forward. His fists seemed to be made out of steel. 
"Watch out!", I said.
I pushed away Lemo, who was still mentally recovering from what he just witnessed. Instead of him, I narrowly took a blow to my right shoulder.
"Divine Intervention: Ashen Winds", Shuno said.
A bunch of whirlwinds came into existence with what appeared to be spirits. It damaged Kage's clothing a bit, but it didn't seem to do any harm.
"Strange. This is no ordinary man", Shuno said.
"All die!", Kage shouted.
A bunch of what seemed to be flamethrowers appeared on his back, and he blasted a ton of purple flames all over the room.
How it seemed now, we were going to lose. 

Suddenly, a circle was cut in a wall right to me, and a hole was made. A familiar female figure walked out.
"I'm back", Weraya said. "Oh, this doesn't seem well".
She walked to me. 
"Lord Shacc, what happened?", she asked. 
"This Kage is powerful. Be careful of the strange flames. That machine has some insane power", I said.
"Rahhhhh! For the will of Roxcorp, Annihilation, revenge, plunder and death! Hahaha! Die!", Kage shouted.
"Snap out of it! Kage! I'm your friend! We are your allies!", Lemo, who was before Kage shouted.
Kage didn't hear what Lemo said. He ruthlessly punched Lemo until he was bleeding.
"This is such a wonderful show! I've never had such a good laugh in a while! Hahahaha!", Roxy said through the intercom.
"Brat", Weraya mumbled. "What's the plan, Lord?"
I pointed at the door where Kage came from.
"We must break that and then we can escape. From there we can head to the next step of my plan", I said.
Shuno jumped next to me.
"I figured out that you should be able to hold Void energy, right, Lord Shacc?", Shuno asked.
I nodded. It was possible.
"If you use my shadow and use your own power to strengthen it and launch it at Kage, it should break the machine he is using to gain his powers", Shuno said. 
"Perhaps, but, the energy that comes from me must be channelled into a weapon for it to be usable", I said.
Weraya grabbed a boomerang-like knife. 
"That will work", I said. 
"We should be quick. Kage is distracted now by punching Lemo", Weraya said.

I nodded. 
"Divine Intervention: Spirit Bomb", Shuno said.
A slowly growing turqoise orb was created. Shuno carefully gave it to me, and I shoved the energy into the knife.
"Now!", I said.
I threw the knife, which rapidly flew towards Kage.
"Huh!?", he said.
Unfortunately, he noticed the weapon before it hit him.
"Oh", Weraya mumbled.
"Neverahhh!", Kage groaned.
He grabbed the weapon with his hands as flames came out of the machine like crazy. The weapon was quickly drained from its energy and replaced by another energy. An amber-coloured one.
"Rahhhh!!", Kage shouted.
The room was filled with echoes of his noises.
With one quick move, he threw the knife back at us, hitting both me and Shuno and cutting us. But at last, the knife completely impaled Weraya.

Blood spilled everywhere in the area as Weraya almost fell down.
"Weraya!", I shouted.
Weraya mumbled a ton of things I didn't understand as she was barely standing up. Her entire body was slowly crystallising into a golden statue of energy.
"We... we're going to all be killed by this monster", Shuno mumbled.
Suddenly, I heard a strange noise. A bunch of cracking.
I looked around. Both I, Shuno and Lemo were down on the ground with multiple severe injuries. Weraya was crystallised.

But not for long. The statue was slowly breaking as a bright light engulfed the room.
"Yield", a demon-like female voice said.
But this voice was still remotely similar to Weraya's dull voice.
It was Weraya. She was now shining bright, a bunch of scars from wounds glowing bright amber to red. 
She grabbed the knife with one of her hands and brutally ripped it out of her body. She slowly levitated up.
"I grew up from the streets. I had nothing. Never. No one ever cared about me, looked at me, gave me a home, never. I lived as a homeless thief for half of my life. When Sharjasania gave me a home, it gave me a life. Sharjasania is my home", Weraya shouted. "And you! You awful creature! You disgusting kind want to take away our homes and harbours!"
Weraya was in a rage. A rage coloured in crimson as her magenta eyes turned deep crimson.
"Suffer!", Weraya shouted.
She generated beams of the energy and launched it all at Kage. The energy was so powerful that it broke Kage's machinery immediately. The energy completely destroyed the area.
"Die!", Weraya shouted.
She grabbed the knife that just impaled her, spun it around and used it to generate a spinning wheel of death. She threw it at Kage, who got sawn in half.
"Hey! No godly ascensions!", Roxy shouted. "Unfair!"
"Shut up!", Weraya shouted.
She launched a beam of energy at the massive screen that displayed Roxy's face, breaking it and severing it.
"Escape now!", Weraya shouted.
She broke the door. I collected the last bits of energy left despite my energy and signed to Shuno to head for the door. I sprinted towards Lemo, who was nearly fractured to death.
"Almost, Lemo. We are almost freed", I said.
I grabbed him by his shoulders and carried him over my back to the other room, until we reached the intercom room.

At the same time, a red alarm signal has already been activated. 
"Quick, before those mechanical abominations come here!", Shuno said.
I grabbed the microphone with my left arm which wasn't broken.
"Dear citizens of Sharjasania! I'm unsure if you can hear me, but I have an important message. We mustn't panic in this situation. We are currently on a floating ship not too far from Sharjasania", I shouted through the microphone. "To clear the trials of delirium, we have to channel our strength together and break the walls to take our freedom back. Follow my command, and bash against the borders of the ship to cause it to crash down. Once the ship has reached the ground, we are free".
One I said that, I heard a loud bonking. A rythmic drum that acted as a plea for freedom. We were all in this maze together. 
The ship started to be even more unstable as we felt it slowly falling down.
The noise of bashing was accompanied with a cheering and yelling.
"For Sharjasania! For freedom!" was barely audible.
When all of Sharjasania worked together, we brought this ship down.

However, I suddenly felt a strange feeling. The ship has fallen in water, and we didn't know how to escape. After the happy cheering came a panicked screaming for help.
"Dear citizens! Please stay calm! We will find a way out as quickly as possible!", I shouted through the microphone.
Suddenly, a bright light appeared once again. A loud noise was audible.
It was the noise of the spaceship being opened from a side. But I wasn't able to see where it came from.
"Evacuation protocol activating now", a robotic female voice said.
That must be Dusk AI from Tyrkys' God Armour. I was relieved to know that people were being saved. Perhaps it was Weraya that firstly created a hole. I heard people happily cheering.
"Lord Shacc, we should try to find our way out as well", Shuno said.
I nodded.
"Divine Intervention: Spirit Bomb", Shuno said.
The last bit of energy left created a spirit bomb that destroyed the roof of the ship, and water rapidly gushed in as we prepared ourselves to swim upwards.
"I will carry Lemo", I said.
Shuno nodded and swam up. I was barely able to see Amaebi Island and a ton of icicle helicopters. Tyrkys did a great job.
"Okay Lemo, hold in your breath, okay?", I said.
Lemo didn't have a lot of energy but I assumed that it meant yes.
I tied him to my broken arm and used the other to swim upwards.
The current was relatively strong and Amaebi island was a bit too far. I knew I wouldn't make it, but I tried my best.

I swam forward, upwards towards the island, where people were awaiting me.

I swam.

I ran out of breath.

As I slowly lost my conciousness and energy, I noticed a female figure grab my hand right before I passed out.

When I woke up, I was on Daifuku Island.
"A-am I dead?", I asked.
I slowly looked around as I still felt a bit wet from the fact I almost drowned. My eyes were a bit stinging, and my body was hurting.
But strangely, I wore dry clothes. It was night, which was different from when I nearly died.
"Oh! He woke up!", a female voice said.
When I stood up, I saw Talia.
"T-Talia? What happened?", I asked.
I looked around. I didn't see or even feel any of the wounds that I got from the battles I fought, nor the bruises.
"Shacc! You're awake! I thought you might not make it! You were unconcious for six hours!", Talia said happily. 
She walked up to me and hugged me.
"Ow", I mumbled.
My right shoulder was still a bit hurting.
"Huh? What's wrong?", Talia asked.
"I think my right shoulder is broken", I said. "I was hit by steel".
Talia unwrapped the piece of cloth around my right shoulder and touched my shoulder gently.
Suddenly, I felt a hundred percent well. 
"Talia... how did you do that?", I asked.
I reached out to my shoulder, which didn't hurt at all.
"You know, when I went to the Sepiia Space Station lastly, I studied a bit about my genetics and my abilities to create fireballs when I use those special amulets", Talia began. "I found out that those gloves were a special artifact from my ancestors and that I am the seventy-seventh descendant of Acintya, one of the thousand deities of San The Supremacy, who was also a Divination around two-thousand years ago or before".
I remained silent.
"So, I came to know I inherited the powers of healing from her. Besides, that, the fire amulets are made from an old polished Jasper with the powers of heat", Talia said. "Yeah, that's the full story".
I nodded.
"What happened to the rest?", I asked.
"I, Tyrkys and Administrator Weraya made sure that everyone was evacuated from Amaebi Island to other locations, and everyone was granted a free health checkup. In the end, the Administrator has only registered one death in this incident", Talia said, more seriously. "I sent out an anti-distress signal to calm the people down. I suppose you will get some rest before returning to work. Of course, tell me if you need anything or healing!"
I nodded.

Those were the trials of Delirium. An occasion where a girl with intentions to become the wealthiest in the cosmos kidnapped and trapped the population of an entire planet, and letting their leader fight against her foes. In Roxy Marennya's eyes, the cosmos is just a playground that she owns, with others being the opposing foes for her playtoys that she calles the Augury Mortae. This is so far Sharjasania's strongest enemy, possessing an army and mechanisms that weren't known before. To protect Sharjasania, I should reconsider my strategy and instead of simply luring, marching and defeating Roxy, like I did with Luna, I should find a way to track her down. The fate of Sharjasania lies in my hand, but secretly, the fate of the entire universe depends on those who can defeat Roxy.