The Eden Crisis
Chapter 11: Eternal Flame

We’re outside the tower and the doors are sealed. Raziel puts his gloved hand on the doors. Two torches on either side of the doors ignite. Raziel jumps back and a figure appears before us. The man is wearing a suit of ruby-colored armor. His helmet shows his green eyes.

“Welcome, warriors of Eden,” he intones. “Have you come to seek my power?” Already this is different from the other summon quests I’ve done. Usually you get a crystal shard after you prove yourself and beat the challenge. I wonder if all the higher summons are like this.

“We are ready,” Raziel and I say. The warrior closes his eyes as if in thought. He reopens them. “You both seek my strength? If so, you will face a more difficult challenge.”

“We’re ready,” we say again. The Phoenix snaps its fingers and the door turns into a black flame. “Flame black as night must turn to eternal white. Carry the fire to the top, making its light never stop. Black is none and white is all, collect the spectrum and let none fall,” the Phoenix says and vanishes in a white fire and leaves a silver torch in his place.

Raziel picks the torch up and holds it to the black fire. The fire jumps to the torch and our way is clear. We walk inside the tower and the doors reappear, sealing us in. “I will not be able to fight except with magic from my one hand,” Raziel tells me. “So defend me, my friend.” As we go further into the tower I notice in the middle of a large room a skeleton on the ground next to an altar with a tablet on it. The skeleton is holding a book.

I read the tablet first. Those who challenge the tower may not leave until the challenge is complete or they have died. Figure out the challenge and gain your reward. Be warned that a guardian appears before the final room where the power you seek lies in wait. Well, that’s wonderful. We are stuck here. I take the book and open it. It’s an explanation of summoning and how it works. There are different types of summons, varying in strength, ranking from one star to five stars.

One-star summons are basic and obviously the weakest. All two-star summons grant some form of protection, whether a stronger defense physically or magically, up to and including reflecting magic.

Three-star summons are stronger; their power resides with elemental damage. Four-star summons are the strongest of obtainable summons and use non-elemental attacks. The summons require the life of the one who summons them. However, you can have others grant their strength and lower the health taken from you.

These summons have a power that rises above the others and can only be obtained by the ones who prove themselves honorable enough. The final, five-star summons, of which there are but two, can only be used by Veren or any of his chosen champions.

“Come on, Raziel,” I say. “Let’s get our summon.” Taking the stairs, we go to the next floor. There we see a red fire in a bowl on a pedestal in the center of a room. Raziel walks up to the bowl and sticks his torch in. The red fire jumps onto the torch, and the black flame swirls with it. The black fades and only the red remains in its place.

The room glows red, and four knights appear from nowhere. The Phoenix’s voice echoes in the air: “To keep the color that travels the furthest, outlive the knights who died last.” His cryptic words are made clear as a time counter appears above us. It is set for five minutes.

Raziel aims his hand at the floor. “Diamond Wall!” he charges. A white wall surrounds us and keeps the knights from coming further. “This will not hold for long,” he shouts.“Can you reinforce it with any defensive magic, Dante?” I shake my head. “I don’t have much in the way of defensive spells.” I haven’t equipped enough items to unlock more of them. While magic is learned through leveling up, there are some spells that can only be learned with a particular piece of equipment.

“No matter,” Raziel says. “I can use an ice spell to fight the knights. You need to attack them with your sword skills.” I nod. I have the perfect sword skill for this. The time counter ticks down and the diamond wall begins to crack. The knights bash at the wall or use fire magic to try to bring it down.

At two minutes, forty-three seconds on the timer, the wall shatters. Raziel closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Frozen Wave!” he calls out. A cold energy wave erupts from his hand and stuns the knights.

“All right!” I exclaim as I charge a sword skill. “Torrential Slash Stream!” I strike each knight with a series of attacks. The attacks send them reeling across the room. Their HP is infinite! Damn it! I put my sword away and concentrate on a magic spell.

Charging the spell “Sinking Earth!” I place my hands on the floor under the knights, which turns into quicksand and they sink. Raziel holds his hand out. “Ice Stream!” A beam of ice shoots into the quicksand and freezes it. The knights are stuck in the ground.

The counter hits zero, and the knights disappear from the room. I high- five Raziel for his quick thinking. Then the Phoenix speaks to us again, his voice as intense as wind. “Congratulations on obtaining the red fire,” he says. “You still require six more flames if you want what you desire.”

Crystalline stairs appear in the room. Raziel and I ascend to the next floor of the tower into a room much like the one before, the only difference being the fire. The color of this flame is orange. Raziel puts his torch to the fire and just as before the flame jumps onto the torch and swirls with the red flame.

The red fire mixes with the orange and the flame is brighter. The stairs disappear and the floor closes up. There is a small rumble in the room. I pull out my sword and stand in front of Raziel. “Eliminate all the enemies in this room,” I say.

Lizard monsters appear in the room to fight us. They are on their hind legs and carrying swords. “Raziel, use diamond wall around yourself and allow me to take care of the monsters,” I say. Raziel nods in agreement and casts the spell. I take on the beasts.

There are ten lizards. “Sonic Wave!” I slash my sword through the air and send a wave of powerful energy that knocks three of the lizards away. I turn and block two other lizards’ attacks, pushing back and forcing them off me. “Morte!” I charge, and slash my sword as a dark wave of energy shoots through the air and slices through the two lizards. They shatter into pieces. I sense five of the monsters coming at me from behind. I flip backwards over them and charge a spell while in the air: “Ice Stream!” I hit the five lizards with a beam of ice and they freeze in place. They are not dead, but they are stalled.

The three lizards I knocked away earlier are attacking the diamond wall. I need to kill them before they get to Raziel. I run at them with my sword. I jump and do a quick slash through one of them, and it groans before shattering. The other two are trying to get to Raziel. They ignore my attacks. The wall is breaking! I see beam shoot from the wall through the head of one of the lizards. The beam zooms past the now headless lizard and kills a two of the frozen lizards.

I use quick slashes and kill the last lizard attacking the wall. “Raziel, stay back! I am going to end this,” I shout. I run toward the last of the lizards. “Tri Strike!” I deliver three powerful hits to the remaining frozen lizards and they shatter.

As before, stairs appear, and Raziel and I go to the next floor. We continue up the tower, getting flame after flame. The next one we get is yellow, then green, blue, violet and finally indigo. As the final flame swirls with the fire on the torch, it becomes bright white.

The white flame shoots from the torch and lights several lanterns around the room and the center bowl where the indigo fire had been. The Phoenix appears before us. “Congratulations on getting here, but now is the time for the final test. Long ago I failed to defend my kingdom and died while fighting the Chaos Knight. Lord Veren rewarded my efforts by granting me semi-eternal life as an Entitas or as you call us, summons. In order to gain my power you must defeat the Chaos Knight.” The Phoenix snaps his fingers and a knight in black armor appears before us. He looks like the Phoenix, only in black armor instead of red.

“Good luck.” The Phoenix disappears, and the knight attacks us without warning. I cast a defensive spell to limit the damage, but the attack sends us backwards although we manage to stay on our feet.

Raziel flings some of his cards into the air where they float around him. He moves his hands as if throwing something and the cards fly at the enemy and slice through him. The strike doesn’t seem to faze the knight, who stays on the attack. Raziel holds his hands up. “Ethereal Beam!” A beam of white and blue energy shoots toward the knight and slows him down.

Again, the damage is minimal. However, I have a trick up my sleeve that may give us the edge. As he is a Chaos Knight, meaning he hails from Ruina, then his attribute should be dark. I run toward him and jump into the air. “Holy Light!” The room glows in a white light and a blast wave of energy shoots out from me.

The Knight of Chaos screams as the light burns his eyes and the wave hits him hard. Raziel joins in on the attack. “Ice Spike!” Several ice spikes shoot through the air and crash into the knight. The knight falls on one knee and—laughs. He stands up and holds one hand up high and the other down low. “Fools!” he says. “I will obliterate you both.” His hands begin to glow with a purple light. He move his arms and hands in a clockwise manner and a circular glyph appears in front of him. He quickly draws symbols inside the glyph. “Darkness of the chaos unborn, flow into me and make a new form!”

Purple fire surrounds the Chaos Knight and a beast appears in his place. It is a large jackal-like monster rampant. Its chest is covered in black armor. “Let’s see what you’ve got, servants of Veren!” it roars. It snaps its animal fingers, and a large battle-axe appears in its hands.

“I will end you!” it snarls. “The will of Ruina must be upheld!” It comes at us. Raziel runs to the other side of the room. I think he is charging a spell. I run under the beast’s legs and slash at its tail. It bellows loudly and twists its body. It swings hard and hits me broadside with the ax.

I fly backward into the wall of the tower. The beast comes toward me. My HP is below fifty percent. Am I going to die? The beast holds his ax high. He is going to kill me! “Absolute Zero!” I charge. A cold blast freezes everything in the room. The beast goes for his killing blow but is frozen before he can hit me. Thank God!

Raziel helps me up. “Come on, Dante. You are the hero, and heroes can’t die . . . not yet, anyway.” A ball of energy forms in Raziel’s hand. “I am charging a flare spell. I need you to use Tempus Slash.” Tempus Slash? I don’t. Raziel pulls out an onyx-colored sword with a ruby hilt. He hands it to me. “Consider this a late Christmas gift,” he say. “This has the ability I mentioned. Equip it and use it when I use my spell.”

I equip the sword and wait for Raziel. He holds out his hand and charges “Flare!” A ball of red-and-white energy hits the frozen beast. The ice shatters and the beast takes tremendous damage. I quickly use the new skill I have and slice through the creature several times. In the havoc, time itself seems to stop.

The beast roars and drops its weapon. It flails about in the room. “It’s not dying, Raziel!” It thrashes toward us. If that thing hits us it will be over. An outline of fire surrounds the floor of the room. It is an outline of a bird. Fire erupts from the shape and a bird hovers in the room.

Fire shoots from the bird and burns the beast. Raziel’s health and mine is restored to full as the beast slowly dies, the bird exploding in a flurry of fire and the beast letting out one final roar before shattering.

The fire and smoke settle. The Phoenix appears and gives us his congratulations. “You have helped me settle the past,” he says with sincerity in his voice. “You both gain my power.” He disappears in a burst of fire, and we both gain the power to summon the Phoenix, a four-star summoning.

We teleport from the tower and go back to the small town of the continent from where we came. “By the way, that sword I gave you is called Rubilacxe,” Raziel says. “I created it and it is very powerful. It is a dark-based blade.” Rubilacxe, and it is a dark blade. This is different, I realize. I can see the dark-magic skills associated with this sword. Raziel put a lot of enchantments on this sword.

“Thank you, Raziel. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.” Raziel smiles and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Just be the friend you are,” he says. We go to Indagatus and to the pub that Zack owns. We both take a seat at the bar as Zack hands us our favorite drinks.

“Thanks for the backup, Raziel,” I say in what must sound like the understatement of the year. “I’d be dead by now if it weren’t for you.” Raziel takes a drink. “I am a strong sorcerer, and my skills are getting better and better now that I have that seal, but you, Dante, have something more. You have a reason to fight, a reason to never give up, and that makes you more deadly than I.”

“What is that reason, Raziel?”?” Raziel empties his glass. “It’s simple: you have your brothers and Claire.” My face contorts in uncertainty. “I love my brothers, but Claire is just a friend, so if she is one of my reasons then you have to include you and several others.” Raziel smiles. “One day, maybe, you will get it.” He gives a laugh and orders another drink.

The celebration continues as we drink the night away. As midnight approaches Raziel lets out a sigh. “It is time for bed, my friend. I need to sleep, as do you.” Raziel repairs to a nearby inn for a good night’s sleep. I need the same. I head to my house to rest up so I can continue to try to free everyone from the game.