The Stone of the Ancients [Celestial Arms/Solo]

[Hirosame]

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The storms surrounding the temple were difficult, but nothing impossible to traverse. As much as Hiro wanted to get through them as easily as possible, he knew that the world wouldn't be quite so forgiving to him. What he wanted to be just a quick trip turned into a difficult attempt of water-crossing, and managed to take up a majority of the day. Now the edge of night, Hiro found himself looking at the temple. Or, what he assumed was the temple. He began to make his way up the steps, and towards the complex, which seemed to have been mostly destroyed. Such is how erosion and time work on the world, the entirety of the temple seemed to be in a difficult state of disrepair. Hiro wished that he could've arrived just a bit sooner, so he could examine this place much more easily. However, the storms around the temple weren't going to get any better. Just as the Messier Sage had told him, the storms had revealed this place. Without the weather cooperating in such a manner, it was probably a lost cause to even try and find this place. But, he was here now, so he'd deal with the consequences of his current actions. As such, he continued up along the steps, unsure of how long it would take to look now. The destroyed buildings did not bode well.

Hiro found himself in the courtyard, with a fountain in the middle. The damaged buildings surrounding him seemed to loom high over his head, but none of them could really be entered and looked around in. Save for a few, which he assumed would not likely hold the Pebble, like he was looking for. No, it had to be in some kind of a safe place, one where normal people couldn't reach. But, this didn't mean that it was completely out of reach at all, so he decided to look around the courtyard himself, lifting up pieces of rubble here and there. He wanted to just see if he could find even a hint of where the Pebble of Philosophy was. He very quickly realized that he didn't even know what to look for, except for a small rock of some sort. That being said, he didn't know what color to look for, what shape, size, or if it even was a rock at all. Maybe it was a piece of iron, shaped like a rock? Or maybe a clump of hardened dirt and mud, which just happened to rub up against a fairy or something? What if there wasn't even a Pebble anymore, and it was washed away at sea? Thinking about all the possibilities for why he couldn't even find the rock was making his head hurt a bit more than it should be. He would need to look pretty hard, and for a long time, if the Pebble was even here. If it wasn't, then he was mostly shit-out-of-luck, since there wasn't any other place that he could reliable look around. If it wasn't here, then he would be screwed. But, against his better judgment, he decided to stay and look around. He pinned his trust on the Sage, hoping that they weren't just madly rambling.

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∝: 541
♫: Searching for Friends
✏: This'll be a long night...
@: @person

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[Hirosame]

[attr="class","capsol"]

"Gah, dammit!" Hiro shouted, placing a large slab of building back down onto the ground. He turned around, taking in a deep breath. "Can't find the Pebble anywhere..." He was getting a little upset at this point, after having searched for so long. Hiro had been looking for roughly 3 hours, going in and out of the buildings, lifting up rocks, boulders, and slabs of the old building, sometimes even twice. No luck at all. He was beginning to think that this whole thing was a waste of time, something that the Sages had planned to trap Adventurers in, or something to make them do all the dirty work, while they were waiting in the distance anyways, just for the tablet's pieces to have been found, where they would send a message to another one of their members, that were already waiting in different places all over the continent. Once given the message, they would send the nearest people to the location, swipe the pebble, and then leave the confused Adventurers to rot on an uninhabited island. While it seemed a bit too convoluted to actually be a plan, Hiro couldn't let such a thought go to waste. Elaborate and sometimes stupid schemes like this were made all the time. He'd heard of a similar plot, involving the bombings in London a while back. If the same people were behind the attack, then this all would have been a waste of time.

Hiro grunted, walking back to the fountain, sitting down on the side. He looked up into the sky, as the eye of the storms swirled high above the temple. The moon was now high up above him, shining down onto the courtyard, revealing its light upon everything. If he hadn't been looking for so long, Hiro would've used this opportunity to search in the darker places now. But, he had already thought of that, and found himself nothing but old, uneventful rocks. He sighed again, turning around and leaning towards the water. He began to splash himself a few times with the fountain's still water, having been disrupted by the Monk's hands diving into it and forcing water up. The ripples reflected the moon fro above, giving the water a very neat effect, like one would have seen in an actual pond or water source in the bright moonlight. He found himself mesmerized by the sight, and continued to look at it for a little while. As the water began to return to its original stillness, he noticed that the fountain was actually quite deep. But, his eye caught something off to the side. Something was shining deep below the surface, possibly from the moon's light.

Hiro leaned in a bit more to get a better look at it, before realizing that it was some kind of a stone. But, it wasn't shining, as though it were reflecting the moon's light. No, this light was different. Could this, perhaps, be the Pebble of Philosophy that the Sage had mentioned? There was only one way to really find out. He had to get it, but the water was far too deep for him to swim down into it and just grab it. No, he needed to think of some other way to get it. He continued to lean over the edge, looking into the water's depths, and began to attempt to formulate a plan to get down there. Just as he was thinking, though, he felt a sudden stab at his back. His eyes shot wide open, and his body ceased to move entirely. He felt himself growing weaker by the second, but couldn't move at all. Forcefully, he looked around behind himself to see a syringe sticking out of his back, which was very quickly removed from him. His body surged a bit again, his vision becoming hazy. He then felt a sudden push at his backside, forcing him into the water. Unable to stop himself, the Monk splashed into the fountain, and began to slowly sink. He couldn't react at all, as his vision was starting to fade. The one thing that he did notice, though, above the surface, was a figure of some sort. As the water settled again on top, he clicked his tongue, as his eyes closed. The figure he had seen... Had a pompadour jutting out from its head.

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∝: 726
♫: Secret of the Forest
✏: Pompadours suck.
@: @person

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[Hirosame]

[attr="class","capsol"]

Hiro didn't know how much time had passed, as his eyes slowly started to open back up. His memory was a bit hazy, but all he could recall was a needle in his back, a Tranquilizer, a fountain, and a pompadour. As his eyes began to open further, he took in a deep breath, and attempted to move his body a bit. His hearing must've still been affected by the Tranquilizer, as he felt that he couldn't hear as well. A constant underwater sound seemed to fill his head. He felt a force on his body, too, probably also from the Tranquilizer, and tried to move his arm up. Slowly but surely, the arm did rise, and he could see a bit of light far above. It wasn't directly on him, but he saw something like the edge of the moon up above. He thought about it for a minute, before his eyes shot wide open. Everything came rushing back. He fell into the fountain when the pompadour guy tranq'd him! Hiro was in the bottom of the fountain! Bringing his hands to his mouth, he tried to get up, but his attempt would be fruitless, as the shock and fear of drowning enveloped him. He shut his eyes again, hoping to just wake up from some kind of nightmare.

Hiro took in a deep breath again, the noise still in his ears. He opened his eyes again, to see that he was still underwater. A confused look appeared on his face, as he moved his hands away from his mouth. He breathed in again. Nothing else happened. Using his hands to push himself up off the ground, looked around. He was definitely under the water, but he wasn't sure why he was able to breathe. Just to make sure he wasn't going insane, he breathed in again. His hair flowed around his face gently, as the Monk began to fully understand what it was that this place was. This was some kind of enchanted fountain, one where people were able to breathe. It must have something to do with the Alvs, since normally he would've drowned, and appeared back at the Sanctuary back in London. It was at this moment that he remembered the stone that shined at the bottom of the fountain. Looking around, hindered by the water around him, he tried to locate it. His eyes didn't fix on it immediately, but he eventually saw it. The glowing orb on the bottom of the fountain that he had seen from up above was just a little ways away from him now. He began to move toward it, finding it difficult to move still.

His body moved closer and closer to the orb, still hindered by the waters around him. As he grew nearer, the rock seemed to shine more brightly, up to a point. When he was close enough that he could reach down and grab it, the light disappeared, showing only the dim color of what the light had shown before. He realized just how small the object was, being only the size of a marble. He knelt down to pick it up, moving slowly against his own will. As his hand began to cradle the object, lifting it up from the floor, it began to shine a bit more brightly. At first it was more of a gentle light, but it continued to grow in brightness. Sensing something was wrong, Hiro kicked off the ground, still holding the Pebble, as the light shining from it became blinding. Looking up and away from it, Hiro felt something swirling in the water around and below him. Kicking as hard as he could to get out of the water, he began to force himself up to the surface more quickly. Still grasping the Pebble in his hand, he moved a bit closer to the wall and, in a desperate attempt, activated the skill Wyvern Kick to launch himself off the wall. The kick connected with the wall, and Hiro was sent flying out of the fountain. He landed a short distance away from the fountain, and looked back at it, feeling a rumbling from the water. He could feel that something was coming. As if to prove his thought, a water-logged voice rose from the fountain.

"Sssurrender the Pebble of Philosssophy..."

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∝: 723
♫: Corridors of Time
✏: The Final Phase...
@: @person

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