[IC] A Hero Tale {Complete}

[Jensoman]

Jenso's eyes widened as Mikey spoke. "But me and Bruce killed Prisma!" He shouted immediately as reply. He grit his teeth in frustration. "But then again, you never know with those people.." Jenso muttered, referring to the Order of Chaos. "Let's stop those golems, guys!"

[tex]

"Don't be so rash Jenso!" Mikey shouted, grabbing his friend by the shoulders, "That's not all! Our connections across the world have been reporting something similar, every single city on the continent is under attack. Tech-Mo can defend itself just fine, but even with everyone we have at our disposal, even Bruce Jeff and myself..." Mikey shook his head, "It's not enough. Even you can't be in a hundred places at once!"

[Jensoman]

Jenso turned to Mikey and frowned. "We need to find the source...does anyone know where the golems came from? Where did they appear first?" He asked. "If this is Prisma's doing, we need to track down his core and destroy it.."

[tex]

"That's why I'm here," Mikey said, sitting down and taking a deep breath. "We noticed a pattern. The golems, they take especially powerful guys and girls with them if they get the chance. We don't know why exactly, but Jeff was able to track one of our heroes using his phone." Mikey rested his head back and sighed. "Investigation was fruitful. It turns out they have a giant floating citadel in the middle of the infinite ocean." Mikey rose his hand and pointed at the seat opposite to him. "Sit down, it's gonna be a while before we get there."

[Jensoman]

"Citadel..?" Jenso responded, thinking for a moment. Both Gol-Ino and the golem that managed to escape when Prisma appeared before had mentioned a Golem Citadel. It was obviously the same place. He remembered Gol-Ino's habit of gathering cores from broken golems, and remembered that the pieces of Prisma were left behind after he and Bruce killed him. 'Don't tell me that guy actually took the remainders of Prisma's core to the Golem Citadel too...' He thought. He relaxed and nodded at Mikey. "Alright.."

[tex]

Mikey nodded and sighed. "I'm going to have to leave right afterwards. We're trying our best to defend as many people as possible," he admitted.

[Jensoman]

Jenso nodded at Mikey, putting his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Be careful, man...don't be reckless. Prisma can't be underestimated...I'll do my best to take care of this problem as fast as possible." He assured him.

[tex]

Mikey nodded and sighed. "It's gonna be a little while longer," Mikey croaked, "What were you doing in Corona?"

[Jensoman]

"Well, there were a bunch of strange creatures which I'm calling Swarm, which were infecting human beings. I met with Alvios Maeti, who was apparently that village's hero, and we destroyed the Swarm Queen, who was the source of all of it, together. As such, all of the Swarm also died. He said that he's willing to help us in our fight against the Order of Chaos." Jenso explained to Mikey. "It's good to see you guys again...even if it's under these circumstances.." He added.

"I'm not sure if Prisma is behind all this, though. He might be, but it's not his style to go ordering golems to capture people. He enjoys the prospect of ending life and killing things by himself. He doesn't seem to be the type to let others do his dirty work, or to wait until strong people arrive for him to kill. Well...I guess he did wait for me, but I'm not sure for how long. Right before I fought Prisma though, I ended up encountering a golem that emerged from the Purity Amulets. He claimed that he'd been imprisoned in them for a very long time, and that he had some business to take care of in Golem Citadel...which I believe is the place that we're heading for. I think he might be the one who's behind all of this, and not Prisma. This seems a lot like an attempt to lure me into a trap." Jenso stated.

"But...trap or no trap...I have to put an end to this."

[tex]

"A trap?" Mikey questioned, looking over the horizon. There was still nothing in sight, and they'd gone quite far out into the ocean already. He sighed and looked down at the expanse of water beneath them. "It's always a damn trap isn't it," he said, vaguely referring to the tournament that they met in.

[Jensoman]

Jenso frowned at his friend. "I know, man...I've gotten sick and tired of the Order of Chaos, and all these other threats in our world. I wish I could put a stop to all of them, but I can only focus on the biggest one...the Order. We need to take them out once and for all. With them gone, the threats to our world should lessen significantly at least.."

[tex]

Mikey snickered and shook his head. "I wish I was as hopeful as you, Jenso," Mikey groaned, "you go in without any real plans and just kind of.. Get shit done. I could never be that kind of guy, no matter how much I lie to myself and put on a grand persona. But, seriously. It makes me think that..." Mikey paused and looked at his hands for a moment.

"That you... That you just keep getting really fucking lucky.." He looked at Jenso for a moment, and then looked away, in the direction they were headed. There was a small, or rather, giant floating castle-like structure over the ocean, surrounded by several mountains that peaked out of the water. "if that's all there is to it, then that luck is gonna run out eventually."

[Jensoman]

Jenso smiled at Mikey. "Yeah...if I'm only winning through luck...I'm sure it will." Jenso said, staring at the citadel in the distance. "Let's hope that it doesn't run out just yet.." He added, clenching his fists.

[tex]

"Lets hope it's not just luck," Mikey grunted, "Otherwise we're gonna hit an inevitable dry streak..."

---

~ End Of Chapter 122 ~

[tex]

~ Chapter 123 ~

_{The Citadel Of Golems}

Sheira lowered the hovercraft to the rotating edge of the massive circular castle. It was a massive ring of stone, and moved slow enough that it was barely a notable motion at all. Mikey looked into the inter-twining stone paths that lead into the labrynth of a castle uneasily.

"Don't get lost in there, Jenso," Mikey begged, "If you figure anything out or need to evacuate, call Jeff. We'll pick up you as soon as possible."

[Jensoman]

Jenso nodded and smiled at Mikey. "I'll do my best! I'll make sure to stop this golem threat, don't worry!" Jenso said confidently to him. "And I'll make sure to call Jeff...I'm more worried about the people that they've captured, though. If the citadel ends up getting destroyed throughout the battle, they might be in danger. But evacuating all those people may prove difficult.." He muttered, turning his sights towards the path ahead as he hopped off the hovercraft. He headed into the castle, ready for anything.

[tex]

Mikey nodded and signalled Sheira to take off, leaving Jenso to fend for himself. The hovercraft sped off into the horizon, disappearing a few moments afterwards as Jenso leapt head-first into the citadel.

Several minutes later, Jenso found himself walking down a stable bridge of stone. Around him, there were gear-like stones turning in midair, and whirling curved arch-ways spinning in a seemingly random fashion. On the edge of the bridge, he could see the ocean, about a kilometre below him. If he fell through the gears, he would likely get crunched, drown, or worse.

Two figures turned on an intersection where four paths met, moving towards Jenso. They were humanoid, but had no head, instead wielding a glowing red core in the center of their chests, which acted as their eye and energy source. They immediately began jogging towards Jenso, but said nothing.

[Jensoman]

Jenso's eyes narrowed as the two figures rushed at him. He was unsure if these golems were hostile or not. Gol-Ino hadn't given him the impression that the golems were hostile, but recent events had put him on edge. If these golems were working for Prisma, they would certainly try to attack him. "Stop, I need you to tell me where your leader is." Jenso said. He dashed out of the way of the incoming golems regardless towards the left, prepared to aim a low-sweeping kick at their feet in case they didn't slow down and tried to reason with him, in order to try to get them to trip.

[tex]

The left hopped over Jenso's foot with a surprising amount of Agility, and kicked him in the face, knocking him towards the edge of the bridge. The second golem flanked further around, and aimed the palm of its hand at Jenso, where a hole appeared, and blue energy began to charge.

"Prisma"
"Prisma"

The energy around the golem`s hand peaked quickly. It was no mistake. The golem was using a smaller, scaled down version of Arcano Ultima!

[Jensoman]

Jenso grit his teeth in pain. These golems meant business, and he couldn't afford taking many more hits like these. He glared at the golems as one of them charged up an Arcano Ultima. He responded immediately, dashing further to the right to make himself harder to hit as he quickly launched a flame saw at the core within the golem's chest, the one that was charging the Arcano Ultima, with his right hand. A burst of flames erupted from his feet immediately afterwards, in order to launch himself upwards to dodge the Arcano Ultima in case his saw missed the Golem's core. He slammed his fists together in mid-air to unleash a shockwave of Ki, aiming to knock the golems off-balance and possibly knock them off the bridge.