The Relic Seeker: The Council of Grim.

Part 5. The Temple.

"Those who seek the Beauty Crown, must on their knees get down." Jordan and Ash knelt down in front of the stone. "Then to show their loyalty, sacrifice part of you and me." Jordan produced a small knife from seemingly nowhere and cut the palm on her right hand before looking at Ash.
"Non-dominant hand out." Jordan's playful and rather weird nature had disappeared, replaced by a more serious demeanour. Ash almost immediately held out his left hand, and Jordan sliced his palm with the same knife. "Now, on three. One, two,"
"Three." They spoke together as they both placed their bleeding palms on the stone, one on either side of the crack, and within second the stone seemed to melt away into nothingness. Jordan stood up, immediately pulling out a bandage and wrapping up her hand, before looking at Ash.
"Do you have your own bandages?"
"Of course I do." Ash stood up rather hurriedly, pulling his bag around his body and rooting around a little, before moments later producing a roll of bandages.
"Good." Jordan sighed, starting to move on while Ash followed, wrapping up his hand as he went.

Around half an hour later, they arrived at a large cavern. The walls and ceiling were covered in purplish-blue crystals, and along the floor laid large stones that looked to be thousands of years old, worn away slightly. In the middle of the stones stood a half decrepit temple, with multiple towers, some of them crumbling away.
"Wow..." Ash mumbled to himself, his voice echoing in the large space. Jordan, however, didn't take any time admiring the sight.
"Already this destroyed when so far underground...it doesn't make sense..."
"Jordan?" Ash asked, following Jordan as she headed to the temple.
"Someone or something must've destroyed parts...couldn't be a Pokémon though, that seal's too strong..."
"Hello? Jordan?" Jordan turned on her heel extremely quickly, looking at Ash with wide eyes.
"What?"
"What are you mumbling about?" Jordan seemed to compose herself before responding.
"Oh, nothing, just me rambling. Let's look around some more, collect anything of interest and go back, okay?"

They did just that. Well, Jordan did. She ran around, collecting various chunks of stone and crystal before forcing Ash to carry it all as he was the only one in the pair that had brought a bag. Then, once Jordan was sure she had everything she wanted, they headed back out of the cave, the stone door rematerialising when they went back through. They walked in silence, until Jordan spoke up.
"So, do you still wanna be my assistant?"