Awakening of the Shadows [COMPLETE]

Labyrinth

"Wherever we are," she said gravely. "We're on our own. My communicator's fried. Antares, Rynn, Seraph, keep yours offline, just in case. You'll probably get a few minutes of life from them, so we should save them for when they need them. Nocta will probably keep hanging on to your signals. If I know her anyway."

"Shit," Seraph stamped on a pile of leaves with his foot. "This is bad. This is really bad." He unslung his assault rifle and pulled the safety off. There was something... familiar... about the rifle.

"What the hell?" I asked, pointing at the gun. It looked exactly like the Khvostov 7G-0X, from that old Earth game, Destiny. From one of the later updates, Rise of Iron, I thought. "Is that literally a Khvostov?"

"By the gods, Elder," said Seraph, his face reluctantly impressed. "You're a Destiny player."

"Yeah," I said. "I am."

"Anyway, yeah, it is. I had a gunsmith on Aksis make one for me," Seraph said. His eyes, which had lit up for a moment, dimmed, and he stared down the sight of the gun, sweeping it around the area, its laser sight glowing fiercely in the dark of the jungle cover.

"Again, don't know what you're talking about," Eternity said. "But... I imagine it's something that reminds you of home. I get that, at least, so I won't judge. Anyhow, we should probably get a fire going. It's kind of cold here, much colder than a rainforest should be."

"Done," Rynn said. Closing her eyes, she extended one hand and a torrent of wind pulled a quintet of logs into a bonfire-like shape in front of us, and with her other hand, she shot a bolt of fire into them. Instantly, a blaze erupted from the bark, flames licking at the air and snapping like infernal whips.

"Wow," I said. "Rynn, that's... wow."

"Wow is not a helpful term on the battlefield, Ghost," Seraph quoted.
Again with the Destiny references. Awesome. This mission might be fun after all.

Rynn stumbled, and Antares rushed to her side and caught her. "You okay?" he murmured.

"Yeah," she said. "Haven't... haven't done Pyrokinesis in a while. Hard to... control." She opened her eyes and, with Antares' help, managed to get back to her feet. "We should split up," she said. "Some of us stay here, myself included. The rest... should look for a clearing, where the signal will lighten up."

"I'll stay with her," Antares said immediately, and Rynn gave him a grateful smile.

"Alright," Eternity said. "Eldernova, you're with me. Seraph... this is a gamble, but stay here. Start building a base, use Rynn's Aerokinesis and your own strength. We might be here awhile. And leave your comm on. My secondary communicator-" she tapped her waist, where a small, cubical object hung. "-should still work with teammate contact."

"Got it," Seraph said. He knelt and activated his communicator, gazing out at the jungle down the sights of his Khvostov. Eternity waved me forward.
"Let's go," she told me. I obliged, and together we began to walk through the undergrowth of the jungle no one knew existed.

We stopped only one time before we reach, at a river of liquid Gold, if only for me to get a good look at it. "How is this even possible?" I asked, tentatively tossing a rock into the liquid. Surprisingly, it did not melt in what was sure to be scalding-hot lavalike Gold, but instead simply sank to the bottom of the crystal-clear channel.

"Magic... there are so few things that Mana can't do," Eternity said, biting her lip as if struggling to understand it herself. "But... I've never seen matter transmuted... like this. Whoever did this knew what they were doing. I couldn't do this."