Merged Warriors

[10 minutes earlier]

After they all split ways, Abigail ventured down into the middle path in an attempt to attain the Celestial Prism. She was still worried about the decision to split up and as her instincts would have it, she was right.

She found herself in the sanctuary of the temple, the sanctuary of the temple is typically the holiest and most sacred space within the building. It housed the main deity or deities of worship, which was represented by statues, icons, or symbols. In this scenario, the sanctuary was filled with the statues of a giant Mammoth, it's tusk was long and sharp.

The sanctuary is usually adorned with intricate carvings, colorful decorations, and offerings such as flowers, fruits, and incense. It was a place for devotees to offer prayers, perform rituals, and seek spiritual connection. However, all that glory was wrapped with a series of vines and leaves. Even the statues were wrapped with it.

"It's huge..." Abigail said calmly as she dazzled at the size of the sanctuary.

THUD!

The entrance to the sanctuary sealed shut, with a look of concern Abigail rushed to the door.

"What?" Abigail stepped backwards flabbergasted, the hinges and springs that controlled the motion of the door vanished completely; making it appear as though there was never a door to begin with.

"I-is this temple alive?" Abigail with no other way to describe this phenomenon stuttered, doors don't just magically disappear for no reason.

Without a warning of any sorts, the vines began moving on their own towards Abigail with the goal of restraining her.

However she was quick to react, just a single release of her light essence around her was sufficient enough to destroy the vines and even leave cracks in the walls; displaying how much she honed her essence to surpass it's limits.

"Is this the best you can do?" She asked trying to provoke whatever force it was that controlled the temple.

Just like a woman's mood, the tides changed instantly. A metallic hand burst forth from the earth's embrace with a resounding clang, shards of soil scattering in its wake. Abigail jumped backwards a few meters from this metallic hand very much alarmed.

The hand emerged completely from the ground following its metallic body and head, the thing that emerged from the ground was revealed to be a six foot four inches tall knight. It donned a silver armor which covered it's entire body excluding its white glowing eyes.

"A knight?" She stuttered.

The silver knight clutched the hilt of the sword on it's right side and unsheated it. "You humans have trespassed on sacred grounds, you are not permitted to go any further." It said with a distorted voice.

"We mean no harm, we just wish to attain the Celestial Prism for the sake of peace." Abigail responded, attempting to reason with the silver knight.

"Peace? You humans speak of peace yet you use essence to bring about chaos and destruction, you turned the natural energy into a weapon of mass destruction. You are not permitted to go any further." The silver knight spoke softly as it darted forward and aimed its sword sideways at her neck in an attempt to blitz her.

Fortunately for Abigail, her reactions were extraordinary. She used the backbend stand to dodge the blade of the knight, the knight moving in sync with her reactions swung its hand backwards and sent the blade back at her.

She threw her legs over her head and propelled her body over the knight with her arms executing a backflip in order to evade its blade again. She remained on the defensive and refused to go on the offensive, after all the temple was just trying to protect what belonged to it.

The silver knight began attacking her relentlessly taking her speed and reaction timing into account. With each slash of it's blade, Abigail found a way to evade each and every slices.

The Knight sent the sword towards her stomach with the strength it could muster and created a very strong wind pressure that blew away everything in it's range, Abigail executed a backflip to avoid a fatal injury but that just made her more prone to the wind pressure.

"ARGH!" She groaned as she was blown into a wall and crashed into the ground. She immediately stood to her right leg and stared at the silver knight as it approached her. "It's strong enough to create wind pressure? With its bare hands?" She said in her thoughts a bit marvelled at the strength of the knight.

BOOM!

The silver knight dashed forward at Abigail, it's strength shattering the very ground it stood on. Her eyes widened, not because of the speed of the Knight but because of the wall that cracked behind her.

Out of pure instincts, Abigail leaped to her left as the wall behind her was broken down and through it came a white knight that was thrown into the silver knight who sprinted forward at great speed. The two knights flew backwards and crashed into the ground as they couldn't control their momentum.

"What was that!?" Abigail exclaimed staring at the broken walls. "Huh?" She uttered as she caught a glimpse of a shadow coming through the broken walls.

"Where is the Prism?" A familiar voice spoke, emerging fully from the walls the figure was revealed to be Rai.

Abigail slammed her right palm into her forehead. "Of course they chose violence." She automatically assumed that both Michael and Rai took the violent approach for one main reason; they are men.

"Princess Abigail? What a surprise, I never imagined the day I'd see you kneeling before me." Rai said chuckling.

"K-kneeling before you!? More importantly I told you to address me by my first name!" Abigail yelled finding his tone offensive.

"And I've been telling you to call me by my first name as well." He responded, viewing this as an opportunity to exact revenge.

"Grrr.." Abigail frowned as she stared at Rai with a slight malicious look on her face.

"That's scary, don't tell me you look at children with that face?" He said referring to her facial expression.

"Huh." Rai turned his neck as they both heard the sound of metallic footsteps approaching them from the cloud of dust that rose the moment Rai smashed one of the knights through it. It was loud, it was as if a giant was approaching them.

"Oh...shit." Rai dropped his hands as his eyes met with that of a twelve foot tall white and silver knight. The two knights which Abigail and Rai engaged in combat with merged increasing their combat abilities, strength and durability.

The aura/essence they emanated was strong enough to paralyze an average Essenmage. Individually, each knights were on a level close to that of Abigail's strength. However now that they combined, they attained a level of strength that far supercedes her own and she could sense it.

Without a moment to waste, the merged knights dashed forward at them, each step it took sent a series of shockwaves that destroyed the grounds of the sanctuary as they ran.

As the merged knight approached the two mages, the ceiling above it was shattered by a very powerful force. Something taking the form of a small spiraling vortex fell from it and hit the head of the merged knight into the ground. "Storm Bringer!" A voice within the vortex exclaimed.