Chapter 12：Celestial trial (part 1)

"You still haven't told me where we're going" said James following the group through a corridor. After the attack, the rebel group had grown excited and kept mumbling to themselves and one another about a celestial trial and celestial weapons. They finally reached a door on the right of the corridor that opened automatically. Everyone walked in except James who was blocked by Josie.

"Look, they may have saved us earlier but they seem to be acting weirdly. We could go along with them but I'd recommend being cautious." said Josie

"I guess, we should stick close together in case we need to use blitz in the future." said James trying to hurry the conversation along.

Finally walking through the door, James looked in awe as the others climbed into a ship around five times bigger the Josie's in a hanger about half the size of the previous one. It looked like it was heavily modified with scrap metal and a few extra thrusters put on the sides and rear. Walking inside, James saw masses of screens, dials, and switches in the cockpit with two hatches that went down into a gun station. William, Liam, Ben, Izzy, and Edward all sat down in their own seats in the cockpit whereas James and Josie fused to sit in the only remaining seat at the back. Without communication, the group flicked switches and typed on screens as the ship began to rise and the roof split to reveal the open sky of space. Once out of the hanger the ships main engine powered up with a whine and they quickly accelerated into space.

Suddenly, Aiden popped up in front of James.

"Unlike the rest of them, I'll be willing to inform you of our goal. More than a thousand years ago, six weapons were forged by the Gods called the celestial weapons. They were given to each nation and granted them amazing power. However, the nations saw the danger of the weapons and sealed them away apart from the weapon of the darkness nation which they hid. The only way to release the weapons and use them to stop the war is to have a user from all elements present to trick the barrier into thinking there's been an end to the war." said Aiden feeling proud to be able to share his knowledge.

"Ok, I have some more questions." said James

"Sure, ask away. I'm happy to enlighten the unknowing."

"Ok...one question I have is how do asurians gain their abilities? Are they born into one or do you get to choose?"

"Well, if both of your parents are the same element then you are definitely going to be the same as them. But if your parents are different elements then it depends on you. If your mother was electricity and your father was earth then it all comes down to your personality. Which ever one fits best with you is the one you get."

"Ok, so with these celestial weapons, is there a specific weapon for each element or can they be used by anyone?"

"They were each infused with the power of the god of each element. Therefor, any elemental user can hold any weapon but the full power of the weapon can't be utilised unless it's held by a user of the same element as it's god."

"Huh, cool."

"We've arrived!" shouted Liam, tired of Aiden droning on.

Their destination was a small moon no bigger than 40 metres in diameter. On it was a small temple with six pillars forming a circle around a hexagonal rune with strange symbols at each point. The ship landed, they all got out, and walked up to the rune.

"If my research is correct" said Edward "then we each need to stand on our respective symbol. Liam you stand on that one, Ben there, Izzy there, me here, and James there." They all walked to the symbols Edward had pointed to and one by one they began to glow red, dark blue, white, brown, yellow, and light blue. The rune's lines filled with a rainbow of colours before the ground began to shake. A beam of light shot up out of the middle, stopped above the temple and arced down in all directions making a dome over the temple. A loud voice echoed:

"To prove your worth and to hold a weapon of the gods, you must first face your own challenge of mind, soul, and body. It will begin now." There was a flash and they all lost consciousness.

Ben awoke in a court room standing in the witness stand next to the judge. His memories had also been altered and what he remembered was that he had been a witness to a murder. The murder of his father. He knew who had killed his father and the man was sitting in a chair in front of him on the defendant side of the room. He had previously threatened Ben saying he would kill him and his mother if he said that he did it. The Judge turned to Ben and asked him to tell the court what happened. Ben went to speak but he was too caught up in fear that nothing came out. Every time he tried to say something images flashed in this mind of his dead father lying next to his mother in a graveyard. He had to do something...anything to stop this killer from going free...but he couldn't do anything. The court ended with the killer being let free but Ben still felt like he had to do something to leave a mark. He followed the killer home and when they went into an alleyway Ben picked up a metal pole with a jagged end and charged at the killer. The killer turned to show they, as Liam had experienced, were a perfect clone of Ben and was holding a long spear with 16 holes at the pointed end. Their weapons clanged together as Ben let out all his anger but the doppelganger blocked every attack as if it was nothing until it kicked Ben to the floor. It raised it's spear into the air, ready to stab down into Ben's head but Ben yelled out and two police officers grabbed the clone and took it down to the ground. Ben picked up the spear they dropped. He felt the power enter his body, looked at the helpless clone of himself and threw the spear into their head. The clone and the officers exploded into smoke. Ben picked the spear back up, there was a flash and Ben fell unconscious again.