“Time and Fate— the Intended and the Unpredicted...”
The curtain of night draped over
“Alright guys, we have prepared these men in every way we could. Now, it’s all up to them… and us,” spoke Sonia. Though she had putted it lightly, she was as nervous as anyone in this camp. Yexi led a prayer for the faithful to the Light after her pep talk, which gave them comfort and valour.
The Prince, Yamists and Messengers rose to their feet and left the battle camp. The
When the foreigners caught sight of the governor’s home, they were revolted at it, not because it was physically ugly, but because it was too spectacular. While the people were living in a poverish state, he was in his private castle enjoying a life of luxury. Raviex’s ground his teeth as he looked at the stately home.
The building was rectangular, facing them horizontally. It was three storeys tall. Alabaster colossal white pillars supported the triangular roof of the porch. A large fountain of an angel gazing skywards (most likely to be imported from Exodes Metropolis) was situated before the stately home, forming a small roundabout. The splashes of water emitted around the angel shimmered under the moonlight. The rest of the view of the Governor’s home was blocked by the brick wall which surrounded it.
“People of the Kingdom, it is time to take back what is yours!” shouted Raviex, as they came before a pair of massive, iron gates which were closed and locked. The men roared determinedly in unity.
Raviex pulled out his sword from its sheath and threw it hard above him. He leapt powerfully after it as he commanded, “Sword of Katelion, hear my voice. Break free from the chains and unseal thy power!”
Letaikno instantly shone a golden radiance. As he grasped its hilt, the radiance reduced to a shimmer, with its authentic traits in sight. He felt the thug of gravity and caught the momentum. He flipped his body around to face the target on the ground and allowed himself to fall in a diagonal position to reduce air friction. Letaikno was raised up in his hands to his left side.
“Air Dragon Surge!”
From glowing gold, the sword altered its glow to a bright blue. As the sword cut through the air, a sharp whistle followed in its wake. The further he descended, the heavier it was the pressure beneath Letaikno. An illusion of a foot of the Wind Dragon, its scales a gleaming blue beneath the little moonlight, was conjured. It stomped once on the gates as Raviex, with the right timing, slashed downwards to his right forcefully. The air pressure conjured around the sword befell on them.
The gates shuddered. The men retreated as they collapsed to the ground. Raviex landed safely on his feet and saw the result of his skill. There was a loud cheer from everyone as twenty men heaved a long, bulky log, heading for the main entrance of Lord Dymaz’s house.
All of a sudden, a blood-curdling laughter echoed in the night. Fear struck the
“Have faith in the Light! This is a fight for your freedom!” yelled Sonia. The doubts in the men vanished as they heard her and focused in their goal. On cue, Raviex and Christine abruptly broke into a run pass the fountain and towards the puppet that stood dead centre in front of the main doors. As planned in their strategy, Christine activated Angel’s Flight.
She sped ahead at the ten men. Weaving in and out of them at a confusing line, she had scrambled their positions. The puppet at the centre was too occupied by the blue light swimming around him that he had neglected the incoming Raviex until it was almost too late.
“Blade of the Lion!”
Golden crescents dashed at it as Raviex slashed at it in mid-run. At the very last moment, it leapt away. The crescents had narrowly missed it but they had fulfilled their prime role. As they collided with the thick wooden doors, there was a minor explosion.
“Knock down those doors!” ordered Raviex, knowing that the doors were weakened.
Instantly, the battle went into its full heat. The
“Presiding Power!” Sonia smashed the end of her spear onto the chest of the puppet. Her strength gushed through the spear and burst into its body. Gruesome cracking sounds were heard following it. An average person would have faced paralysis after the attack.
The puppet was motionless for a second or two. Sonia knew it was too good to be true to be able to defeat it so fast. She hopped backwards and observed it. As predicted by her, it abruptly came to life, cracking its neck and its fists.
“Welcome back,” she muttered dryly as she planned for another attack.
“Fire Orb!” commanded Lorenne as her opponent ran to her, ready to deliver an attack. Orbs of fire formed and were hurled at it. Though the rotten flesh of the puppet burned when the fire came in contact with it, it was not the slightest bit bothered. It continued its run at her.
It’s an animated corpse, it can’t feel pain!
The puppet shoved a decaying fist at her; the smell of death nauseated her. Lorenne barely dodged it and instantly countered it with Sacred Pierce. Using her staff, she pierced it at the centre of the torso and pushed it a distance away from her.
She knew her weaknesses clearly. Her Physical Attack and Physical Defence were definitely not her strongest point. Consequently, she must try to put some distance between them if she were to fight using sorcery, otherwise known as, Sacred Attack.
“Grave!”
The ground below the puppet turned into a mush area, swallowing it and a few of the lamp posts in the garden-turned-into-battlefield. Unfortunately for it, there was nothing for it to hold to pull its body out. The puppet roared in despair as it sunk into the earth. Soon, it was totally buried into the mushy ground, unable to resurface. When her skill wore off, the ground hardened once more.
Just when she thought she had eliminated one of the puppets, another figure came darting towards her from the right. She sighed and prepared to resume her fight.
Yexi saw what had happened to the Fierell sisters while she was in the midst of her own battle. She grasped the fact that it was useless attacking the puppets. As long as the Meijin was safe and sound, he could keep transferring his Sacred Energy into any dead corpse and animate them to his purpose. Destroying a puppet only meant that he had to control a different corpse and with a battle raging on, the condition could be easily fulfilled.
“Shenjoon!” she called out to the young boy who was not too far away from her. He veered to her in response. “Can you cover me for a minute?”
The Flamese boy dodged a swing from his opponent and sent an uppercut at it before he leapt and somersaulted in the air, landing a few metres from Yexi. This was his first actual combat. He knew he should be afraid but he simply could not ignore the adrenaline rushing in him. It must have been in his blood, being a descendant of a line of fighters, that the battlefield deemed pleasurable for him.
“Take your time, Yexi,” he said complacently, an arm around his wine urn while the other was outstretched and provoking Yexi’s share of the puppets to fight him. Yexi smiled for she understood his feeling of superiority over them. They owned only Physical attacks and no Sacred Attacks. They were the best kind of enemies Shenjoon could ask for as he specialised in Physical Attacks.
The brown-haired girl closed her eyes with assurance and concentrated in magnifying her sense of hearing. Her hearing range widened quickly. She began to hear things a person could not. For an instant, the clanking of blades, the blows of kicks and punches, and the shouts of men became unbearable to her ears. But she expertly separated them from her mind.
Shortly, she heard various heartbeats. It was difficult for her to identify so many different heartbeats simultaneously. She hoped she had enough time at hand to differentiate them all to pin-point the location of the Meijin.
Meanwhile, though his hands were full, Shenjoon was having a great time himself. He finally felt the worth of learning martial arts from his grandfather. Luring the two puppets he was facing together, he made sure he did not lose sight of them and gain the opportunity to strike at his wife when she was in her passive mode.
“Okay, so who wants to get beaten up first?” he goaded, smirking.
The two puppets glanced at one another and sniggered. They charged at him at the same time, ready to pound the boy up.
“Alright, that’s the spirit! I love your sense of togetherness!” cheered Shenjoon. He threw his wine urn lightly and kicked it at the puppet which was shorter. The taller one watched in amazement as its partner flew a few feet back. It fell to the ground heavily while the urn bounced back to its owner.
The other puppet kicked at the boy but he haughtily blocked it with his forearm. He spun the urn, which was held by the other hand, on the tip of his forefinger. Seeing that it was staring at it, Shenjoon purposely dropped it. The puppet’s eyes trailed it but it was taken by surprise when he kicked it into its face. It toppled backward, grabbing his flattened face.
Both puppets roared in fury, disliking being fooled by him. Shenjoon smugly threw the urn into the air again, this time, higher. He head-butted the urn and aimed it at the taller puppet. The targeted one saw what he did and attempted to mimic his movement. When it did so, it was thrown back at the impact. The urn, again, returned to its master like a boomerang.
“Sorry, I forgot to tell you, my precious here, weighs at least five kilogramme,” he guffawed, unable to stop himself from laughing.
The two suddenly ran at his direction. He was going to counter them again when they darted past him, heading straight for Yexi. An abrupt fear for her shot through his mind.
“Shadow Steps!”
Before they were able to get near enough to endanger her, Shenjoon dashed before her in a fleeting shadow. They braked when they saw him. His countenance was not the boyish and playful one that he had seconds ago. It was an expression of the determination to protect someone dear.
“Weren’t we having fun? Why the running?!” he fumed. An altar of the Flamese symbol, Taijitu, which represents the principles of yin and yang, shone beneath him. The Taijitu had only the colours white and black, equal and separated, and appeared in a swirling cycle.
“I won’t allow you to hurt Yexi,” he muttered. He placed the wine urn on the ground and then crouched in a stance where his left foot was at the front and his arms outspread and apart. “Thirty-Two Palms of Exorcism!”
Combined with the skill, Shadow Steps, the puppets last saw the end of Shenjoon’s shadow before they were each blinded and struck by thirty-two golden palms. They staggered after they received their last hit. They watched their rotten hands turned into sand as a wind blew by, stupefied. The boy turned his back at them and collected his wine urn. He knew they were nothing else but sand on the ground.
“Thank you, Shenjoon.” He was startled by Yexi voice and looked up at her to see her smiling sweetly at him. He blushed at the thought that she was aware of his previous words.
“I—I was just err… carrying out my responsibility,” he stuttered with embarrassment.
“As my husband…?” she giggled. He coughed and looked elsewhere. Under her breath, Yexi whispered, “Lorenne, listen to me…”
Lorenne inhaled sharply when she heard Yexi’s voice whispering into her ears. ‘It must be part of her natural ability, too,’ she thought. She glimpsed at her but quickly drew her vision back to the puppet she was dealing with for fear it would take the advantage and ambush her.
“I have located the Meijin through the beating of his heart. It can’t be mistaken… that unusually calm and quiet beating among the others… Go with Sonia, Raviex and Christine to the nearest building directly at the west of this manor. He is at the very top of it. We’ll never win if he is not vanquished!”
The girl immediately went into action after listening to Yexi. She related her message to the three through what she and her sister called, Mind Link, her own natural ability as the Yamist of Wisdom. Casting the skill, Grave, she hurriedly rushed to the wall which fenced the place at the very west after assuring herself that the puppet was trapped.
The chaotic noise around her began to fade as she moved away from the centre of the battlefield. Two minutes of running later, she stopped a few feet away from the wall. Without any hesitation, she summoned a circle of altar beneath her feet, shining a bright red. She pointed her staff at a spot on the wall and yelled, “Flare Blast!” The targeted spot exploded, leaving a hole, big enough for a person to climb through.
“Lorenne!”
Lorenne spun around to see three figures heading for her. Behind them, the battle raged on. The beautiful Exodian fountain was gone and was replaced with huge stalagmite which shot out from the earth. She assumed it was the doing of Raviex’s Terrain Dragon. Lord Dymaz’s garden was definitely in a ruin.
“Just in time, guys, and this is where we exit,” she pointed to the hole behind her with her thumb. Raviex, Christine and Sonia had received the same instruction from her to go to the west end of the walls immediately.
Raviex looked over her shoulder and then glanced back, hoping for the best for his other comrades and people. Hang on for a while more; we will settle this with the Meijin now!
He fixed his eyes beyond the exit created by Lorenne and with resolution, initiated their advancement. “Let’s go!”
I have to get to the Meijin before they do!
Shajou gritted his teeth as he hopped from the top of one building to another. Just when he thought his mission was going to be smooth-sailing, the Princes’ and his team started to make their way towards the Meijin. He had no idea how they managed to pin down the Meijin’s location but it certainly was going to give him a run for his prize.
Who else would I trust more to be entrusted with this mission, Shajou?
‘I will complete this mission for you, Master Lazachus,’ he swore. He knew Master Lazachus was beginning to doubt him. The only way to redeem his self was to accomplish this mission. He would prove to him that he was still his loyal apprentice.
The Meijin was currently three blocks away from. In a few minutes, he would have Master Lazachus’ unwavering approval. As he touched down on the next block, he skidded into a halt. He reckoned that he and the Prince’s team were not the only ones who had tracked down the Meijin.
Another individual, cloaked and hooded, was standing near the edge of the building which he was on. Shajou did not think of it as a wise move, considering that the condition of the building was not any better than the rest of the victimised buildings resulting from the Kaza War. One wrong move and he would be a goner.
As the man withdrew his hood and turned to face him, Shajou’s eyes widened in surprise. Even though it was dark and the moon was the only source of light, the amber-gold eyes were instantly recognised by the boy. They shone with a mysterious aura, one that he could identify without difficulty.
“It’s you!” he breathed.
Calith smiled. “Kairos definitely caught me this time. I, myself, like you, am astonished by our reencounter. I certainly have not planned to meet you here, Shajou.”
Shajou swallowed. There was something about this man which had a claim over his conscience. A few seconds ago, he was as determined as a hound after a running rabbit but now, hesitation began to sprout. He shook his head stubbornly and yelled back at him, “I’ve no time to talk to you at a moment like this. I do respect you, though I don’t know who you really are, but if you’re against me, we can just fight it out now!”
The god of Righteousness did not answer to his challenge. “No time? But it is Chronos who helped arrange our unexpected meeting tonight.”
“What are you talking about?” Shajou asked, befuddled.
“Chronos, the Guardian of Time, and Kairos, the Guardian of Fate… they arrange for this second encounter of ours for a reason, Shajou,” he murmured.
“I have to go—”
“The reason, Shajou,” interjected Calith, “is to provide you the chance to rethink about what you’re going to do.”
His words struck him deep. Loyalty to Master Lazachus, he reminded himself. He shut his eyes tight as a flash back flooded his mind. It was a piece of memory from a few days ago.
“I am listening Master Lazachus.”
“Very good…” he muttered. Shajou was unable to interpret his expression. Was he convinced of his faithfulness or was he suspicious of him?
His master, however, continued to say, “I have a simple mission that I need you to carry out for me. Who else would I trust more to be entrusted with this mission, Shajou?”
“Thank you, Master Lazachus.”
“You will go to
Shajou stared at it, wondering what information it would feed him. He returned his gaze at Lazachus with attention when he spoke again to pass on to him his orders.
“This is my direct order, Shajou: Capture the Meijin alive!” commanded the First General of Valkyr Empire.
“Alive?” Shajou blurted. Inevitably, the task of taking down a captive alive is normally tougher than the task of simply silencing it for good.
“Alive,” he repeated firmly. “The Meijin will be of no use to me if he’s dead even if you succeeded in capturing him.” Lazachus then leaned closer to the boy, as if purposely and added, “Don’t fail me, Shajou.”
Shajou became stiff, paralysed with an indescribable fear. He was right. His master was already distrusting him. Lazachus got up from the couch. He gave the young boy a smile from behind his snake-like mask. Lazachus patted twice on his left shoulders.
“Don’t take it too hard, Shajou,” he comforted him lightly, instantly changing the atmosphere. “As I have always said, you are my first and true apprentice. You will succeed, no?” He chuckled as he left the boy to his thoughts.
Shajou’s hand shook as he picked up the book he was reading. The killing intent projected from Lazachus still left him trembling, even after he had walked out of the room. This was most likely why he could not release himself from the bond between him and his master.
It was not the fear of death, but the fear of Lazachus Valkyr himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment