Saturday, December 1, 2007

CHAPTER 30

“But… who am I to love you?”

The pair of heavenly-blue eyes flickered open. His vision was terribly smudged and his hearing so impaired that his surrounding deemed surreal to him. He extended a hand before him but saw nothing besides a blur. A nauseating thought occurred to him that the Mind Exorcism spell had failed and caused him to be trapped in a dimension of distortion and in-between worlds.

Fighting back a surge of panic, Raviex stumbled and fell forward, penetrating through an immaterial wall, likened to one who breaks through the surface of water. His eyelids shut instinctively as he held his breath for the crash.

To his astonishment, his feet came in contact with solid ground and caught his balance timely. The place which he had appeared at was of unexplainable familiarity. The perfect climate and warmth in the air was the telltale that he was on the Floating Land—at least the Floating Land which was constructed by the memories of Christine.

Raviex found himself standing before an artistic sculpture, shaped in the image of an angelic figure. She stood a good twelve feet, oddly giving a sense of comfort and encouragement to those who come before her.

Le Parc du Premier Ange?” muttered Raviex in Falehyn. It was the name of the park he was at, which in Exodian meant, ‘the Park of the First Angel’. It was named in the sculpture’s honour.

The sculptors of the First Angel featured her with streaming long hair and demure looks. Her head was tilted upwards with her eyes closed and her lips formed a placid smile. She donned a single piece of garment which flowed from the top of her chest to her feet. Two arched wings granted her a divine and mystic feel.

She had been there since King Levon’s time, presented to him humbly by two unnamed sculptors. It had been a wonder that the sculptors wished to remain anonymous. To possess the skills to give the First Angel such enchanting looks, easily bewitching the mind to think she was alive and breathing… Raviex thought the creators would have wanted to attain the glory for such an accomplishment.

She was peculiarly hovering inches above the stand below her, her open palms at her sides. He used to think, as a little boy, that she was about to ascend into the heavens if not waiting for the advent of one from Amaea. He remembered the inscription carved on the stand, ‘When Darkness comes, I will show you the Light.”

The sun was setting somewhere. The sky was a brilliant red and orange, overwhelming the blue of it. Suddenly, a small light glowed above the First Angel. It grew steadily to the size of a crystal orb, shining brightly at the area within its range, throwing his shadow long and slanting behind him.

He anticipated the following event which remained a mystery until this day with much curiosity. From within the orb of light, a twin orb was replicated. The twin orb separated from the first and drifted away independently. Now, there were two orbs and the duplication repeated.

The Prince shifted his position and gained an engaging view of the Park of the First Angel. The replicas of orbs scattered out randomly over the park, lighting the walker’s path. A newcomer on the Floating Land would have thought the stars had befriended the place intimately and had come down to share their lights in the peaceful darkness.

Go, I will help you find the one you are searching for… You must hurry for Chronos is not on you side now.

The whispering of the voice in the wind sharply reminded him of his urgent purpose of being here. He had wasted precious time when he could least afford to do so. He did not even bother to wonder about the whisperer’s identity as he sped off to where he knew she must be!

After half a minute worth of sprinting, he came to a playground in the park. He stopped to catch his breaths, leaning over. He looked ahead of him when he heard a child’s voice speaking. A tree was hiding her from his sight. He was rooted on the spot as he overheard another voice spoke. He clasped a hand around his throat in shock.

“And you will stay here forever?”

“You can be sure of that. This is a beautiful place. I am happy here too!” answered the girl, beaming.

“If you are happy here, then, you mustn’t leave this place, Ryn. Besides, think of all the fun we can have, playing together every day!”

Her toes pushed against the ground to swing lightly backwards, laughing at the boy’s words. “But don’t we have to go to school? We can’t play every day.”

“It’s okay, so long as we get to see each other. It doesn’t matter if we’re schooling or playing.”

She nodded in delighted agreement. I’m only thankful that this is how things will end for me. No pain, no sorrow, no hatred, no fury… just peace and happiness till the very end. “My time is almost up…”

“You mean Aunt Iris wants you to go home now?”

The girl smiled at him. “Yes… I really want to go home…”

Raviex closed his eyes bitterly and slammed a fist on the trunk of the tree. There was no way he could let this continue. He stood away from the tree and saw the two children who were talking clearly by the light of the orbs. A shiver ran through his spine when he saw his younger self looking back at him with the same pair of heavenly-blue eyes. The girl got up from her swing in shock.

“Ryn, stop all of this, now!” he shouted at her.

She flinched in hesitation. At the same moment, the younger Raviex burst into thousands of pieces.

“No, wait!” she called out but he was already gone. Tears overwhelmed her as she began to experience the feelings she had tried so hard to shun out from this world.

“See what you have done! Why must you take away what keeps me happy? Why must you come, Raviex?! Almost sixteen years of my life had past and I have never felt so free before,” she cried. Her form had changed from a child’s to a teenager.

“How could you lie to yourself like this? This world… is not real…”

“So what?” she screamed at him stubbornly.

I am real, Ryn! Can’t you see, I am here because I want you to return to where you belong— where we belong. I would never want you to stay here and I cannot let you die,” pleaded Raviex.

“But I am dying, Raviex!” Christine interjected, her old fears washing over her. Her body trembled involuntarily.

“No, you’re not!” he yelled at her with the intention of calming her down. “Listen to me, I know you’re afraid that you would never receive your Scroll; that… that you will die…”

He held onto her quivering shoulders. The girl was still in tears. “Ryn, we all have to face deaths, like your father’s and mine but facing death doesn’t mean choosing death. That is why you will live through this and return with me.

“But it scares me to think that I would disappear and lose those I love,” told Christine, revealing her honest fear, streams of tears lined her cheeks.

Raviex gently drew her into his arms and embraced her. She did not reject the act of comfort. “Oh, Ryn, aren’t you one who would stand strong to protect those you love? You would never disappear because the people you love will always remember you in their hearts. You would never lose anyone, including me…”

Christine looked at him quietly in sobs as he sighed. “I’m sorry. I know I have been an idiot to you. I pretend that I do not know but I do know, Ryn, about your feelings for me. It’s hard to believe but I really thought that I won’t hurt you more than I have if I do not address my own feelings for you.”

He raised a hnd to caress her cheek. “Because of my fault, you have suffered. If it is not too late, won’t you please let me correct my wrongs and pay my debt to you? I’ve found you even after our separation years ago and I want to believe that there is a purpose for it.” But I daren’t hope to be with you, Ryn. Even now, I still fear that I am capable of only hurting you…

He endured a pang of guilt as an image of Kairalina flashed in his mind for a second.

Forgive me, Kaira…

“I realise now how thoroughy wrong I was. I should be by your side when you need me as you face your troubles and worries,” he added.

“Raviex, I…”

“Ryn, won’t you want to listen to my reply about how I feel for you?” he asked.

Christine cast her eyes sideways, uncertain.

“You told me to reflect upon my own feelings. I did. And I know unmistakably that I have fallen for you…” confessed Raviex truthfully. As she took in his words, her dark hazel eyes were fixed on him. He blushed under her intense gaze.

“The thing is… I really… really like you, Christine Erynna Falcon. I don’t know if I have the rights to ask this but… will you be mine?”

Her cheeks glowed pink and her heart thumped so fast with wondrous joy that caused her to lose her tongue for a while. His hand slipped from her cheek as she held his shoulder. As a reply, she tip-toed and planted a soft kiss on his lips.

Surprised, he blinked as she smiled sweetly at him. “I like you, too, Raviex Lexondré Katelion, as my first crush which will also be my last.”

Then, the artificial world turned into nothingness as the creator erased its existence…

Raviex’s eyes fluttered open as his conscious mind was back in his body.

“Raviex is awake,” reported Kyoden, shouting over his shoulder. “Hey, man, welcome back.”

“How’s Ryn?” he asked groggily as he rose from the ground.

When Kyoden did not answer him, a terrible feeling gripped him. He scrambled to Lorenne and Sonia who were kneeling over Christine’s still unconscious body. On her pale face, he saw that she was struggling within but her effort was weakening by the second.

“The Meijin’s drained too much of her Sacred Energy, Raviex. I’m sorry…” said Lorenne miserably.

“Isn’t there a way to infuse Sacred Energy into her? You can use mine!” told Raviex, panic and desperation were pinning him to the corner. No, not now, not after what we’ve been through…

“I can infuse Sacred Energy into her but only if it’s the same type of Sacred Energy as hers. Christine’s Sacred Energy is of Righteousness. There is no one here who has her type of Sacred Energy,” said the spell-caster feebly.

The unknown boy clenched and unclenched his fists. He could not bear the thought of the punishment waiting for him after what he was planning to do but… She’s going to die.

“Remove yourselves from her,” he ordered.

The four froze. They had forgotten of his presence.

“What do you want with Ryn?” demanded Raviex protectively.

“Do not question me if you want her alive,” he sneered. They did not have any other option and could only back away, though Kyoden had to drag Raviex along with him.

However, when Lorenne saw the boy placed a hand on the Meijin’s head while the other was raised above him, she stepped forward in horror.

“What are you trying to do? That is against the Law!” she cried aloud.

His violet eyes pierced her frigidly. “You have a better idea?” he hissed.

“But the Meijin will die!”

“Or your friend will, okay?! So will you just shut up and let me do it before I choose not to, lady!” he yelled rudely. The pressure and risk he was undertaking… who would understand? He could walk out on it right now. Yet, strange as it sounded, he could not let that girl’s life force disappear now.

“Any last words?” he asked the Meijin who was paralysed and terribly weakened after the ten-year-old oppressed him with a disarming drug which he had injected into his body without the others noticing.

Kontonaku succumbed to the boy. “Kairos has shown me this very scene. I cannot escape Fate for I, myself, am wearied by life itself. This is how my life shall end… in the hands of another Manipulator, a Meijin.”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Perhaps you would feel better knowing that you are going to die by my hands rather than to die by my Master’s. Farewell,” the other muttered.

He drove the other hand down and hammered his palm onto Kontonaku’s head. An evil dark green fire swirled around them. There was a loud and unnatural crack spreading throughout the Meijin’s body. The drug had caused Kontonaku’s nervous system to collapse. Otherwise, he would have undergone inconceivable agony due to the process.

“What’s he trying to do?” asked Sonia, unable to tear her eyes away from the boy’s action despite the rising pressure in the air around them.

Lorenne gazed at her apprehensively. “That boy… he’s cracked the Meijin’s Mortal Vein. Now, he’s breaking the Life Vein as we speak,” she breathed.

Raviex and Kyoden stiffened upon hearing her, as though she had just told a sick joke. Unfortunately, she never joked. Looking at her sister, Sonia could not tell her exact emotions through her expression. She could only guess it was because she did not know what she should feel.

The Mortal Vein is the vein in which a Lundea’s Sacred Energy generates and flows in whereas the Life Vein is the vein in which every soul’s life force on Senadon flows in. Breaking the earlier would render a Lundea incapable of further usage of his Sacred Energy but breaking the latter would result in death.

They heard a second appalling loud crack…

Taking away one’s life to retain a life… How far would one support that value? It was Lorenne’s character to appreciate life regardless of a person’s wickedness and goodness, which was also her prime weakness as a fighter.

At this point, a tremendous amount of energy was dispersing out of Kontonaku’s eyes, ears, nose and mouth in multi-colour into Christine’s body. While Christine’s face was regaining a promising shade of colour, the Meijin’s skin turned sallow and sank into the bones.

Raviex understood crystal clear what was occurring. It is true that in order to infuse Sacred Energy into a person, the same type is required. However, what the boy was doing was not infusing Sacred Energy into Christine but infusing another being’s life force. The Ancient Law and the Kingdom’s Law strictly forbade the absorption of life force but it was as how he put it: It was going to be either her or the Meijin. The choice was apparent although there were ethical issues involved.

The last drop of life escaped Kontonaku. The boy’s hands drooped down as his captive was no more, not even a meagre trace of his existence, leaving behind only his pieces of earrings and garments. Shajou trembled as he was compelled to accept the consequences of his act.

A cock crowed in a distant. The morning sun banished the night and transformed it into the starting of a brilliant day.

Shajou saw the girl he had saved alive and awake, and was deeply embraced by the Prince with utmost gratefulness and affection. There was a strong sense of longing inside him to be amongst them. Impossible… He did not belong with them. He was a follower of Lazachus Valkyr, their sworn enemy. They would never recognise him as part of them.

They will, Joshua, take courage to seek refuge in them.

‘That voice again,’ he cursed. He whirled around but did not see the mysterious yet tiresome acting conscience of his.

“Leave me alone, you crazy blue-haired man,” muttered Shajou angrily to the air.

A fierce gust of wind blew against him to rebuke him for his lack of respect for the divine figure.

“Err… Guys… Am I seeing things or is that boy hit by some typhoon that odd enough, we are not experiencing?” Kyoden stared queerly at Shajou who were fending himself from the maniacal wind.

“Who’s he?” asked Christine after Raviex helped her to her feet and supported her weight.

“Someone whom we owe your life to,” he replied, though he was averse to admit so.

“Why are you so persistent?! Can’t you mind your own business?” shouted Shajou aloud, fuming. Raviex, Christine, Kyoden and Sonia had questioning looks on them at his sudden outburst. Lorenne was the exception of the group as she began to search the surroundings for the sight of cerulean-blue hair.

She became disheartened when the bizarre phenomena stopped. Hard-headedly, she marched up to the boy. “Who were you talking to?” she queried uncompromisingly.

Shajou gulped. He used to have a mother and this lady looked exactly like her with that stern look. If he remembered well, it was a look which meant no nonsense was allowed.

“What’s up with Lorenne? Does she normally scold a kid for talking to himself?” asked Kyoden blankly.

Sonia rolled her eyes at him. “Kaneshiro, is it even normal for a kid to talk to himself? Your question makes no sense. Please, if I must beg you, use your horse sense!”

“She’s just saying that because she doesn’t know what’s going with Lorenne, too,” whispered Kyoden to Raviex and Christine. The red-haired girl giggled but it turned into a small cough.

“You alright?” said Raviex, anxious and concerned.

She nodded in assurance. “Don’t worry, I just lost my breath. I’m tired, that’s all.”

“O…kay…” Kyoden looked away from the two. “Looks like I’ll have to face two sick lovebirds starting from today,” he muttered. Oh, he was not dumb. He could pretty much sketch out what happened between them.

“I was talking to this weirdo…”

“What weirdo? Describe,” Lorenne pressed sharply.

“He’s this guy I met. He’s got blue hair and weird amber eyes. Sometimes I think I imagined him up since he’s always speaking like my annoying conscience,” he spilled out, then undecidedly added, “but I also think he might be Calith, the god of Righteousness.”

The one reason he could not be sure was because he had never seen his appearance during his primary missions when he was ordered by Lazachus to track down Nullef Dragaina. Countless times he had seen the pilot of it but his face was often concealed by his cloak.

He was shocked when Lorenne knelt down before him and beseeched him, “Please, tell me where he is!”

“Lady, I don’t know where to find him. He just appears out of nowhere.” He was starting to feel uneasy when he saw the huge disappointment in her. “Look… If you’re that desperate to see him, I’ll tell him to find you the next time I meet him.” Not that I want to see him actually…

Without him realising it, Shajou had spoken her heart’s desire.

“Thank you…” she wept and hugged him. “Thank you…”

Her warmth led him to feel her sincerity and to feel needed. He was about to comfort her with his own hands when he brought to mind his place and status. Ashamed, he gently pushed away from her.

“I have to go. My Master is waiting.”

“But your mission has failed… Valkyr will mistreat you,” uttered Lorenne. “Stay with us. You are only a child.”

“I cannot stay.”

Climbing over the edge of the building they were on, Shajou prepared to leap off when Christine called out to him, “Hey!”

He looked back at her.

“Thanks for saving me.”

Shajou smiled. He was surprised himself that he did because it was rare for him since there were few reasons for him to do so in the past. But this… was definitely a good enough reason for him to smile.

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