Guardian: Darkness Rising (12 page)

“
I see,” the Master growled as he
got back on all fours. “Brother didn’t come for a friendly chat.
But what about sister?” He lashed out at Akilah; the spell arrived
before Ince could stop it, but Akilah didn’t defend herself or
strike back; she simply kept dodging over and over, until she’d
ultimately fail to do so.

Knowing that moment would arrive soon, Akilah
tried to reason with her brother.

“
Asura, please,” Akilah pleaded.
“You still have a chance to turn this all around. Give the good in
you a chance!”

“
The
good
in me?” her brother
sneered. “Please, Akilah, You and I both know that there’s no good
in me left. And...” he paused for a moment. “Maybe there never
was.”

While the three Spirits were battling, James
was being freed by his family. Thomas used his enchanted sword to
cut the dark ropes, allowing James to hug his sister and
son.

“
Dad,” Luke said, “where were you?
We were worried sick.”

James’s eyes flashed from his son
to his sister and his brother-in-law – he felt utter embarrassment
for the situation he’d created. “I’m sorry, Lucas,” he said. “I
thought I could handle this. I thought I could face the Master on
my own.” He sighed.

“
All I wanted was to protect you.
And... I failed.”

“
No, James,” Thomas insisted. “You
didn’t. We’re all still safe.”

“
Then where are the others?” James
said incomprehensively.

“
Antonio and Bella are with Aoife,
Aine and Aharnish,” Samira said. “The kids are with Violina – Lucas
insisted on coming.”

“
I wanted to help find you,” Luke
said after receiving a judging glare from his father. “And I’m glad
I did, Dad.”

James snorted and smiled at his son. “I am
too, Luke,” he said. “It’s good to see you. All three of
you.”

Father and son shared a hug, missing out on
all that was going down behind them.

The Master had defeated his
siblings once again. With a single tap on the floor with the bottom
of his staff, the Master turned them both into...

“
Shadows,” James breathed. “He’s
turned them to shadows.”

“
ASURA!” Ince bellowed. “What’s
the point of this!?”

The Master smirked at his brother.
“You see, Ince,” he said, “now you can experience what it’s like to
be me
once again
.
You get to experience the punishment
you
designed.”

“
Don’t do this, Asura,” Ince
warned his brother; he laughed it off, however.

“
There’s nothing you can do to
stop me, Ince,” he laughed. “And soon, our dear siblings will be
joining you in your pitiful, helpless state.” The Master laughed
hatefully.

“
What is he talking about?” Samira
hissed. James shrugged.

“
I don’t know,” he lied. Well,
basically it wasn’t entirely a lie, but it wasn’t the truth,
either. “But I think we’re about to find out.”

“
Well, I’m not waiting until
everything goes wrong,” Luke said, and sprinted forward; his father
wanted to grab him, but missed. “LUKE, DON’T!”

Luke ignored his father; he lashed out with
his sword at the Master, who had his back turned to Luke. Just as
the blade would’ve made its impact, the Master moved his hand
upward. The blade of Luke’s sword began to glow red, and mimicked
the movements the Master made with his hand – sending the sword
back where it came from, tearing the flesh of Luke’s
temple.

James and Thomas rushed forward to
save Luke as the boy fell unconsciously to the ground. The two
adults quickly dragged the boy away from the Master before the evil
Spirit could finish the job.

“
Such courage,” the Master
smirked. “Too bad he lacks any actual skill.”

James looked at Akilah and Ince. “Get him back
to the castle,” he told the Spirits, referring to his son. “Get him
out of here. We’ll take care of the Master.”

James didn’t have to tell the Spirits twice;
despite the fact that they were shadows, they could still teleport
and hold objects – which meant that they could take Luke back to
safety.

In the meantime, the Master attended to
executing his plan.

Using his staff, the Master summoned the globe
of Lunaria; the red orb on the staff began to emit unsettling black
smoke as he did so.

James began to tremble uncontrollably. As he
leaned Samira to support, she gave him a worried look.

“
James? Are you okay?” Thomas
said.

“
Y-yeah,” James
stammered. “We’ve got to get out of here.
Now.
”

The trio didn’t hesitate; James
grabbed his sister by the wrist and pulled her along.
Unfortunately, they were already too late by the time they’d
started running.

The Master raised his staff and placed his
hand on the globe, exactly on the Land of Light. “Now,” he
breathed, “let’s see how fast I can change this world this
time.”

As the Master finished his sentence, the patch
of land presenting the Land of Light on the globe began to turn
pitch black.

...And so did the actual Land in real
life.

The air got an instant chill as
the dark energy began to spread from the castle through the air –
there was no stopping it.

Thomas, Samira and James could instantly feel
the effect of the world darkening; as the world darkened around
them, so did James’s heart. There was no away of fighting it, as
James felt his last grains of hope slip from his heart and mind,
only to be left with an ink-black stain inside of him.

The last thing James was able to
tell at his family before being completely engulfed by the dark
was, “
RUN
!”

“
DAD!” Samira yelled, trying to
pull away from her husband, who had gripped Samira tightly; going
anywhere near James now was a terrible idea. “Sam, you heard him!”
Thomas yelled. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

Samira continued to struggle, but quickly
accepted that he had to leave her brother behind. “Don’t worry,
James,” she yelled, before running after Thomas. “We’ll finish
this, once and for all! We won’t let him take you, I
promise!”

“
I’d love to see you try, my
dear,” the Master laughed. James had been driven to his knees, and
was sitting next to the Master, panting loudly. “James is
mine.”

Samira didn’t react, nor did she
look back. She just simply
couldn’t
look back.

The only thing she could do to help James now,
was to keep Luke safe and find a way to cure James and save the
world at the same time. After all, she still was a Guardian – and
thus, she had to fulfil her duty.

Whatever it’d take, Luke would get his father
back. And Samira would get her brother back.

Follow the
Light

The Master felt as if he couldn’t be happier.
Everything had gone according to plan: the world was darkening once
again, and James was his loyal servant.

Yet, something seemed off. The Master was
quick to discover the reason why; as he glanced at the globe, he
was expecting to see a completely black ball, but only the Land of
Light had turned black. The black colour was spreading, but it
looked as if it was struggling to get past the borders of the Land
of Light. The barrier the Spirits had put up had worked.

“
AKILAH!” the Master bellowed.
“What’s the reason for this!?” he breathed. “AKILAH!”

The shadows took their time to
appear; they didn’t seem quite impressed with the tantrum their
brother was throwing. Obviously, they made sure Luke was in good
hands first before returning to Asura.

“
Akilah, what did you do?” the
Master said angrily, pointing at the globe behind him. “Why isn’t
the darkness spreading?”

“
We had to keep you contained,”
Ince said calmly; the Master looked as if he was about to explode.
He just simply couldn’t stand the attitude his siblings had toward
him, as if they didn’t respect him and everything he’d had
achieved. They acted as if they were above him; the Master thought
his siblings were arrogant and narcissistic.

They’d always been, and they’d never change,
either.

“
How do I break this barrier,
Ince?” the Master demanded. “Tell me quickly, please. I don’t like
having to wait.”

“
We all have to do things we don’t
like sometimes, brother,” Ince said smugly, and after Ince had
finished his sentence, both shadows simultaneously disappeared once
again. On the inside, the Master was boiling with rage, despite the
calm appearance of his face. How could his siblings be so arrogant,
so full of themselves?

They were blatantly ignorant –
even after all that the Master had proven to be capable of, his
siblings didn’t seem the slightest bit afraid or impressed; they
just remained indifferent towards the Master.
Annoyingly
indifferent.

The Master had no time to waste on
hinting down his siblings; the darker Lunaria would become, the
more weakened their powers would be, anyway. For now, his main
concern was finding a way to bring down that cursed barrier. Once
that would be done, the Master would regain full control over
Lunaria, enabling him to permanently wipe his siblings off the map.
They were insignificant little ants. No – they were
cockroaches
, because one
cloud of pesticide would never be enough to wipe them out. But a
cloud with the strength and capacity of
ten
clouds... yes, that would do the
trick.

The Master had plenty of time to
work on bringing down the barrier, as the Guardians were no element
of worry for him. James could take care of them just fine; with the
dark energy flowing through his veins, he was almost as powerful as
the Master himself.

“
James?” the Master asked,
referring to the man that had been sitting in a dark corner while
the Master was venting. “I’ve got a task for you.”

“
What is thy bidding, My Lord?”
James asked as he slowly rose from his kneeling position. His eyes
were a startling shade of red, lying deep in their eye sockets;
James, no longer in need of aid from his glasses, had thrown them
on the floor where they lay, one lens cracked.

“
James, my boy,” the Master
grinned, the fact that the Guardian that once had fought him so
fiercely as now calling him Master, “I’d like you to go out there
and find the Guardians. Make sure that they don’t leave this Realm
– and do whatever it takes to make them stay.”

James nodded and bowed deeply. “Will do, My
Lord,” he said. “They won’t leave the Land of Light.”

The Master rolled his eyes. “Please don’t call
it that,” he scoffed. “It’s not ‘light’ anymore.”

James nodded. “As you wish.”

The Master nodded back at him. “Go on, now,”
he said, “I gave you a task to complete, now didn’t I?”

James turned around, planning to leave the
throne room, but he’d hardly taken three steps before turning back
around again.

“
What is it now?” the Master
asked, slightly agitated.

“
What if the Guardians attempt to
restore the Land of Light by completing the Ritual?” James asked.
The Master rubbed his chin.

“
Hm...” he pondered. “You’ve got a
point there. I could...” the Master paused for a moment to pace
around and consider his options.

“
I could make a spell for you,”
the Master ultimately decided after he’d stopped pacing. “With it,
you can poison the Altars so the Guardians can do the work for
us.”

“
...
Poison
the altars, My Lord?” James said, sounding as if he was
questioning the Master’s word choice. “Perhaps
curse
is the word you’re looking
for.”

“
Perhaps,” the Master mumbled, too
busy thinking of a fit curse to even listen to what James had to
say. He then realised there was one curse that would be capable of
cursing the altars in the right way, but it would take time to
prepare it. This meant that James would either have to wait – and
thus risking losing the Guardians – or go out without any objective
other than to keep the Guardians inside the Light Castle, which
meant risking that the Guardians would perform the Ritual.
Whichever choice the Master would end up making, there were risks
to both.

“
Just stay here for now,” the
Master decided. “I’ll prepare something for you which you can use
to cast the spell, so you won’t have to cast it all by
yourself.

“
This curse will assure our
victory in case either of us gets compromised.”

“
Very well, sir,” the Master said.
“But – please don’t doubt my competence, My Lord. I will not fail
you.”

The Master allowed a sinister smile crawl up
his lips. “I have no doubt in you, or your services, James,” he
said, before leaving the throne room.