Chapter 35
The two Nakatomi girls sat inside one of many finely-decorated halls of the mansion. The fire blazed in the chimney, filling the room with a woodsy scent.
“I told you to stop climbing the house, didn’t I?” Five-year-old Aya looked down at Selene, who had a nasty cut on her left palm. Even at her young age, Aya had become something of a mother figure to her younger sister. It came naturally, especially since both their parents were almost always away from home in council meetings.
“I just wanted to see the baby birdies,” said Selene. She pouted her lips. “You’re not telling Mom, are you?”
Aya’s heart softened. She could never quite say no to that face. “Fine. But don’t do it again. This time you got off easy. If you fall again, there’s no telling how hurt you could get.”
“I promise I won’t.”
“You better not, my little sparrow. I would go crazy if anything happened to you.” Aya ran her hands through Selene’s strands of hair. She pulled her in and held her close. Minutes later the young Nakatomi was sound asleep. Her soft snores mixed with the crackling wood in the fireplace to create a symphony of harmonious music.
She wiped away the line of drool that had begun to make its way down Selene’s mouth. Leaning in close, she planted a soft kiss on her forehead. Selene mumbled at the intrusion in her sleep. Aya moved back, warmth filling her as she took in her sister’s peaceful features.
Selene’s hateful eyes bore down on Aya as she came at her from above.
The water wielder moved to the side, sending the dark wielder hurtling past her and into the cave wall. The dark energy she had condensed around her hands bore into the earth.
“You cannot take this from me. I will rule all. All. All. All!” cried Selene. She was ranting now. Long forgotten was that calculating empress. The one who examined every angle of a situation with the coldest and most cunning of minds. Being close to her sister had awoken something within her, a part of her humanity that was supposed to have been extinguished long ago.
“You must kill the water wielder!” said their father. His voice was high and demanding and reminded Aya of the many times he had punished them as children for breaking one of his overly strict rules. It could have been something as trivial as forgetting to close the door, or failing to fully understand an elder manuscript. The punishment was always the same. Three hours on their knees while they recited the broken rule nonstop.
Heat flushed through Aya’s body as she wielded a slab of ice on her father’s mouth. He mumbled and pulled at the obstruction as he shot her a hateful glare.
Aya turned her attention to the only Nakatomi she cared for. “Selene. Don’t listen to that man. I’m—”
“It’s Blood Empress!” shrieked her sister. Her hands dangled uselessly by her side. She twirled them, creating two dark whirls around her. “It’s time for you to experience the power of a true dark wielder.” Out of the vortex they emerged. Two small children, a male and a female, with sickening features glared back at her. Upon closer inspection, Aya realized that they weren’t children at all. More than anything, they appeared to be puppets, though there were no strings attached to them. They walked in unnatural, jerking movements. Moist skin hung from their drooling fangs. They were both small, about three feet tall, but that didn’t make them any less intimidating. The boy had a crooked nose. The girl had long, red ponytails that seemed to have been dipped in a glass of oil. Her blue dress had blotches of grime and blood on it.
The male pounced at her. Aya fired a water burst at him. Before it could connect, something wrapped itself around her arms. She looked down to the sight of spider webs.
What the—?
The girl opened her mouth, spewing another gush of spider webs. This time, the sticky substance covered her entire face. She tried to break free, but the hold was too strong.
Something whizzed at her side. Aya listened for its trajectory. A millisecond later she hopped over the attack. The male puppet’s kick missed by a hair, which was lucky. With the little visibility Aya now possessed, she noticed that blades were attached to the male’s hands and feet. One wrong move could very well mean the end. But then again, one right move could liberate her.
Aya purposely stumbled to the ground, feigning a loud scream of pain. As she had expected, the boy wasted no time in pressing what he thought was his advantage.
The blade of his right arm came toward her head. Aya jerked to the side and brought her arm up. The end of the blade cut clean through the web encasing her hands.
Now free, Aya pulled off the webs on her face. She expected it to come off easily, but she only managed to get enough off to regain her vision.
Selene grunted in frustration. She moved her arms and flickered her fingers.
She’s controlling them!
mused Aya, shocked. She had never heard of such an ability.
She didn’t have much time to register the strange power, because the girl once again opened her mouth, shooting a stream of thick webs.
Cursing under her breath, Aya flipped to the side.
It only took a quick observation of the patterns of their attacks for Aya to realize that the puppets were trying to back her into a wall. She had no intention of letting that happen. She condensed her power. Blades of ice shot from her hands. Like ninja stars, they impaled the boy.
Amazingly, the ice seemed to have no effect. He came at her, cackling, with blades atop his small head.
Of course. I have to get the caster
. Weaving between web shots and blade attacks, she rolled across the ground and sent a zigzagging flurry of water coursing through the ground. Earth shattered as the water broke though it and slammed into the young girl.
Selene’s body flew through the air. The second she made contact with the wall, her puppet creations disappeared in puffs of smoke. Webs and a scent of death were the only things that remained of their short time in the world of the living.
Aya barely had time to celebrate her small victory. With a hammering heart, she crossed the distance of the room.
She skidded to a halt as Selene recovered, surrounding the entire area around her in a blob of darkness.
She’s calling on those dark creatures. I have to stop it.
Aya formed a mass of clear water before her. Both girls grunted and huffed as they stood face to face. The only thing that prevented their hands from touching was the raw energy they were putting on display.
There was a thunderous crash as the two energies clashed, fighting for supremacy.
The water wielder skidded back a few steps as the dark power bore down, threatening to engulf her. The intensity left in her erupted. She breathed deeply and released more of her energy. The water turned a deeper shade of blue.
“Aaarghhhh!” groaned Selene as she struggled to keep the immense power from engulfing her.
Just one more push.
Sweat dripped down Aya’s face. Her head, hands, torso, legs, and knees trembled as she called on one final surge of water to finish the fight. Across from her, Selene was doing the same.
Aya kept on waiting for her sister to buckle under the pressure, but instead she rose up to the challenge, matching her determination.
Cloudiness slithered to the rims of the water wielder’s vision. Her muscles felt as if they were about to be torn apart. Strength draining, she remained on her feet by sheer will.
The ruler of the Suteckh was not faring any better. Her eyes were droopy and her body quaked.
The fight was coming to an explosive end. Only one sister would remain standing.
It was not one of the girls who caved in first, however. The walls had been enduring the power within them as well. It had proven too much. The earth fractured at a thousand places. There was a sharp blast as the roof collapsed.
The sisters let go of the energy they’d been holding onto. They both stumbled back. Aya remained on her feet, but Selene tumbled to the ground. It took Aya a second to realize that a rock had fallen on Selene, causing her to fall.
The older sister in Aya came alive. Ignoring her possibility to run and escape, she threw herself toward her young sister. She landed on her knees. In one sweep, she created a thick block of ice above them. The ice extended, providing a path out of the cave-in and into the next room.
It was a path to safety that she could not take. Aya’s hands were the only thing holding up the thick block of ice. As soon as she let go of the energy, it would come crashing down, killing her.
Selene opened and her eyes. She looked up at her older sister, who was accomplishing the impossible by holding the entire weight of the rocks at bay.
Chest searing, Aya shouted. “Run. Can’t hold it much longer!”
Selene’s face clouded with insecurity. “Why would you save me? I’m your enemy.”
There was no more energy to shout. Darkness crept to claim Aya as she whimpered her final words. “Can’t leave you. You’re my b… b-baby sister.”
“I… I…” Selene looked over at the way out and then back at her struggling sister. Her features softened and then became rigid with determination. “I won’t let you die.” She put her hand on the ice, releasing a dark mist into it. The ice that had been cracking seconds ago became silent. Selene grabbed Aya’s hand and put it over her shoulder. “C’mon. It won’t last long!”
Sure enough, cuts splintered through the ice as the wielders dashed out of the deathtrap.
They had barely thrown themselves out of harm’s way, landing in a cloud of dust, when the ice crumpled behind them. The sound of the falling debris died into silence, leaving only the weary breaths of the sisters behind.
Aya held Selene’s hand and turned to face her. The dark wielder was caked in grime, sweat, and dirt. Her hair was a tangled mess, and her eyebrows were covered in dust. Nonetheless, Aya had never before seen her be more beautiful than at this moment. The Blood Empress was no more. There was only Selene.
Chapter 36
Falcon and Shal-Volcseck had been fighting for what seemed an eternity. The ground had been broken in pieces, and trees had been uprooted and flung around as if they were mere sticks.
The chaos wielder moved back a few steps after yet another failed attempt to break through the elemental tornadoes that raged around Falcon.
“No more hiding!” A red glow surrounded Volcseck’s feet. The crimson emitted a jet of light, sending Volcseck swaying through the air.
He can fly!
Falcon barely had time to register this new event when he had to return his concentration to the circumstance at hand.
Volcseck moved through the air, coming straight at him.
Good,
mused Falcon, certain that even with his immense speed, there was no way that the chaos wielder could get through the tornadoes. Why, back in his duel against Lao, he had even stopped the mythical Onyx Phoenix without breaking a sweat.
Volcseck suddenly lurched upward. He came down from above Falcon, muscling through the wind shield and completely ignoring the tornadoes.
Falcon dissipated the tornadoes and brought his hand up for a block. A thin coating of earth managed to shield him before Volcseck rammed into it. His arms trembled painfully as he fell. He quickly bounced back up, only to have Volcseck fly into his stomach. The chaos wielder wrapped his arms around Falcon’s torso. The void wielder was caught in his opponent’s forward thrust.
A sharp pain burst from Falcon’s lower back as he was forced into a large stone.
Volcseck’s boots landed on the ground. Before he could attack, Falcon blew out a low breath that sounded more like a hum. From his mouth poured a thick green gas.
“Poison!” Volcseck dashed away from the gas.
Crackling lightning burst from Falcon’s left hand. He guided it, forcing the blur that Volcseck had become back into the poison.
The chaos wielder was inches away from falling for the trap, when he disappeared.
Teleportation. Of course.
Falcon blew out again. This time a black gas surrounded him from every angle. If his foe wanted to get him, he was going to make it past the deadly trap.
“Do you think this is the time I’ve dueled a poison wielder?” asked a deep voice. It sounded calm, too calm for Falcon’s liking. “I have crossed paths with the Onaga of poison. Your gas is a mere shadow of what he could do.”
Volcseck appeared directly in front of Falcon. He breathed in the mist, but the ragged breaths Falcon had expected did not come. Instead the chaos wielder looked down at him with a face of serene casualness. Then he said, “I learned a lot from my duel with the Onaga. As you can see.”
Falcon threw a punch. Volcseck’s punch was faster. It hit Falcon square on the jaw and sent him reeling out of the ball of gas and beside the lake. He took in the salty scent of the water before feeling a dreadful energy coming down on his back.
The earth around him rose, surrounding him in a ball of brown.
A hit later and the sphere of earth had been shattered.
Falcon twirled through the air. As he did, he sent rings of wind gushing out from his arms, feet, torso, and head.
The lord of chaos took the first two hits without flinching, but the ones that followed had been infused with the purple power of mind. The rings hit Volcseck and sent him sprawling through the ground. As Falcon had expected, he stood instantly. His robe was torn, revealing a muscular physique.
“Very good, boy.” Volcseck’s voice was edged with iron. He reached around his robe and threw it to the side. He was now wearing nothing but boots and baggy black pants. There was a series of red inked images etched across his chest. They seemed to continue onto his back. “Very few wielders have lasted this long against me. The time for games, however, is over.” His skin turned a dark brown. His chaos state. His eyes were now a fiery red. Fangs had replaced his teeth. After a deep breath, he shot out the essence of chaos from his fingertips.
Falcon arched his head back. A line of crimson energy whizzed so close to his ear that it cut into the skin beside it. He fell to one knee as he inspected the cut. There was no blood. His nostrils, however, had been filled with the scent of burnt skin.
Before his foe could close the distance, Falcon punched, firing a pillar of flames from his right fist, all the while blasting dark wielding cubes from his left fist. Volcseck dodged the fire but landed on the black tar Falcon had set up on the ground.
The Rohad smirked.
Nowhere to go!
The thought had just left his mind when Volcseck teleported out of the trap.
Darn. He can even teleport out of dark wielding energy. How am I supposed to defeat him?
As if reading his mind, Volcseck said, “All your powers are futile. There is nothing you can do that I haven’t seen.”
Falcon called now on his two ultimate powers: holy and chaos. His skin turned a light brown. The Rohad had expected the shade to be much darker like from before, but it was obvious the holy was only allowing enough chaos to seep into him as was required to boost his power without losing control.
The warriors locked in a fierce battle of speed, energy, defense, and offense.
Two blurs moved across the land, hopping atop rocks and flying through the air.
Each time they clashed, there was a thunderous explosion of energy that emanated from their very core. Despite the extreme vitality being used, neither wielder seemed ready to give in to the other.
Embracing his destiny, Falcon called on Faith’s power: holy.
He was not only battling for the future of Va’siel. He was fighting so that this sadistic creature of chaos would never again rob another family of a loved one. He was dueling for every person who had lived in Va’siel in years long ago past, for every person who currently lived, unaware of the end that now loomed so close, and for every soul that had yet to be born.
Today he fought for life.
Thoughts of Faith coursed through him, giving him the focus he needed to continue on. He came down on Volcseck. The holy wielder was firmly in mind with every swipe of energy and every attack he made.
There was a display of intense light as Falcon gathered his power once more. Volcseck swiped the attack away, only to have a ray of translucent light beat him back.
The young Rohad sensed Volcseck weakening. He saw it in his opponent’s increasingly clumsy blocks. He sensed it in the energy that was now barely strong enough to read.
Then, something happened that Falcon had before thought impossible. The lord of chaos, who had been undefeatable for ten thousand years, staggered back after taking a ray of holy energy to the chest. He blinked rapidly then crumpled to the floor.
Not wasting anytime, Falcon surrounded his stumbling enemy with a chain of light. The golden-colored string encircled around the chaos wielder, preventing him from making a move.
“You may have defeated me, boy.” Volcseck spoke with the voice of someone who had no fear. “But you will never kill me. Unlike you, I have fully embraced chaos, which makes me invincible.”
Falcon fell down to one knee, the sudden realization of everything that had occurred hitting him all at once like a force of nature. He’d won. His lifelong dream had been fulfilled. However, it felt hollow without Faith. Warm tears full of sorrow fell on the green pasture. He wiped his eyes and looked up at the tied man glaring down at him. In those hollow marbles, Falcon saw the young boy once called Voly. The same boy who hoped to fix all the wrongs from the world. “You had everything and threw it all away.”
“I had nothing.”
“You had love!” Falcon shot back. “You loved Lunet, and she loved you. She was your mother.”
“
Adoptive
mother.”
“Her blood didn’t run through your veins, but she was your mother nonetheless. Or was it not her who offered you a home when you were left alone in the world? Was it not her who healed you when as a boy you fell ill with the yellow plague? Was it not Lunet who stood by your bedside?
Volcseck’s voice lowered an octave. “Love would not have brought Va’siel peace.”
“Don’t you see?” said Falcon. His voice became small. His breath was shallow, and his insides felt empty. “The world will never fully be at peace. There will always be someone who will rise up and instigate havoc. All we can do is rise up with it and do our best to protect those we love. If I kill you now, the world may be at peace for some time, but eventually someone else will come and threaten that peace.” As he spoke, he felt Faith within him. She was speaking through him. “We can only hope that someone is there who is strong enough to stop the evil.”
“There’s no evil, boy. There are only different points of view. Telling yourself that you’re some kind of righteous person doesn’t make you good.”
“I’ve never claimed to be good. I’m just a simple man trying his best to get through life.”
Volcseck looked away. “I have no more words for a blind fool who cannot see the truth. Kill me now. If you can.” There was a hint of challenge in his voice.
“No. I will not stoop to your level. Besides, you said it yourself, you cannot be killed.” Falcon opened a rift in space. He stared at a volcanic world surrounded by magma and oceans of lava. A single speck of land drifted over the crimson liquid. He pushed Volcseck through. There was a loud pop. A second later the chaos wielder landed on the small crust of earth.
“With the power the Golden Wielder gave me, I will always be able to sense your every move. Trust me when I say, you won’t be able to sneeze without me knowing about it. In a way, you never escaped Aadi. I’m the legacy he left behind to stop you.” Falcon took one last glance at the man who had caused so much misery. He felt sadness overcome him at what could have been. “You were a powerful wielder, Volcseck. With your gift, you could have been a blessing to Va’siel. You could have brought forth an era of peace and prosperity. Instead you became a herald of evil.”
Volcseck attempted one more half-hearted tug at his chains.
“I’ve chosen your prison well,” said Falcon. “I’m the only way in or out of this place.”
The face of Volcseck was contemplative as he gazed into Falcon’s eyes. The lava cast an orange glow on half of his face; the other remained obscured in darkness.
The heir of the elements closed the portal, forever leaving behind the lord of chaos in his fiery confinement.