Kings of Awakening Vampires and Purebloods (53 page)

“I forgot how strong you were,
” said Aleister.

Fire balls were coming out of Albedo’s hands now. Aleister now had no choice but to respond with his white flames, he had no choice but to detonate the explosive fireballs before they hit him.

                                                                                    ***

Drak
e
and the Queen sat across from each other in the throne’s room. They heard the door being opened. A warrior walked in and quickly said, “Your majesty, one of our men witnessed fire coming from the old cave. It’s the Crimson Flames, one that was white and the other red.  We believe one of them is Aleister.”

The queen had the chance she was waiting for, if she managed to kill Aleister, she could surely become a High King
herself. She looked at Drake and told him to go now!

Drake wasted no time to go get Sonia and the others.
Aleister has finally shown himself huh? White and red flame in a duel, could it be you Albedo?

              Drake knocked on Sonia’s door and she opened it. She was with Dante and Axil. By the look on their faces they have been talking about something important.

“Where are the other two?” asked Drake.

“Did something happen,” asked Sonia in bewilderment.

Drake explained to them his men saw white and red flames coming out of the old cave.

Sonia only knew one person with the White Crimson Flame.

“I have to go gather my men, the three of you can head out. The cave is not hard to find, one of my men will be outside wai
ting for you, to lead you there,” said Drake.

Sonia knocked on Albedo’s and Angelione’s door, but neither one was there. The three quickly made their way outside. They didn’t need a guard to tell them where the cave was, they could see sparkles of flames from a few miles up ahead.

                                                                         ***

Whe
n
the two Crimson Flames clashed against each other, it created an explosion, followed by gust of wind. The cave was now collapsing thanks to Albedo’s raging attack. He was like an animal with no master. One hit from his explosive fireballs would surely wound Aleister. He was so busy dodging and trying to teach Albedo, that he wasn’t paying much attention to this fight at all. His plan was to let Albedo drain himself out, but his plan had to be altered as he looked up to see a big rock was about to fall on Albedo’s head. He had nowhere around the rock to teleport. If he teleported above the rock and shattered it, he’s going to risk hurting Albedo. If he teleports from any other side of the rock; then Albedo will have a chance for a direct attack on him. If Aleister do teleport, he’s risking losing control of the Reawakening, leaving him defenseless.
Why am I always the one to have to clean up your mess, Dawson?
Aleister used his white flame to shatter the rock. While he got distracted, Albedo used his fireball, a direct hit. The fire was about the same size as the one that ended Michael’s life. It left Albedo’s hand fast. The fireball exploded when it reached Aleister, creating a massive explosion that shook the cave even more. The cave began to tremble and dust covered the area.

              Aleister’s body was badly hurt as he was trying to get up. He started dripping blood and his skin looked as if it was coming off. Albedo, with both of his hands, used his flare against Aleister while on the ground. Aleister teleported fast, leaving him with marks of burnt flesh, but worst, his Reawakening was gone.
Damn this teleportation ability! I can’t use it properly while in my Reawakening stage without it disturbing my concentration flow
!

Albedo stopped firing after noticing Aleister had teleporte
d. He came at Aleister fast now, but Aleister was not going to run. He took his short sword and launched at Albedo, but Albedo was too fast thanks to the Reawakening. He grabbed Aleister’s left hand and connected his right fist in Aleister’s stomach. Water sprung out of Aleister’s mouth. Without the Reawakening Aleister had become slow. Albedo continued on his assault to Aleister’s gut. With each punch you could hear a bone breaking in his body.

Damn
this power, why won’t you work?!
  For the first time in years, Aleister was actually thinking he was going to die.
I have to go inside his mind now before he kills me!

             
“Shattered!”
 

Being inside of Albedo’s mind was something that Aleister was used to doing. Through Albedo’s nightmares he had gone inside his mind, in the hopes of awakening his memories. Time and time again, Aleister had failed to do so; the memories were just too complex for Aleister to solve. It was like a puzzle in some way. Having the ability to go inside someone’s mind was easy for him to do, depending on the person’s mind, but finding what you were looking for was the hard part. Memories and memories were sitting on top of each other, and even some memories had memory locks within them. Out of all of Aleister’s abilities, this was the one he hated the most.  He had used that same ability against Sonia to bring fear into her eyes. It wasn’t till she came back to Inferno, after her mission in Odeon, that Albedo had somehow removed the grip of fear that he had on her. He had wondered time and time again if Albedo somehow had awakened this ability, the ability to put fear inside your opponents mind. Maybe Albedo had awakened it and that would explain a lot when the bear had come to kill him. He had remembered telling Albedo to wake up, to awaken before the bear could get to him. Albedo somehow had awakened this ability of his, putting the fear inside the bear’s mind. The bear had become so afraid of him that she grabbed her cub and left.

Aleister was now inside of Albedo’s mind, surrounded in water as if it was air. This water felt different, he could actually breath in it. He was walking through the vast region of light red water. He looked around and wondered if this water had an end to it. Today he had no plan to go inside of Albedo’s mind, but Albedo was so deep in the darkness that he had no other alternative. If this was someone else, then Aleister would have been done by now, but Albedo was different, his memories were locked away. Aleister knew he had to go deeper in the water. In his left hand he had
on a sand-watch, tracking how long he could stay inside of Albedo’s mind. Aleister sank deeper in the water; he could see a giant shadow figure. When the figure came closer, it was a giant black bird. The bird was at least fifty times his size, but of course seeing a giant bird wasn’t unorthodox for Aleister. He had gone inside different minds using this ability of his, and each mind was unique and exquisite in their own way. Albedo’s mind however was different; it was truly out of the ordinary. He could breathe under the water as if breathing air itself. The deeper Aleister went in the water, the weirder this place became. He saw a giant lion swimming as if it was a fish. Aleister of course was ready if these animals tried to attack him, but they paid no mind to him. At first he thought they were guardians, protecting Albedo’s memories, but they simply paid no mind to him. Each mind was different, in some the weird figures would attack him and he would have to defend himself.  It’s been so long since he had gone this deep inside of Albedo’s mind. He had gone inside of Albedo’s mind before, before he found him, but being so far away from him put a leash on his range to go deeper. Albedo was here now; closer to him, so that means his ability can go further inside his mind.

Aleister moved
fast like a fish as he went deeper. After a minute or two he could see light now, good, he was getting close to Albedo’s memories. Aleister landed softly on a glass, it was at least twenty-five feet in height and width. He looked under his feet to see the pictures moving on the screen. He could see Albedo sitting in by the cherry blossoms. All around Aleister were thousands of glasses playing different types of pictures, Albedo’s memories. They were scattered all over in the immensity of water. Around Aleister were two different types of glass, the ones playing the pictures were red, and the others were black, but weren’t playing any pictures at all, blank.

The black ones must be Dawson’s memories, and the red must be Albedo’s. Since I was so far away from him before, it was hard for me to reach the memory-glasses. When I was trying to find Albedo, I used some of my memories to go inside of his mind and fed him some of mine. I was hoping that memories of him and I would somehow trigger his power. It’s been so long since I‘ve been so deep inside of his mind. I hope I still remember how to work this ability.
Before he started he stopped and looked around, admiring the place.
Your mind is truly beautiful, Dawson. You were always the one who appreciated beauty. Your mind is filled with wonders and prosperity. Dawson, you have to wake up! When the others awaken, I don’t know what they will do old friend. All I can do right now is tried to bring you back.

Aleister jumped to a different glass, this one was playing a memory of the first time he met Sonia.
That girl Sonia had woke him up; let’s hope she can do it again
. Aleister hated Sonia, that witch. He wanted to be the one to bring Albedo out of his darkness. Somehow this wicked girl had stopped Albedo from transforming when he fought against Michael. Aleister had it all figured out, he was inside of Albedo’s mind when he was transforming, he was going to use that opportunity to teach him how to control the Reawakening.
Well, I guess it’s time for a new strategy.
Aleister placed his hands on the glass, and closed his eyes, concentrating. He opened his eyes and said, “Shattered!” the glass broke into a thousand pieces and turned into bubbles. The bubbles made their way to the surface, to reach Albedo’s mind and somehow triggered him out of this stage of madness.

The bubbles reach
ed the top and the memories played in Albedo’s mind…. Aleister waited but nothing happened, if it had worked then Aleister would have felt it, but everything was the same. He looked at his sand-watch and saw he didn’t have much time. He knew that if he stayed for too long, then Albedo’s mind would swallow his mind forever. This was the curse of this ability; he would be stuck here for eternity. He went to a different memory of Sonia and shattered it…. Nothing, he tried again but nothing happened. He looked at his sand-watch and saw that it was almost empty, the sand will run out soon. Aleister needed to hurry up; he tried and tried again, still nothing. Finally he screamed in frustration and anger.  He had to find a way to bring Albedo back, just like the Reawakening he couldn’t use this ability whenever he pleased, it needed time for it to recharge after using it. If he failed, this ability would take too long for it to recharge itself, by that time Albedo would have pounded him to death. It was a good thing that thanks to this sand-watch time moved much faster in here, one second outside was five minutes in here.  But if the last grain of sand dropped, and he’s still inside of someone’s mind, then time from the outside world and inside of the mind will go back in sync with each other, leaving your body as a doll in the outside world and trapping you here for eternity.

Aleister sat on one of the glass-memories, watching the sand almost reaching its last grain. He was frustrated with himself; this should have been so easy to do. He had a feeling in his gut that he was missing something, but what. It had been so long since he had gone this deep inside someone’s mind that he forgot some of the secrets of this ability. The clock was ticking down and he had t
o leave. He got up. He knew when he went back to his body he was going to be taking a pounding from Albedo. Aleister wasn’t going to die; today wasn’t the day for him to. Once he’s out in the real world, he’s going to move away from Albedo and try to use the Reawakening to fight back. His body was in bad shape, and the instant regeneration from the Reawakening only worked once until it can be recharged. If you’re hurt in a battle and you’re hoping to keep using the Reawakening to regenerate every time, then you have a surprise coming. Aleister jumped up, heading for the surface, he had failed.

Wait, what am I doing, the door of consciousness! I need to find it!
He suddenly remembered something important.

How
could he have forgotten such a crucial part of this ability? If he enters the door of consciousness, then his sand-watch would go back to the beginning, giving him more time; not only that, he could find Albedo there.  He needed to find it fast; sleeping for this long was taking its toll on his own memory.
The bubbles
! Of course, the bubbles go straight to the mind and it must go to the door of consciousness and Aleister could follow it.
Finding that place is like being in a maze
,
only the bubbles could lead me there
. He quickly broke one of the memory-glasses, and the bubbles sprung out and moved fast. Aleister followed it; he was running out of time. It was a good thing that the bubbles moved fast, because they led him to the door of consciousness. The door of conscious was a gigantic door painted in deep red floating on a stone pedestal.  Huge chains and a lock guarded the door.  The bubbles floated inside the keyhole.  

A keyhole, this was going to be a problem. Aleister tried to open the door but it would not budge. He kicked it and punched it but nothing happened. He took a quick look at his sand-watch and realized that he only had had about a minute left. Aleister knew there was nothing else he could do, he had to leave or he was going to be trapped here forever. He placed his hands on the door to see if he could shatter the keyhole like the glass-memories. “Shat—“