I must somehow stop her. This power… it will control her and consume her. Getting her mind out of its frozen state of fear, she summoned up a great amount of mana, as much as she could manage to conjure in one go. “Anam Resal!” the witch commanded, and a beam of bright blue energy rushed off from her. Star closed her eyes as the blinding, thundering beam enveloped the girl, her black mana and even meters of trees behind her. Damn it, I hope that wasn’t too much… The witch opened her eyes as the brightness faded. She fell on her knees in fright. Staring out to where Zen was hit was the unfazed Clover, her competent shield of black mana rendering Star’s petty fourth grade mana useless.
Zen rose to her feet slowly. In her mind, she could see Clover’s anger and hatred toward her, a huge red ball of fire, the only thing that could free her from her guilt, by consuming her. There was a sudden, familiar sound. Star watched as Clover vanished, leaving behind a cloud of black mana. She appeared right before Zen, and drew her right fist back. Clover’s fist struck the girl with no mercy. The bloody girl staggered back weakly. By reflex, mental force opposed Clover, but Zen subdued even her natural defences to almost nothing. Clover landed two more hefty punches, flinging Zen’s head forcefully from side to side, nearly breaking her neck. The witch then landed a fist in the girl’s ribcage. The winded, staggering girl coughed up blood.
“No! Clover!” Star called out, running toward her. Without looking back, Clover flung her right hand behind her. It glowed darkly with black mana. Star felt a correspondingly nasty force fling her back. She cried out, hurling at a dangerous speed, not having enough mana to shift herself to a good landing. She made a bad fall, rolling a few meters, probably shifting a couple of bones. Clover still glared at the slouching Zen, who looked like another hit would kill her. Her delicate face was all bruised and bloody and distorted. The girl cried out in grievous pain as Clover pounded her without mercy. Unable to support herself, Zen fell, her consciousness fluctuating. Clover grabbed up the girl, and in one movement, covered a meter with her.
SLAM!
Blood escaped Zen’s mouth and splashed on Clover’s face as she pinned her to a nearby tree to finish her. Suddenly, as Clover pulled her hand back to deliver a crushing blow, the darkness vanished from her. The immense power left her. Still holding on to Zen, the witch panted heavily, feeling suddenly fatigued and exhausted.
“Damn… you…” she panted. “I hate you… you… you bitch… You killed him…” She tried to ready her muscles to make another strike, but there was no strength left in them. Still, the look of hatred and disgust remained in her eyes, so pungent that Zen could feel it. “Get outta my sight… you filthy bitch…” Clover warned the crying, bleeding, nine-tenths-dead girl. The witch then fell to her knees and started to weep. “Lex… Why… Why die for her?” she sobbed bitterly. “I thought you loved me…”
Star cracked her eyes open, groaning, feeling pain all over her body. “Clover…” she groaned as she stood, trying to ignore the aching. Damn it, Clover… She just remembered the attack the girl had launched on her brother. I wonder if Zen is still alive… And Kyle… A mere man, with no resistance to magic… to be hit with such high grade mana… he would be lucky to be alive. Seeing that Clover had calmed, she tried to move toward her. “Uah…” Star fell, saving her face with her hands, unable to go on. It seems her rage exposes her true potential… seventh grade mana… a power so great… As Star struggled to find strength in herself, her vision grew blurry, and she slowly lost consciousness.
***
Lex, who was sure he was dead, opened his eyes. As his fuzzy vision cleared slowly, he noticed he was staring up at a roof. It looked kind of familiar. What the… He jumped off the bed he found himself lying on. “Maxie… What in the world’s going on here?” He looked around the neat, spacious room. There wasn’t much to fill the space, just a fairly small bed, a chair and a dresser with three drawers. On the dresser was a vase housing splendid white flowers that gave the room a pleasant aroma. Lex rushed to an open window close by. He stared outside at the blissful scenery. There were lush, green meadows as far as his eyes could see. People with happy faces sat and chatted and ate, and children played and romped with joy and laughter. Narrow roads spread across the hilly meadows, and what seemed like cottages lined the roads. What is this place?
“My, you’ve grown, haven’t you?” a familiar voice startled Lex. The frightened boy spun around quickly and gasped with a backward step, even shivering. Bengushi only smiled at him, sitting on a wooden chair.
“… Old Man Ben!” Lex finally greeted and ran up to him. Ben stood as the boy latched on to him. The man laughed. “I’m so sorry, Ben,” Lex started, almost crying. “I failed.”
“So I realize…” Ben let him go. “Come. Sit with me, son,” the man invited. Lex quickly sat on the bed facing the old man. He was dressed in robes of gold and white, and had a priestly appearance. Lex was almost sure he was even glowing a bit. “So how have you been?” the man asked.
“Heh. Well, Dead, I suppose,” Lex answered. They both laughed a little. “I have been watching you, my boy… I’ve been keeping record of your progress. You and that spirit I gave you have been coping quite well.”
“Yes indeed, old man Ben! We’re like best friends! He even gave up his life for me!”
“I realize!” Ben sounded impressed. “To not only tame, but to earn the friendship and trust and love of such a being… you are certainly no ordinary child, Lex.”
Lex held down his head. “Yet I wasn’t good enough…”
“Kyle and Clover! How are my grandchildren?” the man asked as if he’d just remembered them.
“Well, they’ve become much stronger since those days you used to train them,” Lex answered, smiling a little, just realizing how much they had all grown, and not just in strength and height.
Ben laughed proudly. “Ah, yes indeed! My boy has become a fine swordsman and my girl a fine witch indeed! They found worthy teachers--”
“Master Ben!” Lex intervened.
“Hmm?”
“How can you be so carefree and… all calm… I mean, isn’t this word doomed now that I failed my mission?”
Ben laughed. “You’ve come so far to give up so easily?”
“What? But… I’m dead, right?”
“You’re breathing, Lex! You’re talking! So how can you be dead?”
“Isn’t this the… afterlife or something?”
“Ho! Ho! Ho! What you know is miserably nothing compared to what you do not know, Lex. If one as wise and knowing as I am is full of cheer, then why despair? Hey, that even rhymed, didn’t it?!” Lex just began to look at things that way, having faith that Ben would somehow work things out.
“This dimension you’re in right now – it’s called the ‘Waiting Room’”.
“Waiting room?” It sounded to him like a strange name for a dimension.
“That’s right,” Ben continued, “when someone from this complex of worlds ‘dies’, they’re immediately transferred to this makeshift realm, regardless of almost anything.”
“Makeshift re—what the hell is this place?”
“Usually, people end up spending seven days or so here, and then, when their records are all sorted out and verified, they’re transferred either to one of the overworlds or underworlds.”
“You mean… heaven or hell?”
“Those are such elementary terminologies,” Ben said, snickering a bit.
“So this place then is neither--”
“That’s right, kid. Since a few seasons ago, though, there’s been an influx of transfers to this world. Our second waiting room was shut down, plus the death rates are only increasing, so the councillors are extremely busy. Because of this, it can take even up to a whole year before one’s records are sorted out.”
“So… Uh…”
“No questions yet, son! Let me continue. Your case is pretty atypical, not exactly unique, but pretty rare, and warrants different treatment.”
&n
bsp; “Well, I’d imagine…”
“Because of your situation, which coming to think of it, might just be one of a kind, you will neither be transferred to any of the lower or higher realms, but to the realm from which you came.” Lex’s eyes widened and many things rushed through his mind. His heartbeat doubled its rate. The image of his mother became exceptionally vivid in his head.
“Home?!”
“Yes… Home…” But Ben didn’t return his excited smile. “Also, you happened to murder one of the members of the ‘Gold Council’, making things much more complicated.”
Lex had forgotten for a moment that he had killed that powerful judge.
“So what’s gonna happen?” he asked nervously, feeling like the chance of returning to his mother was slipping away from him, or growing thinner and thinner.
“I’m sure you remember the sentences they gave you. However, legally, they can’t kill you just yet.”
“Huh?” Lex was so confused.
“You will have to return to your own world. After you die naturally there, you’ll have to cross other bridges… And the thing about you existing in every realm to die by the power of darkness, that will happen. As a matter of fact, they had spoken that into being… Honestly, I think the Gold Council is a bit overpowered, but I can’t legislate any changes to that just yet.”
“Huh? I don’t get anything!”
“That’s not so important right now,” Ben marginalized the issue, “back to the matter at hand. Right, so in a few days’ time, maybe even by tomorrow, you should reappear in your world.” Images of Clover and Kyle flooded the boy’s head. He looked down in contemplation. Suddenly, he didn’t feel like rushing the process of returning home.
“Clover… Kyle… Zen… Star… Mike… Will I… ever see them again?” he asked, his mood completely changed.
“That depends on the choice you make, Lex.”
“Choice? I have a choice in all this?!”
“Listen closely…” Ben start almost whispering, like he was about to share some super-classified information.
“There’s something we call the ‘back door.’”
“Huh? Like a door to the back of a house?”
“Well, a bit more complicated… This back door is a pathway that exists in most dimensions. I won’t bother to go into much detail about it, but its basic function is to provide a way out of a realm. Some realms, though, needn’t such a fixture, like where you just came from, as death leads to this place in a jiffy, where a legitimate back door is.”
“Seriously?! A way out of a dimension?!”
“You wouldn’t understand, but things get pretty hectic around here. A member of one of the councils might accidentally get himself locked in a particular dimension – it happens to the clumsy ones every now and again. These doorways are secret passages that exist for the convenience of these clumsy councillors.”
“So there’s one here? In the Waiting Room?”
“Most certainly! There’s a catch though!”
“Well, why the hell not…”
“These back doors are literal pathways with portals at either end. The back door itself is a subdimension of sorts, so when you enter through the first portal, you will be in a world within this world. On this path, though, are some little impediments, beasts and such imported from the underworlds. Certainly, even the lowest ranking councillors have power great enough to negate these obstacles, but they would overwhelm any normal human being.” Lex looked up at the man.
“You, Lex, are not a normal human being,” he reminded the boy.
“So you want me to take this doorway…”
“I have faith that you can handle it, but before you decide, you should know the full extent of the risk involved.” Lex swallowed heavily and sighed. “First, be advised that hundreds have found these not-so-perfectly hidden doorways and only one has made it through, and barely too.”
“One?!”
“A wizard, a few years ago. Yes, it’s quite tough… Now if you die on this path, you will immediately be transferred to the bottommost underworld.”
“Hell…”
“There are very few realms in this complex in which there are no back doors, and this wretched place is one of them. If you get trapped down there, there is no escape, Lex! None!” Ben was finally using a tone of warning. “Even if councillors found themselves in that dark pit of dread and horror, they would eternally suffer there.”
“Eternally suffer…” the boy contemplated in a whisper.
“Not a place you wanna be, Lex.”
“I suppose I just can’t afford to get killed, then!” His fists were folded in brave determination.
“Two deaths are quite enough for a twelve year-old,” Ben agreed.
Lex’s face brightened suddenly. “Is Blade here?! And Azar?! Are they still here? Things are movin’ kinda slow, right?”
“Heh! So you finally remember them, eh! Well, their records are far from completely sorted, but yours are underway, so we can tarry no longer!”
“Then let’s find them!” Lex asserted.
“I gathered them already. They’re waiting for you just a few blocks down the road. I already briefed them and they have the map.”
“That’s great! So let’s go then! Kyle and Clover will be so psyched to see you again!”
Ben laughed.
“…Huh?”
“I can’t just up and leave, Lex.”
“What?” A pale look of disappointment grimmed the boy’s face. “What do you mean? Don’t you want to go home? See them again?”
“Just make sure you tell them hi for me… Let them know I’m watching over them.”
“But Master--”
“This is my home, Lex. Heh! I have to get back to work! Can’t slack off too much! I’ll see you around, kiddo! Hopefully not too soon, though!” With that, the man vanished in a flash of light.
“What?!” the frightened boy wondered aloud. “Could it be that… But…” Lex shook his head quickly, trying to leave the wondering for another time, knowing time was against him. He ran outside. “Oh damn, which way?!” He looked to his left and right, seeing that the cottages continued in both directions.
***
Kyle opened his eyes torpidly as his consciousness returned to him. He felt droplets landing on his face and his body felt strange, like it was confused as to whether it was hot or cold.
“Brother! You’re awake!” Kyle’s eyes rammed themselves shut, defending from the bright light that accompanied Clover’s healing. The light vanished as the girl removed her hands. Kyle sat up hazily. He felt the warm, familiar embrace of his little sister, and heard her sobbing. As his vision returned to its normal self, it showed him Star lying on a stash of leaves, all bandaged up. She looked to be either dead or in a deep sleep. “I’m so sorry,” the girl sobbed, “I made such a mess!”
“Where’s Zen?” Kyle asked right off the bat. Clover stood. Kyle felt an air of defence, even of distaste coming from her. “Where is she?!”
“She ran off!” Clover snapped, turning her back to Kyle. Kyle braced his hands against the ground and found his way up to his feet.
“What have you done, Clover?”
“Whose side are you on, big brother?!” the girl blasted, turning around quickly, her eyes red and soaked with tears of guilt and betrayal. Her fists were tight and she was shaking.
Kyle stared at her, trying to see his little sister.
***
“Must be freakin’ kid’n me,” Lex muttered, glancing through the window of about the fiftieth house. He sighed, leaning forward slightly with his hands on his knees. I suppose I should try the other direction then. Gosh, what a drag.
***
“Listen, sis, we all find it tragic and untimely that Lex is gone, but there is no need to make a bad situation worse.”
“Well, Zen ran away and that’s that!” Clover insisted. Clover covered her face, still crying. “I can’t believe he’s really gone, Kyle… This is a
nightmare…” She lowered to her knees. Kyle sighed with a sunken heart. He walked up to her and held her up, hugging her.
“Can’t believe it myself,” Kyle said, still sceptical somewhat about Lex’s death. Before he would be sure, he would have to see the boy’s body, but he didn’t speak out his uncertainty to put hope that might be false in Clover’s head.
***
All except the Prime Minister, Kaleb Kowalski, stood quickly, drawing swords and readying powerful mana. As the purple mana cleared, Hawthorne was revealed.
“What is the meaning of this, Elder?” the Prime Minister asked, apprehensive at this unexpected appearance.
“What is this?!” one of the officials blasted.
“Blatant disrespect! We’re in a meeting here!” another gave out, “Mr. Prime Minister, how can you stand for--”
“It’s alright. Calm, everyone,” the leader commanded coolly, still sitting in his chair. Order somewhat reappeared as the aroused councilmen and women returned to their seats.
“My apologies, Mr. Prime Minister,” Hawthorne greeted, “but there is pressing news.”
“What is it? More updates on Trium?”
“No. A while ago, I felt the presence of high level magic.”
“Well, this is Notherland, the magic capital of the world, so why find that strange?” one of the women asked, a well-seasoned witch who wielded fifth grade magic.
“I’m talking black magic here,” Hawthorne clarified.
“You mean… Seventh grade mana?” the Prime Minister asked. He wasn’t a magician himself, but he had to know quite a bit about the science and history of magic in order to lead a country such as Notherland, which held over 99% of the world’s magicians in its hands.
“That’s right,” the serious woman answered. The parliamentarians chattered to themselves, many of them sceptical, some already passing off the idea as absurd.
“How long did you wait before getting this news to me?”
“It took me a while to track this power source down.”
“So where is it? Which part of the continent?” Kaleb questioned.
The Seventh Spirit Page 48
