The Seventh Spirit

by Adam-Clay Webb

  “W-What happened?”

  “The light… The light…” Maximo muttered. “I can’t help you… I have no strength to lend… Use your ice…” The man of shadow was still fidgeting; his head was between his legs. Curled in a corner, he didn’t look quite like the brother of Trium. Upon thinking enough, Lex finally realized what light Maximo was talking about; it must have been the bright light that accompanied the judge’s command that portalled him to the waiting room.

  One flash of light did this to Max…

  “Go now,” Maximo said, sounding like he was ashamed to be seen in such a state.

  “I can’t leave you like this! Not after all you’ve done for me!”

  “I’ll survive… Just give me time…” the man struggled to say, “Now hurry… Your friends need you… And be careful, Lex… Your power drains more quickly in this realm.” With that, the world around him disappeared, and his eyes opened to the horrid creatures around him. It seemed a negligible amount of time had passed while he was in the realm within himself.

  “Damn it… No mana… Not even my swords…” Azar mumbled.

  “Maximo’s out of commission too,” Lex added, straining to forge two spheres of elemental ice in his palms. Damn. I’ve gotten so used to relying on Maximo’s strength that I feel handicapped without it… If my ice power was a person like he, he’d thought I’ve abandoned him… Maybe I have…

  “They’re not attacking,” Blade realized.

  “Maybe they’ll just… go away if we make no sudden movement,” Azar said with unrealistic hope.

  “And what’s the plan if they do attack?” Lex asked.

  “Don’t get killed,” Blade answered.

  “Blade, don’t take this the wrong way,” Azar said. “Just doing some calculations here… Just what are you worth without your sword?”

  Blade looked at him through the corner of his eyes.

  “More than you’re worth right now.”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re out of mana, so you’re the biggest liability here. Lex has his ice, and I have the skill of you and your whole army combined.”

  Azar hissed.

  “Didn’t you have fire power, Azar?” Lex asked, remembering clearly how destructive his fiery attacks were in previous battles.

  “Don’t be thinking I simply forgot about that,” Azar said. “I can’t juice up any of that either.”

  “I guess it’s just up to us, then,” Blade said.

  “Hey, don’t count me out just yet!” Azar blasted, folding his fist, feeling greatly insulted.

  The men stood frozen in terror as they heard the unearthly howl of the beasts around them.

  “Looks like your ruckus woke ‘em up,” Blade blamed the Magmalian, but there wasn’t time for deliberation. The giant monsters rushed at the surrounded three like they had just noticed them.

  ***

  Hawthorne – elder, prophetess and Ogal Councillor – looked up at the skies. Dark clouds quickly covered everywhere. They weren’t grey, they were black as night. She shook in fear and horror, knowing this darkness. Suddenly, black rain poured down from the skies. She powered up her purple mana, feeling the need to defend herself against the shower. As the rain was about to touch her, she jumped out of the divination, shaking behind her desk. “They are coming… and they are many.”

  Chapter 35: Black Rain

  The ancient man with the long, white hair and a pale, white face looked grimly down at the mummy on the dusty ground.

  “A new world awaits us…” he spoke, standing above the body. He stretched down his open palm toward the bandaged corpse. In an instant, the man and the mummy disappeared, leaving behind a clearing white cloud.

  ***

  The sound of sudden panting woke Kyle as he was just drifting into sleep. He got up quickly and went outside of his tent, immediately glancing over to Star’s tent where the sound was coming from. Kyle rushed over to the woman’s tent and went in. He saw Star sitting up, panting and sweating with a frightened look on her face, her clothes falling off her. Bad dream? Kyle wondered. “Hey, you’re alright!” he assured her, kneeling in front of her. “What’s the matter?” he asked, seeing her look of fright was still there. He was starting to worry himself.

  “I--I had—I had a vision…” the woman panted.

  Curiosity wrinkled Kyle’s face.

  ***

  Another of the horribly strong creatures blasted Azar again with a fist hard as concrete. He landed into the scooping four arms of another of the monsters. Neither Blade nor Lex could lend him a hand; they both had more than enough trouble to deal with themselves. Blade jumped back quickly as one of the beasts leapt at him with mighty force. It bashed four limbs into the ground, cracking it up. Only Lex seemed to be making even a bit of progress. Three enemies were frozen solid by his icy attacks, but he felt his energy draining at a critical rate. He held two more orbs of ice in his hands, panting, sliding backward from a lifesaving jump. Three of them rushed at him from three different angles at nasty speeds.

  Damn it! Lex stretched his hands out, sending icy spheres to meet two of the enemies. As ice began to layer the two he almost touched, the third struck him terribly hard on reaching him. Lex felt a gust of air escape his mouth as he flew back. He couldn’t even cry out. He flicked in the air and managed to make decent enough landing, skating back on his feet, his face showing the pain he was enduring.

  Azar, despite his efforts, could not escape the heavy, monstrous arms of the beast. He cried out as the creature tightened its grip on him, ready and capable of crushing him like an annoying bug. Seeing Azar’s dismal dilemma, Blade rushed to his aid with speed that the monsters couldn’t cope with. He made a near inhumanly high jump, landing on the shoulders of Azar’s grabber. Then, Blade did something that felt pretty weird. He sat on the beats shoulders and jammed his fingers in the holes in the beast’s skull. Blade’s skin crawled as he was sure he punctured the beast’s eyes, which were around two inches beyond the holes. The creature made a terrible wail, violently flinging Azar away. The Magmalian hit the ground hard, rolling several times.

  “Blade, get off!” Lex shouted, hurling a well-built iceball at the thing Blade was on. Blade’s eyes widened. He knew the swiftness with which those spheres got to work. Blade made a quick and skilful jump from the creature, somersaulting and landing deftly on the shoulders of another beast. The monster he jumped from was already frozen solid.

  “Get up, princess! No time to be lying around!” Blade shouted, riding the giant.

  “Stop calling me that!” Azar flared, struggling to stand. Blade snickered a little. The enemies were still many, but they’ve each been in far bleaker situations, and they knew they were still far from hopeless.

  ***

  The white-haired man sat before the corpse, dropping the final length of brown ribbon on the pile beside him. He sat in an old forgotten shrine on the coast of a continent named Muya. The man lying there looked like he had died only a day or two before. His head rested on his thick black hair that almost reached his waist. The man’s face was handsome, and it seemed he had lived to be forty or so. Without words, the man with the pale, deathly-looking face, who certainly looked older than the man lying before him, crouched beside the body, and put his hand on the left side of the dead man’s chest. Suddenly, a white glow enveloped the man’s body. The glow soon became a terrible, blinding whiteness and swallowed up the whole place.

  “Awake, Kizer,” the man finally commanded, and he felt a sudden constant beat coming from the man’s chest. The man that was dead only a short while before opened his eyes suddenly. He stared up at the aged man for a moment, not seeming surprised or happy or angry or anything, like he was just collecting and ordering his thoughts calmly.

  “…Oga.”

  NOTHERLAND

  HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT

  The meeting room of the heads of Notherland was far more jittery and noisy than usual.

  “Alright, that’s that!” Kaleb
said sternly, regaining order in the place. “Now, to an even more pressing matter – news have been circulating about this strange dream many of our sorcerers have had.” Even worse than before, chattering resumed. “Alright, you’re listening now!” Kaleb held his hand up and the noise subsided.

  “What dream?” one woman asked, “Is it this dream about black rain I’ve been hearing about?”

  “You have heard of it too?” another asked.

  “As usual, we have no reason or excuse to jump to panic,” the prime minister said. “We are not prophets, so yes, it is strange that so many of us have had this seemingly prophetic dream. Nonetheless, it is not our calling to find its meaning. Our Ogal council is meeting as I speak in investigation of this same matter. They are the most powerful and wisest sorcerers in the world, and we will have faith in them.”

  ***

  One of the vice principals briskly walked to the principal’s office to meet with her about the bizarre dream that had already gone viral all over the school. All she saw of Hawthorne, though, was a sign on her door, written to be visible only to fourth grade and above magicians. Elder Duty.

  MOUNT OGA

  The highest and most ancient council of the world met at Mount Oga – a mount rumoured to turn to ashes whoever set foot on it that was ‘unworthy’. They gathered in the Ogal Shrine, forming the ‘Inner Circle’. The outer circle was formed by the giant statues of the first Ogal Council to exist. These magicians were from before Notherland had existed. They were the government of the world in their time, and the most powerful magicians who ever lived. The statues of these historic mages joined hands as those who were alive in their place joined hands within them.

  Catherina, the head of the council, stood before the statue of her forefather, the author and founder of the world’s most powerful art. Hawthorne held the hands of Oromaru and Quincy, two of the three men who sat on the council. Hawthorne, though an extremely powerful and well-learnt magician even to the elites and heads of state and army generals of Notherland, was the weakest and youngest of all the Ogal councillors, and was humbled by the supremacy of her peers, and honoured to be chosen to serve among them. The accomplishment of sixth grade mana, which was possible to less than one percent of all magicians, was just one of the many criteria she had to meet in order to gain even consideration for joining the council.

  “May Oga, the creator of magic, and his disciples and royal children, Wizard, Omichron, Zazen, Buddah-Ki, Witch and Kha-Deva, watch over us and guide us as we meet again,” Catherina prayed to begin.

  ***

  The three panted, again standing together, facing the enemies who had certainly diminished in number. Lex struggled to gather energy to make two more iceballs. Already, many of them were frozen solid.

  “I think we’ve cut their number in half,” Lex panted.

  “Yeah, thanks to you we’re getting somewhere,” Blade agreed, not breathing as heavily.

  “Still, the energy I have left shouldn’t be able to finish the job. After this, I don’t think I can make too many more of these bad boys,” Lex said.

  “What is this?!” Azar blasted in fright and frustration. The tired men watched as a fresh batch of monsters morphed up from the ground.

  “This is a joke,” Lex muttered.

  “Well, then… Seems we haven’t time to relax,” Blade said, not sounding despaired.

  ***

  Kyle sat before Star in her tent as she explained to him that these strange dreams of hers were hardly meaningless. “So, since the past few years--”

  “Yeah, and this one… I dunno… I don’t know what it means, but it gives me a dreadful feeling, Kyle,” the witch told him, “I’m just pretty sure it has something to do with Trium… This black rain… It rains down on everyone, and all of a sudden, people begin fighting one another. It’s just chaos everywhere!” Star tried to keep her voice down. “Huh? Hey, are you even listening to me?” She realized that Kyle was lost in thought staring at her.

  “God, you’re so beautiful…” Kyle half-whispered, and there was no trivialness or playfulness in his voice, but a mood of lust and desire. The woman stared back at him with wide eyes, frightened and speechless. Her heart galloped and she shivered off a sudden chill. She was totally caught off guard and didn’t know how to respond. Kyle continued to gaze at her beauty like he was caught in a trance. He mused at her blue-green eyes and similarly coloured, only slightly paler hair. Her cheeks got even redder, but not nearly as red as her lips – they were redder than blood. “Damn, I’m so sorry!” Kyle suddenly caught himself, holding his forehead and standing quickly and nervously. A strong look of embarrassment was on his face, and he immediately feared that the awkwardness he felt would never go away.

  “Please…Stay,” Star said, and stretched and grabbed on to him before he could leave. Kyle looked down at her. She wasn’t really smiling, but the look she had was far more promising. “Stay with me.”

  ***

  Lex, Blade and Azar were on the move, not getting time to catch their breaths. They got no chance to counterattack; they were just dodging the heavy, brutal blows of the ground-cracking monsters.

  ***

  Kizer and Oga stood at one of the highest points in the world, Mount Heaven, a fittingly named point in Muya, which was the world’s largest continent. The two men were dressed like kings, Kizer in his robes of black and blue and red, and Oga in his white and gold apparel. Their garments fluttered in the strong, pleasant breeze. They looked down from the beautiful, one-of-a-kind view at cities and forests.

  Kizer inhaled deeply, enjoying the crisp, cold air. “It is a while since I have enjoyed this view…What now do they call this place?”

  “Mount Heaven.”

  “Even the name of a place such as this is changed…” There was a nostalgic look on the man’s face. “I will grant it a new name… Mount Kizer… How far away are those mongrels?” Kizer asked, still looking down at the splendid scenery.

  “They are a day away.”

  “I see… Sent you a warning to them?”

  “Yes. I did send a prophetic dream to select sorcerers.”

  “Good. Keep them aware, and do not overestimate their intelligence.” Kizer’s hair danced almost as gracefully as Oga’s in the sudden gush of chilly wind. “They must fight with their full power and with all they have… Only then will they see without doubt how dismally weak they be… Make haste, Trium…”

  ***

  The council of seven stood in a cloud of purple. Catherina was drawing mana from them so she could ably and accurately track Trium’s distance away and at least try to measure his power level. Hawthorne felt her body grow weak. Their powerful leader opened her eyes, and released the hands of Jadena and Ellisa.

  “What have you seen, Catherina?” Quincy, her younger brother asked in immediate worry, seeing an expression on his sister’s face that he saw rarely.

  ***

  The Magmalian king looked out from his high balcony, unable to sleep. The prophets say this Trium might even be here tomorrow… Why must this dreadful beast make its appearance in my lifetime? The man hissed and sighed heavily. And Azar isn’t here to protect me… With all those powers he had… he would have been more valuable than my room full of the best guards… All this feels like a bad dream that I will wake from sweating in the middle of the night. Is Azar really dead? Who then will succeed me? I was anxious about losing my kingship to him. Now he is dead… Who will take my place when my years are spent? … Tomorrow at sundown when I shall bury you… I pray you will frighten me and open your eyes… Curse me and ask me if I am mad for burying you alive… Such thoughts… Am I getting mad?

  ***

  Lex flew a meter through the air, meeting the ground with an unfriendly landing, rolling in dust; his energy was at zero. Azar and Blade quickly ran up to him.

  “Blade, we have to find a way out of here or we’re dead!” Azar warned, trying to catch his breath.

  “You might be right,” Blad
e supported.

  “They’ve stopped moving,” Lex whispered, slowly rising to his feet, grabbing on to the tight, sharp pain in his ribs. They noticed the giant creatures were all looking up to the sky with very low, suspicious groans.

  “What now?” Blade asked under his breath, watching his enemies gaze skyward. Lex felt a cool, trickling sense of relief as tiny droplets touched his face. The little drizzle became heavier and heavier, until rain was soaking them. Azar uttered a heavy sigh. Somehow, this rain felt far more refreshing and reviving than they would have imagined. “Damn it… Feels… so good…” Blade breathed. Azar felt a tingly, vibrating sensation through his body. Blade flexed his knuckles and twisted his neck, feeling a strange energy shut up in his bones. With no effort at all, two huge orbs of ice energy appeared in Lex’s hands, almost without Lex even realizing. Also, a bright glow of red appeared about them as Azar’s hands were lit with great amounts of mana.

  “My energy! It’s back!” Lex burst in excitement, grinning, confused, but having no need or intention of questioning this miracle. The rain continued to drench them.

  “I’ve never felt this concentration of mana before,” Azar said, sounding more in wonder than excitement. “It seems this rain is affecting our energies… Hmm… Still, if that is the case…”

  Their eyes widened as they watched the horrific transformations of the surrounding beasts. Their bodies grew even larger, and a grey, near-black armour came over them. Some of them instantly grew new limbs, and the spikes that jutted from about them grew longer and sharper, some spikes growing smaller spikes of their own. The beasts cried out to the sky, probably in praise. The ground mounted up at certain points again, and more of the terrible beasts appeared.

  “Seems the rained isn’t taking sides,” Blade said.

  With unbelievable speed, one of the armoured beasts blasted at them, sending huge cracks through the ground as four of its eight limbs blasted into it. With racing hearts, the three men appeared a few meters out of the circle of monsters. Still, they stood back to back to back, leaving no direction unseen. As far as their eyes could see, in every direction, the horrid monsters were standing about them, and more were appearing from the ground. Some even more frightening beasts were circling their heads from above. They looked like vicious, oversized crows with large black and grey wings that held up what looked like bodies of metal and bone.