The Seventh Spirit

by Adam-Clay Webb

  This is impossible… Mike looked up slowly.

  “Run away…” he heard the ghastly voice warn again, but somehow, while staring into the infinitely deep eyes of the demon, Mike could not move a muscle. Mike saw the demon almost teleport in a burst of speed, reaching up to him with a readied shadowball, his twelve wings stretched out behind him. The man of darkness slammed the dense sphere into Mike’s armour. The sphere of drilling darkness tore through the impenetrable metal. The Legend State dissolved instantly; and blood spewed from Mike’s chest. There was a heavy blast and sudden blueness and Mike was pushed off with great force, saved from the full effect of the shadowball, but the shadowy man remained still, the blue cloud shrouding him. His shadowball turned to mist.

  The Ionide landed and rolled, his armour quickly disintegrating. As he stopped moving, he looked down at the hole in his chest. Blood had surrounded him already. He suddenly blacked out. Clover appeared in a cloud of blue mana over Mike, grabbed him and vanished with him quickly.

  Star looked up as Clover appeared in blue mana, crouching, holding on to the bloody boy, a huge hole in his chest that probably not even iodium could take care of.

  “Please! Heal him!” Clover urged, “I have to get back to the enemy before he--” They turned and stared at the thing before them, its wings just relaxing slightly, a trail of darkness just vanishing from behind him. “Finds Lex…” Clover continued under her breath. Lex opened his eyes suddenly like he had heard his name. The dense darkness in his eyes greeted the demon as he stood quickly. “Star, go with Mike and Zen,” Clover said nervously.

  “You should leave as well,” Lex said, Maximo’s voice synchronized with his eerily.

  “Maximo,” the other man of darkness said.

  “Juventus,” Maximo greeted back.

  ***

  “Damn it,” Oga mumbled to himself, his fingers forcing down on his temples. This much power in a single body is quite bothersome to control… He strained and struggled to overpower the demon’s will and control its vast power. Kizer glanced over to the straining sorcerer.

  ***

  Feeling his presence brings vague memories home… Maximo spoke to Lex in his thoughts. He was the leader of Trium I believe, and if one of the three was stronger than the rest, it was he… Juventus… He has the unique ability to exist in his own form.

  And all this is just coming up?!

  I’m just now remembering… The more I think back… the more gaps and lapses I encounter.

  I suppose sleeping in a jar for a few thousand years does have its side effects.

  “Brother!” Maximo called out to the powerful being, summoning up a shadowball in Lex’s hands. “Please stop this senseless rampage… Forgive this feeble race for capturing me… You were the one who forced them to rebel and do what they could! You have no right to cast your judgement upon them! You are wicked, brother! You and the other two traitors killed three of our brothers, and consequently two more have been destroyed! Now only we two remain!”

  “Try to remember, Maximo…” Juventus spoke back. “Do not be fooled by history…”

  Before Lex or the dweller inside him could try to ponder Juventus’ message, he flashed off toward them with unspeakable speed, a shadowball in hand. Clover quickly grabbed Lex and they vanished in a cloud of blue mana. Simultaneously, Star disappeared with Zen and Mike. Clover and Lex reappeared a few meters behind Juventus.

  “Clover, get out of here!” Lex warned her, his demon’s voice embedded in his own.

  “But I--”

  “Now, Clover!” the boy blasted. Clover looked at him with an almost blank face.

  “You’ve pulled through too far to be killed here… Go… You will only get in my way.” There was a harsh and serious tone in his voice that bruised Clover. Tears fell from the girl’s eyes and she vanished in a blue cloud.

  I can’t put it all together, Lex, but something’s not quite right…

  “Get ready!” Juventus warned, and turned and hurled the shadowball at Lex. Four wings appeared on Lex and he jumped back quickly, reaching a few feet into the air, avoiding the ball. There was a heavy blast behind him.

  Two shadowballs appeared in Lex’s hands, and he sent them down at the twelve-winged creature.

  “Behind you!” a voice called out. Lex spun quickly, facing the incoming Juventus. Shockwaves rippled through the air forcefully as the attacker’s fist blasted Lex’s chest. The force was incredible. Lex felt his bones vibrate painfully. He shot off over quite a distance and blasted onto the earth, quickly finding himself into the air again. Juventus flew off toward him once more. Lex, wielding the strength and speed of Maximo, blocked the fast punch with his elbow and struck back. Juventus dodged and sent several more heavy attacks at Lex, but the Icemaker managed to defend against each one. Maximo knew that his brother wasn’t fighting at anywhere close to his full strength.

  Juventus slammed a shadowball at Lex. The boy blocked it with his open palm, Maximo’s aura protecting and empowering him effectively. The two fighters pushed against the dark sphere of power, staring into the darkness in one another’s eyes.

  Remember… Maximo heard his brother speak to him faintly through telepathy. Juventus blasted Lex with a potent kick, sending him to fly back over meters in quarter second. With no visible hesitation, the man of darkness shot off toward Lex again, his dozen wings tailing him beautifully, amplifying his regular speed to awful levels. Lex caught the incoming fist swiftly, releasing ice energy. Black ice quickly ensnared the enemy. Before gravity could pull down the slab of ice, cracks sped through it and it shattered. Juventus struck Lex with two heavy punches, and as he flew back, a mighty stomp reached him from above, sending him down into the earth forcefully. The Icemaker sunk into the ground, displacing hard rock like water.

  The black-eyed boy looked up at the massive black ball that Juventus held above his head, the genuine version of the tera bomb, and created in less than half a second. The man of shadow sent down the sphere of destructive power, and it certainly did not miss its target. The effect of the massive meteorite-sized sphere was beyond possibility. The entire continent of Libson shook with Juventus’ power, and a sudden darkness fell upon quaking land and sea, clearing to reveal the nasty aftermath.

  Lex lay still in the miles-wide, meters-deep crater, his eyes closed, black mist rising from his body, which was still coated with Maximo’s aura. The boy opened his eyes with a suddenness that almost frightened the watching Kizer. Lex stood limply, and six wings shot out from his back to replace the four that had just disappeared.

  Lex, this brother of mine is somehow wielding the entire power of Trium.

  But that’s impossible! Didn’t we get rid of at least a half—

  It’s as I feared. Somehow, Trium’s strength increased vastly. Trium became three times as strong. The first wave that came down in the form of the black rain was only one of my brothers, who in total had the strength that the entire Trium had millennia ago. The other three beings that came down were another of my brothers. This one we’re up against now is the final third of Trium, which has the power I have been dreading to face.

  So according to the math, this guy is three times as strong as you, then.

  At minimum.

  Then this shouldn’t be too hard!

  Lex forged two shadowballs quickly, flying up toward Juventus in a burst of speed.

  Lex, we can’t be reckless! Maximo warned.

  Lex flung the two spheres upward fiercely, only for them to be blasted back at him by the dozen-winged enemy. Still flying up to the man of darkness, the Icemaker evaded the returning spheres and without relent, and sent a fast punch at Juventus. In a flash of speed, the man of darkness was almost directly behind Lex. Lex flew down to the earth as a mighty stomp reached him. The earth shook and pieces of the ground flew up as Lex landed. Two shadowballs struck the Icemaker, creating a mist of blackness. Still, Lex found his way to his feet, trying to ignore the pain and remain focused.

 
As Maximo struggled to see the past, flashes of senseless images rushed through Lex’s mind, confusing his consciousness.

  “I’m coming!” Lex heard a voice warn. His focus suddenly returned, and a total of ten wings readied themselves on his back. He jumped backwards into the air quickly, evading a heavy strike that further wrecked the earth. Lex hit ground again, staring out toward Juventus, who was already holding two massive shadowballs.

  Lex, my brother is not our enemy.

  What do you mean?? Lex raised his hands quickly, creating a shield to defend against the massive shadowballs that approached. The shadowballs tore through the inferior defence, bashing Lex back forcefully.

  “Dammit!” Lex cried out, rolling across the ground, decorating it with his blood. These shadowballs are far from ordinary! Are they getting stronger each time?! Lex struggled to rise to his feet again, his ten slender wings outstretched on his back, powered with great potential ready to be used. Still think this guy’s come to play checkers?!

  I cannot explain it, but each time we exchange attacks, I feel him trying to tell me something.

  Of all the times for you to start going mad! Lex quickly defended against another formidable attack, grabbing with a fidgeting hand Juventus’ quick fist, staring deep into the abyss in his eyes once again. Lex cried out as he felt a sharp pain in his head as strange images flashed through his mind. Finally, he saw something plain and vivid – seven men of darkness standing around two familiar-looking men.

  ***

  “This wretched spirit,” Oga hissed, “it’s pushing me to my very limits of hypnotic power… Doing things myself is far less stressing than this cowardly tactic.”

  ***

  Look deeper into my eyes, brother! See the truth and be disillusioned! Lex and Maximo could hear Juventus’ thoughts clearly. They both stared deep into the demon’s eyes. The boy’s heart raced as he felt himself being pulled through thought. He felt the confines of reality around him, time and space, disintegrate into nothing. He saw around him an indescribable void where there was simply nothing, no light, no darkness. “My mind has broken loose, but only for a moment,” Lex and Maximo heard Juventus’ voice. “Brother, look into my mind and see the memories that were stolen from you…” Lex and his demon, as one, with a fused mind, saw the image of seven spirits of darkness flying speedily through some dark, spatial realm. In the indefinite distance behind them was like an exploding star, a massive supernova; its expanding light and energy spread out in all directions.

  “Zaga, our home world, was destroyed millions of years ago,” they heard Juventus narrate. “We had lived there for eons, but peace had always seemed to be an idea that the distant past held tight in its grips. The world of Zaga was the greatest and most powerful in the entire realm. In the eyes of Zaga, tiny specks like earth didn’t even exist. The Zagans were incredibly powerful spiritual beings who became stronger by absorbing life energy. We fed our immortality and dark powers by killing, destroying even worlds at a time. But after eons of seeking out and destroying alien life forces, a drought had come upon us. The Zagans searched millions of light-years away from home, but nothing was left… We had destroyed everything within our reach. Earth’s life force was far too weak for us Zagans to detect, so it was spared from our greed and blood-thirst. A few millennia passed and still there were no successful expeditions, no captures, nothing for us to feed on. We Zagans had already absorbed enough life energy to last us an eternity, but we could never be satisfied.

  “Soon, a planetary war broke out in our world. We spirits turned against each other as our last source of life energy. Even though we had lived with one another for millions upon millions of years, our hunger, our greed for power was strong enough to turn us against each other, against our own brothers and sisters.

  “Zaga was many times larger than the solar system to which earth belongs, but the power of its people was more than enough to overwhelm it. The destructive power of the Zagans, in the height of the Zagan War, destroyed the entire planet, wiping out the Zagan race almost entirely. Only we seven brothers survived, and the only reason we did was that I foresaw our planet’s doom and we fled before it was destroyed. We could see, from even worlds away, our planet, our people, perish in raw power. We wept bitterly for the foolish destruction of our world, the most powerful in our universe. We travelled together until we reached this small universe with feeble worlds like earth.

  “We pledged on the death of our fallen race that we would never allow a world in this universe to suffer the same fate ours did, to be destroyed by its own hand. This became our mission, our only goal, our sole purpose of existence. Millennia went by and we watched over this frail universe. Earth was the least powerful and most vulnerable planet, so we always gave it a special eye. Throughout the worlds, wherever powers potent enough to destroy a world came about, we crushed it anonymously, saving the worlds from chances of destruction.

  “In each universe, every seventy-thousand years or so, a planet is destroyed by whatever means, but millions of years passed and this cluster remained safe from the clutches of overwhelming power. As time passed, some of the worlds discovered even vaguely that we existed, and we were rumoured to be the protective god known as ‘The Seven’. This little reward was more than enough to have us continue our mission as sentries of the universe.

  “Only a few millennia ago, after we had become known as the universal god that protects the worlds, a powerful planet by the name of Mana, which was at the edge of the solar system, began a rampage. They were the tenth planet from the sun.

  “Planet Mana was home to a very powerful race, the most threatening in the universe. They wielded the power of magic, and they were many. The leaders of this world used black magic, which was magic’s most powerful state back then, and not many others achieved sixth grade magic. They launched massive invasions, simultaneously setting foot on five planets in the system. Of course, being ‘The Seven’, we responded quickly to their assaults. Two of our brothers went to secure Jupiter, and two to Saturn, the two largest planets attacked. I alone came to earth. By the time I arrived, these powerful beings, in their millions, had already captured a part of earth unknown to mankind. I observed them, and became sure that they were planning to wipe out the human race and take the whole planet for themselves. I, though, would not stand by and allow such an evil.

  “Before they made contact with mankind and started a war that could only go one way, I faced the invaders, and singlehandedly wiped them out, though it was not a quick and simple task. I destroyed their machines, their weapons, and lay to waste the massive city they had built in mere days. When the other planets were taken care of, the seven of us travelled to Mana. They attacked immediately. We went there only to offer them a word of warning, but they decided a fight was necessary. We refused to retreat and leave such a nasty threat to lay waste to the planets around it, so we were left with one option. To fight. The Seven Year War began, and the multiverse’s source of magic clashed its relics of darkness. It was tiresome, but we had done it. Zaga had trained and brought us up too well for a few billion sorcerers to overwhelm us. We ridded the universe of Mana, destroying the very planet. And were praised by four of the rescued planets for our deed. Earth, though, was ignorant of the threat that we swept away from its doorstep, and we preferred it remain that way.

  “While we turned our sights from earth for a few thousand years, something terrible happened, made possible by my own tardiness. A brave dragon hunter had travelled to the uncharted grounds of earth, and stumbled upon some ancient ruins, relics of a dangerously powerful race, relics I should have destroyed in their entirety. Oga, the dragon hunter, was a wise man who hunted dragons not for excitement or glory, but as a way of gaining knowledge of creatures the human race dreaded, some even worshipped. From the old ruins that used to be a part of a great city ready to attack, Oga learnt the science of magic. He learnt that there were seven grades of magic, each significantly more powerful than the last. He encountered
a problem, though. Only the Mananka, the people of Mana, could wield the power of magic. Oga, though, being the genius that he is, found a way to go around that obstacle. He must have found some preserved Mananka bodies and drunk their blood to gain their potential to wield the strange power of mana.

  He trained and practised and studied the art of magic for centuries, even developing the art beyond what it was before. After a few thousand years, Oga, the world’s first sorcerer, later worshipped as a god, surpassed even the most powerful Mananka in their own art, unlocking what he saw to be the truly ultimate stage of magic, magic in its eighth grade. He named magical energy after the planet it was born on, Mana, which he had learnt about though the relics left behind.

  “With this kind of power, he was no longer human. No longer a mortal. No longer a man. The family that he left behind must have died when he returned ten thousand years after leaving to hunt for dragons. The average lifespan of humans was around twelve hundred years. He started a new family, and taught the art of magic to his children. Only they, with his bloodline, could use the magical energy called mana. He and his children became the first ‘Council of Magic’. Oga forbade his children to have children outside of one another, in order that the bloodline would not be widened and polluted, but his command was taken lightly.

  “After centuries, the power and knowledge of magic had spread about the then known world. Witch-hunting began. Men captured weak witches and enslaved them to have their children that they too could have this power in their families. Oga, though, would not allow chaos as he would have called it to reign. He and his children regained total control of earth and was its first government. Sorcery outside of the council was illegal, strictly forbidden and punishable by death, and also the death of the violator’s family, who were liable to be magicians as well.

  “Centuries more passed, and a prodigy of magic arose from the crowd of weak, unlawful sorcerers, a young genius named Kizer. In only a century, he achieved seventh grade mana, and became even more powerful than Oga’s children. He travelled for decades until he finally came upon what he had suspected to exist, a hidden bank of knowledge of the mysteries of the art. Oga had sealed away the ruins with a powerful technique, but with his seventh grade magic, Kizer found a way to break the seal just long enough for him to enter the force field Oga had set up. He must have gone mad with excitement as he spun and looked around at the very ruins that Oga himself had learnt magic from. He studied there for two hundred years, learning more about the eight stage of magic maybe even than Oga. He discovered that the eighth grade of magic branched out into two types of power. After reaching the seventh grade of magic, a sorcerer could either proceed to the zenith, the pinnacle of magic power, or sacrifice sorcery altogether for a new class of power entirely. Elementalism.