Hail's Disciple

by A. J. Morton

  The carriage stopped in front of us. Observing it, I noticed that there were no horses pulling it. In fact, there wasn’t even a driver in the front. It was a fully automated vehicle. Apprehensively, I walked into the mysterious vehicle. Travis and Ana followed soon after me.

  “So… How does this thing work?” Travis asked. Suddenly, a panel on the front of the carriage began to glow.

  A message was displayed on the panel. “INPUT DESTINATION.” it said.

  I shrugged and I said, “Take us to Valerie Tempest,” as clearly as I could. The moment I completed that sentence, I could feel the engine revving up.

  The message on the screen changed. “CALCULATING ROUTE TO VALARIE TEMPEST’S LABORATORY. PLEASE FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS.”

  Obeying it, we all fastened our seatbelts. Instantly, the panel changed once more. “THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATRONAGE.”

  The entire interior of the car began to glow brightly with a violet light. The engine roared even louder. An instant later, my stomach almost jumped out of my mouth. The carriage moved at breakneck speed. I could hear Travis and Ana screaming and I would have joined them had I been able to open my mouth. Not even a full minute later, the carriage stopped.

  Ana jumped out and ran to the nearest trash can and vomited again. I swore that girl’s weak stomach would be the death of her someday. But then again, Travis and I weren’t faring much better. We got out of the carriage in a daze.

  After my vision cleared, I noticed that we were in a completely different part of town, in front of a shabby-looking building that was pale in comparison to the towering skyscrapers in the other part of the town.

  A woman who looked as though she was in her thirties exited the shabby-looking building. She was dressed in a lab coat and had dirty blonde hair. She had bags under her eyes that made her looked as though she’d lost several nights of sleep. She held a clipboard and was writing furiously, muttering something under her breath. She glanced up at us and then back to her clipboard again, writing more. “I see… I must have forgotten to calibrate the car to accommodate for people as well as heavy objects…”

  “Um… Hello?” I said, trying to get the woman’s attention to no avail. “I’m looking for-”

  “Valerie Tempest, am I correct? That would be me.” She cut me off. I blinked and looked over her. She couldn’t have possibly been one of the Disciples… Right? But then again, I wasn’t very much to look at either, so I wasn’t really one to judge. “Do you have business with me?” She inquired.

  “Yes, I do,” I said. “May I please come inside?”

  She nodded. “Sure. Make yourselves at home.”

  The three of us walked into Valerie’s laboratory. I was amazed looking around the place. There were blueprints of several different types of armor and weapons scattered across almost every table. In fact, there were pods that actually had the completed versions of a few of the inventions listed in the blueprints. Looking at some of the blueprints, I noticed that some of them contained outlines of the road and the carriage we’d traveled on. My eyes widened. Just how much has this woman made?

  Travis, Ana, and I sat down in chairs near the door. Valerie stood in the area that looked to be her main workbench, tinkering with something that I couldn’t wrap my mind around. We explained our situation and told her that she was a Disciple. For most of the discussion, she seemed uninterested, but she perked up the moment we mentioned the fact that she could control an above average amount of magic.

  “Beings with magical power paralleled only by the gods?!” Valerie could barely contain her excitement. “How utterly fascinating! And it may be just what I need!” She became shrouded in a violet aura. She pressed her hands together. I could see violet-colored energy between the gaps in her fingers, growing brighter and brighter every second. Once it was about to burst free, she freed it and launched it out of her hands into the air. The ceiling folded in and the energy flew into the clouds. The clouds sparkled with electricity and became darker. All of a sudden, a massive bolt of lightning struck the tower we had seen when we’d first arrived. Suddenly, the dimly lit lab was full of light.

  I swept my eyes across the room, my mouth agape in amazement. The suits of armor and weapons seemed more vibrant now than ever. There were tens of them lined up against the wall. Had she really built all of this?

  “It’s the strangest thing…” Valerie started. “Whenever I get a burst of innovation, my storm magic grows exponentially. Of course, I used that as a basis for my greatest creation. The Omega Lightning Rod that powers the entire town.”

  “The entire town?! How?” I asked, both stunned and intrigued.

  “That much is simple. The constantly stormy weather in this place creates the perfect atmosphere for me to create a bolt of lightning. This free surplus of energy ensures that we never run out of power.”

  I could see Travis’s dumbfounded face out of the corner of my eye. Valerie seemed to take note of it as well. “The power hits the tower, and boom. There’s power in the whole town,” She summarized.

  “Oh yeah, I get it now!” He said. I almost smacked my forehead with my hand at that point.

  “That’s all fine and dandy, but we’re getting off topic,” Ana jumped into the conversation. “Will you come with us or not?”

  “I will… But I need for you to do me a favor first,” Valerie had an peculiar spark (no pun intended) in her eyes.

  “Depends on the favor. What do you want?” Ana looked at Valerie skeptically.

  “Well, my latest experiment has resulted in a massive failure,” Valerie explained. “I am referring to the armor sets you see laid out before you.” She gestured to the suits of armor that lined the walls.

  “Really?” Travis seemed confused. “They look awesome.”

  “As far as armor goes, yes they are. But these aren’t just plain suits of armor. They’re Magitech armor sets.” Valerie said.

  “Magitech?”

  “They contain specific materials that hyper-attune them to the user’s specific elemental ability, bolstering their power,” Valerie said. “But the problem is that I haven’t been able to find anyone with magical energy in their bodies strong enough for the armor to detect. However… You Disciples just may have enough innate magical power for the Magitek to react.”

  “I see…” I said, understanding now what she wanted. “So, you must want for us to test the armor you’ve built.”

  Valerie nodded. “Yes. Once you do that, I will join you,” She said. “And if the test is successful, you can even keep the armor,” She added. That was a definite plus. We’d stand a better chance against the Empire with one of those on our side. “So. Do we have a deal?”

  I thought about this for a few moments and stood up. “Yes, we do,” I said.

  Valerie practically jumped with excitement. “Yes! Thank you so much! Now if you would please-”

  “Sorry to disappoint…” A voice started behind me.

  It was neither Travis nor Ana. I looked behind my seat and jumped up, turning around. It was one of them… An Umbran. “But she now belongs to us.”

  This Umbran soldier… He was far different from the rest of them. I could sense his aura from where I stood. I’d never felt an Umbran aura, but I knew this feeling instantly. The air radiating from him felt like it was sucking all of the life from me. It was overwhelming. I could hardly breathe. It was a miracle that I was still on my feet.

  I chanced a glance at Travis and Ana. They were both passed out on the ground. Valerie was standing safely behind me, but she was trembling in fear. Meaning that the only one here to fight him off… was me. “Wh-What is… One of you… Doing here…” I could barely speak. How could someone have an aura this strong?

  The Umbran laughed. “I am not like the Umbrans that you have faced before,” He said. “I am the general of the Umbran Army. General Tenebris Finis!”

  “You didn’t… answer the… question…”

  Tenebris sneered at me. “We need to kill all of the
Disciples. That is my mission here.” He looked around the room. “Oh, what have we here? Four in one place? How considerate of you to gather them all.”

  Tenebris extended his hand, and a greatsword of pure darkness manifested itself in the ground in front of him. As he pulled it out, shadowy tendrils wrapped around his arm. He slowly walked toward us, carrying the sword effortlessly. As the distance between us grew, his aura only grew stronger, forcing me to my knees.

  It was all over… It had grown obvious at this point that we didn’t stand a chance. I couldn’t even move at this point. I looked at Travis and Ana’s bodies, collapsed on the floor next to me, and Valerie behind me, who had fallen with them. I couldn’t understand why I was even conscious, when they were still on the ground.

  Suddenly, I recalled something that Glacia had told me, moments before my journey began. “From this moment on, your desire to defend shall be your power,” she had said. “You shall not err so long as you hold onto this fundamental desire with all your might. I bestow my full might upon you so that you might conquer any foe. This is my gift to you, my Disciple.”

  I clenched my fists. I still desired to defend my friends. Travis and Ana… Right now, I could feel their souls calling out to me. It was my duty to defend them.

  I rose to my feet. Tenebris looked at me in shock. “How can you still be standing?! What… Are you? No mortal is powerful enough to fight against my aura!”

  I glared at him with no remorse. The same beautiful shield that Glacia had summoned when fighting off Terra manifested itself before me. I grabbed it. I now understood what this shield was. It was the sign of our contract. The embodiment of my desire to defend.

  I reached out to the shield and it appeared in my open hand. “Haven’t you heard?” I asked. I swung the shield to my side. In that moment, a blast of cold filled the room, almost blowing Tenebris back. This was my aura. My power, cutting through his like a knife through butter. “I am no mortal. I am Xander Faust!”

  Chapter 8

  Tenebris ignored me and charged at me with his greatsword, yelling and swinging with all his might. I raised my shield, bracing myself. To both of our shock, when the greatsword hit the shield, I didn’t even flinch. It clanged against the shield and he was rocketed off of his feet, slamming into the wall.

  “You have become a shield to repel all,” I recalled Glacia telling me. It dawned on me that this shield was as strong as my desire to defend. With this, I could repel any attack. He couldn’t touch me as long as I had this.

  Still, Tenebris rose off of the ground. “It seems that there is more to you than meets the eye,” He said, looking directly into my eyes. “I was a fool not to realize who you were sooner, Glacian.” His sneer returned. “But I’m glad! Now I get to enjoy a fight with everything I’ve got!”

  Suddenly, the lights in the room went out, and the only light left in the room was the moonlight. Tenebris smirked and used this opportunity to fade into the shadows. I swept my eyes across the entire room. He had vanished.

  I remained on my guard. He was still somewhere in this room, just hidden. I could feel his aura. Before I could even get my bearings together, however, I felt an impact smashing against my back, knocking me onto my stomach.

  “It’s about time you learned your place, Glacian!” Tenebris mocked me, fading back into the darkness. “No one can stand against the might of the Umbran Empire!” He suddenly appeared above me, stomping on my back. “We are the ones destined to plunge this world into chaos!”

  I knew I had lost. I couldn’t get up off of the ground. He had me pinned. At the very least, I’d given my very best to protecting my friends. I waited for the final impact to come. I closed my eyes and braced for impact. But it never came. The Umbran suddenly took his foot off of my back.

  “You’re not done yet, Glacian!”

  “I’ve got you covered Xander!”

  “Do not roughhouse in my laboratory!”

  I opened my eyes, confused. I rose to my feet and turned. A bright, almost blinding light had filled the room. I looked to my left and saw Ana, awake and holding a light in her hand as bright as a miniature sun.

  Travis, meanwhile, had summoned the same axe that Terra summoned to fight me. That must have been the embodiment of the contract of his bond as the Warrior. He smacked Tenebris with the bulk of the axe, knocking him down.

  Valerie, who had put on one of her suits of armor, was standing above the Umbran. Her open hands crackled and sparked with electricity and she brought them down upon the Umbran’s head, both electrocuting him and knocking him out. She stared at her own hands, surprised. “The field test was successful! I must document this!”

  I gazed at them, shocked. “You guys… How did you…”

  “Your aura must have temporarily run counter to his, canceling it out,” Valerie answered. “In theory, that would deactivate it long enough for us to get our bearings and wake up.”

  I stared at Ana,, dumbfounded by the fact that she had helped me despite my being a Glacian. She noticed me and started to blush. “I-I couldn’t very well let you die after you tried to save my life, Glacian…” She stammered. “I simply didn’t wish to be in your debt! Think nothing else of it!”

  I smiled. So she really did have a heart after all.

  Travis was looking at his new axe in awe. “Woah…” He said. “This thing is awesome! Where the hell did it come from?” All of a sudden, the axe turned to dust in his hands and blew away. “Huh? What happened?”

  Now that I thought about it, my shield had disappeared as well. It had melted and was now a puddle at my feet (Valerie later lectured me about how I should be careful about spilling water in her lab). I suppose that now that I had nothing to protect anyone against and Travis had nothing to fight, the weapons had faded away.

  Valerie cleared her throat. “So, I believe that this more than marks my experiment as a success,” She said, her armor still crackling with electricity.

  “So, will you join us?” I asked.

  “Um… Are you kidding? Of course!” Valerie seemed like she could burst with excitement. “There are so many more experiments that I would like to try on you all! Your power opens up all sorts of possibilities!”

  “Good to hear!” I said. “Now let’s get back to the-”

  “Uh… Guys…” Ana said. “He’s gone.”

  I looked at the area where Tenebris had been. Sure enough, he wasn’t there anymore. I stomped my foot in anger. “Dammit!” I raged. “He got away!”

  Travis patted me on the back. “Don’t worry, Alex. We’ll have a chance to kill him later,” He said. “We drove him off. Something tells me he won’t be bothering us again for awhile.”

  Ana nodded. “For once the buffon is right,” She remarked. “We should be getting back to Pyros to rendezvous with Krysta, Strelitzia, and Dia.”

  “Yup,” Travis said, on his way out the door. But then he paused, turning back around. “Wait… Who are you calling buffoon?!”

  We all laughed at Travis’s expense, even Travis himself. We all returned to the ship together, joined by our newest ally, Valerie Tempest.

  * * *

  Once we had returned to the ship, I felt the exhaustion from my trip. With that exhaustion came sleep, and with that sleep came another vision of Glacia.

  Arriving in Glacia’s white room again, the goddess seemed pleased with me. I took my usual seat across from her.

  “Well done, Xander!” Glacia exclaimed, beaming. “I knew that you would be strong, but strong enough to summon half of Aegis Glacia on your own?! Incredible!”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “My divine weapon,” Glacia said. “Each of the gods has a weapon as a symbol of their divinity. Mine is Aegis Glacia.”

  “Oh, so that’s what the shield is!” I realized. “But wait… there are two of them? I only summoned one and that felt taxing by itself.”

  “Yes, there are two,” Glacia said. “The right Aegis of Determination and the left Aegis
of Sacrifice. You managed to summon the right Aegis of Determination. But luckily there was no reason for you to tap into the Aegis of Sacrifice. Together, they form an unparalleled shield known as Aegis Glacia.”

  “Why do you say ‘luckily?’” I inquired.

  “Aegis Glacia divided into two parts: determination and sacrifice,” Glacia said. “The Aegis of Determination is formed as the manifestation of your will to defend. The Aegis of Sacrifice is formed by your will to give your life to defend.”

  “So, what would happen if I summoned both?”

  “You would form a shield that nothing would be able to break through. However…” Glacia’s expression turned solemn. “That much power comes at a price. It is only to be used when your life and the lives of everyone around you are in jeopardy.”

  “What kind of price?” I asked.

  “You would be able to form the almighty shield for about a minute before it drained all the magic from your body, and you would either die or lose your magic forever. And which one happens isn’t your choice,” Glacia said.

  I gazed at her in shock. Was this truly the kind of power that slept within me? The same one who couldn’t even control his power less than a week ago?

  Glacia’s expression softened. “But there is no need to speak of that possibility at the present,” she said. “There is something else I wish to inform you of. Another power that sleeps within you.

  “There’s more?”

  “You are not yet capable of using it, so I will leave you to find what it is,” Glacia informed me. “But I will give you a small hint. The strength of your bonds will reveal everything about to this power to you.”