The Chosen And the guardians

by Liviu Costin Sociu

  Chapter 8: Lifia's Slumber

  Drake woke up and watched around panicked "Where am I?" the room around him was dark and little could be seen, he was blocked into a steel platform which restrained his hands and feet. A dark figure appeared from one of the corners of the room "Finally...took you long enough mister" Lifia was looking at him with her eyes glowing in the dark, without emotion or feelings, almost like she was not feeling anything by looking at him. "Lifia? What happened? I remember I was fighting and....you...you hit me?" Lifia nodded slightly "You are so easy to fool little Drake, it took me little to infiltrate your group and trap you like a little mouse with cheese. Your precious companions are now being 'greeted' by my master, which you had been fighting till now." Drake seemed astonished, he could not even answer back for a while but, after some moments of recollection, he realized everything "We trusted you! You were part of our family!! Why did you betrayed us??" Drake seemed furious about this betrayal, his only family betrayed him, but Lifia simply shook her head "I was never a part of your tiny little circus, I was just instructed to keep an eye on you and prepare the trap after I finished gathering enough data. I had enough about the other 2, but with you, well...I did not need much to fool you, too inexperience and stupid do be in need of information about your powers. I even had to resist in your silly talking about family and stuff just for the sake of the plan...I am a darkness creature and servant of the darkness..." after a while Lifia seemed a little in pain and a soft, crying voice, said in a hurry "H..help me.....please" After that she came back to normal and spit on the floor "Damn her willpower..." after that she started to walk toward Drake which was blocked entirely and could not move despite trying his best. His partner seemed out of it too, pretty weak too, and could not use his powers.

  "Tsk, such a silly child you are Drake, a family? Someone like you will never have one. Your life, as well as mine, is dedicated to fighting each other until the very end, until one of us lose this war and the other rules over the world forever..." Drake shook his head "You are wrong Lifia...and I know that's not you who is talking, I don't know what he did to you, but I will find him and I will destroy him" His voice was calm, very controlled, but behind it there was a blind rage building up and ready to blast. Lifia simply laughed "I want to see you try" then she puts her hand on his chest and looked him directly into his eyes "It would be so easy to kill you right now, but the master ordered me to wait and not do anything reckless...he wants to study you, you are one of a kind. It's been centuries since a dragon guardian showed up. You got his interests, but I could have fun with you...maybe a little torture? Who knows.....hehe..." Drake looked at Lifia silently without answering nor reacting to her word.

  In the main room of the dark castle, where the group was taken, the dark figure was looking at the sleeping guardians smiling happily about his 'preys'. After a while Reit came to her senses and looked around focusing on the dark figure "Damn you! What did you do to us?" The dark figure laughed amused "Nothing my little dear pet, I just ended my original plan and captured you as promised. Of course, now I have you in my power and I can do whatever I want to you" Reit tried to escape from her handcuffs that were holding her "Don't struggle my little pet, those are special handcuffs made of dark magic power and by the most powerful dark ones. They cannot be destroyed so easily and, your little raw power, is not enough to even scratch them, so please stay at ease and enjoy your stay in my mansion" Iris was still out cold but a shadow took her away, together with her handcuffs, and transported her in another room "IRIS! Where are you taking her you disgusting monster?" The dark figure laughed once more and smiled "Don't worry...for now she will be all right. But...might you get the stupid idea of escaping or fighting me...then, well...I cannot guarantee her safety" Reit bit her lip "....I hate you...." The dark figure nodded "I know, but you will soon start to love me my little pet, just like your 'friend' Lifia" Reit opened her eyes wide "What did you do to her?" The dark figure laughed amused "Oh nothing, she just choose to follow my lead once I instilled darkness inside her, enough to obscure her will and make her a darkness being" Reit was starting to get pissed and raised her voice "HOW!? We guardians are made of pure light! You cannot make a guardian a darkness creature!" The dark figure smiled widely "Usually this is true, but that light sometimes can be quite...weak. Also, a guardian is very weak and vulnerable when her or his powers are still latent or not yet fully awakened, easy to manipulate and even corrupt where necessary.A large amount of darkness can corrupt even the strongest light anyway, it may take a long amount of time and power, but it's not impossible sweety! The choice to welcome such darkness can make a lot of differences...." Reit looked down thinking about Lifia and her behavior "Tch, I observed that sometimes she was behaving strangely or was out more than necessary, but I could never think she would betray us!" The dark figure burst into a hysteric laugh "Did you really thought she was part of your group? She was always under my command and just infiltrate your group to fool you little pawns. And she did a splendid job, didn't she? You little kids really thought she was part of your group or something? You were just being tricked, she is an emotionless creature who likes to see you suffering...that's why she lead you right into my hands. Your powers are laughable and too weak to even be able to grasp, let alone counter, my own powers" Reit looked at him with rage in her eyes "I will get free somehow....and after that I will kill you with my own 2 hands you filthy..." The dark figure waved his finger at her "Nono, that won't do, remember about your little friend Iris? She could have quite an accident....maybe you should behave a little no?" Reit could not answer back anymore and had to swallow her pride and simply stay silent while listening to his biddings..for now.

  Lifia in the meanwhile was scratching Drake's chest, the cuts were not bad, Lifia was simply having fun by leaving behind traces of her nails on Drake, like if it were her personal tool. Drake was emotionless, seems like the betrayal of Lifia left a huge mark on him. At one point Drake looked at her perfectly calm "What is the point of all this? What is your purpose and objectives? Why don't you kill me so we can end this?" in the meanwhile Ryu came back and got a rapid grasp of the situation, but he was quite worried about what he felt: Drake's condition was weird and he could not fully grasp it. Lifia smiled lightly "Since I cannot kill you, like I said, I must find a way to pass time right? So why not having fun with you like my personal toy? In the end...it's quite boring waiting for my master to have fun with his little pets" Drake sighed slightly "Lifia wake up, I know you aren't like this, I felt you when we talked that night, I know you are not like that....wake up...please" Lifia laughed "Silly little child do you really think that..." After a while she began being surprised, eyes widen as large as possible, and started to hold her head "Ngh...Dra.....ke....I can't....she's too powerful..I...ca....can't.....AARGHH" Lifia started to get on her knees trying to fight back the darkness inside her "Kill me...please.....kill me....." Then with the last of her strength she launched an attack toward Drake's chains and freed his right arm. Drake Simply started to call his power out, almost forcing Ryu to obey with his sheer will and strange inner condition. "EMBODY!" with a serious face he swiftly transformed and punched Lifia so hard that she flew toward the wall, taking it down while losing consciousness. Ryu was speechless, his power was being used by Drake without a restrain or common sense, just pure power and rage was guiding him. Despite his efforts to communicate with him, Drake refused to answer Ryu in any way, starting to get toward the dark figure that he felt lurking into the castle he was in. On his way some dark creatures tried to stop him, but it was pointless, his blind raging power obliterated them in an instant.

  The dark figure was looking at Reit on all fours staying beside him "Oh yes, you will make a fine pet" Reit was almost crying out of rage but could not do anything for the safety of Iris. A sudden quake made the room shake "What the?" The door was crushed open by Drake's fists, his power was overwhelming, but he seemed to not be him anymore, he seemed almost without any emotion...a ru
thless machine. "...You are dead..." The dark figure looked at him surprised "What are you....ngh!" Before he could finish, Drake punched him against a wall with all his strength and freed Reit, not trying to see how she was doing because he was already punching down the wall toward Iris's containing room. Reit was dumbfounded, but she recovered fast and called her powers "Embody!" and immediately started to look at the dark figure getting up from the impact with the wall "Pay back time..." that said she started to get into a deep berserker mode while getting into the second form. Not even a second passed and Reit was already fully attacking the dark figure with all her powers while Drake looked at Iris on the ground coughing "Drake....what happened?" Drake was silent and looked at her, but he did not answered "Drake?....what's wrong?" Without answering, he turned around and started to walk away toward the fight that was happening between Reit and the dark figure. Iris was too weak to do something concrete, her energy did not came back from the last fight where she used a lot of her energy in the dual feline attack, but since Lifia let her use up all her energy, not helping her with the technique, she was still not able to even recall her powers. Reit in the meanwhile had the advantage against the dark figure, his dark and gentleman figure was getting punched pretty badly by her raw power, but after a while, she launched him away. He managed to get on his feet but could not even realize a thing before Drake immediately punched him so hard that he flew against another wall destroying it.

  Reit was furious, but the dark figure started to expand a dark energy shield which blocked Reit and Drake from further attacking "ENOUGH!" the dark figure was furious and started to throw dark thunders all around him while shadows began to come from nowhere and began attacking the 2 while he was busy looking at the current situation "Stupid kids, you don't know when to quit hm? I told Lifia to hold you for good! Sshe will get punished quite a lot for this!" Drake then looked at him with lifeless eyes "Shut up" Again a powerful punch broke his shield in pieces while the shadows surrounding him were destroyed in mere second with a fast combo of attacks. The dark figure was surprised but did not let Drake hit him again and, this time, started to float away and focusing his power into a powerful dark energy attack toward him. Drake didn't even tried to dodge it, he fully withstood the attack while looking at him. Reit was still busy fighting the shadows attacking her "DRAKE!!" But even after such a powerful attack he was fine, even if injured "Drake?...what happened to you?" Iris seemed even more worried after getting up and assisting to that scene, she could not do nothing though. Lifia in the meanwhile, shakily, reached the room, injured and weak from Drake's attack. "I am sorry my master, I was unable to stop him, she freed him with the little power she had left, I failed you" the dark figure simply snorted toward her "You will have a good punishment and darkness instilled to you after all this is over" Lifia simply nodded and sat against the wall. Iris started to walk toward her, both were unable to summon their powers but, once near Lifia, she looked at Iris without any emotion "Get away from me you scum!" Iris simply slapped her, starting to cry lightly "I saved you, called you family and even offered you a place where to live with us...HOW COULD YOU BETRAY US?" Lifia was looking at her after the slap she took and could not answer, surprised by her action mostly, and went ahead into holding her cheek that turned red. Iris was looking at her with tears in her eyes, a show that Lifia never saw before like that but, the darkness inside her, reacted "Fool kid, I am a darkness creature, Lifia is dead! She was never here to begin with! I am a darkness creature, she is fading away as we speak and there is nothing you can do, you silly cat!" and proceed to slightly laugh. Iris got on her knees near Lifia and was looking at her...embracing her suddenly "...Please.....please come back to us, I beg you...Lifia....WAKE UP!" Her voice echoed in the room, a light started to came out of Iris's body and started to resonate with Lifia's own light, which started to shine little by little. In a dark place, the voice of Iris seemed to have reached the real Lifia "My friend....Iris....I am sorry but I am too weak....I cannot fight this darkness..." A voice then could be heard in the darkness surrounding her "You are not alone...let my light be your guide" A warm and powerful light started to cover Lifia's body that was floating in darkness, a fox came toward her, accompanied by a cat "Lifia, you are a very smart girl, I watched you develop into the fine young lady you are, I choose you as guardian because of your heart and skills, you are a great guardian, but had the bad luck of being corrupted before I could reach you. Ever since I tried to help you regaining control, and protecting you from fading, my powers were at the limit when you recalled that attack to free your friend Drake. I know you can do it, have faith in your friend and in me, I will lend you my powers but don't give up, let this be our chance of getting ourselves free from his control! She is weak and we can do it, let Iris's light and powers help you...fight the darkness, you can do it Lifia!" while all this was happening, Drake and Reit were fighting the dark figure and his shadows. Drake was injured but seemed to not care about that, he instantly jumped toward the dark figure and started to attack him with a fury never seen from him.

  "Drake wake up! Stop using my powers like that! Dammit...." Ryu was unable to wake up and communicate with Drake, it was like he was in a coma or trance of some sort, he would not answer but he still was able to fight and muster his powers. Drake was hitting the dark figure with all his power, giving him a tough time "Tch! You stupid kid...BEGONE!" a powerful darkness field pushed Drake away and made him hit a wall, crushing it and leaving him covered by debris. The dark figure laughed amused "That teaches you kid!" A voice still could be heard strongly into the room "EMBODY!" Lifia was starting to transform while Iris was on the ground asleep, her powers reached her limit and she passed out, but that helped out Lifia to regain control and delete the darkness within her "It's time for the real me..." her aspect started to change, her ears began to be more pointy and large, her claws started to grow and fur started to grow on most of her feet and hands, her tails were growing bigger and bigger and her eyes started to glow with a shiny yellow color while she reached the second form and instantly launched several magic attacks toward the shadows, destroying them all. "After so much time under your power...it's time to pay the price for it!" Lifia then started to launch a machine gun of magic attacks toward the dark figure, her powers woken up and allowed her to regain most of the lost stamina and energy she needed to fight.

  Reit in the meanwhile was watching the show in front of her, undecided on what to do, but Lifia, with a serious face, while throwing magic attacks at the dark figure, looked at Reit "Reit! Take Iris away from there, then check on Drake" Reit was unsure on what to do "Why? You betrayed us once, why should I trust you?" The dark figure in the meanwhile was deflecting and blocking most of the attacks but that blocked him in place and could not move, otherwise his defense will shatter and he will receive too many attacks, also Lifia could adjust her aim and give him a hard time so he decided to stuck on defending momentarily "Now it's not the time Reit! I know I betrayed you, I was controlled by darkness, but now I am free, Iris helped me to regain myself back! But she is exhausted and I cannot keep this rhythm up for too long, I am injured and, although I had a power surge from the transformation, my conditions will not allow me to hold up this energy barrage for too long, now GO!" Reit, still unsure on what to do, rushed toward Iris using her powers and moved her in a more safer place. While Reit was moving toward Drake's position the debris started to move and Drake came out, like a beast from under ground and shouting like one "AAAARGHHHH!!!" After just few moments, a powerful beam started to leave his mouth and heading toward the dark figure, and unable to dodge, he had to withstand all the discharge of power that Drake was throwing at him. After the beam dissipated, the dark figure was barely floating and started to come down, Lifia was tired from his barrage of attacks and Drake seemed regaining his breath.

  Reit was too surprised to even realized what happened after that attack coming from Drake and could not do nothing if not look astonished. The dark figure laughed ligh
tly "Damn kids, you won this time, but next time you will all die...Especially you, you filthy traitor!" a dark energy covered the dark figure entirely and he disappeared into the night, the dark figure used all his powers to run from that place and succeed since, nobody, was able to stop him, even Reit was too surprised to do something and did not expect his runaway.

  Drake still seemed out of it. After the dark figure escaped, he turned his lifeless eyes toward Lifia and started to walk toward her. Lifia was still regaining energy from his attacks and could not move, she just looked at him "You wanted me to kill you, I will solve that immediately" Drake seemed like was talking without any trace of human emotion, more like a machine than a human, but Lifia could not move "Drake...I am sorry.... I..." Drake still seemed not to listen and kept walking toward her while anger started to cumulate once again. Lifia at that point stood up and looked at him "I know you don't have a reason to forgive me...so be it then! Hit me as much as you wish, take your revenge!" Drake effectively shot Lifia away with a single punch toward some debris of a former wall and slammed her pretty hard too, leaving her unable to stand up. Reit stood in front of Drake "Enough! What's wrong with you?" Drake was looking at Reit, but his eyes...those eyes seemed familiar to Reit "Berserker eyes....no....it's something more, you lost your humanity....Ryu stop him!" Drake just sighed slightly and warned her emotionless "Get out of my way, I will end her life!" Reit just stood there "No, try to regain you consciousness, wake up Drake! You are not like that!" Lifia managed to stand up, although injured and holding her left arm "Reit, move aside. Let him do whatever he wants, I betrayed all of you, I betrayed his trust and ruined your family, I deserve to die...I would've been dead anyway...move aside!" Reit shook her head "No! I can't...." even with those words, she was unsure herself on what to do, she too was shocked about what Lifia had done and Drake simply ignored her and went toward Lifia but, this time, Reit did not move and watched him go. Iris in the meanwhile managed to wake up but could not move, she was at her limit, but could not ignore all that was happening, she wanted to scream, to stop Drake, to do something, but she was powerless.

  Drake in the meanwhile reached Lifia, which was simply standing there waiting for Drake to finish the job. Drake raised his fist once again to hit her and at that point Lifia closed her eyes, but no hit arrived, Drake was standing there with his fist in the air while a voice came out of him "He is not Drake anymore, run away, I cannot retain him anymore, he is forcing my powers out and I cannot control them, he is too strong but out of control..." Ryu desperately was trying to block Drake, but once his control subsided, Drake again was concentrating his powers to end Lifia. "DRAKE NO!" A high pitched scream came from Iris, it was the last of her willpower that remained inside her, her voice was the only thing she managed to use and that seemed to had blocked Drake from hitting Lifia as he intended to. After a while he put his fist down and looked down with his hair covering his eyes "Leave this place...." Drake was emotionless while saying that short sentence. Reit was unsure on what to do but rushed to Iris to help her up and was supporting her while, Lifia, simply looked at Drake and wanted to reach his face with her hand "Let's go together..." Drake slapped her hand away and screamed with fury "I SAID LEAVE!" Lifia simply sighed and shook her head "Not without you" Drake then punched down another wall with all his fury and started to calmly walk away "D...dra...ke..." Iris was already seeing blurry but wanted to stop Drake, shortly after though she fainted again.

  Reit could not leave Iris, Lifia tried to follow Drake, even if injured, "If you follow me...I will kill you" That was the only thing Drake said before going away from that place, disappearing in the night. "Let him be, we must go and heal our wounds and regain energy...but we must talk Lifia..." Reit was the only one still in one piece and with the necessary energy to carry both of them home, even if injured and tired herself, she was the only one that could help the 2 exhausted guardians. Lifia silently nodded and started to go toward Reit, collapsing on her thanks to her injuries, Drake did not went easy on her, but Reit sustained her "I still don't trust you, but you are still part of the team for now, I will take care of you both, but you have some explaining to do." Lifia nod without having the courage to say anything more.