Naunet thrust his spear and Rey parried. Behind Rey Ling, a foe pulled a scythe from within their cloak, swung and released a dark energy wave. Rey Ling dropped to his belly and felt the wave rush by above his body. He stood up again, shouted, "Aerous Tega!" and the wind became a protective orb, helping him balance on the train easier. The train shook and he jumped. Another masked foe came at him but this time when they shifted into smoke, they were pushed away by his wind sphere.
"Frostass suz!" Naunet shouted, releasing a cold ray of blue energy towards Rey Ling.
Rey used the Omnistar and opened a portal. The ray flew through it and continued through another portal aiming at another masked foe. The one with the horn crown used their staff to stop the ice ray. A red aura appeared around the stranger as if protected by fire. Rey then realized what was at the apex of the staff. It was some kind of gemstone glowing a volcanic red.
"I have been dying to try this," said the one with the horned crown and removed the white mask, but only enough to show their left eye.
Rey Ling cast fire to scare Naunet, after noticing what element his foe dominated. He looked back at the one with the horned crown and realized that it was a woman. Her face, that eye and that hair. Her facial features looked south eastern. Rey guessed she was either from the Yama country or Tong Doran Cho. Her left eye glowed purple and some scars were noticeable.
Naunet launched another ray of ice. Rey used the Omnistar once more. A portal opened allowing the ice ray to fly into it, but it quickly began to close and, when he tried to redirect it with another portal, it would not open. "What is this?" he questioned. He tried to use it again but the eye of the Omnistar remained close.
"You are not the only one with cosmo magic," the crowned woman said and laughed with the high pitch laugh of a crone.
Rey was disappointed but he refused to surrender.
"Give us the Omnistar and you will live," the woman said and offered a hand.
"Resist and we will throw you under the wheels of this train," the shorter one said with the voice of a young girl. "Give us the Omnistar and your debt to the queen will be erased."
At that moment Rey Ling saw the link between the queen and the masked fiends. He had smelled the scam but did not trust his gut. Now he proved himself right.
"It was you," he hissed. "You scammed me. You stole all my kaminyte and destroyed my factory so that I would be in more debt and allow the queen to take my company. Damn you!"
"Either way, you will lose, boy," said the crowned woman. "I made a deal with the queen so that we can take your kaminyte and promised her that she would be able to take over your company. We can take everything you love from you if we so desire. So if you don't want to lose your life then surrender the Omnistar."
Rey Ling scowled at them as he hid the Omnistar inside his vest pocket. After hearing how he had been manipulated, he felt rage seething within him and tried to suppress it. She is just trying to make me lose control, he thought. I must think clearly without letting my anger overwhelm me. He reached into his boot and pulled out his gun. Immediately he sensed Naunet attacking from behind. He spun and aimed but Naunet had shifted into smoke and flew through him. He knew Naunet would try to take the gemstone like last time with his shadomancy, so this time Rey aimed not with his gun but with his sword. He pulled back the pommel and launched the blade. The blade flew and missed as Naunet shifted again. Rey quickly shot a bullet at the other two and they shifted to smoke as well. He ran across the train and jumped to another carriage. I always wanted to use that sword trick, Rey thought, too bad it missed.
He looked over his shoulder and saw the two dark clouds streaming towards him. He was not sure of what to do but he had to run. And this damn gemstone won't work anymore, he thought then jumped to another carriage against the wind current. My body is a little rusty but I can still move as fast as any youth. He looked back again and saw that they were much closer now. Three dark clouds raced to catch him. One launched a red beam but missed him and instead blasted the roof of the train carriage. The blast made the train lurch, causing Rey to fall to one knee. The crowned masked woman reached Rey and she paced toward him while he was down. She carried a staff made of a glossy grey steel and a sword made of black metal.
"How long do you think you can run...huh." The woman paused and looked to the east.
There was a sphere falling from the sky. It was white and Rey could feel heat emanating from it. He predicted it would hit the train but instead the white masked woman used her staff and swatted it with such force that it released flames. The white sphere flew back and Rey noticed a white lizard in the sky with wings.
"Is that a...dra...dra...dragon?" he stuttered in disbelief of what he saw.
He knelt on the roof of the train and gazed at the beast above. He heard it roar while it descended towards the train. He was not sure why, but he knew that it was on his side. The masked woman shifted into a black cloud and flew back to her allies.
The dragon roared again and dove towards Rey Ling. He was frightened but he did not want to attack. The flying beast swooped over the train and he saw a man jumping off the dragon and landed on the train. He heard an explosion echo in the sky and when he looked up he saw one of the masked strangers falling with a white haired man above.
"What is happening?" he asked the Omungi Galou. "Who are these people and where did they come from?"
Rey saw another man flying over the train south of him, clad in gold, fighting against the crown horned woman. He saw them clashing against each other, releasing beams of red and green maju. It was as if these mages had come from another world. Rey Ling had never seen such magic and such power.
"Are you okay?" A voice called to him in the common tongue. It was the man who had jumped off the dragon. He had long black hair with white and grey streaks, pale skin and hazel eyes. He wore a dark cloak with a chest plate underneath.
"Who are you?" Rey asked, yet somehow he knew this man.
"Rey Ling, by the gods, do you not remember me?" the man said. "It is I, Akielas."
"Akielas?" Rey questioned and the memories began to flow back as the wind rushed and magic exploded throughout the sky above the train. "Ah, yes, Akielas," he recalled. He remembered Akielas, the man who introduced him to Ironside, the great metropolis.
Caim
He saw them flying in the form of dark clouds over a machine called a train, running over steel tracks between the hills. He flew with cosmo, eyes glowing, leaving a purple trail through the sky. He saw Akielas's dragon, Cleyross, shoot a sphere of white flames towards Ember. The Specter swatted the dragon's attack with her staff and reversed the sphere. Ember shifted into black smoke and flew away from Akielas as her former master landed on top of the train to help the Xaianian.
Caim darted towards Ember, releasing a blast of air with his hands by his sides. Once he was close enough he unleashed wild winds whistling at tremendous speed. The winds went through her and she was forced to shift into human form. Her cloak was slashed in half by the strong winds so she spun around, smoke billowed and she regenerated the fabric of her cloak.
Caim stopped right in front of her, hovering over a hill. They stared at each other and sparks flew between them. Their maju pushed against each other, auras colliding invisibly.
"So you are the one they call Ember," Caim said mirthlessly, eyes glowing. "Looks like our maju oppose each other, as do our signs."
"What in Necros are you talking about?" She rasped. Her cloak billowed as the wind encircled her while she spun her kaminyte sword in one hand and her staff in the other.
"Your Odealian sign in the zodiac is the Dragon Lion and mine is the Avian," Caim explained. "Your nature is fire and mine is air. You feed off my innate maju. It is most unfortunate for you to face me today."
"I hope you can cast better spells than you can talk shite," Ember replied and thrust her staff at him, releasing a volcanic red beam.
Caim thrust a palm forward and released a violent blast of his cosm
o. Both beams collided and created a dark orb between them. Caim felt the maju of the Crimson Cosmo Jewel that Ember was using. He could feel the energy of the dragon god of fire, but only a tiny fragment. She could actually erase me from existence if she was using the cosmo jewel at its maximum, Caim realized. Poor soul knows nothing.
The dark orb continued to swell until Caim pressed his cosmo and pushed it back against Ember. Caim could feel her panicking and her heart beating faster. The orb exploded causing a flash in the sky of red and violet arcs, making Ember lose her grip on her staff. Caim flew after her but then sensed a wave of earth maju moving towards him. He looked over his left shoulder and saw a green beam of energy. He rose and dodged it. The beam streamed towards a hill with a cluster of trees and exploded, splitting the hill in half.
"That is the third one," Caim said out loud to himself. "This one had bullhorns on their mask. Not the one I remember."
"Looking for someone specific, are you?" the bullhorn Specter said. She also held a staff like Ember, but her staff had the Emerald Cosmo Jewel clutched with bars like a bird cage.
The cosmo jewel glowed green and Caim could sense the maju of the earth dragon god.
"Hertha, I presume," Caim guessed. Although she hid her face with that white mask, Caim's intuition told him that it was a young girl.
"Ah, you must be with Akielas," she replied. "You don't look so strong."
"To humans like you perhaps," Caim remarked. "Children like you should not be playing with celestial items. Hand it over unless you want to get hurt."
Hertha laughed then pulled a scythe from the darkness of her cloak. She crossed both weapons then swung them and released a green wave of maju. Caim took the hit and was wrapped in sharp thorns. The thick vines snaked around his body but could not pierce his skin, only his clothes.
"Child's play," Caim said arrogantly. He spread open his arms and legs, blasting himself free from the thorns. "Playing with toys you don't know how to use."
Caim saw Auron swooping by, aiming for Ember. Auron and Ember collided with pyromancy, a battle of flames and blades. Caim decided to let the Amaranth handle Ember while he tried to reclaim the Emerald Cosmo Jewel.
Caim then turned his attention to Hertha. "Where is the one with goat horns?" he asked.
"Oh, you mean Jairo," Hertha answered. Her voice was that of a naughty child. "He will be here soon. What do you care?"
"Not only do I seek to take the remnant of the dragons from you, but I want to further punish him for what he did to my home ten years ago," the demigod answered.
Hertha's left eye widened. Caim felt her seething with anger and fear, her heart racing and her body heat rising. His extrasensory abilities allowed him to feel what his opponent felt. He wished that he could read minds then he would consider himself a true god among mortals, yet he was never ashamed of his limitations.
"Wait," Hertha said and hovered back as if she had realized a terror of the past. "Are you...no!...no!...you are that demigod."
"I am one of the few demigods in Odealeous," Caim said. "Yes, you should be afraid."
He dashed forward and, like a whip, wind whistled around him. Hertha created a shield with her staff and it stopped Caim momentarily, but he managed to punch through it. She flew away, down to the hills following the train tracks. Caim chased her, quickly catching up.
"Air is the fastest element," he said then began to change the wind current.
He created a vacuum trying to draw Hertha towards him. As she tried to fly away, the powerful wind sucked her in bringing her closer to him. She could not escape the wind current so she launched a green beam at Caim. He smacked it away and it fell into a rice field causing a large explosion, creating a crater. Caim immediately regretted it and, once he steered his attention from Hertha, she drove the staff with the cosmo jewel into his face. Pain blasted, his head felt heavy and he fell from the sky to the train tracks.
Caim's body fell beside the tracks and plowed the ground, lifting dirt. His head spun from the blow and it felt like the world was moving as he tried to stand up.
"By the stars, what kind of steel was that?" he asked the unknown.
The ground shook and he quickly ascended. When he looked down he saw a hand forged of boulders rising from the ground with an open palm about to grab him, like the hand of a titan reaching towards heaven, but he knew it was Hertha's terramancy. He shot a shining purple missile of his cosmo energy at the titan hand, shattering it to pebbles when it hit.
"I think I found your weakness," he heard Hertha's voice.
Caim looked up and saw her hovering. The sun forced him to squint and he could feel her presence move. Reappearing with smoke and shadows, she swung her scythe at him, but he caught it and snapped it in half. Her weapon was made of kaminyte, a rare steel believed to be unbreakable. Amazed by Caim's strength to break kaminyte in half, Hertha dashed backwards and launched a blast of green energy from her staff.
Caim unleashed his own beam of cosmo that collided with hers.
"Did you not see what I did to your friend?" Caim said as he pressed more power against her blast. He pressed more cosmo energy into his attack and quickly dissolved her beam. Hertha was pushed back by the cosmo beam all the way to a far hill. She crashed into the hill and Caim's blast erupted, leaving a small crater.
At that moment he could no longer sense her maju and thought she was dead. He flew over to the explosion and looked for her. He called a gust of wind to clear the smoke only to reveal nothing but debris. Hertha was gone and Caim could no longer sense her.
Caim gazed at the horizon and watched as the train continued moving along the tracks, leaving a trail of smoke behind. He sensed Ember's maju and Auron colliding. Akielas and someone else fought against another Specter.
"There is one missing," Caim said as he scanned the acres of land with his cosmo. "These Specters have become a threat to me now. That girl struck me with kaminyte...or was it. Whatever it was, it weakened me." The human in him was chilled with fear, but his god side remained unshaken. "Such power that could even make a god bleed." He touched his forehead and felt warm blood on his finger tips. He licked the blood and tasted its silvery flavor for the first time in decades. "The thrill of being human. Sometimes it makes me wonder. There is almost no purpose in being a god. I believe with this adventure I will obtain more than just the cosmo jewels."
He smeared the blood on his forehead and flew towards the train moving across the horizon.
Auron
This is how Ganicus felt wearing this armor, he thought. This power in the hands of a young man. A youth moving into adulthood. How stressful it must have been. He did not know the boy for very long but it pained him to have watched Ember end his life. You trusted me with the Golden Sun. I will do everything in my power to finish them and return the medallion back to your family.
The Golden Sun gave him the power to fly much like Caim. Unsupported. No wings, no Eedahlan, only the energy of the Valiarmos itself. Auron flew clad in golden armor hemmed with spikes resembling sunrays while wielding a spear and shield. He could feel the spirit of the Valiarmos, a golden soul as old as the legend of Prodigus Kollos. For the first time in his life he was able to tolerate the element of fire and, much like Akielas, he could now master all four elements and be a quad mage. A mage with the potential to master twilight magic. He was reaching Akielas's level as a mage. And I will be fiercer than he, he swore.
Auron and Ember collided. A golden spear clashing against a sword forged of kaminyte. Both emanating fire maju with flames bursting with every blow. Sparks flew and steel clanged. Every time Ember tried to use her staff with the crimson jewel, Auron parried it then bashed her with his golden shield.
"Once I kill you King Darmang will be able to awaken from the dark slumber you cursed him with," Auron rasped and thrust his spear.
"Just try, redhead," Ember said and snickered. "Try to your heart's content. With the cosmo jewels we Specters are unstoppable."
Ember van
ished with the shadows then reappeared behind Auron. Before she could strike, the light of the Golden Sun blinded her with a blast of flames and maju that weakened her dark magic.
"Unlike Ganicus, I know how to control fire," Auron said. "I am of the Amaranth tribe. After waking the ancestral flames within me I was able to use this Valiarmos. Your dark magic will not work against me, Ember. I was close to killing you once, and will be again, for I am not soft like Akielas."
Auron saw that Ember tried to disappear again with smoke but failed, her body could not shift, so she used her staff and launched a beam of red maju. Auron flew around it, dodging the scarlet beam with ease. After seeing how it had destroyed Ganicus, he would not be easily defeated. He hurled his spear, Ember spun and it missed. With an open palm Auron called his spear and with a white light it reappeared in his hand.
"The crimson jewel is no use if you do not know how to use it," Auron lectured. "Such a pity to see that you can't defeat me even with a remnant of Pyramus. I am a warrior, Ember, a skilled fighter and mage. I have strategy and knowledge of combat. You are just a child thinking that finding new toys will make you stronger."
Ember looked down after what Auron had said. He could see that his words had upset her, but then she started laughing hysterically. A laugh like that of an old hag, yet Auron could see through her façade. Ember was afraid of him. She had become more afraid of him since he nearly killed her twice. The first time was five years ago when she had fooled him into taking the crimson jewel from his own people. The second was a few days ago when he imprisoned her inside an orb of earth, suffocating her, unable to move, unable to breath and unable to use magic until one of her friends came and blocked his focus.
"Looks like you learned from your dead friend," Ember replied. "The desert prince was the first to taste the wrath of the Crimson Cosmo Jewel. But you are as I expected. The challenge I always sought. Unlike Akielas, you are aggressive and willing to kill without a second thought. I like that."
Spirit of Mages (Rift of Chaos Book 2) Page 16
