Spirit of Mages (Rift of Chaos Book 2)

by A. J. Martinez

  Rey Ling and Akielas nodded and headed for the exit. There was nothing left to discover and there was no point in harming the queen if she had no more answers. Rey left her on the floor bleeding and, as much as he hated her, for the first time in his life he felt sorry for her. Serves her right, he thought as he walked away with his allies.

  Just as they were exiting the throne room, Auron hit his head on an invisible object. The red haired man reached out with his hand and felt something solid blocking their way out.

  "It's a barrier," Auron said. "I think she is trying to keep us here."

  "Why would she?" Akielas wondered and looked back at the ugly queen. "Unless...she had set a trap." Akielas then punched the barrier with a fist chirping with lightning. The impact did not break it but caused a ripple that revealed the barrier with a gleam in the air.

  Rey Ling looked back at the queen and she snickered annoyingly. She stood up holding her bloodied hand and her dress expanding. "As queen, do you not think that I would be prepared for this, Rey Ling?" She said, then her good hand caught fire and she placed it over the bleeding hand. Steam rose and the hole in her palm began to close.

  "Carnomancy," Akielas whispered.

  "Of course you must know some magic, but that won't save you," Rey said. "You already lost."

  "Oh I don't think so," Gemzeh said and her lips stretched to an ugly grin that showed her teeth. She raised her hands as if to praise the Omungi Gallou then shouted, "Black rose dragon of the darkness flames! I summon you!"

  "What is she doing?" Akielas asked, drawing his sword.

  "She is summoning," Rey answered and readied his gun.

  "But I don't see a mandarak anywhere," Auron said. "I am not giving her the chance." The Amaranth used his aeromancy and lunged for the queen while enchanting his falchion. When his blade reached her it collided with a crystal barrier that sent his sword flying backwards. He dashed back then cursed. "I won't be able to use much magic. I used it all on Ember earlier."

  "How can she summon without a mandarak?" Akielas asked, scanning the throne room.

  "I think she is using one," Rey responded and noticed what was happening on the floor.

  The magic circle began to appear on the floor beneath their feet. It was twenty feet wide and at its center it had the symbol of dark magic, a downward arrow pointing to the underworld. In a stained glass style of art it illustrated the black dragon. A roar echoed from the floor and the circle began to shine.

  "We can't escape," Rey say almost panicking.

  "We are going to have to fight it," Auron stated.

  "Nothing we can't handle," Akielas added.

  "I sure hope so," Rey said, fearfully. Fighting creatures other than humans was new to him. To have to fight a dragon terrified him and he did not have his sword.

  Like a snake from a burrow, the black dragon rose, its luster scales streamed and its body coiled towards the high ceiling. When it's entire body came out of the mandarak it glared at Rey Ling with glowing narrow red eyes. It had dark petals that waved like hair throughout its body. It had no wings, with arms and legs sprouting claws that tore at the ground. It whipped its tail and smashed the throne. It was forty feet long and its hiss made Rey's body cold and nervous.

  "On the positive side of things, the dragon is more beautiful than the queen," Auron mocked.

  "Would you shut up," Akielas snarled and lunged for the dragon with his sword sparking.

  The dragon sneezed a shot of black fire and when it struck Akielas, the master was pushed back against the barrier by the exit.

  "No!" Rey yelled. The dragon swiped its claws like swords and Rey dodged them by running below the dragon's belly. He shot at the dragon's stomach but his bullets could not penetrate the scales. "How I wish I had my sword right now." The black behemoth dropped and, with a pulse of wind, Rey pushed himself out of the way before it squashed him. He ran towards Akielas but the man was on his back being blasted by black flames.

  "Damn it!" He cursed and, when he looked back at the dragon, Queen Gemzeh stood on top of it.

  "Stand back!" Akielas shouted.

  When Rey looked at his foreign friend, Akielas was manipulating the black fire. His father once told Rey of the two most dangerous flames in pyromancy. Blue flames burned hotter and were faster but black flames were infused with dark maju. Rey realized that Akielas knew shadomancy but he could not contemplate it at the moment.

  "Odiams pikan ladran!" Akielas yelled and released from the palm of his hands dark flames in the shape of a dragon. Akielas attacked the rose dragon with his own dark spell. The monster was not affected and hissed back at them like a snake.

  Auron had managed to climb on the dragon's back while Akielas kept it busy. Rey watched as Auron aimed to kill the queen but, when he swung at her with his falchion, the queen was protected by her crystal shield again. The dragon's spiked tail aimed for the red haired man and he blasted skyward with aeromancy. The tail pierced through the scales and the dragon howled after striking itself.

  Rey quickly took notice of that. Nothing was able to harm the dragon except its own tail. So it is made of kaminyte, he thought. And to my knowledge only kaminyte can break kaminyte. I had enough in my factory to know. "You are going down little dragon."

  Auron flew up sixty feet and placed a green mandarak on the ceiling. He stood upside down on the magic circle and it kept him from falling to the floor, as if gravity had reversed. "Come up here you filthy beast!" Auron taunted the dragon. It hissed and coiled up towards him.

  "Terriora beastia fenk!" Auron yelled and glided away from his magic circle using aeromancy.

  A fist woven of stone fell from the mandarak and struck the dragon, holding it down. The creature hissed again and the queen fell off her Eedahlan. It wrapped its long body around the stone hand and squeezed, shattering it into boulders.

  Rey Ling and Akielas distanced themselves from the dragon. Auron joined them and the three looked at their enemy, thinking of another attack.

  "Any ideas?" Auron asked and panted. "I am all out of magic. That last move was all I had left. I thought taking down the ugly queen would be easy but she has tricks of her own. If we can't defeat her dragon then we are going to have to forget about her."

  "I have an idea but I need to get on the back of that dragon," Rey plotted.

  "Its attribute is dark so divine magic should take him down," Akielas analyzed.

  "Where is that demigod?" Auron wondered. "Can he sense what is happening in here?"

  "Let's not worry about him right now," Rey Ling said. "I need you to distract the dragon and the queen so that I can climb on his back."

  "Alright then trickster, I hope you know what you are doing," Auron replied.

  The queen mounted her dragon again. She sat on its nape and snickered. The dragon walked slowly towards them over the debris and rubble. It hissed and licked its chops, sharp teeth as long as swords.

  "Giving up already," Gemzeh mocked. "You seem disappointed, Rey Ling. Are you not ready to die?"

  "I was going to let you live," Rey replied. "But now I am going to kill you."

  "You and your foreign friends are no match for my black rose dragon," Gemzeh said.

  The dragon lunged and the three of them split up. It crashed against the wall and immediately Rey tried to jump on its back but the beast spun, whipping its tail. Rey ducked and felt the tail sweeping the air above him.

  "Llumvrem sols!" Akielas shouted and raised his sword up high. Light radiated from it like a beacon.

  The dragon hissed, blinded, but then spat acid in their direction with its eyes shut. Akielas dodged the acid and it consumed the ground. Some landed near Rey and he somersaulted away from it. Auron stood vertical on the wall above the destroyed throne using his mandarak. The magic circle seemed to help him against gravity.

  "Llumvrem phantom suz!" Akielas yelled and released a beam of holy light.

  The dragon launched a jet of dark flames and collided with Akielas's spell. The two a
ttacks pushed against each other. Rey Ling took the opportunity to climb onto the dragon's back. He stood on the spine of the creature and took out the Omnistar. "If this does not work then I am dead."

  "Get off my dragon!" the queen yelled.

  Rey Ling ignored her and waited for the dragon to strike him with its tail. The eye of the Omnistar began to blink and glow purple. He noticed that Akielas's divine magic had also failed against the dragon. Akielas ran away from the black flames. The dragon began to spit acid everywhere and it ate through the floor and walls of the throne room. Auron ran vertically on the wall evading the acid as well. His mandarak began to disappear and he was forced to go down to the ground.

  "Come at me you filthy dragon!" Rey Ling taunted the beast and shot at its back knocking some of its petals off. "Come on, fight me!"

  The dragon hissed and turned its long neck over its back. It stared at Rey with this glowing red eyes.

  "Kill him!" Queen Gemzeh commanded.

  The dragon hissed and struck at Rey with its spiked tail. Rey opened a portal over him and under the dragon. The tail plunged into the oval portal and rose again under its belly only to pierce its own heart. The tail went through the heart and out through its back. The tail retreated from the portal and Rey jumped off the dragon. The Eedahlan shrilled so loud it felt like Rey's ears might shatter. The Eedahlan began to disappear, returning to limbo. Its body vanished into glittering dark dust and black petals that showered the throne room.

  "Gemzeh, it's over," Rey Ling declared and paced towards her while reloading his gun.

  All three men gathered around the defeated queen. The light revealed that she still had her crystal shield but Akielas stabbed it with his sword, causing it to shatter and making a sound like broken glass.

  "Magic barriers do have their limits, you know," Akielas said.

  The queen fell on her knees and bowed to Rey Ling. "Please don't kill me," she begged. "I will do anything."

  "Yes my queen, you can die," Rey said. "But before I take your life, I want to show you something." He used the Omnistar and opened a portal high up on the wall. In that portal he saw Caim inside the building where the unfinished train was. "Do it now," he commanded. Caim lifted the train effortlessly with his cosmo and hurled it through the portal. The train fell and the queen shrieked. The train landed on the throne and broke through the wall causing massive debris and destroying the insides of the castle.

  "Don't think that you could ever replace the Golden Gear factory," Rey said. "My grandfather changed this country with his machines."

  "Please, don't kill me, I will tell you all about the Specters’ plans," she finally confessed.

  "So you do know," Rey Ling said and lowered his gun.

  "She mentioned the Specters again. What did she say?" Akielas asked eagerly.

  "She is confessing. She admits to know of the Specter's plans with the fiends," Rey answered.

  "The Specters threatened to kill me if I told anyone," the queen explained. "But if you let me live I will tell you all about..."

  A gust of wind came through the doorway. The queen's neck began to bleed and then her head fell off. Blood squirted and her body collapsed. Rey and his allies were shocked and stepped away from the queen's body. Rey then noticed one of the Specters hovering aloft. This one had horns warping backwards like a goat. The Specter wielded a katana; a sword with a long thin blade that was commonly used by the Yamajins.

  "She could not keep her mouth shut," the Specter said and snickered.

  "Jairo!" Akielas bellowed.

  A dark cloud appeared next to Jairo revealing Ember holding a staff. Both Specters hovered above, staring down at them.

  "Perhaps you would like to finish her sentence," Rey said and aimed at them.

  "Aren't you glad that she is dead now," Jairo replied. "I knew she could not keep her mouth shut but I didn't think all three of you would be the ones to squeeze the secret out of her. My dear Akielas, your path has even intertwined with this man from the United Pathways. You truly are a blessed man. Everywhere you go you seem to stumble upon the right people that always link back to us. The dragon gods must be at your side, but all of that is going to change."

  "Perhaps it's our destiny," Akielas said. "It all happens for a reason, don't you think. I will be the one to end you."

  "Keep praying and keep believing, my old master," Ember said. "When the time comes, we will battle and everything you fought for will be meaningless."

  A hole in the roof burst open and everyone gazed up. Caim descended from above, eyes glowing and he rasped, "Jairo!"

  "Looks like it's time to go," Jairo said and, with a cloud of black smoke, he and Ember disappeared.

  Rey and his allies gathered together. It seemed that the Specters had the upper hand in this game they played. Rey realized how terrified the Specters were of Caim. Of course, who would not be afraid of a demigod?

  The queen, whom he detested for so long, was gone in the blink of an eye. He always believed she would die by the hands of her people. I guess I was wrong, he thought. There was something bigger happening. He knew the Specters were plotting something much worse, and it involved the world. He looked at his allies and new friends. He never thought that people outside of his country would be the ones that would help him bring down the queen.

  "Things are...really changing. I can't believe this," he whispered.

  "You can't believe what?" Akielas asked and patted Rey on the shoulder.

  "That foreigners would save this country from the wrath of Queen Gemzeh," he answered and smiled.

  "Thus the age of twilight," Caim added. "Big changes are coming. The entire world will slowly shift and all will unite. I can feel the energy of the Odealeous converting into something new."

  Rey was dumbfounded at how Caim spoke. He did not understand what the demigod meant.

  "By the way, Rey, great strategy with the rose dragon," Auron said. "I never would have thought of that."

  "Its scales were made of kaminyte, and I saw how its own tail pierced through its body. It was quite simple." Rey crossed his arms and smirked. He turned to Caim and asked, "Where were you while we were dealing with the queen?"

  "I was scanning," Caim responded mirthlessly. He was always solemn. No facial expression. "I was trying to sense the maju of the Specters. Especially Jairo. They are experts at hiding. I could not even sense the cosmo jewels they held. If they can hide that from me so well, I wonder what else they can do. While you were fighting the queen I was hoping they would show up and try to stop you, then I would storm in and strike."

  "Don't forget, there is one more thing we need to do to finish our mission here," Rey reminded.

  "And what is that?" Akielas asked.

  "Follow me," Rey said and beckoned.

  He took them to the back of the castle where the brick building resided. Rey, Akielas and Auron stood before the slope and stared at the building. Caim ascended with a sphere of purple energy pulsing in his palm. The demigod hurled the sphere at the brick building and it detonated. The explosion caused a mushroom cloud. Rey wanted to make sure that no fiends survived the explosion so Caim hurled more explosive spheres with his cosmo, creating a massive crater.

  Later on, Rey and his allies teleported back to his factory to prepare for the next time the Specters appeared.

  Eckxio

  Uvaris guided him through Elysious. Paradise. Heaven. The realm of light. Arcadious. It had many names, but one thing was for sure. There was no pain and no suffering. It was pure and peaceful. He could not even feel his scars and burns. All worries melted, all negative energy was removed from his body and he felt safer than he had ever felt in his life.

  There was no sun but everything was radiant. Giant gemstones rose from every floating island and the pillars of diamonds that towered through the carpet of clouds. Birds with white feathers soared and ivory serpent-like creatures coiled in the open sky. There were waterfalls below the golden road he was walking on. Crystalline water
s and stones as clear as glass. It seemed to have no end. An aquatic abyss like none he had ever seen. He saw strange fishes swimming and jumping out of the water. Mermaids rested on quartz boulders and there were other animals that seemed to have evolved to be transparent.

  "The realm of light," Eckxio whispered. "It is more incredible than how the scrolls describe it."

  "You think so?" Uvaris said.

  "Of course," he replied. "How old are you and how long have you been here? Were you born here?"

  Uvaris turned and looked at Eckxio. She fixed her bangs over her eyes and smiled at him. "Here there is no such thing as time," she said but Eckxio could not imagine such a world.

  "But, if there is no time then...how do you measure your age or...how do you know how many days or years have passed?" He asked, still stunned at such a philosophy.

  Uvaris only giggled. She spun playfully then orbited him. "Here there is no day and there is no night. There is no past or future, there is only now. We live in the present moment."

  "You sound like the fairy king," Eckxio remarked. Then he remembered the old fairy's quote. Time is an illusion. You don't value time. What you really value is this moment, the now, where everything truly happens. "I think I understand..., somewhat."

  "Do not worry," Uvaris said. "It might sound confusing right now but you will understand eventually. Just follow your intuition and listen with your soul."

  "Listen...with...my soul," he thought out loud and placed his hand on his chest.

  "And to answer your second question, no, I was not born here," Uvaris said.

  Eckxio felt warm in her presence, the same warmth he felt around Willow. He noticed how long her eyelashes were, like a pair of butterfly wings.

  "And the golden ring on your back?" he pointed at the glowing disc and Uvaris shifted her body, looking over her shoulder at the halo.

  "Oh, this is what makes me a Lumnos," she explained. "This golden halo on my back is attached to the seven energy points that run from the bottom of my spine to the crown of my head. All Lumnos have it. I think some humans call it the...what was the name again...umm...cha...chakras. Yes, I think chakras is what you call it, or something like that. The ring lifts me up and helps me fly through this realm."