by Jesse Wilson
“I know but that weapon, these things are changing us, it's not worth it to win the battle but lose ourselves in the process,” Melissa said to him, Shane didn't register the words or the sense they made in the slightest and he marched over to Arket to finish the job.
“Come on, Shane, look at yourself, you're on fire,” Melissa pleaded with him again. Shane looked down at himself and saw that he really was on fire. He didn't like that and took a step back in shock.
Arket regained some of her power and escaped into the sky with a burst of bright blue fire. Shane shook his head and the fire faded away.
“Thanks, I didn't know what I was doing for a minute,” Shane said to her and looked at the whip that coiled around his arm on its own. “Maybe we should get rid of these things while we still can,” Melissa suggested.
“Yeah, but then we would be completely defenseless against these blades, we should just keep them, but use them only when we have to,” Melissa said, again trying not to think about all the people she must have killed with that one shot, pushing it out of her mind was harder than she thought, but as the cold air rushed back in it did become easier.
“Let's go find Pen, that group should make it to Vasaria just fine, it's not that far away,” Shane suggested, he really hated being out here.
“Fine, sounds good to me,” Melissa agreed, she didn't want to stay out here any longer than she had to either so they started to make their way back to the castle.
Chapter Twenty-One
Pen was running out of room to fight, unlike the black mist outside this black stuff didn't fade away it only fanned out in all directions.
“Tinea, you're going to be melted along with everyone in this room,” he screamed at them. Pen looked and noticed the wave of acidic mist was rolling towards the direction of the royalty.
“We need to take him down, now,” Pen said the obvious to Tinea. “Welcome to the fight, did you just get here?” she replied to him in a half groan. She flew straight over and onto the far wall above Brule, clinging to it. The handless monster turned to face them, the second he did Tinea charged at Brule with all the speed she could summon.
Pen gritted his teeth as her left blade severed Brule's head from his neck in one strike she landed behind him. His head fell to the floor and the wound sprayed out massive amounts of the acid mist in all directions. The body flopped forward and landed with a thud.
Pen walked over to the black blade in the floor and picked it up with his right hand. “You've lost, recall your mist or I will break you,” Pen said to him, held the left blade against Brule and started to carve into the blade. “You don't have the courage to break me,“ Brule said, feeling confident from his blade and Pen pressed harder into the metal, cutting into it.
“Okay you win, you win,” Brule cried out and Tinea held him above his head. All of the black mist, corrosive and infectious began to be drawn back into the blade. In just seconds all traces of the black fog was gone. Where Brule's body lay before now revealed yet another knight.
“Sir Centrate, as expected,” Pen said as he walked to the fallen scaled body picked up the scabbard and shoved Brule back into it, the lock clicked back into place. Pen looked at the others in the room. It would likely be the only other time he would see so much power in one room. He was surprised that the vampire King and Queen were also taken over by the mist too. The Morglanders always acted so superior, if this story got out maybe it would shut them up a little bit.
“It was expected that an Elroxian would hold the mist blade, but won't he die without water?” Tinea asked Pen, concerned.
“Yes, but he's got an Aquarian crest pendant, it'll protect him, it won't be comfortable but he'll be fine,” Pen replied to her. “Let's get out of here before everyone starts waking up and starts asking questions,” Tinea said and instead of using doors she flew straight up and through the roof.
“Castle needs to be remodeled anyway,” Pen said, not feeling the least bit bad about doing that. Gaila was not knocked out. All he saw was someone resealing the mist blade, stand there for a few seconds then flying straight through the roof of the castle.
He was very confused at all of this, but didn't have time to worry about it now. All of the royalty seemed to be returned to normal so he turned his attention back to them. He was just thankful he didn't manage to hurt any of them in the short fight.
“You think you're special because you've beaten me,” Brule said from inside his blade. “Shut up,” Pen replied. Tinea then drew strands of the corrosive black mist from the blade and copied the power with ease. “I'm not sure where this will come in handy but I sure hope we find a use for it,” Tinea said to Pen, ignoring the other blade.
“I am sure we'll get the chance, let's get to the hollow so we can put this one away too,” Pen replied to her as they flew through the air, then Pen's phone rang. “Take over for a minute,” Pen said and answered the phone.
“No, the castle is safe now too. Brule is taken care of and we are bringing him back to the place,” Pen said into the phone. “What do you mean you almost killed Arket, you know what, don't do that. Listen to me Arket is Princess Tatiyana, so don't kill any of them. This is my fault, they don't deserve to die for it, nobody does,” Pen replied.
“Fine, get to somewhere safe and I'll call you back when I'm done here,” Pen said and hung up. “We've got to find out where those weapons came from,” Pen said as he put his phone away. He noticed the black fog around the castle was already mostly gone and started to consider that he should have done this one last. Now all the authority was going to try to get the Kingdom back under control.
Soon the familiar sight of the hollow was below them and they started to land.
Tinea landed in the hollow. “I swear I'll get out of here and when I do I am going to melt you into oblivion,” Brule could only scream empty threats at them. Pen slammed Brule into the ground. “Shut it, foggy,” he replied to him. “Ouch, that was mean,” Brule replied. Pen did feel a little bad for doing that.
He placed the blade next to Sholtan, it was a perfect fit. Just as Pen had figured, no one had been here as far as he could tell.
“Don't worry without a life force to cling to we slip back into the void pretty quickly. Sholtan is already gone,” Tinea said and walked away.
“I say we take out Arket now, according to Shane's she's weak,” Pen suggested to her. “This princess, you reacted in a funny way when you learned she was the one Arket was using as a body,” Tinea replied, putting him on the spot.
“Yeah, we met for like five seconds before all of this started, she's pretty cool, even plays the same game I do online but that's all I know,” Pen replied in a hurry, defensively. “Well then, it's settled, let's go save the princess from the cosmic flame,” Tinea said and Pen smiled. “Yeah, we need to take care of this next,” Pen was relieved, smiled a little.
“But we'll have to be careful, Arket likes to play it close, uses the fire as a second skin. We could easily hurt her in the process of this battle. Even kill her,” Tinea warned him and Pen's smile faded just as fast. “That's why we ran away. You didn't want to hurt the host, makes sense,” Pen said, then his phone rang again and he answered it.
“Yeah, that's exactly the reason why,” she replied, lied. Her only reasoning for wanting to run away was because she didn't want to get melted. Tinea didn't care about any princess.
“Pen, I don't know what you know about the blades but we found one and you might want to get over here, this one needs to go next,” Shane said and in the background he could hear the sound of something crumbling.
“What is going on, tell me,” Pen said into the phone with unusual intensity. “It's a giant, we got to get out of here, we're on the Soctos Path trying to get back to Vasaria and just get here,” Shane said and hung up.
“I heard every word of it, you lead the way,” Tinea said and they took off into the air as fast as she could go.
“The path is easy to find and—“ Pen was cut off
because from this height he could see what the problem was. “Holy hell, what is that?” Pen asked as soon as he saw it. A giant walking through the buildings, it had to be at least eighty feet tall. It was white, covered with horizontal red stripes. Its face was stuck in a twisted grin from one side to its face to the other. The eyes were burning bright pink and the whole body was glowing. The sun was nearly gone but she provided her own light. It reminded him of a clown nightlight he had as a kid, it scared him then too.
“That would be Lumic,” Tinea said and Pen stopped, hovered in the air. “Um, he's kind of big, how should we handle this one,” Pen was concerned as Lumic swung its equally massive blade at and through a building, bringing the whole thing down in one attack.
“Someone must have made her happy, Lumic is, for lack of a better word bipolar. The happier she gets the bigger she gets and you get the idea,” Tinea explained to him. “Great, she's bipolar and a giant, this will be a great time. Let's get to work. Maybe I can talk her down a bit,” Pen said and the two of them flew forward the giant.
“Good luck,” Tinea said to him as they flew through the air towards the giant clown looking thing. Due to her sheer size the journey in her direction didn't seem to take so long.
“Hey, Lumic what's up with knocking down the buildings?” Pen asked her in the loudest voice he could summon to get her attention. Lumic turned her head and looked at them.
“Tinea, is that you, how are you doing, friend, did you find yourself a good host?” She asked him in a surprisingly quiet voice.
“Yes, but seriously why are you knocking down the buildings?” Tinea asked her again. “I'm just having a good time. I've been so depressed since I was free, without purpose you know? I saw what the rest of you were doing and decided that I could do it just as well too, how am I doing so far?” Lumic asked them eagerly.
“Well I've got some bad news, it turns out that we weren't supposed to be unsealed yet and were all doing very bad things. So I've decided to spread the message that we all need to get resealed again,” Tinea said to her, hoping for the best with this.
“Tinea, you feel different, you didn't take over your host completely did you?” Lumic asked and her eyes narrowed.
“No, I didn't but he's telling the truth, it's not our time to be out yet so if you'd just go back—“Lumic swung her blade at Tinea with a surprising amount of speed. Neither of them saw it coming, at the last second Tinea dodged to the left, avoiding the attack, her shoulder scraping against the blade.
“One good hit and we're dead, she can cut through us without trying,” Tinea said. “I never would have guessed,” Pen replied.
The giant blade hit the ground so hard that buildings nearby just crumbled to the ground on impact, but Lumic was gone.
Pen couldn't help but think of his friends being down there somewhere. “That was too fast,” Pen said and but couldn't find Lumic anywhere he looked. “Behind us,” Tinea cried out and flew to her right. The blade slammed and cut deeply into the ground again. The impact shattered windows instantly and damaged buildings again collapsed into rubble.
“Stop doing that, my friends are down there,” Pen shouted at the giant, but she was already out of sight again.
“How can something so big move that fast?” Pen asked what he was thinking. “Lumic is the blade of positive energy or, you know, basically light. She's not even moving near as fast as she could, size means nothing to her when it comes to speed,” Tinea replied to him.
“Come on, really, how are we supposed to beat something like that, it doesn't even make sense,” Pen said as Lumic grabbed them with her left hand and began to squeeze. Lumic was powerful, her grip at any other time might have been the end for them. Tinea and Pen reacted fast enough and summoning Sholtan's strength they pushed her fingers apart and flew from the grasp.
“Wow you are strong enough to do that, I'm impressed, I like being impressed, it makes me happier,” Lumic said and Pen watched as she grew another ten feet right before his eyes.
“Oh, just perfect, Lumic must be from a LION unit,” Pen said as he tried to think of what to do next. “What's a lion unit?” Tinea asked him.
“Military types, special operations and likely some of the only people who would respect and be more attracted to you managed to beat them in a fight, so in short, crazy,” Pen replied to her.
“Makes sense, Lumic has been a little off center since forever,” Tinea agreed with him.
The conversation proved to be distracting. Forgetting how fast Lumic was when they looked around they couldn't find her. “Seriously how do we keep losing a giant painted like a clown?” Pen asked and spun around only to see more ruined buildings he tried to look for that constant glow, but didn't see it anywhere.
“Maybe she got bored and left,” Tinea suggested. “Yeah, but to go where?” Pen kept looking and was a little bit impressed about how fast she was.
“I am over here,” Lumic said with a giggle and sat up between the buildings, she had blended in with the snow covered landscape too well.
“Great, now come over here and let us help-“ Pen was cut off when Lumic lifted her massive blade and fired a blinding flash of light.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Pen woke up in a strange place, the sky was green and filled with strange colored stars.
“Where did I end up. Maybe I'm dead,” Pen said as he stood up and quickly realized he was himself again, not wearing any silver armor. “No, you're not dead, and neither am I,” a voice came from behind him. Pen turned around and saw his Dad again, just like before in the dream.
“You and I should talk because the link won't last long around here,” he said and Pen was shocked. “I didn't disappear on my last journey into The Distance, I was taken by them,” he said and Pen didn't understand.
“They are weak anymore, not like they were in the past. One day a year they have enough power to leave their realms to meet up and make a plan. Pen, you were their plan, this whole thing was meant to happen,” he said to him with a smile that didn't make Pen feel any better.
“Okay, questions and answer time,” his dad said to him trying to move it along. “The gods forged the blades and made up the whole story, there is no darkness, no lock. Nothing, the gods knew one day their powers would weaken so their plan was to get some numbskull to open one of the blades, but no one ever did, tradition is strong with mortals,” he said and Pen just felt even worse now.
“I found out about their plan, they kidnapped me and brought me here so I couldn't tell anyone and killed the rest of my team after we wouldn't promise to keep the silence oath,” he said trying to make it all make sense as best as he understood it.
“Why haven't they killed you?” Pen asked him. His dad just smiled.
“They keep trying their best, believe me, but they forget that I am a Antacian Knight and with as weak as they are right now they can't waste that much power on little old me, so they put me here in the void, but they are gaining strength,” he replied and Pen smiled.
“What do I do, these blades aren't evil but they sure act like it,” Pen asked him. “Stick with the plan, son, but remember the blades aren't evil, they've been tricked too, like everyone else. Tinea is the only one who wasn't tricked,” he was cut off by a distant rumbling.
“Elrox is coming, you'd better wake up and help Tinea fight the rest of the war,” his dad said and with a smile his vision went completely white.
Pen woke up, body filled with pain.
“What happened, what hit us?” Pen asked but there was no response, whatever had hit them knocked Tinea out cold too. “Alright, this one's on me you just sleep it off,” Pen said and stood up with a groan. He flew out of the gaping hole that was in the wall in front of him into the air. Lumic was waiting for him.
“Alright you overgrown clown lady, time to talk some business,” Pen said as he did. The giantess lifted her blade again, the last time she did that there was pain and blinding light. Pen took the hint and dodged nothing but h
is instinct was good. Pen witnessed the world's most destructive flashlight carve the building he was just inside, in half.
“Well, I guess the only way you can dodge the speed of light is before the light comes on at all,” Pen said to himself as he charged her. With some concentration he formed his hands into blades. He buried the blades into her left shoulder. Light streamed out of the wounds but she didn't even feel it.
“Lumic, listen to me. I know you think you're part of some lock and key system, I know that, but it's not true. None of it is. You're being used,” Pen screamed at her and pulled his blades out, the wounds healed instantly as he did.
“Used how, Prolexa wouldn't lie to me, she's always told me the truth,” Lumic said and buried the point of her blade into the ground, to listen to him. “No, you don't understand, the Gods are using you not to lock up some primordial darkness, but to gain power for themselves. It's all very complicated but the more you destroy, the stronger they get. They don't care about you, you're just a tool and you're more than that, clearly,” Pen replied to her, trying to sound as honest as he could.
Lumic looked down at all the destruction she caused. “How can I believe you?” she asked him. “Can you honestly tell me that you feel good about killing and ruining all of these people's lives, I mean, face it, you look like you enjoy a good time but how is any of this good?” Pen asked her straight as he stood before that twisted grin that never moved. Lumic looked around at the growing destruction.
