When Akielas fled from Ember on his dragon, he had gone down to the shore of the island to find Auron’s body. The Amaranth was still alive with his limbs cut off. He left Auron in the hands of Zarviack and once the eclipse was over he flew back up to the tower. When he saw Ember again on the disc platform she was not herself. Someone had possessed her. A different voice spoke to him and then created the colossal sphere over the tower.
On his white dragon, Cleyross, he gazed at the giant sphere, astonished. He was not sure of what it was but looking at it he could see stars within it. Akielas then looked down at the tower. It began to crumble. The cracks that first started at the bottom of the tower ran all the way up to the top and large chunks of kaminyte fell. The Specter’s skyscraper tumbled like a tree chopped down by a lumberjack in a forest. The tower splashed in the ocean and its debris sunk. The giant sphere caused waves in the ocean below. Akielas could see that it had some gravitational force.
“Ember is in there,” he said. “I must go in and finish this.”
“Akielas!” he heard Caim’s voice from below.
Akielas looked and saw Caim with Eckxio in his arms. The Valiarmos had contracted into a pedant around the Elf’s neck and in his hands Eckxio held the Emerald Cosmo Jewel. Although Caim hovered he seemed tired and ready to collapse.
“We have one cosmo jewel,” Caim said. “The eclipse is over but there is still one more fight.”
The three descended to the shore and met up with Serena, Zarviack, Rey Ling and Auron. They all gathered and the Effeelions joined them on the beach as they gazed at the vestige of the dark tower. Akielas’ attention went towards Auron. He had many questions for the Amaranth.
Auron had his back against a boulder, right arm and leg cut off and had torn pieces of cloth wrapped around his stumps to prevent any bleeding. Everyone looked at Auron but he could not make eye contact. Akielas was angry at Auron for betraying him. He knelt next to Auron, grabbed his face and forced him to meet his eyes.
“You better start talking. It is a miracle that you are still alive,” Akielas said. “Why did you do it? Why did you betray us?”
“Is this your way of thanking me,” Auron replied with a cold voice, weak and tired.
“Thank you for what? For helping the Specters snatch the sapphire jewel from Zarviack?” Akielas asked.
“It was all part of the plan,” Auron answered. “I wanted to destroy the Specters from the inside, so I had to gain their trust and it worked, but Ember had control over the Golden Sun the whole time.”
“You wanted to destroy them from the inside and never let us in on your plan,” Akielas paraphrased.
Auron coughed and groaned, grabbing the stump with his left hand. “Had I told you it would have never worked. I had to do it. We were losing against the Specters and I was afraid of what would happen, so I decided to attack them from within. I thought I could stop Ember from using the needle during the tri-eclipse. In the end, her plans backfired for going against the laws of nature.”
“You fooled your own friends and carried the weight of the world on your shoulders,” Serena commented. “You really thought you could do it alone.”
“I knew I was going to die but my goal was to kill them myself,” Auron explained. “If I tried to kill Ember first, the other three would have stopped me. In order to succeed I had to take her friends out then get her when she was alone. But while I was here in their tower, I never got the chance, not even while she slept.”
“I must say, although it was foolish, you have some guts, Auron,” Rey Ling commented.
“Rey, I thought Ember had shot you down?” Akielas asked.
“The Effeelions healed my wound, no worries,” Rey replied. His vest was tattered from the battles against the fiends and Akielas could see the mark of his wound on his chest.
“It is good to know that you were on our side the entire time, however, did you not care that you could have died by the hands of one of your friends?” Serena asked.
“I was prepared to die either way,” Auron answered. “The world was in danger and after the Specters had taken the Aero Cosmo Jewel from Kazenolumos, I began to lose hope and our chances were not looking so well. That was when I thought that if the Specters were to be defeated it had to happen from within. Also, Caim had been captured. I thought that the demigod was our best hope.”
“So did I,” Caim added as he hovered amongst them. “I never thought once in my life that I could be captured so easily. The Specters discovered my weakness and I let my guard down being overconfident.”
“We all let our guard down.” Nehushine chimed in on his nimbus cloud. “Akielas came to warn us but we ignored him. We Effeelions have always avoided violence. We always stayed away from the world. We were not prepared for this ourselves.”
“Auron, I was seriously considering killing you after you betrayed us,” Akielas confessed. “I had accepted my failure as a father and teacher. I accepted the task of ending the lives of my own students for bringing chaos upon the world.”
“I don’t blame you,” Auron replied.
“You are such a daredevil,” Akielas added and smiled.
“Something is still bothering me,” Caim said. “What had stopped Ember’s plans? She had all four jewels and was able to strike me down with omnithium spears. Who or what was responsible for saving the world?”
“It was Willow,” Eckxio stated. “Her soul was trapped inside the Emerald Cosmo Jewel. She prevented the merging of their powers during the eclipse.”
The Emerald jewel floated over Eckxio’s hands. The jewel was made of a cluster of rectangular shafts protruding from a bigger squared-like stone. It took two hands to hold for it was far too large. Akielas noticed that Eckxio was whispering into the jewel, as if speaking to a spirit.
“Can you hear her?” Akielas asked and approached the Elf. “Does she speak to you from within the jewel?”
“Yes,” Eckxio said. “She knew of everything that was happening. She is so strong. Even after her soul was captured she still wanted to fight.”
“I was sensing someone’s presence inside that jewel,” Zarviack commented.
“So this is the girl you talked so much about,” Serena said and Eckxio blushed.
While everyone chatted, Akielas kept gazing up at the sphere in the sky. He could still sense Ember but it was not the same evil maju, it was the old maju from when he first found her on the shores of El Nido. The same maju of that feisty little girl who always stood back up when he knocked her down during training.
“Ember,” he whispered.
The Ember he remembered, the one he raised as his own daughter. Something was wrong and he could feel it in his core. She was crying for help and he could feel her pain.
“What has happened to you?” he asked the unknown as he gazed up itching to enter that giant sphere.
“Akielas, what is it?” Caim asked.
“It’s her. She is in trouble,” he answered. “Something is not right. There is someone else controlling her.”
“Does it matter?” Rey Ling snarled. “ She has caused too much pain as it is. The Specters are gone. All we have to do now is find out what that giant sphere is for and how to get rid of it.”
“She created a realm using the three remaining cosmo jewels,” Caim said. “I would fly in there myself but after the third moon appeared, my cosmo is not working and it is taking time to recover.”
“Akielas,” the skies echoed.
Everyone gazed up, startled by the sudden voice echoing in the sky. It was a voice that they were not familiar with and it seemed to be coming from the giant sphere.
“What was that?” Serena asked.
“It’s Arkana,” Auron said and all heads turned to him. “She is Ember’s goddess. Arkana is the one who has been guiding Ember from the beginning. She was trying to possess Caim’s body so I am guessing she resorted to Ember.”
“Akielas, come and meet your end. It is not over yet,” the voice in the sky
said.
“She is still alive. Let’s all fly in there and beat her senseless,” Rey suggested.
“No,” Akielas ordered. “I will face her myself. No one will interfere. Do you understand?”
“If you are in such a hurry to die alone, then so be it,” Rey said.
Serena went and embraced Akielas. She squeezed him tightly then kissed his cheek. “Don’t lose to her,” she told him.
“I won’t,” Akielas promised. “Eckxio, may I borrow your sword?”
The Elf did not hesitate. Eckxio gently threw his omnithium sword toward Akielas and said, “Put an end to all of this.”
Akielas caught the sword and slashed the air twice.
“You are going to need this,” Rey Ling said and threw his Omnistar at Akielas.
Akielas caught it, he looked at Rey and nodded. “Thanks, it will be very useful.”
Akielas then strode to the shore of the island, closed his eyes and began to focus his maju and felt it rising to his crown and connect to his inner cosmo. Within seconds he levitated one foot off the ground and his eyes began to glow purple as he released his own cosmo. When he had released enough energy he began to fly up towards the giant sphere. The higher he went the faster he flew. A purple aura engulfed him and he felt a power like none he had ever felt before. A power much greater than what maju was capable off. He had entered the omnith state. When he reached the giant sphere he used the omnithium sword to pierce through and dove into its mysteries.
******
It was as if he had entered the realm of the fairy king. He floated amongst the stars of the night with, a thousand suns around him. Ahead was a floating piece of land with the ruins of a castle. The architecture looked much like the buildings of the United Pathways with ceramic tiled roofs all in the shape of a triangle with twisting slopes. The castle had to be up to fifty feet high. It was burned withshattered sections scattered all over the area. It reminded Akielas of Caim’s floating island in Kazenolumos. He looked back and saw a blue globe with white shadows. Beyond the blue globe he saw a ball of fire.
Akielas floated in this endless space of darkness, an ocean of stars. He withdrew his cosmo, getting out of the omnith state then propelled himself to the castle using pyromancy, casting jets of fire. As he got closer to the castle he spotted Ember waiting for him in the ruins. Once he got close enough suddenly gravity triggered and he landed roughly on a cobbled path. He strode towards Ember with a grimace on his face. A dozen feet from her he stopped and they stared at each other. Ember’s eyes glowed purple while she wielded his sword. She wore no mask this time and the three cosmo jewels orbited her.
“Who are you and what have you done with Ember?” he growled.
“I thought you did not care about her,” she replied.
“That is not her voice, that is not how Ember speaks,” Akielas persisted. “So tell me, who are you, where did you come from and how are you controlling her. I know that you are not human.”
“I was once human,” she corrected.
“Then what are you now?” Akielas asked. “A fiend?” Some kind of wandering spirit?”
“Oh my, you ask too many questions at once,” she said. “Let’s start from the beginning. I will tell you who I am.”
Akielas crossed his arms with his sword parallel to his forearm. For so long he wanted to know what really caused Ember to change so suddenly. Akielas knew that evil had not been in Ember’s nature. Something or someone must have corrupted her. Now it was time for the truth.
“I am known as Arkana. However, in my human life my name was Xiamaila. To me it did not seem so long ago but in Odealian time, just one thousand years ago, I was the queen of a country which is now called the United Pathways, or as the Xaianian would say Tong Doran Cho. Back then it was a much smaller country until my army started to conquer and expand. It was pleasant at the time, conquering lands, people and dominating, but I soon grew tired of it. I began to seek meaning in life in different ways and that was when I stumbled upon cosmo magic. It was far more amazing then any form of magic I had ever seen and the person who had shown me was a time traveler.”
“Time traveler?” Akielas questioned. Never had he imagined that such a thing could be possible.
“Yes, with cosmo anything is possible, even moving through time, past, present and future. I gave up the throne to one of my descendents and then I became a hermit to focus on mastering the art of cosmo. It was difficult but as you have done yourself, wearing an immortality pendant gave me enough time to learn to control it.”
“So that is how you lived for so long,” Akielas said.
“Yes. I wanted to be a demigod like Caim and then ascend into a full fledged god,” she continued. “I wanted to be the god of fate and destiny so that I can control the evolution of men and create a different world. Can’t you see how many species have tried to evolve from human. The Elves evolved from humans. The Greamos evolved from humans. The Laguans evolved from humans and so on. Humans have to be the most complicated species in this world. I believe that the dragon gods had made a mistake in creating your kind. That is why I thought that ridding the world of magic would be a step closer to true peace. It was a philosophy that I learned from you.”
“So you have been watching me for that long?” Akielas wondered. The pieces were connecting and everything started to make more sense. It all came back to his original idea of ridding the world of magic as a solution that he now regretted.
“Thou art the genius after all,” Arkana said. “After centuries had passed I learned to control my cosmo after entering the omnith state and was able to remain in that state for hours without rest. That was when I began to gain the ability to see into the future of others and started to call myself the goddess of fate and destiny. My only mistake was challenging Caim. I travelled back in time to prevent him from becoming a demigod. That was when he destroyed me. My body was gone and my soul fell to Necrovania. However, I resisted the pull of the underworld long enough to drift into limbo, the colorless world. My spirit was strong enough to move through realms and at some point I thought I would end as an Eedahlan. I moved through Odealeous without a body. I needed a vessel or someone who could either carry on my mission or would surrender their body to me, and like a miracle I found that lonely girl on the night of a shooting star. This girl wanted to become more powerful than her master and so I showed her the power of cosmo.”
“That was when she decided to destroy everything I had,” Akielas concluded.
“Ember was a gifted girl and you were holding her back,” she said.
“I never held her back. I wanted her to become a powerful mage,” Akielas responded trying to hold in his anger.
“Then why did she come to me?” she replied. “You knew about cosmo magic but you were hiding it from her, which was why she agreed to…”
“Become your slave,” Akielas finished her sentence.
“Is that what you would call it,” She said.
“What do you call it?” He asked.
“Humans would call it a…contract,” she answered.
“What about this ruined castle? Why is it in this realm?” he asked.
“This castle is part of Ember’s subconscious mind,” she answered. “Ember was the daughter of a high king of the Yama country. The throne was stolen and her mother ran away with her on a boat to protect the bloodline of her dynasty. However, the boat sank during a storm and she drifted to the shores of El Nido. Does that sound familiar? This is where it all started for her. She was destined to rule. It was in her blood and you were trying to suppress it.”
“That is it!” Akielas rasped. “I have heard enough. I am going to end this once and for all.”
With a roar he entered the omnith state. His body shook from overflowing with cosmo but he withstood the pressure. An omnithium sword in one hand and the Omnistar in the other, he levitated off the ground and dashed towards Ember with his sword chirping with purple electricity. Ember used the crimson jewel and s
hot a blast of blue flames like the breath of a dragon. Using his sword, Akielas pierced through the fire dividing it and once he reached Ember he zapped her. They clashed swords and multiple sparks flew like fireworks around them. With every collision of their swords cosmo was exploding around them. Akielas’ sword buzzed with lightning and Ember’s sword bathed in black fire. They swung, blocked, parried but neither could land a blow. Their feet glided over the ruins of the castle and when their purple auras touched they would buzz and repel each other.
When Akielas finally saw an opening he kicked her into a portal that he had opened using the Omnistar. She fell through it and appeared through another portal by Akielas’ left. He swung aiming to kill but she quickly spun and parried his blow. She flew up and he followed while creating a twister with his hand. He neither shouted nor whispered any words, he simply rotated his hands and controlled the air in this dimension. He pulled in Ember with his twister then used cryomancy to summon a blizzard. She was caught by the twister, spinning uncontrollably. Akielas then used illumancy and cast a crystal shell, trapping her with the twister and blizzard all in one crystal sphere.
“Ever thought you would die a second time,” Akielas said.
From the tips of his fingers he shot a rod of lightning that pierced through the shell he had imprisoned her in. The rod zapped her and she screamed resisting the voltage. Akielas added as much force as he could but even while trapped it was difficult to weaken her. Although Arkana was using Ember’s body, it was Arkana’s cosmo that pushed against him. She resisted the lightning rods on the shell long enough for them to wear out, then she filled the crystal sphere with flames until it exploded.
“Cosmo suz!” they both yelled and each launched a purple beam of energy.
The two beams collided and pushed against each other. A ball swelled between them. The more cosmo they used the bigger the energy ball became.
“Does this look familiar, Akielas,” she said.
“Yes, I remember how Ember ran away before I blasted her asunder,” he replied.
Blood of Mages (Rift of Chaos Book 3) Page 29
