The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  The Masked Magician floated through the air and landed beside him. “Such a sad state,” he sighed sarcastically, and placed his foot on Q’s immobile chest. “It’s okay though,” his teeth shone in a wicked expression. “We’re going to have so much fun now!”

  Q struggled to stay awake, his eyes blurred and hazy. His body lost the will to move, his mind lost the will to fight back. He gave up.

  And with that he succumbed to the darkness.

  ***

  Chris was in a confused state of mind.

  Taylor sat down at the corner of the upper deck, her body uninjured, her limbs in top shape. But her mind was silent, and her eyes were duller than a broken light.

  Chris had no idea what to do to help her. She had never been good with handling emotions, neither her’s nor someone else’s, so this situation wasn’t really her forte. And to make things worse, all this did was remind her of how she might react if something happened to Kai.

  Shut up you idiot, she scolded herself. She didn’t need that sort of negativity in her mind.

  She glanced at Kai, who was busy working with the controls at the pilot’s panel. She sighed, regretting the train of thought going through her mind.

  “I should have pulled him back in,” Taylor murmured, a whisper quieter than the most silent of winds.

  Chris kneeled down, her hand on Taylor’s shoulder. “Listen, there was nothing anyone could have done. Nothing,” she said, her voice stern. “It wasn’t your fault, and frankly it wasn’t Q’s fault either. I don’t think it’s right, or fair, for you to blame yourself or anyone else for what was a horrible coincidence.”

  Taylor’s eyes looked at her, the light in them growing duller with every passing moment.

  Chris glanced over at Elizabeth, who was sitting on the edge of the upper deck. She seemed fine, but Chris could tell that she was only acting that way so that people would pay more attention to Taylor than to her.

  Elizabeth, for a long time, held a lot of unexpressed feelings for Q. Chris didn’t know much about it, since she didn’t often involve herself in these things. The only way she had even found out about this was through Kai, who was usually on top of almost any of these events.

  Taylor put her arms around Chris and rested her head on her shoulder. “Q…” her voice softly mumbled.

  Chris put her hand on Taylor’s head and stayed still. “It’s all going to be fine, Taylor,” she said. “It’ll all be fine.”

  Alarms blared through the deck and a holographic image opened up in front of the viewscreen.

  Warning, it said.

  “Kai, what’s going?” Elizabeth shot from her position.

  Chris wanted to go look as well, but Taylor hadn’t moved an inch, even after everything that had just happened. The emotional part of Chris snapped, and her pure, logical one took over. She pulled Taylor’s arms from around her, and leaned her against the wall. Taylor remained silent, her eyes looking at the ground before her.

  This is going to take much more work than any of us can handle, Chris realized. She jumped down to lower deck, where Elizabeth and Kai were in deep conversation.

  “What’s going on?” Chris asked.

  “That,” Kai said. The holographic screen switched feeds, and showed a massive white ship coming right towards them. “It’s coming at us from behind,” he explained. “And at a very good pace too.”

  “Any identity?”

  “It’s a white ship,” Elizabeth said quietly.

  Chris’ eyes widened. It can’t be, she thought. Not now of all times.

  “The White Knights are here aren’t they?” Ruby glided down next to them.

  “Are they here for Taylor?” Elizabeth asked. “Why would they want to attack us so randomly? It isn’t like we’re invading their territory or something.”

  “Well, it does make sense that they might attack us just for Taylor. She is a Dark Knight after all.”

  “Yeah,” Chris said quietly.

  The Dark Knights were one of the most powerful military factions in the Universe and acted as the Universe’s peacekeepers. Taylor was actually one of the Dark Knights, but had consciously chosen to leave and come to Aliea instead.

  The White Knights were one of the strongest military factions in existence as well, and as the name implies, they were not on good terms with the Dark Knights. They had already waged war against the Dark Knights a few months ago, and almost started another just a few weeks before. They were also sort of crazy when it came to war tactics, which was exactly why it wouldn’t be surprising for them to kidnap Taylor and use her as leverage against the Dark Knights.

  Chris turned to Taylor, who was slowly getting up and making her way to lower deck. Her body was fine but her very essence seemed defeated.

  It’d be pretty easy to capture her in this state, Chris sighed.

  “We need to get away from this ship, and fast.” Elizabeth said. She turned to Kai. “Can you get into Hyperspace?” she asked.

  “Working on the coordinates,” he said and punched in a few numbers. The engine’s hum became higher pitched and the Orion began to tremble. The ship jerked for just a moment, but jerked so violently that everyone was thrown off the floor and against the walls.

  “Ouch,” Elizabeth said as she got up.

  “Sorry,” Kai said, already back on the pilot’s chair. “We didn’t have time to secure ourselves for the hyperspace jump.”

  Chris looked out through the viewscreen, at the black space before them. This space was different. It wasn’t littered with sparkling stars, it didn’t have any glowing lights anywhere. It was just a uniform canvas of black; the black of Hyperspace.

  Hyperspace was an alternative dimension that existed parallel to the Universe. It was a warped version of space, so travelling one billionth of an inch in hyperspace was like travelling a thousand miles in the regular Universe. Since Hyperspace was warped so much, it made it difficult for people to find a target once they jumped into it, which was exactly why Kai had made the Orion do so.

  A holographic screen appeared in front of the viewscreen yet again, and displayed the exact same words.

  Warning.

  Kai panicked. His hands blazed through the panels, his fingers twisting and turning things like clockwork. His eyes ran through every stat on the screens, his mind working actively on what was going on.

  Suddenly, he turned to them, his eyes terrified. “They’re right behind us."

  “What?!” Elizabeth asked. “But it isn’t possible for them to find us in Hyperspace, right?”

  “It isn’t easy for them to find us, but it’s possible.”

  “The odds are what, a million to one?”

  “It’s about ten billion to one,” he said.

  “How far behind are they?” Chris asked.

  “I can’t tell for sure. They’ve used a cloaking device so the Orion can’t get all the details I need. All I know is that they’re quite close by and they’re charging at top speed.”

  “That can’t be good,” Elizabeth said.

  “What weapons do we have on board?” Taylor walked up to them, expression still cold, but her mind a little more alert.

  It’s good to have you back, Chris smiled to herself.

  The ship jerked once more, this time more gently than the last.

  “We jumped out of Hyperspace?” Elizabeth asked.

  Kai looked down at his panels. “Oh dear god,” he said.

  “What’s going on?” Taylor asked.

  “They’ve got us in a tractor beam,” he said.

  Chris realized what that meant. They couldn’t escape it even if they wanted to. The only way to fight a tractor beam was to break the machine creating the beam, but that was impossible at the moment.

  “What do we do now?” Elizabeth asked, her voice quiet.

  Kai hesitated, the words stuck in his mouth, “We give in,” he finally said.

  “That’s it?” Chris asked. “We’re just going to surrender?”

&n
bsp; “I’ll gladly fight back if you actually have a plan of attack,” Kai said.

  Chris fell silent.

  The screen flared up again. Incoming transmission, it said.

  Kai squinted, “Who the hell is this?” he said and let it through.

  A brown-haired teenage boy popped onto screen. His jade-green eyes looked at them all, and his lips curled into a smirk. “Looks like I hit the jackpot,” he chuckled.

  “Levi,” Taylor said, her voice filled with malice.

  Chris tensed up the moment she saw his face. Levi was Aliea Academy’s greatest enemy. In a span of a few months he had nearly obliterated Aliea, and had almost defeated the Dark Knights. He was a threat beyond anything she or anyone else had seen.

  “Ah Taylor,” Levi smiled. “It’s nice to see you again. Where’s Q?” he grinned.

  Why is he acting like he knows something? Chris bit her lip.

  “You seem so silent,” he stared at Taylor. “Ah, is it because your little Q ran head first into that explosion?”

  Taylor’s eyes widened. “What do you know about that?”

  “Apparently much more than you do,” Levi winked.

  “What do you want, Levi?” Kai asked calmly. “Just leave us alone.”

  The green-eyed boy laughed. “Leave you alone?” he asked. “You honestly think saying something like that is going to help you?”

  Kai clenched his fists. “Everything is always a joke to you.”

  A small jolt ran through the Orion, letting everyone know that they had touched down inside the White ship’s hangar.

  “Now, now, Kai,” Levi smiled. “I’m not a comedian. I’m a performer.”

  The Orion’s hatch door swung open, and men in white battle armor stormed inside.

  “Now it’s time for my biggest performance ever,” Levi smiled in wicked fashion. “Would you do me the honor of being my audience?”

  ***

  1-5

  Deep rumbling noises entered Q’s mind, forcing him to open his eyes. He looked up and saw that he was in some sort of ancient hall. The circular room spanned about twenty yards across and had white marble pillars placed in a smaller circle, standing close to the walls.

  “Welcome, sorcerer,” a symphony of voices rang through the air loud and clear, mystical and powerful.

  Q looked up, and saw an arc of five large thrones floating in the air above him. Giant beings of glowing white light sat atop each one, glancing down at him. Their bodies were hazy, as though light itself had condensed into solid form. They looked at him, their bright eyes a shade of white purer than anything he had ever seen before. The ground rumbled as they hunched forward, leaning towards to him as though they were whispering a secret.

  “The energy beings,” Q whispered, unable to believe the sight before him.

  The energy beings were the most powerful race in the Universe. They were five beings created from pure, mystical energy and were deemed the ultimate power in the Universe.

  “It is nice to see you, Wielder of Light,” the five of them spoke at once, their voices creating a spectrum of sounds.

  “A pleasure,” Q bowed politely. “Would you be so kind as to tell me where I am right now?”

  “The Palace of Being of course,” one of them said. “Where else would we be?”

  Oh yeah, he thought, realizing how stupid a question he had asked. The Palace of Being was a sacred place in the Universe, specifically known as such because the energy beings resided there indefinitely.

  “It is the first time we have actually met, is it not?” they asked.

  Q nodded. “It seems odd that with everything that has been going on, this would be our first meeting,” he smiled.

  “Indeed,” one of them smiled back.

  Q began to wonder how exactly he got to the palace in the first place. The last he remembered, was getting wrecked by the Masked Magician. Had he teleported here? The energy beings were perfectly capable of doing something like that, but he really wondered if that were the case.

  “You had quite the battle with the Masked Magician,” they said.

  Q tensed, his mind recollecting images from the battle. “Do you know where he is?” he asked.

  “At the moment, he is carrying you away onto his ship.”

  He sighed, his suspicions confirmed. “This isn’t reality is it?” he asked.

  “We have appeared as a mere vision, my boy,” they said. “But this is not some simple delusion or dream. We have something serious to talk about.”

  Uh oh, Q thought. That didn’t sound too good. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Do you remember what the Masked Magician’s original mission was?” they asked.

  Q hesitated, pausing for a moment. “He wanted to open up the inter-dimensional gates.”

  “Exactly,” they said. “You have heard of the Great War have you not?”

  Q nodded. The Great War was an inter-dimensional war that happened so long ago that it was a nearly forgotten event. Beings of another dimension, called the Megethos, invaded this Universe with the most devastating attack ever. All of reality nearly succumbed to their power, but the energy beings managed to tip the battle to their favor and send the Megethos back to wherever they came from. The inter-dimensional portals were all completely destroyed after the war ended, thus preventing the Megethos from invading the Universe ever again.

  But the Masked Magician found another way to open up the portals once more.

  “He’s going to use his Elementa isn’t he?” Q asked.

  “The Elementa of Gravity is a troublesome power,” the energy beings sighed.

  The Masked Magician could concentrate his powers in one region of space and rupture the very fabric of space and time, thus creating what is commonly known as a black hole - a point in space from which nothing can escape. The problem was, that these black holes could destabilize space enough to actually open up new inter-dimensional portals, and these portals would then allow the Megethos to enter this Universe once again.

  Not a good scenario.

  “Do you think the Magician looks to achieve the same goal once more?” Q asked.

  “It would be surprising if he wasn’t.”

  “It’s surprising that he’s actually alive.”

  “The eye does not always tell the truth, sorcerer.”

  Q clenched his fist, frustrated that he didn’t know how the Masked Magician was still alive. “So if he’s really on the path I think he’s on, what do we do about it?”

  “We cannot do anything. You are the only one who can.”

  “Isn’t that how it always is?” Q sighed.

  “It is time for you to wake up, sorcerer,” they said. “And remember, the final blow will not be dealt to the body, but to the heart.”

  Before Q could get another word out, the ancient hall was surrounded in a gust of wind, as though it had just been placed in the middle of the storm.

  “Remember,” the symphony of voices echoed. “The heart.”

  And with that the light turned to darkness.

  ***

  Q gasped awake. His body felt like it was drowning in the dark winds he had just seen.

  Maybe I really am weak against darkness, he thought.

  The first thing he realized was that he was inside a spacecraft. The roar and rumble of the engines could be heard ever so slightly through the walls. What kind of ship though, he didn’t know. He was in some sort of medical room, an infirmary of sorts. There were energy bonds cuffing his limbs to the corners of the metal table he was on.

  Damn, he cursed. Energy bonds were basically handcuffs made from pure energy. They were nearly impossible to break through sheer force alone.

  Q looked around him, trying to grasp where exactly he was at the moment. The walls around him were a snow-white, and so was everything inside the room. A hospital would normally have pure white sheets everywhere, but this white seemed a little different. It was more sinister, less homely.

  “Ah, you�
�re awake,” a deep raspy voice said but Q couldn’t look up to see who it was.

  A masked face popped into his vision, “Miss me?” the Masked Magician smiled, his teeth sparkling in the abundance of light around them.

  Q glared at him. “Hardly.”

  “Now, now,” another voice said, a weirdly familiar one. “You should be honest with your feelings, Q.” Levi stood beside Q, a content look on his face.

  Q immediately realized why the white around him felt sinister. The White Knights, he realized. But what in the world is the Masked Magician doing with Levi and the White Knights?

  “You seem confused,” Levi smiled at him.

  Q grinned. “Well, I’m quite overwhelmed to have my two favorite people in the world come visit me at once.”

  “You can act as tough as you want, Q,” Levi leaned in. “But you can never hide the fact that you’re afraid.”

  Q grit his teeth.

  “The Masked Magician seems to be your kryptonite doesn’t he?” Levi smiled.

  “He isn’t even supposed to be alive,” Q muttered.

  “Why? Because you killed him?”

  “I didn’t kill him,” Q said. “He killed himself.”

  “He never died,” he smiled.

  Q became nervous, unsure of what to make of the situation.

  “You’re not seriously thinking about that now are you?” he asked. “You’ve got more important things to worry about for the moment.” He walked over to a panel and worked the controls.

  Q’s energy bonds shut down and released his hands. He rubbed his sore wrists and looked at Levi. “You’re quite confident to release me like this,” he said. “I could assault you right now if I wanted to.”

  A heavy force held Q down, pushing him against the metal floor. The Masked Magician looked at him, his hands facing Q.

  “And I could kill you with one word,” Levi smiled and walked to the entrance. “Let’s get going shall we?”

  Q followed silently. He wanted to lash out, he wanted to get rid of all his anger. But he knew the Masked Magician was far too powerful for him.

  Maybe I’ve weakened, he thought.