Rogue Light

by Brian Nyaude

 

  38

  Swinging my weight to the left, I unlatched the string and jumped down. Too late for comfort, we saw them fall from the sky. Large chunks of molted rocks the size of caravan carts, raining down on the whole castle. Compared to the last time, these ones were faster and numerous. What was that idiot thinking?

  “What is this? Is the world coming to an end?” Paul screamed when he landed on the ground with his hands covering his face.

  It was chaos, the ground beneath us was being destroyed by these rocks from the sky. Further to our misfortune, the molted rocks oozed of terrible stinky gases into the very air around us. Tucking down, we ran past the first building and took shelter in a closed roof alley. It was hard to move around and dodge the rocks at the same time.

  “Don’t worry Paul,” I reassured him. “This is just the work of an irresponsible fool who can’t control his powers.”

  There was turmoil on the ground, the castle soldiers were running around trying to escape away from the burning comets. Just further to my left, I felt them. Ogana, Kaya, Dashe, Masonku, Dien, and Showe were here in this citadel. Wait, there was one more here, but not among them, Suzanne. She was here somewhere within this castle, hiding her presence like a shadow. Why had they returned? Now I was truly worried about all of them. My friends had somehow infiltrated the castle under the cover of Dashe’s final storm, causing a ruckus throughout the castle. Straightening my back, I cleared my thoughts and focused on locating Katarina’s energy amongst them. There!

  I felt it; she was below the castle near the dungeons I had destroyed.

  “Paul help the others escape,” I pointed towards the other side, next to the dungeons of Pitto. “Trust me Paul I know what I am doing this time.”

  But did I truly? In a small way, I wasn’t afraid of her. Needless to say, I didn’t really think I could defeat her so easily. I bit my lip, thinking of a way to assure my victory. Ebi had said I had unlocked my fifth blast technique upon dispelling all of my negative energy. But would it be enough? No, I shrugged away every feeling of doubt in my heart.

  “Paul I’m leaving and good luck friend,” I waved my hand and turned around, dashing towards the dungeons below.

  “Alright! Just don’t die Rid,” he waved back and disappeared in the opposite direction.

  “I don’t intend to,” I whispered in one glare.

  With my thoughts clear and unsheltered, I began to gather massive amounts of energy from the gauntlet as I could. I knew that I had to step it into high gear if I ever wanted to live to tell about it in the future. To my surprise, my power to fly came back. Hovering up slowly, I took off into the sky and hastily flew toward the dungeons. Flying fast, I made it to the other side of the castle, dropping carelessly through the hole below me, into Pitto. Everything below was silent, only the wind stirred from a distance. Katarina was here somewhere, out of the reach of my gaze. Silently, I landed down feet first, looking cautiously in every possible direction. Last thing I wanted was to be ambushed again.

  “It’s about time you showed up here Riyo,” a hooded figure stepped out of the shadows with a trident in her right arm. “I didn’t kill you or your friend for this exact reason. I need you to do something for me.”

  As I had suspected, she knew I would come. The trident in her arm gave her the ability of insight, meaning I had walked directly into her trap. Moving back, I placed my left foot back and prepared my body for anything she could throw at me. Instead of attacking me, she stared at me and let out a small quick laugh. Just what did she want from me?

  “I have something that might interest you,” she giggled, holding the trident more firmly with the three tips pointing at me.

  What was she up to? I doubted there was anything she had that would interest me at all. The air around me suddenly got cold again, resonating to the trident’s power. A blue light appeared in front of it, revealing someone tied up inside, next to the princess.

  “No not her,” I clenched my fist, unable to comprehend what was about to unfold. Apparently, this villain was willing to stoop to any level to get what she wanted. “Katarina you disgusting monster, you are not playing fair.”

  “When did I ever say I would play fair?” she laughed diabolically moving closer to me. “You are not a child anymore, wake up! Life is not fair. You can’t go through life being naïve Riyo. Your enemies will always find your weakness and exploit it.”

  Of course how could I forget? She was a villain after all and everyone knew they never played fair. She had somehow captured Suzanne and I was now at her mercy. I had lost Daphne so there was no way I was willing to lose Suzanne too. If anything were to happen to her, I would not be able to go on with living. For now, I had to do whatever that fiend wanted.

  “Okay what do you want from me Katarina?” I asked her without showing signs of hostility.

  I lowered my arms to show that I had no ill intentions in me. I had to do whatever it took to make sure nothing happened to Suzanne, even if it cost me my life. Katarina hissed at me like a snake while her daughter laughed like a maniac firmly holding on to Suzanne. Raising her free hand, Katarina pointed towards a room that had appeared out of nowhere. Wait a minute, it was the same room I had seen when I was descending down onto the last floor of Pitto.

  “Open it now!” she commanded looking straight at me with intense eyes. “Do it now or else this girl will suffer horribly.”

  It was another golden room like the one in Jura, but this one was somehow different. It was a bit bigger and the gold encrusted on it was a whole lot thicker and more valuable. Walking up to it, I examined it and found no visible door on it. “I don’t know how to open it.”

  “Don’t lie to me, just do it now,” she screamed at me, pointing her trident at Suzanne’s neck.

  Without delay, I looked again, desperate to find the opening to place my hand in. Suzanne was in terrible danger. Unless I could find a way to open it, Katarina would surely hurt her.

  “Rid don’t do it,” Suzanne whispered trying to stop me. “It’s my fault I got captured, don’t do what she wants for my sake. Just vanquish her already.”

  I didn’t listen to her. I kept looking until I found an opening in the room on the left edge, slightly below my waist. Bending down, I gently placed my right hand inside and turned the knob inside sideways. The whole room glowed, resonating with my gauntlet before opening out. For some reason, my gauntlet could open these doors, like it was a key of some sort. Curiously, I peered into the room, trying to see what lay inside.

  “Now step aside,” Katarina said, appearing next to me and pushing me away. “Excellent I have found the other key.”

  “Key to what,” I asked looking at her.

  She walked inside and came moments later holding what looked like a useless piece of mask. To my disappointment, the whole room of gold crumbled to dust and disappeared into nothing.

  “Let her go,” she commanded the princess with a harsh voice. “I have no more use for her. Now all I need to do is kill you, retrieve the axion armor and the gauntlet.”

  Katarina’s stance changed completely, becoming more rigid and frightening. I glanced back and saw the princess push Suzanne away from her roughly. Suzanne fell to the ground a few yards away from me, barely moving at all. I didn’t regret my decision at all, I would do it again for any of my friends.

  “As promised this girl will suffer first,” she hissed as she pointed her trident at Suzanne.

  “No, what are you doing?” I turned and ran towards Suzanne.

  Was Katarina about to break our arrangement just like that? I had done what she had said in order to spare Suzanne, but now she was about to kill her. Katarina raised her trident in the air and the weather drastically changed for the worst without notice. A small wormhole formed beneath Suzanne’s feet. It wasn’t as huge as the other two; however, dangerous nonetheless. Slowly, Suzanne was sinking, being dragged down into the dark abyss.

  “Figh
t on Rid,” she said calmly with tears in her eyes. “Don’t let my death be in vain. Defeat Katarina and her minions and avenge everyone who fell to the Rainku.”

  No, I clenched my fists, running as fast as I could. My heart felt heavy, like it was about to drop out of me. I could not lose her too, not like this. Her words echoed deeply in my heart like a burning wind. I definitely felt something for her, but I just couldn’t truly explain what it was yet.

  “No, I won’t let you die Suzanne,” I screamed, extending my left hand towards her.

  Far too late, her body was now inside the abyss of darkness before I got to her. I looked down into the small wormhole unsure of what to do. It was dark inside, almost feeling like I was staring into the eye of oblivion.

  “It’s too late for that girl now,” the princess commented with her hands folded. “No one has ever escaped from mother’s wormhole.”

  Without hesitation, I jumped in carelessly, going after her with all my might. To rational folks, my choice was reckless, but I had to do it. Anything at this point was better than living on knowing that I let her die. Once inside, I could not see anything. The entire place was just pure darkness. Where was she? I looked everywhere trying to find any faint glimmer of light or energy, but nothing came up. Up above me, the entrance was slowly closing down on me. Unless I found her quickly, we would surely be both trapped in here forever. If only she had stayed away from Danyen and left everything to me. Darn!

  “Where is she?”

  I looked in every direction, focusing hard to sense her presence if possible. I flew down further, arms spread apart for more reach. This lingering darkness was far too much infuriating for me to tolerate.

  “Suzanne,” I yelled frequently into the unknown. “Answer me if you can hear me?”

  There was no reply and I got a little worried. She was probably unconscious or she was… No, I refused to believe it. She was still alive somewhere in this dark place. What the!

  From within me, I felt a sudden rush of energy. It was immense and very powerful, like it was feeding off the emotion I was feeling at the moment. Green light glowed all over my body, forming a small sphere around me. This was definitely my forth blast power if I wasn’t mistaken. How had this happened? I hadn’t summoned it or anything like that and yet it just appeared. Not that I was complaining since it was producing light. I took advantage of its power and started looking again for her with my superior perception.

  Just faintly down and to my right, I felt Suzanne’s energy. It was weak, but definitely her. Time was running out, the entrance above us was almost gone. I quickly changed directions and headed towards her as fast as I could. Upon reaching her, I grabbed her waist and turned around, heading straight up towards the faint light glimmer of light above me.

  “Hang on Suzanne,” I whispered to her steadily increasing my speed. “I won’t let you die here, not like this.”

  The worm hole was closing fast and we were still far from it to make it in time. It closed right in front of my face, trapping us both into this unending blackness.

  “So, I was too late,” I sighed to myself, unable to grasp the severity of my current situation. “Someone help us please.”

  Not to self, don’t jump into a wormhole without a plan. Out of options, I lowered my held and placed Suzanne into both of my arms. Looking into her closed eyes, I felt helpless and lost. The only exit out of this place had been sealed off; we were not going anywhere anytime soon. And to make things more difficult, the air around us was thinning out. It looked like this was a far as I was meant to go.

  Just when I was about to give up hope, I felt something familiar and odd. My right arm twitched and glowed in a golden color. As I looked down, I noticed a small sphere come out of my hand. Wait a minute! This had happened before in Jura. It was how I had escaped from the tunnels of the secret layer. Without hesitating for a bit, I touched it quickly and a bright light erupted. The light was so bright, I had to close my eyes to shield away its intensity. For a whole second, it felt like my body was being jolted apart in a way I found rather strange. Once the feeling was gone, I felt warm light and small brush of wind hit my hair.

  “Please let us be outside,” I begged with my hand right next to my heart.

  Upon opening my eyes, I saw the sun and the walls of the castle. It seemed we were outside again, in the chaos that was now befalling this kingdom.

  “Rid,” a familiar voice called out to me. “Where did you come from?”

  I looked back and saw Ogana, Kaya and the others standing behind me. The terrain was completely different from before thanks to Dashe’s power. It smelled like molted lava and ash as the ground was covered in fragments of meteor rocks. The whole castle lay in ruins, tower after tower were falling over into rubble and dirt. Was this real or just my imagination? I was certain we had been trapped forever in the abyss of the wormhole.

  “I’m sure glad to see you Rid,” Kaya smiled before hugging me.

  I too was glad to see them here, but there was one person I didn’t see. Where was Dashe? His mist power was still causing chaos in every direction. Almost amazing that he could keep causing that kind of distraction for what seemed like an hour without tiring down. I doubted Katarina Fox was happy, not that I cared or anything.

  “Ogana please look after Suzanne,” I spoke handing Suzanne over to him. “I’m going after Katarina Fox alone.”

  “No you are not,” Paul cut me off quickly as he approached with a horde of prisoners behind him. “I’m coming with you, you can’t do this alone Rid. Tye is also my friend and so are you. I am going with you regardless of what you say.”

  I felt like crying, but no tear dropped. So this was what Ebi meant when he told me to rely on my friends. He was right, I could not do this alone after all.

  “I guess you are right Paul, I really can’t do this without you,” I smiled.

  Before I could walk towards him, I felt a strange shift in the air alerting me to danger. To my left, a mob of soldiers came out of hiding and ambushed us blindly. Oddly, I had not felt them approach us at all. I ducked out of the way, swerving away from them.

  “Showe, Dien, Kaya, and Masonku fend off these soldiers,” I yelled pointing at the soldiers. “Paul and I are going after Katarina Fox and the princess.”

  They nodded quickly, rushing off towards the oncoming soldiers while I gathered up my strength for battle. The more I thought about it, the more I realized Paul was right. I needed him to distract the princess because there was honestly no way I could fight the both of them at once. Strangely, he seemed like the right man for this job. I mean Paul was a very complicated man, he had an obsession with older women which I sort of found disturbing and yet useful against the princess. I mean you would think someone his age would be attracted to women his age, but I wasn’t one to judge. Every person was different I guess.

  “Let’s go Paul,” I yelled towards him. “Time is everything.”

  He finished off the soldier he was fighting with a kick and dashed towards me. As he got close to me, I grabbed his arm and took off for the skies quickly. This time I was able to fly without any problem like before.

  “You know one these days you are going to take someone’s arm off if you keep yanking our arms like that,” he commented.

  “Hahaha perhaps,” I laughed at what seemed to be the last joke I would hear.