by Aaron Oster
“But what exactly are you hoping to accomplish?” Samuel asked again, feeling his annoyance with the man increasing by the second.
Gold winked.
“Now that would be telling, and if I told you, it would ruin the whole surprise!”
Samuel felt his anger flaring up again and let loose with a string of curses that made Gold laugh.
“If only the world could hear you now! Samuel, the god of justice and all that other crap, cursing his brains out.”
Samuel’s eyes blazed with power again, and the air began to distort around him as he began glowing with a black light.
This time, Gold wasn’t about to take it lying down. His own eyes glowed with power, and blue light flared around his body. The beast zone began to shake after a few moments, starting off at a low rumble, and soon trembling so violently that the ground began to split open, and massive rents appeared in the air.
The two men stood facing one another, as the beast zone collapsed around them, each unmoving.
Then Gold abruptly cut off the flow of his power and grinned at the fuming Samuel.
“I think I’ll leave you to clean up this mess. Don’t you worry about Morgan. He’s in good hands.”
He winked, then vanished into thin air.
Samuel screamed, and the world around him shattered.
***
Morgan had just stepped through the portal, into the gloomy bunker, when the key in his hand suddenly grew warm. He eyed in nervously as it began to smoke, and dropped it immediately.
He was lucky he had, because a moment later it exploded, sending bits of shrapnel in all directions. Morgan dove out of the way as the metal disk shattered, but wasn’t fast enough to completely avoid the flying metal fragments. He hissed in pain as a burning hot piece of metal punched through one of his shoulders, and emerged out the other side.
Grimacing, he turned his head to examine the wound and noticed that the intense heat of the thing had completely cauterized the wound, leaving a smoking hole in his shoulder.
“Well, that’s unnerving,” he muttered, rising slowly to his feet and eyeing the key warily.
What in the hell made that happen? he wondered, examining the walls in awe.
The shrapnel hadn’t just gone straight through his shoulder. It had also punched several holes in the solid stone, leaving glowing craters in their wake.
Morgan was about to step up to examine one of said craters, when Sarah’s voice came floating down the hallway.
“What the hell is going on?”
3
“How is it that you always manage to get hurt, even when you’re not trying?” Sarah asked, pressing the small block of ice to Morgan’s burned shoulder.
Morgan grimaced slightly as the ice came into contact with the inflamed skin, but didn’t otherwise show any discomfort.
“It’s not like I ask to be injured,” he replied. “It just seems to happen.”
Sarah let out a snort.
“It just seems to happen?”
Morgan shrugged, then winced again as the movement stretched his injured shoulder.
He and Sarah were sitting on one of the beds inside the bunker, with Katherine’s still unconscious form lying on the next bed over. He was shirtless, something which he noted Sarah seemed to be enjoying very much, despite the annoyed look on her face.
As soon as Sarah had heard the explosion she’d come running, and when she saw Morgan’s injury, she reacted unexpectedly. She got angry.
Morgan was slowly beginning to understand that Sarah’s angry reaction whenever he became injured wasn’t exactly negative. Rather, it was how she expressed worry or concern over his wellbeing. In fact, if she hadn’t become angry, Morgan would have begun to worry that something was wrong.
“Don’t move, you idiot. You’ll only make it worse!” she exclaimed, placing a firm hand on his other shoulder and forcing him to sit still.
After pressing the ice back to his wound, she brought her gaze up to meet his, and Morgan was once again struck by the changes her evolution had wrought.
Her once leaf green eyes were now a brilliant emerald in color, with a bright blue ring standing out in contrast, surrounding each of her irises. Her facial features had become more refined, making her already beautiful features stand out even more. In addition to that, she’d gained a couple of inches in height, her muscles had become more toned, and she had filled out a bit in the chest and hips.
Sarah’s beauty was wasted on Morgan, as he did not have the capacity to feel attraction towards anyone, something which frustrated Sarah to no end. Even more than that, Morgan was dreading telling her about turning down another deal from Samuel to regain what was lost to him: a two-year chunk of his memory and the capacity to feel what Sarah so desperately wanted him to feel- love for her.
To avoid bringing the topic up for as long as he could, Morgan cast his eyes over to the still sleeping Princess instead. To his eyes, she only appeared to be asleep, but Gwendolyn had told them that what she’d done for Katherine would come at a great cost and that it would take her body several days to recover.
“Any sign of movement while I was gone?” he asked, motioning to Katherine with his head, so as to avoid incurring Sarah’s wrath once again.
Sarah’s eyes flicked to the comatose Princess, and she shook her head.
“She stirred a few times in her sleep, but other than that…” she trailed off, shaking her head once again.
Morgan blew out a long breath, casting around the small bunker for something else to talk about. He still wasn’t entirely sure why Gwendolyn had insisted they come here and not leave, but it was as good a place as any to stay. Seeing as there was still technically a war going on, he wouldn’t complain about having a bed to sleep in.
“So. You gonna tell me why a beast zone key exploded for no apparent reason?”
Morgan turned back to Sarah, who was staring at him with a questioning gaze. He knew he couldn’t put her off forever, so with a sigh, he explained all that had happened while he was inside the zone.
“I can’t be entirely sure, but I’m guessing he wasn’t too happy with my answer, so he decided to lock us out of that zone by destroying the key,” Morgan finished.
He wasn’t entirely sure that it was the reason the key had broken, but it was as good a guess as any he could make.
Sarah’s lips were pursed and she had an annoyed look on her face.
Oh boy. Here it comes, Morgan thought with resignation.
“The nerve of that guy! Showing up days after all this shit happened, and then demanding you complete an even more difficult mission than he’d originally tasked you with!” Sarah exclaimed, surprising Morgan.
“So you’re not mad that I turned him down?”
“Of course not! It’s obvious that he wasn’t planning on keeping his promise from the beginning if he changed the structure of his deal after what happened. As soon as you’d completed this mission for him, he would have found some way to withhold his promise, then make you do something else.”
Morgan nodded. He hadn’t been one hundred percent sure of his decision, but what Sarah said made perfect sense.
What better way to keep him doing what Samuel wanted, than by constantly dangling the promise of fixing him over his head?
“I am still worried about the whole end-of-the-world thing, though,” Sarah continued, biting her lower lip. “If Edmund continues this war, another Pinnacle King will rise in less than a month.”
Morgan shrugged.
“I’ve actually begun thinking about that,” he said. “Who cares if the Five Kingdoms are destroyed? There have to be other places we can go. Dabu even mentioned other worlds. Maybe we can find a way to get to one of them.”
Sarah raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t you care about the people living in the Five Kingdoms?”
Morgan shrugged again.
“They’ve never done anything for me, so why should I?”
“Millions of
people will die,” Sarah said in a soft voice.
“I don’t care about them. The only person I care about is you, so if you come with me, then I’ll be fine.”
Sarah’s cheeks colored a bit when he said that, and a small smile touched her lips. She knew that Morgan didn’t care about her in the way she wanted him to, but just hearing that he cared about her enough to want to take her away from the Five Kingdoms was encouraging. Even if they never found someone to fix Morgan, maybe she could find some way to change him over time. Though she was still troubled by his apparent lack of empathy towards the millions that would die. It was yet another thing they would have to work on.
“Where will we go?” she asked, her voice low.
Morgan shrugged again.
“I say we just pick a direction and start traveling. We’re bound to hit something eventually. Maybe I’ll be able to get into contact with Dabu, and he can give me some advice on that.”
Sarah grinned and swatted him on the chest.
“As far as plans go, that isn’t exactly a good one, but you’ve never been the best at planning things out.”
Morgan grinned back ruefully, rubbing at the back of his head.
His hair was growing long again. Perhaps he would ask Sarah to cut it for him once they were on the road.
“I’m sure it’ll be fun, though,” he said.
“With you, it always is. It’ll also be nice to get away from everything here and go somewhere completely new. The question is, when do you wanna leave?”
Morgan thought about that for a moment. He hadn’t been entirely sure that Sarah would go along with his proposal, though he had been hoping she would.
So when would they leave?
“Well, there’s nothing really holding us here, aside from looking after Katherine until she wakes up. I admit that I want to find out what Gwendolyn has to say, but if I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t even know if I want to remember anything from my past. I like who I am now, and I don’t want that to change.”
He was silent for a few more moments, as he thought over the viability of his idea. Then shrugged to himself.
He’d never been the one to worry overmuch, so why start now?
“We’ll leave as soon as either Katherine wakes up, or Gwendolyn returns. I see no reason to stick around any longer than that.”
Sarah nodded and had opened her mouth to respond, when they both heard a slight groan from the bed next to them.
Morgan’s head snapped to the side and he saw that Katherine’s eyes were open. Sarah noticed just a moment after and quickly rose from her seated position near Morgan on the bed.
“Hold this,” she said, taking one of his hands and placing it over the slowly melting block of ice. She then stood and made her way to Katherine’s bedside, Morgan following just a moment later.
Katherine was looking around with a confused expression on her face, as though trying to understand where she was and how she’d gotten there.
Morgan couldn’t blame her, of course, as the last memory she likely had was of Gold stabbing her through the back, and her dying.
Her eyes focused on them as they approached, and her confusion cleared up just a bit.
“Where are we, and how did we get here?” her voice rasped out, not sounding at all like her usual sultry self.
Likely from a lack of water, Morgan thought, as Sarah helped her sit up in bed and filled an empty cup with water using her ability.
“Well, that’s kind of a long story,” Morgan said, as Sarah raised the cup to Katherine’s lips.
It took well over an hour for Morgan to catch Katherine up on all that had occurred since Gold’s betrayal. Including the fact that her aide was a supermage in disguise, the awakening of the first Pinnacle King, as well as what had just happened inside the beast zone.
By the time Morgan had finished his tale, Katherine’s cheeks had a much more healthy look to them. Her eyes were clear and focused, and her mind was working overtime to try and process all the new information.
“This is definitely a lot to take in,” she said, once Morgan finished speaking. “I can’t believe that I’ve had a supermage under my nose the entire time, and didn’t even know it… While the news of this Pinnacle King rising is worrying, I think we’ll be alright.”
“Really? How will everything be alright?” Morgan asked, curious as to what the Princess was cooking up in that mind of hers.
“We now have two supermages, instead of one,” she said with a grin. “While we may have missed our opportunity two nights ago, I’m sure another attack can be arranged within the month!”
Morgan and Sarah shared a look, before turning back to Katherine.
“Yeah, about that,” Morgan said in his usual blunt manner of speaking. “Sarah and I are leaving the Five Kingdoms. We’ve had enough of the politics here, and since it’s doomed to be destroyed anyway, why stay?”
Katherine stared, wide-eyed, and was unable to speak for a long moment. Finally, she seemed to gather herself.
“You can’t leave. We need you here.”
Morgan just shook his head.
“While I appreciate all that you’ve done for me, I don’t see any reason to stay. So long as I’m here, someone will always need something from me, regardless of my age, or level of power. Yes, I’m growing stronger, and one day I may be the strongest person alive. But what then?
“Will I be forced to constantly intervene in every little squabble people have? Will I have to watch my back day and night for assassins because people can’t stand the fact that I have power? No. I am no longer interested in helping anyone other than myself and Sarah. We’ll be leaving within the hour. Since you have been good to us, I suppose you can come along if you’d like, but I’m guessing that you’re going to want to stay behind.”
Morgan delivered this speech in the same tone of voice as someone who was having a casual conversation about the weather; but his words landed with the force of hammer blows, making Katherine flinch in response.
“But, we were supposed to be married,” Katherine said, looking hurt.
“I never agreed to that,” Morgan replied.
The Princess let out a long sigh but nodded her understanding. Morgan was right, after all, and he did present a very valid argument.
He nodded in return, then turned his attention back to Sarah.
“Let’s get packed up.”
She nodded, looking a bit troubled, but otherwise kept her peace. She had agreed to go along with him, after all.
It didn’t take them long to gather up their belongings and pack them all in the spatial bag Gold had provided them on the day the war had broken out. Yet another reminder of why they were leaving.
Morgan pulled on a new uniform shirt, packing the damaged one into the bag. His shoulder was still in pain, but his Recovery trait would take care of it in less than twenty hours. Until then, he could deal with the pain.
When they’d finished packing, they went to say their goodbyes to the Princess.
Katherine pulled away from her blankets as they approached, and swung her legs off the bed. Rising to her feet, she took a moment to steady herself, before walking over to Morgan and wrapping her arms around him.
Morgan, who had been gearing up for a possible fight, was a bit surprised at the contact and he noted that Sarah seemed less than thrilled, judging by the daggers she was glaring at Katherine’s back.
She pulled away from him, holding him at arm’s length and staring into his purple and gold-ringed eyes.
“As much as I’d love to join you, I have to stay here. I have a responsibility to my people, and to the people of the Five Kingdoms. My father started this war, thereby causing the rise of the Pinnacle Kings. So now, I have to end it. You will be sorely missed, but now that I have another supermage, I think I can leverage her to gain support.”
Morgan nodded, hiding the wince as Katherine pulled him in for another crushing hug. It wasn’t nearly as painful as it had been the
last time, since his body was so much tougher than it had been, but Katherine was super close to the maximum rank, meaning that her Strength likely dwarfed his by a mile.
When she finally released him, Morgan reached into his pocket and retrieved the infernal-bane lyvern core.
“This core ensured that we were able to become stronger,” Morgan said, pressing it into her hand. “I know that you like keepsakes, so I left a bit of energy in there so the core wouldn’t shatter.”
Katherine’s fingers closed around the core, and her lips turned up in a smile. Then she leaned in and kissed Morgan on his cheek, her soft lips brushing against his skin for just a moment before she pulled away.
“Alright, that’s enough!” Sarah said, interceding before Katherine could do anything else, and pushing between the two of them.
Katherine laughed and surprised Sarah by wrapping her arms around the smaller girl.
“Morgan is a very special person, so make sure to look after him. And who knows, maybe you’ll be able to crack through the shell of his,” she whispered into her ear.
Sarah’s cheeks colored slightly as Katherine released her, but she nodded all the same.
Morgan looked between the two women and shrugged to himself. Even after he’d gained some understanding of the opposite sex, he still had no confidence in predicting how one of them would act.
“You ready to go?” Sarah asked, turning to him.
He nodded, and the two of them headed toward the stairs carved into the stone heading up to the surface. Just as they approached the stairs, the trapdoor at the top sprang open, revealing Gwendolyn, and Morgan had to resist the urge to grind his teeth.
Why did everything always have to be so difficult?
4
Gwendolyn seemed mildly surprised to see both Morgan and Sarah standing by the base of the stairs. She took in their state of dress and the fact that Katherine was already awake, and came to an immediate conclusion.
“You’re leaving.”
It was a statement, not a question, but Morgan answered all the same.
