Azar then turned and glanced at Clover, who was on the ground, but he saw that she wasn’t dead. She had probably fainted. Something else, however, something quite strange and unforeseen caught his attention.
Lex’s body was encased in a black glow. He watched keenly, glancing every now and again at the distanced Ionide, who he was almost sure was killed by the beam of mana. But only almost. As Azar shifted his attention back to Lex again, Mike rose from the dust and clenched his fists, regenerating his armour. Mike watched from where he was the strange scene. Lex’s body floated up slightly. He ascended slowly, then he seemed to stand, but his feet weren’t quite touching the ground. His eyes burst open, and they were blacker than ever. The black glow around him grew more and more visible.
Lex looked around wildly. Everywhere was just white. “Lex Leo,” he heard a voice call his name.
Somehow, he just noticed a figure standing just before him. His brows crawled together. Before him was a familiar-looking thing, what seemed to be a shadow of three dimensions. “Where am I? Am I dead?! Who are you?!”
“I am he who dwells within you, the spirit called Maximo… Indeed, you are dead, Lex Leo,” the man said frankly. Lex stared at the faceless man.
“Clover! Kyle! Blade! Oh no!” the boy panicked.
“Listen!” the man of darkness got his attention. “I have dwelled within you for a small portion of your life, and an even much smaller portion of mine. Still… somehow, you have taught me more than I have spent eons learning.”
Lex looked even more confused. “What? Me? How?”
“Your mind and spirit, your emotions, your will… I will not allow your death to end your journey for—”
“What?! Am I not dead?!”
“I can do the very same for you as you did for the one you love.”
“… Clover.”
“Your death has freed me, Lex Leo. I am a free spirit again. I am now free to leave this body I was trapped into by the ancient powers of the zarium jar, and roam the depths and reaches of the universe, the cosmos infinite… but I will seal myself within you, and give you my life, my essence.”
“I don’t understand…” Lex clearly remembered his meeting with the oracle.
“I will bind myself to you, and my essence will be the source of your life…”
Azar watched in utter confusion and deep thought, as the body of Lex, which bore a clearly fatal wound, was suspended in the air with the strange black glow. What the hell is happening? It seems the spirit is still inside him…
“You will have full access and control of my being in entirety, as our spirits will become one. Do not make my sacrifice vanity, Lex Leo!” the spirit warned. With that, everything turned to darkness. The glow vanished from around Lex, and the wound in his chest and back quickly healed. The darkness from his eyes faded and he fell to the ground. He looked around, still in confusion and uncertainty. He felt a new energy, a restored vigour in him. He saw Azar close by and Mike in the distance. He looked down at his friends, then back up at Azar.
“What is this?! Didn’t I just kill you?!” Mike called out, walking quickly toward them. Lex looked back down at his friends. He saw Kyle’s hand make a slight movement.
“Yes. He’s alive,” Azar said, “but he won’t be for long if we don’t kill the Ionide.”
“Why are you here?!”
“I came for my demon… but the Ionide proves a more pressing concern. I can’t have anyone kill you. But me of course. I suggest we focus on killing the Ionide. Some other time we continue our affairs. Lex looked back over at Mike, then down at Clover again.
“You’re dead!” the Icemaker roared, and without hesitation, Maximo’s strength glowed darkly through his eyes. His fists and feet wore a thin cloak of darkness as he darted toward Mike at an incredible speed. Mike could hardly think let alone defend. Lex delivered a hard combination of swift punches. Each slam made a dent on the armour that was far tougher than steel. Mike grabbed one of Lex’s incoming fists and kicked him off, having him stagger back. Without hesitance, he held his hands out and released two massively deadly spikes at Lex. To the Ionide’s surprise, Lex grabbed the fast-moving projectiles out of the air, tossing them behind him.
He seems much faster and stronger now, but not even his demon can save him from the ultimate Ionide. Mike shifted a couple of Lex’s attacks and landed a high jump-kick in the boy’s chest, flooring him. Then, he ran up to the fallen Lex and dived down on him with two heavily-spiked fists. As Lex looked up at the quickly descending Ionide, he witnessed a swiftly moving flurry of hot redness blast the falling Mike and fling him without resistance. Lex covered his face quickly to shield it from the bright heat. He quickly stood and looked back at Azar, whose hand was still outstretched, a thin smoke rising from it.
Lex turned his sights back to Mike, who was just rising from the ground, his armour hardly damaged. The black-eyed Lex jetted off toward Mike once more, his right hand behind his back, gripping a freshly made shadowball.
So fast! Mike’s eyes widened as Lex was upon him too quickly for him to escape. With a powerful roar of rage, Lex forced the shadowball into Mike’s armoured chest. Mike cried out as iodium and flesh alike were torn to bits. He kicked Lex off forcefully, his teeth clenched in agony. He stepped back staggeringly. The shadowball turned to mist. There was a massive opening in Mike’s chest, and blood was escaping like mad. His eyes were wide. He clenched his fists and focused his energy, trying to summon the Legend State. Lex panted, limping forward in tiredness. Darkly tinted veins nearly burst through his temples.
Freshly generated armour covered Mike’s wound, but Lex wouldn’t just stand and watch him. He quickly conjured up another pair of shadowballs and flung them at his opponent. They blasted him in rapid succession. Meters away, Mike’s body plunged into the ground, in a grave it had just made. His armour was torn apart and he was bleeding all over. His energy was drained. “Damn…” he cursed under his breath. He took a deep sigh, gathering the last bit of energy he could find, standing shakily. It seems I might have underestimated him… And now that damn prince is here too… I can’t take them both by myself… at least not in this state.
He turned and made a sudden run away from Lex and Azar. On quick thinking, Azar gathered some fire power and sent a beam at the fleeing Ionide, determined that he would not let him escape. Seeing and hearing the flood of heat that was nearing him, Mike made a frightful dive. The flood of fire crashed into the prison of ice that had trapped Copper a few meters off, barely grazing and burning Mike’s feet. Copper found himself on the ground, no armour on, shivering in heat and cold.
“Copper! Get up! Help me!” Mike called to him desperately. Mike scurried to his feet and ran up to him, and grabbed the man’s ice-cold, fire-hot body. Azar hissed, seeing his mistake.
“No problem! I had plans to destroy them all!” Lex declared, his voice merged with that of the dark one. Copper stood quickly, still shivering slightly.
“Free Silver!” Mike said. Mike gave Copper a forceful push and jumped back. Two shadowballs zinged past them, hitting something and creating a black explosion a few miles off. “Quick! We need Silver! And Rebecca!” Copper held his head with clenched teeth. It felt like it was ripping apart. Azar sent a rapid succession of fireballs at the still Ionides. Mike managed to dodge all of them. One blasted Copper in the chest, flooring him with a terrible burn that gave his iodium much work to do. Mike ran up to Copper and dragged him up. “Wake up, Copper!”
Just getting his head together, Copper clenched his fists and covered himself in armour. Mike went behind him and clenched his fists. Armour slowly covered his bleeding flesh. “I have a plan,” Mike said, “free Silver. You and him buy me some time. I’ll need to get into the Legend State. Otherwise, there’s no victory for us. Lex is stronger than I thought, and the prince too is difficult to deal with.”
“Good thinking,” Copper commended, then stretched his arms out, each fist pointed at a prison of ice. Instantly, Copper rel
eased tens of tiny spikes at incredulous speeds. As Silver’s prison was penetrated, it cracked until it shattered, but not even Copper’s spikes could breach Lex’s black ice.
Silver looked about wildly, shivering slightly. Copper looked at the black ice, then at Silver, who still had his armour on. “Where are the others?” Silver asked, more than just a hint of fear in his voice.
“We haven’t time! Attack!” Mike belted. An angry shadowball had just left Lex’s hand and top speed. It struck Silver, sending his heavyweight body over several meters fast. He landed and rolled another couple of yards, his armour tearing off him. Azar walked up to Lex, and together they faced the enemy.
“Listen, kid, I know shadowballs are quite cool and all, but try not to squander your dark energy. It’s better to use it alongside your own element.”
“This is my element!” Lex blasted, ready to summon another pair of shadowballs. He put his palms together in effort to summon another sphere of dangerous power. His vision blurred as his head ached sharply. A mere black smoke appeared in his hands, and he felt a strong jolt push him back as the darkness left his eyes. “What the hell just happened?” Lex asked, holding his head.
“Nothing I didn’t expect.”
“You jinxed me, didn’t you?!”
Copper raised his fists and blasted more high-speed darts at them.
“Anam Garadan!” Azar commanded, and a red shield of mana surrounded the two. The swift projectiles were made still as they reached the border of the shield. They lost all their energy and fell lifeless. “Recilsanam!” the prince said, holding out his right hand. A gleaming sword of pure red mana appeared in his grip. Lex turned his head fast as Azar spaceshifted without warning, disappearing and reappearing in quickly vanishing clouds of waste mana. Out of the cloud that appeared before Copper came a swinging Azar. Though unnecessary it usually was, Azar was always a fan of close combat. The added danger of it gave him a thrill.
Copper lowered his head quickly, evading Azar’s swing at his neck. The Ionide came back up with a heavy blow to the prince’s face. Azar staggered back a bit, then swung at the skilful fighter again. Copper quickly blocked the sword with his left wrist. As the bright red sword struck it, a bit of armour, a little flesh, and a few drops of blood scattered. Copper felt a strong jolt through his body as his iodium fought off the invading rush of mana.
In this new body, even this dismal level of sorcery can tear my armour. This is disgraceful. Copper blasted Azar’s face twice with his armoured fist before he could even pull back his sword to strike again. Blood running down his face, Azar staggered back in terrible pain. Lex glanced over at the rising Silver, and quickly moved to him with two well-made iceballs.
All this time, Mike was a little distance off, straining to reach the Legend State. “Just a little more time…” he told himself. Lex hurled the first orb of ice at Silver. On running toward Lex at a speed that his body seemed unable of maintaining, he made a sharp shift to the right, evading the attack. Lex was running head on toward the heavy Ionide, the second sphere of ice hidden in his hand behind his back. As the boy reached up to Silver, the Ionide upped his speed slightly, but enough to negate Lex’s judgement. The coated man landed a heavy kick in Lex’s chest. As the boy flew back through the air, he sent Silver the little package he had prepared. The sphere struck him with perfect accuracy, and ice quickly covered him. Lex landed hard and skated back, then curled himself into a ball, grabbing his belly. He was sure something was broken, or even crushed.
Still, it seems each second I spend fighting in this body, I reach closer to the form I once had. Copper jumped and sent another spin-kick in Azar’s chest, flooring him. He flashed a glance at Silver, hissing under his breath. He pointed his left fist toward the block of ice and sent three swift bullets. The block shattered like glass. Silver breathed heavily, scraping ice from himself. He glanced over at Copper and gave a slight nod, then headed toward the curled-up Lex. The Ionide roughly grabbed the youngster. Two mighty punches and a step in the boy’s chest seemed to have finished him. Silver then grabbed him up and flung him down hard. Lex was bleeding all over and breathing heavily.
“You’re still alive, little worm?!” Silver clenched his fists and two swords became of them. He raised them over the lad to butcher him, but fate had other plans for Lex Leo. A whistling beam of orange-red fire tore through the air and blasted Silver, grabbing him and pushing him meters away. Azar turned back to Copper, evading another punch and another set of bullets in a spaceshift and landing a slice in the Ionide’s chest. Armour was ripped off, but there was no bleeding. Both fighters glanced to the right as they heard quake-making footsteps. Indeed it was Silver. Copper certainly couldn’t let Silver see him losing a fight, so he got even more serious. The skilled Ionide landed some heavy punches at Azar, each spiked with inch-long thorns of metal. The succession of his hits was much viler than before. To finish the splendid combo, he landed a high kick just below Azar’s neck. Azar landed and skated in great agony, painting the ground, still gripping tightly to the sword of red mana. The place was brown and red with dust and blood.
Copper looked down at the unmoving prince. Silver slowed as he reached upon them. “I must say, he did put up quite a fight,” Copper admitted. With a frightening suddenness, Azar flung his eyes open. This time, they were pure black! Not only that, the sword in his hand took on the same blackness. On springing up to his feet, Azar launched the black sword at Copper. Thinking it wouldn’t be of much consequence, the Ionide shielded his face with his right lower arm, but something the Ionide didn’t expect occurred. The sword wedged right through Copper’s arm – armour, flesh and bone. As Copper cried out in pain and fright, the black sword, losing its source of existence, vanished in a poof, leaving behind a mist of blackness and redness. Copper grabbed the terrible hole with his left hand.
Silver ran up to the black-eyed Azar and made some swift swings with his sworded hands. Azar easily evaded the heavy, but not well-placed attacks. Then, with darkly glowing fists, he sent a barrage of Maximo-powered blows at the Ionide. Each strike dealt armour-denting pain to the tough Ionide. Ending the barrage, Azar launched himself in the air and made a quick spin, slamming a kick in Silver’s face. The heavy man fell flat on his back. Copper, with teeth clenched in pain, stretched his left hand out toward Azar and sent three spikes at him. Azar, with simple gesticulation, had the spikes stop before him, each encased in a black glow. Azar then summoned up some mana in his palms. Black power could be seen moving through the bright red, but the colours seemed immiscible. Dashing the mana on his enemies, Azar made a command, that without the help of the spirit, would be of little effect. “Abingush!!” There was a nasty blast, and the two Ionides were flung in different directions. They landed almost at the same time, their armour almost completely gone, meters from each other and from Azar and Lex.
With a groan almost audible to Azar, Silver struggled to his feet. Clenching his fists in irritation and embarrassment, he quickly regenerated his armour, morphing his left hand into a shield and his right into a sword. Then, he took off at a determined speed toward the Magmalian Prince. Azar put his left palm out toward the approaching Ionide. Then he braced his right hand upon the back of his left. “Die, worthless Ionide!” Azar blasted, his voice merged with that of the dark one within him. A beam of black fire shot out toward the incoming Silver. With a great bay, Silver ran on anyway, his shield before him, and his faith fixed firmly in it. The roaring black fire blasted the shield, but Silver pressed on, his sword readied behind him to give Azar one final strike when enough distance was covered.
The wilful man pressed on against the stream of unearthly fire. The heat he suffered made him feel like he was in the depths of a volcano. He pushed on nevertheless, with all the speed and strength he had. Azar was impressed. So he made it this far.
When he thought he must have been close enough, Silver made a heavy swing at his foe’s neck. As he made the heavy swing, the stream of black fire was no more.
He moved the blackened shield from before his face, but there was no headless man falling before him either, only a vanishing cloud of red and black.
“Behind you,” a somewhat jeering voice came from behind. Silver spun quickly, frightened.
He saw Azar before him, grasping in his hands two madly vibrating spheres of dark energy. The shadowballs crashed into Silver and sent him meters off. He landed and rolled, unable to pick himself up. All his armour was scattered about. Azar vanished again in a cloud of black and red, reappearing in like manner over Silver’s bleeding, human-looking body. “The price of cremation is frightening these days,” Azar said, holding down one hand toward the fallen Ionide. “Consider this an honour.” With that, black fire rushed out from Azar’s hand and consumed Silver’s body, maybe even his very soul. When Azar relaxed and ended the attack, not even ashes remained of the once powerful Ionide.
Lex still couldn’t manage to stand, but he watched Azar keenly. Azar turned his attention to Copper as he struggled to get up. He was a few yards away. Copper turned from Azar and looked back at Mike, who wasn’t too far away. “Mike…” The young Ionide opened his eyes suddenly, nearly frightening Copper. They glowed Silver.
“I am ready,” the boy said, a tone of confident certainty in his voice. Copper turned his eyes back to the black-eyed prince.
The Seventh Spirit Page 33