by A. J. Morton
I dismissed my thoughts. I was overthinking things. As of right now, she was on our side. We were but mere hours away from our journey’s end. I had to prepare for the battle ahead of us.
I looked Adriana in her deep black eyes. “Adriana… You have an enormous amount of power. You are strong. You can fight.” She stared at me, seeming to understand. I continued. “But with that power comes a burden. A question. Will you use it? Will you fight alongside us?”
Adriana looked distant for a few moments, before responding. “Yes. I will fight with you. Right now, you are all I have. So yes. I will fight for you with my all.”
“Good to hear,” I said, smiling and patting the girl’s head. “Now, I need to prepare myself for the fight ahead of us. Ana, Dia, see that she is equipped for battle.”
Dia and Ana nodded, and I exited their room. I went up to the front deck, where the rest of the Disciples were awaiting me. They were all geared for battle in what looked to be some of the suits of Valerie’s magitech armor.
Valerie herself was the first to notice me. “Oh, yay! Glacia’s ready!” She ran over to me. “Please, right this way!” She practically shoved me back into the quarter deck and into her room. I looked around, awestruck. She had turned her room into a makeshift lab, with a massive workbench in the center.
“We stopped by Fulgur just a while ago, so I could pick up my things,” Valerie explained. “As I’m sure you noticed, I’ve equipped everyone with a suit of magitech armor. Yours is on the table. I’m positive you’ll be pleased with the results!”
Valerie exited her room as I put on my armor. As I put it on, it felt as though it was becoming one with my being. I felt it intertwining with my aura and attuning to it. Although the armor was thick, it felt almost weightless the moment it touched my skin. As I put the last part on, I noticed that its color was beginning to change to match the snow-white of my aura.
After putting on the armor, I walked out of Valerie’s lab. She awaited me just outside. “So… What do you think?” Valerie asked, her eyes gleaming.
“I love it,” I said. “It fits like a glove.”
Valerie beamed at me. “Now remember, that’s no ordinary suit of armor. That’s a mark one prototype suit of magitech armor!” She explained. “It attunes to and enhances your aura. Even the most basic of spells can come out ten times as strong with that thing on, so make sure you don’t go around casting spells willy-nilly.”
I nodded. “Alright. I’ll keep that in mind.” Xander’s body still hadn’t recovered from taking on the burden of my soul. But this armor felt like it was sharing the burden, becoming one with my being. “I have to say, Valerie, I’m impressed.”
A blush appeared on Valerie’s face. “Well, what did you expect? Compared to designing an entire city, I would say that this was a breeze.”
“I suppose you have a point.”
“Anyways, did Kronos tell you the plan?” Valerie asked.
I cocked my head. “Plan? What plan?”
“I’ll take that as a no. I suppose I’ll have to fill you in.” Valerie began explaining our battle plan. “As I’m sure you know, the entire Umbran island is essentially one massive military base.”
I nodded. The people of the Island of Umbra had agreed a long time ago that their military might was more important than domestic life. Each and every citizen was a trained soldier.
Valerie continued. “We have two primary targets. One is the Disciple of Umbra and the general of the Umbran Empire. Tenebris Finis. The other is the Empress herself. Nox Nihil. We can find the two of them in the castle, at the very center of the island. But reaching that point… That’s the difficult part.”
“How so?”
Valerie sighed. “Tenebris has placed the entire Empire under high alert, no doubt under Umbra’s direct instruction. Which means that it’s going to be almost impossible for us to slip in undetected.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Almost?”
“In placing so many defenses around the city as a whole, she actually decreased the amount of defense on the most likely place for us to enter,” Valarie said. “The front gates. We can literally head in through the front door. If we head through there, there shouldn’t be met with much resistance at all.”
Somehow, though, I didn’t think it would be that simple. If I knew Umbra, she had some kind of grand trick waiting for us. A trump card that even Kronos couldn’t know about.
I dismissed these thoughts, knowing that if Kronos couldn’t predict anything Umbra could throw at us, I didn’t even have a chance. “Are there any other details that I should be aware of?”
“Not really.” Valerie shrugged. “For the most part, Kronos was pretty vague. He said that if we knew what events were going to happen, they wouldn’t. He says that we should just follow our hearts and they will lead us to victory.”
“Interesting…” I recalled the expression on Kronos’s face while he was looking into the future the day before. It still worried me. It took a lot to frighten Kronos, and the look that appeared on his face was definitely one of fear.
I recalled telling Xander that our journey would be rife with danger. But now that he was gone, I would be the one to face it. I had to be prepared for the very worst.
“But anyhow, that’s pretty much all,” Valerie said. “As you saw, everyone is on the front decks. Ana, Dia, Kronos, and Adriana all came out while you were getting changed. We should join them.”
The two of us headed back to the quarter deck. When we arrived, the sun was no longer shining. The sky overhead was painted the purest black. A massive island loomed in the distance, threatening us with its presence alone.
Our time had come. Here, we would begin the ultimate battle against light and darkness. Our journey was finally about to come to an end.
We had made it to the doorstep of the Umbran Empire.
Chapter 16
The moment we stepped foot on the island’s shore, I knew something was off. There were no soldiers awaiting us. No ambush. Just emptiness.
“Uh… Anybody got a match?” I heard Zephyr’s voice ask. “I can’t see a damned thing.”
“I’m afraid that a simple match won’t do,” Kronos said in response. “There is only one light powerful enough to banish Umbra’s darkness. The light of Lumos.”
“I suppose that’s my cue then.” Ana began to radiate a brilliant amber glow. The area around us flooded with light, illuminating our path.
“Excellent,” Kronos said. “Now that we can all see five feet ahead of us, we should all carry on. Follow me.”
Kronos guided us through the Umbran territory. The further we moved, the more uneasy I became. We walked for what felt like ages, but still there wasn’t an Umbran soldier in sight. Valerie had told us that we wouldn’t be met with much resistance, but this was ridiculous.
I tapped Kronos on the shoulder. He peered at me out of the corner of his eye. “What is it, Glacia?”
“Something about this… doesn’t feel right,” I answered. “We should have at least run into one Umbran soldier by now. But I haven’t seen a single one.”
Kronos kept on moving, unflinching. “Don’t worry, Glacia. Everything is going precisely according to plan.” He had a faraway look in his eyes. I had seen that look before. Even though he stood before me, his mind was in another place. In the future.
I sighed in defeat, deciding to keep moving. Kronos was clearly hiding something from all of us. But at this point, we had little option but to continue moving forward.
Eventually, the sand that we were walking on turned to cobblestone. We’d made it to the grounds outside of the castle. The only defense keeping us from entering was a single gate. Still, there wasn’t an Umbran in sight.
Until we opened the gate.
“What the… Holy shit!” Travis yelled out.
Easily over a hundred Umbran soldiers were laying in wait for us behind that gate, barring our path. With no other viable option, we ran, the soldiers giving chase.
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I cursed under my breath. I knew this was a trap. What I didn’t know was why Kronos would keep it hidden from us. I let out a sigh. It wasn’t the time to be asking myself these questions. The only question that should have been on my mind was how to dispatch all of these Umbrans.
Luckily for us, there was a large tree not too far behind us. “Everyone, behind that tree!” I shouted. All of the Disciples moved in behind the tree.
Suddenly, the soldier’s movements became slower, eventually creeping to a halt. I looked to my left to see Kronos glowing purple.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I hissed. The only thing stopping me from slapping him was the fact that doing so would break his concentration, sending the soldiers stampeding our way. “You knew this would happen! You had to have known! And yet you’ve led us straight into an ambush!”
Kronos answered calmly but ambiguously, despite the fact that I could see him shaking in fear. “I… I did what I had to do.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I can’t hold time like this forever.” Kronos changed the subject. “You’ll need my help in order to navigate the castle. Which means… One of you will need to stay behind and fight the horde.”
“What?” What Kronos was asking for was impossible. The Disciples were strong, but there was no way a single one of them could take down an entire fleet of Umbrans.
“I’ll do it,” Zephyr spoke suddenly, unusually serious. All eyes moved to him. “I’ll take down the soldiers.”
“Y-you?” Travis seemed concerned. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” Zephyr said. “I can fly high, so they can’t even touch me. The moment Kronos unfreezes time, I’ll make you guys a path and hold these guys back as long as I can.”
We all stared at him in awe. Kronos’s eyes were the widest of all. “Wow… When I saw this in the timestream, I thought it was an anomaly. Who could have possibly guessed that Zephyr would actually say something smart?”
“Hey! That’s mean!” Zephyr pouted. “It’s just… I kinda have to take this seriously, you know… The freedom of everyone in Ubiaxus is at stake.”
Freedom… His essence. It was then that I knew that no matter what, there was no changing Zephyr’s mind. Ventus was the same way. When he saw someone being robbed of their freedom, he had to act. It was practically a reflex.
I looked at him intently. “Zephyr… Are you a hundred percent sure you want to do this?”
Zephyr nodded, his face somber for the first time since we’d met him. “Yes. Surer than anything I’ve ever been sure of in my life.”
“Very well then,” I said. “Kronos… Let him go.”
Kronos nodded. “Good luck Zephyr.”
Kronos snapped his fingers and all at once time unfolded. Zephyr flew high into the air and the soldiers stopped, shaken. Then he moved his hand in a single, fluid movement. A gust of air overpowered them all, sweeping them both to the right and to the left and leaving a gaping path in the middle of their ranks.
“Now’s your chance guys! Run!” Zephyr ordered.
We obeyed, running through the path that Zephyr had created for us, taking advantage of the soldiers’ disorientation. As we ran, I could hear Zephyr’s voice taunting them. “Is that all you’ve got? Come on at me you Umbran assholes!”
We made it past the Umbran fleet and ran to the castle. I stopped the moment I reached the door, the sound of rushing wind filling my ears. All of us turned around to see something simply incredible.
A tornado.
A hint of a smile worked its way across my lips, and I saw the same smile come to the lips of the Disciples as well. We all knew the same thing. He wasn’t going down without a fight.
But still, there was but a single person who watched the spectacle unfold with dread. Kronos.
Chapter 17
The castle interior was as dark and foreboding as its exterior. Torches lined the walls, filling the halls with a dim light. The light should have brought comfort, but instead it only brought worry. It felt as though the further we walked down the hallway, the closer we were getting to our deaths.
We walked through the halls in painful silence, none of us daring to speak. Umbra was cunning. She knew better than to place all of her soldiers in one place. She’d likely placed all of the weaker, expendable ones out front and had the strong, elite ones stationed here.
We carried on for a long time before a familiar voice broke the silence. “You were fools to come here.”
Footsteps echoed down the hall. A single Umbran man rounded the corner, not bearing the look of a soldier at all. He dressed in a black lab coat, the garb of an Umbran scientist.
I recognized him. It was the same Umbran that Kai had decapitated the day we went to Aquos.
All of us stopped to size him up. Well… Almost all of us, Kai kept walking as though the scientist were no more than a flea.
The scientist glared at Kai as he walked past. “And where do you think you’re going?”
Kai sighed, stopping. He turned around, still not facing the scientist, but the rest of us. “Are we actually going to pretend that this rubbish is worth our time?”
“Rubbish?” The scientist fumed. “I’ll have you know that I am Sir Merrick Colton! The most esteemed scientist in all of Umbra!”
“Excellent, you’re a scientist!” Kai applauded mockingly. “So, you should be able to calculate the exact number of shits I give. None.”
“Don’t mock him so casually…” I looked up to see who spoke. Valerie. She was shaking. Afraid. “This man… He’s designed every single weapon in the Umbran Empire. Weapons capable of destroying entire civilizations in an instant. He’s the true inventor of magitech.”
A twisted smile came to Merrick’s face. “Ah, I see at least someone has heard of me! A fan I presume?”
Valerie clenched her fists. “Never…”
Merrick raised an eyebrow. “Beg pardon?”
“You call yourself a scientist…” Every syllable she said was filled with rage. “Science should be used to make the world a better place for everyone. Not just a singular nation or Empire, and certainly not to kill.”
“Hmph. And here I thought that I had come across a fellow intellectual.” Merrick scoffed. “How naïve. You speak of science like it’s a tool. Science is a weapon, dear.”
“What?!”
“Over the course of five years as an Umbran soldier, I have constructed over a thousand weapons for the Empire,” Merrick said. “As a result, the nation has prospered, and is now becoming a global superpower. What could possibly be wrong with that?”
“I…” Valerie faltered.
“You’re no scientist,” Merrick mocked her. “Fulgur is at rock bottom. It hasn’t gained territory in decades. I’d bet you haven’t even invented two devices to help your nation.”
Valerie clenched her fists tighter. “Shut up.” She looked up at the scientist with a look colder than any ice even I could produce.
Merrick flinched. “What?”
“I’ve lived in Fulger for thirty-six years…” Valerie became shrouded in a violet aura, sparks flying from her open hands. “Would you like to guess again about the number of inventions I’ve produced?”
“Um…” Merrick glanced around nervously. “I don’t know… But it can’t be more than—”
Merrick’s sentence was cut off by an electric punch to the face. Valerie stood over him, scowling. “I don’t know either,” she said. “I lost count after I hit the septuple digits.”
“Septuple?” Merrick scrambled to his feet. “But that would mean—”
Valerie punched him to the ground again “That’s right. I’ve created over a million inventions.”
Merrick scrambled across the ground, reaching for something in his pocket He pulled something out: a small remote. “Hmph. Lies and slander,” he said, although he was trembling. He pressed a glowing black button on his device. “It’s time I showed you the power of true sci—”
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nbsp; Kai pulled out his rapier, cutting Merrick’s throat again in an instant. “You believe your head to be the most valuable apart of you, correct?” He asked the scientist’s dissipating corpse. “Then let’s see how valuable it is when its separated from your body.”
So, Kai defeated the scientist… But the victory was short lived. A rumbling sound came from the corridor Merrick had exited from. Exchanging a look, we all ran past the corridor. I turned to see we were being chased by a massive robotic soldier.
“What the hell is that?!” Travis looked up at the colossus.
“I don’t know…” Valerie said. “You guys keep moving. Don’t worry. I’ll find a way to disable it. I’ll come and find you once it’s gone.”
“Not alone, you won’t,” Kai retorted. “This thing looks formidable. I’ll fight it with you.”
Kronos nodded. “Very well. Zephyr should be here to join you soon enough. Keep fighting.”
The rest of us ran down the hall, leaving Valerie and Kronos behind to fight the mechanical beast.
* * *
The rest of the hallway led us to a spiral staircase. We started off running, but after what felt like an eternity, we began to slow down.
“Kronos…” Ana huffed. “How much longer?”
“It should just… be a little farther…” Kronos said, although he seemed a bit unsure himself. “We just need to get up these stairs…”
“Why bother… We’re just going to fail. We have no chance of defeating Umbra.”
My head shot up and I glanced around. “Who said that?”
Everyone remained silent. They were like zombies, shuffling aimlessly, as though each step up the staircase was draining them.
“Xander Faust is gone… We may as well just give up now…” That mysterious and yet familiar voice rang in my mind. “Give up. Succumb to the darkness…”
Every word the voice said made my knees drop more. I tried to stop, to regain my focus, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop walking.