by T. E. Joshua
“No! Stay away from me!” she hollered.
I placed my finger over my mouth. “Shush! I’m not one of them. I’m not going to hurt you.”
She glared back. “You’re not?”
“No.”
“Help me, son. They’re going to—” Then a blue beam of light explored from her body. I covered my eyes, and when I looked again, she was scattered in pieces along the concrete. Bone fragments were covered in blood and guts. Her brains began to cook like meat from the intense heat of the energy beam.
“Lyonell!” I yelled, blaming him for all of the chaos.
I raised my demon energy to 50 percent, entering the third pillar of awakening. My teeth began to erupt in pain and my skin began to boil. I rushed inside the dome of smoke and followed Lyonell’s dema.
There he was, placing his foot down on another officer. The man appeared to have been nearly beaten to death, and one of his arms was broken.
There I waited to attack him as I listened carefully nearby, hiding within the smoke.
“Get off me!” the man cried.
“Foolish Anglos, your guns are pathetic compared to our abilities. You Anglos are all the same with your no socialist mind-sets and your capitalistic world view. You care nothing for the red man, the true people of these lands, not then and not now. Our people were here first, the former masters of this great continent. The Naiche people will rise to power over your worthless western order.”
“You will pay,” I heard the officer spit out.
“I am Lyonell Lakota! I answer to no one!” He began to push his foot deeper into the officer, who yelled out in agony.
“That’s it!” I exclaimed.
At once, I charged after him, tackling my brother to the ground. We flew headfirst into an oak tree in the middle of the west end. Scattering dozens of fallen leaves as the branches and twigs fell on top of our heads. They were covered in black dust from the rubble.
I swiftly recovered from the fall and lit my lighter to burn him to death. I had to end this quickly. I released a wave of flames. The orange fire burned a path between us. He dodged the wave of fire and reappeared to the side and began his attack. He punched my abdominal muscles and got in a few hits to the face, causing my mouth to bleed. I stepped back in a daze.
Then Lyonell retrieved his sword. I did the same.
“Can you wield that weapon like you used to when we were younger?” he asked. Even though I remained at the third pillar of awakening, I didn’t detect the rise in his dema. Was he purposely holding back?
“You’re about to find out!” I raged and attacked him.
I swung, clashing our blades together in an all-out assault. Every blow I made he matched. I swung at his neck, hoping I’d cut his head off. In the nick of time, he barely caught my sword with his own.
“Wow, Bodaway. You’ve gotten faster—or are you using more of your dema power than you should? That’s dangerous. Don’t awaken, little brother,” he mocked me. “How many of your clan warriors are you willing to sacrifice to protect an Awakened Reborn?”
“Quit talking and fight!” I yelled.
“You know you can’t save her from me.”
“That is up to me to decide. She’s mine to kill or protect. Only mine,” I yelled in anger. He was pushing me to want to kill him even more. The thought consumed me.
“Then I guess I have to up the stakes a bit,” he said darkly and suddenly raised his dema. He entered the second pillar of awakening and shoved me back. I fell against a statue near the Manchester Library, ripped my fleece and a cutting my shoulder. I could feel my skin getting even hotter, burning with intensity. I didn’t want use my dema for too long, lest I awakened.
“I am going to enjoy scalping her pretty head.”
I gazed up at him. His eyes had shifted to yellow with the snakelike slits for the pupils. His teeth sharpened and his skin burned. He almost didn’t look human, more like the demon within. He had entered the third pillar.
“I haven’t used this much power since our encounter with the king of the witches.”
“You won’t lay a hand on her,” I refuted, getting to my feet. I lowered my sword and lit a fire from the lighter. I dared not use an energy wave against him. He would simply manipulate the light to do his own will.
Then a burst of fire emerged from my palm. The wall of fire swallowed Lyonell, who shielded himself by summoning up a wall of dark energy to block the intense heat from burning him alive.
I increased the speed and depth of the fire as I took small steps toward him. He was completely protected by an energy shield.
“It’s useless against me. The only way you can beat me is by brute force, and we both know that you’re not stronger than me,” Lyonell said as the fire continued to descend upon him.
“You’re right, brother.” Then I used the fire to push Lyonell back, deeper into the cloud of smoke. His body rolled, masking my presence as I vowed to look for Natalie and the others.
Then I sensed them—or at least Liyah. She was behind me.
James, Aaron, and Alope were near. They had raised their power, but to what degree, I didn’t know. They must be fighting Bors and Falsha. I didn’t sense Sean Winddick.
My wall of fire had subsided as I sped away. I only had a few seconds to lose him. I veered back toward the Manchester Library and leapt over the fallen debris. “Liyah! Natalie!” I hollered after smashing the front doors open. There was a crowd of students encamped in the corner of a hallway, hiding behind a broken desk. They began to run—frightened of me because I did resemble the ones who had killed their peers. But I had no time to worry about them.
“Natalie!” I hollered.
Nothing, no one else was present. No one responded.
“No … no …” I repeated warily. “Where is she?”
Then I turned back around, and my brother was gone, as well as the energy shield. I walked back outside, standing in front of the library, pondering my next assault. My brother smiled hideously and then became unsettled. He looked to his left. His smile died as another warrior emerged from the dust surrounding us. It was the spy of the Wolf clan; the one Lyonell had spoken about. He was weak, weaker than Alope and Sean—a third-class warrior. He was quite unpleasant looking and dressed like a bum.
“Bodaway, you’re mine,” the nameless warrior said.
He ran over to me and suddenly stopped. He took no more than four steps and froze in midstride. He eyes popped outward and dropped to his feet. Then I saw Lyonell aiming his arm at the man and closing his fist. He had him in a telepathic grip. He used the element of light to manipulate what little energy the warrior had acquired from the Covenant.
“Are you a fool?” he asked the man. “You’re only a third-class warrior, a mere expendable spy. Bodaway would have finished you off in a matter of seconds.”
“M-m-my chief … I wanted to show this no-good …” he pleaded as he struggled to speak.
“Silence, you fool! You’ve served your purpose and are of no use to me anymore. Now die.”
Without warning, Lyonell pointed his left finger at him and blasted a small blue beam through his heart. The man flew forward and landed a few feet from me, a dumbfounded expression on his face.
“You would’ve killed your own clan members to get to the Awakened Reborn?” I asked.
He remained in position with his finger still pointing where the dead man had been standing.
“I never really liked him anyways. He wanted to become the fifth member of the Wolf clan, but as you already know, he wasn’t worthy to stand alongside me, the number eight.”
“You’re the monster here,” I said angrily.
Then a massive wave of water erupted from the ground. A fire hydrant flew across the west end as James floated above the spring of water. Bors Sampson, the bald-headed boy, charged after James. Before long
, the two first-class tyrants collided in an all-out assault. James repeatedly yelled to me, “Tristan, I got this.”
“Bors will stop Eis. Even the element of water can’t handle a brute like Bors Sampson. You know this, little brother,” Lyonell said mockingly. “Windstorm Nodin is fighting our sister. She’s a dead shot with our mother’s black bow. Alope is nowhere to be found, and you can’t beat me!”
The words “Alope is nowhere to be found” immediately caught my attention. She was the weakest of us all, a lower-ranking of the elite class status, next to the Winddick boy. Number twenty-eight. I won’t allow her to die young. Not Alope. Not the girl I had known since childhood.
“Alope!” I yelled across the west end.
“I’m here,” a girlish voice said from nearby. I glanced to my right. There, underneath a pile of rubble, was Alope. She was hurt with little energy to spare.
“Alope.”
“Tristan, don’t worry about me. Kick his ass,” Alope said in anger.
Lyonell began to laugh, closing his eyes. “She’s not harmed. I only wanted to worry you. I swear your love for that girl is unbelievable. I’m surprised you haven’t tied the knot with her.”
“Just finish him,” Alope said as she struggled to move the rubble. Then I rushed over and pushed the concrete out of the way, allowing her to crawl through.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Look out!” she shrilled as I was hit from the side. Lyonell knocked me into a brush of wild thorns. A few small cuts on the face, but I rapidly healed them using my dema.
“Damn you, Lyonell,” I said, struggling to keep my balance.
“Your demonic powers won’t last much longer. You’re slowly getting weaker the more you use them.” He was right. The more I used my darker abilities, the more I became one of them, and the weaker I became—the less human I become.
“Let’s continue.”
He suddenly attacked, raising his dema back to the third pillar of awakening. He leapt high in the air and descended from the smoke like an eagle snatching up a field mouse. He charged at me at full speed as I reacted with an energy wave. No, I shouldn’t have. The wave of light reverted back to me and hit me in the chest. The impact from the blast knocked me into more rubble. As my head hit the concrete, a gush of blood oozed out. Stupid!
As the chaos of clans continued, Lyonell marched in my direction, taking small steps and smiling with a sense of satisfaction. I knew that face. It was the same smile he gave Reborns when he was about to behead them. They often cried and begged, thinking that their God would help them against such evil. Nothing ever happened.
Fire, it was my only real defense against a tyrant like him. I flicked the metal switch on my lighter. The flames covered my right hand. “That’s it. The fire is mine to command.”
“Your precious fire can’t save you.”
He leapt onto me, putting the fire out with the quickness of his hands. He kicked the lighter from my palm and pressed his foot into my throat. My dema lowered; I couldn’t summon up more while he had me pinned down.
“Bors is stronger than Eis the second. Falsha has Nodin covered in dust, he can’t see. Alope can’t defend herself against me. Liyah and the Awakened Reborn are hiding like cowards,” Lyonell said gruesomely. “You’ve been defeated, little brother.”
“Lyonell, stop!” I begged.
“It’s no use. Even if you raise your dema to match my own, you could awaken. It’s not worth it. No one has ever reached the fifth pillar and reverted back to normality. Father and the Tribal Council warned us not to ever enter the fourth or fifth pillar.”
He was right. He had already reached the third pillar. I would have to surpass the fourth pillar to match his power. I was finished. He could have killed me at any given moment. I was at the mercy of his boot.
Then, as unexpected as ever, the fragrance began to cover the grounds. Lyonell’s nostrils flared with disgust as his eyes found the Awakened Reborn walking out of one of the classroom buildings.
She seemed immoveable, almost like a statue.
“Stop it!” she yelled.
Lyonell stopped pressing his foot into me and snickered. I didn’t understand why—but then I saw him. Sean Winddick crawled on the ground near her. I sensed the rise in his dema, to the first pillar at least.
“Natalie! Get away!” I ordered.
Two single blades emerged from his gauntlets; he was about to behead her. Sean dove over a line of bushes and then jumped above her head. Natalie ducked her head just as he swung his blade, barely cutting a few strands of her blondish hair.
The he began to attack her in earnest, nearly cutting into her face.
“No!” I shouted and entered the fourth pillar. My body wouldn’t be able to handle all of the power before long; I would eventually awaken and become less human. I could feel my muscles mass increasing from within. The dark red aura surrounded me as I vowed to kill Sean Winddick before he beheaded Natalie.
“This can’t be it,” I spat demonically.
“You better stop using so much of your dark energy. The demon within might come out, and you won’t able to revert back. Don’t die for someone who means nothing to you, to us, to the Covenant,” he warned with spite. I could feel his hatred breathing down my neck as my vision became tinted with red. The thirst to awaken was at hand.
“She means a lot to me—more than you’ll ever know, brother.”
“I don’t want to know. Now watch as Sean cuts her head off,” he whispered into my bleeding ear, pushing me deeper into the ground. Then my powers began to decrease; the fourth pillar died as I slowly descended into the third. I couldn’t move.
Natalie barely dodged the quick swings from Sean. Before long, he cornered her between a statue and the wall of the Manchester Library. She had a horrified expression on her face. He grinned and licked his lips while Lyonell snickered a bit.
“Here it comes,” my brother said.
Then I felt it—the same light energy from the moment I had first encountered Natalie in her bedroom. I froze out of fear and prepared my mind for what was about to happen as the demon within stalled. I couldn’t surpass the fourth pillar, because the demon knew what I knew—Natalie was about to unleash her awakened powers upon Sean Winddick. I felt the entity’s fear—and my own.
Then I saw Sean raise his hand high above him and swing down at her neck. The blade collided with something, something I hadn’t seen before now. Sean struggled to push the edge of the blade past an invisible shield of energy. He was pushed back a few feet as he stumbled, trying to keep his balance.
Lyonell eased his grip on my neck and stared wonderingly at the shield of light. “What’s this?” he questioned.
Now was my chance.
I pushed him off of me. He tripped over a block of concrete as I stood to witness something only spoken about in campfire stories back home.
Natalie, the Awakened Reborn, began to walk a few steps toward Sean. Her eyes glowed white, and her hair slowly moved as if she were within a bubble of water. Her powers were incredible, almost godlike. She held out her hands and yelled, “No more!”
Then a wave of power swept through the west end, like air pushing everything away from Natalie. Dust roared upward and debris flew from her. I saw Liyah emerge from the same classroom building. She rushed over and grabbed Alope as they ran for cover behind a tree, both wrapping their arms around the trunk.
“What’s that light energy I am sensing?” Lyonell asked himself as he covered his eyes.
Then I saw it. Natalie extended her right hand outward. Sean laughed. “Reborns don’t possess the powers we have. We are the Covenant! Warriors of darkness! You have no energy!”
“Watch me,” Natalie declared boldly, and then a ball of white light formed around her hand. She blasted the ball of energy into him, and it exploded on impact, knocking him b
ack through a window. I watched the glass shatter and cut his face as he disappeared into the hole of blackness.
“There’s no way!” Lyonell exclaimed. Then he charged after her, attempting to finish her off himself.
Natalie quickly turned toward him and yelled like a lion, a mighty cry of power as everything—and I mean everything—became her play thing. Tree branches were ripped from trunks. Twigs, dust, and various metals were caught up in the storm of wind coming from the Awakened Reborn. It was like a hurricane of immense power.
I veered back and was tossed into a bicycle bench. Falsha flew into a police car down the west end and Bors hit one of the trees. I couldn’t tell if he had been knocked unconscious or not.
“Tristan!” James yelled from behind a car. He was holding onto the metal handle as the winds of Natalie’s power erupted even more.
If she didn’t stop unleashing her power, then she would kill us all. I had greatly underestimated Natalie. Her power was too great for us, for the Wolf clan.
“Natalie!” I shouter, seriously doubting she could hear me.
Alope and Liyah were still bunkered down behind one of the statues, desperately clenching onto a tree. The winds became too much for us to see through. I didn’t think Aaron or Falsha could manipulate violent winds and dust at the magnitude Natalie could“You’re going to kill us!” I yelled to her.
Then she finally lowered her arms. The winds of power came to a halt and the strange white aura vanished. Her eyes returned to normal. The debris ceased being tossed about as though in a tornado.
At once, the Awakened Reborn felt to her knees. She appeared to be exhausted. Tears streamed down her face. Her forearm shivered a bit from the overwhelming outburst of light energy. “I couldn’t control it. I just couldn’t control the power,” she mumbled over and over.
I bushed the dust off of me as I ran over to her.
“I’m sorry,” I heard Natalie say. “The power’s overwhelming. I wasn’t expecting to use the gift of power.”
“Natalie!” I called out when I reached her.
She shamefully looked up at me with a sobbing face. Her pale cheeks were pinkish.