“But what’s the point of telling me this?” Kalista asked, sounding intensely upset. “The Dark Pole has been unlocked. All the powers inside of it have been fully absorbed by Dove.”
“Yes … but not the Good Pole. We don’t know who the new Key of the Good Pole is yet since the Universe is probably assigning a new one right now as we speak. But we don’t need the Key. We need you to unlock the Good Pole, so we can use those powers to fight against Dove. We need you to hurry! Ink those symbols with your blood now!”
Kalista sensed the urgency in Henson’s voice, and without further hesitation, she took a deep breath and bit into the lower part of her unbruised arm, fresh blood oozing out.
When Dove caught wind of what Kalista was doing, she rose into the air, her white hair tangling around her. “What in the world are you guys planning to do? Don’t you know that you can’t defeat me?” Dove swerved around in the air, heading toward Kalista and the rest of them, curiosity burning within her chest.
Heart drumming against her ribcage, Kalista swiped her finger across the stains of blood on her arm, and began tracing the symbols on the page as fast as she could.
When Dove realized what she was doing, she erupted into a furious scream, shooting across the air toward Kalista like a cannonball. Before Kalista could finish inking the last symbol, which was a droplet resembling the drop of blood, Dove slammed right into her, sending Kalista flying into the air, the page whipping around in the swirling wind. Dove grabbed the page, a victorious look smearing her face.
“You shall not stop me!” Dove seethed. “I’m going to tear this page to shreds so none of you will be able to stop me. And for defying me like this, I’ve decided to drop my offer of turning you all into my dark soldiers. Instead, I’ll KILL all of you! Right at this moment! But not before I rip this page to pieces!”
“No!!!!!” Henson screamed in terror, staring at the page which Dove was clutching. It was their last hope of ever surviving this reign of terror. And now Dove was going to shred their hope into pieces.
As Dove was about to rip the page, something, or someone, loomed from behind and pounced on her, causing both of them to tumble onto the ground, the piece of paper slipping off Dove’s hand, and spiraling around in the gushing wind.
“Catan!” both Jesse and Kalista cried, unable to believe what they were seeing.
Catan was struggling against Dove on the ground, locking her neck around his arms, trying to suffocate her.
Jesse was overwhelmed with shock and relief at the same time. How could Catan be alive? Moments ago, Dove had declared that he was dead. How did Catan rise up from the dead, looking so robust and agile that it seemed as though he hadn’t been pulverized by Dove earlier on in the Maze of Doom when that place still existed?
Catan and Dove were engaged in a furious battle, clawing and punching at one another. However, Dove was more powerful than him, and with the flick of her finger, Catan was sent spiraling backward, crashing against the patch of lilies behind him.
“I don’t understand this!” Dove roared, fuming with such a sheer force that the tangles of white hair whipped around her face like angry snakes. “How could you be alive? I was so sure that I’ve killed you with all my powers! I don’t believe this!”
Catan scrabbled to his feet, shooting Dove the look of death. His body tensed up, and he looked like he was ready for more rounds of battle with the Enchantress. And then, he erupted into laughter, a grin plastered on his face. “Oh, Dove. You really think that you can kill me? You think you can kill the most powerful vampire in the world? Seriously?” It was his turn to sound condescending, and he infused his words with as much mockery as possible.
“You shouldn’t be alive, Catan! How is this possible?”
Even Jesse was curious as to how it was possible for Catan to be alive in such circumstances. A flicker of hope lit of Jesse’s face for the first time when she realized that there was also a chance that Lipton was still inside of Catan, still alive.
“Do you know that when you killed Rellie, you actually absorbed some of her darkness?” Catan began to explain, his eyes nailed onto Dove’s face.
Dove responded with silence, her eyes burning with unadulterated rage. She wanted to know from Catan what had kept him alive, because she was positively sure that she had finished him off moments ago.
“Well, some of that darkness is linked to me.” Catan explained about how Rellie was supernaturally connected to him when the Revival Spell went awry because of Catan’s blood inside of Rellie’s body. Rellie became a dark entity, and henceforth, she was connected to Catan, becoming the other half of his source of powers. So when Dove killed the other half of Catan’s source of powers, who happened to be Rellie, Catan’s darkness spread into Dove’s body, linking both Dove and him together now. “You shouldn’t have killed Rellie, Dove. Because of what you did, you and I are now both magically linked. I didn’t die because I was able to draw some powers from you, seeing how we are now linked as one due to the curse of darkness which was triggered when you killed Rellie. So yes, Dove. I can’t be killed because now my source of powers are drawn from you. I was able to live through death and be revived again due to those powers which I tapped from you.”
“No!!!” Dove screamed. “I do not want to be linked to you! Take away this curse! Take away this stupid curse you’ve bound me with!”
“It’s too late, Dove!” Catan cried, a triumphant look on his face. “You will never kill me as long as you live!”
Dove scoffed at him. “I will figure a way to unbind this curse from me. I will find a way. And in the meantime, I’m going to inflict you with so much pain that you wish that you were never born! And you can’t possibly defeat me, since technically, I’m more powerful than you! You were able to live because you tap onto my powers through this supernatural link that you mention. How long are you going to tap onto my powers? I’ll find a way to cut off those link, and once that happens, you’ll be sorry that you ever live!” Dove raised her arms up feistily in the air, and in split seconds, Catan was jerked up into the air, howling in pain. Dove was going to start torturing Catan all over again.
Henson shot Kalista a quick glance. “Don’t you see? Catan was helping us out just now! He was buying us some time by distracting Dove so you would have the time to finish inking the last symbol!”
Kalista gasped. Henson was right, and the clock was ticking. She had to find the page … but where was it?
“I don’t know where the page is!” Kalista cried anxiously, her hands fumbling around on the ground.
“Let’s look for the page, and quick!” Henson commanded, and everyone started to look for the missing page.
“I found it!” Jesse cried victoriously, jerking a piece of paper which was tangled in a patch of multi-colored flowers. Jesse dashed over to Kalista, and shoved the paper into Kalista’s hands. “Hurry!”
Kalista swiped her finger across the blood stains on her arm again, and inked the last symbol, her heart pounding so hard against her chest that it almost burst. All of a sudden, the symbols on the page shimmered to life, burning with a scarlet glow. The page floated out of her hands, shimmering so bright that it almost looked like it was burning in the air.
The glaring red glow caught Dove’s attention, and she stopped using her powers against Catan once she realized what was happening. She zoomed toward Kalista, her hands clenched into fists, ready to unleash deadly powers from within.
As if having a life of its own, the glowing page darted upward into the clouds, like a floating red sun. Dove had the intense urge to kill Kalista right at that moment, but seeing that the page was swirling up into the sky, she decided to give the paper a chase, putting a stop to whatever had been ignited in the page itself. The page soared into the clouds, burning with such intensity that it finally detonated into an explosion of fiery red glows, the impact so strong that it slammed against Dove, sending her plummeting toward the ground. Dove crashed against one of the hills, her thunderous
screams ripping through the air.
Kalista watched in amazement as the sky above her turned into a deep scarlet shade, looking the the sky of blood. The red sky glowed with such intensity that it cast the earth below with crimson shadows.
“The Good Pole is in the process of being unlocked!” Henson declared. “Garganutan amounts of good magic is about to be channeled from the Good Pole toward us!”
“But who’s going to absorb all those magic?!” Jesse cried.
Before anyone could respond, the sky opened up before them, revealing a hollow gap that looked like a huge mouth plastered over the sky. All of a sudden, the earth trembled violently, sending everyone tumbling onto the ground.
“It’s coming!” Henson cried, fear and awe mixed up in his voice. “The powers are coming down like a river of milk and honey!”
Jesse could feel the whole sky pounding above her, like a strong heartbeat. She knew that the Good Pole had been unlocked, and now its powers were being unleashed onto the earth. But the question was … who was going to take all its powers? Jesse wanted to recommend Henson as the power bearer, but she was too stunned by the majestically jaw-dropping sight above her that she was completely at a loss for words.
Then, all of a sudden, the mouth of the sky arched open wider, and a burst of white lights exploded out from it like streams of river, heading toward the earth.
“Henson!” Jesse cried. “Who’s going to absorb the powers? Maybe you should bear those powers on behalf of all of us. Henson …” Before Jesse could finish her sentence, she watched in deep awe as a pair of familiar white wings rose up into the air with such majesty that it drew tears down Jesse’s cheeks. The wings stretched out proudly in the sky among the drifting clouds, and they rose higher and higher toward the oncoming flood of lights that was falling from the sky.
“Lipton!” Jesse cried, tears dribbling down her cheeks at the awe-inspiring sight of her loved one rising up into the air like a phoenix, his wings spread out white silhouettes against the crimson sky. It was such a beautiful sight to witness, to remember … for the rest of Jesse’s life. Lipton had finally manifested, and Catan was back in his suppressed form. Lipton was going to be the ultimate bearer all of the good powers of the Good Pole.
Everyone watched as the surging flood of white lights slammed against Lipton, enveloping him with so much lights that he looked like a sun burning with fires of white. He was engulfed in a big ball of intense swirls of white lights, absorbing all the powers of the Good Pole. He looked magnificent, like one of the greatest angels who had ever descended upon earth, with his wings spread out in such a majestic fashion that it made those who looked at him gasp in awe. Sparkling swirls of white lights danced around him, as he stretched his arms out toward the sky, receiving all the powers that were bestowed upon him from the mouth of the sky. Jesse gazed at him dreamily, her heart swelling for him, and she smiled in spite of herself. He was such a sight to behold, so perfect in his own form, raw yet beautiful at the same time. She could gaze into the heavens all day long, the heavens which lay before her very eyes.
But her moment of adoration was suddenly cut short when a figure emerged in the clouds, slicing through the air with unbridled madness. Jesse gasped in terror when she spotted Dove darting upward in the air, heading toward Lipton in fiery rage.
“No!!!!” Dove bellowed so loud that her voice echoed though the sky. “I shall not let you have the powers of the Good Pole, or else you’d have equal strength like I do! I must put a stop to this power transfer!” Dove rocketed straight toward Lipton in a steep trajectory, and slammed herself against him, causing an explosion of bright white lights which illuminated the red sky with its intense gleam. When the blinding light of the explosion faded away, Jesse could see that Dove was shooting her own magical dark beams at Lipton, who in turn, resisted against her beams by blasting his own bright white beams in her direction. Both their beams collided into one another, creating a massive energy of beams in the center, which swelled and swelled with the pressure of two opposing beams.
“I will not let you have the powers of the Good Pole!” Dove raged on. “You shall not receive them! It has to stop!”
The massive cylindrical beams, which had been transferred from the mouth of the sky onto Lipton, had stopped flowing, signaling that the power transfer had been completed.
Jesse wasn’t sure if Lipton had managed to absorb all the undiluted powers of the Good Pole, since Dove had interfered at the last moment to prevent Lipton from receiving those powers.
Dove’s beams were slowly pushing against Lipton’s beams, and it looked as though she was succeeding, her forehead creased in deep concentration as she mustered all the powers she had within her.
“Lipton!” Jesse cried desperately. “You can do it! You have the powers of the Good Pole! You can defeat her!” But even though Jesse sounded loud and convincing, she trembled at the thought that there was a possibility that Lipton might lose the battle, for Dove had butted in at the last moment and might have successfully stopped the transfer, and Lipton might not have received the full powers of the Good Pole.
The continual pressure of the opposing beams created a massive amount of energy in the center, building up into a massive ball of lights which swirled with shadows of black and white. Dove’s dark beams were like a strong laser, straining against Lipton’s beams, which were retreating toward Lipton himself. Lipton grunted hard as he focused to push Dove’s beams back to her, but he wasn’t strong enough. Dove’s beams were edging closer and closer toward Lipton, pushing back his own beams.
“Lipton!” Jesse encouraged fervently, tears streaking down her cheeks. “You can do it! Fight her! Fight Dove!”
As if fueled by Jesse’s motivating words, Lipton let out a thunderous growl, grunting hard as he tried to strain against Dove’s dark beams. Eventually, he was about to push Dove’s beams backward, but only slightly, and it wasn’t good enough as Lipton looked like he was slowly buckling under the pressure, and Jesse wasn’t sure if he would be able to survive all of this. The built-up energy in the center, caused by the opposing beams, had swelled up into a massive ball, looking like it was about to detonate at any moment. Lipton was able to stop Dove’s beams from advancing toward him, but their beams remained in the same position as the tremendous amount of pressure built up in the center.
All of a sudden, the pressurized energy ball in the center exploded outward into a gigantic ball of intense light with a thunderous sound blasting through the air, and it was so bright that it created massive daylight all over the place, almost blinding Jesse for a brief moment. Jesse shut her eyes against the intense glare of the light, knowing that something tragic had really happened. The explosion sounded so lethal and deadly, and deep in her heart, she knew that either Dove or Lipton, or both of them, would have perished in that intensity of energy created by the two opposing beams.
When she finally opened her eyes, she slowly glanced up at the sky, her heart pounding in trepidation. Up in the sky at the exact spot where both Dove and Lipton had been engaged in a furious tug of war, there was a glowing ball of light still burning, but it wasn’t as intense as before. The size of the glowing ball was close to the size of a human body, and Jesse realized that only one had survived, but she had no idea who. The swirls of light were wrapped around the figure, concealing his or her identity. It could be Dove, or it could be Lipton. Jesse held her breath, deep gulps running down her throat.
The mouth of the sky had been sealed again, closing the link between the earth and the Poles, and the crimson shade of the sky had dissipated away, replaced by warm blue, painted with the streaks of drifting white clouds. The sky had returned to its normal color, and sunlight began to caress the earth with hues of orange and yellow, infusing the whole earth with its friendly warmth once again. When the last ribbons of red had completely faded away, the swirling lights engulfing the figure dimmed and vanished, revealing the face that brought drew a gasp from Jesse’s throat.
“Lipton!!!!!” Jesse cried her lungs out, her feet leaping up and down in unadulterated joy. Tears stung her eyes, and for a moment, her vision was slightly blurred. Like a silly little girl, she rubbed her the blur out of her eyes, trying to focus on Lipton again, and when their eyes met, Jesse couldn’t help but smile. That beautiful smile curved Lipton’s lips, and Jesse’s heart melted instantly. How was he always able to sweep her off her feet with that charming smile of his?
Wings flapping around him, Lipton descended from the sky, and landed strategically right in front of Jesse, who leapt straight into his arms and cried like there was no tomorrow.
“Oh, Lipton!” Jesse broke into sobs, her chest heaving. “I can’t believe it’s you! I-I … for a moment I … thought you were dead.”
Silently, Kalista and the Sigma men huddled close around Lipton and Jesse, but giving them enough space and privacy without intruding into the moment that they were having.
“I know,” Lipton whispered, stroking Jesse’s hair, as her whole body trembled against his. “I thought I was going to die too …”
Jesse pulled her head back and gazed into Lipton’s eyes. “But how did you ever manage to survive?”
“It was simple, really. I was able to utilize both the dark and good powers, and turned them against Dove, completely killing her, once and for all.”
“Dark powers? What do you mean? I thought you only absorbed the powers of light from the Good Pole …”
“Well, it’s elementary, my dear. You see, Catan and I are both linked as one. As far as I knew, Catan was supernaturally linked to Dove due to the whole Rellie incident. So because of that, I was able to tap onto Dove’s dark powers during our grueling battle. Because I have the full backup of the powers of the Good Pole, I was able to significantly tap onto all the dark powers which were contained inside of Dove. Thanks to the supernatural boost the powers of light gave me, I was able to transfer all the powers of darkness from Dove to me, giving me both the powers of the Dark and Good Poles, making me immeasurably powerful and invincible. Using both the energies of the Dark and Good Poles, I was able to destroy Dove for good. And yes, Dove is gone. She’s no more!”
In Love With A Vampire Page 48