Anger surged through Akielas, staring up at Ember. He slit his thumb with the tip of his sword and drew a pentacle on his left hand with blood. “Terraibos nyte gorum!” he yelled and pressed his hands on the ground releasing his maju. “Rise, my warriors of steel. I summon you from Ironside!”
A yellow pentacle glowed under his feet like the one he used to teleport. It then divided into ten pentacles. Akielas stood in the middle. Glowing spheres hovered over each of his fingers, one for every pentacle. He thrust both hands upward, and something emerged from each glowing pentacle. Men in armor…no…they were…empty warrior armor. Helmets, pauldrons, chest plates, vambrace, gauntlets, cuisses, tassets, and broadswords. All these pieces of armor stood as if soldiers wore them. They animated without a human body. Once all ten armors fully emerged from their magic circle, they commenced to walk, clattering, swinging their swords like experienced warriors. They held no shield, only a sword at hand.
“Go, my warriors! Finish them all!” Akielas commanded, and all ten armors ran into battle, steel boots thumping. Over his fingers, ten spheres hovered, one for each suit of armor that fought fiends. Every time a warrior armor attacked, three fiends perished. The number of fiends quickly began to decrease. At first, it seemed like thousands, but now, with Eckxio, Willow, Ganicus, and ten warrior armors fighting, the village was becoming clear of fiends. They pushed trolls down pairs of stairs. When fiends were slaughtered, they turned to ashes, and those that flew were shot down. The animated warrior armors would hurl their swords and cleave their enemy. They were automatons of war.
Eckxio swung his sword and took down tenths of fiends. Willow went berserk with her Dragontooth like a wild beast and summoned killer plants. Every time the girl swung her sword, two fiends turned to ashes. Ganicus danced with his twin swords casting razor winds.
Akielas ran through fiends and slashed through them with fire and wind. He glanced up at Ember and plotted to take her down immediately before she could disappear again.
“Aerorae tiao!” he shouted and felt his body weight reducing. The spell allowed him to jump higher, beyond normality. He ascended nearly one hundred feet high, almost reaching Ember, and just before he could touch her, a gust of wind pushed him. He fell momentarily then propelled himself up with another air spell. “Aerorae eshuas!” He released a blast of air from his palms and jetted upwards towards Ember. Her body disappeared, leaving a cloud of smoke, then she reappeared in front of him with Jairo by her side. Both apprentices showered Akielas with a blast of darkness. Akielas took a direct hit and tumbled. As he fell, he felt the beating of his heart slowing down as if his soul was leaving his body.
He felt weak and thought that he would hit the ground, but in the nick of time, an animated tree branch caught him. Branches wrapped around his body and brought him down. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Akielas dropped to his knees. Eckxio and Willow came to his aid.
“Thank you, Willow. I would have been dead without you,” he said.
“We would be lost without you, Sir Akielas,” Willow replied.
Eckxio’s Tharos sword shone white. The Elf waved the sword over Akielas’s chest and removed the dark spell. Akielas balled his fist and felt his maju rising again. He looked up at Ember and saw her descending upon the gold and silver pillar at the center of the village. The triad ran to the pillar to face their masked foe, and once they reached it, Ganicus joined them.
Ember floated above the pillar, spreading her cloak like batwings. Jairo appeared, billowing with a cloud of smoke. He was identified by the horns on the side of his mask that warped backwards. Then, Hertha appeared on Ember’s left; her horns rose like those of a bull. Finally, the one with the broken horn, Naunet, appeared next to Hertha. All four apprentices hovered side by side on the pillar, staring down at Akielas and his allies.
“Shall we make this a four on four battle?” Ember said then snickered. “I always loved group sparring. This is the perfect setting. All we need now is for the king of Dwarves to join us.”
“Careful what you wish for, masked fiend,” came a voice from behind Akielas and his allies. A Dwarf with a long brown beard approached. He was four feet tall, wearing zeustoss armor, all white like the realm of light. On his helmet was a golden crown with white shards. Behind him was an army of Dwarves clad in gold and silver. Earth mages wore long green robes with chest plates, wielding bladed staffs.
“I, Heranore, the king of Dwarves, command you to leave our village,” said the Dwarf. “You take our zeustoss without permission. You didn’t ask or bargain, like most outsiders do. You invade and bring destruction to our home. We will send your army of darkness to Necrovania. We will capture you and make you suffer for all the brothers, fathers, and sons you have murdered. Heed my words, masked raiders. The Dwarves will never forgive you.”
Akielas approached Heranore. The Dwarf stared at him coldly.
“King Heranore. It is I, once more, Akielas. Your enemy is my enemy.”
“Yes, I remember you, Sir Akielas. It is an honor to have you here defending our village. Let us destroy this foe together.” The king of Dwarves raised his sword, gleaming. Steel clattered behind him as warriors positioned for battle.
Although fiends still surrounded them in large numbers, Akielas raised his chin and stared up at Ember with a grin. The ten suits of animated armors he had summoned still fought, and now, he had warriors and mage Dwarves on his side. Wherever he went, Akielas always had allies.
“Ember!” he yelled. “I will ask you one last time before we take you down. Why are you doing this? Why are you causing so much destruction throughout the world? Why are you collecting the cosmo jewels?”
Akielas waited for an answer. Steel and armor clattered behind him. There was the sound of flames crackling and lava molting. The growling of fiends stopped, and Akielas commanded his ten animated armors to pause as well. His allies waited for the right time to attack. All offenses ceased then Ember spoke.
“Once again, Akielas, I will tell you. You gave me the idea. In fact, it was your original mission when you were training us to be master mages. We, the Specters, are now carrying on the plan you taught us.”
“The Specters. Is that what you call yourselves?” Akielas asked.
“Yes, that is our name,” Ember replied. “We are the Specters. We are ghosts to the world. We are no longer tethered to Odealeous. Our mission is greater. Our mission is to rid the world of magic.” She hissed the words, passionately raising her fist.
“Rid the world of magic,” Willow repeated, stepping forward.
Akielas held Willow back. He met eyes with Ember without words.
“Do you remember, old master?” Ember asked
“Yes,” Akielas simply answered and frowned as decade-old memories crept back. All heads turned to Akielas. Faces of disappointment stared at him agape. There was too much shame for Akielas to look at any of his allies. “But that was the old me,” he said. “What made you pursue such a cold ambition?”
“Good question,” Ember replied. From within the darkness of her cloak, she pulled a book. It was thick, probably thousands of pages. It had a mandarak illustrated on the cover with eight encircled symbols. Six of them were the symbols of the four natural elements and darkness and divine. “This is the dragon bible. Some call it the draquark. I am sure you all know what this is,” Ember assumed. “My dear, Akielas. Remember when you found me in that shipwreck? That day changed my life forever. You took me and raised me as your own child. Not just me but Naunet, Jairo, and Hertha, as well. I remember I was eight years old. You trained all four of us orphans. You told us that we would grow up to be powerful mages that can change the world. Your training was rough, sometimes cold and difficult. As we grew up, you began to sculpt our minds with your idea of changing the world and returning it to its original state. You raised us for this purpose, to be your weapons. You were also obsessed with Prodigus Kollos, but you did not follow his teachings until recently. So, by the age of eighteen, when al
l four of us reached a mastery level, you were getting ready to commence your plan of ridding the world of its impurity. I didn’t fully agree with your creed back then and did not speak against it, because I loved you. You were ready to sacrifice your life for your plans, because you strongly believed that magic was the root of all evil. No magic meant peace in the world and less wars and conflict between countries. Power struggle is one of the main reasons so many countries are at war, and we all know that magic is the ultimate weapon. Magic is our biggest sin. The sin of mages.”
“How in the world is magic the biggest sin?” Willow asked, pointing her sword at Ember.
“Willow, hold on. Let her speak,” Akielas told the girl and gestured at Ember to continue.
“As I was saying,” Ember cleared her throat, “the people of El Nido are all about peace, and they believed that Akielas was the reincarnation of the legendary Prodigus Kollos, yet no one had proof. Maybe it was because you were the only one that had mastered all four elements. A task that was extremely difficult, and only Prodigus Kollos was known to have accomplished it. Akielas…you always knew that I loved you more than a teacher, more than a friend. I always wanted to be with you, but you married that dark mage, Demitra. I was drowning in jealousy, and I watched her take you away from me. She had your child, and I became furious over the years. After your son was born, you changed. You began to learn illumancy, the magic of light. I am not sure what made you change your mind, but you ceased all plans of ridding the world of magic. At that time, I had already run away from El Nido. I never wanted to see you again, because I couldn’t have you. I was filled with envy. Then throughout my travels that year, I stumbled upon a special entity. She calls herself the goddess of fate, Arkana.”
“Arkana?” Akielas interrupted. “I thought she was just a myth.”
“The goddess Arkana, she gave me cosmo magic.” Ember removed her white mask and tight hood. Black hair fell over her neck. A scar marred her face from forehead to cheek. The sclera of her right eye was purely purple; there was no pupil or iris. Everyone cringed looking at her eye.
“Monster! I say we kill her, right now,” said Heranore.
“No! Wait. Just wait. I beg you. Let her speak,” Akielas pled. He turned his attention to Ember again, eager to know more.
“Arkana showed me the future. I saw myself collecting all four remnants of the dragon gods and using them to rid the world of its greatest sin. At first, that vision felt like a dream, but now, I am seeing it unfold before my eyes. Once I was able to see into my future, I decided to pursue that very goal you raised me for but in my own way. All I needed was my brothers and sisters to stand beside me. The only thing standing in my way was you, Akielas. I decided to kill you using my new powers. I watched you and your family burn that day in your own house. I sunk my blade into your gut and slaughtered that harlot you called a wife. I am not sure how you survived, but it doesn’t matter now. Once I collect the four cosmo jewels, nothing will matter anymore, and I will rule Odealeous without the laws of the dragon gods.”
“The ruler of Odealeous. That is impossible. No one can rule this world alone,” Akielas argued.
“No one will be allowed to use magic. Only a chosen few. I will create a utopia and bring back the world that the dragon gods first created,” Ember said, “a world of peace, purity, freedom, and harmony, just like the garden of Eden.” She donned her mask and tucked her hair inside her tight hood.
“Hold on. You still have not explained how magic is our greatest sin,” Willow said.
“I will gladly explain.” Ember opened the dragon bible she had been holding and flipped through the sections. “The dragon bible was written by Prodigus Kollos around the same time that the other grimoires were written. Prodigus was said to have spoken with the dragon gods, themselves, and thus he acquired knowledge of history before his own time. In the book of maju, the fourth book of the dragon bible, the dragons gave humans the gift of magic. In the book of chaos, the sixth book, humans abused their new powers and used it to fight each other. The first war since the beginning of time took place in the holy grounds of Eden. In the book of exile, the seventh book, the dragon gods exiled all humans from their holy land. After that, the lands of Eden were never seen again; however, some say that the holy land was renamed ‘El Nido.’ In the book of war, the sixteenth book, Prodigus Kollos and his twelve apprentices fought against three groups, the fiends from Necrovania, the Lumnoss from the realm of light, and the Alexanders from the limbo. Prodigus Kollos and his apprentices fought against these beings, because they were trying to prevent magic from returning to the world. Prodigus Kollos succeeded, and the knowledge of magic, once again, spread throughout Odealeous as said in the book of nomads. So, as you can see, mages are the greatest sin of this world. So much that beings from other realms were trying to stop them. I intend to carry on this mission and succeed with the help of the goddess of fate, Arkana.”
Akielas thought of his old self. Back when he had this mindset. Ember was the fruit of his old creed, his old plans, and everything he let go of. Ember is the skin he had shed when he was becoming the man he is today. Ember was power hungry, just like he once was. She is the monster that he created, along with Naunet, Hertha, and Jairo.
“I understand,” he said. “You think that you are doing the world a favor by taking on the responsibility of our ancestor’s mistakes. Humans are the greatest sinners of all species. Those who were ashamed of being human had evolved. I believe that is why the Elves evolved from humans. The same for the Greamos and even the Dwarves. They all evolved, hoping to become species of peace and higher purpose, as said in the book of evolution, the tenth book in the dragon bible.”
Eckxio clutched Akielas’s arm and looked up at him. “Don’t say such things. Chaos is not the way; you know this, Akielas. You once told me that all beings were meant to live together in peace. Willow and I were going to get married to show the Elves and the Greamos this very example.”
Akielas remained silent and gazed up at Ember. He was speechless and felt the presence of his old self that moment. Ember had embodied who he once was.
“So you agree then,” Ember’s voice echoed. “You see how you have been lying to yourself. You pretended to forget, but it all still lingered. Join me, Akielas, and together, we will rule. We can still cleanse the world of its impurity. We can still rid the world of magic and create a new Elysium, like the Garden of Eden. You know this is what you want. You began this quest, this dream, this endeavor. You gave up on it. We can accomplish our dreams together. We don’t have to be enemies.”
“Akielas would never do that,” Eckxio shouted. His sword glowing heavenly.
“Ask him yourself. After all, this was his original plan,” Ember said.
“I didn’t think you would be this merciful, Ember,” Jairo said.
“He is our master, after all. Without him, we would have never become mages,” Naunet added.
“It would be a pity if he rejects us,” Hertha included.
All faces stared at Akielas. He could no longer hide it from anyone. He was ashamed of his past and thought he could bury the memories forever and no one would know. The man I once was, he mulled. I will not relapse to the cold-minded man I was. I have experienced both light and darkness, only to learn that total destruction is not the way to correct the past.
“Ember,” Akielas looked up at her. “I understand why you are doing this. However, the path of destruction will only reincarnate and return to haunt us again and again. I abandoned my old plans, creeds, and ideas, because I realized that the true way to change the world is to touch people’s hearts one at a time. A simple act of kindness can cause a ripple effect. Destroying everything is the coward’s way out, but becoming vulnerable and giving unconditionally to those you love is the real challenge. You can go ahead and destroy everything in your path, but I would rather plant seeds wherever I go and watch them grow year after year into fruitful trees like all the friends I’ve made. I have fai
led you as a father, and I am not sure if I can change your mind now or later, but Ember, heed my words. If you intend to rid the world of magic, then you are seriously mistaken.”
Akielas took off his cloak and tossed it aside. He enchanted his sword with lightning, and it chirped with sparks. “Magic is not the root of all evil or our greatest sin. If there is evil in this world, it lurks in the heart of men, and I will make it my responsibility to defeat all those with malice, and you are no exception.”
“Good and evil are but illusions of reality, Master Akielas. Purpose and conviction is the true essence of all existence,” Ember replied. “We cannot go on living if we continue to destroy each other. Throughout history, humans always needed to be ruled; we always needed monarchs. So, now, I will become the ruler of this world. I will change our conviction so that there will only be one creed in Odealeous.” She ascended then launched a spell with her cosmo magic, a beam of many shades of purple. “Cosmo suz!”
“Llumvrem phantom suz!” Akielas launched his spell, a white beam, humming angelically.
Both spells collided, and the energies pushed against each other releasing sparks. Abruptly, everyone went into a frenzy unleashing spells, as if the beams had triggered a war. Dwarves fought against fiends. Akielas’s animated armors resumed. Battle cries and steel made a twisted melody of death as souls left bodies. Growls and shrills of fiends pierced through ears, but it was nothing like the sound of bones breaking between fangs.
Akielas did not take his eyes off Ember as he focused his spell on her. In his peripheral, he saw them all fighting. Naunet against Eckxio, Hertha against Willow, and Jairo against Ganicus. His friends fighting his apprentices. For the first time in his life, he was not fighting his apprentices alone. No…they are no longer my apprentices; they are no longer the children I raised. They have become my enemies. Its time I let go of old memories. This time, I will kill them.
Akielas pressed more maju into his spell. He felt Ember’s maju slipping.
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