Guardian: Darkness Rising

by Melanie Houtman

  Daisy seemed rather uncomfortable. “Shouldn’t we keep going?” she said.

  “You’re right,” Luke said. “We’ve got to get to Mari. And fast.”

  “Mari has reached the Dark Castle,” Ince said. “We just saw her enter before we left to find you.”

  “How did she get here so fast, though?” Marco wondered. “She disappeared into smoke back in Louloudia. How’d she do that?”

  “She can teleport like the Master,” Akilah said, “because she’s a Lost Soul. They were once the Master’s minions... the last two Lost Souls were set free twenty-five years ago.”

  “Can we save her?” Luke said, as the teenagers, now accompanied by the two shadows, continued walking.

  “You can,” Akilah said, “with that dust you’ve got. We created those flowers for a Fairy Queen a long time ago. They can cure nearly anything.”

  Luke looked at the vial in his hand; for some reason, he hadn’t let go of it ever since he and his friends had entered Louloudia. He wasn’t sure why he’d kept holding on to it; perhaps he just wanted to have it ready to use.

  “So if we just use it on her, she’ll go back to normal?” Luke asked.

  “She will,” Ince confirmed. “You’ll be able to save all of your friends with it – except for James.”

  “We can save him, too,” Luke said decisively. “We’ll save our parents and then restore the balance together with them.”

  “The Land of Light is a fairly small realm,” Akilah said. “We’ll be at the Dark Castle soon. We’ll have your parents freed before you know it.”

  *

  Mari crashed into the wall with a loud thud. The Master was stronger than she’d anticipated.

  Apparently, the Master had been waiting for her, and had taken his time to prepare himself for a fight. Fighting him was more of a challenge than Mari had thought it’d be.

  She quickly got back on her feet, scanning the room for the Master; the dark demi-spirit had magically forced all candles to go out, causing the throne room to be even darker than it’d been before.

  The only thing that gave the two fighters away, were their glowing eyes. And, of course, the Master’s glowing orb.

  “Giving up yet, Mari?” the Master’s mocking voice came from the dark. “You might think you’ll be able to save your friends, but deep in your heart, you know better.”

  “Shut up,” Mari said under her breath, but repeated her words in a loud yell. “SHUT UP!

  “You don’t know ANYTHING about me!”

  She suddenly noticed the red glow of the orb moving in the corner of her eye, and barely dodged the blast of energy that came her way.

  “Don’t I?” the Master said. “You’ve always felt different, haven’t you, Mari?

  “Like there was more for you out there.”

  Mari charged her own energy, throwing everything she had at the three glowing dots in front of her. They disappeared for a short moment, but reappeared behind her, catching her by surprise.

  A single blast sent Mari flying; Mari once again crashed against a wall, nearly ending up going unconscious upon impact with the wall.

  “Don’t deny it, Mari,” the Master said. “You and I are very much alike. In powers, in personality.

  The only difference is that you have a family that loves you.”

  Mari turned around, but remained seated on the ground, as her legs felt too weak to stand on and her head was foggy. She just simply remained sitting on the ground, glaring angrily at the three glowing dots in front of her. The two smaller ones seemed to have something sad in their looks.

  “My family – the Spirits – never loved me. They abused me, gave me near-useless powers simply because it was a responsibility neither of them wanted. They mocked me. Used me.

  “And when I showed them what I was made of, they banished me. Isn’t it only fair of me to take my revenge?”

  “No,” Mari said. “Revenge is never the answer, Asura.”

  “You only say that because you don’t understand,” the Master said. “Your family loves you, and you love them. You wouldn’t want to hurt them.

  “But... I can make sure of that, dear.”

  “What do you mean?” Mari said.

  “I promise you, if you take my hand now,” the Master said, presumably sticking out his hand through the darkness toward Mari, “I will not harm your friends or family. No harm will come to them from my hand.”

  “And... you’re keeping your word?” Mari said, slightly suspicious. And for a good reason, too, of course.

  “I promise I will keep my word,” the Master said decisively. “I will not harm your friends or family.

  “Let’s stop fighting, Mari.”

  “Very well, then,” Mari said, searching for the Master’s hand in the dark.

  What she didn’t know, was that the moment she shook it, she’d made a great mistake.

  *

  The teenagers had snuck into the Dark Castle successfully. Normally, the Master would’ve instantly sent his minions – Night Stalkers, Shadow Walkers, or any such monsters – to find and capture the intruders, but since he was preoccupied with Mari, it was safe for the teenagers to sneak about.

  “The Master keeps the statues of Guardians he’s captured in the castle garden,” Ince said. “We spent about a week releasing every statue’s soul after the Master was gone. It was terrible.” He shuddered at the memory.

  “So now it should be just the statues of our parents,” Luke said. “I hope.”

  The garden looked more like a graveyard. White dust cloaked the ground, and the plants – or at least whatever seemed to be plants – were either deformed to monstrous versions of the original or dead.

  In the distance stood four dark figures, their silhouettes slightly lit in the dim moonlight.

  “There they are,” Luke said. He wanted to sprint over and just throw the dust at the adult Guardians, but he knew that it was wiser to tread carefully. Who knew what the Master had done to this hell of a garden.

  Luckily, nothing happened; the five teenagers and their companions reached the statues safely.

  Luke took small amounts of dust out of the vial as he passed the statues; the stones started to tremble as the dust touched them.

  And eventually, all that remained were four startled adults. The teenagers were quick to explain everything that had happened while their parents had been gone; the adults agreed with their children that they had to act quickly.

  But before they left, Luke wanted to try something.

  “Ince,” he said, “you said this dust could cure nearly anything. So that makes me wonder... what it’ll do for the two of you.”

  Luke shook the vial, allowing some dust to fall on his hands, but making sure there was enough left inside for Mari. He then blew it in the two shadows’ direction.

  Nothing seemed to happen at first, but after a few short moments, a bright light flashed through the garden. When the light finally dimmed, two glowing figures stood in the place of the shadows – it had worked.

  “Lucas,” Akilah gasped, “thank you for saving us.

  “Now... allow us to save your friend.”

  III

  The

  Saviour

  Mercy

  When the two Generations and Spirits entered the throne room, they were caught by an unpleasant surprise. The room was dimly lit, but the people standing inside were clearly visible. The Master was standing in front of his mighty throne, with Mari at his side.

  “Welcome, Guardians,” the Master spoke on a rather triumphant tone. “Akilah. Ince. I see you’ve come to finish this once and for all.”

  “MARI!” Luke shouted at the girl standing beside the Master. “Are you alright?”

  Mari didn’t respond. She completely ignored Luke, even. As if he didn’t exist at all.

  “Asura, if you surrender now, things will be a lot easier for the both of us,” Ince warned his brother. “We don’t have to hurt you if you don’t resist.”
>
  The Master, however, laughed it off. “Of course, Ince,” he said mockingly. “After well over a thousand years of work, do you really think I’d be willing to walk away from everything?

  “That’s where you’re wrong.”

  The Master then directed his attention toward the Guardians. “You might’ve taken away my new toy, but after all, James truly never was more than just a toy to me. A distraction for the lot of you... although a pleasant addition to my army when I have rebuilt it.” He paused for a moment. “And when a child loses a toy...” The Master grinned and placed a hand on Mari’s shoulder.

  “...it simply gets a new one.”

  Apparently, that sentence – or touch, or maybe even a combination of the two – had been the sign for Mari to attack. She drew her sword, leaping down to the Guardians’ level. The Guardians backed away, not wanting to hurt Mari.

  “What did you do to her, you scumbag?” Antonio barked angrily at the Master. “What have you done to my daughter!? TELL ME BEFORE I SLICE YOUR HEAD OFF!”

  The Master laughed as he watched the Guardians desperately block and dodge Mari’s attacks, both physical and magical, as she chased them around the throne room, forcing them to split up.

  “Mari and I merely made a deal,” the Master said. “If she took my hand and allowed me to help her up, I wouldn’t harm you. Any of you.” He grinned. “I guess Miss Marilyn didn’t consider the consequences to grabbing hold of my hand.”

  Antonio sprinted forward and tried to grab his daughter’s arms, as she continued to violently lash out at him. “You’re in my way, old man!”

  Antonio took out his sword, and tried to use it to whip Mari’s sword out of her hands. Mari didn’t quite offer him an opportunity to do so, though.

  “Mari, listen to me!” Antonio said. “You’re stronger than this. I know you are! Try to fight it, please!”

  “You’re wasting your breath, old man!” Mari growled, proceeding to lash out at her father. “Now take that word of yours and fight back! Show me what you’re made of!”

  Antonio kept on blocking his daughter’s attacks, refusing to attack her.

  He looked at the eighteen-year-old girl in front of him, with her wild eyes and messy hair. Antonio was hardly able to recognise his own daughter. “I will not fight you, Mari,” he breathed. “Please.”

  Just as Mari was about to attack again, golden dust downed on her, stopping her in her tracks. The colour in her eyes and cheeks was slowly restored as the black veins on her face faded.

  “..Dad..?” Mari said coarsely.

  Antonio let out a cry of happiness, threw his sword to the floor and hugged his daughter tightly.

  “NO!” the Master bellowed, directing his rage toward Luke, who barely managed to dodge the blast of dark magic the Master sent his way, tripping over his cape as he did. The master continued to quickly approach Luke; his eyes were wild and outraged.

  “You,” the Master hissed. “You, boy. You have been the thorn in my side for the past few days... You’re just as arrogant as my father.

  “So how about I get rid of you just as I almost got rid of him so many years ago?”

  The Master had raised his staff, but it was cut in half by a sword before the Master could do anything. “What-”

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  Thomas was the one who’d cut the Master’s staff in half; the other three adults and five teenagers, including Mari and Antonio, had quickly surrounded the Master. Ince and Akilah stood right behind their brother.

  “It’s over, Asura,” Ince said.

  The Master watched silently as Thomas helped Luke to get back on his feet. “Is it?’ he asked quietly, a grin creeping up on his lips. “I don’t believe it is.”

  A loud explosion followed. Something had exploded outside the castle, possibly a couple of kilometres away.

  “What was that?” Bella said, although the Guardians already knew the answer.

  “That was the sound of your precious barrier shattering into a thousand pieces,” the Master said, before bursting out in loud laughter. “You have lost, Guardians!”

  Fear instantly clutched Luke’s heart as he turned to face his aunt. “Dad is out there,” he said to her. “He’s all alone – he’s probably in pain right now – we have to go save him.”

  Samira had a worried expression on her face, which shifted to the side for a short moment; Ince and Akilah had engaged a fight with their sibling. They’d had enough.

  “The only thing we can do to save James is fix this,” Samira said. “We’ve got to get back to the Castle of Light and perform the Ritual. It’s our best, no, our only chance.”

  “Just go!” Ince shouted, as he stopped one of the Master’s attacks with great effort; apparently, he’d heard Samira talking.

  “We’ve got this!” another voice shouted; it was Aoife. The three spirits who’d gone to strengthen the barrier had returned to support their siblings. The barrier had shattered now anyway, so there was nothing left for them to protect.

  Luke wondered whether the five of them would be strong enough to fend off the Master, but guessed he’d just have to trust them.

  *

  While he nine Guardians and Mari left the Dark Castle and rushed to the other side of the realm, the Spirits tried to reason with their brother.

  “Asura, stop this madness!” Aharnish commanded his brother; in the heat of the battle, the Spirit of Night and Day had blown a hole in the roof of the throne room, and now the Spirits were following their brother into the night sky.

  “This quarrel, this war, has gone on for long enough. It’s about time we put an end to this.”

  “Put an end to what, brother?” the Master replied mockingly. “To your misery, or to mine?

  “You might have taken my staff from me, but you haven’t taken the power that runs through my veins. I am still just as strong, if not stronger than you are.”

  “This is not a competition, Asura,” Aine said loudly. “This isn’t about who’s stronger. And you know it.”

  “Hasn’t it always been?” the Master said on a rather violent tone. “If I remember correctly, the five of you were always keen to showing off your power and authority to anyone dumb enough to listen to your preposterous stories. The stories you made up just to tell everyone how great you are.” The tone of the Master’s voice clearly let shine through how much he truly despised his siblings – he hated them in the deepest grounds of his heart.

  “Show off. That’s all you lot ever did.”

  He paused for a moment before continuing, perhaps hoping to get a counterargument from his siblings. “I’m getting tired of this conversation, it feels a little one-sided. Are we doing this or not?”

  Without his magic, the Master had to control his magic with his hands. It wasn’t much of a problem, but his staff had always given him advantages his hands didn’t give him. But, with his hands, the Master always tended to get a bit more creative when it came to magic.

  There was this particular trick the Master had always used; he was curious to find out whether or not he’d still be able to pull it off.

  The Master raised his arm; a string of his signature fog surrounded his arm, thickening as it crept closer the Master’s hand. The black string eventually crept over the Master’s hand and through his fingers, launching itself spiralling into the night sky, where it reshaped itself into a dark dragon.

  The shadow dragon followed the Master’s commands, attacking the Spirits of Light both physically and by spewing its dark fire at them (proving that the latter was more effective).

  The Spirits of Light responded respectively; combining their powers together, they made a dragon of their own, in the exact same way the Master had made his; made of light, and spewing green fire. The light dragon challenged the dark dragon, allowing the conversation between both parties to continue while the dragons were occupied.

  “Do you truly feel like we abused you, Asura?” Akilah asked, genuinely concer
ned about her younger brother, who seemed rather annoyed with her concern as well as her question.

  “Yes, Akilah,” he snarled, “I do. I always did. What o you think made me like this?” His eyes narrowed. “Do you really think I was born evil? No. I was sculpted into an evil shell after my creation.

  By the five of you.”

  The anger in the Master’s voice was beyond any measure. Never had Akilah heard any man, woman, or any other creature speak in such a hateful way. And it broke her heart.

  “This monster you see, Akilah,” the Master continued, “the monster in front of you, is the result of your own actions. If the five of you truly never wanted any of this to happen, then you should’ve thought of that before leaving me in the dark for all those years.” He laughed. “Literally in the dark.” He called back his dragon, commanding it to attack the Spirits again, but they were quick to dodge, using their own dragon as a shield.

  The Master snorted in dismay. “Too afraid to fight, are we?”

  “We’re not afraid to fight, Asura,” Ince said, “we’re just too stunned by your reasons to attack us.”

  The Master took a deep breath. “You didn’t listen,” he said. “I have been repeating this story to you over and over for the past... what, two thousand years?

  “And yet, you’re still surprised.”

  The Spirits just looked at each other for a moment. Ince couldn’t help but stare at Akilah; the expression in her eyes was more than just sad. It was heartbroken.

  Akilah knew. She’d always known. Ever since Lunaria’s creation, the Spirits had been there. And ever since the Spirits created their little brother Asura to take on the toughest task they could’ve possibly given him, Akilah knew that Asura would be in pain.

  Akilah knew for years. Centuries. Millennia, even. And still, she never did anything to lift the weight or help her brother. And she was ashamed for never doing so.

  Something inside of Akilah saw everything Asura had gone through, everything that had happened to him until what he’d become now, was directly her own fault, because she’d been too afraid to, as the oldest of her siblings, put a stop to something.