“Why is that?” I asked, wanting to hear more.
Kaido continued, “He left my mother to fight in the Heaven and Hell War. That was last time she had ever seen him. I never knew him. My mom told me he was a great man and one day will come back and see us again. That never happened, obviously. Mabel was a name that he came up with.”
I added, “Is that is why you hate your name?”
“Exactly. After my mom passed, I came up with the name Kaido and trained in my fighting skills for the next few years from a local swordsman master. Not Master Zen, but he did mention that he knew of Zen. After that, I became a mercenary. I don’t think my dad is a great man. If he is so great, why isn’t he here?” Kaido said.
I looked away and thought to myself, ‘He is feeling very similar to the way I feel about my father. I guess we all have dad issues.’
“I know how you feel. My father died in the same war. My mother and everyone else says he was the greatest man they ever knew. I mean if that were true, why did he die? Why wasn’t he around for me?” I told Kaido.
He looked at me and I looked at him. We stared at each other for a moment.
“Yeah, exactly.” He said softly.
I yawn and said, “Man, I’m tired all of sudden. We better get some sleep.”
“Agreed,” Kaido said in agreement.
We walked together back to the rooms and split to our respective rooms.
“Good night, Tana,” Kaido said to me smirking.
With a smile, I responded, “Good night, Kaido.”
The next morning, Vlayru and I met Zen down in the training grounds. Kaido was already down there waiting.
“You guys have done really well. Tana that sword you have was the ‘Good Cast’s’ sword, correct?” he asked.
“Yes, it is,” I responded.
Zen continued, “Well I believe you are ready to make your own sword, what do you think?”
I got a little excited on the inside, but I fought to keep my cool.
“Yes, I agree, Master,” I responded to me.
Zen smirked and said, “Well, let’s begin.”
“This won’t take long, will it, master? I’m worried about what the Dark Rebellion is doing,” I asked him.
“You can’t rush the sword making process, but I know we are limited on time. I will do what I can speed it up.” Zen replied with a smile.
“We’ll do more training while you do that,” Vlayru said.
Kaido sighed and joined him. I spent the next two days constructing my sword with Zen helping me since he had knowledge of blacksmithing. Finally, it was done. I showed Mabel and Vlayru when they came to check on me.
“Is it done yet?” Vlayru asked.
I held up the sword towards them.
Vlayru the said, “Oh wow, it looked cool. Congratulation on finishing it.”
Kaido added, “Yeah, good job. Although I could have done better.”
I studied the sword and gave my opinion, “I’m sure you could of. I do feel like there needs to be more to it.”
Just then, Vlaykre appeared through his usual entrance, to check up on us. It startled Kaido, as he drew his sword.
“It’s okay Kaido, this is our friend, Vlaykre,” I told him.
Kaido put his sword back on his back and asked, “How did he do that?”
he had a cautious look on his face. He sheathed his sword slowly and studied Vlaykre.
“Nice to meet you too, Kaido,” Vlaykre said, smirking.
Vlaykre looked over and saw Master Zen, “Master Zen.”
“Nice to see you again, Vlaykre,” Zen said to him.
“You guys know each other?” Vlayru asked him as we all looked confused.
“Vlaykre?” said Queen Aida from behind.
The Queen was walking toward us while being escorted by her guard.
Vlaykre looked behind him, and responded, “Oh, Aida, nice to see you again. I hear your Queen now, huh?”
The Queen answered, “Yes I have. I see you haven’t really changed at all. Still wearing the same old clothes.”
Vlayru, Kaido, and I were so dumbfounded.
“Explanation time, is it? I’ve known Zen since the ‘Good Cast’ trained with him. I went with him since we were inseparable back in those days. During our adventures, we met Aida when she was just a princess. I believe she was younger than you Tana, if remember right,” Vlaykre explained
The queen smiled and then responded, “You guys were so helpful back then.”
“Wow, that’s really cool,” I told him in a surprised tone.
Vlaykre then changed the subject, “Yes, well I just came to check up on you. You haven’t really been traveling for the last week, but I see you’re doing some training with Zen.”
I responded, “Yes, we’ve learned so much in the past week.”
“Very good. I know you’ll need it. I see you have also made your own sword. Not bad, but If you want, I could make it better for you. It’ll be stronger and indestructible. will never break, like the ‘Good Cast’s’ sword.” Vlaykre asked.
“Yeah, okay. That would be great,” I answered.
I handed him my sword. He examined it for a moment.
He smirked and said, “Okay, well, it’ll only take a day. I’ll take my leave. Your mother sends you love and what not.”
Kaido and Vlayru started to laugh and I gave them a mean look to make them stop. They stopped and fought to hold their composure.
“Also, Zen, did you tell them about your condition?” He asked him.
I gave Zen a confused look and asked, “What does he mean Zen?”
Vlaykre waved and disappeared into his aura.
Zen smirked and explained, “Sorry, I never mentioned that. I was killed by the ‘Bad Cast’, right after I finished training him. But I was given a chance to continue doing good by training any future cast. So I was given eternal life and I then trained the third cast.”
“The ‘Undecided’ one, right?” Vlayru asked.
Zen continued, “Yes, him. Now I’ve come back to train you Tana, which I have.”
“I thank you, Master,” Said, bowing.
“Well, I better take my leave,” Zen told us.
Vlayru questioned, “Where are you going?”
Zen smirked, “Back to the Heaven Realm and wait for the next cast that is in need of training.”
Vlayru then bowed and said, “Well, I hope we see you again.”
“I’ve definitely improved in my combat skills, thanks to you,” Kaido told Zen.
Zen replied, “You have made the most progress. Tana might need more work. You should train with Tana and make sure her skills continue to improve.”
“I definitely will, Zen,” Kaido told him and bowed.
“Master, good-bye,” I said to him and bowed.
Zen bowed back and turned around as a white light appeared and he walked into it. The light disappeared along with him.
“We should take our leave as well, your majesty,” said a guard as he bowed.
Just then, there was a crash and roar from the front of the castle. a guard then came running over.
She said, “Your majesty, were under attack. Please, follow me.”
We followed the guard into the castle. We were making our way to a safe room located under the castle. Just as we came up to the door to go down the basement level, men in black robes jumped down from the ceiling, holding guns. We pulled out our swords. Two more guards came running over.
The guard that was with us told us, “You guys get going. We will take care of them.”
We nodded, pulled the door open quickly, and ran through it. One of the guards quickly closed the door. We ran down a flight of stairs and into the room. We sat down as we heard the fighting going on upstairs. All of a sudden there was an explosion from the ceiling of the room and down came another robbed person and another in a long brown jacket. He had short, white, slick back hair, a button up shirt and tie, and slacks. Then my senses opened up and I sense
d Master Wind presence from him.
“Come here your majesty, it’s time to die so we, the Dark Rebellion, may rule over all of Adus,” The guy in the jacket told the queen.
We jump in front of the queen and readied our weapons.
The guy laughed, “Don’t worry young cast, your next after her.”
The person in the robe asked, “What should I do, Sir Mazo?”
“I’ll take care of these insects. Stand back until I finish them off then we move in for the queen. Have some of the others block the door,” Mazo ordered.
“Yes, Sir.” The rebellion member responded, and took a step back.
Raising his hands, a massive gust of wind blew towards us, blowing us in different directions. I stood up and thrust my hand out, releasing a blast of water out towards Mazo. Mazo countered my attacks with another gust of wind directed towards me. It was too strong and the water I flew backward towards us. I flew into the air backward hard, broke through the wall behind me. the next thing I know, I tried to sit up and I was in a lot of pain. I was groggy and my vision was blurry but came back quickly I sat up. I saw Vlayru and Kaido struggling to get to Mazo.
I stood up and felt a strange but familiar presence behind me. I also felt something coming from my necklace. I turned around and there was an orb in the middle of the room. It was a blue orb and something told me I needed to take it. I grabbed it and the orb was absorbed. Turns out, this orb was the master orb of Master Water, the leader of The Masters. I started to feel a lot stronger. I then sensed the queen in danger and about to be stabbed with a dagger by Mazo. Vlayru was down and injured and Kaido was defending himself against the rebellion member.
I rushed run back to the others. heard a faint voice in my head which stopped me before I jumped through the hole. It was telling me to create a Water Blast from my hand. I thought for a moment but then decided to do what it told me. I raised my hand and blasted Mazo. It was a direct hit. The voice then told me what to do next. I then put my hand on the ground and used Water Geyser on the rebellion member. The robbed man hit the ceiling of the room hard and fell to the ground unconscious. Mazo looked at me as I walked out into the room.
“How did you get so powerful, so quick?” the man asked wide-eyed and confused.
I got angry, stood up, and continued, “That doesn’t matter.”
He put out his hand, palm facing out, and wind aura surrounded his hand. I heard the voice again.
The voice told me, “Use water energy and put it on your sword.”
I held up the sword of the ‘Good Cast’ and created Water Blade, which is rushing water energy surrounding the blade of the sword, enhancing it. It was just like the Lightning Blade. I couldn’t do it before. I jumped into the air, dodging his Air Slash attack. I then slashed him in the chest. He tried to block, but I broke through it. He went flying backward and slammed into the wall behind him. After falling the floor, he slowly stood back up holding his back. He looked up at me, as I was running towards him with Lightning Blade.
He was able to block it, then pushed into the air with the wind. I caught myself and landed on the ground. He launched off the ground at the same time and came down towards me and punch me in the face hard. I fell back and hit the floor hard. As he landed, Vlayru shot an ice at him. Kaido stabbed Mazo’s side only to be thrown back with Wind Blast. He looked in my direction to find me quickly charging a Water Blast and shooting it at him, ending the fight. I got ran over to his body and took the orb of Master Wind. I looked over to find the rebellion members lying on the ground. They were taken out by Kaido and Vlayru.
I went to the Queen and asked, “Are you okay, your majesty?”
“Yes, I am, thank you,” she responded,
I helped her stand up and dusted her off.
Just then, two of the guards came down and kneeled in front of her.
“Your majesty, the Rebellion has retreated,” One of the guards informed her
“Good. We owe our thanks to Tana, Vlayru, and Mabel.” said the queen.
“No problem, your majesty” Vlayru told her, as we bowed.
The queen looked at me, as I stood up from my bow.
“So, I see you found my other gift to you,” The queen said.
“Are you talking about the Master Water Orb?” I asked her in response.
The queen nodded her head, “Yes, I found that orb a few years back and put it in that secret room. the ‘Good Cast’ told me to help the next cast after him. After what he had done in order to help my family, I was more than happy to do what I can to help. I’m glad I found it before the Dark Rebellion found it. Seems to be only one they didn’t get.”
Kaido said, “I figured they had all the Master Orbs.”
The Queen explained, “That was something they announced prior to you coming here. I thought you were aware of that.”
We honestly weren’t, but we should of. Especially since the other two master orbs we got were from members of the Rebellion.
“I better head back up and tend to the damage of the castle,” The Queen said.
We accompanied her upstairs went up to the halls and saw a few dead body on the side. The wounded guards were being treated by paramedics that were called. Surviving members of the rebellion were being hauled away to jail. Everything was already being taken care of, so we decided to head back to our rooms and get ready to leave. We said our goodbyes to the Queen and Grace. Afterward, we left for the Central Union to see how the adults were doing there.
Chapter 9 – Darkness Looming
We made our way down the road all the way to the border of the Scorchis Kingdom and the Central Union. We set up camp because it was getting dark. We were sitting by the fire Kaido setup when Kaido looked out into the darkness. We looked in the same direction and we didn’t see anything.
“Kaido? What are you looking at?” I asked him, confused.
He suddenly got up, grabbed his sword, took a swing, and hit a shadow dweller.
Vlayru yelled, “Oh, crap!”
We quickly jumped up and grabbed our weapons and defended the camp from the shadow dwellers. We dissipated all of them.
“I feel like we are being followed by someone or something,” Kaido said, panting and sheathing his sword.
I looked back at where we were fighting and I thought I saw someone standing there in the dark. I leaned forward a little to look closer and saw nothing.
“Tana, you okay?” Kaido asked me.
I quickly turned attention to him. He had a curious look on his face.
I shook my head and said, “Oh, it’s nothing.”
I put my sword away and got situated in my sleeping bag. I then turned on my side and fell asleep. It started again. I had another weird dream. But, this one was different than the others. I was in a place I had never seen before. It was a dimly lit hallway. The walls were metal and were rusted. I heard a commotion coming from down the hall. I started running toward it. I was then on a walkway. I looked over the railings and saw someone in the same clothes I was. He was laying on the ground, injured, and was about to get stabbed by whoever he was fighting.
I yelled, “No!”
The man who stabbed the other turned and looked at me. His face looked dead and stitched together.
He yelled, “Hey you!”
I woke up to my senses going off. I felt a strong presence nearby. I looked and saw a ball of flames flying toward me. Just then, Vlayru jumped up and created an ice barrier. The fire hit the ice and melted most of the barrier immediately. I jump up and pulled out the ‘Good Cast’s’ sword. I got a good look at our attacker. It was someone that was wearing the robes of the Dark Rebellion. It looked like a woman. My senses were going off again and I felt Master Fire within her. A metal rod appeared from her robes into her hand. She started to run fast towards us and I lunged forward towards her. We clashed our weapons and held each other back. After exerting a lot of force, I pushed her backward.
Kaido took the opening by jumping in front of her and
swinging his sword at her. the woman blocked the attack. Vlayru tried to get beside them and attacked the robbed woman, but she managed to block his attack too. The woman swung her weapon and hit both Kaido and Vlayru. They were both were knocked back to the ground. Vlayru hit the ground first, while Kaido did a back tuck and roll, and got into a crouching position. I ran up to the woman and slashed at her, breaking her defense and making her stumble back. while she was recovering her balance, I charged up Lightning Blade to make the sword deadlier. My thoughts were if I don’t go all out, we’re toast. Just before she stood her ground, I slashed and cut her across the stomach. Electricity arched across her body. She fell to the ground hard. I put my foot on the ground then push back and stopped a short distance from her, readied my sword, and waited for her to get back up. The woman got back up after a few moments and threw her robe off, she appeared to be a woman with Brown hair in a ponytail, Brown eyes, leather sleeveless top and leather pants, Knee high boots and had a commander ornament hat on her head.
She wiped the blood from her mouth and said, “You think I’m done? My name is Asha, and you are going down after what you did to Sir Mazo!”
“Bring it!” Vlayru yelled.
Vlayru ran towards her, clashed their weapons a few times, and I shot a Lightning Blast him right after. She then blasted the blasts back. Asha then released a huge amount of energy.
“You guys are weak. I bet you don’t even know how to use your element forms yet.” Asha said as she shot fire at me and Vlayru.
Her fire energy then wrapped around her body, changing her into a mass of flames and her eyes were glowing blue. Kaido slashed at Asha, but It was as if his sword went right through her. He was shot back sending him flying through the air backward. She walked over and went over picked up Vlayru.
“Now die,” she said.
“Never!” he said back.
She readied another ball of fire. At the same time, I heard a voice in my head. It was the same voice from before.
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