Skyflare (Rise To Omniscience Book 3)

by Aaron Oster

  ***

  Sarah sagged back into the couch, blowing out a huge sigh of relief. It was finally over, and Morgan had won. Even though he seemed to have gained a significant amount of power when he’d advanced his ability, he’d still had an extremely tough time fighting both Arnold and Sing at the same time. Up until Marsha had unexpectedly decapitated her aunt, she wasn’t sure who would win the fight.

  That was another thing that had surprised her. Marsha, who had just stood by while Morgan was being beaten to death, had suddenly swooped in and attacked. She would have thought that she was taking an opening to eliminate an opponent, but she’d surrendered right after Arnold had. She hoped that Morgan had found out why and would tell her about it once they left.

  Sarah reached for the bag, hidden in her armor so she could fetch the beast zone key they’d be using to escape, when there was a sudden commotion from the other side of the heavy steel door. Removing her hand from her armor, she slowly rose from her seat, already preparing to use an attack if the guards had decided to come eliminate her before Morgan had the chance to arrive.

  Her body tensed as the steel door suddenly buckled inward, leaving a massive indent. A trident of ice formed in her right hand and her shield flared around her. With a loud crashing sound, the door exploded off its hinges, sailing clean across the room and slamming into the crystal screen behind her. Sarah’s eyes narrowed as a choking dust obscured her vision of the corridor. She heard a few loud screams, followed by the sickening sound of bodies being torn in half.

  Her body tensed up even more and she felt her heart rate increasing rapidly. Then, a glowing purple sphere rolled into the room. Sarah’s eyes followed its passage, not understanding what an object like that could possibly be doing here. Then the sphere pulsed, sending out a wave of light. As soon as it washed over her, Sarah’s shield vanished as her connection to her mana was suppressed. Her trident remained, as it was a solid construct, though she could already feel it beginning to melt, as her power was no longer keeping it cold.

  Sarah felt her heart seize up as she lost her connection to her power, and she scrambled frantically back, staring at the strange device which had somehow done the impossible.

  “Nice, isn’t it?”

  Sarah felt her skin prickle at the familiar voice. She started as her father emerged from the smoke-filled corridor, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

  “What did you do to me!?” Sarah demanded, feeling her fear, now replaced by anger.

  “Is that any way to greet your father?” Simon asked, face hardening as three men entered the room and moved to encircle her.

  “You’re no father of mine!” Sarah hissed, leveling her weapon at the man. “Now I suggest you beat it, before the guards come!”

  Simon laughed at that, and reached into his pocket to retrieve some sort of scroll.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t count on them for help,” he said, unrolling the scroll and dropping it to the ground. “My men have already taken care of them.”

  Sarah let out a derisive snort.

  “Your men take out a couple of door guards, and suddenly you think you’re all that?”

  “A couple?” Simon asked. “Clearly you haven’t seen the army they posted outside this door.” He pulled a glowing blue vial from his pocket next, and unstopped it.

  “Right. Like you could take out an entire army,” Sarah replied, already feeling a worm of doubt crawling through her.

  “Come now, Sarah, you’ve always been a clever girl. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that your ability has been suppressed. Do you really think we had any difficulty killing a bunch of guards who were as weak as children?”

  Sarah’s eyes flicked back down to the device, that was still sending out pulses of purple energy. Something like this shouldn’t exist. There were people who could suppress other’s abilities, but there was no item in the entire world that should be able to do so. When her eyes flicked back to her father however, she could already see that it was as she’d feared.

  “A marvelous device, isn’t it?” he said with a nasty grin. “I received it, as well as this lovely scroll, from a very helpful woman.”

  It was only then that Sarah’s attention focused on the glowing blue vial. Her eyes widened once again as she recognized what it was. She’d seen someone use this before. Simon upended the glowing vial on the scroll, and a portal flared to life above it. Sarah knew what was about to happen and leveled her trident at the man.

  “Don’t you even think about trying it, you bastard! I’ll skewer the first man to so much as lay a finger on me!”

  “Without your ability, what could you possibly…?” Simon began, but Sarah was already moving forward.

  As soon as he’d admitted that it was the glowing purple orb that was suppressing her power, she knew that it had to be destroyed. Before she made it more than half a dozen steps however, she was seized from behind in a powerful grip and yanked back. Not to be stopped, Sarah let out a scream and hurled the trident with all her strength.

  It wasn’t all that much, seeing as her ability was being blocked, but still, it was enough. The three-pronged weapon slammed into the glowing sphere, piercing the weakened casing and causing it to go dark. As soon as the device powered off, Sarah felt power flood her body. She took a deep breath, reveling in the sensation of it, then abruptly wrenched her arm free of her captor.

  The man staggered back with a curse and Sarah formed a wall of Icicle tridents, which she then launched directly at her father. She knew what rank he was, and would have to act quickly if she wanted to take him out. Unfortunately for her however, she’d forgotten about the others in the room. Even as Simon blocked her attacks, his hands flashing in the air and knocking the weapons aside, Sarah felt a hard impact near the back of her skull.

  She’d forgotten to reactivate her shield once her ability had been unblocked, and the blow sent her sprawling, her head swimming as consciousness faded quickly. She saw Simon yelling at the man, then felt herself being lifted off the ground. Her head cleared for just a second, and she caught the last few words of her father’s sentence.

  “…Edmund will be waiting for us back at base.”

  Sarah raised a shaky hand and sent a blast of ice, which missed Simon’s head by mere inches. She saw him start in surprise, an angry expression overtaking his face. Then, her head throbbed once more and she passed out.

  ***

  Morgan stood before the four judges, hands clasped behind his back as he watched a slab of stone rise from the ground. The area where they’d been sitting was now walled off from the public, leaving the five of them alone. The cylindrical pillar of stone finally stopped once it had risen about five feet, and a small line appeared around its circumference near the top.

  Then the pillar split along the line, and a purple glow began emanating from within. Morgan watched in fascination as a small, tear-shaped violet object was slowly revealed, floating in the center of a compartment, hollowed out in the pillar of stone.

  His eyes flicked to the judges, who only nodded and motioned him to step forward. To Morgan’s eyes, the tiny object blazed with power unlike anything he’d ever seen before. It shone with a brilliance and purity that he simply could not comprehend. His fingers stretched out, reaching for the small teardrop, and he felt it react to him.

  Instead of his fingers closing around the tear, they stopped just a couple of inches from its surface, as though it were surrounded by an invisible dome. And when he lifted it from the pedestal and held it in his hand, the small glowing Skyflare rotated slowly above his hand. He stared at the item, now seeing that the small teardrop was intricately carved with thousands of tiny runes. He could also see familiar red and blue sparkles flowing over its violet surface, and wondered at exactly what this object was made of.

  The sound of a clearing throat got his attention, and Morgan turned to see that the four judges had risen from their seats.

  “Congratulations on winning the Skyflare, Morgan. We will be l
eaving now, but you will have to stay here. You cannot be allowed to leave the room with the Skyflare, as we do not want word of it spreading across the Kingdoms. As such, you must absorb it into yourself before leaving.”

  Morgan nodded to the man who had spoken. It made perfect sense that they wouldn’t allow the item to leave the room. Especially after they’d gone through the trouble of cordoning the area off.

  “We will see you later tonight in the palace to give you the reward that the public will be expecting you to receive,” the man continued as the other three filed out.

  “What reward would that be?” Morgan asked curiously.

  “Why, a whole lot of money, of course,” the judge replied with smile. “I believe this year it is five percent of what you won for your Kingdom.”

  Morgan’s eyes bulged as he realized exactly how much money five percent of a million platinum was. The judge laughed at his expression, patted him on the shoulder and turned to leave, closing the door behind him and leaving Morgan alone. He stared down at the Skyflare, feeling the victory turn sour in his stomach. He almost wished that the judge hadn’t mentioned the money, as he would never have the opportunity to accept it.

  Shaking himself, Morgan returned his attention to the teardrop floating above his palm. The judge had said he would have to absorb it, but he wondered just how he was supposed to do that. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, the Skyflare pulsed lightly in his hand and Morgan knew what he had to do.

  Taking a deep breath, he raised the glowing object to his chest. Lifting his tattered shirt, Morgan pressed the Skyflare to his skin, right over where his core lay. He felt the barrier around the object flare for a brief instant, before it faded away. The Skyflare made contact with his skin, and Morgan gasped as an electric shock ran through his entire body. He watched in fascination, as the violet teardrop sank through his skin, not leaving so much as a trace of its passage.

  He saw it now with his mind’s eye, as it met his core and was absorbed into it. Instead of dissipating as he’d been expecting, the teardrop remained whole and intact at the very center of his core. He could feel it, like a warm presence in his very soul. Morgan braced himself for pain, as the torrent of memories were sure to return. When nothing happened after several seconds, he relaxed. In truth, Morgan was a little underwhelmed. According to what he’d been told, he’d been expecting all his memories and emotions to come back in an uncontrollable flood.

  Maybe it had already happened and he just hadn’t noticed? Concentrating for a moment, Morgan tried to focus on feeling a specific emotion. He could feel the Skyflare doing something as he did this, and suddenly, a light giddy feeling overcame his entire body. His face broke out in an uncontrollable grin and he began laughing. It was the most wonderful sensation Morgan had ever felt! It was indescribable.

  Sure, he’d felt happy before, but that happiness had been a cheap imitation of what he felt now. After grinning like an idiot for nearly a full minute, Morgan realized that the Skyflare must have actually worked! He focused on suppressing the emotion, and suddenly, the smile died from his face, leaving him feeling neutral as ever. The discovery fascinated him, and he quickly thought of several positive emotions. Turning each one on in turn, Morgan felt, joy, excitement, accomplishment and several others.

  He then focused on turning all the positive emotions on at once, but was forced to quickly suppress them as they threatened to overwhelm him. Breathing deeply, Morgan took a seat, his mind beginning to race.

  It appeared that the Skyflare could give him his emotions back, but would at least for now leave him with the option of suppressing them again.

  A small, involuntary chuckle escaped his lips, giving him just a small taste of the giddiness he had felt earlier. Morgan started at that, and had to reassess his previous thought. He’d been only partially correct. It seemed that the Skyflare was already returning his capacity to feel emotions, but was doing so at a slow rate so as to allow his body to become accustomed to them. It would allow him to feel the full scope of the emotion if he focused on it, but would revert back to its previous level as soon as he wanted.

  It wasn’t all positive. Morgan could already feel the other not so positive emotions pulling at his attention. Although they were muted, he could feel anger, resentment, fear, rage and so many others. His life had been filled with mostly negative experiences, and only his inability to feel had kept him from dwelling on them. Thankfully, they weren’t strong enough to incapacitate him at the moment, and he was sure he would become used to them in time, but for now, they were altogether unpleasant.

  I have no idea why Sarah would want me to… Morgan’s thoughts ground to a screeching halt as an image of Sarah flashed through his mind. He didn’t know why, but he felt his core thrum a little more rapidly and blood rushing to his face.

  He shook himself, trying to rid his mind of the image of Sarah, standing in her armor and smiling at him. His chest tightened a bit and her light laugh echoed in his mind. A warm feeling spread throughout his body, making him feel both trepidation and something else… An emotion he’d never felt before, but was having trouble identifying.

  What was happening to him?

  Morgan took a few more deep breaths and turned his mind back on the Skyflare, finally managing to banish the images of Sarah his mind had been conjuring up. He relaxed, focusing in on his core, and watching in fascination as the Skyflare continuously pulsed in rhythm with it. He could sense the small object doing something, though he couldn’t identify what it was. He already knew that it was repairing his body, so he had no doubt it would repair his mind as well, though it might take a little longer for that.

  He sat by the table for another minute or two, making sure he had both his body and mind under control, then he rose to his feet and headed for the door. Sarah would be waiting for him to come get her so they could make their escape and he didn’t want to wait any longer than he had to. As he approached the door, he became aware of loud noises coming from the other side. Before he could begin to wonder what it was, the door crashed open and over a dozen soldiers marched in, followed a moment later by a smugly grinning Hu Vah.

  48

  Morgan felt his hands clench into fists as the Queen walked in. He hadn’t been expecting her to come until he was back in the room with Sarah, at which point he’d already been planning on being gone. His eyes flicked from side to side as guards continued marching in, noting their ranks and abilities. Each one was at least rank 30, with some being nearly as strong as Arnold or Sing. He felt his anger threatening to overtake him as he watched the Queen’s smile grow even smugger as the door slammed shut behind her.

  “Awful lot of guards you’ve brought with you,” he said, trying to keep himself from attacking the Queen outright.

  He was surprised at how quickly his anger had flared up, and had to remind himself to try and remain calm, as his emotions were new and unstable at the moment. Even if he was only feeling a small fraction of each, to him it was still intense, like the light of a single candle to someone who had lived in darkness their entire lives.

  “I couldn’t take any chances,” Hu Vah replied. “Not with the show you just put on for us.”

  Morgan raised an eyebrow.

  “Is there really so much information on the Ruined City that you needed this many men to carry it in for me?”

  The Queen laughed at that and her men shuffled uncomfortably. He could tell from their posture that not a single one of them was comfortable with what they were doing. Morgan had just won a massive victory for their Kingdom, and the Queen was about to have him killed for it.

  “Come now, boy! I’m sure you’re not that stupid! You must have known I would never keep my word.”

  Morgan nodded, his eyes flicking around for the best escape route.

  “Now. Hand it over and I’ll make your death a quick one.”

  Hu Vah held out her hand, her grin so wide it was practically splitting her face in half.

  “Hand wh
at over?” Morgan asked, playing for time.

  “Don’t play dumb with me! The Skyflare, hand it over.”

  “And what happens if I don’t?”

  “I’ll kill you!”

  “You’re going to kill me anyways.”

  Hu Vah’s face twisted into a truly unpleasant sneer.

  “I’ve already sent guards to kill your little friend. If you hand over the Skyflare, I’ll have them kill her quickly. If you don’t…” her face hardened, and an almost manic light entered her eyes. “I’ll have her slowly tortured to death over the course of an entire year!”

  Rage boiled through his veins when she said that, and he felt himself losing control. This woman was going to kill Sarah. Not only that, but she was threatening to torture her for months before doing so. Morgan snapped, screaming in rage and activated his Aura flare. With so many people in close proximity, the attack was devastating. The guards screamed, stumbling back and clutching their heads as violet light burned around Morgan’s body, but he didn’t care about them. His eyes were fixed solely on the Queen.

  Using Explosive impact, Morgan dashed forward, crushing the heads of two men who were blocking him from the Queen with little effort. Fire burned in his veins, and he felt a savage glee when their skulls caved in under his fists. His hand snapped up, fingers wrapping around the Queen’s neck and hauling her off the ground. Then, he exploded through the stone wall and out into the arena.

  Hu Vah struggled and kicked, but Morgan’s grip was too strong. He held tight to the flailing woman as he flew straight through the open area, heading for the small door on the other side. Screams sounded through the arena, as people recognized the Queen of the West dangling by her neck in the grip of her champion. Morgan ignored them all, reaching the door and tearing it clean off its hinges.