Chapter Twenty-Two:
The Awakening
Nicodemus
Pandora watched as I screamed bloody murder, blood spewing down my eyes and neck. She was unfazed by the amount of pain I was in, and only filed her nails as she patiently waited for something new to happen. Every ten minutes the pain would cease, and I would be able to breathe a few shaky breaths before Fagan used the spell he had been torturing me with again. “Anima Collectio Visionis.” He spoke, then stepped back as a violent explosion of energy burst from me. The spell he was using would, essentially, force my soul to astral project and race through dozens of timelines, Realms… anywhere and everywhere in the world that it could within just a few moments. My eyes would whip back and forth as they were forced to scan thousands of miles in seconds, trying to locate the souls of the other Gods that Pandora spoke of.
Finally, Constantine came outside and laid a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Enough. He’s been doing this for days, and found nothing. We’re not trying to kill the boy.” Pandora raised her hand, and this made Fagan slap his book closed with a scowl. I let out a huge cough and slumped as the horrific energy finally let my soul bounce back into my body. Constantine pulled me upright and guided me down the hallway, looking over his shoulder at his despondent wife, but not saying another word to her. He opened the door to the room Sebastian and I were staying in, and sat me on the couch carefully. “I’ll hold her off for a few hours, maybe a day or so. Rest as much as you can in the meantime.” He breathed in my ear before closing the door hesitantly behind him.
Sebastian emerged from the bathroom with sports tape, and was winding it around huge gashes in his arms. When he saw me on the couch, my eyes blank with pools of blood spewing from them, he immediately threw the tape aside and rushed over to conjure some healing herbs. “Gods alive… what the fuck did they do to you…?” He nervously stammered as he set the herbs on my eyes, then his palms over the herbs. I winced at the feeling of the plants soaking into my skin, but finally, the faintest bit of relief began to wash over me. I let out soft moans before exhaling, and letting my head sink into the couch cushion. “Is that helping at all, Nick?”
“Tremendously…” I sighed, numbly feeling for his arm so I could lightly hold his wrist, “I’m really scared, Sebby. I can’t see again.”
Sebastian tsked and smoothed my sweat-soaked hair off my face, “It’s just from the spell, it will pass. It always does. Take a deep breath and let the herbs help.”
I nodded warily and relaxed into the couch; Sebastian handed me a cloth so I could try to clean some of the blood off my neck. “What did they make you do today?” I stiffly asked.
“Fagan is dead set on making me summons The Five Dragons. Every time I do, though, it makes vines rip my arms open…” he shuddered violently, and pressed the herbs into my face harder, “It’s the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.”
“I’d take that over having my soul ripped out of my body over and over again…” I swallowed back some water he handed me, “They expect me to find these souls like I even know what I’m looking for here. I’ve never searched for a soul, and even if I had, I don’t know what their souls look or act like.”
“Is every soul different?” He questioned.
“Yes, incredibly. They each have their own beat, their own symphony, and targeting one is like finding a needle in a haystack. All I hear all day is the other souls I cross screaming, wailing, begging me to end their suffering…?” I shuddered hard, “It’s beyond torture.”
Sebastian and I were quiet for a moment before he brought his hands down into his lap. “I went exploring a little, down the corridor near that old library, and I found some of Fagan’s notes. I took as much as I could; maybe we can figure out what exactly they plan to do with us?”
My vision finally began to return, which made me exhale in relief and nod. “Yeah, sure. Can I see them?” He handed me the documents; I pulled them loose under the side-table lamp on my right. “Huh… it looks like their using a fuck ton of spells to keep us locked in here. Look, this one keeps my Shadows from going back to the Shadow Realm and contacting my Dad.”
“This one keeps me from sending tremors through the Earth to contact mine…” Sebastian shuffled through a few more sheets before his eyes widened, “Nick, look at this…?” He handed me the page, “They planned this, all of this. They’ve been watching us for… for years.”
“So, they’re the ones who sent the Gashadokuro after me. I wonder if they’re the ones releasing demons from Gehenna, but then again, they would need that Original God of Death to of that, wouldn’t they? Guess that’s who that Endymion guy is…”
“That’s assuming he’s dead, too.” Sebastian scoffed as he wrote down whatever he could into a journal he had also stolen, “I guess this… this really means that we’re… that we’re meant to be Gods, Nick?” He whispered, his lips trembling as he spoke.
I clenched the sofa arm as I thought back to what Galaxy had told me, “This is heavier than being a God, Seb. This… this is what my parents were trying to protect me from, I can just feel it. They knew I was beyond a normal Elemental, so they tried to hide me from… from Pandora…?”
“There’s no way they knew about her…?! Right…?” His face fell immediately as reality came crashing down around him. “Odysseus, Griffin, Soren and Praxis… they’re in the same danger we are. There are spells here to nullify all of their powers, and are even labeled with their names. If she gets her hands on the guys…?”
“Gods know what she’ll be able to do.” I whipped around to take his shoulders and shake him wildly, “Seb, listen to me before you freak out, ok? We need to do whatever we can to keep her from finding the others, even if that means we destroy ourselves for their sake. We have to do whatever she says so she doesn’t go after the others!”
“I know, I know…” He gripped my forearms with shaking hands, “We have to do something, anything, to keep her from finding them…?”
The door to our room slowly opened, and Fagan stood on the other side with a grimace. He nodded to Sebastian, “You, to the field. I want at least two dragons summoned before your next break, understand?”
Sebastian swallowed loudly before nodding, “Yes, sir…”
╪
Sebastian and I were stripped of our mind and souls, and became nothing more than the vessels Pandora truly desired. Days upon days of constant and intensive training to push our body’s and elements to the brink took more than a toll on us, and by the time a three weeks had ended, we were shells of our former selves. The light had completely left Sebastian’s eyes, and any ounce of love and compassion he once had died the moment he stepped foot inside Pandora’s fortress. She forced him over and over again to conjure the Five Dragons spell, which summoned creatures made of vines that he could manipulate to do his bidding. It was an extremely coveted and special summons, and Pandora was going to make damn sure he did it perfectly. Each time he performed the spell, the vines violently tore his body to pieces; his veins would swell with plant matter and bust open, ripping his skins to shreds and creating unbearable, agonizing pain. Every time I had to listen to him scream, I felt a piece of my soul die because I couldn’t protect him from their wrath.
Fagan used me as his personal punching bag, and would not stop until I could successfully conjure a Bladedance. Each time I performed the spell, I admittedly was able to draw more of the undead from the Shadow Realm, but my body was decaying with each blow it took. I couldn’t handle the use of so much energy at once, and spent most nights writhing in pain on the bathroom floor, throwing up blood. Pandora watched from the side lines and did nothing but survey our progress. She did not speak a single word to us from that day onward, and always just watched from the balcony with her hair catching in the wind and wrapping around her face.
Sebastian was better behaved than I was. I constantly mouthed off, regardless of the punishment. I would not be silenced, and if I were going to be in pain, I would make it worth it. Sebastian begged me every night to comply and stay quiet, but I absolutely refused, and did everything possible to find a way to escape and or attack one of them. I got close one morning to breaking through the never-ending wall of electricity surrounding Pandora’s hunting ground, but Constantine threw up a wall of flames that made me fall before spending the next hour burning my skin, only to heal it and start again.
On the thirty-first morning I slowly opened my swollen eyes only to find I was back to our original room. My hands and ankles were cuffed to the old oak chair, which had nail marks and stress from previous encounters with the space. I had a piece of cloth between my lips that most would use to bite down on, which made me start to shiver in horror. Sebastian was on the opposite side of the room, cuffed to a chair as well with tears streaming down his cheeks. He whimpered to me through his gag as the door opened. Fagan waltzed into the room and moved to stand before a table full of odd trinkets. Pandora herself ghosted through the door with Constantine, and perched on the edge of a chair made of electricity she had conjured. “You’ve done well, boys, as well as we expected. I think you’re ready for the next steps.”
“You sure this isn’t going to kill them first?” Constantine scolded as he crossed his arms, leaning on the doorway but not coming a single step closer.
“The book is very clear on this; weaken the vessel enough for the God to consume the child. I need to see if they can host a soul. We’ve read it a thousand times…?”
“So we have, but that doesn’t mean I trust it.” He scoffed back unsurely.
Pandora was quiet as Fagan skipped over and tilted my chin up, running his fingers down the hollows of my neck, “Where shall we begin, Nicodemus?” He said, before snapping his fingers and pulling an injection needle out of his shirt pocket. He slid the needle into my arm, cackling as he waited for the affects to kick in.
A subtle burn filled the pit of my stomach before my head snapped back, and a hollow groan escaped my lips. My body began to feel as if it was on fire, literally on fire, and made me cry out and thrash wildly. My eyes flashed black, and I slammed violently in the chair as if it would bring me relief. Fagan was laughing to himself while watching my undeniable agony. Sebastian cried hysterically, ripping at his cuffs to try and save me. “I wonder if Sebby would like to hear your precious little screams…!” Fagan giggled, using a knife to cut the gag away. I slammed my teeth together and desperately tried to keep quiet for Sebastian’s sake.
“Go fuck yourself...” I hissed through trembling lips.
“How noble of you to try and protect your friend? You surely are such a stubborn brat. You think you’re so tough… You’ve been coddled your whole life, and now because you found out you have magic powers you think you matter to this world...?” He ripped my head back and slammed his fist into my face, which was a blow that felt like a thousand bricks crushing my skull. I snapped back from the shot and spit blood in his face, cackling as his anger boiled.
“Don’t think for five seconds I wouldn’t rip you’re throat out if I was out of this chair...”
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“Fagan...?” Pandora sang, pointing a frail hand to the wall of torture devices.
I ripped violently at the cuffs, which made the metal squeal in protest as he grabbed my hair and ripped my head back, holding some kind of dropper. I jerked at his grip as he grabbed my cheeks and snapped my face upward. “Hold still and open your fucking eyes!” He yelled, forcing my eye lid open. He doused the hazy grey liquid into my cornea, then threw me back into the chair. I hacked once before the pure agony kicked in. It felt as if something was taking my eyes and squeezing them between two metal grates, which made me start to, inevitably, scream in utter pain.
Fagan laughed like a maniac as I screamed bloody murder, desperately trying to break free and claw at my eyes. Blood began to pool down my cheeks and coat my uniform, and the chair rocked as my body thrashed wildly in it. I shot forward and panted out coughs as a small pulse vibrated within my head, a reverberation I knew better than my own name. “Claude...” I whispered.
There was a beat of silence before I threw my head back and screamed the conjuring spell for my Shadow Walkers. Fagan rushed over to clamp a hand on my mouth, but it was too late. Claude came into view, angry beyond any point possible, and whipped his axe out, which he slammed through Fagan violently. Pandora yelped in horror as blood spurted from Fagan’s mouth, and he fell to his knees before crumpling to the ground.
(Jackson! As soon as you can, get Nicodemus from the chair!) Claude yelled as Pandora screamed for Constantine. Jackson appeared a second later and broke the chains, which made me fly from the chair and throw my arm out. My scythe began to appear as Constantine slammed a hand to the ground and used his element. A violent rush of energy filled the room, and a wave of fire began to form. I swore loudly and held my scythe up as it slammed down on us, making Pandora laugh in victory. When the flames cleared Alice was standing before me, holding the wave back with a devilish smile. The door flung open, and some of their goons rushed into the room. May went to free Sebastian as I darted forward, slicing my scythe into the first one. Claude swung his axe through everything he could, his eyes full of absolute terror as he watched me try to defend myself. I took a deep breath and slammed my scythe into one man’s neck, making his head split off and fly across the room.
Pandora screamed out, “I’ve had enough of this...!” before her eyes flashed a violent yellow. In a moment’s time, a hundred bolts of lightning had appeared, and crackled thunderously before swallowing me in their clutches. Claude fought desperately through the swarm to retrieve me as I was shoved to the ground by the forms.
“Sebastian! Now!” I yelled. He jumped up and clapped his hands together, flashing pure jade green eyes. A violent ripple of energy filled the room before the building began to rumble. A ferocious growl echoed, and a moment later, the ground split. My Shadows watched in awe as vines slithered from the void, and began converging into the shape of Sebastian’s Five Dragons.
“Invoco terram educ me defensorem vitae!” Sebastian cried. His voice echoed as if a dozen of him had spoken, and rang through the Realm as weeks of rage exploded from him. The dragons howled for their master before Sebastian shot his arm forward, making them screech again. They darted at the swarm of bolts and guards, clashing into them with a violent crash. May split the crowd as best as she could until she felt my shirt and ripped me free. I slammed back into Sebastian, who was shaking from the amount of energy he was exerting. “I can’t hold it much longer!” He bawled to me.
[Nick! They’re coming!] Alice cried.
I looked to the window above the room and used Alice’s element to send a flame through the glass and towards Pandora’s barrier. It collided with the fog, and with a shattering crunch, broke through to continue towards the air. “Get outside, now!” I yelled, grabbing Sebastian’s arm and whistling loudly. My whistle echoed through the Realm, reaching far beyond the space to summon a certain little fluffball. Akira appeared in the form of a Griffin, now able to reach me from the opening, who I shoved Sebastian onto. “Protect him at all costs, Akira, do you understand me!?” I snapped, though Akira howled angrily at the thought of leaving me alone again.
“What are you doing!?” Sebastian cried.
“I'm taking this bitch down with me, now go!” Before he could contest, Akira shot through the broken window and into the blood soaked field. Pandora cried out and went to grab his tail, but the doors slammed shut, making her slowly turn to me with true horror in her eyes.
Time stood still momentarily.
The same dense energy that constricted around my soul in Japan returned, but this time, it’s grip was much firmer. My Shadows stood behind me confidently, knowing exactly what I planned to do, and waited for me to breath the command into the air. Time seemed to stand still as I breathed the spell, “Parere vocan’ti tergum metentis.”
Outside, I could hear the Gods had arrived, since Sebastian had sent a distress signal threw the opening the barrier, and were fighting off Elemental guards viciously. The cracking of Galaxy’s bolts colliding with weaponry made spines shiver, and the screams from Blaine incinerating people alive didn’t help. Elizabeth and Zephyrine teamed up to swallow stragglers in a tornado, which Elizabeth then filled with water to drown them before they could escape.
Meanwhile, Pandora watched what was happening to me in utter disbelief.
Shadows once again began to dance along the ground, chanting the Latin phrase over and over in a monotone, yet confident, rhythm. My own Shadows formed the circle around me, and once Alice and Jackson clasped hands, the five of us merged into a billowing black smoke that consumed the entire room. “CONSTANTINE! GO!” Pandora screamed.
Constantine went to bolt through the doorway as a streak of flames, but I reached from the smoke with a boney hand and caught his skull, ripping him to a standstill. His breaths were hot and harsh in terror as I stepped forward, the bones of my new form clanking maniacally amongst the sounds of the battle outside. His eyes strained to see what I had become, and when he realized I had fully morphed into the Grim Reaper, he screamed Pandora’s name in terror. Pandora herself threw an arm up and dashed through a portal, which to my surprise lead to where the Gods were, leaving Constantine alone with me. “You bitch! You selfish bitch…!”
“Isn’t this adorable. Constantine, the Original God of Fire, is scared of Endymion’s vessel? Who would have thought we’d see the day…?” I creepily moaned.
“Kid, this wasn’t what I wanted at all! We were supposed to do this so differently…” He yelped as my grip tightened, “She’s the one who did this to you, not me!?”
“You want to see how powerful I truly am? Let me show you…” Constantine’s blood curtailing scream made the field turn absolutely quiet. A pin could hit the grass, and it would be the only sound to echo through the arena. The sound to follow next would be one that every Elemental present would remember for the rest of their lives.
I focused every ounce of strength into the hand holding Constantine’s face, and when I felt it reach each bone, I smashed his skull between my fingertips. The splintering crunches were similar to a bag of potato chips being crushed under someone’s foot, but the blood that spewed from his eye sockets, mouth, nose, and ears set the two sounds distinctly apart. His body fell limp, and was only held up by what remnants of his face I was still clutching. I threw my arms back and shot through the roof and into the sky, which had turned pure black.
From the front courtyard the Gods were clutching Sebastian, and staring up in pure shock. Wind whipped their hair and clothes violently, and all fighting between they and the guards had ceased. Pandora was still on the rooftop, unable to find a way out from between the Gods and I, and when I landed on the tile before her, she fell backwards and skittered away from me. I brought my arm around and dragged Constantine’s corpse out from under my cloak, suspending his body before her like a trophy. She watched the blood ooze from his disintegrated face, but when it finally sank in that he was dead, she let out a gut wrenching shriek. “What have you done!?” She continued screaming, flashing yellow eyes. Lightning cracked through the sky as she stood, and circled her body like snakes, “You insignificant child… How dare you kill my husband?!”
“I’m just getting started,” I snarled, throwing his corpse over the rooftop. He sailed through the air before hitting the ground with a deafening crunch, since the force from my energy was so strong, and the rest of any bones left in his body were shattered by the impact. Pandora cried out and covered her mouth, physically trembling, as I began to slowly ghost towards her. “You will pay for what you have done to us, just as your husband has…” I raised my scythe powerfully, whipped it twice, then slammed it to the roof tiles. The blast of energy made Pandora skid backwards, and she had to brace herself to not fall off the edge of the roof.
My Shadows were silent, yet their anger burned through my veins. Our minds had become one, as well as our bodies and souls. They fed me energy like a live wire hitting water, and my scythe hummed with the amount of power that echoed through it. Pandora conjured a huge wall of lightning, which made me cackle before I darted through it and slammed my scythe into her staff. She soared across the roof, tumbling like a broken doll as I flew after her. “Atlas, we have to help him!” Blaine cried over the howling winds, “His body can handle that form for much longer!”
“Ash, get light dancers on the field; keep Pandora’s mutts at bay! Blaine, try and enclose any of the guards to help Ash keep them away from the fight. Galaxy, you and Zephyrine seal all the main portals around us. Deveraux, Elizabeth, guard Sebastian!” Dad snapped.
“On it!” Everyone cried before darting to get to work.
Mom threw her arm out and conjured thousands of beings, similar to Shadow Walkers, though they were made of pure light. With her sword, she directed them towards Pandora’s henchmen, who had begun coming after them again. The Light Dancers took off into the crowd, deflecting and destroying every attack the men and women tried. Blaine was throwing wall after wall of fire towards the fallen guards Mom had picked off, incinerating them in a dome made of flames. Galaxy and Zephyrine created an incredibly ferocious storm, which began to tumble through the dimension. It rippled across the field and demolished anything it came into contact with, mainly Pandora’s wall of safety, and closed all of the main gateways she was desperately trying to escape through. Dad had morphed into his Elemental form, similar to mine except for a mask made of pure bone that covered half of his face. He whipped his massive scythe with one powerful, fluid movement before summoning his Shadows and darting across smoke clouds to reach the rooftop.
Meanwhile, Pandora and I were violently battling.
My body was aching from malnutrition, and the ridiculous amounts of energy it was trying to create to keep up with me. My scythe rattled in my hand with each swing as her own weapon collided with mine, making me chatter with it. Dad darted across the rooftop and uppercut her next blow. She rolled across the roof and off the edge, where she desperately tried to bounce back from his attack. He took the brief moment to race over to me, where he threw his hands onto my shoulders and forced me to look at him. “Nick, you need to change back, now! Your body can’t handle this!”
“Not until she’s dead...!” The violently deep voice rumbled from me, which him gasp as I snapped my glare to Pandora. She yelped as I darted after her, my scythe humming loudly as I threw it back and slammed it into her side. She spat blood horrifically, and snapped like an accordion from the blow. Dad rushed after us, desperately trying to throw himself in between the fight without getting murdered in the process.
Pandora threw an arm out and conjured a thin wisp of a portal, which showed it lead to another desolate field. Dad gasped and went to dart after her as she slid through. It began to dissipate, and we both knew she had plans to escape through a stronger one that she had somewhere else. I slammed my scythe into the last particle of the portal to try and open it again, but whatever energy it had left was just enough to finally break me. What sounded like glass shattering echoed across the rooftop, and the bones of my new body cracked violently. My eyes widened, and a hollow moan forced its way up my throat. “Nick...?” Dad whimpered.
In the next instant, a horrific gasp escaped my lips, and my body violently ejected back to its’ normal state. Dad cried out and darted through the air after me as I was flung off the roof, hurtling towards the ground. Mom saw me in just enough time, and shot forward at lightning speed to catch me, making she and I bounce across the grass and into Elizabeth. Dad landed and threw his weapon to the ground, dashing over to put his hands on either side of my face to try and assess the damage. Blood poured out of every place it could, and my eyes twitched violently from the shock my body was just put through.
“We have to get them home, now!” Mom cried to the other Gods.
Galaxy and Zephyrine wedged open the last portal they had left standing, which I could see lead to the gates of Valyce. Mom scooped me up and darted like a bullet through that portal. The Gods followed, with Sebastian lying weakly in his father’s arms. Akira shot through last before Zephyrine used a spell to not only destroy any remnants of the Realm with a devastating tornado, but wrench the portal shut, huffing out of breath before she raced to find her son.
Blaine and Dad rushed over, trying to feel for my pulse as Mom clutched me tight and tried to pump as much of her energy as she could into me. Her entire body was now in her ultimate light form, so instead of skin and bone, she was a being of pure light energy. This made it so that any contact I had with her would force my body to absorb her element’s healing properties. She herself was trembling, but she continuously syphoned every ounce of her soul into my body. I kept choking on air and blood, which was trickling down my nose and eyes to pool on Mom’s uniform.
“Nicodemus, hold on for me, buddy!” Dad cried out.
“Get him to the clinic, now!” Blaine snapped, “We can transfer him energy once we get there! Devereaux, you, Elizabeth, and Zephyrine go with Sebastian. Galaxy, you’re with us!” Blaine bawled, tears racing down his cheeks as he clutched my hand with all of his might. They nodded and took off alongside my mother, who had Blaine, Galaxy, and Dad following close behind. “He’ll be alright,” Blaine said to Dad, trying to front false reassurance, who nodded unsurely as they rushed into the school.