They had reached the City of Lights! It was all lit up and beautiful indicating it was daytime. It also stretched on for miles and miles. He couldn’t even see the emperors castle! "C’mon." Vannesa said. Luke followed her. As they walked through the city Luke was mesmerized.
"Hey," Vannesa said to a nearby taco vendor. "Two tacos." She flashed a token with the emperor’s seal on it and they were given two tacos.
"What was that?" Luke whispered.
"Oh, yeah, if you have an element you are entitled to be given free things. Certain things won’t be given though. Also the vendors get money from the government," Vannesa explained.
"Why?" Luke asked.
"The elementalists are the ones that help fend off bandits, or rebel groups, or a small nation that grew without us realizing. They don’t want the elementalists to have to get a job. They want them fighting threats. So if you’re an elementalist you are given one of these tokens. Mine is copper so I get just basic things." Vannesa explained.
"Hm. Wow. What is the most expensive stuff we could get?" Luke asked.
"The government realizes if you abuse your status or if you never help out. You could get something really expensive, but then you might not get the right to even get free food. So best to keep it all inexpensive. But hey, free food whenever you want!" Vannesa said.
"Wow, life is a lot easier if you’re an elementalist isn’t it?" Luke said.
"Not as easy as you would think. You have to do monthly missions just to maintain basic free object rights. Weekly for an intermediate object rights. And once every three days for advanced object rights. I only do monthly missions." Vannesa explained.
"Hey, looks like we’re finally at the emperor’s castle!" Vannesa said excitedly.
"Great!" Luke said. They saw a sprawling wood castle made out of sturdy oak. They perched up in a tree, and Vannesa used her psy element to warp the air around them making them invisible. They watched for an extensive amount of time, learning the guard patterns. They moved spots often so that they knew the guards patterns around all of the castle grounds. Originally they had planned to get in the front door, but now… they were going in from the top of the castle. They had found where the throne room was and had marked it.
Now all they had to do was go on top of the castle, and get to the throne room. Then Vannesa would use overwhelming amounts of psy energy to collapse the ceiling and Luke would light the wood from the ceiling on fire. Vannesa would support him from above, while he was on the ground fighting the emperor. Considering how strong plasma was, they would never do this unless they had the advantage. Which they did. Their advantage being the element of surprise and the fact that they would have the battlefield working for them since Vanessa would have the high ground and Luke was immune to the fire they would start. At night, when there were fewer guards, they hopped up onto the castle. They tipi-toed over to the throne room. And then… Vannesa broke the roof.
They knew for a fact that for some reason the emperor slept on his throne, Vannesa’s dad thought it was because the emperor did not feel safe in his own bedroom, but did on his throne; so they knew he was here. The emperor yelped as the ceiling caved in. Luke launched fireballs down into the kindling and then hopped down using platforms Vannesa made for him. Meanwhile Vannesa started shooting at the emperor. Luke took a deep breath. We have a plan. It will all go fine. Luke started shooting at the emperor too.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
"What the, you little-" The emperor muttered moving out of the way. "What are you doing?!"
"We know about the ritual! You killed my Dad for knowing about it. But we can’t let you kill everyone just so you can get stronger. I can’t let you kill my mom too!!!!" Vannesa shouted, blasting the emperor with a fierce intensity.
"The ritual may be unfinished but it will still work! While it will take longer for everyone to die and give me power it will give me enough strength to destroy you two and continue in my plan to re-ignite the sun!" The emperor shouted as flames roared around him.
Luke paused. The emperor could re-ignite the sun? They could live in warmth? For a moment Luke felt a temptation, but then shook himself out of it. It didn’t matter if the emperor could re-ignite the sun. They had to save everyone. Following the plan he started building a huge fireball. The emperor lifted up an armrest on his throne.
"You can’t stop me now!" He pressed his hand against some runes, activating the ritual. Suddenly, red lines of energy started moving toward the emperor, but… a few were going to Luke too? Maybe it was because the plasma and fire affinity were similar! The emperor’s presence kept on building and reality itself started warping around them. The fire burning around them would at times rise to towering heights due to the energy or… fall low to the ground due to energy taken away.
"Luke! Stick to the plan!!!!" Vannesa shouted. Luke realized he had gotten distracted by the energy flowing into him, but Vannesa’s shout reminded him to keep building his fireball.
A gigantic psy field came off of Vannesa cutting the red lines. The emperor stood up clearly enraged with Vannesa’s actions, halting the ritual. It seemed the emperor thought Vannesa was the largest threat. Luke felt a protective barrier around him. Just as he saw a widespread attack from the emperor head towards him, but it broke apart against the barrier Vannesa had given him.
"And now… you die," The emperor yelled at Vannesa. Weapons of plasma appeared all around Vannesa and started spearing at her! They crashed into her barrier, but Luke knew Vannesa was running low on elemental energy. Luke kept building the fireball that was now bigger then he was. The emperor kept on pounding on Vannesa’s barrier. Luke shut his eyes just focusing, just focusing on building the fireball. A loud bang sounded. Vannesa’s barrier had fallen. Luke opened his eyes. The emperor had built a giant ball of plasma to shoot at the defenseless Vannesa. In a flurry of motion the emperor threw his ball… right as Luke threw his. The emperor was enveloped in fire. When the fire cleared… all that was left was ashes. They had won.
Luke hurriedly climbed up to where Vannesa was. "Vannesa! Please be ok!" He said holding her. Her heart wasn’t beating. No. No. She was gone.