The world seemed to spin for a moment before my foot touched solid ground and I instinctively breathed in. Or I should say I tried to, but instead I started instantly gasping as it was like the all the air was being sucked out of my body and I fell to the floor.
“Oh god Jimmy! What’s going on!?” I heard Jasmine’s voice scream out as her and Hector ran to crouch besides me. I struggled to reach towards my pocket where I put the cube, Thankfully Hector saw this and without wondering he reached in and pulled it out. I grabbed it like a hungry animal and within seconds I was taking in deep breaths in between coughing as my lungs were on fire. Is that what drowning felt like? Just not being able to get air at all? I never want to experience this again…
“James what happened? Why were you gasping for air?” Hector asked as his face was covered in worry while also looking down at the cube in my hand as I held it tightly.
“This… ‘Cough’ ‘Cough’ is something that can keep me breathing while… ‘Cough’ Cough’ I’m here on earth. I can only stay on this side of the portal for a little bit.” I kept coughing but managed to croak out a response.
That’s when I noticed little Julie in the back with tears streaming down her face as she just watched her big brother writhing on the floor. I held a hand out to her and smiled, waving at her to come here. She ran to me and embraced me with one of the tightest hugs I could have ever felt in my life she was bawling into my chest so I stroked her hair as I tried to calm her down.
“It’s ok Julie, I’m ok now.”
She looked up at me with tears still coming down her face and a snot string coming from my chest to her nose… Gross… But I just smiled down at her.
“Are you ok Jimmy? What happened?”
I couldn’t really explain that I am the vessel for a god now and that Earth is damn near a poison to me the way it is now. But I just told her that I was stronger now and that I wasn’t used to the air here anymore that’s all. I looked up to Hector and Jasmine with a look that said I had important things to discuss before looking back down to Julie.
“Hey why don’t you go grab something to eat, I’m sure they have a vending machine or a cafeteria around here somewhere. I need to talk to mom and dad for a minute ok?”
Julie didn’t want to let go but being the smart girl that she was, she knew something was important that I could only tell to Hector and Jasmine. She reluctantly agreed and one of the attendants took her by the hand and led her out of the room.
I sighed as I grabbed my chest to try and alleviate the pain and burning that was in my lungs. “I can’t stay here on Earth anymore.”
Hector and Jasmine gasped as I looked at them, but I saw as they looked at each other with a knowing look in their eyes before I continued.
“I gained something that can make me stronger on the other side, but the downside is that it makes me so strong that the limited magic that flows on earth cannot sustain me, even now I’m only able to breath because of this cube, and only barely at that.”
“What happened to you Jimmy?” Jasmine asked as her eyes filled up with tears.
“Haaaaa, well during that whole shit with Alex….. Ahem, one of the wolves dropped a relic…” I was interrupted as they both gasped and Hector immediately grabbed my hand.
“You didn’t pick it up did you? Tell me you didn’t pick up that relic boy!” He said with urgency but when I nodded he shivered as if he was hit with a wave of arctic air.
“Dammit Jimmy…” Jasmine whispered.
“What is so wrong with that? I got something that would make me stronger. The only thing I regret is that it came at the cost of Alex.”
“You should know this already but anyone who receives a relic is chosen by a god right?” Hector said in a whisper and I nodded.
“Yea I do now, but how do you know about that?” Hector just looked at me then at Jasmine, she nodded and with a sigh he told me a story about how one day him and Jasmine were hunting with a random group. They came upon a B rank monster and after a difficult fight they finally killed it. The team shared the spoils all except for two things, a twig that looked like it glowed with an emerald light, and a sheathed sword that was covered in a red mist. They both felt a respective pull to the items and when they touched them, a screen appeared that told them they were chosen by a god of healing and a god of war.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Wait, did it actually say that you were chosen?” I stopped him and asked.
“Yes it did. If you were chosen then you should have gotten the same message.”
“I don’t recall exactly what it said… I was in a bit of a situation when it happened.”
Jasmine grabbed my hand and smiled but let Hector continue. The team thankfully didn’t resist the pair taking the drops but the problem came when they got back to the town and stepped through the portal… They went through the same thing I did except they didn’t have the cube to help and instead a mysterious passerby just threw them back through the portal. That part confused me? Did that stranger know about the issue with a chosen going back to earth? If so, how were they able to stay on earth? Dammit, another unanswerable question added to the list.
I wondered why they didn’t accept that power, until it clicked that it was because of me and Julie, if they stayed as a chosen than there is no way they could have came back to take care of us.
“But if you rejected that power shouldn’t have there been like some kind of cost to rejecting a god?”
“Well there was I guess?” Jasmine sighed “I got a message from the god that chose me saying that my bloodline was chosen, not just me…”
“Same here with the god that chose me. It said my bloodline shall know war.”
Hearing this I looked towards the door that Julie walked out of. “So that means… Julie is already…”
“That’s right, she is already a chosen, she has been showing signs of getting her powers already even before you left.”
I snapped my fingers and smiled. “So that explains that last hug she gave me and bruised my ribs! Man just thinking about that makes me hurt.” I chuckled as I rubbed the side where she hit.
Hector chuckled. “Yea, we have been trying to train her a bit to control her powers, but we have another problem besides that… Whenever we train her, she starts to cough and gasp like you did just now.” He grabbed Jasmines hand before speaking again. “I think her body is starting to become like yours is now, here soon I think we are going to have to do something drastic to make sure she survives.”
“Like what? They would never allow you to take an underage kid through the portal Hector, don’t you remember that horrible experiment that happened after everything settled down? That poor kid…” I muttered as I remembered the news about what happened to the poor kid that was forced to go through the portals before he even hit puberty. They said that the sheer difference in magic levels filled him up like a balloon…. And popped.
“Ahhhh enough of that, don’t bring that up Jimmy, we know but right now what can we do?” Jasmine yelled but I had an idea as I looked down at my hands…
“I might have an idea… It’s time that I go back now so let’s get Julie back in here.” I told them that I would speak to someone that could possibly help them for a little bit.
After an hour of playing with Julie and talking about my future, I started to pant more and more until it got hard to move my body.
“It’s… Time… to go. I love you…” I forced out as they gave me hugs and then helped me through to stand up and I was able to limp my way back through the portal. I gasped and drew in deep breaths once I was back on the other side.
“Told you it wasn’t gonna feel good boy.” Rob said as he stood over me. He helped me up and we walked back to his office. Before he could talk I spoke first.
“I need your help with something… My sister, Julie, she’s chose.”
Rob stared at me in confusion. “You mean Hector and Jasmines kid? How, she’s not even close to puberty.”
“It’s because Hector and Jasmine were chosen but they rejected that power to be able to go back to earth for us. But that’s not what’s important, Julie is showing signs of having powers but when she uses them she starts experiencing what I did when I went back to earth. She’s gasping and choking because her body is growing stronger than what the earth can sustain, but I was thinking that since she is still to young to cross the portal….” I put the now spent cube that he gave me back onto his desk while looking at him.
“Ahhh, so you want me to make more cubes that can help her body stay on earth right? What make you think it could work? Or that I would be willing to do this?” He crossed his arms with a smirk.
“If it helped me last for a couple hours than I think at most it could act like an inhaler for when she has an episode. Also if you did this for me than I will work for free.”
It was silent as Rob looked at me as the gears in his head turned. “This is important enough that you would work for free?”
“If you can do it than yes, absolutely.” I was resolute that this man could help my sister and I was willing to do just about anything for that.
“It won’t be cheap, maybe it will cost more than what I was going to pay you?” He raised an eyebrow at me while saying this. I just tightened my fist.
“Then… Then I’ll find some way to make up the remainder of the money.”
“Good, I had a room set up for you in the barracks. Come back in the morning.” Rob said and waved me out the door. I thanked him profusely before I left but he just kept shooing me away. The attendant outside led me down another elevator and down a hallway that was lined with many rooms numbered 1-50. She stopped at the last room marked 50 and opened it.
“This will be your room Master Frough. If you need anything just let me know.”