Standing outside of Rai’s place, Lily said, “Do you think he’s home?”
“Only one way to find out,” Eiji said, twisting the knob and helping himself in. Turning a corner, “Whoa...”
Lily, who was a little uneasy at first with the idea of barging in without permission came to a halt alongside Eiji. All across the kitchen and living room floor were many empty cups of ramen. “Is Rai’s place usually this messy?”
“Not since I moved out...” Eiji joked.
“Ahhh!” Rai’s voice echoed from above.
Hearing his screams, the two darted up the stairs, bursting through the door to his room.
“Rai!” they said.
“Huh?” Rai, gaming controller in hand, gazed at them confused. “Heck you guys doing here?”
“We heard you scream,” Lily said.
Eiji noticing the screen said, “Makes sense.”
“This game is ridiculous. How’re they expecting me to get to the dlc when I can’t even get past the beginning bosses.”
“Hey, that boss has the same tattoos as me,” Eiji said, peering at the video game boss.
“Tattoos?” Rai questioned.
“Oh yeah, I haven’t shown you yet,” Eiji said. Pulling down his shirt, where his necklace would have been, there was instead a tatted necklace, and along it was three seeds dangling, with one showing the design of a Nefarian symbol, resembling the person who was summoned in his place. “Pretty neat huh?”
“Shouldn’t you be training to prepare for your match against Gaius?” Lily said.
“Meh, I’ve been training all week, I needed a break,” Rai said, tossing the controller aside while falling back on his bed. “Stupid Eldin Root…”
“Well, Marco asked us to stop by. He hasn’t been able to get ahold of you since he left you to training?” Lily said.
“Key word, LEFT! I’m lucky I even made it out of there.”
“Plu…” A head from under the covers popped out. Its fluffy face lit up when seeing Lily and Eiji. “Plu plu!”
“Hey there Plu,” Lily said catching the stuffed animal as it leapt from the bed. Gently placing Plu to the floor, Eiji crouched down to Plu.
“Put it there,” Eiji said, sticking his hand out for a high five.
“Plu,” Plu said, ignoring Eiji’s hand and exiting the room; Eiji fell over in response to being rejected.
“So, what did Marco have you do anyways?” Eiji said.
“I was supposed to collect some stone or luminite deep within the forest,” Rai said. “But after four days there, I never even made it halfway, so I decided it be best to turn around and get some rest before the match.”
Suddenly, Lily badge started to go off. “Hey, it’s Marco.”
“Crap!” Rai said, jumping under the blankets, butt sticking out. A hologram shot out, revealing Marco, behind him, blue skies.
“Hey Marco,” Lily said.
Rai shuffled around, his head now barely sticking out instead of his butt.
“Were you able to find Rai?” Marco said.
Lily glanced again at Rai who waved the call away, whispering, “I’m not here.”
“Ahem,” Eiji said, slightly nudging his finger towards the window of Rai’s room.
Rai looked up, noticing Marco, his hall master and elite he reported to, sitting cross legged on the head Shiki, the snake whom he had bonded with. It had enlarged its body so that it was able to stretch up to the second story which Rai’s room resided.
“H- Hey Marco,” Rai said, waving slightly at him from under the covers.
Sighing, Marco said, “You never got there did you?”
“That forest was a death wish!” Rai argued. “I would’ve died before I even got the chance to fight Giaus,” he said, sitting up and crossing his arms stubbornly. “Besides, I trained enough. I think three days of rest is fine.”
Marco glared at Rai, showing a serious side to him. “Come with me,” he said.
“O-okay…” After getting dressed, strolling through the Kingdom of Aurahelm where he lived, arms folded behind his head, Rai asked, “So, where we headed anyways?” Gazing up at the skies, the season had yet again changed during his time inside. The auroras above the sky of Aurahelm had transitioned from pink and purple, into a red and orange hue.
Marco paused, pointing at mountains barely visible, far off in the distance, “Thundertyde,” he said.
Scaling the mountain, Marco and Rai made their way up a steep pathway. “You do know the tournaments tomorrow, right? Don’t you think more training is a little overboard?” Marco however didn’t respond. Suddenly, the ground shook heavily, almost causing Rai to slip from the narrow pathway they traversed. “Heck was that…”
Marco placing his hands on a rocky wall, concentrated some flux force, revealing a secret passageway. “After you.”
They continued down a cave-like hallway, before at last, light shed through from ahead.
Rai turned the corner. The area was shaped by the mountains to form something similar to a giant bowl, and at the center of the bowl was a person. “Gaius?” He noticed he was shirtless, eyes closed with arms crossed as usual. The ground once again shook, and from every possible angle, enormous boulders, much bigger than even Kenji’s scorpion form appeared. “Uh! Hey watch out!” Rai rushed outside, a boulder nearly crushing him from above before he jumped back to avoid it. Fire arrows then rained from the skies as Minus in cages were let loose at the same time. He couldn’t do a thing; the boulders were way too big for him to do anything about, and much too fast.
Explosions rocked the area and debris was sent everywhere as giant roots burst through the ground smashing through the boulders. Each arrow was suddenly blocked by an invisible root which flickered once they came in contact. The Minus charged, but Gaius, using hand to hand combat, easily deterred and slit them in two, and as for the Minus further away, they were also torn apart by these flickering invisible roots that ripped through the earth. In a matter of moments, the field looked like a small war had just finished, and standing at the center, Gaius.
Noticing Rai, Giaus smirked.
“Since he began at a young age, Giaus has never missed a day of training, at least from what I’ve been told,” Marco said, appearing beside Rai.
Rai, sweating, stood up clenching his fist.
“You still believe you have a chance?” Giaus said. The ground shook and roots burst through the ground, twisting in every which way, whipping the ground, however many of them were invisible, only slightly revealing themselves. A giant root, had a large beam of energy burst out of it, smashing into the mountain and tearing a long horizontal line into the side, making its way directly above the head of Rai and causing large rocks to come crashing down over him.
Lifting his hands in self-defense, Rai closed his eyes. Once the dust settled, he muttered, “I’m.. alive?” Looking around he noticed Marco and Shiki having protected him from the damage. They were wrapped within Shiki’s overgrown body, though she was a little scuffed.
She angrily flicked her tongue at Gaius, who had risen high into the skies, but it looked like he was flying since his roots couldn’t be seen.
“I am the Nephilim of light,” Giaus said. “From the looks of it, you won’t last even a second in tomorrow’s match against me.”
Rai, breathing heavily, continued to stare down his opponent, legs trembling slightly. “Speak for yourself…”
After a moment, Giaus scoffed, “I’ll have my father push back the match another two weeks. Consider this a generous gift, from your future Emperor. Now get lost.”
Inside the tunnel they were in, Rai collapsed to the floor, both hands on the ground while sweat slipped from his face, breathing heavily. “Can I win?”
***
The door to the hospital room slid open and Alderai was standing there. With a slight nod of acknowledgement, Alderai left the room. Lying in bed was Haruki, and beside him, Tammari and Alan. Bandages were wrapped around his missing right arm and left leg.
“How’s he doing?” Rai asked.
“He was awake a moment ago,” Alan said.
“Guess that’s a good sign,” Rai said, plopping down on a hospital chair nearby.
“How’re you?” Tammari said.
“I’ve been better,” Rai said sighing.
Suddenly, the apprentices' badges went off.
Alan gazed at it, “The finals have been postponed another two weeks?”
“Jeez, that was quick,” Rai said, sliding further into his seat.
“You knew about this?” Tammari said.
“Yeah, it’s Giaus’s doing. He wants to give me more time before he sends me to the afterlife,” Rai muttered.
“What happened… to avenging Mochi…” Haruki uttered.
“Haruki?!” Rai said.
“Hey,” Haruki slightly lifted his other hand, though winced in pain the moment he did.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Hey man take it easy,” Rai said, standing up.
“To think.. I couldn’t touch Mochi in that form, and yet Giaus took him out in one hit…” He smiled to himself. “You really got your work cut out for you this time, don’t you?”
“I’m sure Mochi’s weakened state made it much easier,” Alan said. “Isn’t that right Rai?”
Rai looked away, grimacing. “I’m not so sure…”
“How do you intend… to win?” Haruki asked Rai.
Rai, glaring at him confidently, held his fist out to bump Haruki’s, “By training my ass off.”
After a moment, Haruki muttered, “Kind of hard to—”
“Right my bad,” Rai quickly retracted his fist.
***
“Ikken!” A Minus glowing red with red crystals along its back blew into little pieces. Opposite it, Rai. As the body of the creature disappeared into energy, a seed was left behind glowing red with a spiky yellow design on it. “Phew… How deep does this forest go…” From beneath Rai’s hoodie, Plu slipped out, plopping on the floor beside him.
“Plu?” it said.
“No, not yet buddy. I have a feeling we should wait a little longer.” I found out the hard way what happens when Plu stays in its rooted form for too long. Rai recalled the last time in this forest. A twin headed snake-like creature with a flexible body that resembled a palm tree’s base, raced toward him. “Now Plu!” From the woods a root burst through the ground, racing toward the creature from the side, but soon, it fell limp. “Plu!” Rai shouted running for his life. Shit, I’m all out of flux force! I can’t use ikken. Rai turned darting the other way. Zipping through the forest with tears in his eyes, the Minus was in hot pursuit.
“Plu,” Plu said, remembering the incident. Crossing its arms, “Plu Plu.”
“Yeah yeah, how was I supposed to know you had a limit,” Rai stated, taking out a map he had been creating as they ventured further in. The drawing most recently showed a bridge they crossed, and now he added a bunch of red rocks, signaling the area they just went through. Beep Beep Beep. “Marco’s calling?” Answering it, Shiki’s face appeared, happily flicking its tongue. “Hey Shiki,” Rai said.
“Shiki.. I can’t.. see,” Marco muttered, trying to push past her. The white snake vanished, causing Marco to fall forward. Rising from the floor, Marco said, “Sorry about that.” Shiki appeared then in a much smaller form on Marco’s shoulder. “How’s your training coming along? Have you found it yet?”
“Nope, but I’ve sure found a lot of Minus!” Rai said crossing his arms and looking away. “Still, with all the ones I’ve ran into, you would think they would have sent elites to wipe them out already.”
“New Minus are always being born. Unfortunately, scientist have not found a way to stop flux storms from which they tend to be born from. That particular area happened to have a massive flux storm, and the empire had been planning to do something about it.”
“Great, why don’t you change my status from special class Link to Janitor while you’re at it,” Rai muttered. Marco held his hand behind his head, smiling nervously. “How’s this going to make me strong enough to beat Giaus anyways?”
“Well, there are many ways for an Abminus to get stronger. By cracking your core, though dangerous, when healed, they always grow back stronger. However, your core seems particularly tough and requires a lot more stress to crack it.”
Rai placed his hand on his chest, before gazing back at the hologram of Marco. “Yeah, but if that’s the case I could have just trained with you.”
“There’s another reason in fact,” Marco said. “You see, when killing a Minus, often it disperses back into negative flux force, however, some of the tiniest flux within its core is positive flux, and that bit at times gets naturally absorbed in Abminus present, helping in their growth. On top of that, though it’s rare, during a negative flux storm, at times the negative flux may get absorbed in luminites, where the flux is slowly purified, eventually giving them a tint of orange at their center.
“Hm, Eiji did mention something like that from our mission to Atlas,” Rai said.
Plu, seeing the hologram in front of them, jumped up and down, waving its arms through it for fun. “Plu plu plu,” it shouted happily.
“Bug off,” Rai said, launching Plu away with his foot and making the hologram much smaller so it was out of its reach.
Marco, continuing, “If the luminite is overwhelmed, they shatter, losing the flux within them and adding to the storm. But according to our reports, a large amount of negative flux remained after the storm, meaning a rather large luminite must have absorbed it, and is either purifying it or in danger of shattering. They’ve dubbed it ‘Camelot’”.
“Why didn’t we just gather some of the ones at the kingdom of Atlas?”
“Those aren’t luminites we can intake, as we can only take from ones produced by flux storms, rather than the nutrients that lie with Atlas’s caves.”
“I didn’t see any report of this?”
“You’re not ranked high enough for that type of information,” Marco teased, waving his rank 5th port pass. “Anyways, if this one were to shatter, there’s a chance another flux storm could form, which may lead to even an evolved Minus appearing, if not more Minus in general.”
“Evolved…” Rai said, remembering the one he fought.
“Currently, there are campgrounds far off from there, and it’s become a bit of a safety hazard if the rock should shatter. However, should you be able intake the pure flux within it, you’ll find your strength to grow quite a bit; that is if you don’t die first.”
“Die?!”
“Good luck.”
“Hey wai—” Marco disconnected the call. Punching the air, Rai said, “Just you wait! When I get strong enough, I’m taking your spot first!” With a sigh, he gazed at Plu in the distance who was chasing a butterfly. “He could have at least told me how much further I had…” After a moment, Rai had an idea. Remembering his training in finding Minus’s core by concentrating on where negative flux force flows strongest, normally revealing where their core is, he closed his eyes and focused. Negative flux force… If I concentrate hard enough, I might be able to find it… Moments later, he felt the lingering presence from the luminite in the distance. Negative flux flowed their much more than any other area. “That’s it! Come on Plu, we’ve got a luminite to absorb.”
“Plu!”
On the walk, Rai popped a berry coated in a special frosting into his mouth. “I’ve got to make sure to thank Tammarri for these.”
About a week ago, Tammari had given him flux infused food.
“They're supposed to help heal the core, but for Nefarians of Solomon descent, depending on the food type, different affects can take place. Whenever I eat spicy flux-infused food, my hair grows a shade of red, giving me extra strength at the cost of growing fatigued,” Tamarri said.
“Here, you want one,” Rai said as they walked towards the luminite’s aura, but Plu nodded its head no. “Only strawberry ice creams then huh?”
“Plu,” it responded.
“Suit yourself.” Rai was about to toss it into his mouth when a pulsing wave of negative flux force rushed past him, causing him to drop it. Minus? And a strong one at that… He rushed into a spot to hide, slowly creeping closer. Brushing some leaves away, in the distance, there it was, the large luminite with a dark orange color at the center. It was as big as the luminites in the caves leading to the ritual grounds of the Kalumi Nefarians. However, he noticed it had cracks in it, and they were continuing to grow larger. It seemed to be on a single circular platform with a ditched stretching too far for him to jump, similar to how the moat surrounded the kingdom of Atlas. Suddenly, many vines shot up, and a creature with the mouth that resembled a super-sized plant eater emerged. It quickly crawled up and around the rock, hugging it tightly before releasing a load of negative flux force and cracking it more. After, it crawled back down, disappearing below, out of Rai’s view.
“Plu,” Plu said, turning to leave.
“Get back here,” Rai said, grabbing Plu and placing it in front of him. “Is it trying to bust the luminite but emitting negative flux…” Standing, Rai, cracked his head left and right, before slamming his fists together. “Well, it's now or never. Time to apple Plu.”
“Plu,” Plu jumping into the air, poofed into an apple, and Rai caught it.
Taking a bite, Rai’s teeth clanked hard against it, making his whole-body quiver down to his feet. “Oh, were doing this again!” Rai shouted, staring at the apple in his hand angrily. But being that he yelled so loud, the ground shook and the Minus emerged, directing its vine like tentacles directly at him. “Crap!” Rai lunged out of the way, now in the open. Clasping his hands together, “Ik—” vines smashed into the spot he was at, but he was able to avoid it. “Sorry tall green and ugly, I’m pretty used to fighting those type of attacks now.”
“Eeeeerk!” the creature roared, and its many tentacles split off forming a creature of their own, growing leaf-like wings severely outnumbering him.
“Not used to fighting that though…” They raced Rai’s way, and as he jumped back, some dug into the ground. “Alright, now’s not the time to be playing games Plu,” Rai said, swinging the apple around to take a bite, but before he could, a flying vine appeared from under the ground, smacking the apple out of his hand. Rai lunged for the apple as it bounced against the dirt floor. “Dammit!” The apple rolled off into the depths of the crevice, where many vines swarmed around in a sea of green, undoubtably the rest of the Minus’s body. Rai never had a problem resummoning Plu after he had eaten the apple, but whenever Plu was in an apple form, he couldn’t resummon it the same way.
“Eerk Eerk!” the creatures tone changed.
“Ikken!” Rai shouted plowing through many of them, splattering green blood. One slammed into his stomach. “That hurt!” Slamming his fists down, the smaller vine creature fell to the ground with a splat! Falling to the ground, she shot a couple of ikken bullets, however none reached their target. The large plant eater Minus lunged forward, but Rai rolled away as its mouth enveloped the rock behind him, dissolving it immediately. “Guess shooting from the inside is out of the option.” Alan’s voice echoed in his head. That was an option?! Smiling, Rai, looked down at the apple swiveling around in the vines. I imagine jumping down there is practical suicide. Guess I’ll do what I do best… “Piss people off!” Rai gripped the tentacle of a flying beast, swinging around it and propelling himself to another which he launched off of. Mid-air he dodged a larger vine of the plant eater, firing ikken bullets straight through its head; they pierced through it, exiting out the back. Using a few more flying vines, he lunged toward the large luminite, placing his hands on it. Hope this works. Soon he began to absorb the luminite, feeling both a cooling and burning sensation within him. Spitting up blood, he fell to a knee. “This is tougher than I thought.”
“Eeeerrrk!” From beneath many vines split apart also growing wings and flying up, now numbering the hundreds, but in doing so, the apple was also launched upward when they ascended.
“Now’s my chance!” Rai ran towards the cliff as the apple began to descend, leaping into the hole after it. After a few seconds, the ground began to shake, and Rai came running back up on a large root that was Plu. “That’s what I’m talking about!” The root flung him high into the sky where he aimed down at the plant eater, however the many flying plant parts of it, swarmed in front of it, blocking his view. From beneath the Minus, the earth cracked and Plu burst through, using its root to coil around the creature that attempted to squirm out of its grip. Tightening its grip, Plu swung the Minus around straight into the sky barreling through its own flying defense where Rai awaited. “Try chewing on this! Ikken!” Using a large amount of flux, the blast tore through the Minus and the many others’ flying around fell to the ground. Slowly, they all disappeared into energy, leaving behind a seed glowing green with a red oval shape on it; it slowly fell into the hole it had probably dug out itself. Plu reappeared, creating a landing platform and bridge that allowed Rai to make his way back to the giant luminite. “Phew, close one.”
“That was amazing!” a voice echoed from far away. Running out of the forest, a boy, maybe a couple years younger than him.
“Um, who’re you?” Rai hollered.
“I’m Tommy!”
“Tommy?”
“You’re Rai, right?! My dad and mom met you outside the Library of Excalibur!”
Rai thought to himself… Mom and dad? “I think you got the wrong person! And what’re you even doing out here, this place is classified a danger zone! There are Minus everywhere!”
“Their names are Tina and Adrian!”
“Tina… Adr—” After he remembered them, Rai shouted, “Hey kid you definitely shouldn’t be out here!”
“I don’t know the way back…” Tommy admitted. “We were camping far off, but I got lost. I’ve been walking forever…”
“Ugh…” Rai placed a hand on his forehead, shaking it in disappointment, when all of a sudden, the luminite behind him started to crack yet again, but much faster. “No,” quickly he placed his hands on the rock. If this thing busts with the kid here and Minus begin to form! “Ahh!” Rai absorbed the luminite at a rapid rate, before falling to his knees, though his hands remained on the luminte. His body was in agonizing pain, and his bones creaked from the negative flux force also transferring through his body. Slamming his head on the rock again and again, blood seeped from a wound he self-made as he continued to absorb the pure flux within. “Fuck! Gah!” Rai curled over as enough negative flux seeped out, forming a small minus which rushed Tommy.
“What’s.. that..” Tommy said, falling backwards at the wooden creature, a Minu’s purest form leaped at him.
“Plu!” Rai shouted.
Plu as a root, rammed the Minus, smashing it to bit’s causing the negative flux to disperse and the wooden chips to crumble into nothing. Grabbing the kid, Plu carried him over to a safer spot.
“Wh-Whats happening?”
“Gaaah!” Rai bit his lip. This is way too much negative flux, all because of that damn Minus. “Screw you!” Rai shouted as his core cracked heavily, and blood burst from his back and arms as wounds opened. Again, more negative flux exited, and the luminite cracked some more, releasing more Minus, though Plu delt with them. Rai’s head dropped and tears formed in his eyes, as his bloody hands started to slip down the luminite, but before they could fall off, Tommy’s smaller hands grabbed his wrists, helping lift Rai’s hands back up.
“Don’t give up!” Tommy said. “You’re my hero!” Seconds later the negative flux force shot into Tommy sending him flying back into the ditch before Plu hastily grabbed him.
“UH!” Gazing at the boy, the tip of the root that was Plu, looked up at Rai, giving a slight nod, signaling the boy still lived. “What the hell’s wrong with me!” Rai shouted, putting all his flux and effort into absorbing the luminite. Standing back on his feet, blood trickling down his mouth and nose, Rai screamed, “Hurry up and empty you bastard!” But then his vision got blurry, “No… not yet…” Plu wrapped around his legs and arms in the same way it did when fighting against Inari. “Plu?” Rai said, seeing the pressure slightly disappear. “Alright buddy, lets do this!” Screaming, with all his might, together, they absorbed the remaining flux, and the luminite shattered, with zero negative flux dispersing. Rai fell to his knees, falling over to his left, unconscious.