The crackles of lightning faded from barak’s eyes, yet he still wore that wide grin across his face as he walked out of he sandy hole that he created, he made his way towards Aster and Levant, both of them stood there, to stunned to speak, Polaris pushed himself off the ground back to his feet, dusting sand from off of his clothes and from in his hair, he looked up to see yumi sitting in a nearby tree on one of the branches that extended onto the beach,

Three whole months, huh, why do I always end up as the strongest out of the four of us, makes me feel like you three aren’t even trying”, Barak proclaimed, coming face to face with aster as he said so, Aster caught his breath, composing himself, he stood up straight, folding his hands into fists, taking a step forward, Levant and Polaris looked on in eagerness, this kind of behavior from Rak usually ended in a fight, however, Aster’s hand slackened, the tension in his shoulders fell away, and he placed his hand on one of Barak’s shoulders,

“we don’t have time for this we got a prepare to leave now that all of us are here”, Aster said calmly, walking off into the forest, yumi jumped out of the tree, landing next to barak,

“well its great to see after so long, barak”, yumi said, barak looked at her, smiled and walked off towards the forest behind aster, As Barak walked off Yumi observed him closely, the Black t-shirt he was wearing fitted close to his body, she had noticed that he become more muscular due to how his back muscles formed to the shirt, he wore green cargo pants tucked into his boots, his sword tucked away in its black and blue lightning patterned sheath, with a new addition of a thick red ribbon fastened to the sheath near the swords hilt, she continued to trail behind ignoring his conversation with Levant who had ran and caught up to them leaving Polaris to trail behind the group, she continued to Observe, ten she realized something, his Divine Energy was way more refined than what she was able to get the other three boys to, it flowed around him peacefully and constantly as if it were apart of his skin, compared to Levant who stood next to him whose divine energy flickered and wavered like a fire being blown by the wind, it reminded her of someone she had met a long time ago, the last thing she noticed was that the end of his locs began to turn a light blue almost white color,

Yumi let out a slight sigh, putting her hands behind her head as she continued to walk, ‘ he isn’t wrong, at a glance he would appear the strongest out of the four of them, but he should know that those three aren’t far away from where he is right, I guess he was just trying to pick a fight earlier’, she thought to herself, as the house came into view,

in the house

The atmosphere had taken a complete turn from what it was earlier, Barak rummaged through the fridge, which was more like a giant ice box powered by Polaris, because luckily his ice takes longer to melt than regular ice, the door blocked barak so you couldn’t tell what he was doing, next to the fridge, an iron pan sizzled, with a square of butter inside of it half melted, the stove, was made of stone, with a small fire pit to the bottom where the wood was thrown, on the top were three holes, one of which was blocked by a flat circular stone with handle, one was occupied by the iron pan and the other a thick metal kettle that had seen better days, yumi sat on the counter top opposite the stove her back turned to the kitchen as she swung her feet back and forth, lightly humming with a smile across her face, happy at the prospect of eating food, she had learned that Barak and Aster’s rivalry extended into the kitchen with both of them being known for cooking some of the villages tastiest food, But now Aster stood outside at the back of the house staring up at the sky lost in thought, Polaris and Levant sat next to Yumi at the counter, unlike her though the two sat in the chairs that were there, Polaris had his head buried in the wooden counter top, wearing a dejected look on his face,

“For fucks sake pol, how long are you gonna look sad because you couldn’t beat her”, Levant complained, slamming both of his hands on the counter, with an annoyed look on his face as he peered at Pol,

“and what are so happy about half pint”, Levant shouted at yumi,

“hey the whole time we were here Aster has been cooking for us, and the days where he couldn’t I did and my cooking isn’t the best, plus I’ve been hearing you two moan on and on about how delicious barak’s cooking is once you couldn’t eat Aster’s, so I’m a bit excited”, Yumi said in an unusually upbeat tone,

“by the way”, yumi said, her tone switching to a more serious one,

“do not, I repeat do not, use that technique I taught you guys that reckless ever again, I’ve told you all this already, but that could end up crippling you or worse, killing you”, yumi said,

“well how else are we suppose to beat you, three months down the drain and we couldn’t even properly defeat, and that smug asshole is stronger than you”, Levant said,

“ohh, lev have some faith in yourself, plus with barak back, the overall fire power of the four of you is way above what it was three months ago”, yumi said, Barak was now standing at the stove with a variety of ingredients on the counter top next to it along with some knives and a cutting board, As Barak prepared food, yumi started to explain how things would progress from here on out,

“about a month ago I met up with someone who the rebellion paid in order to help us get to the shadow continent, and they also happen to specialize in communications, a few days ago she contacted me again and I was able to get through to the rebellion and get the location for the new base, It also seems that Aluric has been very busy, he’s taken out two of the commanders we had stationed in the other kingdoms, and from what I heard …” Yumi stopped,

“wait shouldnt aster be here to hear this also”, levant pointed out,

“nah I’ll tell him later, let him mope in peace”, she said casually brushing it off,

“anyways, the day after tomorrow we’ll be heading to the shadow continent, and first order of business when we get there is to get to the main rebel army”, yumi said,

“okay, but how do we get to the shadow continent in the first place”, polaris asked yumi,

“let me finish explaining, we’ll have to get there by boat, luckily I was able to get one, the same person helped us out there as well”, yumi said jumping off of the counter,

“we seem to owe this person a great deal” Barak chimed in his hands moving around the stove, he didn’t even bother to turn around, she took out a piece of folded paper from in her pocket, she unfolded the paper which turned out to be a map of the shadow continent,

“this is where we will enter the continent from”, she said as she pointed to a place on the map, which was labelled as Mars village,

“its a small village that’s allied with us, and it also has docks so we’ll be able to enter the village immediately, we’ll get any other supplies we need from there and then head to the main army, hopefully with some more people from the village that are willing to help us”, yumi explained on,

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“That’s all fine and good but how long will that take”, levant asked,

“hmm...at a normal pace should take us about three days to get there if we get a carriage, two if we don’t rest as long, but if we have to walk that’ll take around five days” yumi answered,

“the Main rebel army is at an abandoned military outpost on the outskirt of the Dracht capital, unfortunately, Aluric’s guild is located in the capital of the kingdom, and for all intent and purposes, the kingdom, more accurately the royal family of Dracht is the direct benefactor of Aluric’s guild, with many of the citizens in the capital being a part of the guild, it’s because of this that technically speaking the Dracht kingdom hasn’t invaded it’s neighboring kingdoms they had the guild do it”, yumi told the boys, Barak turned around and put three plates of food on the counter,

“hmm....how many other kingdoms are there besides the one that's backing the guild ?”, barak asked,

“yumi looked down at the plate in front of her the sparkle in her eyes quickly faded, “what the, no meat”, she said,

“damn should’ve warned yah, Rak doesn’t eat meat, so when he cooks we don’t either, and when Aster cooks he always does a non meat plate for Rak”, Levant explained as he began to eat away at the assortment of vegetables,

“try it still though, it’s really good”, Levant looked up to say,

yumi quickly gulped her first set of food from her fork, “two others, Bolterra is the biggest Kingdom on the continent, it’s the size of the other two combined, but it’s focus is mainly on mining and trade, it’s only been able to hold out this long because it’s army is naturally large than Dracht’s and the terrain is a bit harsher due to its multiple mountain ranges, Argon on the other hand is around the same size as Dracht but that kingdom has a long history of civil wars and infighting so it’s military never grew to match dracht’s, it was the first to fall to the guild, the royal family was able to escape however and they continue to fight back within their borders”, yumi said, returning her attention to her food,

“well if that’s how it is I’m guessing the kingdom is trying to take over the others by means of the guild, so as to keep their name out of it”, barak guessed,

“this is bound to become a clusterfuck sooner or later”, Polaris stated,

“it’s already one” yumi said,

“that’s what I was trying to say earlier, Aluric was reported to wipe out an entire battalion of bolterra troops by himself, leaving countless dead, we had a rebel commander, Keagan wivv, going to assist them, since he is also bolterran, and last they heard, aluric was advancing on the castle by the time Keagan got there”, yumi said,

“so by the time we get there, both kingdoms may have already fallen”, barak said,

“yup”, yumi said,

“wait so if both kingdoms have fallen by the time we get there, if shit hits the wall”, levant said,

“we have no where to run”, yumi said,

While the others were inside talking Aster was outside on the deck at the back of the house,

Aster leaned back on the wooden railing that surrounded the deck, he looked up at the starry sky, the stars were scattered across the sky as if someone had thrown glitter on the sky and it stuck perfectly,

he was deep in thought, he raised his hand in front of his face and stared at it,

‘why’, he thought, ‘why was barak so much stronger than before’, Aster had felt himself grow stronger, he could feel that his power had increased, so why did it seem as though barak had widened the gap in their power even more,

“it’s because you admire him”, a voice said,

Aster jumped out of his thoughts. There next to him sat a man, he wore a black eyepatch, with a golden symbol of the goddess junorra on it, he wore no shirt and a baggy brown pants with with red symbols strewn about it, below his knees down to his feet were wrapped in brown bandages that cracked like they were made of the earth, his skin could be mistaken for died and cracked mud, small cracks ran about his body, with small patches of moss and flowers growing out of them, his hair were locs, with vines weaving in and out, through and on top of his hair it was bright like emerald adornments, and his eyes were a divine gold, aster stood there lost as to why this strange ‘man’ appeared next to him,

“so who or what are you ?”, aster asked,

“you know who I am, you have known me since birth, as I have known you, but for now you can call me Ashe”, he answered, Aster could hear his voice, but it also rang out loud in his mind as he spoke, he closed his eyes from the mental pain,

Aster’s eyes opened, it felt as though he was awash in divine energy, but it felt strangely familiar, as if he were being gently hugged by the earth itself, Aster could tell whatever stood before wasn’t human, and was extremely powerful, this worried him so he began to summon his war hammer,

“you don’t need to worry I’m certainly not your enemy, in fact me and a couple others have been keeping a close eye on you and your friends”, ashe told aster,

“I only showed myself on a whim, but think on what I said, he only seems so monstrously strong because you admire him and devalue yourself”, ash explained to aster,

“ for all four of you, and for many other children who have been blessed, your blessings are interconnected with every part of you body and soul, it will weaken against those you do not wish to hurt, and strengthen against those you deem your enemy, since I am so fond of you the next time you need strength you can drink of my blood, drink of my ichor”, Ashe said,

“anyways I’m leaving now” ash said, as he disappeared in a soft golden light,

aster stood there confused as the whole experience felt as though it were something he was daydreaming,

“what the hell are you standing there spaced out for the food is finished”, barak shouted at aster, as aster snapped out of it, he walked off inside, thinking on what just happened

The Bolterra capitol, Blackdawn Palace

Aluric looked on in front of him, night had fallen, the flames raged all around him, as he walked through the blood soaked city that was now up in flames, he paused looking on at the person that stood infront of him, his arms out stretched, as he placed his body in between, aluric, and the six children who stood behind him,

His body, was beaten, his ribs were broken, along with his left arm, his left eye was basically gone at this point, as he had lost vision in it hours ago, not to mention, the gaping hole in his right leg,

“Keagan, Keagan, Keagan, look around you, your beloved home, is in flames, protecting those six children is a futile waste of your life”, Aluric said,

“just give up, run back to the rebel headquarters, rest up, and surrender with the rest of them, while your life is intact, not that you have much of it left anyways”, aluric said,

“like hell I will”, Keagan shouted, he looked back at the kids behind,

“run while you can, my friends are soon here, when they get here everything will be better”, Keagan said, rustling his bloody hand through on the kids hair, as he pushed them off in the opposite direction,

“sigh, so you’ve choosen death”, aluric said,

“if I’m dying here I might as well take you out with me”, Keagan said, mashing his two Iron guantlets together, a loud humming sound could be heard, as a light purple energy built up around him,

“ eat this, PSIONIC PULSE”, Keagan shouted, punching forward, as a large beam of purple energy shot out directly towards Aluric,

A quick shadowy figure, landed in front of aluric, cutting the attack in half,

“thanks pix, but I had it taken care of”, Aluric said,

“regardless, I have my job to do”, Pix said,

“true, but don’t interfere anymore than you have to”, aluric said,

“aluric you coward, unable to face me head on so you called for one of your lackeys, I always knew you were spinele…..”

Keagan found himself flying through the air, he felt the last bit of energy leave his body, as he began to fall to the ground, aluric jumped into the air over keagan’s body, riding it to the ground with his foot on keagan’s face, and with a loud thunderous crash, they plummeted, landing next to the group of fleeing children Keagan was protecting before,

Aluric emerged, his face, covered in streaks of blood, and around him bathed in fire, as he looked on at the children, he took off one of keagan’s guantlets,

“trust me children, I bear no satisfaction in doing this”, aluric said,

A light glistened off in the distance, as a spear came flying towards aluric landing at his feet, soon after pix came running up to aluric,

“their reinforcements have arrived, and are pushing back our men, lets retreat for now, we’ve already taken out one of their commanders, we can’t take anymore losses”, pix said,

Aluric let out a small sigh,”I guess you’re right, sound the retreat, let’s go home”, aluric said,