Chapter 9 -Rocks in our Path-
LUNA LYRIC
“I’m the disciple of the body you took over…” I gripped my sword and took my stance. “And I am going to take it back.”
[Ring Phase: Ancient Phoenix]
My connection with my fire affinity strengthened. Fire wings that were similar appeared on my back, it felt like they were part of me. I could feel the mana through my body. The buildings around me started to melt.
Without turning around I started to talk to Juliette, “Juliette, use your ancient phase, at least like that we can beat him and bring back the general.” I said it in a confident voice that I knew for sure that We couldn’t lose, not to him.
Juliette walked right next to me and without hesitation she activated her ring phase.
[Ring Phase: Ancient Aurora]
In the corner of my eye, I could see her features change, then with her sword in hand she took her stance. “Ready?” I said not taking my eyes off the dragon. “Yes,” Julie said.
“It seems like you two are ready. Shall we start?” Said the white haired dragon taking out his sword from the ground and holding it in front of him.
I dashed forward releasing ten fire balls in an instant trying to catch Onyx off guard, on the other hand Julie teleported behind him landing a strike on his armor. Barely doing any damage, much less leaving a small scratch, but that was enough to catch him off guard. Julie left before the spell touched him but I kept going in his direction, attacking him with my sword faster and faster. The dragon parried all my sword attacks but not my fire spells, making a large explosion which the force waves sent me back fifty feet.
My hopes went up when there weren't any signs of him but then they were destroyed, “That there was a pretty good attack, Espion.” Onyx said on my left side. My reactions were not fast enough that when he kicked me, from my point of view, I was in front of the explosion to then be inside of the school building.
JULIETTE RILEY
I saw how Luna was sent into the school building by the kick that Onyx gave her after the explosion. “How much of a monster can he be?” I said to myself doubting both Luna and me for even trying to rival a dragon in magic and combat.
Even if I bought time so that the other Espions came I doubt they would make a difference, not knowing what to do in this type of situation, I looked at my sword just to find out that it had been shattered when it impacted the armor. ‘You’ve served me well old friend,’ was what I said in my mind before storing it on my dimension device.
When I looked up and my eyes caught something out of place… It was Onyx, he had been gasping for air as if he had just ran a marathon. Sweat reaching his brows, his left hand on his chest, giving sounds of pain coming from him.
‘General’ were the words that appeared in my mind. He's fighting back, not from the outside but from the inside. “I gotta help him,” I muttered before taking out the daggers he had given Luna and I after completing our training with him.
I started to run to his direction, my mind being filled with the times we had spent together and the moment he left and never came back after six years. When I was finally in front of Onyx, I striked with my daggers but the prince didn’t seem to give up that easily, he used earth magic to conjure a wall while he tried to get back his sword.
I could use wind magic but I don’t have enough mana and there didn’t seem to me any mana in the air. “I can’t let him get his sword,” I said, making my way to his sword as his hand was a few centimeters away from it. A pillar of fire appeared from where the sword was, I turned only to see Luna bleeding from her head and her hand up. “Luna,” I yelled.
“Focus on the general Julie.” She yelled back, nodding at her response. I went back to face the dragon, he looked helpless, in his last moments. No, I couldn’t let these emotions take over not now.
Onyx’s mana aura looked unstable, “W-why are you Interfering A-Alter…” The dragon held his head with his hands before continuing, “W-we could have brought her back.”
‘Brought her back?’ What is he talking about, then his mana kept rising at an alarming rate, “This is dangerous Juliette, we have to get out of here.” I turned around to find the source of this voice. It was Ukhac. The dwarven’s expression was concerned at the sight he faced, gritting my teeth I answered. “I won’t leave when I know that the general is in that situation,” behind him there were the other Espions too, Makhostr, Agis, Sionia, Azrael, and Cadreil. They were all looking at the white pillar of the mana swirling like a tornado that reached the dark sky.
ALTER VIOLET
This feeling… It felt empty, like an endless void. I recognized it, I had lost control. I opened my eyes to a styled room in a castle. I spectated my surroundings only to see a person who appeared in my dreams more than anyone I knew, Onyx Millguard.
He was sitting on a white throne that matched his white long hair. “Hello there Alter, is that what you call yourself nowadays?” Onyx said, I let my eyelids relax before answering. “What do you want, lizard.” The white haired guy laughed at my comment.
Then he stopped, looking at me dead in the eye. “I will make it brief, both of us have the same goal don’t we?” Where is he getting at with this question, “Yes you're right.” Onyx got off this white throne before he continued to talk again, “And you know how we will do anything to achieve it right?” After he finished, I let out an aura wave that startled him. “Stop beating around the bush and say what you have to say before I take control again.” I said in an angered and annoyed tone.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Onyx held up his hand while shaking his head, “you can’t even if you wanted.” I tried taking over my body but I couldn’t, there was a type of seal that prevented me from. “Now now no need to try that hard but don’t worry it’s already taken care of.” The dragon seemed to know who took over my body, all I could do was to listen.
Onyx’s face turned serious as he started to speak, “We have some troublesome rocks in our path…” I opened my mouth as he stopped me from doing so. “We have three problems. First, I know who took over our body. ‘He’ knows our plans, and ‘he’ seems to want to be part of it. The problem here is that you need to accept ‘him’ before you regret it.”
“I-I can’t do that.” I hesitated to answer, Onyx did not say anything but waited for a couple of minutes. “I know more than anyone the reason why you can’t do it but time here is your enemy, to be honest the most time you have is a year or two before things go south.” Onyx’s words were sometimes harsh but always honest, “Now, I think that is all for the first problem. As for the second, I found a way to bring ‘her’ back.”
Thoughts rushed into my head about how there is a way to bring back the dead. “What’s the catch?” I asked, knowing that it was too good to be true. “The catch is that her soul is in a broken crystal ball. We need to locate and take them before anyone else does.”
Interlocking my hands I sat down in what seemed like a throne that Onyx was sitting on, the only difference is that mine was obsidian color. “Do you have an Idea of where these crystals are?” I asked, seeing how Onyx reacted to my question it appeared like he did not.
The prince looked at me after not trying to make eye contact, “All I know is when they are close to you.” Onyx’s face expressed disappointment in his own ability, “Alright then, we will cross the bridge when we need to. Continue your explanation on ‘our’ problems.”
The white haired dragon let out a sigh before continuing. The atmosphere around us changed to a heavy one. My shoulders felt like I was carrying a bag full of rocks. “The dragon generals' pinpointed our location and they started to make their move.” I felt my heart drop, my first initial thoughts were ‘how did they find us?’ Then I remembered that ‘he’ had been in control of my body, ‘he’ used divine mana on purpose.
“-lter…”
“Alt-...”
“Alter,” Onyx’s voice snapped me out of my deep thinking. “You need to take over before ‘he’ tries to do something outrageous.” said the dragon, “And you could use divine mana to get out of there or you could let yourself get caught and become prince.”
I turned to the exit of the castle to leave and take control of my body when Onyx stopped me and proceeded to say, “Alter before you leave, let me give you a push with the ability to control divine mana.” Onyx got in front of me and he lifted his palm, a blue light orb appeared in his palm. The blue orb floated to my chest and sinked in my chest. Confused by this I asked the dragon what this meant but he didn’t give me a straight answer. All he told me was, “This will help you with divine mana.”
“Oh by the way we might not be able to meet each other for some time until I get my original powers back.” He said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, and without a word I just nodded and made my way to the exit.
JULIETTE RILEY
Cadreil pulled out a scroll from her dimension bag, “I, Cadreil Sparrow, the demi-human Espion out of the eight Espions. Here by now I announce on behalf of the Monarchs’ council that Alter Violet, the general for the four kingdoms, is a threat to the whole continent and shall be eliminated once and for all.”
“Threat? To the whole continent, Espion, he tried to defend this academy out of these high level basilisks.” I let out , angered at this decision that was made by the monarchs. “This has to be a mistake… There is no way that's what the monarchs think of the general.” Luna’s voice was confused by the situation that we are in.
Azrael came forward, taking the scroll from Cadreil and showing us the signatures. “The three kingdoms have signed this scroll making it an official statement.” The Espions activated their phases and walked by us. Luna had fallen to her knees shocked, broken by the news.
“Luna, get up, we need to protect the genera-... No, we need to protect Alter from the Espions.” I said, getting on my knees to hug Luna. “If we don’t do anything he’s going to die in front of us.” And without saying a word she got up, cleared her tears from her face and activated her phase, “I won’t let him carry a burden that heavy himself.” Luna said, “After all, the three of us promised each other to help carry one's burden no matter how heavy.”
I activated my ring phase as well and gathered mana around Luna and I. Ukhac turned as if realizing what we’re going to do, “Human Espions, don’t you dare do anything that you might regret.” Makhostr continued after her partner, “We have orders to neutralize both of you, if you get in our wa-.”
The dwarven Espion was interrupted by Luna’s fireball that went close to her face. Makhostr’s brows went forward, her face expression changed to anger. The brown motes moved to her location and gathered up by being condensed together. ‘Armor’ I thought, using my telepathy ability I contacted Luna. “The dwarf Espions are going to use their earth magic to make their armor.”
I expected a reaction out of Luna but her facial expression didn’t betray her not one bit. I saw her cold eyes burning into the enemies in front of us, giving me chills. I have not seen Luna like this since the war, “Luna remember don’t kill just make them unable to fight.” But I still didn’t get a response back. Then in a matter of seconds Luna appeared behind the two Espions, attacking Ukhac with her sword and binding Makhostr with her magma spell covering her whole body except her head. Luna’s attack sent Ukhac back twenty feet, “You stay here.” Luna said in her cold voice to the trapped Espion as she dashed towards the brown haired Espion.
Their clashes made me snapped out of my world. ‘I too should help Luna’ I told myself as I started to activate my plant magic. Touching the floor with my palm I muttered “Enchanted Forest.” The environment around us changed to a forest type, the only difference was that I could sense the enemy as long as they were inside of the forest.
“Let's get real then.”
[First Phase: Eternal Rainbow]
My vision was filled with the motes of different colors, my control over the motes became stronger. As I focused my gaze to the Espions, I noticed their faces, they were drained out of color. I felt a smile creep on my face upon seeing them, then I opened my palm and imagined the motes of color to my hand only to shape a sword.
“Come at me,” putting my mana sword in my stance.
The Espions got in their battle formation. The clouds covered the moon, making it dark, thunder was kicking in and so did the rain.
The rain fell on me and my eyes but that didn’t stop me from not focusing on the enemy in front. As either side was ready to attack, suddenly a doom pressure was being dropped on both sides making us fall to our knees.
“It seems like these lower races still have no morals.” said an raspy voice walking from where Alter’s mana was being out of control. “What do you expect, Chuzeoth.” said another disdainful voice coming from the left. The man with the raspy voice revealed himself. He looked old, long white hair that was similar to Alter’s, his yellow eyes glowed like a torch in a dark cave. His attire was white with dark outlines. I couldn’t tell how strong they were or who they were, so I tried looking for his ring… There wasn’t any on his right or left hand.