Dye was thrown to the ground. His armor clinked and clanked as he rolled to a stop. He saw his brother’s feet showing Sam and Jason were no longer wearing their armor.

“Ah, that hurt,” he said, getting up from the ground. As he did he finally saw the floor. It was a nicely polished, crystal, tiled floor with familiar symbols etched into them.

“Where are we?” He got up and as he did his armor burned away, returning him to normal.

“Welcome!” Said Arayan, his voice echoing through the vast area, “To the Sky Sanctuary of the Xenton.”

They stood in what could only be described as an vast, oval amphitheater of sorts. All around them stood massive statues of beings who resembled Sam in his armor, acting as load bearing columns that supported the ceiling. Different styles of armor with different kinds of wings outstretched, but they all shared the same mysterious symbol across their faces. There were no walls, as the brothers could look out into the night sky, clouds collecting just within view.

“The sky what of the who??” said Jason, lit up with astonishment.

“Just what’s holding this place up? And how has it been avoiding the planes that fly through here?” Asked Sam, as the four of them stared around the great expanse.

“I’m sure you're familiar with the rock structure Stonehenge, correct?” Asked Arayan.

Sam nodded.

“We call it the Au’kNa. The area surrounding it gives off an unusual degree of electromagnetism. My people built the Au’Kna in order to concentrate that energy. That energy is harnessed into a mechanism built into this Sanctuary that keeps it airborne. As for the non-detection you speak of, there’s a cloaking device that is also powered by the rock structure that repels anything coming towards it and keeps this place clear from sight. To protect those inside from strong gusts and cold winds, like yourselves, There are also invisible fields of energy also powered from that mechanism.

“Who’s we?” Asked Sam, becoming more curious by the second.

“Despite what modern day discoveries have told you, the existence of the human race goes back further than you think.” Arayan started. “My people, the Quailocians, were humans, just like you, though more advanced in both technology and sorcery.”

Dye, though looking around the Sanctuary, was beginning to find the words of this new and mysterious stranger to be compelling. He didn’t care about ancient human history though. He wanted to get to the meat of what was happening to him and his brothers.

“Ancient human history, huh?” he said. “Looks like my world history class has been a lie.”

Jason chuckled. “Our education system is a joke!”

“During the ancient times of this planet,” Arayan continued, “We all thrived on the supercontinent called Genia, or what you’ve come to call it, Pangaea. From the deserts to the east, to the waters to the north, to the great plains of the west, my people lived in peace under the benevolent rule of the K’esiah, or Royal Leaders, for generations.

“Okay, that’s nice and all,” Dye rudely interrupted. “But what does that have to do with us?” Sam and Mack threw their brother a nasty look. “What? I’m just saying. It’s getting late and if you’ve forgotten I’M GROUNDED. If Mom and Dad figure out I’m not home then-”

“SHUT UP, DYE!” shouted Mack, obviously irritated and annoyed. “We wouldn’t have to do this if you weren’t out playing hero. All three of you!”

Sam turned to Mack, obviously offended. “You’re blaming us? Whatever happened to us happened to you and lied to our faces so don’t act like you’re all high and mighty here!”

“Whoa, Bros, let’s take the temperature down. It’s getting hot in here!” Jason calmed.

Dye stood idly by and watched the confrontation. Arayan stood off to the side observing with a blank stare.

“So what!” snapped Sam. “You had no right to lie to us. We did what we had to do to keep those people from getting killed tonight. So if you want to blame someone, blame yourself for not helping us!”

The two glared furiously at each other. Mack folded his arms and looked away. “Whatever…” he huffed.

There was an awkward silence. Dye felt sort of bad that he was the cause of the furious altercation. He didn’t say another word to avoid the risk of setting his brothers off again.

“Alrighty my cloak wearing goth muchacho, carry on with your story,” said Jason, easing up the tension ever slightly.

“Very well,” said Arayan, “The Quailocians who lived to the north became known as the Atlanteans. They built their cities on the water and named their domain Atlantis. To the east, the Quailocians there claimed dominion over the red rocks and desert, calling themselves the Oltalians. Though separated, they were governed by one King and High Commander of The Xenton Order.

“There’s that word again, Xenton.” questioned Sam. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Amongst our people were an elite group of warriors called the Xenton. The Xenton were the ones who protected our civilization from outside threats and possessed his or her own power depending on the spirit that had been given to them. You see, when an animal passed on, their Ka, or Life Force, was transferred to an individual and that person became a Xenton. Depending on the animal’s habitat, the Xenton would inherit the power over fire, water, earth, or the skies.”

“That explains everything now.” Dye saw Sam beginning to make calculations. He paced back and forth, finally able to connect the dots in his head. “Those lights in the sky, those were spirits of animals….er….or…” he waved Arayan to help him out with the wording.

“...Ka”

“Right! Ka! The last thing I remembered was the Ka coming towards us. They’ve been in us this whole time. That’s why we’ve been experiencing all this weird stuff!”

“Precisely,” said Arayan. “It was customary for a newly chosen Xenton to learn to use their abilities. In order to do that, the warrior was sent away for a period of four years to master his or her own abilities.”

“I take it this was one of those places,” asked Sam. The other brothers, excluding Mack, who was still in a mood, were not bothered by Sam’s overexcitement at the revelations being made. In fact, Dye believed that it was better he asked all the questions anyway, considering it was probably driving him nuts not knowing.

Arayan nodded. “If a Xenton obtained the power of Earth, he or she was sent to Earth Sanctuary to master their abilities with the Oltalians. If a Xenton possessed the power of water, they were sent to the Water Sanctuary to do the same with the Atlanteans. If a Xenton had the power of fire or the skies, they were taken to the Fire Sanctuary, and here, The Sky Sanctuary, to hone their abilities with the other Quailocians. These sanctuaries were built to train a Xenton to help harness their Xentonian abilities.”

Everything was beginning to make sense.

“So like, tell me about this healing thing?” Asked Jason. “Are we invincible now?”

“Not necessarily. If the wound is fatal enough then the likelihood of survival is slim.” Arayan replied.

“Yeah, like getting shot in the head…” said Dye, recalling that he was almost a victim of that exact thing.

“Quite unorthodox but accurate,” said Arayan. “Each power is unique to every Xenton. Depending on the individual, certain abilities might manifest differently in two people being Xenton of the same element.”

“That makes sense,” Sam interrupted. “Dye developed his superspeed thing because he was running towards a burning building. Jason was able to turn invisible because he simply wanted to ditch school.”

“Yes, and each Xenton is bestowed with the ability to summon miraculous armor in times of great need.”

“HA, like the Power Rangers!” said Jason. His brothers looked at him embarrassingly. “What? It’s literally like that though!” The three of them rolled their eyes.

“Every generation or so, two of the strongest Xenton were chosen. One, who bore the spirit of The Great Wolf and thus attained the power over the moon and cosmos, and another who bore the spirit of The Mighty Lion and claimed power over the Sun and the flowing of life. The individuals who were chosen by these spirits would also be chosen to be our K’esiah and would rule over the people until the end of their days. With these two forces of nature personified, all of the people lived in perfect balance.

“Okay, so we get the drift of these Quailocians and the Xenton and stuff,” said Dye. “But why is it that no one has ever heard or discovered any of this?”

“Because it was lost to time. Because a majority of us were wiped out and any remnants of our existence was either destroyed or hidden.

“Okay? Getting kinda ominous there my dude.” said Jason.

“A powerful warrior named Griflore decided to declare war against the Xenton Order and began laying siege to people across the globe, killing billions. He sought nothing but power and wanted to control our people and our technological advances. King Owena, and his wife Diea, the two most powerful Xenton, assembled the Xenton Order and waged war against him. It was said that Griflore possessed strange sorcery that allowed him to strip the Xenton of their Ka thus killing all who stood in his way. Then he vanished…”

“What happened to him?” Asked Jason.

“That is unknown,” replied Arayan, “The damage done by him was so cataclysmic that it was impossible to rebuild. Those who survived, destroyed anything that remained of our culture and hid the sanctuaries, so that future generations would never know the horrors of the past. Genia had begun separating into the continents, and The Dominion of Atlantis had sunk to the dark depths of the ocean. The Oltalians left Earth in search of another planet they could inhabit while the remaining Quailocians stayed behind to build something new. They forcefully cut themselves off from the Ka of the animals and the Xenton faded into legend and then into myth, that is, until tonight.” Arayan looked at each of the brothers, perplexed. “You four have somehow become the last of the Xenton Order.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Yay us!” said Jason, raising both fists in the air.

“So, why us?” asked Dye

“That, I am not quite sure of,” Arayan replied as he scratched his chin, “My only guess is to say that they’ve sensed something terrible and felt as though they needed to select new Xenton.

“That’s all fine and well, but one thing doesn’t make sense” said Sam, Arayan turned towards him. “How do you know all of this? Where do you come from?”

“I was put here as a failsafe in the unlikely event that new Xenton were created.” Arayan replied. “Doesn’t seem unlikely anymore, however.”

“A failsafe for what?”

“I and I alone have all the knowledge and understanding of the time before. In the event that new Xenton were chosen, my job was to ensure they knew everything about who they were and the ancient times?”

“So you’ve been up here this whole time?” asked Jason.

“In a way, yes. I was asleep. However, I woke up a fortnight ago.”

“That was around the time we went camping.” added Sam. Dye nodded.

Arayan looked at him. “Yes, I must assume that that was when the Ka came to you and merged with your bodies.”

Arayan reached for the medallion around his neck. “This medallion was intended to wake me up when it detected Ka wandering the earth. It has the ability to track down any Ka, or any energy signature for that matter, and allows me to teleport directly to them.

“So why did you take so long to contact us?” Dye said eagerly. “We’ve been scratching our heads for weeks trying to figure out if this was real or not.”

“It has been ages since any Xenton ever existed. I wanted to see for myself.”

“So now what do we do?” asked Sam, who’s tone suggested he wanted to know more, or at best, have Arayan repeat what he just told them.

“I am not sure why the spirit decided to show up now. The best thing to do would be to wait.”

Dye began wandering around the sanctuary. His mind was completely overwhelmed by what he just learned. Not only was he a superhero, he was a part of a mythic, ancient order that went back ages. He was standing in a place that shouldn’t have existed or be levitating in the sky, but after the last two weeks what did he actually expect?

“Hey, Arayan, what’s the deal with these symbols?” he asked, rubbing his fingers on the etchings on the floor. “I know the three of us have these symbols on our faces whenever we wear our armor, but what do they mean?”

Arayan walked over. “These symbols represent the elemental family to which each Xenton belongs.”

“This is the Quailocian symbol for fire,” he said.

He moved his finger over.

“This is the symbol for the skies,”

“The next one is the symbol for earth,”

“This next one is the symbol for water,”

“And lastly, the two symbols in the middle of the four are the symbols for the sun,”

“and the moon.”

Dye looked over and found another symbol in the ground that was isolated by itself.

“What about this one?” He asked.

“That is the symbol of Griflore,” Arayan replied, “He etched that symbol into all of the sanctuaries himself when he invaded the lands.”

Dye walked over to Sam. “What do you think, Sammy?”

“It’s all so fascinating…” he contemplated.

“See, now you're confused because science can’t explain any of this.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s a scientific explanation for all of this.”

“Right…” taunted Dye. “I would love for you to figure that out and explain it to me. I’m serious, I would sit and listen to you trying to explain how cloak boy over there can jump around using a magic crystal.”

“Oh shut up, Dye” Sam told him as his mind went into his calculating trance again as he walked off.

“His head is going to explode,” Dye chuckled.

“So you’re the one who bears the fox’s spirit?” As Dye turned around, there was Arayan, just inches from his face, staring eerily at him.. “A magnificent creature isn’t it, cunning, swift and smart when it comes to outsmarting a predator.”

“I apologize if you are uncomfortable, that wasn’t my intention.” he backed off, keeping a suspicious eye on Dye.

“It's cool,” Dye replied, “I just have personal space issues.”

Arayan continued to stare.

“What?” He asked.

“I see you’ve experienced the half beast, half human transformations.”

“And you know this how?” Dye asked skeptically.

“Because I was there to see you transform.” Dye was slightly weirded out at the fact that Arayan had said this. He just learned that Arayan had the ability to track them, which made this revelation a bit more personal as it felt like he was being singled out. “Do you know what triggers this power?”

“No, but I have a feeling I’m about to find out,” Dye folded his arms.

“The fox is a natural trickster. Whenever it comes into contact with a predator, it eludes and evades and uses cunning to outsmart its attacker. The more times you exhibit traits similar to your Ka, the more likely it is that its physical traits will arise.”

Dye made sense of what Arayan just said. All those instances in which he avoided fighting TJ, he was acting natural in regards to the fox Ka inhabiting his body. That’s why it became instinctual, like second nature to him to move and respond like he did.

“Come, I would like to show you something.” Arayan turned away. Still a bit creeped out, Dye shrugged off Arayan’s awkwardness, chalking it up to probably not having any human contact for millions of years, and followed.

Arayan raised a single hand and the tile on the floor started to shift. Sam, Jason and Mack saw this happening and watched, backing up. The tiles went from flat, square shaped pieces, to long rectangular sections that folded into stairs. They stacked on top of one another

“Stay right here,” Arayan said.

He climbed the stairs as they were being created. Each step moved just beneath his foot as he ascended. At the top, the remaining tiles circulated until they came to rest forming a platform. On the platform, an altar was erected and it looked as though it was made from nothing but pure, clear crystal. Arayan took off his cloak and threw it to the ground, revealing a black and gold leather suit underneath.

‘Whoa, dude has a leather fetish…” whispered Jason.

“Dude, come on,” said Dye.

“I need you to relax,” Arayan said, “and just to be safe, you three may want to stand clear.”

“Wait, what are you going to do?” Sam asked hastily.

“I’m going to give your brother something to help him. Now please, step away.” Arayan said commandingly. Sam hesitated and so did Jason. Something immediately felt off. “Very well. As you wish” Arayan raised his hand and encased the brothers inside of a red, translucent box.

“HEY! WHAT THE HELL?” cried Jason.

“LET US OUT OF HERE!” bellowed Sam.

“In due time…”

Arayan seized the crystal medallion that swung from his neck and squeezed it. The ornament gave off a red light that zipped back and forth.

“Time to inherit my birthright!” Arayan said sinisterly.

Dye ran over to the box and banged on the wall, trying to get to his brothers.

“HEY! LET THEM GO!”

Jets of the mystic, red light swarmed throughout the sanctuary and around Dye’s body, taking him from the floor.

“DYE!” cried Sam

“LET HIM GO OR I SWEAR…” shouted Jason.

They saw the worried look in Dye's eyes as he slowly ascended towards the ceiling.

“I CAN’T GET OUT OF THIS!” he hollered.

“DYE, SUMMON YOUR ARMOR! DO SOMETHING!” yelled Sam.

“Right! Good call!” He willed his armor to appear but nothing happened. He tried it again and for the second time his body did not transform. “IT’S NOT WORKING!”

“It’s no use…” said Arayan. “As long as your body is engulfed in my spell your powers are negated. The same goes for you three.” he looked at Sam, Jason and Mack.

As he rose, Dye began to feel the light around him become solid, compressing his body.

“What is this?” He said. The light secured him by his neck, wrists and ankles. He was trapped.

“PUT HIM DOWN!” yelled Sam.

Jason beated furiously on the walls of their prison.

They watched helplessly as Dye shouted out in pain from the tightened, red glowing ropes. Arayan threw his hands apart and the cords stretched Dye’s arms and legs, leaving his chest unguarded. The boy struggled and fought the force of the red cables, but he couldn’t break free.

“DYE!” cried Sam from behind the see-through wall.

Muttering some weird words, Arayan conjured more of the red energy into his right hand. It swirled and then materialized into a red, translucent spear. He raised the weapon and aimed it straight for Dye’s struggling body. The three brothers watched in horror as their brother was moments away from being impaled.

“I swear,” said Jason with scorn, “if you throw that at him I will tear you apart myself.”

“Humph,” Arayan responded, looking at the imprisoned three brothers. “Try and stop me,” he said.

They pounded the walls of the box, trying their best to break free. Arayan looked away and laid his eyes upon Dye, who was struggling against the tight, rope-like energy that held him bound.

Dye saw Arayan and the long spear being aimed at him.

“That doesn’t look good,” he thought, still continuing to struggle.

Arayan threw the spear and it pierced Dye’s chest. His entire body went limp.

The brothers looked as the spear stuck out through their brother’s chest, feeling nothing but distress.

Arayan made a pulling motion with his hands. The weapon in Dye’s chest started to retreat, pulling itself out of Dye. It freed itself from Dye’s body and at the end of the weapon was something that disturbed the three remaining brothers immensely.

The red aura from a spectral fox flooded the floors. The beast struggled to free itself as it fought and cried. The three brothers watched as the spirit that formerly belonged to Dye was forcefully being taken away from him.

Arayan muttered another incantation and embraced himself to the spirit. The fox materialized back into Ka and dove for Arayan. He absorbed it immediately. The red ropes and box faded and Dye’s body was sent falling to the ground. Without any hesitation, Sam pushed off from the floor and flew towards Dye’s plummeting body. He caught him immediately and descended to the ground.

Jason and Mack saw Sam do this and were surprised to an extent, but considering what had just happened, it seemed they let it pass.

“Dye! Dye, wake up,” he said, lightly slapping his brother’s face. “What did you–”

He paused. Looking up at the altar he was breathless. Standing at the top of the staircase was Arayan dressed in the golden armor that was once Dye’s.

“Don’t worry about him,” said Arayan, raising his hand to examine his new form. “He’s just unconscious.”

“What the hell was that for?” Yelled Jason, angrily standing up and clutching his fist.

“Calm down,” said Arayan, “I just needed to take back what was rightfully mine. Your brother will be alright.”

Arayan seized his medallion, and a bright light started to shine once again. “As for you three, whatever danger the spirits were sensing it's probably on the move. Be prepared!

Arayan’s voice started to fade away and the four of them, including the motionless body of their younger brother, were sent falling through a tunnel of white light. They watched as the white, crystal temple faded from sight. As though nothing happened, Sam, Jason, and Mack found themselves back in the alleyway, Dye’s motionless body in Sam’s arms.