~~~(Brooks)~~~

"And you're absolutely sure this will protect us from the magic of the Calamity?" I ask.

Caleb is currently painting runes onto our torsos – front and back – after having convinced us that it'll shield us from that dangerous magic. I'm not sure how honest he was with that, especially knowing he often hides information or flat-out lies for the heck of it.

This magic he's painting onto us, he won't tell us what the mixture is made of, and it feels weird. For starters, it's cold as fuck, even though it had been sitting on the table when we came out, and that was more than an hour ago.

Sighing, I look at Caleb, who's refused to answer my question as he paints the runes onto my brother. Blaze probably knows exactly what these runes are going to do. They're a silver and purple in color, even though they come from the same bowls. It's weird.

At least Blaze doesn't seem concerned, but that still doesn't reassure me.

"Blaze," I say, and he turns his gaze to me. "I do not miss sharing a bed with you."

He grins at me. Tobias, Flame, and Blaze… three personalities within one person. All three of whom share the same body with certain habits that don't go away. Such as their activeness at night. Due to only having two beds in the hotel room, Flame and I shared one, Jared and Owen shared the other, and Caleb…

No one's really sure where he slept.

"Stop moving," Caleb says. "Or I'll mess up the runes."

"Why do we even need that particular formation?" Blaze looks back down.

"And shut up."

I snort at that. Caleb wants us to breathe as slowly and evenly as possible as he paints the runes on, and each person takes him fifteen minutes to finish. It's slow, and he's being extremely careful.

Caleb finishes my brother, then tells him to stand by me and don't do much for five minutes. He calls Jared over, who strips off his tops, then lets Caleb paint his body with the runes.

After five minutes, I look at Blaze, who is watching Jared get painted.

"What do the runes do?" I ask.

"I only know some," he states. "They are protections, though."

"And the one you're not sure why he's adding."

"Nothing to worry about," Blaze answers. "Just odd to include. Probably another instance of Caleb being Caleb."

That's reassuring.

Caleb finishes painting Jared and instructs him to wait by us, before calling over Owen. Once he finishes, he cleans off his fingers using fire, and burns the rest of the substance that he used to paint us.

"When we can put our shirts back on?" I ask.

"Huh?" Caleb blinks at us. "I never said you couldn't once the five minutes were up. None of you had to wait that long."

I sigh, then grab my undershirt and button-up and pull them on, buttoning up the uniform before tucking it in. When I look at Blaze, he's already dressed. Seeing him without the arm is so hard, how does he manage it?

It's got to bother him, but he never shows it. Especially not as Blaze, who never shows what he's really feeling. I wish I could draw Tobias out, to find out their real feelings on the matter.

Why did they have to take his arm? Couldn't there have been another way?

"What's the plan?" Jared asks, holding his uniform shirt instead of pulling it on, though he's pulled on his undershirt.

"We'll make our way to the path up the mountain," Caleb answers. "At the gate, we'll identify ourselves as agents of the Global Dreams Defense Federation and provide paperwork. If they refuse to verify it, we kill them. If they verify it, then refuse to let us through, we kill them."

"Since when do you kill people so easily?" I ask. "Aren't you the one least-likely to hurt people?"

"Brooks," Caleb looks me in the eyes. "Done is the day where I'm hesitant to kill others. This world is in danger, and I care about it a lot. I can't let myself be held back by the past, so I'm going to do what's necessary. I even killed a god to protect the world."

"Alright," I back down.

This is still a bit worrying. Caleb has the most power out of all of us, and if he's finally gotten over his hesitation to kill others, it could easily lead him down a very dark path. The tipping point was probably Kieran's death.

Without his brother here to stabilize him, Caleb probably will go down that path. Or already is.

It's part of why I have to keep an eye on my own brother. Without me around to ground him, he can easily switch into Blaze, and in a very dark way.

"Now," Caleb continues, looking at each of us. "My scouting last night showed that there are two locations to keep in mind. One is their public entrance to the mines – that is, what gets seen during inspections, where their resources are mined from, and so on. Our target is the other entrance, which is further into the mountains.

"That's where these pulses we're feeling are coming from," he says just as a pulse rushes out. It feels different this time, and it takes me a moment to realize that the protective runes Caleb put on us caused it to simply wash over us, rather than through us. "And thus, that's where we can conclude our targets are.

"Once we're in there," he says. "We'll locate the Domain Deities. The ones represent the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun will be bound in some way. That's where this staff comes in."

He holds out his hand, and the silver-and-gold staff flies into it.

"Expect opposition," he tells us. "Expect us to be separated. With these pulses filling the air with magic, my Passive Territory is already affected, and telepathy will be sketchy before we enter the mines, likely nonexistent. Be careful when using magic, especially when using your Gifts. They might act strange. Everyone ready?"

So we'll be forced to use our aura more, then. Not a problem, we're trained for stuff like this.

"Yes," we respond.

I look over to find that Jared and Owen have pulled on their uniforms. They must have done it while Caleb was talking. I need to be more observant. Sometimes, I feel like I'm the odd one out, here. I'm mostly in it for Flame, though. I need to protect him, to keep him from going too far down the path of darkness.

But if my observational abilities are subpar… how can I keep up with them? I need to be more observant. And stronger, too. Everyone on this team is stronger than me by a lot.

"Let's go," Caleb interrupts my thoughts.

The five of us leave the hotel and walk through town, reaching the path at the edge of town leading up the mountain in half an hour. The pulses seem to be more frequent now, occurring every half hour or so.

The path at the base of the mountain is blocked by a large gate with a guardhouse on either side, as well as around two dozen armed guards. These poor guards have no idea the level of power standing before them.

"Halt!" One of the guards approaches us, assessing our uniforms. "Never heard of the GDDF."

"The Global Dreams Defense Federation is new," Caleb stated. "We were founded recently to deal with more extreme issues. If you need to call in verification, do so. I'm Colonel Caleb Rivers. These are Lieutenants Hansen, Hansen, Fuller, and Storm. We've been assigned to inspect the second caves network you operate out of, due to the discovery of their unreported existence."

"We only have one caves network," the guard tells Caleb.

"You have two," Caleb holds up his right hand, and an illusory map of the mountain appears above it, with two red beacons, one of which turns blue. "Blue beacon is the one that's official, red one's the secret one. As you're in territory governed by the Council of Dreams, you are required to comply with us. Contact your superiors, verify our identities, do what you need to do. However, you have thirty-eight minutes for us to be at the entrance of that network."

The guard's jaw tics as he tries to bite back a response, then walks to one of the guardhouses, enter. Caleb dispels his map.

"Thirty-eight minutes?" Blaze asks.

"It takes thirty-two to reach the network from here, driving at their usual speed," Caleb responds.

He really did do scouting last night, didn't he? What about getting some rest? You don't want us risking ourselves, Caleb, but if you don't sleep, if you don't rest, you'll suffer as well. I don't care how strong or powerful you are, everyone needs sleep.

Four minutes after he entered the guardhouse, the guard returns, whistling at one of the other guards.

"You drive," he gestures to a pickup, then looks at us. "You can ride in the bed."

The other guard climbs into the pickup and pulls up to the gate, and the five of us jump into the back, the guard joining us. They probably think we're just kids, that they can handle us. They could probably handle me, depending on how many there are.

But only if I were alone.

I've got my team with me, and that reassures me. And worries me a bit. Not just because of how much stronger and better than me they all are, but because… of who they are. Blaze and Flame are both loose cannons, Owen tends to just destroy the area, Jared's an arrogant powerhouse, and Caleb…

Is something else entirely.

Taking my focus off the team, I look at the guard, who Caleb just asked why the second location hasn't been reported.

"We found something odd in there," the guard responds as the gate opens and we're driven through them, the gates closing behind us. "Around a year ago. We've been doing research into it, in case it was problematic, but it's contained."

"Reporting any potential problems is the law," Jared states. "And judging by your tone when you said it could be problematic, it's a potential problem that falls under that law."

"We're aware," the guard nods. "We just didn't want to set off any false alarms. The crystal in that cave network is strange, and it could be nothing. We're almost done clearing it up."

What a lying sack of-never mind. They don't know that we know the truth – that they've captured and imprisoned Domain Deities in the mines and that a Second Great Calamity is about to begin.

The ride falls silent, save for the sound of the truck running along the mountain road. It's a bumpy ride, with nothing but the mountain and forests around us. The further along it we go, the more power I can sense in the air, and it's starting to muddle even my inner dragon's senses.

Fifteen minutes into the trail, we pass by the path that leads to the official mines and caves. To their official base.

Seventeen minutes after that, we pull up to a two-story building set into the cliff, and the magic here is chokingly thick.

We're led into the building, which is really just a front for the entrance. There isn't much there, just a big open space leading into the caves. The caves themselves are illuminated by a glowing stone, which they say they found there when they discovered the networks.

"It'll take awhile to get there," the guard tells us. "The network is incredibly complex. Whoever carved them likely wanted people to get lost. I'll be giving you the full tour, as ordered by my superiors. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes," Caleb said. "Though we're more interested in this crystal you referenced. Take us to it first, then the tour."

The guard nods, then starts walking, and we follow.

He takes us through tunnels and caves with almost nothing in them, just the occasional guard, and after a bit, I start to feel like we're walking in circles. I'm the second in our line, with Caleb in front of me, Blaze directly behind me, then Owen, then Jared.

I can't even sense their water, and that's disturbing. Caleb's is hard to make out, too, and fades after awhile, even though I can still see him standing there, just a foot or two in front of me.

Turning as we walk through a cave, I start to ask Flame if he's having issues with sensing fire, only to find him gone.

All of them are gone. Turning back around, my warning to Caleb is cut short when I find myself alone. Caleb and the guard escorting us are gone.

What just happened?

When I turn back around, to look at where my missing teammates should be, I'm greeted with the sight of a dozen guards aiming guns at me.

"You guys really don't want to do this," I say.

"We can't have the government interfering," one of them says. "What's below is too important to mess up."

"You're about to cause the Second Great Calamity," I say, and one of them tells me to put my hands up. I do. "We know you are. We know you have the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun bound up in here. We know this place is a pseudo-Ruin because of that and the crystal. And we're going to stop you."

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Or rather, Caleb is. There's no way he didn't plan for us being separated, and the surety with which he walked… he knew something like this would. And he had a plan.

"You can't stop us if you're dead," one of the guard says, and I hear more guards coming from the entrance behind me, the one we were headed toward before we somehow got separated.

"No, I can't," I say. "But unfortunately for you, I'm not that easy to kill. And I'm the weakest member of my team. Call the others, ask them how it's going."

Rather than doing that, the guards start shooting, their bullets slamming into my aura. Taking a deep breath, I slowly exhale, then bolt forward, giving myself a shroud of my aura, which has taken on a watery form with this manifestation.

My fist connects with the first guard as two others try to shoot me, and I take him down, quickly drawing my gun and firing several shots. Their auras stop it as well.

"Hard way, then," I mutter, shaping my aura into a set of claws as I return my gun to its holster.

Quickly cutting through the guards, I charge the other group, slicing through them with the claws and a knife.

"You won't succeed," the last one I stabbed gasps for breath, a grin on his face. "You are all doomed to fail. Ultimate power will be ours, and the Second Great Calamity will occur."

"Not if we can stop it," I say as his life leaves.

"Soldiers!" Someone calls into the walkie, sounding like he's in pain. "Brown Team's down! Lieutenant Fuller's a monster!"

Jared's safe, though he seems to have left someone alive.

"What happened?" Someone responds.

"Target is a lot more skilled with aura than we expected," the voice responds. "He thinks I'm dead and walked off. He's heading towards Sector Six. Be careful, he's skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and exerted some control over our bullets. Enough to stop them."

"He's a powerful enough Superhuman to act here?" Someone swears. "We'll have someone there shortly. Stay where you are. Do you have a Crystal Fragment?"

"No," he responds. "Fuller destroyed them all."

Crystal Fragment?

"We'll see if someone can get there before the Ruins start their work there, then," the responder tells him. "Did Fuller take one?"

"No," the guard responds. "I don't think he knew what they were, just destroyed them."

"Alright," the responder says. "I'll let the next force know that they'll probably encounter some of the Ruin's shit when they find him. You said Sector Six?"

"Yes," the guard responds.

Crystal Fragments… protect from the effects of the pseudo-Ruins? Or prevent it from acting around them? Whatever it is, that's important information.

I crouch down and look through one of the guards' body and clothes until I find it. Hanging from a leather cord around his neck, the crystal is mostly translucent and a mix of blue and purple. I pull it on around my neck, then look around.

"Teams, be advised," the responder says. "Lieutenant Fuller has eliminated Brown Team. Reinforcements on their way. Expect resistance from your units, and keep the conceals on until you're in position for killing."

I grab a walkie and clip it to my belt, then check my phone. As expected, it's completely dead, meaning I can't contact the others. That's fine, though.

Grabbing four more of the necklaces, I stuff them into my pockets, then take off, praying to the gods that be that Jared is able to protect himself from whatever they're sending next and that Caleb doesn't destroy this mountain.

I need to find Blaze.

----------------------------------------

~~~(Jared)~~~

"Thanks for the info," I smile at the guard, then twist my fingers. The guard gasps in pain, then the life fades from his eyes, then my blades pull out of him. "It's really appreciated."

I crouch down and pull the Crystal Fragment from around his neck. According to what he told me before I forced him to make that call on the walkie, the pseuo-Ruins won't act as Ruins in the presence of them.

At least, not fully. They still have the dampening effect, though I'm powerful enough to still have some level of control over my Abilities.

Without the Crystal Fragments, we're liable to walk around in circles, encounter odd spaces, and all the other shit that's associated with some of the more dangerous Ruins.

I pull on the necklace, then look at the sole remaining guard in here and smile. He whimpers, and probably more from the fear he felt at my gesture than the pain he's no doubt in. To ensure he couldn't do anything, I broke his arms and legs.

"Now," I say as my blades circle me, then halt, pointing at him. "Do you know where my team is?"

"No," he cries out. "They segmented us, didn't tell us where anyone would be! All we know is that we're to kill you boys! What are you?"

"Dragons that devour the dreams of our enemies and turn them into nightmares."

He pales.

"Now," I smile again. "Where's Sector Six?"

"They'll kill you," he says. "The agents going there? They're a lot tougher than we are."

I send my blades into him, and he cries out.

"The Global Dreams Defense Federation isn't made of your normal type of agent," I tell him, twisting my blades and eliciting screams. "We're tougher, better, badder. Don't expect me to die against those things you call tough."

He gives me the directions, and I end his life, then make my way through the tunnels. This is actually kind of fun. Hopefully someone from this next group can tell me where my teammates are. I'm mostly worried about Owen, so I'll seek him out first.

Like the rest, he can handle himself, but he's the one I'm closest to. Brooks always has his Frost side if things go south, Flame is Flame, and Caleb…

Heh. I'd be surprised if these mountains are still standing by the time we leave here.

Actually, maybe I should have an escape route planned. Thinking back, I recall the path we took. Good, I did note everything.

With a grin, I get moving, running towards Sector Six, the four blades I'm able to control in these pseudo-Ruins flying beside me. As soon as I enter the chamber with guards, the blades immediately soar forward, cutting into four guards before anyone registers I'm there.

The guards start shooting, and I stop their bullets with a gesture. They're all aura-enhanced, both the guards and their bullets. What a waste of good guards. There were twenty of them, and in two minutes, I've sliced my way through all of them.

No enemy can beat me. Not for long, anyway. Not here.

Looking at the sole remaining guard, I walk over, twisting my blades around in his arms and legs, causing him to cry out in pain.

"Where was Lieutenant Storm supposed to be?" I ask, and he refuses to answer.

So I keep hurting him until he admits he knows their location. Then I hurt him harder until he gives it up.

"That wasn't so hard, now was it?" I ask before ending his life.

My blades fly out of him and hover beside me, then I take off again. The pulses are getting more frequent, occurring every eighteen minutes, now. If we don't hurry, the Second Great Calamity will occur.

It takes me nearly half an hour to find Owen, who's up a few levels in the network. He's running towards me in the tunnel, looking lost, a streak of blood on his face and in his hair.

"Jared!" He exclaims when he sees me. "They intend on killing all of us!"

"No shit, moron!" I say, and he rolls his eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out how to get to the crystal and the Domain Deities," he answers. "I keep running in circles, though. I swear, I've been through the chambers with their bodies five times already."

"How far is it from here?"

"Just back there," he gestures.

"Let's go," I say. "They're wearing crystals that protect them from this shit. Did you leave any alive?"

"No."

"Fuck," I say. "I never asked for a route, and my powers over stone and metal aren't enough to guide me, here."

"Let's hope we can find it fast, then," he tells me just as another pulse washes over us. "I am so fucking glad Caleb gave us these runes, that one did not feel good."

I echo my agreement to that, then we take off running.

----------------------------------------

~~~(???)~~~

Another pulse of, I guess magic, ripples out of the mountain. It keeps happening, and something in me is very, very disturbed by it. That strange thing inside of me is burning some of my energy to shield me from it as well, but it's not enough to put a dip in my power.

Screaming from the street draws my attention, and I stop sweeping and rush outside, feeling my eyes widen. Monsters, here in town. That shouldn't be, though. The monsters shouldn't be able to enter, not with the guards keeping them at a distance, right?

I want to run and hide, just like everyone else, but something in me wants to stay and fight. Needs to stay and fight.

"What's going o-" Mr. Davis comes outside, then gasps.

"Get back inside," I tell him. "Lock yourself in your basement."

"What about-"

"I'll be fine," I tell him, weaving together an illusion to hide myself. "Go."

He nods, running into the building. I set the brush part of the broom on the ground, then snap my foot down, breaking it off. I'm not even sure how I did that, some sort of energy flowed through me as I did.

The first monster that comes by, I simply move, letting my body carry me. I ram the broom into the side of the creature, then pull it out. The thing roars, and that energy ripples through me again, protecting me as the beast slams into me, its tusks shattering against this… whatever it is.

I slam the broom back into the creature and it breaks, then hold my hand out, a spear of this strange energy forming. This energy is mixed with my magic, or whatever it is, and glows with a golden light.

I ram the spear into the creature, and spikes of golden light radiate out.

How did I do this? Where is this power coming from? My body just knows what to do, and that's worrying.

As more monsters run down the streets, I continue to fight, letting my body move on its own, flowing from one movement to the next. Instinctively, I shape and wield that strange energy mixing with my magic.

It's mostly in the form of spears, though a few times, I form claws or blades on my arms. None of the monsters make it past me, and I continue to go through the streets, this energy and my magic seemingly endless as I do.

The pulses from the mountain continue to grow more frequent, and much stronger. As another washes over me, I feel it trying to do something to me, but the thing inside of me pushes it out.

Another ripple of magic forms, but this isn't generated from beneath the mountain. A few moments later, this new magic ripples past me, not touching me, and as I follow it with me gaze, I find a shimmering barrier surrounding the mountain. A giant dome that stretches all the way around.

To contain the pulses, no doubt.

Looking around, I find myself horrified at what's going on. The latest pulse, the one the thing inside of me pushed out… it's warped the citizens. They're becoming monsters.

I run back to the shop, make my way to the basement. Just before I can get to its door, it's thrown off its hinges. Mr. Davis is a monster, too. He's got claws, fangs, horns, and fur, and he's attacking me.

I throw my hands up, and light explodes out, blinding him. He screams as my body takes over again, quickly killing the beast he's become.

What is going on?

----------------------------------------

~~~(Teacher)~~~

"What happened to your cheek?" The Scribe asks, and I rub my jaw.

"Caleb."

"Caleb gave you that bruise?" She asks.

"He, ah, wanted to prove that he wasn't the timid kid I used to train," I answer. "I wasn't expecting him to hit so hard, though."

"Is he in the mountain yet?" She asks.

"Yes," I answer. "His entire team."

"Was that the Kieran-clone I saw fighting?" She asks.

"Yes," I answer. "He's pretty good, though is confused about everything. His body and instincts are taking over when he's in danger. Did you find anything?"

"No," she answers. "Whoever he is, he's a complete mystery. He truly has no past beyond when he woke."

"We need to find a way to break that Ancient Seal in him," I tell her. "Presumably without killing Caleb."

With there being two of them, it's possible that breaking one will kill the other if both aren't broken simultaneously. I just hope that the resulting flux of power that Caleb will have won't damage him too much.

"Do you think it'll hold?" She asks, gesturing to our barrier.

We combined our powers together as soon as she returned to craft it, in the hopes that we can limit the effects of the Second Calamity to just this area. It's centered over where we believe Ground Zero is, stretching out twenty miles. It's the furthest we could make it without compromising its integrity while still having the space large enough for the effect to not be as severe as it could be.

Any smaller, and things could warp faster. It's already turned nearly everyone into monsters.

"The odd boy is still around," I tell her. "His inner dragon fought off the wave of magics."

"What about your son and his friends?" She asks. "They're closer to it, the magic will be stronger."

"Caleb created a runic protection," I inform her. "He used some of the aetherial sea to make it, too. I both do and don't want to know how the fuck he learned to actually harvest some of it, much less use it."

I really, really hope Father didn't have to do with that. Could Caleb have possibly drawn upon our knowledge through the lineage? That's a frightening thought. So far, it's only been minor things, like languages, that he's been able to know from that.

"There's another problem, too," I tell the Scribe.

"What?" She asks.

"Caleb has something that should not be held by anyone," I tell her. "The staff we had sealed in those Ruins beneath the Enchanted Forest. He sucked the god's power into the staff, killing the deity while increasing the potency of the staff."

"A staff of primal light and time magics," she mutters. "Such an object can completely alter the course of history. Why didn't you take it?"

"I didn't realize it until they were already entering the caves," I shake my head. "It wasn't possible. Caleb concealed it from my sight. He's planning something."

"He's been unstable since finding out Kieran died," she says. "Do you think you can neutralize the power enough as it flows out by yourself?"

"No," I answer. "Not if it takes too long for them to stop it. As much as I'd prefer that you did return to your library and fix the past so that Kieran doesn't die, no matter what it takes, we need to be here, now, or things might go south in a way we can't fix."

She nods, then adds her power to mine as another wave of raw magic rushes out, doing her best to help me neutralize it.

Please, Caleb, put a stop to this before it gets too bad. And please, whatever the fuck you do, don't fuck things up with that staff.

Another wave of power washes out, different from before.

Oh, no. Please tell me that this power I'm sensing right now is not his magic, augmented by the staffs. Caleb, what are you doing? What did you do? The sensation was gone as soon as it formed.

----------------------------------------

~~~(Caleb)~~~

I keep my gaze fixed firmly forward, though I know we've been separated, even if the guard in front of me is pretending like we haven't been. I can't smell or sense my team, can't hear the lightness of their steps.

That's okay, though, because my team is strong and tough. They will surpass these peoples' expectations and will survive.

Unlike the guards they face. Here's hoping Lord Luck is on my team's side, and they don't face too much issue with the Ruin-like effects. Based on the level of magic here, it can get pretty bad. Endless tunnels, infinite loops, shifted space, altered time, raw elements, random traps, and monsters.

"How much further until we reach the crystal?" I ask.

"Not that long," the guard looks at me. "Just a few turns ahead."

I nod. The magic is getting stronger, and every pulse of magic contains more condensed raw magic than the last. It's almost tangible, it's so thick. I can create a similar effect using my own blood and my magic in its most raw form. It's what I used to create the protective runes for my team.

Without the protective runes or whatever it is they're using to protect themselves, these waves of magic will start to alter people. While I don't have the runes, I'm protected anyway. One thing those seals within me are good for is keeping out hostile raw magics.

Unfortunately, the blasts don't seem to be affecting the seals in the slightest, which means I'm stuck with them. Stupid Primal Seals and their nigh-indestructibility. I hope my brothers are eventually able to figure out how to break them. That's been their primary objective, other than finding my most dangerous student.

Since the Primal Seals within me match up to my brothers' powers, they believe it's possible for them to break the seals. But they need to find a way to do that, first.

"Here we are," the guard says, gesturing for me to enter the cave ahead, which I do.

A giant crystal nearly fifty feet in height and thirty in width floats in the center. It's clear, blue, and yellow all at once, the light shimmering and shifting around. The cavern itself is over a thousand feet in height and width, with the ground covered in a magic circle consisting of many, many more magic circles and runes.

At the center of the magic circle is the central one, from which three more branch off. Chained into them are three figures, all male. They're wearing enchanted chains around their necks, wrists, and ankles, the silver-black metal glowing with blue runes on every link from them to the magics they're spawning out of.

Two of them look to be around ten. One has hair that starts brown, but transitions into a dark blue at the tips, his eyes as green as the leaves of any forest, his skin lightly tanned by the sun. The other's hair and eyes are both silver, his skin pale. The third boy looks around thirteen or fourteen, his hair and eyes both light yellow in color.

The Sun, the Earth, and the Moon, and their powers and auras are unmistakable, as well as weak, draining away, now that they've all been captured and bound into this ritual.

Standing at the center of the circle is a man in his late twenties, with night-black hair and bright green eyes, dressed in a black suit, his skin as pale as the Moon's. Judging by the aura he possesses, he's an actual god.

I'd say he's one of the Primal Gods. Possibly even a Primality.

"So?" The guard asks. "This is the thing we believe to be a potential problem. Those three figures are especially problematic, but bound up like that, we believe they're safe. We found them like that, and figured that they're probably bound for a reason. It's the crystal itself we believe to be the potential problem, however."

"Probably," I say as the Moon looks at me, a grin forming on his face. "There's only one problem, though."

"What's that?" He asks.

"Team Lusvar isn't made of lightweights," I answer. "And nor are we ignorant of what you're really doing here."

I slam the butt of the staff into the ground, triggering its joint powers of time and life to halt time outside of this cavern.

"And I am not Caleb Rivers," I say with seven voices speaking as one as I merge the seven fragments of my mind back to its whole. "Not anymore, for we have merged back together.

"No," I say, my voice singular once more, my mind whole once more, my powers at their peak, minus what is restrained by the Primal Seals. "I am Lusvar Nomari, Bringer of Light and Darkness."