The Rising Sun: Episode 6 (15 page)

Back in reality, Ion’s trembling hand slowly
reached for the sword lying a few feet from him. He felt his
fingers tap the hilt … and very slowly, mustering all his strength,
his fingers clasped around it.

We are one…

The sword lit with a crisp, dazzling flash
that seemed to linger in the dark cave’s insides. The numb,
chilling feeling melted from his bones.

Feet ahead, the smoky form of the demon
slowly turned around, sensing movement. His jaw dropped as he saw
Ion stagger up to his feet, his breath heaving. Ion caught himself
before he fell, fighting to keep himself steady as he held the
sword up before him.

“Impossible…”

Frost’s icy blue eyes stared at him for a
second that the two of them could feel expanding into a few
hours…

And then, with a battle shriek tearing from
his throat, the demon charged at him…

As frost lunged at him with both hands
outstretched, Ion sent a slash of his blazing sword. The demon
dodged the sword and then raised his hands towards Ion, his icy
eyes piercing … The same wave of chill crashed over Ion. But there
was something inside of Ion that resisted the torture this time.
Something he always had within, but only came to realise now.

Frost’s face slowly contorted, as he drove
all his energy into the attack …

Ion kept his mind steeled. Driving out all
fear, and summoning all the focus he could muster. The icy feeling
was unable to grip him this time…

“You can’t resist me, boy.” Frost sneered,
holding his hands outstretched at Ion. “None can resist me. I am
the bane of all creation … I am the very seat of all anarchy, the
very reason behind the existence of
fear …
Submit!”
The icy feeling gushed with a new force, attempting to penetrate
Ion’s mental defense. But Ion ground his teeth, feeling all the
might of his mind solidify in a wall that resisted the demon’s
onslaught. He felt his face contort with focus…

“You cannot resist, boy.” Frost’s cold blue
eyes glinted, and the icy wave began to breach Ion’s mind’s
defenses slowly. “There is nothing in this world that can match my
might. Let me prove it now.”

His sneer grew longer … Ion’s defense slowly
crumbled once more. He could feel chaos slowly seeping into his
soul once more…

“No,” he breathed, gathering himself again.
But it was falling apart. The demon’s wrath was breaking into his
mind again … He couldn’t resist it.

“There is nothing in existence that can
outmatch me, for I am the seed of all terror. And now, terror shall
rule you once more.”

Ion felt himself stagger, the darkness slowly
overcoming his mind again. He continued to resist with all his
might, feeling his fingernails dig into his flesh.

“Welcome to a world where only fear thrives.”
the demon hissed, his face filling with relish again as Ion’s
mental defenses broke apart. “A world where nothing can triumph
over the power of
frost.
”

His teeth still gritted, Ion breathed,
“Something can.”

He rose his hands before the demon. It
happened without him knowing how or why. As though through the help
of some unseen force. A sudden surge of power rushed through his
being … And as the demon watched, a burst of crimson flames flowed
out from both of Ion’s hands. Enclosing the demon…

As Ion’s
blaze
splashed over Frost’s
misty form, the demon’s eyes widened for the tiniest notch of a
second. And then, as the molten flames engulfed him completely, a
high pitched shriek of agony sounded within the cave … lingering
for many unpleasant seconds.

And then, as the flames died down, what was
left of the demon lay in a puddle of pale, smoky vapours. Ion stood
there, panting heavily. He watched the remains of the demon
disintegrate into the colourless, murky vapour and disappear.
Leaving him and the world free again.

Mantra’s jaws clenched as he struggled to
keep focus. the three of them were lying motionless on the ground
in the middle of the crater with seven Ensys, but surrounding them
in a semi sphere was a transparent, bubble like layer - a
shield
which he had conjured mustering all the strength he
could in his frozen state. The freeze shot’s effect wasn’t wearing,
and the stiff sensation continued to clog his thoughts. But
Mantra’s composure helped him gain a measure of control back over
himself, and through it, his mystical powers. He had gathered all
of the will lying within him to weave the shield around the three
of them to protect them from the Ensys.

The seven creatures were snarling as they
moved around the bubble like wrapping. Rigmrr headed forward and
smashed his entire form against the encasing, and Mantra’s blood
ran cold: the energy required to maintain the shield, faint as it
was in his frozen state, was ebbing. A few more shots like those
from the Ensys, and the shield would break … Mantra knew it wasn’t
going to be long.

Beside him, Qyro and Vestra were lying just
as still as they had been all along. Their eyes were widened,
spinning around all over the place to watch the creatures
surrounding them.

“Hold on, guys.” Mantra mumbled. The movement
of his jaw left the muscles around it burning mildly, with the
freeze shot’s effect still holding over them.

“We’re done for,” Qyro whimpered.

Mantra’s teeth ground harder as another of
the beasts ran forward and threw itself over the shield. The impact
took a heavy bash on Mantra’s mind, which held the shield, so that
he almost lost control of it. He ground his teeth harder, refusing
to let his will slacken. But the energy required for the shield,
which he already was pulling up only with the heaviest effort, was
falling swiftly … and every bash from the creatures took a hefty
toll on the energy maintaining it.

One of the Ensys bounded forward and leapt
over the shield with all his might. As it crashed over the bubble
like wrapping with a lethal force, Mantra felt the a hammering
impact to his mind. He had to summon all of the courage in him to
keep the shield still. He felt like a marathonist pushed far beyond
his boundaries … and now teetering towards collapsing.

I’m not lasting long…

He locked eyes with the foremost of the
Ensys, who had just attacked, now slowly backing off. And readying
for a second assault … and possibly the final one required.

And then, there was a sudden swish of black,
mingled with a streak of flaring orange. Something seemed to have
crossed the air before the Ensys in a lightspeed leap. And as the
unknown flying object passed, there was a wide orange slash
stretching across the torso of the creature. A slash of glowing
orange colour. The creature’s expression went slightly fazed for a
mean moment, before it topped to the ground in two pieces.

Feet from it, Ion had landed with a dry thud,
with the sword held raised in his right hand, glowing in bright
orange.

Vestra gasped. “He’s alive!”

Even through the choking gloom of their
predicament, as Mantra’s eyes found the boy standing a few feet
away from them, he felt a swelling pride, coupled with relief.

But their relief was short lived: with the
arrival of this new, free target, the seven Ensys turned as one, re
focussing their attentions. The first one, closest to Ion, swung
his hand across the air, his pincers making a slash towards the
boy. But Ion had swung his sword thrice as fast as the creature’s
arm, so that by the time the pincers had flown over him, the Ensys’
torso was severed in two, the mark where the sword had cut
glowing.

As a second of their brethren collapsed, the
remaining five of them howled in rage, diving towards Ion with a
renewed burst of fury. Ion jumped back, just missing one of the
giant spider bodies as it flew across the air before him and
crashed to the ground. Then, he swung his hands forward and two of
the beasts right in front were blasted backwards, sent flying at
the force of the
smash
he had released. The last two of them
came dashing from behind, their hands already halfway reached for
him. But Ion’s next move seemed to have climbed to a new level of
speed: he jumped over, his ignited sword flying, and dodged the
pincered grasp of the two creatures. Then, in two orange flashes of
his blade, he had brought the two of them down.

Mantra severed the energy flow to keep up the
shield. As the bubble like wrapping around the faded, Ion sprinted
over towards where they lay, his sword doused. He bent down over
Mantra, touching the back of his neck with his forefinger.

“I’m sending an electric surge through you to
free you from the freeze effect.” he told Mantra. “It was a trick
my master taught me. Let’s hope I get it right.”

And from where his forefinger was pressed, a
gush of warm current shot across Mantra’s body, and the stiff
numbness holding his body melted in an instant.

“Yes, I think you got it right.” said Mantra,
springing upright and turning to where the other two lay. He bent
down over them and performed the same trick, which released a jolt
of electricity into the frozen person’s body, freeing him.

Qyro nodded at Ion as he rose. “About
time.”

Vestra’s gaze darted all over Ion, as if
wondering how he was real. “What about the demon?”

“He’s dead.”

“That’s wonderful.” Mantra said, hearing the
hurried tone in his own voice. “But we still are in the middle of
the lair of the Xeni, and we should try leaving before it’s too
late.”

And right as he said it, a sudden, heavy
thud
hit the ground behind them, as though that of a pair of
feet landing there.

As one, the four of them whipped around.

Redgarn stood across the crater, clutching an
ignited sword in his right hand.

“For the meanest moment,” sneered Redgarn,
slowly walking forward with deliberate, slow steps. “You may have
deceived yourself into thinking that you were getting to get out of
here alive.”

He threw his head back and laughed, before
spitting, “Well, you aren’t.”

Vestra and Qyro drew their swords and ignited
them. The four of them stood there in the wide crater, with Redgarn
slowing to them from the other side, his face contorted in focus
and rage. Ready to pounce … He stopped ten feet in front of the
four of them, his face hungry with malice as it surveyed the four
of them slowly.

Mantra drew his sword last, his white eyes
locked with the gleaming red ones of their approaching opponent. He
held his sword up by his right hand, and a dazzling orange flash
emitted from the blade as he ignited it.

Redgarn’s eyes flickered to the blade held in
Mantra’s hand, before slowly scanning the line of four Nyon. The
last four of his long hated enemies. Something seemed to churn
within those deadly red eyes, an ocean of rage.

And then, fast as a furious red blur, he
moved … pouncing forward like a lion spotting a deer.

Even as Ion made to move, desperate, Mantra
reacted. He held up his hand in a commanding gesture. And a large
solid wall suddenly sprouted from the earth, rising before him. A
heavy crash sounded as Redgarn collided over the wall, followed by
the sound of his feet stumbling. Cracks could be discerned etching
across the wall at the force of his clash. But with a sudden
shudder, the wall was ripped off the ground and sent rising into
the air. Redgarn stood behind the wall with his hand outstretched,
his features blazing with a fury brighter than that of the blade
held in his left hand. The wall floated right over his form, and he
gave a sideways flick of his outstretched arm. The wall spun to the
right, swerved over and came flying forward towards the four
Nyon…

A explosion of pain rent Ion’s comprehension
for an agonizing moment, before he realised that the groundless,
untethered sensation came due to the fact that he was airborne,
flying back as though hit by a crane. He could feel a trickle of
blood from the front of his face as he soared over the air and out
of the crater. Then, he crashed over the solid earth, having flown
more than ten metres or so. A group of heavy, crunching
thuds
emanating from a few feet around told him that Mantra,
Vestra and Qyro had also been blasted backwards by the wall Redgarn
had sent soaring at them.

Ion pushed away the heavy spinning sensation
and steadied himself. He slowly levelled his gaze with the other
three lying around him to see if they were all right. But his
attention instantly snapped towards something else.

Standing around where the four of them lay
were a pack of Xeni spread in a neat circle. There were about
fifteen or so of them standing spread around where the three of
them lay, all of their hoods drawn … waiting to close in and finish
the last of their long hated enemies. The other three caught sight
of it as well and as one, the four of them leaped upright, their
swords igniting again.

A furious roar caught their attention from
somewhere further off. They turned their heads to the crater to see
a sweep of red mingled with black shoot out of it, soar over the
air, and land in the ground before it. Redgarn righted himself
slowly, his murderous gaze pinned over where the four Nyon stood
amidst the giant batch of Xeni. He ignited his sword, and slowly
held it out before him, pointing at where they stood.