Completed Element (Now with obligatory TCoD references!)

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 13[/size]
The Revealings of Secrets​

The boys heard a grunt from behind them. Turning around, they saw the Thunder King push himself off of the ground. He looked at them.

“I’m awake,” he said.

Harris was sarcastic. “About time. We’ve been waiting here for who knows how long.” He sighed. “The heal capsule took longer than it should have.” He turned to Kenji. “Hey, do you have a spare? I don’t have any more.”

Kenji shook his head. “I didn’t have enough money to buy more than what I already used. We’ll have to wait until Frastaela to buy more.”

The Thunder King, ignoring their private conversation, started to speak. “Well, you’re awfully happy today, aren’t you?”, he said sarcastically.

Harris grinned, also in sarcasm. “Yes, I am happy. Very, very happy.” He made the biggest fake smile he could. “Do you see my massive amount of happiness?”

The Thunder King’s face showed a scowl. “Do not use sarcasm with me, insolent fool.”

“Oh. So, what will you do if I don’t stop?”

“I’ll—”

Kenji pondered whether he should get between them. It would be really cliché, but they couldn’t fight now or else it would jeopardize their mission.

He pushed in between Harris and the Thunder King. “Guys, calm down!” After pushing them away from each other, he spoke again. “Stop fighting, or else we’ll just push ourselves back again.” He turned to the Thunder King. “I just absorbed a lightning bolt. Know anything about that?”

The Thunder King paused to think about the question. After a minute, he decided on a response. “Excuse me?”

Kenji repeated his statement. “You know that last lightning bolt you aimed at me as you were being defeated?” The Thunder King nodded. “Well, it hit my wand, not me, and I absorbed it.” He shot a bolt of electricity past the Thunder King, whose eyes opened wider upon seeing it. “I can now control electricity. Can you tell me about this phenomenon?”

Again, the Thunder King thought about this for a while. “I do have an answer, actually,” he said eventually, “but I don’t know if my brothers would approve of my telling it to you.”

Harris piped up. “What do you have to lose? Which is worth more to you—us stopping Dakar or your brothers’ temporary grudges?”

The Thunder King closed his eyes and sighed. “You know, you really know how to get on a person’s nerves,” he said. “But so it is. I will tell you, but only if you swear to never tell anyone else without an Elemental Sage’s explicit permission.”

“All right,” Harris agreed, followed by Kenji.

The Thunder King started his tale, motioning Harris and Kenji to sit down. “Once upon a time, Wind was a powerful element. It was a combination of Fire, Thunder, and Ice, having full control over each. My brothers and I, at that time, were all middle-aged men, all specializing in the element we’re now sages of. When the Gods made us sages, they retreated into a void, and haven’t been seen by anyone since. We all built resting places for ourselves, me being the only one to actually build a fortress. Until Dakar, that is, but that’s an entirely different story. Anyway, when we were crowned with our power and transformed into the age-less beings that we are now, we commenced to straighten out the problems in the land.

“Wind was becoming far too powerful, and those few gifted with its usage were completely misusing it, utilizing its power to gain power themselves, as well as money. In order to stop this, we took the power away from the Element of wind, prohibiting it from directly utilizing other elements. Wind is, however, a free element, and perhaps others after you,” he pointer to Kenji, “will figure out other ways to use it as a purely offensive force. But anyway, we stripped it of its offensive power.

“In return, however, we left it with an ability far greater than it had had before. Wind was then unable to do what it can do now: Absorb elements. Wind can now absorb elements, not just manipulate them with its power, and allow the magician,” he pointed at Kenji again, “to permanently control that element, in addition to Wind, or any other elements he may have obtained prior. That,” he finished, “is why you are able to now control Electricity.”

Kenji took a minute to figure this out. “So basically, if I capture enough energy from a single element with my wand, then it gets absorbed and I can use it permanently?”

The Thunder King grinned. “Exactly.”

Harris stepped forward. “Okay. I understand that, so why don’t we move on to an entirely different matter?” He paused to think for a few seconds, then came to a conclusion and began to speak again. “In Motrepolis, they’ve found that Dakar has some relation to “gray energy”. Any information about that?”

The Thunder King cringed, looking worried. “I’m really not supposed to be telling you these things…”

“Do you want us to give up on stopping Dakar?”

“Pushy, aren’t we?” the Thunder King said in disgust. “Well, whatever you say. Gray energy is actually not energy at all.” Noticing the sudden looks of surprise in the Boys’ faces, he continued. “Gray Energy is formed from the raw energy of all other elements, excluding wind, and is unbreakable with a single element. Gray energy can only be broken by more gray energy, or an attack of rainbow nature.”

“Rainbow nature?” Kenji asked.

“Having to do with all the elements at once. Only available to a Rainbow Magician, the Rainbow Beam has the power to eliminate any foe in a few hits—It’s even stronger than the Light Beam.”

“So what’s a Rainbow Sage?”

The Thunder King sighed. “Why did I start talking in the first place?”, he mumbled to himself, then continued with his explanation. “A Rainbow Sage is one who can control every element. At this point, Wind is the only capable element of doing that, aside from someone without an element.”

“So,” Kenji said, “If I suddenly got all of the Elements absorbed, then I would become a Rainbow Sage and be able to defeat Dakar. Correct?”

The Thunder King stepped back n surprise. “Uh, yes…” he said nervously.

“And you’ll help with this,” Kenji said smugly, “Am I right?”

The Thunder King sighed. “All right. You win,” he said. “I’ll do what I can to get the Fire Lord to give you some of his power, and you ask the Ice Mage when you get to him.” He looked off into the distance. “It’s still a long walk to Frastaela,” he told the boys. “You had better get going.”

Kenji and Harris agreed, and gave their final respects to the Thunder King.

“Thanks for everything!”, Kenji said as he lifted himself and Harris back down the tower. Then, under a blue sky, they continued to Frasteraunt.

~~~​

CHAPTER NOTES
-Yes. I really like the first part of the interlude, about the history.
-However, the second part is just a list of attacks. Any way I could improve this would be much appreciated, because I'm just not sure.

 

[Superbird]

[size=+3]Chapter 14[/size]
Frastaela in Flames​

The first thing anyone would expect to smell when they got close to Frastaela was trees and plants. Kenji and Harris were no exception. However, instead of the sweet smell of pine, the odor of smoke was in the air. Ah, sweet irony.

Kenji and Harris had exchanged nervous glances before continuing through the forest—Since Motrepolis, fire had begun to hold a suspicious nature with it. Walking into Frastaela, the boys were both surprised and not surprised at what they saw.

“Oh, come on!”, Harris yelled angrily upon seeing at least half of the wooded village covered in many wisps of fire. “First that stupid confusing forest, and now this?”
Kenji laughed a little. “Oh, come on, mister negativity!” His face acquired a determined expression. “Let’s go find out who started this, shall we?”, Kenji said as he ran toward the center of the village.

“Dibs on the Fire Lord,” Harris groaned as he followed Kenji. Under his breath, he grumbled, “I don’t get paid enough for this.”

“You don’t get paid at all,” was Kenji’s response.

“That just proves my point.”

Soon, the boys reached their destination. They were only moderately surprised to see the Fire Lord there, but extremely so when they noticed Dakar at the other end of it. They were using the village square as a battlefield!

Though both were still fighting against each other, the Fire Lord was starting to look weak, as if it pained him to keep fighting. Considering Dakar was his opponent, that was probably the case.

Dakar launched a net of darkness at the Fire Lord, and it engulfed him, leaving him completely helpless. Now that his opponent was immobilized, Dakar laughed and started to charge up a huge pulse of Dark Energy. It got about as big as the Fire Lord’s head before Dakar decided to do something with it. “Now,” he rasped in a dark but strong voice, “DIE!” He launched the orb of darkness at the Fire Lord at an astounding speed, as the villagers who were standing around the square watched in horror.

Kenji and Harris’s eyes met, and as they exchanged glances, they silently agreed on courses of action.

Just as the ball of Darkness was about to hit its target, there was a flash of white. The spectators looked on in awe as they realized that, in the place of the ball of darkness, there was a teenager clothed in pure white, his wand out to his side. Almost no one realized that there was a strong wind extinguishing the flames in the village, or that it was close to nighttime.

Dakar’s face suddenly perked up, making him look like he was genuinely surprised. “Oh?”, he said curiously to Harris, “I remember you.” He laughed. “You’re that one who…survived, yes?”

Up close, Dakar sounded really evil. At least he had a voice that fit his role.

Harris, despite his obvious fear and uncertainty at Dakar’s quote, stayed calm, and motioned the Fire Lord to go stand with Kenji. “Nice to see you again,” he said to Dakar, “old friend. Glad to see that you have a decent memory.” He gave a fake laugh. “Come to lose?”

Dakar laughed. “So I was correct, was I? To answer your question, no, I came here to dispose of perfectly innocent yet disloyal souls just for the sheer fun of it. At least I was, until your pathetic pipsqueak of a friend,” he motioned to the Fire Lord, “showed up.” He smiled. “You know, I’m actually quite glad that you’re here. Now I can finally exact my revenge on you for surviving.”

“Sorry, buddy,” Harris said, “but I don’t think you’re going to get very far with that.” It was an obvious lie, but he at least made it sound convincing.

Then, a yellow globe, crackling with electricity, appeared above Dakar’s head and smashed down on it. The “it” was air. Dakar teleported away, to two meters behind him, immediately before the impact. Kenji was sent sprawling on the ground due to his failed attack. Dakar wasted no time in grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and raising him up to his shoulders.

“Nice try, worm,” Dakar laughed as he thrust Kenji aside back toward the outside of the square. Kenji landed hard, and didn’t get up. The Fire Lord rushed to his side, obviously to check on his well-being.

Harris gasped. How dare he do such a thing! “Sorry, Dakar,” he said, taking a fighting stance. “That was the last thing you’re ever going to do!” An invisible wall rippled to life around the area.

Harris started off the battle by pegging his wand at Dakar’s face. Though Dakar easily blocked the attack, Harris jumped up, grabbed the wand, and proceeded to slam it down on Dakar’s head, coated in Light Energy, like a combo. Upon landing, he immediately sprang back, coated his wand in Light again, and threw it to Dakar’s side. Light Boomerang.

Dakar, however, wasn’t set to take this lying down. Without hesitation, he launched a blast of Darkness at Harris, which the latter easily avoided. Dakar immediately found himself bound by chains of pure energy. As they closed in, though, he sent out a wave of darkness, neutralizing the attack. Harris jumped back and started the assault again, this time with three Light Slashes. Dakar used a Dark Wall to block them.

Harris was getting frustrated. Why wasn’t this working? How was he supposed to hurt Dakar? Anyway, Dakar was charging at him now. He created a Light Wall to block Dakar’s first hit, but prepared for the close combat to start. He suddenly wished he were Kenji. Kenji was better at that.

The two started to duel, spinning out of the way of each other and basically fistfighting. This went on for a while, until Dakar teleported back again and shot a blast of Darkness at Harris. The blast’s target dived out of the way, retaliating with a Light Slash, which Dakar avoided easily. Dakar charged at Harris yet again, this time cloaking himself in an aura of darkness.

Harris quickly created a Light Wall, which Dakar crashed into, bouncing back off instantaneously. Almost immediately, the entire area darkened a little, and energy could be seen spiraling into the globe of Harris’s wand. Dakar gasped, and teleported back.

“It’s over, Dakar,” Harris said as he released the Light Beam. “Give it up.”

Dakar quickly released one of his own, feuled completely with his own energy. “It’s not quite over yet, little one. I still have to finish you off.”

As the two beams of energy met each other, there was an explosion. Kenji was just regaining consciousness, and looking on, gasped at what was happening. It was pure Light versus Darkness—the war of the true polar elements! There was a huge explosion, constantly ongoing, where the two beams of energy, both actually about the same size, collided with each other. That part was not unusual—That was what happened when Darkness and Light conflicted.

Kenji looked at Harris, then at Dakar. They both seemed to be exerting approximately the same amount of energy, with their energy beams approximately the same size. Well, Harris obviously had help—Normal air always had a little Light Energy stored in it. He was obviously using that as a main source of his power. Dakar, however, was acting completely from his own power, and not even tiring one bit. Kenji’s eyes opened wide when he realized the sheer amount of energy Dakar had control of.

The beams of energy were still conflicting. “Give it up, Dakar,” Harris yelled, “I can keep this up until all your power is drained!”

“I doubt that,” was Dakar’s reply.

Harris sighed, and looked down. “You’re right,” he said. Kenji gasped. “I don’t have enough power to keep this up.” He paused, and then looked up, a look of sheer determination on his face. “But if I have to go down,” he yelled, “I’m taking you with me!”

Harris moved his body to the side a little, along with his wand. Kenji cried out. It was only a reckless suicide tactic!

All Kenji could do was watch as both Dakar and Harris were hit, fill-force, by each other’s blasts. By moving over, Harris had ensured that his attack would hit Dakar—at the expense of his own safety. It was martyrdom.

As the invisible border rippled away, Kenji thought fast. There was still Light Energy in the arena, wasn’t there? And if he could—

Desperate, he boomeranged his wand into the arena, and all the Light energy got sucked inside. Harris cringed, and fell to the ground, defeated. Dakar, clutching his stomach in pain, teleported away using what looked like all of his remaining energy.

Kenji ran toward Harris as fast as he could, soon followed by the Fire Lord. He rolled Harris over, and put his hand on Harris’s heart. He felt something.

Good, he wasn’t dead yet. He looked up at the Fire Lord pleadingly.

“He is almost dead,” the Fire Lord said.

Kenji cringed. “I know. Can you do anything to help him?”

The Fire Lord looked bewildered, then an idea came to him. His face acquired a determined expression. “Stay back”.

As Kenji hesitantly stepped back, the Fire Lord pointed both his palms in front of him and at Harris. His hands started to glow with a pinkish aura, and a ball of pink light suddenly formed between them and floated slowly to Harris’s body. It immersed itself inside Harris’s heart, and his body suddenly glowed pink. Kenji sighed, relieved. This was not a good day.

 

[Superbird]

[size=+3]Chapter 15[/size]
The Gift of Flame​

Very slowly, Harris’s eyes opened. All he saw was a clear globe, covered in sparks. With a sharp yelp, he scooted back and sat up. Upon realizing what the globe was, he looked up and scowled at Kenji. “You nearly gave me a heart attack! What the heck was that for?”

Kenji smiled weakly. “Well, it got you up, didn’t it?”, replied a very tired-looking Kenji. “Now, let’s get down to business.” He pointed at a nearby tree. “See that tree over there? Try to hit it with a Light Slash.”

Harris’s face gained a look of suspicion. “Yes, I see the tree,” he said. “Now, what about it?”

“Like I said, try to hit it with a Light Slash.”

“Why? Wouldn’t that destroy the tree?”

Harris sighed. “Yes, but this is extremely important. Isn’t it?”, he asked the Fire Lord behing him, who nodded. “See?”, Kenji said, “Now go, and attack the tree already.”

Harris sighed. “All right, whatever you say.” He swung his wand through the air in the all-too-familiar motion. This time, however, nothing happened. “What?”, he exclaimed in surprise. He tried again, with similar results.

“As we thought,” Kenji sighed.

“What do you mean?”

“Your light energy has disappeared,” Kenji said. “You can no longer control the element of Light.”

Trying not to show his surprise but failing epicly, Harris recoiled. “w-w-what?” he exclaimed. “h-how did y-you f-find this?”

“Common sense,” Kenji replied sympathetically, “Plus a little bit of help from the Fire Lord.” He frowned. “After taking that attack, you should be overjoyed about still being alive!”

The Fire Lord took over the explanation. “Darkness and Light disappear upon hitting each other. The force of that blast must have been just enough to fully counteract all of your Light energy, thereby fully negating your Light. And since there is no Light now, Natural Regeneration can not take place.”

Harris put his hand up. “Wait a sec,” he said, “What about Dakar? If he had a Gray shield, he wouldn’t have gotten hurt by the Light Beam, right?”

The Fire Lord simply started talking again. “The Gray Shield takes a lot of energy on his part to sustain. Therefore, he only usually uses it when battling inside his castle.” He turned, and pointed to Harris. “You still have the ability to use Light energy,” he said, “that is, if you get a little in your body.”

“I managed to capture a little of the leftover energy after your battle,” Kenji explained, “and I can give that to you if necessary.” His wand appeared in his hand, and he held it out. “You want?”

“I guess it’s all I can do,” Harris said humbly. “It’s worth a shot.”

“Fine,” Kenji said, and pointed his wand at Harris. He closed his eyes and focused. As if on command, sudden small white lights burst out of it and into Harris’s body. It wasn’t much, but it was some.

After the transfer, Kenji looked better, less weary. Maybe the Light had been putting pressure on him, somehow. His calmness prevailed for a few seconds, until he saw the Fire Lord charging up a blast of Fire He jumped back. “What are you doing?”, he exclaimed in an aggravated tone.

“Giving a gift,” the Fire Lord said cheerfully, letting the blast go. Kenji braced himself, but there was no need—the ball of energy traveled slowly. Kenji looked suspiciously at it. Then, it suddenly shot forward, into his wand. Kenji gasped, falling to the ground because of the pain.

Harris’s eyes widened, his face showing an all too obvious surprise. After fainting in battle and waking up to something that nearly killed him, Harris wasn’t in the best of moods. This didn’t help. Within a few seconds, the Fire Lord found himself whacked back a few feet by a very strong blow. “I demand an explanation,” he told the Fire Lord, “Or else you can say good-bye to your life.” He quickly scanned the Fire Lord’s elements: all fire. “I sense no darkness inside your body,” he said angrily, “so you’d better have a really good reason for doing that.”

The Fire Lord’s facial expression was priceless.

“Harris, stop it,” came Kenji’s voice suddenly. “I’m fine, all right?” He got up, still a little shaky on his feet. “I think I just got a gift.”

Harris looked at Kenji’s wand. It had acquired a new red tint, and inside it a red cloud was now swirling, around the yellow cloud. “I think,” Harris said, “that you can now control Fire.”

Kenji turned to the Fire Lord, bearing an inquisitive expression. “Well?”

“Yes,” the Fire Lord said, “You can control Fire now.” The boys’ faces suddenly became a little confused. To answer them, he explained why. “The Thunder King told me telepathically about your plan to become a Rainbow Magician.”

Harris sighed, jealous again about only Kenji getting a new ability. “How well can he control fire, exactly?”, he asked the Fire Lord.

“Oh,” the Fire Lord replied, “Just the basic abilities. A Fire Shield, a stream of fire, and maybe the ability to create fireballs, depending on how good he gets.” He blinked, then continued. “Nothing much.”

Harris paused, absorbing the information. “Well,” he said, “What now?”
The Fire Lord started to speak again. “Unfortunately, I must return to my realm.” He waved, and smiled. “Good luck to you two.” In a whirlwind of flames, he disappeared.

“What now?”, Harris asked again.

Kenji yawned. “How about we go get some sleep? I heard they’re giving us a free night at the Inn here, courtesy of our temporary defeat of Dakar.”

Harris nodded. “Well then,” he said, “It can’t hurt to take a little rest, can it?”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Kenji said as they headed off toward the inn.

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 16[/size]
Mount Sifirce​

On the peak of Mount Sifirce, it would have been very cold. Only on the peak, however. Summer lessened the temperatures of the rest of the mountain somewhat.

“Good Light,” Harris exclaimed. “Can you imagine how long it would take to get this high normally?” He was staring down at the very rocky foothills of the mountain, thankful for Kenji’s ever-useful platform of Wind.

“That’s why I’m taking us up the easy way,” Kenji replied uneasily, probably because he was simultaneously sustaining a platform of Wind. “Unfortunately, I’ve only got five hundred feet left in me.”

Harris flinched a little. He’d forgotten about Kenji’s lack of ability. “Are you sure that we couldn’t go up higher?” he asked. “We do have those extra Heal Capsules we bought in Frastaela, right?”

Kenji sighed. “We’re not going through this again. We’ll definitely need the Heal Capsules for something, and now is not the time to waste them. Besides, the Fire Lord told me that there’s a passage through the mountain, going inside it to its peak, so we don’t have to scale the entire outside.”

Harris looked at Kenji suspiciously. “Wouldn’t we have already missed it, though? It could be anywhere below us right now.”

“Only if the Fire Lord was lying. He said that it was at about sixteen thousand feet, marked grandly, and facing Frastaela.”

Harris could do nothing but sigh. “I guess I’m just lazy, then.”

Kenji didn’t reply, and the boys spent the next minute in silence.

Finally, Harris spoke again. “The next time I see Dakar, I’m actually going to defeat him.”

Kenji broke into laughter. “In your state? Right now, you couldn’t even light up a dark cave, much less even lay a scratch on Dakar!”

Harris was offended. “But Dakar was weakened by the blast, too. Wouldn’t that give me the advantage?”

Kenji sighed, and started to navigate the boys’ platform to a ledge on the mountain. “I would think that you both lost about the same amount of power.” Harris opened his mouth, but Kenji cut him off and continued. “Therefore, he still has more power than you because he had more power to begin with.” He shook his head. “Truse me, you wouldn’t even stand a chance at the moment.”

Harris scowled. “Fine, mister skeptic. All I really care about now anyway is just getting to Dakar as soon as humanly possible.”

Kenji’s face started to look worrisome. “Are you even sure you’ll have enough power at that point? If we fight the Ice Mage tonight, then we’ll be facing Dakar himself by tomorrow.”

“Well,” Harris said confidently as they landed on the ledge, “at least this climbing will give me more time to regenerate my power so I can—”

“No!” Kenji exclaimed loudly, cutting him off. “You don’t even have enough power left to fight the Ice Mage! By the time we even get up there, you’ll only have just enough energy to purify him, and even that might be a stretch!”

“Are you doubting my abilities?”

“Yes! Because if I don’t, you’ll die from power exhaustion.” He motioned to Frastaela below. “Do you even know how close you were to dying back there?”

Harris sighed. “You’re not gonna let me win this one, are you?”

Kenji chuckled a little. “I’ll assume that was rhetorical.”

“Okay, I get the message.” Harris’s tone was starting to sound irritated. “Now, can you please stop nagging me about power overuse?”

“All right,” was Kenji’s reply, “But promise me you won’t try anything.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. You’re starting to sound like my mother. Can we go now?”

Kenji laughed. “Sure,” he said, and they started to climb. Fifty-seven feet later, they had reached the entrance to the caverns inside the mountain.


• • •

The boys were exploring the maze of passages in the interior of Mount Sifirce, when Harris perked up.

“What’s that?” Harris asked.

“What’s what?” Kenji replied in a confused manner.

“That little thing that just moved.” He pointed to something Kenji didn’t see. “See? There it is!”

“What?” Kenji replied again. “I don’t see what you’re tal—Wah!” His statement was cut short by a yelp as he barely got out of the way of an icicle that had been launched at him. As he looked in the direction it had come from, he saw quite a few more speeding in the boys’ direction.

“Duck!”, Kenji yelled as he quickly created a tornado as a shield in front of the boys. The icicles slowly came to a stop, and began to be whirled around in the tornado, and easily thrown to the side where their sharp points lodged them easily in the walls of the passage. Only one wend flying back in the direction it had come from. Immediately, the boys heard a faint gasp.

Kenji, puzzled, walked over to the location where the thing had been hit. Upon looking down, his eyes widened. Seeing Kenji’s reaction, Harris walked over as well to examine the creature. His eyes displayed the same reaction.

The boys were staring at a giant ice cube, maybe two and a half feet tall, with slim legs and feet and arms. On its front was a face, with closed cartoonish-looking eyes and a mouth. Its body seemed perfectly cubical.

Kenji spoke, still staring with amazement. “Do you really think this was the thing that shot those Icicles?”

“Probably,” Harris replied in a still-amazed tone. “I’ve never in my life seen anything like it before, though. What do you suppose it’s called?”

“No idea,” Kenji said, and turned away. “You know, we really should keep mov—” He suddenly came to an abrupt stop.

“What’s wrong?” Harris asked as he got up, and then paused in his tracks just like Kenji. They both stared at the new phenomenon. Kenji and Harris were completely surrounded by the ice cube creatures. “Uh, Kenji?” Harris asked.

“What?”

“We’re surrounded.”

Kenji sighed. “All right. Harris, you can bash away. Just don’t use any Light energy, if you will.” As Harris nodded, he created a strong wind around Harris and himself. “Can you fend for yourself out there?”

“Definitely,” Harris said, and lunged out of the tornado, slamming his wand down hard on one of the creatures. The force was so great that the creature was smashed into little pieces, which soon spontaneously disappeared.

Kenji pointed his wand at no particular location, and it immediately started to turn red. He was starting to get the hang of this element-changing thing. Just as the Ice Cubes started to shoot icicles, each like a machine gun, Kenji threw his wand at another. The heat energy coating it was too much, and the now-cracked creature started to melt.

However, the fight was not over yet. As Kenji’s wand returned to his hand, he remembered his and Harris’s dual tornado-wave attack. Could he make it work here?

Immediately, he called Harris, telling him to get back and make a Light Wall. As soon as Harris drew his wand through the air, Kenji abruptly let go of the tornado in such a manner that all of the icicles that had been stuck in it went flying out in all directions, effectively impaling every single one of the ice creatures. As all of them were knocked back to the ground, Harris slunk back to Kenji’s side. All of the Ice creatures shattered.

Kenji sighed in relief, and wiped his forehead. No sooner had he done this than the ground becan to shake. Without warning the ground the boys were standing on was torn apart by a rising platform, which had risen right under the boys. As Kenji looked down in horror, Harris took a glance up. “Kenji,” he said, “We’re headed toward a hole in the ceiling.”

Kenji looked up as well; Harris’s statement proved to be true. Soon, the boys were immersed in darkness when they entered the vertical tunnel. Looking up, they could both see a circle of pale blue light. It took about four minutes to ascend that high.

As the platform finally ascended into the room, Kenji took a look around. It was only somewhat cold, surprisingly, for being what he presumed to be quite high up. The room was large and circular, with a twenty-foot-high ceiling, at least. The room glowed with a soft blue, even though there were no visible light sources. The floor seemed to be made of ice, but it didn’t seem cold somehow. Across the room from where the boys had entered was a figure, its back turned to them. Slowly, as the platform came to a stop even with the room’s floor, the figure turned around.

It was the same size as the Fire Lord and the Thunder King, except maybe a few inches shorter. It wore a light blue robe, which hung down in a wide arch from its neck, completely closed the entire way. It floated, somehow, and its robe was decorated with pictures of icicles, water drops, and snowflakes. Its head was more rounded than either of the Sages the boys had seen so far. Its eyes looked fierce and unforgiving. Its white moustache and swirling winds of ice above its head made it look older—which meant more experienced and more dangerous.

“Welcome, Kenji and Harris,” the figure said in an ominous, low voice, “to Mount Sifirce. I am the Ice Mage, faithful servant of Lord Dakar, and the strongest of the three Elemental Sages.”

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 17[/size]
The Ice Mage​

“I am the god of the Element of Ice!”, The Ice Mage said ominously. He had an evil-looking smile on his face. “My freezing magic is so powerful that it cannot be beaten, even normally. But now, embedded with the power of Darkness, I am past true power, and now am invincible!” He gave a stereotypical evil laugh.

Harris stepped forward. “I don’t think so!”

Kenji followed, and gave a small chuckle. “Darkness is no strength,” he said provocatively, “It is a weakness, and we’ll prove that to you. Oh, and the invincible part? I seem to recall your brothers saying the exact same thing, and look where they are now.”

The Ice Mage recoiled in surprise. “What?” he exclaimed, and his face gained an expression of mixed anger and terror. “What have you done to my brethren?”

Harris laughed. “Don’t worry too much—We just defeated them, and purified them. No killing or anything.”

The Ice Mage gasped. “You’ve…what?” He looked downward in a mournful way. “How could they—You actually defeated them?”

Kenji nodded, and proceeded to take a fighting stance. “Just like we’re about to defeat you!”

As Harris stepped back to the edge of the room an invisible barrier shimmered to life. “En garde!”, the Ice Mage yelled as they began their fight.

The moment the words were uttered from his opponent’s mouth, Kenji’s wand began to glow reddish, and he shot a stream of fire at the Ice Mage. Without even flinching, the Ice Mage shot a blast of freezing energy into the torrent of flames, making them completely disappear. Kenji’s eyebrows lowered. He was in for one heck of a fight.

Kenji immediately started some strong winds around himself. Those would catch the Ice Mage’s energy; that would protect him for the time being. No sooner had he created his tornado shield than the Ice Mage shot several blasts of freezing energy. Kenji’s tornado caught hold of them all, and no sooner had that happened then the energy condensed into a ball and Kenji batted it back toward the Ice Mage.

The Ice Mage, however, was not to be caught off guard by such an attack. Without even a moment’s hesitation, his hands flew in front of him, punching the blast of energy back toward Kenji. Kenji once again batted the energy ball back. A sort of tennis match ensued. Back and forth, forth and back again—it just didn’t stop. Harris started to get bored. Of course, at least some part of this adventure would have an obligatory tennis battle. Son, though, the match began to reach its end.

Kenji was clearly getting tired of batting the ball back. The next time he got it, he took the chance to execute a quite daring maneuver. As the Ice Mage batted the ball back, Kenji quickly shot a bolt of electricity. The Ice Mage was shocked temporarily, and stunned. It was then that Kenji leaped up and, with all his strength, blasted the energy ball back at the Ice Mage.

The Ice Mage gasped, unable to react, and shot one final beam of energy before the ball of energy hit him. While his opponent was engulfed in a large, cyan-colored explosion, Kenji dived out of the way of the most recent blast. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite quick enough.

Kenji gasped as the energy hit his leg, immediately coating his ankle and foot in a solid barrier of Ice. It hurt, but Kenji wasn’t about to let him lose this battle. As the Ice Mage levitated himself off of the ground, Kenji’s wand glowed red again. Wait, that was a way to get rid of the ice on his leg—He could burn it off! He quickly raised his wand toward the ceiling, and his body burst into flames. The ice on his leg quickly melted, leaving him with only a small remnant of its previous existence. Perfect—that would have been a major handicap if left uncured, and probably would have made him lose.

There was no time to ponder the effects of the passed, though—the fight was still raging, and the Ice Mage was still angrier than was at all safe. Kenji lunged forward, swinging his wand, still coated in flames, at his opponent’s head in a vicious backhand.

The Ice Mage dodged out of the way, though, slinking backwards faster than Kenji had thought possible for something of his size and apparent age. As Kenji was sent to the side, tripping over his own imbalance of impact, the Ice Mage lashed out in retaliation, covering his fist in freezing energy and nailing Kenji in the gut. Kenji was sent flying backwards, clutching his chest and grimacing in pain. That was a cheap shot!

…As well as the last straw. Kenji immediately saw a strategy that would definitely eliminate the Ice Mage in only one hit—a gigantic ball of fire. But, how would he get that to work? The Ice Mage would only freeze the fire energy he put into it. That would not be the most favorable outcome. Could he create a wind shield? Nah, that would be too hard to control. Unfortunately, the room was closed off, so he couldn’t get a fire wind…

Whoa! Kenji nimbly dodged another few blasts of freezing energy, and the fist. Suddenly, an idea came to him. Before the fist could return to the Ice Mage’s side, Kenji turned his wand red and let out a stream of flame at it. Steam began to emanate from the hand, and Kenji knew he’d succeeded in immobilizing it when it dropped to the ground. The Ice Mage cringed in pain, and Kenji utilized his sudden break in action to lunge over and send a stream of flame in his opponent’s direction. The Ice Mage was scorched.

Kenji then immediately jumped back, created a mass of Wind energy, and started blasting it with fire. This was the fireball that was going to win the match for him. No sooner had he started the task, than the Ice Mage burst out of the flames, releasing a small wave of freezing energy to eliminate them. He roared.

Seeing his opponent so weak and close to defeat gave Kenji a little extra motivation. He gave a final portion of energy to the fireball, thrust it in front of him and prepared to jump. He did so, and raised his wand over his head, preparing for a spike.

The Ice Mage, however, suddenly realized what was about to happen. Without warning, he sent a desperate blast of freezing energy at the fireball. His aim was not true.

As Kenji started to bring his wand down on the ball of fire, he was stopped in his tracks by the blast of energy. It flew right over the fireball, barely missing it, and hit Kenji’s wand, which it knocked out of his hand. As the wand fell to the ground, everything seemed to slow down. Kenji falling, and hitting the floor. The incredible pain, and the blue aura with which his fallen wand was glowing. The chill was washing over his body. But he couldn’t move. The pain was too great, disabling any possible actions. The Ice Mage gasped, and once Kenji saw what he had gasped out, he followed with the same reaction. The gigantic ball of fire was slowly being pulled toward the ground—the vile work of gravity itself.

If that fireball were to hit the ground, it would explode! They would both be eliminated. It would be a disaster. He had to stop it! But he just couldn’t move…!

The Ice Mage only watched in horror, without enough time to do anything. The world acted in slow motion.

Suddenly, Kenji felt adrenaline flush through his body, making him shiver from head to foot. With all of the energy he had left, he pushed himself to his knees, and lunged as far as he could at the ball of fire. It was only six inches from the ground…four…two…

But Kenji stuck his wand under it in the nick of time, throwing it upwards. As he got to his feet and jumped, he started to feel refreshed, but tired. The pain had disappeared, like it had when he’d absorbed Fire and Electricity. He just knew, somehow, that he could now control Ice. But now was not the time for that! As he reached the peak of his jump, he drew his wand back, and hit the ball of fire with all his might. It went flying at the Ice Mage, at such a pace that he couldn’t do anything about it. Kenji slunk back the moment the blast hit.

Boom.

The Ice Mage flew against the chamber wall, making a small dent, his robes singed and his face showing an expression of pure terror, which had not fallen off as he had been knocked unconscious. A mere second later, the explosion ended, and the Ice Mage peeled off of the wall, only to drop like a rock into the crater created by the blast.

Kenji sighed, and his wand disappeared from his hand as the invisible barrier bordering the arena rippled once and faded away. He nodded at Harris, who then walked forward. As his wand appeared in his hand, he pointed his wand at the Ice Mage. The familiar beads of light started to emanate from his wand, and slowly floated to the Ice Mage’s body. Soon, they started to become more plentiful, and as the last of the beads of light escaped from the wand, there was a flash of light. Then a flash of darkness. There was an eerie scream of darkness, the same one that the boys had heard many times before from the other Sages.

Harris stepped back and sat down. Kenji went over, and did the same. Harris looked at him in a puzzling manner.

“Did you just absorb Ice?” he asked, “Or was that just a near-fatal attack?”

Kenji was breathing hard. “Yeah. I think I can now use Ice.” His wand turned cyan as he shot a thin beam of freezing energy at the wall. “Yep.”

Harris was silent, and sighed. “Am I the only one feeling a bit tired right now?”

“No,” Kenji replied as they both lay down and closed their eyes.

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 18[/size]
Ambush​

Dakar looked at a greenish holographic screen. Harris wrapped the Ice Mage in Light. He and Kenji shared a moment of silent conversation, then both lay down and started to sleep.

Dakar smiled an evil smile, and laughed. “Excellent!” he said, “My plan is now able to take effect!” He closed his eyes, imagining the results. “Oh, they’ll be so dead after this!”

The holographic screen faded away like the image on a television, and Dakar teleported away in a flash of darkness.

• • •

When Kenji came to, he saw only light bluish-white. He looked around. The room was just as he had left it—The elevator was still up, and both Harris and the Ice Mage were sprawled out on the ground. He walked over to Harris’s side, and his wand appeared in his hand.

“Saeko”, he said as he positioned his wand over Harris’s forehead. As the globe on the tip of the wand started to glow with a faint white, Kenji sighed in relief. Good, the purification hadn’t drained all of his power.

As he removed the wand from its position, it suddenly started to glow in a cyan color. Kenji recoiled in surprise, holding it out at a distance. However, it only took him a moment to realize that it was instead his own power. He smiled at it—Now he had Ice on his side. That would probably be helpful.

He heard a grunt from his side, and spun around quickly. It was the Ice Mage, rising again with his hand on his forehead. “Good Morning,” Kenji said cheerfully, checking his watch. Hey, it actually was morning. What a coincidence!

“I feel…” the Ice Mage grumbled in a tired tone, “terrible…”

Kenji laughed. “Not a morning person, I assume?”

“It’s like a hangover…”

Kenji sat down again, opened his bag, and pulled out a plastic bag of beef jerky. One rip of the bag later, Kenji was munching on a piece.

“Ugh…” came a voice from Kenji’s side. Harris began to push himself off of the ground. “Good morning,” he greeted Kenji.

Kenji smiled, and returned the greeting. “Want some jerky?”

Harris shook his head and pulled out a large thermos, pouring it into a mug. “Hey,” he said to Kenji, “Heat this up for me, will you?”

Kenji laughed, and placed his wand under the mug, and as it glowed red the mug began to heat up. Harris placed a tea packet in the mug, and pulled out some dried fish. “Want some tea and cod?”, he asked.

Kenji smiled, and shook his head. “Your loss,” Harris said as he bit into his breakfast.

Kenji sighed. “Who eats tea and cod, anyway?”

“True winners.”

“Really. Then why does no one else I’ve ever met eat it?”

“Because you live in Aqaic.”

“So? We catch lots of fish. We have tea.”

“No one knows the tradition over there.”

Kenji laughed. “Oh, that’s not stereotypical at all.”

“Of course it isn’t,” came an ominous, low voice from behind the boys. They stared at the Ice Mage, but he was staring past them. Kenji looked at where the Ice Mage was staring. He gasped, and scooted back, shoving the jerky into his pack as fast as possible. Harris just flung his tea aside and stood up, gaining a competitive stance. “You wanna go?”

Kenji stood up quickly and lunged in front of Harris. “I’m not letting you do anything to him!” He noticed a blur of blue behind him as the Ice Mage got up. A small sphere of Light Energy formed in front of the Ice Mage and flew toward Harris.

Dakar frowned at this. As the ball of light entered Harris’s body, he spoke. “I disapprove of your foolish insolence,” he said. “Did I say you could aid this boy?”

The Ice Mage stepped up, as if he was desperate. “I am using the Light that all of us have inside of us to help destroy you.” He pointed accusingly, anger showing on his face. “I won’t let you win!”

Dakar made a sweet smile. “We’ll see about that, won’t we!” He suddenly shot a blast of darkness at the Ice Mage, knocking him out. He turned to Kenji. “You next.”

Kenji’s face was determined. “No. I won’t let this happen!” Immediately, he began to form a ball of energy, blasting an equal amount of every element into it. Harris just watched in amazement.

Dakar eyed the ball of energy with suspicion. “What exactly do you plan to do with that?” he asked with suspicion.

Kenji only grunted as he leapt up and knocked the ball of energy toward Dakar. Dakar gave a quick yelp before casting a Dark Wall. But he was too late.

As the blast impacted, Dakar screamed, being engulfed by a rainbow light. Kenji panted. The attack had taken a lot out of him. Harris just continued to stare in amazement.

As the smoke cleared, another crater became visible. The Ice Mage would be throwing a fit. Kenji continued to search the area. Where was Dakar?

“Did we get him?” Kenji asked hesitantly.

Harris was silent for a few moments. “I don’t think so. He would go out with more of a bang than that.”

Kenji paused. “Well then, where is he?”

There was a flash of darkness. Kenji and Harris spun around, only to see Dakar floating in the air, a smug smile on his face. “Did you miss me?”

Harris gasped. “What does it take?”

Dakar ignored his question and turned to Kenji. “I’m sorry, Kenji,” he said ominously, “But it takes more than that to make a Rainbow Beam.” He turned back to Harris and started to charge up an attack. “Now, it is time for my brilliant plan to take effect!”

Harris began to charge also, but Kenji stopped him. He couldn’t waste all that energy now!

Dakar fired his Dark Beam. Harris gasped, and put his arms in front of him, bracing himself for the impact he subconsciously knew was on its way.

But it never came.

He opened his eyes, only to see Kenji in front of him, cringing, his wand in front of him—directly in the path of the beam. Harris gasped. He was… sacrificing himself?

As the blast stopped, and Dakar looked on in an interested manner, panting. He’d obviously wasted a lot of energy on that attack. “I’m…sorry…” Kenji uttered before falling to the ground, his wand glowing with a black aura.

Harris gasped. “Y-you…” He gave himself a moment to think before bursting out. “How could you?”, he yelled at Dakar.

Dakar laughed. “What kind of evil antagonist would I be if I didn’t hurt people? Besides, it was his choice to take the attack in the first place.”

Harris lunged at Dakar, but Dakar floated back and he fell short.

Dakar broke into laughter. “Just face it,” he said as Harris was engulfed in darkness. “It’s over.”

• • •

Kenji woke up, dazed. He felt absolutely horrible. Was this what a hangover felt like? Ugh. All he remembered was taking Dakar’s attack. That had been painful. Wait, he guarded it with his wand, didn’t he? Wait a second…

He looked down at his wand apprehensively. Upon seeing it, he gasped. His worst fear had become true. His wand has a cloud of blackness floating inside it. He had gained Darkness.

He looked up at the swirling room around him. At the far end, all three of the Elemental Sages were conversing. The Fire Lord saw him, and floated over.

“Kenji,” he said sadly. “Harris…” He gulped. “…has been captured.”

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 19[/size]
Captures​

Ugh…what a headache. How exactly did—oh, that’s how. Wait, if that blast of darkness had hit him, then how was he still alive? His wand appeared in his hand, and he looked at it. No, the Light Energy was still clearly there.

Harris slowly pushed himself to his feet and surveyed his surroundings. There was Kenji, sprawled out next to him, still out like a light. The Ice Mage was still lying where he had been. Well, no big losses so far. Both of them seemed to be still alive. Where was Dakar, though? He still had to kill that atrociety. But why would Dakar just leave? Wouldn’t he want to actually accomplish something more than buying himself time?

Either way, it was meaningless. Harris knelt down beside Kenji, and began to search his pack for a Heal Capsule. Suddenly, a foreign thought appeared in his head. No, why should he heal Kenji? He was worthless, anyway—just a thorn in his side. He could do better without Kenji at his side. Oh, and Dakar should be praised, not destroyed.

Harris recoiled in surprise. His wand disappeared and he immediately began to clutch his head. What was going on? Why was he having these thoughts? This just wasn’t right! Why wouldn’t he want to help Kenji? And of course Dakar needed to be destroyed. He was evil!

But Dakar was master. And one shouldn’t destroy his own master.

No, Dakar was the enemy! He was evil!

No he wasn’t. He’s actually the savior of mankind. All he’s doing is for the good of the people.

No! Something was manipulating his thoughts—Wait, could Dakar be the answer?

Hesitantly, Harris pulled out his wand, examining it closely and turning it around in his hand. Then he saw it. Inside the white clouds of energy, he saw a black dot. Darkness. Dakar had succeeded in hypnotizing him.

“So, it worked, did it?”, came Dakar’s voice from behind him. He spun around and immediately began to shoot a Light Slash at Dakar. However, nothing emerged from his wand—Though he did have the energy, Dakar’s hypnosis had prevented him from actually summoning the attack.

“No!” Harris screamed. “I won’t let you control me like this!” He attempted to shoot another Light Slash at Dakar, but it was blocked by the hypnosis. “No!” he screamed again. It was long, drawn out, and full of sadness and rage.

Interest showed on Dakar’s face. “Shall I strengthen the hypnosis?”, he asked casually, “Or shouldn’t I?”

A tear detached itself from Harris’s eye, and fell down his cheek. “How…how could you!?”

The stick figure laughed. “What good is an evil antagonist if he doesn’t do anything particularly evil?” He crossed his arms, and a smug smile appeared on his face. “I’m almost sorry to say this, though I can’t fathom why exactly that is, but I have won now. It’s impossible for you to escape my hold now, even with the help of your friend Kenji. Once I strengthen my control to block your words and thoughts as well, you’ll be no better than those ‘sages’ you respect so dearly—You’ll be nothing but a mindless puppet of me myself, nothing but a feeble minion under my control. Isn’t it just so great, this maneuver?”

Harris’s wand suddenly gained a red aura, fueled by his anger. He rushed toward Dakar and began to swing his wand at the demon.

Unfortunately, he hit air. Dakar had teleported behing Harris, and grabbed him by the back of his neck, effectively immobilizing him. No matter how hard Harris struggled, he couldn’t get away.

Dakar frowned. “Well, then. I guess I need more power now.”

Upon hearing Dakar’s words, Harris immediately felt a surge of darkness. But it didn’t hurt—In fact, exactly the opposite. It was actually kind of soothing and relaxing. Harris gave up struggling against the force, and allowed himself to be pulled into the void, to be engulfed in Darkness…

Dakar released him. Harris could still see, could still think, but had no way of consciously moving or talking. “Now,” Dakar commanded, “To he Frysrae Desert.”

Harris obeyed Dakar’s command, without a second thought.

• • •

“What?” Kenji screamed in horror as the Thunder King muttered something about a cliché reaction.

The Fire Lord was staring at a holographic screen. “Although it is unfortunate to report,” he said sadly, “It is true. Harris, now under Dakar’s control, is currently trekking through the Frysrae desert. Like we were, he is now unable to do anything but follow Dakar’s every wish, from getting his new master a can of soda to destroying Motrepolis.”

“That means that he has been fatefully imprisoned,” the Ice Mage restated. Then he turned to the Fire Lord. “Is there any way, now, to defeat Dakar again?”

The Fire Lord sighed. “Unless another Light magician volunteers, or he can somehow be purified, we’re all done for at the moment.” Suddenly, his face gained a somewhat inquisitive expression. “The weird thing is, it’s only a smidgeon of Darkness. All of his Light energy is still there.

“Wait a second,” Kenji said suddenly, “How is that possible?” The Fire Lord opened his mouth, but Kenji quickly continued. “I mean, wouldn’t his Light Energy eliminate the darkness? Or the other way around?”

“Normally yes,” the Ice Mage said, “But…”

The Fire Lord began to explain the phenomenon. “The Darkness has a sort of shield. It’s happened before, but never like this. Obviously, the Darkness has an Elemental shield, of some alternate Energy that Light doesn’t counteract with on contact. Like Fire.”

The Thunder King finally spoke, but it was in a mournful tone. “I guess we’ve lost, then. How is it even possible to fight something like that?”

He found himself being slapped in the face by the Fire Lord. “This is no time to be feeling sorry for yourself, bro. Right now, we’ve got bigger problems—And a solution does exist, however much you may hold disbelief in that statement.”

Then, the Ice Mage had a sudden idea. “Hey, what about…” He looked around quickly, but then suddenly stopped in his tracks. “Hey, where’s Kenji?”

All three of the sages suddenly began to look around. The hole in the floor from the elevator was open.

Kenji wasn’t there.

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 20[/size]
Dangers of the Forest​

As Kenji quickly descended the mountain, his power greatly aiding his speed, he pondered his options. Number one, he could just give up, go home, lead a peaceful, boring life, and hope Dakar didn’t decide to kill him for knowing too much. Number two, somewhat better than number one, he could go back to Motrepolis and continue his Elemental training to become a stronger magician. Of course, there would still be the danger of Dakar, but all choices had their consequences. That aside, his third option was to travel to Frysrae, rescue Harris from Dakar’s clutches, and go down in history as the one who played a major role in defeating Lord Dakar.

The answer was pretty obvious, wasn’t it?

It was strange, Kenji noted as he reached the ground, that the forest’s vegetation began only ten feet from the mountain. Was that a whole lot closer than forests outside of Aemana? Well, he wouldn’t know, for obvious reasons. Maybe there was a secret element that helped plants to grow well?

“It must be because of our Elements,” he said to himself.

He was answered by a low growl.

Kenji suddenly snapped to attention. “What’s there?” he exclaimed accusatorily.

As if to answer his query, a tiger jumped out from the trees and into his path.

As they both stood there, staring at each other, Kenji tried to read the cat’s thoughts off of its face. He was normally quite empathetic, but was this even related to that? Well, they were both just staring at each other, so it was worth a try. The tiger’s expression made it look angry—unfortunately, however, Kenji wasn’t sure if that was natural or not, if that was just what tigers looked like.

Then the Tiger growled, and morioned his head forward—to behind Kenji.

Well, that was obvious. It wanted him to leave. But why? Was he invading its territory? But that couldn’t be it. All of the animals he’d read about purposely kept their territory away from the trail through the forest specifically to avoid confrontations.

“You want me to leave?” Kenji asked the tiger. It nodded its head, and Kenji recoiled in surprise. It could do that? How did it understand human speech?

“But why? Isn’t it okay for me to only pass through the Forest? That’s all I need, is to pass through. Is that really too unreasonable?”

The tiger roared again, and took a step forward. Why was it acting so uncharacteristically aggressive? Kenji was confused. Wait, maybe that…

Kenji’s wand appeared in his hand and he pointed it at the jungle cat. After a few seconds, the wand lost all color. Then, a spot of blackness appeared. Uh oh.

Well, that wasn’t good. The forest animals were under Dakar’s control, too? Number one, how was that even possible? Number two, it was dangerous. Really dangerous. Suddenly, a thought came to Kenji. Wait, was Frastaela protected?

Kenji barely had time to think as the cat finally lost patience. It lunged at him, claws out and teeth bared. He barely managed to roll out of the way, losing his balance as he preformed the maneuver. The cat, however, switched directions on a dime, and immediately went flying toward Kenji again. Barely able to react in time, Kenji dived forward, under the cat. Immediately upon hitting the ground, Kenji spun around and delivered a quick blow to the tiger’s hind-side.

The tiger was not pleased at such an action, and immediately turned around and lunged again. But it was too late—Kenji had already jumped high in the air. He came down quickly, slamming his wand down on the tiger’s skull. There was a loud crack and the tiger went sprawling to the ground.

Kenji knelt beside the now-dead beast, and closed his eyes. To think that Dakar’s influence would force him to do something like this, to kill such an innocent animal in only self-defense…He had to pay. Kenji was not going to let Dakar get away with this.

Looking forward, Kenji saw many other animals on the forest trail—Deer, rabbits…all of them were staring at him in malice. No, it was definitely too dangerous to go through the forest now. There was only one way to go.

He immediately jumped into the air, catching himself with an invisible platform. Soon, he was speeding through the air over Frasteraunt. Though, he had better check in at Frastaela to make sure they were protected. And there it was.

Within a minute, he was hovering over Frastaela. He jumped, feeling the exhilarating air…but then there was pain. His concentration was suddenly lost as he felt a searing pain in his thigh. His concentration was lost in the sudden burst of pain, and he was sent falling, down toward Frastaela.

Thud.

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 21[/size]
Broken Light​

“Woah! What just happened?”

“A giant hole in the ground appeared. How the heck did that happen?”

“Did anyone else see something fall down into there?”

“No, did you?”

“Yeah. Let’s take a look.”

“Goodness, it’s dark down there.”

Kenji’s eyes slowly fluttered open. What had just happened? As he’d come down, there was that pain…then he’d hit the ground and blacked out. Was he dead? No, there were voices…that he probably wouldn’t be hearing if he were really dead. Not those voices, anyway.

He sat up and looked around him. It was all dark. Above was a pale, sky blue. Presumably the sky.

Someone’s head poked into view. “Dude, there actually is something in here. It just moved.”

“Really? Let me see!”

Two more heads poked into Kenji’s view.

“Sir,” one of them said, “do you know what happened?”

“No, not really,” was Kenji’s reply. “Am I in a hole?”

“Actually, yes.”

With little effort, Kenji lifted himself out of the hole and began to refill it with topsoil. Then, he took a closer look at the people who were interacting with him. One of them was the Mayor of Frastaela. He stepped forward.

“You are Kenji, yes? You and your companion saved our city three days ago.”

Kenji recoiled. “Three whole days? Is that how long we’ve been gone? That long?”

“Well, you and your friend saved our fair city from Dakar. For that we owe you many thanks. I hope it wouldn’t be too much trouble for you to detail the whereabouts of your travel companion?”

“Not at all,” Kenji replied respectfully. “He’s been captured by Dakar, and he’s currently in the Desert. I’m on my way to rescue him.”

One of the people walked off, but another remained. “Dude, you control wind,” he said, looking straight up. “If you came down from above, nothing should have happened. What went down?” When Kenji flinched, he quickly added, “No pun intended.”

“I originally came,” Kenji said, “to see that your city was protected from Darkness. You do have some sort of shield, right?”

The mayor smiled. “Indeed, we do. We have a shield of Light to protect us from Dakar and those forest animals. He’s gotten worse lately.”

“So I’ve seen,” Kenji said. “Well, it’s good that you have protection, but…on my way down, it felt like something stabbed me, right in the gut. It was really painful, and made me completely lose my concentration. Cue plummeting.

The mayor chuckled at the last line, then thought about the situation a little bit. “It probably does have something to do with our Light shield. But it shouldn’t have had any effect on a non-light user. Why would you have gotten injured by it?”

“No idea,” Kenji said as he walked off toward the Frastaela Inn. “Hey, the shop here wouldn’t happen to have any Heal Capsules, would they?”

“Yes,” the mayor said, “But I sincerely doubt the shopkeeper would give you a discount. He’s not that kind of person.”

Kenji shrugged. “So be it,” he said, and headed off.

• • •

Ugh. By the Thunder King’s name, it was hot out there!

“Come on, silly Harris,” teased Dakar, hovering over him ominously. Why, Harris thought, didn’t his body provide any shade? “Just build a coliseum,” Dakar continued, “and you’ll get water. And shade.”

“Why do I have to wait?”

Dakar sighed. “Do you want another mind blast?”

Harris sighed back. “No, I really don’t. I’m really just curious about why exactly you want me to build a coliseum, of all things.”

“When Kenji arrives, you want to be well-prepared, right?” He waved his hands in the air above his head. “Well then, why not prepare a stylish arena for your fight in his honor?”

Harris sighed, and stuck his tongue out mournfully. “All right,” he said regretfully, “As long as I get water.”

Immediately, he began to batter at the sand, sculpting it very quickly. He wished he had Kenji’s help; that would make this work much more efficient. “This would go much faster if I had Kenji’s help,” Harris hinted to Dakar.

“Okay,” Dakar said, “Look here. I don’t have enough energy left to capture Kenji as well, or else I’d do that as well. I just thought you would be more valuable.” He frowned. “You know, I really can’t see how Kenji puts up with having you as a friend. You’re so incredibly annoying!”

Harris sighed. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Just shut up,” Dakar yelled, “And do your stupid work or else I’ll send a nice, big Darkness Beam in your direction.” He scowled. “And I want this to be the most majestic coliseum ever built; Or else no water for you!” He then teleported away in a flash of darkness.

Harris sighed. Why did he have to follow this guy’s every command? It was so annoying. He was so harsh! Couldn’t Dakar cut him some slack? Would it really hurt his cause that badly?

Dakar reappeared about an hour later, when Kenji was finished with the coliseum. “Very good,” he said, satisfied with Harris’s creation. “There should be shade and water at that oasis over there.” He pointed to a nearby oasis. Why hadn’t Harris noticed that? “Until Kenji comes, you’re free to do as you wish…anything you want…” Harris started to open his mouth, but Dakar cut him off. “…Except to escape.” Then, he teleported away.

As Harris walked over to the oasis, he wished he didn’t have to obey Dakar. Though he knew it was nearly impossible, he wished he could break free…

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 22[/size]
Scorching Sands​

Kenji yawned. That was a good sleep. He felt limber and refreshed, fully revitalized for the tiresome day to come. Walking out of the Inn, tipping the innkeeper in the process, he admired the gorgeous, serene town and its peaceful nature. Immediately, he created a platform of wind and headed west, to the Frysrae Desert. Would Harris actually still be there? Or would it be a trap? What about Dakar? Was there any possibility of him showing up as well?

Either way, it would all become clear when he arrived. He floated over the forest, his progress somewhat slow, when he suddenly realized something change. That tingly feeling he had had all the time he was in Frastaela was gone, though he hadn’t realized the feeling existed up until now.

It must have been the Light Shield. But why would it have so bad an effect? Wouldn’t he be unaffected? Even though he could absorb elements, he didn’t—

Wait a second.

Kenji’s wand appeared in his hand, and as his platform paused, he stared at it. Yes, there it was, a cloud of darkness, right next to the clouds of Fire, Thunder, and Ice. His wand was becoming rather full, he had to admit. So, he actually had absorbed darkness, had he? Then wait a second.

He flew back through the shield of Light. The tingle returned painfully, in the same sensation as it had before. This time, however, he didn’t lose his concentration—he was prepared. He flew out of the area again, and the tingle went away. Interesting—even though his element wasn’t Darkness-exclusive, he was still affected by the Light Shield. That would be good to remember. Hopefully, that didn’t start with Harris’s light shields. That would be crippling.

He pointed his wand in front of him, toward the desert. Calling upon the newfound power, he released a blast of darkness that flew into the distance. He looked down at his wand again for a few seconds, then flew off, admiring his newfound power.

Then, a thought came to him. Wait, if he was able to control those four elements, then…all he had to do was get Light, right? Then he would become a Rainbow Sage and be able to beat Dakar! Kenji started to wonder if Harris could help him with that. Possibly, and then they’d be able to finally achieve Harris’s goal.

In the meantime, however, Kenji had to focus on rescuing his friend. Was this really what Dakar had wanted to do? Capture Harris? But hadn’t Dakar said something about wanting to kill him for surviving? This didn’t make sense. Perhaps he felt like it was better to hypnotize Harris rather than kill him? But what point would that have? It would just be wasting energy. Maybe he was only manipulating Harris in order to destroy Kenji, the only one who knew the entire story? But in that case, why didn’t he just go and do it himself? Was he, like, too lazy or something? Because when he’d showed up to capture Harris, he’d looked pretty dang powerful. But then again, Dakar was good at hiding his weaknesses. Or maybe hypnosis took a lot more energy than he’d thought. Either way, some of those answers may have been revealed the next time he saw Dakar. He’d just have to wait and see.

As he lowered himself down at the edge of the forest, he saw the desert ahead of him. On the horizon was a speck, barely large enough for Kenji to make out. It looked like a monument of some sort. Was that where Harris was waiting?

He walked forward into the desert. Was it strange that all of Aemana’s landforms spontaneously began less than fifty feet from the Forest? He’d really have to look that up later. Anyway, for now, it was already beginning to get hot out there! Kenji pulled a water bottle out of his pack and took a small sip. That would have to last. Anyway, if Harris really was here after all, he’d be in the resting place of the Fire Lord, right?

Kenji headed straight, figuring that would lead him to wherever he needed to go. The air here, unfortunately, was too thin and dry to create a Wind platform, though.

Something hissed behind Kenji. He turned around, and his eyes quickly lowered.

Fantastic. A fikorpite. Those little buggers were private guards of the Fire Lord, sort of minions, and despite their rather small size, had the potential to be extremely dangerous.

It was a scorpion-like creature, its body maybe two feet long. Big for a scorpion, but small for an animal. Its tail, instead of boasting a stinger, though, had a flame spurting from it. It was a dark red all over, its body shiny. Its face, though not technically a face, was made up of two antennae, the tips of which were both on fire. It had pincers instead of a mouth. Overall, it was indeed a deadly looking creature.

Thankfully, though, the fikorpites were only the Fire Lord’s minions, and only took orders from him. Or at least, that was what Kenji had read. However, given the way Dakar had been acting lately, there was indeed a fair chance that these fikorpites’ loyalty belonged to him, not the Fire Lord.

Kenji pointed his wand at the fikorpite in front of him, scanning its elemental makeup. Aha! It was he’d thought. It was Ninety-three percent Fire, six percent nothing, and just one percent Darkness.

Kenji frowned. The Fire Lord wouldn’t approve of what he was about to do, but there was really no other way. Unfortunately, Just as Kenji’s wand glowed cyan and he pointed it at the Fikorpite, it screeched.

It was an ear-hurting screech, scratchy and unpleasant, making Kenji flinch. As in response to the call, no less than five more fikorpites rose out of the sand.

Kenji’s jaw hit the ground, in a metaphorical sense. Under his breath, Kenji cursed Dakar’s name several times, starting to summon a gust of cold air. Meanwhile, all he could do was try to hold them off. “Please don’t attack me…”

• • •​

The Elemental Sages were still inside Mount Sifirce, still trying to figure out Kenji’s whereabouts.

“It seems that Dakar has noticed our watching,” the Fire Lord said, still watching the holographic screen. “Additionally, he’s disrupted our signal.” The screen was now blank. “What now?”

The Thunder King cursed. “Just fantastic,” he said sarcastically. “We’re doomed now.”

Then, the Ice Mage came in. “Uh, guys?” he said hesitantly.

The Fire Lord perked up, hopeful that the Ice Mage had a positive statement. “Yes? What is it?”

“I’m finding the cold air outside to be leaving.”

“And only Kenji is able to make that happen.”

“Which means if we follow the wind, we can find Kenji.”

“Exactly. Let’s get a move on!”

Immediately, the three Elemental Sages exited.

• • •​

The fikorpites hissed as they lunged at Kenji, their pincers clanking together. Kenji jumped back, coated his wand in Ice, and knocked it into one of the scorpion-like creatures. It went flying back, disappearing as it hit the ground. The others didn’t even hesitate to strike again.

This time, Kenji jumped above them, flipping in midair and shooting a blast of Ice energy at them. All five of the remaining fikorpites were hit and disappeared immediately. Kenji dropped to the ground and breathed a sigh of relief; but it was too early for that; no sooner had he landed than six more of the pests crawled out of the sand. Kenji groaned.

Suddenly, all of the fikorpites let out a screech. Kenji covered his ears and Kenji groaned.

Suddenly, all of the fikorpites let out a screech. Kenji covered his ears and cringed—forget fire, a fikorpite’s worst weapon was its voice! Even worse, however, dozens more of the fikorpites crawled out of the ground.

Kenji sighed. “This really isn’t my week, is it?”, he muttered to himself. Then, he braced himself for an attack that he knew was coming. But it never came. Instead of attacking, all of the fikorpites were all just sitting motionless. Kenji cheered. His cold wind had arrived, and saved his butt.

Kenji immediately started a tornado, which took all the Ice out of the air, freezing most of the fikorpites into their doom. As they disappeared, Kenji let go of his control on the Wind. After that, he proceeded to take them out one by one, an easier tactic than what he’d been doing.

As all of the fikorpites appeared to have been eliminated, Kenji let go of the elements, and took a breather. Then even more fikorpites crawled out of the ground, surrounding him. Jeez, how many of these things were there?

All of the fikorpites lunged, giving Kenji no time to react. He prepared himself for what he knew would be certain doom…

“STOP!” came a low voice from behind him. All of the fikorpites immediately dropped out of midair and disappeared beneath the sand.

Kenji turned around, intrigued. He wasn’t surprised to see the Fire Lord staring at him mournfully, the Ice Mage and the Thunder King standing behind him. “So many casualties,” the Fire Lord said sadly, “Why did you have to kill them all?”

Kenji was taken aback by the Fire Lord’s reaction. He’d thought the Fire Lord didn’t care about his minions; just like how the Thunder King and the Ice Mage didn’t appear to care. “I…” he stammered, at a loss for words. “It was only in self-defense…”

“It’s all right,” the Fire Lord replied, looking off into the distance. “But for now, we need to find Harris.” He quickly floated forward. “Quickly, this way!”

As Kenji followed, he felt sorry for all the innocent lives he had extinguished. He quickly knelt for a few seconds, then got up and hurried after the Fire Lord. Dakar had to pay for what he’d done.

~~~​

Chapter Notes
-Filler chapter fun.
-I like making up words. Fikorpite...Where did that even come from anyway?

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 23[/size]
Rematch​

Wow, that coliseum was huge! Had Dakar made Harris build that entire thing by himself? How did he do that?

Kenji, now across the desert, was looking up at the brand new gigantic coliseum standing before him. The entrance was directly in front of him, beckoning.

“Well,” the Fire Lord said optimistically, “at least I get a stylish arena for the future.”

“Well then,” the Ice Mage said, “Let’s get on with it, shall we?” He began to walk forward, into the coliseum.

“Wait!”, Kenji exclaimed as he jumped in front of the Ice Mage. “Stop. This is my fight, and my fight alone!”

The Ice Mage stared in intrigue. “But,” he slowly said, “This is not just your fight—Dakar has hurt all of us. We all deserve to fight him!”

Kenji frowned. “We’re not fighting Dakar yet, though.” He raised his fist in front of his face. “Harris was my friend, and I’ll do the honors!”

The Fire Lord floated up, his hands in front of him like he was begging. “But you see, Kenji,” he said, “If we all fight together, we’ll have no chance of losing!”

Kenji spun around angrily, staring at the Fire Lord with a ferocious look on his face. “Do you think I don’t have even a shred of honor left, just because I beat you three? I’m not sacrificing my honor, and possibly our friendship, by giving Harris an unfair fight.”

There was a moment of silence, and then the Thunder King spoke. “Very well then,” he said, “So be it. You may do as you wish.” He shook his head. “But if you do happen to fall in battle, we shall gang up against your friend.” He coughed. “Do I make myself clear?”

Kenji nodded. “Indeed you do,” he said solemnly as he walked into the coliseum. About ten feet in, and squarely in the arena, he saw Harris waiting for him on the other side. His arms were crossed, and he had a smug smile on his face.

It was just like their first battle had been.

The coliseum itself was incredibly grand. It was made of huge, sun-baked, hardened sand, probably hardened by the power of Darkness. Would it come crashing down once Dakar was defeated? Well, the entire arena was a yellow-orange color, and its design was incredibly simple, just a large circle with two smaller circles, both being the color of a sand dollar, on the outsides. Kenji was already standing on one, and Harris on the other. This truly was a grand arena, Kenji thought to himself.

As Harris took his place, Harris’s face perked up. He quickly gained an evil grin as he greeted Kenji. “So,” he said, his voice unchanged from the last time they’d seen each other, “You’ve come.” Had it really been two days?

“Harris!”, Kenji called out. “Good to see you! How’ve you been doing, buddy?”

“Very well, thanks. Except for the part about Dakar. He is, without a doubt, the harshest ruler, like, ever.”

Kenji gained a confident smile. “Then break away!”

Harris suddenly looked down, frowning and closing his eyes. “Unfortunately,” he said sadly, “It’s not quite that simple. Dakar is strong—I’ve tried to break away, believe me. As much as I hate Dakar, there is nothing that I can do. There’s no way for me to resist.”

“In that case,” Kenji sighed, “I guess I’ll just have to beat the darkness out of you!”

“So,” Harris said, his head rising. “You ready to fight?”

Kenji nodded.

“Then Let’s go!”, he said, then called out a few battle conditions. They were the same as they had been back when they had battled in Aqaic…How long ago had that been? It felt like a year.

An invisible border rippled to life around the new battlefield.

Harris immediately shot a Light Slash at Kenji, who rolled out of the way. Wasting no time, Kenji regained his balance and charged at Harris. Though Harris continued to launch Light Slashes, progressively, Kenji was quick enough to spin around them all and soon reached Harris himself. At that point, he spun around quickly, dragging his wand behind him to gain momentum for it.

But instead of what he had been expecting, Kenji’s wand collided with Harris’s wand. Knocked back by the unexpected impact, Kenji tripped backwards, struggling to regain his balance in time. But then Harris lashed out again, a smile on his face. Kenji did manage to block the attack, but it knocked him further off balance. Harris tried to hit him again, and again, but Kenji kept barely blocking the blows. What Kenji realized, however, was that he was slowly getting pushed back. What could he do about this now?

Kenji had, though, regained his balance. Could he possibly use that to his advantage…? Well, there was only one way to find out.

Harris was smiling evilly, repeatedly knocking his wand at Kenji, only to have him block it every time. But he was getting tired—and Harris was winning. All he had to do was continue.

As Harris’s wand came flying at Kenji yet again, Kenji drew back. Misbalanced by the hit, Harris spun around, swinging his wand around again, to Kenji’s head. As the wand neared its target, Harris was unwillingly thinking thoughts of victory. But the wand never met its target.

At the last second, Kenji ducked under the wand, sending Harris to the side. Look whose balance was off now! Kenji then wasted no time in lifting Harris into the air with his power. Harris looked under him, seeing the ground disappear, but Kenji wasn’t about to let him get off; until Harris was twenty feet up, he kept rising. This was it, Kenji had him cornered!

Harris, however, had other things in mind. Without warning, he jumped off of the invisible platform Kenji had created under him. Kenji gasped. What was he doing? He was going to injure himself!

But Harris was too smart for that. Right before he was about to hit the ground, he fired a Light Slash at the ground. The rebound propelled him back up a few feet, and he flipped to the ground safely. “You thought you could get rid of me that easily?”

Kenji smiled competitively. This was starting to become fun. “Apparently, I was mistaken about that!” His wand started to acquire an aura of blackness.

Without warning, Harris launched forward again, wand brimming with Light. He swung half-heartedly at Kenji, who jumped back out of the way. This time, however, Harris had been expecting the dodge, and lunged again. Kenji jumped upwards, behind Harris. Hopefully that would throw him off…

But his strategy was to no avail. Harris immediately spun around and boomeranged his wand toward Kenji. With a swipe of his own, Kenji nailed the wand back—but Harris wasn’t done with his combo attack yet. He leaped up, catching his wand out of the air in the process, and drew it above his head. Giving Kenji little time to react, he began to slam it down.

Kenji didn’t think—he only launched a blast of Darkness at Harris. It hit only a split second before the wand would have collided with his head, but Darkness was the essence of pure power. Harris was sent flying backwards, and landed harshly ten feet away. Kenji gasped. What had he done?

Harris staggered too his feet, clutching his shoulder. He smirked again. “What,” he said confidently, “Do you really think I of all people would fall to only one super-effective attack?”

Kenji smiled—Harris was still Harris, no matter what Dakar may have done to him. He shot another blast of darkness, which Harris blocked with a Light Slash. This was what their first battle should have been like.

Harris suddenly stopped returning Kenji’s attacks, instead slinking out of his line of fire. Kenji noticed his wand was gathering energy from the air—uh-oh, that probably wasn’t good. Well then, he’d just have to use his ultimate counter!

Kenji jumped backwards, pointing his wand at Harris at the same time Harris did the opposite. They both fired.

There was an explosion in the middle, where the Light Beam and the Darkness Beam collided. Kenji stole a quick glance at Harris’s face—it told him that he was getting nowhere. Harris was still in his prime, ready to keep up the attack for however long it would take. Meanwhile, Kenji, on the other hand, was struggling to do what he was doing now. Wait, could he maybe copy Harris’s technique? He was running out of power—it was his only chance.

“Darthro Sarbo!”

Kenji stared at his wand. Did it work? The wand seemed to now be absorbing energy from his surroundings. Did that mean he’d succeeded? Yes, it did!

Harris frowned in intrigue as the world started to lose volume and saturation; while both of them were sucking light and darkness out of the air, it was creating a grey atmosphere without saturation or volume. That had to be altered; How dare Kenji steal Dakar’s power!

Kenji noticed the graying of the arena as well; it definitely wasn’t good. But maybe…No, he couldn’t, could he? Was it even possible to call upon two elements at the same time? No, probably not, but…

Wait, he could save himself! Only by use of the Wind was it possible, but Kenji had a plan. But wait—that would still leave him as a sitting duck. Wait, what about if he used the same tactic as before? Yeah, that would work.

Kenji let go of the darkness in the air, and color began to return to the world. Meanwhile, the beam of darkness disappeared in a mere second; in its place was now…nothing?

Harris looked on in intrigue, still sustaining the Light Beam. Why would he just leave himself open like that? Wait, unless…

Harris gasped. Uh-oh, he was doomed.

Kenji grinned triumphantly as the beam of Light was caught by his Tornado Beam, and spiraled back toward Harris. Hopefully, this would actually work…

Harris saw the incoming hazard, and thought quickly. What could he do to avoid it? He came to a conclusion quickly, and in the nick of time let go of the Light Beam and dived out of the way of the tornado.

Kenji smiled; He’d gotten smarter since the last time they’d fought. But as Harris struggled to get himself off of the ground, Kenji suddenly remembered his mission. He pointed his wand at Harris, and willed it to identify his elemental make-up. There it was—Light, darkness, and just the miniscule amount of Fire. Harris had recovered now, and was taking the all-out offensive. Now it was time to purify him himself!

Dodging Light Slash after Light Slash, Kenji dashed into the fray, steadily getting closer to Harris. Coating his wand in a blue aura, Kenji finally spun around and swung at Harris, who jumped back. But Kenji was expecting that. He pointed his wand at Harris and released a beam of freezing energy, point blank. Harris was given no time to react, and was nailed hard by the blow.

Kenji stepped back a little and admired his handiwork. Harris, on the other hand, was struggling to stay on his feet as a sudden pain engulfed him. Why was an Ice attack hurting him so much—He wasn’t a Fire magician! Well, anyway, he now had a reason for revenge. Without warning, Harris shoved his pain aside and lunged at his opponent. Kenji barely had time to parry the blow as Harris smashed his wand into him.

Yet another swordfight ensued. Kenji was steadily being forced backwards. This wasn’t good…

Finally, Harris dealt the final necessary blow, sending Kenji flying back to the invisible barrier. He pointed his wand at Kenji.

Kenji looked up. There was Harris, wand out, charging energy. Was this really how it was going to end?

“Too bad, Kenji,” Harris said quickly. “You lose.” Then, he released the Light Beam.

Instinctively, Kenji held his wand out in front of him, bracing himself for the impact, the pain. The pain came immediately; but not the impact. Huh?

Kenji opened his eyes, looking straight. Harris was staring in awe as Kenji’s wand absorbed the Light Beam. Slowly, he let up. Kenji struggled to get to his feet. Owwww. That was painful. But did he just absorb Light?

Harris just stared, his mind becoming free from Dakar for a few seconds. What had just happened?

Kenji suddenly felt something inside him, a strange force that washed all the way over his body. What was it? Was he—That was it! Light. Darkness. Ice. Fire. Thunder. And finally, Wind. He now had the powers of all the elements. This was it—the ultimatum.

Kenji pointed his wand at Harris, with confidence. Drawing power from all of the elements he controlled, he fused them together. Light, Darkness, Fire, Thunder, Ice, Wind. It was all there.

“Rainbow Beam!”, Kenji yelled.

As if on cue, a gigantic multicolored beam of energy burst out of Kenji’s wand. It was at least twice the size of ant Light or Darkness beam, and in different strands of energy were different hues—White, black, red, yellow, blue. The attack truly looked gorgeous—and unbeatable.

Harris was silent, his wand disappearing as he was hit by the blast, and knocked across the entire coliseum. The invisible barrier shimmered away. Kenji just stared at his wand, now glowing with all the colors anyone could imagine, all at once.

“I’m a rainbow magician...” was all he said before he collapsed, like a rock, to the ground.

~~~​

Chapter Notes
-Nostalgia trip for Kenji.
-Finally, the power of the rainbows! Dakar=useless now.
-This is the longest chapter in the entire book (possibly excluding the final chapter once it's written), totaling over 2250 characters. That's five pages in the word document.

 

[Superbird]

[size=+1]Chapter 24[/size]
Rainbow​

Kenji’s eyes reluctantly slid open, as slowly as ever. Aww, was it really morning already? But sleeping was so much fun…it felt so nice to be asleep. Did he really have to get up?

Ah! It burned! What was that burning feeling? Kenji leapt up, only to see his shoe covered in flames. Immediately, he started a small wind around it, and stamped it out.

The Ice Mage stared, wordless. “Well,” he said to the Fire Lord, “That’s one way to wake him up…” He sighed. “If it wasn’t a little harsh…”

The Fire Lord was laughing uncontrollably at the reaction his action had received.

Kenji soon succeeded in stamping out the fire, and, seeing that Harris was still out, immediately shot a blast of Ice energy at the Fire Lord. Within seconds, the Fire Lord went from laughing to coughing. “What was that for?”, he wheezed.

“You know,” Kenji said disdainfully, “You could have just told me to wake up.”

The Thunder King motioned to the Ice Mage to wake up Harris, then replied to Kenji. “Well, it worked,” he said, “So we’re not complaining. By the way…” He smiled. “That was a nice fight you and Harris had yesterday.”

Kenji only stared blankly. “And you point is…?”

“I noticed that you gained the ability of darkness.”

Kenji flinched a little. “Yes. Back in Mount Sifirce, I gained it while protecting Harris. Now it’s part of my elemental affinity.

“In addition to that, I see that you’ve gained Light as well.”

“Indeed. And so I suddenly became a Rainbow Magician, I guess?”

“Indeed you did. And,” he said, his eyebrows rising, “I’m thoroughly amazed that you managed to unleash a Rainbow Beam this early. It usually takes much training.

Kenji nodded. “What now? Do we just go after Dakar?”

The Thunder King smiled. “That seems like a good ides, yes.”

Kenji let him be, and walked over to Harris. He was slowly waking up, the Ice Mage looking over him. Suddenly, Kenji gasped. He had forgotten to purify Harris!

Harris slowly lifter himself to his feet, his wand appearing in his hand. He examined it closely for a full minute, then it disappeared. He yawned. “Good morning.”

“You too,” Kenji replied back. “So…are you okay now?”

Harris smiled. “No more Dakar, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Kenji sighed in relief. “Good, so I actually succeeded in my task. That’s nice to know.”

“And I’m grateful for it!”

The Fire Lord floated over. “Now, Kenji and Harris,” he said, “It is time to begin your conquest on Lord Dakar’s castle. Are you ready?”

Harris looked up at him inquisitively. “This soon? Don’t we get a respite?”

Kenji laughed. “He’s only joking around. Of course, we’re ready!”

Harris gasped at him. “No, I wasn’t kidding!”

However, he was too late. The Fire Lord had floated off already, as well as the Ice Mage and Thunder King.

Harris scowled at Kenji. “You just had to ruin it for me, didn’t you?”

Kenji laughed again. “Oh, get over it! We’re about finally accomplish the very thing you originally set out to do! How does that make you feel?”

Harris shrugged, and they headed off after the Elemental Sages.

• • •​

Dakar was sitting in his throne in his throne room, extremely annoyed. As the holographic screen in front of him disappeared in a flash, he scowled. Fan-freaking-tastic. They’d found his weakness, and how to exploit it. For a second, there was a flash of something around him, and a border of pure grayness could be seen like armor around his frail body. Another second, and it had vanished.

Well, if they were allowed to have a Rainbow Magician on their side, then he was allowed to create troublesome distractions for them. Balancing the scale. It was time to fortify his fortress. They couldn’t hurt him if they couldn’t get to him, could they?

He pointed across the room to nowhere in particular, a dark frown on his face. “Go!”, he commanded to seemingly nothing. Then, several shadows rose out of nowhere and slunk out of the room. Dakar smiled. They couldn’t win, no matter what!

• • •​

The peak of Mount Sifirce was absolutely breathtaking. Or, more specifically, the view from the peak of Mount Sifirce was breathtaking. There was a gorgeous view of the entire country, when it wasn’t cloudy. There was the desert, with its tiny coliseum in it. There was Frasteraunt, and Frastaela in its center. There was Thunder Tower, actually the only thing in view that had a considerable height. Behind it was Motrepolis, tiny but marble white and crystal clear. Far beyond that was the lonely village of Aqaic, barely visible along the seashore.

Kenji turned around, looking the exact other direction. There, maybe a mile away, floating at the same height as the peak itself and covered in a dark aura, was a gigantic castle, made completely of gray stone, and looking remarkably like a fortress. Kenji immediately assumed that its traps were on the inside, not the outside.

Harris sighed a little. “The last time I was here, I bought a Levitation Pack from Motrepolis. That did well to get me over there, but…” He paused. “Hopefully, it’ll go better this time.”

“Not to fear,” the Ice Mage said, standing next to them on the peak. The other Elemental Sages had all retreated to their respective resting places. “We will make a bridge for you. It will be grand.” He paused. “All I need is a ready signal from my brothers.”

Kenji looked at Harris, who returned his glance. What were they going to do? How would it work? Would the boys really be granted safe passage to Dakar’s castle?

Suddenly, Kenji noticed a large red light, floating above the Coliseum in the Fryarae Desert. Looking over to thunder Tower, there was a yellow light there as well. Then, the Ice Mage put his hands above his eyes.

He created another glowing light, just like the red and yellow ones, except this one was a bright cyan. Kenji shielded his eyes—How bright did he have to make it? That would’ve made him blind!

Then, the Ice Mage threw the ball of energy forward. It flew to above Frastaela, and at the same time the other energy balls did the same. Above Frastaela, they all stopped. In unison, they spun around each other, faster and faster, until they suddenly flew together, combining into one gigantic, bright ball of rainbow-colored Light.

That energy ball commenced to fly straight towards Kenji and Harris. Harris shielded his eyes, and so did Kenji. Why did this thing have to be so dang bright?

The energy ball flew over the boys’ heads. They quickly turned around, unshielding their eyes, anxious to see what would happen next.

The light paused about halfway between the boys and Dakar’s castle. Then, it split apart, a rainbow forming on both sides of it, bridging the gap between Dakar’s Castle and Mount Sifirce.

“Go, now,” the Ice Mage said tiredly. “The bridge will soon fade…” He waved. “Good luck, Kenji and Harris.”

Harris nodded, and started to walk across the rainbow. Kenji hesitantly followed him. Near the center of the bridge, he looked back. This was his last chance to turn back…

He swallowed, and turned around again. He ran toward the looming castle of Darkness, after Harris. Here it was—the final challenge.

Finally.

~~~​

Chapter Notes
-Next chapter has the fun obligatory TCoD reference! Oh, and it fits perfectly, by the way.

 

[Superbird]

[size=+1]Chapter 25[/size]
Castle of Shadows​

As Kenji let the door go behind him, and it closed with a bang, he examined his and Harris’s surroundings. Or, at least, he tried to—but the castle’s inside was pitch black—there wasn’t any light anywhere, even from under the front door.

Harris’s wand appeared in his hand with a flash, and immediately started glowing. Kenji, realizing what a wise choice that was, pulled out his wand as well.

“So,” Kenji said to Harris, “you’ve been here before, yes?”

Harris’s expression of grimness didn’t change. “Yes. For the record, I think I can guide us through here safely.

Kenji nodded, walking forward. “This place loks like a dungeon.”

Harris let out a faint, half-hearted laugh. “Well, that’s pretty much a metaphor for the entire place. You’d better get used to it, because we’re going to be here for a while.

Looking directly forward, Kenji spied a thin passage in front of them. Likely it was an entranceway. Strangely, there was a welcome mat in front of it. It looked like an ordinary welcome mat.

Kenji frowned. “What’s the welcome mat doing there?”

Harris frowned as well, intrigued. “I’ve got no idea. It wasn’t here the last time I came. Maybe he put it there for kicks?”

Kenji shrugged, walking forward. It was pretty much necessary to step across the welcome mat in order to get to the presumed entryway. Little did he know what the mat really was.

Just as Kenji’s foot hit the welcome mat, Harris gasped, his eyes widening. “Stop! It’s a trap!”, he yelled as fast as he could, but it was too late.

Kenji suddenly looked down. The Welcome Mat had parted between his leg, and in its place was a solid, dark-ish red. On either side were sharp teeth-like things. Before Kenji had a chance to do anything, the welcome mat bit down, hard.

Harris gasped, and Kenji yelped in pain. Carnivorous welcome mats? Who the heck would ever think of making those? Well, he had to admit, Dakar certainly did have an imagination.

But for now, there was a welcome mat trying to bite off his leg. And it hurt. He quickly nailed the welcome mat with his wand, to no avail. Then, he tried foring a Light Slash. This, on the other hand, worked qute well. The mat flew off and back, presenting a newly suitable target. Kenji’s wand turned a fiery orange as he fired a blast of flame at the welcome mat. It stopped moving as it was engulfed in flames.

Kenji panted, looking at his now-injured leg. There was a little blood flowing, even through his pants, and it hurt like heck. What else could he do?

Shuddering a little, Kenji pulled out a heal capsule, opening it and letting himself absorb the pink light. Within seconds, the gash was closed, and it was like it never had existed.

Kenji shivered. “Well, that could have gone better.”

Harris just stared at where the welcome mat was still burning in flames. “Very true,” he said hesitantly, “Dakar has gotten crafty, it seems. Is this really only ten days from when I last fought him?”

Kenji shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. It’s probably been about that long. It really does seem shorter, doesn’t it?”

“Indeed it does.”

Kenji continued into the thin passage, Harris following behind him. Soon, they came to a larger chamber.

Harris suddenly gasped, pulling Kenji back. In front of them was another carnivorous welcome mat, which Kenji had almost stepped on. Kenji sighed in relief, thanking Harris greatfully.

“Think nothing of it,” Harris answered, shooting the welcome mat with a Light Slash. “This is, if I remember correctly, the splitting path. In order to continue through here, we’ll need to find all of the three orbs, located in the adjacent rooms.” Sure enough, there were three other passages in the room. There were also more welcome mats.

Kenji frowned. So, which way should we go to start?”

Harris shrugged. “I have no idea. Last time I was here, I managed to get through pretty easily—but I bet Dakar has fortified this place since then. Likely there are now more traps.”

But Kenji paid him no heed. In front of them was what he was staring at, a dark shadow in the center of the room, on the floor. Harris soon saw it, too, and stared. Slowly, out of the shadow, fose a short stick figure, all black, with a round, gray head.

“Wow,” Harris said sarcastically, “A mini-Dakar. How creative.”

The shadow, however, actually did look dangerous. Though the figure had no face, its body was covered in a barely-visible dark aura.

Kenji stepped up. “Allow me,” he said to Harris, his wand regaining a white glow.

The figure lunged with a hideous groan. Kenji jumped to the side quickly, avoiding it, then lunged back, wand overhead. Immediately, he slammed the wand down like a hammer, knocking the figure back a little. However, this did little—the creature barely flinched. Instead, it jumped up to the ceiling, hanging on to it by a mysterious force. Kenji looked up—no, there definitely wasn’t anything it was holding on to.

Well, there was no time to be worrying about that. Kenji shot up a Light Slash. The creature screeched eerily, and waved one of its arms at Kenji. From it emerged a scythe-shape, similar to a Light Slash, but made of darkness. Shadow Scythe, it was called.

The Shadow Scythe cut right through the Light Slash, coming straight for Kenji. He narrowly spun out of the way, firing another Light Slash at the creature. It retaliated with another Shadow Scythe. This was getting nowhere.

Then, Kenji had an idea. His wand’s globe gained a black glow, and he raised it in the air. From it formed a dark, translucent dome around Kenji. If he remembered correctly, Darkness was unable to penetrate a Dark Shield. That thing couldn’t do a thing to hurt him!

Sure enough, the creature fired yet another Shadow Scythe. This time, however, the Darkness Shield absorbed the attack. Kenji smiled. He had this thing cornered. He motioned to Harris to join him inside the shield.

Harris smiled, happily obliging, but when he actually entered inside, he shuddered. “You know,” he said hesitantly, “This feels really eerie, like it’s seeping away my energy. But I can feel that it’s not.”

Kenji looked at him for a second, than turned his attention back to the creature, which was frustratingly firing more and more Shadow Scythes at the boys.

Kenji switched elements, his wand glowing with Light Energy again. He swung it through the air at the creature, a Light Slash emerging. But this attack didn’t work quite as planned. Upon hitting the air, the Light Slash slowly disintegrated, the Dark Shield weakening noticeably as well. Kenji cursed.

Harris frowned as well. Light attacks wouldn’t work inside a Darkness Shield, would they? Well then, it was up to him to save the day. He jumped outside of the translucent dome, swinging his wand at the mini-Dakar. A Light Slash emerged, hitting the monster and knocking it down from the ceiling. Harris began to gather what little energy he could from the air. This entire castle was pretty much coated in darkness; gaining power for Light Attacks, he found, was significantly harder, and their power was significantly decreased. Nevertheless, he soon fired a large beam of Light energy at the creature. It screamed, and its form slowly dissipated.

Kenji let down his Dark Shield, sucking the energy back into his wand. He signed. “And to think we’re not even a quarter of the way through here yet…”

Harris nodded. “Yeah, this place is huge. I really hope we don’t have to fight any more of those—at least, none in the near future.”

Kenji shivered. So, which door should we go into first?” He noticed symbols above the doors, each one different.

Harris shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter that much to me. Your pick, Kenji.”

Kenji looked at the doors, and chose the one with a red emblem of Fire above it. “That one,” he said, pointing to it. Then, he noticed the center of the room, and the strange symbol that was there. It looked like several different types of energy converging, and sort of like a portal. “Oh, and what’s that?” he asked, pointing to it.

Harris shrugged. “That’s where the orbs are taken after you collect them. Also, you get teleported there once you collect an orb.”

Kenji nodded. It was simple enough. “Okay then,” he said, “Let’s go.”

~~~​

Chapter Notes
-OBLIGATORY TCoD REFERENCE! CARNIVOROUS WELCOME MATS!
-That was the fun part. =)

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 26[/size]
The Three Trials, part I​

Inside the Fire Door, as Kenji thought of it as, it was actually a bit light. The walls had torches, streaming with pure, orange flame. It was quite a relief to see that—Kenji finally unlit his wand. That would save a little energy. He wasn’t surprised to see Harris soon follow suit.

Harris smiled at Kenji. “About time we finally got some decent light, right?”

Kenji nodded, examining the room. There was little there, aside from the torches and a door at the opposite end of the room. All he saw looking upwards was that there was a vertical pit of darkness.

Kenji frowned. “This can’t be right. There’s got to be some kind of trap here. He turned his eyes to Harris.

Harris shrugged. “There used to be a barrage of monsters right about now, but maybe Dakar forgot to put ‘em all back after I defeated them last time.”

Kenji shook his head, walking over to the door on the far end of the room. “He wouldn’t be that negligent, especially when we’re so close to defeating him already.” He turned the door handle. Nothing happened. He turned to Harris. “Okay, what’s wrong here?”

Harris frowned. “I think that’s supposed to open once all the monsters in this room are defeated. So, where are the monsters?”

Suddenly, a fikorpite dropped into the middle of the room, hissing at the boys.

Kenji frowned, shooting a beam of Ice at the creature. “Question answered, then, I guess.”

As the beam of energy hit the fikorpite, some shadows became visible on the room’s floor. Out of them rose new mini-Dakars. They looked just like the one the boys had faced earlier; except they were smaller—and there were six of them. Without warning, all of the mini-Dakars shot a blast of darkness, each in a different direction. It was an ingenious way to cover a lot of ground, but on the other hand, it was horribly difficult to dodge. Kenji barely managed to leap over the wave of Darkness, and as his wand turned white he slashed it through the air, creating a Light Slash, which flew forward and hit an unsuspecting monster. Only five more to go!

Harris took care of another of the mini-Dakars as Kenji landed. However, these mini-Dakars did not waste time; they each shot a Shadow Scythe, making a total of two at Harris and two at Kenji. Kenji immediately dodged, diving out of the way, but Harris had different ideas. He quickly drew a diagonal line through the air with his wand, and from it flipped a shimmering, translucent Light Wall. The Shadow Scythes that had been aimed at him all crashed into it.

Then, without wasting any time, Harris shot four consecutive Light Slashes toward the center of the room, all close together but aimed at a different monster. Within seconds, all of the monsters had disappeared in flashes of Light.

Harris dashed over to Kenji, who was panting as he got back up. This was getting annoying and tiresome very quickly.

Unfortunately, the assault wasn’t over just yet. From different corners of the room, sparks flew toward the center, quickly combining to create an Electric Man. Kenji groaned. “Not one of these annoying things…”

But it was. The Electric Man immediately shot a bolt of burning electricity at Kenji, who dodged and blasted it in return with a ball of fire. That was enough, right?

But it wasn’t. I fact, the Electric Man seemed perfectly fine afterward. Harris shot a blast of Light at it; thankfully, that actually did work. Although the Electric Man wasn’t actually bested by the attack, it was at least injured.

Resolving that Light was a suitable tactic to deal with the thing, Kenji immediately made his wand turn white, and let loose a Light Slash. Soon enough, both Kenji and Harris were pelting the creature with Light Slashes, giving it no time at all to retaliate. Within a few moments, the creature had dissipated.

Kenji sighed in relief. He was getting tired. “Is it over yet?”

Suddenly, there was a ‘click’ sound. Kenji spun around, only to see the door that had been guarding the next room slowly begin to dissipate into nothingness.

Harris shrugged. “I guess so. In there should be the Fire Orb.” He frowned, shaking his head. “But something’s not right here. When I was last here, there were so many more monsters here. What could Dakar be planning here?”

Kenji shrugged. “Well, there’s only one way to find out, right?” He slowly walked toward the room.

Once inside with Harris, Kenji looked around. Near the back of the room, sitting on a raised pedestal attached to the wall, was a large reddish orb, the size of a crystal ball. It was glowing a little bit.

Harris smiled. “Well, that’s the first orb. Only two more to go!” Without hesitation, he walked toward the orb, reaching his hand out to claim it. But then the orb disappeared in a flash of reddish light.

Harris jumped back. “What the heck? This didn’t happen the last time I was here…”

The orb suddenly appeared in the center of the room, floating at the boys’ eye levels. They only stared as red energy began to pull itself out from the orb, condensing around it as Darkness in the air condensed into it. Soon, there was only a dark-red ball of energy in the center of the room, floating ominously. Slowly but surely, it began to take a new form, spreading out. There were arms, a body, a head…flames? Wait, the head was a torch?

Kenji gasped. Now standing in front of the boys was a perfect clone of the Fire Lord.

Suddenly, the door to the chamber slammed shut. Well, there was only one thing they could do—It was time for another fight with the Fire Lord.

Kenji began the fight by turning his wand a cyan blue, gathering energy from his own power reserves. Harris, meanwhile, had put up a Light Shield—and none too soon; no sooner had he done so than the Fire Lord shot a ball of fire at them. The Light Shield absorbed almost all of the impact—enough that the attack became powerless.

Kenji wasted no time in pointing his wand at the Fire Lord and releasing a wide blast of Ice energy. The Fire Lord retaliated with an explosive ball of Fire. The two attacks clashed, creating an explosion.

Harris took advantage of the time gap, dashing up and blasting the Fire Clone with a Light Slash. The clone recoiled, and Kenji shot another beam of freezing energy at it. It defended the attack with its arm, which was promptly frozen motionless.

The boys nodded at each other, and they both dashed toward the Fire Lord, jumping simultaneously and both hitting him hard with their wands. The Fire Clone was knocked to the floor. As soon as its body hit the stone, Kenji shot a blast of Ice at its torch, completely extinguishing it.

There was an eerie scream, and the Fire Clone slowly began to dissipate. Soon, there was nothing left. The red orb slowly reappeared on the pedestal. This time, Harris grabbed it successfully. Suddenly, there was a flash of darkness, and the orb teleported out of his hand. Kenji suddenly noticed they were back in the first room.

Harris grinned. “Well, that makes one out of three. Which passage next?”

Kenji pointed straight ahead, at the door that had a lightning bolt painted above it. “Let’s try over there next.”

Slowly, the boys walked forward, into the second trial.

~~~​

Chapter Notes
-When I capitalize Ice, I'm referring to the element, not the substance, by the way.

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 27[/size]
The Three Trials, part II​

The first thing Kenji noticed about the second room was that it was exactly the same as the first, except bigger. Much bigger.

“So,” Kenji hesitantly said to Harris, “What’s the catch for this room?”

Harris shrugged. “Last time, it was a time trap. Sort of like the ones in Thunder Tower, but much harder. I used my Light Wall to get through, though it only barely worked. Unfortunately, I don’t think Dakar is going to let that happen again.”

Kenji frowned. “So, when does the timer start?”

“It’s not so much a timer so much as it is just a bomb…and all we have to do is just walk forward for it to trigger.” He looked at Kenji nervously. “You ready?”

Kenji nodded, walking forward. Sure enough, out of the ground rose a bomb. It was black, with a white skull-and-crossbones on it.

Run!” Harris exclaimed, dashing forward. “There’s no telling when it’s gonna explode!”

Kenji quickly followed him. Without warning, a beam of pure darkness exploded from the wall at the boys’ eye levels. Following it was another, vertical this time. More came, until the room was nothing but a maze. Kenji took a small glance at the bomb. It was just ticking away.

Harris and Kenji wasted no time in attempting to rush through the maze. No sooner had Harris taken three steps than he was pulled back by Kenji. He stared as he saw in front of him a beam of darkness. Nodding his thanks to Kenji, he immediately began to continue to maneuver through the maze.

Turn here…step over that there…Woah! Duck there…another turn. Kenji was starting to get a little bit annoyed. Why was this so tedious? And why was that bomb ticking faster now?

Wait a second. The bomb was—Yes; it was indeed ticking faster, about twice the speed it had been ticking before. That wasn’t good. That meant that half their time was already gone—or more. He cursed. Where was the exit, already? He looked around for it, but it was obviously being blocked by the energy beam. There was that way…and that way…which way was he supposed to go? He’d even forgotten which direction he’d come from!

As the bomb began to tick even faster, Kenji just chose a passage, praying that it was the right one. Well, it certainly had options. He turned left, then right, then left again. The bomb’s ticking began to get even faster.

Then, suddenly, Kenji saw the exit. There was another branch off next to it; Kenji risked a quick glance down it only to see Harris coming quickly. He breathed a quick sigh of relief, then put his hand on the door. Hopefully, this would work.

The door slowly began to rise open. Too slowly. The bomb timer got even faster—they definitely only had a few more seconds. It was too late. Kenji had no choice. With only seconds to spare, he knew, he rolled under the doorway. No sooner had he made it, than Harris slid under as well. They heard something, like a condensation of energy.

Harris gasped, and without warning spun around, dragging his wand in a diagonal line right through the current opening of the doorway. From it flipped out a Light Wall—and just in time. The moment the wall shimmered to life, there was a gigantic blast, filling the opening with blackness and almost making the Light Wall fly back. Then, it was over.

Kenji sighed in relief, got up, and put out his hand to help Harris off of the ground. Harris gratefully took his hand, using it to pull himself up from the floor, and dusted off his clothes.

Kenji shuddered. “That was intense.”

Harris sighed. “It wasn’t that bad last time I was here. Then I had no trouble getting past it. Dakar has added tons of lasers—and that bomb was about twice as long the last time I was here.” He shook his head. “Well, at least there are no monsters here this time.”

Kenji looked forward. Just like in the other passage, they were in a somewhat large room, the other side of which contained a pedestal attached to the wall. Upon that pedestal floated a yellow orb, glowing with radiance. That was definitely the second orb.

Harris stepped forward to get it, but Kenji pulled him back. “Wait a second,” he said, “If we touch that thing, some monster is definitely going to attack us, right?”

Harris stopped and thought about this for a second or two. “Yeah,” he finally said, “You’re right. But…” His face gained an inquisitive expression. “How are we going to get it out of here without that happening?”

“I’m not sure of a foolproof way,” Kenji said, “But I do have something.” He pointed his wand at the yellow orb, lifting it off of the pedestal and into the air with the power of the Wind. About mid-way to the boys, however, the orb stopped. Kenji stared at it, then glanced at his wand. He was confused. He hadn’t let go of it yet.

Then, dark energy from around the room began to gather around the orb, and Kenji understood. It was forming into something—his attempt to stop that from happening had failed.

Soon, in front of the boys was the Thunder King—except he was darker.

Well, they had no choice. There was going to be some kind of fight either way. As the door slammed down behind Harris and Kenji, they both prepared to fight.

The Thunder Clone wasted no time in blasting a bolt of electricity at Kenji. Kenji jumped over the attack, and cloaked his wand in a red light. Harris shot a Light Slash at the Thunder King, which turned out to be noticeably more effective than it should have been. Maybe the darkness that gave it form was also acting as a weakness?

Either way, Kenji had more important things to worry about. Swinging his wand through the air, he shot a sizable ball of fire at the Thunder King, which engulfed the target in a small explosion upon impact. Smiling, Kenji shot another. This time, though, it was met by a shock wave of Light, exploding preemptively.

As he noticed Harris make a Light Wall, Kenji’s wand lost color and he created a wind current, blowing the electricity out of his way. Then, he leapt closer to the Thunder Clone; it was time for an even stronger assault.

Dodging a blast of electricity, Kenji opened with a continuous blast of Fire, striking the Thunder Clone full-on.

Then, Harris attacked, letting loose a Light Beam at the Thunder Clone. Within a second, the Thunder Clone was no more. The yellow orb dropped into Kenji’s hand, and before he knew it had disappeared and they were back in the first room.

Kenji sighed in relief. “Thank goodness. That was a relatively harmless fight.”

Harris nodded. “Indeed it was. Maybe the Ice Mage is weak against Light also. That’ll make that fight a lot easier.”

Kenji agreed, heading toward the third door, with a snowflake-like symbol printed over it.

~~~​

Chapter Notes
-No, FYI, I don't plan on killing any of my main characters...until chapter 32.

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 28[/size]
The Three Trials, part III​

Inside the room, the boys saw nothing except for what they’d already seen twice before: A large room with a presumably locked door at the end and featureless walls. Kenji sighed. “Well, this is getting awfully repetitive. At least this is the last trial,” he said halfheartedly to Harris. “Right?”

Harris shrugged. “Of the three trials, yes.” He looked upwards. “But after we get through here, we still have to get through a few more rooms above.” He paused for a second, thinking, then continued. “Actually, believe it or not, this castle actually isn’t that big.”

Kenji laughed. “Well, that’s ironic!” Then, he looked forward again. “So, what are we supposed to do in this room?”

“Well, there are supposed to be a few puzzles in here; at least, that’s what it was when I was here last.” He looked around. “But they don’t seem to be here right now. Maybe Dakar has changed it up a little?”

“Maybe,” was Kenji’s response as he walked forward to the door at the opposite end of the room. He put his hand on it, but nothing happened. He turned around hesitantly, a puzzled expression on his face. “What’s going on here?”, he asked.

Harris shrugged. Suddenly, the door behind him slammed shut, propelled by some mysterious force. He immediately ran over to it, putting his hand on it. When that didn’t work, he started to legitamitely push it. Still nothing happened.

Kenji frowned. “Well, what now?”

“I dunno. Maybe now we get some kind of clue as to what we’re supposed to be doing?”

The moment his mouth closed, a huge table dropped down from above, out of nowhere. On the ceiling above it, a bomb appeared—a time bomb. The timer on its front was set for thirty minutes.

Harris grinned. “Now here’s where it’s at! We’ve got thirty minutes to solve each of the puzzles Dakar’s going to throw at us.” He motioned Kenji over. “And here’s number one.”

On the table was a large block, with a strange indentation cut into it. Next to it were eight square tiles. Each of the tiles’ corners was painted a different color: red, yellow, blue, or green. Also, Kenji noted, the blocks looked like they would fit into the tablet perfectly, with all eight occupying a space.

Kenji turned to look at Harris. “What exactly are we supposed to do here?”

Harris smiled. “Ah, I’ve seen one of these before!” He turned to Kenji, and began to explain the puzzle. “The goal it to position all of the pieces in the block, so that only corners with the same color are adjacent.” He placed two tiles next to each other, which had a blue corner and a yellow corner adjacent. They were both right next to each other.

Harris smiled again. “Don’t worry about this one. I’ve done loads of these before!” Sure enough, only two minutes had passed before all of the pieces were in place, next to each other, and every piece was perfect.

Almost immediately, the puzzle disappeared, and from above appeared another puzzle: a four-by-four tile game. It was the standard for its kind, with fifteen squares and one blank square. The goal was to complete the picture by maneuvering each of the tiles into the right place.

Harris smiled again. “I’ve done loads of these as well,” he said, going to work on the puzzle. Five minutes passed, and he was done. “Perfect, isn’t it?”, he asked, looking down on the finished work.

Kenji looked over as well. It was a picture of Dakar. “Perfectly constructed, at least,” he replied, “But I doubt the perfectness of the actual picture.”

Harris laughed. “Oh, get over it. Of course Dakar has everything themed after himself.” He looked up. “We’ve still got about twenty minutes. I wonder what the next puzzle is going to be?”

Suddenly, down from the ceiling floated a Rubik’s Cube. Harris stared, and groaned. “Oh, goodness.” He turned to Kenji. “I have never in my life been able to solve one of those things.”

Kenji, on the other hand, perked up. “Well, with the low income we have in Aqaic, this is one of the only things we actually do have. I know how to solve this!” He immediately picked it up, fiddled with it for a few seconds, and handed it to Harris. All of the sides were now a complete color. “Twenty-one moves!”, he bragged.

Instantly, the cube disappeared along with the table and the time bomb above, and the door at the far end of the room opened.

Kenji sighed in relief. “Well,” he said, “That was the easiest room so far.”

Harris frowned. “Maybe so, but what about the next boss battle? If the pattern continues, next up should be the Ice Mage’s dark clone. And, after all, he is the most powerful of them all.”

“I understand,” Kenji said, walking towards the now-open door on the far end of the room. “Well, let’s see how quickly we can down him.”

As they entered the room, they saw another orb at the end of it, just like the previous ones. This time, though, the orb was light blue. Kenji lifter it up with the power of the Wind; and no sooner had he done so then it moved to the center of the room and absorbed darkness. The door slammed down behind the boys.

Kenji began with an assault of fireballs, shooting three in a row. The Ice Clone retaliated by blasting them all with Ice beams, freezing them all before hey hit. Meanwhile, Harris came up from the side and delivered his own assault, of Light Slash after Light Slash. The Ice Mage had a bit more trouble dodging this attack, and soon fell back.

Kenji, meanwhile, had had an idea. If the fireballs were frozen but not extinguished than they would still explode, right? Quickly, he shot another fireball, but this time coated it in a thick layer of Ice. The attack dropped in midair, into his hand.

“Hey, Ice Clone!” he called, making the Ice Clone turn to him and fire a blast of Ice. Kenji jumped to the side, dodging the attack. “You’re just a clone,” he taunted, “You’re nowhere near as powerful as the real Ice Mage!”

The Clone roared, charging in with its hands. Kenji knocked them off to the side with his wand, and revealed the makeshift grenade in his hand. “Say good-bye!”, he yelled as he hurled the grenade at the Ice Clone. Upon contact, it exploded with a bang, and without its hands, the Ice Clone had no means of dodging the attack.

The clone fell to the floor, slowly beginning to dissipate into nothingness. Soon, nothing was left except the crystal orb from which it had been originally formed.

“Nice work,” Harris said in a positive manner. “I never would’ve thought to make a grenade. That’s innovation for ya!”

Kenji smiled. “Thanks.” He sighed. “Well, that was a lot easier than the last two.”

“No kidding,” Harris said, walking up and grabbing the orb. Immediately, the boys were standing in front of the center of the room from which they’d entered each trial. Harris’s hand was, like last time, empty.

Then, however, there were lights. All of the orbs spiraled down from the ceiling, each turning into a ball of pure energy and flying towards the floor. Finally, the design on the floor in the center of the room lit up.

Harris grinned widely. “That’s the elevator!”, he said, nodding to Kenji. “You ready?”

Kenji nodded, grinning. “Sure am!”

~~~​

Chapter Notes
-I didn't know Kenji was so good with Ribik's cubes...I've never actually completed one myself, so...

 

[Superbird]

[size=+2]Chapter 29[/size]
A New Enemy​

Harris walked forward, stopping at the symbol. Kenji did the same, looking at Harris expectantly.

“This is it,” Harris said, “Once we get on this platform, it’ll take us up to the next floor; there will be no turning back.”

Kenji nodded. “I’m ready. By the way, how many floors does this castle have?”

Harris frowned, stroking his chin. “You know,” he said, “I’m not actually sure. All I know is that the ‘third’ floor is much, much higher than the second floor.”

They nodded to each other, and at the same time both stepped onto the circular design in the room’s center. The castle started to shake. Slowly, the symbol began to carve itself out of the ground, rising upwards slowly. A passage opened over the boys’ heads, and in they went.

Kenji could feel that they were still rising, even though their surroundings had turned dark; Harris lit up his wand, and Kenji saw that they were in a cylindrical passage, moving straight upwards.

Within a minute, they had arrived in the room, and the symbol under their feet clicked into place.

Kenji looked around hesitantly, taking a step forward off of the platform. They were in a large, circular room—maybe twenty meters in diameter—with gray walls made of stone. It was just like the rooms they’d already been through. Lining the room’s walls were many torches, each spouting black fire. It provided a little light, and a little heat, but looked very eerie.

Harris stepped forward. “Something is supposed to happen here, and the last time I was here it happened before I took a single step.” He took another step. “Come on out, Dakar—We’re ready for you!”

Then, a dark, eerie voice—the voice of Dakar—came from nowhere. “Oh,” it said, “I sincerely doubt that.” There was a flash of darkness and Dakar appeared in the center of the room.

Harris smiled maliciously. “Coming to fight us so soon?”

“Not quite yet,” Dakar said ominously. “First, you’ll have to get through the rest of the castle. And now, I present to you, the strongest creature besides myself that you’ve faced thus far.”

Kenji suddenly gasped in sudden pain as from behind, something slipped into his body. It was pure darkness, though Kenji knew not of its form.

Harris was showing a similar reaction, keeling over in pain.

Dakar laughed menacingly. “Well, have you had enough yet?”

“No,” Harris choked out between gasps of pain, “What are you doing to us?”

“Cloning you,” was Dakar’s reply. Then, from the ceiling, a small creature of pure darkness floated down, to float in front of Dakar. Immediately, it began to take shape, into a ball. A singular, white eye appeared on its front, then its body spiked up a little. It had literally turned into a spiky ball, the spikes moving and changing with every second that passed.

“This,” Dakar said, “is my dearest creation…I’d even call it my pet. Its name…is Darbane.”

Kenji actually wasn’t feeling that much pain, but that might have just been because he wasn’t weak to Darkness. “What does it do?”, he asked.

Dakar chuckled. “Oh, I’m glad you asked that. This little jewel can burrow its way into something’s body, anyone’s body at all, and cause them pain. While it’s in there, it travels all throughout the body it possessed, gathering DNA all the while. Another five minutes, and it comes out, stealing some Elements and forming itself into a perfect replica of the person.”

Kenji frowned. “And is this the same creature you used to make the clones down below?”

Dakar shook his head. “Oh, by no means is that the same one. Those weren’t even clones at all—they were just perfectly-sculpted incarnations of the Elemental Sages, formed by a substance that is the combination of that element and my own darkness. I’ve had them here for several days, along with most of the other creatures in this castle.” He pointed to the darbane. “I developed that one while Harris was my slave.”

Suddenly, Kenji felt a feeling of pure relief as the creature left his body, flying towards Dakar. Another creature left Harris’s body, floating over to Dakar’s other side. They took form, and Kenji saw that they were indeed both darbane also.

Dakar waved his hand, and the one he had summoned disappeared. “So long, Kenji and Harris,” he said evilly, teleporting away in a flash of darkness.

Suddenly, the darbane both started to transform again, each sculpting its own form into a human-like body. Kenji only stared in amazement as only a minute passed and the creatures had finished their transformations.

On the other side of the room were two identical clones…of the boys themselves.
Kenji stole a glance at Harris, who was shivering but still had a confident expression. “You okay?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah,” came the reply, “I’m fine. But I’m not sure we can make it through this.”

Then, one of the clones, the one modeled after Kenji spoke. “Hey Kenji!”, it said in a perfect replication of Kenji’s voice. “Think you can beat yourself?” It smirked evilly. “Because I seriously doubt your ability to do that.”

Then Harris’s clone spoke. “Same to you,” he said to Harris. “You can’t even beat Kenji; what makes you think you can beat a perfect clone of yourself?”

“What,” Harris shot back, “Do you really think you can win with some fancy speech?” He grinned. “I don’t think so.”

The clone continued. “I know you,” it said, “I know everything about you. I know what you will do in any given situation. You can’t win against your own self.”

An idea suddenly popped into Kenji’s head. “Harris!”, he called, “If you ever hear my voice, don’t listen to it!” The clone would definitely try to bluff him. Sure enough, the Kenji clone scowled as the words left Kenji’s mouth.

Harris nodded to Kenji, then continued his conversation with his own clone. “And what makes you think you can win? I know everything about you as well—You’re me.”

The clone smiled. “Oh, no you don’t,” it said menacingly, “You know everything about yourself, yes. But you know absolutely nothing about what I truly am—a darbane.”

Kenji frowned. “Can we be done with all this talk?”, he said, annoyed. “If we’re going to fight, than we might as well do just that. Enough speech.”

Harris nodded. The Harris clone, began to speak. “Don’t beat yourself up about this!”.

The Kenji clone spoke as well, smiling evilly. “En garde!”

~~~​

Chapter Notes
-The next chapter is going to be fun to write.

 

[Superbird]

Because I felt like writing more than usual tonight.

[size=+2]Chapter 30[/size]
The Clone War​

Well, it looked like Kenji was on his own for this fight. Harris had bigger things to worry about than to destroy Kenji’s clone—namely, he had to destroy his own clone first.

Kenji ran toward his clone, his wand beside him. He thought about what the Harris clone had said; ‘I know everything about you’. Would that mean the clone was prepared for the way he normally fought? In that case, he would have to fight differently than normal, throwing some unexpected into the twist.

But wait…if the clone had the same mind as he did, than it would be smart enough to see that he was going to attack differently, and prepare accordingly. But if he fought normally, the clone would be fooled.

Kenji smiled to himself. Ha! Double bluff!

Getting close to his clone, he came to a sudden stop, hurling his wand at the clone as hard as he could. Then, a wand appeared in the clone’s hand, and with a wave of it the clone knocked his wand away.

Kenji grabbed the wand out of the air, immediately turning it red and shooting a fireball at the clone. It retaliated by turning its wand blue. A beam of Ice energy came out, freezing the fireball. Then, suddenly, Kenji had an idea. He leapt forward, grabbing the frozen fireball out of midair, and shot the clone its own beam of Ice.

But the clone would be expecting the grenade. That meant, if it was to be put to use…

Kenji ran over to Harris’s clone, which was dueling Light Slashes with Harris, and chucked the frozen fireball at it. The clone gasped upon realization of what was happening, and tried to bat the grenade away with its wand. It was too late, though, and was engulfed by an explosion.

Kenji spun back to his own battle, not waiting to see the result of what has happened. Maybe he could try a combination attack on his own clone; that would catch it off guard, hopefully.

Dodging a bolt of electricity, Kenji immediately sucked all of the power out of his wand, save for the tiny amount of Darkness he would need for his next attack. The clone shot a fireball, and Kenji jumped out of the way. He then lunged forward, launching his wand like a boomerang at his clone.

The clone, however, was not about to be taken off-guard by such an attack; without even the slightest bit of hesitation, it blasted the wand with a Light Slash, into the air. Meanwhile, Kenji smiled. Yes, the clone had fallen right into his trap.

Kenji let his wand hit the ground, instead launching a Rainbow Beam at the clone. Caught completely off-guard, the clone did what Kenji would have done in its situation: Shielded itself with its wand.

However, that strategy didn’t work. It already had control of the elements, so there was nothing it could have absorbed from the attack. Having no choice but to take the attack full-force, the clone was thrown back, hitting the wall hard. Kenji silently cheered for himself. Yes! He’d defeated it!

Or, at least, he himself would have gone down after such a blow. Unfortunately, the clones seemed to have increased vitality over their subjects. The clone pushed itself off of the wall, its eyes almost glowing with rage.

Kenji only stared, silent. Was that really all the attack did? And it was the strongest of all attacks, too!

Well, if that wasn’t enough, then it was time to keep going, and push on with the assault. Kenji generated power in his wand, and then quickly formed a shield of Light around himself. The clone did the same, except with a shield of Darkness instead.

Well, that was perfect. Kenji ran forward. If he couldn’t get a ranged assault, then he would go for a physical one! The moment he got within hitting range of the clone, he spun around and coated his wand in flames.

The clone had caught on, though, and coated its wand in Darkness, swinging it at Kenji’s head.

Normally, that would have worked. But Kenji knew himself too well. He ducked under the clone’s swing, nailing it in the stomach. The clone gasped, eyes wide. Presumably it was thinking about how it was possibly being beaten, but that was irrelevant. Kenji got up, hopped back, and without warning let his shield dissipate. From close range, he shot a Dark Blast at the clone.

The clone, however, spun around the blast, regaining its balance just in time. It immediately jabbed its wand at Kenji, who spun away and launched another blast of darkness. The clone was hit again, but not before it launched a blast of its own.

Kenji began to jump back, but was held back by his speed. He was just too slow to avoid the attack. He was knocked back, now with the same amount of battle scars as his opponent. He frowned to himself. This was so unfair, that the clone had more vitality. How was this fair at all?

Well, the battle wasn’t over quite yet. Kenji got back up, shaking himself off, and shot three individual balls of fire. As they all flew toward his clone, it created a Light Wall and stopped the attack, which exploded fiercely. Then, it was the clone’s turn to attack—Kenji immediately found himself the target of several lightning bolts.
Still trying to fight and dodge simultaneously, Kenji thought hard and quickly about a way to finally defeat the clone. He would have to use an attack that wasn’t obvious to its eyes, but that would still cause significant damage. Then, an idea came to him. He’d need water, though…

Wasting no time, Kenji jumped forward again and let loose a blast of fire at the clone. It retaliated without a second thought, with a gigantic beam of Ice energy. Within seconds, there was water all over the floor where the attacks had met. Perfect.

That wasn’t the end of it, though. Kenji immediately leapt back, continuing his assault with a Shadow Scythe. Now, what he would have to do was multi-task, maneuvering the clouds into place while simultaneously maintaining the fight.

All it took, though, was a little concentration. Soon, there were clouds flying towards the clone, all of which were too small to see. Kenji would fit them together once they were out of the clone’s possible eyesight.

The clone was now attacking harder than ever, and Kenji was finding it hard to keep up the energy of attacking and trapping at the same time. Quickly, he put up a Light Wall. It was time to end this.

As Kenji maneuvered the now-large clouds close together, the clone started to realize what was going on. Crying out, it tried to do something—but it was just half a second too late. The clone was shocked by the electricity from the makeshift clouds, and Kenji ran up to deal the final blow.

Pointing his wand at the now-immobile clone, Kenji let out his last attack. “Rainbow Beam!”, he yelled as he let loose the gigantic continuous blast of energy upon the now-defeated clone.

As soon as the beam stopped, Kenji stepped back. There was absolutely nothing left of it; he had done the job well, and completely.

Harris, meanwhile, dealt a Light Slash to his own opponent, who was knocked back by the blow it hadn’t been able to dodge. Harris began to charge energy for a Light Beam, but frowned—the clone would be getting up any moment now, just in time to stop the attack. He let it loose, just as the clone jumped up and began to defend with its own wand.

Then it was hit by a blast of darkness, knocking it off guard. Stealing a quick glance to the direction it had come from, Harris saw Kenji, wand black, panting. The clone was hit by the Light Beam, and dissipated on the spot.

The door on the far end of the room opened.

Kenji slowly walked over to Harris. He was shuddering on his feet.

Harris grinned weakly. “So,” he said, “We did it.” His face lit up. “We’ve done it, and defeated the clones!”

Kenji looked at him, smiling also. “Well,” he slowly said, “it looks like you got banged up just as much as I did.”

Harris laughed, his cheeks turning red.

“So,” Kenji said, serious this time, “Should we heal now, or should we press on?”

Harris’s face became normal again, a somewhat-serious look on his face. “The castle doesn’t continue on for very long, but we’re both tired and hurt.” He opened his bag. “I, personally, think that a good heal capsule is in order.”

Kenji pulled out another heal capsule, this one from his own bag. He hesitated a moment, then pressed the button on the heal capsule. It seemed to explode with a pink light, which washed all over his body. It was chilling, and numbing, but relaxed his body completely, refreshing his powers and healing his wounds.

Far too soon, though, the pink glow faded. Harris walked over to Kenji, who looked at him confidently.

Harris grinned. “Shall we?”, he asked.

Kenji returned the expression. “Indeed we shall,” he laughed as they headed toward the door that would lead to Dakar’s throne room—the final challenge.

~~~​

Chapter Notes
-Yeah. This story isn't going to reach a full 50,000 words on its own. Unfortunately. Hey, I tried, though. And I wrote 700 extra today.
-I feel cold, and am shivering. Probably because of how I felt from writing the last part of the chapter.
-This is, if there are no other surprises, the last chapter in the book to have been written completely from scratch, with no rough draft at all. Those chapters are, in total: Chapters 25-30, and chapter 11.
-It takes a full twenty seconds for the word document to load.

 

[Anomaly 54]

Go carnivorous welcome mats! Destroy them!


Anyways, it was really good. One thing I notice when heros fight clones of themself is they always end up saving the others and having someone else save them. The other thing I notice is how fast it changes between people. There was none of that here, it was Kenji throughout the chapter and it totally kicked ass.

 

[Anomaly 54]

Go carnivorous welcome mats! Destroy them!


Anyways, it was really good. One thing I notice when heros fight clones of themself is they always end up saving the others and having someone else save them. The other thing I notice is how fast it changes between people. There was none of that here, it was Kenji throughout the chapter and it totally kicked ass.