15 Power Stone

The savage smile still graced Rovirrak's face. In order for Ayoro Basam's plan to work, Rovirrak had to do his part first. Over the years, Ayoro had been using unconventional ways to try to raise his essence from yellow to green. One of the ways he did it was by harvesting the untapped energy of young children who had not yet manifested. They usually targeted small and weak villages or towns who could not defend themselves, hence, it was very easy for Rovirrak to subdue them with his music soul armos.

However, Coast Town was currently the strongest small town they had targeted so far. From the information Gonza had gathered, even though the majority of the town were red users, a significant proportion of them were also orange users, and there were even two yellow users. With such power, there was no way Rovirrak could do anything with Devil's Flute. He was too weak. However, Ayoro had assured him that there was a way to do that. With Gonza's portal soul armos, Rovirrak was transported to this temple where he connected with the temple's power stone. With that, using his music to beguile the town was as easy as breathing. However, since at the core he was still a red user, and there was a limit to his power, he could not possibly control the whole town. Hence, he only targeted those who were capable of stopping their plan; people without soul armos.

But it seemed he had miscalculated his own plan. With all the powerful people in the town incapacitated, he thought that everything would go on smoothly. And yet, there was actually someone here trying to stop him. How amusing. Or was it because this person was an orange user he thought he could fight against his Devil's Flute? This thought caused Rovirrak to laugh again.

Well, maybe this child may be stronger due to the orange essence, however, Rovirrak had a soul armos while the child did not. One's essence was almost useless without a soul armos. The essence was to the soul armos as the fuel to the fire. Fuel was powerful, but you would never see its full potential unless it was exposed to fire, only then would its terrifying power be revealed. Besides, Rovirrak also had the power stone at his disposal which had elevated his essence to green for a while. That was enough to defeat this delusional child.

"You are not here to train. Who are you and what are you doing in our town?" Kasko asked the man, his eyes seething with anger. Once in a while, people looking to transform themselves mentally and physically would pass through and seek refuge in the temple. In two of his visits to the temple, Kasko had actually seen a few people like that. But this man had no such feel to him. In fact, all Kasko could sense from the man was maliciousness. Besides, since he usually went around the town to sell bread, he knew everyone by their face and first name in the town. And this man certainly did not come from the town.

"Are you the one responsible for everything happening back home? I traced the essence infecting everyone back to this place and you are the only one here."

"You ask a lot of questions. But what if I am?"

"Release the children and our parents."

Rovirrak chuckled. This child and his orders. "The spell has already been cast and it has completely taken root. I have no intention of breaking it."

"Then I guess I would have to break it myself." Kasko said as he dashed towards Rovirrak. When a person lost consciousness, their soul armos would disappear back into their soul, and their spell would be broken. That was exactly what he would do.

But before Kasko could even reach the man, he felt something land heavily on his stomach which sent him flying right across the room. He crashed heavily to the ground. Kasko winced in pain as he grabbed his stomach. What had just happened? He had not seen it at all.

But from where Ayani was standing, she had seen everything clearly. While Kasko was going to attack the man, one of the dummies rushed towards Kasko with an even higher speed and punched him in the stomach. Ayani ran towards Kasko, her orange eyes heavy with fear. Was he alright? That was a very serious punch.

Kasko closed his eyes and then tried to get up on his feet with Ayani's help. "Are you okay?" She asked. Kasko nodded, clenching his jaws. This was unlike a pain he had ever felt. But he could not give up now. He brought his head closer to Ayani and then whispered something into her ears. The girl's face warped in confusion, then she turned to look at the green power stone.

A shrill tune filled the room and upon hearing the music, the dummies ran towards the children, ready to attack again. Kasko and Ayani stood their ground and prepared to defend themselves. They were all so fast that all one could see were endless orange light flickering here and there in the room.

The dummies had no mind of their own, and were literally powerless. However, they were been controlled by Rovirrak's flute which in turn gave them their power. Since Rovirrak was been supported by a green power stone, the power of the dummies were also almost like the green essence. Even though they were not as fully powered as a true green user, they were still a lot stronger than Kasko and Ayani. The two children had each taken on a dummy but they both soon realised that the dummies were more powerful than they were. Ayani's opponent flung her across the room and she somersaulted continuously until she suddenly came to a halt, flat on her back. If not for their essence acting as a shield around them and absorbing a lot of the impact, it would have been impossible for them to keep on fighting given all the injuries they were sustaining.

"Ayani." Kasko shouted. But he was slightly distracted earning him a kick in the stomach. Kasko screamed in pain. It was the same place he had been punched the first time. This was not working. He did not have a soul armos, and his orange essence was not enough to go against this false green. To stop the dummies, he would need to stop the one controlling them. But he could not possibly get to Rovirrak at his current strength.

From the corner of his eye, Kasko could see that Ayani was slowly getting back up. There was blood trickling down her face. Kasko breathed a sigh relief when he saw that the girl was not dead. This was no game at all. What were they thinking when they first thought they could do this on their own? A sliver of doubt began to permeate through his entire being.

As if Ayani could see that Kasko's mind was giving up, she shouted with all her might, "we are not giving up. Think of your brother. My sister. Everyone." She could feel warm tears flowing freely on her cheeks mixing with the blood. Kasko's heart winced in pain at the sight of the girl. Ayani was right. If they gave up, what would happen to everyone? He would never see Jari again. His poor brother must be so terrified right now.

Rovirrak's music stopped for a moment, and in so doing, the dummies froze like statues. "You two cannot beat me. I am too powerful."

���Why don't you face us yourself without your dummies then. " Kasko spat out in disdain. This man was such a coward. He was hiding behind puppets even after all the power he was stealing from the power stone.

"I would rather not. This is how I use my power." Then the smile on Rovirrak's face disappeared and was replace by something else. These pesky little children were getting on his last nerves. "I will give you a chance to go home. If you keep this up, I will not hesitate to kill you."

"It seems you will have to kill me then, coward." Kasko said. Then he discreetly nodded at Ayani, a knowing smile dancing in his eyes. Ayani nodded back.

"Coward? Who are you calling a coward? I am going against people far stronger than me. I am no coward."

"Don't be delusional. You are only capable of that because of the power stone. You are just a red user. You can't beat me in a one on one fight even without my soul armos and you know it. It's why you cower behind all your power-ups."

The more Kasko spoke the closer he walked towards Rovirrak until he was only an arm's length away from him. "I am going to stop you, even with all your ridiculous power-ups."

Rovirrak got up on his feet as he faced the arrogant boy before him. How amusing. Stop him? Could this boy not see that he had the power of a green? He liked the taste of this power. Once all this was over, he was going to take the power stone along. That way, he would not have to follow Ayoro anymore nor would he have to fear him. Even though the power he had now was slightly less powerful than a true green user, he still felt incredibly more powerful than his previously meek red self. It was too bad that he could only wield this for two hours at a time.

Ayoro had warned him that after two hours, his body would break down from complete exhaustion and with him being a red user, it would take him several hours to fully recover. If the recovery was too unbearable for a person's body, they could even die. No wonder power stones were lying around freely in temples without people going after them. The cost involved in tapping into its true power was far too great. But to Rovirrak, this was a small price to pay for something this valuable.

As a red user, he had always lived in fear of people who were always stronger than him and used him to their advantage. With this power stone, he did not have to fear anyone anymore. Usually, many temples had powerful monks guarding it. But strangely, there was no such thing here. Taking the power stone would be very easy. It seemed Ayoro had planned very carefully. No wonder he thought taking Coast Town would be no problem at all.

"You can never defeat me, boy."

"I already have." Kasko said, a triumphant smile on his face. He was looking at the statue that was standing behind Rovirrak.

"No. What are you doing?" Rovirrak exclaimed upon turning to face Kasko's line of sight. What the hell was this? How did this girl even get here? Rovirrak quickly played the tune to regain control of his dummies. However it was already too late.

Ayani was standing before the statue, sprinkling drops of her blood on the power stone. Once her blood touched the green stone, a tiny spark of green light bust from her palm like lightning.