11 The Third Sun

"Was the ride in the trunk uncomfortable?" Tenacity asked his cousin.

They were three hours into their road trip and were only two-ish hours away from Los Angeles, and had stopped by a place on the side of the road for a quick bite.

"Not really," Solis said while he chewed.

They were all seated around a long table big enough to fit all six of them. As usual, the Arcanas and Alexandrias tore through the food on their plates while Elise continued being the only proper eater.

"You think you guys could slow down when it comes to eating?" She pleaded because of the attention they gathered.

"You're going to have to get used to it," Fera told her.

As Solis and Tenacity cleaned off their plates, they stood up simultaneously.

"We'll be in the bathrooms," said Solis.

The others watched both of them leave as they walked away.

Solis was the first to enter the semi-clean restrooms. Laminate wood walls and flooring surrounded the two as they walked over to the stalls. Tenacity took the first, of three, stalls while Solis entered the one beside him.

They sat on the toilet bowls and looked straight at the stall doors. They heard the bathroom doors open and listened to the multiple footsteps that came through.

"Elise, it's time we go."

"Wait, what for, Lunis?"

"Don't ask, just start moving."

Elise witnessed her companions get up and head toward the doors. She had no choice but to follow suit.

Back in the men's bathroom, Solis and Tenacity watched as the feet of the newcomers came ever closer to their stalls.

Solis stood up and kicked the stall door into the man on the other side. Tenacity punched his fist through his stall door and grabbed the neck of the man behind it. Solis followed up by tossing aside the door he kicked and pinning the man against the wall.

Solis grabbed the man in front of him by the neck and tossed him at Tenacity. Tenacity used the man in his hands and smacked the body thrown at him. The man flew into the stalls, shattering the walls and toilet completely. Tenacity snapped the neck of the man and tossed him over with the other one. The two Arcanas stood and watched as the skin started to come off the bodies, revealing a scaly hide.

"I don't understand what the new Matriarch of the Serpents is doing by sending the weaker serpents to us."

"Neither do I, Tenacity, and honestly, it's unnerving."

Solis headed toward the door as Tenacity stayed and dealt with the bodies. On his way out, he took the liberty of repairing the bathroom.

A few minutes later, Solis saw that Lunis had received his message as they saw all their companions in the car.

"Was it them?" Lunis asked.

Solis gave her a nod and said, "Yeah, it seems with Kalamati's help, they're able to keep up with us a lot better than I thought."

Solis went to the trunk and sat himself down. Tenacity climbed into the driver's seat and got the car started. In no time, they were back on the road and headed to Los Angeles.

A blinding light seeped into the dark space that Solis had gotten used to, and woke him up. It took his eyes some time to readjust, but once they did, he saw Tenacity standing above him.

"We're here?"

"Yeah, time to get up, Solis."

Solis hopped out quickly and walked alongside the others as they went into the airport.

"Elise, take this."

Solis took something out of his pocket and handed it to her.

"Thanks, where's your plane tickets? Shouldn't you have it out?"

"We won't be needing one," replied Solis.

"What's that mean?"

Before he answered, Solis pulled her aside, away from the crowd of people, and said, "We'll be fine, so don't worry about us."

Solis pulled out Elise's bags from his Essence and handed them to her.

"I got you a first-class ticket, so just go get all your bags weighed and be ready for your flight."

"Solis, stop! You need to explain to me what you're doing!"

"We won't be in the plane with you."

"W-what?"

Elise's face was full of confusion.

"We're not risking the chance of possibly fighting serpents in the plane because it would endanger the other passengers."

"Then how are you guys getting to Spain?" Elise asked full of worry.

"We have our ways. I know you're very capable of handling yourself, so if trouble does arise, then you handle it."

"A-alright, Solis, I'll do my best then."

"We'll see you in Spain."

Elise watched Solis walk away with the rest of their group. She brought herself over to the counter and checked her bags in.

Back outside, Solis and the others walked around the airport and toward the barrier that blocked off access to the runway. Solis started handing out everyone's masked and asked that they put them on.

"Everyone ready?" He turned around as he asked.

With covered faces, everyone gave him a nod. Solis took the lead and hopped over the barrier. Their plan wasn't to fly 𝘪𝘯 the plane but 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 it.

Solis led the others through the airport's runway while dodging the airport personnel and it didn't take them long to find the plane Elise would be riding. Once they did, they found places to hide in and wait.

In the airport, Elise had finished being processed and was now heading toward the gate she would be waiting at. It felt weird for her to be alone without the others and honestly, she had butterflies because of it. She had to set aside that nervous feeling and just trust in what Solis was doing. She found a seat close to the windows and sat down while she watched the other planes fly off the runway.

She had been watching the planes fly off for a while now and had heard, over the intercom, that her flight was now boarding. Picking her bags up, she walked over to the line of people with her ticket in hand.

After her ticket was checked, she walked through the tunnel that led into the plane. There, she was greeted by the stunning flight attendants that she would be flying with for the next seventeen hours. They exchanged hellos as Elise made her way through and found her seat. Since she didn't have a lot of luggage with her, she decided to just put her bag beside her seat, which was quite spacious actually.

It was a large, round leather chair, large enough to fit two, and very private. It was set up like a cubicle and separated from the other first-class seats like it and even had a sliding door if you wanted even more privacy. There was plenty of leg-room inside the cubicle and even a thirty-inch television in front of her. Beneath the television, were pouches that contained the first-class menus. On her armrests beside her, were cup holders and a little tray that could be rotated out, if the time came to eat. On the wall to her left, were buttons made for calling the flight attendants if she ever needed something.

Elise took the time to get to know her area a little better and explored it. She reached over and took out a menu from one of the pouches. After she skimmed through the selection, she put it back and took out a plastic container in the pouch next to it. She turned the pouch around and saw that it was a blanket, courtesy of the airline, that could be used for sleeping. She tossed the bag onto her seat, since she knew she'd use it soon anyway, and continued looking. Her exploration came to an end when a flight attendant came over and told her that the plane would be moving soon.

Elise found her seat and strapped herself in. Five minutes later, the pilot came on the intercom and requested that everyone be seated and buckled up. They walked through proper procedures before the plane began moving. Soon, Elise began to see the landscape around her start to move. She laid her head back and closed her eyes as she listened to the sounds of the plane.

"Hey, Solis, wake up the plane's moving!"

Ad tapped his brother on the shoulder.

"I know, I wasn't sleeping."

Solis got up from their hiding spot, which was behind a huge pile of boxes, and ran toward the plane. The six of them quickly caught up to the soon-to-be-flying behemoth. Solis jumped up and grabbed the tail of the plane as he hoisted himself on top, while the others took alternative ways of getting on the plane. Once they finished, Solis and Tenacity found themselves near the tail, Fera and Lunis were above the pilot's cockpit, while Ad and Muun took the space in the middle of the plane.

They all latched onto the plane by digging their finger's into the hull. After, they laid flat against it, so that they could be harder to spot. Before long, the plane was on the runway and ready to fly. Solis told the others to brace themselves as the plane picked up speed and moved down the runway. The noise of the roaring engine filled their ears as it prepared to lift-off. The nose lifted and the rest of the plane followed, they were now airborne and heading to Spain.

They clung tightly onto the plane as it continued to ascend. Once the plane reached cruising altitude, they lessened their grip and relaxed. All of them let go of the hull and used their Essence to attach themselves to the plane. Solis and Tenacity laid up against the vertical stabilizer and watched the clouds beneath them go by. Ad and Muun sat up and looked across the horizon. Fera and Lunis sat up and just looked ahead.

"It feels like we're at home, Solis."

"It does, doesn't it?"

Solis and Tenacity tilted their heads back and embraced the freedom of being in the sky, and it seems the rest of the group felt the same as they tilted their heads back as well. As they flew, Solis hoped that they wouldn't encounter any trouble as they flew to Spain, but knew what he wished for was unrealistic. If it came down to it, Solis was always prepared for a fight, but until it happens, he and his family would enjoy the open sky.

From what Solis felt, it had been about ten hours since their departure from Los Angeles. So far, they hadn't encountered anything dangerous, which actually made Solis feel anxious.

"Solis, to your left."

Tenacity pointed at something that appeared to be flying. Solis turned to look and watched it move across the sky.

"What is that?" Solis wondered.

The mysterious winged creature continued to ascend, revealing more of its body. Solis and Tenacity saw something dangling from its back as it got closer. Solis's eyes grew wide as he saw the winged creature drop a serpent onto the wing of the plane.

Solis ran across the hull and over to where the serpent was dropped. He ran over to it and grabbed its tail and flung it off the plane. He watched as its body fell but was caught by the winged creature from before.

"Tenacity! Shoot it down!"

Back at the tail-end of the plane, Tenacity had formed a black ball in his mouth. He released the built-up energy and sent a black beam toward them. The beam easily cut through both creatures, which instantly killed them.

When Solis met back up with Tenacity, he asked, "What did you think that was?"

"I couldn't tell you, but it looked like a serpent with wings?"

The statement confused both of the Arcanas because they knew that the serpents weren't usually creatures who were born with wings.

"Do you think some sort of mutation happened?" Tenacity pondered.

"Perhaps, but why haven't we seen that before then?"

When Solis answered Tenacity's question with another question, it made the two think even harder.

Their thoughts were interrupted when Fera shouted at them.

"Solis, Tenacity! Weird creatures are flying up to us at the front!"

"Shoot them down! They're not friendly!" Solis ordered.

Lunis and Fera acted quickly and formed their energy balls. Before they shot it off, they crawled underneath the nose of the plane. Fera released her red beam in tandem with Lunis's vermillion-colored beam. The two creatures were sliced in half, along with the serpents they held, and fell back toward the earth. Once they destroyed the immediate danger, Lunis and Fera sat back on top of the plane.

They were about to relax when Ad started yelling.

"Fera! We have those weird things on our side as well!"

"What?!" Fera screamed.

Fera turned to look and saw that there were six of those flying creatures heading toward them.

"We shoot them down!" said Solis from the tail-end.

The six of them launched their individual beams at the creatures and cut up each one of them. With all the airborne hostiles dead, Solis thought that would be the end of it. He was proven wrong when a flock of the creatures broke through the clouds beneath them. A shiver went down Solis's spine when he saw the number of enemies laid before them.

"Just what has the new Matriarch been doing?" said Tenacity.

"Get rid of them quickly!" ordered Solis once again.

They opened fire on the creatures. Some of the ones they shot out of the sky dropped serpents onto the plane. When that happened, Fera and Ad stopped firing to kick them off.

"Muun! Force that pilot to close all the windows in the plane!" Lunis commanded her sister.

Muun stopped firing her amber beam and ran to the front of the plane. She let some of her smoke seep into the cockpit.

From inside the plane, passengers heard an odd request come from their pilot.

"Passengers, we advise that you shut all your windows because we'll be experiencing bright lights within the next few minutes. Please do not open them until we say so."

From her seat, Elise sat up in confusion.

"That's odd, but I guess there's no problem with closing it," she said.

The passengers followed what their pilot had asked of them and the inside of the plane became dark.

"Lunis! It's done," Muun shouted at her sister atop the plane.

"Behind you!" Ad shouted.

Muun looked back and saw a serpent, that had been dropped, flying at her.

Muun dropped her shoulder and rotated to the left. The serpent zoomed past her and crashed into the hull. The impact disorientated the serpent and gave Muun the chance to attack. She grabbed it by its tail and threw it off the aircraft and shot it down as it tumbled through the air.

"S-Solis, Lunis and I need to stop soon!" Fera told her brother.

Solis gave her a nod and they both stopped firing their beams. They exhaled a giant plume of smoke that traveled across the hull.

A flying creature flew toward the ladies as they took their break. Ad broke off from Muun as he helped cover his sister and Lunis. Ad caught the serpent as it was about to land on the hull and crushed its skull before flinging it off.

"Tenacity, cover me!" Shouted Solis.

Solis shut his mouth and used partial transformation.

He opened his mouth again and fired. A thunderous boom resounded as Solis let off a thick stream of brilliant yellow light. He dragged this brilliant light across the sky, turning anything it touched into ash. Solis had eradicated all of the serpents and mysterious creatures.

With their enemies dead, the group decided to relax.

Tenacity approached Solis with serious concern on his mind.

"Solis, we need to get off this flight. We can't keep going like this for another nine hours."

"I know that! I'm just confused as to how they found us! O-our scent should've been distorted as we flew, I know even Kalamati couldn't track us, so how?!"

"It doesn't make sense either, but the more apparent matter at hand is what we're going to do from now on."

"We're about ten hours away from Cali, right, Tenacity?"

"From what I could tell? Yeah, we are."

Solis looked down and thought for a bit.

"Then Oculi Nebul should be around here right?" Solis asked.

"That island? I don't know if it is, it's been a few centuries since I've set foot there."

"That's not what I asked," warned Solis.

"Alright, it should be around this area then. Do you plan to land on it though, Solis?"

"Of course I do, we can't risk taking this plane down with us."

"What if we miss the island?"

"Doesn't matter, the fall won't kill us anyway. Either way, we got off this plane, even if it means we have to swim all the way to Spain."

Solis walked over to the rest of them and explained what his plan was. Some of them had questions but were immediately silenced by Solis.

Solis gathered them near the tail of the plane and looked at them.

"You guys ready?" He asked.

"S-Solis, I don't know where the island is, s-so I don't know if I can keep up with you guys," Muun's voice was filled with concern.

"I know you don't, so just hold on to Lunis as we fall."

Lunis took her little sister's hand as they walked closer to the edge. Muun looked up at her and saw that Lunis was smiling.

"You'll be fine, I'm here with you."

"Now that everyone is ready, we're hopping off this flight."

Solis jumped off first, with Tenacity close behind. Fera, Ad, Muun, and Lunis jumped off right after.

Solis broke into a nosedive and went straight down. He would wait until they broke through the clouds to find where Oculi Nebul would be. It didn't take long for them to pass through the clouds, and when they did, Solis's hunch paid off. The only problem was that they were a few miles left of the island.

"Solis!" Tenacity yelled from behind.

"I know!" He yelled back.

Solis formed his giant hands and took hold of Tenacity. He launched his cousin straight at the island and watched him fly. Then, he took hold of both his siblings and threw them as well. Lastly, he grabbed the Alexandrias and corrected their flight as well. Solis was the only one left falling and need a way to correct himself.

Solis rotated himself so that his feet came first before using partial transformation. He opened his mouth and let loose his explosive beam, using the recoil to correct himself. His body shot to the right and continued to fly toward the island.

Tenacity would soon make landfall and could see the shore just before him. Tenacity braced himself as landed, rolling across the white, sandy beach. He shook the sand off of him before he looked back and witnessed cousins flying in. Fera and Ad landed harshly onto the beach as they sent up tons of sand. The Alexandrias were unlucky because they had landed on the edge of the beach where it met the sea.

"Dang it! Solis threw us short! Our clothes got wet because of that idiot!" Lunis complained as she looked at her sea-soaked jeans.

Muun got up beside her and wiped the wet sand off of her summer shorts.

"Solis owes us an apology when he gets here," Muun whined as well.

"Look here he comes right now, I can see him," Fera told the others.

They looked back and saw that Solis, was indeed, coming.

"Doesn't look like he'll make it though," Tenacity told the others.

"Yeah, he must've not used enough power to get himself here," Ad agreed.

Still in the air, Solis was beating himself up for not using enough power.

"Damn, I'm gonna come up short!" He thought to himself before crashing into the water.

His landing sent up massive amounts of water toward the beach, and lightly soaked the people on it.

"It seems that he owes all of us an apology now," Lunis told Muun.

Solis swam his way over to the others. As he stepped onto the beach, he shook off the water from his head.

"At least we made it to Oculi Nebul," remarked Solis with an awkward smile.

Oculi Nebul was a smaller island, but just as lush. Being in the middle of the Atlantic, impossible to detect through technological means, it was an island in the shape of a canine's tooth. The beaches on Oculi Nebul were filled with not just white, but red sand as well. The island itself wasn't too impressive, only having a singular mountain in the middle surrounded by typical tropical rainforests.

"Now that we're here, we should head to Spain now."

"We will, Tenacity, but there's something I need to go do."

"Which is?"

"Don't ask, just follow him," whispered Lunis.

Solis began moving inland and ran toward the mountain. Fera and Ad were the first to follow, while everyone else lagged a bit. They zoomed through the forest, jumping over protruding roots or swinging across tree branches as they made their way to the mountain.

A few minutes later, Solis and the others reached the base of the mountain. The Arcana siblings split off as they searched for something along the perimeter of the mountain.

"Where is it?" Whispered Solis as he walked.

From his left, he heard Ad yell, "Over here!"

Solis and Fera quickly ran over to their brother. They stopped in front of a giant cave entrance that led into the mountain. The others followed them loosely as they stepped into the cave. Tenacity couldn't tell how far they walked until Solis suddenly stopped. Before Tenacity, thousands of bioluminescent creatures lit up the enormous cavern. Tenacity looked all around as the walls were lit up with a soft blue. His eyes traced the walls until they fell onto two mounds that sat at the end of the cavern.

Tenacity noticed Solis moving toward the mounds and decided to follow. As he got closer, he knew instantly what they were. They stood and observed quietly as they heard the footsteps of everyone else behind them.

"Mother...father...it's a bit early but we've come to visit again, hope you guys are doing well."

Solis bent down and touched the graves of his parents.

His father was buried in the mound to his left and his mother to his right. Above his father's grave, Solis had etched a beautiful sun, which signified his glory. On the mound itself, Solis had written out his father's name. It read:

Phaedros "Aurelios" Arcana

Patriarch of our family who ruled with a firm but gentle hand

His light will forever shine down on our family, helping to guide our lost hearts

The mound to his right, which contained his mother's body, had carvings above it as well. It depicted two suns, one smaller and one bigger. The smaller sun was in the middle of the bigger sun, which signified the heart of his mother. Solis had also written on her grave:

Amare "Harlequeen" Arcana

The queen to our king, forever faithful with a compassionate heart

Eternally holding the right-hand spot of our king, she will continue to give her love

Solis stayed on his knees as he let the tears fall from his face. Tenacity knelt beside him as he paid his respect to his uncle and aunty, inevitably, he too started to cry. Solis's siblings took a seat and let tears stream from their faces. The sight was unsettling for the Alexandria sisters as they watched the mighty Arcana family weep. Lunis and Muun knew not to approach them and left them alone to grieve.

It couldn't have been longer than a minute when Solis decided to stand up.

"W-we have to go...father, mother...there's something we need to do, but we'll visit again in the future. Until then, be at peace."

Solis bent down again and kissed his parent's graves.

"Fera, Ad, Tenacity, we need to go."

The three of them stood up with shaky knees and followed Solis out of the cave.

Once all six of them were back outside, they heard sounds coming from above them.

"They've found us again, Solis," Fera leaned in to tell her brother.

Solis acknowledged what his sister had said but had a cold look in his eyes.

One of the creatures decided to swoop in with its serpent. The creature dropped the serpent but Solis caught it by its tail. Solis swung the serpent, like a club, and downed the winged creature. He tore off the bladed tail of the unconscious serpent as he walked over to the winged creature. Solis pinned the creature into the dirt as he stabbed the tail through its back. He grabbed the singular horn on its head and slammed the creature's face into the dirt.

"Tell me what you are," Solis demanded.

"Amphiteres...is our naaame. W-we a-are family of the w-winged ones."

Solis's face began to fill up with disgust as he realized what the amphitere was. With the new information engraved into his mind, Solis broke off its horn and drove it through its skull. The amphitere let out a scream but Solis stomped his foot down on its mouth, shattering its jaw. He let the amphitere die its slow death as he walked back over to the unconscious serpent. Solis simply stepped on the serpent's skull before moving on.

"What is it?" Tenacity questioned.

"Those things, amphiteres, are apparently our family."

Tenacity's face filled with disgust as well as he looked over at the writhing amphitere.

"It's time we get moving before more of those amphiteres find us."

Solis broke into a sprint and had everyone follow him. They reached the east side of the island and were standing on the beach, looking out toward the sea. Solis jumped off the beach and grew wings from his back. While in the air, he had a few things to say.

"Fly low everyone, we don't want to be seen by ships if we come across any."

They nodded and joined him as they all sprouted wings from their backs.

With a sonic boom, they immediately started flying across the ocean. The air rushed past them as they made their way to Spain. At the speed they were flying, they would be there in two hours.

Two hours later, the coast of Spain was in sight. Solis retracted his wings as he continued to barrel into the rocky coast of Spain. His landing caused some of the rocks to break apart, or off the coast, this happened as well when the others landed. They all hopped over the wall and stood on the sidewalk of Cadiz City.

"Solis we're a ways off from Engano AND we've landed before Elise has," said Tenacity.

"No problem, we just head for Engano then," Solis replied.

Before he could move, Lunis said something to him.

"Wait, did you forget we have masks on? Unless you want us to look suspicious, we take them off."

Lunis was the first to do so then everyone else followed her lead, but when Solis took his off, it ripped.

"Oh....shoot."

"Nice job, Solis, way to go," Tenacity teased.

"Welp, I guess we have a reason now to waste some time."

"Wait, before we go does anyone speak Ital-" Ad started but stopped,"-Oh, wait, nevermind."

The others laughed at Ad for his stupidity.

"Let's start looking then for a mask," suggested Solis.

The six of them started walking around Cadiz, asking locals for directions to a costume store. Some of the citizens were unnecessarily mean, and some were a bit more helpful.

Once they were given some proper directions, they made their way over to the store. It was modest and quite small but had an amazing selection of costumes. Like in Arizona, their masks were put at the back of the store. They filed through the aisles as they made their way to the back, looking along the shelves as they did. Solis approached the wall of masks and looked for one that was discreet.

"How about this one?"

Tenacity held up a hysterical-looking dragon mask to Solis.

"Get that away from me before I break your face," warned Solis.

Tenacity laughed as he put the mask back onto its shelf.

Solis looked back at the wall and picked up a black mask similar to the one he had ripped. A difference with this mask was that its eye sockets were actually open, instead of being covered up by black lenses. The left eye had a diamond painted on it that came out of the corner as if the mask was crying. The right eye had a diamond as well but was flipped. Solis took the mask off the shelf and showed it to Tenacity.

"Sheesh...that mask is actually pretty cool."

"It's the one I've decided on getting, so let's head over to the register.

"Wait! Now I want to have a unique mask for myself!"

"Tenacity, now's not the time for that."

"It'll be alright, Solis, I won't be long."

Solis had no choice but to comply, so he let Tenacity browse the shelves.

From behind him, Ad said, "I want my own now too, Solis! Let me choose one."

"Not you too, Ad."

"Let me just have one! I already know which one I'll take."

Solis looked at his brother for a few seconds.

"I give...you can have one."

Solis looked back up and saw that Fera, Muun, and Lunis were looking at him.

Solis sighed, "Yes, you guys can choose as well."

Not too long after, the others brought back the masks they wanted to take and showed them to Solis. For Fera, she had chosen some sort of faceplate that would cover the left half of her face. It was all black and had all four card suits surrounding the eye socket. The club suit was colored yellow, diamond colored a baby blue, hearts colored in a deep red, and the spades in a shiny silver.

Lunis's was a full face mask that was pure white. The right half of the mask had a droopy eye and half of a frown. The left side had a curvy eye and half a smile, which gave the mask a half sad, half happy look.

Muun had chosen something similar to her sister, but hers left her mouth exposed. It was white as well, but both eyes were curved downward. The way the eyes were shaped gave the mask a maniacal look, which did not suit Muun at all. On the mask's forehead, was a black spot with little cracks surrounding it.

Ad had picked up a mask that would cover only the top half of his face. This smokey, gray mask had horizontal eye slits. Three scratch marks ran down each eye and were painted in a blood-red color.

Tenacity had chosen a mask that would cover the bottom half of his face. The swampy green mask had a monstrous grin on the bottom, filled with sharp rows of teeth. A tongue was painted on and looked as if it came out of the mask.

After Solis took a good look at their masks, he led them over to the register to pay. As Solis pulled out his wallet, he realized he only had U.S. dollars. Solis didn't want to resort to doing it, but he had no other choice.

"We'll be taking these ma'am," Solis told the cashier.

"Of course, please take care."

Without them having to pay, the cashier sent them off with a smile.

"Solis why'd you do that?" Fera asked.

"I only had U.S. dollars, Fera. I didn't want to manipulate her consciousness, but we needed to move on."

Fera looked at Solis with contempt on her face.

"What's done is done, Fera, we just need to focus on heading to Engano now."

"How are we doing that though?" Tenacity wondered.

"We run. At this point, any civilian vehicle we take will endanger the people around us, so we might as well make the trip ourselves."

Solis put on his new mask and started walking.

"Where are you going?"

"Just follow me, Tenacity."

Solis led them into an alley between two buildings.

"Make sure we don't have any witnesses," commanded Solis.

Once he got an all-clear from his peers, he leaped onto the roof of the building.

With everyone on the rooftops, he said, "From here we just head north."

Solis broke into a sprint and jumped across the gaps of any buildings. They followed him closely as they traversed the roofs of Cadiz's buildings.

"Solis! Are we going over those mountains to get to Engano??"

Ad pointed at the mountain range that was only a few miles away from them.

"Yeah, just a little ways past those mountains is where we wanna be."

As Solis jumped across a gap, something from beneath him flew into his chest.

"Urrggh!?"

Solis fell backward and tumbled across the rooftop. He looked up and was met with a punch to the face. He reeled back even farther before he caught himself again. His foe threw another punch but Solis shifted to the side and caught his arm. Solis threw the person over his shoulder and slammed him onto the roof. Without letting go of their arm, Solis snapped the person's elbow. He didn't give his enemy time to scream as he quickly dropped to his knees and snapped the person's neck.

"Solis!" Ad screamed.

"I'm alright, it was just another serpent."

Solis and the others looked down at the dead serpent.

"S-Solis does this mean they know we're here?" Tenacity's voice was full of fear.

"No...no, I-I don't think so. I have a hunch that I-I think might be true."

"What is it then?"

"Okay...Kalamati can smell us, but the Matriarch actually has to send her underlings to go confirm it right? So far, we've killed all the serpents she's sent after us so that basically tells her that Kalamati's nose has been accurate thus far."

"Okay continue," Tenacity urged.

"Their last group was eliminated at Oculi Nebul, and this one right here," Solis pointed at the corpse, "is most likely part of their recent scouting party, to determine our location."

"That's probably true, but if Kalamati told the Matriarch that we're in Cadiz, which is really close to their base, wouldn't she have killed Kalamati already? I can't imagine the new Matriarch taking the risk of us already being so close."

"True, but I have a feeling that the Matriarch doesn't want to let go of her new toy so soon. Think about it, Tenacity, she has one of the last remaining people of our kind in her hands. This makes Kalamati a novel prize in her eyes, and on top of it, Kalamati is a Sun. She won't kill her until the very last moment."

Tenacity's eyes filled with hope at the chance to take back their comrade.

"But first, Tenacity, puppeteer this serpent and have it lie to the Matriarch. I'll have you do this with any other serpent we come across as well."

"I'll do my best. Hopefully, my technique buys us a little time to rescue Kalamati."

Tenacity stood over the corpse and used his Essence to manipulate it. Before sending it off, Solis fixed its arm. They followed the reanimated corpse as it hopped off the roof and into the alleyway. It shed its human skin and burrowed into the ground and headed north toward the mountains.

"Let's get going, we'll wait at the entrance for this guy to show up. When it gets there, we follow it into the Serpent Pillar's base."

Solis wasted no time and started sprinting again. They all decided to double-time it and zoomed across the rooftops. Half an hour later, they arrived at the base of the mountain range. Without hesitation, Solis was again the first to move. Each of them zipped up the mountain as they clambered over ledges, jumped over rocks, or weaved through trees.

As they climbed, Ad asked Solis, "Why don't we just fly to the base?"

Without looking back, Solis replied, "I'd love to, but the guard they most likely have guarding the entrance would probably spot us, so no."

They continued in silence until they reached the summit.

"Look over there," Solis pointed at a suspicious town surrounded by hills in trees in the middle of nowhere, "that's where the serpents live."

"In a small town?" Ad asked since he had never actually been to the Serpent Pillar's base.

"That's just a cover-up. You'll know exactly where the entrance is once we get there," Tenacity spoke softly into Ad's ear.

Ad looked at his brother as he hopped off the summit and headed for the bottom. It took them less time to go down than it did to go up. They continued to leap off whatever ledge they were on and let gravity most of the work, it wasn't like a long fall was going to hurt them anyway. Fifteen minutes later, the group found themselves back at the bottom.

"Tenacity, how far is your puppet from us?"

"If I had to say...twenty minutes away from us, Solis."

"We're making good time then."

They ran the rest of the way to the town and slowed down just before entering the perimeter.

The small town was set up circularly. It didn't have a lot of tall buildings, most only being two stories, and had a huge well in the middle of it. Oddly enough, most of the buildings were rather old-fashioned having straw roofing and cobblestone walls. On top of that, there didn't seem to be a lot of people either. In all, there had to have only been four-thousand people, just enough people so that each of them could occupy the houses in their town.

"Now that we're here, we'll hide in the trees and wait for Tenacity's puppet to come around."

They quickly split up and took a tree to sit in and wait. They watched as the 'townspeople' went about their day. All they were waiting for was the go-ahead from Tenacity.

As if right on schedule, Tenacity turned to Solis, "It's here."

"All right, observe it as it goes up to the well."

The reincarnated serpent emerged from the ground as it caught the people's attention. Some walked over to the serpent and spoke to it in Slytherian. Once they confirmed their fellow serpent's identity, they let it fall into the well. After the three serpents that confronted the reanimated serpent left, Solis jumped up high into the sky. Everyone mimicked Solis and jumped as well, all of them heading straight into the well. They latched onto some of the stones that jutted out from the walls as they watched the serpent enter through a passageway in the side of the well.

Solis let go of his stone slab and dropped further down. He grabbed ahold of a rock situated above the passageway and swung his body into the passage. Tenacity was the second to drop and dug his hand into the side of the passage and hoisted himself into it. Ad made a calculated jump and landed directly in the passage. Fera dug her nails into the walls and descended slowly and into the passage. Muun made a calculated jump, like Ad, and Lunis followed Fera's lead.

They followed along the dimly lit and damp passage until it led them to a gargantuan cavern. From the ceiling, stalactites could be seen? No...they were little buildings! These buildings hung upside down, dangling dangerously over the stalagmites beneath them. It was like a small, upside-down city. Buildings of multiple stories could be seen, just like a normal city would have, and had their own skyscrapers...no, in this case, they would be more like earthscrapers. In the middle of this dimly, fire touch-lit city was an earthscraper, most likely where the Matriarch resided, of a staggering twelve stories. The bottom of the earthscraper, just barely, touched the pointed stalagmite beneath it.

First, to even get up to the hanging city, you had to take a suspended staircase that led to a suspended bridge. From there, you could take the bridge and walk along the other bridges that let you traverse through the city. As you walked along the bridges, you could take more suspended stairs, if you wanted to ascend to the upper levels of the buildings.

"Solis so how do we get to the matriarch? We clearly can't use the bridges and stairs."

"There's an obvious solution for that, Tenacity, we'll walk along the bottom until we reach that giant stalagmite."

Solis pointed to the stalagmite that just touched the bottom of the largest earthscraper. He hopped down the ledge and started walking along the bottom. They broke into a jog when Tenacity told them that his puppet was nearing the Matriarch's chamber.

"Tenacity tell us when your puppet has told its lie to the Matriarch. Once it leaves we start climbing as fast as we can."

They were at the base of the stalagmite they would take up to the earthscraper.

About ten minutes passed when Tenacity told Solis his puppet completed its job. They immediately climbed the stalagmite and jumped onto the bottom of the building. Each of them lifted themselves onto ledges before continuing.

"From here, we make a break for it, but try, as much as you can, not to get caught. Steer clear from the windows and just climb," Solis instructed.

Tenacity took the lead this time and grabbed hold of the ledge above him. From there, he flung himself up to each ascending level. The others followed closely behind him. About halfway up the earthscraper, they had gotten noticed.

"Brethren! We have intruders!"

Solis heard one of them shout.

They climbed even faster up the building. At the one-hundredth and eleventh floor, a tail broke through the glass and wrapped itself around Solis just as he jumped from the ledge.

"Solis!""Lunis and Tenacity screamed.

Lunis jumped onto the floor Solis was pulled into with Tenacity right behind her.

"Tenacity! Don't forget why we're here, go save Kalamati first!"

Tenacity hesitantly went back out and climbed the last floor of the earthscraper.

Lunis continued through the oddly empty floor in search of Solis. As she searched, she passed dozens of sets of bones and rotting flesh most seemed to be mammalian. Many spears were stuck in the columns of stone that held the floor together, likely from the fallen warriors around her. She turned her head to the sound of something being thrown into one of the columns. Lunis dashed over to Solis and shook his body.

Solis lifted his head and said, "Lunis watch out!"

Lunis looked up and to the right where she saw a massive tail. She was smacked straight into a column, which knocked the wind out of her. Slithering past the stone columns, the Matriarch's personal guards showed themselves.

The green serpent was known as Veneno and she was the first Fang of Enganosa. Her body was a whopping sixty feet in length! Along the sides of her body, were rows of small, serrated spikes. She had a gunmetal gray underside that was heavily armored, unlike the other serpents. Veneno sported an iridescent hood with serrated edges as well. The odd thing about her though, was that she lacked the long fangs the rest of her race had. Instead, she had multiple rows of small, sharp teeth.

Detior was the second Fang of Enganosa, and he sported the beautiful purple body. He was the same length as Veneno but didn't have the serrated spikes running across his body. His body had tough armored scales. His pearly white underbelly was suspiciously smooth and soft-looking. Unlike Veneno, Detior didn't have a hood, but a little fin on top of his head, and it ran down his head. In his mouth, he had sword-like, metal fangs that couldn't excrete poison.

"Solis, you need to go to the floor above! I can take care of these two while you guys get Tenacity."

"I'm counting on you, Lunis."

Solis got up and jumped through the ceiling and into the last floor. There he saw Tenacity, Ad, Fera, and Muun standing before the matriarch.

"Ahhh, Aurelios, my predecessors told me about you. Do you like the remodeling that I, Enganosa, made to our Den?"

Up on her throne, was the Matriarch of the Serpents...Enganosa of Deceit. She was a stunningly beautiful serpent. As she twisted her lengthy and thin body, the jewels on her body radiated all the colors of the spectrum. Her underbelly was as white as snow with a soft-looking texture. Her heterochromatic eyes dazzled, like stars, as the light of the torches around her throne gave off their warm light. Enganosa was not to be judged by her looks as she also had a set of deadly fangs and a bladed tail. Through those fangs and tail, she could spit, or inject, any poisonous substance known to man.

Solis looked down to the left of her throne and saw who they were trying to rescue. Kalamati was on her knees as rusty shackles encompassed her wrists. The rust on the shackles had turned her wrists into obscene colors of purple and blue. She had shackles around her ankles as well that had caused the same effect. Bruises, cuts, gashes, and all sorts of injuries could be seen on Kalamati's body, some of the injuries she had were from seventeen years ago and had not yet healed. Her ash-blonde hair, with a black undertone, was in tatters and draped over her swollen face. Kalamati also had a set of tubes in her nose and led up into the holes of Enganosa's tail. All these years, Kalamati had not been given the chance to recover and had been subjected to being pumped full of sedatives by the Matriarch.

"I'll be feasting on your corpse for this, Enganosa," Solis threatened.

"I'll kill you with that same tail you used to sedate my comrade," Tenacity also threatened the Matriarch.

"Ad, Fera, Muun...get Kalamati out of her shackles. Tenacity and I are going to snatch this serpent's head right off her haughty corpse."

Ad led their charge as he ran straight toward Kalamati.

"Oh, darling, I can't let you do that," said Enganosa.

With a flick of her tail, she called up her minions to aid her. They came up through the ground and the windows as they started to gather around Ad and them. Fera leaped at a serpent as it opened its mouth ready to bite her. She thrust both her hands into the serpent's mouth and pulled both of its fangs out. She then spun around and stabbed both fangs into its head as she continued to run.

A serpent had struck at Ad, but he was able to move out of the way. He caught the serpent's head in a chokehold, now holding the advantage over it. Its brethren attacked the occupied Ad, but Muun swooped in and grabbed it by the dorsal plate it had on its back. Ad crushed his serpent's skull and threw its body at Muun. Muun used her serpent and slammed both of them through the ground.

They fought through many more waves before reaching Kalamati, much to Enganosa's chagrin. The three of them got to work on Kalamati's shackles and broke them easily. Her, now frail, body fell to the floor with a light thud. Fera yanked the tubes coming out of her nose and they quickly started tending to Kalamati. Red, amber, and cerulean mist surrounded her body as they seeped into open cuts and hovered over bruised areas, completely repairing them. Fera wiped away Kalamati's hair that covered her face and saw the face she hadn't seen for seventeen years.

Tears streamed down her face as she caressed Kalamati's face. Long and lush eyelashes adorned her eyelids and gave off an enigmatic aura. She had soft cheekbones with a cute chin. Her skin was a very light shade of brown and matched well with her ash-blonde hair. Fera wiped away her tears when she noticed that her eyelids started to flutter.

"K-Kalamati? H-how are you doing?" Fera asked.

Kalamati hadn't given her an answer since she was still trying to regain full consciousness. She sat up and released herself from Fera's arms. After she rubbed her eyes she looked at her surroundings and tried to remember where she was.

"S-Sol Regnum...G-Great Ones...c-cowards," Kalamati viciously shook her head, "The serpents they're after me! They've been chasing-"

Kalamati looked at Fera with fear in her eyes.

"Kalamati what's wrong?"

Kalamati kicked Fera away and sent her flying off the one-hundredth and eleventh floor. Ad and Muun stood up in shock.

"Kalamati! It's us! The Arcanas!" Ad shouted at her.

"Your tongue seethes with poison, snake, do not use your mouth to utter the name of my comrades."

Kalamati swung at Ad but he reflexively ducked. Kalamati swept his legs and kicked Ad off the building as well.

"A mere underling like you could never match strength with the Third Sun!"

She turned her gaze toward Muun, who was frozen in fear. Kalamati picked the girl up by her hair as she struggled.

"Kalamati! Stop, what're you doing?!"

Solis chopped at Kalamati's hand and kicked her away. Kalamati emerged from the rubble she was kicked into and looked at Solis.

"You seem to be a strong serpent, maybe you'll actually put up a fight."

"What are you saying? It's me! Aurelios!"

Kalamati's eyes quickly filled with rage and she said, "I don't want the First Sun's name to come out of a vile mouth like yours."

With a boom, she quickly closed the distance between her and Solis. Tenacity intervened and was able to subdue Kalamati from behind before she could attack.

"Such scummy tactics!" She yelled.

"What's gotten into you?!"

While Kalamati was occupied, Solis told Muun, "The way things are going, this whole cavern is going to disappear. Grab everyone and get out! QUICKLY!"

Muun nodded and ran over to the hole Solis made earlier and dropped to find her sister.

Solis looked up at Enganosa on her throne with a smug grin.

"What did you do to her?!?!"

"Why I just pumped her full of hallucinatory substances for the past...oh I don't know...seventeen years."

She gave him an even bigger smile.

"Don't think that I, Enganosa, wouldn't prepare for your arrival. I knew that you guys would find us, it was just a matter of time. So, I, of course, made sure I would win."

As she laughed, Solis closed the distance between them. He brought his right hand back and intended for that one blow to completely obliterate Enganosa.

"Aurelios?! Is that you?!"

Solis stopped his attack when he heard Kalamati say his name.

"Watch out! There's a serpent in front of you!"

Solis's face grew into a smile and he replied.

"Oh, you're back now, Kalamati, that's good," Solis dropped his guard as he continued talking, "I'll deal with Enganosa then we can get out of here."

Solis faced Enganosa once more and readied his fist.

"AURELIOS! What are you doing?"

Kalamati flipped Tenacity over her head and sent him through the floor. She jumped over to Enganosa and punched Solis away. He crashed into a stone column and let the rubble fall on him.

Kalamati ran over to Enganosa and said, "Aurelios, what're doing? Why didn't you move?"

She continued to chat with Enganosa, which left Solis confused.

"A-Aurelios? I'm down here though, Kalamati. Enganosa isn't...."

Solis quickly realized what else those hallucinatory substances did to Kalamati. As evident by her actions, she had been manipulated into seeing her allies as enemies and vice versa. At that point, Solis knew that he couldn't hold back against Kalamati. He knocked away the rubbles and stood back on his feet.

"Caerelios!" He shouted.

Kalamati stopped her chatter with Enganosa and looked at Solis.

"How do you know my true name, serpent?."

"After seventeen years THIS is how you greet the First Sun? I'll have to teach you who stands at the top again, Caerelios."

Kalamati's blood started to boil.

"I said don't utter his name!"

She flew at Solis and swung. He moved his head to the right and used both of his hands to grapple Kalamti's shoulders. Solis slammed her into the ground, rolled over, and flung her away. She came to a harsh stop as she dug her hand into the ground. Kalamati ran at Solis again, he did the same, and their fists clashed, which shook the whole floor. Solis dropped to the floor and used both of his legs to bring Kalamati to the floor. In retaliation, she brought her elbow down onto Solis. He barely escaped her attack when he redirected her attack into the floor beside them.

Solis wrapped his legs around her sides and tossed her over his head. Kalamati grabbed his hair as she flew backward and slammed him again into the ground. She straddled him and started throwing a flurry of punches. Solis tried his best to put up his guard but was unable to as Kalamati's blows kept getting through. He slightly shifted his weight and caused Kalamati to go off-balance. She caught herself but was too late as Solis landed an uppercut on her.

As she tumbled in the air, she used her Essence. An azure mist formed into four whip-like structures. One of the whips wrapped itself around Solis's forearms and pulled him toward Kalamati.

"?!"

Solis didn't expect her to use it there and was hit straight in the gut. Kalamati used her other whip and threw him back down. Kalamati landed safely as she used one of her whips to wrap around a stray metal bar poking out of the ceiling. Solis got up quickly and brought out his Essence as well, and he charged Kalamati with his big hands. Kalamati wrapped her whip around Solis's hand but he retracted it and summoned it again. Having slipped past Kalamati, he grabbed her arm and flung her into a column. He grabbed a handful of rubble in his Essence and tossed it at Kalamati. Her whips took form above the rubble that hid her and broke all the stones that were thrown at her.

As she shook the dust off of her shoulders, she said, "Your good, really good...for a serpent that is."

Solis didn't respond and instead, opened up his mouth. He let his golden-yellow ball collect until he was ready to release it.

"W-wait! How are you able to do that?! That light belongs to-"

Solis fired his golden beam. Kalamati rolled out of the way and watched as his beam melted through column after column, and eventually the walls of the floor they were on. Kalamati looked back with wide-eyes. Solis looked at her as well and saw confusion set on her face. He could tell that she was trying to make sense of what she had seen and was fighting against the drug that Enganosa administered.

Throughout all this, Enganosa had been watching but was shocked as well when she saw the destructive capabilities of Solis's race. Her instincts told her to get out of there, so she listened. As she started to move, the ground beneath her throne gave way.

"I told you I would kill you wouldn't I?!" Screamed Tenacity as he grabbed the end of her tail.

"Noooooooo!!."

With a visceral squelch, Tenacity tore off her tail and jammed it through her skull. Next, he tore off her fangs shoved them down her eyes. Enganosa screamed for a few more seconds before dying completely. Tenacity stood over her body and ripped off her head, he would be taking it back with him as a trophy. Kalamati had looked over to Enganosa's location when she screamed and witnessed her death as well.

In confusion, she yelled, "Aurelios!"

Solis took his chance and quickly used partial-transformation. He swung hard with his left hand and sent out a boom as his fist collided with Kalamati. She dropped to the floor and went limp. He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder.

"Tenacity, we leave now!"

He nodded in response and pointed his head upward, Solis did the same. They shot a beam through the earth and jumped through the holes. As they resurfaced, they caught the attention of the serpents in the town.

"W-what?!" One of them yelled.

Their lives were cut short when Tenacity and Solis fired their beams once again. They went in opposite directions as each of their beams mowed down the serpents and cut through the town's buildings. They stood, back to back, as they were surrounded by fire and black smoke. Solis took Kalamati and set her body up against a tree that was outside of the town.

"Tenacity. We're taking care of this Pillar right here," Solis said as he looked up at Tenacity.

"How exactly?"

"Simple. Just like this."

Solis walked back over to the edge of town and transformed. His huge, golden ball gathered once again and he shot it at the ground. Tenacity smiled as he followed his cousin's lead. Together, both their black and yellow beams tore through the earth and into the cavern below. As they shot into the cavern, they could hear the screams of the serpents. They ignored it and continued their onslaught, and completely obliterated the cavern. Once they were confident that the serpents didn't exist anymore, they sat back and admired their work. Black smoke rose from the massive crater and along with it, carried the souls of those serpents.

"Time we leave, Tenacity. We have to find our friends."

Solis jogged over to the Kalamati and picked her up again. They had looked around a bit when they found Muun, and the others, in a patch of trees. After he assessed their conditions, he laid Kalamati against a tree and took a seat himself, Tenacity decided not to sit down.

"I'm glad you got out safe. All of you," Solis rubbed Muun's head as he talked.

He looked over at his brother and sister, and asked, "How are your guys' injuries?"

"It hurts. It'll probably take a few days to heal," said Fera.

"It feels like my insides were rearranged."

Ad held his stomach as he talked.

Fera had an angry look on her face as she looked at the cause for injury, Ad was indifferent toward Kalamati, but she knew it wasn't entirely her fault. Still, Fera couldn't help but want to get Kalamati back in some way. Her thoughts of payback were stopped when Solis began to talk.

"I'm giving us two hours of rest. No more than that because we need to meet up with Elise."

The airport in Enganosa was, luckily for them, a couple of miles away from them, a trip they could easily make in half an hour.

With Solis's permission, all of their tensed-up bodies relaxed. Ad and Fera let out pained groans as they laid down on the grass. Lunis laid down as well, and Solis noticed that she had cuts on her body. He had yet to ask what happened to the Fangs that she fought earlier.

"Lunis, what happened with the Fangs?"

"Disposed of. They did have some tricks up their sleeves, but you could tell that from this."

She slightly lifted up her shirt and revealed some more injuries. As they chatted about her fight, Solis felt some movement beside him.

"U-ugh...m-my head..."

Kalamati sat up more as she held her head and looked around. She sat there as her friends looked at her with happy gazes.

"I-it's you guys."

They instantly crowded and hugged her tightly, except for Solis who sat back.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch. Lighten up guys, I'm injured remember?"

At her request, they backed off and listened to her.

"You're yourself now aren't you, Caerelios?"

"Yeah...I'm back, Asterios."

Tenacity helped his fellow Sun onto her feet and they embraced. With Tenacity's support, she was able to turn and look at Solis.

"Hello, Aurelios, it's good to see you again."

"Likewise. It's been a while."

Solis stretched his hand out for a shake. Kalamati took his hand but pulled him in and gave him a hug.

"Stop with the tough guy act, Aurelios, give me a proper greeting."

Solis let out a laugh and properly embraced Kalamati. Solis, Tenacity, and Kalamati looked at each other and tears started to well up in their eyes. All of them fell to their knees as their tears started to flow. With their arms around one another, they gave each other a teary-eyed smile. Finally, the strongest force of Sol Regnum had come together once again.

The Three Suns were back.