Flames of Betrayal 2

-Ranika night-blade-

"R-ranika, wake up!"

Opening my tired and heavy eyelids, I looked around, still confused as to why I was getting an early wake-up call from Luna of all people.

"What is it?" I asked, with a bit of irritation.

"There's someone outside dipshit, now get up and handle it," Midnight interjected. The hatred in his tone was still as evident as ever.

"Huh? What the hell are you on about?"

Then I heard it, the guttural scream that sounded like it came from tatiana. The sheer amount of pain that emanated from the noise made even me wince slightly. 'Who the hell would attack her of all people?' I thought to myself, still too tired to grasp the severity of the situation. Getting myself out of bed was an arduous task. It felt like my body weighed three times what it usually did, and my limbs felt weak and shaky. 'What is wrong with me?'

At that internal thought, lighting began pouring out from me without any warning or intent, it started congregating itself into a single ball that illuminated my small room with a light that would rival even a full-fledged star, at one point it became so bright I had to cover my eyes. The brightness dimmed just as quickly as it had arrived, letting me open my eyes again without any further strain on them. "What the fuck?" The words left my mouth with a tone of utter disbelief.

"You haven't been shown nor told what the truth of your power is, have you, brother?" A familiar voice asked. Looking at the ball of lightning I tilted my head slightly, then responded hesitantly.

"Caleb? What the hell is going on? I don't have time for this, there is an attacker out front and someone I care about is in danger. So, I say this with all the respect in the world, kindly fuck off, ok?"

"I could do that, sure, or I could help you kill whoever is out there and give you answers little brother." He replied, his tone shifting from his usual calm sound to one that almost seemed desperate.

With a long sigh, I caved in, "Alright, fine, what do you want to show me?"

The little ball of sparks appeared to jump up and down almost as though it was excited by my reluctant reply, and then, with one final shake, it became completely still. Without a warning or any indication, it shot directly at me, hitting me square in the head with enough force to throw me back onto my bed.

"Ah, what the fuck!"

"Calm down, it will be easier to direct you when I'm inside you rather than floating around like a little ball." Caleb's voice resounded in my head, it was a nauseating feeling. I'd never had another speak directly into my mind before.

"Now, what I want you to do is focus on the lightning that you currently possess. Picture my core that is inside of your body, breaking itself open. Can you do that?" He asked.

"Give me a moment," I replied, turning my attention inward. I focused on my cores. They each looked like bright shining stars of different colors inside of me. Closing my focus in on the one that shined with a radiant black and purple light I tried to force it open, the core seemed to put up resistance in response to my attempt making my head feel like it had just been struck from behind by a large object.

"Ah fuck..." I said out loud as the pain kept assaulting me.

"You need to focus more, the pain will be intense but that is to be expected. Now finish what you started." Caleb chided, his voice echoing through my mind like I was hearing him from the other side of a tunnel.

Returning my concentration to the core, I pressed down on it mentally exerting whatever mental energy had left. The pain from this began to radiate down my spine as small fissures appeared on the core. Just as I felt that I was going to black out the core exploded inside of me with a burst of black and vibrant purple light, at first I thought the explosion was going to tear my chest wide open but that never happened.

"Open your eyes ranika." Caleb said drawing me out of my thoughts and fears.

Doing as instructed I opened my eyes and what greeted me was not exactly what I expected. Strewn throughout my room was lightning but it wasn't moving around erratically as one would expect when in front of electricity, instead it remained completely still. It was beautiful to look at, the purple arcs crossed with black creating a spiderweb mosaic.

"What the hell happened to you?" Midnight said, his cold and flat tone undermining the sight in the room.

"Y-you l-look different r-ranika..." Luna followed up, her voice sounded confused yet happy.

"What are you guys talking about..?" I replied hesitantly. "Take a look in the mirror brother."

Doing as I was told I went in the bathroom to see what the three of them were on about. Without even thinking the words left my mouth, "holy shit!" Standing in front of me was a familiar yet different man entirely, he still had the same shoulder-length hair but its color had changed to pink and black, completely erasing all evidence of the vibrant blue hue it once had.

His golden eyes still held their ever-alluring color but were now even more striking as a tinge of purple circled the irises, it was the horns that struck me the most. They seemed to frame his head like an obsidian halo, coming out from his temples and sweeping back before curving into each other.

"What is all of this..." I muttered, completely surprised.

"This is your true gift as the devourer ranika, you were never taught how to master a core correctly. This whole time you've just been borrowing their aura but now, you can physically manifest their element to its true potential. The change in appearance is a side effect of this, so as you unlock more be prepared for that." Caleb explained, his tone seemed a bit heartbroken when he spoke though making me worry.

"How is it you know all of this caleb?"

"Because, before our clan's subsequent destruction, I had read through father's research papers, along with the book containing our clan's forbidden arts."

"So... you're saying if I unlock mom's or luna's cores, I could end up looking like them as well, even midnight's?"

"Yes, eventually that could be the case, I still don't know everything but what I do know is that unlocking further cores will be more difficult and painful than mine, so bear that in mind going forward."

"Oh, great, so I get to deal with more of that. I'm looking forward to it." I replied sarcastically.

"More importantly, shouldn't you be handling the situation outside already, pretty boy?" Midnight asked in a sardonic tone.

"Ah, fuck." Realizing he was right I went straight for the door before I stopped and asked, "Midnight, Luna, are you guys ok if I fight without you this time?"

"Fine with me, I'd rather not deal with weaklings anyway," Midnight replied, with what I could only assume was an eye roll, seeing as how he didn't have a face but his tone seemed heavily sarcastic.

"I-i don't m-mind," Luna said, her voice soft and gentle.

"Alright then, I'll be back!" I yelled as I left the room, my excitement was obvious but so was my worry, I didn't know what exactly I was walking into but I knew I was ready for it.

Floating above the crater I gazed downward, below me was Gram, broken and beaten. Why he had done all of this was still unclear, as was this supposed "benefactor " but now that he was broken like this getting answers shouldn't be too difficult. However, it seemed I hadn't been as thorough in his beating as I thought because he still had that ever-irritating grin on his face, which looked way less charming when blood covered the edges of it.

Floating down towards him, I started to realize that I was able to hold myself in the air without any help, 'I'll have to look into this later!' I thought, a tad bit too excited considering the situation. Landing softly on the ground I began to walk in the direction of the crater I made, my every footfall seemed to be followed by a small thunderclap as lightning flowed around me without restraint.

"Explain, who is this benefactor and why did you attack your comrade's gram." My voice sounded foreign to my ears, as it had an ethereal sound to it thanks to the lightning aura I was exerting.

"If you think I'm saying anything....you are sorely mistaken." He replied, his voice was smooth and confident, which was both confusing and worrying.

Letting out a sigh, I prepared myself for something I'd never done before and hoped I wouldn't be doing ever again. It was a little trick caleb had informed me of right after telling me I could use the electrical currents to essentially teleport short distances, pointing my index finger at gram I let a small bolt of lightning shoot from it directly at his neck.

The result? His entire nervous system had essentially been shorted out, making every single nerve ending ignite with severe pain, similar to being lit a flame. He tried to let out a scream in response to this, but all that came out was a silent cry. His face had twisted into a brutal look of agony. I didn't particularly enjoy causing torment to others, but this time, I felt a small grin creep onto my face.

Stopping the current, I gave him a moment to collect himself, "Let's try this again, shall we?"

"I-i can't tell you!" He screamed.

Lifting my hand again to repeat the previous attack seemed to have changed his mind instantly because he quickly began speaking.

"I don't know his name! All I know is he promised me more power and a higher rank in the military if I killed all of you! I swear this is all I know, so please don't do that again!"

"Where did you meet this man?"

"I met him at Lutes Tavern, I'm supposed to give him a report on you tomorrow! So you can go in my stead and meet him yourself!" His tone was becoming more desperate with each sentence that left his filthy mouth, making me cringe in disgust at how quickly he turned on his benefactor just to save himself some pain. 'What a fucking snake...'

"I suppose I should thank you then, at least now I have a location to find this person."

"So you are going to let me go right...?" He muttered with a hopeful tone. Shaking my head I raised my hand again and this time I'd do more than just cause pain. Forming lightning in my palm I turned the singular bolt into a sharp purple blade that vibrated intensely as the air around it was forced away from its very existence.

"For your crimes of treason, as well as harming civilians, I, ranika night-blade, hereby sentence you to death." The words left my mouth as the blade came down on his neck. It cut cleanly through, cauterizing the wound as it did so. His head rolled a few inches away from his body, a look of shock and fear etched into his face, "let you go? After what you did, you're lucky I saw fit to end this quickly, asshole."

Letting the aura fade away, I turned around to see the damage Gram had wrought, thankfully no one was killed but tatiana was in even worse shape than before and now sophie was in critical condition as well. "Tch, I told her not to fight anymore...she never fucking listens to me." Letting out a sigh I walked over and picked up sophie's unconscious body off the ground and made my way for the front door.

"Gwen, are you going to come along? Or do you want to just stand there and stare at me all night?" I jabbed, a small grin flitting across my face.

"Oh! uh, coming!" She replied.

'This is going to be a lot to explain...Ah, whatever, at least now I have a goal.' I thought to myself as I went inside.