Chapter 18 - Lord Aquaron's secret

Rill, followed by Lelita and Silva, made their way towards the Aquaron mansion which was located to the far right corner of the courtyard, to the South-east of the royal castle that was fixed in the middle.

The mansion itself was, as you'd expect, blue in color and like the other mansions, it was made entirely out of stone, decorated and carved by the finest artisans. Upon the roof of the building, there was also an enormous blue whale that spouted water from its blowhole in to the pool that had been built on top of the mansion.

But those things did not matter at the moment, and the group ignored them and made their way into the mansion. There, through a series of complicated passages, they arrived at a small room that had little to nothing inside.

Only a wooden chair was there along with a little bookshelf that was nested on the wall. Rill took the lead and picked up the wooden chair. He pushed it against the wall where its four feet, which were all carved in different shapes at the bottom, pressed in perfectly. Then, the boy liquefied his left arm which reached for the bookshelf. There he pulled a series of books in a specific order and only then did he pull back the chair from the wall.

Rill then pressed his foot down on to the ground which then opened a secret passage that lead down a series of spiraling stairs.

"Well that was a lot more complicated than the one in the King's throne room." Lelita noted as she followed Rill down the staircase.

"Well…" Rill began, now holding a torch that he took from the wall within the underground passage. "This one was built in more recent times." The boy said in a grim voice.

"Where does it lead?" Silva asked as he rubbed his sleep deprived eyes.

"You'll see." Rill replied and continued down the spiraling flight of stairs.

Deeper and deeper did the children went until they eventually reached a room that was completely dark with the exception of a giant glowing sphere that glowed in the center.

Rill gritted his teeth as his eyes were left wide open. He downed his head and continued around the room to light the stands that were placed all around.

The room was circular in nature and within its center was a fountain of blood stained water where the sphere hovered above. In addition to that, they were several skeletons lined around the perimeter of the room.

"What is this?" Lelita asked with sharp eyes.

"It's was built by my father." Rill said softly.

"Are you saying…" Lelita began and then said quietly. "that Lord Aquaron is the traitor."

"I don't know." Rill replied. "He told me that he was going to do something amazing here. That this would become the testing ground for a long awaited project of his." The boy then walked to the fountain of blood. This was different from a normal sacrifice chamber. The sphere itself still continued to consume the blood from the water.

Whoever had done this had already sacrificed the bodies to create the sphere. And recently they must have filled the small pool of water with blood to give the sphere more strength in order to compensate for the others that had been destroyed.

Rill liquefied his arms that fell to the ground and which then rose upward to form the shape of two hammers. "We can deal with the details later." The boy said fiercely. "For now, you two help me destroy this thing. To break one of this size won't be that easy." And then he hammered his fists into the sphere repeatedly as Lelita shot a beam of light and Silva sliced away at the object with his blade.

~

Lord Emrit hopped his way closer to the Rift with Mohan clutched within his arms. The battle there hadn't stopped and more shadows still continued to make their way out into the human world. And to make matters worse, the soldiers could only depend on the light of the torches to make out the creatures in the darkness. Unlike the Gifted, those men and women did not possess such remarkable eyesight. And considering that Emrit himself had trouble differentiating the night from the shadows, he could only fathom how difficult it had been on the soldiers.

The man looked back to where the fist of flame still bloomed. And in a few hours, it would continue to become even more difficult. Though, at the very least, it would be dusk by then.

Despite the Lord Firestone's noble sacrifice, Emrit had no doubt in his mind that the horrible shadow still lived. It was probably only being detained by the heat that poured through it. And when that fire found itself burning no more, it would gather itself and once more continue to wreak havoc.

Soon, the other Gifted leaders arrived. Though Lady Natura, for one, was already here and waiting on a carpet of light with the tag along, Lord Electora, in tow.

"So now what?" Emrit asked as King Roy approached.

"First we deal with things here." Roy said as he looked to the rift. "Since we can't close it, I'll place a barrier around it to keep those creatures from continuing to enter into our world. Then you all must continue to destroy whatever malice beasts have already made it into our world. After that, we will rest and prepare to face the demon lord. Though since I will be focusing on encapsulating the Rift, I will not be able to help much in the upcoming battle."

"That's fine." Riot hopped off from the carpet. "We'll handle things fine." Lord Electora then looked to the Lady Natura. "Mind giving us some light?"

And at that, the woman let her golden light flow along the battlefield to illuminate the darkness. Though there were those of the Firestone family that tried to do the same, the light of the Natura glowed brighter than them all. It was a shame that most of her family were out protecting the far outlying villages. They could have been a great help in this fight.

And with light to peer through the darkness, Emrit could now see the beasts that still lingered - five giants, several tens of monkeys and wolves along with hordes of ogres and goblins, two giant birds that flew above, and a weird octopus like creature.

"Seems like you've got quite some work to do." The King said as he walked forward and summoned a massive ball that he let encapsulate the Rift to stop anything else that came from hell. "I will hold my ground." The man groaned as a giant punched a fist from within his barrier. "The rest is up to you all."

"Well then." Emrit looked around again. He also noticed the silver man that was engaging in battle with Raus. "I suppose that I'll deal with that first." He said and then hopped off in that direction.

The silver man seemed too preoccupied to even notice the Lord Stronghold who fell from the skies and landed a fist on his skull that sent the man flying into the earth. "Now that wasn't too hard." Emrit said with smirk.

It was then that the man noticed that Eon was trapped within some ice. "Hey Raus." The man pointed to his son. "Help him out."

Raus nodded and soon defrosted Eon who was caught by his father as he fell from the air. The young man had fallen unconscious within the ice so Emrit only placed him gently to lie on the ground. And once more, the man looked around to see the other leaders dealing with the beasts that remained.

Then the man focused his attention to where the silver man had fallen on to the ground. "Guess I'll see who you are." He said as he reached a hand to the man's hood.

It was then that a mountain of spiky ice emerged and rammed into the Lord Stronghold. Of course, he remained unharmed but the silver warrior had vanished within those few moments. "Tsk." Lord Emrit said to himself. "To think that he was able to stay conscious with one of my punches. I knew I held back but sill…" Then with a simple strike, Emrit shattered the mountain of ice which then crumbled to the ground. "What exactly is that man?"

~

The silver warrior had called upon a creature of shadow which then transformed into a relatively small bird that took him away into the sky. Malice fumed from around his head where the Lord Stronghold had hit him. If not for the shadows within him, he would have been dead. But even with that malice that shielded his head, there was still a life threating crack in his skull. Though luckily for him, the malice had already begun to heal that.

But that would take some time. Healing creatures composed of nothing but malice itself was one thing but for the dark art to heal flesh, it would take a while.

"Well, didn't you get your ass handed to you?" A voice mocked from above and the silver warrior looked to see a crow flying beside him.

"What do you want?" the man asked, his voice no longer faked.

"Some Gifted found the last sphere. Some boy from the Aquaron family showed them the way." The crow said.

"And you didn't do anything to stop them?" the man raged as he swung his blade for the crow who flapped away in fright.

"Hey hold on now." The crow began as he placed some more distance between him and the man. "I'm not the fighting type, plus I've already done my part."

The silver warrior went silent at that.

"Hey, no point arguing about it now. What's done is done, I'll take my leave now." The crow said finally as he drifted away with the wind and flew off into the night.