Chapter 19 - The final battle approaches

Though it took some time and quite a bit of effort, the three finally managed to get a few cracks into the giant sphere.

"Dammit!" Rill yelled as he watched the sphere slurp the blood from the pool to heal itself. "It seems that we'll have to deal with this first." He continued, referring to the pool of bloody water.

"How do we do that?" Lelita asked as she wiped her sweaty forehead.

"If we simply break the pool and let it spill out, I doubt that it would do much. So we'll have to get it away from the room." The boy explained as he took a seat on the ground. Had they been well rested, perhaps they could have destroyed the sphere without much trouble. No, Rill shook his head. Even if their strength was at their max, destroying a sphere like this would still be a challenge. This one was much denser and stronger than the others.

"I suppose I'll go get some buckets so that we could fetch the water out." Rill said with a sigh as he got up and proceeded to make his way to the stairs.

"Can't you just move the water yourself?" Silva asked, who was lying flat on the ground while he struggled to keep his eyes open.

Rill looked back with dimmed eyes. "Unfortunately I do not possess the free nature of the water element. I can only control the water that my body creates, anything else than that is beyond me." And then the boy continued up the stairs only to return later with some buckets along with some soldiers that the boy had found still guarding the royal compound.

Then, with some time and even more effort, the group scraped away whatever water remained in the bloody pool and took it out of the room, while the twisted their faces at the spell of the blood, where they then threw it away in the drains.

Now, once more they were left with the task of breaking the glowing orb. But none of them quite had the strength left to do that. They did manage to once more create cracks in it but at this rate, they would not break the sphere until dusk tomorrow.

"We need help." Rill said. He looked to Lelita and Silva who were both panting on the ground. Then he ordered three of the soldiers. "One of you head to the Firestone family mansion, another to the Electura mansion and the third to the castle. You should be able to find Teya Firestone, Blyke Electura and Evan Stronghold. Those three should be able to help us."

And then off the soldiers went while the Gifted along with Silva took a short break.

~

Marcus continued to watch the boy with sharpened eyes. He wondered what would happen next. But his thoughts were interrupted as a soldier's voice that echoed throughout the castle. "Evan Stronghold, are you here?" Upon hearing the voice, Marcus briefly left the room and returned with the soldier in tow.

"What do you want?" Marcus asked.

The soldier saluted and bowed slightly as he spoke. "Rill Aquaron has sent me to request the help of Evan Stronghold in destroying a strange orb in the basement of the Aquaron mansion."

"Basement?" Marcus stroked the small beard on his chin.

"Well yes…Rill Aquaron said that it was urgent and that he would explain later." The soldier replied.

"I see." Marcus dimmed his head. "By strange orb, I suppose that you mean that Rill has found the unknown source of the Rift. If that's the case…" Marcus looked to Evan as he got up. "Sorry kid, but this is serious. I'll make sure to destroy it quickly and come back." And with that said, he left the room but told the soldier to stay there to watch over Evan.

~

Another soldier had gone to the Electura mansion but as you would expect, that one found nothing but closed doors waiting for him.

On the other hand, the soldier that went to the Firestone mansion found both Teya and Blyke there. From the looks of it the two were in a sorrow filled state, the young girl especially, whose eyes had been wet with tears.

"Um excuse me…" the guard began as he bowed with a salute. "Rill Aquaron has sent a request for the two of you to assist him in destroying a strange orb found in the basement of the Aquaron mansion."

"Orb?" the young girl said quietly and then got up as she wiped her eyes. "Come on Blyke." She ordered before the young man could get a word in and then left the room with the soldier leading the way.

~

Maya flew onward to the battlefield and eventually she made it to the Rift where the great family leaders now gathered. But she soon noticed that the Lord Firestone was not amongst them and quickly made the connection to that of the burning fist.

But other than that, everything seemed to be going quite nicely. The king had placed a barrier around the Rift while the rest of the malice beasts were being handled with ease now that all the Gifted had gathered under their leaders along with the small army of soldiers armed with the bastilles, bows, swords and spears.

Maya landed beside her mother who had just sliced a head from one giant.

"Maya." Her mother said with great surprise. "What are you doing here?" the delicate woman asked as she approached her daughter, who was but a splitting image of herself with the exception that Maya's white hair was cut short right above her shoulders.

"I've come to help. Isn't that obvious?" Maya tilted her waist and crossed her arms.

"But you must re-"

"I'm fine." Maya replied as she turned and sent a blade of wind to slice away a giant's foot, causing it to fall to the ground of water that shot blue spears into its torso.

The Lady Aerite sighed a hand to her forehead. "You are simply too much for me to handle." The woman then met her daughter's eyes and smiled. "Just don't overdo it." The Lady said as a bell was heard and she vanished into air itself.

~

Dusk would be upon them soon.

Lord Stronghold sat braced against a rock with Mohan sitting beside the unconscious Eon who was placed to lie down nearby. Lord Electura was also lying down somewhere in the distance.

But to his dismay, the other Lords and Ladies were still assisting their family members to take care of the remaining malice beasts. Though they didn't do much and stuck mostly to the sidelines, those fools still fought on.

At least Riot understood that the family leaders needed as much rest as they could get. The battle to come would be the greatest that any of them ever had to fight.

But regardless, the man ignored them and only twisted his mouth in disappointment as he closed his eyes.

"What's with that expression?" Mohan folded her arms as she approached the man.

"What do you think?" he asked with a tone.

Mohan looked to where the Gifted fought the malice beasts. "I suppose you think that it's stupid for the other leaders to still be fighting."

The stiff man let a small smirk show on his face. "Well if you can figure that out, then I'm sure those fools can do so as well. And yet they continue to fight."

"Hmph. Perhaps you're just too cruel. How could a parent sit back and do nothing as they watch their children fight." Mohan scolded and then walked back to sit, once more, next to Eon.

~

His eyes twitched. Mohan saw the boy twitch his eyes and then slowly, his eyelid opened entirely to reveal his brown eyes. Then he moved his hands and groaned as he lifted himself up.

She hugged him tightly. "Eon!" she exclaimed. "I'm glad that you're okay." She added as she pulled away.

"What happened?" the young man asked as he braced a hand against his forehead. "My head's all foggy. Last thing I remember is that I was going to…" Eon's eyes widened as he turned to look towards the right of the rift where the silver man once was. "What happened?" Eon scrambled to his feet.

"Calm down." A familiar voice said and Eon looked to see his father lying, braced against a rock. "Father…" Eon said quietly.

"That silver bastard's already been handled." Then the man looked towards the kingdom where the fist of flame still burned. "We've got bigger fish to deal with now. You should get some rest. You and I will have to be the front fighters for the upcoming fight. As much as I hate to admit it, even with that woman's help, I still can't fight that monster alone."

That woman? Mohan made a face of disgust as she twisted her mouth and looked to the sky. "I have a name." she said.

"A name I don't care to mention." Emrit retorted and closed his eyes again.

"Ass." Mohan whispered beneath her breath.

She then refocused her attention to her son. "You should do as he says. Get some rest." And at that, Eon did as he was told and sat down once more.

~

The Lord Riot continued to stare towards the East, far towards the mountains where his fortress was built.

The man let out a smirk as he saw the silhouettes approaching at a distance. They looked like mere ants from where he sat watching. But he knew that they would be so much more.

~

Soon enough they arrived, strange mechanical devices carried by giant, threaded, wooden wheels that were powered by some mythical power of 'electricity' that the Stronghold family had created.

The machines made strange noises as they passed by and the red haired boy leading the troops shouted from the front. "All you Gifted stand back! We of the Electura family will handle the remaining malice beasts."

And with that said, blue and some red lightning struck for the remaining malice beasts accompanied by rapid fired arrows and cannon balls that came from the Electura family's strange moving machines.

At this point, there was one hour until dawn arrived and all the malice beasts had been exterminated.

The army of Gifted, soldiers and strange machine then continued to the orange fist that still burnt brightly, be it slighter smaller in size than before.

The final fight was approaching. Who would be the victor, only time will tell?