Chapter 9 - A rainbow of colors

The demon lord Ronin arrived at the cavern after having phased through rock itself to get there. He then looked forward, his eyes built for darkness, to see arms of malice reaching for the hovering Gifted that scurried about in the air. At that, the demon wasted no time and immediately opened the third eye on his forehead. His power surged as he drew the surrounding malice into his body and then leapt forward into the darkness with fists of red flames. He landed on a mass of shadows and then sent a burning fist in to one of the giant arms. Then. he used the shadowy arm as a platform to leap himself forward again to strike down let another apparition of darkness.

He called out to the Gifted. "Head back that way!" he pointed to the direction of where the Gifted had come from.

"But it's blocked up!" Maya replied as she struggled to drag her friends away from the hands of darkness.

"Do it!" Ronin iterated. "I'll get you all out of here safely."

Maya looked to Rill who nodded in agreement and then they flew back the way they had originally come from.

Ronin followed with huge leaps and soon they reached the platform where the huge face blocked the tunnel.

"Cover my back." Ronin ordered the Gifted who began to form a line to fight the creatures that came after them.

The demon lord then walked forward to the glowing red eye.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The face smiled. "I'm your future master. Haven't I already told you this?"

Ronin clenched his fist and a red flame erupted from it as he punched into the creature's face. The flame erupted into a burning sun and soon shot forth into a beam of flame that filled the entire tunnel as it burnt through the eerie face.

A laughter was heard as the face drifted away from the scene and faded into darkness. The hands, too, receded back into the cavern.

"You will see." The voice echoed as it grew further way. "One day you will see."

The demon lord gritted his teeth as he looked to the Gifted behind. He swung his hand forward in a gesture to follow. "Let's go." He said as he walked into the tunnel with the Gifted following in tow.

~

"What's wrong with him?" Teya asked as Marcus felt the boy's heart. It wasn't beating.

The man turned away as he rose with the boy's body cradled in his hands. "We have to find the others." He said and then went straight towards the middle tunnel.

"What about Evan?" Teya asked, her eye expressing concern.

Marcus looked the young woman in the eye. "We'll deal with that later." He said and walked forward into the tunnel.

But he soon stopped upon seeing a red light coming from down the tunnel. And then he could soon make out the faces of his companions with Ronin in the lead.

The Gifted all looked exhausted. They panted as they came down the tunnel but each of their eyes, with the exception of Rill who retained his calm composure, widened as they saw Evan clutched within Marcus' hands.

"What happened?" Blyke asked as he approached.

"Later." Marcus said as he turned around and instead began to walk back towards the storm. "Let's go into the carriage."

The Gifted, all too tired to argue at the moment, did as they were told and soon they were in the carriage once more to fly off into the sky. And as they did when they first entered, they battled their way through the eye of the storm. Though, this time, it was Marcus, Teya and Ronin that did most of the work. The others were still quite tired. But regardless, they made it through to the red sky above and soon their ride became relatively pleasant.

"What happened?" Blyke asked again, still panting for breath as he slouched in the carriage's seat.

"I don't know." Marcus replied. "He did something strange to get us out of the tunnel. And then he fell unconscious." The man's eyes dimmed and he downed his head. "I can't say for sure since I don't understand what happened, but I think he might be dead."

The Gifted's eyes' widened, with the exception of Rill who only leaned in to the side of a window and Maya, having already expected this, who sighed as she slouched her head backwards on the carriage's seat.

"What?" Blyke raged as he got up and clenched his fist. Teya downed her head as she struggled to keep her tears contained within her glimmering eyes.

"No way!" Blyke yelled. He was still panting. "There's no way that he died from something silly like that."

Marcus shot him a sidewards glance. "As I said, I don't understand what happened. Gifts are confusing in nature. None of us really understand how they work." Marcus looked to Evan who was lying down in a row of seats behind. "That's doubly true for his Gift. It was always strange. I can't say for sure that he's dead but as it is now, his heart isn't beating." The man then looked back to Blyke. "Check for yourself if you don't believe me." And with that said, the man tilted his head backwards and closed his eyes.

~

What was happening? Evan didn't know. He looked around to see a world of colors surrounding him – red, orange, yellow, green. They were all there, flashing endlessly in the darkness. All colors of the rainbow glimmered before his eyes.

He tried to move but found that he could not.

The boy could only lie down and look at the numerous colors blossoming in front him – purple, violet, red, orange – until it suddenly came to a stop.

Yellow was the color that remained shining brightly in the sky.

The boy awoke to a golden light that engulfed him, healing his aching body as he rose sharply from where he once laid. He had somehow ended up in the carriage and now all the eyes of the Gifted were watching him as the light soon sunk back into his skin.

"You're alive!" Teya cried as she lunged on to the boy to give him a hug.

"Hey!" Evan tried to push her away.

"Dude!" Blyke yelled as he, too, went in for a hug.

And now, Evan was being squashed in between his two companions as they hugged him tightly from both sides. Some might have even called this a blossoming friendship.

"Get off of me, you dimwits!" Evan yelled as he struggled with all his strength. But he was very weak physically so it was quite pointless.

"Good to see you up, kid." Marcus placed an elbow on his seat's back. "Here I thought you'd gone and die on us." he added.

"As if I would." Evan replied as he looked down to see that they were once again at the palace. "Is everyone okay?" he asked Marcus.

"Yeah, we're all fine." The man turned around to face the front as the carriage slowly flapped its wings in descent. "But that creature we fought was way out of our league. We'll have to figure out some other way of stopping it from going into our world." And then the carriage landed on the ground and the Gifted all exited.

~

It had been about two days now but the woman was finally nearing the Kingdom. But the sight that she saw sent shivers down her spine. The beasts of darkness were funneling through the giant rifts in space and pouring into her world. The woman slouched forward and pulled at her horse's leash. "Faster girl." She said and the gentle beast then blazed forward as fast as it could.

~

The Lord Stronghold stood atop of the wall, looking over the battle that enraged near the capital. He wore proudly the indigo cape that blew along with the raging winds that came from the battlefield. He clenched his one fist and gritted his teeth. How powerless he felt? Truth be told, he was scared. Scared that he no longer possessed the power to protect himself nor his family.

He recalled Evan. Did he consider that boy a part of his family? Of course not. How could he? The clouds that the boy could create very much resembled the water element of the Aquaron family.

The man glared down below, where the Lord Aquaron used his mighty waves to push back the giants that approached. He hated that man. In his mind, the signs had been all too clear. His wife had always enjoyed that man's company. Always laughed when he told her his witty jokes.

The veins on the Emrit's face grew larger as he furrowed his brows and dimmed his eyes at the ocean that was made.

For someone who had been born with everything anyone could have wanted, he now felt powerless before the scene that unfolded.

The man fell to the ground and crossed his legs as he perched himself on the edge of the wall. With eyes long past their prime, he continued to look out into the battlefield.

~

A group of monkey like beasts hopped playfully on the roofs of the villager's houses. In their act of childish fun, they ended up destroying the houses one after another as they continued to hop through the village.

Then came a meteor from the sky to engulf one of those creatures in flame. And then there was a giant fist of flame that curved and turned to strike at a line of shadowed monkeys that soon dissipated into black smoke. They all gritted their red teeth as they saw the large form approaching.

Ratuna Firestone laughed heartedly as he approached with flames spiraling around him.

"Well, well, well." He spoke with a grin. "You all seem to be having so much fun." His eyes became fierce. "How about you let me join you." And then a ball of flame shot from the man's hand as he punched into the air. An explosion of orange flames occurred and soon the group of monkeys were all but gone. But to his dismay, Ratuna noticed that he had also destroyed most of the village. He sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well, there's nothing I can do about it now." He said to himself. He then looked forward and continued to march with some members of his family following behind. "On to the next!" He roared with his mighty voice and then blasted himself into the air to find those beasts that had continued to attack the nearby villages.