Forbidden Arts

Norah's team had just regrouped with Tai's after they thoroughly searched their expedition area. They encountered much wildlife, thriving without the disturbance of people. Unbothered by the incoming chaos that was about to unfold.

Plumes of fire and screams of dying men, rang across the valley, like a beacon, Norah and Tai raced in Helio's direction. They tried reaching him on the way, but they quickly found out comms were down. Then they looked up.

As the sky, as they last remembered it, turned from, blue, to gray and orange. While ships and aircrafts engaged in an intense one-sided struggle. Leaving carnage, rubble, and corpses falling out of the sky.

Their soldiers and their way out.

"I'll be back."

Norah quickly turned around and raced back, cladding herself in electricity and leaving Tai, to go on ahead.

As he got to Helio's site, Norah made it a few seconds behind him. She didn't want to regret not informing their teams to retreat and leave this Solar System as soon as possible. She knew something was not right.

Still in shock, what they witnessed was something out of a nightmare.

Helio and his team were excavating and exploring a destroyed ancient city surrounded by a lush forest. That forest was now on fire and decorated with the blood, corpses, and parts of the androids and human members of Helio's team.

They could tell the fire was started intentionally, as the path of the fire, raged purple, to blue. It wasn't possible for anyone to still be alive in this forest, but as if rotating, within the circle of flames, they saw flashes of ice, bursting out, then turning into mist.

Norah raised her hand, then dropped it in the direction, of the last ice burst. With incredible speed, a large streak of blue lightning struck, breaking through the fire domain and striking its target.

Moments later, Helio was thrown flying into them, but they caught him safely, as a figure, appeared with a blur in front of them.

"So glad of you to gather here, all at once. I knew, I sensed, strong iko on this continent."

Norah instinctively raised her guard at the sight of her. Transforming into second gear.

Tai braced himself, but he was more concerned about Helio. He checked his pouch, noticing Helio had already used a booster. He gritted his teeth and gave him his own. Knowing it wouldn't be good for him. However, the burns, Helio was suffering from, were too severe.

Tai, could not help but sweat at the sight of the monster, looking them over. However, he still found the courage to speak. His country was watching him. His people. He could not fall here.

"Who are you?!"

The child of Atlas, raised a finger to her lips, biting it.

"Oh my. How feisty you are. I'm sure you could have come up, with a better pickup line."

She threw her hand back and gave him a slight bow.

"I am Princess Zelha, the 94th child of Atlas. Pleased to meet you and you must be his friend, from the Beyond Space Force. Let's get friendly with each other!"

Closing the gap between her and Tai, faster than the blink of an eye. The only he thought, stopping his imminent death, was Norah, reacting with the speed of a lightning strike, she called down, ahead of time.

Zelha and her crashed down a few hundred meters before Zelha threw her back and regained her footing.

Norah glanced back at Tai.

"Get Helio, out of here, you guys can still make it to the shuttles!"

Tai shook his head.

"There's no way, we're leaving you!"

Zelha was shocked, by how they were just ignoring her.

"What do you mean leaving? This place, used to have an important temple, you know. Let's pay homage to it. With a temple, dedicated to me!"

As she raised her hands, high up into the air, walls of fire, rose, all around the city. Burning red, blue, then purple into an intricately sculpted, ridiculously large temple, spanning, across the entire, abandoned city.

"Zelha's Temple!"

She beamed at the Novas, excited about her work.

"What do you think?!"

The Novas, who were not too thrilled, were struggling, to breathe from the build-up of smoke and carbon monoxide

Helio stood up, with Tai's support.

"I can still fight!"

Raising one hand, to form a transparent swirling dome, filtering the air around them.

Tai looked earnestly at the Novas.

"Do you guys trust me?"

They were a bit, put off, by the timing of the question. Sure, he'd been a bit distant from them, in the beginning, but over time, they've been treating him, as part of the family.

"Of course!"

They said in unison.

He nodded back, then proceeded to go into first gear. He had a lot of trouble at first, but Nate's help and the training he received from the Rahmanaka clan, helped him to better maintain it, without draining him.

A flame barrier, layering itself over Helio's dome manifested, charged with the limits of Tai's iko.

"Helio! Crash us through the walls."

Helio looked at Norah, then at Tai.

"Are you sure, you can do this? I can't withstand that heat."

Tai shook his head.

"If I can drop the heat around us just a bit, we can! Norah, we'll need your energy."

Norah, who had supercharged herself with electricity, prior, nodded. She placed her hands on both of their backs, as Zelha watched them attempting suicide through her flames.

She laughed and concentrated the majority of the heat on the area, they were targeting.

"Burn! Burn along with your stupidity!

The Novas were well adept at using Sani iko. As such, part of Tai's plan, involved sensing, where Zelha had spread her iko. The moment she concentrated it all to stop them, was the moment they needed to escape.

"Helio! Now!

Their dome, lurched upwards, away from the concentrated heat, then dove diagonally to the right, through another part of the wall. Crashing through, with intense turbulence, as Tai and Helio coughed up blood, trying to stand against the pressure of Zelha's iko. Norah continued sharing as much of her energy, as they could take.

"Ignite: Yándi Zhī Dùn!"

"Frost: Dominio!"

They broke through, as the dome dissipated into mist, and they began to fall out of the sky. Norah gained flight quickly and grabbed hold of them, before they dipped low, near the fire, getting them to safety.

She got up to watch for Zelha, after laying them down. They were barely holding onto consciousness. She couldn't blame them. This was not a monster, they should face.

The flaming temple crumbled down, within itself, birthing a gigantic version of Zelha, towering over several hundreds of meters into the sky.

Zelha herself appeared above them, furious.

"If there are no worshippers, the temple crumbles doesn't it?"

The gigantic flaming clone of her raised its fist, getting ready to strike down.

"Sinners shall be punished!"

On Kayed, Simon, and Carina's continent...

Kayed was worried about the others. He just figured out that comms were down and his site was a lot further away from the other Novas & their meeting spot.

He ordered his expedition team, to return to their ships, even before he heard drones racing through the sky. Then he rushed towards the clashes of energy, he felt, off in the distance.

Kayed stopped, over a field of plains, with Simon, gravely wounded in third gear, protecting Carina, whose side effects were starting to kick in. She was assisting him by blocking, volleys of magma, thrown by a child of Atlas.

He was around 6ft with a stocky build. He was wearing a cape, which he had discarded earlier while fighting the Hashin. His skin tone was pale and complimented by grey, serpent-like eyes. He had the same black slits running down from his eyes to his chin, just like the rest of his family.

Further to their left, the remaining disfigured halves of the Hashins sent to guard them, laid smoldering. Slowly being eaten away by leftover blobs of magma.

Kayed was seething with anger.

He began making his way, aiming to join his comrades, when the child of Atlas, thrust his hand into the air. Tremors began below them, followed by a violent earthquake, then an eruption of lava, greater, than they had ever seen before, concentrated into a massive serpent-like wave, dipped down towards them.

Kayed didn't hesitate, although shocked and feeling a bit of despair in the situation they were in, he went into second gear, placing all of his might in a quick ball of lava, as Simon and Carina launched attacks of their own, in a last futile attempt. He joined in with them.

"Erupt: Burkania!"

Their attacks were completely overwhelmed, as the downpour pressed down, heavier than their force. However, not all of their efforts were wasted. Giving Kayed enough time, to create a platform around their footing, with rails, yanking them safely out of there.

"Kayed!"

Carina called out, relieved to see him.

He regretted getting there so late. He had still not mastered picking up iko on long distances, but as he focused, for just a second. He felt all of the chaos unfolding on the majority of the planet.

Simon dropped to his knees at the sight of him. Kayed could tell he was at his limit, with burn marks from his own side effects and some from contact with lava.

The fact that, that they had not opted for first aid, made him realize, that they had already used it.

Simon uttered a few words, but Kayed could barely hear them. Not only because just of the raging hot winds and the splashing flow of lava below them, but because of his anger, clouding his vision. Still, he was able to make out a little of what he said.

"... Don't worry about me, take Carina, and run..."

Kayed pointed one hand at them and reinforced the platform into a diamond dome, complete with see-through windows all around it. Then raised the dome to the sky, as Carina tried breaking the walls, calling out to him.

He planned on relinquishing control to her, but he first had to keep her safe. Both of them were precious to him. His first few friends at Beyond. He was grateful for all of the memories he had with them.

Kayed was born weak, and sick and it took everything his parents had to keep him alive as well as his siblings. When the war and famine came, he watched, helplessly as one by one, they died, because of their circumstance and how powerless he felt to stop it.

His mother had died of sickness, soon after his sister's birth. His little sister was the second to go. Without enough nutrients, she passed quietly in her sleep.

His father, continued overworking himself day and night, in the high heat, for little pay. With their farm, barely producing anything and his former job holding back his pay. Then one day, his family woke up to airstrikes and explosions, with shots being fired all over his village.

He remembered, his older brother grabbing him and rushing him out of the door, as his father piggybacked his sleepy twin sister. As they ran with the other villagers to safety, a building collapsed, from a nearby explosion. Falling on many villagers, including his father and sister. The tears and scream he let out, were heartbreaking, as his brother continued to drag him away. Screaming, 'Don't look back.'

His older brother never blamed him for anything, not even for being a burden, as he raised him. Nor complained or showed any hints of hunger, when they ate. Even though he knew, his brother always gave him the bigger portions. One day, however, he never came back.

With most of his extended family, killed in the war and famine, he was all alone. Starving to death, in an alley corner. With no one giving him a passing thought.

Until Sarah landed out of the sky, feeding the homeless in his neighborhood and coming across him. She later confirmed for him, that his brother, was killed, stealing food, from a shop. With no law, being upheld, his body was almost forgotten.

He owed her everything and wanted to pay her back. His new family, he wanted to protect. However, this monster was standing in the way.

The child of Atlas, floated to his eye level, curious about the newcomer.

"And who might you be?"

Kayed pointed his palm to the ground.

"Erupt: Warrior!"

A warrior, made out of lava, rose out of the ground and jetted towards the child of Atlas, aiming to bring him down, but was roundhouse kicked into oblivion, with little effort.

"That's rude. Fine, I'll go first. My name is Demil, the 77th child of Atlas. I'm not sure why you got in my way, you're not even as strong as one of the ones you're protecting."

Demil glanced down disappointed, at the dead Hashin.

"They weren't much fun either. This planet isn't as fun as it used to be. Why did father, need to drag me here again."

Kayed shook his head, shaking away any fear he had left.

'I have to use it.'

Since he had excelled in the other aspects of iko faster than the others and had often trained alone, he asked Roku, when he caught him once, training at night, to teach him more about the flow of earth and magma. How to better access power from their abilities, when they were in a pinch.

That's when Roku asked him if he was willing to learn about the forbidden arts. Techniques used only in last resort situations passed down only among the royal family and Hashin.

Sealing his resolve, Kayed clasped his hands together, gathering all of the energy he could muster, for this technique.

"Sorry about that, I was a little hot-blooded there. There's no need for anger when God will judge you."

Demil started to laugh.

"You're kidding, right? You think God will save you from this situation?"

Kayed chuckled lightly, thinking about all of his regrets, then laughed.

"No, no, I've already done that myself. You though, should prepare yourself. I'll be sending you to see him soon if you even have a soul."

Demil sneered.

"Is that so?"

Kayed smirked, then completed his concentration, releasing all of the energy he had been gathering, within his body.

"Oh God, please forgive me."

His eyes became fierce, as he locked in his resolve.

"Forbidden Art, Self-Volcanization!"

Then, he set his heart on fire.