Chapter 42: Choose

We were all knocked unconscious from that attack, but I woke up I think about 20 seconds because he was still trying to grab it. Everyone woke up soon after me except Pablo, Paula, and our escort who laid there before Chloe went to heal them along with herself. Johnny and some random person were trying to break some sort of field that surrounded the Sphere Conductor, but George and I both attacked them while Shiro seemed to prepare a spell. Johnny smiled at me like he always did and started to create an orb like before, but my sword wouldn't be broken by this orb although my body would definitely be turned to dust with a touch of this orb. There was something new that he had which surprised me, he had upgraded from an orb to a longsword, as we clashed all at once while Shiro dispelled the sword. I turned to see him smirk, but was punched in the face while making a short sword to continue his attacks. George seemed to be fighting a giant humanoid lion, but I should probably worry about myself here. Chloe joined in the fight and Johnny's sword became even shorter, as he now had to get closer to me while I could attack from a bit farther back. His breathing started to become unstable when Chloe transmuted some of the stone to a spire which pierced him in the gut while Shiro hit him with a lightning and ice spell. Suddenly, something strange peeled off of his body and soon his skin was completely black, even his eyes while he gave me a horrible feeling. My sword went straight through his body while I saw things, memories but they weren't mine. Memories of harsh training, of horrible treatment, bleeding, a fire, and someone that was very familiar standing before "me". I turned to see Johnny and Tere on their knees while surrounded by fire, but they held to each other while the man in front of them merely collected our mother's eyes and leaving. They tried to escape and soon they were met with two people, one cloaked in white and another cloaked in black. 

     "Those who have been betrayed by destiny….do you wish to live? If so, take our hands and fight and train for our noble cause." They reached out and Johnny along with Tere took their hands while smiling. I looked at them while they seemed to be staring straight at me, "It appears that there is one more here, but it is not his time. You are his future and we will meet soon enough…..but for now disappear from this plane." I went straight back to the place before I slipped right through Johnny. He was still covered in black, but he merely absorbed it all and created a sword longer than mine and started to attack me once again.

     "Use skill: Weapon Eyes. Use skill: Aura." I copied the skill and realized what that skill was used for. It used all your most painful memories, your most painful emotions, anything negative that it could get a hold of, and amplified along with converting it into a powerful weapon. I inadvertently got a glimpse of one of them, but the backlash of using it was reliving that pain at an amplified degree. It was a skill that could drive many people completely insane from using it for 1 minute, but Johnny looked to be trying to use it for a long time and he seemed perfectly fine. Johnny's new found power was definitely even stronger than before and was slashing every part of my body. I didn't know what to do, but I definitely still had way more things that I could do to fight against this new power of his.

     "Use skill: Demonic Infusion. Use skill: Dragon Infusion. Use skill: Cosmic Palm Strike. Use skill: Conqueror style- Corte Cósmico." This turned the battle once more, but there was something he did that caused us to become equals. He amplified the pain of his memories to increase his power even more, but his face did contort a bit more. 

     'Hey Caos (Dragon of Chaos), can we fuse like before?'

     'Yeah let's do it.'

     "Use skill: Power Storage Release. Use skill: Dragon of Chaos- Nightmare Mode." I saw black wings grow on my back along with some claws, Johnny looked like he forced himself to amplify even more, so I would have to finish this fast. 

     "Use skill: Conqueror style- Conquista de Ilusiones." He couldn't block the attack, but he came closer to the Sphere Conductor. We all felt a huge amount of mana being concentrated in the palm of Johnny's hand.

     "Come any closer and I overload this damn thing and blow El Dorado the fuck up!" 

     "Use…...damn it! Step away from the fucking Sphere Conductor! You've lost the fight already!" I grit my teeth so hard that I felt like they were going to turn to a fine powder. George stepped away from the humanoid lion lady and came to our area.

     "We can't let him take it, but we can't let everyone in El Dorado die. Shit, Vicente-" I looked towards everyone and soon he grabbed the Sphere Conductor and disappeared along with his buddy. 

     "I know George...I know." Paula and Pablo told us that we weren't at fault and now that they knew how to make it, they could make another in no time. I completely failed this mission and I let that asshole go, I had him and I let him fucking go. I should have cut his neck off when I had the chance to earlier. I should have gone all out and obliterated him, DAMN IT! We bid the El Dorado leader goodbye after he thanked us for keeping us researchers/scientists from being killed by the stalker. We chased him away for sure, but we couldn't capture him so we only took half the payment since he kept insisting that we get paid for our efforts. We went back and relaxed before training with each other again.