Chapter 17: The Uninvited Guest

John Peter

Golden elliptical irises, an enormous pair of eagle wings, a deadly beak and a pair of reaping talons, the griffin surged again at lightning speed, sending John stumbling over the stony hill they stood on to.

He breathes in heavily and ignited his powers. Purple mists revolved around his hands at his command. He can feel the weak state of his powers, he needed focus harder in order to gain the upper hand.

Welcon continuously shoots arrows one after another but his attacks are either missed or ricocheted. On the other hand, Fatima threw curses the whole time and they seem to have no effect at all. She curses loudly and angrily.

"Why can't you just die pesky bird!"

"Tired already?" A warm voice in a casual manner spoke to Fatima which made her tense, her bold and mad aura suddenly melted as she fidgeted in an awkward manner, cowering.

"Who are you?!" Walter from behind the edge of the hill asked boldly, Maricar beside him looks awfully distressed.

John straightened his posture to scan for the source of the voice, but he couldn't locate for its source, what he could see is the sky from far above that completely darkened. The flying pixy looked bothered as it flew around, above the heads of Walter and Maricar.

The voice spoke again which made the griffin to stay still in the air, twenty feet from the ground. Welcon took the chance and shot twenty arrows at once which were unluckily bounced back as soon as they hit the hardened feathers of the griffin. The arrows vaporized in an instant as soon as they fall down.

"No one passes this border unless you defeat me."

That voice certainly comes from a teenage boy. A thunder clapped from the sky and sent a furious lightning, striking directly at its paralyzed target. John was thrown a hundred meters away as he was stricken. Down the hill, John was lying half-consciously, his unmovable body is starting to feel the pain, the hard ground is not comforting.

"John!" Fatima shouted.

His powers flowed through his veins which slowly strengthened and heal his damaged body. He groaned in pain as his powers began the process of healing which feels like hell. His body oozes with white vapors from the effect of the strike.

On the hill, he looked at Welcon who fought in a hand-to-hand combat with an unseen enemy. Dodge, parry, parry, and punch. Their speed was incredible as they move there like a flipping art book in motion. John took a glance at the amazed writer and the cowering girl beside him. John saw Fatima racing down towards him; however, the griffin is slowing her down as it kept on surging over her, raking her with its talons over and over again.

He breathed in deep as the pain slowly subsides. He tried standing up but ended up staggering instead, his bones made a cracking sound which resulted to a painful yell of pain.

The sky rumbled. Fatima looked at him worriedly, she looked pretty exhausted, her cloak has been shredded into pieces revealing her inner clothing which is an ominous black gown.

The griffin roared which was followed by a series of lightning bolts striking at Fatima. She managed to evade them gracefully as a series of thunderclaps followed right after the lightning bolts. The griffin glided down, past the shocked necromancer and bolted up straight, flying in the air as it roared again, sending a series of lightning bolts. Fatima evaded the first few strikes but she unwittingly tripped over a rock, her eyes widened as she stumbles down in a slow motion.

Incidentally, the amazed Walter dashed quickly through the striking lightings to save the stumbling Fatima. He held her in his arms while locking eyes. They unwittingly avoided a lightning bolt after Fatima pushed Walter away from her.

"Phew! That was close." Walter sighed as the lightings vaporized in the collision with the purple bolts of light.

"Thank you," Fatima said, running towards John and aiding him in walking.

The griffin surged downwards, its talons are on the lead. John blinked his eyes, purple sparks consumed the griffin as it vaporized into thin air.

"What did you do?" The awed Fatima asked.

"Cool!" Walter mouthed.

"Illusionary prowess," John explained and twisted his ankle. He grunted in pain.

Meanwhile, Welcon is slumped on the back of a boulder, the worse case is he's bleeding.

"Not bad for a shabby centaur guardian. I fought and killed twenty of your brethren single-handedly in five minutes and you're lucky to have reached twenty minutes and thirty-two seconds."

"Twenty minutes and thirty-five seconds." Welcon spatted.

"Whatever."

A shadow holding a dagger appeared in front of the beat-up centaur. It then materialized into a tall young lad, he has a face of a calm innocent looking boy, his eyes are coal black which are deadly—perfectly matching his dark hair that is fringed, covering his forehead. The young man wore a black long sleeve and black pants, he is as lean and tall as Walter.

He was about to stab the centaur but was stopped when John yelled for him to do so. There was a brief silence before the young lad met the gaze of the Dark Prince. Their same coal black eyes met. In an instant, John sees the twisted history of the young lad. Slowly, he falls into the Dark Lad's consciousness and into the dark kaleidoscope of the unknown man.

***

A song, a soft and a soothing lullaby. A mother's song to her untainted sleeping child. John stood there, watching the black-haired woman sings her six-year-old son to sleep, the child embraced his mother tightly as he peacefully sleeps in the mattress that seemed like a cradle of passion.

The woman stopped singing to recite an oddly constructed spoken piece of poem.

"Death cripples to life as you'll be,

I vested you my divine grace and you'll never be put unknown,

Not even by the omnipotent prowess of the author.

You'll be sought by luck, both fortunate and unfortunate.

Sleep well my child for I'll be put unknown."

She kissed the child's head and slowly vaporized.

The scene changed, bringing John on a desert land. The place is familiar to him since this desert in the south of Samdiperove is what connects the world of the unenlightened and Barnania, this the desert according to what is taught to him is called the "Affinity of Three". It is called "Affinity of Three" because it is believed that in that region, the powers of the three worlds, the world of the unenlightened, Barnania and Samdiperove are at the highest and in this place also, someone can teleport to the three worlds easily. No one proved that yet and that is still a theory. The connections of the three worlds are at strongest there.

John scanned the surroundings and found out some boulders and sand dunes. There, on the next boulder where he  is standing from, he saw a floating shadow with hairs floating in thick strands like tentacles, its eyes are hollow and white. The edges of its human shadow figure are covered with violet mists. Beside the floating shadow which seemed to have a girl figure stood the muscular topless spiky red-haired brusque man. The man wore red leather pants. His naked muscular body is filled with sweats that continuously trickle down. The floating shadow looked pretty exhausted as well.

"Tired already?" The casual tone from the young man John and his companions fought with spoke from out of nowhere. John scanned for the source of voice but found out nothing.

The sky was cloudless and weather was feverishly hot even for John who just invaded someone else's thoughts is extremely felt.

"What the hell do you want from us?" The floating shadow asked in a raucously sounding voice. John heard it familiar, he figured out it was Fatima's voice.

The red-headed man looked perplexed as he took a stance, kicking the air and punching it as strong gusts of wind appeared to be colliding with his attacks.

"Show yourself, coward!" The red-haired guy shouted.

John heard a muffled chuckle. Suddenly, the red-haired guy was blown away by an unseen punch. It was followed by a series of punching sounds that knocked the man off guard.

"Harold!" Fatima shouted.

The beaten man stood up, smirking.

"Is that all you've got?"

The man yelled as strange and strong sensations of great mana surged through his body.

"Don't you underestimate me!" He yelled angrily. Red mists covered his body as he glides on the top of the sand terrain and lounged to his unseen enemy. The sounds from the kicks, punches, and parries raised to a crescendo. Harold breathes heavily as sweats poured down his body.

"Is that all the high ranking demon from a prestigious hell got?" The unseen enemy provoked.

The surrounding suddenly felt chilly as the floating shadow's long tentacle-like hairs all raised up in the air. She chanted an unknown incantation of death making the terrain shook and a few seconds later, crooked bones are raised from the ground as they materialized into human figures and became the corpse of death marching forward towards Harold. In a single unseen blow, the crooked zombies are blown into pieces. The shadow draws out an evil smile as the thousands of dead shredded bodies reassembled and lunged forward to attack the enemy. The zombies raised their metallic and rusty weapons and move forward yelling cries of battle. In a swiftly fast motion, the dead army slept back to where they came from.

"Impossible," was the only dumbfounded reaction of the floating shadow. Harold attacked this time, sending blows after blows of punches that steadily hit the air, sending gust after gust of blowing wind.

"It is time to end this!" Shouted both men in heat and strike each other's last blows.

The wind blew hard. Fatima stood there motionlessly as she watches Harold frozen in time. A soft and muffled laugh was heard, it was followed by a cough. The unseen enemy spilled blood from his mouth. Harold staggered and falls on the ground, his eyes start to water, he is coughing blood too, a silver dagger is stuck in his chest directly to his heart.

"Demons have seven hearts creep," he looks confused and closed his eyes. The air materialized into a tall young lad, he wore the same clothing, black long sleeve, and black pants. He walked closer towards Harold and pulled the dagger, it shone from the bath of fresh demon blood. Harold flinched in pain.

"Even the seven hearts of a great demon can't withstand the tainted dagger of mine." He held his chest and coughed blood again.

"Not bad." He walked, leaving the dying demon. The lad took a last glance at the swirling necromancer.

"You're next." He threatened by pointing the edge of his dagger at her, and in a brief second, the poor floating shadow is laid on the ground, thick maroon blood is spilling from her side, she is crawling towards Harold slowly. Finally, she reached him and stretch her hands reaching her hands to him, they held hands and in a swift moment, Fatima sealed them in a boulder.

The lad stood just stood there, staring at the materializing boulder, he smiled.

"Hail me, mother,"  he said as he vanished.

***

"Death, kill, death!" John broke the link and stared at the tall lad who was still holding his dagger. He looked perplexed after breaking their eye contact.

"You read my thoughts, worse case you viewed by history." He said meekly. Appearing at their front. His face was expressionless.

Fatima looked frightened as Walter protectively shielded her.

The lad rolled his eyes around, looking at the defiant faces of his preys.

"We met before." His casual manner of speaking began as he made eye contact with Fatima, Fatima looked away in fear.

"Don't dare." Walter boldly interrupted.

"Yo! gutsy fellow," was his friendly reply which made Walter shrug in astonishment.

He leaned face to face with the dark wizard.

"Those who know my secret never escape and must pay the price." He stared at his dark eyes and threateningly smiled. John tensed. The lad laughed.

"Mere weaklings like you are deserved to be spared."

"Do. . .you mean it?" Walter asked.

"That isn't a sarcasm, right? Shouldn't you be talking about its exact opposite?"

He only shrugged, dissolving in the air and appearing again on the top of the hill.

"Flee this world and go back to where you came from. I'll be following your steps and we'll meet again at the dark world brats." He crookedly smiled, whistling, an eagle flew on his shoulder and they both disappeared into thin air.

John isn't quite sure of how he had managed to enter the thoughts of that man and how did he able to view that gloomy looking lad's history. One thing is clear— he can ask Fatima for further details.

"Did he just called us brats? How old is he? He seems nice and friendly." Walter bickered.

"Nice and friendly? I wonder about that." Maricar was almost expressionless as she tended the beaten Welcon.

The pixy flew down towards them, Welcon and Maricar followed. Welcon is back in his human form again, the bruises on his face and arms are evident. Walter aided John in walking and they all walk following the pixy on the lead.

"Fatima," John started.

Fatima looks into his eyes before answering.

"Yes?"

She is now on her black ominous gown that reminds John of what she looks like in her shadow floating form.

"You fought that man before right?"

She hesitated for a second before replying in a suspicious tone.

"How do you know that?"

"I saw that guy's past, but just the minor details. And I've been wondering why I can see his history and why is your fight with him highlighted?"

Fatima stopped walking, Maricar beside her stopped also.

"I don't have a freaking idea."

"I see." John sighed and the two of them started walking again.

"Ariadne Mae has that powers too dude, she can read minds and is able to view the past whenever she wants to." Walter explained.

John looked at him seriously.

"Ariadne Mae?" He asked.

"The fairy."

"I fought her and disabled her powers, but— did I stole her powers or something?"

"I wonder so," was Walter's solemn reply.

They've reached the river now, its green color is disgusting but it is clear and healthy.

The forest next to it is the less inviting. Walter looks flustered and was about to throw up when he saw the river, his grumpy and cool expressions are melted into balefulness, it is evident in his paling skin.

"We're here." The pixy flew above head, flapping her wings as they flickered in green colors.