THE MYSTERIOUS VISIT III

Alicia blasted one of the creatures’ head into the air. The blue light illuminated the entire field, revealing the horrific size of the horde charging towards them. They bumped and clawed over each other as they bucked towards the cavalry. The soldiers stared death in the eye, knowing very well chances of them surviving this was slimmer than a seasonal river in summer.

One Vurhan came up from underground where a soldier had set his battle stance. It grabbed his right ankle and yanked him deep into the hollow, snapping his leg midway. He disappeared with a nipping scream that sucked hope right out of the other soldiers’ hearts. They were down to fourteen, more were to face a similar outcome considering the numerous charging beasts heading towards them.

Reene dashed forward and slashed his blade across the dark, clipping an arm off a Vurhan that had already wrapped its appendage around one of the soldiers. Its canines had already sank deep into his neck yet the attack happened so fast the rest of the group did not even witness it. Most of the soldiers had their motor functions crippled by the overflow of adrenaline, dread fueled every movement and decision they made. Those that had their heads in the game were either deranged human beings or people who had gone through worse.

Alicia was firing blasts back and forth with such tremendous force her wrists couldn’t take the recoil. They became sore and immobile. She shot another massive outburst of blue embers that nearly snapped her wrist in half, it ploughed through a stack of Vurhans that had blindly climbed on one another trying to reach the cavalry. She tried her best to keep them at bay but it was like trying to stop a wave from reaching the shore, sooner or later they were going to close in on them.

As she was charging up for another shot she felt her body mass shift involuntarily, all of a sudden her feet were off the ground and she was leaning to her side and taking flight. As she looked down she saw two beefed up arms encircle her waist. To her right she saw the rest of the body, cutting through the air with her. It took her a while to figure out it was Reene who tackled her. His reason became clear when a Vurhan slid across her frame, slightly missing her head with its claws fully extended.

Reene was not so lucky, the other Vurhan’s hand scraped across his rib cage, tearing through his breastplate and stripping skin from his abdomen. He winced in pain when they both landed on the mud.

Alicia quickly got up and crawled over to him. The Vurhan tumbled uncontrollably on the wet ground before regaining its footing. She looked towards the rest of the cavalry as Vurhan upon Vurhan piled up on top of them. Ripping their arms off and throwing them into the air while other Vurhans jumped acrobatically and caught them mid flight. There was nothing she could do to save them.

In her mute cry for help a distant memory flew out of nowhere and crashed into her dissarayed thoughts. She awkwardly remembered Lora’s story of how Daito rescued them from the Vurhan in the forest and wondered why that memory could come to her in such a time, until she figured out why. With her trembling arms she clung on to Reene who was blacking out and forced her eyes shut. She could still hear the creatures gnawing on the remains of the soldiers and the other Vurhans literally inches away from them. Her body was cold and her blood laced with extreme levels of adrenaline she was no longer in control.

Her instincts kicked in and the anticipation of death forced her eyes open for a moment and she saw as if the world around her stopped, for a moment. Her vision dissolved into a black canvas and the violent noise around her died down. They found themselves engulfed in a void of darkness for a brief moment yet they felt like they were there for eternity. Inside the void the world fell quiet and they floated in the darkness before popping back out and crash landing in a shrub.

Alicia could hear the screams of the Vurhans from afar. At that moment she couldn’t tell but they seemed to have teleported. She looked down and saw Reene completely blacked out, his arms and legs flared out like a rag doll. There was no point trying to help him up, she was so disoriented she completely forgot about his injury, the one he got when he saved her from the Vurhan. She pulled up his top and saw the cut was worse than she imagined. He had lost a lot of blood and needed help quickly.

Alicia knew she teleported out of instinct but she hoped she could trigger it once more for the sake of Reene. The temperatures were freezing yet she was perspiring intensively. The rush of emotions made focus unachievable. She grabbed Reene once more and tried hard but nothing happened. Even though the light from the moon wasn't strong enough for her to see clearly but she could tell Reene’s skin was turning pale from the immoderate loss of blood. Heavy influx of emotions made it hard for her to innately control things she normally could. She was so stressed out she made things difficult for herself.

All of a sudden she felt a tingling sensation overcome her. Her skin felt like raindrops were falling on it. Her vision was filtered by a blue color and she could feel her body temperature rise in an alarming rate. She looked down and saw her hands and hair light up with a bright blue color. She remembered seeing Daito doing such a thing once when they were in Defectors State. Slejj referred to it as state Kaizen.

They both exploded into a wave of blue embers that scorched the shrub they landed on. Once again they were back into the void of nothingness, yet unlike before it did not feel as empty. Before long a white horizon raced over the void like a blanket. A flower garden materialized and they found themselves at the center of the garden. Unfortunately they had landed on some fresh roses, squashing them with all their weight.

At the edge of the stretch of land there stood a gigantic man, examining the garden as if he sensed intrusion. Once his eyes locked on to the area where Alicia and Reene were, his face dissolved into a pure representation of anger. He stomped his way across the garden towards the two.

“This is the last strike I swear Alestio! I told you to use the front…” he cut his angry speech short once he got close, realizing who had crashed into his orchid.

Alicia was still confounded. She looked everywhere for something she could recognize to help her ground her thoughts but unfortunately everything seemed foreign.

“You, I know you, you are that girl I found wounded that day.”

That deep majestic voice seemed recognizable to Alicia. She altered her gaze to meet the man’s eyes and a vivid memory struck her, one she could never forget, not in a million years. The tattoo on her back tingled excitingly.

“You, you’re the man that saved me that day!” she said, quickly remembering she had Reene who needed her help.

“Can you save him please! I need your help!!!”

“Save him? But he’s already dead.”

The words cut straight through Alicia’s heart. The man said it so bluntly with no emotion to back his voice up he made it sound like it was no big deal.

“Please you saved me once! Can’t you save him?”

“My dear, this is not a world where mortals can roam. This is a spiritual realm. If you are here it is either both of you are dead or the two of you can spirit-project, which still means you would have to be dead to do so.”

The mammoth looked down at the two people, Alicia was set to begin her sobs.

“Did Alestio send you here?”

Alicia was drowning in her emotions she could not even find the words to answer back, but tried anyway.

“A… Alestio?”

“Yes Alestio? My brother, you may have known him as the former Dark Bender.”

Alicia pulled herself out of the pool of emotions she was drowning in quickly at the mention of the former dark bender. She slowly rose to her feet.

“Who?! Your brother?”

“Yes my brother. If you do not know him then how did you find my dimension. He is the only one who knows this place?!” the gigantic man was confused.

“Do you mean… Daito!” she asked, yearning for his next words to match her prediction.

“That is what he identified with, but yes that is my younger brother, Alestio.”

“...Tell me where he is?”

Before the giant continued his speech the world around her imploded with a deafening sound. They both popped back into the forest. Moments after, Reene violently gasped in air and shot up from the ground, clenching his throat in a show of discomfort, Alicia soon followed with the same synchronized routine. Reene was still fatally wounded and he was loosing blood fast.