Chapter 20 - The final battle begins

Marcus was the first to arrive at the mansion. Though, while he did know where the Aquaron mansion was located, he wasn't quite sure where the 'basement' would be found. And since he ditched his escort and there were no more soldiers around, he found himself in a bit of pickle.

But lucky for him, Teya and Blyke soon arrived with their soldier leading the way.

With the soldier in the front, the group made their way to the secret room and then down the spiraling staircase where Rill along with the others were lying exhausted on the ground.

"Oi, you kids didn't call me all the way to get some shut eye, did ya?" Marcus asked upon entering the room.

Rill immediately shot up, followed by Lelita. Silva, as it would seem, was fast asleep by now.

"No, we did not." Rill said and then liquefied his arms to create two blades of water. "We'll attack all at once."

Lelita readied a beam of light, Teya summoned her ring of fire and Marcus created several red shards. And together, the three struck the glowing sphere with Blyke laughing from behind.

~

"You've got to be kidding me, right?" Blyke asked as red lightning sparked around him. "I know you guys are tired and all but this is just ridiculous. How could you possibly be losing to a dumb ball of light?"

The boy gritted his teeth and walked forward. "Stand back." He said as lightning ran along his arms and focused in the space between his two hands. "I'll show ya what I can really do."

And with that said, the boy let forth a thunder bolt of red lightning to pierce through the glowing sphere. But to his surprise, his attack only barely made a medium sized crack in the object.

"As you were saying…" Lelita mocked as she folded her arms with a smirk.

"Shut up!" Blyke raged and continued to relentlessly strike the sphere with bolt after bolt.

"Now that's the spirit." Lelita said and continued to focus her sphere of light on to the object.

The other Gifted continued as well. And slowly but surely, more cracks began to form along the surface of the sphere. Those cracks began to stretch along the entire sphere and soon enough, bits and pieces of the object continued to break apart and fall off.

And then finally, in a huge burst of white light, the sphere was destroyed as the Gifted shielded their eyes from the blinding light.

"Take that, ya stupid ball!" Blyke shouted as he panted with his hands hung to his side.

~

It was about fifty five minutes before dawn and the King had stayed behind to keep the Rift in check. But as if the Gods smiled down at him, the Rift soon began to shrink back into nothing and eventually closed entirely.

Roy let his barrier be taken down as he fell to the ground. After about ten minutes of resting, he got up once more and looked to the fist that had by now shrunken to half of its original size.

"Well, it would seem that I no longer need to stay here." The King said to himself and then summoned a bouncy red ball around him to carry him forward to where the final battle would take place.

~

The skies had become darkened by the storm clouds that were created as a result of the immense heat. Eon stood at the front of the army along with his father and Lias.

Beside him were several machines that pointed forward their cannons at the fist of flame along with many other Gifted and soldiers that readied themselves for the fight to come.

Eon continued to look forward as the flame continued to shrink, smaller and smaller as dusk came closer.

~

The sun began to rise in the east and orange light streamed along the surface of the earth as the drizzle of rain fell from the sky.

What had remained of the flame was now quenched by that water.

And as the malice in the area began to gather in one spot, all the Aerite's began to channel their wind to keep the darkness from converging.

A storm of wind and black ash clashed on the battle field but despite their efforts, the Aerite's could not stop the malice which joined together to reveal the horrible monster with pentagram eyes gritting its red teeth in frustration as a tornado of wind spiraled around him.

"Enough!" it yelled as malice shot forth from all around to dispel the wind with a countering blow created by the shockwave.

Eon clenched his fist. His father did the same from beside him. Lias, too, readied himself.

Lord Stronghold took the lead as he leapt into the air with his two sons beside him, one at each side, as cannons, arrows, spears, fire, wind, water and light were all fired at the dark shadow that hovered in the air above.

The battle had begun.

~

The final color had arrived.

Now all the colors of the rainbow flashed around the darkness in my mind – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and indigo.

What would happen now?

They all began to warp into a bundle, like a puddle of ink swirling furiously in a storm. The chaos and madness of the symphony of colors were complimented by the cold voice that continued to speak in my mind.

"I hope you're ready. You're about to become a very powerful man."

As the rainbow continued to encapsulate me, I began to fall even further into my mind. I continued to fall deeper and deeper into the void as I watched the colors swirling above.

I reached out an arm but it was no use. The voice continued to speak.

"But I'm afraid that in order for you to become stronger, you'll first have to lose a little bit of yourself. Good luck."

~

The three Stronghold men took the lead with Emrit landing the first punch on the demon who replied with a whip of malice to knock the man into the ground below.

Then came Eon and Lias, one from each side, to strike their fists into the creature's face. They barely managed to cause the monster to twist his face backwards before the two were sent flying after their father.

Then blades of wind struck for the monster. These, it countered with blades of malice.

Next were the waves that rose from the ground to strike blue spears from below while burning flames rained from above accompanied by golden rays of light that all struck for the creature at once.

Malice erupted from the monster and shielded him within a ball of darkness as the numerous attacks kept pummeling at him with giant arrows and heavy cannon balls to accompany them.

Those few of the Regelia family projected barriers that would shield any attacks of malice that came from the creature while others relentlessly continued to attack the monster.

Soon enough, the battle field became a place of chaos where hundreds of projectiles all met the shadowy creature that still hid within a ball of malice.

They were winning. Weren't they?

An eerie laugh was heard throughout the battlefield as malice erupted from the ball and exploded to shatter the earth below and send shockwaves throughout the land.

For the most part, the Regelia family managed to protect most of the soldiers and Gifted but regardless, all felt a shiver down their spines as that horrible laugh echoed throughout the battlefield.

"It would seem that handling you all in this form would be quite troublesome." The monster said as its body began to stretch and its belly expanded vigorously.

Still, the humans continued to attack but it did nothing to stop the creature from expanding to the size equal to about half that of the entire Kingdom.

The army backed away as quick as they could but not all were lucky enough to escape and many became engulfed in shadows as it stretched across the land.

"Dammit!" Emrit raged as he hopped away with his sons in tow. He looked around to see that Mohan was with the Lady Natura flying on a carpet of light.

The man looked back to the monster who had returned to its previous size to bear numerous giant hands of darkness as black ash spiraled around it in a storm of chaos.

"How are we supposed to fight that?" The man asked to himself as he landed on the ground.

"Leave it to me!" Roy Regelia landed beside him as the barrier ball dissipated into nothing.

"Roy, what are you doing he-" It was then that Emrit noticed that the Rift was no longer there and stopped himself mid sentence.

Roy walked forward. "Those belonging to the Regelia family, follow me!" he shouted as he continued towards the mass of shadow with a barrier ball within his hand.

"Oi, what are you doing?" Emrit asked. "He already destroyed your barrier once. He can do it again."

"True, but that was when his power was compressed and concentrated." The King replied with fierce eyes. "Don't worry Emrit, I know what I must do. Taking him down entirely is impossible. At the very least, with the help of my family members, I will be able to detain at least half of it. You others must deal with the remaining half."

And then the King continued walking forward, followed by five men belonging to the Regelia family tree.