27. The War

If it wasn't for Jeff, everyone would have died in the lab. The fire was huge. Kort and others were strained, but Jeff came on time to free them. The rain of the black blood helped to subside the fire. Even though Jeff saved everyone, he failed to remove my dad's body out of the fire, so it burnt to ashes. The moment it rained, Chris' wound healed itself. When we reached the lab, we found everyone confused on what to do as they stared into what was once a lab.

Triana ran to hug Splendor, who was feeling a lot of pain from his wound. Before they could fully hug, she felt a shock like lightning that made her instantly jump away from him.

"What is it?" Jeff asked.

We all stared at her.

"I don't understand anything," she responded.

We urged her to touch Splendor again. That time, she held him for about a minute. From her face, we could tell that she was in pain. Splendor was confused because he felt no effect at all. Triana screamed as if in pain and ran away. Renata went after her.

"There's no time, don't worry about me. Please save Leticia," Splendor said and added. "I am the who who surrendered her to Orionos."

We agreed to go after Orionos, so we entered into Jeff's van and drove after him. We left Splendor since he was feeling a lot of pain from his wound. Along the road, Officcer K. stopped our van. He said Kort called him for help. She was right because we needed every help we could get. Officer K wasn't alone. He had deployed some of the guards at the border and alerted them that Orionos was the enemy. I looked at Officer K, and he did the same. Before I could ask for forgiveness for killing his brother, he said if his brother was an enemy, there was no way I would have spared him. His brother chose his side to be also against him. In the end, he sympathized with me about my dad, who was then ashes. Renata held my shoulders as I felt tears coming down my cheeks.

When we were closer to the border, our van ran out of fuel, and we knew we were going to be late. We left the van and walked a few distance to the border. As the gunshots were heard in front of us, we knew we were closer, and the war was already at play. Officer K led us to a hill where we met some of his men. They had guns, and each one of us were given ours. My friends understood that Triana and I were not able to fight with our powers because we didn't know how to trigger them.

As friends-Chris, Jeff, Mariana, Kort, Officer K, Renata, Triana, and I-held our hands together. We were an army along with some guards to fight Orionos, the mage.

"What if we don't make it," I asked as fear swept across me.

"I was thinking the same. We trust powers that Oliver don't even know how to control, and moreover, we are not experienced with these guns," Jeff said.

"You need to take Leticia and the book before it's too late. These are the two things we should do no matter how things turn," said Mariana and motivated us, "I am sure we will win this fight!"

"We will divide our forces, Oliver. You need to trust in yourself and Triana... all the answers you need are within you," Kort said and hugged me.

I looked at Triana and asked, "Are you alright?"

She gestured she was fine.

"What happened when you touched Splendor?" I asked again.

She paused and looked at us.

"Splendor is the one who killed Mr. Mann in the lab," she said and explained to herself that she was able to tell some things that someone did unconscious. That was another ability of hers as a blackblood. At that moment, Chris thundered as he became angry. He swore to kill Splendor once the war was over. He felt betrayed because he was arrested for a crime he didn't commit. Kort was quiet because she knew she was the one who arrested him.

"That means he killed Marcos and planted evidence on me?" Chris asked.

"No... Marcos was already dead the moment he sliced his gall bladder out," Triana explained.

"You didn't kill anyone, but my brother did," Officer K confessed.

Officer K stabbed us with his confession. We didn't respond to him, and he continued,

"Don't worry. My brother is dead. He has paid for his sins."

Things were getting more complicated by the confessions. Kort remembered she worked with Splendor trying to catch the killers while he was the killer. She also worked with Officer K while he knew his brother was the killer. She felt played just like Chris felt, but she didn't want to let it control the situation. We divided our forces. I went with Kort in the middle while others went on sides. Without going any further, we saw Orionos' men coming after us. They were shooting at us. Our guards went in front of us and shot at Orionos' men. Behind the guards, Orionos' roar was heard, and the scream of our guards was loudly. He was killing everyone around him, and that made our guards run away. We were going to lose the battle. I ran opposite to our guards, heading straight to Orionos. Kort tried to stop me me but I didn't listen.

"Orionos!" I screamed his name.

There was silence for a second. After that, Orionos' chuckle broke the silence.

"Kill his friends, Oliver is mine. I should have killed him time back," he roared, coming to me.

I realized he was carrying Leticia in his arms when he was closer. He put her on the ground. Our guards ran to fight him, but he easily defeated them just by swinging his hand sideways. It seemed his magic was too powerful because he didn't need to work hard in killing those guards. For a minute, I got afraid thinking what to do because I didn't know how to trigger my powers.

"You all want to die by my blade. I don't know why your family is so stubborn," he triumphed, getting closer.

His eyes started to glow as if anger was fueling them. He raised his hand, and I felt a heavy blow of wind that pushed me backward, and I fell down. When I was trying to stand up, he grabbed me and carried me to his height. He closed his eyes and screamed as if touching me made him feel pain. I remember he once felt the same when we first shook hand in the lab.

"What kind of power do you possess?" he asked and said, "My blood clots while touching you."

I got more afraid when he increased his grip on my shoulders as if he wanted to crush me. To be frank, I was helplessly not knowing what to do. The gun I had was on the ground. He threw me away and said, "Count for a fortnight, I will be back to kill everyone in the city. No one can rule the city except me."

His words were followed by a dense bright light that struck the ground near him. The light dazzled on his radius, and a heavy wind blew in all directions. As the bright light increased its contrast, he screamed loudly and spoke some words that echoed everywhere. When the light instantly went off, Orionos disappeared, and a heavy shockwave was born. It pushed everyone away. No one woke up.

When I opened my eyes, it was about sunrise. I heard sirens coming to us. I jumped and looked around. I was only with Kort and Renata. We looked around for others, but there was no sign of them. There were only dead bodies of guards and some who were still unconscious.

"Where is everyone? What happened last night? Did Orionos go with Leticia? Did we lose?"

I was on my knees asking myself those questions while Kort and Renata were calling my name. The police and the army were coming. They seemed to belong to Orionos because they were killing our guards. They killed everything that moved on the ground. One of the vans stopped near us. A man stepped out of the car wearing a camouflaged uniform. For sure, they belonged to Orionos. I stood up and moved in reverse as the man locked his eyes onto mine.

Kort and Renata started running away, and I followed them. Before I even ran a larger distance, my hand was caught by a bullet. I fell down and heard the man screaming to his men to stop shooting. After that, I stood up and ran again to reach my friends. We jumped off the cliff, which was full of water, and escaped. Orionos' army didn't stop coming after us.

Our lives changed just like the leaf being blown by the wind. We had to run for our lives, and it was the beginning.