The Rising Sun: Episode 6 Read online

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  Feeling eight thousand years’ worth of fury rush up his veins, Redgarn lunged at Mantra, sending a slash across his side. The Nyon master parried his blow with a lazy swipe of his own blade, leaving a shower of sparks around them. Then, twisting about at the speed of light, he sent his sword in a wide strike across the air by his left. And two of the Xeni by his left fell back with large glowing slashes etched over their black robes. Redgarn felt fury grind his mind with a new resolve.

  “No! now YOU DIE!” He lunged and sent a speedy jab at Mantra, who leaped to the side, at the same time spinning over to block the three other Xeni’s slashes swiftly.

  Redgarn made a sharp lunge at his nemesis, and before Mantra knew it, he had been tossed five metres into the air. His head gently brushed the roof of their cave, before sinking in an elegant arc, and crashing onto the ground. The force of the airborne soar left him rolling over the cave’s ground, before coming to a stall right before the tablet Valicros, which was still steaming and issuing dry sparks into the air … But despite the heavy fall, Mantra jumped right back to his feet the very next second in front of the tablet, his sword held ready. His white eyes seemed to radiate a power and fervour as they scanned Redgarn and the three other Xeni.

  He turned his head to steal a quick glance around him, no doubt to collect the details of how his other three disciples were faring. Two of them, a girl and a bronze haired Redling boy, were in the grip of duels that fared worse than his own. They were both being pushed further and further back, swallowed by an entire pack of his men … They were all done for.

  And the revelation could be clearly seen shadowing Mantra’s expression. The lines around his jaw went stiffer as he gritted his teeth, staring dead ahead where Redgarn and the other three stood, waiting to attack.

  “It’s too late, Mantra.” sneered Redgarn, and the other three by his side made jeering grunts. “Too late to fight. Everything that you’ve striven to protect for so long is now in complete ashes. Tonight, my demon army would have scoured the entire spectrum, and taken complete control. Everything you and your pathetic brotherhood have scraped a living for across eight millennia, has been for nothing.” He spread his hands, feeling his lips pull back in a leer. “Tonight, the evil empire has returned, and the world shall remain bound under its feet forever now. Tonight, we end what we started, and I’ll show you how wrong you were, to have challenged me in that room that day. Eight thousand years ago.”

  The four of them stood before the last of the Nyon masters, feeling the thrilling anticipation build within slowly, waiting to set them loose again. Mantra held a completely unwavered, composed gaze with Redgarn, his white eyes strangely far off. He seemed to be thinking, lost in reminiscence…

  And then, to the surprise of all four of the Xeni in front of him, a grin cut across the old man’s wizened features.

  “Yes,” he said softly. “right you are, and right you’ve always been. Tonight, we will end what we started eight millennia back.” He gave a mild chuckle. “But as you once said, old friend, let’s finish what we started in style.”

  Without warning, he twisted around, hands outstretched, held pointing towards the broken, damaged tablet behind him. A jet of fire escaped from both of Mantra’s hands, tailing around the tablet, the broken and damaged remains of the most powerful tablet. Valicros seemed to glow as the jet of fire surrounded it. And then, for a moment, a dazzling flare of orange light shot out from the tablet, immersing the entire world. And as the light was sucked back into the tablet, Redgarn and the other four staggered backwards, their eyes shielded. Mantra turned back, his eyes seeming to linger with the bright, dazzling flame that had just unleashed over the tablet behind him.

  A moment passed when there was no comprehension in Redgarn’s eyes, for what Mantra had just done. But the very next moment, as the air around the glowing orange tablet crackled … understanding flooded him. But it was too late.

  Mantra jumped out of the way of the glowing tablet, the air over which was starting to awaken with bright ropes of flame out of nowhere. As Redgarn and the four others watched with bounding horror, the glowing tablet seemed to spit flames into the air around it. But no ordinary flames … tongues of swirling, coiling orange that seemed to slither over the place like fiery snakes having minds of their own. They danced over the air, roping around of the tablet for a mean moment after their release, before turning and shooting across the cave.

  Redgarn himself was half blank with dawning horror and alarm. For he knew what had just happened…

  He’s just performed an ancient spell … Inferno, the spell of the fire serpents! The revelation was followed by swift burst of fear. And he performed it on a broken tablet! The spell’s now going to loosen completely out of control!

  The three other Xeni stagger backwards as they witnessed the sheer awe, coupled with bewilderment, of what they were witnessing.

  As the glow consuming the tablet brightened, the fire serpents, the tongues of flame released by the tablet, grew longer and swifter. They seemed to spring out of thin air, their light spreading over the entire dark interior of their cave. They shot across the place like airborne snakes, coiling and swirling over the air. Redgarn had just a second to understand that the growth of the fire serpents was going to intensify, and speeden. As one, the four of them jumped out of the way, ducking. And not a second later, one of the coils of light shot through right where they’d been standing. One of the men who was too slow to jump out of the way was slashed across by the flame tongue like a sword, and he hit the ground, dead, beside Redgarn.

  The ones spread across the rest of the cave stopped and stared at this new, bizarre development, all of them lowering their swords.

  The crackling grew louder and deadlier as Redgarn lay on the ground. He glanced up and saw the tongues of fire speeden, shooting out of thin air around the tablet, and then racing across the cave.

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  The four Xeni Vestra had been duelling halted and glanced at the tablet metres from where they now stood, which was beginning to glow and spurt flaming ribbons into the air.

  The split second of faltering that they allowed as they did this was all Vestra needed: she held her hand up, summoning all the might of her mind. Two of the Xeni fell prey to the smash released from in front of her palm. The wave like entity collided with them, taking them off their feet. They soared over and crashed to the cave’s walls, laying a spread of cracks over it. The remaining two had been knocked to the side by the wave.

  Now having space for distraction, she turned to the tablet, near which stood Mantra, Redgarn and three other Xeni. But the tablet metres from them was glowing in a wild orange colour, and the air around it was erupting with tongues of flame … Something very unusual was going on.

  The tablet seemed to vibrate as it glowed, with the air around it spitting flames out of nowhere. One of the tongues of fire shot across right towards them. The entire bunch of them lunged out of the way. Vestra rolled over the ground, a scorching blaze missing her by a few millimeters. But a quickly silenced ear splitting shriek from behind her told her that one of the two remaining Xeni she was duelling had been too slow to move out of the way … and was now dead. The other one lay shrivelled on the ground, trying to avoid the ribbons of fire shooting across the place. The savage fury in his eyes slowly drained, and fear was taking over.

  The fiery snakes continued to shoot out of the glowing tablet, swimming over the air inside of the cave, as if with a mind of their own. The sight made Vestra’s blood still. A sight was entrancing … but also terrifying beyond reason.

  What’s going on? she thought, panic flaring within. Metres across, Qyro jumped out of one of the fiery serpents’ way, while one of the three Xeni he’d been fighting fell prey to it, engulfed in fire, and hitting the ground a few seconds later in ashes.

  She saw Redgarn and Mantra lying on the ground feet away from each other, along with another of the three Xeni accompanyin
g Redgarn. But the flames weren’t willing to spare the ground either. One of the tongues coiled over the air and landed on the ground close to where the third Xeni accompanying Redgarn was, so that his robe was partly set afire. The man jumped into the air and ran off, his hands flailing as he tried to douse the flames now gripping his robe.

  Vestra’s throat ran dry as she realised that they, the ones inside the cave, were now being held hostage by something far more deady than their enemies’ swords … Far more lethal … and the evidence suggested that not most of them would be able to come out alive.

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  Keeping himself pressed to the cave’s floor, Mantra watched the fiery snakes explode over the cave, spinning around over its interior. Holding all of them now prisoner to their own selves. Because one bad move amidst the spinning fire serpents could mean a painful death.

  Mantra would have considered whatever he had just done the heights of sheer madness in any other ordinary situation. But this was no ordinary situation. Mantra had called on the aid of cold logic for this: there had never been any hope for them, the four Nyon, anyway: there was no chance they could have fended off more than ten of their enemies. And so, he had done the only thing remaining to wager them a chance out of here alive … He had released inferno, and plunged the place into chaos so that half of their enemies would be killed along with it. Mantra had thought that it would give them the meekest sliver of chance to survive and escape. But as he gazed at the horror unleashing about through the ribbons of fire, which would soon engulf entire place in their blaze, Mantra realised that his calculations may have been wrong after all…

  It didn’t look like anybody was going to survive and escape this…

  The glowing tablet feet from him was beginning to turn white hot, and the spinning tongues of flame released around it were beginning to accelerate wildly. One of them zipped downwards and lashed the ground less than a foot from Mantra, who would have been fried to a crisp if not for his razor sharp reflexes. He rolled over the ground and then sat up, his head ducked to avoid the fiery ropes spinning over the entire cave.

  Around the cave, everyone else had stopped fighting and were now trying to keep themselves from burning alive at the hands of the fire serpents swirling about the air.

  Redgarn sat kneeled as Mantra was, a few feet from him. His face was undisposed of the fury masking it all along. His gleaming red eyes found Mantra.

  Without waiting, he launched himself towards Mantra, missing one of the tongues of flame zipping past him by a whisker.

  Caught in the middle of the inferno, Mantra duelled with his ancient foe, who was as determined to kill him as he had been right from the start. His will unhampered even by the deadly predicament they were all now in. Mantra’s attention was split between fending off Redgarn, and not getting struck by the fire serpents spinning around the place.

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  Zardin hadn’t stopped his mindless assault, even in the face of this new, extraordinarily strange development.

  What the hell’s happening? thought Ion, as ropes of fire sprang into the chamber they were, and swirled about the air within it rapidly. The two of them were now amidst a group of wildly spinning ribbons of fire that swept across the place. Trying to devour whatever they found in their way.

  Ignoring the strange distraction as effectively as if it didn’t exist, Zardin lunged forward at Ion. Panicky and dazed, Ion felt himself vaguely throw his own sword over the air to block the assault, before disconnecting the blades and jumping back as one of the fire ribbons swept down towards him from the side. Blazing hot air enveloped his face as he missed the tongue of fire by less than a foot.

  Zardin lazily tilted his head as another of the fire serpents spun towards his head. It passed right above his shoulder, leaving not a trace of effect on him as he stood as still as iron, unperturbed.

  His blank eyes unmoving from his twin brother, Zardin leapt forward again, swinging his sword. Ion parried the blade with lightspeed reflexes as it danced around him, its bright orange glow seeming to merge with the blaze of fire in the atmosphere around them.

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  Redgarn sprang back at the speed of wind to dodge the fire serpent that came spinning towards him from the right. Mantra’s white eyes caught the light of the flame as it passed before him, a swirl of flickering orange light emanating from within their calm depths.

  Taking advantage, the old man bounded forward as the fire serpent just passed, swinging his sword faster than Redgarn’s dazed attention could catch it. He felt his feet carry him to the side, his sword moving to block the shot. But too late -

  A searing pain scratched across the front of his chest as Mantra’s sword brushed it. Redgarn gave a shriek of pain, jumping back. And before Mantra could leap over and finish him, another fire serpent cut across the air between them, forcing Mantra to jump back instead. Redgarn toppled over and rolled over the ground, clutching the scratch laid over his chest. Through the spinning flames, he saw Mantra standing feet ahead of him, his ignited sword held ready to lay the final blow. The scratch it had left on Redgarn’s chest burnt with pain, as though the sword’s blaze lingered on the cut.

  Fighting back the pain spreading from the scratch, Redgarn rose unsteadily. His sword doused. Fixing Mantra with a glare that radiated more fury than the fires rushing around them, Redgarn snarled, “You may have won this petty battle … but the war is ours, old friend. The victory that matters most, is ours. Tonight, we’ve released the Mezmeron in his most powerful form … And our empire has returned to seize the world. Nothing can now stop us. Nothing will now stop us.”

  He turned and swept his gaze over the rest of the cave. Nearby within sight, the other two of Mantra’s disciples could be seen, feebly diving about the swirling flames, and at the same time fending off his men.

  “Xeni!” Redgarn boomed, his voice mounting atop the crackling of flames. “Retreat!”

  Mantra made no attempt to stop the wretched Xeni leader as he turned and bounded off, dodging and ducking the fire serpents in a dash towards the cave’s entrance. The few Xeni who had been duelling Vestra and Qyro stopped and ran after him. A few of them were hit by the fire serpents before they could make it, but the rest of the black cloaked fiends were fast enough to pelt across the cave unmarred. One of them was signed by the sleeve of his robe, but he kept on, unbothered. And the entire surviving pack of Xeni led by Redgarn melted from sight as they vanished through the cave’s entrance…

  Mantra drew his attention back inside the cave, and the suffocating heat washed over him with a new intensity. His knife sharp reflexes put him on the move just in time to duck as one of the ribbons slashed across the air above him. Rolling over on the ground to avoid a second ribbon as it flew down from his right, Mantra jumped back to his feet, his mind thundering with an alert tenseness.He swept his gaze about, trying to scout out the only remaining thing that mattered to him in the face of this predicament…

  Vestra and Qyro were both standing on opposite corners of the large cave, both close enough to reach him. Both their postures were rigid as they stood helplessly amidst the spinning mayhem. Tongues of fire shot forth all about them, and they were constantly on the move, ducking, leaping and throwing themselves off the way of the fire serpents that came slithering out of side.

  They were far off from where Mantra stood … too far for him to try reaching them.

  They would be reduced to ashes very shortly.

  The Xeni and even Mantra himself, being of prodigious skill, would escape from here only with a stroke of luck. But the two young inexperienced disciples stood next to no chance … It was too much to even ask that they had survived this long.

  Mantra let his eyes linger on the two of them amidst the blazing hysteria around, watching as they fervently ducked and dodged death by mere whiskers. While the fire serpents rushed in all over, relentless. And a sharp twinge of guilt formed within Mantra. He had thrust them into this journey, starti
ng with the mission to recover the crystal … And starting from then, they had been thrown into a senseless adventure that was far too much for their inexperienced age to handle … And now, at the very peak of the danger, they had been pushed over the edge. And the fault was his. He had been responsible for what they had undergone from the very start…

  The realisation ignited Mantra’s mind like no other ever had. Resolve flared within him, pushing away all of the hopelessness and dread.

  I took responsibility for them. he reminded himself. I stood before the elder council and claimed full responsibility for both their lives and deaths, just a day back … and the time’s come to keep up my word.

  Without pausing to consider it, Mantra slid his blade back into his sheath and bounded through the hysteric, swirling fires to reach his two disciples. And to get them out of here alive.

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  Ion’s thoughts were suddenly dishevelled, thrown into chaos in confusion and panic. And his panic sharpened like a talon as he thought of the other three. And all his worries regarding this new development found them. They’ve gotta be all right!