STAGE THIRTY-THREE: FULFILLING A PROMISE
"The Aethelmaers are the descendants of Celestials." Keon thought, dashing through the corridors, towards the room where the orb is. He could sense a faint power that reminds him so much of Freyja's aura. He can't be mistaken. Either it's Afra, or the orb. Either way, he needed to get there fast.
Following it led him down to the dungeon, where the phreinians kept their prisoners. It was where they locked Freyja when she was captured. The stench was so strong, it's making Keon lose focus. But he grit his teeth and continued.
"That orb will only react to Celestial aura. Alyon can't do it himself, Alaric is a human no matter how great of a runemaster he is." Keon pondered, as he slithered his way through the guards. "Freyja is totally out of the question and Kirin… that asshole is nowhere to be found." No matter what, he must take that orb far away from Freyja. That's the only way she can get her aura back, and fight against Galun and the phreinians.
Finally, the room where they kept the orb is in sight. But as Keon expected, five phreinian soldiers jumped out to stop him. "No one can stop me." He thought, pulling his twin daggers from of his belt.
"Do you think a human can go against—" even before the phreinian could finish talking, Keon's blades, covered in his dark aura, ripped his throat. They attacked him all at once, and it was not easy. While Keon managed to avoid critical hits, he was still injured, their blades and claws pierced right through his hands, his foot, his side… but he kept going, covering his wounds with his aura. He continued fighting, he needs to. And while he was able to take down four, the last one was stronger than what he anticipated.
Keon felt the pain creep up to his spine. He grit his teeth, and summoned an earth rune beast that emerged from behind the last phreinian. Together, they attacked the phreinian. Much to his relief, it fell dead. Breathing heavily, he clenched his fists, slapped his cheeks to keep conscious. Drops of Keon's blood fell on the ground as he dragged himself to the orb's platform.
"This damned thing." He thought, about to grab it.
"Well, it's a human, isn't it? That orb is indestructible, yet you're here. Are you going to steal it?" A voice from behind surprised him. He looked back, and found a phreinian, shrouded with far stronger aura than the ones he just killed. Keon knew he's in not in the best condition to fight yet, but he must, and he needs to win.
Wasting no time, the phreinian leader rushed to the young Aethelmaer, charging head on with a gigantic spear. As expected, he was powerful. Keon dodged, but the force of his attack was too much that Keon was flung against the wall, aggravating his injuries. The phreinian tried to pierce his spear right through him, but he rolled to aside and summoned his flying rune beast. He barely dodged what could have killed him instantly. His bird-beast distracted the phreinian while he ran for his life. The phrenian stabbed his rune beast, dispelling it before it angrily charged at him once again.
"HUMAN!" Again, he summoned his powerful spear, and hurled it to Keon. But Keon came up with a plan. Just before the spear could hit him, he summoned three rune beasts before him, the beasts getting stabbed in his place while he purposely let himself be swayed by the attack's momentum. Instead of dodging or blocking such powerful attack, he went with the flow while slowly adding aura here and there to re-direct the attack's flow in a spiral position. And since the phreinian released such a strong power, he himself, could not easily stop it, or change its direction. Keon took this chance and wrapped his daggers with his strongest aura before jumping straight to the phreinian.
The phreinian could have dodged, but he was so confident, he didn't. He took Keon's attack head-on, with a smirk.
Keon's daggers were buried deep within the phreinian's lower torso. "Foolish human, do you think you can hurt me?" The phreinian laughed, waiting for his wounds to regenerate. But it was taking an awful lot of time, that the phreinian started growing weaker by the second. He tried to pull the daggers out of his body, but he couldn't. "WHAT… WHAT's THIS!?" He panicked, noticing that Keon's aura shrouding the daggers are slowly enveloping his insides like parasites devouring the flesh. "IMPOSSIBLE! HUMAN AURA CAN'T…" The phreinian fell onto the ground, leaving Keon barely standing. Keon's vision is spinning, after losing so much blood and sustaining injuries, while almost draining himself of aura. But he had to go on.
Keon forcefully dragged himself to the phreinian, materializing another dagger from his aura. "Of course, I'm no ordinary human. And that includes my aura." With one, strong blow, he decapitated the phreinian, ending its life instantly.
"I forgot to tell you, that among the Aethelmaer brothers, I am the one, with the most malleable aura. That's a special talent of mine, actually." He chuckled.
Knowing that it won't be long before others go after him, Keon hurried to the orb. He lost so much blood, he could barely keep his eyes open. He coughed blood, and his broken ribs added to this torture. He pushed through. "I must.. take…. it away…" was the only thing in his mind. His eyes locked on to the orb and nothing else.
Keon held out his hands, to the Phreinian orb, the weapon that sealed and hurt Freyja. He summoned his aura, every single drop of it, and channeled it around the orb, to produce a container. Keon remembered a curious detail in his childhood: this was the very first special technique he learned as a child.
"Rigel, I hate this!" Six-year-old Keon shouted at his tutor. "This ability is weaker than Kirin's! I want to learn the same technique that he uses!"
"Lord Keon, you and Lord Kirin have different innate abilities. The natural dark aura reserve inside Lord Kirin is something he's born with. You can't learn that."
"But how can I beat Kirin!?"
"Calm down Lord Keon. Of all the Aethelmaers I've seen, only you possess the natural affinity to easily fuse your aura with other things and re-create them. Though your aura reserve is not as great as Lord Kirin's, or as far-reaching as Lord Ahrin's, your synchronization ability is something unique and commendable. All you have to do is to maximize its potentials."
"But I still hate it."
When Keon trained rune beast conjuration, something that only he, can use among the brothers, he started out with manipulating living animals by infusing a portion of his aura into them. It is hard, for it takes extreme accuracy and control. Should you infuse too much aura, the rune beast will die, but if you use too little, you will fail. He practiced, day and night all for his mother's sake and all to defeat Kirin.
One day, he finally managed to fully control the movement of a squirrel. And not for long, he can finally conjure rune-beasts with his aura alone.
"But I still hate it."
It took minutes, but felt like hours. Keon used everything in his power to stand up, stay conscious and run away with the orb. With the celestial orb in his hands, he prepared for his escape. "This is insane." He thought, a smirk on his face. "I practiced so hard to beat Kirin, and here I am, using it to save him." Keon summoned a flying rune-beast, jumped on it, and ordered it to fly out of the dungeons, and away from the phreinian hideout.
However, just as soon as he got out of the dungeon, just a few seconds away from flying out of the window, four flying spears aimed at him hit his rune-beast, dispelling it in an instant, dropping Keon onto the cold, stone floor.
"That was damn close." He heard footsteps approaching.
Seven phreinians appeared, surrounding Keon. "No way." He trembled, his face pale, feeling his heart pump faster and faster. "Why now… I was close." He said, shaking— horribly shaking, he could drop the orb any time. "This can't be. Not now."
Keon tried to summon another rune beast, but it won't appear. He tried to summon his aura, but it won't appear. When he tried to jump, run and even move, his body just won't follow.
"Kill him." He heard the phrenians roar. He heard them draw their weapons.
Keon could barely move, much more fight seven of them. He felt an aura dagger pierce through his back, and groaned from the excruciating pain. He fell down face flat, but still grasping the orb tightly in his arms.
"Freyja." He thought. Tears streaming down his onyx eyes. "Save me." His eyes, locked at the window he was just about to escape through. But something curious came into his mind. Even in that state, his eyes were fixed at the sky. The sky was surprisingly blue and clear, amid the cold. It looked so familiar. Why is it so familiar? Then, he knew why.
It was exactly like the day they met in the woods, when he was hiding from his pursuers. It was the same sky when he found her in Hawsdark running away from Kirin. The memory made him smile. It was the same sky when he jumped off a cliff, and still the same sky when he survived and travelled around the world as a pirate. It was the same sky when they met again, and travelled again. It was the same sky when she promised him that someday, they'll see Celestia together. The tears didn't stop, but before he realized, a wide smile was painted on his face. He couldn't feel anything anymore.
"This is the first and last time I'm grateful to have been born an Aethelmaer."
He squeezed the celestial orb tight, and with the last of his remaining strength, he forced it deep into his very own body. He pushed it so hard, blood was gushing out of his stomach as he groaned, winced in pain.
The phreinians jumped back, seeing a surge of dark aura envelop the young man. The orb too, started releasing tremendous, dense, grey-colored aura. They could only watch as it slowly entered the body of the young man, creating an even stronger reaction, making the ground shake.
Every single vein, every single drop of Keon's aura, he fused the orb with his entire being. To say it was torture is a grave understatement. It was the greatest physical pain he has ever felt in his entire life. He shouted, he cried, but at the same time, it felt strangely good. He endured. With his extreme accuracy in projecting his aura, he was able to uniformly dissipate his aura inside the soul orb, connecting every single thread of his life energy into it. Little by little, Keon is slowly becoming its new container.
He felt the orb's aura slowly dissipate in his body, uniformly. Perfectly.
Then, his aura disappeared, so as the orb's.
Keon dropped onto the ground, cold, his heart pumping abnormally fast. His muscles twitching violently. Yet, he smiled. He couldn't be happier. Before, Keon never cared about life and death. He killed, knowing that sooner or later, he too, will be killed in the same dirty manner. But this was completely different.
His heart pounded faster and faster, his eyes rolled, his body jerking like a fish out of water. He can no longer think, he can no longer sense anything.
Then, the orb inside, exploded.
~ o 0 o ~
Alaric summoned ice walls, mirror spells, one after another, and it started draining him. Alaric was sweating hard, his breathing fast and shallow, and he is growing dizzier by the minute. Another phreinian spotted their hiding place, but its only up to him to protect the powerless Freyja. He's strong enough to incapacitate the phreinian, but not to kill it. Alaric started to panic, feeling his aura reserve nearing its end. But Alaric knew he had to fight one way or another, they have no choice. He summoned a strong aura spear and stabbed the phreinian right through is body, and against a wall. Slowly, ice crystals started crawling all over the phreinian's body, freezing it.
"I can only do this much. I can't kill him." He thought before grabbing Freyja's hand. "We have to get out of here, we've been found!" While he and Freyja tried to escape, two more phreinians found them and blocked their way. Alaric took Freyja behind him, not sure if he can really protect her in his state. Still, he did. However, Freyja suddenly jerked, and shouted, in pain.
"ARGHHHHH!"
"Freyja? What's the matter!?" He panicked, seeing her crouch in pain all of a sudden. "Hey! What happened!?" The ground then shook hard, surprising even the phreinians in front of them.
Freyja suddenly felt a strong surge of power inside her. It felt like something was violently stirring her internal organs. Then, it stopped. And she felt a warm flow of energy circulate inside her. The medallion partially fused on her chest started to separate from her body again. It regained its radiant glow. And when she raised her hand, the white aura, the aura of the celestials, appeared once again.
Wasting no time, she summoned the guardian Astrid, and the Celestial rune blade materialized in her hands. Freyja pushed Alaric aside and with her very own hands, she killed the two phreinians without breaking a single sweat.
Astounded Alaric felt tears roll down his cheeks in great relief. "It's back��" He said, hugging Freyja in joy. "It's finally back!"
~ o 0 o ~