"Are you from the other world, Terra? That's why your constitution is so different."
Aayla froze. So, he knew?! That's just great. Her mind kept spinning on how to explain things, but then a question popped into her mind. How did he find out, and does he know for sure?
"I'm from Terra? Is that supposed to be a joke? Who did you hear this from?"
"The gremlins. I was searching the residence hall for them during the end-of-the-year party. The one right before the True Order attacked the school. They were already listening in on your conversation. I heard you talking with Ramona about how to get back to your home."
Her face twitched. So, it was the fault of those little rats!! Somehow, that sounds believable.
"It was just for a few minutes, though! No, seconds! Only a few seconds! Really, I swear!" Daren hurriedly included. "And I don't think you're weird or a freak or anything! Well, maybe a little bit odd, but other than that you're a normal person!"
Aayla scratched her head and sighed. Well, the secret's out now. There's not much of a point in keeping quiet now.
"We call it 'Earth' back home."
"Earth?"
"Yeah, the planet. Like how you call this world 'Tellus' we call Terra 'Earth'."
Aayla briefly explained how she arrived on Tellus and who the Prophet of Terra was.
"So, Dean Heston's actually been to 'Earth'?"
"Yup."
"And you're her goddaughter because your parents helped Dean Heston during her stay there?"
"Yes again."
"Then you somehow got pulled into Tellus and landed on her doorstep?"
"That is correct."
Daren giggled. The universe works in mysterious ways. It almost seems preplanned in a way. How everything is connected and somehow links together. He turned his gaze toward the artifacts floating in the formation.
"So, you'll need both of those to get back to your home?" A sudden pang struck Daren's heart. He bit his lips and ignored it.
"Well, maybe." Aayla bit her lip. "That crystal's mana is all weird. I'm not sure that I should use it. And the plotter… well, the True Order has been using it to summon demons. It'll need to be recalibrated if we can figure out how. I don't ever want to go where they live."
Daren suddenly relaxed. That's right. He still had some time to win her over.
"We can figure it out after we permanently stop this summoning."
The duo looked back at the summoning formation. The spatial plotter's rings spun wildly as the portal stretched rhythmically like something was pawing at it. Whatever demon was behind it was getting impatient. They had to either leave immediately or stop the summoning.
Daren and Aayla dragged the unconscious Chris and Jacki away from the portal. It took them an hour to get their friends out of the crater. The portal's disruptions slowly became more severe. After a short break outside of the reach of the corrupted mana, they descended back inside the crater.
As they approached the summoning formation, the corrupted mana thickened. Like a fog, it tried to push them away. Daren put up a shield to block the corrupted mana. The shield sizzled and popped as the corrupted mana corroded it.
When they arrived at the edge of the formation, the Prophet of Terra was still crazily mumbling to himself. He didn't seem to even know that the duo was there. The outer ring of the spatial plotter had frozen in place, but the other rings continued to spin. Aayla summoned her shield again, just in case. At the last second, Daren had to drop the mana shield.
The corrupted mana was caustic. Aayla could feel it burning her skin and lungs. She quickly put the New Moon bracelet next to the formation and let it start gathering mana. Once it connected to the formation, there was no stopping it. The bracelet greedily sucked up the mana like a toddler drinking a juice box.
At first, nothing seemed to happen. The formation continued as usual. But soon the somewhat stabile formation began to decline. Parts of it faded while others were still bright. The portal became blurry and translucent. The corrupted mana leaking from it stopped flowing.
When the corrupted mana began to fade, Daren and Aayla heaved a sigh of relief. The demonic screams in the city slowly decreased. Then, the Prophet of Truth shuddered and twisted to look toward them.
"You!... What are you fools doing? Stop…! Stop!" He screeched. "Don't interfere with my life's work! I've spent years working towards this plan. I won't let you brats screw it up."
Suddenly, the crystal in his hands exploded with light. Seemingly kicked into overdrive, the mana flowed into the formation. A battle broke out between artifacts. One trying to power the formation, and the other trying to suck it dry.
Aayla couldn't keep up with the rapid pace of the battle. She had far too little experience, but she was also far more stubborn, healthy, and physically fit than the Prophet of Terra. With a little help from Daren, she managed to hold her ground.
As their silent battle intensified, the summoning formation became more and more disorderly. Aayla stopped trying to control it at all, but the Prophet of Terra couldn't do that. This summoning had to succeed. His mana and stamina had already dwindled to almost nothing.
With his limits approaching, the Prophet of Terra desperately tried to summon the fire demon. The fastest way to end this little competition was to kill the brats in front of him. Once he killed them, he could finish the current summoning at his leisure. The fire demon would take care of them easily.
He bitterly reached out with his mana to recall the fire demon. Like a stone thrown into the ocean, a response never came. The Prophet of Terra tried again and again. Each time, the fire demon never responded to his calls. With each failure, his frustration mounted.
This plan was doomed to fail. Perhaps it was too far away to detect his commands. Or maybe it was too busy fighting off the soldiers surrounding it. It might not even care about his commands at this point. In any case, his calls to the fire demon went unanswered. Panic began to set in.
Between the current summoning and the fire demon, the Prophet of Terra had nothing to spare. So much of his mana was wasted on recalling the fire demon. Forced to consider the forbidden and taboo, the Prophet of Terra crazily began to feed his life force into the crystal.
To his joy, the portal soon began to writhe and squirm. The new demon he had called for eagerly ate up the mana supplied through the portal. The portal steadily grew. As it did, so did the Prophet of Terra's hope and desires. Above his hands, the crystal gleamed with light and the spatial plotter's middle ring soon came to a halt.
There was too much energy for Aayla and Daren to handle. They began to fall behind in their struggle. But they couldn't stop now. Too much was at stake. Even if they wanted to run, the thing behind the portal would be summoned before they could run very far.
The summoning was inevitable. The portal would open. There was no stopping it. Time was the only factor.
Desperate to stop the summoning, Aayla cautiously stepped into the formation. Carefully avoiding the lines, she made her way to the center. The crystal radiated so much energy, Aayla felt like she was in a furnace. The Prophet of Truth sneered as she trudged closer, convinced that this foolish little girl would die soon.
With her bracelet focused on the formation, it wasn't enough to protect Aayla from the crystal. Her hastily made mana barrier could barely block the energy. Just when she thought that the barrier would break, someone else's covered her. When she looked back, Daren was right behind her. After a brief nod, the pair pushed forward.
To the Prophet of Terra's disbelief, Aayla and Daren arrived at the center step by step. Still, the summoning would succeed at any moment. The Prophet dropped the plotter and hastily drew the crystal closer to himself. The sheer volume of energy forced Aayla and Daren away. They couldn't get close at all.
With no other choice, she turned her attention towards the plotter. If she couldn't cut the power, then she would just redirect the target. Before the Prophet of Terra could react, Aayla stepped by him and reached for the plotter.
Since no one was directly controlling it, the plotter automatically moved into her hands. The instant it touched her, the rings started to move. Above them, the portal shattered like glass.
The rings rapidly spun and moved, sucking every last bit of mana out of Aayla. Before it could touch her life force, Daren grabbed her hands and added his own. He furrowed his brow and helped her redirect the New Moon bracelet's power. Now a magical battery, the bracelet, and the crystal's energies combined.
Falling portal pieces suddenly flew upwards, like time had been rewound. Instantly reconnecting, the portal was revived. A pure black, serene surface without a single ripple. With one key difference: it was open.
Aayla felt herself dragged upwards with her hands in Daren's before the darkness consumed her. Before the Prophet of Truth could react, he too was pulled into the portal.
The formation was ripped apart like a piece of paper. The fire demon and its minions faded away like they had never existed. The soldiers and citizens cheered as their nightmare was over.
But nothing now stood in the place where one young lady, one young wizard, and one lunatic used to. They had also disappeared like they never existed.
-End-