Kalrah approached Zyon with a bored expression on his boxy face. "Hand over the kid, Stormcloud. There's no reason for a dispute."
Zyon still had his hands pocketed. "Was that a Demand or a request?" he said with a smile. "Either way, you ain't getting a thing from me, Kalrah."
'If only I'd sent Ryuzio away before this guy showed up!'
"Who's this baldy, Zyon?" Ryuzio asked, pointing ahead. "And why's he saying he wants me?"
"It's nothing," Zyon said with a chuckle. "He just eats kids."
Ryuzio's expression soured as he lowered his hand. "So he's one of THOSE Etherbeasts."
"One of 'those'?"
"Uh-huh," Ryuzio said, nodding. "You told me every Etherbeast would want to eat me because…" He turned his head toward Zyon. "Wait, you didn't tell me!"
"Amazing!" Kalrah smiled, eyes widening. "This brat absorbed a Trueshard!" He clapped a couple times in amusement. "Even if it was an Augmentshard, that's amazing. Too bad he can go nowhere near the Skies now."
"Are you dumb?" Ryuzio asked, baffled. "I'll go to the Skies no matter what! I don't even know what you're talking about!"
"You didn't tell him, did you, Stormcloud?" Kalrah asked, pointing. "Should I tell him the downside of absorbing a Trueshard, or are you going to be the one to burst his bubble."
Ryuzio looked up at Zyon's face, waiting for an answer.
Zyon kept facing Kalrah. "Why do you want this kid, Kalrah? I knew you were into some gross stuff, but this is even beyond you."
"Was I supposed to laugh at that?" Kalrah said, pocketing his hands. "You see, Stormcloud, I'm on a mission, the scale of which you cannot even fathom. And that kid right there is a crucial tool that is going to help me in achieving it."
Zyon whistled. "I don't remember you being able to think, Kalrah. Isn't it odd how you suddenly started making all these big moves? You got so big that now even I know your name! Crazy!"
"He's big," Ryuzio whispered. "That's for sure."
"You like to waste your words a little too much, Stormcloud," Kalrah said with a shrug. "And personally, I'm not into that. So hand over the kid or you know what I'm capable of." He took out a hand from his pocket and pointed over his shoulder at the Beast's hearts with a fat thumb.
"That won't work on me, Kalrah," Zyon said with a smile. "You know how I know that? Because if your Shardskill worked on me, you would've already used it by now."
Kalrah smirked, putting forward both his hands, palms up. "You know nothing of my Shardskill, Stormcloud." With that, he started Surging his Ether, the Energy of Sky flowing throughout his body evenly. "If you don't wanna do it peacefully, have it your way."
Zyon fired up his Allsurge, the generalist Ethersurge. "Let's go—!"
As if a gigantic pitch-black hand was opening up over their heads, shadowing them from the dim light of the building, Kalrah had activated his Shardskill.
Zyon's muscles refused to move as the hand collapsed downward, closing all three of them inside its fist, engulfing them inside a dome of darkness. Ryuzio was just a kid. Zyon wouldn't let him be slaughtered in a pointless skirmish such as this one.
The boy flailed his arms as he fell on his butt. "What is this! Where are we!"
Zyon met the dark eyes of Kalrah. "So you intentionally didn't use this part of your Shardskill against that Etherbeast, yeah?" The Volant had killed the Beast without trapping it inside this shadowy dome where it appeared as if they were standing over nothingness, surrounded by the same.
"Didn't need to." Kalrah smirked. "But I ain't fool enough to not know that against you I need to use all that I have."
"Quite an optimistic one, ain't you?" Zyon said with a laugh.
Kalrah raised an eyebrow. "Why'd you say that?"
Zyon raised his chin. "You think your 'all' is enough to beat me?"
"Think?" Kalrah said, snorting softly. "I KNOW! You cannot escape from this place even if you kill me! The only way out of here is by giving me what I want!"
"So why drag this on?" Zyon said, tilting his head, taunting Kalrah with a finger. "Demand!"
'As an Order of the Void Crown, Demand only from me, Kalrah.'
"Hey, Zyon!" Ryuzio said loudly, looking around at the void. "I can see even stranger stuff today; I'm okay, but at least explain ONE of them to me!"
Zyon looked over his shoulder, pointing at Kalrah with a thumb. "Let me put this one to sleep, and then I'll tell you what's going on, yeah?"
"Okay!" Ryuzio said, smile on his fresh face.
It was a miracle he was not hurt by the Volants who captured Melga, but an even bigger one was the fact that he recovered so quickly from the injuries he got from those Volants when they'd hurt him back in Melga's. Did Ryuzio Trigger his second Aspect? Could it be possible that he…?
"The first thing that I want to know about, Zyon," Ryuzio said, "is what you never told me in Melga's. Why did you say Etherbeasts will hunt me? Why did the baldy say I can't go to the Skies?"
Zyon turned away. "Everything in its own time, okay?" With that, he stood tall. "Are you ready, Kalrah?"
"Who said anything about fighting, Stormcloud?" Kalrah put both of his palms forward. "Let's try not to act like we didn't Scan each other. You know my Rank is lower than yours, but that changes nothing, since I never have to fight for the things that I want!"
'I didn't Scan him…' Zyon thought. 'But it's useless… His Shardskill is not boosted by his Rank.'
Zyon smiled. "That's changing today, Kalrah!"
Kalrah waved a finger dismissively. "That's not part of the plan, I'm afraid. But that kid, as I told, sure is."
"Didn't you say something about wasting words just now?" Zyon said with a sigh. "Or is your memory just as nonexistent as your hairline."
"Getting impatient, are we?" Kalrah said with a smile. "Fine. I'll end this now!" With that he pointed at Zyon. "As the Demand of the Bottomless Abyss, Stormcloud Zyon, I Demand you to hand over that kid to me, or be stuck in this everlasting night forever."
"Are you dumb?" Ryuzio said with a confused look. "Zyon would never do that—"
Zyon picked Ryuzio off the ground by the neck and walked over to Kalrah.
"Zyon!" Ryuzio shouted, flailing his hands. "What're you doing?"
Kalrah laughed. "It's just hopeless, kid. My Shardskill allows me to Demand anything I want. And as you can see, resisting it is impossible."
Zyon put down Ryuzio by Kalrah's side, stepping away shortly.
"Is it true, Zyon?" Ryuzio asked, turning to him. "Can this baldy really do that?"
Zyon met Ryuzio's eyes, touching his headband with a thumb.
Ryuzio's eyes widened—
Kalrah picked up the kid by the neck and chucked him over his own head. Ryuzio vanished from the darkness in which now only Zyon and Kalrah stood, facing each other.
Kalrah laughed, starting with low giggles inside his smirk, before bursting out into loud cackles, bending backward. "Oh, you arrogant fool! You witless idiot! You dull-minded moron! How did you ever think you could win against me! You know nothing about me or my Shardskill!" He brought down his head to the front, meeting Zyon's eyes. "Do you wanna know something, Stormcloud?"
Zyon stayed silent.
"From the moment I saw you just now," Kalrah said, laughing loudly. "I decided that I'd not only get the kid, but also get everything YOU have! I decided to rob you the moment my eyes found you here! But for that to be possible, my Etherdome needed to focus only on you! What luck! Two prizes under the same stars? How wonderful this night is!"
Etherdome was the extent to which one could reach with their Ether. Every Bright had one. Kalrah's Shardskill could fully solidify his Etherdome—trapping the ones inside it in this shadowy abyss.
And now with only Zyon trapped in it, he would be subjected to the full power of Kalrah's Shardskill.
###
It had been a couple minutes since the strange incident happened.
"She's fine, right?" Jenro whispered, standing by the bed in the operating room beside Lyla.
Lyla nodded. "She's totally alright, Dad. Not a single scratch on her."
Jenro exhaled harshly. "That's good." He sat on a stool beside the bed on which Melga lay unconscious. "Now…how did she magically just pop up here?"
"That doesn't matter," Lyla said, removing her face mask. "But if I had to guess, I'd say that white-haired man kept his word."
"He didn't look like a magician to me," Jenro said with a shake of his head. "Seemed like a young man with some threatening and downright weird friends."
Lyla chuckled. "But we'd have to thank him if he did do this."
Jenro stood up, eyes wide in bafflement, arms open. "How are you brushing past the fact that Melga just appeared from thin air onto this bed? One moment the bed was empty, in then in the other…POOF!"
"I can't make sense of it either, Dad," Lyla said, lowering her father back onto the stool. "However, it's easier for me to accept this is in the realm of possibility since for three months I was an assistant for a Healing Artist. I've already seen some very unbelievable things."
"No matter how many times you tell me that story," Jenro said, folding his arms, "I still refuse to believe something like that exists."
Lyla laughed as she removed her gloves. "It's fine. You don't have to—"
A loud crash sounded in a distance, shaking the entire building.
"What was that?" Jenro said as he stood and turned before approaching the door.
Lyla gulped, following her father. "I just hope it's not those bad Volants Ryuzio was talking about."
They got out of the room, following the groaning sounds down the hallway, exiting the clinic to discover its source.
Jenro fell onto his butt just as he stepped out of the building. "What in the Lower Skies—"
Lyla's eyes widened as she unfortunately found what had caused the loud noise just now.
A large creature stood in front of them, three men around it holding big weapons, one on top of it, handling the harness connected to the muzzle around the creature's mouth.
The creature was a crimson-furred beast with six limbs, two sprouting from where its ears should've been. Its several eyes spiraled around its tubular head, all the way down to its muzzled mouth, a whip-like purple tongue hanging out of it.
"It looks like you two're the first ones to die," the man riding the beast said, filming everything with his camphone. "Try to run, at least. I need this video to go viral."
Lyla gulped. "D-Dad…"
"It can't be," Jenro said, shock in his face. He got off the ground onto unstable feet.
"We need to run, Dad—"
Jenro turned toward her with tears in his eyes. "This is the man who killed your mother, Lyla."
Lyla looked at the gray-haired man riding the beast. "He killed…Mom?"
###
The Etherbeast lunged at the three injured men on the ground.
"Those are not only my patients," Klen said, holding the paws of the leather-skinned Beast, "but also my squadmates. So no way I'm letting you touch them!" He pushed the Beast away.
'This one has already gone through Shellburst,' Klen thought, looking at the unconscious bodies of the enemy Volants he defeated just now. 'No wonder it got so strong.'
The quadrupedal Etherbeast with a gigantic horn sticking out of its forehead prepared to charge.
"I'm glad you're here," Klen said with a smirk. "I was running out of lab rats anyway."
###
"Is the one you're trailing also running away?" Brythe asked the bug with a glowing butt that trailed him, chasing after an Etherbeast which killed the men trying to tame it with their whips and weapons. "Mine's a fast one."
An Etherpulse from the bug struck Brythe's Ethershell so that he could receive the message from the one on the other side.
"Yes," it was Erixon's voice. "I may have made a mistake by calling the fireflies from a part of the border. I need to confirm how many of these we have here."
"Then get on it," Brythe said, not removing his eyes from the fleeing Etherbeast with spotty green skin. "Zyon has already found the building, so let's focus on just tracking these Beasts."
"That's obvious," Erixon communicated through the bug. "But I just saw an Etherbeast in the village through a Sightfly and another by the border where Klen is."
"These all have gone through Shellburst already," Brythe pointed. "Hope Klen would be fine and won't get his…elbows scraped, I guess."
"You should be more worried about the one in the village."
"Nah. That one won't live for long."
"Oh… Right… I forgot he's with us on this one."
Brythe smirked. "Okay scram now, Bones. Lemme focus on this Beast—"
"Three men on the border were downed just now," Erixon communicated. "Who under the Lower Skies can take out three of our squadmates?"
"All the more reason to take care of these Beasts first."
"Right."
###
Zyon stepped closer to the bald Volant.
Kalrah laughed. "You agree too, don't you, Stormcloud—?"
Zyon hammered his fist straight into Kalrah's jaw, throwing him into the air. "Shut up," he said tiredly.
Kalrah dropped down shortly to the level on which Zyon stood in the nothingness surrounding them, shock plastered on his expression as he sat upright and looked at Zyon. "What is this, Stormcloud? You know you can't get out of here if you kill me, right?"
Zyon smiled, squatting to his front. "Your Shardskill can only Demand once from someone, right, Kalrah? That means I'm free to beat the living snot out of you, and you can't even do anything."
"That would be right, Stormcloud." Kalrah giggled creepily. "But look around, do you see any changes? We don't have that kid in here anymore, which means this is a fresh Etherdome. I can Demand once from everyone inside my Etherdome. And if I remember, I haven't Demanded anything from you yet."
"So when you saw me," Zyon said coldly, "what was it that you wanted to rob off me?"
Kalrah stood up, dusting off his pants. "Something that you can't live without."
Zyon climbed to his feet as well, a step away from Kalrah, meeting the eyes of the taller Volant. "What're you waiting for then?"
Kalrah smiled, putting a hand to the front, palm facing up. "As the Demand of the Bottomless Abyss, Stormcloud Zyon, I Demand your Ethercrux!" Kalrah laughed to Zyon's face. Ethercrux: the soul of a being. Without it, the being couldn't exist. "Who's the fool now—?"
Zyon yawned. "You done?"
Kalrah's jaw loosened. "HUH!"
"Seriously?" Zyon raised a brow at him.
Kalrah gulped—
Zyon punched him in the face again, pounding his nose back into his skull, knocking him down. "This was your entire plan from the start?" Zyon asked tiredly with thin eyes. "To Demand my Ethercrux? You were getting excited over this?"
"But…" Kalrah said, pulling a hand over his bleeding nose. "This doesn't make sense. I Demanded your Ethercrux! Inside my Etherdome, no one can resist the Demand of the Bottomless Abyss!"
Zyon squatted in front of him again. "Greed got the best of you, Kalrah."
"Wh-What're you getting at, Stormcloud?" Kalrah asked, panic over his boxy face. "You can't bend the rules of a Shardskill like that!"
Zyon coldly stared into his eyes. "The moment you became a threat to my squad, I knew I had to personally stop you."
"B-But my Shardskill!" Kalrah blurted loudly, each word stumbling out of his mouth. "You know nothing about it—!"
Zyon slapped him, squeezing together his cheeks right after. "Don't even try to disrespect someone I know in front of me. One of my squadmates skipped sleep to figure out a way around your annoying Shardskill, got that?"
"But I asked for your Ethercrux!" Kalrah groaned, sweat forming on his forehead. "There's no way to get around that!"
Zyon got up to his feet and turned, walking a couple steps away. "Hey, Kalrah, what do YOU know about MY Void?" He stopped, turning to face Kalrah, who sat on the "ground"—still floating in nothingness. Zyon tapped his foot. "This is the place where I stood when I gave you an Order of the Void Crown!"
"Absurd!" Kalrah shouted in protest. "I know what a Void Crown looks like! I would've noticed it if you had one!"
Zyon shrugged. "But even then, you could have done nothing." He stepped closer. "Just before the moment you were about to give a Demand, I gave you an Order instead. The Order forced you to Demand ONLY from me, and when you threw the kid outside this Etherdome, I knew I'd won."
"You're making no sense, Stormcloud!" Kalrah complained. "That changes nothing!"
Zyon squatted to meet the panicking Volant's eye level. "Oh, it changes everything!" He raised two fingers. "When you trapped us in your Etherdome, you could Demand from either one of us. But as you said, from the very start, your intention was to Demand not from one of us, but from both. So after trapping us, the only thing YOU had to think about was the order in which you'd Demand from us. That's where I come into play.
"My Order forced you to Demand ONLY from me, and to do that, you had to throw the kid out from this Etherdome. This was not your choice, Kalrah. It was an Order given to you by my Void Crown. I did not want you to Demand from the kid first, that was the whole point. So, after I gave you that Order, you ended up not Demanding from either one of us, and instead, saving that kid for me."
Kalrah stared skeptically into Zyon's eyes. "That doesn't change the fact that this is a new Etherdome and I just Demanded you're Ethercrux."
Zyon smirked, raising a finger to point at the shadowy dome over them. "That's what I wanted, Kalrah." He spun the finger around in a circle.
Kalrah's eyes widened as he saw the solid Etherdome surrounding them falling down like a dark curtain, returning them inside of the forest hideout building. "Absurd! My Demand forces you to give whatever you HAVE, not what you're willing to GIVE! If I Demanded a limb, you HAD to give it to me! If I demanded your heart, same thing!"
"And what're the things that you cannot Demand, Kalrah?" Zyon asked with a smile. "No Skill is all powerful. There are always limitations. That applies to your Shardskill and also to my Void Crown."
Kalrah's eyes widened. "The only things I cannot Demand for are—" He cut himself off, as if told a bitter truth. "But that's absurd!"
Zyon smiled. "Yeah."
"You're out too!" Ryuzio said loudly from the side. "What happened?"
Zyon waved his hand in the air, calling back the rope from before—the one that was tying Ryuzio to the beam. He used it to tie Kalrah's hands together behind the back, and then tied the man to the same beam to which Ryuzio was bound to.
"Zyon…" Ryuzio said, jaw loosening. "You're awesome! This guy took out that Etherbeast so easily, but you beat him too!"
Zyon gave him a sour look. "Did you really think I'd lose?"
Ryuzio shook his head, stepping closer. "Not at all!"
"So you did catch my signal," Zyon said with a chuckle. "I thought you'd never get it—"
Ryuzio punched him below his stomach. "Don't act like you didn't just give up on me so easily! Why'd you hand me over to this baldy!"
Zyon sat down, covering his crotch with both hands, expression hardening. "So you didn't get the signal, after all, yeah? Guess I expected too much from you."
"But I believe in you, Zyon," Ryuzio said, slamming a fist into his chest. "I knew whatever you were doing had a reason behind it."
Zyon laughed nervously, squatted to the front. "Sure…"
Ryuzio slid closer to the tied Volant, poking his nose. "So what happened to him?" He waved his hand in front of Kalrah's eyes, the Volant gazing without a single blink through the kid at nothing in particular. "Yo! Decide if you're asleep or not! Don't just sleep with your eyes wide open—!"
"Hey, Stormcloud," Kalrah groaned softly. "I have a request…"
Ryuzio jumped away from the tied man.
"A request?" Zyon turned toward the bald Volant. "That must be something new for you, yeah—?"
"Kill me."
Zyon set his jaw, breathing deeply. Then he climbed back to his feet. "Zio, we're getting back to Klanta. The reason I tied this guy up is because Erixon told me four other Etherbeasts and some twenty Volants are trying to destroy Klanta.
"I could've known when this guy entered the village, but Erixon had put his fireflies into searching the forest, making a hole in the border. This baldy took advantage of that and injured three of my squadmates. I need to get you to safety and also save Klanta, so…let's go!"
Ryuzio finished picking his nose with a pinky, drifting off into his own thoughts. "I hope Melga's okay."
Zyon sighed. "Did you hear a word I said?"
"Heh?" Ryuzio turned to him. "You said something? When? I thought you were talking with the baldy."
Zyon shook his head. "Anyways, let's go."
"Okay!"
Zyon put a finger on Kalrah' forehead. "Now sleep."
"Stormcloud," Kalrah said softly. "Why don't you kill me? I know you have the power and the opportunity, so why?"
Zyon tapped Kalrah's forehead with the finger he'd put to it. "A great man once told me to never walk the easy path. I took that advice to heart and became what I am today."
"I see…" Kalrah said, head falling. "Killing me is too easy for you. And here I thought…everything was going according to my plan…"
Ryuzio was looking at Zyon with wide eyes and a loose jaw. "Zyon…"
"Let's go, Zio." Zyon climbed to his feet and turned toward the southern gate, Ryuzio following behind. "This is the end of chaos in Klanta."