Back in the tower, Madame Naga stood before Sana and Rey, looking straight at them. She found it fascinating that while Sana seemed to have a sense of determination on her face, it contrasted with the shaking of her right hand that was clenched in a tight fist. From that moment, she knew there was hesitation from her end. She smirked and said, “You’re scared. I can see that.”
“What are you talking about?” Sana asked.
“I see fear written all over you,” Madame Naga said. “Remembering the thrashing I gave you both? I don’t blame you. I tend to have that effect on people.”
She knows I’m afraid, Sana thought. She’s gonna take advantage of that if we don’t get this fight over with now.
Before she could dwindle any further, she was taken by surprise as Rey smacked her on the back of her head. She turned around, annoyed, and said, “Did you just hit my head?!”
“Yeah, just trying to smack some sense into you.”
“What makes you think you can just hit me at a time like this?!”
“You always smack me when I’m acting like an idiot!”
“Oh, at least you admit you’re an idiot.”
“Shut up! That’s not the point!”
Before Rey and Sana could continue their banter, Madame Naga launched a dark energy beam attack from her hands towards the two. Rey and Sana quickly jumped out of the way as the energy beam hit the wall. Madame Naga cracked both her knuckles and said, “You really shouldn’t argue like annoying children in the middle of a battle.”
“Shut up! Like we care what you think!” Rey exclaimed.
“Rey, she’s right. I am scared. I don’t want to repeat what happened last time.”
“Sana, how do you think I feel? I’ve been living in fear since last time. But we can’t get anywhere if we’re both afraid.”
“You’re right. Okay. I’m going to need you to transform then.”
“Thought you’d never ask.”
With that, Rey transformed into his beast form. Sana got her trishula ready, swinging it around and getting into her battle stance as she felt much more relaxed now. She had a sense of ease, knowing Rey was confident in them both. Seeing Sana and Rey were taking things seriously now, Madame Naga transformed into her beast form. As much as Sana feared her large, snake presence, she knew that she had to remain strong for her and Rey’s sake.
Madame Naga began by launching multiple dark energy beams all at once from her mouth.
“Rey, strike with some fire energy beams! I’ll use my trishula to deflect them!” Sana ordered.
Rey began launching as many fire energy beams as he could to combat the dark energy beams while Sana used the head of her trishula to throw back the ones that were coming her way. Despite throwing off all the energy beams, Sana noticed Madame Naga was swiftly moving towards Rey. As Rey struck back at the last dark energy beam, he saw Madame Naga appear right before him. He found himself paralyzed with fear, seeing she was so close to him. As Madame Naga moved forward, ready to attack Rey, Sana jumped right before him.
Sana spun her trishula and plunged it in the ground before Madame Naga and called her attack, “Ember Fury!”
Madame Naga was struck by the embers that rose from the head of Sana’s trishula. She could feel the embers sting the scales of her skin. She moved back, remaining in her beast form. Interesting. She’s a lot more alert than last time. No matter. I’ll just have to get a hold of her, Madame Naga thought.
Sana turned to Rey, who had just transformed back. “Hey, are you okay?” Sana asked.
“I’m fine. Sorry.”
“Sorry? What’s with you, Rey?”
Before Rey could answer, he saw Madame Naga coming right towards Sana and shouted, “Look out!”
But within seconds, Madame Naga had Sana right within her grasp, her snake body coiling her up just like last time. Rey felt helpless, seeing Sana struggling as Madame Naga’s grasp grew tighter and tighter on her body. He tried to move, but for some reason he couldn’t.
Come on, Rey! Move! Move, damn it! Rey thought. No matter how much he kept telling himself to, he just couldn’t move. He was stuck. But to his surprise, Sana didn’t seem very helpless this time around. She managed to pull out her trishula from the hold and plunged it into Madame Naga’s body, causing her to release her grip on her. As soon as that happened, Sana swiftly got away from Madame Naga, right next to Rey, coughing up a little bit of blood.
Madame Naga transformed back to her human form, the left side of her abdomen bleeding from the stab wound that Sana caused. Rey could see the fearlessness in Sana’s eyes. He wondered why he even felt afraid when he was the one who told Sana not to be scared to begin with. He realized that a part of him felt like a coward in the presence of Madame Naga. Maybe with everything he had to hide for all this time, the fear had gotten to him more than he thought. But seeing Sana was so determined to win, he realized he had to stay strong for her and for himself.
“Are you okay now?” Sana asked.
“All thanks to you,” Rey said.
“You brats! I’ve had enough of your games!” Madame Naga yelled as she held onto her bleeding abdomen while walking away from Sana and Rey.
“Oh, running away now?!” Rey said.
Madame Naga was doing quite the opposite. She picked up the Shakti Orb that was still on the floor from when Sana had barged in earlier. As she held it, her hands started to glow bright purple as she began to absorb the Shakti Orb’s power. Purple-colored electric sparks began to flow from the orb into Madame Naga’s arms as she relished in the power that was taking over her. Once the transfer of power was over, Madame Naga dropped the orb to the floor. She turned around to Sana and Rey, seeing the fear in their faces. This gave her pleasure as she knew that she had the upper hand again.
“How…how could you absorb the orb’s power?” Sana asked.
“Don’t be so dumb. I was able to get the orb to absorb a little bit of Rey’s power before you showed up. It may not be a lot, but even without his power, it has a lot to begin with,” Madame Naga said.
“Okay…now’s a time to be scared,” Rey said.
Madame Naga transformed back into her snake form. Her scales appeared to be sharper, with a purple sheen that made them look much stronger than before. Sana knew she had to think quickly. But before she could even figure out her next move, Madame Naga whipped her tail towards Sana and Rey, unleashing a burst of dark energy. The two were struck by the attack so hard that they slammed right against the wall.
“Damn, she really is stronger than before,” Sana said. “Rey, do you want to transform back?”
“Well, what other option do we have here? I’ve barely been able to fight in my human form.”
“Try to do it now. You need to build up your power before going back into beast form. Haven’t you noticed that she’s been doing that this whole time?”
“Oh, you’re right.”
Madame Naga launched a dark energy beam attack from her mouth towards Sana and Rey. The two jumped off to the side, making it out of the way. Madame Naga continued to launch more of these attacks while Sana and Rey continued to dodge. If we keep dodging like this, we’ll eventually tire ourselves out. We need to nail her down somehow, Sana thought.
Before Sana could even think of anything, Madame Naga opened her mouth, ready to bite Sana and Rey with her razor-sharp fangs. Seeing the blood-thirsty fangs made Sana fear for Rey. She immediately grabbed hold of him, getting out of Madame Naga’s way just in time as her fangs bit into the floor instead.
While Madame Naga was trying to get her fangs out, Rey looked over to Sana and said, “The hell?! She almost killed us!”
“This is getting out of hand. I don’t know how much longer we can play defense.”
“Well, let’s start kicking her ass then!”
“We can’t just go about this without a plan! Remember what happened-“
“Yes, I do know what happened last time, Sana! You know, I thought you were smart enough to get it by now. We’re both so hung up on the past that we can’t do anything. If we wanna beat her this time, we gotta stop worrying and just work together.”
Sana didn’t say anything. She was honestly surprised alone to hear Rey talk sense for once. But she knew he was right. Up until now, they weren’t in sync like before. She turned to see Madame Naga was starting to get her fangs out from the floor.
“Sana, we’re a great team. We were up until all of this happened. You’re the best partner I could’ve ever asked for. We can be that way again if we just let go of what’s holding us back,” Rey said as he got up, extending his hand to Sana.
Sana looked at Rey, who seemed more livelier than ever. For her, it felt great to see him look so alive after so long. And she knew in her heart that everything he was saying was right. She wanted to stop being afraid. She grabbed hold of Rey’s hand and he helped her stand up.
“You sound a lot smarter than usual.”
“Hey, I’m smart when I want to be.”
Madame Naga got her fangs out from the cracks that had now formed on the floor. She turned around, seeing Sana and Rey were up. She was beginning to lose patience and wanted to end things quickly. Sana noticed how deep the cracks had gotten on the floor. It almost looked like the floor could break if more of those cracks were to form. And that gave her an idea.
“I think I know a way to take her out. But it all depends on how she decides to come at us.”
“Now that’s the Sana I know. You’ve got a plan.”
Madame Naga quickly moved towards Sana and Rey, ready to strike her fangs again at them. Just as I expected, Sana thought. Sana and Rey jumped out of the way right when Madame Naga’s fangs pierced into the floor again.
“Rey, she may have more power, but her speed is down as a result. We have to use this to our advantage.”
“And how do we do that?”
“Because of how powerful her fangs are, they’re creating cracks in the floor. I need you to distract her while I do something about the ground.”
“What are you planning to do?!”
“There’s no time to talk this out. Just trust me on this and do it.”
Rey decided not to question Sana’s thinking. He quickly ran towards Madame Naga, who was still trying to get her fangs out from the floor. As he ran towards her, he began to charge up flames across his arms. He had never done this before, but he concentrated the energy from his legs and powered it up towards his arms in the form of his fire energy. As he continued to run, he ran up against Madame Naga’s snake body, all the way up to the back of her head, punching her with his fiery fist as the flames from his arms surged their way into her scaly skin. Madame Naga let out a hissing shriek as the fire burned the scales on her head. She tossed Rey off her head while he landed safely on the ground. His hand was slightly bruised from the sharpness of Madame Naga’s scales. He looked up to see Madame Naga had launched a powerful dark energy beam attack towards him. He managed to fire up his arms and counter it, emitting blasts of fire to combat the dark energy.
While Rey was keeping Madame Naga occupied, Sana paid close attention to the floor, seeing where the cracks were going. Once she found the spot where the cracks were getting close to one another, she took out her trishula and spun it around, plunging it into the floor. She charged up as much fire energy as she could into the trishula, allowing it to crack the floor even further. The cracks got deeper, and it didn’t take long for the floor to completely break apart, shocking Madame Naga. As the floor broke down, Madame Naga took quite a fall, crashing through every story of the tower all at once.
As she fell, Rey and Sana fell as well. As they both tried to remain calm, Sana called out to Rey, “Take my hand!”
Rey reached out to Sana as the two continued to fall. He managed to grab hold of her hand, clasping it tightly. Seeing they were going to land on the ground soon, he turned Sana and grabbed hold of her, hanging onto her tightly as the two crashed to the ground at the same time as Madame Naga. Having held onto Sana, Rey managed to break her fall. Even though his head was feeling a little dizzy, he shook it off and said, “You good?”
“Yeah. Thanks. That was some quick thinking you did.”
“Well, you certainly know how to shake things up.”
“It’s not like she can sue me for it, you know.”
Sana and Rey got up from the floor. Sana couldn’t clearly see Madame Naga as she was lost in all the rubble that remained from the destroyed stories of the tower. Even with the faint amount of light that came from the top of the tower, she couldn’t tell if Madame Naga was officially down. As she was about to walk over to check for herself, she felt the ground beneath her shake. Rey could feel it as well. He turned towards Madame Naga and saw her rise back up.
“Uh, Sana, why is she still up?”
“It must be her scales. The power she absorbed seems to have made them even stronger than before.”
“Great. Now what do we do?”
Before Rey and Sana could talk through a plan, Madame Naga’s fangs started to glow purple. She dug her fangs into the ground, launching a wave of dark energy into it. The dark energy wave hit both Rey and Sana, sending them into the rubble that was behind them. As the two slowly got up, Rey said, “Now she decides to pull some new tricks?!“
Madame Naga proceeded to launch another dark energy wave at them. But Sana grabbed hold of Rey and pulled him out of the way with her to the side, hiding behind a massive pile of rubble. She took a deep breath and said, “We have to think of something else. She’s still able to attack despite collapsing earlier.”
“And how do we do that? She may not be fast, but she can sure as hell pack a punch.”
“This might be risky. But if we can charge through her attacks to get to her, we may be able to nail her down and use the equilibrium attack on her.”
“I kinda like the sound of that. I’ll charge at her to keep her busy while you sneak attack her.”
Sana nodded, trusting that Rey would do his part. With that, Rey leaped forward, powering up his fiery arms again as he dashed through the rubble. Madame Naga launched another dark energy wave towards him. As it came closer to him, Rey put his arms up, crossing them to guard him as he glided through the dark energy. While the wave seemingly started to drown him a bit, he could his fire take in the energy from the wave without any problem.
As he powered through, he jumped up, striking Madame Naga in her eyes with his fiery arms. The flames stung her eyes, causing a burning sensation to rise within them as she struggled to even see. Seeing her off guard, Sana took this as the opportunity to strike. She ran forward, holding her trishula upward. As Rey jumped backward, Sana jumped forward, swinging her trishula and striking Madame Naga at her head. The fiery head of her trishula burned Madame Naga’s scales, making her hiss loudly. Sana jumped off her head, landing back safely next to Rey. The two watched as Madame Naga was completely immobilized, her head still taking in the pain of the fire and her eyes still not fully open yet.
“Now’s a good time for the Ring of Fire,” Sana said. “You ready?”
“Hell, yeah!” Rey exclaimed as he transformed into his beast form.
Sana got her trishula ready, holding it close to her while Rey closed his eyes. The two began to harness every ounce of strength within themselves as they let their energy levels synchronize. As the two started synchronizing, fire started surrounding them, expanding its reach towards Madame Naga. But before it could even get to her, Rey sensed an unusual presence within himself. He could feel his heart rate going faster as his fire energy began to feel clouded. Because of which, the fire that was coming from his end started to hold itself back, alerting Sana.
What’s going on? Something feels different with Rey, Sana thought. That was when Sana started to feel something sharp hitting inside her. She didn’t know what it was, but it didn’t feel like it was coming from her. She tried to hold onto the fire with her willpower, struggling to make it stay the way it was as Rey’s power was slowly diminishing.
In Rey’s mind, he could see himself facing someone that looked exactly like him. The more he looked at him, the more he realized that they were indeed the same, but something was different. This version had half of his face covered in an array of dark markings. He also had a devious look in his eyes. Rey couldn’t tell if he was evil or not, but something about the way he was made him feel like he wasn’t to be trusted. He gulped and asked the figure, “Who are you?”
“Oh, don’t tell me you don’t know. Your face says everything.”
“This can’t be possible. There’s only one of me.”
“Not anymore. I’m here. I am you, Rey. Just a better version of you.”
“Wait, is this because of the venom? How come I haven’t felt your presence until now?”
“That girl was able to save you from the darkness before. But it doesn’t mean I left.”
“Rey!” a voice shouted. Rey turned to see it was Sana, who was heading down towards him. She was floating down midair and landed right beside him.
“You’re a persistent one,” the other Rey said.
“Okay, who is this guy? You’ve got another side of you locked away in here?” Sana asked.
“Hey, I’m just as confused as you are! And how did you even get in here again?” Rey asked.
“Well, synchronization of our energy levels allows me to enter your mind. I could feel that you were acting up in the middle of our equilibrium attack,” Sana said.
“You two can’t synchronize properly without me. I’m an added addition to the team now,” other Rey said.
“No way! I don’t trust you! You didn’t even tell me if you’re evil or not,” Rey said.
“Whatever my intentions are don’t matter right now. I’m a part of you. If you want to win, you need me,” other Rey said.
Suddenly, Rey could feel a shaking of some kind. When he looked at Sana, he could see that she sensed it as well. It was as if there was some inner earthquake going on in his head.
“Rey, it looks like Madame Naga is attacking us. We have to synchronize properly and attack back or it’s all over,” Sana said.
“You won’t be able to do that without me,” other Rey said.
“Like hell we would trust you! Just because you exist in my head doesn’t mean I can just trust you with me and Sana!” Rey said.
“You have no choice. Like she said, you either synchronize properly or die. Without me, you won’t be able to do the former. Just face it. This is your only option,” other Rey said.
Rey struggled to figure out what to do and Sana could see it was hard for him. But she knew they were under a lot of pressure right now. Madame Naga was back up and slamming their still bodies left and right. She knew they had no time to think about this.
“How exactly do we synchronize with you?” Sana asked.
“Sana, how can we trust him?! I don’t even trust him and he’s literally a part of me,” Rey said.
“We’re out of options, Rey. We’ll just have to make this work somehow,” Sana said. “Just tell us quickly how to synchronize.”
As Sana waited for other Rey to respond, he noticed his face looked more slyer than ever. His grin became wider. It almost made her not want to trust him. But she reminded herself that they had no other choice.
“It’s very simple,” other Rey said as he extended his hand. “I need both of you to grab onto my hand and I’ll take it from there.”
Rey was unsure. He was still uncertain about other Rey’s true intentions. But he turned to Sana, and she looked back at him, seemingly just as unsure as he was, but more determined than ever to get through this. He extended his hand along with Sana, grabbing onto other Rey’s hand. He looked at him, seeing a wide grin. Within seconds, he saw him slowly fade out into dust. Rey wondered whether they did the right thing or not.
Back in reality, Sana and Rey were being viscously taken down by Madame Naga. Before she could strike at them again, Rey struck back at her, launching a fireball attack. But it wasn’t an ordinary fireball. This one was made of dark fire. The fireball hit Madame Naga directly against her face, seemingly stinging her more than the usual attack from Rey. Despite being beaten up badly, Sana and Rey were able to stand.
“Rey, we have to try the Ring of Fire now while we still have energy left!” Sana said.
Rey nodded in agreement. He began to synchronize with Sana again, concentrating his energy as much as he could. Sana was focused as well, channeling all her energy into one. Once their energy levels were synced, Sana jumped behind Rey, aligning with him. She spun her trishula around and plunged it to the ground, shouting, “Ring of Fire!”
Sana’s trishula unleashed a ring of flames, surrounding Madame Naga. As Sana prepared to commence the attack with Rey, she felt a jolt of some kind inside her chest. Not this again. I thought it was going to work this time, Sana thought.
Rey could feel the dark power inside of him was taking over. The fire surrounding them began to mix with purple flames. But Rey realized that the flames weren’t just coming from him. He turned to see some of it was coming from Sana as well. Part of her face was covered in a dark purple marking of some sort. No way. I thought this dark power was only coming from me, Rey thought. Was this what that guy was planning to do? Take over both of us with his power?
As Sana and Rey continued to maintain equilibrium, their fire power became more intense with the purple flames taking over the regular ones. It was a surge of power that was not only surrounding them, but getting even closer to Madame Naga, cornering her even further into the circle. This power…this is exactly the power I was trying to absorb, and I couldn’t even get my hands on it, Madame Naga thought. But they seem to have absolutely no control over it.
Seeing they were struggling to keep up with the power, Madame Naga decided to launch a powerful dark energy wave attack their way to throw them off. As Sana and Rey were struck by the dark energy wave, they tried their best to push against it, not trying to lose control over the equilibrium.
Damn it! This is getting out of hand! Sana thought as she and Rey continued to hold on as the dark energy wave continued to strike them both. We need to turn this around somehow!
Sana struggled to think as Madame Naga’s attack was still at it and the fires surrounding them were getting erratic. She paid attention to the way the dark energy wave was coming at them. She took out her trishula and plunged it into the wave. As she did this, the trishula began to absorb the power of the energy wave. Seeing this was working, Sana turned to Rey and looked into his eyes. She nodded at him, signaling him to do the same. Rey nodded back and absorbed the dark energy coming from the wave into his mouth. Madame Naga was taken aback upon seeing the two taking in her energy.
Sana and Rey took in as much energy as they could. Together, they released the energy back into the Ring of Fire. The ring was even more intense than before. Rey could feel the intensity of the purple flames against the fur of his tiger body. It wasn’t just the power, but the flames themselves seemed even hotter than normal flames. He looked at Sana and could see the power was getting to her as well. He knew that they had to complete the attack quickly before they would overwhelm themselves.
Sana held up her trishula, which was now ravaging in purple flames while Rey got ready to attack. Sana grunted and plunged her trishula back into the ground, shouting, “Ring of Fire!”
Rey unleashed a mighty roar, firing dark fire into the ring while Sana’s trishula powered up the flames surrounding them. The combined forces attacked Madame Naga with great power, taking over her entire body. She screamed in agony as her fiercely sharp scales started to crack and burn from the flames’ intense power. The power of the flames became so great that they exploded. The force of the explosion sent both Sana and Rey up against the walls of the tower.
Madame Naga was forced to return to her human form. Her body was covered in all kinds of bruises. She coughed up some blood as she fell to the ground, unable to move. She had never felt like this before. This feeling of powerlessness was unknown to her till now. She slowly looked up at Rey and Sana. While they had fallen, they were still able to get up, despite the clear exhaustion of their bodies. Rey transformed back into his human form. He seemed to be normal as did Sana, whose face markings were now gone. They were just as bruised as she was, but they were able to stand unlike her. She wondered if everything she had done up till now was even worth it. The one boy whose power she was trying to take for her own was able to overpower her. The realization was crushing. And with that, she closed her eyes and remained on the ground, unable to do anything anymore.
Both Sana and Rey were panting from the exhaustion of the battle. And even though they were both standing, it didn’t take long for them both to fall to the ground. But it wasn’t defeat for them. They were simply tired. Sana slowly turned over to Rey, surprised to see he was smiling so big despite his injuries.
Rey looked at Sana and said, “Look at us…we did it.”
Sana could feel the warmth from Rey’s big smile. It was so pure and genuine that she almost didn’t mind the pain she was in. She simply smiled and said, “Yeah. We sure did.”
With that, both Sana and Rey passed out.
***
After seeing the explosion from afar, Neil, Heer, Aiden, Runa, and Fida made their way back to the tower. Once they entered inside, they saw Sana, Rey, and Madame Naga, all knocked out from the fight along with all the rubble lying on the ground. Fida couldn’t believe how much damage had been done inside with the outside of the tower somehow remaining intact.
“Amazing. They really did a number on this place,” Fida said. “You can hardly tell there was once a prisoner cell on the bottom floor.”
“Did they defeat her?” Heer asked.
“They did,” Aiden said. “But it took a lot of their energy. They should be fine after a while. Still, we might as well check to make sure they’re not burning up or anything.”
Neil went over to Rey while Aiden and Heer went to go check on Sana. As they were looking after them, Fida looked over at Runa, who was tugging onto her dress, seemingly worried. She said to her, “You don’t need to be worried, Runa.”
“Oh…I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say sorry either. After everything you went through, there’s nothing for you to apologize for, understand?”
“Okay. What…what do we do now? Now that-“
“Now that the ugly snake lady is down? Things are certainly not going to be good for me. Once the society members get here, they’ll have me arrested. As for you, they’ll go easy on you for sure.”
“But…I helped her. I also hurt people.”
“None of that is your fault. Everything you did when you were with her was a result of what she did to you. I mean look at you now. You’ve managed to gain some control over your powers, and you helped these kids save their friend. Says a lot about you if you ask me.”
“You’re right,” Heer said to Fida, going over towards her and Runa. “We should be thanking you as well. Without your help, we may have never been able to find Rey.”
Fida wasn’t used to being thanked for anything. So, she wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t even think she deserved any thanks. After all, she was still their enemy.
“Don’t thank me. I just returned a favor to you all,” Fida said.
“Well, they look fine to me. They’re simply exhausted. We just have to wait for Haruka to get here,” Aiden said.
“And here we are,” a voice said from behind.
Aiden and Neil turned around to see Haruka and Shuto come in. As Aiden made his way towards the two, Neil was quite stunned. While he was aware that Haruka was coming, he didn’t expect to see Shuto as well. The hell?! What’s this geezer doing here?! Neil thought.
“Nice to see you,” Aiden said as he shook Haruka’s hand.
“Likewise. You’ve grown quite a bit since I last saw you,” Haruka said.
“Aiden! Give your old man a hug!” Shuto exclaimed as he threw his arms over Aiden, pulling him in.
“He smells like sake,” Aiden said.
“That’s because the fool got a little too drunk before I dragged him down here,” Haruka replied.
“Stupid old man,” Neil said.
“Hey now. Is that any way to talk about your elders, Neil?” Haruka said.
“Considering I didn’t even get a proper greeting from either of you, yeah it is!” Neil said.
“I see not a lot has changed with you, Neil. At least with your bratty attitude,” Shuto smirked as he put his arm around Neil’s shoulder.
“Geezer, you really do smell like sake! Lay off on it, would ya?!” Neil exclaimed.
Wow, Heer thought. Neil seems to know some important people.
“Oh, Heer. This is Shuto and Haruka Madarame,” Aiden introduced. “They both work in the Ringmasters Society and used to mentor Neil and me.”
“Wrong. They both mentored YOU,” Neil said.
“Aah come on, Neil! Don’t be so sour after all these years!” Shuto said.
“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you both,” Heer said. “I’m Heer St. Hale, Neil’s partner.”
“Oh, this is your partner, Neil,” Haruka said. “It’s very nice to meet you, Heer.”
“Listen, I’m sure you all are having fun getting acquainted, but can you hurry up this process, so I can just get arrested already?” Fida said.
“Right. Shuto, are you still drunk?” Haruka asked.
“It’s starting to wear off,” Shuto said.
“Then get your arm off me, old man,” Neil said as he threw Shuto’s arm off his shoulder.
Shuto went to check on Rey while Haruka checked on Sana. Haruka put her hand on Sana’s forehead, not feeling any burning temperature of some sort. She noticed minor bruises here and there but didn’t see anything too concerning.
“She looks okay. If you take her back to the academy and she rests up for some time, she should be just fine,” Haruka said.
“Haruka, come over here,” Shuto said.
Haruka walked over to Shuto, who was still checking up on Rey. She bent down to take a closer look at Rey, feeling a sense of strong heat coming from his body.
“Do you feel that?” Shuto asked.
“Yeah. And I haven’t even touched him,” Haruka said. “Aiden, was this boy burning up before we got here?”
“No, he wasn’t,” Aiden said. “What’s wrong? Is Rey all right?”
It’s strange. His body is radiating so much heat. But it’s a different kind of heat. I can’t even understand it, Haruka thought.
“Haruka, the girl here is starting to burn up as well,” Shuto said as he placed his hand against Sana’s forehead.
“What’s going on? Are they okay?” Neil asked.
“There’s a strange heat coming from them. It’s not harmful, but whatever happened here was probably a lot more serious than we know,” Haruka said.
“And judging by the damage done here, their showdown was more destructive than ever,” Shuto said.
“So, what do we do then?” Aiden asked.
“You have to get them back to the academy. Devil will want to check on them. But be careful. The heat from their bodies is intense,” Haruka said.
“Neil, we can maybe use our ice energy to cool them both down,” Heer said.
“That’s a good idea. Take a few minutes to cool them down and then take them back to the school. I can assist you as well,” Shuto said.
Neil and Heer walked over to Rey and Sana and got down beside the two. Neil placed his hands over Rey while Heer placed hers over Sana. They both began to form ice energy beams from the palms of their hands. While Heer’s was in control and beginning to cool Sana down, Neil’s energy beam was rather small in comparison, and he was having a hard time controlling the energy. Seeing this, Shuto walked beside him, bent down, and lent some of his own ice energy.
“Damn. I’m pathetic. I can’t even control my own energy without my bow and arrow.”
“Don’t be hard on yourself, kid. You’ll get the hang of it at some point. Your partner seems to have it down.”
“I don’t need your sympathy, old man.”
“Hey, I’m trying to help you out here. I know you’re bitter about things from the past, but I only want what’s best for you. Pushing people who care about you is only going to make things worse in the long run.”
Neil really wanted to say something back. But he knew Shuto was right. As much as he wanted to get stronger, he knew that the way he was going about it now wasn’t the way. With Sana and Rey’s bodies cooled down, Shuto got up while Neil and Heer helped Sana and Rey up. Neil got hold of Rey while Heer was assisted by Aiden in helping Sana up. While Shuto was up, he noticed a sparkle of some kind coming from the pile of rubble. He walked over to it, pushing some of the bricks and floor boarding pieces to the side to see that the sparkle was coming from the Shakti Orb. Shuto picked up the orb, astonished to see it was still perfectly intact.
“Well, at least we managed to get that back,” Haruka said. “How does it look?”
“Surprisingly okay,” Shuto replied as he got his satchel out. “We better take this back to the council.”
“Why was it in the RTA to begin with?” Neil asked.
“Devil was hoping to study it along with some of his own personal researchers. But no more of that will be done considering how valuable this is,” Haruka said.
While Shuto put the Shakti Orb inside his satchel, Haruka noticed Runa standing closely beside Fida. She was puzzled to see a small girl like her there as she looked no more than eight years old at best.
“Who’s this little girl here?” Haruka asked.
“Oh, this is Runa,” Heer replied. “She was with Madame Naga before, but she ended up helping us defeat her.”
“Well, we’ll have to take her in along with Fida, Droh, and Madame Naga,” Shuto said.
“Why?! She’s just a kid. And she ended up helping us anyway,” Neil said.
“I understand that. But it’s a formality. The council has to review all accomplices of Madame Naga to determine what is to be done with them,” Haruka said.
“Yeah. Considering she’s just a child, I’m sure she’s in no trouble,” Shuto said.
“I can’t say the same for you,” Haruka said to Fida.
“Whatever. Let’s just get this over with,” Fida said as she rolled her eyes.
Neil started taking Rey with him while Aiden and Heer took Sana. As they were leaving, Heer looked at Runa. She could see a hint of fear in her eyes. She said, “You’ll be fine, Runa. I promise.”
With that, Neil, Heer, and Aiden took Rey and Sana away while Runa watched on. Haruka grabbed hold of Runa by her shoulders, trying to be as gentle as possible to make Runa feel comfortable.
“Like she said, don’t worry. It’s just a formality,” Haruka told Runa. “Come on.”
Haruka gave her hand to Runa, which she accepted, trusting what Heer had said to her. With that, Haruka led Runa out while Shuto was still left to deal with Fida and Madame Naga. Shuto took out a pair of handcuffs and placed them on Madame Naga’s hands. They released a small shock into her body, waking her up.
“What the hell is the meaning of this?” Madame Naga asked, feebly.
“You very well know what this is about,” Shuto said. “Get up. And don’t try using any magic. The cuffs restrain your energy.”
Madame Naga grunted as she slowly rose from the ground. A rope made of energy particles formed from the cuffs, so that Shuto could properly take her by force. As Madame Naga began to walk, she looked at Fida and noticed a grin on her face.
“What’s that face for?” Madame Naga asked.
“It’s just nice to see you getting what you deserve,” Fida said.
“You realize I have to cuff you as well, right?” Shuto said.
“I’m sure that won’t be necessary, Mr. Madarame,” Fida said. “See, I’m aware of how powerful you are. That’s why you belong in the Ringmasters Society. I’d have to be a fool to challenge you.”
“You expect me to buy that?” Shuto said.
“No. Whether you’d like to believe it or not, I’ve come to accept whatever punishment that is to come for me,” Fida said. “I’m simply telling you that you don’t have to worry about me.”
“Well, I appreciate this. It doesn’t mean I’m not cuffing you though. Rules are rules,” Shuto said as he got the handcuffs out. “But since you appear to be cooperating, I’ll let you walk without a leash.”
Fida nodded in response. Shuto cuffed her hands, and she could feel the immediate sting of energy from them. It didn’t hurt as badly as she thought it would. But she could feel that her magical energy was beginning to get contained. She followed Shuto and Madame Naga out of the room and they all ventured out of the tower, joining Haruka and Runa. Haruka got hold of Droh and they all went inside the purple hovership that was parked outside of the tower. Hoverships were common for members of the Ringmasters Society to use when traveling and embarking on missions. This hovership wasn’t fairly big, but it was made of highly advanced properties that made it an essential for members of the Ringmasters Society. With everyone on the ship strapped in, Haruka took on the role of pilot and steered the ship off the ground and into the indigo blue sky.
Copyright © 2021 Meryl T
All rights reserved. All illustrations created by Meryl T.
The Ringmasters Society 