Chapter 50
Final Spark
“Vlanca!” Kasheda shouted as she leaped into the air. “Over here!”
The demon girl briefly glanced at the dark man, her hands shone with the overflow of mana. Without wasting another breath, she threw the large block of ice over her head.
Arthur’s eyes followed the projectile of the throw, his fingers tightening around the serpent staff. His blank stare remained locked on Pasifae, who’s still unconscious and encased in a large chunk of ice. Blue flames exploded underneath his feet as he also jumped towards the kordovan queen, who now grasped Pasifae’s body between her arms.
A few more seconds and Kasheda’s body transformed into her original form. The flapping of her wings sent the boy back on the ground. With her sheer size, cracks crept from the center of the ice dome. They soon turned into small crevices where dim reddish rays of sunlight slipped through. Like an orchestra, the pianistic dynamic sounds eventually rose. Then everything fell apart, the dome of ice broke and its remains rained upon the frigid ground.
None of it fazed the boy, however. His face showed nothing but unfathomable melancholy as the fire that wrapped his body spread across the battlefield. The ice that once covered the whole clearing quickly thawed as they came into contact with his flames. Thick fog from vaporized ice scattered, eroding their line of sight for a few seconds.
Arthur didn’t waste a single breath. He used the fog to shroud his movements. He stealthily rode his staff and flew behind the queen, ready to pound on Pasifae with his body.
Kasheda read his movements like an open book, however. Even without seeing Arthur, she could feel his mana even before he began to move. She slanted and closed her wings, locking the frozen lady between her left-wing and back. She escaped from the boy’s attack as she dove lower in the air.
Kasheda looked down on the boy, who’s crashing downward at tremendous speed.
Arthur quickly shifted and narrowly escaped from smashing himself against the churred ground. He made a swift U-turn to face the queen once again. As he flew after her, numerous balls of blue flames emerged behind him which darted towards the unconscious lady. Kasheda easily dodged his attacks while running away from his engagements.
Kasheda glanced over Daedalus and Katarina. The young man was cross sitting inside an invisible barrier that even the boy’s magic wasn’t able to penetrate. Katarina was also sitting behind him with her eyes close, her open palms massaging his back. Even though she could read her lips, Kasheda was unable to recognize the words that came out of the old woman’s mouth.
Things would have been different if Kasheda hadn’t been a Kordovan Queen for a long time. Even for a monster of her league, her raw power felt so shallow before the boy. The concentration of his mana was far beyond her imagination, especially for a human child.
As the kordovan queen fumbled over such things, she failed to realize that the boy had moved behind her. With his fist empowered with blue flames and white lightning, he landed a serious blow on her back. Still, he was unable to break her golden carapace.
Kasheda immediately cast wind magic to blow away the boy, but Arthur clung onto her wings with all his might, his fingers slowly sinking deep. As he did so, Vlanca, who shone greatly, went in and out of Kasheda’s peripheral vision. After a few seconds, Arthur and Vlanca both fell to the ground. The girl hit the ground first, her legs and arms wrapped around the boy.
Judging from the quality of mana that the demon girl used, Kasheda expected her skin to be burned. She knew that even though the mana augmentation of her body could mitigate most of the impact, she’s still bare and defenseless from magical damage.
To her surprise, as soon as the smoke dissipated, Vlanca appeared unharmed. The flames from which the demon girl held the boy had disappeared. Even the fire in other parts of his body seemed to move away from her skin.
“Ar… Arth… Arthur… please stop…” Vlanca sniffed, puckering her lips. She desperately held back the tears. “You said… you said… you’re gonna teach me how to read and write. Please stop… you’re going to… to d-” Her words became barely recognizable. Her tears streamed down her cheeks once more and her sobs filled the clearing. She cried like the child that she was as Arthur struggled under her grasp, rocking his arms and feet.
Kasheda stared at them in disbelief. Arthur was past the Weakening and the Initial Dreaming Phase. The third stage of Somertrom should have claimed his intellect. There was no way that he could consciously choose his target. Yet, here she was, witnessing something she hadn’t seen nor heard before.
“It’s growing?” The queen barely stopped herself from moving closer as the situation drastically changed. The boy’s already enormous mana pool began to increase. With it, bloodlust shadowed his being.
“Yosey?” Kasheda whispered to herself. Suddenly, her conversation with Katarina and Daedalus began to play again at the back of her mind.
“How could the boy know this many spells?” the dark man asked before Daedalus could dispel the increased gravity affecting the boy. “Isn’t he only four years old, humans?”
“Three,” Katarina corrected. “And those aren’t your typical spells, Kordovan Queen. Those are the manifestations of his dreams – his thoughts given form.”
“In other words, he fights with instincts alone,” Daedalus interjected. “He fights like how monsters do.”
“Watch your words, Daedalus.”
“Still,” Kasheda pointed at Arthur, ignoring the lightning that sparked between the man and the old woman. “Isn’t he only in the third phase of Somertrom? His partially crystalized heart shouldn’t have been enough catalyst to start any spell. How could he use magic without any incantation?”
“Well, there are two possible reasons,” Daedalus answered as a matter of fact. “First, he has my gift… but that’s very unlikely. Or second, his crystallized mana core is more than enough catalyst to replace chants.”
“That’s impossible, even with this much mana, I reckoned it’ll be enough…” Kasheda paused in a cold sweat. “Unless Somertrom hadn’t…”
“Leva’Yosey, that enchantment gives us a significant amount of time. I’d assume that it’ll take a whole day before the Dream Disease breaks it. But we still have to hurry, my boy may burn himself entirely before the spell breaks.” Katarina then looked at Daedalus. “Undo it, every second mattered.”
Yosey? Yose… the archaic term of suppressed in Katarina’s first language. Yosey… meaning seal. Realization suddenly struck the queen. Certainly… there was something more hiding inside the boy – a concentration of pure evil and malice.
On instinct, Kasheda snatched the boy from the ground. She ignored the burning of her feet. Soon enough, he dropped him again, far away from the demon girl.
A few more seconds and the growing of his power abruptly halted. Then another second later, a pulse of immeasurable energy blew Kasheda and the demon girl away. Temperature exponentially rose. The heat almost melted her golden carapace.
Vlanca howled as her skin burned, and yet, she still looked at the boy despite the pain. Even Katarina and Daedalus who are doing the ritual turned in his direction. All of them stared at Arthur. Tears formed below the rim of Vlanca and Katarina’s eyes.
At the center of a large area of burning bluish flames stood a small boy, his yellow hair completely incinerated and his skin gone. Only his charred body could be seen and his face couldn’t be recognized. He looked like a walking dead child. Only his eyes were white in his body of darkness.
Katarina held her breath, steeled her resolve, and continued the ritual. No way would she let despair consume her now. Daedalus was right. Arthur was in that state and he’s still alive. He’s fighting against himself. Alone. Now, it’s her job to wake him from that nightmare. She would save the boy, even if it would cost Katarina her life.
