18 the FIRE SENTINEL (2/2)

”Yes Master!” she hurriedly answered in excitement.

”That means whatever I order you to finish, you finish without stopping, without resting, until you accomplish.”

”Yes, Master.”

”And you will comply with my rules and regulations without complaints.”

”Yes, Master! I will do everything you order!”

He was surprised with her determination being both excited and concentrated at that time that he remembered what happened the first time he trained with his Grandfather Narra. He used the same words his Gramps said in his introductions only he asked him a lot of questions that it took them an hour to start. He was surprised at her reaction that he got to ask. ”Wow, you're really up for it?”

”Yeah? I mean, I told you what I want right?”

”That will mean that you'll be my first disciple.”

”Then I'm honored, Sir Karus.”

”Hey! In this field you are to call me Master at all times.”

”Oh, right. Sorry, Master.”

”And if you are to train under me, expect to be pushed to the limits. I do not train weak warriors who cry and moan and complain. I will treat you as a first class Daomagar, so I expect you to discipline yourself.”

”Yes, master!”

”Let's start with the basics. You should really lose the fancy dress and wear something comfortable like a pair of silk pants and some loose tunics.”

”Why, what's wrong Master? This is my most comfortable dress.”

”Yes, as much as you like that, you won't have the freedom of movement I need for you to accomplish your task. And stop asking questions, just comply.”

”Yes Master!”

”And of course, you should really tie or braid your hair if you want to keep me from cutting it short.”

Lime began to hold her brunette treasure while softly combing it gently with her fingers. You can sense the fear in her after hearing the threat to her precious hair. Karus saw that she wanted to ask questions but was impeded by his command. Karus felt somewhat guilty about giving that commandments but he needed order, and for him to achieve that, he needed complete obedience. Now he knows how his Gramps feel when giving an order.

”And stop using your corset; Mobility and maneuverability are the key in battle! Instead, use a long silk to tie around as your upper undergarment. It gives a full support to your breasts. You have a rather large pair of...”

Lime turned red after Karus's words. She finds it hard to contain herself and slapped him to stop continuing.

”That is not how a gentleman speaks to a woman! You don't get to talk about our lady parts!”

”Wh-wh...” Karus stuttered shocked feeling his left cheek which she attacked so ferociously. He was about to utter into clarifying his statements, but he noticed her angry squinting eyes, sohe just continued. ”Okay, I'm sorry... J-just run fifty laps in this edge of the clearing. I think you can handle that, right?”

”What!? Are you insane? It's mid-afternoon and you want me to run fifty times in this huge expense of land?” she went closer squinting her eyes even further, ”Are you just getting back at me from that slap?”

”Wh- No, no. My master and my master's master did the same thing to his disciples. You are really lucky I made it fifty. I used to run a hundred and fifty laps to an area thrice as big as this. And don't you lose those magic words again if you don't want me to punish you, alright?”

”Okay Master,” she said still with squinting eyes taking away the ribbons attached to her dress, ”I told you not to go easy on me. If you took a hundred and fifty, I'm going to take three hundred.”

Karus was alarmed with her determination. He knows she doesn't really have the vitality to do that. He was about to interrupt her and stop her, but she dashed on leaving him standing in thoughts. He finally decided to just sit and hope she reach to about forty. By then, he anticipated, she will lose will and drop on the ground all tired and unconscious. It's a big troublesome problem, but at least she is sticking to her words and that is most commendable, especially to a girl of her stature who is somewhat unpredictable.

-------ooO0Ooo-------

”Juni Merl, Retired Grand Seer of the Holy Nagozulian Kingdom, we urge you to keep your calm and come out of your residence peacefully. We mean you no harm!”

”What's the meaning of this commander!?” shouted Prodea as she strode angrily with haste to her envoys cowering in the barrels that are at the sides of the house of the Grand Seer.

”I'm sorry, your highness, he's still unresponsive to us. Maybe if we give him enough time, he'll...”

”Nonsense, you incompetent tool! It's been hours since you've been here! You should've contained the situation by now!”

Prodea removed her cowl, threw it to Zeba and strode to the middle of the street. Zeba was surprised so she followed dashing on hurriedly pulling her arms respectfully to turn back.

”Your highness, no!” she whispered somewhat afraid, ”He'll attack you!”

”What do you think will happen? He'll invite me in!? What's the matter with you Zeba?”

”But he'll be executed if he lays a single attack on you!?”

”Precisely. That or I kill him in the process, so move your stubby fingers away from my arms and watch while I finish what you failed to do.”

Zeba's face began to turn purple slowly releasing Prodea's arm. She's not the Prodea she knew years before. She's quickly turning evil. She has half the mind to take it all back, all the things she did for her and report all her plans directly to the Queen. If only not for her desire to be the new Queen; if only not for her desire for her son, Gantee, to be next in line instead of the Sons of Anagea, whom she despises more than anything. 'If onlys' became her mantra for blocking her now shattering conscience. These are the only things that give her the energy to face those horrible nightmares that haunts her dreams ever since the incident at the North Western Cotton Village. The 'if onlys' that she hopes would give her peace and happiness in the future.

”Juni!” Prodea shouted creating a massive ball of fire as tall as her on her sides. ”By order of the Queen, come out of your residence or else I will be forced to release this fire ball into your home in retaliation to your contemptuous attacks against the Royal Sentry!”

Juni slightly opened a window and shouted in reply, ”I did not attack any of your vermins! They are the ones who pursued to push my door knowing fully that my defensive charms are in place! I cannot be held liable for their incompetence!”

”Even so, as Chief Magistrate of the Kingdom of Nagozul, I order you to come out of your residence and face a tribunal for your malicious actions against my envoy or else I will be forced to burn your house down in order to extract you!”

”Don't make me laugh, Prodea! Even the Queen would never agree on your incomprehensible logic, more so a tribunal of my peers! I invoke my right for a lawful summon by the Queen. By orders of the Late King Liwanag on equality in defense of the household, I am entitled to defend my territory if an unlawful summon has been given, even if it is you!!!”

Prodea smirked, insulted with what he said, ”Well, suit yourself.”

She directed the ball in front of her with her palms opened and released it to the house. The ball of fire rolled quickly burning the ground on its path and exploded with a tremendous deafening bang that echoed all around.

Juni's house can be seen unscathed as soon as the smoke cleared but the houses of Juni's neighbors caught on fire almost immediately raising an alarming scream within the area of people running to get away from the growing tension between the two.

”Impressive Old Man!” Prodea shouted, summoning hundreds of small fist-sized fire balls around her, ”You still got some juice in you even in your old age!”

Juni suddenly appeared slouching on top of his house with both palms on the sides open after the black smokescreen has subsided. Prodea saw a different kind of man: A man that is in total control of his elemental essence. And that doesn't coincide with Zeba's reports of being an old incoherent senile geezer. He jumped and floated for a few seconds in the air and closed both his hands putting off all the fire all around the area, even Prodea's fire balls.

Prodea was shocked and disturbed by this feat as she created a summoning circle around her straight away to defend her from any elemental attacks.

”You are the Fire Sentinel!!!” she shouted surprised with his incredible skill to extinguish fire all around.

The Fire Sentinel is a title given to the strongest fire elemental in a generation. Every Element has a sentinel and only the Fire Sentinel's identity is a secret. The Earth, Water, and Wind Sentinels are currently the Grand Seers in the palace so Prodea naturally assumed that the Fire Sentinel has long perished and the position is now available for any candidates thinking that there is no mention of the person in the records.

Juni returned slouching on top of the roof top smiling with his annoying dental clicks. ”I'm surprised you're still stupid Prodea! You're still fifty steps behind your brother! I thought you very well know who you're up against and have prepared just a little! Do not mock me with your low-level skills, turn back now and I'll be kind enough not to tell this to your brother.”

”Prodea!” shouted Zeba, ”Let's turn back! If he's the Fire Sentinel, then you'll never be able to use your fire skill around him!”

”Yes, I know that, you meddling fool!” she shouted back angrily, ”Stop interfering or I'll include you too in my wrath!”

”Ohoho, listen to your vermins! They're much smarter than you!”

Prodea smiled and etched circular runes around the air. Juni noticed this and tensely shouted, ”NO! Prodea! That's...”

”What!” she interrupted, ”Are you ready to surrender yet?”

Juni released a gushing fire tornado to Prodea but the circular runes surrounding her just absorbed the blast leaving her without a scratch chuckling in delight to his futile attempt to disrupt her.

”You've gone rotten Prodea!” he furiously shouted on top of his lungs. ”Messing with Dim'ion's Magicks is not funny!”

”TO YOU IT'S NOT!” she shouted as she finished her summoning circle in the air.

”RUN! ALL OF YOU! RUN AWAY!!!” shouted Juni as he created a force blast throwing all the people away from Prodea, even her envoys and Zeba.

A fiery dark smoking serpentine monster appeared sneaking out of the summoning circle. It extended ten feet long, two feet wide. Its vile features include a long sharp pair of fangs that drops a black putrid liquid that hisses on contact with the ground, burning half a foot of area in the process.

”Try extinguishing black fire now! You are the famous Fire Sentinel after all!? And you are famous on these kinds of things...”

”HOW DARE YOU SUMMON A BLACK DEATH HERE IN NAGOZUL!”

”Me!?” she laughed hard mocking him, ”I didn't summon this!? You did! Or at least that's what I'm going to report to the Queen. I can already see the headlines. Grand Seer Juni found to have been using dark arts and have accidentally summoned a Black Death. It has a great tune in it, right?”

”YOU HAVE NO SOUL YOU IMPUDENT DEMON! IT WILL KILL EVERYONE IT SEES AND BURN THE CITY TO ASHES! HAVE YOU NO CONSCIENCE!”

”Correction. Everyone, except me. It's your problem now.” She moved her hands to her sides commanding the Black Death to slither away to escape like a quick slug leaving a sludge of black acid eating away the life of the earth, burning it to charcoal black.

Juni saw that it is running towards the road leading to the market where many people can fall victim to its malicious nature, so he immediately jumped to the streets. He raced in front of the slithering monster giving away himself as the first victim to the monster's eye to stop the moving fiend. His mind at the time is as clear as day, focusing all his energies to his amplifiers which suddenly appeared at his back floating.

Prodea was again surprised as she saw those three Amplifyers floating around him. Three red rubies are burning bright almost white circling him. That should not be possible, that many amplifiers would've sucked the soul out of him and kill him on activation. His essence is not bordering critical as Zeba previously reported, his essence is beyond that - even beyond her with her estimate. That only proved one point, that he is indeed the only person without royal blood to have ever summoned the mythical white fire and has enough sanity to live and tell about it. His elemental essence is so high he can hold up to three Amplifyers, and that made her devious arching lips to giggle in delight and excitement.

He moved his hands in front anticipating the cruel beast's actions. ”You will never see another soul here! Not while I'm around!”

He clenched his fists as his eyes turned an illuminating intense red glow bordering to white. The Black Death shrieked in pain as the smoke coming out of his corrupted body slowly grew thin as if it's being suffocated revealing its original disturbing bony skeleton figure masked by the black fire that surrounds it.

”The All Seeing Eye?” shouted Prodea being distressed in his situation. ”You know how to use the All Seeing Eye!? Stop! You're killing it!”

Juni just snickered at Prodea's cry. ”Thought I can't do it, huh? That I'm too old for this?”

”Yes! So back off!” she replied creating small circular runes in mid-air that created four black pockets of void on top of her that heavily gushed a jet of water, much like what Bakunawa did to her but slightly weaker.

This snapped Juni's meditation releasing the Black Death in its suffocating bondage in order for him to defend himself to the four sword-like torrents that's in front of him. He knelt down fast grabbing the ground with his palms and created a scorching fire wall six feet wide. The gushing water was halted and evaporated on contact with the defensive wall but, due to the fact that the fire element's weakness is water, one jet made through and lacerated his right shoulder. Good thing he managed to jump a few paces back after he summoned the wall for after just two seconds, the other three jets came rushing by piercing the earth he stood earlier, creating a miniscule explosion on contact, digging the ground twenty feet deep with its power.

As soon as the wall disappeared, the Black Death came charging with its huge mouth opening for a kill. Juni managed to blast him away with a fire explosion but it squirted his vile rancid poison that reached the palm of his left arm. He immediately enchanted his right arm with fire and without hesitation cut his left hand.

”Prodea,” he angrily whispered with his annoyed dental clicks and angry sighs of pain, ”I don't care who you are, you are going to die today for this!”

Prodea saw Juni glow white with another Amplifyer activating on his abdomen. He embedded himself with a five-inch Amplifyer! An act that that is most forbidden to commoners. An act that only people born in Royalty can do. She can see his body being enveloped with the mythical white fire, burning an intense glow, scorching everything ten feet around him. Enchanting an item is easy, Prodea thought, enchanting a part of your body can be somewhat hard but enchanting your whole body is something bordering to impossible, much so with white fire. What she's seeing is clearly beyond her comprehension.

An enchantment of white fire to the whole body can only be done by one person: The Immortal Nagozul, Prince Karus, Son of Nagozul, also known as the Legendary White Demon, the one who has been killed in the Elven Rebellion. Other than that, nobody, not even her with her intense essence, can conjure up that kind of power to create an ultimate offensive and defensive enchantment. With a single touch, he can destroy, incinerating to ashes, anything while defending himself to almost all things physical and elemental. It's the ultimate power of the Immortal Nagozul and only he knows how to acquire it.

The Black Death cowered slowly backwards almost crying in fear losing its smoky façade.

”Oh, you're going to pay for my arm now!” he shouted as he ran towards the fiend grabbing his now cowardly tail from slithering away. At one touch he extinguished the black flame on his tail and crushed its bony figure. The malicious beast screamed its pitiful shrieks and spat him liters of his foul poisons but that didn't do him any good. Juni was completely covered with the marvelous white fire.

Prodea can't almost see his face being so brightly lit. She can only see a flowing figure of a brightly burning man brutally squashing her Black Death till it's extinguished of its depravity and is completely in ashes.

”I know I should've killed that fiend twenty years ago!” he shouted after heaving much, slowly standing to face her, growing angrier as he walks towards her. ”I never would've guessed someone would've found my book and dare use it against me when I explicitly entered in the heading that it is much vile and dangerous! It took us years to contain that beast and you just let it out in the open like that!”

Juni flicked a flint of fireball to Prodea's right side and it exploded causing her to be thrown away to the wall on her left.

”Oh, please!” he shouted annoyed, ”Do not use your phantom hands at me! You know I'm using the All Seeing Eye. I can see everything! Every summoning ritual you're hiding, every weakness in your body, every hole in your defensive barrier - even your shivering frightened eyes. You look pathetic as it is! Don't aggravate your situation!”

”So, you're going to kill me, is that it?” she asked smiling though she's on the verge of breaking her impenetrable persona with fear lurching every single drop of sweat in her body.

”For you, Your Highness,” he mocked laughing, ”I will end your pitiful demented existence quickly without giving you much pain. But first, I need to know. Who else knew about my books!?”

”You're going to die and you're still thinking of your worthless articles?”

”How great of you to still think you have the advantage in the situation you brat! Of course, I will answer for my actions, but you'll be disposed long before that.”

Prodea stood up smiling now confident, ”Are you sure?”

Juni backed away frightened. He was losing the enchantment. He can see his body slowly returning to normal, losing his defensive white fire.

”No,” he murmured. ”I counted. I have another ten minutes more... this is impossible!”

”You see, I also like to count too,” Prodea replied deviously smiling glad, ”If you have just gone out and killed me already, none of this would've happened - I mean that's what I would've done. Just kill the target and everyone she knows, just to filter out some lose ends instead of asking the target silly questions.”

Juni created a fire ball and hurled it to Prodea which she just shoved away easily to Juni's house. It exploded blasting half his front wall leaving the dancing flames to eat away the remaining structure.

”I didn't expect you'd know the All Seeing Eye, an unknown secret of the Yagisivians. Just so you know, the All Seeing Eye is always used in the beginning of every battle. But alas, you didn't know that. If you have used it when you appeared on your silly rooftop you would've seen my hidden runes while I was summoning my precious Black Death!”

”You put a Draining Hex on me!?”

”Wow, bravo! Glad you're still thinking straight after that.”

Juni's Amplifyer floating on his left side exploded. He dropped down convulsing in pain, screaming.

”and even after that...” his other floating Amplifyer exploded almost crushed to pieces.

”No!” He pleaded crying in pain as his extremities shake and twitch leaving him paralyzed on the ground, ”Please kill me now. Please don't do this.”

”Why would I kill you, I wanted to know more about you. I mean I can't just kill someone who killed my precious Black Death, where's the fun in that!?”

And as the last floating Amplifyer exploded, all he can blurry see was her silent giggle slowly fading and then all turned to black.