34 The Undying Secrets (1/2)
I JUMP FROM THE pile of useless bricks under my feet and stalk towards the warriors with my friends hot in my heels. I tilt my chin up, square my shoulders in hopes to unnerve them but I was met by blank stares and faces. It's almost like they are lifeless, there's no light in their eyes, no tension rolling in their shoulders, no clenching of jaws, no twitching, they almost look robotic. My eyes narrow and suspicion runs deep to my core. I stopped approaching to study them for a minute. ”There's no reason for this,” I called to them, still watching them watch me. ”We just want to talk with the head. There's no reason for this to turn bloody. Trust me, that's the last thing we want this war to turn into.”
One of them steps up and her face gives nothing away. ”The Head will not speak to you. You have no right to speak with The Head,” she sneers when she said that. ”What the head is doing is the right thing for all of us. She's not doing anything wrong.”
I said what, at the same time she said charge. My eyes widen in surprise and I shout, stand back just in time. Our fire users swipe their hands and fire became our borderline. The leader bares her teeth and she smiles wickedly before flicking her hand. The next second our fire is gone and they are advancing to us again.
”Ready yourselves... Now!” I shout. We all charge forward, daggers meeting, spheres clanging, weapons including gunshots, filled the air. Abilities shot off everywhere, lighting up the place, making it look almost magical but lethal.
I silently thank the gods that I made the right choice of leaving the kids in the cave. An arrow dart to me but I dodge it sideways. I saw the one who shot the arrow and saw her still holding her bow. She sees me watching her and she made run for it but I'm faster than her.
Moments later, I have her neck in my firm grasp and she's looking directly at my eyes. I push down the guilt that is trying to claw up in my guts when I realize that she's younger than I am.
She's lost in my eyes now and I can see what she's seeing but she's not a writhing mess in my grip. Almost like she anticipated this to happen. She stares into my eyes blankly, no emotion etch in her face. The guilt was soon replaced with confusion as my grip around her neck starts to loosen. She took advantage of it and attempt to run but was glued to the ground with vines, crawling around her ankles, holding her down. A man who is much older than I am is standing not so far from us. I send him a silent thanks and he nods in my direction. I round the warrior so I am in front of her and stare again in the darkest depth of her eyes.
Although she keeps jerking her feet in a motion that tells me she's still trying to run for it, her face is as blank as a paper. Nothing. No anticipation, excitement, and nervousness. Her eyebrows didn't even lift as I stare at her. She does not speak. Then suddenly, in a motion that completely caught me off guard, she fell in my arms. Yes, fell. Like her body turned into a lifeless ragged doll in my arms. Like she suddenly runs out of life.
I lift her dead weight slightly to look at her face. My eyes widen in surprise as I find her eyes and ears bleeding. Her eyes are not close so I can see the blood running out of it. My heart skips a beat and my hands start shaking as I reach behind her neck. I pull my dagger out to slice her skin open.
My fore and middle finger made their way inside. I can feel her blood coating my fingers as I roam them around, finding the smallest thing ever created in the world. I froze when my fingers felt what they were looking for. My breath hitch and a lump forms in my throat as I slowly pull it out for inspection.
With shaky legs, I stand up and hold it out in front of me. I know my body is numb for good but when a cry of outrage is released not so far from me, I turn around. Just in time to see one of my cadres run for the kill to one of the warriors who's doing nothing to defend herself. I release a scream but it's too late.
The warrior's body fell to the ground with a thump. The warrior's eyes are still open and it was bloodshot. I feel sick to my stomach that I might just puke. Something is wrong but all I could think of is, what the hell is happening?
Another cry of wrath and this time I can stop what was going to happen. I yelled stop and Mice stops mid-way, she looks at me with confusion but I can just shake my head. The warrior who should have been dead just now runs as if nothing happened.
My breath hitch and a lump form in my throat. I whirl around gaping and staring in horror as I watch the scene before me. Bodies falling to the ground, there are fires everywhere and the sky had darkened and it's all I can see. The blood dripping down their bodies, their ragged and shaky breaths show me how exhausted they are all the while the warriors are just defending and not attacking.
I yelled stop by the don't seem to hear me. They are too busy fighting and screaming at each other. They can't see what I see, they can't see that the warriors are not fighting back. They can't see their blank faces, their stone hearts. But I do, I see them. And I can see how fudge up this situation is.
My blood is boiling in my veins and my heart is pumping too much adrenaline for me to take. The sensation causes all of my muscles to ache and I am angry. Blinded by the fury I currently feel for Sarah. She is doing this. She is letting us kill her soldiers, the people who swore an oath to protect her and she waste no energy in defending them, fighting with them. They are sacrificing their lives for a person who doesn't even care what'll happen to them. And that person is currently hiding in the castle. Waiting for this to end. She's watching, I know she is. Because that's what she does. So if she's watching, I want her to watch this instead.
I let whatever's inside me take over my body. I let it rein in my veins, drive my blood, curl my brain mad. I let it because it's all that I can do not to burst apart. And right now? I care about nothing than finding Sarah and ruining her.
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*RAVEN'S POV*
I felt it before I see it. It takes me a moment to realize what's happening and when I do, I know it's too late. I watch, momentarily mesmerized by what I was seeing, Rebecca, is flying. Literally. Her feet are slowly drifting up from the ground and her hair is wild around her head, her eyes, those are not her eyes, right now her eyes have turned into white balls. No irises, nothing but a ball of flashing lightning.
I knew the fight stopped around me. And I know that we are all watching her because who could resist? She looks like a ball of fire hovering in the wind and waiting to combust. Even the warriors have stopped attacking and they are all in awe. We all are.
But then something inside her snaps, and she screams, she screams so loud I wonder if my ears have been rapture. I am forced to bow down on one knee and clamp my hands over my hurting ears. She continues to release that high-pitched scream. And I wince and grunt as it gets louder and louder only for it to stop.
Or I thought it did. Because I could feel the ground shaking beneath my knee. The shaking turns into tremors until it became a full earthquake. I am lost for a moment, asking if she's the one doing this because we all know that she can't do this.
The quaking stopped and I stand up slowly, my eyes drifting to Rebecca who's still suspended in the air. I hear a cracking sound and my eyes lowered and widen when I saw the ground having fault lines. They're not big but they are so many I am afraid that the ground might give up. Then along with the crawling fault lines come the earthquake. As I said, it's not as lethal as it should be but I am afraid of what the aftermath could be.
Rock breaks and water droplets come from the fault lines. It's like it's raining but the water is coming from below. And to add to the storm that's already brewing, the sky darkens and lightning and thunder are being emitted from above. The vibration in the ground is growing stronger. My lips part as I watch the buildings' glasses shattered into pieces. The buildings fissure and the ground beneath us are not running any fault lines anymore but cracking and splitting. The sound is like bones cracking and the rocks around us along with the debris made by the gate are slowly floating in the air.
I throw my arm over my eyes to shield them when the rocks suddenly burst into ashes. My eyes found Rebecca again to see that she's raising her hands and the ashes from the rocks are following her every movement.
With a scream, she thrusts her arms forward and the ashes came surging forward. Because of the force of the wind, my feet are forced to glide over the ground. I found Riley beside me and I shout to catch her attention. ”Go! Tell everyone to retreat now!” I command her and she nods. ”I'll try to stop her.”
”Be careful. She's not herself right now.”
”I know.” Trust me, I know.
Rebecca is hovering in the air a hundred feet above the ground. She's still conjuring different kinds of abilities that surrounds her like some kind of an army. She raises her hand and a rotating ball of abilities appears on it. It made a whirling sound that makes my ears bleed but I refuse to back down. I need to stop her. But I can't swipe her ability because it's too powerful for me to take.
My eyes widen as she throws the ball to the castle. Lightning shoots off her fingers and to the castle. The castle disintegrates before me and I was thrown off my feet because of the impact. I must've blacked out because the next thing I see Rebecca is already on the ground and walking towards what was left of the castle.
I'm still lying and trying to refocus my vision. Once I'm clear-headed again, I saw that the warriors are all running towards her but they can't even reach within a 50-meter distance before they disintegrate into ashes.
I look around and saw that most of us have already evacuated. A hand went around my shoulder to haul me up my feet. I look at Riley, her face is filled with worry and determination. ”These people are too determined to fight with us. I told them about the danger and the risks but they wouldn't listen. They are too stubborn for their own good.”
I nod at her. ”But tell them to stay away from her as much as possible instead things get so much out of hand.” Our friends along with many others are still here, standing, watching, and on guard.
Rebecca is now approaching the pile of what was left of the castle but the warriors never seem to learn, they are still coming for her. And now, more of them are being slain to ashes. ”Cover me,” I told Riley and she looks at me as if I've grown two heads.
”And what can you possibly do? Rebecca isn't herself right now. Before you even have the chance to swipe her powers, you'll be nothing but a pile of ashes on the ground.” She grits out.
”She's right. There's nothing you can do.” Another voice said from beside me. I turn around to face Juliana. ”But there's something I can do.”
”What?” Both Riley and I said.
”She's the life royalty in case you've forgotten. She can bring the dead back to life but she can also wipe the life out of you if she wants to.”
”And what makes you think that you can stop her? She's practically wiping everything that's going out of her way.” What she said was right but I cannot help but retort.
”We are both royalties though not of the same way. But I can withstand her powers more than any of you can.” She stares right into my eyes and somehow I find myself agreeing to her. ”I'll try to stop her from wiping us out. But you have to protect those warriors.”
”Why would we do that?” Riley asks.
”Because everything is not how you think it is. When we started clashing with each other, I instantly feel that something is not right. With those blank faces, something felt off. I saw Rebecca earlier, holding a dead warrior in her arms. I know Becca felt the same way I did. Because she cut off the warrior's skin. There, she finds the chip.”
”Chip?” Riley tilts her head. ”As in the chips that alter our memories.” Juliana nods slowly.
”Yes, those. Only these chips are not made only to alter memories but also to control them. Sarah must have found a way how to do that in the past.”
”That's why the warriors kept running to her.”
”Yes. Because they don't have control.” She looks at the warriors who continue to make their attempt to Rebecca. ”As of now, Sarah is having their minds in her hands. And since they are not stopping, that means Sarah is still alive. She may be inside the castle when Rebecca blew it up but she sure as hell survive it or else these people would have stopped. Becca is not fully consumed by her powers yet. That's why I know that I can still save her.”
”She is not fully consumed by her powers yet?” Riley said, raising her voice a little every word.
Juliana shakes her head. ”You better wish that I can stop her before she became very settled in this type of her.”
”Why? What will happen?” I ask her, grabbing her shoulder.
”She'll wipe the world out.”
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*JULIANA'S POV*
I instantly felt that something was wrong from the moment I saw the warriors and the dark aura surrounding them. I brushed it off because of Rebecca. But the moment that I saw her holding that chip in her fingers, I knew that I should've done something. I ran to her because I know what's going on inside her head and what's about to happen but with the battle, my movements were slowed. By the time I was able to reach her, she was already drifting off but it's not yet too late, because I can still feel her presence.
I have to move fast because her power is becoming too overwhelming for her, it'll destroy her.