Lore/Story Angels And Demons: Chapter 20

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Chapter 20: Parting Ways
~Ken~

"Can you get up?" The Aether says.

I groan. I regain some control over my body, so I try to take the mutant's hand. Pain erupt deep in my head, and I gasp. I lay on the ground for a good two minutes, while the Aether patiently waits. When I feel like I will be okay, I take the Aether's hand and I get up. I sway on the spot as my head swims.

The bodies of the Purifiers lay all around the market of Detlas.

The Aether touches my shoulder, and a flow of energy rush through me. It clears my head, and my limbs become stronger.

I turn to the Aether. "Wow, tha..."

The man turns away and starts to walk towards Jenna. She looks unconscious. I hurry towards the girl, overtaking the Aether. I try to pull one of the blades out of her body, but it doesn't budge.

The Aether come to stand behind me. "Move." He says, and push me to the side. He raise his hand, and all the swords seem to glow in red energy. A few seconds later, the swords crumble to tiny dust. Jenna's body thud to the ground. I growl and rush at her. I turn her over, just as she groans. I sigh in relief.

Jenna opens her eyes. "Ken? Where are the..."

"They're dead." I say. Jenna frowns. "How..."

Then she sees the Aether behind me. She gasps, her eyes widening in fear. But the Aether turns, and starts to walk towards Marcus. I turn to Jenna. "Can you stand...?"

Jenna nods weakly. "I'm fine." I lift her up, and we trot after the Aether. I am impressed: Jenna's healing factor was way stronger than mine. That kind of wound would've taken me a few minutes to heal.

Jenna hurries her pace when she sees Marcus and Cylene. I turn to look at Emma, who is laying on the ground, looking at us. "Wait a sec." I mouth. Emma smiles faintly and nods.

The Aether watches intently at Jenna as she heals Marcus's wound and Cylene. Marcus's wound heals pretty quickly, but Cylene is still unconscious even after Jenna her burns.

Jenna looks up, sweat on her brow. "I've done all I can." She says, looking at me. "She was near death, but now she'll live. But she'll take time to recover."

I nod. This has happened to someone who nearly drowned in a river few months back.

"You have the blessing of Lavidar." A voice mutters. I look up, startled, wondering who had talked. Then I realise it was the Aether.

Jenna look up at the man. "What?"

The Aether shakes his head.

Emma calls out from the ground. "Hey, a help here?"

The Aether whirls around, and I see a glint of a blade in his hand. He lifts one eyebrow as he sees Emma's upper body talking. He open his palm, and the red energy turn Magzuel's blade into black powder.

I crouch next to Emma. "You okay?" I ask her.

Emma grins, baring her sharp teeth. "Sure."

The Aether say behind me, "Come with me. I have a shelter in the suburbs."

With that, the Aether reaches down and lift Cylene's limp body up. Then he faces the Western gate and starts walking. I nod to Marcus and Jenna, and they follow him. I face Emma, then look at her body.

"How will I bring you?" I say. Emma thinks for a moment, then says, "I'll hold you with my left arm, so put a cloth or something under me and put me behind your back. Then you can hold my lower body."

I nod and do so, using my ripped cloak to support Emma's upper body. Emma doesn't have any blood in her body, and all her organs are magically held in place. It's disgusting to think about, but it was useful in situations like this.

We hurry after the Aether, Jenna and Marcus. The Detlas citizens look at Emma's body, then at me in horror. I glare at them and motion with my head a 'go away' sign. They do.

The Aether looks up into the sky and whistles. The sound is not loud, but it pierces through the air, and rings in my ears. The man then looks down and starts walking again.

I feel a presence behind me. Alarmed, I whirl around. A boy, who looks about eighteen, walks past me. He is tall, with slightly dark skin, and jet black hair. He is taller than the Aether. I can see that he is a fighter in his build. A bow is strung across his shoulder, and an archer's knife is sheathed on his belt.

I look at the boy in disbelief. How did he creep up on me so easily?

The boy trots up to the Aether. The man doesn't look surprised: in fact, he doesn't even look at the boy.

"Who're they?" The tall boy asks.

"The Resistance." The Aether says simply. The boy looks mildly surprised. "Them?"

The Aether nods. "Get them back."

The boy nods, smiles, and then turn back to face Jenna and Marcus. The two stop in alarm, but the boy is fast. He grabs at each of their shoulders, then disappears into black mist. Jenna cries out, but it is cut off as she and Marcus disappear along with the boy. Emma cries out behind me.

Crap. I shout and charge at the Aether. Shouldn't have trusted him.

The Aether turns back to me. I realise that he is holding Cylene.

In a split second, the black-haired boy appears in front of me with a bamf. He grabs at my outstretched arm, then disappears into the air. When I blink, I find us in a room, along with Marcus, Jenna and a white haired girl. She is about tall as me, and looks about fourteen or fifteen. She was talking with Jenna and Marcus when the boy, Emma and I appeared in the room. The boy quickly disappears again, then appears across the room with the Aether and Cylene. The man quickly walk towards the centre of the room, where a few benches are scattered around. He gently lay Cylene on one of the benches.

The Aether sighs and look at us. Jenna and Marcus come over to me and Emma.

"Welcome to our base." The Aether says.


***

"There." I pull out the string from Emma's shoulder and cut it. Emma rolls her right arm, which I reconnected to her main body. She nods. "It should work; thanks."

I smile and nod. Jenna walks up and connects the flesh together. Emma's body could've done that anyways, in a few days, but Jenna did it in a few seconds. "Just so you can fight anytime." She explains.

I stretch and stand up: It took me a long time to stitch Emma up. Normally Cylene would've done that, but since she was still unconscious, there was no choice but for me to do it.

The white-haired girl from before walks into the room, with the tall boy behind her. The boy is holding a big, black chest.

"Anyone in need of a bank?" The girl grins.

"Whoa!" Marcus jumps. "You have a bank in here?"

"Yep. We stole one from Ragni." The tall boy says.

Emma gets a new set of clothes from the bank and goes into another room to change. When she comes back, she puts the tattered clothes back in the bank. "When I have time, I can saw it back again." She says.

"So." The girl says, sitting down onto a chair. "You're the Resistance, huh?"

I sit back down, along with the others. "Yes." I nod.

"We've heard all about you." The boy says. "Nice to meet you. I'm Jon."

"I'm Grace." The girl says. "And you are..."

"Ken." I say. "This is..." I motion to my friends. "Emma, Jenna and Marcus. And the girl who's sleeping right now is Cylene."

"And you're all mutants?" Grace asks.

I smile. "What do you think?" I raise my arm, and a line of blades come out. Jon whistles. "Neat. I wish I could do that." He says.

"What exactly is your power?" Marcus asks. "Teleportation?"

Jon grins. "You guessed correctly."

"I can pass through objects." Grace says, then reaches down to touch the ground. The girl's skin turns transparent, and the hand passes into the ground. She pulls out her arm, and it goes back to normal.

"I thought the Aether... Marvin worked alone." I say.

"He used to." Jon says. "Until we helped him infiltrate one of the Purifiers' bases."

We talk about many things, but I come to realise that they didn't tell much about themselves.

I suddenly look up at the door. The Aether stands there, his hood drawn back. He walks into the room quietly and seats himself. Behind him walks in Cylene, who is rubbing her eyes. She brightens up when she sees us.

"Cylene!" Jenna jumps and rush at the girl. Cylene smiles and hugs Jenna. Marcus helps Cylene sit down onto a chair. I turn back to her. "You feeling good?" I ask.

Cylene shakes her head. "Course not. But I'm feeling better."

"Good." I turn back. The Aether looks at me in the eye.

Now that I take a good look at him, I find things that are unusual about the Aether. His face is grey, just like his hair. His eyes are dark red, his pupils churning with energy. He has no scars visible on anywhere around his body, which I found strange: unless he had a healing power, he either didn't fight hand-to-hand, or he fought so well that he never received wounds.

The Aether thinks for a moment. Then he says quietly, "The boy you met in Ragni. Who is he?"

I blink, confused. "What?"

The Aether sighs. "The angel from Fruma. What is his name?"

I look at Emma. Something was off. "His name is Nicolas." Emma says.

The Aether look down. His eyes are wide open. "Do you know anything about him?"

"Why do you want to know about him?" Marcus murmurs.

"Do you?" He looks right at me. I shake my head.

"Where is he right now?" Marvin asks.

I stand up. "I will not go around telling you everything about one of my contacts!" I shout.

The Aether calmly looks up at me. He snorts, then lift his hand. A sharp pain stab at my mind. I cry out, then fall back into my chair. The Aether stands up, towering above me. "I asked." The Aether says, as calm as ever, "Where is he?"

I scream and fall to the ground. Steam starts to rise from my body. Emma draws her sword and attack at the Aether, but Jon appear in front of her and kick her back.

"Well?" The Aether shouts. I taste blood in my mouth. I shout through my gritted teeth, "Never!"

"No, stop!" Jenna screams. "Last we saw him, he was heading to Nemract!"

The pain stops. I gasp and collapse onto the ground. The Aether sighs.

"That would be all." He turns and walks out of the door. Jon and Grace follows him. Grace frowns and looks back at us. I can see pity in her expression. Then they leave the room.

Jenna collapses onto the ground, sobbing. Emma helps me up. I feel weak all over my body.

"What have we done?" I whisper in horror.

"Cylene." Emma faces the girl. "Did you feel anything?"

"Of Jon and Grace, yes. They didn't have a clue on what was going on." Cylene says. "Of the Aether... I couldn't feel anything from his mind."

"We have to..." I gasp. "Stop him. He might..." I groan as pain erupt at my side. Jenna walks up to me and touch my arm. Energy flow through me, and I feel my limbs strengthen again. "He might what?" Jenna asks in horror.

I look down at the girl. "He might kill Nicolas."

A silence follows. Marcus whispers, "No..."

I nod at Emma, then we start running out of the room, into the hall where we first got teleported. The others hurriedly follow.

The hall is empty. I see no apparent exit.

"Where'd they go?" I whisper.

Suddenly, I hear air whistle in front of me. I blink.

Something connect to under my chin. At the same moment, someone appear in front of me. It's Grace.

The girl slowly becomes visible from her foot, where she kicked me. I cough, and spit blood out of my mouth.

I suddenly feel a hand grab at my shoulder. When I open my eyes, me and Emma are standing in a huge hall. It looks weirdly familiar....

Jon appears again with Marcus and Cylene. Then he comes back with Jenna.

The mutant takes a step back. I look at him in rage. "Why?"

Jon shakes his head. "I'm sorry." He says. "It's for the greater good."

Then he disappears into grey mist.

Footsteps echo through the hall. Now, I take a good look around the room. There is a raised platform at the end, upon which there are two thrones. On top of the thrones is a symbol. Symbol of Ragni.

I swear. Now I understand why this place felt so familiar. We were in the Ragni Castle.

A group of people come into the throne room. All of them are guards, except for a man and a woman wearing colourful robes and crowns. They freeze when they see us, five children standing in middle of the throne room, our weapons drawn. I have blades extracted from my arms, and fire blaze from Marcus's sword.

The guards cry and charge at us with their spears pointed at us. Cylene, Marcus and Jenna ready their weapons, but I stop them by whispering, "Don't."

I look down, and the blades sink back into my skin. Around me, my friends lower their weapons.

What have I done?


Jon's words echo in my mind: "It's for the greater good."

What was going on?


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