The Third Party - Chapter 43

3rd Person’s POV (12 yrs. and 8 months old)

Suddenly a loud rumble bellowed from nowhere. Immediately the two’s talk was interrupted, Allen and the other five recognized the noise while the others didn’t except for the sleeping princess, it was starting.

“Everyone use a flying or levitation spell!” shouted Allen, his old companions complied along with him and they all flew to the sky, almost leaving the others, Flin looked at him confused.

Allen looked back and knew what Flin was thinking.

“Please do it now or you will be in a world of pain.” just as Allen had said so, Flin, Riyah, Icarus, Coralia, Trunk and Granarados felt their senses tingle urging them to run anywhere but here, urged by a rumbling sound.

Immediately the rest complied by either summoning wings -in Icarus and Riyah’s case-, Jumped up and floated -Flin’s case-, turned into spirit form -Trunk and Coralia’s case-, summoned vines that lifted them up -Granarados’s case-.

The sound dispersed only to be replaced by earth spikes surging from the ground covering the whole area and tearing through the plants except the trees and the person doing it, what made these spikes different was not only were they many, they also portrayed a motion of a wave,

As if the spikes are being controlled by a machination, allowing them to rise from the ground back and forth in a fluid motion.

“Wha- What’s this?” -Coralia-

“What’s happening?” said Granarados in disbelief, good thing that he had attached the vines on the trees, if not, then he doesn’t know what would happen to him. The others are stunned in place, even though they were floating.

“This is a spell we do not know.” started Allen, looking at the protruding spikes that seemed to put on a performance, but they know how horrible these spikes are.

“We know what it does, but the name is still unknown.” said Glen, floating with the use of the spell Ken taught to him.

“And by the point if we know what it does, we mean exactly, we know what this spell can do, watch.” said Celine, and conjured an earth ball fairly the size of two of her head, atop her hand and dropped it on the spikes.

The earth caught contact with the spikes alerting all as they stopped for a moment before beginning to assault the intruder within their territory as the spikes nearby the intrusion pierced the ball of earth several times before stopping and returning to what it was doing before.

The interaction was done in seconds, but to the others, it felt like their concept of time stopped as a feeling of dread washed over them.

“What’s this… feeling?” asked Riyah as her hands trembled, her forehead lined with cold sweat, slightly distorting her concentration. Her brother didn’t fare well as he clenched his hands and his teeth grit.

The others don’t know what is going on with them, Coralia and Trunk felt assaulted by an unknown force, and specifically targeting their brain, Granarados felt like his insanity is slipping as several absurd thoughts appeared in his mind.

As the adults were wreathing in pain, so too did the three started to feel the pain of the same unknown force, forcibly barging into their brains and filling them with thoughts, slowly challenging their mental capacity.

The six who had long prepared for this to happen had already conjured mental barriers for themselves and for their four other companions, but they did not calculate the three adults into the mix, so they hurriedly but securedly applied the spell on the three,

And went to help the adults. Wilbert, Celine, Saber and Lila casted the mental barrier spell on the three adults while Allen took care of the three whom are slowly recovering.

“What was that?” asked Riyah, once she recovered her breath.

“That just now was a mental spell that targeted our brain and make us feel all sorts of emotions, from our experience the spell felt like it targets our most vulnerable memories and make us dwell over it, did it happen to you?” asked Allen.

“Yeah, I think so, images of our… (looks at her brother) bad experiences resurfaced in my head.” replied Riyah softly towards the end, she turned her head to the side. Her brother grinded his teeth in anger.

Allen didn’t quite know what to say, but he kept a soft expression as what he was told by Ken, he knew what comfort was, but presence as what Ken had implied, is much more needed for people whom are reluctant to talk about themselves.

Flin whom had quietly recovered at the side floated near Glen, they looked at each other and quietly approached the three. Flin never knew the discomforts of anything or anyone other than his own, but Riyah’s words reminded him of his own bad experiences.

However as he had already come to terms with his own demons, albeit slightly, he is more intrigued as to how these people of humble origins -or maybe not- seem calm despite what’s happening.

“How are you guys so calm in this situation?” he asked Glen, as he also quietly observed Allen who is offering support to the two.

“Remember those times when Ken would always pick on us and act all mighty and then turned to harass us but then be all apologetic later on?” Glen asked as Flin nodded.

“I don’t know why but maybe it has something to do with this, the spell earlier that invaded our minds was something akin to that of a mental attack -I’ve only known of this since Allen taught me-, and for every mental abuse we’ve encountered from Ken,

Had been paid as we were able to cope with this situation.” Glen looked at his four companions who are slowly finishing up in setting the mental barrier on the adults.

“For the past couple of years, Ken has been nothing but a good friend, but he would also be a bad one too whenever he goes and say hurtful words, to which he apologized for, and I think it was for this moment.” Flin nodded as he had noticed that every now and then Ken would just blurt out absurd words that either insult or hurt his friends.

“Then, why endure this?” asked Flin.

“You ask why? Just like we’ve said before, Ken has done a lot for us, he helped us, taught us, and even battled for us, but he never went to go and lets us shoulder even a bit of his burden, for every time we’d interact, we don’t do small talk,

But instead, we talk other things, things that are close to us, but that one thing that never changed until now, is his desire to improve.” Flin stared at him wide-eyed, Glen noticed his look and smiled. “I know, absurd right? But that was something he’d always hold on to.”

“To improve each day.” Flin’s eyes looked around, at a loss for words.

“Uhh, I didn’t really need you to tell me that.” Flin replied.

“Why not?” Glen asked.

“We’re not that really close?” said Flin softly, afraid to sound insulting. Glen just smiled at him.

“Don’t worry, if Ken wasn’t fond of you, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation now.” Flin stared at him, and just nodded in return.

“Glen, have you casted the spell on the princess?” asked Allen, turning to their direction.

“Yes.” replied Glen.

“Good, then…” Allen looked at the other four who finished setting up the spell and are slowly conversing with the adults, coaxing to them their situation. “Let’s prepare for the next barrage of spells.”

Allen turned around again to take the siblings to another location, near the trees.

“If you don’t mind me asking Glen, exactly how high of a regard do you hold Ken?” asked Flin.

“Hmmm… Probably near as our parents or guardians, since he acts like our second parent and a friend.” said Glen. “Now, the earth spell will most likely last for a minute more, we’ll need that time to prepare for what’s to come.”

Flin did notice as to why they are talking about preparations again so he asked.

“Why?” Glen thought about how he should explain it to him as his eyes wondered about.

“Because we’ll be in big trouble if not? Anyway, just follow what Allen has to say and you’ll be fine.” said Glen while smiling. Flin tilted his head to the side, more confused as to why.

“Oh and just a piece of advice, don’t show your animal or beast traits unless Allen says so, okay?” Flin nodded, reluctantly, good thing he still had his illusion spell active.

“Is everyone alright?” asked Allen, the group nodded. “Good, cause for now on, I need you to follow my lead and do what I say in order to lessen our problems.”

“I don’t need to impose what I have to say, all I want is for everyone to cooperate, if not, then I’m afraid we’ll have a problem.” He added. Suddenly bright light shone from the circle on top of Ken’s body, making another one as its outer ring.

The six felt dread as chills ran down their spines, but the effects were far more so to the three adults and the other three, as for a second they thought that they could not move, but the moment passed just as it had arrived.

The minute has passed, thought Allen, the next fourteen minutes, are here.

“Everyone be ready for my instruction! Soar up!!!” the six immediately flew high up above the tree line, followed by the reluctant six. Just as everyone had grouped up in the air, the spikes rose to match the height of the trees in an instant before retracting to the ground just as fast.

“EEEP!” Riyah could not help but squeak out.

“Scatter!” Allen’s friends obliged, but left the still disoriented new persons of the group. Their senses tingled and they dodged barely as the space in front of them exploded in hot flames.

Riyah, Icarus, Flin, Coralia, Trunk, Granarados, all stared wide eyed at the sudden explosion, they could not fathom how such magic was possible, or how the spell was executed.

“Move in an unpredictable direction!” shouted Allen, as he flew up and did a zigzag to avoid lightning explosions, Glen dropped to the ground and used his affinity over the earth to feel around it, sidestepping the spikes that threaten to impale him.

Celine went to the trees, deactivated her flight spell and jumped from tree to tree, avoid wind blades coming at her direction, Wilbert flew atop the tree line, diving and soaring abruptly in quick succession to avoid water bubbles that suddenly appeared and floated into the air.

Saber and Lila still flew but brandished their weapon ready at their side, they took up the formation of throwing one another and appearing beside each other to repeat the process again to avoid pollens floating in the air.

This all happened simultaneously leaving the other six, still stunned. Riyah shook her head and held her brother’s arm, looking at him with a hard stare, Icarus nodded at her and the two flew up.

Flin noticed his friends, and stared hard at the surroundings activating his affinity to the spirits of the place, letting him perceive were the next spell will spawn, he doesn’t know what effects the spell would do to him, so he reminded himself to be careful.

Coralia and Trunk snapped out of their stupor and nodded at one another, they turned to their guardian deer form and joined as one to double their effects on one another for a much bigger chance at avoiding, albeit their size being that big, they were swift on their feet.

Granarados upon witnessing his cousins join forces he didn’t know what to do, leaving him helpless, so he resorted to what he can do best, manipulate the nature around him as vines helped him traverse in the air by being pulled or swinging, avoiding any spell coming his way.

The initial part of the phenomenon, Allen thought. We must take the time to figure out how to avoid or at the very least hold on from the effects of the spell, Allen thought as he flew just below the tree line, still zigzagging, and avoided getting electrocuted.

He looked at Ken’s sleeping form and noticed as another ring form outer of the other. His face grew taut, and he pushed himself to fly faster.

“Everyone! Prepare yourself for another assault!” Allen shouted as he noticed the elemental magic circles shine slightly, before the light gathered in one place at the center of the magic circle with its corresponding color.

The gathered light emitted a dreadful force as crackles of energy could be seen coursing around it. It’s here, Allen thought.

“Everyone! Use any spell at your disposal to counter against the barrage of spells that will be coming.” Allen shouted, the group heard and nodded to themselves, as thoughts swarmed their minds, all sorts of ways to defend themselves.

A bright light burst forth to the sky from the rings, indicating the third ring finished forming, Allen clenched his fist as his magic slowly poured out from him, scales appeared on some parts of his skin revealing his snake features, with cat like eyes and a white tail.

The rest of his friends did the same, as Saber and Lila’s features also protruded, Saber with his black ears and tail, Lila with her white ears and tail, each of them having claws. Glen had his ears and fluffy tail appear, all four of them had their aura’s exude strength.

Wilbert and Celine applied the enchantments taught by Ken to them, that increases their strength, and speed for a period of time, a faint glow eminated from them but the others could tell that the enchantments were strong.

The others enchanted themselves as well, Riyah and Icarus covered themselves in their elements, their horns visible (kind of like Maleficents horns), Flin revealed his nine tails and ears as several small spirits revealed themselves beside him.

The spirits that help him every day. Coralia and Trunk combined their powers as both light and dark auras covered Coralia’s body, a pair of yellow eyes beside her head, as this was Trunk in shadow form.

Granarados antlers shone in a green light as his body got covered in a hard looking wood, and all of this was done simultaneously, for the dread they felt from the gathered light on the magic circles made their instincts rise, activating their defenses.

In a split second, the gathered light energies on the elemental magic circles formed various weapons, glave on fire, sword on water, fan on wind, spear on earth, needles on ice, shurikens on lightning -this one they did not recognize-, chains on arcane, flowers on nature,

Scythe on light moon, arrow on dark moon, just as the weapons formed, the dread came back full force, stopping everyone on their tracks for a second, disorienting them. And when they recovered, exactly five lightning balls were floating near them.

Everyone feared what’s to come as they know that being electrocuted will hinder their movements, bright flash covered everyone’s sight, and the electric balls exploded, electrocuting anyone caught in the blast.

The flash of light subsided, as silence befell on the area, then a swift passing of air was heard, before another, and another, until all twelve swift movements passed, as everyone flew or went the same direction.

In front of them leading was Allen, blood could be seen dripping from his mouth, in fact all of them were caught by the spell as they sustained minor damage. The group flew faster in a wide circle as they were being chased by the weapons created by the magic circles.

Fire glaves rained down on the groups path, and they avoided swiftly, albeit the numbers being hundreds falling down on them.

“Split up!” shouted Allen as the group obliged, avoiding the instant thrust of earth spears.

“Dive Down!” he said again, as the group avoided the shuriken formation atop the sky creating an electric zone.

“Jump on the trees!” Allen said, as he used his leg on a tree to propel himself on a different direction avoiding an ice needle that stuck itself on the tree for a second before freezing it solid.

The group did as what he did, avoiding several needles here and there, the shuriken stopped their electric zone and gathered into one, then spun itself and plunged to the earth.

Everyone gathered back in an instant and flew up on the tree lines as the shuriken summoned lightnings in eight different directions in a line, the group was left unscathed as they were in between the lines.

Allen’s senses tingled, and this one he knew well.

“Get ready to burst forth!” he shouted, as dozens of water blades descended from the sky causing water surges that left bubbles in the air, Allen dashed on one popping it in the process, the other five did as well.

The rest turned to avoid them, but Icarus got caught in one by accident when the bubble formed right on top of him.

“Quickly burst out!” shouted Wilbert, water started to fill in on the bubble, hissing sounds could be heard and seen as Icarus’s fire was slowly being put out. He swung his sword in an arc popping the bubble.

But the water that formed inside the bubble turned into a small dagger and thrust itself towards the unsuspecting Icarus, Icarus got stabbed on the back, as he shouted, everyone turned around at his cry.

The water dagger evaporated into the air just as Icarus’s blood gushed out on his back. Riyah immediately flew towards him and looked for anything amiss and when she looked at his back, her eyes widened.

Before she could say anything the bubbles filled themselves half full and a series of pops reverberated, creating dozens of swords in the air and flung themselves towards the siblings.

Riyah in her emotional state, spread out her magic as ice covered the swords near them and broke into pieces, but there were more, Icarus noticed his sister giving her all in defending him, he healed himself quickly and joined in on the defense, as he conjured flames to evaporate the water blades.

“Go! Leave this to us!” said Riyah, looking at Allen as she drew her sword, imbued it with cold energies and slashed forward creating an ice wave that stopped several blades and broke down.

Allen nodded and flew away with the group, but before they could do anything, chains flew out of thin air, restricting their movements, even the unconscious princess wasn’t spared as she was held in both her arms and legs.

“What’s this?!” shouted Granarados.

“It’s Ken’s arcane magic, in the form of chains if we don’t free ourselves from this, we-“ the group shouted in anguish, as their minds felt like it’s being torn apart, Allen could not finish what he said, for the ringing inside his head almost made him faint right then and there.

“RAWR!” shouted saber, shadow magic emerged from his finger tips corroding the chains that binded all of them, and with a strong tug, made the chains snap, Glen got to work on destroying the chains on the princess, and then carried her on his back again.

The group fell to the ground, but felt eminent danger, after touching the ground they pushed themselves away from the location as earth spears struck again. They could not waste any time to talk some more as crescent wind blades bombarded them.

The fan was high up in the air, waiting for the smoke to subside, everyone flew up into the sky to see it, the fan then channeled a zone where everyone would get sucked into the center, which is the fan.

“Everyone! Hold on!” several of the group held on to trees or used rope conjured by their magic to not let themselves get caught on the wind vortex. Pollen emerged from out of nowhere, the group recognized them as sleeping pollen in an instant.

They all suck in a breath as the pollen passed through them, and into the vortex, the wind also subsided, the fan nowhere to be found. They survived the sleeping pollens.

“Wait, we’re forgetting someone!” said Celine, they looked at the direction were Icarus and Riyah were fighting, but they were not there anymore.

Flin flew to check out their condition, while in the air he saw them lying on the ground, bruised and wounded.

“Everyone, this is ba-.” He could not finish what he wanted to say as a silver light burst forth from nowhere and struck him head on.

“AHHH!” he flew sideways and unto the ground, knocking him unconscious, a sizzle of smoke was visible in the air, as the stench of burnt skin could be smelled.

The group did not know what to do as they were frozen in place. No, this cannot end like this, thought Allen. Allen flew up, and conjured a healing barrier over the avian siblings and Flin, gradually healing their wounds.

Glen and the others rushed forwards as another spear burst forth from the ground, but the spears caught up to them caging them inside. Allen turned to look at the situation and was disoriented for a moment, as he did not notice a water blade rushing towards him.

He faced the barriers again but was late to react as the water blade thrusted forth to his abdomen.

“ALLEN!” shouted Lila, Allen fell to the ground, with the water blade stuck in his stomach, his vision blurred, and he closed his eyes, succumbing to the darkness.

The group jumped again, but the panther siblings flew towards the direction of Allen and destroyed the blade stuck in his stomach, stopped the bleeding, closed the wound, and applied first aid, using raw magic.

The process almost took a toll on them, almost, but the lightning shuriken each appeared behind their backs, eyes widened, they wanted to warn the other but the shurikens struck in the blink of an eye, electrocuting both, and they fell unconscious.

“SABER! LILA!” Celine shouted, and flew towards their direction, but was struck sideways with a fire ball followed by fire glaves raining down in on her form. Wilbert watched wide eyed as his childhood friend suffered the brunt of glaves.

But she endured as she flipped, and used the ground to propel herself into the air, aimed an arrow towards the glaves, shot out a light arrow that bursted the formation of the glaves, and all fell down, Celine also fell down to the ground, Wilbert immediately approached her.

“Are you okay?” asked Wilbert.

“Yeah, I’m- AHHH!” the ringing came back full force, striking everyone in the area, and with her weakened state, Celine also fell unconscious. Wilbert clutched his head and stood up, and shouted into the air, as the mental attack on him was far worse than the others.

Coralia and Trunk didn’t fare well as the arcane chains held them down albeit escaping the earth cage, Granarados fell beside them, weakened, and bruised as dark arrows chased, but eventually caught up to him, protruding behind his back.

“What… Is… This… Power.” said Coralia, she looked at the sleeping form of Ken, and thought how terrible of a power does he hold, slowly she felt herself succumbing to the dizziness and the pain.

Although she and Trunk joined together to bear the pain lesser, they did not expect it would be this much pain, they hadn’t met someone who could defeat them, so much as kill them, for they felt the presence of death in this situation.

Granarados was unconscious now beside them, and she too, then closed her eyes, as she and Trunk fell into sleep.

Everyone was left battered up and beaten, some unconscious, some, wounded, none could fathom the destruction this had made, and in everyone’s mind who did not believe in Ken, was that they regret ever tagging along.

But one person remained standing, enduring the pain,

But he slowly kneeled as the mental strain took a heavier toll on his body, he could not understand why this was happening, for in the past, none of this happened to them.

They would leave this phenomenon unscathed, as they all worked hard to avoid every single spell, but this was the first time, where they saw all the weapons take action, and went after them, hunted them down, and…

killed them.

‘Why?’ he thought, as he finally succumbed to death.

Light burst forth from the three circles as they swept on the surroundings, encasing everything in white light, even the form of the kneeling Wilbert.

The light subsided, and everyone was left sleeping on the ground, some still on their animal form or magical beast form, tucked snuggly on a makeshift beds on the ground, series of green and blue light spheres, the size of a marble floated in the air creating a serene atmosphere.

The spheres gradually gathered on each individual, healing them, and lifting the mental strain on their minds, the spell regeneration activated as magic circles the color of green appeared below everyone, and disappeared just as it arrived.

Ken, who was sleeping, woke up, and rose from his posture, but he had white eyes and silver hair, he held out his hand, calling upon his power to lift everyone including their makeshift bed of leaves and gather them around him.

He observed for a full minute, before settling them down to the ground.

“I hope to meet you all again.” said Ken, but this voice was not his own. Ken’s hair returned to black and he fell back to sleep again, on the ground, on the field of flowers, as if everything from before did not happen.

Silver light dispersed from his form and rose to the sky.

-Inside Ken’s subconscious-

“Open Main Menu.” said Ken, a small window presenting the words Skills/Spells, Customization, Quest/ Mission, Talent Tree, Status, Map, and Concept, encased in boxes appeared in front of him.

“Main Menu still works, nice, even though I could just call out the windows of these options, it’s still good to know that I have a formal way of opening each one.” He said.

“Are you talking about this to me or to yourself?” said White.

“No one in particular.” A sudden red dot appeared on the Notification Tab. “What’s this? Didn’t I already turned off all the notifications coming to warn me.” He looked at White, with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t look at me.” White said.

“Don’t worry, I’m not accusing you.” Ken pressed the tab, and it allowed him to open the window of ‘Notifications’. “Good thing this works too.”

A message with the title “???” could be seen at the top of all the notification messages with a red dot, all the messages at the bottom either had the titles of “You have earned Mastery Points on Fire/Water/Wind/Earth/Lightning/Ice/Nature/Arcane/Light Moon/Dark Moon/Healing/Sword/Momentum/Memory/Protection/Enchant Spells” or “You have earned Mastery Points, which skill would you like to use it on?”.

The former had almost filled all of Ken’s notifications, sometimes in an orderly manner, while the latter was hard to come by.

But this particular message was new. Ken opened the notif and a message was left inside. He read…

‘Dear Host, I have come visited you for a while, but it seems that you are asleep, I hope next time we can have a conversation while you’re awake.

Sincerely, Luna.’

“Who’s this?” said Ken.

“I don’t know.” both looked at each other for a moment. They then looked at one particular word on the notifications.

——-