Pennie couldn’t believe what she saw. Ray was right in front of her with a blank expression. His hands dripping with blood and fragments of pale-yellow flames at his fingertips. At his feet was the criminal they had been chasing, barely left alive. However, it wasn’t the sight that frightened her, it was Ray himself. The air around him was different, it was almost like his usual cheerful and courageous personality had completely vanished and had been replaced by a cold and terrifying monster. Thinking it was nothing more than her over-active imagination, Pennie shook her head and called out to him.
“Ray, what happened?” she asked with a nervous smile. “Is everything alright?”
“Oh…? Are you talking to me?” Ray said with a flat tone as he looked towards Pennie.
Pennie froze, she wasn’t imagining it. He was completely different, and she was worried that his memories were gone as well. It was his eyes that frightened her the most. Ray’s pupils were a diamond like shape and looked emotionless and lifeless. Pennie was left speechless, she didn’t know what to say or even what to do.
“What’s the matter, Pennie? You look awfully pale,” Ray asked with a half empty smile. “Do you find blood that unpleasant?”
“Brayden! What have you done?!” Kaela barked.
“I’m not sure I get what you mean. I believe this is pretty self-explanatory,” Ray claimed dully. “I have successfully captured out target.”
“Brayden, you idiot!” You’ve half killed the guy!” Dimetrios yelled.
“Well, yes, it was a mistake on my behalf. He was being a little difficult, so I had to use a bit too much force. Honestly, it was like the guy had a death wish,” Ray explained with no sign of remorse in his voice. “What I don’t understand is why you guys are just standing there. It is imperative that we complete our mission, is it not?”
Ray’s voice sent chills down Pennie’s spine. His words weren’t threatening, but each word he spoke was sharp and articulate. Accompanied with his emotionless tone, each time Ray spoke Pennie’s heart flutterer in fear.
“Mistake?! Brayden you’ve really done it this time!” Lynx yelled. “You’ve done a horrifically stupid thing!”
“Oh really?” Ray asked, his voice becoming darker. “I get that my methods may have been a little extreme but at least I did what I was meant to do. I would have liked to see you do any better.”
“I would have known how to hold back,” Lynx snapped.
“Lynx! That’s enough!” Kaela growled. “There is something is wrong with him. He’s not behaving like the Brayden we know and now is not the time to purposely provoke him.”
“No, that idiot needs to be taught a lesson,” Lynx snarled.
“You know I’m getting really tired of you being on my case all the time,” Ray stated, a glint of anger appearing in his cold eyes. “I’m warning you now, I’m really not in the mood for your constant derision.”
“And there you go again using big words I don’t understand,” Lynx sneered. “I’m going to fight you now to settle the score once and for all. Prepare to lose Brayden!”
“Oh, I see! You wish to die as well,” Ray exclaimed, a horrifically evil smile spreading across his face. “You know, you really should be careful what you wish for, I could do it in an instant if I really wanted to.”
“You? Kill me?” Lynx laughed. “That’s hilarious! Do you really think…”
There was quick flicker of black flames and Ray was in front of Lynx before he could even finish speaking. Frightened by his sudden appearance, Lynx jumped away from him. Pennie couldn’t see how Ray did it, but a large cut had formed on Lynx’s cheek.
“How did…?” Lynx muttered, putting his hand to the cut as it bled excessively.
“Come now, how am I supposed to kill you if you keep moving like that?” Ray asked, his bright green eyes gleaming demonically.
“Are you actually trying to kill me?” Lynx muttered. “Just how mad have you gone? Have you completely lost your mind? Why are you doing this?”
“Do you seriously not know how to shut up? Your horrid voice is making my head pound,” Ray stated with low and antagonising chuckle. “Hey, remember how you said I was useless? Well, I think it’s the other way around. You are dead weight, Lynx. You’ve been useless in every single battle we’ve had despite your constant annoying claims you could defeat those enemies yourself. Since you’re holding us back, I’ll silence you once and for all.”
Ray lifted his left hand, his flames so vicious that the bandages he wore burnt into ash. However, before he could attack Lynx, Dimetrios stepped in front of him, blocking Lynx from Ray’s path.
“Stop this Brayden!” Dimetrios yelled, keeping his distance from Ray. “This is takin’ it too far.”
“Move out of the way Dimetrios,” Ray frowned. “I have no intention of hurting you nor do I wish to fight you. Don’t be stupid and step aside.”
“Dimetrios is right, that is enough,” Kaela said, moving closer to Dimetrios and pulling out her sword. “There is no reason to attack Lynx like this.”
“No reason? How stupid, of course there’s a reason,” Ray snarled. “McMarnes are filthy traitors that everyone has wanted dead for centuries. How pitiful that Phoenixes didn’t kill off your horrendous family years ago. Though I suppose I’m partly to blame for that.”
“What are you talking about?” Kaela asked. “You’re not making any sense. Lynx is our friend Brayden, why turn on him now?”
“We very well can’t have a traitorous McMarne is our ranks. It will only bring about disaster,” Ray claimed. “I’m simply killing him before he has the chance to sell us out to god knows who. Besides, I’ll be in so much trouble if he finds out I let Lynx live for this long. Now Dimetrios and Kaela, this is your last warning. Move aside.”
“No, we’re not lettin’ you do this Brayden,” Dimetrios barked. “Snap back to normal already!”
“Oh, I see how it is. I apologise but I was always taught that anyone that gets in my way is my enemy and that I should punish them mercilessly and cruelly,” Ray said with a demonic smile. “Such a shame that the people I thought be my dear friends are now the enemies that I must defeat, even if it means killing them.”
On instinct, Lynx, Kaela and Dimetrios moved into a defensive position. Ray rotated his hand so that his palm faced the sky and the flames danced their way into an orb that rested in his hand. Unlike his Atomic Fireball, the yellowish-orange orb’s flames were more compacted and shone so brightly that it was almost like a small sun that sparked like a firecracker at the edges. There was something so sinister about the spell that Pennie froze with fear.
“Now then, let’s see how if you can survive this!” Ray chuckled evilly as swung his arm across his body.
Pennie breath was caught in her throat, watching in horror as Ray swing his arm back towards Lynx, Dimetrios and Kaela. Not a second later, there was a sudden and strong gust of wind. As dust and leaves flew wildly into the air, Pennie closed her eyes for a few seconds. When she opened them again, she found Blaze standing behind Ray, grabbing onto his wrist and holding it up above his head and off to his side. Ray’s spell was thrown off, the fiery orb flying hundreds of meters above Pennie’s head and vanished into the distance. It then exploded, expanding to a giant mass of flames before imploding in on itself without leaving a tiny cinder. Pennie looked up at the sky in shock. Had that hit the others, she had no doubt they would have been killed. She may have even got caught in it and thought nothing would have remained of them not even a pile of ash.
“Well, that’s enough of that,” Blaze stated, drawing Pennie’s focus back to Ray.
“Let me go Aliené,” Ray glared back at Blaze and growled deeply with a furious expression.
He clenched his hand into a fist and tried to free himself from Blaze’s grip. However, he was unable to escape his grasp. When Blaze pulled his arm behind his back, Ray’s expression become darker.
“Now that’s a scary expression,” Blaze said with a sly smile. “I must say I like this new personality you’re exhibiting Ray, but it would be best for everyone if you returned to normal.”
“Ray…” Pennie muttered, still in shock over Ray’s sudden personality change.
Ray looked towards Pennie briefly. She could have sworn that his eyes softened slightly before he clicked his tongue in annoyance and turned his gaze to his feet.
“Blaze?!” Lynx exclaimed. “When did you get here?!”
“Oh? You didn’t notice him? He’s been hanging around for a while now. Just how stupid are you?” Ray smiled as he continued to stare at his feet.
Lynx made a swallowing sound and tensed up his shoulders. With wide shaken eyes he did not reply to Ray’s comment, Pennie believed that he was too afraid to say anything else.
“That’s enough Ray,” Blaze ordered, tightening his grip around Ray’s wrist, which caused his smile to fade into a scowl. “I was in the area when I spotted you guys. When things got interesting, I stopped to observe. It looks like it was a good thing I did.”
“Wait, if you were here for that long, why didn’t you help us before now?” Dimetrios asked.
“Well, as I said before, things got interesting,” Blaze claimed, keeping his gaze on Ray.
“Stupid sadist…” Lynx growled under his breath.
“Well, there’s that and I have matters to discuss with you,” Blaze smiled as he looked up.
“Matters? What do you mean by that?” Kaela asked, sounding a little on edge. It was obvious she still had her doubts about trusting Blaze.
Before Blaze could answer, Ray swung his left arm and broke free of Blaze’s grasp. A brief expression of surprise appeared on his face before he frowned and watched Ray carefully. Everyone took a step back, preparing themselves for a possible attack. However, Ray just stood there in complete silence, looking down at his feet. No one dared to move or speak. After several seconds that seemed to drag on for an uncomfortably long time, Ray sighed heavily, placed his hands in his pockets and began to walk away.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Kaela asked, her voice shaking slightly.
“I’m bored, tired and irritated, I’m going home,” Ray claimed dully. “This entire debacle has been nothing more than a waste of time.
“Hold on a minute…Ray?” Pennie called out to him.
“Ray, you can’t just leave, not with things like this,” Blaze claimed, continuing to watch him out of the corner of his eye.
Ray stopped walking before turning to face them with an extremely dark expression.
“And I suggest you leave me alone,” Ray snarled. “Why don’t you go suck up to Azaliea instead of bothering me? I know you’re good at that.”
Ray turned around and stormed off. No one followed him or even spoke until he disappeared into the forest.
“Geesh, and here I thought he had a more stable personality than the other two,” Blaze sighed heavily, breaking the silence.
“What are you talkin’ about?” Dimetrios asked with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s nothing, just muttering something unimportant to myself,” Blaze replied.
Pennie couldn’t draw her eyes away from the direction Ray had left from. She wanted to follow him and see if he was okay. Something was definitely wrong if he was behaving as strange as he was. However, Pennie was too afraid to move.
“Want to go after him?” Blaze asked suddenly. Pennie looked towards him in shock, wondering how he knew what she was thinking. Seeming to know what her expression meant, he gave her a slight smile. “It’s written all over your face. There’s nothing stopping you from following him if you really want to.”
“I do…” Pennie sighed, dropping her gaze. “But…”
“I’m sorry everyone…” Lynx muttered, with an expression of guilt on his face as he watched Pennie. “This was my fault, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Dimetrios stated blatantly. “But somethin’ must have happened when we got separated. He may have hit his head or somethin’ to make him go all weird like that, you just happened to make it worse.”
“I did warn you,” Kaela sighed. “I told you not to provoke him, but you did it anyway. Now do you see what your words and actions can cause?”
“I know alright?!” Lynx exclaimed. “But in my defence how was I supposed to know he’d react like that?”
“Well, I did. Though the whole ‘killin’ you’ thing was unexpectedly dark,” Dimetrios said. “He has been acting quite odd ever since the Dark Oviri showed up.”
“He has? I didn’t notice,” Lynx claimed.
“Lynx… Ray has had a rough couple of months,” Pennie informed him. “His movements have been restricted by the MLC, Sabra tried to torture him into joining him and he also seems to have some kind of connection to the Dark Oviri. He has so much on his mind that perhaps the stress got to him and that last fight with you was the tipping point.”
Pennie wouldn’t tell them what Ray had told her the night before they fought Sabra. She remembered him saying that he often wondered if he was used to be one of the villains who kept coming after them and that because of his amnesia he was afraid that he wasn’t the person he thought he was. She thought he was overreacting at the time as he had only just met Darkyn who claimed that they used to be very close. However, Ray’s sudden personality change made her wonder similar things. Pennie didn’t want to say it out loud, but during the whole situation there were moments where she could have sworn that Ray sounded exactly like Darkyn, and that frightened her.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure everything is fine,” Blaze claimed, picking up on Pennie’s expression once more. “We should just give him some space and he should be back to his usual self.”
Pennie looked up at Blaze with a smile and nodded. He was right, there was no reason to be afraid of Ray. She knew that no matter who he was that he was a good person and one of Pennie’s closest friends. All she had to do was trust him.
“Let’s move on now. We have a lot of cleaning up to do,” Kaela stated. “Now Blaze, you said there was something you needed to speak with us about.”
“Right, I almost forgot,” Blaze sighed. “You are needed back at base for an important discussion.”
“Yeah? What about?” Dimetrios asked, seeming a little annoyed.
“It’s unexpected but it’s something we must prepare for immediately,” Blaze replied with a serious expression. “It would seem war will be upon us very soon.”
After the long and tiring trip home Pennie finally had a chance to sit down. It took hours to deal with the paperwork of their mission, especially after the damage Ray did to the man. Surprisingly, when they reported to Mr Richardson, he was impressed rather than mad. However, as leader of the mission Dimetrios had to do most of the cleaning up himself, putting him in a mood. When they made it back, they were unfortunately welcomed with a poor attitude from everyone else, being stared at as if they did something seriously wrong. She didn’t realise why they were like that until two members came up to Blaze and started saying insulting things with a friendly tone. Blaze fake a smile saying that it was a pleasure to see them once more and blatantly claimed he had no time for them. Although he didn’t seem so bothered by it made Pennie very mad. As they sat in one of the meeting rooms waiting for Master Isaac to arrive, she gave an annoyed sighed.551Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5U8uQ3ChYd
“Problem?” Blaze asked, noticing Pennie’s poor mood.
“I know they’re mad and all, but they didn’t need to give you such filthy looks,” Pennie growled.
“It’s fine I’m used to it,” Blaze claimed, looking away from her. “They looked at me that way even before I tried to eliminate everyone, so nothing’s really changed.”
Pennie went to say something else before Master Isaac and Visola entered the room and closed the door behind them.
“Alright, Visola and Blaze want to talk to us about something important,” Master Isaac claimed. “I suspect all of you to listen intently.”
“What about the rest of Twilight Heart?” Lynx asked. “Why is it always just us?”
“This information is not for anyone but those within the Haiva to hear. Telling you few is a breach of my contract. However, as it was the request of one of the highest-ranking members, I had no choice but to follow through with this,” Visola explained before turning her displeased gaze to Blaze. “Honestly Young Lord, aren’t you in enough hot water as it is? The Haiva will not be happy when they discover what you’ve done, the punishment could be horrific.”
“It doesn’t matter, any punishment they give will pale in comparison to what I’ve suffered through,” Blaze shrugged. “Besides, the Haiva are still too busy experimenting with my existence to do much about it.”
“Blaze, if this is going to get you into more trouble are you sure this is a good idea?” Pennie asked.
“It really isn’t an issue, we are only warning people of the possibility of war while the Haiva debate their course of action,” Blaze replied. “I happened to be set out to warn a family that I personally know no longer exists, so instead of them I may as well tell you. I mean, it is the most appropriate way to thank you for rescuing me a few months ago and also an apology for my behaviour.”
“Should we wait for Mr Ray first?” Cianna asked.
“Who knows when that moron will be back,” Lynx growled. “I still can’t believe what he did!”
“Did something happen?” Master Isaac asked.
“He got mad at Lynx when he picked on Brayden when he went too far attackin’ the enemy,” Dimetrios explained. “He ended up flippin’ out and attackin’ us.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Kaela claimed. “Brayden will not be joining us for now. We should move on before it gets too late.”
“In that case we should get started,” Master Isaac claimed. “Visola?”
“If this is how it’s going to be, then I guess I have no choice,” Visola sighed. “After gathering information for the last year, we discovered that the CSOG is planning something big. The Earl of Aria had a meeting with the MLC’s president, and they concluded that whatever the CSOG is up to they will use their plan to declare war on them.”
“Of course this is still hypothetical but the odds of it occurring is high considering the CSOG’s behaviour,” Blaze claimed. “Not only must we prepare for the fact we may be in war soon there are certain people the Haiva believe are a danger to them and consider them more of a threat to Le Alba during the war then the CSOG.”
“Firstly, we have Darkyn,” Visola stated. “After decades he seems to be making a move again. After his part in the first war, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is ready for the exact moment the CSOG declares war on the MLC.”
“A very concerning issue indeed,” Master Isaac muttered. “His involvement will make this issue all the more dangerous. If only the fact that he was dead was true.”
“Darkyn… huh?” Pennie muttered. “This may just be my opinion but for some reason I don’t think he’s ready to get involved.”
“Meaning?” Master Isaac asked.
“When he first tried to get Ray to join him, he said something about waiting for Apollo to awaken,” Pennie explained. “Perhaps he won’t really do anything until he has Ray or Apollo in his hands.”
“Yeah… I’m pretty sure Apollo is dead,” Dimetrios claimed. “There are many legends behind him, but they mostly end with him dyin'.”
“How is it you know so much about that stuff?” Kaela asked.
“Phoenixes are fascinatin’” Dimetrios shrugged. “Especially Apollo who was supposed to be the strongest Phoenix but met an early demise. Though being the Dark Oviri and all, Darkyn would have a plan to fix Apollo’s deadness.”
“Doubt it,” Blaze sighed with despondent expression. “I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, resurrection magic does not work… at least not well.”
“That would make Brayden his primary target, since it would be easier,” Kaela speculated. “Either way, I would imagine that the Dark Oviri would use the war as cover to get what he is after.”’
“Like he could come up with such a plan,” Blaze muttered quietly.
No one but Pennie heard his last comment and thought about asking him about it. She decided against it as she thought it may be going off topic. Although even she had to admit there was something off about the Dark Oviri they had met compared to the one in the history books.
“What Darkyn does should not be our concern. He is not someone we can take on,” Master Isaac claimed. “We’ll leave that to the MLC and focus on Brayden’s safety instead. If Kaela is correct, he’ll use the chaos as a diversion to attack Brayden and kidnap him. We must prepare for that possibility and come up with a plan to avoid that issue without putting ourselves in danger. However, that will be in a later discussion. For now, we must learn what other threats we could be facing in the near future.”
“Then I shall move on,” Visola stated. “The biggest issue we may have to face is the anti-government guild known as DEVILs, the ringleaders of the entire movement. For the most part they are a discreet group but there have been some unsavoury rumours about them of late, such as they have been tricking the CSOG to moving into war. It is also said they were behind the massive jail break a few months back. That said we don’t have any information about this group other than the leader who reportedly goes by the codename Demon.”
“Wow… creative,” Dimetrios rolled his eyes.
“We also need be warned of Kazmir,” Visola continued.
“That massive beast that nearly killed us?” Lynx asked.
“Yes. That Shadow Beast is a well-known assassin who will kill anyone if he is paid enough,” Visola explained. “Out of everyone on this list, he is the one you must run from no matter what.”
“Even more than Darkyn?” Cianna asked.
“Yes,” Dimetrios answered before Visola could. “Remember I said he used to work for the Dark Shadow but that’s not all. Goin’ back to the stories of Apollo there are a lot of them endin’ with him gettin' murdered by…”
Dimetrios paused as if something within his own words surprised him. He then frowned, thinking over some idea that he must have stumbled upon.
“Kazmir... huh?” He muttered to himself. “Hmmm, could it be that…?”
“What’s wrong?” Pennie asked.
“Nothin’” Dimetrios shook his head. “Just had an interestin’ but impossible idea. That aside, Kazmir killed load of Phoenixes, even more than the Phoenix Hunters did.”
“What? He’s that strong?” Pennie said with shock.
“Yes, but the biggest problem about him is actually the MLC,” Visola sighed. “If he were to attack the MLC may stay silent, leading thousands of lives to be lost. If Kazmir moves, it will most likely be over for everyone.”
“That’s not necessarily the case,” Blaze spoke up. “Even if the MLC does nothing, there are two people who will stop Kazmir.”
“Who?” Pennie asked.
“Azaliea and Darkyn,” Blaze replied.
“Woah, woah, woah, wait one minute,” Lynx exclaimed. “I get the Phoenix Hunter by why the Dark Oviri? I thought he and that Shadow Beast were on the same team.”
“Well yes, it makes sense for Azaliea to make a move. Even if it means going against the MLC’s orders, she will do anything to stop him from destroying this world,” Blaze explained. “However, Darkyn is more likely to make a move first.”
“What makes you say that?” Visola asked.
“I found the way they spoke to each other very odd,” Blaze stated. “So, I asked the Earl about it. According to him, Darkyn despises Kazmir. He was very vague on the topic but it would seem that the two have some kind of past together that makes the Dark Oviri want revenge against the apocalyptic shadow beast.”
“Interestin’,” Dimetrios muttered to himself, seeming to still be thinking about the same idea he had earlier.
“Well, that’s it for our information,” Visola explained. “It may not be much but hopefully its enough to for you to prepare for what the future holds.”
“Wait what about Mr Ray?” Cianna asked. “Shouldn’t he know about this?”
“I’ll talk to him about it when he returns,” Blaze stated. “Hopefully he’ll be in a better mood when he does.”
“Knowing Brayden, he won’t return until he calms himself down,” Master Isaac claimed. “You haven’t told me all the details, but it seems he lost his temper, when it subsides he’ll come back and immediately apologise.”
“Blaze, please tell me you’ll stay for the MLC competition,” Pennie begged. “If war really is coming, having you here will be very reassuring.”
“Sorry, I cannot,” Blaze shook his head. “I have to return to Aria to mobilise the army on the 25th. The Earl has decided that we must be on standby in case the MLC needs help, despite the Haiva still being unable to decide if they’ll participate or not. However, if you need me at any time just contact me and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Really?” Pennie sighed in disappointment.
“Well there is still quite a bit of my mess that I must clean up,” Blaze claimed. “So even if I want to stay I can’t right now. Besides, someone has to try stop this war from happening.”
“War…” Pennie mumbled to herself.
Pennie never thought she’d have to witness war in her life. However, whether she liked it or not they were on the verge of it and with the latest technology it was going to be even worse that the last. She couldn’t help but wonder, if war was to happen, if she’d survive with her lack of skill and knew she need someone to help her become stronger.551Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTNbO9tdmTG
