Chapter 4: Crunch Time

  The sound of gss shattering sliced through the air, followed by the shrill cries of the sentries. The windows exploded inward, shards spraying across the room like deadly confetti. Rebels scrambled into action, grabbing weapons and shouting orders. Alex barely noticed the chaos at first—his mind racing with the pressure of everything that had led up to this moment. He could feel the earth beneath him, solid, grounding him, but the air was different now. Heavy. Blood trickled down his cheek from stray shards of gss.

  “Alex, put these on!” Cy rushed to him, holding out a pair of thick leather boots.

  “What?” Alex snapped out of his thoughts, looking at the boots, feeling the urgency in the rebel’s voice.

  “Boots! Now!” the rebel leader barked. “The shadows—”

  Before the Cy could finish, the darkness appeared at the door. Plya stepped in, her violet eyes glowing unnaturally bright, casting an ominous shadow over the room. Behind her, Jarvis’s cold expression was enough to make the air seem even heavier.

  "You're in my way," Plya purred, her voice almost musical, like she was relishing every second of this.

  “Great. Just great,” Elias muttered, already moving toward the far side of the room to take cover, his bde drawn. “At least she’s not here to ask for tea.”

  The rebel beside Alex shoved the boots into his hands, and without hesitation, Alex slipped them on. His connection to the earth was instantly muffled, the sensation of the ground beneath him dulled. It felt wrong, but there was no time to argue and there was gss everywhere. They had to fight, and quickly.

  Plya’s voice cut through the chaos. “You’ll never defeat me. No matter how many of you try.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Elias said, his sarcasm thick. “I’ve heard this speech before. Let’s get to the part where you try to kill us.”

  The shadows surged forward, tendrils of darkness twisting through the air. Alex’s heart raced, but his magic was stifled, it almost seemed trapped by the boots that now encased his feet. He reached deep within himself, trying to access the fire that had always been his power, but it was like trying to start a fire with wet wood.

  “Damn it,” he growled, struggling against the weight of the magic that was bound. Could it really be the boots?

  “Alex, move!” Jasmine shouted, her voice commanding. The shadows were getting closer, swirling around them like hungry serpents.

  Plya’s smile twisted cruelly as she raised her hands, the shadows crawling faster, swallowing one of the rebels whole. The poor man barely had time to scream before his entire body was dragged into the bckness, disappearing without a trace.

  “Plya, stop!” another rebel shouted, but it was too te. Another rebel was pulled into the ground, their screams muffled as their body was consumed by the shadows.

  “No!” Alex screamed, feeling the weight of the rebellion on his shoulders. He couldn’t let them fall.

  “Help me!” another voice cried out as a group of rebels tried to hold back the encroaching shadows, but Plya was relentless. She twisted her hands, and suddenly the shadows stretched further, pulling another victim into the bck mass.

  Jarvis, standing behind her, grinned darkly. He raised a hand, and the ground trembled beneath them. A chasm suddenly split open in the middle of the room, sending several rebels tumbling into the abyss below. The cries of men, women and children echoed as they fell, swallowed by the endless darkness.

  "You're not going anywhere," Jarvis sneered, his eyes alight with malice. "We will all burn."

  The chaos was overwhelming. Alex could feel the earth beneath him shifting, struggling against the weight of everything happening around him. But he was stuck. His magic still felt contained by the boots, but that made no sense to him. The fire that had always been avaible to him before.

  Suddenly, Elias yelped. "Ah, hell!" Jasmine’s hastily prepared leg cast slipped beneath him, and the next thing he knew, he was being dragged toward the ground by the inky tendrils of darkness. The shadowy masses coiled around him like serpents, pulling him down, invading his mouth and nose, suffocating him with their weight.

  “Not how I imagined my first date, sweetheart!” Elias gasped, eyes wide, his voice muffled as the shadows wrapped tightly around his face. He squirmed, but it only made the shadows grip tighter. “Okay, okay, I get it, you want me... but I’m taken, dy. You should try Alex—he's much hotter than me!”

  A shadow tendril slithered down his throat, and he choked on it, the darkness seeming to ugh at him. “If I knew this was your idea of forepy, I would've worn better clothes. Or, hell, maybe just burn some incense!” He was running out of air and choking on the dark tentacle, his vision blurring as the tendrils tried to pull him deeper into the abyss.

  “Elias!” Jasmine shouted, running toward him as swirling healing energy listened in front of her, but the shadows pushed her back, her arms pinned by the dark force.

  “I think I’ve had enough of this party,” Elias wheezed, still trying to joke, but his voice was growing weaker and more incomprehensible. “What’s the next step, huh? Dinner and a movie, or do you just want to eat me alive?”

  Alex’s heart pounded, panic bubbling up in his chest as he watched his friend slowly suffocate. He reached for the fire, struggling against the weight of the boots. They were too heavy.

  "Let go of him!" Alex shouted, but it was no use. The shadows were too strong.

  Then the air around Alex changed. His chest heaved as the fire within him fred, and he felt the earth begin to vibrate. The boots were shackles of the Mad King, but the ground beneath him was still connected to him. He slipped off his boots. He instantly felt the pulse of the earth surge through him, and in that instant, the fire broke free. His eyes bzed with fury as the magic exploded from his fingertips, burning away the shadows around Elias.

  The fire tore through the dark tendrils that had ensnared Elias, forcing them to retract. Elias gasped, his mouth and nose clear of the choking shadows, though he still looked dazed. He scrambled back to his feet, coughing and hacking.

  “Next time you want to kiss me, you can just ask,” Elias muttered, wiping his mouth, his humor still intact despite the near-death experience.

  Alex didn’t have time to respond. He was focused, fully aware now that the fire inside him was untapped and raging.

  “Burn!” he shouted, and the fmes exploded, swallowing Jarvis and Plya whole.

  The fire was overwhelming. The shadows shrieked as they were consumed, and within moments, both Plya and Jarvis were nothing but charred remnants, their ashes scattering in the wind.

  The room fell silent for a moment. The heat of the battle still lingered in the air as the remaining rebels stared, awe-struck, at the devastation. Alex stood tall, his chest heaving with exertion.

  The rebels slowly rallied together, and the cheering began. “The Barefoot Mage! The Barefoot Mage!” they shouted, lifting Alex into the air in a roaring celebration. Jasmine gathered the wounded and performed healing magics, ignoring the commotion of the crowd.

  Elias watched from the sidelines, a small, knowing smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He wasn’t jealous—far from it—but there was something about the way Alex stood, the power that radiated from him, that made Elias feel a tightness in his chest. He didn’t know how to describe it—admiration, maybe? A bit of awe. Alex had saved them all, but the way he’d done it... it was hard not to notice.

  “Look at you, barefoot mage,” Elias said, his voice dry. “If you ever get tired of burning people alive, I’m sure we can figure out a gig for you in the circus.” He wasn’t joking, not really. There was a strange reverence behind his words, a sense of admiration he couldn’t quite hide.

  Alex shot him a tired look, one that softened into a grin. "Yeah, I’ve always thought I’d make a good sideshow attraction."

  Jasmine made her way toward him, relief flooding her face as she touched his forehead with a soft kiss. “You did it, Alex. You really did it.”

  He closed his eyes briefly, feeling the weight of the battle lift from his shoulders. "We did it," he corrected. "You all fought with me. This was all of us. We’re all mages now"

  As the rebels continued to cheer, raising their weapons and shouting Alex’s name, the weight of it all settled in. The victory was theirs but so many good lives had been lost without a trace to the Mad King’s void. The war wasn’t over, it had only just begun.