After Kasen rested up and Nomad stealthily searched around for a mana potion. The 3 of them left the cell and explored.

  Kasen, Rose, and Nomad looked up. The red lights and alarms blared, each of them looking at each other confused.

  Until suddenly, they realized.

  “One of them must’ve gotten away!” Rose yelled over the deafening sirens.

  “Most likely but we have no idea which way they went or where they’re located,” Nomad mentioned.

  “For now, I’d say the priority is Dominick,” Kasen said, Rose staring at him with a horrified expression, “Not that we abandon Aura. It’s just that Dominick is the entire reason they captured her. He’s going to be experimented on and probably killed if we do not do something now,” Kasen explained.

  “Rose, I know it’s difficult to process but he’s right,” Nomad placed a hand on her shoulder, “and we can’t afford to be split up.”

  Rose’s breath hitched, the idea of abandoning her friend haunted her. If she could, she’d give her life to her friend but at this point in time, she realized there is nothing that she can do to help Aura. She’d only be risking her own life, putting two of them in danger instead of one.

  Aura. Her best friend.

  Rose looked back and forth. Her gaze was uncertain.

  “Rose, don’t,” Kasen grabbed her arm, “Nomad’s right. You’ll only be endangering yourself.”

  She ripped his hand off of her arm and bolted down the hall.

  “ROSE!” Kasen and Nomad shouted, trying to get her attention but she ran forward—on a mission to save her friend, her best friend, her sister.

  “Nomad, we don’t have time to go after her!” Kasen frantically pointed at the enemies approaching from the stairwell.

  “I can’t let a child die, not after losing my own,” He darted in the direction that Rose ran off to.

  Kasen paused.

  “Why does everyone have to be a goddamn hero?” Kasen muttered to himself, following behind Nomad.

  The two dodged and weaved around the fallen enemies in Rose’s wake. The smell of burning cloth filled the air, bringing tears into their eyes. Crackling embers flew in the air as their footsteps echoed throughout the barren hallway.

  “Didn’t know this was a barbeque,” Kasen covered his mouth and nose with his arm.

  “Keep your eyes peeled, Rose can’t be far from here,” Nomad said.

  Nomad stopped Kasen at the bend, holding his fist up, “Enemy ahead. This one’s dangerous,” he whispered.

  “Can’t be dangerous for the infamous ‘Nomad’,” Kasen joked but Nomad didn’t react, “Is Rose over there?” Kasen asked.

  “I’m going to poke my head out, I can’t see from this vantage point,” Nomad creeped over to the edge of the corner and slowly poked his head out. Nomad tried to pull his head back in quickly.

  SWOOSH

  A large blade of wind zipped past the corner. Kasen turned his head away, taking his eyes off of Nomad.

  “What was that—”

  Something tumbled towards Kasen’s feet. Something you never expected to see when you decide to enroll at a magic academy meant for young magicians. Something you should never see for as long as you live.

  Nomad’s eyes were wide open. His body was standing upright, next to Kasen. It slowly toppled over as Nomad’s head rolled down the hallway.

  Kasen watched, all of the color draining away from his face. He stood there, eyes locked on the decapitated body that was sprawled on the floor. His body couldn’t move—wouldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. The reality sank in—Nomad was dead.

  Kasen didn’t know much about Nomad, not much about him as a person. All he did know was that he was fighting for something.

  For what? Kasen didn’t know.

  The air was still, a heavy silence hanging over him.

  “What…” Kasen’s breath hitched, “w-what just happened?”

  The question hung in the air, unanswered.

  Then something snapped inside of him. Nomad died in an instant, he couldn’t let Nomad die in vain. A deep voice inside him told he wasn’t ready. That he wasn’t strong enough.

  But he didn’t care.

  His overconfidence often found him in difficult situations but this time, it was his life on the line. His cocky attitude didn’t let him run away, his pride flared—his need for action drowning out any rational thoughts.

  His eyes went wild, not a single thought but one, “I’m not running away. I’m just going to show them who I am.”

  “COSMIC MAGIC: METEOR!” The building rumbled. The entirety of the building shook as the giant boulder thudded against the roof of the base. It came crashing through the ceiling, landing on top of the enemies that were past that corner.

  Suddenly, the boulder exploded. Debris flew everywhere as the sunlight beamed in from the open canopy.

  “You’re interrupting me. I’ll give you one chance to turn around and walk away,” The man dressed in plum robes spoke. His voice was deep, dead almost.

  Kasen started charging up mana once again.

  “Yeah, I’ll be right there,” the man said to himself. He then turned to face Kasen, “I tried to warn you.”

  A magic circle appeared on the ground, underneath where I stood. The brilliant hue of the orange grew brighter and brighter as it seemed like something underneath had been ripping its way to the surface.

  I jumped backwards, my instincts taking over since I couldn’t make a decision in time.

  “I really thought that would’ve done you in,” he sighed before cursing underneath his breath. Smoke escaped from his palms, as blisters covered them.

  I dashed low, aiming for his legs, but he leaped over me with lightning-fast reflexes. Suspended in midair, he flashed a wicked grin before driving his feet down onto my skull. A sharp, searing pain exploded through my temple. My vision blurred as if he had rattled my brain loose. My vision blurred as pain crashed throughout my head, a deafening pounding in my head.

  The ground swayed, like it had been turned into water, and for a moment, I forgot where I was.

  What I was doing here.

  “I guess that’s it for you. Such a disappointment,” The Alchemist reached down and grabbed my arm. My eyes snapped open.

  I felt his blistered hands grab onto my wrist. I cocked back my arm and delivered a strike to his face that left my hand stinging. He dropped my wrist as I stood back up, my fists up and my eyes locked onto the obstacle in my way.

  He grabbed his face, blood pouring out of his nose. He looked up and glared daggers at me. He reached into his pockets and put a pair of small bottles.

  “I don’t know why we want anything to do with you, you’re just a magicless brat with no use in this world. You have no purpose and yet, the higher ups want you captured,” he juggled the bottles in his hand, “You disgust me. You’re an abomination, a blemish on the beauty of magic. You have nothing to offer yet everyone seems so interested just because you’re different. You’re weak. You’re different in a way that an ant is different from humans,” he popped off the top of one of the bottles and went to take a swig. I ran for it, my hands outstretched trying to prevent the liquid from being ingested.

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  But I wasn’t fast enough.

  Suddenly a burst of magical energy surged from within, bubbling to the surface. He screamed, his eyes glowing a cerulean blue as his head twisted up.

  His movements were faster as he dashed forward. His hands reached for my foot. I jumped over his foot and kicked him in the jaw, sending him flying backwards, debris and dust flying from the wall. He ran towards me once again—his hand outstretched again. It was like he had lost all reason from whatever that strange concoction was, in exchange for power.

  But he seemed to lose his intelligence as well.

  Or so I thought.

  I attempted to dodge once again by jumping but he anticipated that. He grabbed my head with his free hand and ran me face first into the wall, my nose crunching as it rammed into the wall first along with the rest of me. The pain caused me to black out, I couldn’t see anything past this stone nor past this shortcoming.

  This shortcoming is caused by one's own weakness. By my own laziness. I wanted to be strong and I wanted to be normal.

  But these powers. Hell, I don’t know what they are. But…

  These powers are a curse.

  Everything is reliant on magic and I’m the one person who defies that very logic. Who defies everything that magic stands for and yet, I still have these friends who stand by my side. The power of friendship is such bullshit but the yearning, the deprivation of normalcy makes one want it. I want the corniness of friendships, I want it all, and yet these people threaten my friends. They threaten some of the only people who can accept who I am.

  “Give me your power,” I whispered to the voice in my head.

  “If that is what you wish,” the voice spoke then a SNAP echoed.

  As if I had been woken out of a trance, my hand gripped onto the Alchemist’s hand—prying it off.

  I pushed him off of me and faced off with him as he held his hands in front of him. In this crazed state of his, it seems like he doesn’t need to chant to use his spells but that didn’t matter. My body moved on its own—dashing towards him. I kicked his hands upwards, sending the spell through the ceiling. The stone fell around us as we engaged in hand to hand. He was rough around the edges but you could tell he had some background in this sort of thing. It looked like he wanted to use his magic but I was too close for him. He slipped his hand through my defenses as a green mist emitted from it.

  I see, he just wanted me to think I was too close.

  I wasn’t in control of my body, my body reacted on its own. I inhaled the mist as if it were simply air and gave him a confident smirk before reaching for his throat. My hands clasped around his neck and squeezed, holding him up in the air. I held him up there, basking in the overwhelming power that this “god” had given me. It was the power that I had yearned for, the power to protect everything I loved.

  But as if I had regained who I was, I threw him into the other wall which was now crumbling around him.

  “What was that?” I thought to myself, as I stared at my hands. I trembled seeing the blood and the damage around me but then as if it had all been a simple fleeting moment, I was pushed back into being a spectator.

  The Alchemist suddenly pointed to the space in front of me. The stone contorted and violently changed into large ice spikes emerging from the floor. My body adjusted its shoulder to tackle through the ice, bulldozing through the attack from him.

  The Alchemist lifted his hands up to the ceiling, a plume of lava erupting from the ceiling—splitting us up like a curtain.

  He started chanting in a language I couldn’t understand. His mouth started moving faster and faster as his head started twitching. Out of the blue, he tilted his head up and roared.

  He locked eyes with the husk of my body but it was like he could see through it. To me.

  He cracked a wicked smile and blitzed me. He jumped in the air and delivered a kick to my skull, causing my head to be buried under the stone. He jumped once again, both of his feet landing on the back of my head. My head lifted up, carrying him upwards. My body suddenly flung its head and threw him into the air. I bent my knees and charged up a blow as I watched him slowly fall back down. At the perfectly timed moment, I landed a blow directly to his jaw. The crunch underneath my knuckles told me that I landed a direct hit as he flew back into the wall. The walls around us had been reduced to shambles, the pillars barely holding on as we exchanged blows.

  Something’s off though. He’s barely been using magic. The thought lingered in my mind but it was no use since I couldn’t control my body. This divine power had one drawback. I wasn’t the one using it… It was using me. The feeling of being in my own skin but not being able to control it was weird, to say the least. It was like someone was forcing me to watch what my power was capable of if I wasn’t the one in control. Like a big slap to the face.

  “ROSE!” Aura shouted as she darted down the hall into Rose’s embrace. The two of them cried and hugged as they had finally found who they were looking for.

  “Aura…” Rose sniffled and pulled back, “I’m so glad you’re okay,” Rose looked behind her, then around her.

  “You good, Rose?” Aura looked at Rose with a skeptical expression.

  “Yeah, I just thought Dominick would’ve been with you,” Rose’s smile faltered before she composed herself.

  “I have no idea where he is. I woke up here and I’ve been locked in a room. I was tied up against this weird chair and the air reeked of—”

  “Blood. It’s all of the experiments on the subjects they’ve captured,” Aaron walked around the corner and stood watch as the two girls caught up with one another.

  “What’s he doing here?” Rose asked her.

  “He was doing a little investigating when he came across my room. I thought this was a crazy plot twist and he was gonna turn out to be one of the bad guys but turns out that wasn’t the case. He saved me from the weird guy who was hovering over me when I woke up.”

  Rose cocked her eyebrow at him as he kept an eye out, “Yeah, well I’ll trust him. Does he happen to know where Dominick is?”

  “I don’t know where the Blackburn kid is but I do know they were talking about a subject that had recently apprehended and they sounded very excited. My initial guess is that that is him and they’re more than likely moving him to a secure location within this building. We need to move quickly. The longer we sit here, the bigger targets we become,” Aaron said, his hands clenching.

  Rose and Aura looked at him then back at each other and nodded. They ran in sync beside him down the passageway. The smell of blood grew stronger, more pungent as they proceeded to the cell block—where they kept the prisoners.

  “We’re here. Be cautious—they’re on high alert. We need to fight our way through this one,” Aaron ushered them to follow him.

  They stealthily marched down the hallway—the odor and metallic taste of blood now lingered.

  “Oh, do stop sneaking around. You’re much too obvious with the baggage,” a voice spoke, his flat and resonant voice echoed.

  “What are you doing here?” Aaron scoffed.

  “Why, what do you think I’m doing here? I’ve come to kill you and I’ve brought a friend along,” The muscular man in the suit from Enchantopia motioned. Dugal emerged from the shadows, his long hair glistening underneath the garnet lights. Aaron stood up off of the mountain of bodies he had been resting on and stood next to Dugal, “With that pesky brat out of the way, maybe we can have ourselves a real duel.”

  “Don’t forget about us!” Rose shouted.

  “Yeah, asshole!” Aura backed her up.

  THWOOM

  Aura looked over in the nick of time to see a pair of combat boots charging straight at her. She put her arms up to block the kick but she was still sent flying backwards into the wall.

  “AURA!” Rose shouted, running over to her.

  Aura pushed the rubble off of her, dusting off her clothes, “Long time no see,” Aura locked eyes with a familiar enemy.

  “How boooooring, why did you have to look over at that moment? It would’ve been SO funny if I just ended you with a kick,” the woman from Enchantopia and the one who got Aura captured mocked them, her boots clacking against the stone tile.

  She looked over at the 3 others and pointed with her thumb, “Who’s the peanut gallery?”

  “Oh, we’re not here to interfere with your little experiments or whatever the hell it is you’re doing. We’re here for him,” he pointed at Aaron.

  “I don’t care. Just don’t get in my way,” she smiled maliciously at Rose and Aura. The two of them prepared their stances.

  Dugal and the masked man stood across from Aaron, their faces burning with a vengeance.

  “GRAHHHHHH!” The Alchemist screamed as a magic circle appeared on his hand. The pentagrams appeared and spun, moving up then down before disappearing. The rocks he had been holding had been turned into gold, he shaped the gold into spears and threw them at my head. My body expertly dodged the weapons and went in close.

  Right jab to his ribs felt like punching a brick wall. The Alchemist looked down and grinned, a smile so evil it made my skin scrawl just looking at it. He gripped onto my wrist and started chanting. I flung my arm, sending him into the air but he never let go.

  I couldn’t feel it but I saw smoke. Smoke that had been coming from my arm. He had been pouring acid onto my skin, the bare bone now visible.

  Unfortunately for him, I don’t know how much acid does to a divine being who’s inhabited my body. I pushed him away, giving us space.

  I dodged his spells, darting left and right as I moved closer onto him. I got close enough but he had anticipated that. He grabbed a bottle from his belt and threw it at me. I slid underneath it. The bottle exploded behind me as I continued making my way to him. He dashed forward as well, his sense of reason slowly coming back to him as his body started to return to normal. I went for a right hook, where he dodged and smashed a bottle into my face. A jolt of electricity went through my body as he, quite literally, had lightning in a bottle. My body went numb as the volts sent throughout my arms, my chest, my stomach, everywhere. My heart pounded quickly, sounding like it was trying to burst through my ribcage, I couldn't breathe. It felt like my skin was burning from the inside.

  But I kept going. My body kept pressing forward, sprinting at him despite the intense pain we were feeling. We tackled him to the ground and pummeled his face. Punch, after punch, after punch, after punch, we didn't stop. The blood on my hands poured off in excess. His face was covered in his own blood as his head tilted to the side.

  Whether he was unconscious or dead, I had no idea.

  He laid there on the ground, not moving.

  BOOM

  A figure burst in through the right wall, the rest of the wall crumbling down behind them as they came charging in. They came down with a dropkick, like a missile locking onto its target.

  Smoke and debris flew everywhere. I heard rustling. It sounded like they were fine even after all of that. In the blink of an eye, a fist came flying at my face.

  It connected with a crunch as my body ragdolled into the wall, debris flying like bullets.

  “NOT SO TOUGH NOW, HUH?” The man shouted. He wore a blank long sleeve shirt that clung to his muscles, as he rolled up the sleeves.

  “What’s your issue? You can’t handle a child?” He lifted the Alchemist up by his robe, suspending him in the air.

  “I could. Hell, I was—” He coughed and spit the blood to the side.

  “You were getting your ass kicked. Your little trump card didn’t win and now look at you. In your weak and pathetic state. Get your shit together. We cannot afford to fail here,” He threw him to the ground. He walked away from him and cracked his neck.

  “I’m afraid my time has run out,” The voice echoed in my head.

  “What? No, I can’t do this without you!” I shouted, with no answer.

  I sighed.

  “Let’s do this,” I said.

  “Oh, look, he’s back to normal. That’ll make things easier,” The Alchemist grabbed two bottles from the belt around his robe.

  “Don’t mess this one up, either," the man stood next to him.

  In my current state, I stood face to face with opponents that I’m not sure I can beat on my own.

  "COLOSSEUM OF THE DAMNED!"