Pyrus (15 page)

“Are you looking for this?” I turn and see Lyra, her face still a little bloody, holding the cloth box in her hand. She extends her empty hand, and I take it, pulling myself up. She gives me the box and beckons the armadillo to come to her. The little guy waddles toward her and sits at her feet.

“Bolt, Kreysire!” she commands. I should have guessed that the lightning armadillo would be her Kreysor, but I was too focused on healing myself to think about it. Bolt curls up into a ball and becomes the blade. All of this happened as lightning bolts formed a prison around him. Lyra extends her hand and catches the axe right after its finished transforming.

We turn, smile at each other, and face our opponents. I swing Leo as the box opens, the flames forming a circle around me as he opens and forms.

“Okay, punks, it's time for round two!”

Chapter 21: The Race

“I hope you are ready for this, Kreydur,” Lyra calls out to me. I nearly laugh. I can't believe that she doesn't recognize me at all. But then again, I have been pretty much isolated from the world. I've grown physically and as a Kreydur. As much as I want to believe that's why, I know that it's because my hair is no longer a long, tangled mess.

“That depends on whether you can keep up with me,” I reply tauntingly. She looks at me strangely for a minute, but smiles and gives me a look that says “Bring it on.” We raise our weapons and charge first—the battle was just beginning. As excited as I am that I'm teaming up with Lyra, there's one thing that worries me: can we be as good a team as the Shinso?
You will have to be
, Leo replies.

I charge ahead of Lyra, choosing one as my target. I attempt a diagonal slice, but it gets intercepted and countered. As the Shinso attempt to attack me, the first one freezes and drops to the ground. I turn around and notice that the second one was impaled by Bolt.
Interesting
, Leo comments.
It seems that these two share a bond that is indeed unique.
I have to agree with him.

Lyra and I back off while Bolt's stun is still in effect to plan our next move. We have about fifteen seconds to come up with a strategy. Now that we know their weakness, we needed to use it to our advantage.

“If one feels the pain of the other, then all we have to do is kill one to kill the other—right?” I ask her. She stares blankly at me for a second and then speaks.

“You look familiar to me. How do I know you?” I give an exasperated sigh. Now isn't the time for this.

“That doesn't matter right now. What matters is that we need to win and come up with a strategy. They will do anything now to avoid getting hit by us. This gives us an opening for an attack, but we need to plan this carefully.” She gives me a quick nod, and we discuss what to do.

The moment the Shinso stand, we separate. I know what I have to do, and she knows what signal to give me. This was by the far the worst plan I've ever come up with; there were so many risks involved.
Given fifteen seconds, I think that it is the best option we have
, Leo calls out optimistically. I give a half-smile and charge at the Shinso while Lyra stays behind. Right before I collide with them, I point Leo to the ground and unleash the flamethrower, propelling me upwards.

Now that I'm out of the picture for a second, I decide to go over the plan. While I launched myself into the air, Lyra was to fire Bolt through my flaming exit so that the Shinso would be stunned by a completely unexpected attack. Then, I would fall and finish one off with a slice to the head while they were stunned. If that didn't work, then she was to send a tiny spark from Bolt's pulsing lightning bolts to let me know. Just as I finish reviewing the plan, I notice a tiny thundercloud follow me upwards. That was not good.

“You know what to do, Leo!” I stab the thundercloud, cringing as the static shock pulses through my body. Leo needs a little more time to absorb the lightning from the cloud, but I'm now falling through the air as fast as I came up. The shock becomes agonizing as Leo absorbs more, but I can't let him go. The flames disappear and become replaced by bolts of lightning that pulse around the blade, but I still can't let him go. The pain stops once Leo gives off a yellow glow, and I remove him from the cloud as it begins to disappear, its duty fulfilled.

“Get out of my way, Lyra!” I scream as the ground is a mere three meters from me. I slam my sword into the ground, and all of the thunder that Leo had absorbed was released into a giant shockwave. Lightning bolts came from the ground, and the whole arena was consumed by the sheer power of the flames mixed with lightning. My hands begin to catch on fire, but if I let go of the sword, the blast radius would be reduced. This was our plan B; my magii fuels the blast, making it extremely powerful and deadly.

My body feels like cinders once all of the charge leaves Leo, and then I black out, but not before I catch the tattoos on each of the Shinso's faces. I awake to find myself gazing into Leo's eyes. I scream and back away from him and flinch, the burns from the battle still haven't healed.

“How long was I out for?” I ask him.

“About two minutes, maybe three,” he replies, laughing like a maniac. “You should see the expression on your face. There is one word to describe it: priceless.”
That's my Kreysor! You know, I don't think we're that much different from each other as I thought.
I laugh along with him until I remember what I saw.

“Where are they?” I question. He avoids my gaze as soon as I ask, but I grab his head and force him to look me in the eyes.

“Where … are … they?” I repeat slowly. My tone surprised even myself. Leo didn't reply, and I thought I was going to have to beat it out of him until he nudged his head behind me. I follow his nudge and see the burned bodies of the Shinso behind me. Their bodies were burned, but the tattoos on their palms and their faces made me realize who they really were. I let go of Leo's head and walk over to them, examining the faces of the ones I once called friends. The hoods had concealed them just as great as their Pyrian robes did, but I knew who they were nonetheless.

“Flizzle. Frizzle.” They respond by staring at me, their eyes filled with a hatred that I had never seen in their eyes. “Why did you do this? Why did you lie to me?” They didn't speak for a while, mainly because they were struggling to breathe. Their red bodies were now charcoal black, and their hair had been burned off from the blast.

“We … were assigned this duty by Blice.” Frizzle spoke first. “Sol was weak … he cared more for his people than he did himself. His lineage caused our land to suffer.” Whether that was weakness, I silently question, but I let them continue. Frizzle sounds worse than his brother.

“We killed his son; after that, he then decided to awaken the true Pyrus, and we knew that we had to prevent this. We locked him inside his room in the Jade Palace, spreading the rumor that he was devastated by Flayre's death.” If Sol was alive, then I could rescue him and unlock the Core, returning the land back to its original state.

“You said that his lineage caused your land to suffer, and yet when he tried to fix it, you didn't give him the chance; how exactly does that make sense?” I ask them. Flizzle coughed multiple times before he gave his snarky reply.

“We lost all of our crops and our villages when the land was changed. Now that we as a country have started to develop again, he would take it all away. Blice promised us land and comfortable lives. That was more than our so-called king had ever offered the people.”

“Why attack a Kreydur from another country?” I persisted. “This
mission
of yours seems to only concern the country of Pyrus, so why should the affairs of other countries be considered a threat?” They both laughed at me, their eyes seemed maniacal as they giggled uncontrollably.

“You were the bait,” Frizzle said to me in between giggling. “We knew all about the location of the Magician's Core, thanks to your robe. The exile is too weak to defend it, and now that you are gone, nothing can stop Tundar from seizing the Core!” I stop asking questions. I am horror-struck. If what they said was true, then the only thing that could establish this country as part of Tereer was now in the hands of Tundar, and I had led them to it. I had played right into their hands.

They continue laughing at me. The laughing is endless and infuriates me to the point that I punch Flizzle in the face to make him shut up. But he doesn't stop. Punch after punch, he and his brother laugh until his neck snaps from the recoil. Both remain silent as I realize that Frizzle went along with him.

Lyra places a hand on my shoulder, trying in her own way to comfort me, but I push away. I will not be remembered as the man who enslaved this country to Tundar. Guilt would consume me to the point of insanity. I search for Leo, and once I make eye contact, he gives me a quick nod of understanding. I mutter Fuhrhealminok, healing my burns before I begin to take off.

“Where are you going?” Lyra calls out after me, a hint of confusion in her voice.

“I am not going to let them control the Magician's Core,” I yell over my shoulder. “It is a race against the clock, and I'm in last place at the final sprint!” Leo runs alongside me, and I notice that his flames are back to normal now, as well as his size. For some reason, he had grown substantially large for a while.

I'm so overcome by rage and despair that I start to question where I was headed. Everything looks the same to me, the trees, the forest floor, even the burn marks where Leo makes contact with the floor.

“Relax, Jack; just relax and concentrate,” Leo reminds me.

“How can you be so calm?” I turn and face him. Every emotion that I had bottled up began to flow out of me like a river, and I exploded on him.

“I may be the single greatest failure as a Kreydur! I led the enemy right to the doorstep of one of the most powerful relics on Tereer; I willingly took the bait that they threw at me so they could make their move. And now, to top it all off, I have lost my sense of direction and am probably too late to prevent their takeover. Have I left anything else out?” He stares at me for moment, and I can tell through our link that he's deciding what to say to me.

“I have been a Kreysor since the beginning,” he replies, choosing his words carefully. “I have been with more Kreydurs than I can count, and yet you alone are the only one I have fought alongside who questions every move he makes. You need to relax and trust yourself, or else how can the people of this country trust your judgment as the ambassador?” I don't respond, and he doesn't press me for my answer. I take a deep breath, calm myself down, and try this again.

“You're right, Leo; I need to trust myself more often. Unfortunately, I still have no idea where exactly we have to go right now.”

“Then we take the easiest option to finding the path,” he answers. Extending my hand, Leo gives off a roar to signify that he's ready. I jump onto his back and crouch upon landing, bracing myself for what happens next. The moment he begins to launch me upwards, I push off of him, sending myself skyward almost as fast as when I used the flamethrower.

The world looks different when you are airborne. Everything seems distant from you, and you feel almost like you are observing the world from someone else's eyes. I wasn't up here to daydream and fantasize; I was here to observe and locate. As I searched, my mind wandered, and I remembered all of those dreams I had when I felt like a bird—this was nothing like those dreams.

A giant flame attracts my attention. At least, I thought it was a flame. It only happened in a split second, and I squint in the general direction. I wait a few seconds as I quickly fall back to the ground and … another giant burst of flame. It was either a signal for me or a battle that was taking place. I didn't have time to decide, and once I landed onto the ground again, I only said a few words.

“I know where we need to be. Let's roll!” Leo and I resume our pace. It was a constant rhythm that began to drum into my head.
Stride, step, step. Stride, step, step.
I tried to control my breathing as much as I could, but as great a runner as I was, I eventually needed to stop and take a quick breather.

“Do you think we are going to be too late?” Leo asks me as I rest my back against a tree. The constant heat made sweat marks through my shirt, and my hair had lost its spike and was now drooped in front of me, dripping with sweat. The only thing I wanted at that moment was a towel.

“I'm trying to avoid answering that question. Let's just continue and act depending on the situation,” I respond.

“Fair enough.” Once I had rested for long enough, I tell him that I was ready to go. That was another mystery that I had not yet solved: do Kreysors have a limit to their energy? They feel human emotions, but they don't seem as limited as us in terms of strength and stamina.

We make it back faster than when we left, but it turns out that we were too late. The record house of Pyrus, no, the Magician's Core, was in flames. As massive as the palace seemed to be, it crumbled easily once the flames reached the inside.

“No … No!” I hear Centurion's scream way before I see him. His body is practically camouflaged inside the flames. He is on his knees, trembling and screaming uncontrollably.

“What happened?” I ask him softly, afraid of what had happened.

“The Kreydur of Tundar attacked moments after you had left to pursue the Shinso.” His voice sounded like that of a scared child. In between his whispers, he mumbled to himself.

“He tried to hold him off, but he couldn't. Not after what he had to do in order to survive. He also was too weakened from training you to hold off for long against the snake.” I felt a pang of guilt—scratch that—I felt a slap of guilt. But Centurion's moans were all I heard.

“He sacrificed himself to take down the enemy, but at what cost? Oh, Flayre! There must have been another way! Do not leave me here all alone! Flayre!” He's screaming and blubbering uncontrollably, but I have no strength to comfort him. I am silenced by the mystery that had never been solved. The prince of Pyrus, presumed dead, was now truly lost in the flames.