Chapter 5: The Inner Flame

Siren, a long lost kingdom. Lying on the coast of Zertz, this kingdom once stood as the greatest city on Neptar housing some of its strongest warriors, on par with the four current Royal Knights. Years ago, catastrophe struck, the kingdom’s residents were all wiped out in the blink of an eye, by one person.

A terrifying aura surrounded him, my body began to feel weak just by being close to him. I was running out of stamina just by maintaining myself in mid-air. He blasted me with lightning, at that moment my whole body went numb. His power was too much for me to handle, I lowered myself down to the ground to regain my stamina. He rushed me and I was hit by a flurry of attacks. Each strike that landed on my body felt more painful than the last.

“How wonderful. The prince of Neptar fighting the Prince of Otoma,” he said to me

“What are you talking about? Otoma removed its monarchy years ago,” I told him. After their king had died, Otoma decided to go for a more democratic approach in order to satisfy all the people’s needs. As he continued to attack me I began to regain my stamina and I managed to dodge more of his attacks. I was still faster than him, however, I wasn’t sure that even my speed would be much use in this fight. As I began to fight back, Death seemed to become more excited. His eyes were beaming red, and his expression was that of a psycho. We began to clash, fire with lighting. The surrounding ground began to crack and shake, and the surrounding air began to create explosions. We were far away from the town, but there were a few small houses around us. As the explosions began, every house around us was torn to shreds. Death felt no remorse for the people who had just lost their lives. People were suffering and we were to blame for all of it. More police officers arrived and rescued the surviving civilians before we could be any more harm to them, many of them pointed their weapons at us.

“Stand back!” I yelled at them. Many of the officers looked paralyzed with fear, but they had a job to do. They had to stop us, we were causing far too much destruction. As Death began to fire more lighting bolts at the police officers, I ran in the way of the attacks to save their lives. Although it might hurt me a lot, I won’t die from just a few shots, unlike humans.

“He is too powerful for any of you, run away and evacuate the city!” I yelled at the policemen. They all quickly ran away and began to shout at civilians to leave the premise. Now I could start to use more of my power. I began to jump across the surrounding debris, Death couldn’t keep up. Now and then I would rush in close to him and attack. The attacks were landing perfectly on his body. However, instead of being worn out he became stronger. It was like he was fueled by pain, the more he got hit, the stronger he became.

“That’s enough!” he shouted just before sending a shockwave of lighting around him. I was stopped in my tracks, the lightning had struck my body and I was down on the ground. I decided to use my remaining strength to blast a fireball towards him, once again It was secretly a scattershot.

“I was warned about this technique,” he said laughing at me. He managed to deflect each shot back at me. Before the flame reached me, I deactivated the attack.

“I fail to see how you’re the prince of Neptar,” he said to me

“You’re useless,” and he was right. Even with all the training I had, I still couldn’t protect these people. I managed to muster enough strength to get up, I was covered in bruises and my clothes were full of dust.

“I might not be the strongest person, and I might not be a great prince. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to give up on these people,” I told him. He began to smile,

“If you care about these people that much, then it might be fun to slaughter them after I get rid of you,” he said to me. He was a madman and a psycho, however, there was nothing more I could do. I hardly had enough strength to stand up, much less fight back.

He slowly began walking towards me, his bloodlust was overwhelming. I felt goosebumps all over my body, it was the end of the line for me. He placed his hand on my chest and let out a huge pulse of lightning. For a second I thought my heart had stopped, I couldn’t move and my body was being constantly electrocuted.

“If this is all the strength you had I don’t know why my brother was so worried about you,” he told me. His brother? I’d never been to Otoma, so how could he know about me? My whole body was paralyzed, I couldn’t move and I couldn’t even talk back to him. Instead, I was just left there to suffer. Before I realized, I was released from his grip. Death had been hit from behind,

“Let him go!” Janet shouted, throwing a rock at him.

“What are you doing get out of here!” I yelled at her. Death began to face her

“It looks like this one has a backbone, unlike the pathetic prince,” he said. As he was about to kill her, Death was hit by another rock. This time it was Michael.

“Neither of you should be here, leave before you get yourselves killed!” I desperately shouted out. They were adamant about helping me, but what could they do?

“You pests are going to drive me insane,” Death said to them. He blasted Janet with a bolt of lighting, instantly incapacitating her. Her body went limp and she fell to the ground. Michael ran up to her and got caught in the attack.

“Anyone else? No? Good,” he said before charging me once again. I couldn’t save them, they were the only people that had ever depended on me and I had just let them die in front of my eyes. Before he knew it I had struck Death and sent him tumbling to the ground. I was in a blind rage and unable to think rationally. It was faint but I could feel the same strange power I had back on Neptar. The angrier I became the more noticeable the power became. I eventually noticed what seemed to be a small fire within me, inside my chest. The fire began to burn my insides and the longer I remained angry the more the flame caused me pain. Eventually, I hit my chest in desperation hoping to stop the pain. As I did, the flame spread around me and covered my body in a red aura. Just like before, my stamina had come back to me and most of my wounds had been healed.

“Looks like you’re finally getting serious with me,” he said to me as he began to laugh. He was actually enjoying this, he was an absolute maniac. He once again blasted a bolt of lightning towards me. I managed to pass right through it without any injury. Death started to get worried and began randomly blasting more lighting around him.

“What the hell are you?!” he yelled at me. His power began to rise

“I will murder you!” he desperately shouted, his bloodlust was at an all-time high. The air around him became red and the clouds began to gather. Red lighting came striking down at him. With each bolt, his power rose further and further. Before he could react, I decided to run up behind him and deliver a kick to his head, like what I had attempted to do on my grandfather. Death was staggered by the blow which made him lose his balance. My leg was in pain, his entire body was coated in a shield of lighting. Any attack I delivered would get thrown back at me. I had to find a smart way to attack him without getting hurt in the process. My inner power was still active so I could continue to attack, but if I were to do so I would eventually tire out from the constant shock. Death had lost all sense of sanity and he had been overcome by rage. As I took a step back away from him, he ran towards me. He attacked me various times around my body and I felt the pain of each strike throughout my whole body. Afterward, the shock of the lighting around his body would hit me, leaving me paralyzed for a few seconds which left myself open for him to continue attacking. If this power hadn’t been active, I would’ve lost this fight long ago.