Chapter 6: A Cataclysmic Fate

Standing as the last defense, five Neptarians stand strong and are ready for any challenge they may face. Their power shakes the very ground beneath them and each towers over the royal knights a hundredfold. The Grand Five are a group of extremely skilled warriors chosen to fight for the sake of Neptar’s protection.

I felt a cold breeze of wind hit my face as the main festival was about to begin. I was beside Janet, Bill, and May who were all laughing and having a great time together. They were all playing various games, many of which I didn’t understand the concepts to. One of the games that they played consisted of playing music whilst walking around a circle of chairs, once the music stopped each player would quickly rush to sit down in a seat before anyone else did, the one person left without a chair and would be declared as ‘out’ and the game would continue until one player was left. I found this game hilarious because I could easily turn off the music myself and sit at a chair before anyone else could realize it, but because of that, I decided not to play so I wouldn’t ruin the fun. Janet insisted that I should play but I continued to refuse and instead sat down at an empty table and began to once again focus on the great power which I had previously felt. It was hard to tell whether the power was malicious because it could have easily been my grandfather’s power, but if that was the case then I wouldn’t have felt the sense of danger. My whole body felt shocked at its presence, it was almost the same way I had felt while fighting against Death. But this was from a far away distance and I could easily tell the power was heavily suppressed. The flame inside me began to grow more powerful. I tried to hold it back, I couldn’t let my power get the best of me. If I were to have released it all at that moment everyone around me would’ve gotten hurt, or worse.

I then walked off to a secluded street and began to meditate. However, the flame just continued to grow and was reacting to the mysterious power slowly approaching. I was scared, scared at the thought that I wouldn’t be able to stop this threat or protect anyone around me. Up until now, I had my thoughts set on one thing only, getting stronger. However, now that I had met these people I knew I had to keep them safe and away from any harm that might come from being near me. I began to have a vision of my grandfather, he told me to continue moving forward not for myself but for others. If I only focus on improving myself, I will fail at everything I do. He got to the position he is in now by helping others, not by wanting to become stronger but for wanting to protect them and see them be safe.

“Mistery, what are you doing here?” I heard a voice behind me. I saw Janet staring at me

“I’m just doing a little meditating that’s all,” I told her wiping a tear from my face

“I know that you want to go back home and feel you don’t belong here, but you should at least try to have some fun. If you focus on things like that it’ll only make it harder on you,” she said to me taking a seat beside me.

“I want you to know how much my life has changed because you landed here. I would’ve never had the courage to do what I did for you back then,” she began to tear up and lean on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I’m not trying to make it harder for anyone. There are just many things going on right now that I can’t get you involved in,” I told her

“I know how you feel, not being able to fit in anywhere here. I’ve lived here my whole life and I still don’t feel like I belong here, I have always felt different,” she said to me. I also know what it’s like, not being able to fit in, even in your own home. It’s a hard thing to go through, being alone for so long.

“Back on Neptar, I am a prince,” I told her and she began to look enthralled

“Everyone always has high expectations of me because of that. They look at me and only think about my grandfather and how great he is,”

“I feel the same way. Ever since I began to follow those delinquents everyone sees me in a bad light. Even after I left them no one would approach me, they feared me and thought I would do something horrible to them. It wasn’t until after you arrived and treated me the same way you did anyone else that people began to change their views on me,” she began to look at me in excitement

“Can you tell me more about Neptar?” she asked me. I imagined it wouldn’t hurt much to let her know about it since she has already uncovered my secret.

“In Neptar everything is either peaceful or hectic, it’s never in between,” I told her

“There are two major paths in life. You either become a warrior and devote your life to protecting the people, or you choose to stand down and live your life peacefully,”

“But what if someone wants to choose another path?” she asked me

“That’s what’s so different about Neptar. No one has ever wanted to do something different, more than half of the population wants to fight. It’s a norm over there,” I told her. On Neptar everyone either becomes a warrior or a civilian, there have never been any problems because of this. Everyone appears content because even as children, most people strive to become strong and many achieve great heights with their power. I took out the gem holding Death’s power out to her

“This is what I was sent to find,” I told her

“What is it used for?” she asked me

“This gem is a part of a whole, in total there are six other pieces. They each hold a small fraction of a creature known as Distortion,” I told her

“I need to find these six gems and bring them back to my grandfather so he may destroy them before their power grows more deadly,” she began to look worried.

“Why didn’t your grandfather go out and find them himself then?” she asked me

“My grandfather is an important figure on Neptar. As the king he needs to stay to protect his people at all costs, he never leaves the planet under any circumstances,” I said to her

“I feel something approaching this planet. A power so dangerous it dwarfs even Death’s,”

“H-how could that be?” she nervously asked me.

“You can beat him though? Can’t you?”

“I don’t think I can, I have never felt anything like this in my entire life,” I told her. Death said something about being sent here from this king of Otoma, Omega. I had to find a way to improve myself enough to the point where I could at least stand up to him.

“Janet, who is the strongest human on Earth?” I asked her, hoping to find a sort of mentor.

“I’m afraid that I haven’t heard of anyone with skills such as yours. There must be a way for us to stop this threat. We can’t just let it kill everyone here,” she told me.

“You should probably seek refuge along with everyone in the town, I don’t want to get anyone involved. I will leave town tomorrow and fight him there, hopefully, he’s not as psychotic as his brother,” I told her

“Him? Who is coming?” she asked me

“Death is from a planet called Otoma. I was warned the king of that planet sent him here. If my predictions are correct, then the power I am sensing is his and he is on his way here as we speak,”

“For the time being I will try to practice on honing my abilities even further and hopefully mastering my inner power,” I said to her

“Well, I’m not going to leave you alone. I don’t care what happens to me as long as you are safe,” she said to me. Looking at her expression she was serious it didn’t seem like she would just quietly run away from this. She was going to stay beside me until the last moment, I was worried about her safety but glad for her kindness and courage.

The next day we were back at work and we now had new recruits. Michael had hired Bill and May from school. Bill was a pretty bulky guy so he needed to be suited with a custom-made uniform. May was slim though not as much as Janet was, so she was given the same uniform as I had. They were tasked with bringing in customers. Bill stood outside and held a sign while May handed out ‘coupons.’ I was tasked with cleaning duty as always, Janet was at the cash register and Michael was in his office sorting paperwork. Before I had arrived at work that day, I spent my morning honing my inner power. I haven’t mastered the technique, but I knew it had something to do with how intense my surroundings became. The more danger I am in or the more sporadic my mind became the more the flame grew. The only thing I had left to find out was how to activate it. Bill then walked inside and shouted out

“Hey Boss, it just became dark out. What should I do now?”

“What do you mean it’s dark out? It’s only 3:30 pm,” Michael said to him. I dropped to the ground a few seconds later. My body had gone into shock and my limbs felt numb, the surrounding air began to gain static.

“Jake what’s wrong!?” Janet shouted at me

“He’s here,” I said. May then came running inside crying and screaming,

“Look outside, it’s huge!” We all walked outside and looked up to see a spaceship which had Otoma’s symbol on it and proved my prediction correct. The ship opened it’s bottom hatch and began to emit a pillar or light down at the store.

“Everybody get away from the building!” I yelled at them. From the pillar of light came down a huge beam of lighting which disintegrated the store instantly. There weren’t many neighboring buildings around us because the store was located near a small park just outside of the main town. Once the debris had settled, all that was left was rubble. Luckily, no one had been hurt, we all managed to run far enough to escape the blast radius.

“What the hell just happened?” Bill asked

“Jake, I think you better tell them,” Janet said to me. I remained quiet, they couldn’t sense it’s power. Their bodies aren’t adapted to sensing sources of energy. The power was like fear itself.

“I need you all to run away from here,” I said to them barely managing to speak.

“Something is looking at us from up there,” Bill said to me. A quick bolt of lightning came striking down and hit the ground in front of us. A person appeared, his whole left side was metallic. He was a cyborg. Purple glowing eyes and long gray hair, he looked at all of us and said

“Pathetic,” I instantly charged towards him with my fist engulfed in flames. As I punched him, my fist went through his body as if it were a hologram. Omega appeared next to me and struck me down. Throughout all that time, he never took a single step.

“What the hell,” Bill said to himself

“You need to keep this a secret from anyone, do you understand?” Janet told him. He nodded his head

“That’s if we even make it out of here alive,” he said.

“Everyone, we need to get away from here. Hop on the truck and let’s go,” Michael told them

“I’m not leaving him,” Janet said to him

“I told him I would stay with him, so that’s what I’m going to do,”

“I’m with you on that,” Bill told her and threw a huge chunk of rubble towards Omega. Omega turned to look at the flying debris. His eye began to glow and the rubble became disintegrated. I was still on the ground trying to figure out how he was able to hit me since there was no way that he could’ve been faster than me.