CHAPTER 3

To Jason, the next few a second were a blur to him. All he knew was that he had to save his hide from whatever creature the shadows were, a quick glance at his left showed daren in wolf form, clawing at a fellow wolf, only darker and more ferocious. On his right was terra, skilfully wielding the blades and slashing at the shadow warrior, which left him with their leader.

He held on to the poker stick that was used to start the furnace at home, the leader was obviously irritated by the parring of his strokes with his blade, he moved to the kitchen area and dodged a blow that would've cleaved his head off,

    the man grunted and moved forward when a loud whine was heard, the man turned, the shadow wolf turned to wisps of smoke as terra pushed it through the window, the leader screamed in rage and that gave Jason the edge that he needed as he swung the fry pan with its hot content on the bald headed man, he screamed in a mixture of pain and rage as his scalp fried, yikes!, hot oil! Jason thought as he moved back.

The man moved forward with his eyes gleaming at all he could see, Jason knew there was no way out of this, he was sitting duck,

Call on me son,

He looked around frantically, where had he heard the voice from he didn't know, he bent and side stepped the warrior and jumped over the couch,

Summon me now!

He heard it louder in his head, that was when he noticed the gem glowing. He took it out if his pocket as it vibrated in his hand, the veratu turned and hissed moving to the wall, the leader stared at him. All at once he understood the words on the gem, with a loud voice he said it loud and clear,

"FLAMORA FLOREA VALECTO ILLUMMINO SCYTHE!!" He shouted as bright light illuminated the room for a few seconds, then it was over.

The veratu had disintegrated to ashes and wisps of smoke, the shadow leader was on the ground, weak and dazed, burn marks all over his steaming and scorched skin. Jason materialised back, terra and daren stared in awe, their knees bent automatically as they had been taught to do all their lives,

"Ikir" they said in unison,

He looked stronger, his gaze deeper and stronger with a golden iris that swirled in his eyes, he held the twin blades of light, the weapons of aether the son of illummino and god of light.

The Shadow leader stood up, gathering his strength as he summoned the dark energies from the abyss, terra and daren moved to protect Jason when he turned to them stretching his hand with a blade in it,

"NO!, this is my fight!" He commanded stopping them in their tracks, they felt the power his voice commanded, terrena grinned and stepped back with daren who was dumbfounded.

Jason felt the energy cursing through his blood, he was no longer the pesky mortal, he had taken on the powers of his bloodline, he was one with the light, he was Jason Alecto elixtu, bloodline of the god illummino.

The shadow leader screamed in anger has he swirled in a gust of darkness and became a full demon, his real essence appearing. He was a scaly thing with claws for hands and snake trunks for each leg, his eyes were pure black and reflected the hatred he had for jason. Jason felt repulsed standing in the presence of this abomination, he twirled the blades, feeling them edge him on two destroy the evil.

The demon moved forward in a blur, hoping to catch jason off guard, a deadly mistake. Time slowed a little to jason as he stepped away slashing at the thick back of the demon and watching it scream in pain and rage, it turned and hissed, "Cursssee you!!!" It screamed, and jumped back on the offensive. Jason swerved around its grasp with ease and gave it a double slash on the leg, it fell and groaned in pain knowing it had lost the Battle, it stretched its hand at the woman on the floor and engulfed her in a blanket of smoke.

Jason realised too late what it was about to do, "No!" He screamed in anger as he hurled one of the blades at the demon a little late, it disappeared in a wisp of smoke with his aunt, not before taking a deadly slash to its rib cage. The blade impaled itself in the wall, he stared at the spot where the demon disappeared with his aunt, terra placed an arm on his shoulder. He stretched his hand calling on the blade as it flew back to his grasp,

"How did you do it?" She asked,

He shrugged,

"I just felt the gem calling on me and I answered" he replied,

It was strange how his life had gone from normal to berserk, he had no doubt in his mind who he was and what he had to do, it was like spell had unleashed his memories on him, not all, just enough to know that whatever was going on now was real. The blades glittered as they melted into his arms forming a tattoo. He felt their presence in him, their power. Daren was busy arranging the room, he sat on the sofa in exhaustion, the whole thing drained his strength. Terra rummaged through the kitchen in search of anything edible and found a locker full of canned beef and other stuffs, she sighed in surrender as she brought out her phone and ordered pizza.

Jason went to his aunts’ room, searching for anything that might have a clue to their home, he checked everywhere but found nothing, she was either good at hiding things or she had nothing, he suspected it was the former. Terra came in to meet jason scattering the room,

"what are you looking for?" She asked,

" my aunt should've at least something from our realm, anything at all" he said moving to check the wardrobe for the third time.

She watched silently as he rummaged through everything in the room, to tell him who he meant to her might have an effect on their friendship. It was bad enough that he felt stupid when they told him about them, how would he feel about her when she dropped thus one on him too?, she would allow fate to play itself out on this case, if it was meant to be, it would be.

They ate the pizza in silence, both terra and daren staring at him like some idol, terra was looking a bit harder, like she was studying every feature of his body, their eyes met for a second and She looked away. He kept twirling the fork in his hand,

"Is there anything at all that you have to tell me, daren?.... terra?" He asked looking at both of them,

Daren shrugged, in response,

"I've been your protector since when you were born. My family has been the protectors of the elixtu line for a millennium, we're practically family" he replied,

Jason sat back studying them, daren had nothing to hide, he could feel it. He didn't know how but he knew, terra on the other hand......

"So terra, how about you?" He asked, she avoided eye contact,

"My family swore alliance to your family for over a decade, I’m merely showing that" she replied,

Daren glanced at him, noticing the tension growing around them,

"So, how do we get my aunt back?" Jason asked,

"The paths to aratia had been sealed a long time ago, the way we got here was also sealed to avoid the shadow warriors gaining full access to your world" terra replied,

"How did the demon get here then?" He said,

"Only the leader of aratia has access to the portals and unfortunately that’s marxis" daren said.

Jason just couldn't allow his aunt to rot wherever the demon took her,

"There has to be a way, any way" he said,

"Well-"

"there's no other way" terra cut in,

Jason couldn't allow her to judge this time,

"What is it?" He edged on,

He could witness the war going on between the both of them, terra finally lost,

"Have you heard of Rumpelstiltskin?" She asked,

"No way... is he real?" Jason said,

"The legend was formed around the faerie who did them" daren replied,

Terra edged closer,

" and you know how he works, there's a reason he isn't allowed in aratia" she said,

"Yes, I do and I’ll take the deal, besides why are you so protective of me?" He said,

She sat back, looking at her bag, jason had seen that look a lot of yes from his aunt, the day was getting to him,

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be that way" he said,

She nodded, a smile at the side of her face,

"So, when do we go?" He said,

"Tomorrow, we leave at the break of dawn" daren replied.

******

The shadow portal spat out its occupants at the gates of the palace, captain regron groaned in pain, he had changed back to his mortal form, that way he could heal better. The guards at the gate recognized him as he stood wincing in pain, they ran forwards to support him, he brushed them off pointing at the slumped woman on the floor,

" take her to the dungeons, do not give her anything" he said,

They nodded picking her frail frame up and marching away, he turned towards the palace, it was time to meet the demon, how was he going to explain he lost a fight to a boy who just realised his powers?, he bit his lip in fear.

The palace was awkwardly silent, no servants at the corridors whispering in fear, no Shadow warriors moving through the hallways in cold quick steps, it was like some sort of evil pushed everything in its part away.

Regron chuckled to himself, nothing could be evil enough to repel the shadow warriors, or was there? he thought, he got closer to the doors to the chambers of marxis when he felt something cold and painful pass him, he fell to his feet on pain clutching his head,

LEAVE!!

He heard it loud and clear in his head, the pain was too intense for him to speak out,

Master?, is that you? He replied telepathically,

I said LEAVE!! Marxis replied, louder than before,

The pain doubled, regron couldn't walk, if it got worse, he would die here, with his energy leaving his body he drew a mark in the air opening a portal which he crawled in before blanking out...

*****

Marxis sat on the bed staring at the ceiling when he felt a wave of dark energy bring him to his knees, pain went through his body, pain he was familiar with,

"hello love, miss me?" A female voice said, it was soft and full of evil.

He knew who it was and knew she hated fear, with the pain in his body he stood up, ignoring the shouts of his knees, a woman dressed in a black see through sari, stood elegantly in front of him, tall and voluptuous with a long dark hair, eyes sharp and black around the iris as her heart.

"Herega, it is an honour" he said,

Herega, the goddess of storms, third in the trinity of chaos that were the spawns of drador, chaos itself.

She had a sardonic smile on her face,

"hmmnn... I'm not so sure you mean that, seeing that you're about to give me bad news when that useless warrior of yours gets back" she said with anger in her voice,

Marxis furrowed his eyebrows in anger, that fool failed again, she noticed his look with distaste in her face, he motioned to talk but got a fistful of pain in his stomach knocking the air out of him, she wasn't finished,

" and he already unlocked the gem of artemon which means he is accessible to illummino" she said bitterly.

He only looked on with anger swelling in his chest, he had plans for the captain, terrible plans.

He felt the captain coming and gave him a roll of pain in anger with a voice command, the captain still lingered and in a hail of anger gave him a greater one, he left immediately.

Herega sat on the bed with her frame stretched, Marxis bit his lip in lust, she smiled devilishly while ignoring him,

" he has the Queen, use her to find the boy, I want no mistakes this time" she said standing up with a brush to his shoulder before disappearing in a clasp of thunder.

Marxis boiled with rage, that was what you got when you make a deal with a being as dark as the storm goddess. He threw the goblet full of wine at the mirror watching it shatter on the floor, if he got his hands on that boy, he'll make him feel more pain than he would ever know, but now was not the time to ruminate over the matter, he would need the work of a better warrior, not after he deals with the pathetic idiot, he called his captain, he smiled with satisfaction, it was going to be a long night....

***********

Jason couldn't sleep, something kept him from sleeping, or someone. He still didn't understand what terra was hiding from him, they never kept secrets from each other, they always had this nonchalant behaviour in their group but now she seemed possessive of him. He sighed standing from the bed he was sleeping with a gentle terra, tomorrow was going to be the day his life changes, he was going to be the first in a long time to go to another plane of reality.

He dragged himself to the kitchen taking a glass of water, the mark on his hand began to glow, he stated as they changed to an arrow directing forward,

Well, that's new he thought,

Its bottom wrote stylishly,

The veranda, now....

Jason stared in awe, whatever was in the veranda was powerful, he could feel the aura and it wasn't something you could ignore, he moved to the glass walking swiftly and drawing it aside while stepping in.

The night was cold, he knew due to the heater working around the house, but it was warm around him. He moved closer to see a form that shined dimly with a golden aura around it, it wore a long-sleeved silky cloth that shone with gems at the edges, his eyes swirled with a golden iris that bore into ones soul. He hadn't seen this person in his entire life, but just standing in his presence brought the name to heart,

"Lord illummino, it's an honour" Jason said,

Illummino smiled warmly bringing a bout of warmth to the heart of Jason,

"Jason Alecto elixtu, I wondered the day we would finally meet" he replied, his voice having a certain resonating effect around the house.

Jason stared in curiosity, he expected illummino to look like those gods with a long white beard with a tunic draping over their shoulder, illummino laughed heartily breaking into jasons thoughts,

" you mistake me for the earth god Zeus" he said at a frozen Jason,

" you mean the Greek gods are real?" Jason asked,

" of course they are, you didn't think humans were that stupid to form those stories up did you?, along with the Egyptian and Norse with the annoying Indian gods" he said with distaste in his face,

"Anyways," he continued, "I'm sure by now you believe the truth?" He said, jason nodded in acceptance, there was no doubt about that after all he had seen today.

" good, you leave for your world at the break of the sun, I came to give you a warning and a little gift from my son who i must say you've gained favour in his sight" he said,

Jason moved closer at the call of illummino,

" not every one is indeed happy when you return, in fact most of the tribes and races will detest you at your emergence" he said,

"Why?, I thought they were under oppression?" Jason responded, he didn't understand why they would hate him,

"True, but let's say your father made a lot of.... wrong choices " he said,

"You must stay hidden until you have attained full strength which I must say will be hard given that marxis would feel your presence as once as you appear in Aratia," illummino said,

"How then do I attain full strength ?, I feel powerful to take on anyone" he replied,

Illummino chuckled lightly at jason shaking his head in amusement,

"Now I see why aether took interest I'm you, you are his replica, his reincarnate so to say" he said,

"But your level of power doesn't even match up to marxis a bit, when you get to aratia, tell your guardian and b-, friend to go to the gates of artemon, there you would know what to do" he finished correcting himself,

Jason narrowed his eyes at illummino, there was that thing about terra he wouldn't say,

"Lord illummino, I get daren is my guardian but who is terra to me?, she doesn't have a particular reason to risk her life for me" he said,

Illummino stared at him, apparently, he debated an answer for jason,

" you do know the answer boy, but you do not count it for anything. Search within yourself for the answer, it is not my place to reveal that to you" he replied.

Jason nodded in reply, illummino produced a bracelet that was made of pure gold, it glittered at Jason who collected it from illummino and watching it grip his right hand and melting into a tattoo, he sighed in frustration, the people of his home world definitely had a thing for tattoos.

"The bracelet of aether, capable if teleporting between worlds and places" illummino said,

Jason's eyes shone in excitement, that meant they didn't have to go through the faery,

"Make no mistakes, the holder must have a clear image of the destination and since you haven't been in aratia since you were little..." Illummino said breaking the hope jason had,

Illummino looked distant, then he turned to jason,

"I must take my leave, Hermes delivered a message to me, this is not my territory" he said.

Jason watched as illummino disappeared in a ball of light, the air became cold all of a sudden forcing jason inside. He stared at his hand where the bracelet was and admitted,

Tomorrow's one heck of a day.......