Chapter 7 Encounter with Seres

Rico just stared at Niffa wondering if her prediction was right.

“Niffa, I’m not sure about that. Those memories are just not enough to explain my past.”

“You’re right Rico, we still need to seek more about your connection with Samari.” Rico stared at the logo as he wipe the dust and sadness just filled his face.

“What’s wrong Rico?” Niffa asks she approaches him and holds his shoulder.

“I don’t know, I also can’t understand the way I feel while looking at this logo. I felt like I have an important connection towards it.”

“Please don’t be sad because I will help you. I can’t stand to see your sad face, I want to see you smile.” Niffa touched Rico’s cheek once again as she looked at his confused face. She didn’t see the redness on his cheek and it doesn’t feel hot like before.

“Niffa, why do you keep on touching me like this?” he asks still confused. Niffa sighed as sadness painted on her face.

“Does that means he only feels the burn on his cheek when he’s talking about my mother?” Niffa ask deeply about her thoughts as she let go of Rico and didn’t bother to answer back.

“What is her problem?” he asks himself. Niffa walks upstairs looking around the broken walls. She saw a single room on the left side of the hallway it was the only room left untouched, she go inside and it was dusty. She saw a huge painted picture of the king and queen of Samari and in the middle was a baby, it was an old painting. Their faces are ruined because someone burned them, she should be supposed to touch the painting when she saw a reflection of a violet light coming from downstairs. She quickly run downstairs and saw Rico facing a stranger wearing a red cape, Niffa was surprised to see the man’s flaming red eyes.

“Niffa step back!” Rico shouted.

“I see, I’m glad you had a friend now. I thought you are still a loner aren’t you Rico?” the man said sarcastically as he smirk in an evil way.

“Shut up Maru! How did you find me?” Rico asked with such infuriation.

“What do you expect from a sorcerer? Well, I’m glad you still remembered my name.” Maru lets out a smirk and a taunting look toward Rico.

“What do you expect from an ex-colleague Maru. I still can’t forget how stupid and weak you are on our first day of training. I’m glad you still survived until now,” Rico said teasing him as he smirk back in a taunting way.

Maru widened his eyes as he felt anger towards him. Maru quickly attacks Rico with his red fire Rico protects himself with his cape and attacks Maru back with his violet fire but Maru avoids it. He has great skill in speed, Niffa looked around as she saw a bunch of evil soldiers wearing red clothes surrounding them.

“Niffa! It’s time to fight back!” Rico shouted, Niffa nodded in agreement as her worried face changed into a furious one. She quickly runs to attack the soldiers near her as she kick and punch them with such speed, she started to feel the energy of her power as the green flame sparked through her hand and into her face as her eyes flamed into a green fire. The other soldiers felt terrified when they saw Niffa waiting for them to attack her while her body was covered in green flame. Rico and Maru stop fighting each other as they looked at Niffa in such a godly mode kicking and punching the soldiers with an unusual strength of mankind. It was the first time Rico saw her flamed in green. Rico look towards Maru who felt suddenly astonished and was watching Niffa killing the evil soldiers one by one. Rico uses this opportunity to teleport as he stands behind Maru. Maru felt his presence behind him as he quickly looked back and saw Rico’s violet flaming eyes, he was almost an inch away from him and painted a smirk on his face. Maru felt terrified when Rico suddenly grasp his neck and pinned him down to the ground as the ground cracked from how strong the impact is. He burned him alive as he shouts in pain.

“Rico thank you,” Maru said and smiled at him. That was Maru’s last word before he finally lost his breath as Rico was shocked by what he heard. Rico stopped his flame as he stared at Maru’s burned body almost in a skeletal way.

“Maru, you always said that you wanted to die when we were at Seres’ place. Now that I killed you, you seemed happy. But what about me Maru? You think I’m happy that I killed you?” Rico stands up and wasn’t aware of his tears. His face wasn’t happy or sad but he is shedding tears. The evil soldiers turned into dust as they disappear one by one in front of Niffa. She looks towards Rico staring at the burned body with such pity on his face. She approaches him.

“I don’t mean to do this,” he said.

“Rico, killing lives is out of your league. But they started it and we just protect ourselves.” Niffa said as she wiped Rico’s tears.

“I am crying?” he asked as he wipe his eyes.

“Yes, and I hate to see you like this,” Niffa said as Rico suddenly pulled her closer and hugged her tight.

“Rico?”

“Please just a moment. I killed a friend of mine,” he said as he cried while hugging her tightly. Niffa closed her eyes as she caress Rico’s back.

Their moment was interrupted when they heard a thud sound, they saw something thrown in front of them on the floor. It was Eris’ bloody head, their eyes widened in fear.

“You killed one of us! I killed one of you to be fair!” said a husky voice approaching them, a huge man appeared from the dark while his red-eyed sorcerers followed him from behind. Niffa remembered the man which his father fought years ago, she quickly felt the urge to kill him as she clench her fist with sparks, and Rico step forward to cover her from behind.

“Seres, you idiot!” Rico said and gave him a glare.

“I like what you’ve become Rico. After all the care, attention, and love that I gave you, you just abandoned us. Didn’t I become a father to you? Huh?” Seres said acting as if he empathize, with Rico, well, in fact, he is teasing him.

“You’ll never be a father figure to me. I see you as a monster longing for attention to become the greatest king but you didn’t get what you wanted. Instead, you stole a lot of lives just to gain attention but you still don’t look like the king you always wanted, you look like a selfish fool. That’s who you are Seres, and you don’t deserve to be a king because you’re a murderer!” Rico said without changing the glare in his eyes. King Seres felt angry at what Rico had said. He flamed up his body and eyes with his red fire, he seems so powerful that everyone around him step back from the heat of his fire. Niffa was shocked to see such wondrous power, the fire on Seres body seemed to be triply powerful from Niffa and Rico’s fire. Rico felt furious as he let out the flaming violet fire in his eyes and in his body. Seres struck Rico but Rico tried to cover himself as he crossed his arm to protect him, he can feel that Seres’ flames are pushing him as he tried to stand still.

“Niffa! Run!” Rico shouted as Niffa widened her eyes when he saw Rico is struggling in fighting Seres’ flames, it was already pushing him backward.

“Niffa I told you to run!” Rico shouted as he groan in pain while the red fire is near to gobble up Rico’s hands, Niffa didn’t listen instead the infuriation she felt led her to attack Seres.

“Aaah!” Niffa shouted furiously as she run towards Seres. The green fire flamed up on her body through her hand and quickly punches Seres’ body in speed. Rico widened his eyes watching Niffa attacking Seres but the red fire gobbling him up becomes stronger as he pushes him more. Seres felt the burn in his body as Niffa keeps on punching him making such slits and burns on his skin, Seres finally spots Niffa from her speeding attack as he grasps her neck and lifts her up.

“Niffa!” Rico shouted while looking at her as she tried to wiggle from Seres’ grasp.

“A green flame holder. I see you are trying to protect Morphis and Luize’s child Rico,” he said.

“So young and beautiful. She has a small and doll-like face like her mother,” Seres stared at Niffa’s face as she tried to flame up.

“Let her go! You bastard!” Rico shouted as he struck his flame and push Seres’ flame. Violet and Red fire are pushing each other.

“You killed Maru right?” Seres said as he push Rico farther while tightening the grasp on Niffa’s neck, her green fire keeps on sparking in her body trying to fight.

“Niffa! No!” Rico keeps on shouting. Seres laugh in an evil way while Rico keeps on pushing his flame as his nose bleeds. Niffa widened her eyes looking at Rico as the blood on his nose keeps on oozing. She suddenly closes her eyes as she concentrates on the energy inside her rather than feeling the pain from Seres’ grasp. Seres thought that Niffa fainted as he stop laughing and confusedly stared at her. All of a sudden Niffa opened her eyes as her green fire was tripled in flame. Seres felt the hot wind coming from Niffa’s flame as he quickly loosens the grasp from her neck. Seres felt a sudden pain in his hand as his flames stop pushing Rico. Niffa falls down as she looks up at Seres frightened by her powerful eyes flaming up in green fire. She run towards Rico catching his breath as he kneeled down to the ground while his nose was still bleeding. To her relief Rico was not burned, she suddenly saw the red fire coming towards them and she quickly raise her hand to protect them. She releases her green fire trying to gobble up Seres’ red fire.  She can feel how powerful Seres was but she knew that she can beat him with the green fire she had. Then all of a sudden Niffa saw someone on the stairs near where she is standing.

It was an old man with long white hair and a mustache, he was wearing a white cape while carrying a stick same as the stick that Rico had from their first meeting. She was confused as he suddenly disappeared from her sight, then to her surprise, the old man was standing beside her.

“Huh? Teleportation,” Niffa thought as she keeps on releasing her green fire, then all of a sudden the old man wave his hand and everything turns white like the bright light they produce in the forest, she closed her eyes. Niffa stopped her flaming as she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see that she was in a different place. She look around and realize that she was in a huge house, it was like a library for the walls are full of bookshelves. It seems like a castle of books.

“Rico!” She gasp as she look around to find him, then she saw the old man covering Rico’s wounded hand with a leaf as she approach them.

“He is fine, he just fainted. Seres’ power is strong but I can see that your power is stronger,” the old man said concentrating on cleaning Rico’s wound. Niffa was shocked to hear what the old man said.

“Who are you?” Niffa asks the old man to look at her and smile.